Chapter 1

I usually go on summer vacation sometime around mid-July. I live in Ohio but I'm very close to my family even though they live about 500 miles away from me in Illinois. Every year since I moved away I've gone to visit them during my vacation. I'm in my mid-40s and single so there's no wife and kids to worry about. I lead a typical bachelor existence and I've had many girlfriends but no one serious enough to consider marriage. While I am monogamous when I'm in a relationship, I make up for it when I'm not. I love sex a lot and sometimes, in the middle of the night, I get so horny that I roll over and fondle the girl I'm with and then wake her up for a fuck.

I stay with Mom when I'm on vacation. She's divorced and hasn't remarried. She doesn't get lonely since most of my family lives in the area. I sleep in the spare bedroom in one of the twin beds that are pushed together. When I went out there a few years ago, I left on a Saturday morning, intending to leave a week later on Sunday. I arrived on Saturday evening and the next morning I went to church with my mother. After church, my older sister, Betty, her husband and their two year old daughter were at Mom's waiting for us when we got back. My other sister, Ann, and her family were at church with us and we were going to visit Mom's parents in the next town over. My mom had just put both of them into separate assisted living facilities because they were having problems getting along because of some dementia Grandma was going through. We all went down to see them and had a really nice time with them.

I adored my grandpa. We're both big baseball fans and I when I was home from college, I'd go over to their house every once in a while to watch baseball since my parents didn't have cable or satellite. We would also golf and fish together but over the past several years, his physical condition had deteriorated to where he really couldn't do a lot. Walking was difficult for him and lately he had been using a cane. Mom and I went down to visit them on Tuesday afternoon and at the time all seemed well.

Early the next morning Mom got a phone call from Grandpa's assisted living place. They said he had been complaining of severe stomach pains and they were taking him to the hospital. Mom woke me up and told me about what happened. She drove down to the hospital and I stayed home. A couple hours later she called and said he was being operated on for a perforated ulcer and he may not make it. That was a pretty serious procedure for a 95 year old man who was pretty frail to begin with. I drove down, met her at the hospital and spoke to him before he went into surgery.

He made it through the surgery but he wasn't getting any better. On Friday afternoon his doctor called Mom and told her that he wasn't doing well. We went down there and saw him and didn't want to leave him by himself all night just in case he did pass away. I volunteered to stay with him on Friday night and sat by his bedside holding his hand on and off.

Around midnight the nurse at the desk of the ICU told me there was a phone call for me. I didn't think it was any of my family since they could have called me on my cell. It was my cousin Carrie from California. Her mom is my Mom's sister and they had all moved to Arizona or California several years ago. She has three brothers and their dad had passed away a few years ago. My sisters and I were pretty friendly with them when we were young but had grown somewhat apart through the years and miles.

Carrie had heard about Grandpa's condition and wanted to know how serious it was. I gave her the facts as I knew them and told her if I were a betting man; he'd survive the night. She seemed somewhat relieved and told me she had just been back to visit a couple of weeks ago. We talked about what was going on and then caught up on what was going on in our personal lives. She expressed surprise that I wasn't married yet. She mentioned that things weren't so good with husband #2 and I told her I was sorry to hear that. We talked a while more until she had to go. I told her I'd let her know if anything changed and we said goodbye.

Carrie is a stone fox. I hadn't seen her for ages but I had seen pictures over at my grandparents' house from time to time. Even though she has two kids she still looks great. Her best feature is her tits. My tongue was almost hanging out of my mouth when I saw a picture of her in a swimsuit. I'd harmlessly fantasized about her but I had no idea when I'd see her again and never really thought about her unless I saw a picture or someone brought her up in conversation.

I returned to my grandpa's room. I stayed there for several more hours talking to him when he woke up, telling him to cough to make sure the fluid didn't collect in his lungs. About 4 a.m. he opened his eyes and called my name.

"Steve?" he said.

"Hi Grandpa!"

He said what sounded like, "How you doing?"

I smiled and said, "Fine, Gramp." I really couldn't make out anything else he said and he drifted off to sleep again. About 5 a.m. I went into the ICU visitor's lounge where they had a couch. I turned off the lights and covered myself up with a blanket. I probably hadn't been sleeping more than 20 minutes when Mom came in the room and relieved me. I told her what was going on and drove back to her house.

I was very tired and went right to sleep. Betty was in the other bed and I kept very quiet so I wouldn't wake her up. By the time I woke up no one was home. There weren't any phone calls so I assumed Grandpa was still hanging in there. I took a shower and got dressed. I ate lunch and watched a ball game on TV. I was getting bored so I went to the hospital to visit Grandpa. When I got there, my cousin Jim, Carrie's oldest brother, was there. My mom had been in constant touch with him and he had been in touch with his brothers and Carrie about Grandpa's condition. Gramp wasn't doing too badly but was not out of the woods yet. Mom said he'd been responding to people better in the morning. His breathing seemed to be better as well. After an hour or so of talking to Jim, Mom and Grandma, all of us except for Jim went out to dinner. We returned to the hospital and stayed for a couple of more hours and then went home. Jim decided to spend the night there and then crash at my grandparents' vacant house with Mom's and Grandma's blessing of course.

