I lingered in the hallway, admiring Leah's smooth bottom, the sway of her hips, the gentle ripple of muscles under flawless skin. She tilted her head, smiled and blew me a kiss as she disappeared through the doorway into her room.
As I turned, something tugged at my subconscious. Not really a movement, not a sound, more a feeling of, well, not being alone. I looked at the stairs; empty. Silence. Yes, silence. Too silent. No sound of activity or movement was coming from the main floor. I remembered hearing my mother stirring, moving through the house, fixing coffee, normal sounds that disappear into the background.
Oh oh. I walked into my room, pushed the door almost closed, but stood and listened intently, apprehension building in my gut. Did I imagine movement on the stairs? Had my mother come down while we were in the bath? Had she heard us? Had she seen us naked in the hallway? What if she had? What would she do? Man oh man, were we in trouble?
Movement, sound, activity suddenly resumed in the kitchen. Oh oh. I dressed hurriedly and went upstairs, alone, not waiting for Leah. There was Mom efficiently moving about the kitchen making breakfast.
"Good morning Chris, sleep well?" asked Mom with a warm smile. No hint of stress in her voice or on her face discernible. She poured and handed me a mug of coffee.
"Morning" I replied, not at all stress free. "Thanks. What's for breakfast? " I blurted as I took the coffee from her outstretched hand.
"Brunch you mean, it's almost noon. I almost gave up on you two. Pancakes, fresh strawberries and cantaloupe. How does that sound?"
"Perfect" I replied too loudly, still thrown off by the growing surge of apprehension.
Mom smiled a smile that seemed to have just a hint of a smirk as she turned back to the sink. Or was that just my imagination? If she heard us, if she saw us, if she knew, why was she keeping quiet? Why wasn't she upset, crying, mad, yelling.
Leah popped through the door, grabbed my mom from behind giving her a big hug. "Morning Aunt Jean" Leah chirped. "What a glorious day."
"Why good morning Leah. Aren't we in a good mood?"
A smile was playing across my mother's face and there it was again. The smirk. That knowing facial expression my dad teased her about when she thought she had figured out someone's secrets.
The smirk turned into a smile as she turned in Leah's arms and returned the hug. The hug seemed to linger, she seemed to pull Leah into her body, her hips melding to Leah's hips. "You kids sit down and eat" she instructed as she slowly released Leah from what seemed to be an intimate embrace. "I will let you clean up. I have some errands to run. I'll see you this evening. We'll grill burgers tonight. See you latter. Have fun and don't do anything I wouldn't do." As she said this she turned toward me with a half smile and, did I imagine it, a look of longing. She did a quick intake of breath, turned and walked out of the kitchen. We heard her scrabble around a bit, keys jangled, the porch door opened, the car door banged, the starter grind, and the motor purr as she drove away.
Whew, my breath, that I had been holding for almost two minutes, exploded out of my chest. Leah, startled, looked quizzically at me with her dark eyebrows raised over her beautiful brown eyes. "What?"
"Mom."
"What about her."
"Um. Ah."
"Um, ah, what?" Leah now getting a little exasperated.
"Didn't that all seem a bit, well, a bit strange?"
"What do you mean?" Leah asked, a frown beginning to lightly furrow her brow.
"I, um, think Mom might have been downstairs earlier."
"What makes you think that?"
"Hard to explain. Just little things that have happened or not happened. More than just a feeling, but..."
"But she acted so normally. She didn't say anything" Leah offered.
"Yeah, but, she did somethings, her smile, her smirk. What about the embrace you two had?"
"Embrace?"
"Yeah, you didn't think that hug was a bit more than a hug?"
A look of concern spread across Leah's face as she replied, "I wondered if that was my imagination. She pulled me into her, our breasts really pressed together and our hips, her pelvis pressed against mine, just briefly, but still...", the sentence left unfinished.
"Yeah, looked really," I paused, "intimate"
"What did you mean by her smirk."