by JQ Jones
“May I help you with something?” Willie said.
“We’re here to meet Mrs. Antonetti for dinner,” the woman said.
* * * *
Jeff’s parents, Theresa and Vincent Antonetti, followed Willie into the house to the kitchen, passing curious brothers on the way. Adriana looked on in shocked quiet as Theresa went from pot to pot on the stove, tasting every sauce and dish with a spoon she’d gotten after rummaging through the utility drawers.
“Oh, my, God. You’re a wonder. I’ve never made spaghetti alla carbonara. I think I don’t do the egg part right. But never mind, this is wonderful. Can you believe it? Wedding soup. My goodness, even I didn’t get wedding soup when Vincent and I got married. You must’ve gotten up at the crack of dawn to do all this. Vincent, Vincent, get in here. Veal osso buco. This isn’t dinner, it’s a feast. You must be so tired, doing all this. Sit, sit, sit. All that’s left is a little stirring and maybe a little pinch or two of something or another. Where’s the wine? We can’t cook without wine. Not for the food, for drinking. You need to be a little soused when you’ve worked this hard all day. Did your daughter help? If she can cook like this, then she’ll be a welcome part of any family,” Theresa said. She had moved from pot to pot, tasting, giving a dash of this, a pinch of that. Willie stood watching her as she buzzed around the kitchen.
Adriana tried a few times to tell her guest that she didn’t cook all the food but gave up as Theresa plopped a glass of wine in her hand and rose her own in toast. Willie accepted her wine and joined in the other women at the island.
“What’s all this about, Theresa? Why are you here? I don’t mean to be rude, but Jeff told me that he rarely sees his parents. I got the impression that you don’t quite approve of Linc. So why here? Why now?” Willie said.
“Don’t get me wrong, it was a shock when Jeff came home from college and all of a sudden he’s gay and has a lover. His father went ballistic and talked before he thought. We both did, but over the years I’ve tried to keep the lines open, but Jeff is just as stubborn as his father. Like two peas they are. I invite Jeff and Linc to weddings and gatherings, but they never accept. I just want my son to be happy, and Linc’s been making him happy for twenty years. So yesterday, from out of the blue, Vincent’s mother calls. She wants us to fly to Dallas and drive to a ranch in Oklahoma. It’s crazy talk from a crazy old woman. Then she threw out the big card. It’s about Jeff and his new woman. Now you could have knocked me down with a feather. I didn’t know Jeff had a girl. I mean, what happened to poor Linc? And what did the old woman have to do with it? Vincent said that if his mother needed him he was going, and if he’s gonna be around his mother, then I had to be here, too. So we get here and no Mrs. Antonetti, no Jeff, and no girl, but with a wedding feast all prepared.” She poured more wine all around.
“And right now I figure, from the look on your face, that you’re Jeff’s new lady. What happened to Linc? I mean they looked like they were really in love.”
“They are. They want to add me as the third,” Willie said. Her voice was unnaturally quiet and shy. But she had no sense of shame or embarrassment, just rightness.
“Leave it to Jeff to go from girl to guy to guy and girl,” Theresa said.
After Theresa revealed all the Antonetti gossip and poured out two more glasses of wine, Adriana shooed Willie upstairs to shower and change for dinner. It seemed that it was formal today.
Ernesto and Vincent sat within a foot of one another in the family den. A college football game was on the widescreen TV on the wall opposite of the patio doors. Trophies adorned the walls for all the boys and for Willie Mae’s track career in high school and college. The silence stretched to almost uncomfortable.
“Want a beer?” Ernesto said.
“Man, I thought I was gonna have to ask,” Vincent said. Beers in hand, the men were on different ends of the couch watching the game.
“What’s going on?” Vincent asked during a commercial.
“All I know is that my daughter spent a few days with your son and his boyfriend. Mi mamá came up from Mexico to give Willie some kind of a dream. That’s all I know,” Ernesto said.
