Bobby sat up and tried to bluster. “You aren’t showing me much respect, soldier.”

“I was a Marine, old man. Answer the question.” Bo had never appeared more commanding and in control, but his hand bit into my shoulder hard, so hard it kind of hurt, but I would never, ever let on. At the direct command, Bobby deflated like a popped balloon.

“Maybe we can talk alone, man-to-man, for a minute.” Bobby looked at me expectantly, hoping, I guess, that I’d take the hint and leave, but I wasn’t going anywhere unless Bo wanted me to and his firm clasp told me I was staying.

“We don’t have private business ever. Where’s Mom?”

Bobby shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I’ve been wondering what you’re doing with your trust.”

“You need to borrow some money?”

Shooting me another uneasy glance, Bobby said slowly, “Just maybe a little bit, to fix up the house.” He waved his arm around the room.

“Where’s Mom?” Bo leaned over farther, looming over both of us. Even I felt intimidated.

“Your old lady moved out years ago,” Bobby sneered.

Bo released my shoulder and pulled my chair back, away from Bobby. For a moment I wondered if Bo would hit his father. Instead, Bo tugged me to my feet and started toward the entrance. I heard Bobby’s chair scrape backward and winced at the thought of the scratches the chair was making on the once-beautiful hardwood floors. Bo picked up the pace and we walked faster, as fast as we could without appearing like we were running.

“Now wait a minute there, son,” Bobby called out. Bo whirled around.

“I’m not your ‘son’ and haven’t been since I discovered you’re a lowlife piece of shit that gets off on beating a woman half his size while jerking off to fantasies of his kid’s conquests. I don’t claim you, old man.” Bo spat at the floor. “I only came back here to see Mom, and since she isn’t here, I’m gone. Don’t speak of me. Don’t even think of me. You can rot here with the spoiled food and the spilled beer.”

I squeezed his hand hard, trying to convey every ounce of nonverbal support possible. He squeezed back, and we turned and walked through the door. Bobby was calling something out behind us, but we both ignored him.

The sun was setting, turning the horizon on fire. I heard Bo take a deep cleansing breath, and I did the same.

BO

RELIEF. I’D FACED DOWN MY old man. I didn’t know if AM understood how fucking scared I had been of this moment. She got me, so it was likely she knew without me verbalizing it. I hated appearing weak in front of her. The old man wouldn’t approve, but I was determined to stop measuring myself by those standards, the ones that he had defined. I didn’t even realize I had been until I stood in the house, remembering all the directives about what a real man did or did not do. A real man got a lot of pussy. A real man didn’t pick up after himself. A real man showed a woman her place.

A real man? Bobby looked like a broken-down and abandoned car. Unwanted. Ugly, inside and out. I looked down at the top of AM’s dark brown hair, the setting sun making it look blue in some areas, more mysterious. I loved pulling my fingers through her long hair, wrapping the strands around my fingers like I could tie her to me with some spell. If there was a higher entity out there, I had to thank him or her for AM. I’d be lost without her.

I wanted to pull her into my arms and show her exactly how much she meant to me. I could express myself so much better when we were alone, in bed, and naked. But I also didn’t want to expose her to the unsavory lusts of my father, so I hustled her into the car.

“See how fucked-up my past is? Still want to be with me?” I asked, trying to joke about it but failing.

“Yes, Bo. As long as you don’t try to keep pushing me away.”

“I’m trying hard to hold on to you.”

“Don’t doubt it,” she answered with no hesitation. “Where to now?”

“I need to find out where my mom is. How about I drop you off at the motel, and you can get us a room while I go and ask a few questions,” I suggested. I suppose I could have asked my father, but I didn’t want to spend another second with him. In a town as small as Little Oak, even Ricky Cartwright at the gas station would know.

I KNOCKED ON ROOM 214, and AM let me in. I noticed the two double beds and scowled. “Why two beds?”

AM shrugged and closed the door. “The clerk kind of weirded me out. Asked me a bunch of questions, so I figured two beds gives you plausible deniability.”

“Christ, AM, I’m not embarrassed to be sleeping with you.” I threw our bags onto one bed. “I’m damn proud of it. Plus, everyone’s going to hear you scream with pleasure tonight anyway.” I picked her up and threw her onto the empty bed, joining her there immediately. She wiggled underneath me until my head was resting between her breasts.

“You find your mother?”

I didn’t answer right away, enjoying her fingers running through my hair, lightly scratching my scalp. It was both relaxing and arousing. “Yeah. She’s living in a house over on Betsy Ross Road.”

“Betsy Ross Road?” AM said, and I could feel the gurgle of laughter in her chest and belly. I smoothed my hand over the belly, enjoying the feel of her amusement.

“We’re real patriotic down here. I went to Daniel Boone Middle School and Liberty High School.” I traced her belly button and followed the line straight down to the top of her jeans. Pulling on the button, I popped it open. AM’s laughter had died out, and now I could feel her increasingly shallow breaths.

“Do you want to have dinner with her?”

“No, Sunshine, I don’t. Not right now.” I pulled down the zipper and ran my finger under the white lace of her polka-dotted panties. “Are these the ones with the elastic that runs down the crack of your ass? I love these panties. They frame your ass perfectly.”

AM smiled. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it. “Why don’t you find out?”

I turned her over and pulled off her jeans, her hips rising to help me. I sat back on my haunches, smoothing my hand across her ass, making the fabric even tighter, I admired the way the dark blue cotton hugged her cheeks. She wiggled slightly, either in invitation or anticipation.

