Chapter 4

"Taylor?"

Jack and Taylor looked at one another in utter shock when they heard Taylor's father call her name from the kitchen. She mouthed the word fuck before grabbing frantically for her shirt. Jack was frozen in place. The only movement his body was capable of was the involuntary and immediate deflating of his erection. Taylor held her finger to her lips.

"Taylor?" her father repeated.

By then Taylor had pulled her shirt over her head and was pulling it down, but one of her arms got caught in the sleeve and she couldn't complete the motion at first. She knew she needed to respond, or her father would take the five or six steps he would need to move from the back door to the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. Jack was still frozen, although he was beginning to thaw.

"Dad?" Taylor called out as she sprang up off the couch. "I'm here, Dad ... what's up?"

She moved in the direction of the kitchen as she finally got her shirt completely in place. She turned back to Jack and made some urgent motions to tell him to get himself back in his pants and get zipped up. She then turned back toward the kitchen as she heard her father taking the first few steps in her direction. She reached the doorway before him and entered the kitchen.

"Hey, Honey. Did Mom and Tommy go already?"

"Um, oh ... yeah, yeah. They left a little while ago. Whaddya need, Dad?"

"I needed help moving a couple of things so I could finish the lawn. They're not too heavy. Can you give me a quick hand?"

"Sure," Taylor replied, feeling relieved that her father would be turning around and heading back out of the house. However, he threw her an unexpected curve.

"Let me just grab my sunglasses," he said. "I left 'em by the TV in the living room."

"I'll get 'em, Dad!"

Taylor spoke the words but didn't move. Her father looked at her quizzically.

"I said they're in the living room, Honey."

"Oh ... the living room?"

"I'll get 'em myself. It's not big deal. I'll just be a second. Are you tired or something? You seem kind of spacy."

Taylor couldn't think of another excuse fast enough to stop her father from side-stepping her and taking the last few steps toward the living room. She could do nothing but hope that Jack had at least gotten his underwear up over his hard-on. She awaited her father's explosion, which did not come. She turned and saw him picking up his sunglasses which were next to the television, just as he had said.

She stepped back to the doorway to the living room and looked around quickly. Jack was nowhere to be seen. All Taylor could think of was to get her father back outside.

"Come on, Dad. What did you want me to help you move?"

"The hammock and the picnic table. Hey, did Jack go with them?"

Taylor's heart, which was just calming down, began to pound in her chest again.

"Uh ... what? Jack?"

"Yes, Taylor. You know ... Jack? Tommy's friend. He's here all the time. You must know him."

"Funny, Dad. Uh ... I don't know. Maybe he did go with them. I'm not sure."

"Are you O.K., Honey?"

"Of course, why?"

"I just told you a second ago that you seemed spaced-out. You just seem a little scattered."

"No, Dad. I was just ... kind of falling asleep on the couch is all. Sorry. Let's go outside, huh?"

"Sure. That's... ," he paused momentarily, seeming to look at something and trying to identify it. "Is that ... Taylor. What on earth?"

Taylor didn't know if Jack was hiding behind the curtains and was spotted by her dad, or if something else caught his attention.

"What, Dad?"

"What is this all about?"

He had moved across the room to the couch, where she had been with Jack less than a minute before.

"What are you talking about, Dad?"

"Is this what I think it is?" he queried. "It is! Taylor!"

Taylor was semi-relieved but still very edgy when she realized what her father was talking about. He turned toward her and, extending his arm, holding up her bra.

"Can I assume this is yours, Taylor? What the heck?"

"Oh, uh ... of course that's mine, Dad! Gimme that!"

Taylor snatched her brassiere away from her father, who had been holding it at arms length, with two fingers, as if it embarrassed him to even be touching it. The look on his face told her exactly how she should respond.

"I'm sorry, Honey," he said, even though he didn't know exactly what he was apologizing for.

"Don't touch my bra, Dad! Geez!"

The manufactured indignation in Taylor's response increased father's level of embarrassment, which made her quite confident that he wouldn't be questioning her very much about her bra.

"Well, I just picked it up, Taylor. I barely even knew what it was. What is it doing on the couch anyway?"

"Dad! Gross! Just let me put it away!"

She succeeded in confusing and embarrassing her father even further. Taylor didn't like making him feel bad. But the alternative, having him think too much about why her bra was on the couch and not on her, was something she wanted to avoid at all costs.

