Thanksgivings

My head had already begun tilting to match his and Mike's passion was contagious. I found myself wanting the sweet kiss more than I should and from somewhere deep down I ventured a risk as I slid my tongue out timidly. He must have been thinking the same thing as his found mine. His breath was coming more forcefully through his nose. His warmed exhalations had an intensely erotic effect on my senses. My knees started feeling weak and I was suddenly sitting atop his bed on the royal blue patchwork quilt. Its soft coolness soaked through my thin khaki slacks. I had broken our kiss momentarily, but he joined me there quickly. He sat to my right and pressed me backward to resume kissing while lying next to one another.

There were no words spoken, only soft kissing and caressing. There had been nothing overtly sexual in any of our behavior to this point and I strained to resist the urge he was arousing in me. Obviously, our tongues were the exception to that and they continued to entwine as they played back and forth between us. However, as the extended moments passed, Mike's caresses became a little more exploratory as he allowed his right hand to pass over my breast. He didn't pause or grope me, but I knew he felt my tight nipple pressing through my blouse. I desperately wanted him to continue, to go even further, but my mind was screaming Stop! at me. Unwittingly, I somehow ignored that inner voice of reason and allowed our actions to continue. Soon his hand returned more frequently and eventually stopped atop my left breast. He cupped me softly to feel the gentle slope of my petite bosom.

His necessity intensified as he kneaded me in his gentle hand. Finally, he could resist no longer and lightly tweaked my nipple, which garnered a breathy moan into his mouth. The sensation was electrifying and I found my hands were urgently roaming his body seeking out his crotch. When they reached it, the front of his jeans were pressing stiffly outward. Rubbing his erection through his pants, I knew I was going too far, but I couldn't bequell my actions. His excitement and genuine need for me overrode my sensibilities. I pressed my fingers around the edges of the bulge. He felt large through the rough denim material.

Despite how close we'd been after Dad's passing, I couldn't recall ever seeing Mike undressed any more than swim trunks. Sure, we'd bathed together as very small children, but that had stopped before we were ten. From then through adolescence we'd been very private. It seemed weird; we'd shared the bathroom all these years, but hadn't ever accidentally intruded on the others privacy. Perhaps it was how in tune we'd been with each other's feelings and needs. Now, however, I really wanted to see or at least feel him without this restrictive covering material.

My tongue skirmished against his as I worked to unbutton his jeans and slip my hand inside his loose boxers. Suddenly, Mike froze when the skin of my hand made contact with the stiff warm flesh of his penis. I thought fleetingly, that perhaps I'd pushed him too far but he came back into motion as I proceeded to encircle the tip of his erection between my thumb and forefinger. Mike worked his fingers to open a button on my blouse. He reached inside and under my bra to make contact with my elongated nipple. I released my grasp around the bulb and slid my hand further down the full length of his manhood. It was longer than my hand with thick veins that stood out and pulsed lightly. As I pressed further, I gently cradled his balls with my fingertips at the thick base of his root. He was gently fondling my breast and tweaking my nipple, delighting me with his dexterous digits, when I thought I heard something and broke off the kiss.

His eyes widened sadly, "Did I mess up?"

"No - did you hear something?" I whispered to him.

He didn't have time to answer, as a commotion downstairs startled us out of our intense make out session. I quickly removed my hand from his pants and buttoned my blouse back. There were multiple voices directly below us in the kitchen. Mike busied himself straightening out his underwear and zipping up his jeans. I picked up the sweater from my open backpack and pulled it on.

Getting off the bed, I picked up my purse and went to the restroom to check myself in the mirror. My shoulder-blade length brunette hair was a bit mussed, so I straightened it as best I could with my fingers. The natural waves in my hair made it fairly easy to hide. Scrutinizing my face I found no marks and I wore no makeup so there was none to fix. However, my lips did look a bit red so I reapplied some chap-stick. Finishing up I found my light blue eyes staring back at me judging my previous actions. Here I was allowing myself to behave exactly as I had feared. Regardless, I couldn't help but feel this new development with Mike was merely a natural progression of the abiding love we had for one another.

I realized Mike was standing at the door watching me closely. "I guess we need to go down," I offered.

