It was a gorgeous Tuesday evening on the deck. Dinner was over and the setting sun had turned the sky electric peach streaked with purple and fading shards of brilliant blue. We'd finished the last of the wine. Mom was murmuring something to Dad, and Jack was leaning back in his chair, almost asleep, away wherever his own thoughts take him.
Content. It seems such a little word, with little feelings. But content was what I was, and I felt my heart swell in my chest. I looked over at my parents. They were wrapped in a tiny world of intimacy, eyes locked, their voices barely audible. Smiles flickered at the corners of their mouths, and occasionally one or the other would stretch out a hand, making contact, holding it for a scond before breaking it.
I checked out Jack. He was slumped in his chair, ankles crossed on the table. His eyes were closed, and I let my glance linger over his body. Of course I was madly in love with him, with every inch of him. The pounding started in my chest as I looked. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, but I knew him without his clothes. I knew him the way he knew me. Hot blood rushed up to my cheeks and down between my legs. It was always the same. I needed him.
It was starting to be too much for me, but even as I felt my thighs open and my butt slide forward over the chair, I knew I couldn't give in to this here. I straightened up and looked back up at the sky. The purple took over from the pink and blue. I could hear the soft buzz of my parents' chatting. I closed my eyes and let the contentment wash back over me.
When the phone rang, Mom twisted up out of her chair and said she'd get it. I swiveled my head to follow her as she walked to the sliding door, and then sneaked a look back at my father. He was half-way out of his his chair, his eyes fixed on her retreating form. I'd seen that look in his eyes often enough over the summer. Evenings here were getting predictable.
As he stood, his eyes darted from my mother back to me, and he smiled.
"Good night, Kath." He bent down and kissed my forehead, then looked over at Jack asleep in his chair.
"Kiss Jack goodnight for me, OK?"
I smiled up at him. "Will do, Dad."
He walked away and I imagined him catching up to my mother on the stairs and what might happen after that. Then I thought about kissing my brother goodnight.
Jack was still asleep. There were so many places I could kiss him. The corners of his mouth. The corners of his eyes. Right there where his shoulder met his neck. Hell, Mom and Dad were probably upstairs by now, fucking like newly-weds. I could kiss him wherever I wanted.
I sat up, lifting my top to bare my breasts. I knew now exactly where I wanted to kiss my brother, and I knew exactly where I wanted him to kiss me when he woke up. I slipped off my chair and straddled Jack's legs. Oh, god, the heat of his thighs against mine. My fingers fumbled at the button of his shorts.
"Kathy, it's Lydia."
Oh, shit. I leapt off Jack and tugged my top down. My mother was standing back-lit in the sliding door, holding the wireless receiver in her hand.
What had she seen? The sun had set, the sky was dark behind me, and Mom was standing in the brightly lit house. I decided to brazen it out.
"That's cool, Mom. I'll take it inside."
I walked toward her, panic flickering through me. I'm sure my hand was shaking as I reached for the phone. Mom's eyes bored into mine, and my knees quivered.
"You must have missed having someone to talk to, with all that's been going on this summer," she said, handing me the phone.
I took the phone from her and covered the little hole you talk into with my finger.
"Hey, Mom, I've had you to talk to about everything."
Blood crept up her cheeks, and she looked deep into my eyes. Then she smiled and leaned forward and cupped my neck with her hand. She pulled me to her and gave me a brief kiss on my lips, then drew away.
"I know Lydia is dying to talk to you." She walked to the stairs and I put the phone to my ear.
"Lydia?"
"Kath! Are you there? What's going on?"
Good question. Up till this moment it had all seemed so normal. I got a job with Sheila, and I got a whole new idea of myself. Jack comes home. Then I'm fucking Jack and Jack's fucking me. Mom's fucking Dad and Dad's fucking Mom, which must of course have been happening forever. But there was certainly something going on this summer. There was sex in the air in this house. There's been sex in the air all summer.
"Hello-o-o? Kathy?"
"Oh my god. Lydia. When did you get home? Can you come over now? Or should I come over there?"
"Kath. We've been flying for like seventeen hours straight, and we started sometime yesterday morning. I don't even know what time it is here, but I do know I'm about to pass out. I'm dying to see you. God, I've got so much to tell you. But it's got to be tomorrow."
"OK. Tomorrow. Um, wait. I'm working tomorrow."
"Working?"
"I'm sure I mailed you."
"Oh, right. I'm just so stupid right now. The nasty underwear store, right?"
I burst out laughing. Lydia and I had walked by Sheila's shop in the mall a thousand times and ogled every time the stuff in the window, but we'd been afraid to go in, and we'd dubbed it the nasty underwear store.
"Yeah. You'd be surprised, though."
"Really? Not as nasty as we thought?"
I thought about what I'd bought there, and what Mom had bought, and what we'd shown to Jack and Dad. "Well ..."
"Aha. Girl, you and I have got to talk. What time do you get off?"
Oh. about ten minutes after I hook up with Jack. I couldn't believe that just popped into my mind. I felt myself blushing and answered, "I can be home around 4:30."
"Four-thirty it is, then, at your place. I've got some stories."
"I can't wait. See you tomorrow." I walked into the kitchen and hung up the phone.
Outside on the deck, I looked up at my parents' window. There was just a pale gleam, probably from a bed-side lamp. I knew they wouldn't be coming back down.
Jack was still asleep, slumped in his chair, his ankles crossed on the table. I remembered where I'd been before my mother had called me to the phone, and what I'd wanted him to see and kiss.
This time I pulled my top off over my head and stripped out of my shorts and panties. I let them all fall into a little pile on the deck.
Walking to his chair, I changed my mind about what I wanted when he woke up. I turned my back to him and raised my left leg until I was standing astride the chair. His shorts were un-buttoned from before, and I leaned over and slid the zipper down.