The Hockey Mom

"You have no idea," Kate said to the TV.

"His coach is really going to have to instill some more discipline into him," the other said as Parker was taken to the penalty box for the second time that night, after one of Casper's teammates had taken him up on a fight which Parker had won handily. Kate sarcastically wished Parker's coach, a very nice man who Kate had met a few times, the best of luck at that. She took the last sip of the last glass her bottle of wine had had in it. Her frustration with her middle son's antics gave way to genuine excitement when Casper had scored the game winner in over time, using the same move she'd seen Andrea use early in the morning. She had to admit, the thought made her a little flushed. She momentarily thought of Casper teaching Andrea that move and then one thing leading to another and...

Kate got a grip on herself. She was thinking about the relationship between her son and a woman who was practically her daughter. Kate sighed. She was very, very frustrated. Her sex life with her husband had been practically non-existent for some time now, even before he seemed to be spending all of his time in another city. They'd gone at it quite a bit when first married but after Kate had gotten pregnant three times in five years, giving birth to four kids in that time span, not only didn't they have the time but Kate always joked with him that she even worried about a blow job resulting in another little one on the way. Nowadays though, Kate and Doug hadn't slept together in months. Most might chalk that up to a simple, natural ageing process but Kate knew the real reason. Kate knew there was another woman.

She didn't know who the woman was, Kate had simply been doing the laundry a month or so ago, found Doug's phone in his pocket and while looking at it had come across a text message from someone simply named Melissa. Suffice it to say, it referenced a particular sexual encounter they'd shared. Kate hadn't confronted Doug about it. Kate had been surprised at the extent to which she didn't even care. She'd never been madly in love with Doug; she'd never imagined that he was with her. Their marriage had been the result of a drunken one night stand that resulted in a pregnancy. It'd been held together over the years by a genuine friendship and the fact that Doug was a wonderful father. It was nice to have someone in her bed on the colder nights and the occasional sex could be nice but Kate had no illusions about the circumstances of her marriage. She even felt a little happy for Doug, his many nights out of town a testament, Kate had realized, that he'd maybe found someone he did share more with.

It did, however, make Kate feel a little regretful about her own past. Not any part of raising her kids, Kate wouldn't have traded that for anything in the world. But she did wish she'd spent more time in college, had more fun, experienced more in the city. Having four kids at the age of twenty-five had not left her a lot of time for self-discovery.

And that regret, Kate thought, is the sign that I need to go get another bottle of Chardonnay. She'd got up, her silken pyjamas clinging tightly to her curves, and began walking down from the Master Bedroom to get into the basement where she kept the wine. She walked past both Riley and the Twins' old rooms, now empty shrines to their careers, full of trophies and jerseys and pennants on the wall. Her whole house, it seemed, was a shrine to a life that was rapidly slipping away from her. Except for Kelsey's room. Kelsey's light was still on and there was still music coming from it. Kate thought about knocking on the door and telling the girls to go to bed but she didn't feel up for it. It was a Friday night and they could sleep in tomorrow.

The trip to the basement for the wine had been easy, the journey to the kitchen for the corkscrew had been less so. Kate looked through all the drawers for it, trying her best to remember where she'd put it.

"Looking for something?" Andrea asked. Kate was startled, Andrea had made no noise coming down the stairs. Kate was even further startled by Andrea's state of relative undress. Just a thin, white cotton pair of panties and a thin grey t-shirt that hugged her perky breasts, her hard nipples clearly visible on the cool night. Kate felt herself blush a little. She'd seen Andrea in little clothing before, they'd gone to the beach with her dozens of times, but there was something different about this. This looked like what Andrea would wear to bed with someone. That thought made Kate blush too.

"Yes, 'fraid so. Must be getting forgetful," Kate joked nervously

"I think I know exactly what you're looking for, Mrs. Stew," Andrea said as she walked towards Kate, her voice low and almost predatory, "And I've been waiting to give it to you for a long, long time."