"Yeah, but we don't have to rush," he replied, as he stroked my wavy hair. "Are you - okay, Maya?"

"Mike, I'm just so ashamed," I blurted out, without thinking.

"Of kissing me?"

It was more than that, he had to know that. "We can't let this go any further."

"Why? Don't you love me?"

Now he wasn't playing quite fair. Of course I loved him - I even wanted him right then, but the consequences. "We need to go," I said wistfully, as I took his hand gently and drew him from his room.

At the bottom of the stairs we found Zach and Mica chasing one another around the large open family room. Although I saw them frequently, seeing Zach in this environment reminded me how much he had grown since we'd all been here four years ago.

"Where's David - um your dad?" I asked them.

Zach was the older boy and he answered, "In the kitchen with the sammies."

As Mike and I headed towards the kitchen, he said, "You two need to settle down a bit or take that outside."

The two boys looked at him and said, "Awe, Uncle Miiike," in their whiniest voices.

In the kitchen we found Mom, David and his wife Colleen. They had placed several large bags of sandwiches on the center island. The fuller of these contained a surplus of Reuben sandwiches (the sammies as Zach had called them). The other bags appeared to contain a variety of other sandwich types: roast beef, pastrami, chicken salad, egg salad, club and others certain people liked. There were also two brown grocery sacks filled with large bags of potato chips, corn chips and my favorite, boxes of Bugles. The aroma from all of the fresh deli food was making me remember I hadn't grabbed anything for breakfast.

"Looks like you've got enough to feed a small army," I said to Mom, as I approached her.

"Well, we've got folks coming in throughout the day and I wanted to keep it simple. This way people can eat a little something any time they arrive. Plus these will all keep in the refrigerator for people to snack on throughout the long holiday weekend."

I hugged her tightly and she kissed my cheeks. "You look flustered, Maya. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, I think I'm simply a little hungry, since I skipped breakfast. You mind if I start?"

"Please, go ahead; this is your home, dear."

While I was talking with Mom, Mike was chatting with David and Colleen. Though they didn't live very far away, they only made the trip down once or twice a month. I listened to their conversation a bit and interjected when they appeared done.

"I'm going to get a half of one of those Reubens warmed up," I said. "You want the other half Mike or are you hungry enough for a whole one?"

"I'll split one with you," he replied.

"How about you two?"

"We'll wait a bit," David responded.

"Yeah, I'm sure the boys will be in here at any moment," Colleen added.

Mike joined me by the island and we both reached for the foil wrapped sandwich that was protruding from the paper bag lying sideways on the granite counter top. Our hands touched and he jerked his hand back, like something had bitten him. He was being somewhat jumpy and I wondered if it would get any better.

"I'm going to reheat mine, it isn't as warm as it is in the deli. You want yours reheated, too?" I asked him.

"Like it is, is fine," he said grabbing thick molded paper plates for us both.

The sandwiches from the deli Mom used were huge. Opening the foil I put the bigger half on his plate. He immediately began devouring his while he resumed chatting with David between bites. I placed mine in the toaster oven for a minute open faced. The cheese reached a perfect state of meltiness right as the little bell on the oven dinged. Placing it on the plate Mike had given me, I joined him at the large kitchen table, when I heard more people coming in the front door and a clamor of footsteps.

Zach was screaming, "Mellony, Mellony! Look Mom, it's Mellony." He held her hand as they both came into the kitchen. His face beamed with excitement to see his older cousin. Our sister, Rachel, and her husband, Jon, followed them into the kitchen and headed to Mom for hugs.

"Yes, dear. We told you she'd be here," she said, as she mussed his hair. "He's been bugging us for weeks about seeing her. She really made an impression on him when he was about three. They grew pretty close until Rachel and Jon moved out to Berkeley a year ago when he took a staff surgeon position with the hospital," Colleen told us.

Colleen and David lived in Mattapan about ten miles from my apartment just outside of Boston. I saw them and their boys on a semi-regular basis. They had me over frequently for meals on weekends. Mica was almost four and Zach was seven. The boys would have me read to them endlessly. Our middle brother, David, had a small accounting firm where both he and Colleen did work for a number of small businesses and a handful of individual clients.

"When are Sarah and Robert arriving," I asked Rachel, as she entered the kitchen followed by her husband Jon. Mellony was their only child and had just turned ten last month.

