Retreat (2 page)

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BACK
IN THE WORLD

I couldn’t tell if I was caught in a dream, but it felt real enough when Henry’s penis nudged at me from behind. One hand gripped my thigh and opened me up further so he could slip inside. He rocked gently behind me, one arm under my neck and the other over my waist, as his hands roamed around, kneading and pinching at a leisurely pace. If this was a dream, then I wanted to wake up immediately so that I could make it a reality.

“So do you think they’re together then?” I heard my mother say.

If this was a dream, then it was a seriously sick one.

Henry’s movements stopped but he remained completely seated in me.

Henry’s mom, Helen, spoke next. “Did Elsie tell you anything?” she asked.

“No. She just said she was popping over here to say hi to Henry.”

“Well,” Helen said with a chuckle. “She said hi alright.”

“Should we tell them we’re awake?” Henry whispered in my ear and that’s when I finally realized that this was reality. Our mothers were actually standing over the bed, while Henry and I were lying naked under the covers, his penis still throbbing inside me. I could only hope that the quilt was thick enough to conceal what we’d been doing a few seconds earlier.

I felt my face go up in flames and knew that my blush would be the instant giveaway. The jig was up.

I opened my eyes and peered up at our mothers, who were standing at the doorway with a cup of coffee and a bewildered expression each. “Morning,” I croaked, trying to appear casual even though I was dying inside.

Mom raised an eyebrow at me then turned to Helen. “We should give them a few minutes to gather their wits then come out to the living room to explain.”

Helen nodded and they closed the door behind them.

As soon as the door latched shut, Henry’s arms tightened around
me and he
began the delicious rocking once again. “I wasn’t sure if last night was real,” he said, biting my earlobe.

I twisted my head around to smile at him. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“You can surprise me like that any time,” he said and kissed my neck.

I sighed, from pleasure and worry. “We can’t, Henry. You heard my
mo
—” My breath hitched in my throat when he thrust in roughly, making my muscles involuntarily clench. “Oh…”

Henry reached down between my legs and began to massage my clit in circles. “I just need a few minutes,” he said. “Then we can be relaxed when we face the firing squad.”

I wanted to disagree, but those crafty fingers and that damn cock had me under a spell, and his gravelly voice whispering naughty things was only pulling me deeper, so I had no other choice but to dive in and enjoy the sensations of Henry.

“Come for me,” he rasped against my ear and moved his fingers faster. “I want to feel your pussy convulsing around me.”

I twisted around and grabbed the back of his head, bringing his mouth to mine as the orgasm filled and filled and burst with white-hot intensity inside my body.

“Elsie,” he groaned and climaxed as well, grasping my hips tight against his as he dug in as far as he could go.

We emerged from Henry’s room five minutes later, me dressed in yesterday’s clothes and Henry dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, looking very much like two people who’d just had sex. It was bad enough that we were walking out there to face our mothers, but one glance in the dining room showed that situation was actually worse: our fathers were also in attendance.

I could feel the weight of everyone’s stares as we made our way into the dining room. Henry had offered to walk in first to bear the brunt of the glares, but I’d held his hand and said we needed to do this together. Now I wish I’d taken him up on his offer.

My dad was the first one I dared to look at and I immediately wished I hadn’t. His lips were pursed and his thick eyebrows were furrowed. He was disappointed in me; that much was clear.

Henry and I stood at the head of the table, our fingers still entwined. He cleared his throat. “I guess Elsie and I have some news…”

“No shit, Sherlock,” his dad, Trent, said. The man had always had a colorful vocabulary.

“How long has this been going on?” my mother asked. I met her eyes, feeling like a willful teenager again. Then it struck me that Henry and I were two consenting adults and I had nothing to be ashamed of.

I stood straighter and said, “Right before he left for deployment in March.”

“That long?” Helen asked, her eyes flicking back to her son. “And you didn’t think to tell us?”

“We weren’t ready yet,” Henry said.

“When were you going to be ready?”

