Hero Worship Summer Ch. 04

Author's Note

For anyone who has been following the series and waiting for this chapter to drop, I want to start by giving my profound apologies for how long it took to complete this update of the story. I really want to write this story with more consistency and pace and I hope the gap in delivery between this chapter and the last will be just a one-time thing. More than anything, I hope the wait is worth it and that you enjoy the latest chapter. Please continue to give me your thoughts and ratings on the story. These last few weeks while I have been struggling to make time to write it was the comments from previous chapters and the warm encouragements I have had from the series that kept me persevering and writing the story where I could.

So once again, enjoy Chapter 4 and I hope I can get back into a better rhythm of posting chapters moving forward.

Previously

5 Years ago Jacob Preston saved five teenage girls from being caught in bad waters at high tide. Now, as those girls prepare for college they want to spend their summer rewarding him for his efforts. Since arriving at his friend Robert's house, Jacob has had the pleasure of getting to know Robert's daughter Tammy very intimately. In the RV on the way to the lake house, Tammy helped introduce Jacob to Savannah, ensuring the pair had time to connect when Tammy's parents weren't looking. Now, Jacob is at the tail end of the journey. Soon, they'll be pulling up at Robert's lake house for a summer of rest, relaxation, and fun... Well, maybe 'rest' won't be on the cards for Jacob with all the plans Tammy has for him.

But a lot can happen on the road and Jacob knows there is a lot of risk and danger sneaking around with his friends' daughters. As they get closer to their destination, what new complications will threaten Jacob's dream summer?

Chapter 4 -- Preparation for Arrival

The best thing about having sex in the middle of a run: no one bats an eyelid when you come back looking flushed.

Savannah and I staggered through the parking lot, hair mussed up, breathing labored, cheeks colored from the exertion of our activities on the nature trail. Yet, despite this, neither of us worried about coming up with some excuse for how we looked. Though I was trying not to get too caught up in Tammy's summer plans for me and her friends, I could not help but consider how convenient daily runs at the lake would be for giving me time to have fun with the five girls I hoped to make mine this summer.

And to be clear, I did hope to have fun with all of them this summer if I could.

It was crazy. It was contradictory. But it was the truth.

When Tammy had first painted a picture of her and her friends spending their summer taking turns fucking me under their parents' noses a part of my mind just couldn't compute what I was hearing. The thought of five girls wanting to devote themselves to my pleasure for three months before they went to college? It was just too good to be true, even if I had saved their lives once upon a time.

But then Savannah joined us in Tammy's parent's RV for the ride to the lake and in only a few short hours was playing games of strip chess to tease me under Tammy's Mom's nose. And after she had taken me out into the backwoods during a stopover and given me a wild fucking on a forgotten picnic bench. It was becoming harder to doubt Tammy's summer promise.

But it was more than the sex with Savannah that had me starting to believe everything happening to me was for real. Something else had settled my desires and wants, made me believe more fully than I had before in the 'plan' Tammy had for me and her friends.

It was something Savannah had said to me before we went out on our run. She had snuck a few minutes alone with me, wanting to get the measure of me and know what kind of guy I was. She'd even been honest enough with me to warn that her friends, while curious about me, were not primed and chomping at the bit to jump my bones the moment they saw me. They were tempted, and that was an encouraging start, but they each had their own situations going on.

Scarlett, Elle, and Jorja, all of them had other things going for them with other guys. While tempted by Tammy's plan, they would likely take convincing before they really treated it as more than fantasy. Savannah had even warned me for herself that, despite her easy going decision to have fun with me, she wasn't going to just blindly dedicate her summer to me because I had happened to save her life one time years ago. She was quite willing to, perhaps even intended, to have fun with others on this holiday we were all going on together with her parents.

And it was these admissions, these reality checks that finally had me believing Tammy's plan, truly letting myself envision a summer where I could have these five nineteen-year-olds worship me as Tammy had said. I guess, Tammy's simple explanation of how the summer would go was just too unbelievable to me. Knowing there were obstacles, uncertainties, and doubts from the other girls somehow made everything feel more real, less like a dream I could wake up from at any moment.