Kate felt the entire room shrink as Andrea walked towards her, standing just inches in front of her, making Kate back up against the island in the middle of her kitchen. Andrea was looking deep into Kate's eyes, almost like a Mountain Lion sizing up some prey. If Kate had felt cold when she'd walked through the house, it seemed as though the kitchen was hot as an oven now. Andrea leaned in closer, her eyes kept locked on Kate. Kate knew she should stop this, knew exactly what was happening, but no words seemed willing to leave her lips; if her brain was telling her body to react in any way other than acceptance than her body was disobeying those orders. Andrea's full, pouty lips were only an inch or so from Kate's when she took her hand from behind her back and held it up. In it was the corkscrew.

"Oh," Kate started laughing, relieved. Andrea just grinned a little, although her expression didn't change.

"Me and Kelsey had a bottle. I hope that's ok."

"Oh fine, fine, dear," Kate laughed and turned from Andrea slightly as she began working the utensil into the bottle of wine. When not in Andrea's gaze Kate definitely felt a little cooler again. She tried to remember that she was a parental figure to Andrea, "I mean, you two will be 19 soon enough and better you drink out here than somewhere in town."

But Andrea seemed to have other ideas. She put her hand on Kate's shoulder, running it up the length of her arm. Her hand felt as hot as she'd made the room.

"Mmmm, these are gorgeous. Where'd you get them?" Andrea's question about Kate's pyjamas was not quite a match for her tone. Kate looked back to Andrea and gave her a nervous little smile.

"Oh online somewhere," Kate said, turning back to Andrea with what she hoped was a casual smile. Andrea kept feeling her through the thin material, her fingertips now grazing along Kate's stomach. Kate knew she should do something but she could barely process this. Andrea was coming on to her, there was no doubt. She knew she'd known her since she was little and her daughter was upstairs and this was something she should stop but she just couldn't bring herself to do anything other than be the object of Andrea's attentions.

"Well, one of these days I'm going to have to get a pair of my own, I suppose," Andrea said mischievously before she leaned in and let her lips brush against Kate's ever so softly, "Night Mrs. Stew."

And with that, Andrea turned to walk away, her perfect butt swaying ever so slightly as she did. Kate just stood still. The little graze of her lips had been like getting a drop of water when dying of thirst. She'd almost leaned in for more. Now, as she watched Andrea walk away, Kate found herself wishing she had. She stood still for nearly five minutes, before hurriedly and ashamedly grabbing the bottle of wine from the counter. Kate couldn't believe how hot she was, how wet she could feel that she was. When had she ever felt that turned on before? When she was nineteen and doing it in the backseat of Doug's car? Maybe? And here she was, a married mother in her forties, and her daughter's best friend, a girl that was practically a daughter of her own, had just brought that out of her.

When Kate got back to her room the bottle of the wine went untouched, she simply got into bed. The previous scene kept playing in her head, over and over. Kate had never thought of herself as being attracted to other women before. She could admire the female form, sure, but she'd never really even had these fantasies. She was, well, too busy for it. She couldn't explain it. Every time she re-played the scene in her head she wished it had gone further, wished she'd done something rather than stood there dumbstruck. She knew it was for the best that she didn't but still...

Kate got up from her bed and went to her dresser. In the top drawer, carefully hidden, was her trusty vibrator. She knew she needed to use it. She knew she needed to do something to get Andrea off her mind. She was confident that she wouldn't think of Andrea when she used it on herself.

But she did.

Chapter 2.

The incident with Andrea had weighed heavily on Kate for the next few days. She'd regained some sort of sense of perspective about the thing. There were many excuses that she tried to come up with. She thought the wine had maybe made her misinterpret Andrea's actions, but she hadn't been that drunk. She thought that Andrea was maybe just confused or drunk herself. But she'd seemed sober and very intent on what she was doing.

That said, despite Kate convincing herself that any interest of her own had been a momentary lapse in sense, whenever the scene would re-enter her mind Kate would find herself in her bed, her fingers or vibrator inside her and wishing it'd gone further. She hadn't even seen Andrea off the next day, Kate was so ashamed of herself and what she'd imagined herself doing.

Despite it being on her mind, Kate had tried to put it out of her mind and go on with her life. Doug had come home a day or two later and Kate had practically mauled him on his first night back, desperate that some sex would knock some of her thoughts from her mind. The sex had been nice, Doug seemed more energetic and enthusiastic than usual, but even as it was going on Kate found her thoughts drifting to Andrea.

