Eventually Ashley let go of her so I could get a chance to hug her and thank her, choosing to go to our room with Judy and do whatever it was the two of them did in there, and leaving me some space to talk with our mother.
Mother smiled at me. “Something on your mind, Nicky?” and I had to grin. I didn’t know where to start.
“Mum… I will do everything I can for Ashley, I wasn’t lying, or feeding you a line; she means the world to me, and I don’t know why, or how it happened so quickly, but it did, and I won’t let her go, not until she wants to go.”
Mother looked at me, and leaned over and kissed me lightly on the cheek.
“I believe you Nicky, and I trust you to do the right thing by her, always. She’s not just your girl, she’s also your little sister, and you have to remember that when you deal with her; there are going to be ‘my girlfriend’ times, and there are going to be ‘my kid sister’ times, you have to keep them separate and deal with them like that. I don’t think it will be too difficult; Ashley’s made up her mind about you, and when she makes up her mind, she tends to be the immovable object, so take fair warning; don’t try and butt heads with her unless you want to lose like a girl!”
I smiled; I’d sort of come to the same conclusion, but I also had some other questions for her.
“If Ashley and I decide to have children, and I don’t think it’s a very big ‘if’, how are you going to be with that?”
Mother leaned back and smiled to herself. “Nicky, I often wondered during the last two years if I ever would have grandchildren; I didn’t think I would, to be honest, I thought Ashley was never going to be whole again, she never dated, she never went out unless she had Judy with her, she always got back before dark, and she made no plans to go to college or do anything. Then you came along, and it’s like a light went on inside her, and now she’s making plans, she’s becoming outgoing and more like herself again, and she’s planning her future. That’s because of you, Nicky, and if the two of you have children, it’ll be because you wanted them, and I’ll love them as much as I love my daughter and my long-lost son. Does that answer your question, Nick?”
I had to grin. “Yes it does, mum, and thank you. I’ll always try and be worthy of her, she’s a fabulous girl, and I still can’t believe she loves me as much as I love her, and I promise you, she’ll always come first with me, in everything. Tell me one last thing, mum, when you came back this morning, was it because you were hoping to catch us in… er, ‘flagrante’, or why did you come back so soon?”
Her eyes opened wide, and she grinned.
“I completely forgot, I came back so quickly because I brought something for Ashley and with everything last night I clean forgot to give it to her, it’s in the car, and in the middle of all this, I forgot why I came back! Wait here, I’ll just get it from the car. Ashley!”
Ashley and Judy came out of her room as mum came back in with a case and handed it to her.
“What is it, mom?” grinned Ashley.
“Open it, it’s for you!” smiled mother.
Ashley opened it and squealed; inside was a new Dell laptop.
“It’s got a webcam built-in apparently, and I know we don’t have Wi-Fi, but we soon will; the company’s paying for a fast broadband link for me so I can work at home, so they’re installing a… a hub, I think he called it, so you’ll be able to do whatever it is you need a laptop for! Later, you’ll have to go downtown with Nicky and buy a printer, I’m sure he knows what to look for.”
Ashley was ecstatic, gabbling her thanks to mother, but she waved it off. “Thank Nicky, honey, he gave me the money, and we promised you a laptop, so there it is!”
Ashley kissed me on the cheek, and whispered “I’ll thank you properly tonight, baby!” Of course I blushed, mother was standing two feet away!
Ashley and Judy disappeared back into her room to try out her new toy, leaving mother and I sitting together on the couch.
I finally asked the question I’d wanted to ask since mother had told me about her husband.
“Mum,” I asked softly, “how did Ashley’s father die?”
She looked at me levelly.
“James died of advanced Stage Four Pharyngeal cancer; when the doctors finally realised what they were dealing with, it had progressed beyond the scope of available treatment; all they could give was palliative care. Poor James, his tongue and throat were worst affected, he developed secondary cancers in his mouth, at the base of his tongue, and in his oesophagus; at the end he couldn’t talk or swallow, or even whisper properly.”
“Ashley saw all this happen, how he deteriorated almost daily, how all our money went on care and pain meds, she was only twelve years old when he was diagnosed, and she watched as he deteriorated a little more every day. He died two years later. That’s why I’m so concerned for her; nothing has gone right for her for so long, I really can’t bear to see her lose and get hurt again. You promised me you’d always take care of her, please, just make sure you do!”
I held her hands, seeing the plea in her eyes.
“I promised you, and I was telling the truth; Ashley will never have anything from me except the best I can give her, always!”
