She was so turned on watching him that her fingers instinctively migrated to her sex. James opened his eyes and watched Sarah touching herself for just a moment before he kneeled between her legs and put his mouth to work where her fingers had just been. “Oh god,” Sarah sighed at the feel of his hot tongue against her clit, “Oh god, don’t stop!” He quickened his tempo, and she began to buck against him, splashing her juices all over his face, holding him steady while her orgasm shook through her.
“I think we made a mess,” James observed as he laid down beside her. His face was wet, the bed was wet, and Sarah’s body from her neck to her navel bore the evidence of James’ release.
“I got a pearl necklace,” Sarah laughed. “And then some!” She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. “My sheets never last very long with you around,” she teased him.
“Tell you what,” James bargained, “You go start the shower and I’ll strip the bed. Deal?”
Sarah giggled and nodded. As she glided across the hall to the bathroom she was struck by a singular thought: In this moment, I am so happy. I’m completely full of joy. And it’s HIM. He makes me feel this way.
She returned to the bedroom where James was bent over the bed, lifting the fitted sheet from its grip on the corner of the mattress. She studied the musculature of his back before he realized she was standing there admiring him. She must have worn a peculiar expression because as he whipped around he questioned, “Are you staring at my ass?”
Sarah sheepishly laughed. “Well, now that you mention it, you do have a very nice one!” She moved behind him and gave him a playful smack. “The water is ready. Go ahead and get in. I’m going to just grab my robe and check my phone. Oh, maybe you should check yours too?”
He nodded and fished his out of his pants pocket, taking it with him across the hall to the bathroom. She dug into her purse and pulled out her blinking phone. There was a text from Rachel and two from Abby. The latter one read, “On my way home,” and the timestamp was twenty minutes ago.
SHIT!!! Sarah screamed inside her head. Why is she coming home? The first text was vague and only said, “Leaving the party.” Sarah glanced at the clock on her nightstand and back at her phone. She should be here anytime. She threw on her robe and ran into the bathroom.
“Hey,” she peeked around the shower curtain.
James could read on her face that something was wrong. “What is it?”
“Issue with my kid. Apparently she’s coming home.”
His immediate reaction was clearly one of disappointment. “Oh. What should we do?”
“Go ahead and shower and then you can either wait in here for me or you can go home if you want. It’s totally up to you. Did you hear anything about your sister?”
“Not yet.” How quickly they had both come crashing back to reality and how deflated they both felt. Sarah was suddenly furious at the thought of not getting to spend the night curled up in her lover’s arms. Abby better have a damn good explanation for this, Sarah thought as she threw on some jeans and a t-shirt and headed downstairs. She saw lights flashing in the driveway and assumed it was Chloe’s parents bringing home an under-the-weather Abby.
Instead of Abby opening the back door with her key like Sarah expected, the front doorbell rang, echoing through the silent house. Sarah’s heart began to pound as she considered all the different reasons Abby wasn’t letting herself in the house. I hope she just lost her key, Sarah thought, rushing to the door to open it and revealing Abby and two adults she didn’t recognize. She knew they weren’t Chloe’s parents, whom she’d met on multiple occasions.
“Dr. Lynde?” the man addressed her as soon as Sarah shoved the storm door open. Abby looked tiny next to the 6’4” silver-haired man and his tall, thin, elegant-looking female companion.
Sarah nodded. Her spine was tingling. Nothing about this seems good, she thought.
“Sorry for disrupting your evening. We’re Tyler’s parents, Steve and Jessica. I’m sorry we aren’t here under better circumstances.”
Sarah looked from him to his wife and then down to Abby who was teary-eyed and pale. “Call me Sarah. Please come in and tell me what’s going on.”
Abby entered first, and Sarah noticed that she was trudging along slowly and a little off-balance. The grandfather clock in the dining room was chiming midnight with long, slow, ringing notes as Sarah ushered her company into the kitchen. She offered them something to drink, which they declined, and they all took seats around the table. Abby looked pale and forlorn as she stared at the same apparently captivating speck on the tile floor.
“We were out at a party tonight,” Tyler’s mother began to explain. “We’d told Tyler we would be home around 1 or 2 am. He’s sixteen and we didn’t see any problem leaving him alone. He’s always been a responsible kid.”
His father took over the story, “We came home early because my wife was feeling ill, and we found your daughter half naked and drunk in our living room. They’d broken into our liquor cabinet.”
Oh my god, Sarah thought. Are you fucking kidding me? Her blood began to boil thinking of how Abby had lied about the party, about going to Chloe’s house, about Tyler’s parents being home. Not to mention the thought of James still upstairs in my bedroom, where I should have be getting my brains fucked out. She glared at her daughter. “Go up to your room, Abigail. We will discuss this in the morning.”
After Abby left, Sarah got a few more details about the evening’s debacle from Steve and Jessica and thanked them profusely for safely returning her daughter home. Then she apologized and promised that Abby would be appropriately punished. They pledged to do the same with Tyler. She said goodbye and closed the door, shutting out the cold night air.
