Hunker down! This is a long chapter, and action-packed.

To bring you up to speed, David has just confessed his feelings with Jo. Now she gets to respond...

-

The stove timer was ringing. There must have been some reason for it, but at the moment I couldn't think what it was. I stared at David, on the other side of the kitchen, holding his head in his hands.

Oh my God! Oh my God! I thought. I can't believe he just said all that!

David looked up at me suddenly. "Jo…" he said, and it was funny that with only one utterance of my name, out of all the things he might have meant, I knew exactly what he was trying to tell me.

"Right," I said, and I turned around, shut off the stove and the timer, took the lasagna out of the oven. Then I pulled the oven mitts off my hands and I walked across the kitchen, where my sweet young man stood doubled up over the counter, holding his head, afraid to look at me.

Well, I had suspected something like this. It wasn't a total surprise. Of course I knew he had a little crush on me. That was part of what made it so much fun to be with him. He made me feel so good about myself, at a time when nobody else could. And I liked him so much, there was no doubt about that.

I put my hand on his back. "David…" I said gently.

I felt a giant, shaking sigh run through his body. "You know what," he said, miserably. "I think I should go…"

"Don't you dare!" I huffed. "You're always trying to run off when the situation gets too intense. Don't you dare run out on me at a time like this."

"Jo, I've said too much already. It's best if I go."

"You're not going anywhere, young man," I said, pulling him up off the counter. "We're going to deal with this. Right now. You're going to stand right there and look me in the eye."

He was upright now, leaning against the counter, and I was standing directly in front of him. But he refused to look at me. He was mortified. But he was so cute this way. I could barely keep myself from reaching out and starting something.

I didn't want to do that, though. I remembered his story about that girl who had taken advantage of him at the beach. I didn't want it to be like that. I wanted him to make the decision. But already I had decided that I did indeed want him to make that decision. I wanted something to happen. I know I shouldn't, but I did.

"David," I said gently. "I need you to look at me."

Finally he was able to bring his eyes to mine.

I smiled at him. "It's okay, " I said quietly, reassuringly. "It really is. It's okay."

He drew in a deep breath, and seemed a little encouraged, a little more comfortable, but I knew he was still going to need some help.

"I want you…" I began, and his eyes instantly went wide as I paused after these words. "I want you…to feel free…completely free to..."

I was in front of him, and I moved a little closer, pressing into him, my pretty little flowered skirt rubbing against his blue jeans, and I realized instantly that no matter what his mind might say about thinking it best he should go, his body was not in agreement.

I felt a shudder run through my own body as I pressed against him, and I wanted to get closer still, but once again I thought how I wanted him to make the decision. I didn't want to seduce him. I didn't want to be a Mrs. Robinson. I only wanted to let him know it was okay with me and let him take it from there. What an incredible amount of self restraint I exhibited as I waited for his shyness to catch up with the situation.

"David," I said finally, when he had not moved for some time. "It's okay if you want to touch them…"

There was no doubt who they were. They were between us, barely covered by my little yellow tank top. I noticed that, as always, David could not stop glancing at them. I knew that if I just had the patience to wait for him, we would both get everything we wanted.

And there it was. There he was, his hands coming up the sides of my body, traveling slowly, uncertainly, until at last they came to rest firmly on my breasts, fully cupping them with both hands.

I gasped. I have to admit I had imagined several times before how it might feel to have his hands all over me, but this was better than anything I had yet imagined.

"You can….squeeze them," I breathed. "You can play with them. It's okay, David. Please…please play with them…"

I was losing my resolve to wait for him. I couldn't wait for him. I wanted him. And as I began to feel his hands moving and squeezing, a shot of desire bolted through me and I moaned, no longer able to prevent myself from pressing harder into him, rubbing my belly against his crotch.

He moaned too, at last letting go of his shyness, his hesitation. And then at the same moment we were seeking each other's mouths with our own open mouths. Just before I closed my eyes, I saw him coming towards me and I knew this was going to be good.

He must have brushed his teeth before he came over, because he was all pepperminty inside, and it made me want to eat and suck his mouth all the more. I couldn't get enough of how sweet he was. My hands came up into his hair, holding him steady so I could get more and more of his kisses.