As Taylor ran up the stairs her father tried to shrug the incident off and chalk it up to the quirks of girls in the midst of puberty. Taylor ran past Tommy's room on the way to her own. She saw that Jack had made it up the stairs without being seen. He seemed to be pretending to be asleep on Tommy's bed. Before venturing back downstairs to help her father in the yard, and make sure he would not be mentioning her bra again, she stuck her head in Tommy's room.

"Jack?" she whispered as loudly as she could.

Jack turned his head slightly and opened one eye to look sideways at Taylor. She put her hand to her forehead, smiled and shook her head. Despite the fact that he was still trying to recover from the trauma he had suffered, Jack found the strength to smile back. Taylor turned and scampered down the stairs to ensure she had completely diverted her father's attention from her brassiere.

After Tommy and his mother returned, the rest of the day was uneventful. Jack stayed around and decided to sleep over, much to Taylor's delight. One bit of information mentioned at the dinner table was of particular interest to Taylor. The doctor had done some manipulations around Tommy's injured tendon, which had left him a bit sore. He had sent Tommy home with a prescription for a few pain pills just in case he needed them.

Taylor recognized the name of the medicine from the time she had to have minor oral surgery at the dentist, and was given the same thing. It helped greatly to ease the pain. And, it also put her to sleep. She was out like a light for hours after taking one. Tommy mentioned that he was hurting and that he planned to take the medication before bedtime.

Taylor saw the opportunity she was looking for. After dinner she took the first chance she got to quietly tell Jack what was on her mind.

"You have to stay over tonight," she whispered to him when everyone else had left the room.

"I already said I was gonna stay over," Jack replied softly. "But why do I have to?"

"Because when Tommy takes that medication, he'll sleep all night for sure. I've taken it before, I know."

"What does that have to do with me sleeping over?"

"Tommy will be sound asleep. My parents will be asleep. But I won't be asleep."

"Ohhhh..." Jack replied. "Do you think it might seem weird if I sleep over when I know Tommy's just gonna sleep all night?"

"You stay over all the time, Jack. But it's up to you. You don't have to stay over. But..."

"But what?"

"Well, I really don't want to just be touching myself when I'm thinking about you tonight."

"You ... you were touching yourself ... thinking about ... me?"

Taylor's face broke into a big smile as she nodded her head. That was all the prompting Jack needed. No one raised an eyebrow about him sleeping over. In fact, nothing was even said. Everyone just assumed that Jack would spend the night as he so often had, sleeping in the second bed in Tommy's room.

As Taylor had anticipated, Tommy took his pain medication before bedtime. He and Jack went up to Tommy's room, Taylor and her parents went to their rooms, and as far as Mom and Dad knew, everyone was down for the night.

Taylor waited a good thirty minutes before sending Jack a text message, which read "r u asleep". "r u kidding" came the reply from Jack. "then cm here!!!", Taylor texted back.

Two minutes later Taylor heard the handle on her door move slowly. Then the door was being opened carefully. The hinges emitted a single small squeak. Jack's head came into view as he looked in.

"Come on," Taylor whispered from her bed, as she gestured to Jack.

In he came, closing the door just as quietly as he had opened it. He walked to Taylor's bed and stood next to it, looking down at her. After a few seconds he sat down on the edge.

"What are we gonna do?" Jack asked as quietly as he could.

"Whaddya wanna do?" Taylor replied just as quietly.

"I'm not really sure," Jack replied.

"What's the matter, Jack?"

"I don't know exactly. I just feel weird sneaking around your house and everything. Especially to do ... to do, I'm not sure what."

"Do you wanna go back to Tommy's room, Jack? I don't want you to feel like you have to do anything."

"It sure seems bizarre to hear you telling me that."

"Why is that, Jack?"

"Taylor, do I really have to explain that?"

"No, I guess not. But I mean it, Jack. I thought you wanted to be here. You seemed like it this afternoon."

"I know. I just ... I just don't know. I mean, you're twelve, Taylor."

"Jack, I know I'm twelve. You don't have to remind me of that. Or that I'm your best friend's little sister. I know that too."

"And your parents ... they're just like a second set of my own parents. What would they think of this?"

"I don't know, Jack, really. But I wish you'd decide what to do just between you and me. Bizarre or not, I am the one telling you don't have to do anything. You're not making me do anything. And I don't wanna make you either. But I thought you wanted to help me learn about stuff that I really wanna learn, and that you know more about than me. And you said I was your friend. But if you don't want to, it's fine ... really. Just make up your mind with it being about you and me, please. Don't make it about my parents, or Tommy, or even Kristi. None of them will ever know, and it doesn't have anything to do with any of them."