Crystal Ball

by Laney Kay

  He pretended to think about it for a second. “Hmmm. I think I like the sound of that. Okay, it’s a deal.” He kissed me quickly and let me go. “I’ll stop and grab some beer and wine for tonight and I’ll come pick you up later this afternoon.” He gave me another quick peck and left. I grabbed my purse and headed out the door.

  I was home from the store in about an hour and I spent the rest of the afternoon baking some muffins for the weekend, and some dishes and treats for that night, including a batch of red velvet cupcakes for Harrison. I made an Asian noodle salad with peanut sauce, a pasta salad, and strawberry shortcake with a real shortcake and homemade whipped cream for dessert. I changed into a bathing suit with a tank top and a pair of shorts, pulled on a cowboy hat, and had just finished packing all the food into a big cooler when the doorbell rang. I ran and opened the door to let Luke in, who looked amazing as usual in a long, baggy bathing suit and a ragged t-shirt with the arms ripped off. I stared at his arms, thinking it was ridiculous what that man could do to a shirt, and then shook myself out of my reverie and went back to finish getting everything together. He followed me into the kitchen as I finished cleaning the sink and then absently palmed my butt as I bent over to stack my coolers. I couldn’t help but smile. I straightened up and turned to face him. “You are just a mess. Why don’t you use those hands to grab these coolers instead of my ass and go put them in your Jeep?”

  He sighed as if very put upon, grabbed my butt with both hands to pull me against him and gave me a kiss that just about made my eyes cross. He looked very satisfied with my reaction and let me go, smiling when I swayed on my feet. “Fine. I’ll put this in the car, but I’m telling you right now, you’re mine tonight, and you’re not putting on a stitch of clothes or leaving this house until Monday morning, so you’d better take it easy today and maybe do some carb loading or something so you’ll have enough energy to keep up.”

  He grabbed the coolers and headed out to the car. I stepped in front of him and reached under the cooler to rub him through his shorts. “Oh, I’ll be ready.” I gently squeezed and fondled him and rubbed my breasts against his side. “Feels like you will be too.”

  He started to sweat. “Damn it, Daisy, you’d better stop that right now, or we’re not going anywhere.”

  I laughed, gave him one last squeeze and backed away from him with my hands in the air.

  He was gritting his teeth as he spun around and went out to the Jeep, muttering under his breath something about me being a tease and about payback, and how I wasn’t going to think it was so funny when I couldn’t walk at work on Monday. I was laughing as I called the mutts and got them harnessed and ready to go. Luke came back inside, grabbed their leashes in one hand, my hand in the other, and we left.

  When we got to Sara’s, we put the pups in the backyard then we went inside to unpack the salads and the shortcake. We went out to the pool to say hey to Mark and Sara and to put the beer and wine in the cooler. Sara was in the pool asleep on a float in a bathing suit and her honey badger shirt and Mark was asleep in a chair with a book on his stomach and a beer on the ground next to him. Before I could grab him, Diego came out of nowhere, knocked over the beer and had downed most of it by the time I could wrestle him away. Luke was laughing and shaking his head as I struggled to pick up Diego and manage the other two. “Here we go again.”

  He grabbed Diego from me and ruffled his fur, laughing as he asked, “Why don’t we just get him a bowl and his own beer and maybe he’d leave everyone else’s alone?”

  I shook my head. “Lola tried that, but he emptied his bowl and then he still went after everyone else’s. I’ve about decided that he was some frat boy in a former life and his goal is to drink until passes out.” Luke laughed, but for a while I had been really worried about him. “When I first noticed the whole drinking problem, I was scared about him being drunk around the pool, but watch him. He swims like a fish and is constantly in and out of the pool, so I stopped worrying about it.” As if to prove my words, as soon as Luke put him down, he jumped into the pool, swam out to Sara and climbed on the float with her, waking her up with a cold nose in her neck.

  She grabbed him and planted a big kiss on his head and petted him as she looked around for us. “Hey y’all! Hey Daisy, your damn dog already has beer breath. How long y’all been here?”

  We both laughed. “Long enough for Diego to start his day drinking, so about a minute.”

