Chapter 10

Bobby was sitting up now. He had tried to wrap the sheet around himself, but both women told him not to. Their eyes ranged over his body. He knew that some of his scars were visible, on his right side, but while their eyes went there, they didn’t linger. It was a completely new experience for him to have two women looking at him like this. It created the kind of joyous tension in him that made him want to shout, just to let the tension out.

Jennifer and Mindy were sitting on chairs pulled from the table in the kitchen. They sat at an angle from each other, and facing him. The positioning was unconscious, but it exemplified that they were apart on the subject of Bobby Higginbotham ... except their goals were very similar.

The role of moderator fell to Bobby, even though he wasn’t prepared ... or desirous ... to have it. When he realized he’d have to start things off, though, he didn’t flinch from that. He was curious about Jennifer’s feelings. How Bobby felt about himself was complicated. He had gotten out of high school and joined the Marines. The Marine Corps ... and where it had taken him ... was compartmentalized as a separate mode of existence in his life. It was like most people felt when they joined the Peace Corps and went off to Africa or somewhere equally foreign and spent a couple of years doing something they never planned on doing. After it was over, and they were back in their regular world, it seemed like a dream.

But Bobby had never returned to his regular world. Not really. He had tried, but the people in that world had rejected things about him. They hadn’t meant to reject him ... it had just worked out that way. And he hadn’t meant to reject the world. It had just worked out that way. So the last “normal world” Bobby had lived in ... was high school.

That was kind of how he saw himself ... an adult, still in high school. That was one reason why his relationship with Jennifer had been so effortless to pursue. While there was a relatively big gap in their ages, he still looked at the world like a teenager does. At least in some aspects.

At the other end of the spectrum, however, were all the very adult things he had done in the Corps. He had become a man - there was no doubt of that. And part of that rise to manhood had been a difference in the way he looked at women. His dreams about how it could be with a woman had changed a lot since high school. The trouble was, that his last experiences with women were in high school. Even before his unit shipped to Afghanistan, he’d been too tired on the weekends to go out and kick up his heels, or try to find a prostitute, like some of the other men did.

Then ... afterwards ... everything had changed again, and he had discounted any possibility of there being a special woman in his life.

Now there were two! They were very different ... but he wanted to cling to them both. It was like a man starved for a long time, and to whom two loaves of bread are given. He clings to them both, and would eat from each if left to himself.

Of course he didn’t think about it in such detail, at least not consciously. But he knew how he felt, and his recent permission to be honest let him speak now.

“I like you both,” he said. “I know that’s not how it’s supposed to be, but that’s how I feel. It’s been so long since I trusted anybody ... liked anybody ... I don’t want either of you to go away. But I also don’t want either of you to feel bad. And I’m a little freaked out that you have talked about me ... about doing things with me ... like kissing ... and I didn’t know it.”

Mindy looked at her daughter, who looked shocked. She used the pause to speak.

“It’s not like it sounds,” she said. “When we met you, it was ... odd. We’re not hermits, but at the same time, we don’t have a wide circle of friends. So being so intimately involved with anybody was different for us. And because of who you were, a sort of half mythical person, that made it even more intense. I think it caught us both by surprise. And when you add in that you’re handsome, and smart and talented ... it’s just that we’re not used to being around a sexy man.”

“I’m not used to thinking about any man as sexy,” sighed Jennifer. “Except maybe Mister Pennington.”

Bobby looked from her to Mindy, who mouthed “Science teacher.” He nodded.

“So it’s strange for all three of us,” said Bobby. They nodded in response. “That’s actually kind of cool,” he went on. “I mean it puts us all at about the same place.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” said Mindy.

“Why not?” asked Bobby and Jennifer, as if they’d practiced saying it together.

“I was married,” said Mindy. “I remember what that was like ... the good parts, I mean.” Her cheeks tinged pink. “The fun parts.”

“The sex,” said Jennifer. Then, “I can’t believe I just said that.”

“I can’t either,” said Mindy. “But having Bobby here ... looking like that...” Both women looked at his bare chest. He felt blood re-enter his penis, but didn’t move. He wasn’t used to this.

“So that’s what made you cheat?” suggested Jennifer. “Because you remembered Daddy?”

“Bobby is nothing like your father,” said Mindy. “I just remembered how nice it is to feel...”

“Horny?” Jennifer’s voice was high. Her mother looked at her.

“Where did you learn all this?”

“Mom! Just because I’m not popular doesn’t mean I don’t feel things. All girls get horny!”

“I can’t believe this,” sighed Mindy.

“You’re telling me?” sighed Bobby.