“Now, I guess,” I said. “We wanted to have you all together before we made the announcement.”

 
“Speaking of getting ready…” Henry looked down at the watch on his wrist. He turned to me. “I’m sorry, but I have to leave.”

“What?” I tugged him down to hiss in his ear, “You’re going to leave me to face the inquisition by myself?”

“I have my therapy session in forty minutes.”

“Take me with you.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t.” He grinned, looking anything but sorry. “I’ll be done in an hour.”

My dad stood up then and my heart stopped. Every cell in my body stood at attention in anticipation of his words. He approached us with an expressionless face, stopping in front of Henry.

“Sir,” Henry began. “Before you say anything, I just want you to know that I am in love with your daughter. I will treat her with the respect and care she deserves.”

I held my breath when my dad lifted his hand. He paused for the longest time then gave Henry a hearty slap on the shoulder. “I know you will, son,” he said with warmth in his eyes. “You’re a good man, Henry. Jason was right to ask me to give you a chance.”

I felt the shift in Henry’s posture, his shoulders sagging a little from relief or sadness or both. “Thank you, sir.”

Then Dad turned to me and placed two hands on my shoulders. “I think you picked a good one,” he said.

I hugged him. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Just please don’t get caught naked in his bed again,” he said so that only I could hear. “I brought you up to be more of a lady than that.”

I nodded as I pulled away. “Yes, Dad.”

“How about we all have dinner tonight?” Helen asked, standing up from the table. “I have to meet a client in an hour, but I’ll be free for dinner at around five.”

My mom nodded. “That sounds like a good idea. These kids are not getting away this easy.”

Henry squeezed my hand. “We’ll be there.”

~

I met up with Henry at Cannery Row after his therapy session and had lunch at Louie Linguine’s Seafood Shack. We sat at a table by the large windows with an unobstructed view of the dark blue ocean.

“How did the session go?” I asked as we ate. It felt good to be spending time with him again, just the two of us.

He took a bite of his sourdough burger. “Can’t tell you,” he said with a smile.

“Well, are you making progress?”

He made a noncommittal shrug. “I think so.”

I shook my head and ate a spoonful of clam chowder. “You’re really not going to tell me?” I asked. “The person who is most affected by all of your issues?”

A shadow of a grin crossed over his face as he shook his head and I knew, even without
saying, that
therapy was working. It didn’t look like he’d shaved since he arrived in California and his hair was curling a little at the ends from not having it cut for so long, but underneath his scruffy appearance was the light behind his eyes that I was afraid had been extinguished in Afghanistan.

I let out the sigh of relief that I’d been holding for so long.

He raised an eyebrow. “What are you looking at?”

“I’m looking at you, Grizzly Adams.”

He rubbed the hair on his cheek. “It’s been nice not having to shave,” he said. “But I do need a haircut.”

I chewed on a piece of the bread bowl as I studied his hair. “I like it. It’s a little less military. The whole look is very sexy.”

He stared at me for a long time, those intense blue eyes twinkling as they flicked about my face. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

“Thanks,” I said in surprise. “Where did that come from?”

He leaned back into his chair and shrugged. “I mean, you’re here,” he said, motioning to me. “You didn’t tell me you were coming to California. You just snuck into my bedroom in the middle of the night and had your way with me. If that isn’t amazing, then I don’t know what is.”

I glanced around, hoping nobody was within hearing distance. “That
was
pretty awesome,” I said with a wide grin.

“So you managed to get some time off?”

“I just took half of Thursday and all of today off, then I fly back home late Sunday night,” I said. “What time is your flight on Sunday?”

“One o’clock, so I have to go to the airport right after my final session with Doc Gal.”

“Doc Gal?”

“Her name is Doctor Galicia, but I’ve called her Doc Gal since I was ten. It
kinda
stuck, I guess.”

“Did she help you when you were younger?” I asked, leaning closer.

“Obviously not if I’m back. But she did help me through some tough times, steered me away from
juvie
, that’s for sure.”

