The next day we get up around noon and order breakfast from room service. During the meal, Blake receives a series of giddy texts from Angel talking about how well he slept in our spare room last night and how much he likes “Lainey”, as he calls my mom.

“He already has a pet name for her?” I shake my head, not sure I like how fast things are moving.

“Looks like it.”

I dip a corner of my toast into a sunny-side-up egg and eat it slowly, mulling over the idea that my mother now has a live-in patient-slash-maybe-boyfriend.

Blake receives and reads another text. “He’s pulling the plug on the hotel room now, too. He’s asking me to check out of the room, settle the bill and bring his suitcases over to the house.”

Now, my phone beeps. It’s my mom, with a short text: Angel Cameron is officially our boarder now. And my patient. He’s asked Blake to bring his things from the hotel. Just wanted to let you know before you come home.

I send her a reply that I’m with Blake, I already know and that I’ll see her soon. Then, I pick at my food absently, thinking about how quickly things’ve changed.

“You’re not too thrilled, by the looks of it,” Blake says quietly.

“Everything seems to be moving so fast all of a sudden, that’s all. There’s been…a lot going on. And now, there’s a stranger living in my house, who, probably, will soon be sleeping in my mom’s bed with her. It’s a lot to take in.”

“True,” he says, nodding soberly. “You’ll have to have patience, get used to it. Everything will settle, you’ll see.”

I nod, pushing my food around my plate. I open a small carton of chocolate milk, take a sip and put it back down.

“Maybe, try to look at it like this,” Blake says, after a while. “Your mom’s been alone for a long time. Angel, too. He’s sixty years old. And your mom’s only a few years younger.” He drains his orange juice and pours himself another. “I’m pushing forty, Jennifer. I can tell you that when people get into their thirties and forties, they realize that some of their best years are behind them. People in their fifties and sixties, even more so.”

I catch his drift. “So you’re saying, they don’t feel like they have a lot of time to waste.”

He lifts his shoulders, nods, and mops up some egg yolk with a piece of toast.

I feel a pang of shame for my selfishness. “You’re right. You know what? Let’s take his stuff over as soon as we’re done here, okay? The sooner I meet and start getting to know him, the better.”

I text Mom back to let her know Blake and me will be coming home soon.

I resume eating but I find I’m nervous, now. Apprehensive. I have trouble with change and upheaval. I can’t help it. Sometimes, I can only handle so much.

I eat quietly now, not talking.

Blake says nothing, just puts his foot over mine under the table. Somehow, it helps. I’m able to finish eating as a growing sense of calm settles on me.

A few minutes later, I’m in the bathroom, opening the water faucets and adjusting the temperature, preparing to take a shower.

I get it just right and go to the bathroom door. Blake is sitting on the bed, reading the news on his phone.

“Pssst,” I say. He looks up at me.

I motion with my chin and turn to go back into the bathroom, dropping my bathrobe and stepping into the shower stall.

In a moment, he joins me.

He positions himself behind me and wraps his arms around my body, one of his hands going straight to one of my boobs, the other one heading between my legs. I lean back against him and close my eyes.

We stand under the water for a moment, letting it wet and warm us up.

His erection unabashedly makes itself felt, pressing my ass, then sliding between my legs, where I capture it between my thighs and hold on to it, just to tease.

One of his big hands picks up the soap and uses it on my breasts. Mmm, he sure knows how to give a good boob massage!

After a few moments, the other hand slides down my belly, pressing me closely against his own large, hard body, following my curves until it finds my pussy.

At the same time, he nibbles, kisses and sucks gently here and there on my shoulders, my nape, my ear lobes, encouraging me to melt against him until I’m relaxed and letting out low moans and murmurs of arousal.

He places my hands flat on the shower walls, running his open palms down my arms, over my breasts and waist, where they pause to pull my hips towards him before taking handfuls of my rump, pulling my cheeks apart, opening me to him.

I arch my back, wet and hot and ready.

His thick cock parts my lips and slides into me, pushing all other thought aside for that moment, filling my body with sparkling, effervescent pleasure.

I close my eyes and together, we ride another Blake Cameron Rock ’n’ Roll Rodeo all the way to knee-shaking, toe-curling bliss.

* * *

“…and there he was, a skinny, mouthy kid…dirty, smelly, bruised and bloody, nothing but the clothes on his back. Too stubborn to go home and too dumb to be scared! Eeeee hee hee!”

Blake and I arrived at the house with Angel’s suitcases just after two pm.