Her face flushed, her head pounding, she tried to collect her thoughts before heading upstairs to check on James. I figured something was going on with that girl, Sarah thought. I should have trusted my instincts when I found that condom in her room. I should have pushed her for more information. Myriad “should haves” bombarded her mind as she climbed each stair as she hurried to see if James was lying in bed, awaiting her return.
He had already left.
***
Chapter Eight
Thanksgiving
Sarah tossed and turned that night, her body missing James and the feeling of him curled against her. She was so angry at her daughter that even when she finally succumbed to slumber, she’d rouse in tiny fits of rage, remembering the events of the preceding night all over again. She hoped Abby was not sleeping peacefully down the hall, but that she was considering her actions and growing more and more repentant. Finally, Sarah jolted awake for good at 6:45 AM and reached for her phone. Thoughts of James and his sister were foremost in her mind.
There was no text from James waiting for her, but there was one from Rachel: OMG! Well done, Lovechop! He’s a catch! Xoxo
She wished she’d had a chance to review the evening with James. She was wildly curious what he thought of Rachel and Jack. That conversation probably would have happened in or after the shower, if they hadn’t been so rudely interrupted by a drunk and deceitful fifteen-year-old. Ah, there’s the ire again, Sarah noted. She threw her robe on and marched down the hall to Abby’s room where she threw open the door and subsequently aroused from slumber a very groggy teenager.
Abby sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes, which might have been a covert move to conceal a snippet of eye-rolling, but Sarah wasn’t sure. She took a deep breath and attempted to formulate a speech that didn’t involve blowing a gasket. “What happened last night?” she finally decided her approach. Non-judgmental. Open-ended. Best I can do under the circumstances.
Abby managed to look relatively contrite. Her small voice offered, “I screwed up, Mom, I’m sorry.”
“That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?” Sarah couldn’t believe that Abby, who had the cunning argumentative skills of a defense attorney, wasn’t going to offer some sort of crazy excu
se for her behavior.
“Well, I was caught with my hands in the cookie jar,” Abby explained. “What else can I say? Go ahead and ground me or whatever other punishment you’re going to give me. I know I deserve it.”
Sarah was not expecting her to concede so easily. It made her suspect more was going on and Abby was pleading down. She might be accepting fault for a “lesser crime” instead of implicating herself in a more serious matter. Another legal analogy, she noted. She decided to cut to the chase: “Are you and Tyler having sex?”
Silence.
“Abby?” Her daughter’s gaze had shifted straight ahead. “I’m not going to judge you, Abby, I just want to know the truth.” Sarah had not forgotten what it felt like to hide her sexual exploits from her mother. She remembered the lies. The justifications. She also remembered when her mother had discovered the truth, she had been understanding and kind...and that there was something about it being all out in the open that made sneaking around to have sex that much less appealing.
Abby nodded.
“Alright.” Sarah began to formulate a game plan for dealing with this new dimension to the situation, but before she could get very many plays telestrated in her mind, Abby burst into tears.
Sarah immediately went into overprotective maternal mode and felt the anger she’d harbored since the night before fading, replaced by concern. “Oh my god, Abby, did he hurt you? Did he force you?”
Abby’s body was shaking with sobs. “No, of course not,” she managed.
“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked gently, smoothing her daughter’s hair out of her face and wiping away a tear that had rolled down her cheek.
“I just hate disappointing you,” Abby confessed.
“Oh baby,” Sarah held her daughter tight, “I’m not disappointed. I just want you to be safe and happy, that’s all.” She rocked Abby back in forth in her arms for a few moments, remembering what it was like to hold her when she was small and had skinned her knee or had a bad day at school. Sometimes she wondered how this could be the same child as that bright-eyed compliant little girl with pigtails and freckles.
She’d have to confront Abby about the alcohol consumption, the lying, and give her the safe sex speech again, but that could wait. She still wasn’t entirely sure that Abby’s remorse wasn’t a ploy to help her achieve a lighter sentence, but Sarah wasn’t going to delve more into that now. Right now she just wanted to hold her little girl.
***
Pawel called that afternoon to make sure Sarah had completely recovered from her illness on Thursday night. And he wanted to invite her out for drinks after work on Friday. Sarah was happy to hear from him, but couldn’t help but be somewhat wistful that it wasn’t James calling. Maybe I should just call him later, she considered. To check on his sister and all.
Owen came home from his friend’s house and it was as if he sensed something had happened between his mother and sister in his absence. Sarah noticed how chatty he was and thought he may be trying to dissolve the tension. She couldn’t believe how perceptive her son was sometimes. A chip off the old block, she laughed.
Abby retreated to her room shortly after Owen’s arrival. Owen reviewed his entire weekend with his mother, even the parts she was there for. He thought maybe she had missed some of it due to her illness so it was obviously necessary to recap. Satisfied that his mother was completely up to date on his activities, he ambled off to his room to finish up homework for Monday.
Sarah nervously shuffled through the contacts in her phone until she came to James McAllister. She hadn’t spoken to him on the phone since the day of their first date, way back in August. Her heart was pounding as the phone rang. Holy shit, what is wrong with me? she scolded herself. I feel like I’m in the eighth grade phoning a boy for the first time.
