Chapter 2

After the final bell, I walked outside to feel the warmth of the late-spring sun on my face. There was a gentle breeze and in the sky several passing puffy white clouds cast a brief shadow across the sidewalk ... spring fever had me tightly in its grip. As I walked unhurriedly down the sidewalk I looked up. A wide smile came to my face when I saw my mother waiting at the curb for me. She was driving my old door-less and topless Jeep that she had helped me purchase for my eighteenth birthday. I had eyed that vehicle at old Mr. Jenkins used car lot for quite some time. It had sat there for months as I tried to save the two thousand dollars to buy it before someone else did. However, the present to my mom for her birthday had totally depleted my funds. When she said she would help me purchase it, I was so incredibly excited. I put in a lot of extra hours at the pizza joint, but without her help I could never have afforded it. Now I am the envy of all my friends. When I don’t take the Jeep to school—due to a shortage of gas money, Mom will drive it and thankfully fill the tank. She says driving the Jeep makes her feel young. Her car is a ten-year-old minivan she got before my dad left. Some days, like today, she comes to pick me up from school when she has a day off or can get off early from work.

I never mind my mom showing up at school like some kids do. Most of them would be horrified if their parents came to school for any reason. Not me. I love for my friends to see my mom. I am so proud of her. Not only is she gorgeous, but she’s smart too. When I was young she earned her teaching credentials and taught school for almost ten years. But Dad wanted her to be a “stay at home Mom”, so she quit. I think she misses teaching a lot. Then when Dad left, she applied for a teaching job, but due to budget cuts at the state level, none were available. To make ends meet, she took a job at a large marketing firm as a low level administrative assistant. After only a couple years she became a senior marketing executive. She says that she was just in the right place at the right time, but I know better. She earned everything she has gotten.

My mom has worked hard for her success, but she says dressing professionally, and just a little sexy, is important too. She does both in a stylish way. Under her business suits she wears pretty blouses with lace and frills and not the man-ish shirts that some businesswomen chose to wear. Some of Mom’s tops are cut low in front, exposing just a hint of her cleavage under the lace fringe. She said she wears those when she needs to make a good impression on some of her male clients. I know it works on me.

And now here she was waiting at the curb for me. I waved to a couple of my guy friends, who happened to be staring at my mother, and rushed over and hopped into the passenger side of the Jeep.

“How was school?” she asked.

“Boring,” I replied as I leaned over and kissed her on the lips. I like kissing her on the lips. Her lips are always moist and she has started wearing lipstick with subtle flavors. Actually that’s how we first started kissing on the lips. She told me one day that she was wearing a new lipstick with flavor. I surprised her by kissing her on the lips to taste it. From then on we have always kissed on the lips, and when she has that lipstick on it is a game for me to guess the flavor. I guessed Strawberry today.

“Nope,” she said just a tad flustered it seemed.

“Let me try again.” Before she could protest I leaned close and kissed her a second time, letting my lips linger on hers for a moment longer then the first time.

She pulled away and said, “Jerry, not here. Your friends might see us.”

“I don’t care if they do.”

“I do,” she said firmly, but I could see a twinkle in her eye.

“All right, but you have to let me try again when we get home.”

She didn’t answer, but instead changed the subject. “There’s only another week of school left. Are you ready for your finals?”

“Yeah, I know this stuff. Besides, I could flunk the final in almost every class and still get a ‘B’.”

“Well, don’t do anything that would jeopardize the scholarship.”

“You know I wouldn’t do that.”

She looked thoughtful and as if she didn’t hear me said, “I could probably scrape up enough to get you through for a couple of years, but I’d rather use that money for other things.”

“Like that nice vacation you promised me if I got the scholarship?” I said, as if I needed to remind her.

“That’s already set up and mostly paid for.”

My ears perked up. “Paid for? Where are we going?”

“That’s a surprise.”

“Ah, Mom, come on, you can’t leave me hanging like this.”

“Sorry, after finals.”

“Damn,” I said, but smiled. She smiled back and my heart fluttered.

I had been so excited to see her there to give me a ride home that I hadn’t noticed what she was wearing. It was a warm day so she had on a pair of white short shorts that left most of her thighs uncovered. On top was a tight jersey that hugged her breasts like a second skin. She did have on a bra, but it was one of those natural ones that gave only a tad of support ... she didn’t need any more than that. I could see her hard nipples poking through. I wondered if the kiss had caused that. It certainly wasn’t because the weather was cold. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t have worn that outfit if she had to get out of the car for any reason. She apologized for her outfit and said she was working around the house and had been running late so she didn’t have time to change. I didn’t mind at all.

She saw me staring at her hardened nipples and blushed before starting the Jeep and quickly pulling away from the curb.

It was Friday and we typically rented a video and ordered pizza in. She had taken the day off and spent it lying in the warm sun adding to her already nice tan. She had been visiting a tanning salon for a few weeks so I figured our vacation was going to be somewhere with a beach and lots of sun. That was fine with me. We both like the sailing, skin diving, and snorkeling.

“What are we going to rent tonight?” she asked.

“We had a chick flick last week. I want something that has lots of shooting and things blowing up,” I replied with a laugh.

Mom sighed. “Okay, but not another Bruce Willis thing.”

“You know you love those movies,” I joked.

“Well, the last one where he jumped off the bridge onto the wing of the jet fighter was a little over the top.”

“You mean people don’t do that?” I said facetiously.

“Not normal people.”

“Okay, I’ll get something that’s not too violent. I’ll give you one of my famous foot massages while we watch,” I offered.

“Mmmm,” she said. “It’s been too long since you last gave me a foot massage.”

We stopped at Blockbuster and I picked up “The Bourne Supremacy.” A little less violent then the Bruce Willis movies, I figured. I had seen it at the theater a few months earlier.

When we arrived home and walked into the house, I stopped my mother by grabbing her arm. She turned and looked at me with surprise. “Lipstick,” I said. She had forgotten. I hadn’t.

I leaned forward and touched my lips to hers. I was close enough that I could feel her soft breasts touch my chest. My heart began to pound as I tried to hold my breathing steady. Her lips were opened just a bit. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but in that time I moved my lips across hers, under the pretext of making sure I got a good taste of her lipstick. When I pulled back, I was almost trembling. When I looked at my mom, I saw that her eyes were closed. Her lips were open and I could see that she was breathing more rapidly. Her nipples were hard again. I suddenly wondered if my mother was feeling the same stirrings that I had been feeling for so long. That was too much to ask, I thought.

“Raspberry,” I whispered, almost breathlessly.

Mom opened her eyes as if she had forgotten what we were doing. Her face flushed as a pink blush came to her cheeks. She looked confused for a moment. “Uh ... uh ... nope, not raspberry.”

“I guess I’ll have to try again later,” I said. I figured it would be going to far if I tried to kiss her again, as much as I wanted to at that moment.

“Uh ... yes,” she said, still a little flustered. “I have some things to do now.”