The Reunion (17 page)

Sarah righted herself on the
flotation tube she lay on next to Maria’s. The sun warmed her aching muscles
and the soft sounds of water soothed her frayed nerves. All of her senses were
still jumbled from taking Adam in her rear. She’d surprised him with her
eagerness, but he’d also surprised her by losing control. “So-so, and splendid!”

Maria laughed. “I don’t have to
guess which part was splendid. Guess I no longer have to hold his hand while he
fucks you.”

“Guess not. He managed quite well
without any handholding.” She batted her eyelashes. “My ass is still humming a
thankful tune.”

“Wow.” Maria chewed her lower lip. “I
didn’t think it’d take him long to get around to that. He can get carried away buried
in an ass.”

Sarah felt herself blush. “I
noticed. Maybe that’s what was best about it. He couldn’t hold back if he’d
wanted to. He was all mine and I took everything he had.”

“That’s fine as long as it’s not
habit forming—that is, fucking him by yourself.”

Sarah peeked at the strained look of
her friend. “It won’t be, and you know it.”

“I trust that.” Maria cupped her
hands and started paddling her float. Sarah did the same to keep up with her. They
stopped in the shady part of the pool. “We don’t want to get you burned. That’d
put you out of commission and that wouldn’t be good at all—for any of us.”

“Not at all.”

“So I take it Adam wasn’t too keen
on your idea about a self-help group our girls.”

She shook her head. “Expect he
thinks it’s too touchy feely.”

“Adam,” Maria snorted, “could use a
little more touchy feely.”

“So how do we decide who to invite?”

“Guess he didn’t veto our moving
forward with this project.”

“He knew he couldn’t stop us if we
wanted to go on without him. Unless he wanted to kick us out.”

“And he’s not ready for that.”

“Hardly. He seemed quite satisfied
with our unspecified arrangements this afternoon. So how do we begin? Do we set
an age limit?”

“No, I don’t think so. Women of all
ages have issues, and younger women can learn from the older ones and vice
versa.”

“I’ve noticed.” Sarah gave Maria a
knowing look.

“There used to be a premium on young
women in the industry. There still is, but as the industry moves more and more
to creating films for couples and for women, the potential roles for older
women are expanding. Actually, a number of women who were quite successful in
their teens and twenties and then retired are coming back in their late
thirties and early forties.”

“Really. Forties. I’m thirty-eight.”

“Not too late.”

Sarah shook her head at Maria’s
crooked smile. “Won’t happen. Don’t even think about it.”

“Just kidding. But my point is the
audience for adult film is expanding to include older couples and women. So we
shouldn’t exclude anyone on the basis of age. Or on any other basis, as far as
I’m concerned. Let’s invite them all. We’re only working with twenty or so girls.
I expect only a handful will want to participate.”

“Why such a small number?”

“Many of these women pride
themselves on being private. Some will have no need for such a group; they’ve
got their shit pretty together, at least for the moment. Others will deny they
have issues. We may get a half-dozen takers. As word of mouth spreads, we may
pick up a few more if the word is positive.”

Sarah tried not to flinch under
Maria’s hard stare.

“But it’s their group,” Maria insisted.
“We’re only helping out. They determine what they want to talk about and if
they want to talk at all.”

“Of course. We only want to provide
a safe place for them to talk about whatever. If they want to share their most
glorious moments, that’s just as important as talking about matters that
continue to nag at them.”

“Sounds like you’ve been in these
kinds of groups before?”

Sarah nodded. “After my second
divorce, I figured I needed to do something. I found a group that accepted me
without applying lots of pressure. Over time, I dredged up some crap I wasn’t
even aware I was carting around. Yeah, it’s different, but similar.”

“Guess we’re all women—facing acceptance,
rejection, longing for fulfilling relationships, integrating family
expectations, dealing with significant others—male or female, raising children
and managing aging bodies.”

Sarah reached over and squeezed
Maria’s fingers. “I haven’t notice you struggling much with an aging body.”

“Why do you think I swim laps and go
down to our gym?” Maria’s eyes turned wistful. “Plus I do have a biological
clock ticking. Sometimes it pounds in my ears.”

“You mean children?”

“Uh huh. Having children is as ingrained
in me as breathing. I won’t be a complete woman without bearing children.”

Sarah winced.

“I’m sorry,” Maria said, quickly. “I
forgot.”

“It’s okay. I’ve had to come to
grips with not being able to have children. It still hurts now and then. So do
you think you really want to be a mother? Or is it your family, your genetics
talking?”

Maria closed her eyes and inhaled
deeply. “I’m never certain, but my heart often trips over itself when I see a
mother with a baby. I want one of my own. Can I separate my wants from my family
and my genetics? I’m not sure.”

“What about Adam? Does he want
children?”

“We don’t talk about that.” Maria
grew uncharacteristically quiet and Sarah didn’t push her. “I mentioned it once
and he backed away like he was running a race backwards. I don’t know if he
thinks children will trap him or if he’s scared of them.”

“If he remembers his own childhood,
he should be scared. I don’t think he was the easiest kid, but then he also had
a rather dysfunctional family.”

“Didn’t we all?”

Sarah shrugged. “Probably. To a
certain extent. So what are you going to do about Adam?”

 “I wish I knew. It’s hard to
imagine life without him, though I would survive.”

“I’m sure you would.”

“But I don’t want that. And I don’t
want to have to choose between him and a child.” Maria scowled. “That doesn’t
seem fair.”

“It wouldn’t be. But getting dumped
by two husbands wasn’t exactly fair either.”

Maria chuckled softly and raised an
eyebrow. “Although it does sound like you made them pay a high price.”

“Yes, I did, and I don’t feel badly
about that at all. They used me for what they wanted.” Sarah grinned. “They
didn’t pay in advance, but they did pay on the way out.”