"They should be here later this evening. They got a 10:00 AM flight from San Francisco, but that doesn't put them into Boston until about 6:00 PM and then they have to drive," Rachel replied.

"You live pretty close to them, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, we were going to fly up together, but Robert had an obstetrician out sick so he had to fill in for a delivery that was scheduled."

"I guess that happens when you are Chief of Obstetrics," Mom said. You could hear the pride in her voice as she spoke of her son-in-law. Then she filled us in on another blank for everyone present, "Ben and Anna should be here shortly; I called them from the office as I was leaving."

Ben and Anna lived a little ways away in Providence. They would be coming with their son Lev who was eleven and daughter Aya who was ten. Ben was a civil engineer working for the state and Anna had an office in their home where she did some CPA work part-time.

Mellony, Zach and Mica who hadn't been interested in sandwiches a few minutes ago were now in the kitchen begging their respective parents to fix them some. The kitchen was filling up and the turmoil was already effecting me. I looked over at Mike and saw that he was looking even more overwhelmed than me.

I moved closer to Mike and whispered, "Hey, let's go out on the dock and eat."

He nodded, so I grabbed one of the boxes of Bugles. We each gathered our plates and quietly left the din of the kitchen. Outside the midday sun shone brightly and the morning chill was mostly gone. The old covered dock was just visible at the edge of the water.

"Wow, they've gotten bigger and noisier," Mike said, as we strolled past the pool along the lightly pebbled walkway to the water's edge.

"Yeah, it's going to be pretty odd having them all here," I said, my voice trailing off lightly.

I couldn't help but think about the last time they were here. Well, Mica hadn't been here, Dad never got to see that grandson. He'd never see any of my children or Mike's either. My eyes started to water. It was partly due to the breeze coming off the water, but it was sad to think about all the things Dad would miss.

Mike took my arm. "Hey, you. Stop that or we'll both be red eyed before the rest of them get here."

"Oh, Mike. It's all so crazy. I love my family but I can hardly contain the flood of emotions that come over me when we're all together."

Mike squeezed my arm and told me, "I feel the same thing. It's like it crushes in on me, plus the underlying - " He left the words unsaid, but I felt them too.

Arriving at the dock, the salt air brought back so many memories. We seated ourselves on one of the long benches attached to the wooden half walls that were on either side of the open front end of the dock. There was a ladder into the water but no boat and no slip for a boat. The dock wasn't really a finished project, it was another item that had always been on Dad's grand plan and he'd started it around the same time as the tennis court. He'd wanted to retire and sail around on a sailing yacht, returning to the house to visit his children and grandchildren, but that hadn't happened - wouldn't happen.

Mike and I sat in silence eating the rest of our sandwich and chips. The Reuben sandwiches were huge; a half was more than enough for any normal person. The corned beef was stacked nearly two inches thick. I didn't think I'd even need dinner. Mom had really thought of everything.

I hoped Mom and the others didn't feel like we were abandoning them. Mike and I were often off to ourselves. That combined with the fact that all the children and grand-kids would soon be there, let me feel like I was giving her time with them. Having the crowd of them also meant Mike and I could spirit away without being missed much. Lost in thought, I found I was now chiding myself again for what we'd been doing before they arrived.

A smile spread on Mike's lips. "What are you thinking?" he asked, as if he could read my mind.

"A bunch of different stuff but you know what I was thinking." I shook my head, I couldn't get the thoughts of my hand on his penis out of my mind. My nipples were hard again and I felt his gaze drop to stare for a moment.

"I know, how I feel about you has changed," he said, looking down towards the old wooden planks of the dock.

"What am I going to do with you?" I asked rhetorically.

"Merely love me. I just need your love," he said almost pleading

"You know I love you, Mike. I really don't know if we should love one another like that. It seems like we'll end up hurting each other," I said. Trying to change the subject I asked, "How are your courses going?"

"I'm doing great in my courses. I haven't gotten back my SAT score yet and I'm a little worried about how I did. I studied a lot, but I can barely remember taking the thing."

We sat wordlessly looking at the water for a long time. I nibbled at my sandwich. It was delicious, but I really wasn't being very hungry. Absently, I pulled several Bugles from the foil bag inside the box and then handed the box to Mike. I thought about his worry over the SAT.

