Chapter 2 – Chapter 2

When I returned to the dining room with the freshly iced chocolate cake, Trent and Aunt Judith were having a raucous discussion of the people they'd seen drunk on their tails in bars. One would think that Trent, a bartender, would have the award-winning stories, but Judith was meeting him story for story and using salty language, which, thankfully, Trent was studiously avoiding as I had requested—at least through most of the meal. Where he was laughing, Judith was snorting. Sister Sarah was watching in fascination tinged with horror—not by any means at anything Trent was saying. Trent had acted the perfect, smooth-talking gentleman most of the meal and had given much appreciated attention to all three women in turn.

Some of the swear words had come creeping back in toward the end, but I couldn't expect Trent to hold it in forever, and most of the blue language was Judith's, inevitably loosening him up and pulling him in. In any event, it wasn't as noticeable or grating as I feared it would be.

At the end of the meal of cold fried chicken, German potato salad, coleslaw, and hot biscuits and homemade strawberry preserves, Mother had announced that there was chocolate cake for dessert, but we had to wait for it to be iced.

I went into the kitchen with her and sat and we talked about our separate lives while she spread fudge icing on the German chocolate cake. All the time we talked, I had it on the tip of my tongue to tell her what Trent was to me, but it just wouldn't come out. Perhaps if she pressed me about him, but, to her, he was just a guy I knew who was I giving a ride to meet up with friends at the car races on Sunday.

We almost got there. "I really like your friend, Trent," she said. "He's a real gentleman and a breath of fresh air in this old, stale house."

"Mother—" I started after a pause, but then she spoke again.

"There. The cake's done. We mustn't keep them waiting longer. Judith is enjoying herself with Trent entirely too much. You take the cake, please, and I'll bring the plates and dessert forks."

And then we were back in the dining room, where the first thing I saw was Judith dabbing her eyes with a napkin and with a broad grin on her face. Never had I seen anyone win over and transform "Sergeant" Judith as quickly and completely as Trent had.

While Judith reviewed for my mother some of the funniest exchanges she and Trent had had—which was unnecessary, as we could hear it all from the kitchen, but Mother was too patient and considerate to cut off—Trent turned to me.

In sotto voce, he asked, "Did you tell your mom about us while you were in the kitchen so long?"

"I tried, but—"

He didn't stay with me to hear whatever lame excuse I would be able to come up with on such notice. His attention went to Sarah, while the two older women were chattering with each other, and Sarah almost melted on the spot as he complimented her on her dress.

"You two go on into the parlor and make yourselves comfortable," Mother said after we had devoured the cake, the icing still warm to the last, "while we women clean up this mess."

"If it's OK with you, Mrs. Hammond, maybe Marty and I could find somewhere to walk to keep the pounds that went into this delicious meal from settling around our waistline." Trent had stood up from the table.

"That sounds like a great idea, although I just can't imagine you having a pound of anything gathered anywhere." The compliment came from my mother, although, in watching Sarah across the table, I could see that she was thinking far more prurient thoughts about Trent than that.

"Take him down to the end of Grace Street, Martin," Mother continued. "That dead ends into the entrance of a park by the river now that has a very nice walking trail. We'll be right here when you get back."

Trent walked along, head downcast, kicking rocks from the pathway as we walked down Grace and then into the park. They'd done a nice job with it. The path ran down toward the lake. There was a grassy area on the left rising up to a stand of mature pine trees with heavy boughs sweeping down to the ground. Without saying anything, Trent started walking up the grassy hillside and into the trees.

"Looking for privacy?" I said as I followed him into the trees along a narrow path between the drooping boughs.

"You know what I like to look for from you, Marty," he said. It came out almost as a growl.

Indeed I knew what Trent like to get from me. "Where? Where did you go?" I asked, not being able to see him as I looked around.

A hand came out of the cover of a pine tree and pulled me inside, to the trunk of the tree. Boughs of broad, green pine needles spread out around us, obliterating the view of anything but the sweet-smelling interior of the tree. I laughed and then moaned low, as Trent turned my back to the trunk of the tree and came in for a kiss and a feel of my crotch through the material of my trousers.

