Leah put her bikini top on before she would agree to follow mom into the house. As nonchalantly as possible under the circumstances, I led the way into the kitchen. Mom stood at the counter with her back to us. She had put on a cover up. My eyes were drawn to her ass. Her skimpy black bikini bottom was visible through the translucent white fabric.
Tequila, triple sec, and Grand Marnier bottles stood in a straight line on the counter. She poured a gold tinged mixture from a large pitcher into three salt-rimmed glasses.
"Margaritas?" she asked as she turned and offered the drinks to us. The cover up helped, but only slightly. Her breasts were barely obscured by the thin material.
Leah took the glass, looked at her drink, looked at Mom's chest, looked at me, looked back at her drink, raised it to her lips and drank it straight down. Mom chuckled quietly, took the glass from Leah's outstretched hand and poured another.
After handing Leah the refilled glass, she raised her own to her lips, slowly licked the salted edge with the tip of her tongue, and then took a sip. She leaned back against the counter, and stretched. "Um, I love these margaritas, don't you?" she asked as her eyes opened and caught me cold, staring at her chest.
My first margarita disappeared almost as rapidly as Leah's. Mom leaned slowly forward, her breasts shifted and hung dependently from her torso. She watched my eyes follow the shifting sway of her tits as she took my glass.
With drinks flowing, Mom orchestrated what turned out to be a very pedestrian barbecue session on our back deck. She had me grill the burgers, Leah prep the lettuce, tomatoes, onions and condiments, while she mixed fruit salad.
"Your mom and dad called today Leah. The tear down of your house was completed yesterday. Rebuilding will start in earnest very soon I expect." Mom informed us.
Leah was obviously relieved by the neutral direction Mom had taken the conversation. The level of tension fell dramatically.
"Yeah, Mom has kept me up to speed on how things have been going. My Dad has been worried about getting a good contractor since so many people need to rebuild at the same time. He's had trouble lining one up."
"You're Uncle Hal and he have been talking quite a bit. Uncle Hal has decided to fly out and help with the rebuild of your house. He will help your Mom and Dad with the contracting, behind the scenes, but be there to get it going and then help day to day by phone. He'll fly out at various stages as needed to personally review progress and quality."
My Dad is a very successful contractor. He started out in residential building and after several years expanded into commercial projects as well. As his business grew, his company merged with a couple of others and he now has big projects in other cities as well. He has been incredibly busy with overseeing and growing the business. Even though he is the senior partner, he really hasn't let up. I guess he looked at helping Kay and Jack as just one more project. No big deal. But, more time away from home and more time away from Mom. That is a big deal, at least to Mom.
"Wow, that's pretty sudden. You OK with that? When does he leave?" I asked surprised.
I'm sure Mom would never say no, but I knew she wasn't happy about this. She and Dad have an ongoing and bitter dispute about him being away from home so much. Every time he seems to slow down and turn over more responsibilities to the other partners, another project pops up that requires his personal oversight resulting in more time away from home and more time away from Mom.
"He is willing and able, and Aunt Kay and Uncle Jack are in a tight spot. Your Dad can help and so he should. Yes, I'm OK with it. He has some lose ends to tie up this week. He'll probably fly out this weekend."
It was grudging approval at most, more like politically correct approval.
She looked directly at me and dropped the bombshell. "They want Leah to come with your Dad to spend a few days."
Leah gasped. We looked at each other in shock. Leah quickly recovered. "That's great. I miss them so much. It'll be good to see them," she said actually sounding excited.
My heart sank. I hadn't even considered if and when Leah's parents would want her to come home. I was not ready to be separated from her.
We fell into talking about new homes, new construction, timelines and the complexities of obtaining building permits, codes and inspections. As we talked I could tell Leah was becoming more and more interested in the building process of her new home. As the evening passed, I became excited and happy for her. The idea of a new home after the horror of losing the home she grew up in was a very welcome shift of emotions.
I knew she missed her parents and friends. I told myself to be happy for her. I still had an ache in the pit of my stomach. I focused on the fact Mom had said "for a few days." I could handle that, couldn't I? I was happy for her, but I knew I'd miss her terribly.
Mom stood up, walked over and nonchalantly retrieved the bikini top she had discarded earlier in the afternoon. "I'm going to shower and get ready for bed. I had one or two too many margaritas for me. Do you guys mind cleaning up?" She turned and walked into the house as we mumbled our assent.
"Ok, what the hell?" Leah asked with consternation.
"I'm not really sure," I responded.
"We have to talk Chris. What do you think is going on with your mom and more importantly, what's with you?"
"What do you mean?"
"You told me your mom touched my boobs and then you watched each other masturbate by the pool while I was asleep. And, I saw you staring at your mom's boobs in the kitchen, and all evening. You couldn't keep your eyes off them."
"Fuck," I thought to myself. I only looked a couple of times. Shit. I can't help it; I'm a guy. Mom has a great body. I always look at her; she's beautiful. She does have a great set of tits too. What can I say?
"Well, it caught me off guard. I thought she was covered and then clearly she wasn't covered, and hasn't been covered all evening! I'm a guy Leah. I look at your breasts as much as I can. Guilty. I'm a pervert. I'm fucking my cousin and ogling my mom. A grade A pervert, that's me."
Leah's face fell into a look of profound sadness. Tears leaked from her beautiful eyes as she said accusingly, "You think I'm a slut. I knew it. I'm dirty and awful. I'm having sex with my cousin. What's wrong with me? I must be sick."
"Leah, I'm so sorry. I'm such an ass. You are not a slut. You are not dirty and awful. You are not sick. It doesn't matter if we're cousins. I love you Leah, I love you."
I took her in my arms and hugged her tight. Her sobs subsided.
"Oh Chris. What're we going to do? I'm so confused about us. What about your mom? Why didn't she bust us? Why did she come on to you? Why did she touch my breasts?" Leah voiced what I was wondering. "We should be in so much trouble. But we drank, we ate and we talked like any other evening. This wasn't any other evening."
"I agree. Something is going on. She acted pretty nonchalant about my Dad going to California to help your parents. She's been pretty upset with him and has demanded that he start turning more jobs over to his partners. I know he agreed, but he has been putting it off. Mom has been pretty tense lately even when my dad's home. She gets really pissed when she finds out he's taken on more work for whatever reason. Even though this project is for your parents, it's still one more job that's going to keep him away from home. Despite what she said, I can tell she's pissed again."
"Oh Chris, I knew your dad was gone a lot, but I had no idea there were serious problems between your parents."
"Yeah. Maybe that's what's going on here. Mom found out about Dad agreeing to help your parents rebuild your house. She's probably been stewing about it all day. But this is still very odd behavior, even for Mom.
"This is what we're going to do. We're going to act like nothing has happened. It's in Mom's court. Maybe things will go back to normal and we'll forget today ever happened. You'll go home and visit your parents and friends for a few days. Things will be cool when you get back. I will miss you terribly Leah, but it will be good for your family to be together."
"Oh Chris. I hope you're right. I love you Chris."
"You go take a shower and get ready for bed while I clean up here."
"OK, thanks Chris. Come say goodnight, Ok?"
"I wouldn't miss it."