“That is correct. Go to the head of the class.”
“Kewl.”
They stood together by the window, looking at it.
“So obviously it got pretty damned cold last night,” Neal said. “Hope you remembered to check your antifreeze.”
“Oh yeah — no prob.”
Neal nodded. Silly question, really. His son so worshipped that Charger, he would keep the engine warm with his naked ass if he had to.
A minute later, while Josh stood munching his Lucky Charms, Nessa came down. She was grinning from ear to ear, and raining happy told-you-so’s all over him. She was also wearing (he could not help but notice) only an oversized Donald Duck T shirt and some pale blue panties. When she hugged him there beside the window he tried hard not to notice the delicious warmth of her body against him, or the way her tits bounced around beneath her shirt.
One very strange moment came when Nessa was walking into the kitchen; Neal’s eyes were following the twitch-twitch of her blue-pantied cheeks when they met Josh’s. The boy’s eyebrows were raised in a familiar, “between men” signal. Nice, huh? they seemed to say.
Ten minutes later, sipping coffee with her, he was trying seriously to convince himself that he wasn’t lusting after his daughter, that he was only hard up for Melanie, that he wasn’t becoming a genuine pervert, when Sherry finally came down. Of course, she would find something negative to say.
“Oh crap.”
“What?”
“Well, I’ve got stuff to do today, stuff to buy, stuff to cook.” She had immediately moved to the sink for some water, and was now taking a pill which, Neal noted, looked like a Valium. “And how am I gonna do it, I don’t want to drive in this!”
“I’ll take you, Ma,” Josh offered.
“Oh . . . no, sweetie. You don’t need to do that.”
“No, it’s okay. Really.”
“I think she means that you don’t drive safe even on warm days,” said Nessa, sniggering.
“Oh hell.”
“Sherry,” Neal interrupted, his voice sounding more annoyed than he had intended, “I’ll take you, it’s no big thing.”
She shot him a wry smile.
“Oh, will you? Well, aren’t I lucky — my hero.”
“Okay, then I won’t.”
“If you want anything to eat tomorrow, you will –”
“You know what? I would gladly eat . . . turtle shit if it would stop your crappy attitude.”
The kids laughed. She didn’t.
“Come on, I said I’d take you. It’s not far, we’ll be okay.”
“Yeah,” Nessa added, giggling, “you guys go. I don’t wanna eat turtle shit for Christmas.”
Neal busted out laughing too, ignoring Sherry’s petulant expression. He realized, of course, that it wasn’t just her unceasing negativity that had annoyed him. It was her smell.
The kids probably (hopefully!) hadn’t noticed, but he caught it. He knew that scent, had known it ever since their honeymoon: the musky scent of her freshly fucked pussy. She was so ripe he could smell her across the room.
Kee-rist, he thought, has she been diddling herself?
With what, a truck?
Minutes after their parents had stormed out of the house together, Vanessa appeared in the doorway.
“Hey,” she said, “get your clothes on, fast.”
“Get ’em on or get ’em off?” he said, grinning his cocky smile.
“Go on, dumbass!”
“What the hell for?”
“You’re taking me to the store — I got Christmas shopping to do!”
***
The grocery store was ten miles away. In half that distance Sherry had spotted four cars in the ditch. Even at the crawling pace Neal had adopted, their own car tried to fishtail on the slick pavement. When he braked in front of the post office, the car kept on going for a good ten feet.
“Jesus, Neal!” she muttered. “Be careful!”
“I’m being careful, Sherry! I don’t have any chains, you know.”
“So what the hell are we doing out, then, if we’ve gotta have chains?”
“I told you, this is barely anything — nothing to worry about.”
“Yeah, tell that to those people in the ditch. Why do we keep sliding? I thought you knew how to do this.”
“Aw, for God’s sake! We’re doing fine, shut up about it!”
They continued in angry silence for half a mile.
“Were you doing yourself last night?” Neal asked suddenly.
Sherry blushed, then smiled confidently.
“Were you?” she replied.
Neal glanced at her, his face registering guilty surprise, just before they careened off the road.