  Mark stood up, yawned, waved to both of us, and popped me on the butt as he passed me to go inside. I smacked him back. “Hey, sorry for Diego drinking your beer.”

  He shook his head. “Wouldn’t be the first time, and there’s plenty more. Y’all grab whatever you want.”

  He continued inside and I grabbed a towel and sat down on the end of the closest lounge chair and Luke swung his leg over so he straddled the chair and sat behind me. He pulled me back against his chest and Sara immediately sat up, almost knocking Diego in the water, and looked back and forth between us. I shrugged, trying to look casual. “What?”

  She jumped into the water and towed the float with Diego on it until she was right in front of us. She stared at Luke and then stared at me, and I could feel my face turn red. “What is your problem?”

  She grinned and screamed. “Yee haw! Y’all finally had sex!” She put her hands on the side and levered herself out of the pool and threw herself on both of us, hugging us and laughing. I pushed her away as she grabbed my neck and kissed my cheek and then she let me go and climbed on Luke’s lap, smothering his face with loud kisses. We were both protesting, and laughingly trying to push her off of us, but she completely ignored us. Mark came out to see what the ruckus was all about and Sara screamed to him that we’d finally gotten horizontal, and it was about damn time, and how she knew we would be good together and he just smiled, congratulated us, grabbed a fresh beer and jumped into the pool.

  Right about then, Lola, Harrison, and Mo came out of the house. We were still trying to get Sara off of us, but she was still carrying on. “…It’s about damn time. I was worried poor Daisy was gonna end up some kind of born again virgin, but it looks like we don’t have to worry about that anymore.” They all stopped dead in their tracks and looked at us. Luke and I looked helplessly at each other over Sara’s head and shrugged as we started laughing. Oh well, it didn’t take long for that cat to get out of the bag.

  Mo screamed and Lola yelled holy shit and they both dropped what they were carrying and ran over to us and piled on. At that point, I couldn’t stop laughing and Luke just shook his head and tried to keep all of us from falling off the chair. Finally, I pulled myself out of the pile and stood up next to the chair, still laughing at their reaction. “Y’all get off Luke and let the poor man breathe.” Harrison bumped me with his hip and smiled and winked as he went by carrying all the towels and stuff that Mo and Lola had dropped when they jumped on us. Luke grabbed Sara and lifted her off of him and managed to stand up without the other women knocking him over. He made a hasty retreat, muttering that he needed a drink and got the hell out of there. He got a beer and jumped in the pool with the other guys, probably to put as much distance between us and him as possible.

  As soon as he left, Sara, Lola, and Mo grabbed me and pulled me back on the chair with them and stared at me. I’m never that comfortable being the center of attention, and I could feel my ears get hot and my face turn red. Finally, I couldn’t take the pressure. “What? What do you want from me?”

  They all looked at me like I was crazy and Lola said, “Duh, details?”

  I dropped my head and sighed and asked them what they wanted to know, and Lola looked at me like I was an idiot and started counting them off on her fingers. “The basics. How was it, was he as good as you’d hoped…” She looked at Luke with a speculative look as he climbed out of the pool, his shorts clinging as he walked back to the cooler to grab another beer after Diego had tipped his over on the side of the pool. “Damn…bonus question, is that dick as big as it look
s?” I smacked her as Mo and Sara burst out laughing and I saw Luke freeze as he overheard her question and then he just sighed and kept walking, shaking his head. Lola continued. “Are you finally going to admit y’all are officially a couple now, and when are you going to do it again?”

  I knew they’d never leave me alone until I filled them in. I was just thankful Luke had managed to get out of their clutches, because I know they would’ve asked those exact same questions if he was still sitting there, poor thing. I took a deep breath and answered, also ticking off my answers on my fingers. “It was amazing, and he was even better than I could’ve imagined.” I saw Luke jump back in the pool and soon the guys were all laughing and slapping Luke on the back. I don’t know if they were congratulating him on us being together or commiserating about their women having no filter and talking about personal things like dick size. “It’s actually bigger than it looks, yes, we’re officially a couple, and tonight when we leave here, he’s apparently locking us in the house until Monday morning.”

