Chapter 3

Thursday morning was beautiful. It dawned in the lower sixties, and the temperature took all morning to climb into the mid seventies, which made lugging the barbeque and other assorted items out of the storage shed and putting them into service a lot easier for Rick and for Lon, who arrived around ten a.m. Jean put on the white bikini -- which got her the look from Candace when she arrived with Lon, so she went upstairs and changed into the new baby blue outfit -- but it took Candace twenty minutes to get her out of her bedroom, afterward, and she refused to go outside where the boys were working, preparing various condiments, drinks, chip and other snacks in the kitchen for transport outside.

Nothing lasts forever, though, especially with Candace meddling. When the barbeque and the additional tables and loungers were in position and the fire was started, Candace sent the boys inside to collect the food and transport it outside. Lon got the first eyeful, "Jeezus, Jean! You sure took Toby's advice!" He added a loud wolf-whistle. "That rig is just incredible!"

Jean spun to face him, embarrassed, inadvertently displaying the tiny top that went with the thong that had been the first item detected. Behind Lon, Rick stood rooted, his mouth open in shock! Jean attempted to take issue with Lon's casual use of her first name, but nothing would come out of her mouth! She blushed a startling shade of red from her crown to her breastbone -- all of which was visible -- and stood there, her mouth opening and closing while she tried to come up with something to say to defuse the situation. Still Lon was broadcasting approval without much in the way of lechery; Rick looked shocked for about five seconds, shrugged, popped his eyes, and reached for a cooler to take outside. Lon hung out for a few more seconds, nodding in admiration, then collected the other cooler.

Outside, Rick was alone with his thoughts. The outfit was a surprise -- he'd thought that the OTHER bikini was daring! THIS one ... WOW! He catalogued his reactions, and found an odd one in there amongst the others -- a recognition that his mother was a woman -- a desirable one, at that! Up until then, Mom had been Mom ... This wasn't the major piece, though; Mom had made a statement with this outfit. She was saying, 'I want a man', very clearly! Rick had never gotten that vibe from her before; on the other hand, her apparently defenseless reaction to Toby on Monday had been a real surprise, too! And it fueled an uneasiness... "Lon, Dude, we need to talk..."

"Sure." Lon put his cooler down next to Rick's. Mama was over looking at how the loungers and deck chairs were laid out, out of earshot. He waited, amused; Rick was probably freaking, and would probably try to kill things...

"Man, I smell a setup," Rick murmured.

"What do you mean?" Lon's eyes narrowed.

"You remember Monday? Mom came out in that white bikini ... She hadn't worn that thing since before Dad died -- and it was right after we made the pact!"

"You think she heard us." It was a statement.

"Yeah. I think she was testing us -- but Toby dragged her right over the falls!" Rick hypothesized.

"So what does THAT mean?" Lon wondered.

"Well, it means your mother knows -- and Toby's mother knows..."

Lon nodded. "This gig is no accident."

"Right. They're playing with us," Rick announced with some certainty.

"I think you're right, Man," Lon agreed. "Mama made a point of including older women in her contraception lecture the other night..."

"Shit."

"Still, Man, what possible reason could your mother have for upping the ante, having already lost an engagement?" Lon wondered. "You know, just because they're wise doesn't mean we're holding a handful of deuces ... Toby held HIS own -- and the way your mom's been acting, she knows she's not safe..." He grinned. "Four deuces can be a pretty good hand, especially if you know what the other guy -- or gal in this case -- is holding..." He glanced up, surprising an interesting look on his mother's face. "Okay, I think they're playing all right. They want to see how serious we are about all this. And they're gonna push. I propose that we use jiu-jitsu on 'em!"

"Meaning?" Rick blinked.

"Meaning we use their effort against them!" Lon chuckled. "They push, we trip 'em, they end up on the ground -- and we fuck 'em! Simple!"

Rick shook his head. "Riiiight. Simple." Lon was SO weird...

"Wait'll Toby gets here," Lon advised. "Bide your time. Keep an eye on Mama -- undoubtedly, she knows she's your target..."

"Right." Rick fixed a basilisk stare on Candace.

"Meantime, we play it cool. Let's go get another load of stuff." Lon turned toward the sliding patio door.

This time, Jean was ready for them -- but there were no issues. Lon smiled at her, but it was friendly, and he made no sallies; Rick just appeared thoughtful. She smiled back tentatively and continued to work at making hamburger patties.

This time, when they got outside, Rick aired the other issue. "I feel weird, Man."

"About what?" Lon asked.

"Mom. That outfit -- the look of it -- what it says..."

"Yeah." Lon started pulling things off the tray he'd been carrying and arraying them on the table. "When you're a kid, there are males and females and they're vaguely different -- but Mom and Dad are a different species altogether. Later on, you start getting the itch and women stop being sexless things and start being fantasies -- but Mom doesn't. Your friends all have mothers, and they're the same species as Mom -- something totally different from 'hot babe'. But time goes on, and sooner or later somebody else's mom, or a teacher, or some other older woman breaks the 'hot babe' barrier, and you start to think ... And then, finally, Mom does something and you realize..." Lon had stopped fooling with the condiments and was staring across the pool at his mother, an odd look on his face. "I caught her fucking this guy; he was maybe twenty-five ... She was riding him, reverse cowgirl, tits bouncing, this incredible look on her face..." He shook his head. "They're women, too, Man. They have pussies, and they like to fuck -- or you wouldn't be here!"

"Yeah, but..."

