Our Last Party

"Want some company?" Rebecca asked.

"I'd love some," Will said with a grin.

"Why didn't you tell her the truth about Joe?" Rebecca asked as they were undressing for the bath.

"My granddaughter's been arrested for doing exactly what Joe did," Will pointed out. "If I have to lie by omission to scare her straight, then so be it."

"You sure it's not because it still galls you that Joe struck it rich in the oil business and never learned a damn thing from what happened?"

Will sat on the edge of the bathtub and watched Rebecca slip off her panties. "No. I'm not sure. But what she doesn't know won't hurt her." He turned on the tap and helped Rebecca into the tub before settling himself next to her.

"Did you notice she never said anything about my reputation back in the day?" Rebecca asked. "Not one word about 'Backseat Becky'?"

"Of course she didn't," Will said. "Martha and I raised her mother to never judge anyone about their lifestyle like that, and her mother has passed that on. And you know whose example we had in mind when we taught her mother that."

"Oh, Will!" Rebecca laughed and chucked him on the shoulder.

"No joke, Becky," Will said. "We saw what you had to live with just for living your life the way you wanted, and we didn't want our children treating anyone like that."

"Oh, Will," Rebecca said again, now in a very different tone of voice.

Will turned to her with the same grin that had melted her best friend's heart decades before, and they kissed.