“My mother lives in Italy now, but she called us yesterday and told us to get down here for a special meeting or something. Theresa went ballistic until Ma told her that it was about Jeff having kids. Jeff’s our only child, and when he and Linc got together, we pretty much gave up on grandkids. Theresa was over the moon. Don’t get mad, ok? But is your daughter maybe pregnant?” Vincent said.
“No, no, no, no. That’s not possible yet. She only met these men four days ago. And before you ask, my Willie is a good girl. She does not do the casual sex stuff. I don’t know what happened in West Virginia, but she says she loves them,” Ernesto said. He went to the small fridge and got out two more beers.
“You said ‘them.’ She wants the both of them?”
“So she says.”
“Wow.”
“Exactly.”
Chapter Thirteen:
Love to Stay
Willie Mae stood in front of her closet trying to figure out what was considered “nice” for a surprise formal dinner.
“I guess that peach hand-knitted dress I bought in Ireland will have to do. I don’t know what all this is about but it’s better to look good when something bad is probably going to happen. Abuela must have a good reason for all this show. So if it’s a show she wants, I’ll give it to her. This is good,” Willie said. She turned from back to front enjoying the way that the soft cashmere clung to her curves.
“I feel good, look good, should be a good dinner. Who am I lying to, Abuela is going to do something epic. Drinking will help, but Madre de Dios, I sure do wish I’d stayed where I was.” She pulled on a set of tights that made her legs go on and on. Finally, she pulled on her dress cowboy boots.
“Got the makeup on, smell good, look good, can’t put this off any more. It won’t be that bad.”
* * * *
Mamá looked absolutely spectacular. She’d obviously decided that Theresa would not outshine her. She had on a dark sky-blue knit dress that showed all her mature curves. Bustling around the kitchen in four-inch heels, her mother looked like a younger Sophia Loren with a little less cleavage. Her full concentration was on plating the food. As soon as Willie walked in she grabbed an apron and followed directions from her mother. With countless trips to and from the kitchen to place food on the side table in the dining room, she worked mindlessly, not thinking about what could happen as the day went on.
Theresa pitched in as soon as she returned from freshening up. Between the women they had the meal placed on over tea lights in serving trays.
Ernesto and Vincent continued to watch football. By now they were joined by all of Willie’s brothers. From time to time a loud cheer or groan came from the den. Willie and Theresa kept up lively and long conversations that neither required nor received answers from the rest of the family. Adriana smiled in the right places and muttered under her breath in Spanish. Willie kept looking at the back door waiting for her grandmother and her guests to come in. Everyone carefully ignored the absence of Abuela and her guest until Mano came to replenish the serving plate that had held bruschetta and small dishes of nuts and dates.
“Who’s up there with Abuela?” he said.
“The only ones who know are Moises and your abuela,” Ernesto said, standing behind his son to reach around and snag a few nuts before Adriana smacked his hand.
As the other brothers entered the dining room, all eyes turned to Moises, who looked up from his plate heaping with nuts and bread and shrugged.
“You’ll get nothing from him. I tried this morning and he did that whole silent answer thing he does. But I saw two women go to Abuela’s apartment around four this morning. One was an older woman dressed in a dark dress, it looked like a hijab or something, and the other one was younger with high, high heels. But that’s all I know,” Willie said.
After Willie finishe
d everyone turned to Moises, who shrugged again and continued to eat.
“Mamá will decide when she tells us who her guests are. It’s her apartment. Maybe she’s just having friends over,” Ernesto said.
“Like that one has friends who visit,” Adriana said.
“My mamá is practically a saint.”
“And Lucifer was an angel.”
Willie and her brother were used to this argument. They knew it was best stay quiet and make no sudden movements However, Theresa used a brief lull in the fighting to add her own ideas about the nature of mother-in-laws.
“This one’s mother”—she paused in her work to point at her husband—“must have been hatched with the same litter.”
“Did you just call my mother a bitch?” Vincent’s deep voice cut over the argument going on between Ernesto and Adriana.
“If the collar fits,” Theresa said.
