Chapter 2
Matt’s lips locked around Katie’s like they were glued together. His hand slipped beneath her shirt and bra to caress her breast. Forbidden pleasure had her blood racing through her veins to her pounding heart. Music played from her phone, and candles flickered, creating the perfect romantic set-up. It was a great day to lose her virginity.
Doubts fluttered through her mind like nervous butterflies and she batted them aside and tried to relax. Today was the day she became a woman.
Desire spiraled through her as he kneaded her nipple, causing her to moan. His mouth trailed down her neck and he laid her against her bed and raised her shirt.
With a click, his fingers unhooked her bra and pushed the material out of the way. His mouth covered her nipple and she groaned from the pleasure of his touch.
They had been experimenting for the last month, fondling each other through their clothes, but they’d never had the luxury of being alone like they did today.
“Did you bring the condom?” she asked him between kisses.
“You’re certain your mom isn’t going to come home soon?” he asked, his voice low, his breath spreading goose bumps across her skin.
“Yes,” she gasped as his fingers traced a path across her breasts. “She and my Dad will spend hours arguing while they sign the papers on the house. We have at least an hour.”
Katie needed this diversion. She needed this time with Matt to forget all the changes in her life. Graduating and going to college were more than enough to deal with, but her family breaking up and her mother’s determination to move to Colorado had her completely freaked.
“Great,” he said sitting up. He shucked his shirt, his chest smooth, and his abs tight and rippled. He rose to remove his pants, while Katie removed her clothing a little slower. She’d chosen tall, dark Matt for her first lover, and when she left for college, they would call each other every day. Their life together started now.
The gorgeous, blue-eyed prom-king stood naked before her. She smiled. Today, he was all hers. She lay back on the bed, her body shaking as she waited for him to join her.
Matt sank onto the bed. His lips covered hers as their naked skin met for the first time, catapulting desire through her. An intense ache built between her legs, needing, wanting something she had yet to experience.
Wouldn’t her mother be surprised when she learned she was no longer a virgin?
His fingers trailed down her thighs as he gently spread her legs, his gaze lingering on her, melting her overheated skin.
“Condom?” she gasped.
“Baby, we don’t need it,” he said, positioning himself between her legs.
Her breathing sounded raspy to her ears and for a second she was tempted to just let him. The chances of her getting pregnant were slim, but a spark of fear swept through her. Since she was a child, her mother had preached about the dangers of unprotected sex.
“Stop. You’ve got to put a condom on,” she said, not wanting to spoil the mood, but fearful just the same.
His lips thinned into a frown, but he hopped off the bed. With the rip of the foil wrapper, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She watched him endure several attempts before he rolled the condom down his penis. When finished, he turned and hurried back to bed. He crawled over her, his lips pausing at her neck, his touch reigniting the desire that held her captive. She moaned and slid her hands down his back, preparing herself for the shock of his entry.
The door to her bedroom swung open and her mother shrieked, “Aghhhhh…Katie! What the hell is going on here?”
Matt jumped off the bed, his hand covered his privates as he faced her mother, his erection wilting.
“Shut the door!” she yelled.
“Oh, my God! Damn it, Katie! You two have exactly one minute to get dressed and downstairs.”
Her mother slammed the door.
“Fuck,” Matt exclaimed. “I am not talking to your mother,” he said, jerking off the rubber and tossing it onto the floor. He yanked on his jeans and t-shirt.
“So, you’re going to just leave and let me face her alone?” Katie asked, jumping from the bed and pulling on her underwear.
“She’s your mother!”
“But she caught the two of us,” Katie said, a wave of disappointment and disbelief rocketing through her. A shaft of pain pierced her heart at the realization this was the boy who promised to make it good for her.
“I don’t have to deal with her,” Matt said picking up his jacket. “I’m out of here.”
“Thanks a lot,” Katie said, not liking his attitude. A true boyfriend would have faced her mother’s ire with her. “You’re a coward.”
“For not staying? I don’t need this crap,” he said. “You promised she wouldn’t be home for hours.”
“How was I supposed to know she’d get home early?”
“Well, she did.”
“Just get the hell out. And don’t bother calling me. I can’t believe you are such a jerk!”
Matt gazed at her. “No problem. You are not worth the hassle.”
“Just go,” Katie insisted, opening her bedroom door for him. As he hurried down the stairs, she followed him. “And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!”
The door slammed, and Katie whirled to face her mother who stood in the hallway. “Don’t worry, I’m still a virgin.”
“What the hell were you thinking? Has nothing I’ve said to you over the years gotten through? Do you want to get pregnant?”
“We had a condom,” Katie said, crossing her arms across her chest. She couldn’t look her mother in the eyes for fear of what she’d see there. Humiliation spread through her, rising up to flush her cheeks. She’d just learned her supposed boyfriend was nothing but a pansy, all because her mother came home early. Thank God she was out of school. This would have been so much more embarrassing.
“Condoms break!” her mother exclaimed. She paused in the doorway to the family room, gazing at Katie. “Look, we both know you’re going to lose your virginity someday. But this is not the time, and definitely not in my house. That kid didn’t even care enough about you to speak to me.”
