Talking It Up With Jill Ch. 04 Pt. 02

The next day Cedric showed up just after Jill and I had finished eating breakfast. We were still drinking coffee out on the patio when he appeared at the gate by the house. I waved and Jill looked over.

"Good morning Cedric!" she said and looked at me. "You knew he was coming by, right?"

"I did, but I thought it was later. We exchanged texts last night but I thought we'd have another leisurely morning so I told him to take his time."

"Oh, well you looked surprised to see him. He sent me a text also, asking when he should come over."

"No, he made no mention of verifying arrival time with you, but that's cool. You did contact him before, so... Better to get started earlier anyhow I suppose."

"Everything else okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Should I have told him the start time is up to you?"

"No, I want it to sit well with you, so I'm glad he got hold of you. Really."

"K," Jill smiled. "And thanks for that," she added, leaning over for a kiss.

Cedric made his way over.

I contemplated on how he had sent Jill a text, innocent as it was, all on his own. It struck me as odd, but in the end didn't seem to amount to much. My only thought of the matter now was what Jill had on: dinky little workout shorts and a tank top, and she was barefoot and had her hair in a ponytail. With no bra on, her nipples were obvious with the cool morning. Nothing too scandalous, but so far this kid was getting show after show of my wife.

"Hey, there," Jill said warmly, sitting cross-legged in her chair eating a bowl of granola and yogurt.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Holden," he said, walking up to us. Even in summer weather with hard outdoor labor looming, Cedric showed up wearing heavy looking jeans, which he continuously pulled up, giant sneakers and an oversized jersey, which was usually the only thing he took off while we worked.

"Hey, Cedric," I said. "Ready to get back at it?"

"Sure am, Mr. Holden," he replied, watching Jill for a moment as she ate. "You got your wedding ring back," he said, looking at her hand.

"Hm? Oh...my engagement ring. Yeah," Jill said, examining it. "Like it?" she asked, holding it up for him.

"Looks good," he said.

"Thanks," she chuckled, shooting me a grin. "Louis, the girls are coming over about noon. I'll have lunch ready for you by then and Marie is bringing something over so don't wait for us to eat."

"Okey doke."

"I got those pictures," Cedric said, looking at Jill as he spoke, then up at me.

Jill had been digging around in her cereal.

"What pictures?" she asked, looking up.

"Oh," I said, taken slightly off guard. "Uh, last time he was here I mentioned to Cedric about my tough search for a matching gate handle and he said he'd put his uncle on it."

"Oh how nice!" Jill said, perking up in her seat as she ate another spoonful of cereal. This was one of those times that made me wonder if women had any clue when their nipples where obviously erect. I wondered how Jill did not seem to notice, given that half the time sitting there she was looking down in her cereal bowl.

"Was he able to find one?" I asked, looking from her to Cedric.

Cedric pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I think so. I was gonna hold it up next to it. The one I took came out too grainy."

"Oooh, can I see?" Jill asked, leaning over.

Cedric scrolled a few swipes on his phone screen, then held it up for Jill.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Wow! I think that's it! Where'd you find it?"

"My uncle, he's good at finding shi-, I mean, that sorta thing. Connections and all," he said, looking down at his phone as he scrolled through more pictures.

Jill and I exchanged quick glances and smirks when Cedric corrected his language.

"Well I think it looks just great, and please tell your uncle thank you for us," Jill said, sitting back.

"No problem," he said. "I guess I'll go double check really quick?"

"Yeah, sure," I said.

Cedric got up and walked over to the front gate.

"Funny," Jill said, munching her cereal. "He's a nice kid."

"Yeah," I chuckled. "Hard to believe he pretty much broke into our house and busted up our fence."

"Well he seems eager to help. So far, responsible too," Jill said. I nodded.

"I think it's good!" Cedric yelled to us.

Jill gave two thumbs up. "Thank you!" Then, uncrossing her legs and getting up, "All right, I keep putting it off, so I'm gonna go bring some laundry upstairs and get a work out in before the girls arrive. Can I get you anything?" she asked, taking my bowl.

"Nope, I'm good."

Jill headed inside, on the way making a beeline toward the gate to examine the handle. Cedric was still over there. He showed her his phone again and she nodded, then thanked him once more and walked away, making a kiss and blowing it my way as she headed inside. I considered the awkward moment Cedric and I shared, and thought of how comfortable, nonchalant even, his demeanor and speech had become around not just me, but around Jill, no doubt stealing glimpses of her pert breasts.

As Jill scoot the patio door open with her hip, doing the same to close it once inside, I noticed Cedric watching from the gate. He saw me and gave a nod and shouted he'd be right back, using the gate to go back out front. He reappeared moments later wearing ear bud headphones around his neck and a giant baseball cap.