"It's inappropriate to think about pronging your mother?" Lon chuckled. "Most guys do, eventually. I bet Toby's been thinking about it for a while, given how he is and how his mother is. It would have been almost a gift to her to give her a dick to ride, from what he has said about her bouts with toys..." He gusted a sigh. "That's why we're doing this, Man. It's not incest if you fuck MY mother, or Toby's -- and it gets everyone a little more joy in their life..."

Across the pool, Candace watched the boys out of the corner of her eye. That look Lon gave her a minute ago had produced a shudder; there was something so ... She couldn't categorize it, but it both attracted and repelled. Rick, on the other hand, just appeared thoughtful; the discussion was apparently deep ... She hauled at her bright yellow strapless bikini top. Candace was a long-time sun worshipper, and had a pretty good tan -- with a couple of exceptions in the way of location; she'd never sunbathed nude out of consideration for Lon's testosterone levels. If the boys whipped out the suntan oil today, the bikini was coming off -- and locations requiring oiling would be very clearly marked for Rick when the time came...

Beth and Toby arrived just before noon, in street clothes. Rick let them in and directed them to the bedrooms upstairs to change; he and Lon followed Toby to Rick's bedroom to talk. Lon opened it up, "Dude, I gotta warn you -- Jean's upped the ante."

"Oh?" Toby, shucking out of his jeans, looked up.

"Oh, yeah! She's in a thong, Man -- and the top that goes with it makes that white rig she was wearing on Monday look like a bed sheet!"

"Shit, really?" Toby flicked his eyes at Rick.

"Really," Rick confirmed. "I almost shit a brick! I kinda got my nose rubbed in the fact that Mom's a woman..."

Toby turned away while he pulled off his Reeboks, his voice curiously muffled as he replied, "Yeah, that shit sneaks up on you..." Lon flicked Rick a significant glance; Rick got it -- time to move on to other, less embarrassing things. "We figure that makes you the front-runner, given how she's been acting."

Toby continued to find reasons to look in another direction, "Are you sure you're okay with this, Man?"

Rick sighed. "Yeah. Clearly, she's been doing without while she buried herself in making sure I had laundry and stuff. As long as the lights are green from her end, I've got no problem with it. Heck, I feel kind of bad, actually -- like I've been hogging her and not giving anything back..."

Lon shook his head. "I don't think I'd worry about that, Man. I know she went out with Mama a couple of times, and Mama said she was hopeless. I think she needs training wheels as bad as we do!"

Toby looked up. "Speaking of hopeless ... Go easy on Ma, Lon. The four Fs aren't the way to go with her. She's ... delicate. You just ride her and dump her and she's gonna crash."

Lon nodded. "Done deal, Man. Full romantic treatment. That's all around, Dudes; these women mean something to us, so remember that blowing your load isn't the ONLY thing on the agenda -- right?" Toby and Rick both nodded.

Rick brought up the other issue. "Toby, Lon and I are SURE my Mom heard us when we made the pact. We think that's why she turned out in the bikini on Monday, and it's why we're having this thing today!

"I don't get it," Toby replied. "If she DID hear, why did she turn out like that? And why did she let me get away with the stuff I did?"

Rick shrugged. Lon had a theory, however. "Like Rick said, it was a test. Jean probably knew that if she told Mama what we were up to, Mama would blow it off as bullshit -- so she set us up to see if we were serious." He chuckled. "She was watching me, Man -- and you sneaked in under the radar and got off a full spread of torpedoes before she knew she was looking the wrong way!"

Toby grinned. "I don't know whether to be pleased or pissed off!"

"Be pleased, Man!" Lon replied. "You've made it all possible! If we'd done nothing, they'd have just laughed about it when she told them. If you had hit and bounced, we'd have all gotten a good talking to about our dirty minds. But you rolled right over her -- and that said that we were not only serious, but that we had the tools to do the job! Now they're out there, conniving, trying to figure out what to do about the whole thing, rather than just whipping motherly outrage on us..."

"So they all know, you figure?" Toby asked. Rick nodded, solemnly. "Well, that explains a couple of things..."

"Like what?" Rick asked.

"Like Ma buying a bikini..."

"Oh, no shit?" Lon collapsed onto Rick's bed, laughing.

"No shit!" Toby looked angry. "It isn't strings or anything, Man! It looks GOOD, actually! Are you sure you're up to treating Ma right? Maybe I should shift to your mom and let Rick do mine..."

"I'm sorry, Man -- that sucked." Lon got control, rapidly, in the face of Toby's anger. "I was out of line. I TOLD you, Man -- I'm looking forward to doing your mom -- and I'm gonna use kid gloves, promise!"

"All right." Toby was only partly mollified.

"Look, Dude, if you sense disrespect, just let me know and we'll all switch targets -- but that'll probably fuck us up, for today, anyway..." Lon insisted.

"Yeah, whatever," Toby grunted. "I don't want to lose my investment..."

"Wait'll you get a look at her in that suit!" Lon replied. "We won't be able to tear you loose with a crowbar!"

Beth dressed quickly and went downstairs; the boys' conversation in the next room was a rumble that she was afraid to eavesdrop on. Arriving in the kitchen, she found the other two leaning over the bar and gabbing. "I see you put it on after all," she addressed Jean, feigning disgust. "Why don't you just put a couple of band-aids over your nipples and get it over with? How am I going to compete with that?" She smiled to take the sting out.

Candace chuckled. "You don't HAVE to! There you stand with those eighteen-inch assault guns on your chest and you complain because Jean uncovers a little antiaircraft emplacement? Heck, in a lot of ways, Jean is built like a slow-blooming fourteen-year-old -- she needs all the help she can get!"