The Making of a Gigolo (15) - Agatha Roberts

by Lubrican

Chapters : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18
19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36

Chapter Thirty-one

Suzie got home in late July. She arrived without calling ahead, and with no fanfare. She had a week before she needed to be in Kansas City to find an apartment and get ready for med school. She stopped at the Chumley manor first, though no one in her family knew that. She thanked them again and they kept her there for over an hour as she described what their scholarship had meant to her.

She left stunned. No student loans for medical school would be necessary, if she agreed to come back to Granger and practice medicine there. They'd pay everything, including the stipend to live on, so she wouldn't have to work.

"Give us five or six years, here in Granger," Chester had said. "We'll call it even after that."

"It's too much!" Suzie had gasped.

"A drop in the bucket." Chester had waved a hand negligently. It had held a cigar in it.

"You need to stop smoking those things," Suzie had pointed out.

He had laughed. Felicity had hugged her, and walked to the front door with her.

Now she parked, feeling the euphoria of knowing that she wouldn't be in debt up to her eyeballs when medical school was over. She was home. She could relax and do nothing for a whole week! She'd get to see her mamma, and her sisters.

And she'd get to see Bobby.

Bobby, as it turned out, was gone on a job when Suzie got there. The twins were at work too, so she got to spend some time with her mother.

Even though Suzie wasn't a doctor yet, hadn't even received her white coat yet, in her mother's mind she was already a physician. The news about the Chumley's extended "scholarship" only reinforced that perception.

And people will talk to a doctor ... at least one they trust.

It was from Mirriam, that she learned what the twins had been trying to find out, about Bobby. Mirriam was Prudence's best friend, and they had no secrets. Prudence had described a daughter who was acting much the same way Mirriam's son was acting. Both knew the cause, but neither knew what to do about it. It was ironic in the extreme that Mirriam not only asked her daughter for advice, but that she asked the only daughter who, as far as Mirriam was aware, had no experience with men either.

"I have an idea," said Suzie, after a two hour catch-up session.

"What is it?"

"Bev," said Suzie. "She was Connie's best friend."

Mirriam's eyes widened. "I should have thought of that!" she moaned.

Then she told Suzie why she'd been having a hard time thinking about much of anything, and about the new man in her life.

Suzie found Bev and another catch-up session evolved, this one only an hour long. Part of that was admitting to Bev what had happened in Manhattan. She left her roommates out of it, but confessed the rest. Bev knew what Bobby was like, and wasn't surprised or judgmental. But she was agitated when Suzie told her about Connie and Bobby.

"I knew she was nuts for him," sighed Bev. "I should have seen this coming." She stamped a foot. "But then she met Tim, and I thought it was all taken care of."

"Well, if they're right ... it wasn't." Suzie shrugged.

Bev frowned. "When Tim died, I didn't know what to do for her. We drifted apart, and I shouldn't have let that happen. But Bobby was the only one who could get through to her, so I just let him. I should have seen it then too. I've been so stupid!"

When Bev and Suzie showed up at the door, Prudence was a bit surprised. When Bev asked, almost shyly, to talk to Constance, Prudence simply stood back.

This catch-up session took four hours, and Prudence didn't see or hear a peep from Connie's room the entire time. When Bev came out she looked drawn and tired, but she smiled.

"You were right," she said. "She's in love with my brother."

"I knew it," said Prudence. She didn't sound like she was happy to be vindicated. "Is she okay?"

"Were you ever okay when you were in love?" asked Bev, with wisdom much older than her chronological age. "Were you ever okay when a man was involved?"

Prudence smiled. "Yes, actually. I was. And you are too."

Bev flashed a wide grin. "I know, but it's so much fun to blame everything on the man."

"Where's Suzie?"

"She's still talking to her."

"What now?" asked Prudence, looking toward her daughter's door.

"Now we figure out how to talk to Bobby, and try to straighten all this out."

"We?" Prudence felt a stab of fear that Bev would expect her to help "talk to Bobby." Prudence didn't do well when she talked to Bobby. She had a tendency to stare into his blue eyes, and that led to things she was resolved not to do any more, considering how her daughter felt about the man those blue eyes belonged to.

