Soccer Mom - Chapter 14 By Pac (pac) Terri's new plan to keep Eric in line is revealed Terri and I framed the new door in no time. With her muscle and my DIY savvy, it was painless to level the door and screw it into place. One of the things that saved a ton of time was the fact that I didn't need to shim, check level, and adjust shims to level the door. Terri simply held it in place while I found level and sunk in screws. Every time I needed a little tweak, I'd just give her direction. She'd move it until it was in place, and hold it there effortlessly until I'd sink in a screw. It was the easiest job I'd done in years. "I volunteer at Habitat for Humanity at least once a year," I said to her. "Maybe you can come with me next time I go out." "Sounds like fun," she said, pulling off her gloves. "You're not going to make me raise walls or anything by myself are you?" "No, nothing overwhelmingly hot like that," I said. "I don't like to share." "Me neither," she said with a chuckle, "so just remember that if my Mom hits on you." "W-what?" I said, flabbergasted. "She's such a vamp. I'm surprised she hasn't cornered you yet," Terri said, offhandedly. "She's harmless, but she's an insufferable flirt. Ever since dad died, she's had her fair share of guys. You better watch out, though, because she likes younger ones." I wasn't sure how to take all of that. She said it jokingly, but I thought I caught a hint of... what? Jealousy? Hurt? I honestly couldn't tell what was going on there. "Terri, I think I might just freak out if your Mom did anything like that," I said. She laughed, and the strange tension that had been building was gone as soon as it came. Thank God. Anything else, and I guarantee I wouldn't have been able to go over there. We cleaned up our demo mess, and got cleaned up fairly quickly. Since we got started early, we were done well before lunch. I figured I'd ring my Mother again and invite her to Terri's, since I didn't know that was the plan when we had talked at early o'clock today. She was surprised by the invitation, but accepted fairly quickly. I knew she was eager to meet Terri's mother. She and my mom hadn't met, and as nosy as she is, I'm sure she already had assumptions about everything, from what her husband did for a living to what her bridge strategies were. The whole cougar thing, though... I'll bet ol' Ma didn't figure that one out! I couldn't wait to see those sparks fly.... We took the rental truck back and retrieved Terri's M3, and she pulled into place behind me for the drive to my mother's. We got there right before lunchtime, and Mom and Hayley were ready to go as soon as we got there. I got Hayley situated in my car, but Mom went right past mine and hopped into Terri's car like Terri was her offspring and not me. She looked at me through the windshield of her car and made those annoying shooing motions with her hand. Exasperated, I put the car into gear and off we went. "Where did you go last night, Daddy?" Hayley asked me as we drove. "Well, honey," I stalled, "Daddy and Ms. Terri had some things to talk about last night. Grown up things." "Did you guys have sex?" she chirped from the back seat. "What?!?" I said, shocked. "Where did you get that idea?" "Grammy said you guys were probably off having sex last night when you didn't come get me," she said innocently. "She said you two are like teenagers." Oh, good God. My mother has taken it upon herself to introduce my six year old to sex! "Your Grammy says some silly stuff sometimes," I said, looking at Hayley in the mirror. "You don't even know what sex is, do you?" "It's where you hug a lot and kiss, and then a baby shows up later on," she said, very proud of her knowledge of grown up things. "Well, you don't get to hug and kiss and make babies show up until you're at least 30," I said, and she seemed to be happy that she knew just how to do it. There was a short pause. "Daddy?" "What Sweetie?" "Who brings the babies, and where do they get them from?" "You get them off the Internet, Honey," I said, "and they show up in the mail." "Oh...." she said, thoughtful, then her face wrinkled in childish outrage. "Hey! No they don't!" I laughed and dodged the rest of the questions until we got to Terri's house. Terri's front yard looked like it had been attacked by an army of gophers. All of her flower beds were filled with what looked like potholes, and almost every flower, so neat and tidy the last time I was there, was now missing. There were a dozen bags of yard waste at the curb, all neatly lined up for pickup. Even distraught, she was still neat and tidy. Damn, she really was worked up. If the backyard looked like this as well, we had a full day's work ahead of us. I was surprised she didn't uproot the flowering trees in her frenzy. I could picture her in my head, plucking them out of the ground like weeds. We hopped out of the cars and were greeted by Alice as we neared the door. She gave me an arch look, but broke out in a grin as my face responded to her. She didn't say a word to me, though, but turned to my mother expectantly when they got close enough. Jordan had already shot out the front door and grabbed Hayley, and they were gone in the blink of an eye. It was amazing how well they got along. I paused in my reflection to realize that all of the women were now staring at