He had given her the eye too, taken in that she also wore a dangly necklaces that hung down over a black crew-necked blouse, the sleeves pulled up over her tanned forearms with their beaded bracelets, her denim slacks shaping strong thighs, and a taut butt. She’d bothered to pay some attention to her hair, had blow-dried it to give it a flouncy look, lessened the severity of her face with some makeup and pink lip gloss. There was no hiding the fact that she worked outdoors, did hard graft compared to her softer friend.
“Well, just think about it and let me know…” Elena smiled. She pushed on the arms of the chair. “I’ll go check on our supper…”
“And I’ll show Oscar the gear, shall I?” Niall ventured.
“Yes darlin’, do that…but don’t be long. I don’t want to go yelling at you to be here with me and Gabi…” The women watched the boys saunter away, Oscar’s arm draped around his pal’s shoulders. “You’re sure glad to have him home with you…”
“More than I can say…” Gabi sniffed before the boys were lost to their sight, the wide door to the store building closing behind them. “He won’t let you down…”
♥
Oscar said nothing, allowed his pal to explain the equipment Verdant used in tending to their customer’s needs and wishes for their gardens, the shrubs and trees that marked out the boundaries of many lots in the town. Both he and his mother, Elena as he often called her, set no boundaries and took the work wherever it could be found.
“Your mom sure looks happy to have you at home..” he ventured, finally, when he noticed Oscar’s attention drift to pictures of him and Elena at work. “Yeah, she looks good in that one…even I’ll admit that.”
“She always wears them dungarees and a T-shirt…her arms must get scratched…it’s why she’s wearing that black top today…”
Niall felt uncomfortable on hearing his buddy’s overt admiration for her.
“You still into her…the idea of that? I reckoned you’d be over such feelings by now…”
Oscar smiled and gave his friend a knowing look. “The past few months have been kind of empty, if you follow me. So, there’s no harm in looking…”
“As long as that’s as far as it goes..” Niall stowed away the items of equipment he had been demonstrating. “We’d better get back…”
“To the women in our lives…I heard you’re not into anyone at the moment…”
Niall put a restraining hand to his pal’s arm, stopped in locking up the equipment store. “Who told you that?”
“Gabi did. They still talk like a river…never stop…so she tells me…did so again earlier when we were getting ready to come over to you. I wouldn’t mind you being there…at our place when I’ve gone back. The yard’s gotten into a mess and I may not have time to deal with it…and I’m sure she’d be glad to have a guy around the place…just as I know Elena must feel good knowing you’re close to her…”
“That’s all changed for me…” Niall set a brisk pace as he saw his mother wave. “She does look good dressed up…just as your mom does…”
“Takes you back to other times, then, doesn’t it?” Oscar gave his buddy’s shoulders a hug once more. “So, some things or feelings don’t always change…or get to be different, got me?”
“Sure, I get you…”
Niall took to wondering how he could keep from gazing at the two women as they stood by the table, set out on the deck that served as a shaded verandah. Had his buddy, of so many years, really gone and slipped his mom a length, good-looking as she was and bringing so much to the eye, to any guy’s touch, but surely not her own son’s? Oscar had too much going for him to have gotten into those ways of it, and Gabi never gave any real sign of such a hankering for him.
But he had caught her looking at him sometimes, even over the past weeks when Oscar had been away and it had set his mind racing, took him back to when he’d seen her in a leotard doing her yoga exercises, the fabric like a second skin and shaping everything so well.
“Your mom sure looks hot, today, nothing’s hidden” he’d blurted out to Oscar when they were alone.
“Except one, pal…now come on, we’ve got my bike’s engine to tune up then we’ll hit town…work the meat with the usual ones. It’ll take your mind off her…”
As far as Niall was concerned some things remained out of bounds. Talk was one thing, action quite another.
4
Gabi woke with a start, felt his warm touch to her cheek. Oscar smelt of tangy shower soap and some deodorant.
“What time is it?” she asked drowsily and looked at the bedside table and the glow of the radio-alarm. She groaned. “Come back to bed…”
“Sorry, I can’t…I have work to do…got to get over to Elena’s place. I brought you some breakfast…might help you wake up, slowly…”
“I sure need that…” She saw that he was already dressed. “How long you been awake…I never knew you’d gone…” Gabi sat up, hugged her knees and looked at him as Oscar sat on the edge of the bed, out of reach. “You’ve been working out, I suppose…gone for a run…worked some weights?”
“Yeah, can’t miss a beat even when I’m here…” He gripped the hand that she held out to him, saw the tumble of her breasts that he’d feasted on, had heard again her softer voice as if she remained confused by what had happened again. His bed, in his old room, had not been slept in.
“It sure explains how you are with me…we’ll have to talk about it won’t we? We’re not comfortable with what’s happening…and I got to wonderin’ what Elena and Niall saw when you and I were together at supper. You sure were on a high…”
“It’s how you made me feel…did that again last night.” He kissed her bare shoulder as Gabi reached for the mug of fruit tea, the flavour a favourite. She was touched that he remembered. “I have to scoot…”
“Take care…I know you’re trained on lots of things, but I’ll still worry. I can’t leave work until mid-afternoon…but at least you’re goin’ to be busy…shame about Niall being away.” She chattered on, touched his bare arm, saw how his T-shirt fitted his bulky frame so snugly, his strong legs exposed by the cargo shorts he’d chosen, woolen socks on his feet. “You wearing your biker boots?”
“Yes…enough, already, mom!” he laughed, bending to kiss her upturned face. “You smell so warm…”
“Go…go!” she gasped as his lips pressed against the tumble of her breasts, then pressed against her parted lips. “What we’re doin’ is wrong…”
“But we can’t stop….” He answered certainly and moved away.
“Call me…let me know how you are!”
His reply echoed in the hallway. “I’ve never let you down on that!”
♥
Gabi lay back on the pillows. Her mind was filled with images and thoughts of them, how they had been last night, talking and sitting close on the sofa and watching some TV film that didn’t really engage them. They’d shucked of their clothes after a while. He had slipped into some lounge pants that she had washed and carefully ironed months ago and when he had left her. Her dressing gown had covered her, and she was no longer ashamed to have him see her naked body in such circumstances.
He had become her lover, uncontrollably passionate and attentive at the same time. He’d wrecked her restraint; she’d loved every moment, shuddered on remembering them all. She’d read up on the incestuous ways young siblings could fall into, curiosity leading them on; how some father’s took advantage of their daughters and got jailed for it; how such relationships wrecked the normal order of life in families. With no husband, or partner, she had grown to look on Oscar as ‘my everything’. She had taken to wondering after their first time, before he’d left for boot camp, just how she could explain what was happening, she meeting a raging need and Oscar making real what had been, from all she saw of him and Niall together, a fantasy of bedding an older woman, their pal’s mother…not thinking of going so far as she and Oscar had done.