What we had shared the previous night, that wasn't a kiss. This was a kiss. This was a series of the most intense kisses that would not stop. And all the while he was still squeezing and caressing my breasts. I don't know which was making me more crazy, his mouth or his hands, but his combined efforts were pushing me beyond anything I'd felt in a long, long time.

And yet I needed more. I lifted his shirt a little and got my hands in against his skin, going up his bare back. He pulled away from my mouth a moment and rested his face against my neck, and I could hear him catching his breath as he began to kiss and lick my neck. Then his hands came off my breasts and grabbed the thin straps of my little yellow top, pulling them down off my shoulders.

His kisses moved to my shoulders and towards my upper chest, his mouth getting closer and closer to my breasts, and now I could hear myself breathing. But neither of us were talking at this point.

I couldn't wait for his mouth to get to my breasts, and yet there was something else I couldn't wait for either. My hands moved down his back and played along the waistband of his jeans. Slowly, gently, I slipped my fingertips inside, just my fingertips, running along the smooth skin of his belly. And then the fingers of both my hands met in the middle, working together to pull open the top button of his jeans.

He pulled back suddenly, exclaiming, "Jo! What are you doing?"

I had tossled his hair, I had rubbed his shoulders, I had even caressed his chest. But I had never touched him below the belt, and this new sensation seemed to startle him and he pulled away from me a little more.

I pulled him back with my fingers inside the top of his jeans. I reached up and kissed him fully on the mouth. "David, I want you," I said plainly.

Now he was shaking. I felt him trying to steady himself, and I knew exactly what he was thinking. This was it. This was the moment he'd been waiting for since his first wet dream. This was really going to happen. And he was fully ready for it.

Now he let me unzip him, but immediately his hands came down and grabbed mine. "Jo!" he gulped, "We can't do this here."

"You're right," I said, succumbing to the voice of reason, even though I did at that moment have a very clear image of the two of us naked on the kitchen floor. I pulled myself together and said, "But then…where? And how?"

Despite himself, I'm sure, his hands went back to the top of my shirt, pulling it down a little more.

"Could we…could we go to your room?" he asked expectantly as once again his mouth was drawn to breasts, which he was squeezing up and forward with his hands.

I pulled his face up to mine and kissed him again. I couldn't get enough of him. But when our tongues separated, I had to say, "No…no…I can't do that. Not in my room. You understand…"

I couldn't even think the word Sam at this point, but he was the reason why I could not take David to my bedroom, and I hoped he understood this on some level without me having to go into too much detail.

"Well then, we could…we could…go to my house….nobody's there," he suggested, planting tiny kisses all around my cleavage.

I shook. And I shook my head. "No…no…look at the time, David. It's getting late. Your parents will be back soon."

Oh my God, I felt like I was in high school again. Your parents will be back soon? Everything felt so unreal.

"We'll think of something…" he said absently, but at the moment neither of us was able to think about anything, because we were back at it again, kissing and touching each other uncontrollably.

This went on for several more minutes, I think, though I could have been wrong about the timeframe, because I had completely lost my ability to comprehend anything except what he was doing to my body.

"Jo," he said at last, still pulling down my shirt and handling my breasts at the same time, his mouth and his tongue getting dangerously close to my nipples. "We have to think of something…"

But again it was impossible to think. But this time it was because our thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of the front door opening.

Somebody was coming into the house!

I felt my world go into slow motion as I pushed myself away from David… turned around… pulled up the straps of my shirt… and somehow made the few steps across the kitchen to open the refrigerator door.

"Would you like a soda, David?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

I turned around, as if to look at David for an answer to my question, but most of all I wanted to know who it was that had just now come in. If it was Matt, he would run around gathering his things and be gone. But if it was Lizzie---

It was Lizzie. She was standing in the doorway, looking at both of us, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open. For a moment I thought she was going to make that huffing noise of exasperation she always used to make when she was in middle school. I hadn't heard it much lately, but this would have been a good time for it.

As I turned and looked at her, I said, "Oh hi, honey! Back so soon?"

