AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sure, why not?”
“We should get up.”
“Not yet.”
“Come on. It’ll mean you’ll just want it more.”
“I want it enough already.”
“Then you’re already off to the perfect start.”
Breakfast is a mix of hot coffee, buttered toast, thigh squeezes, and smoldering looks that could easily get us caught. It’s so clear that there is something going on between us that even Marvin makes an offhand comment about it, and I have to make up some story about Landon snoring so loudly in the night that I had to push him onto his side so I could get back to sleep.
I think it works. Mom just laughs and nods as though it’s something she’s experienced with Marvin, and can well believe it happening with his son too, while Landon, for his part, plays along enough to make it seem convincing. I divert the attention away as soon as possible, changing the subject and moving the focus elsewhere. If I could do so without making it obvious, I’d move Landon’s hand away from my lap too. I love having it there, but every time he squeezes my inner thigh, I have to concentrate doubly hard for us not to get caught. The last time he did it I wasn’t expecting it, let out a little yelp of excitement and had to pretend I’d bitten my tongue.
Landon’s playing fast, loose and reckless, part of which terrifies me, part of which turns me on.
“Did you sleep alright, Marvin?”
“I did, thank you.”
“You look better, Dad, to be fair. You’ve got more color.”
“I feel like I’m back to normal.”
Talk about up and down. One minute he’s emptying the contents of his stomach all over the bathroom floor, the next he’s as right as rain. He better not be getting any ideas about a last day family walk into the middle of nowhere. If Landon and I can’t get a little bit of alone time during which we can both let ourselves go, there is every chance that tonight we won’t be able to hold in the noise of our pleasure as much.
I feel like I should check, just in case he’s planning on doing something stupid.
“That’ll be because the rest is doing you good. You don’t want to exert yourself just in case you get sick again.”
Mom nods in agreement. “Tilly’s right, Marvin.”
“I’m not going to get sick again.”
“Not if you stay away from that tuna.”
“Hey! It wasn’t food poisoning or we’d all have got it. There’s nothing wrong with my tuna, thank you.”
I’m not entirely sure that’s true, but I don’t want to make a point of it. Mysterious illness or not, if Marvin hadn’t have gotten sick, Landon and I would be sat on opposite sides of this table, perhaps even on opposite sides of this room.
“So, what are you two going to do for your last day?”
Landon shrugs, and then gives me a look that makes me hot with desire. “Tilly?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we can go for a walk.”
“It’s a lovely day. There are some trails around here you can follow, like the one we took before Marvin got sick.”
Trails aren’t quite private enough for what I want. I need middle of nowhere, off the beaten track wild enough to have cover, isolated enough for no-one to be able to hear us scream. Maybe we need to take the car because across this flat land, too close to the house and the sound might travel. Marvin has the look of an expert on animal noises too. I bet if he heard us, he’d know it wasn’t the mating call of a skunk, that’s for sure.
“Or a drive.”
Landon squeezes my knee and I can’t help it shooting up uncontrollably and banging against the table. Marvin looks up from his book.
“What was that?”
“Nothing”, I say, hoping I’m not going red, a squeeze of retribution doing nothing to Landon’s casual exterior. He should go and sit on his sofa, or outside, or in the jacuzzi, or anywhere else but next to me because sooner or later someone’s going to catch us. They can already probably see my heart beating wildly in my chest.
“Why don’t you go and sit somewhere else?”
I can’t even say it in a bitchy way now.
“I’m alright here, thanks. I’m still eating.”
“I’ve never seen anyone eat so much in my life. It must be all that exercise you’re doing.”
Thanks Mom, now I’m definitely going red.
“I think it must be, Rachel. Just sharing a room with Tilly is an exercise alone. An exercise in patience and control.”
Mom can’t help but laugh.
“She’s a bit demanding isn’t she?”
“Mom?!”
“Are you, Tilly? I don’t think I’ve seen that side yet.”
This is too much to bear. I’m either going to turn the color of a beetroot or fall into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. I move to Landon’s couch to join Marvin in the living room, just to try and avoid it.
“It’s a shame you have to stay here.”
“Doctor’s orders.”
Landon swings around on his chair.
“What about a picnic, Tilly? We could drive up into the hills we saw on the other side of the lake, lay a rug out, sit down, eat. I could do with getting out of the house a bit today.”
Or a lot today.
“That sounds lovely”, Mom says. “The weather is perfect for it.”
“You don’t mind?”
“If we could come with you, we would.”
“I feel well enough to go.”
“You’re doing nothing but relaxing today, Marvin.”
“I have to agree, Dad. The last thing I want to do is carry you down from the hills and drive you back to New York.”
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you two are getting along. I was so worried that you’d be fighting all the time, but no, Marvin and I were saying only yesterday when you were out how proud we are of you both.”
“Thick as thieves”, Marvin says, without lifting his eyes from the page of his book. The way he says it makes me wonder if there’s subtext buried without the statement, but if there is, I don’t want to dwell on what it might mean. I shake it off.
“It’s not like I’ve got much choice who I socialize with.”
“You might get reception on your cell phone up in the hills”, Landon says. “You can find out what your real friends are up to. If you have any.”
I mouth the word ass-hole to him and I swear Mom sees it even though she doesn’t mention it. I guess she’s too busy trying to find out if I could leave the whole of the twenty first century behind should I need to.
“Have you missed it?”
“Have I missed what?”
“Your cell phone, Tilly. The internet. Facebook, instagram, linkedin, your entire social life in one handy little device.”
What kind of a question
is that? That’s like saying, have you missed the real world? I’d prefer to be back at home on a permanent basis, rather than here for a long period of time, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed the freedom of being away from it all for a while. Especially with Landon thrown into the mix.
Our surroundings are obviously extremely beautiful here, but the most naturally beautiful thing I’ve seen hasn’t been from here at all. It’s sat there at the table smiling at me, and if I close my eyes and can still see it.
“I could live without it I suppose, if I had to, but only for a little while.”
“So you’d come back?”
“Here? With everyone?”
“With the whole family, all of us. Now that we know each other, we could make this a yearly thing.”
Landon and I share a glance. He mouths something at me that looks like fuck but I can’t quite make it out. A yearly fuck fest here with Landon. Of course, by this time next year, we might be official. But then again, if we aren’t still together, it might be incredibly awkward.
“Why has everyone gone quiet? What do you say, Landon?”
“I think it’s a great idea.”
“You two can share the same room again, now that Tilly has got over her pride, or we could always go somewhere different.”
“No, here’s good.”
I realize I’ve answered quickly and because of that, everyone is staring at me. I have to backtrack a little. “I mean, if Landon doesn’t snore. It’s nice here. I like the decking and the garden, it’s peaceful.”
“Even without a cell phone signal?”
Landon is looking at me quizzically.
“It’s not the only thing we can do to pass the time, I suppose.”
“That’s the spirit, Tilly. I knew you’d come around in the end. We managed just fine when I was growing up without cell phones and internet. Just ask Marvin.”
“Dad still doesn’t use one.”
Cell phones, internet, condoms, unprotected sex, mind-blowing, multiple orgasms, even projectile vomit. There’s a lot of things i’ll remember about this weird vacation away with my portmanteau family, but the biggest will always be Landon. I’ve run out of superlatives to describe him. From the moment I saw him in the flesh, to now, packing food into bags and hunting for a rug to take with us, our connection has just grown stronger and stronger.