Mother seemed satisfied with that, and patted my knee. “OK, now that’s sorted, let’s go and set up that bedroom for you and Ashley, and I can’t believe I just said that!” she grinned.
I went and collared Ashley, and press-ganged Judy into helping us clear the room I was staying in and moving Ashley’s stuff in there. Her current room was right next to mother’s room, to be as close to her as possible at night, and my room was at the other end of the house. I knew why mother wanted us in there, and it did give me a pang for a moment, but Ashley also twigged why mother was moving us as far away from her as possible; sound carries well, at night…
We laboured for a couple of hours, getting the room just so, according to some complex organisational vision she had, and Judy and I just followed orders; well, I did; after a while, Judy decided to not assist any further and just climbed on the bed and lay back to watch. Her reasoning was disarmingly simple; it was our den of iniquity, not hers, so she didn’t see why we couldn’t set it up ourselves. As a bonus, the room was larger than Ashley’s old room, so she had more room to spread out in. As mentioned earlier, I only had a holdall and a few new shirts, so I wasn’t overburdened with a need for closet space just yet. While we, correction, I laboured, mother began putting dinner together.
Once I’d finished, I wandered in and started giving mother a hand with dinner; (and before you think it, I’m not some kind of goody-goody or brown-noser; the fact was, with no job, and Ashley and Judy closeted with their heads together, I’d run out of things to do and people to talk to, I was at a complete loose end, and I don’t do sitting around idly well, so I thought I’d make myself useful for a while).
Mother had me peeling potatoes and chopping carrots while she chatted about her job, about her husband, about Ashley when she was small, filling me in on my sister’s life a little, giving me a better picture of the girl I loved. From mother’s description of how it used to be, they’d had a pretty good life; James had been a contractor, making a very healthy living out of urban renewal projects, and building several housing developments.
They used to live elsewhere in Albany, a place called Crestwood, and they’d bought this house a a development project to renovate and remodel in line with the surrounding dwellings, and then James had become sick, and had to stop working, and the money ran out very quickly. The house in Crestwood was foreclosed, and this dilapidated house became the family home. Ashley had been most affected; she’d lived in a large house with a pool and a summerhouse, with her own playroom, everything she’d wanted or needed, vacations at Cape Cod and Nantucket Island, and then it was all gone.
I pondered all this while we were getting everything ready, and I also reminded mother that Dr. Nixon was coming over later, so perhaps he’d appreciate being invited to join us for dinner…?
Mother readily agreed, flushing slightly. Oho, I thought, Judy was right, there’s definitely something there, well, well, well!
I asked her if she needed anything else done, and she smiled and said she was fine, I’d done enough for now, so I went off in search of Ashley. I found her still in my (our!) room. She’d gotten dressed now, out of her baggy T-shirt and into a summer top with spaghetti straps and a pair of unfeasibly tight jeans; they looked sprayed on! They showed every curve and line of her long, elegant legs, and her smooth, rounded, delectable bum, and I have no problem admitting they made my mouth water! Ashley saw me looking and stretched out like a photo-shoot model.
“You like, young Sir?” she asked coquettishly, and I nodded, still busy ogling her, because she was definitely worth every second of ogle I could squeeze out of the moment!
Judy grinned at us.
“Why don’t you two get a room? Oh yes, you have! Do you want me to leave?”
Ashley grinned even wider.
“Shush, Judy, my boy wants to ogle me, I quite like being an object of ogle!”
“You said you wanted some jeans tight enough to give mum a stroke, I’m going out on a limb here and supposing these are one and the same?” I asked, and she smiled back.
“Yup, but they’re not really jeans, they’re Jeggings, leggings made to look like jeans, feel them, they’re made of spandex or something, not denim. Very big in England right now, I hear, so you should feel right at home!”
She undulated to illustrate just how figure hugging they were, her lovely behind and flanks rippling and quivering fetchingly, making me feel weak and horny and completely fetched! I also failed to see any VPL, no matter how closely I looked. Ashley grinned happily at me.
“I’m not wearing any, not with these, well, you just can’t…!”
That was it. My PHL (Personal Horniness Level) shot up from tick-over to full throttle right away, as Ashley and Judy just grinned at me, knowing full well what was going through my mind. I was fighting to keep my little friend (well, perhaps not so little…) under wraps and under control, and I just knew that they knew what a struggle I was having; something was going to blow soon
Judy leaned over to pat me on the knee.