It’s now after nine o’clock. We’ve spent the entire day with Angel and Mom, cooked dinner together and now the four of us are sitting in the living room, finishing off our second bottle of wine.

We are all a wee bit tipsy.

Angel’s telling the story of how he picked up a freshly robbed and beaten eighteen-year-old Blake from the wilds of Venice Beach, when the younger Cameron first went West to seek his fortune.

Mom sits on one end of the couch, Angel on the other. Mom’s eyes are riveted on Angel, and even though he’s telling me the story, his eyes return to Mom’s face, restlessly, time and again.

Yep. They like each other, alright.

Blake and I are sharing the oversized armchair, with me nestled between his legs, my back snuggled into his chest. His arms circle my shoulders, his hands resting comfortably on my upper arms. Meanwhile, his legs make a nice place to rest my arms, while my own legs stretch comfortably out onto the ottoman.

It’s been a day full of lively discussion. We’re all tired, but Angel and Blake are starting to feel more comfortable, more familiar. It’s early days yet, but so far, they fit in with Mom and me well.

The initial sense of awkwardness and formality is gone. Angel’s largely responsible for that. The guy is so friendly, so forward, so open and unselfconscious, it’s immediately disarming. He instantly comes across as a trustworthy, no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners kind of guy.

A lot like Blake, now that I think of it.

Our conversations today have covered just about everything, even getting heated a time or two, especially when Mom or Blake tried to help Angel when Angel didn’t want to be helped.

We’ve already noticed that Angel hates needing help and has to be jollied and cajoled into accepting it..

So, when Angel characterizes Blake as being stubborn, Mom and I shoot each other a “look who’s talking” look.

Yes, it’s already very apparent that stubbornness is a shared Cameron trait.

“Okay, that’s enough ancient history,” Blake says. “I want to think about the future, not the past.”

“To the future,” Angel says, holding his glass up.

“To the future,” we all agree.

“So…um. Speaking of the future, what’s next?” Blake asks Angel. “Still wanna sell your place on the coast and move here, I presume?”

“Yep. I told you, I’m not staying in LA by myself. Without you, there’s nothing out there for me any more.”

“I’ve never been to California,” Mom says, a little wistfully.

“No? Funny you should mention…I’ll have to go back at least once, to wrap things up. Probably more than once. You’re my full-time personal nurse now, so, of course, you’ll accompany me.”

“I…well…just a second. I haven’t made a firm decision about that yet.” Mom arches an eyebrow at him.

Uh oh, I think. Here’s the part where Angel finds out about my mom’s mettle. She’s no pushover.

Angel isn’t perturbed. “Last night, you said you’d take a leave of absence, and…”

“I said I’d think about it,” Mom says.

“You’ll make more money and have more fun with me,” Angel says, quietly, sipping his wine casually.

“I’m sure that’s true, but…I don’t want to do anything rash. It’s a big decision.”

“Sure is,” Angel agrees amiably. “Which is why you should take all the time you need to think about it. There’s no rush.”

“Hey, remember you and Dad were planning a road trip, right before he got sick?” I say. “You were gonna rent an RV and drive to the coast. Take a few weeks off in the summertime, drive a scenic route. That was what, the year before tenth grade, I think?”

She nods. “Yes. It was going to be a second honeymoon, kind of. You were going to stay at Marie’s.” She sighs. “But Frank fell ill, and…oh well.”

“So you never got the chance to do it?” Blake asks.

“No. But, I’ve always wanted to! When I was a kid, it was like, a rite of passage almost, to see the country before heading off to college or getting married. Frank and I planned to but he wanted to graduate college first. By the time he did, I was pregnant with you and we just, you know, settled into family life.”

“And you never travelled?” Angel asks.

“Sure, but, just a week or two for vacations, here and there. Mexico, the Bahamas, and, you know, we rented cottages and cabins on the East coast a couple times. But we never did do the whole scenic-route road trip thing. Not that I’m complaining!” she adds hastily. “We had a great life.”

“Well, why couldn’t you do it now?” Blake says. “The two of you. Angel’s well enough now to do his share of driving.”

Mom and Angel look at each other, wordlessly, while Blake and I watch the two of them.

“Welllll….I dunno…” Angel says, stroking his goatee. “A road trip…? To Venice Beach? That’s, like, a three-day drive. Probably, ten hours a day in the car? I hate being stuck in the car for hours on end like that.”

But I catch his eyes shifting to a point behind my head…to Blake’s eyes, no doubt. Then his eyes quickly shift back to my mother’s.

Oh come on, I think to myself. She’s not going to fall for the old reverse-psychology thing.