“And now you’re taking control of
your life and your body.”

“You better believe it.”

“You’re a very clever woman, Pepper.
I’ve seen you work Adam. He thinks he’s stretching you beyond your limits, but
he’s not stretching you at all.”

Sarah felt her ass tingle. “A little
bit, maybe. But I choose to follow his lead or not.”

“You sound like many of the women I’ve
worked with in the adult industry. Maybe your story is not so different. The
context is radically different, but the story isn’t.”

“Maybe that’s why I feel such a bond
with some of these women.” Sarah closed her eyes and relaxed her muscles. “We’re
all trying to move through life the best we can.”

Sarah followed Maria paddling toward
the end of the pool, climbed out, and settled on a chaise lounge next to Maria.
The air cooled their nude bodies as they lay side by side watching clouds float
slowly across the robin’s-egg blue sky.

“This must be pretty close to
heaven,” Maria whispered, as if not to disturb the moment. She squeezed Sarah’s
fingers.

Sarah squeezed back. “I hope heaven
is this good.” She draped an arm lazily around Maria’s shoulder as Maria moved
to lick a breast. “Um,” Sarah murmured, “that’s exquisite. You don’t have to
stop, but I don’t have much energy for this right now.”

“That’s okay. We’ll just cuddle. Adam
must’ve really screwed you good. Maybe I’ll cuddle with your breast in my
mouth, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. It’ll be my pleasure.”

“Mine, too,” Maria said in hushed
tones as she swallowed a nipple and much of Sarah’s breast.

 “Don’t want to interrupt this
little love feast,” Adam announced, joining them on the patio.

Reluctantly, Sarah opened her eyes
to see Adam staring at them. Were his flushed cheeks a sign he was angry with
them, or wanted to join them?

Initially, Maria didn’t give up her
perch. Perhaps having second thoughts, she lifted her head and glared at Adam. Suddenly
chilled, Sarah covered her damp breast, which only moments earlier had been so
warm in Maria’s mouth.

“Sarah has a phone call from
Chicago,” he explained. “The guy says it’s urgent.”

Sarah sprang alert and reached for
her wrapper. “I wonder what that could be about. Only a couple people know
where I am and how to contact me.”

- o -

Adam sat in a lounge chair across
from Maria, who had also donned a wrapper. They’d hardly said a word since
Sarah ran into the house. Since when had Maria become shy around him?

The sliding door onto the patio
opened. Sarah’s face was drained of color. Adam sprang to his feet and gathered
Sarah in his arms before she collapsed. Her legs gave way. He carried her to a
chair and set her down. “What happened? Sarah, talk to us. Who was that?”

“My assistant, Harry.” Her eyes clouded.
“My folks were killed.” She gagged. “In a car accident. It happened this
morning. Good God, I can’t believe it. They’re dead and I’m all alone.”

“We’re here, Sarah.” Maria’s voice
quivered.

Sarah nodded at Maria. She opened
her mouth, but no words came out.

He massaged her neck and Maria knelt
beside her, clasping her hands. They let her cry and sob for several minutes. He
caught Maria’s eye, seeking help. She shook her head.

She was right. There was no hurry. He
couldn’t even remember what he was supposed to be doing this afternoon. Nothing
mattered but Sarah. He fought back his own tears. The Atkinsons were good
people. They didn’t deserve to die so young.

“It was a drunk,” Sarah finally said,
gulping in breaths.

“What?” Her words jolted him back to
the present.

“It was a drunk driver who killed
them.”

“Shit.” He recognized the signs of
shock. Sarah’s voice was flat, devoid of emotion, and her words evenly spaced.

“Harry—my assistant—will take care
of the arrangements,” she mumbled. “The funeral will be in Bumper. Probably on
Thursday. It will be held at the community church they supported for so many
years.”

“They probably sent the church money
ever since they moved to Florida.” He had no idea why his comment was needed,
but it did seem to cheer Sarah up a bit.

Nodding, she half smiled through tears.
“You may be right. I never thought about them dying or where they’d want to be
buried. Harry knew. They’d told him, but not me. Why would they do that?”

“They didn’t want you to worry.” He
hugged her tight. “And you probably weren’t too eager to talk about them dying.
That was an issue for my mother, too.”

“Every time I go back for a visit,”
Maria said, squeezing Sarah’s fingers, “my mother sets me down to talk through
the arrangements, the service, and especially the meal afterward. She wants
everything to be just right, as if she were going to be the hostess. Thank
goodness my brothers are there and can deal with it when the time comes.”

“I didn’t know you had brothers.”
Sarah frowned.

“You never asked. Three older and
one younger. Four good reasons for living in California instead of Brooklyn.”

“I see.”

“Maybe. My brothers are good people.”
Maria grimaced. “They love me to death. Sorry. But they don’t appreciate my
lifestyle. Mama may not understand it, but she says I have to live my own life.
I can do that out here. I can’t do it living under my brothers’ watchful eyes.”

“When will you go to Bumper?” Adam
asked, handing Sarah his handkerchief. “I’ll make the reservations, if that’ll
help.”

“Thanks,” she said, wiping her nose
and eyes. “It’s hard to think straight. I imagine there will be a viewing
Wednesday evening. I hate viewings, but that’s the way it’s done in Bumper. So
I’ll need to be there by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.” Sarah took a
deep breath. “Will you come with me, Adam?”

“Of course.” He tensed. “If you want
me there. As I said, your folks were good people.”

“And you, Maria. Will you come, too?”

“Me?” Maria’s hand flew to her open
mouth. “You want me?”

Sarah bobbed her head.

“Won’t I stand out a little in
Bumper, Iowa?” Maria glanced down at the hands she still clutched. “Are you
sure you want to deal with the stares and questions?”