  All of them turned to look at Luke with big grins on their faces, and when he realized he was the center of their attention, he just swigged his beer and turned his back to us. I know he had an idea of what we were talking about because later, when he got out of the pool, before he sat down, he pulled a beach towel around him and tucked it securely around his waist. We all burst out laughing and he yelled “Perverts” and flipped us off, which made us all laugh harder.

  We had a great day hanging out at the pool, talking and enjoying each other’s company. We ate kind of a late lunch/early dinner, and Harrison was ecstatic that I had made red velvet cupcakes, even though it wasn’t his birthday. I think he and Luke and Lola ate most of them. Afterwards, we threw out all the paper goods, put away the leftovers, minus some hot dogs and pimento cheese that my dogs knocked onto the ground and scarfed down, and went on the screen porch to avoid the bugs.

  I was thrilled that everyone was getting along so well and that everyone was so happy for us. It was still hard to believe how much everything has changed in the past year. Speaking of which, I told everyone that my mother told me that she’d run into Bobby’s mother at some benefit and it turns out Bobby and the skank had a baby girl. I told my mother good for them, and that was it.

  Lola was curious. “Does Bobby’s mom like the skank?”

  I told her that his parents were still fairly appalled at the entire situation and that when I had run into them a couple of times, they were lovely and very apologetic to me. Apparently, according to my mom, they weren’t too crazy about the skank, but they were thrilled about a grandchild, so I guess it worked out okay for them.

  When Lola and I went inside to get more vegetables and dip and some cheese straws I’d pulled out of my freezer, I remembered to ask Lola about the story I was doing that week. I had met a local woman, Bella Varnedoe, who was trying to raise funds to rebuild water treatment facilities and an orphanage in Belize that had been decimated by a recent hurricane. She’s apparently some wealthy widow who does all kinds of charity work around town. “Lola, you know her?”

  Lola nodded. “Yep. Cool chick. Bella’s maybe a little older than us, maybe early 50s, and she’s like me…you know, a trust fund baby who tries to use her money for good instead of evil.” I laughed at that, and Lola continued. “Seriously, I like her a lot. She’s funny, warm, personable, and a fundraising machine. And I’ll bet she’ll be great on camera.”

  As we walked back outside to put the food on the coffee table on the porch, Sara overhead the last part of the conversation and asked who we were talking about. “Bella Varnedoe. I’m interviewing her for my story this week.”

  “Oh, I’ve met her several times. Nice lady.” Sara grabbed a piece of carrot and popped it in her mouth. “What are you wearing for the interview?”

  Oh no. Here we go again. Lola and Sara ask me every week what I’m wearing, because they know that, if left to my own devices, I would wear a black t-shirt and a black pair of jeans and call it a day. They consider it their purpose in life to keep me from looking like a walking “fashion don’t.” I actually appreciate their advice, even though they can be pretty rough. Mo is very sweet, so I can’t trust her to tell me when I’ve made a bad choice. She’d never look me in the eye like Lola and Sara do, and say things like, “OhmyGAWD, take that off right now, that skirt makes your ass look huge” or, my personal favorite from Sara, “Girl, if you’re looking for an outfit that makes you look like an ad for ‘Extreme Tits and Ass Magazine’, you found it. Take that shit off.” Brutal, right?! But always honest, always hilarious, and considering my lack of ability to dress myself, I really do need all the help I can get.

  As the afternoon waned, I could tell Luke was getting antsy. He constantly touched me, a pat here, a rub there, a subtle hand on my butt when no one could see. By the time 6:30 rolled around, he was obviously past ready to leave, and I’ll have to admit, I was ready to go, too. We both stood up at the same time. “Hey guys, we’re out of here. We’ve got some stuff to do…”

  “Like each other.” Sara interjected, and everyone laughed.

  I ignored her. “…So we’ll see you later.” I started picking up my purse and towels, and Luke grabbed the cooler. We grabbed the dogs, (for once Diego was only tipsy and was still upright), and headed home.

