Rob was washing the windows when he noticed Walt watching him.
"Stopping by to help?"
Walt's gravelly chuckle changed to a smoker's cough.
"I'll take that as a no."
Walt nodded as he tried to regain his breath. "Got a few minutes. I want to ask you something?"
"Sure, what's on your mind?"
"Is Gail home? This concerns you both."
Rob's smile faded at Walt's serious tone.
"She's inside. Come on in."
Walt stared out their kitchen window at nothing in particular as Rob called out for Gail.
Gail took in the eerie quiet and the unopened beers on the table. She sat next to Rob and looked from Walt to Rob and back again.
"Is something wrong Walt?"
Walt opened his beer and took a big swallow. "No and Yes. What I'm about to tell you stays between the three of us."
He took another swallow and leaned in. Rob and Gail did too.
"Every day I pick up my sister-in-law and we go to the nursing home and see my brother."
"How's he doing?"
Walt shook his head. "He's declining fast. Hasn't recognized me or Donna for over a year."
Gail touched his hand. "I'm sorry to hear that. How's she holding up?"
"That's the reason I'm here. A few months ago, we're sitting in their living room having a cup of coffee when she starts crying."
Walt sighed. "I moved closer and put my arms around her. She laid her head on my shoulder. After a few minutes, she walks into the bedroom."
He looked at Gail and shrugged. "I figured she's fixing her face. She walks out naked as the day she was born. She pulls on my hand so I stand up. She kisses me like Carol does in the bedroom and says make love to me. I looked into those pleading eyes and followed her into the bedroom."
He ran his hand through his silver hair and took another drink. "We cuddled afterward. She told me watching Ray slowly fade away hurt, but not nearly as much as the lack of intimacy."
Walt removed his glasses and wipes his eyes. "I felt guilty sleeping with my brother's wife until she said that. I know he would want her taken care of. If not me- who would comfort a woman in her late seventies? Now when we return from the nursing home, we undress and go to bed. Sometimes she just wants me to hold her; other times she wants kisses. On rare occasions, I make love to her."
Walt shook his empty and Gail got him another beer. He opened and downed half of it.
"The reason I'm here is I think I have what Ray has. I'm starting to forget simple things I use to know."
He looked at Rob. "You've been a great friend and I'm asking you to take care of Carol's needs. Give her the loving she needs to cope with this illness I have. Don't worry about my feelings. By the time you're bedding Carol, I won't remember this conversation or much of anything else."
He focused on Gail. "I need your okay for Rob to take care of Carol when I'm in a nursing home. I saw what Donna was like before and after I took care of her. I don't want Carol to get like that."
Walt guzzled the last of his beer. "Think about this for a few days before you answer. Don't say a word to Carol. If you decide no, it dies here. If you decide yes, I thank you now for saving her from a sad existence." He left.
~*~ Many sunsets later ~*~
When the ten o'clock news cut to a commercial Rob took his cup and empty dish into the kitchen. As he turned off the coffeemaker, he noticed about a cup left in the carafe. "You want some more coffee?"
Not hearing a reply, he carried the carafe to the doorway and held it up. "More coffee?"
His wife, Gail, stared unmoving at the TV.
He was use to her becoming so interested in a show that she tuned out everything else, but it was a commercial- for dog food- and they didn't have a dog.
Setting down the carafe, he moved to her side. "Gail, what's wrong?"
"What?" She turned, noticing Rob's wrinkled brow. "What's wrong Rob?" Her hand gripped his.
"That's what I asked you. You were a million miles away. His other hand came up to tenderly push the stray lock of hair behind her ear. "What's the matter?"
She looked at him with those big doe eyes that captured his heart so many years ago. "It's nothing. I'm just tired. I'll go to bed when you leave."
"I'm not buying tired. Tell me the truth."
She started to move away, but he stopped her.
"It's just something Carol said today when we were out."
"About Walt? What happened?" He was visibly upset as he waited for the bad news she'd been withholding.
She softly patted his hand. "Calm down; it wasn't about Walt. It was you."
Rob's brow wrinkled. "What about me?"
"Nothing really. We stopped at the market to both pick up a few things and Carol asked me if there was anything special you'd like for breakfast."
Gail looked away, feeling the tears well in her eyes. "I didn't think about it until a few minutes ago when I saw you getting ready to leave."
She looked at him. "I'm scared that she's trying to take you from me. You're not falling in love with her are you?"
Rob took her in his arms. "You have my heart and always will. I'll call Carol and tell her I won't be coming over."
Gail pushed him back and wiped her eyes. "You'll do no such thing; she's expecting you."
He stared for a moment. "But you just said-"
She shook her head. "When I agreed, I didn't think it would go on for this long."
"You want me to tell her this is the last time?"
A look of horror swept across her face. "It'd devastate her... and she'd know I put you up to it."
She tried to smile for her bewildered husband. "I think part of my fear is because of the way her face lights up when she talks about you. She looks forward to being with you. Forget I said anything. You better get going or she'll start to worry."
Rob kissed the love of his life and hugged her tight. "Over thirty years together and you still amaze me. You're sure you're okay with this?"
"Remind me once in a while that I'm still the only love in your life." She rubbed her hand over Rob's chin. "Shave before you go; she doesn't need beard burn."
He chuckled. "Yes dear."
Gail watched from the living room window as Rob left on his nightly walk. She felt the familiar tightening in her tummy knowing Carol would soon be in his arms. She waited until he disappeared around the corner before closing the drapes and turning off the porch light.
~*~
Carol sat in her darkened living room sipping wine and anxiously watching out the window for a shadowy figure to appear down the street.
Her pulse quickened as the longish shadow of a person stretched from the corner streetlight's glow. She opened the front door and waited his arrival.
Rob entered the darkened house and locked the door. He knew without looking she would be within arm's reach waiting for his request.
"Come here Carol."
She stepped into his open arms. The passionate kiss turned into a torrid tongue battle for dominance. They both knew he would dominate as she was his submissive.
In the bedroom, he stood as she undressed him, taking his flaccid cock in her mouth as she looked up for approval.
"Very good my slut, now get me hard so I can enjoy my pussy."
Carol worked hard to please him. She relaxed her throat to take him deep. A shiver ran through her as he hardened and gave another command.
"On your back and show me what's mine."
She lay on her back spread wide with legs pulled to her chest.
"It's your pussy Sir; use it for your pleasure."
~*~
She lay cuddled in his arms as the clock announced a new day.
He kissed her. "I wasn't too rough?"
"No; if I closed my eyes, I saw Walt." She pulled him on top. "Once more; be Rob this time."
The loving was soft and tender.
~*~
The doctor called and suggested hospice. Carol already approved stopping his Alzheimer's medication over a year ago. The end was coming quickly.
As she walked down the nursing home corridor to Walt's room, Carol glanced into each passing room finding many sad, tired faces of spouses and grown children sitting next to the bed of their loved one.
She sat in the chair next to Walt's bed. His eyes were closed; his breathing shallow. He'd forgotten her name long ago. She leaned down and kissed his dry lips and then removed the Chap Stick from the top drawer of his night stand and coated his lips.
She told him about her day knowing he didn't comprehend a word she spoke.
"I don't know if I could have visited you for all these years if it hadn't been for your gift."
~*~
On one of his good days three years ago, Walt pointed to his closet and told her to look for an envelope.
She found an envelope labeled 'When I don't remember you'.
"Open it when I can't remember your name."
Carol opened it six months later. Walt explained how he brought Donna home day after day after seeing his brother. He described her deteriorating emotional state and the events that led up to his making love to her.
