The summer with my biological family figured to be stressful at first, but things got better real fast. Barbara was working almost all the time, but made sure there was food always available. I'd inherited all of the handywork around the house, which I was willing to do for the free roof while I found a new architecture job. It was something to do to help pass the time, besides my sister Vicky. Vicky kept the house clean while working as a clerk at a gas station down the street. The whole situation had a yokel feel to it, but that might have been the fact that Vicky blew me the night before.
"Jimmy I'm going to the grocery store after my shift ends tonight," Barbara said as she bent down to get something out of the fridge. "Do you need anything special?"
"No thanks," I replied while fighting the urge to call her Mom. "I've only been here a day and it's already starting to feel like home. I'll finish up working on the waterheater today, cause I don't have an interview until Tuesday." She turned around and flashed me a smile, the first I'd seen since I'd arrived.
"Good morning!" Vicky bounced down the stairs and sat down at the table, smiling at me about our dirty little secret from the night before. "Hey Mom, do we have any sausage I can have for breakfast?" I caught the reference, but wasn't really amused.
"I don't know sweetheart, you'll have to check the fridge."
"Ok...for some reason I have a REALLY big craving for sausage today." She winked at me, and I rolled my eyes. She was cute, and gave me the best head I've ever had, but I couldn't do it if she was going to pull this gag every day.
"Hey Barbara," I asked with a more serious tone, "I have a question." She turned and looked at me, sensing that I was genuinely concerned. "If you guys gave me up for adoption, why'd you have Vicky?"
She paused and explained that after giving me away, they won the lottery and wanted kids. They had a daughter of their own, Bella. They later adopted Vicky, but my biological father wanted a divorce. They split the money but she got the kids.
"So if you won the lottery..." I trailed off, grasping for a nice way to comment on the state of the house.
"Not all lottery prizes are for millions of dollars." She shot me a look with that bitchy glare of hers. "We paid off the house, but we're still scraping by. Raising 2 kids isn't cheap, especially with Bella out touring for colleges."
"That's why I'm not going to go to college!" exclaimed Vicky. "I know an education is important, but I can get just as far with a community college degree." She matter-of-factly rattled off a few numbers and statistics, but I grew bored with the conversation.
"I'm going to head downstairs and start on the waterheater." I cleared my plate and saw Vicky eyeing me. "Barbara, what time should I expect you home? I can lend a hand with dinner if you'd like."
She cracked a smile at the offer. Her smile, while rare, was something that warmed my entire body. "That'd be lovely, but I won't be back until after ten, so just wrap me up some leftovers hon." Hon. The affection was starting to get to me.
I headed downstairs and started working on the water heater. Being an architect, I had no real experience with it, but I was able to read the manual and read enough on the internet to figure it out. Realizing that it was already past noon, I looked out of the tiny windows to see Vicky coming back from the mailbox. My trousers jumped at the sight of her legs in her tiny cutoff shorts, but I put it in the back of my mind.
Until she came down the stairs. "Hey Jimmy, I thought I'd bring you a drink!" She was acting peculiar as she handed me a tall glass of lemonade, but I appreciated it nonetheless.
