Chapter 12

After dinner Riley suggested there was still enough light left to show Bob a few of the sights in "The Springs" as she called the city. She directed him up the interstate to where the Air Force Academy was on one side of the road, and the Dobson Focus On The Family headquarters was on the other side. Both of them thought it was ironic that major movers in such opposite philosophies were so close to each other. Of course Bob knew the academy well, having viewed it via one or another satellite, but he didn't talk about that with Riley.

"Where to next?" asked Bob.

There was a pregnant silence before she spoke.

"How long are you staying in town?" she finally asked.

"I guess that depends on you," he answered. "I'll stay my whole vacation if that meets with your approval. I booked my hotel room for three days, but they said it's no problem to extend it if I want to."

"Well, in that case, there are some interesting looking museums around I could show you. If you're interested in any of them we can either go through them while you're here, or you can plan to come back and see them later. I'd show you Garden of the Gods, except it's going to be too dark soon to get the full effect. Maybe we could do that another day while you're here?"

"I'd love that," said Bob. "I know you have work to do, and weren't expecting me. I'd love to see you again while I'm here, but I know there are plenty of things to keep me busy if you can't afford to spend time with me."

She directed him off the interstate, and then back on, going south this time. Then she had him get off in the middle of town. Once he was headed in the right direction for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, she looked over at him.

"Bob, I'm not upset that you came to see me. I'd love to spend time with you while you're here. In fact, anywhere you go, I'd love to come with you, because I haven't had much of a chance to be a tourist in The Springs myself."

"I love that idea," he said, so excited that it made another of those balls of heat explode in Riley's loins. She'd been unsure what to think, on that hike through the woods. But now her thoughts had gelled and she was very glad this interesting man had shown up, unannounced. In a way, it was romantic. She didn't think of it as the most romantic thing any man had ever done for her ... but it was.

"Then that's what we'll do," she said.

"What about Curtis?" asked Bob.

"Yes! What about me?" asked the point of the question.

Riley's heart sank. She should have known a man wouldn't want a little boy in the way, mucking up his chances to get in Riley's pants.

"Can he come too?" continued Bob. "Does he have school?"

Relief washed through Riley and, for the first time since she'd been in Bob's physical presence, she had a strong premonition that she was going to sleep with him. She hadn't felt like that about a man in a long time. It didn't shock her that she'd consider having sex with him. What shocked her was the strength of the surge of lust she felt.

"He doesn't," she said, her voice deeper than usual. "He would enjoy several of the attractions around here. But there are also some that wouldn't be appropriate for a little boy. They wouldn't hold his attention."

"Then we just won't go to those," said Bob, turning where her finger pointed.

"We can go to a few of those," said Riley. "I have a really good babysitter, who doesn't mind changing up the hours she watches him."

"Her name is Bessie!" called out Curtis from the back seat. "I like her."

"That's okay too," said Bob. "He can stay with Bessie sometimes and you and I can go do the adult stuff."

Riley turned to look at him and saw the stain of red climb up his neck. It was obstructed for a few seconds by his beard, but then the exposed skin on his face flamed red. She grinned, because she had been thinking the same thing he was obviously thinking. But she wasn't embarrassed by it. She leaned over to tease him a little.

"Yes ... I can think of an adult thing or two we might enjoy."

He'd seen the museum, and pulled into the parking lot without her direction. He stopped the car with the building in front of the car, as if he wanted to look at it through the windshield. But he looked at her instead.

"I'm not used to this," he said.

"Used to what, Bob?"

"Being with a woman who is beautiful, and interesting and ... sexy."

"What's sexy?" asked Curtis from the back seat.

"It means he thinks I'm pretty," said Riley, staring at Bob.

"I think you're sexy too, Mommy," said Curtis.

The laughter would have broken the mood.

Except that while they laughed, Riley reached over and laid her hand on Bob's thigh, midway between his knee and groin. The squeeze she gave his thigh communicated her thanks for the compliment.

It also suggested she thought he might be a little sexy too.

Especially since she left her hand right there on his thigh.

Once it was determined that Bob was staying in town until he had to fly back to his job, they abandoned the tour. Riley said they could plan places to go at her house, using the computer.

"Everybody says you have to see Royal Gorge," she said, as she got him out of downtown and back onto the interstate. He knew where to go from there, in terms of going back to the cabin. "And I delivered a pizza to Seven Falls one time. I've always wanted to explore that. You'd probably like the Peterson Air and Space Museum." She squeezed his thigh again. Had it been light outside, she'd have seen the malformation of his pants, where her hand on his thigh had resulted in one of the most rigid erections he could remember. It almost hurt, he was so hard. She went on, oblivious. "And Curtis will love the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and a place called Santa's Workshop." She squeezed his thigh again.

"It all sounds wonderful," said Bob, his voice as tight as his shoulders.

"Of course I will have to spend some time working," she said. "But you can hang out at the cabin with me, if there isn't any place else you want to go, or something else you want to go do."

"Let's see," he said, his voice serious. "Go to a museum full of old mining artifacts ... or spend time with a beautiful woman? Gee ... I wonder which one I'll want to do?"

She laughed and this time, after squeezing his thigh again, she stroked it. It was that movement of her hand on his thigh that brought it into contact with his rigid penis. Her natural instinct was to let her hand slide over the lump it encountered, in the quite normal response of trying to identify what the lump represented. It didn't take her long to figure it out. She jerked her hand away as if she'd touched red hot coals.

"I'm sorry, Bob!" she said. Her mind worked like a well-oiled machine as she realized what had happened, and that she was responsible for it. "I wasn't teasing you. I promise. It was just an accident. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," said Bob, already relaxing a bit, now that her hand was gone. "I didn't exactly tell you to get your hand off of me."

"So you're okay?"

"I'm a little light-headed," he joked, "what with all the blood in my body collecting in one place. I'm just glad you're not mad at me for reacting that way. I show up without an invitation, and then that happens? Some girls would be upset about it."

"I had a role to play in your reaction," she said, putting her hand back on his thigh, though a little closer to his knee. "And I did invite you, even if it was an unconventional kind of invitation. I'm not upset that you find me..."

"Sexy!" called out Curtis, who was enjoying this new word, and a lot smarter than most adults would have given him credit for being.

The adults laughed, but then Riley's hand left his thigh as she turned in her seat to tell Curtis that that word was not the right word for little boys to use. She explained that little boys say "pretty" and that he should not use the other word until he was grown up. He asked when he would be grown up, and she said, "When you're sixteen."