me. "Um... oh! Alice, this is my mother Darlene. Mom, this is Terri's mother Alice," I said, and the women began chatting their pleasantries to each other and turned away from me without a word. My mother waved her hand at me absently, as if dismissing me. I gave the back of her head a dark look, and went to grab the duffel bag with my work clothes out of the trunk of my car. Terri's hand on my shoulder pulled me gently back toward her. "Come in and we'll have lunch first," she said, and reeled me in with her one strong arm like a hooked fish. I could no sooner have broken free than I could have fought a lion and won. "How can I say no to that gentle persuasion?" I said as I felt her arms close around me and those marvelous big breasts push into my back. She kissed my neck lightly and turned me toward the door. "You can't," she teased in my ear, and her hand slid down to my manhood. "Your mouth can say no, but your body says yes." She lifted me with the arm still wrapped around my waist and played with my cock as she carried me to the doorway, setting me down as we reached it. Her hand gave my cock one more playful squeeze and she let me go, my shorts pushed out by my turgid penis. "Why don't we go upstairs and get cleaned up? I'm sure my mother will need at least a half-hour to chit-chat with yours, and the girls are already out back, I'm sure." "Wow, you are insatiable today!" I said, thrilled with this ultra-sexual Terri. She gave me a sexy look. "I figure if I drown you in sex, you won't think about avenging your bruised male ego," she said simply. "By my estimation that will give us at least a few months before you get the urge to challenge me at something again. Then I'll be ready." So that was it. I can't help but say it hurt, but I suppose I deserved it. "Terri, I've learned my lesson," I said, and she grabbed me and threw me easily across her broad shoulders. "No, I don't think you have. I can see it in your beautiful eyes. But I'll see if I can't fuck the fight out of you," she said, looking at my face with unabashed lust. "You know, I love it when you talk dirty," I said, my body draped over her. This was definitely a more dominant Terri, and I have to say I liked it! Amanda had been very submissive, but in this annoyingly passive-aggressive way. She was also not very lively in bed and, toward the end, sex was a chore, not a celebration like it was with Terri. As I rode those strong shoulders up the big central staircase, I thought just how diametrically opposite the two were, and thanked Heaven for Terri for about the millionth time. Terri walked easily up the stairs, showing no strain of course, and made her way to her pretty bedroom. She walked us sideways through the door, and turned to face the big mirror on her antique dressing table. She put her hands on her hips, and the effect of her standing there with me lying across her broad shoulders was dramatic to say the least. "So, Eric, you DO know you can't win, right? At anything?" Terri said to me, looking in my eyes through the mirror and puffing up her incredible physique for the full effect. "Yes, Dear," I said, and she looked at me askance, not liking the tone of my voice. "No, Eric, I mean, you really do realize it, right?" she said, and put her hands under me and pressed me off her shoulders and over her head as easily as if she was lifting her empty arms. "I mean, you know what I can do. I could press you for hours like this with my big strong arms. This is so easy for me, Eric, you know THAT, right?" "God, do I ever!" I said, aroused as hell. "I know I told you I don't really like to bulk up, but I'll do it if it makes you happy. I'll even do it like this if you want me to." The entire time we were talking she was doing reps with my body, lifting me high over her head then bringing me back down to rest on her shoulders. Unsurprisingly, her voice was conversational as she pressed me so many times, not even breathing out with each lift! It was sexy as hell, but a bit emasculating, that endless strength. That was her point. "I told you before; I'll do anything you want me to, but don't ask me to compete with you, Eric... please? Maybe you need a better demonstration of what you're up against!" The words were barely out of her lips when Terri, pressing my body upward strongly, hurled me into the air! All the way up to her nine foot Victorian ceiling! I was so shocked as I flew upward that I froze, not moving a muscle. I'm sure I must have looked like a man-shaped log as I sailed over her head. It was the so surreal to watch her big arms push and my body take flight. It reminded me of those old NASA films of rocket launches, where the camera looked down from the rocket as it shot off into space. Terri, with her amazing skill, knew just the right amount of power to apply, and my ascent stopped below the ceiling, missing it by a hair's breadth before falling back down again. The lurching sensation of that freefall made me flinch as I landed with Terri's hands under me. She caught me as easily as could be and rested me back on her shoulders. "Do you like this, Honey?" she asked, knowingly, "all this power?" I could see her eyes were bright, like they were tear-filled. "I want to please you Eric, and I'm so desperate not to ruin it. Really, I'll do anything! If I have to hurl you up over the roof to