Empty Nest: Chapter 104

All attention swings from Mia to Heather and Rebecca. Unflinching, unrepentant, and unashamed Heather stares right back at her looming sister as her arm tights around me. Without a word needing to be spoken the answer is given and received.

Rebecca closes her eyes then pinches the bridge of her nose. “My God. What have you done, sister?”

“I listened to my heart.”

“I don’t think that was the organ you were listening to.” She opens her eyes and slowly shakes her head. “You couldn’t even last a single week before succumbing to temptation. I thought you stronger than that, sister.”

“Elliot was not a moment of weakness. He’s made me strong again.”

“I should have known that soft heart of yours would lead you to this. I should have known the moment you introduced him. You never should have let him stay here in the first place. What were you thinking?” At the quivering edges of her carefully controlled voice I could hear the intensity of her anger. “You could have claimed anybody. You could have pulled this family into a better class of people. Claimed a man of wealth and influence and prestige. You waste your gift on HIM!? On this…boy!?”

“Elliot is all the man I ever want.” Heather says defiantly then kisses the back of my head. “I didn’t choose him to impress people I do not care about. I chose him because I love him.”

“You chose him because he was here and you were horny. You were weak.”

“Yes I wanted him, of course I did, but do you honestly think I took this lightly? I tried to deny what was in my heart but…I was no match for my Elliot.”

“If you absolutely had to settle for just a young piece of ass there are a hell of a lot hotter playthings out there. Sons of good families.”

“He’s pretty fuckin hot if you…” Julie starts to say.

“Shut it!” Rebecca’s sharp voice cracks like a whip, her once cold eyes now blaze with fiery rage. Julie puts her hands up in surrender. Her gaze snaps back to Heather. “Liam will not stand for this. And he is right not to. You choose this particular common boy. Of all people, you choose him? After the history he had with your son? How could he see this as anything but a slap in the face? Hm? Did you even think about Liam? Did you think about how humiliating this is for him?”

Behind me Heather trembles as her sister’s words strike at her most vulnerable spots. I am spurred to defend her but a soft pat of my chest signals to me that Heather wanted to deal with this herself.

“It was not my plan to fall in love.” Heather says. “But these things tend to happen when you least expect it.”

“These things…?”

Heather cuts her sister off with a sharp verbal crack of her own. “And you will NOT lecture me on my relationship with my son. Ever!”

Rebecca bristles but cedes the topic of Liam. In a more contained voice she says. “You should have thought this through.”

Heather wraps her other arm around me, pulling me into her as if protecting me from some imminent threat. “If you are trying to make me regret my decision…”

“No.” Rebecca sighs. “No. I suppose it’s too late for regrets now. I just…wish you had spoken to me first.”

“I’m happy I didn’t.” Heather says as she softly pets my chest. “You might have talked me out of the best decision of my life.”

Rebecca’s calculating eyes turn to me to look at me anew. Her disappointment was palpable. She wasn’t looking at what I was but what I might have been had her matriarch sister used her brain over her heart. Though I of course felt slighted by the contempt I found that I could sympathize with her on a certain level. In my heart knew that Heather could have chosen any man in the world. The knowledge did wonders for flattering my ego and inspired me to improve myself to no end but when I stepped back to look at the things ‘objectively’ I couldn’t deny that by nearly every measure of a man she could have done ‘better’. From Rebecca’s point of view she could only see those factors. I couldn’t even blame her. She was a proud woman who only wanted the best and finest for her family. What she couldn’t see however was that I measured up in the one way that mattered most to Heather. I made her happy. For that alone I knew that I deserved to be here.

“Mm. I suppose you could have done worse. Not much mind you, but…at least there’s something to work with.” She says. The praise was faint but coming from her I would take it. “How old are you, boy?”

“His name is Elliot.” Heather corrects.

Rebecca gives a nod. “How old are you, Elliot?”

“Uh, 25.”

“A bit old for starting university but maybe…”

“Elliot wants to be a carpenter.” Heather says. “And that is what he is going to do. He is not a pawn, Rebecca. His future is his own.”

“Again?” Rebecca gives her sister a long look. “Even after Alexander?”

After a pause Heather says softly. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“A common boy becomes a common man.” Rebecca says flatly. “What a waste.”

“Take it easy, Becks. Elliot is freakin awesome once you get to know him.” Julie says, causing a twitch of the eye from her tightly-wound cousin. “He’s cool.”

“Is that so?”

“Y-Yes.” Peeps Mia, surprising everybody. “I like him, mother. I like him very much. He is kind and he…understands me. He needed a family just like I did.” For just an instant Rebecca’s demeanor softens as she looks at her adopted daughter. “He is a good man, mother. Please give him a chance.”