And maybe, just maybe, Savannah's confession and reality check had woken my competitive side. It's funny how that works. When something is handed to me on a silver platter I can never quite trust it, or else I don't want as badly as I would if I had to work, graft, and push for the prize.

Wherever the truth lay, I found myself wanting to step up. Though I had no problem with Savannah seeking out other guys over the summer, if that's what she wanted, a part of me was already imagining a summer where I defied her expectations entirely. A summer where I left her satisfied to the point that she never looked another guy's way all through the holiday.

For Scarlet, Jorja, and Elle things were a little more complicated. As Savannah had told me, all three of them had boyfriends. Competitive though I am, as much as there was a certain thrill to thinking I might be able to take risks, I am not the kind of guy to break up a happy relationship. I supposed I would have to find out more about their individual situations when I met them tomorrow. After all, they were all going to college after the summer. Even if the three of them had some sweetheart they were holding onto, college and the broadening possibilities of life after high school have a way of dissolving the romances of youth. When I think of all the people I knew from high school, I can think of only one couple who had stuck it out through college and beyond.

If either of the three girls I had yet to reconnect with were in relationships that seemed even remotely serious I made a private promise to myself not to do anything to jeopardize that for them. But considering both Tammy and Savannah had hinted they were interested in me, I somehow doubted their relationships could be that solid. All of that would have to be seen later though.

It was with these thoughts that I climbed the steps into the RV after Savannah, swallowing a lump in my throat as she wiggled her athletically toned ass one last time before we had to return to behaving. I counted myself lucky that our vigorous fuck in the wilds as well as the run we'd done together beforehand left me robbed of all energy otherwise I'd worry about tenting my shorts watching that tight ass swaying in my eye-line. It didn't help that I had Savannah's underwear still tucked in my pockets as a souvenir.

And as soon as I stepped into the RV the good feeling that had been with me during the run was gone.

The whole vehicle was silent, deathly silent. It was the kind of leaden quiet that told of some fight and I grimaced to think that the Hawkinses might have found a new way to tear into each other while Savannah and I were out enjoying ourselves. We weren't even at the lake house yet. The holiday hadn't even truly begun and yet the energy I got from Clara, Tammy, and even, at times, Robert had me feeling like there were some serious issues here. There were hidden wounds and dramas concealed just beneath the surface, beneath the masks Robert and Clara were trying to put up. The knowledge made me all the more determined to talk to Tammy soon. I already needed to.

Clara stood by the RV's cooker, though clearly she didn't need to be. Whatever she was cooking up for dinner didn't need any of her attention or energy. She was just standing over it, looking down at the corn boiling in the water in front of her while something was cooking up under the grill. The way she stared at the pan, I would easily have believed it was her glare rather than the gas stove that was heating the water.

Robert was sitting on the couch, and I could see the tension in his muscles. His right arm was outstretched over the arm of the couch seat. It was an attempt to look relaxed, but the way his hand gripped the seat, it was as though he was bracing for dear life.

"Yikes," Savannah muttered under her breath, just loud enough for me to hear her.

"Good grief. You look shagged out."

I tried to mask my smirk at Robert's choice of phrasing which was far more accurate than he was allowed to know. Clara turned from her cooking, giving me and Savannah a once over and sucking in a breath. "For goodness sake, didn't I tell you not to go pushing Jacob. You're lucky he agreed to go out running with-"

"-Clara, Clara it's alright, really. I agreed to go running with Savannah. I wanted the workout. It's not as though I didn't know she'd put me through my paces. It was good to get an idea of how I stand up to a competing athlete," I said. My voice was a little strained from the exercise, making Tammy's Mom frown. But I wasn't going to back down now. Tammy had warned me to show a certain disinterest in her and the other girls. It was a good way to mask our burgeoning affair. But I could only take so much of Clara's snap judgments about the girls.

"Well, at least you both made it back in time for dinner," Clara conceded. "Burgers will be done in two. Savannah stay where you are. You can take Tammy's plate into her. She's out back."