“There’s nothing to say we have to make the drive in three days,” Mom says. “The whole point to a road trip is to make stops, see what there is to see.”

Oh my God! She is falling for the old reverse-psychology thing? I bite my lip to suppress a smile.

“Yeah….I dunno…” Angel hems and haws. “I don’t mind driving per se, but it does get boring. I hate to have to get in the car and just drive like a maniac to get somewhere.”

“Hello? I just said, we’ll make stops. We’ll plan out an itinerary! I could…I mean, there are all kinds of things to see between Columbus and LA! We could take a week to get out there, if we wanted. Two weeks! A month! We wouldn’t have to make a beeline for the coast. It’d be fun!”

Blake squeezes me between his knees. I squeeze his thighs in return. I can tell that he’s holding back laughter by the tension I can suddenly feel in his stomach and arm muscles.

“Oh? Hmm…I guess,” Angel says. “I sorta thought we’d fly out but…maybe that’d be okay…take our time, catch a few sights.” He’s nodding slowly, eyes wide and innocent, as if she’s winning him over.

Oh crap, he took it too far, made it too obvious. If she doesn’t catch on to that, then I’ll know something’s wrong with her.

Just as I look at her to see how she’s taking it, she throws her head back and laughs.

Her laugh is so bubbly and contagious, the rest of us laugh too, not even sure yet what we’re laughing at.

“Angel! You are so full of shit!” She gasps, bringing fresh snorts of laughter from the three of us. “You think I was born yesterday?”

“No, ma’am,” he says, grinning and shaking his head. “Eeeee hee hee! Just thought I’d help you convince yourself to go to Venice with me.”

“Hah! Well, I still have to talk to the agency, see what I can arrange. I…I’d need to say good-bye to my patients. But…yeah. A road trip…wow! Now, that’s an offer I can’t refuse. You can thank Jennifer for that.”

“Thanks, Jennifer,” he says, tipping an imaginary hat in my direction. “I don’t wanna drive an RV, though. I hate camping! I’d want to stay in a proper hotel every night.”

“Fine with me,” Mom says.

Blake squeezes me with his legs again.

“Well, if you two are going to do this road-trip thing, then that means Jenny’ll be here alone.” Blake clears his throat, then continues. “I volunteer to keep you company.”

“Oh, you do, do you?” I laugh.

“Yes! Notice I said, I volunteer. I was going to simply show up with my bags, but I thought I’d better consult with you first,” he teases.

“That was a good thought. I’ll give your proposal due consideration and get back to you at my earliest convenience,” I tease him back.

“Oh yeah?” He gives my ponytail a gentle yank. “You got five minutes, then I’m withdrawing my application.”

Laughing, we finish off our wine and then Mom and Angel go to the family room to watch a movie.

“Well, I’ve had too much wine, so I guess I’d better call a cab and head to my lonely trailer,” Blake says. “I shouldn’t have given up the hotel room. We could’ve gone back there tonight. Unless…nah! I don’t suppose you want to come to my trailer with me? Or, go get another hotel room?”

“I…what? No! No offence Blake but I don’t want to spend the night in your trailer on the job site. Yuck!”

“Yeah, I don’t blame you. Hotel room, then?”

“Naw. I can’t be bothered. Look…we’re here, we’re comfortable. You already have your bag with your clothes and toiletries from the hotel room. Why can’t you just stay here tonight? I have a double bed and my own bathroom. There’s plenty of room.”

“You don’t think your mom will mind?”

“I doubt it, but…just a sec.” I send Mom a quick text and ask her. After a moment, she replies that it’s okay with her.

Smiling, I show Blake her text.

He lets out a quiet whoop, tips my head back and plants a juicy kiss on my lips. “If you didn’t offer, I was going to go up to your room, get into your bed naked and then refuse to leave anyway! Squatter’s rights!”

“Yeah, I believe ya! Pushy bugger!” I laugh. “You and Angel are quite a pair, aren’t you? You both make yourselves right at home.”

“Yes, that’s a Cameron trait as well. That, and making the ladies blush, tremble, and scream.”

“Good lord,” I roll my eyes. “Well, I don’t know how much blushing, trembling and screaming I’m gonna do tonight, what with my mom and your cousin in the same house. I’m pretty pooped anyway.”

“Me too. I promise to be a complete gentleman. I’ll just suck your pussy dry while you try and keep quiet.” He kisses me, smiling. “How’s that?”

“Did you know that I have Netflix on my Xbox upstairs? We can go lay in bed, fire up a movie and hope that covers any sounds. How’s that?”

“You got a deal, baby.”