"I don't know about you, but I'd like to get some tennis time. You're still on the squad, right?"

"Yeah, it's not as fun now that you're in college, but I'm still going. We're actually doing pretty well this year."

"It'll look good for getting admitted. SAT scores are only part of the evaluation," I told him hoping to ease his worry.

I hadn't been eating well in the days leading up to this trip. I forced myself to finish the sandwich and nibbled several Bugles off the tips of my fingers. Mike's eye's twinkled as he smiled watching me. My fingers were still slender enough that the Bugles fit over them. Mike's had become a bit too large to pull it off, but his dimples showed me that playful side of his personality.

"You want to play some?" I asked, as I stood with my finally empty plate.

"Yeah, it's really warming up. Let's dump these plates off and get changed," he said.

Heading back to the house we held hands. As we strolled along the gravel path I couldn't help wondering where this was all going or what harm might occur if I merely gave in to Mike. Leaves blew across our path as we approached the pool area. Inside the walled area I could just see the pool cover. Leaves and puddles of water stood atop of it causing it to sag in areas. They needed to be removed before they froze in place for the winter. Stopping outside the mud room door, we tossed our garbage into one of the two large circular metal garbage cans and replaced the lid.

"Hey, I didn't bring my racket, you still have some extras, right?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah! I recently got two new aluminum Prince Pros. I bet you're going to want to try one! It's amazing how light they are and their sweet spot is huge," he said.

His face was beaming. Mike always liked to stay current on things that interested him. Technology of all types seemed to fascinate him. You wouldn't know it from his room, but he had all types of techie stuff, from old clocks, to model trains, mechanical calculators and even some new electronic gadgets. He'd even built his own pong game from a Popular Electronics magazine article.

"We might have to be social for a bit, but I think they'll understand if we want to play some tennis," I said opening the door.

Inside we found Frank and Dalia amongst the kitchen crowd, but Ben and Anna hadn't arrived yet. Dalia was dressed in a lovely dress that came down just past her knees. The sleeves were mid arm and stylish. Her sweater was tied by the arms around her narrow waist. She stood behind Frank in his wheel chair. She didn't push him everywhere since he was pretty skilled, but in tight places like the kitchen, she would often help him out. Frank was neatly dressed in jeans and a light blue button down oxford cloth shirt that complemented Dalia's navy dress. They always dressed in complementary color schemes for as long as I could remember. Of course, they'd stopped doing that while she'd been married, but when she took up house with him here and then up closer to the firm; their twinning started happening again.

I returned the remainder of the box of Bugles to the counter and I went to her at once. "I've missed seeing you these past few months. I've been so busy with school."

"Oh, hey, sweetie. I didn't see you. Mom said you were off with Michael - um I mean - Mike somewhere."

I hugged her tight. She was a few inches shorter than I was at 5' 7". Her hair was very similar to mine in style and color. She was a very attractive wavy haired brunette with a much more slender form than mine. My legs were longer and more muscular, my hips were wider and my breasts were smaller. Mike was taller than both of us at 6' 1" and Frank had been 6' before the accident. Both Mike and Frank had big broad shoulders. Frank's forearms were now extremely muscled.

"Yeah, we were eating down on the dock. Sometimes all the family cross talk makes it difficult for me to focus," I told her. "We're probably going to play some tennis, you interested?" We often played triplets (two-on-one) with Dalia after the accident.

"Yeah, maybe later though. We just got here. I was going to fix Frank something to eat."

"Oh, yeah, sorry, of course. Um, you need any help?"

"No, Mom's got this whole thing planned to a tee," she laughed.

While I'd been talking to Dalia, Mike was seated, talking with Frank. I hadn't overheard much of what they'd said but suddenly they were both laughing hardily. It was so good to see him happy, his recovery had been long and slow. He never recovered much movement below the waist. I could empathize, but I couldn't imagine how it must feel. He'd been such an active guy. We'd often played doubles before the accident. The four of us made our own little family clique. They were a little more than ten years older than us, but they'd been the last of our siblings to share our home. I was about nine when they went off to college, but they'd made regular weekend and summer visits throughout college.