keep our competitiveness from destroying us, I'll do it. You know I probably could, knowing my freakish body!" Needless to say, I was hard as a rock with all of the crazy things she was doing to my body, not to mention her matter-of-fact talk of her ability to do them. Could she really toss me over her three-story house? If anyone else had said something so outrageous, I would have scoffed at them, but not Terri. She wasn't prone to exaggeration. "Mmmm. Let's do it again," she purred, and threw my body back up to the ceiling, catching me just as easily as before. "I can feel your friend down there is enjoying this!" She really was masterful. As she caught me, her arms and legs bent to absorb my downward momentum, squatting deeply by the time she was done. My body didn't so much as jolt as I landed back down on her. She threw me up to the ceiling twice more, and STILL didn't look tired! She just pushed hard with her arms, like she was pressing me overhead, and caught me flawlessly, even when I moved around a bit as I was airborne. She didn't grunt or seem to exert herself at all! It was simply unbelievable! "You're still not convinced, are you Eric?" she said, but she had a sly smile on her face. "One more time? Maybe you think this is as high as I can throw you, is that it?" Up I went again, but she put a little more on it, and I did collide with the ceiling that time. Not bone-crushingly hard, but hard enough to let me know there was more where that came from. I fell, a little stunned, down into her waiting arms, and that was all it took. When I landed that last time, I wrapped my hands around her big arm and totally lost control. I moved myself (because I had NO illusions about moving that Herculean arm!) down to her powerful muscles, kissing and rubbing my face on her hugely bulging bicep. I ran my hands everywhere they could reach, insane from the lust her amazing display kindled in me. Frankly I was surprised that it took five throws to drive me to this level of arousal. I wouldn't be surprised if she could have done it five more times and still not have broken a sweat. Unbelievable, I say! "Mmmm," she sighed, and stretched her arms out to either side of her body. "That feels so good. You know how much I love that, don't you?" I held on tightly as I worshipped her awesome body, but there really wasn't reason to be concerned. Her shoulders were broad enough for me to lie up there without falling off, and even when I shifted to get my hot little hands on another part of her, she easily compensated for it, her body responding almost unconsciously in just the right way. She really didn't know how to do anything less than perfectly. Her body moved with this unconscious, effortless grace, not a motion wasted, and the whole time we were together, I never saw her so much as trip, stumble, misspeak, miss a beat... nothing! I remember reading somewhere that angels have a priori understanding of things, meaning they can just do them, no training, no learning curve. They can speak every language; do any task without even understanding how they were doing it. Terri almost felt like that to me at that moment as I basked in her utter perfection. Don't get me wrong. I'm not some theistic nut, and I certainly didn't believe she was truly divine. Okay, I thought everything about her was divine, but not of the place beyond this mortal coil, right? When she did these impossible things as easily as taking a stroll down the street, it really made me wonder if she was more than just a mere woman. Perfection was the only word that ever popped into my head when I thought about her, as much as that would gall her to know. Terri brought me out of my little contemplation by lifting me up effortlessly, high in her arms, and walking over toward her bed. I thought she was going to drop me down but she lowered me gently, this time onto her chest, and laid me down. She stood tall above me and reached down to the hem of her shirt and brought sexily up over her ripped torso. Her back arched and she pulled the shirt up over that wondrous chest, her sexy bra standing proudly off her densely muscled body, blocking my view of her face. The sexy striptease continued, and Terri worked the shirt up over her thick arms, twirling it on her finger and letting it fly to drop neatly into the laundry basket near her doorway. My muscle goddess unfastened her bra and shrugged off the straps, then let it go, and her huge breasts held the cups right where they were, not dropping or sagging down at all. I'll bet if she didn't wear a bra, other than the extra jiggle, those damn monsters would sit just as high as they did when she wore one. She shook her chest and caught her bra as it flew away, not even looking as she tossed the bra over her shoulder into the basket. She undid her pants and slid them slowly over the swell of her hips, and I wanted more than anything to take that tiny waist in my hands and kneel down before her. Her pants dropped to the floor, followed by her panties with the little lips on them. "You like these panties, don't you?" she said, bending forward to look over the tremendous swell of her chest. "Yes! It's like an open invitation," I said looking up at her naked splendor. "That was the idea," she said, flicking her one leg backward and tossing her pants... well, you know where they