"So you ready?" I asked, standing up.

"Yeah. I'm glad she likes the handle," he said.

"Yeah, me too," I agreed as we headed back to the lumber pile.

Cedric and I had just finished lunch when Jill's friends showed up. Chloe, who worked with Jill as a paralegal, and Marie and Nicole, both attorneys for another firm in the same building as Jill's main office downtown. The same neighbor that lent me his Bobcat also let me borrow two air powered nail guns. Cedric and I were at the far end of the yard unpacking nail magazines and refitting the connector valves on air hoses that had damaged o-rings.

After a while I walked over to get us some lemonade. The girls were finishing up sushi and laughing.

"Howdy ladies," I said, looking down at them with worried looking eyes to much stifled laughter.

"Hello!" "Hey, Louis, Jill got you working hard?"

"Hardly," I replied, wiping my brow. "You guys?"

"Hardly," Marie said, holding up a glass. "High end fashion trends, do's and don'ts. Girly stuff," she said, tossing a summer clothes/swimsuit catalog at me.

"Mm, good stuff," I said, pretending to roll open a centerfold.

"Men," she said.

"Your wife is cracking us up, Louis," Nicole said.

I looked at Jill, staring up at me with a 'who me?' look on her face as she sipped her drink. I shook my head and grabbed the pitcher.

"Weirdos."

"H'fmayy!" Chloe said, rice crumbling from the side of her mouth.

"What, you got a mouthful of peanut butter?" I asked as I was about to pour my drink.

"Hfmuh?" she muffled.

All four burst out laughing.

"No, not that pitcher, honey, lemonade's in the other one," Jill said. "Chloe brought over champagne coolies."

"Oh, Jesus," I said.

"Oh, Jesus!" Chloe echoed in a deep voice. "Huh! I'm a man. I can't be drinking no cool-aid smoothies. Huh!"

Again they all burst out laughing.

"It's champagne coolie!" Marie said to Chloe, laughing. "You brought them over!"

"Whichever one doesn't make you stupid?" I asked, trying to tell the difference between the two pitchers.

"Here Louis," Nicole said, handing the me correct pitcher and a stack of red plastic glasses. I took two and began pouring.

"Thanks, Nicole. You hammered too?"

"Ohhh come on now, party pooper! No one's hammered," Jill said, looking around and stifling a laugh. "No no, I shouldn't say that. Ladies, if you like the finished pool house you can tell Louis. And now he's hard at work building me a new fence. Louis we're not gonna be in the pool house so we won't be in your way, okay?"

"Thanks, babe," I said, taking a sip of lemonade. "But you drunken bag ladies aren't in the way at all. We're gonna be tied up at the far end of the yard for a bit."

Jill, Marie and Chloe all stuck their tongues out at the same time.

"So who's your friend?" Nicole asked, laughing at my remark.

"He's helping Louis," Jill said. "That's one of the kids I was telling you about, that knocked over our fence? He was the last one over, wasn't he, Louis?"

"Yep, soon as he touched it the whole thing came down."

"Louis when are you gonna give Jill some children?" Nicole asked with a smirk. "Then you wouldn't need to wait until someone breaks into your house to get help around here."

I looked down to see Jill smiling up at me.

"Have another smoothie," I said to her. "Then we'll talk about making kids."

"Awww!" Jill said, giving me the puppy dog eyes. "Well, as a matter of fact girls, we've been discussing just that: baby makes three." As Jill spoke Nicole and Chloe looked up at me nodding in approval and grinning. "And secondly," she said, looking back at me, "it's a coolie!" she added, bursting out in laughter.

Jill was being pretty funny I had to admit. She can be real cute when she drinks, and it doesn't take much.

"Three?!" I said, getting everyone's attention. "I was thinking more like seven or eight. I signed Jill up for contortionist classes to help get that whole, whatever you want to call it area ready," I said, rubbing my hand around in circles over my lower abdomen.

This time all the girls burst out laughing at once. I noticed Cedric look over.

"Seriously, though?" Chloe said to Jill. "You guys are thinking about it?"

Jill nodded. They looked at me.

"The baby clock's ticking if you're gonna seal the deal," Nicole said, motioning as if to nudge Chloe.

"Well that's nice," Marie said. "So, how is it he's over here helping build a fence?"

"Ugh," Jill groaned. "His mother. Chloe, you might remember her. Do you recall that time you helped me out one evening at that neighborhood association I had to go to?"

"Oh, yeah... Asan- Asanti?"

"Ashanti," I said.