Katie bit her lip until she could taste blood as she battled the tears that threatened to spill. Furious, she squeezed her eyes shut. Never had she been so angry and downright embarrassed. How much more mortifying could it get than her mother walking in when they were naked and about to have sex? This was so humiliating.
“I’m eighteen,” Katie said, defiantly giving her hair a shake to reign in the explosion she knew lay just below the surface.
“I know,” her mother said calmly. “I was there for your birth. You’re out of high school, you’re on your way to college. You’ll soon be on your own.”
“So why did you barge in?”
If she knew she was an adult, why hadn’t her mother just let them finish before she’d gone all postal on them?
“You’re still living under my roof. I don’t want to know when you have sex. I don’t want to hear it and, God, I definitely don’t want to see it.”
“So, it’s okay for me and Matt to have sex as long as we don’t have it here?”
Her mother’s face scrunched up into the expression she always got when Katie goaded her too far. Her voice came out sharp. “No. I’d like to be naïve and think my daughter would remain a virgin until she married.”
There was no way she was going to wait until she was married. Over half of the girls in her class were not virgins. She was not going to be the last one to experience what everyone was talking about. But she didn’t want a baby right now either.
“It’s my decision,” Katie said calmly, liking the way she’d managed to rile her mother.
“Yes, it is.” Her mother inhaled sharply and Katie steeled herself for the coming lecture.
Mother Lecture #929 about the virtues of going to college and how not to get pregnant. That your first time should be with the man you love and not just a b
oy who wants sex. She steeled herself to hear the words again.
“Look, Katie, we’re both going through a lot of changes right now. I’ve told you since you were little that I got pregnant in college with you. I don’t regret having you. I love you with all my heart and I’m so glad you’re in my life, but I want more for you. I want you to get your college degree before you’re forty. You deserve someone who loves you and makes that first time special.”
Katie’s stomach clenched in pain and she blinked back the tears. This was not what she’d expected, and inside she rebelled against liking her mother right now. She refused to accept that her mother was right.
Katie wanted to hate her for what she was doing to their family. She wanted to lash out at her and make her hurt like Katie was hurting.
“I’m going to have sex before I leave for college and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”
The pain that crossed her mother’s face didn’t bring the satisfaction Katie wanted. It only made her feel worse.
She watched her mother take a deep breath. “You’re at a turning point in your life. You’re in charge of decisions about your future. The mistakes you make will be yours to live with.”
“I know, Mother. I know all about your unwanted pregnancy. How it kept you from finishing school. How you had to marry my father. How it ruined your life.”
“You’re wrong. I loved your father. I wanted to marry him. I wanted you with all my heart.”
“I’m supposed to believe this when you’re divorcing him?”
She’d known kids whose parents had divorced, but she’d never expected it to happen to their family. Her mother was single-handedly destroying all of their lives!
“Yes. When I married your father, I loved him fiercely. But people change. He changed. I changed, and now it’s not possible for us to remain together. So as much as you may dislike this divorce, you’re going to have to accept it.”
Katie felt like her heart was being shredded. She loved her parents, but she didn’t understand why it had come to this. “I’m moving in with daddy until I go to school. You can start your single life with Paige a little early.”
Again, her mother’s eyes darkened with pain and disappointment. Katie knew she’d hurt her, but she wanted her mother to experience the misery that racked Katie over her parents’ divorce.
“If that’s your decision, I understand. But don’t close the door on our relationship. I will always love you and be here for you.”
Katie didn’t need her mother. And she’d severed their mother-daughter closeness. They wouldn’t have a relationship until her mom realized the mistake she’d made and begged to return. Katie and her dad would be fine without her until then.
A week passed and though Marianne left several messages for her mother, Brenda hadn’t returned her phone calls. This was so typical of her.
Did she think that Marianne needed more stress in her life? Her daughter hated her, and her mother was angry, and Daniel…well, his incessant phone calls were driving her crazy.
Marianne turned her clunker car down her mother’s street and wondered at the number of parked cars that lined the cul-de-sac. Panic seized her as she saw crowds of people at her mom’s home, until she noticed a large sign in the yard. ‘Estate Sale.’
She parked in front of old man McKinley’s house and all but ran to the yard. Her mother’s furniture, house wares, everything was piled on the lawn. What the hell was she doing? It appeared that everything she owned was on display. What had enamored her to sell her possessions?
Her mother’s gray hair bobbed as she meandered through the crowd, a carpenter’s apron around her waist. She stopped to argue with a customer. “No, I will not take less for that lamp. It’s a Tiffany that I bought years ago. Three hundred, firm. Take it or leave it.”
The man placed the lamp on the table and walked away while Brenda made a hrmph sound. She whirled around, and when she saw Marianne, a frown creased Brenda’s forehead.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m having an estate sale.”
Marianne swallowed the lump that filled her throat, preparing for battle. “But why?”
“I won’t need this anymore.” She took money from a lady and counted out change. “Enjoy.”