She looked from me to David, from David to me. I looked at David and saw why she kept looking at him. He was leaning over the counter, so she could not see---as I could from this angle---the hard, obtrusive package in his unzippered, unbuttoned blue jeans----but with the look on his face, there was no need to see anything else. The boy could not hide his feelings. He was terrible at it. Look up the word "guilt" in the dictionary and there was a picture of David at this very moment.

Now Lizzie huffed. "What's going on here?" she demanded.

I was surprised at how composed I felt I was appearing, despite everything that had just happened. "David and I were just going to have a late night snack of the leftover lasagna," I explained airily. "Would you like some?"

"Mom! Cut it out!" Lizzie barked, and then I knew I had been deceiving myself about being so cool. "What the hell is going on here?"

Okay, screw the innocent routine. I put my hands on my hips and with my best "don't mess with mom" attitude shot back, "What the hell are you talking about, Lizzie?"

"I'm talking about you and Gordo, standing here in the kitchen, looking guilty as sin, both of you! Mom! You're all red. And Gordo----Gordo, stand up straight! Get off the counter and stand up straight."

"Lizzie, you've got some nerve!" I continued. "David, you don't have to do anything she tells you. She's not in charge around here, though sometimes she acts like she thinks she is."

"Don't try to turn this around, Mom. Don't try to make this about me. It's not about me. It's about you and Gordo behaving like---behaving like----like I don't know what but it's disgusting! Mom! It's disgusting! Gordo! Stand up straight!"

And he did. But thankfully, some time during her tirade he had been able to zip up his pants, though not button them. The bulge, though subsiding, was still quite noticeable.

"This is what I'm talking about!" Lizzie cried, pointing at poor David, who stood frozen to the spot. "This!" she cried again, clearly looking at his pants. "Why is this happening? Don't you two have any sense of what's right and wrong? Don't you have any shame? Mom, I can't believe I'm saying this to you. I'm so disappointed in you. I feel like the mother, and you're my teenage daughter who's been caught having sex with---"

"We are NOT having sex!" I screamed back at Lizzie. "You see a little bit, Lizzie, and you jump to conclusions. You've always done that. And it's always gotten you in trouble. And right now I think you'd better stop before you get yourself in any more trouble."

"I think I'd better go," David said quietly, beginning to slip out of the room.

"Oh, David!" I cried. "Oh no!"

"No, I have to go," he said, and before I could stop him, he was gone.

"Good!" Lizzie called after him. "And don't come back!"

We heard the front door closing as David no doubt was bolting down the street, trying to get as far away from Lizzie as possible. She was relentless, she was ruthless. He couldn't deal with her, and I certainly didn't want to either.

"Listen," I said calmly to my daughter. "You are not around here enough, Lizzie, to know anything about what's going on with me or David or your father. So I really think your best course of action right now would be to simply butt out. Do you understand what I'm saying to you , Lizzie? Butt out!"

I pushed past her, heading up the stairs, unwilling to continue this conversation any longer. Truth be told, Lizzie's no-nonsense evaluation of the situation had really stirred up a good deal of guilt within me. In the heat of the moment, I had not been able to see how ridiculous and how wrong it would have been to do anything sexual with David, but now I was starting to understand it. I went to my room and tried to cool off from the heat of that moment, whispering to myself, "Get a grip, Jo! Get a grip!"

I shouldn't have used that phrase though, because in only a moment it conjured up images of what I really wanted to grip, and I felt the guilt once again disappaiting under the rising influence of lust.

This was all Sam's fault! If he would take care of me like he was supposed to, I wouldn't be lusting after this sweet young man!

That's right. Blame it all on Sam.

And then I heard the phone ring. I flung myself across the bed towards the nightstand, wondering if it might be David, but before a complete ring could sound, it stopped. Wrong number? Change of plans?

A few moments later, the phone rang again. Once again, a half ring later it was silenced. What was going on?

When the phone rang for a third time, I knew I had to answer. By the time I picked up the receiver, I heard the loud slamming down of a receiver.

"Hello?" I said. "Who's there?"

"Jo!" I heard the relief in David's voice. "I keep calling and Lizzie keeps hanging up on me."

"Don't worry about her," I said. "Are you alright?"