My eyes widened, finding it hard to picture Henry as a delinquent. “That bad?”

“I was always getting into fights, stealing, anything that would get me attention from my parents.” He grinned then. “Doc Gal told me that my destructive tendencies were just a cry for attention.”

“Was she right?”

“On the nose.”

I took a big drink of my water before asking, “So how is it now, with your parents?”

He shrugged but his eyes were not so nonchalant. “Getting better, I guess,” he said. “It might be too late.”

I reached over the table and gripped his hand. “When it’s about forgiveness and love, it’s never too late.”

He suddenly stood up, leaned over the table, and planted a kiss on my lips. He sat back down with a satisfied smile, crossing his arms across his chest.

“What was that for?” I asked, feeling my cheeks heat up, not from embarrassment but from arousal.

“I was just wondering how I got so lucky.”

I bit my lower lip and gazed at the man before me, glad that Henry was finally making a recovery. “I was wondering the same thing.”

We met up with my parents at the Monterey Aquarium. Henry offered to leave to give me some time with them, but my parents just looked at him as if he was crazy.

“Are you kidding?” my mom asked, linking her arm through his as we walked through the member’s entrance. “You’re coming with us. I am grilling you until the sun sets.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Henry said with a smile on his face.

I walked ahead with my dad, giving my mom a chance to talk to Henry.

“You happy?” Dad asked, putting his arm around my shoulders.

“Miserable,” I said with a straight face. “Absolutely miserable.”

“Yeah, I see that,” he said, ruffling my hair. “Henry’s a good kid.”

I raised an eyebrow and glanced back at the man who towered over Mom. “Kid?”

Dad chuckled. “He might be taller than me, but he’ll always be that kid with the braces and the crazy hair,” he said. “He almost ate us out of our home.”

I laughed. “He wasn’t that bad.”

“He was so intense at the beginning. I was worried that he was going to be trouble, but Jason asked me to give him a chance,” Dad said. “And look how that same kid turned out: captain in the Air Force. A war veteran,” he added with pride in his voice.

I wrapped my arm around his side and squeezed. “You were his hero, you know.”

Dad smiled ruefully. “I like to think I had a hand at raising that nice young man.”

“You did,” I said. “More than you know.”

“Anyway, let’s talk about you,” Dad said as we entered my favorite part of the aquarium, the jellyfish exhibit. “Tell me about work.”

I talked about work, about the award I’d received for
The Oklahoman
website, about the upcoming promotion boards. “They want to make me a senior art director, which pays more,” I said, mesmerized by the tiny jellyfish illuminated pink by the
blacklight
. “But that means I won’t get to do any actual hands-on design.”

“Is there a way to do both?”

“I’m going to talk to the execs, present them with the idea of my overseeing projects while also working on projects of my own. And then I’m going to convince them to pay me more money.”

“That’s my girl.”

We entered a large, dark room illuminated only by the bluish glow from the gigantic glass tank. We stood in awe in front of the glass and stared at fish, giant turtles, even sharks that swam by. I turned to my dad but found that Henry had taken his place.

He nudged me. “Hey.” His warm hand reached out and took mine.

“How did it go?” I asked, mesmerized by the bluish glow on his face, how his eyes were nearly black in this light.

“Your mom threatened to cut my balls off if I ever hurt you,” he said then his serious façade fell away and he grinned. “She just wanted to talk about how we were getting along. She asked me why it took so long for me to tell you.”

“She knew?”

“Apparently, everybody did.”

“So, what did you tell her?”

“I told her I was too chicken.”

I laughed. “Sounds about right.”

~

Afterwards, we visited Jason’s grave, which was a somber experience until Henry kneeled by the grave and said, “So hey man, I hope you don’t mind my boning your sister.”

“Henry,” my dad warned.

My mom snorted and then laughed. I couldn’t help it either, and soon her infectious laugh also carried over to my dad and Henry, until all four of us were standing at my brother’s grave, with tears of sadness and joy in our eyes.