Free Romance: Indecent Love by Lucy James

 
    I pulled up the driveway and parked the car, happy to arrive at my front door. It had been a long day at work. I stopped for groceries on the way home. Driving here, all I could think about was putting everything away then pouring a nice glass of wine while I took some time for myself before dinner.

I got out of my car and started emptying the trunk. As I turned toward the house I heard cursing coming from the garage. I headed that way to take the side door. Instead, the noise came from behind the garage. I found my husband's son, Billy, fumbling with the engine of his tractor, again. He turned and saw me with the bags.

"Oh good," Billy stated with a happy sigh. "I'm glad you're here. I could use your help if you don’t mind," he asked, pointing to his tractor.

"Alright, let me get these inside. I still have a couple more in the car. I have to put these away and then I’ll come back out to help. Is that alright?”

“Sure," he agreed, nodding his head. "I'd help carry them in but I'm all greasy from the engine," he stated apologetically.

"It's okay. I got it."

"You might want to change while you're in there," he half shouted in my direction as I turned the corner to enter the house through the kitchen. "This is really filthy. You don’t want mess up your nice clothes."
    “Got it,” I yelled back as I continued into the house.

I've been married to Billy's father, Mark, for seven years, after we dated for three years. I've watched Billy grown from a little boy into a nice young man. He was about eleven when Mark and I had met. I never tried to be the 'new mommy' to the boy. He had had a bad enough time dealing with the divorce of his parents without me trying to be another mother. I focused on my relationship with Mark and just took it one thing at a time with Billy.
    Over the years Billy and I had formed a relationship that worked for us. I rarely told him what to do from a parental stand point but I would drop hints of warning if I noticed him heading for trouble. The last thing I wanted was for him to piss off his father. Sometimes Billy listened, and sometimes he didn't. These last few years, his teen years, had been a bit touch and go. He'd had his share of girls, drugs, tickets, and just plain bad luck. But none of that was so severe for Mark to send him off packing.

Billy was almost twenty years old now and finally enrolled in college. He'd finally got his act together. I was proud of him. He was starting to take life seriously. To help Billy out, Mark insisted that he stay at home while juggling a job and school so he wouldn't have the burden of bills to worry about just yet. 

So my coming home and being asked to help repair the engine of a tractor wasn't an unusual occurrence. I'd just change into my work clothes and see what I could to do to help. I put the bags on the table, got the rest from my car. I closed the front door on my way back inside the house. I put the groceries away and turned to go to the bedroom to change.  Just then, I heard a stream of cursing from the garage and a loud bang. Darting to the door to the garage, I yelled “Are you okay out there?”
    “Yeah,” I heard his muffled response as I headed out to join him and see what was wrong.

"I need you to hold this, though!"

Without hesitation I peered into the engine of the tractor, meeting Billy's gaze from the underside. "You couldn't wait fifteen minutes?"

"I thought I could hold it and get that in there myself. Can you grab that and hold it still for me?" 

Shifting my gaze I saw the 'that' in question. It was swaying back and forth in Billy's hand. I reached in and took hold of the... whatever it was and held it as still as possible. "Why can't they make these things easier to get to when you have to fix them?" I asked rhetorically.

Billy slid out from under the tractor and came around to where I stood. "Cause then you wouldn't have to pay some mechanic to put it up on a lift to fix it for you. It’s a