Chapter Nine
It was nearly midnight when Skyler put her key in the lock of her family home's front door. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to make it to her room, where she could collapse into her bed. But Skyler knew that wasn't likely to happen. She could see the television on in the house's front room and figured her mother was sitting up waiting on her to get home.
Skyler's mother smiled at her the moment she peaked around the corner into the room. She sat there on the couch, a light throw blanket covering her legs. Skyler could see she wore one of the flowing silk type gowns she always slept in. The teen couldn't help but appreciate how good her mother looked for her age and hoped that she would be able to maintain her body when she was older.
"You didn't have to wait up for me, Mom," Skyler said as she walked into the room.
Bree Ann Grace patted the seat next to her on the couch, a clear indication to Skyler that she wouldn't be escaping to her bedroom anytime soon. Sighing, she sat down next to her mother, not sure exactly what was coming.
"So, did you have a nice time on your date tonight?"
Her mind going back to Kaia and her firm and toned physique, not to mention all of the naughty things they'd done together, made Skyler's face flush. The sexy teen had climaxed so many times she'd lost count, and it had killed her to have to leave Kaia lying naked in her bed. Skyler had wanted nothing more than to snuggle in and melt against Kaia's warm frame as she fell asleep. The thought of waking up next to the sexy woman sending tingles to Skyler's core and causing a flutter in her stomach.
"It was terrific, Mom. I didn't want to leave her, to be honest."
That brought a smile to her mother's face that seemed genuine to Skyler. Bree Ann Grace had never shown any guile when it came to her daughter, and Skyler trusted her mother implicitly.
"I'm happy for you, baby. I could tell that something was off with you and Jacob for the last several months. I just wasn't sure what it was. I will admit that I never expected it to be because you were a lesbian, though," her mother said in a quiet voice.
"Are you disappointed in me?" Syler asked though she wasn't sure she actually wanted to know the answer.
Reaching over to pat her daughter's knee, Bree Ann shook her head vociferously and said, "No, baby. You must never think that. Despite what you might believe, I know that it's something beyond your control, whatever it is that you might be feeling towards this woman."
"You don't think it's wrong?" Skyler asked, unable to hide how astonished she was by the thought.
"Baby, that isn't for me to judge. Who you're attracted to is different to everybody. There were those in your father's family that were vehemently opposed to your father marrying me. But by then we were already deeply in love and he thankfully chose to listen to his heart."
"But why wouldn't they want him to marry you?" Skyler asked, astounded by her mother's revelation.
Her mother gave her a sad smile and patted Skyler's hand in that way that conveyed how naive the older woman realized she was to the way the world really worked. Her expression would have irked the teen just a couple of weeks ago, but now she wasn't so sure her mother wasn't right. Until Kaia had come along, she hadn't even fully known herself, so how much more could she be clueless about?
"Well, for one, I didn't attend your father's church. And they all thought he should marry a girl from their congregation. I think they already had her picked out. When your father started dating me instead, and we became serious, he got some significant pushback from your grandma and grandpa."
Skyler was shocked to hear her mother's words, not understanding how that could be possible. Her grandparents had always treated her mother so well.
Seeming to understand the look on her daughter's face, Bree Ann said, "You have to understand, honey, that I was a lapsed Catholic that hadn't been to church in nearly four years. It was the summer between my sophomore and junior years when I met your dad. And I had enjoyed my first two years of freedom in college."
Her mother's implication hung between the two of them, Skyler not knowing precisely what to say. She definitely had questions but was almost embarrassed to ask them.
Bree Ann Grace laughed and again patted her daughter's hand. She shook her head and said, "No, I wasn't a virgin when I met your dad, and he was aware of that because I didn't try to hide it from him. But he didn't judge me and didn't try to fight it when we started to fall for one another."
"I always assumed, I guess," Skyler said, still stunned by her mother's admission and pleased that the older woman had felt comfortable sharing it.
"Well, it isn't really the type of thing that comes up in polite conversation, is it?" her mother said with a laugh. "And don't get me wrong. It wasn't as if I was whoring myself around campus those first two years. I slept with two boys the first semester of my first year and then had a nearly year-long relationship with a senior that only ended when he graduated and took a job on the other side of the country. That was followed by another reasonably long relationship with another guy who I dumped for cheating on me. It was just a couple of months after that when I met your father."
That meant that her mother had been with at least five men in her life. Four before she met the man that she fell in love with and her mother hadn't even mentioned high school.
"Your dad had a cousin that attended the same college I'd gone to and was a fraternity brother with the first guy I dated for almost a year. When I started dating your father, he was more than eager for whatever reason to spread around my past history to your dad's family."
"But they seem to love you so much," Skyler replied, mystified that her grandparents could have been ugly to someone as sweet as her mother.