"I am, now that I hear your voice. Jo, I've figured out what we can do. Can you get away? Can you come pick me up?"

"Mom!"

The voice was not downstairs or in the hallway, but on the phone. Lizzie had picked up the phone again and broken in on our conversation.

"Lizzie," I ventured, striving to keep myself under control. "I'm on the phone."

"Well, get off the phone, Mom! You don't need to be talking to him. He's a snake! He's a weasel! He's going to mess you up, then walk away."

"Lizzie, you are skating on thin ice here."

"Mom, I'm not going to let you do this to yourself!"

"Hang up, David," I said. "I'll call you back as soon as I can."

David obeyed, and I was now on the phone with Lizzie, saying "I thought I told you to butt out!"

"I can't, Mom! I won't!"

"Lizzie, this jealousy is very unattractive on you!"

"Jealousy?" she screamed, and then there was nothing more on the phone, but a moment later she was bursting through my bedroom door, saying, "Jealousy? Mom, you are so off!"

"Oh, am I?"

"I'm not jealous of Gordo! I'm through with Gordo. I have Josh now. I don't even think about Gordo anymore, except to think what a snake he is, coming after my mother."

"I think you're jealous," I repeated calmly. It was a low trick, but it took the focus off me for the moment.

Lizzie laughed contemptuously. "So wrong, Mom! You are so wrong. I don't know why you would even think something like that. You must not be paying attention. In fact, I know you're not paying attention. Because if you were paying attention to anything other than Gordo these days, you would realize how I feel about him. And it's not jealous. It's just plain disgusted. Gordo means nothing to me anymore. That part of my life is so over. You're living in the past if you think I have any feelings for Gordo.

"And you're also living in a fantasy world if you think there could ever be anything between you and him. Why are you doing this, Mom? Are you really willing to risk everything you have with Dad, just for a quickie with---of all people---Gordo!

"Dad may be a lot of things, he may be doing a lot of things wrong these days, but one thing I'm pretty sure of, he's not cheating on you. You've got to respect at least that much. Please, Mom, don't burn any bridges between you and Dad. I don't want you two to break up. I need you both. I need you together. Please…please think about what you're doing…"

Well, my plan had backfired. Somehow Lizzie had brought this fully around to me again, and in such a way that I had absolutely no reply to her words, because they made so much sense. But I was not going to admit that to her. I simply said, "You know what, Lizzie? It's practically midnight. I'm very tired. I think I'd like to go to bed now."

"We can talk about this more in the morning?" Lizzie said. "You promise me you won't do anything stupid tonight?"

"Tonight has pretty much been a total disaster, hasn't it?" I said. "I think I'd like to go to bed and make a fresh start in the morning."

"Okay," Lizzie agreed. "I'm so sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry for yelling and you and all. I never thought I'd be in this position…"

Lizzie looked like she was going to cry, so I got up off the bed and gave her a big hug. She hugged me back, and after a moment I thought I felt her body jerking with an attempt to hold back tears. Way to pour on the guilt! I couldn't take any more of this, so I pat her on the back and said, "It's okay, honey. Let's both get some sleep and I'm sure everything will look better in the morning."

She agreed, said good night and went to her room. I stood in my room and felt a jumbled mess of emotions.

On the one hand, I knew everything Lizzie was saying was true ----well, except the part about David being a snake. But I knew no good could come of there being anything between us. I mean, I'm sure it would be good, it would be an incredible experience I would remember for the rest of my life, but it wasn't really going to help either or us deal with the things that were bothering us. I would still have to deal with Sam, only now with the added guilt of having been unfaithful to him, and David would still have to go away to college, and it would be that much more difficult for him to make the break.

Yet, on the other hand, I still wanted him. All I had to do was remember how passionately he had kissed me, and the feel of his hands squeezing my breasts, and I could not deny how much I still wanted him. I didn't know what to do, so I stood there stupidly in the middle of my room for a few minutes, feeling so confused.

Then I knew there was one thing I had to do. I had to at least call him back. I couldn't leave him hanging like this, I had told him I would call him back. I wasn't sure what I would say, but I knew I had to make the call.