Sunday morning Mom and I decided not to go to church so we could visit Grandpa. He hadn't improved any during the evening and his breathing was increasingly labored. Mom consulted with the surgeon and his usual doctor and they both said that it didn't look good. Mom made the difficult decision to take him off of fluids and nourishment. The only thing they gave him was more oxygen via a mask. Early in the afternoon but he got increasingly worse. His heart rate was decreasing and later that afternoon he passed away. I was out of the room at the time because I was getting a soda for Mom and my younger sister who had joined us there. My niece and a great aunt of mine had gone to find me to let me know he was dying. My grandparents' minister had come over earlier and he led a prayer service after Gramp passed. Then we started notifying the immediate family by phone. Mom said I should call Carrie since Jim was at lunch and he hadn't got back yet. I called and left her a message letting her know what happened.

The next couple of days were spent making visitation and funeral arrangements. I was one of the pallbearers along with my brother in laws and Carrie's three brothers. The funeral home suggested they make a DVD to play for the visitation and the service. It was basically a slideshow of photos set to music.

We also talked about who would be coming in for the funeral. There was a question of whether Carrie was coming in since she had just been in a few weeks ago.

Mom, Jim, my younger sister and I went over to Gram and Gramp's home and looked in their scrapbooks for pictures of Gramp to use for the DVD. It was nice looking at all the old pictures and I certainly didn't mind looking at the pictures with Carrie in them. I was definitely going to be thinking about those pictures that night when I went to bed.

Tuesday morning I woke up to the phone ringing. I looked at the clock and it was about 9 a.m. and Mom was gone. Since she wasn't around, I got up to answer the phone. "Hello?" I answered.

"Steve?" the voice on the other end asked.

"Yeah. Carrie?"

"Yeah. How are you?"

"About as good as can be expected. I'm really going to miss Gramp but I'm glad he didn't linger on too long. How are you doing?"

"About the same. I was calling to let your Mom know I'm coming in for the funeral."

I was naked and my cock perked up a bit but I put any erotic thoughts out of my head(s) for the moment. "When are you due in?" I asked.

"I think I'll be in on Wednesday afternoon."

"Where are you staying?" I asked.

She said that her brother Don's wife wasn't coming in so she was planning on staying at a hotel with him.

"I really don't want to be by myself while I'm there," she said.

"I totally understand. It's important to be around family at a time like this. We're looking forward to seeing you but I wish it were under different circumstances. I'm sorry I was the one who had to break the news about Gramp to you."

"If it couldn't have been Jim, I'm glad it was you that called. I know it wasn't easy for you. I felt a lot better after our conversation on Friday night. I was really worried that Gramp would pass away that night."

"That's O.K. I'll tell everyone you're coming in and I'll see you tomorrow. Have a safe trip."

"Thanks, Steve. Bye."

After I hung up I returned to bed and tried to get back to sleep. After a couple of minutes I heard Mom drive into the garage so I put on my boxers and a T-Shirt. I told Mom that Carrie called and she was coming in tomorrow afternoon. Mom was very fond of Carrie. Mainly because they had problems getting along with my Aunt Linda - Mom's sister and Carrie's mom.

The next day I spent mainly out at my brother in law's farm outside of town. Gramp's surgery had given me little time to see them outside of the hospital. My 10 year old niece pretty much was my shadow all day. She wanted to do everything with me and I told her she could come with me to the visitation that evening.

When we got there, all my cousins and my aunt were there including Carrie. She was a sight to see. She spotted me and came over to give me a hug. She was wearing some kind of vanilla scented perfume which drives me crazy. I knew she was my cousin but my dick didn't and started getting hard. I willed it to soften even though it was tough to do while hugging her. We talked a bit and Mom came over and started talking to her. She asked Carrie if she got her hotel arrangements straightened out. She frowned and said that her mom was going to stay with Don instead. She couldn't stay at Gram and Gramp's house because Jim's sons had flown in with Aunt Linda and were staying there and she wasn't sure what she was going to do because she didn't want to be alone. Mom suggested that she stay with us. I certainly wasn't against that suggestion but wondered where I would sleep since Mom didn't have a comfortable sofa for sleeping.

Mom said, "If Carrie doesn't mind you can stay in your bed and she can take the other one. Do you mind, Steve?"

Mind?! Hell no I didn't mind the object of my fantasies of the last week sleeping a few feet away from me. Sure, the beds could be separated but not a great deal. I resolved that I would behave myself. I mean fantasizing about her was one thing but actually trying anything in Mom's house while she was here for a funeral was not going to happen.

"It's your house, Mom," I said. "If Carrie doesn't snore too loud, I'm sure we'll be O.K. in there." Carrie laughed and playfully elbowed me in the ribs.

At the visitation I sat next to Gram most of the time. I could tell her things she couldn't hear and I tried to be strength and a comfort to her. Gramp really didn't look like himself. He had had a lot of scabs on his face from skin cancers that had popped up over the past several years. They did a great job on that but they also got rid of his wrinkles. He looked like a wax dummy in there and I half-wondered if that was actually him in there. While talking to others I kept sneaking peeks at Carrie. Nothing wrong with looking, right? Just like looking at a beautiful painting or sunrise. I was very subtle about it and was sure she didn't see me.

I spent the rest of the visitation talking to other relatives and friends of the family about Gramp and other things. The visitation was supposed to be over at 8 but they let us stay longer than that because everyone was talking and having a nice time. The kids who were there were playing with each other and generally having a good time. It's probably how Gramp would have wanted it. We finally all left about 8:30. Mom and I went back to her house and Linda and her kids all stayed there and took Gram back to her place. Most of them hadn't seen Gram in a while and they wanted to spend a little time with her.