“Hello?” came his husky voice.
“Hey, James....what’s up?” she tried to sound casual. “I didn’t get to say goodbye to you last night.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” he replied. “My mother called and I didn’t want to take it in the house where your kid might hear, so I decided to go.”
“Oh,” Sarah let the syllable float out across a long pause. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine,” he reassured her. “My sister gave birth to a healthy baby girl at around 2 AM. Her name is Annalisa Katherine. 5 pounds, 3 ounces. She was a little premature, so they are keeping her in the NICU for a few days, but she seems fine so far.”
“Oh, I’m so glad!” Sarah exclaimed. “Wow, that’s quite a big name for such a tiny girl! My middle name is Katherine too. And my mom’s.”
“Really?” James asked. “That’s my grandmother’s name.”
“Nice.” Awkward silence. Shit, this is what I didn’t want to happen.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t stay. Is everything okay with your daughter?” he questioned.
“Yeah, it will be. Teenagers, ugh. When will I see you again?” Might as well cut to the chase, she thought. She already felt her body longing for him and couldn’t help but feel cheated out of several more rounds with him the night before.
“Actually” he said, his voice showing a hint of excitement, “I was going to ask if you’d like to come to my place next weekend. For dinner.”
She felt a burst inside like a firework exploding, raining down glittery gold sparkles all around her. “I would love that.”
They worked out the details and then she disconnected, feeling giddy. She now had a date with Pawel Friday night and James Saturday night. Am I the luckiest woman on the planet or what? she wondered as she dialed Rachel’s number. She spent the next hour on the phone with her best friend, picking apart in intricate detail every nuance of the dinner conversation the night before.
Rachel had to be brought up to speed on what had happened with Abby. She was adamant that the punishment be serious enough to deter Abby from making similarly bad choices in the future. The friends also conferred about Thanksgiving plans, which was the following week. Jack would be joining them this year, along with his four year old daughter Gia.
Rachel and Sarah traditionally celebrated holidays together, with Sarah’s mom joining them. Oftentimes, they invited current boyfriends, lovers, or sometimes colleagues who had nowhere else to go. Sarah had debated asking either Pawel or James to join them for Thanksgiving dinner, seeing as they were both away from family, but as she couldn’t ask both and she still wasn’t sure about introducing either to her children, she decided to leave them both off the guest list.
Phone calls behind her, Sarah gritted her teeth and headed for Abby’s room. It was time to deliver the bad news: the punishment.
***
Thanksgiving morning started at 6 AM when Sarah went out to the sun porch to turn over the turkey in the brine. She decided to sit out on the wicker loveseat to enjoy her coffee and a novel she had just begun reading. It was so rare for her to read something other than student papers or academic journals. Coffee and pleasure reading as the sun rises. It doesn’t get any better than this, she thought, already immersed in the spirit of gratefulness fitting with the holiday.
There was a tart crispness in the air and a shroud of bluish mist in the trees behind her property line as the sun started to flirt with the horizon. It was one of those days that felt exactly as it should. Across the field at her neighbor’s house there were raked leaves, formerly piled, that had lost their shape entertaining joyously jumping children. Her other neighbor had a dazzling display of mums, cornstalks and pumpkins lining the porch steps. Sarah felt a sense of peace as she closed up the sun porch and headed to the kitchen to start the rest of the preparations.
Rachel arrived at 8 AM to commence the cooking. Together they peeled potatoes, rolled out dough, seasoned the vegetables, frosted the cake, and baked the pies. The kids, including Rachel’s son, made frequent stops into the kitchen to supervise and to solicit samples whenever possible. Sarah was glad to see that even Abby was still interested in making regular public appear
ances, even if she still felt a little raw over her punishment.
Sarah and Abby had it out Sunday night after Owen went to bed. Sarah chose to focus on the deceit and the alcohol consumption and not the promiscuity this time. Abby was not quite as remorseful as she had been in the morning. It’s like she spent the entire day bolstering her defenses, Sarah observed, reviewing a mental list of sociological theories to explain how Abby arrived at her argument, which basically boiled down to this: “I’m young and I’m only going to live once.”
Of course Sarah couldn’t directly argue with that, but she could talk about the consequences of such behavior. She reminded her daughter that underage drinking was illegal. She lectured about how lying to her mother was a good way to break the trust they’d spent fifteen years establishing. She talked about being sexually active and unintentional pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. In the end, Abby broke down and cried again. Sarah considered that a minor victory, even though she had to ground her for a month. Growing up is tough. Sometimes it hurts. Sarah remembered exactly how quickly she grew up the summer she found out she was pregnant with Abby.
Someday she would be able to confess that whole story to Abby. Someday. She didn’t want her daughter to think everything had been easy for her. I don’t want her to think I always made the right choices, Sarah thought. I’m human too and it’s important for Abby and Owen to both see that. But I’m not ready to totally divulge that story...yet....
The Mountains Trilogy (Boxed Set) Page 11