landed. "Would you like to try something new?" "Of course, Angel," I said, excited. "Okay. You relax and I'll take care of everything," she said as she reached for me. Terri turned my body on the bed until my head was right where her legs parted, with my body stretched out away from her. She walked around my body, undressing me as I lay on the bed, pampering me as much as possible. She got me undressed, with plenty of kissing and touching thrown in, and walked to the foot of the bed to stand over me again. Her wonderful pussy gave off the scent of her arousal. It was so close I could have tilted my head back and stuck my tongue in her. She saw where I was looking, and her hand drifted down, playing over her full labia. "That's right, baby. This is where I want you," she said, and plunged her index finger into herself, gasping as she did. She pushed it in all the way, and drew it out, running the tip of her finger over my lips. She was driving me crazy, and she knew it. "You want that, too, don't you?" she asked as I sucked her finger. "Oh, yes," I moaned. I was ragingly erect from... well, from the minute she carried me to the house with her hand on my dick! I must have leaked a cupful of pre-cum into my underwear with all the muscle play and kissing, worshipping of her body, her striptease... all of it had me teetering on the edge of madness. "Let's both have what we want," she said, and bent over and pulled my body toward the edge of the bed, pressing her pussy right onto my mouth as she slid my head off the edge of the bed. "Mmmm," we both moaned as my mouth opened and partook of her nectar. I licked her and nibbled at her lips, and she bent down to take my member in her own mouth, letting out another little moan as she did. Then she took it a giant leap beyond, and bent back up off the bed, her hands holding me by my hips. I lifted off the mattress and hung upside down with my face buried in her, while she sucked on my cock with consummate skill. Her big tits pushed into my abs as she started working my cock in and out of her mouth by moving my hips in her insanely strong arms, slowly moving me away from her and then back again. I quickly brought my hands up to that little tiny waist and wrapped them around it, feeling the super-hard muscle beneath my palms, and held on while I ate her like a starving man set before a feast. We held, locked together in that standing 69, for so long I got light-headed, but I wasn't about to stop until I took her to paradise. I suspected it wouldn't be a long trip, as wet as she was (I thought I was going to choke a few times, as much juice as she was pumping out. Even her pussy was perfect, dammit!), and I refused to stop until she came. I came first, though: even in our lovemaking, she was never to be outdone, and her tongue on me was just so damn good I had no hope of outlasting her! I was somewhat mollified that she came just a second after me, though, pulling my body so far away from her as she sucked the tip of my cock that I actually bit her one pussy lip lightly to keep my head in place. It wasn't that I was trying to hurt her. My hands were stretched up to her big tits at the time, and they're so damn big that I couldn't hold on, you see. Terri cried out softly from the pressure, her lips still wrapped around the tip of my cock, but didn't falter. That amazing mouth sucked me dry, as she had all the other times she had given me one of her mind-boggling blowjobs. The vacuum kept up until I felt like she was going to suck my balls right out through my dick, until finally she let up on the intense suction, pulling my limp body away. I hung, exhausted, in her strong arms. "God, that felt so good when you bit me there!" she said in a hiss. "I almost dropped you on your head! Thank God I didn't, because I might have pulled the head off your big friend here I was sucking on him so hard!" She pulled my body back in and placed a kiss on the tip of my penis, and I pulled my face back into her pussy and nibbled her all over the place. "Oh!" she gasped, and I felt her hold on me loosen for a split second. Even when I did something like that, though, her lightning reflexes compensated almost immediately, and I barely dipped in her arms. It was astounding to behold. I reached around to her full ass and pulled my face so tightly into her that my face hit with a wet smack of her pussy juice and my chin hit her rock-solid abs hard enough to hurt. I didn't care, though. All I cared about was giving this woman one more earth-shattering orgasm... then another, and another, and so on until she crumpled on the floor. I licked and bit and sucked on her fat pussy lips and quickly gave her another climax, and she shook me like a rag doll in her strong arms as she came. "Oh.... fuck!" she growled through clenched teeth, trying her utmost not to alert the rest of the house. I felt her bring me in close and she hugged my body to her. Then I felt her arms drop down lower, and she hoisted me up until my face was pushed right into her big tits. "Mmmm," I said and she squeezed me into her tits until my world went black. She took me over and set me on the bed again, and settled down on my hips. Her hand cupped my head and pulled my face into one of her amazing tits. "How about a little reward for that incredible mouth?" she said as she traced her