"Will do, Mrs Hawkins," I hadn't witnessed much interaction between Savannah and Tammy's parents, but I felt like the politeness I was seeing was a sign that Clara truly was at some kind of limit for patience and Savannah knew better than to push her.

"I'll get the table set up outside, seems a shame to waste the fresh air and the warm evening" Robert volunteered, rising to his feet. "You wanna help, buddy?"

It was tempting. Clara seemed ready to bite the hand off anyone who dared stray too close to her right now, but a part of me felt for her too. I wanted to understand where she was coming from. I wanted to know what was going on with her. I tried to remind myself that, until this trip, I had always seen Clara as a friend. She was fun, caring, a little too straight-laced at times but never overbearingly so. Time with Tammy, becoming her daughter's lover, left me wondering if I was guilty of misjudging her. It was easier on my conscience to sneak around with Tammy if I forced myself to forget and ignore my friendship with Clara and Robert. But maybe there was some good reason Clara was so tightly wound this trip.

I couldn't say I felt confident approaching Clara at that moment. Still, I pushed down my fears and moved to her side. I said nothing, just grabbed a plate and held it ready for her so she could dish up the food a little easier.

The entire RV was silent. I couldn't even hear Tammy and Savanna in the other room. Clara continued to stare down at the corn she was straining, swallowing a lump in her throat as we just stood there side by side.

"You doing okay there?" I asked. It felt like a 'ripping-the-band-aid' kind of question and I winced in expectation of Clara's answer. Instead of some snippy comment, she sighed. I watched as her shoulders slumped, the tension falling off of her and leaving her limp and pathetic. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"I can probably guess what you're thinking right now, Jake. I promise things won't be as tense as this the whole summer through. It's this damned RV and having nowhere to go that has everyone stepping on each other's toes and acting all tense right now."

"Mostly I'm just worried about you right now," I said. And I meant it. This wasn't some line to keep Clara sweet. Something about this moment reminded me that we were friends. I wasn't much of a friend considering all I was doing with her daughter behind her back, but that somehow made it all the more imperative that I did something now to help.

"I'm fine." Clara's response to my question came a little too late and was spoken with no confidence for me to truly believe it.

"Of course you're fine. It's everyone else you've got running for cover," I said, nudging her shoulder. I hoped she was calm enough to take a joke.

"Honestly, Jake if my attitude is pushing Robert and Tammy to the opposite ends of the RV then I'm okay with that. I know you don't have a family or kids so this must seem alien to you but these kinds of arguments... they're just how families are sometimes."

I doubted that. I didn't have any evidence to go on. As Clara had been quick to point out, I was unmarried and childless. But the tension and hostility I had felt in this RV didn't feel like it fit any notion I had of how 'families are'. Maybe a family on the verge of breaking apart.

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked. "I know you keep worrying about the girls bothering me, but if you and Robert need some time to yourselves just to decompress, I could take them back out on the trails here after dinner for a bit, give you both some alone time."

"That's sweet but you don't need to do that. There are not enough beds in the RV so Robert will be pitching a tent for the girls tonight, just outside. They can spend the evening gossiping and talking about whatever it is their friends are doing and we can finally have some quality adult time together."

Clara finally glanced up at me then. I was relieved to see her no longer hanging her head like some scorned puppy, but the look she gave me at that moment was also one that gave me pause. It was a wistful kind of look and I felt my body tensing just a little as Clara placed a hand atop my wrist and squeezed gently. "I know I've been pretty wrapped up in things since yesterday, but I am really glad you're here for this trip, Jake."

"Me too," I smiled back, trying not to read into that momentary touch as anything more than a display of friendship.

"Okay. Let's get this dinner out." Clara took a deep breath, straightening up as she became once more the woman in charge. I dutifully helped plate up the burgers, salad, and corn on the cob, ferrying the plates out to the table Robert had set up outside.

Despite my efforts at thawing Clara out, dinner still felt tense. I had thought with Savannah and Tammy eating inside the RV Clara and Robert would loosen up a bit and act a little more like a couple. But there was this weird distance between them now. They sat opposite me on the fold-out table, putting an unnecessary space between each other as they quietly ate.

