#4
It was as though he had suddenly grown away from her to enter his own world, a world where he was less dependent on her.
That disturbed her! She found herself wishing he hadn't been wearing the towel around his hips so that she could have looked upon his manhood and make sure he was completely normal, but she blushed for having such a shameful thought and quickly put it out of her mind.
Tommy, of course, was very mature for his age. There were times he had succeeded in passing for twenty-one. His good looks had aided him in gaining experience beyond his years, but for his mother, he still feigned more innocence than he really possessed.
Sheila had food out of the refrigerator and ready to cook by the time Tommy joined her in the kitchen, and she was so engrossed in getting dinner ready that she had forgotten that he wanted to talk about something important. "How was school today, dear?" she asked.
"Fine..." he answered sitting down at the kitchen table, a serious look on his face.
"What I wanted to talk about... Well, with this three day weekend: it's a great chance for us to do something different...
" He stopped, realizing she was hardly listening as she arranged pots on the stove.
"Hi there, could you hold up a minute? This is important to me! "
She remembered and blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, dear. I'm so hungry, I was wrapped up in the food here." She pushed a pot off the burner, and then smiling at Tommy, sat down beside him at the table. "Now, what is it again?"
In his most serious voice, Tommy started again. "I was thinking, what with this three day weekend, that we should take the opportunity to get away..." He hesitated, "To a place like Big Sur..."
Then his words rushing out, "There's a camp where cabins are very reasonable this time of year, and the change of scenery would be nice for a change. It's really beautiful there you know, and the weather forecast says warm and sunny all weekend... It would be great, really great!"
There was more to it, Sheila knew, and she smiled her cutest smile.
"Change of scenery is nice once and a while, but the cost of staying two nights just for that...
Well, I don't know." She was teasing him, and enjoying it.
"Maybe if we had some friends there? We might find more things of interest... "
Tommy leaned forward, elbows on the table, and he grinned sheepishly at Sheila. "I got the idea this afternoon. When I was talking to Patty Miller. She and Mrs. Miller are going there tonight; and, well, I thought it would be fun if we went too..."
Sheila nodded, then stood up to begin fixing dinner again.
She had figured it was something like that, and she wasn't about to disappoint Tommy.
Patty was his girlfriend, though an innocent relationship as far as Sheila knew, and she, too, came from a one-parent home.
Sharon Miller, Patty's mother, was a divorcee, and Sheila had known her since Tommy first took her daughter to a school dance.
They had become friends because their children dated off and on, but got together only on occasions when they did things with Tommy and Patty. These occasions consisted mostly of Sunday afternoon picnics or weekend school events, and they got along well together, though they had little in common.
They were both about the same age and living without husbands, but that was where the similarities ended. Sharon Miller worked as a saleswoman in an exclusive dress shop, and she dated men often, going to places that Sheila had only seen from the outside.
Yet, if going to nightclubs and expensive restaurants involved dating men, Sheila was glad to do without it, while she held nothing against Patty for what she did.
For Sheila, the friendship was like being in on the social doings without actually having to participate in them, so going to Big Sur and meeting Patty there sounded like just another Sunday picnic slightly extended. It would be fun, and it was something she had to do for Tommy.
"Well? How 'bout it? Can we go now?" Tommy said anxiously, though he knew that she rarely refused his requests.
She turned away from the stove, still relishing the chance to tease Tommy.
"That sort of thing takes time to plan," she said, and she was prepared to continue her kidding until she saw the hurt expression on his face.
"I mean, we couldn't possibly leave tonight...
But, how about tomorrow?" And she was pleased by the warm glow of excitement that radiated across the kitchen.
"Oh, that's great! I mean, I meant tomorrow! Heck, that still gives us two nights there!" he said hurriedly, and he stood up from the table and hugged her for a moment.
Her heartbeat quickened as she felt Tommy's hard body against her, but she turned away immediately, looking in a pot as if the food might be burning.
"There's one thing you haven't considered, dear," she said in her most serious tone, but she waited to go on until Tommy had again sat down at the table.
"Since this is a three day weekend there is a strong possibility the camp will be full... We may not be able to get a cabin!"
"No problem," he said smiling, "Patty's going to have her family reserve us a cabin the moment they get there. I figured you'd say O.K." He laughed loudly to her.