I knew that I shouldn’t be looking at them, but I couldn’t stop myself. Then I became aware that mom saw me looking at them. I was thinking she would say something about my crude behavior, but she just smiled and didn’t do or say anything to dissuade me.
“Cheers—” she said, smiling, lifting her glass and tapping it against mine. “To us . . .”
“Uh, to us,” I mumbled, picking up my glass and lifting it up to my lips. That was an odd toast, I told myself as I took another sip of the shine. The booze was so potent; I was already feeling it and I’d only had just a couple of sips. I grinned, set my glass on the table and sneaked another peek at mom’s melons.
“Do you think your Pa really meant what he said?” she asked me as she leaned back against the chair. As she did, it stretched the cloth of her gown and made her breasts thrust out against it making them even more prominent and enticing.
“About what?” I asked looking up at her face finally. “He says a lot of stupid stuff.”
“About us? About you and me . . . fucking?”
“Uh, I, uh, I don’t know,” I muttered, feeling a blush spread across my burning cheeks.
“I guess that he could think that,” she sighed. “We’re together all the time and he’s never around. So, how would he know any different?” she conjectured.
This conversation was becoming uncomfortably close to the way I’d been feeling about her since Dad had spouted off about the two of us screwing.
“I guess so—” I choked out.
“Have you ever, uh, you know, done that . . . thought about us thata way?” she asked me as I saw a blush darken her cheek bones.
“Mom . . .?” I fussed, feeling the temperature in the room go up a good ten degrees.
“I’m sorry, I was just wondering,” she said, taking another sip of hooch. “I never see you with a girl.”
“Uh, no, no, I’m awfully bashful around girls, mom,” I told her. “Besides, I’m pretty busy around here, you know.”
“Well, I guess that’s my fault,” she frowned. “I shouldn’t have taken you out of school. As good looking as you are, I’m sure you would have a girlfriend by now.”
“Uh, maybe, yeah, I guess,” I muttered, taking another drink of shine and sputtering as it seared its way down my throat.
I heard a distant grumble of thunder as mom just sat there looking at me like she was thinking. Like she was trying to make up her mind about something.
“Uh, sounds like it might rain,” I said, breaking the awkward silence, not knowing what else to say.
“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” she smiled, setting her glass down and slowly pushing up onto her bare feet. Then she turned and slowly stepped over to the window, spread the curtain apart and looked out through it.
My heart was racing as I watched her. The thin gown did little to hide anything underneath it and I could clearly see the long sweep of her back as it swooped down to the round swell of her butt. I could make out the dark crack running down its center bisecting it and dividing it into cheeks.
Then I watched her push the window up. The moment she did, the room was immediately filled with the fresh dampness that always precedes rain.