I bent down and kissed the inside of her right knee and then her left. I licked and kissed my way up to her sensitive inside thighs. She tried to close her legs, but my body was too solid to be moved. I had her right where I wanted her.

“I’ve never seen anything so delicious,” I told her, pulling aside the panties and exposing her deep pink pussy. I rubbed two fingers up and down either side and then pressed my thumb against her little button. Her cry of pleasure only made me smile wider. I needed this release right now. I needed to show AM how much I treasured and loved her. I bent over her then, lifting her hips into the air as I dragged her panties down. She moaned when I began tonguing her, pressing the broad flat of my tongue against her clit and then licking her in long strokes. “You taste so good,” I murmured against her skin. “And you’re so wet.

“Press your elbows against the bed,” I instructed. When she did, her ass came up even higher. I pushed her legs farther apart with my shoulders, exposing more of her to my gaze and my tongue. As I worked her, I held her steady against my mouth, refusing to let her go. I drank her down like she was the sweetest liquid I’d ever had the pleasure of tasting. I feasted, and my tongue and lips left no space unexplored or unloved. I could feel her legs tightening against me, her pelvis contracting and then she began moaning and shuddering in my arms. I felt like the god she sometimes teased me about being.

“You okay?” I asked her when her quakes were dying down. I rolled her over and her eyes were big and luminous. Her arms reached up around my neck and pulled me down, kissing me hard. Eating me up with the same delight I’d exhibited feasting on her. I felt her hands grabbing at my shirt, so I sat back and pulled the t-shirt off my head with one hand and quickly shucked my jeans. Pulling the condom out a pocket, I wiggled it at her. She nodded.

And then I was pushing inside her, her come lubricating my entrance. “You feel so big,” she moaned.

I laughed, my voice rough. “Talk like that and it’ll get even bigger.”

I looked down to where we were joined, my cock pumping in and out of her gorgeous pussy. I groaned. “God, you look amazing. So hot.” And then there were no more words, only the sounds of our bodies moving against each other until I could no longer see or hear. Pleasure blurred my vision and blocked out every sound but the rush of blood in my ears. My whole body shook until I became undone.

In the aftermath, we lay naked on the covers with the ceiling fan lazily circling above us. AM’s head was resting on my chest, her finger tracing patterns on my skin.

“What happened with your mom?”

“I hate telling you these things, AM. I keep thinking that one more sad tale about me and you’ll figure you’ve had enough of my bullshit.”

She tugged on my chest hair. “Don’t make me hurt you, Bo.”

“Okay, okay.” I hugged her, appreciating her fierceness. “Mom apparently moved out a couple of years ago, about the time that I separated from the Marines.”

“Why didn’t she call you or connect with you?”

“She did at first, but then when I didn’t respond, she said she was…”.” I paused.

“Ashamed?” AM filled in.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Well, I mean, I never suffered what she did, but I can kind of understand how you feel like you’re at fault for the bad things that happen to you. You feel dirty and guilty. It’s sometimes easier to accept the abuse.”

I tipped my head back and breathed heavily through my nose. “And I’m such an asshole.”

“No, you’re not,” she chided gently. “You’re as much a victim as your mother. Don’t let this poison what you could build with her now.”

I didn’t want to think of all the times I’d thought my mother weak. What did I know, after all? I stuck my nose into the crook of AM’s neck and burrowed deep, taking comfort in her body and her scent, which was becoming so familiar and dear. “If you’re still worried about your mother, maybe you’d let me take care of her. I could take care of both our moms. We could move my mom to live next to your mom or vice versa.”

“Maybe they could both live in Chicago by Lake Michigan,” she added excitedly. “Wait, you have enough money for that?”

We’d never talked about the extent of my trust. I’d only told her that I wasn’t too concerned about what I was going to do after graduation, that maybe I’d work in the mailroom of the insurance empire she planned to build.

“Yeah. Why do you think it’s taken Bobby a lifetime to spend his money?” I chuffed. “It’s in a trust, too, so he wasn’t able to waste it all at once.”

“What do you think he spent it on?”

“Hookers and blow.”

She punched me lightly. “No really.”

“Really. At least the hooker part. Maybe alcohol instead of cocaine.”

“I don’t want you to waste your money.”

“It wouldn’t be a waste to take care of the moms.” I licked her neck to taste her sweetness. “Besides, you can take care of the money for us, right?” I stared up at her with my best puppy dog eyes but held my breath. I was a tiny bit scared that AM would tell me hell no, she wasn’t making plans for the future with me. But her next response was immediate, as if it was a foregone conclusion that we’d be living together, wherever we might be.

“If you want me to,” she said coyly, but I could tell by the excitement in her voice that she was thrilled I’d trust her with something like this. I’d have to take her over to the bank and introduce her before we left.

“Oh I do,” I said. “I want you to take care of all of me.” I pushed my hips against her slightly so she knew exactly what I was talking about.

“So your dad needs a loan from you? Is that why he was asking you about the trust?”

“Exactly. And he’ll get that over my dead body.”

“What if he sells the house or some of the land?” AM’s voice sounded drowsy, as if sex and the emotional roller coaster of the day had done her in.

“I guess I don’t care. It’s not like I’ve got good memories there. AM,” I said before she fell asleep. “I need to leave. I can’t hang around here for another minute. I know I still need to work things out with my mom, but I’m too raw right now. Will you come to San Diego with me, and we can hang out with some of my enlisted buddies until we have to get back to class?”

“You bet, Bo.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

AM