Chapter 13
"Goddamn, Sandy," Paul panted when they had finished making love for the first time in their hotel room, "that was fan-fucking-tastic!"
"You think?" Sandy asked with a sexy stare as she slid off of Paul's body and sat beside him on the bed. "I guess being widowed for six years hadn't affected me much, huh?"
"And here I thought you were the conservative type."
"Only at work, at home, and in public," Sandy replied, winking.
"I bet your husband had a great time with you in bed," Paul said.
"Who do you think taught me all those tricks?"
"Are you serious?" he asked, amazed.
"Well, I got pregnant with Tyler somehow. And as I said before, I never really dated till I met Mike. The rest is history."
"And apparently, you never forgot what he taught you," he laughed.
"So what would you like for lunch?" Sandy asked.
"I don't know, baby; I think we covered all the bases for the past hour and a half."
"No, seriously, I am starved. I have some time until Tyler gets home, we have this room, so we might as well order something."
"Come to think of it, that might not be a bad idea, especially after that horizontal workout you just gave me."
"You weren't complaining almost ten minutes ago," she grinned, putting on a robe. "What should we order?"
"Surprise me again," Paul replied. "You've been good at that so far."
Sandy shook her head and smiled again, placing the room service order before heading to the shower.
"Well, aren't you going to join me?" she purred at him. "You know what they say, 'save water, shower together.' "
"Now there is an idea I can't pass up," Paul laughed as he chased Sandy into the bathroom.
------------------------
Tyler arrived home at three o'clock, picking up the mail and heading upstairs to the apartment and spying Winona on the way.
"Hey, Miz Evans," he greeted her cheerfully.
"Well, hi, Tyler. You're in a mood. Something good happen at school?"
"Yeah, me and Adam got an A on our science project. The only A in the whole class. I can't wait to tell Mom about it."
"That would be nice, but I don't think your mom's home yet."
"Yeah, she usually gets in about an hour after I do. I usually like to start dinner for her."
"Oh my, you're a pretty good man of the house, aren't you?"
"I work at it," he grinned.
"Janice tells me your mom was down Paul's last night," Winona said.
"Yup. They were watching movies or something."
"They're getting awful close, aren't they?"
"Seems that way," Tyler nodded, smiling.
"He's certainly sweet on your mom. I don't think I've seen him so giddy since you two moved here. Granted I think he has a few screws loose sometimes, but recently? Wow."
"That and he's getting some well-deserved rest," Tyler added.
"Good point. But I think your mom's been good for him too," Winona said with a wink. "He couldn't have a better person looking in on him."
"Yeah, and Mom's been in a good mood lately too. Anyway, I got to get moving if I am going to have stuff together by the time she gets home."
Tyler then went inside, putting the mail on the desk for Sandy. He then saw the phone blinking, the indicator that there was voice mail.
Getting some paper and a pen, he checked the messages that were left; his Granny Lacroix calling from Philly, a couple of hang-up calls, and then the hospital for his mother.
"Hi, Sandy, this is Mary Ellen. Sorry to hear about the emergency that you had to leave early to take care of and hope everything comes out all right. If you can't come to work tomorrow, let me know; I can get a fill in for you."
Tyler was bemused. Emergency? Mom leaving work early? She seemed okay when he left for school this morning. More than okay; she was in a very good mood.
And if she left work early, why wasn't she home yet? Surely she'd taken care of whatever it was and been back by now.
He went into the kitchen to pull some lasagna from the freezer, putting it in the oven just as Sandy came in the door, still in the same giddy mood as she had been that morning.
"Hi, baby!" she said, kissing his cheek. "I see you found the lasagna. Good going."
Weird! Tyler thought, not knowing what to think.
"Mail's on the desk, as always," he finally said. "And Granny called."
"I can get back to her after dinner," Sandy said, shuffling through the mail.
"Mom?"
"Yeah, baby?"
"Is everything okay?"
"Sure, why do you ask?"
"Your job called too. Something about you leaving early for some emergency and to call if you can't come back in tomorrow. I was just curious."
"Oh that," Sandy said. "It was a personal matter I took care of, Tyler. It will be business as usual tomorrow. So how was school?"
His mood changed. "Check it out; me and Adam got the only A in science class for our project."
"That's great!" Sandy exclaimed. "You boys were fretting over that thing for weeks."
"I know. It shocked the heck out of me when we got our grade."
The phone rang, interrupting them.
"I can get that," Sandy told him. "It could be your grandmother or work again."
She picked up the receiver, finding Paul on the other end.
"Just seeing if you got home all right, baby," he said.
"I got here fine, as you can tell. I was just talking to Tyler about school."
"Well, maybe it's a good thing you got home when you did, huh?"
Sandy lowered her voice so Tyler couldn't hear her in the kitchen. "Perhaps, but work called and left a message. I had to explain to him that I had a personal matter to attend to."
"Oh you had a personal matter all right, baby," he laughed. "And I must say it was one sweet ass afternoon."
"Glad you're happy," she replied.
"So what are you doing Friday night?"
"Nothing that I know of. Tyler's staying over Jesse's that night."
"Hmmmm, overnight huh? Maybe we can go out and then come back to your place."
"You're making it hard to say no," she chuckled.
"So say yes," Paul replied. "You know, just a nice, calm yes, not the way you were screaming it over and over this afternoon."
"Very funny, you. All right, I think a night out will do me good."
"Okay. Let's work out the gory details later then."
"I'll be waiting," Sandy said. "Right now, I have a hungry and curious son to get back to."