"That's it!" Chloe said, placing a finger on her nose. "She was kinda, I dunno?"

"H'eh! She scared all the people," I laughed mid sip of my lemonade.

"Huh?" Chloe asked.

"Louis!" Jill scolded. "He might hear you."

"Here he comes," said Marie.

Cedric had taken off his jersey and was sporting a wife beater.

"Umph! Dark and handsome!" Nicole said under her breath to laughter from the others.

"Stop!" Jill said, slapping at her shoulder.

"Strapping too I bet."

"Nicole! He's just a kid!" Jill said, looking at at the rest of us with a buzzed fueled expression of disbelief.

"Marie?" Nicole asked.

"I have a boyfriend the same age as me, so..." Marie replied.

"So you think so too," Nicole shot back.

"Oh?...My God..." Jill said, throwing up her hands and looking around. Her eyes fell on Chloe.

"I didn't say anything!" Chloe said, before adding, "though I am closer in age than the rest of you, so, technically..."

"I didn't hear that..." Nicole said, knocking back her champagne with a chuckle.

I glanced down from the corner of my eye at Jill, watching Cedric as he approached. She happen to look up at me and did a double take, at my skewed glimpse at her, I figured. I shrugged my shoulders, as if blowing off the banter among the girls.

Nicole was the oldest of the bunch, including me, and had a rep for chasing after younger guys. Marie was about Jill's age, and Chloe was in her late twenties. All of them, except for Jill, who was in jean shorts, a white t-shirt and wearing a ball cap, were in tennis shorts and spaghetti strap tank tops, except for Nicole, who had on a full track suit with the top unzipped, showing lots of hefty cleavage.

"Cedric," I said as he walked up. "The girls made lemonade and...what was it again you're slurpin' down?" I said, looking down at my side.

"Champagne coolies!" they all shouted in unison.

"Right, right. Something you don't want. Unless?"

"Uh..."

"How old are you, young man?" I heard Nicole say.

"Eighteen," he replied.

"Here," she said, offering him some of her coolie and motioned to an empty chair a few feet from her.

"Thanks," he said, taking a seat. Music was playing from earbuds hanging around his neck. He took a sip of Nicole's coolie and handed it back to her, making a face.

"I didn't see any of this," Jill said, covering her eyes. Cedric looked to me.

"Jill's worried about getting in trouble. Honey he's not a minor," I reminded her.

"Amen, to that, Louis," Chloe said, raising up her glass. "My kid brother is stationed overseas and just rotated back to Germany. Do you realize if he was stateside he couldn't legally celebrate with a drink? It's just crazy."

"Is that your first taste of alcohol Cedric?" Jill asked. She leaned forward. "Don't lie. I'm an experienced trial attorney and I can tell when someone's being dishonest."

"Um...yes?" he said, letting out a laugh. The girls laughed too.

"Ha! Right I believe that one," Nicole chuckled. "Tell you what, Cedric, I'll finish this for the both of us," she said, tipping back the rest of her coolie.

"So what, you're home for the summer, then off to college?" Marie asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Cedric said.

"Louis isn't working you to hard, is he?" Nicole asked.

"No, he's been good," Cedric replied.

"I see he lets you have music at least. What's that you're listening to there?" she asked, pointing to the ear buds.

"This? Just some old school mix I put together."

"Oh yeah? What's old school to you?"

Cedric held up one of his ear buds and turned the volume up from his phone.

"I know that one!" Jill said.

"Rump shakerrrr!" Marie sang out. She and Jill raised their glasses next to each other and sang in unison as it played.

"Yeah, all I wanna do is zooma, zoom, zoom, zoom and a poom-poom, ...just shake ya rump!"

Jill shook hers in her seat on the last part, grooving her head from side to side and grinning at me.

"Damn," Nicole said. "That's old school? I thought you were gonna say Kool & The Gang or something."

"Who?" Cedric asked, turning down the volume.

"Ha!" I laughed, getting a stuck out tongue from Nicole.

"More like Sugar Hill Gang," I said.

"Aw, yeah I know them," Cedric said. "Back in the day."

I nodded.

"What do you know about back in the day?" Nicole asked him, staring with a skeptical smirk.

"You know that song Love Is Strange, right?"

"Yeah..."

"That bit-, that girl Sylvia, she helped start up the Sugar Hill label. They had Sugar Hill Gang. Rapper's Delight and all... Back in the day."

"Well I'll be," Nicole said, shaking her head. "Kid knows his stuff."

Jill looked at him. "So how do you know about all that?"

"My mom. She listens to all them oldies. All the 45's and whatnot."

"Hmph," Jill said, looking at me and raising her eyebrows.