We kissed and fondled, building up hot desire. He unzipped me and stroked my cock as we kissed. He went down on his knees between my legs and took me to heaven with his soft mouth. It was only then, as the steel ball ran up and down the vein in the underside of my cock that I realized that he hadn't taken his tongue piercing out. Why hadn't I noticed that? Had the women seen it? Surely they had. None of them had said anything about it. I wasn't going to think about it now. He was going to take me to heaven with a blow job.

"Trent? What?" I murmured as I felt him rolling a condom on my cock.

"Yes, here, now," he whispered, moving my hands to his belt buckle. "Fuck me." I unbuckled and unzipped him, and pushed his trousers and briefs off his hips, where they fell to the matting of brown needles under the tree from last year's molting.

We kissed deeply and, embracing his torso in my arms after unbuttoning and spreading his shirt, I moved my lips down his throat to his nipples. I felt, more than observed, the weighing down of the pine limbs as Trent lifted his legs to hook onto boughs on either side of my hips, using his hand to position his hole on my erect cock and then impale himself on my shaft.

I held him, but I let him do most of the work of fucking himself on my cock until, with separate cries and a shared long sigh, we both ejaculated.

We held for several more moments, kissing and fondling each other, and then he let his legs down and I heard him pulling his briefs and trousers back up.

"That was nice. Very nice," I murmured.

"Yes, it was," Trent agreed. "I'll always remember it. Good-bye, Marty," he said, and then he turned and melted away from the tree.

In a mellow mood, I zipped up, came out of the tree myself and walked down to the side of the stream babbling through the park, expecting Trent to join me at my side from wherever he had disappeared to. When I realized he wasn't going to, I walked home, entering the kitchen door from whence we had departed, as Grace was the next street over from the back yard of my mother's house.

My mother was alone in the kitchen. The lovemaking with Trent had shamed me, making me realize how important he'd been to me. I owed it to him to be honest with my family, and it probably was now or never.

"Mother—" I started after clearing of my throat.

"You and Trent haven't had some sort of falling out, have you?" she said. She turned her face to me and I could see the look of concern in her expression.

"No, of course not."

"Good, because he's a keeper, Marty. It's time you got some stability in your life."

"Keeper? Stability? You mean you know? About Trent and me? About me?"

"I've known about you for years, Marty. I've been waiting for you to bring a young man home. I knew that would mean you finally were serious."

"And you aren't angry? Disappointed?"

"No, of course not. Why would I judge you or disapprove of anything you'd chosen for yourself? I accept you any way you are. And you've never judged Judith and me."

"Judith and you."

She gave me a sharp look and then a horse laugh. "You didn't see it, did you? All these years. Of course not. You were in college—and then on your own. And we haven't flaunted it. Yes, Judith and me. You thought both of our husbands taking off at the same time and Judith moving in here was some sort of coincidence? It wasn't any coincidence. It was my life coming back into the balance of what was meant to be. It was me gaining happiness—and gaining courage, although that was mostly Judith." She laughed again, but then her expression became serious. "You aren't too observant, are you Martin? Maybe not observant enough."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll ask you again. Did you and Trent have some sort of falling out? And I'll repeat that it seems to me he's the best thing that's happened to you. And, no, I'm not fooled by how he's tried to tone himself down just for us. It tells me how much he wants you too."

"Why are you asking me this."

"He's standing out front now, waiting for a taxi. He came back from your walk without you and said he discovered that his ticket for the Dover races started this evening and he'd decided he should go on over there. The Dover International Speedway is the biggest thing going on in this town, Martin. There aren't any races there this weekend. Judith and I knew as soon as you phoned and told us you were giving a young man a ride to go there that you were bringing someone home you couldn't—or wouldn't—tell us about. Dammit, Martin, do you know how hard Judith has tried not to screw this weekend up for you and Trent? And now Trent's out there waiting for a taxi to leave you. You just best thank your lucky stars that I called the cab company back and told them we wouldn't be needing one. Now get on out there and stop this mistake from happening."

The double-dose slap of realization woke me with a jolt. I got on out there, calling out to Trent as I moved, "It's OK. They know, Trent. It's great. Everything is great."

The look Trent gave me when he turned around told me that everything wasn't great—at least not yet. And I guess I didn't deserve for it to be that easy. But I'd try to make it great and just keep on trying until it worked. Mother was right. Trent was a keeper.