Mac and Me

Her body was muscular, but also very feminine in so many ways. Her legs were shapely, and her buttocks were full yet surprisingly firm. Her breasts - those beautiful breasts - were amazing in their fullness and firmness as well.

I sure wasn't expecting the tiny wisp of hair between her legs, and the complete absence of hair anywhere else. She made me feel like a bear next to her, and when I had mentioned being surprised at feeling the smoothness of her legs and underarms, she told me that was just the way she was, and that she didn't even own a razor.

I was tempted to wake Mackenzie up during my careful studying, but when my eyes left her body briefly and went up to her face, I saw she was staring at me.

"Did I elbow you out of bed?" she asked.

"No, I just didn't want to wake you up by getting back in," I explained.

"I sleep pretty soundly," Macknezie said.

"You wouldn't have been sleeping if I did what I wanted to do to you," I warned her.

"Try me," she said, and as she smiled and welcomed me back in to bed, I crept back in next to her, and even though I still wasn't sure what I doing, I found that I wasn't afraid to try.

...

Chapter 9: Homecoming.

A few months passed, and I was never happier. Mackenzie and I were together every minute we weren't working. I felt like I had to tell the world how happy I was and how incredible Mackenzie was, and although I wasn't ready to take that step, I did want to tell my mother. She was pretty much all the family that I had left, and even though I wasn't sure how this would go over, it was something I needed to do.

"You sure look nervous about this, Abby," Mackenzie said, and I told her she was right.

"If you want to back out, I understand, but I have a hunch you're worrying over nothing," Mac declared.

The long ride up to Watertown was fun, roaring up the highway in Mackenzie's Mustang, but as we got near to my old homestead, I started to get more and more frightened. What if Mom freaked out? Maybe backing out would be the right thing to do, at least for now.

I had told Mom that I was bringing up a special friend, but that was as far as I had gone. When we pulled in the driveway, Mom was waiting at the door, looking a little more frail than the last time I was up, but that was my reaction everytime I saw her these days.

Mom greeted Mackenzie warmly, and even though I thought that I had caught a tiny reaction when Mom first saw Mackenzie, she covered it up well, and was her usual warm and gracious self. Mackenzie had never looked more beautiful and feminine, and I wanted to show her the booming metropolis I grew up in, as well as show her off, so we took a stroll.

"This is really something," Mac said as we walked through the little city which had seen better days, but was still recognizable to me.

"Makes Schenectady seem like New York City," I had to admit, lamenting the closing of a couple more stores since my last visit, which underlined the depressed nature of the area in general.

I ran into a couple of people I knew, and after introducing Mackenzie as my friend the first time, dropped the friend part for the second introduction. What do I call her? She's way more than a friend.

"Hi Abigail!" a voice called from the doorway of the local insurance outfit.

"Oh, hi Brad," I answered, stopping to wave at the pudgy guy with the receeding hairline.

"Long time no see," Brad said. "You really look great!"

"You're right. I do," I said in agreement, and I hardly even chuckled when Mackenzie did a double-take when she looked over at me. "Looks more depressing everytime I come back. I see McMillan's closed up."

"Nobody buys groceries anymore, I guess," Brad says. "The liquor store is the only booming business in town."

"That will never change," I said as I surveyed the tired old town which seemed even smaller than ever. "Oh, I'm sorry. Brad, this is Mackenzie."

They nodded to each other, and I felt the need to elaborate.

"Brad and I went to school together," I told Mackenzie. "He was the star of the football team."

"Wasn't much of a team," Brad said, shrugging his shoulders.

"So I remember," I said, grinning a grin that I felt I had earned. "Well, gotta run. Take care."

With that, I did something I still can't believe I did. Just a simple little thing. Before we turned and went down the street, I reached down and took Mackenzie's hand. Mine was wet and shaking, and Mac was startled, but when I squeezed hers, she squeezed back, and it wasn't my imagination when I looked over and saw the look in her eyes.

"Thank you," she said softly as we headed back to Mom's.

..........

Chapter 10: Explaining.

Back at my mother's, I dreaded telling her what I knew I had to tell her, about Mac and me. It was making things easier that the two of them had been getting along so well right from the start. Mac was working her typical Mac charm on my mother, and it never ceased to amaze me how she was able to talk with anybody about anything, and make everybody feel comfortable around her. Then again, I was living proof about that.

After dinner, and after we cleaned up the dishes, I managed to corner my mother alone. I had practiced several speeches, but wasn't confident about any of them, so in the end I just ad-libbed.

"Need anything else done?" I asked Mom, who was busy doing her usual puttering about.

"No dear, I think you and Mackenzie have taken care of everything," she said with her usual smile. "We should figure out the sleeping arrangements though."

I shuddered at the topic, which I knew was coming but I had dreaded nevertheless, but Mom had the floor.

"If you would like, you two can sleep in Dad's and my room," she said. "Can't imagine your old bed being big enough for both of you."