Even Moises stopped eating to look at Theresa in disbelief. The dueling parents got progressively louder, so loud that the doorbell dinged more than three times before Mortez left the table to answer the door.
Willie Mae sipped her wine with her face cupped in her left hand. This was the way she remembered home, noisy and dangerous if you got in the way of either her brothers getting more food or her parents arguing. She didn’t notice who came into the room until the scent of her men wafted over to her. She jerked her head to the doorway to see Jeff and Linc standing calmly watching the fights go on.
Jeff laughed and even Linc smiled a little as they caught her eye. As Jeff crossed the room to interrupt his parents’ fight, he stopped in front of Willie and kissed her once on the forehead and once on her lips. Linc moved closer to her and stroked a finger down her cheek before he kissed her.
Jeff stood silently behind his parents, saying nothing as his mother explained to her husband just what a meddling old woman his mother was. Teresa startled at the kiss on her cheek then let out a shriek that brought Adriana and Ernesto’s attention back to the larger room. Linc wedged closer beside Willie as he watched his partner greet the parents he hadn’t seen in over four years.
Theresa kissed Jeff all over his face only to be pushed aside by his father so he could take her place to gather his son into a bone crushing embrace. Ernesto and Adriana glanced over to Willie and Linc.
“So, what brings you two out to my ranch at this time of the night?” Ernesto asked.
“We came to take Willie back home,” Linc said.
Before Ernesto could answer, the back door opened and Abuela entered the room with a woman even smaller than herself. The teeny-tiny woman was draped in a long, flowing, black dress and black shawl with bright-pink snow boots on. Cynthia Davis wore a half smile and long cashmere black coat that touched her knee-length leather boots.
Vincent crossed the room to sweep the black-shrouded old lady into his arms.
“Speak of the devil,” Theresa said.
“I’m afraid that Willie Mae will not be able to go with you until negotiations are through,” Abuela said. “We need some more of those very nice margaritas upstairs when you get a chance, Adriana. It is the one thing that you make that is palatable.”
* * * *
Willie led Jeff and Linc out the side door that offered the quickest way to the barn. It was a little before ten at night and the respective parents, grandparents, and siblings were still in the family room eyeing one another with either open hostility or lust depending on who was doing the looking.
Willie slipped away with her guys to show them the stables in general and Pax in particular. She had a great love for her horse, and she wanted to show him off.
The moon was so full that she didn’t bother with a flashlight to light their way down the gravel-lined walkway that she could cover with eyes closed and both hands tied behind her back.
In all her twenty-seven years this was the first time that she couldn’t come up with a subject that she felt like talking about. What she wanted was just what she was doing, showing the men she loved the horse that she adored.
Pax stood alert and non-confrontational as Willie patted her down as she talked about the horse. She talked softly to Pax, firmly brushing her hands down his flank to make sure that he was clean of ticks and that he didn’t have any swelling. She had been on him for the better part of the day. Now she saw that Moises had taken her out of the house at Abuela’s request, riding down line that didn’t need it.
The curry comb made a loud clang as it clattered to a table that waited outside of stalls for just such implements. She pulled off her gloves. She intertwined her right hand with Jeff and her left with Linc and pulled them into her father’s small office. The office itself was little more than a closet but it had a nice, if beat-up, couch, a desk, computer, printer, and two chairs that matched the sofa and pattern and the degree of neglect.
Willie pointed to the chairs for Jeff and Linc to sit down while she grabbed a pillow from the couch. She threw it on the floor in between the chairs. Her hands tugged at the fine leather belts they both used and after a few minutes she tapped Jeff’s thigh for him to lift his butt so that she could slide his pants and underwear to somewhere along his ankles. Linc actually moaned when she open his pants wide and snaked her talented hand down the waistband of the blue boxer briefs that barely contained his erection. She paused long enough to hop out of her boots. Jeff helped her shimmy out of her tights while Linc kissed her as if he missed her.