I looked at the phone. It was probably still off the hook, but if it wasn't, and I could reach David through this phone, I couldn't chance Lizzie breaking in on our conversation again. I had to get to my cell phone, which was in my purse downstairs. I needed an excuse to go downstairs, and then I remembered the lasagna, sitting on top of the stove. I hurried down the hall, silently, past Lizzie's closed bedroom door.

Once downstairs, I went immediately to my purse and pulled out my phone, stuffing it in my bra. One of the side benefits of having decent sized breasts, I had come to discover, was that it gave you an instantaneous storage place for stray items.

I hurried to cover the lasagna with foil, then put it in the fridge. I made it back up the stairs and into my room without Lizzie even knowing.

My heart was beating fast. I felt so sneaky, and so guilty as I pulled the phone out of my cleavage. I scrolled through the list until I saw "Roberta." For a moment it bothered me that the phone number of my potential lover appeared under his mother's name, but that was only for a moment.

What bothered me more, as I pressed the green key, was the possibility that Roberta herself might answer the phone. How would I explain that? My mind raced, and the best I could come up with was "Oh, I must have hit a wrong number!" But thankfully I did not need to say that, because after only half a ring, I heard David on the other end.

"Hello?"

"David?"

"Jo! Thank God! I was starting to think Lizzie had gotten to you."

I didn't want to admit to him how much Lizzie had "gotten to" me, and I still didn't know exactly what I was going to say, but merely hearing his voice made me all mushy inside, and I started to suspect how this conversation might go.

"Listen," David said. "I've figured out what we can do, only we need to act fast. Come out and pick me up. Now. We can go for a drive."

"A drive?" I said. "Where?"

"It doesn't matter," David said. "All that matters is that we can be together, and nobody getting in our way, not Lizzie, not my parents, nobody. Just you and me…"

I felt myself melting. I wanted him so much, but I had to say, "David, it's past midnight. Lizzie's watching me like a hawk. I can't get away."

"Jo…please…" he pleaded, and he sounded so desperate it was all I could do to keep myself from rushing right out and into his arms.

"But…but where would we go?" I asked again. "You don't mean…you aren't suggesting we go to a hotel?"

I'm sure he could tell from the tone of my voice that I was not on board with that idea. It was way too crass.

"No," he said. "Not if you don't want to. We don't need a hotel. We just need to find a quiet place, a private place off the road somewhere---"

"Are you suggesting we do it in the car?" I exclaimed. For some reason, though the idea of a hotel sounded crass to me, the idea of doing it in the car really turned me on.

"We could get into the back seat," David said. " I've already thought this out, Jo. There's plenty of room in the back seat. Think about it."

I was thinking about it. I could clearly imagine us sprawled out, completely naked, David leaning back against the seat while I sat on top of him, riding him, my hair falling forward against his bare chest as he kneaded my breasts with his beautiful hands…

"David…" I said, then I was not able to say any more.

"Jo…" he whispered. "Please…."

I was this close to saying yes, I was coming right over to get him. I just had to wait for my head to stop spinning before I could talk again.

And in that moment as I hesitated, I suddenly heard David whisper, "Oh crap! It's my parents! They're home, they're coming in the house. Come now, Jo! Come get me. I'll sneak out the back, I'll wait for you outside."

"David. David," I said, my head finally catching up to me. "I can't, sweetheart. I can't do this tonight."

"Jo!"

"I'm so sorry. I can't get away." I didn't want to tell him it was the mention of his parents that had brought me to my senses. I didn't want to tell him anything except, "Listen, baby. I don't think this is going to work out for us tonight. There are too many obstacles. But we still have tomorrow night. We're going out for dinner, we're taking your car. Afterwards we'll go for a drive. And then we can test it out and see how much room there is in your backseat."

"You promise?" he asked, sounding both extremely disappointed, and yet full of hope.

I heard his mother in the background calling "Davey, honey! Are you home?"

"Yes," I said quickly. "I promise, sweetie. I promise. You have to go now, baby. Hang up. I'll see you tomorrow. We still have tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," he said, and then he was gone.

I sat on the edge of my bed with my now lifeless cell phone in my hand, wondering if I had just made a promise that, no matter how much I wanted to, I was not going to be able to keep.