Luckily I was leaning against the kitchen counter or else I would have fallen over.

"I - we can't do that to you," I said, stumbling for words.

"There was a lot of love in that room for a lot of years," Mom said. "It would be nice to see that in there again. Besides, there's a lot of space going to waste there. I can sleep in your old room for the night."

"Did Mac tell you something?" I asked.

"Nobody had to tell me anything," Mom said, her eyes twinkling. "All I had to do was look at you when you got here. I hardly recognized you."

"I gained a few pounds," I shrugged, fumbling for words. "Didn't think it showed."

"Not that, Abby. You were different. You looked alive. You looked like you were so happy you wanted to explode. You looked just like I used to feel when Dad was alive."

Tears were rolling down my cheeks by then, and as I wiped them away Mom put her hand on mine.

"You don't know how many times Dad and I would sit around and hope and pray that you would find somebody nice to spend your life with. You were always so sad and always lookied so depressed, so when I saw you get out of that car with your face lit up, I knew something had changed. Something wonderful."

"I wasn't planning on this, Mom. On Mac, or anything. It just happened. I didn't think you would understand. Sometimes even I don't."

"Maybe I wouldn't have, a few years ago," Mom mused. "Times change, and people change. Now that I've been without Dad for a few years, I've learned how much it hurts to be alone, and to be lonely. It's the worst feeling in the world."

"I know," I said.

"At least I have lots of memories to keep my spirits up," she added. "Now maybe I won't have to worry about you so much any more. You have someone of your own now."

"I love her, Mom," I sniffed. "And I think she loves me."

"I think you're right," Mom said. "She seems like a wonderful girl, too. Is there anything in the world she can't do, or doesn't know something about?"

"I don't think so," I said, remembering back to the conversation we had about this trip, and how worried I had been about letting Mom know about my drastically different life.

"She'll be fine with it," Mac had assured me. "If she loves you as much as I think she does, she'll be happy for you."

"She won me over when she fixed that darn leaky faucet five minutes after she walked in the door," Mom said with a laugh.

"Thank you," I said, hugging the woman who had become so much more wise in my eyes over the last few years. "You don't have any idea how happy this makes me."

"I think I do," Mom said.

"For somebody that's supposed to be so happy, I sure do cry a lot," I said, drying my cheeks for hopefully the last time.

"You're pretty when you laugh, and pretty when you cry too, Abby. It's the other times when you didn't usually look so good," Mom suggested.

"I hardly even remember those other times," I said, heading upstairs with a bounce in my step. "And thanks for the offer, but we'll be in my room."

I practically skipped up the stairs, feeling like I was a kid again, and was so beside myself with happiness that I almost ran headlong into Mackenzie, who was waiting around the bend in the hall.

"Eavesdropping?" I asked after I yelped in surprise.

"Guilty," Mac said, and she looked as happy as I felt.

"You were right," I said, feeling Mackenzie's arms bringing me close to her.

"Lucky guess," she said, kissing me and giving me a stern look as we hugged. "Just don't ever say that again."

"Say what?"

"Don't ever say that you THINK I love you," Mac said.

"Okay, but you might change your mind after we spend the night together in this," I said, gesturing at my single bed where I had sentenced us to stay.

"How much more room do we need?" Mac asked, and as usual, she was right as rain.

....

Epilogue.

It's been almost 20 years now, and Mac and me are still together. It hasn't been all a honeymoon, but the bad patches were so trivial that they hardly mattered, and the good times are always just as special now as they were in the beginning.

A few years back, we bought a nice house way out in the sticks, with plenty of room and few neighbors, which is just the way we like it.

We had quite a fright last year when Mac had a health scare, and for a while it wasn't looking too good, but thankfully for both of us everything worked out well. A life without Mackenzie is not something I ever want to deal with.

Mom passed away last year. She had a stroke back home, and when they told us that she wouldn't be able to live alone any longer, Mom moved in with us.

It wasn't my idea. It was Mac's, and it wasn't an idea. There was no discussion at all about it, and with us is where Mom spent the last months of her life. The two of them got along so well together that they almost seemed like mother and daughter, which Mackenzie claimed was true.

"As far as I'm concerned, she's my mom too," Mackenzie had told me when she informed me that we would be having a new resident at home. "Didn't get a chance to know my real mother, so she's got another kid as far as I'm concerned, and there's no way that my mother is ever going to go to live in any nursing home."

So she lived with us, her two kids, and when she died, she didn't die alone, and instead was surrounded by all the love a person could ask for.

As for me, I have everything that I could ask for. The stuff; the motorcycle that Mac bought for me and taught me to ride, and the house and the classic cars are all nice, but they're just things. What matters most to me is Mackenzie, and I know that I'm all that really matters to her.

I don't think that. I know that.

...

thanks for reading.

this story was edited to add a missing word.

There's a portion of a stanza of a song quoted in Chapter 2. The song's title is "Dear Abby" and is written by John Prine.