"What brought that on?" Doug asked happily

"Just missed you, hon" Kate said, kissing him gently but with a deeply troubled look on her face. Doug didn't notice and drifted off to sleep.

The sex didn't work. Kate found herself thinking about it more than ever. Is that why she'd never loved being with Doug? Was she gay? Furthermore, was Andrea? That didn't make sense to Kate either and Kate found herself actually investigating that question. Maybe she was just reacting badly to her break-up with Casper. And so, the next time that Kate was on her computer and saw that Casper was also on his, she asked if he could talk. Casper nodded and soon they'd opened a video chat.

"Hey mom," Casper's face flickered on the screen. He was the youngest of her boys by six minutes but looked like it was six years, his clean cut face a marked different from his brothers. He had short black hair and green eyes and an appealing mixture of both her and Doug's features. Kate smiled for a second as she looked at the beautiful boy she'd made.

"Hey Baby," she said warmly, "How're you?"

"Eh, not so bad," he shrugged, "What's up?"

"I saw your game the other night. Beauty of a winner." she said proudly

"Thanks. Although at that point I mainly did it just to piss off Park." he said honestly

"Honey, I have a question," Kate said, changing the subject. Ordinarily she'd love nothing better to sit and talk with one of her sons but her encounter with Andrea weighed so heavily on her mind she wanted to get to it right away.

"Shoot."

"When you left, did Andrea take it alright?"

"Um, as far as I know," Casper looked somewhat confused, "Why?"

"I just want to make sure you didn't make any promises to her about staying together or coming back too often or that you broke up with her over the phone or anything like that."

"What?"

"You did break up with her, didn't you?" Kate said, hoping that Andrea wasn't under the mistaken belief that she and Casper were still together.

"No." The look of confusion was growing.

"Oh honey," Kate said, somewhat disappointed "That's really terrible. I don't think she's taking it very well and...."

"Mom, mom, mom." Casper held up his hands as if proclaiming innocence "I didn't break up with Andrea because we weren't together."

"Oh come on, Casp," Kate said with some exasperation "All of that time in your room and at the library studying?"

Kate made quotes with her fingers for both the words library and studying.

"Was spent at the library. And studying," he said as if the idea of lying was foreign to him which, Kate acknowledged, it largely was. Casper kept explaining "I mean, you saw my report card that year. I was doing terribly in Calculus and she was already in my grade and she kept getting A's so I asked her to help me."

"So why didn't you just do it when you'd do your other homework? In the living room with everyone?" Kate asked. The twins, Kelsey and Andrea often did their homework together under Kate and Doug's watchful eye.

"You know how Parker is. If he knew I needed help from a girl who was younger than me would I ever hear the end of it?"

" So you two never...?"

"Nope," Casper said before thinking for a second and smiling "Does everyone there think me and her did it?"

"Kinda," Kate nodded

"I mean, I'll take it as a reputation builder and everything but nope. She's cute, but too much of a sister to me. Be kind of weird." Casper said with a shrug. An attitude towards Andrea that Kate knew her own should mirror. Even worse, it meant that Andrea's actions had some other reason behind them than lashing out over a bad break-up. The revelation left Kate knocked for a loop.

"Ok baby, keep your head up," Kate said, surprising Casper at her eagerness to cut a conversation with him about 30 minutes shorter than usual.

"You're getting very weird mom," he said with some amusement "Love you."

"Love you too," She replied as his image flickered off the screen.

Which was that. Kate would have to deal with what she was feeling some other way. Knew she'd have to actually address it at some point. Kate didn't know when that would be. Luckily enough for her, the Falcons were away for the next few games and she could make excuses to not go see them. Kate tried not to dwell on it, tried to convince herself that it was something that could be put in the past and had actually done a fairly decent job of doing just that when, on a cold Tuesday night, her daughter had come into the living room with a request that brought the whole thing back to her.

"Hey mom, that was Andrea on the phone. Any chance that you could drive her over here?" Kelsey asked as if it were the most mundane, innocent request to make of her mother and, with good reason. It should be. It was one she'd made dozens of times. She had no way to understand the reason that Kate might hesitate now.

"Gee, I don't know honey," Kate hemmed "It's awfully cold out."