"It's good," Robert said for about the fifth time as he took another bite of his burger that, no offense, was standard at best.

"So Jake... There's something Robert and I wanted to float by you." I glanced at Clara, immediately feeling worried to see she was now stiff as a board. Robert turned pale and put down his burger, giving me a nervous look before tentatively reaching to take his wife's hand but somehow failing to go the distance and take it.

"Honey, I don't know if now is the best time. I thought we'd agreed to wait till-"

"It's been bugging me since Jake got here. I haven't been able to look him in the eye or feel at ease talking to him the entire time he's been here," Clara snapped. I had no idea where the conversation was going. I knew something was up with Clara, but I didn't think it had anything to do with me. Unless... Did they know? Had they already cottoned on to how I was acting around their daughter?

"Okay, look buddy, this is JUST an idea," Robert said. "You don't need to give us any kind of answer now and you are allowed to say no."

"One hundred percent," Clara said, nodding. Her lips were pursed thin and the muscles in her jaw were tight. The way they were setting up this question I was bracing myself for them to say they wanted me to donate a kidney or something.

"We've been friends for a long time now," Robert said. "You're one of the best people I know and if we'd met before I had married Clara you can bet I would have wanted you for best man at my wedding."

"Thanks, but can we skip the buttering up and get to whatever it is you want to say?" I asked.

"With Tammy moving away to college this year, Robert and I are... well we're looking at the next stage of our relationship and what we want for ourselves. One of the things we've agreed to trial is an open relationship."

My eyes widened and I felt my mouth go dry. It took a great deal of will power not to let my jaw drop to the floor. It didn't take much brain power to connect the dots on where the conversation was going.

"Are you two? Am I being propositioned here?"

Robert put up both hands and shook his head. "No... No, no, no. Well, not the two of us anyway. While Clara and I want to try new things, I'm not really interested in seeing her with another man. And we're good friends and all, but there are certain things I'm not interested in doing with you."

"Okay..." That was all I had to say. Among all the crazy I had already been through in the last 48 hours, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. My brain shorted out.

Clara and Robert both looked at each other and then back to me. By the look on Clara's face and the way Robert's mouth twisted I could tell my reaction was not what they had hoped for. My gaze squared on Clara, watching as her eyes lowered and stared into the table, her cheeks flushing.

I had never thought of Clara as unattractive, but likewise I had never caught myself checking her out either. Part of that was down to her being married to Robert though. That just immediately shut down any curiosity I might have had there. She was older than me. I could see the crow's feet setting in at the corners of her eyes, built up from stress at home I reckoned. She wasn't as old as Robert but older than me. She still had a good figure and a lean body. Her breasts were probably still...

I closed off that thought. Why was I even trying to consider it?

"That bad of an idea, huh?"

"I... no... Honestly, I am flattered. But I don't... this is a lot to absorb out of the blue like this."

"I said we should have waited for a better opportunity," Robert said, Clara wincing at his whispered admonishment.

"I honestly don't know if there was ever any time you could have sprung this on me where it didn't bowl me over," I assured, wanting to do what little I could to alleviate Clara's embarrassment at this moment.

A quiet fell between us. My words did little to loosen Clara up and I could tell neither she nor Robert really knew where to take the conversation from here.

"I mean, I have a million questions right now," I said, more to fill the awkward void of silence than anything else. "I'd ask some of them but right now I'm not even sure which questions are pertinent or most important you know."

"I get it," Robert said. "I know this must seem out of the blue but it is something Clara and I have discussed and agreed to together. If you're worried this is a spur-of-the-moment thing-"

"It's not that... well, that's only a fraction of the thoughts going through my head about now," I confessed. I sucked in a breath, lips pursing thin as my mind desperately tried to get a handle on the situation before me. I had just about gotten my head around the idea that I was sneaking around with their daughter. I was still trying to process the fact that I was now sharing said daughter with one of her best friends. At this point, I don't think I could wrap my head around Robert and Clara wanting to invite me into whatever it was they were trying to offer me now on top of everything else.