“Even I have to admit that he’s easy to be around.” Lily says her piece. Shooting me a smile she adds. “I find him downright…pleasant. And annoyingly pretty.” She shoots me a grin. “Most important, he makes Mom smile.”

“That he does.” Heather nuzzles the back of my neck.

Looking around at her family Rebecca seems at a loss. “Really? All of you?”

“Elliot’s the man.” Julie says. “He’s one of us now and I think we’re lucky to have him.”

“Well thank you, Juliet.” I quip.

“That doesn’t mean I won’t kick your ass!”

Rebecca looks from one face to the next before finally settling back on mine. “Interesting.” Stepping back she points to the floor in front of her. “Boy! Here! Now!”

To my surprise I am struck with an urge to obey the firm order. The urge was muted compared to what I felt with my bonded lover but it was there nonetheless.

Heather’s arms clinch in around me. “Ask him nicely. He is a free man and you will respect him.”

With another annoyed sigh her sister rolls her eyes. “Very well. Elliot, dear boy, may I please see you a moment.”

“Uh…sure.”

Reluctantly Heather’s hug loosens around me giving me the freedom to stand and walk around the coffee table to face Rebecca. Being this close to her I found to be almost surreal. Though she was a lot slimmer of build and an inch or two taller she looked so much like her sister as to make me wonder if the pair were actually twins. It was that resemblance that made it so peculiar. She had the same brown hair, the same brown eyes, and strikingly similar eye shape, lip shape and bone structure yet combined with all of these familiar features were things that clashed with what I was used to seeing. Rebecca’s hair was pulled back into a tight bun, her lips were held slightly pursed, her expression the epitome of ‘resting bitch face’, and her those luscious brown eyes that I was accustomed to seeing so much love and warmth in were piercing and shrewd. Most of all though it was just her energy that threw me off. If Heather’s aura was like a big warm blanket hers was an iron maiden. She was like some supervillain Heather from some alternate universe or something.

After studying me a moment she leans in for a sharp sniff.

“Not bad, huh?” Julie says. “Sexxxyyyy.” Lily chuckles.

Rebecca refuses to dignify the question with any sort of response. Instead she grabs me by the chin to turn my head left and then right. “Hm.”

“Told you he was cute.” Lily says. “You don’t notice it at first but then once you see it you can’t unsee it. He kind of grows on you…like ringworm.”

“Gee, thanks.” I say.

Lily laughs with a wink.

“I think he’s very handsome.” Mia whispers.

“So do I, sweetie.” Heather says. “So do I.”

It was weird standing her being ogled and complimented by these five beautiful women but I sure didn’t mind. One of the fun things about them always ‘talking over my head’ was that I got hear what they really thought. Though each of them saw something different in me the affection was just the same. I’d been told that women like these treasured their men and damn if that didn’t feel nice.

“So what do ya say, Cuz? Is he our new guy or is he our new guy?”

“I suppose he does have a certain…allure.”

“Ha ha!” Julie claps her hands. “She’s hooked.”

“I am not ‘hooked’.” Rebecca says indignantly. “I am simply saying that I see what attracted my sister to this…”

“Common boy?” I finish her sentence.

I swear I catch the barest hint of a smirk from her. “Indeed.” She leans closer. “If Heather’s allowed you your freedom I’m surprised you haven’t told me to go to hell yet.”

“I know how important family is to Heather and so…” I stand tall. “…I am on my best behavior. I just want everybody to be happy.”

“A good boy, huh?”

“I try.”

She pats my little belly. “The gut’s gotta go.”

“Working on it.” I say.

She squeezes my arm. “You’re soft.”

“Not for long.” I say.

She tilts her head. “Hm. There’s some potential here I suppose.”

“You haven’t heard the best part, Cuz.” Julie says with a rascally grin.

“Oh?”

“Heather’s letting him angel. Rebecca, we’ve got ourselves a honey hole!”

Rebecca’s left brow raises, whether it was from surprise or interest I could not say. “Is this true?”

“It was his choice. Elliot has a lot of love to give and he has chosen to be generous with it.” Heather says proudly. “But he is in control of that. I will not have my man taken advantage of.”

“Interesting.” With those ‘stern teacher’ eyes Rebecca looks me up and down in a whole new way. “Very interesting.”

“Heather claimed him au naturel.” Julie whispers. “The twunk can bottom and he can take’em big.”

“What the heck is a twunk?” Heather mutters.

“Twunk? He’s totally a twink.” Lily says. “With those hips and that ass he’s damn near a femboy.”

“Nah, he’s a twunk.”

“Nope, twink all the way.”

“On Heather’s cookin he’ll be a bear in no time.”

“HA!”

“Would you two stop!”

Julie chortles. “The point is, the lad can fuck.”

Chapter 105