Her mother strolled to a table, her resistance obvious. Marianne hurried after her, like she was once again a child chasing her mother.
“What do you mean you won’t need all this anymore? What have you done, Mother?”
“I’ve sold the house and now I’m selling the furniture. I didn’t think you’d want any of it, since you’re moving.”
Brenda began to refold shirts on a table that Marianne recognized were her father’s. After a year, her mother was finally getting rid of his things. That was progress, but her prized blender? Had she finally flipped and gone off the deep-end?
“Then what?”
“I’m joining the Peace Corp,” Brenda smarted back and hurried towards a man with a coffee pot in his hand.
Marianne hurried after her. “Not funny, Mother.”
“Really, I tried, but they rejected me. I thought about becoming a missionary, but that just seemed depressing. Plus one curse word and I’d be gone. And we both know I like to curse.”
“Mother, that’s ridiculous.” Why couldn’t Marianne ever get a straight answer from her? She was up to something that couldn’t be good and she would make Marianne suffer before she told her. That was just Brenda’s way of doing things.
“Why? I refuse to sit here alone and grow older, while you and Katie are off in a different part of the world. I decided to follow the dream I shared with your father, God rest his soul.”
Her mother made the sign of the cross.
“What dream?” Marianne asked, afraid.
“See that shiny new beast parked in the driveway?”
Marianne glanced to the rear entrance along the drive. Her heart skipped a beat and raced to catch up, signaling to Marianne her stress level was now on overload.
A new gleaming motor home sat parked in the drive.
“Oh God, no. Mother, you didn’t.”
Her mother planned on going out on the open road alone in an RV? Oh no.
“Yes, I did. Don’t worry. Old man McKinley has turned me in to the homeowners association for parking an RV in the drive. Screw the bastard!”
“Mom, you’re acting crazy.”
Brenda stopped straightening the items on her kitchen table and glanced at her daughter. “Not any more than you are.”
“I know it looks like I abruptly made the decision to leave Daniel, but I’ve been thinking about this for years,” Marianne said her voice low, her head close to her mother’s.
“And your point is…”
“You don’t make decisions that completely change your life in just a few days.”
“Why?” Brenda asked surprised. “I could be dead tomorrow.”
Oh no, here we go with the death threats, Marianne thought, wanting to jump back in her car and just drive. Between her mother and her daughter, it was time to leave town.
“Mother!”
“At my age, you make your decisions based on days, not years.”
“Mom, you’re a sixty-year-old woman. You can’t drive that motor home. It’s a gas-guzzler. You have no business camping alone.”
“Who says I’ll be alone? Sexy Grandpa 99 wants to go with me.”
“Sexy Grandpa?”
“Yeah, I met him online a couple of nights ago.”
Dear God! Marianne hadn’t even ventured into the dating world yet and her mother was meeting men online. Why couldn’t she have an ordinary retired mother who played bingo and knitted?
“You’re doing online dating?”
“Why not? It’s the new way to meet that special someone,” she said, straightening a table of pillows.
“What happens when you get tired of traveling? Where will you go?” Marianne asked, trying for a diffe
rent approach.
“The nursing home,” Brenda smarted off. One glance at Marianne and she sighed. “Oh, I don’t know. I’ll cross that stretch of highway when I come to it.”
Frustrated beyond belief, Marianne gave in to the hurt and the annoyance, releasing the valve on her pent-up stress. “Mother, you’re doing this to get back at me.”
“For what?” her mother asked, her eyes wide, her hands on her hips.
“Why is it that I can’t have a midlife crisis without sharing it with you? You’ve done this to me all my life. The year I got pregnant, you had an emergency hysterectomy. When Katie started school, you went on anti-depressants.”
Her mother’s skin went from pale to flushed in mere seconds. The pupils of her eyes dilated, her mouth tightened, and Marianne recognized the signals. She’d pissed her off royally.
“Excuse me! I’m sorry I don’t plan my crises better. I didn’t plan on your father dying or being kicked out of the country club last week for being a widow.” Her mother placed her hands on her hips, her voice loud enough to draw attention. “As for the emergency hysterectomy…take your complaints to my ovaries. And after listening to you moan about your only child starting school, I needed that happy pill.”
Marianne groaned. Her mother should have been an actress.
“We should be part of a scientific study. Mother and daughter’s life crisis always coincide like two asteroids on a deadly course,” her mother spouted.
Brenda hurried over to a piece of furniture to straighten the pillows, her motions jerky with anger.
Marianne was convinced aliens had invaded her mother’s body, as they never spoke the same language. Left alone for long, they could argue over the simplest things. Surely, there was some rational part of her she could reach.
“What about your friends? You’re willing to just drive off and leave them?”
Brenda didn’t even turn around, but threw up her palm in the universal stop sign.
“Country club,” she repeated for Marianne. “This way they won’t catch the widow’s disease.”
“Widow’s disease?”
She whirled around and faced Marianne. “Dead husband disease.”
Secrets, Lies, and Online Dating: Three Generations Learn to Love Again (Women's Fiction) Page 3