"I mean, I'd do it myself but someone doesn't want me to get my license," Kelsey said in annoyance. Driving in Port Ferry was one of the few dangerous things to do with the way the roads could ice up. Kate hadn't wanted any of her kids to drive before they left the little snowy town.

"Fine, fine." Kate said, grabbing her keys from the purse. "Coming with?"

"Nope." Kelsey shook her head. "I want to get a little bit of homework done before she gets here."

That made Kate's heart skip a beat. She'd expected Kelsey to come with her as she almost always did. That she wouldn't be meant that Kate would be alone in the car with Andrea for the entire twenty-five minute ride. The thought made her nervous and excited all at once. Kate got up and before leaving, took a look at herself in the full length mirror. She was wearing a pretty conservative blouse and skirt, nothing to get excited about. Kate stopped for a moment as she realized that she didn't know if that was something she was grateful for or regretting. She found herself even giving her hair a bit of attention, trying to get it to look as good as possible almost, as if she were about to go out on a date.

The drive to Dr. Beverley's house was made, to Kate's shame, in maybe half the time it usually would. Kate had sped the entire way. There wasn't any snow on the ground which, to Kate's mind, rationalized her hurry. The sooner she picked Andrea up and got her back, the sooner she could get back to ignoring her burgeoning and baffling attraction for the girl. She even vainly hoped it would go away. But as she saw Andrea, as lovely as ever in a black, fur

trimmed jacket standing outside her house already waiting for her as she pulled up, Kate could feel the same heat and dry mouth she'd felt in the kitchen.

"Hey," Andrea said as she got into the passenger side seat. Kate tried to keep her eyes off of Andrea's ass as she did. Kate immediately pulled away as Andrea buckled her seatbelt.

"Hey there Hon," Kate smiled but kept her eyes on the road. She felt as if she looked over at Andrea she would...well, she didn't know. She just knew it'd be wrong. So she kept her eyes in front of her and thought of something to say. "So Kelsey says you finally settled on a school for next year?"

"I did," Andrea nodded. Kate knew that would be big news around town. Every college hockey program in the States had sent recruiters up to see Andrea and practically beg her to come play for them. "Harvard."

"Harvard?" Kate said, impressed "That's wonderful news and a very good school."

"The best," Andrea said as she turned in her seat to look at Kate.

"Your dad must be so proud," Kate could feel Andrea's eyes on her even if she couldn't see them.

"You don't really think that's what we're going to talk about on this drive, do you Kate?" Andrea asked with a chuckle as she moved closer to the driver's seat. Kate did her best to focus on the road ahead. Kate noticed that Andrea had called her Kate and not, as she'd done for ages, Mrs. Stew.

"What do you mean?" Kate asked, hoping Andrea might think that she'd forgotten.

"Don't play dumb," Andrea said sharply, her honey-sweet voice losing none of its allure even as it bubbled up "You know exactly what I'm talking about. That night in the kitchen."

As she said this, Andrea firmly and deliberately put her hand on Kate's knee, just below the hemline of her skirt. Kate would have shaken or grabbed it off but she was driving with both hands on the wheel. Also, Kate had to admit, she didn't really want to. Andrea's hand was strong but soft, delicate but warm and firm.

"That was....that was a weird, wine fuelled...thing" Kate said, doing her best to keep her eyes and attention on the road.

"You think I don't know what it looks like when someone wants to fuck me?" Andrea said, shocking Kate with a profanity that she'd never heard from the younger woman, "Everyone in this town has wanted to fuck me since I was 15."

"I...." Kate was at a loss for words. She felt ashamed and aroused and confused and she realized she'd almost missed her turn back onto Collins Ave.

"And I have wanted to fuck you, Kate," Andrea continued, sliding her hand up Kate's leg to just beneath her skirt, "For a very, very long time."

"Andrea," Kate said, each slight movement of Andrea's hand further up her thigh seemingly making her hotter and hotter, "I'm a married. And a woman. I'm a married woman."

"You know what you are, Kate? Because I've seen it before," Andrea said as her other hand reached around and began delicately although expertly undoing the small white buttons on Kate's blouse. First one, then the other, then a third so that the cleavage of Kate's large, heavy breasts in her black bra was totally exposed. The married mother did nothing to stop her daughter's best friend. She was frozen in place, desperately trying to keep her eyes on the road. In response to the question, all she could do was nod her head.