***
Josh and Vanessa finally mounted the back steps, sighing wearily, puffing out frost. It had started snowing again, very softly. And they had only walked a mile or so. But they were Florida kids, so a mile’s trudge in light snow made them feel like arctic explorers. Jasper met them at the door, sniffling the snowflakes on their clothes suspiciously.
“Oh my god,” Vanessa panted as she plunked down her shopping bag. “That was seriously fucked up.”
“Sorry,” said Josh. “I’m not gonna drive it if it’s overheating.”
“Yeah, Josh, I know you love your fucking car but I am fucking pregnant, you know!”
“I know, I’m sorry. I don’t what’s wrong with it. I carried the heavy stuff.”
“I know you did. Okay . . . they’ll be home soon — help me get this crap up to my room so we can wrap it.”
“I don’t know how to wrap shit.”
“Well, you’re gonna learn.”
“You think it’ll be okay there?” he asked her, as she curled the ends of a red ribbon. “The car, I mean. Maybe I should get it towed.”
“Josh, your precious car is fine. It’s only a mile away and it’s off the road and locked. When this shit outside melts you and Dad can start it up and drive it home.”
“I’m not driving it if it’s over –”
“Yes, yes, I know — then you can push it home, okay?”
“‘Kay.” He reached across the bed for a small plain bag, one he didn’t remember from their shopping. “What’s in this one?”
“No, not that!” Vanessa said sharply, snatching it away from him just as he touched it. “I’ll wrap that myself.”
“Uh oh, what is it?” he leered, making a grab at it. “It’s for me, ain’t it?”
“No, it isn’t. It’s for Mom and you can’t see it.”
“What — you get her some tampons or something?”
His sister laughed, shook her head pityingly.
“Oh, you are such a dipshit.”
Josh let her have the bag, returned to making a mess out of wrapping the cologne for their dad. It was kind of cool, being in his sister’s old room again. All of her girly things lying about — bras on the floor, pantyhose hanging from the doorknob, her discarded Denny’s uniform draped over a chair. It was almost like she’d never left. One thing that was weird about her now: the way she had suddenly taken to wearing next to nothing around the house. His sister had always dressed a little slutty, but ever since she got knocked up, it was like she just didn’t care anymore — she let it all hang out. Maybe she got used to hanging around Goofy Brad’s trailer in the nude or something; now that she was home again she just couldn’t seem to keep her clothes on.
He wasn’t complaining.
He hurried to tape the package shut and moved around behind her, surveying her. She had shed all her layers of clothes by now, and was wearing only a big tee shirt, some Florida Gator butt shorts and little white socks. He cupped both of her ass cheeks tightly, unable to resist touching her. She swatted at his hand once, half-heartedly. He couldn’t feel any panties beneath the satiny shorts, and wondered if —
“Speaking of dipshits, dipshit,” she said, breaking his thoughts. “Have you called Jeanie yet?”
The question caught him off guard.
“When?”
“Last night, this morning. Who cares, have you called her?”
“Why?” he demanded.
“To invite her over for Christmas or something.”
“I can’t do that!”
“Why not?”
“Because. Why do you want me to call her?”
“Josh,” Vanessa said impatiently, “you need to hang onto her. She’s a good girlfriend for you. For one thing she’s more mature than you.”
He grunted noncommittally. Quickly, experimentally, he ran one hand up inside the leg of her shorts along her crotch. Warm, furry slit, as he expected. God, what a teasing little slut she was.
“Why did you break up with her?” she asked.
“I didn’t,” he said distractedly, feeling himself growing hard as his fingertips touched her treasure. “She broke up with me.”
“Oh crap.” She stopped wrapping and stood up to face him. “What’d you do?”
“Ah shit, Vanessa! What’s it to you anyway, why are you pestering me about this?”
“Because. What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“You did something. Are you going to tell me?”
“No,” he said, then added, “Not right now.”
She pouted and sighed, turned back to the rustling of paper. He immediately resumed playing with her ass and crotch.
“Josh, you’re supposed to be helping me wrap packages.”
He chuckled.
“And don’t say you’ve got a package for me to unwrap. I’m not in the mood.”