It has taken me a long while to write this sequel, and I apologize to those who felt the first installment left too many plot threads hanging. I always intended to follow up but Covid-19 turned my work life upside down and I simply have not been able to find the time to get back to it.
Belatedly, here it is. I hope you find it was worth the wait. I also hope you and yours are staying safe and healthy during these trying times. As always, thank you for taking the time to read my work.
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The wind whipped through Linda's hair as she drove, and she brushed the offending strands out of her face with an irritated gesture. Normally, she would have had the windows up and the air conditioning on in her car, but that feature was on the fritz, and she hadn't been able to afford to get it fixed, not with the cost of moving back to her old hometown. That fact left her with windows down as her only means of making the late summer heat bearable.
"Just another reason I didn't want to come back here," she mumbled under her breath.
It was a thought she voiced and quickly regretted. Linda knew she had an excellent reason for returning after all these years, and his name was Sam.
An image of her young lover lept into her mind, blond hair swept back out of his handsome face as he stared down at where she lay naked and pinned beneath his powerful, muscular body, his cock poised...
"Shit!" snapped Linda, yanking the wheel to avoid a branch that had fallen across her side of the narrow two-lane road.
"Get your head out of your ass!" she thought.
It would be beyond humiliating to get in an accident because her attention had been distracted by thoughts of sex.
Then again, it wasn't like she didn't have a good reason for them. A drought of nine years would get to anyone, and Linda's self-imposed exile from love had left her far more wanting than she had ever realized. Sam had changed all that. He had brought her out of her shell and made her feel beautiful again for the first time since walking into the bedroom she shared with her husband all those years ago to find him in bed with her sister. A memory whose pain seemed to be fading away now, making her wonder why she had clung to it for so long.
Sam was her miracle, and she would have moved heaven and earth for him, or at least moved across the country.
"Home...never thought I would see this place again."
Linda turned off the highway and aimed her car up the private drive that led to her parent's residence. The sprawling ancestral home of the Siler's had been in her family for many generations. Linda had grown up here surrounded by the trappings of old family wealth. It was a life she had turned her back on. In some ways, her sister driving her away had been a blessing, making her realize that she could get by on her own without the crutch of her family's money to fall back on.
The house looked out of place if not out of time as well, more like a Georgian plantation house than a typical New England mansion. Linda pulled her car to a stop, shutting off the engine and listening to the ticking sound of it cooling while her eyes took in the hanging ivy that wrapped the pillars of the wide front porch. She gave a mighty sigh, opening the car door and shutting it behind her, steeling herself for what lay ahead.
The old brass knocker gave off a hollow sound that echoed deep into the ancient structure. Linda waited patiently and was thrilled when the first face she saw was a friendly one.
"Ms. Linda! We didn't know you were coming! Get on up here, Child! Give me a hug!"
Lizzie Jones had been her parent's housekeeper for as long as Linda could recall. When she had been just a child, Linda had often found herself following along behind Lizzie's wide thighs while the large African woman worked with the rest of the staff to keep the house tidy.
The years were starting to show in the larger woman's face. The wrinkles of time etching deep grooves in her dark skin. When Linda had last seen her, Lizzie's hair had still been mostly dark black curls, but now those ebony ringlets were shot through with gray. Still, her hug was like that of a momma bear, filled with love and protectiveness that age had not diminished in the slightest.
"You should have called. I would have had the chef put on something special for you. One of your favorites."
"That's okay. I didn't want to make a fuss."
"Or...Were you worried you would find out Gina was here and lose your nerve?"
Linda winced. Lizzie had always been able to see right through her. There was no hiding anything from her watchful eyes.
"Don't you worry. Gina is out for tonight with some young stud from your daddies gun club. Arthur or Avery or something...who can keep track?"
"Are my parents at home?"
"Your mother is here. She's out by the pool reading. Your dad is in town at some meeting, but he promised to be back in time for dinner."
Linda stepped inside, looking up at the gargantuan chandelier that dominated the entryway.
"You should know. Your brother is here as well."
She turned at this news, eyes reflecting the surprise that she felt.
"Trevor? I thought he was still in rehab out in Colorado?"
"Just got back."
Linda's younger brother had led a troubled life. Drinking, drugs, and depression, the big three had dogged his steps like loyal beasts of burden doing their best to drag him down. Many folks assumed that his overindulgence and constant erratic behavior were the natural fall out from a life of privilege that he hadn't acquired the strength of character to handle, but Linda knew otherwise. Trevor's demons had been birthed by one fact that their overbearing father had never been able to accept.
The simple truth that his only son was a homosexual.
"Where is he?"
"Upstairs in the library last time I saw him. He's only been back for a few days and spends most of his time avoiding your father."
"How is he doing?"
Lizzie shrugged, "Seems clean to me, at least for now. How long will it last this time? That's anyone's guess."
Linda nodded and headed toward the stairs deciding that seeing her wayward brother might be a better place to start this family reunion than with her sometimes judgmental mother.
"Do you want me to tell your mother you're here?"
"God, no! I'll get to her soon enough..." groaned Linda.
Lizzie shook her head as the younger Siler vanished from her sight.
It looked to be an interesting evening ahead.
The smell of old leather that Linda had come to equate with her parent's library assaulted her nose as soon as she walked through the big oak doors. Floor to ceiling bookcases lined the walls covered in massive volumes, many of them antique or even original printings. As a child, this place had been special to Linda. She had been the only one of the children to take much of an interest in it. Even now, her eyes drifted over to the far corner where several astronomy texts sat gathering dust in the late evening sunlight that slanted in through the windows. They had remained untouched in the years since she had fled these hallowed halls.
One thing that wasn't untouched was the massive oak desk that sat roughly in the middle of the room. It had belonged, originally, to Linda's great-grandfather and, at the moment, was the landing place for her brother Trevor's size 11 feet.
"Dad would skin you alive if he saw you with your feet on Great-Grandpa's desk," she said with a smile.
Trevor's feet separated into a "V," revealing his handsome face. He and Linda shared a similar look, both with light brown hair and sea-green eyes though Trevor's were deeper set and seemed possessed of a profound sadness, old eyes in a young face.
"Holy Shit! Linda!"
The youngest Siler shot up from where he had been sitting, covering the distance between them in a few long strides and lifting his sister into an unrestrained hug that made her ribs creak.
"Easy...Trevor! You're going to make my stuffing come out!" she warned, laughing.
He put her back on her feet but stayed close, touching her face.
"My...my...makeup? When did you start painting your face again, Sis?"
"It's a recent thing," she admitted.
"Oh! My God! This can only mean one thing. Who is he?" asked Trevor, eyes opening wide with excitement.
"Why do you assume it's a boy?" she teased.
"I wouldn't care either way, but if we both flip to the dark side, it might finally put dad in an early grave. So, give me details, Girl! I want to know everything right down to the size of his..."
"You can stop right there! I don't kiss and tell."