"My sisters and I," said Bev. "We've ganged up on him in the past. We're older now. It might even work." She smiled tiredly. "I have to go. Suzie is going to talk to the twins and Linda. I need to go find Mary and Flo. We're going to try to start things happening."

"What should I do?" asked Prudence.

"Just be there for her if this doesn't work out," sighed Bev.

The girls gathered in the twins' room, in the barn. Nobody knew when Bobby would be home, but it didn't matter. He wasn't invited to this part of things. Mirriam was told that they were coming up with a plan, and to occupy him with chores or anything else she could think of so that he didn't barge in on them. Mirriam said she'd cook extra food, but that the table wouldn't hold both the boarders and all of them. They told her they'd come get it and eat in the barn.

Bobby got home around nine. Once again he was trying to avoid the twins. He'd been done with his work at five and then driven to the lake, where he threw rocks into the water for an hour. Then he went to the Wagon Wheel and had supper. He was glad Jill wasn't there. Sal was his old self, and Bobby felt cheered up when he left.

It was for that reason that he decided to go see Erica. She was delighted to see him, but not for the reason he went there.

"Come in!" she squealed, pulling him into the house. "I have news!"

He knew about Terry, of course, having seen him at the park on the fourth. They had been reserved there, though, and it had seemed to Bobby like things were just in the exploratory stages. Erica hadn't talked about Terry when she was together with Bobby, before this.

What she told him now revealed that things were much farther along than he'd thought. She had applied for a job in Hutchinson, and been offered a contract. She'd start there in two weeks. She was looking for an apartment, though Terry had offered to let her stay with him. She wasn't comfortable with that. She felt more strongly about him than she had any other man, in ways she wasn't used to feeling strongly about a man, but she wasn't going to hurry things. If she couldn't find a place she could afford, she'd just commute until she did.

She'd obviously given this a lot of thought, and Bobby's initial almost-desire to seek solace in her arms melted away. She was obviously excited about this new relationship.

"I owe it all to you, Bobby," she said, pulling him into a hug. "If it hadn't been for you, I'd probably never have given him a chance."

"Yes you would," said Bobby. "You gave me one."

"That was different," she said. "You let me find out who I am inside. You let me feel free to be myself." She saw something in Bobby's face, and pulled back.

It suddenly occurred to her that he had just shown up, like he had in the past, and she remembered what they usually did in the past.

"Terry likes Owen, Bobby," she said, more subdued now. "I know he's yours, but ..."

Bobby held up a hand. "He's your son," he said. The pain hit his gut then. "I want you to be happy. He needs a father."

Erica frowned. "I can raise him by myself, Bobby. A father would be a plus, but I don't have to have a man to raise him."

"I know," he said. His tried to make his grimace into a smile. "But two parents are always better than one. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I had a father for a while, and it was better. I love my Mamma, and she raised us well, but I still miss Joe sometimes. That's all I'm saying."

"You're right," she said. "Two parents are better than one. I've never thought about getting married. And he hasn't talked about that either. His first marriage didn't work and I think he's as scared about thinking about it as I am. And if it works out that way, I still want Owen to know you. You'll always be part of us, Bobby." She tried to smile. "And if it doesn't work out, and my house doesn't get sold, I can always come back here. I know now how hard it is to get teachers to come here. They may not like me, but they'll take me back. And I'll be here, and Owen will be here and you'll be here."

"That would be nice," said Bobby. "But I hope it works out for you in Hutch. That would be better."

"You're sure?"

He started to say: "What choice do I have?" It was what he wanted to say. He wanted to lash out. But he didn't. He swallowed that. It only made the pain in his stomach worse, but he couldn't hurt her.

"I'm sure," he said softly.

"I want to make love with you," she said, tentatively, "but I don't want to at the same time."

He hadn't really felt like it when he got there, and he felt even less inclined now.

"You're moving on. I hope it works out," he said.

She hugged him then.

"Remember," she whispered, "you'll always be part of Owen and me."

"I'll remember."

He had half expected it, which made it a little less destructive, perhaps. It was just one more brick on the load he felt like he was carrying. As he drove home, he thought to himself that Renee would probably be the next of his women to find happiness. She was pretty, successful, and a good catch. On the other hand, she was pretty sour on the idea of marriage too.

