Page 24 of Stuffed

And as I laid there in bed, no longer a virgin, knowing full well the implications of what we’d just done, I wasn’t worried about the future. I was hopeful.

“Ma?” I asked the next morning over breakfast. “What do you think about…dating older guys?”

My mom looked up from her blueberry scone and gave me a funny look before responding.

“What, like seniors?” she asked.

“Sure,” I shrugged. “I mean—you and Dad have a pretty big age gap, right?”

“I don’t know if eleven years is that much,” she replied. “I met a girl once in Austin whose parents were twenty-four years apart.”

“Wow!” I replied. “And…were they happily married?”

“They were,” my mom nodded.

“So, age is just a number,” I replied.

“It is and it isn’t,” my mom corrected me. “It is when you know the feelings are there. It isn’t when it’s just some jerk trying to get with a pretty young thing.”

I nodded and took another bite of my pancake, but I could feel her eyes on me like she was either trying to read my mind or already had.

“Is there something you want to tell me, Autumn?” she asked.

“No,” I replied quickly. “Why?”

Mom twisted her lips and frowned but didn’t reply. That wa

s bad. A woman’s intuition is a powerful thing, and my mom’s was stronger than the Hulk’s legs.

I got up and brought my plate over to the counter and started out of the kitchen.

“Gonna go pack, Ma,” I said, but before I could get to safety, she replied.

“Wait.”

I stopped at the door and turned around. She was drumming her fingers on the table and looking at me like she was expecting me to say something.

I didn’t.

I knew better than to play that game with her. If she wanted to talk about something—and I had a pretty good idea what that was—she’d have to bring it up first.

“This age difference,” she said slowly. “It might not happen to be sixteen would it?”

My heart did a two-step in my chest.

“Uh, what?”

“Don’t be coy with me, young lady,” she said, getting to her feet. “I’m no dummy. I saw the lil’ goo-goo eyes you were makin’ at that man yesterday.”

“W—what man?” I stammered like an idiot. I might as well have just given the whole thing away.

“Autumn Marie Beuller! Don’t you dare play dumb with me! I am too smart for that!” she snapped. “You’ve got eyes on your father’s friend and don’t you dare try and tell me otherwise!”

“Gah!” I cried out. “How—how did you—?”

“Like I said,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m no dummy.”

A heavy sigh fled my lips and I hung my head and slunk back against the wall. This wasn’t how I wanted this to go.

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