I t was two days later when Jake invited the whole family over to his house for dinner. It was also the first time I was going to see Jake since before I'd left for school.

I'm not going to lie, I made myself look good before we went over that night, and I did it entirely for him. Dinner was going to be casual, but I still put on a sexy, yet not slutty short skirt and wide-necked shirt that hung off my shoulders. It managed to flatter my slender form instead of highlighting my lack of, well, much of a bust up there. I even slipped on one of the thong panties I’d  bought at school, blushing. A thong was hardly something I’d have worn back in high school, and even now it wasn’t anything I’d bought for anyone. But feeling that thin, tiny piece of fabric tight against my bare slit always made me feel an extra bit sexy , and I wanted to feel sexy tonight.

My heart hammered as we walked across our yard to his and my stomach flip flopped when my dad rang the doorbell.

The door swung open, and there he was, looking gorgeous as ever. Crisp white button-up shirt stretched tight across his broad tanned chest and shoulders and a casual pair of jeans.

"Hey guys! Come on in Mike! Sarah, Dennis, and-" He froze mid sentence as he focused on me, and I could see him stumbling for his words as his eyes went wide.

"Chelsea! Wow, hey!” He finally stammered out, his eyes quickly moving over my body before he seemed to catch himself. I blushed under his wide-eyed stare, his mouth hanging slightly open as his gaze ran up and down the whole new girl standing before him.

"Man, what do they feed them at school, huh Mike?" He suddenly tore his eyes away from me with strange look in his eyes as he elbowed my dad in the ribs.

"Come on in guys, food's just about done!"

Jake stepped aside and ushered us in with gusto. As I stepped past him into the house, I felt a thrill rush through me, his gaze lingering until I was burning.

We milled around, talking, me filling everybody in on the usual "how's school" questions before we sat down for lasagna. And it was then that I started to notice something. Much to my glee, Jake Harding could not keep his eyes off of me. I thought at first I was just hopefully imagining it. But the more it kept happening - the more I kept just missing his eyes on me as I'd turn, or his lingering smile as I recounted a story about school or class - the more sure I was, and it made me glow inside. I - the geeky, scrawny girl from next door - actually had Mr. Harding's attention!

* * *

A fter we were finished with dinner, my dad and Jake walked over to the bar cart in the corner of his living room. Dad was patting his back and nodding emphatically as they talked just out of earshot of the rest of us, and it occurred to me that we’d all pointedly avoided talking about Lenore all night. I took the moment to volunteer to clear the table.

I was in the kitchen, poking around the cabinet underneath the sink for the switch to the garbage disposal when he must have walked in. The water was running in the sink, along with the dishwasher running next to me, which is why I never heard him until I heard the loud “Whoops!” from behind me. My head whipped around at the sound, and I think both of us froze in that moment of realization.

You see, looking for that garbage disposal switch, I’d been bent over at the waist, one hand on my knee as I peered into the darkness beneath the sink. And as I whirled around at Mr. Harding’s exclamation, it’d only taken me half a second to realize what he was staring at with his face bright red and his eyes wide and so hungry .

The skirt I’d worn that night was hardly inappropriate; if I was standing up, or even sitting down with my legs crossed, or beneath a dining room table. Bent over at the waist , however, was another matter altogether, and between the piercing focus of his eyes and the sudden feeling of air tickling up the bare backs of my thighs and my butt, I suddenly grasped exactly what was happening.

My skirt was pulled right up over my ass, and just as he’d walked into the kitchen, Jake Harding had gotten an absolute eyeful of my tight young ass, split right down the middle by my thong panties.

There was a moment where I just froze ; just deer in a headlights frozen. Jake had the same look. But quickly, after possibly the longest single second of my entire life, I stood up, blushing furiously and smoothing my skirt down. Mr. Harding quickly looked away, as if the refrigerator had suddenly and completely caught his attention. And just like that, we both pretended that he hadn’t just seen right up my skirt to my thong panties pulled tight across my pussy, and that I hadn’t lingered just a second longer than necessary to let him.

Jake quickly smiled at me, his face probably as red as mine as he quickly moved past me to the kitchen counter with the stack of dishes in his hands.

“So! School is good?”

I could still feel my pulse racing, and I nodded at him as I swallowed heavily and tried to slow the pounding of my heart.

“Yeah, it’s- it’s good.”

He smiled at me as we stood there another second or two in not necessarily awkward silence, but silence none-the-less; just both of us lingering a bit too long in the moment.

“You, uh- you really do look great, Chelsea,” he growled. “You’ve really grown up up there at school.”

Mr. Harding ran a hand through his thick chestnut hair and smiled warmly at me as I sat there blushing like an idiot and wanting him more than I’d ever wanted him before for it.

“Thanks.”

* * *

W e said our goodbyes later at the front door, giving our best to Jake and thanking him for dinner.

He gave my mom a quick kiss on the cheek, high-fived Dennis, and shook my dad's hand warmly on the way out. As I passed by him though, he paused, freezing slightly before he pulled me in for a hug. I felt heady surge of heat grip my body as he pulled me close, even if it was for just a moment. The feeling was electric; just like that time before way back at my birthday when he'd hugged me close. And this time, just as before, I felt whole body glow and tingle under his touch.

"Welcome home, Chelsea." He had that same slightly confusing look in his eye as he had in the kitchen before. He grinned at me once more before I turned and followed my parents back across the lawns to our house.