Now he had to go back home. He knew that if he got there too soon, the twins would still be up. If he was alone with them in the barn, they'd want to do something with him. Sex was the last thing he wanted to get involved with, right now. It was better if he was alone, and that he left them alone until they went to bed.

He drove around some more.

The twins were in their bedroom, but they weren't asleep. They also weren't alone. All of Bobby's sisters were there with them. Linda was on watch when she saw the lights of Bobby's car turn in. She gave the warning and Flo flipped the lights off.

"Everybody ready?" asked Mary. No answer was necessary.

The plan that Bobby's sisters came up with might seem bizarre to most people. A psychologist would have laughed outright at it. Of course that would have required that the psychologist know what Bobby's current mood was, and the things that were plaguing him.

Imagine getting seven women together and watching them come up with a plan to get their brother and an eighth woman (who was not present) to recognize that they love each other. Now throw in the fact that the seven women are fully aware that the eighth woman's primary unhappiness has to do with the man's sexual habits.

And, of course, you also have to understand that the seven women were deeply involved in that man's sexual habits.

You might expect something that would have been appropriate for the Keystone Cops to put on film. All seven sisters were unique, in their own ways, with different personalities, and different ways of thinking. Their current social situations were vastly different too. Some were married, and some not. Some were employed, and others didn't work outside the home. Their ages were different. But they all had one thing in common.

They all loved being in bed with Bobby.

So it wasn't so odd that they thought that the central part of their plan was to get Bobby and Constance in bed together.

Bev and Suzie knew that hadn't happened yet. Their long talk with her had established that. But it had also established that she was quite sure Bobby would never be able to change his stripes, and settle down with one woman, his protestations to the contrary not withstanding.

His sisters were aware of his propensity to spread his seed far and wide. Most of them, in fact, had provided fertile soil for that seed to take root in. Only Florence and Suzie had not had his child. All of them knew what it was like to be in bed with him, and to want to be in bed with him, even if most of them resisted that urge, these days. The ones who resisted him knew how hard that was, which turned out to be the core of their plan. If they could get Bobby and Constance in bed together, they were sure Constance wouldn't be able to resist him in the future. Now all they had to do was think of a way to get Bobby to restrict his activities in bed to one woman.

The twins contributed to the conversation by describing how Bobby's sex drive had all but disappeared.

So the plan they came up with was designed to deal with that problem, and then get him to go ask Connie to marry him. They'd tumble into bed, ecstasy would flow, and the problem would be solved.

It was a hastily made plan. It was a goofy plan. And the way they finally decided to get Bobby to stick to one woman was even stranger. Oddest of all, though, was the fact that it was a plan that was based on the premise that they understood the social culture of being male.

It might have been described as trying to beat a man into submission with a strap made from an Angora sweater. They were sure it would work, and they were excited to get started.

Bobby had driven around after leaving Erica's, until he felt better, and had killed enough time that hopefully, the twins would already be in bed. He groaned when he saw the light in their bedroom was on. Then, as he turned in the driveway, he saw the light go off. He sat in the car for ten more minutes, to give them time to fall asleep, and then got out of his car, easing the door closed until the latch caught with a click. It was Friday night. He couldn't remember if they worked at Renee's on Saturday morning or not. Their schedule changed, according to Renee's need for them. He'd have to get up and leave early, just in case. If they didn't have to work they'd come to his room.

He crept as silently as he could into the apartment in the barn. Leaving the lights off, he went by memory to his door. Once in his room, he turned on the light, and got undressed for bed. He felt worn out, and couldn't tell if the aches and pains in his body were real, or just imagined. He had just turned off the light and settled into bed with a sigh, when his door opened. There was no light on, and his room was one without windows. He groaned. It had to be one of the twins. Then he heard the soft sound of bare feet on the floor ... too many bare feet. His brain had just registered that the sound of breath entering and leaving lungs sounded like more than two women too when the light came on, blinding him.

"Surp[rise!" came a veritable chorus of female voices. There were way too many voices for it to be just the twins.

He squinted and saw his sisters ... all of them.

And they were all naked.

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