“So you want to have sex with him,” said Jennifer.

Now Mindy’s cheeks got dark. She couldn’t look at either her daughter, or the man right next to her. But her nipples spoke for her by tenting her pajama tops.

Again, it was as if Bobby and Jennifer had practiced speaking together. “Wow,” they both sighed.

“I can’t help thinking about it,” said Mindy, trying to salvage her dignity. “It’s been so long.”

“It’s been never for me!” objected Jennifer.

“Me too!” chimed in Bobby, caught up in the emotion of the moment. Then he looked startled and froze.

“Really?” Mindy and her daughter sounded like twins, speaking together.

Now it was Bobby looking everywhere but at the other people in the room. As a man, he felt very vulnerable.

“Well, I guess there was this one time. Except now I can hardly remember it. Everything happened kind of fast and we were both scared.”

“And since then?” It was Mindy alone, this time.

I just never had time when I was in the Corps. To have a girlfriend, I mean. And then I got hurt and nobody was interested.”

“I am,” said Jennifer immediately.

“We both are,” said Mindy, sardonically. “I think that’s already been established.

“You have no idea how that makes me feel,” said Bobby, whose eyes suddenly glistened.

It was those tears that gave Mindy the idea she would always be astonished she actually pursued.

“I have an idea,” she said.

The others looked at her.

“I think we should touch your scars again.”

Now both of them looked at her as if she was crazy.

“Why?” asked Jennifer.

“Trust me,” said Mindy.

“Why?” asked her daughter again.

“Do you trust me?” asked Mindy, looking at Bobby.

He nodded, but still looked wary.

“Will you let us touch them again?”

He actually thought about it, but then, slowly, said “Yes.”

“Mom! Why are you changing the subject?”

“If he trusts me, then you should certainly trust me.” Mindy just looked at her daughter.

Jennifer seemed to also think about it, but then, suddenly, said: “Okay.”

Mindy stood up. “The couch isn’t a good place to do this. Please come and lie down on my bed, Bobby.”

“Your bed,” said Jennifer, her voice tight again.

“You’ll be there too, Darling,” said Mindy. “Please ... trust me, Jennifer. I think this will be good for all of us.”

Bobby was face down on Mindy’s bed, which was queen sized. His face was buried in the covers, because exposing himself to them was still hard for him, even though he had done it before.

“We’re going to take your shorts off, Bobby,” said Mindy. She looked at Jennifer and put her index finger to her lips, so Jennifer wouldn’t say anything.

“Why?” came Bobby’s muffled voice.

“Because there are scars there too,” she said. “And that’s the way we did it the first time.”

He lay there for long seconds, but then his hands went to his shorts. While he pushed, Mindy motioned for Jennifer to help and, together, they tugged the shorts down his legs and off his feet. Jennifer’s eyes were huge, and she looked nervous, but Mindy ignored that.

Then they touched him. It was just as before, in the hospital. Mindy stroked his skin with broad, slow movements, while Jennifer again traced each individual scar with the tip of her finger. When Mindy leaned down to kiss his back, Jennifer copied her this time, until both women were moving their lips around, bestowing little, gentle kisses.

He groaned, sounding tortured, but then his voice subsided to repeated moans, that sounded more like ecstasy than fear or pain. He didn’t sob like before, but it was obvious his emotional state was highly elevated.

Then Mindy stopped, and motioned for Jennifer to stop too.

“Turn over now, Bobby,” she said, softly.

“I can’t,” he answered.

“Why not, Bobby?”

“You know why not,” he moaned.

“We want to see it, Bobby,” she said, her voice low.

“I can’t,” he whined.

“Please,” she begged. Her fingers went to his hip and she applied pressure, but only a little. “I want to see it. Jennifer has never seen one. I need to finish what I started, Bobby. You need this too, and I can teach my daughter some things she needs to know. Please?”

“This is crazy,” he moaned.

She kissed his back again and he writhed.

“Let us make you feel good,” she wheedled. “We want to. You want us to. I know you do.”

It took her another five minutes, but finally he turned, flopping, with his legs loose and his right arm covering his eyes.

His erection was impressive, both to the woman who had some experience with them, and to the girl who had seen only this one, at least in real life. It was so hard it didn’t lie on his belly, but angled up, like an anti-aircraft gun tracking a plane on the horizon.

“Thank you,” said Mindy, softly. “You’re very handsome, Bobby.”

“This is insane,” he said.

“No it’s not,” said Mindy. She reached for his penis and gripped it again. His body jerked, and his mouth came open.

She looked at Jennifer.

“This is one way to make a man feel good,” she said.

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