nipple over my lips. "No, that's a BIG reward," I said, latching onto it and suckling her like a starving baby. She switched me off on her breasts a few times, and I felt myself getting hard again! "Jesus, so soon!" I said, and my head couldn't stop swimming. "Yes! Wonderful!" she replied, and lifted up to impale herself on me. As she rode me and I sucked her big juicy tits, I figured this must be what Heaven was like: your heart's desire, non-stop, ad infinitum. I vowed to go back to church for about the ten-thousandth time since we met. It was beautiful and perfect and it was over far too soon. I came in her tight pussy for the second time that day, and it was barely lunch time! I was surprised I was able to make so damn much come! It's not like I was twenty or something. I wondered if I needed to start eating more protein to make up for the deficiency? Terri rode me until she felt me deflate, and held me to her bosom for a long time. I could hear her strong heartbeat in my ears, and all of that marvelous flesh pushed around my face made me smile until I thought my face would crack. And still Little Miss Insatiable was undaunted! I never seemed to be able to exhaust her. She jumped up off the bed, and I felt her hands under my arms while I was daydreaming. She lifted me lightly off the bed and swung me around, high in the air. "Oh, Eric, I am so damn in love with you!" she gushed, "I know it won't always be perfect like this, but I want to keep it this way as long as we can! I've never been happier in my life!" "Even after yesterday?" I said, still dazed and semi-conscious from her crazy muscle teasing and the mind-numbing morning full of sex. "Yes, Honey," she said, so firmly it left no doubt in my mind. "I thought about what happened and I really have to take the blame." There she went with that again. "I shouldn't have been so hard on you; I pushed you really to the edge... but I kept warning you, and I really do try to not do things so well all the time, I just... I just can't! It's like something doesn't let me. I try to miss the... well, here." She set me down on the bed and went over to the beautiful antique roll-top desk she had in the corner of her bedroom. She grabbed a pencil off it and looked over at the wall where a picture of her and Jordan hung in a simple silver frame. She casually flicked the pencil with a snap of her wrist, and it embedded itself about a third of the way into the wall, a few inches left of her image. "That picture used to have three of us in it, but I cropped out my -ex. That's where his face would have been," She said with a smirk. "But watch, here's what I mean." She got another pencil and started turning away from the wall, and flicked her wrist again, almost over her shoulder. I swear that damn thing flew like an arrow and embedded itself practically on TOP of the other pencil. It actually gouged a chunk of the eraser off the top of the first one! "Holy shit!" I exclaimed, and she gave me a sad smile. "Wait, it gets worse," she said, grabbing another one. She walked over to me by her bed, about six feet farther away from the picture. "Come here and push my arm, but don't tell me when, do it while I'm getting ready to line up," she said. "I won't even aim or anything. You'll see... it's maddening!" I walked over to her, still turned on as hell from all of the foreplay and teasing. She was too, but she seemed to need to make her point, so I obliged her as I fought off the urge to pick her up and throw her on the bed again. "Honey, I doubt I can move your arm, but what about distracting you. Distractions don't do anything, either?" I asked. "What kind of distractions?" she asked. I got to my knees and took her big breast in my hands again and started sucking it for all I was worth, drawing a moan from her mouth. I also stuck a few fingers in her still-wet pussy (wet with my come, I guess), and sought out her clit. I felt her strong abs tighten as the tip of my index finger came into contact with that wonderful little nub. I heard a little THWAP! from the far side of the room, and, lo and behold, that damn pencil was pretty much on top of the other two, even with me fingering her and sucking on her breast! The only thing that would have told me my attention to her big beautiful tit and pussy had any effect was that the pencil was buried even deeper in the wall, about two thirds of the way in. The plaster on her wall now had little cracks radiating away from the pencils stuck in the wall like a marksman's shot grouping. "Nothing works, Eric," she said softly, cupping my head in her hands and pulling me gently away from her breast. "My ex- used to do all kinds of things when we did something that required aim or concentration. He kicked me as hard as he could one time while we were playing lawn darts, his idea, and I still made the shot, even though he broke my ankle! The whole not losing thing is even more freakish than my body. It's like something won't let me miss, or let me lose, even if I try. It's like a curse! I hate it!" She began to cry, and sat down hard on the bed. It must have been bottled up this last day since my little rampage. Or maybe it was only bottled up around me. "Oh, Honey," I said, pulling her head down to my chest as I sat next to her. "I'm sorry it has been so hard for you." The words felt so weird