There is a skylight in my parents' bedroom, and so when I woke up I was staring up at the deep blue sky through a tiny little lens in the ceiling. The room was hot and warm and bright. Sam had rolled off of me, and was asleep on her side facing away from me on the pillow next to mine. Mom was gone, but I saw her through the window down at the fire, and made my way.
She had wrapped herself in a long white robe, fastened tightly by a belt tied intricately around her waist. She didn't look up to greet me, though I could see she heard me coming. She had lit a fire in the pit, and was fiddling with breakfast dishes when I finally got near enough to touch her.
"Breakfast is ready," she said curtly, scurrying out of the way of my touch to do more food preparation. "Sit down and eat."
"You're being highly efficient this morning," I said, "What's up?"
"Your dad is getting back this afternoon," she said, "You eat up and get on the river. You know he'll want fish when he gets here. He'll be wondering what you've been up to this whole time."
"Mhm," I said, pouring myself coffee and taking a sip, "I don't know what I'd tell him."
"You won't tell him anything," she said, still not meeting my gaze, "Nothing happened. We didn't do anything. We lay out and tanned and you fished and we shared meals like a family. Like a normal family. Nothing else happened."
"I think I can keep that straight," I said, trying not to sound as concerned as I was with my Mom's new demeanor, "If I get back today with any fish is all."
"You will," she said, "Go put your shorts on. All of nature can see you. Then eat up and get on the river."
"Mom," I said, "You seem perturbed. You should try and relax a little."
"Oh, you'd like that," she said, "You'd like that a lot. You've got this whole sick game going on with me and your sister, and I fell right into it. I feel sick."
"It's not a game, Mom. I never planned any of this. This isn't what I imagined a family vacation was going to look like."
She didn't say anything, just kept herself making busywork. I sat down on the picnic bench and leaned back into its table section, sipping at my coffee. I just watched her as she fussed about with dishes and concentrated very hard on not looking in my direction at all. When silence became untenable, she sighed in frustration, stood up straight, and wiped at her forehead while looking at the sky.
"I'm sorry," she said, "I don't mean to be snappy. I'm just having a really hard time processing just what the hell went on last night."
"It's okay, Mom," I said, "It didn't mean anything grave. We were all just horny, curious, and close. People do that."
"Families don't do that," she said.
"Well... maybe ours does?"
"No," she said, "I don't think I can do that again. We can't do that again."
"That's fine. But we can all be cool about it? We didn't do anything wrong."
She made eye contact with me for the first time, and I saw she was working really hard at holding back tears. Her lip was quivering. Her shoulders were shaking and she looked like her knees were ready to give way.
"I cheated on your father," she said, "Last night was cheating. He can't ever find out about it."
"He won't, Mom," I said, "It's fine. We don't ever have to tell him. Don't blame yourself. He hasn't been up to his husbandly duties lately, and it's better you got yourself sorted out somewhere that cares rather than just finding solace with a stranger."
Her knees gave way then. She fell into my lap and crossed her arms and started sobbing silently into them. I wrapped my arms around her back and rubbed her soothingly.
"You won't tell him, will you?" she said, "You won't say anything?"
"Mom, I promise he'll never find out."
"Do you think I'm a horrible person?"
"No," I said, "Not at all."
"I love your father," she said, "I really do. But a woman has needs. And if I'm being completely honest with myself, I kind of liked what happened yesterday. Kind of loved it. It made me feel so bad in such a good way. And I don't know if I'm a bad person because of it."
"You're not a bad person, Mom," I said, "You're just a person. That's all. That's all we all are."
She was looking up at me then, and finally her tears were waning, and the crack of a smile was breaking the corners of her determined frown.
"I think that's the best I can hope for," she said.
"Have you eaten?" I asked, "Get some breakfast in you. You'll feel better."
That's when the smile finally broke through, and she stood up on her feet again. She went back to the fire, and cracked eggs into a skillet.
"You eat," she said, "You need your protein."
The creak and then slam of the screen door opening alerted us, and both our heads cocked to catch sight of Sam strolling out along the porch and down the stairs. As was her custom, she was naked as the day she was born. My cock began stirring gently. Sam just had the type of body that could do it to me in an instant. Her naked breasts swayed and bounced on each step as she descended the staircase. Mom and I both watched in rapt attention, only Mom was more quickly able to break her spell.
"Sam, put your clothes on," she shouted up at her, "Your Dad is going to be back any time now. If you want a to tan, put a suit on."
"Oh, he won't care," Sam dismissed, "He'll probably be just as excited for it as Chris was."
"I'm not falling for that again, young lady," Mom said, "Go right back inside and get dressed for breakfast."
"What did you say to her?" Sam asked, stopping and turning to face me.
"I didn't say anything," I said. I wondered if my still being undressed was an issue. "She may have a point, though. You don't want to give Dad a heart attack."
"He's seen it before," she said.