Willie fell to her knees on the carpeted floor hungry for the taste of each man. Linc was thick and luscious and tart while Jeff was creamy and smooth and tangy. Each dick slipped into her mouth and found a place in her throat before she released it and went back to the other. Jeff fell on the couch as Willie followed him down. She got lost in the sensations and forgot to change to Linc. But Linc demanded attention. He grabbed the back of her head and pulled her over to his lap. She didn’t protest, just moved over to her other lover. Jeff’s groans matched Linc’s and it was like music to her ears. She missed the sound. She crawled into Jeff’s lap and cupped Linc with her hands. Linc took the initiative and pulled her onto her feet and plunged into her, eager to have the sensations that he didn’t know that he could miss.
Together all three worked in concert until the room filled with the sounds of their lovemaking. They came in a burst that would have been embarrassing if anyone other than animals had heard the noise.
Jeff moved behind Linc and, using hand lotion from the desk, slid into his lover. He pushed them all to the floor and enjoyed the feel of Linc pushing himself into Willie and impaling himself all over the steel-hard cock. Willie tried not to scream as she felt the orgasm building up until it couldn’t be held back. Linc swallowed the scream and followed it with his own. Jeff was a few seconds off. Pulses and pulses of cum splashed between the lovers. Willie collapsed partially onto the couch but more on Linc’s lap. Jeff pulled out of his lover and flopped on the floor.
Linc scooped Jeff up in his arms, pulling both his lovers to his chest close to his heart.
“This is how it’s going to be,” he said.
They talked for a long time before the coolness of the night got the better of them. They helped each other dress and went back to the house to dinner.
* * * *
Three places were left open for them at the expanded table. They sat to the right of Abuela who had, once again, usurped Adriana’s place at the foot of the table. With her daughter-in-law at the other end to Ernesto’s right, it allowed Abuela to rule the table conversation. So far, it centered on Magdalena Antonetti. Madgalena retired to Italy soon after her husband of fifty-two years died. A small village in Tuscany was the ancestral home of her parents and in-laws. She spoke broken English to Abuela and Cynthia, although occasionally she explained something in Italian. Moises sat to Cyn’s right and acted as translator for his grandmother.
The dinner was loud and long with the conversations flowing free and easy. Jeff and Linc kept a smile on Willie’s face as they kept her
on the edge of orgasm as they teased and petted her under the tablecloth. Willie’s wide smile was the only indication that something was going on.
By dessert, tres leches cake and espresso gelatos were placed on the table by Adriana. She blushed nicely at the compliments.
“I did nothing but keep it from falling on the floor. Manuela made the entire meal and she deserves your praise more than I,” she said as she sat down.
“Before we eat this wonderful cake, we must speak of why we needed the family here. Willie Mae is a young woman who thinks that she wants to enter into a relationship with Jeff Antonetti and Linc Davis. The young think that they invent everything, but to us, Magdalena and I, we know of such things and understand that they are handled best by the elders of the family,” Abuela said.
She touched Cynthia’s hand lying on the table. “We prefer to speak to only the elders, but unfortunately, Linc has only his sister to represent him. She is a wonderful young woman. Should you question this, know that the only reason that we took so long was that she considered as many of the things that will come very seriously.”
Magdalena said in Italian, “These things must be agreed on before we can give our blessings.”
Willie translated for Linc and Jeff. Magdalena began a longer excited conversation with Willie. It finished when the older woman left her seat to grab Willie into a hug that was decidedly strong.
“Now she’s the blessed one. I don’t speak any Italian, and Vincent can only use the curse words,” Theresa said.
Mortez and Mano ducked their mother’s hand as she swiftly popped them on the head for their laughter.
“This is as solemn as a wedding, you dolts,” she said.
Cynthia smiled at the room before she began to explain the issues the women had discussed.
“No state in the union would honor a wedding between these three. So the ladies and I came up with a series of trusts that will protect the interest of each of the partners. In most of the negotiations I do, I try to work from the worst case to the best, and that’s what we’ve done here. Linc, Jeff, Willie, these will be binding agreements and, much like a marriage, will have to be legally dissolved,” Cynthia said.