coming out of my mouth. I'm sorry you're so fucking perfect, my inner voice (who sounded surprisingly like Mr. Smooth) said, I'm sorry you never fail, never do less than the best. That must be hard. I shrugged that shit off (damn my stupid fucking ego!) and held Terri tight. I mean, as far as crises go, I wouldn't rate this one up there with, say, cancer, but I guess it's an affliction all the same. She alienated people by being too good at everything, and as I thought about it, I figured there really would be a downside. I caught myself wondering if kids wouldn't pick her for their team because she did everything too well and made them look bad, or if it kept her from getting consideration for other things as she grew up. Maybe it was the opposite. Kids fought over who got her on their team, and all the bickering over her made her feel as bad as if she wasn't picked. Maybe it made her feel not like a person, but like an asset, or a weapon... who knows? "Shh," I said to her, "it's going to be okay, Honey." "I'm so worried!" she sobbed, "This is exactly how it started with Bill. I always feel that I was the one who destroyed him. I thought if I could turn this off and not be so fucking great at everything that maybe he wouldn't have been a criminal, and I wouldn't feel like a goddamn freak every waking moment. I'd give anything just to be like everyone else!" I didn't know how to respond to that, so I held her tightly, and she soaked the front of my shirt with her tears, holding onto me with frightening force. If she tightened her arms any further, I was sure there would be a chiropractor in my future. "I keep feeling like history is repeating itself, and something tells me it's going to end up the same way, or worse!" she said. "Hey, listen," I said, reaching around her, accidentally grabbing her big breast as I did. I let go, trying to fight down my still-raging libido, and held her around her broad shoulders. "I know you're worried, and honestly I wouldn't call my failings your fault. But there's a big difference in then and now. To hear you say it, your ex didn't sound like he loved you, just that you were some sort of big-game trophy to him. If he really had loved you, he would never have taken your utterly fantastic figure and wonderful personality for granted, much less used it as some sort of bragging rights to his law firm." Her arms tightened around me (aargh, hello Mr. Chiropractor) and I felt her hand reach up and pull my hand back down onto her huge breast. "You got it right the first time, baby," she said with a sniffle. "That's where it belongs." "You aren't some conquest to me, Terri," I said, emboldened. "I am the one who should be terrified of messing this up because, from where I'm sitting, I have a hell of a lot more to lose than you do. You could find another guy like me in a heartbeat. If you only knew what I knew. Hell, I'll bet guys fall over themselves just to get a look from you. You, on the other hand... I could never imagine another woman as perf... as extraordinary as you, Terri. Dammit, I want to say perfect, because you are just so damn flawless! I'll bet your ex used the whole perfect label as some sort of denigrating term, but it's not. You are the most exquisite woman I have ever met, so much more incredible than I ever dreamed a woman could be. I consider myself lucky to even know you, much less be in love with you! You're so -" She suddenly sat up and kissed me hard on the lips, cutting me off, and gladly if you ask me. I was in danger of having to turn in my man card if I kept kissing ass like I had been. Her gorgeous ass was worth it, though. If she had asked me to wear a skirt to work for a year, I'd probably do it because she was asking. Maybe I could move to Scotland. Terri's tears had been drying during my little talk, and she squeezed me crushingly tightly as I kissed her, guaranteeing the trip to the chiropractor, dammit. We held our lips together for what felt like hours until we heard a light knock on the door. "Terri... Eric?" Alice called. "Lunch is on the table. I'm going to take Darlene and the girls to the park down the street. I know you two have a lot to talk about, so we'll leave you be. Just don't let everything get too cold." Terri sniffled and yelled back at the door. "Thanks, Mom!" "You're welcome, sweetheart," she replied. "I am guessing in your present state you wouldn't want to join the lunch conversation anyway. Darlene is a... unique lady." I couldn't help but chuckle at that, and Terri elbowed me lightly in the ribs. "Okay, Mom, we'll get something to eat as soon as we're done talking," Terri said, and we heard Alice's footsteps on the hardwood outside her room, walking away. "Funny, I didn't hear her walking toward the door," I said. "Do you think she heard us?" "I don't know," Terri replied, "Mom's not terribly nosy, but who knows?" I had to laugh at that. "Well, if it was my Mother, there would be a story tonight on the evening news! With her doing the play-by-play. Consider yourself lucky." She squeezed my hand, looking at me, and the little tear streaks that ran from the corners of her eyes made me want to weep myself. "I do consider myself lucky, Eric," she said. "I just hope my luck holds." "It will," I said, but the surety of my words didn't echo in my thoughts. God, I hope so, I thought.