  I tried to make small talk with Luke but he wasn’t interested. I could see his jaws were clenched and his entire body looked tense. I put my hand on his leg, hoping to make him feel more relaxed, and he just looked at my hand and then looked at me with a very single-minded, intense gaze. I moved my hand up his leg, under the edge of his shorts, and he grabbed it so it couldn’t go any higher. “Daisy, we’re almost home and I’m about to lose it here, so hang on a few minutes more.”

  Wow. I didn’t realize he was quite that close to the edge. This was fun. I smiled at him. “So what do you want to do first when we get home?”

  He shot me a don’t-screw-with-me look, and I smiled at him innocently. “How about this? Since you don’t really seem like you want to talk about it, I’ll tell you what I’d like to do to you.” I leaned over so that my breasts were pressed against his arm and I put my lips next to his ear and softly bit his earlobe. Goosebumps broke out on his arms and I could see that his bathing suit was starting to tent in the front. I pulled my hand out of his grip and started rubbing his leg, slowly, teasingly sliding my hand slightly higher, under his shorts. “As soon as we get in the door, I want us both to get out of these clothes as quickly as possible. Tonight, it’s my turn to play with you, so I just want you to relax and then I’m going to kiss you all over.” He made an involuntary groan in the back of his throat and I moved my hand higher as I kissed his neck.

  He was so distracted he almost drove past my street. He yanked the Jeep into the turn, screeched into my driveway, and jerked it in park. He hopped out and reached in the back and unbuckled the dogs while I came around from the other side. He grabbed my hand and we literally ran up the driveway, the dogs jumping and barking madly. I shoved the key in the door and threw it open, immediately dropping to the floor to get the dogs out of their harnesses. Luke slammed the door behind us and locked it, and as soon as the dogs were free and the dog door was open, he picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, and started toward the bedroom. I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe. He kicked the door shut, threw me on the bed, and told me to take my clothes off now or he was going to rip them off me.

  I tore off my clothes and my bathing suit while he did the same. In about two seconds we were facing each other naked on either side of my bed. He put a knee on the bed and started coming toward me, but I held up a hand to stop him. “Wait! It’s my turn first.”

  He stared at me as if debating what he wanted to do, then he flopped on his back in the middle of the bed. “Fine, but you’d better get over here right now and get busy or I’m taking over.”

  I jumped on the bed and looked at him lying there. Seriously, I think he’s the sexi
est man I’ve ever seen. I put my leg over him and straddled his waist so I could reach his mouth. As usual, he grabbed my backside and started squeezing and fondling it. As soon as our lips touched, the kiss went out of control and I finally pulled back before I got too distracted. I licked his ear and bit his earlobe and I felt him shiver. I started kissing my way down his neck and he started moving his hands from my bottom down between my legs, but I quickly slid down so he couldn’t reach me. I licked my way down his chest, kissing and sucking his nipples, rubbing my breasts against his chest, running my tongue down the middle of those crazy hard abs. I could feel him hard against my chest, as he grabbed an extra pillow to prop up his head so he could watch what I was doing. I smiled at him and grabbed my breasts and surrounded his erection. I rubbed myself up and down, massaging him with my breasts while he watched intently, clenching his hands on the pillow behind his head. The next time his penis emerged, I squeezed harder, lowered my head and gently licked the tip. His entire body froze and then he deliberately relaxed as he watched me.

  I smiled and scooted down a little farther, grabbing his erection with both hands. I have to admit, I was a little unsure of how much of that I could actually get in my mouth, because he somehow seemed even bigger than last time, so I licked around the top and sucked the head in, squeezing him around the base with both of my hands. I moved down as far as I could, using my tongue as much as possible and sucked hard as I pulled back. Suddenly, I felt his hands in my hair guiding my movements, but being careful not to push me down too far. I slowly went up and down, taking a little more of him each time, licking around the head and the sensitive underside as I went down, and then applied a lot of suction as I pulled back. I took one hand and gently massaged his balls as the other hand squeezed him and stroked up and down. After a few minutes, he grabbed my head and tried to pull me back. “Baby, that’s enough. I can’t last much longer.”