“Thanks, Kate. You’re doing wonders for my self-esteem. When I first met you, and just now when Jake took your robe off, I thought, how can Jake get excited about me when he has a mother like Kate to look at every day?”
Kate gave Madeleine a token smack on the bottom and said, “Let’s be careful what we say, young lady.” She and Jake had pre-agreed, before Madeleine’s visit, that each of them would strenuously refute any allegation of incest, if it should arise. “You’re getting very close to talking about incest, and that is definitely not part of our relationship, hey, Jake?”
“No, Mum,” replied Jake, “but I don’t think Maddy really meant it that way.”
“I’m sure she didn’t, but just in case she ever wonders, I think this is a good time to discuss it. Let’s sit down, Maddy,” and they joined Jake at the table, not thinking to put their robes on again. “Look, Maddy, I’m not telling you off, but I want it to be quite clear that for me and Jake, incest is an absolute taboo. We do have an exceptionally good mother-son relationship; we are not backwards in expressing our affections; we do cuddle a lot, as we have done for eighteen years; and sometimes to outsiders it might look like there is more to it than maternal and filial love; but I can assure you that when Jake looks at me, it’s as his mother, and not in any lustful way, and for me, he is always my son and always will be. He might say complimentary things about my figure, and I might tell him or others how handsome he is, but in each case, it’s either a boy being proud of his mum, or a mother being proud of her son — never anything to do with lust.”
“I understand, and I’m really sorry if I offended, but as Jake said, I didn’t mean it that way. What I meant was that boys tend to go for girls who remind them of their mothers or sisters, and with a mother as gorgeous as you, I wondered why he seemed to get turned on by a girl like me — that’s all I meant… honest.”
Kate patted her hand and said, “It’s okay, Maddy, and thanks for all the compliments. I’m sorry if I came on a bit strong, but on the other hand it’s good to clear the air. Now you’re ‘family’ in a way, and will be around here much more often, it’s just as well to explain how Jake and I are in private, in case you do see things from time to time that might make you wonder.”
“Like what?” asked Madeleine.
“Oh, I don’t know… innocent things, but things a lot of mums and their grown up boys don’t do, like come into the bathroom to clean their teeth while the other one is under the shower.”
“We do that at home on the farm, so that’s no biggie,” said Madeleine.
“What about cuddling while watching TV?” asked Kate.
“I always did that when I was little, with both mum and dad, and even today, if there weren’t enough seats I’d feel comfortable lying with my head on dad’s shoulder and my feet on my brother’s lap.”
“Well, it seems we understand each other,” said Kate. “As I said earlier in the day, Jake and I have been together from when he was a baby until now, when he is a young man, and it seems we never had a good reason to change our habits along the way.”