"So Cedric, where's school?" Marie asked.

"College, up state. Maybe the military if that don't work out."

"You better not!" Jill said.

"Why not? I asked. "I did."

"And you're already home and safe," she replied.

"Well he doesn't wanna be building fences the rest of his life," I said.

"He doesn't need to join up to avoid that," she answered.

"He could do something else," Marie said.

"I'm sure he could. But still... Cedric, what did your father do after high school?" Jill asked.

"He joined the military," Cedric said, laughing. Jill crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at him.

Jill was being too much fun and I couldn't resist refreshing her drink.

"Is he trying to get me drunk?" she asked Chloe.

"I think so," she laughed.

"Are you trying to get me drunk?" she asked me. "I'm not going home with you, you know."

We grinned at each other and Jill scrunched her nose up at me.

"So you're eighteen, huh?" Nicole asked.

"Uh huh."

"Are you sure?" Jill said. "You don't look eighteen."

"I don't? How old I look?"

Jill stared at him.

"Old enough," Nicole mumbled, looking away.

"So how old are you?" he asked.

"Ohhh boy!" Nicole said out loud. Cedric let out a nervous laugh and looked at me. I just sipped from my beer, shaking my head. "Young man," Nicole chided, "don't you know better than to ask a woman her age?"

Jill sat cross legged in her chair, huffing and puffing out her lower lip. She quickly smartened up and leaned toward Cedric.

"How old do you think I am?" she said sternly, squinting her eyes at him.

Before he could answer I bent down next to him, knowing everyone could hear, but still pretending to keep my voice down.

"Look man...the next words out of your mouth...could have a major negative impact on the very fabric of space time itself, not to mention your own life, and because I gotta live with her, mine too so..." I looked at Jill out of the corner of my eye. She was sitting bolt upright in her seat with her arms and legs crossed, staring in our direction. Cedric saw her and nodded his head. The girls all had smirks on their faces.

Cedric looked around, then at Jill.

"I dunno, thirty?" he said, to hoops and hollers from all the girls, a shove in the arm from Marie and smiles from everyone, making Cedric all but blush.

"Aw!" Nicole said. "He's shy! Okay, Puppy Chow, I want you to do me..." she said, laughing as she leaned back in her chair.

"Jesus," I said.

"Nicole, you are banished to the pool house!" Jill said, pointing in that direction, staring at Chloe and Marie as they giggled and shook their heads.

"He can't do me?" Nicole said, holding up her hands and looking at everyone.

Jill rolled her eyes.

"Jill the pool house locks from the outside, right?" I said, getting a smirk from Nicole.

Cedric just sat there laughing to himself, though it wasn't too clear he understood why Nicole was being chewed out.

Marie and Chloe had been bantering amongst themselves, when Chloe turned to Cedric, holding up an open catalog.

"So Cedric, which of these do you like better, the orange or white?"

"I bet the one piece. It's French cut," said Marie.

"Which shows more skin?" Nicole asked taking the catalog, then turned back to Cedric.

"Nicole!" Jill said, somewhat more serious than the last time she scolded her.

"What? I'm just curious what's popular with boys his age? Boys still like bikinis don't they?"

Jill snatched the catalog from her hand.

"Um,...they all look good to me. But, the guys I know like bikinis," he said.

"Oh my!" Nicole said, covering her mouth. "I bet the color doesn't even matter," she said, pretending to faint as she turned to look at Marie.

"Hey... Leave the poor boy alone!" Jill interrupted. "Here, have some more sushi," she said, handing the tray to Marie to give to Nicole.

"Sorry Cedric," Jill said, "my friends have no couth." She flicked water from her glass at Nicole.

"That's okay," Cedric said, "Just tellin' it like it is, is all."

"Oh don't listen to Jill, Cedric. She's just jealous 'cause she's already spoken for, that's all!" Nicole said, flicking water back at Jill.

"Come on, Cedric" I said, we better get while the gettin's good. I sense a cat fight."

"Oh please!" "Cat fight?!!" "In your dreams, buddy!" they jeered, clinking their glasses together as we walked away.

We'd just reached the fence at the far end when I heard "Hey, nice pool house, Louis!" honked at me from across the yard.

"Ha!" I laughed, turning to see who said it. It turned out it was Chloe, who I caught still clamping her nose shut and holding her other hand next to her mouth for projection. She quickly sat on both hands, mortified and giggling. It was actually pretty funny, but I wasn't gonna let her get away with it.

"Be right back," I told Cedric, and raced back over behind Chloe, reaching over her and picking her up by the arms of her chair and taking a couple steps toward the pool.