Talking It Up With Jill Ch. 04 Pt. 03

They came out shortly after, all wearing their bathing suits. Jill and Chloe were in bikinis, Marie and Nicole in one-pieces. All had on floppy hats and sunglasses except for Jill, who had her hair up in a ponytail and was wearing a baseball cap. I was putting air in the blowup pool chairs as they approached.

"Heavens, Jill. You wear a bikini like nobody's business!" Chloe said as they approached.

"Well thank you, Chloe!"

"I'm like, thirteen years younger than you and I don't look half as good in one."

"Ohhh,..." Jill shot back. "But the good news is you're like, thirteen years younger."

"Ain't that the truth," Nicole said. "Chloe, what I wouldn't give to have your tight ass. Or yours for that matter, Marie. Jill, yours is one of a kind."

"Uh!" Chloe grunted, not sure if she'd just received a compliment.

"And she's right, Jill," Nicole added. "Good Lord look at you. Louis I bet you could bounce a silver dollar off either one of those cheeks. Turn around for a second, honey," Nicole added, leaning over to look as Jill turned sideways and gave an exaggerated pose. "Woo wee!" she cooed, poking a finger at Jill's bottom, making her jump. "Louis I almost wanna say you don't deserve this but you're keeping it together pretty good yourself, aren'tcha. And you can cook. You two make me sick."

"Oh, Nicole..." Jill said.

"Louis you let that hired hand of yours see her in this skimpy thing?" Nicole asked.

Jill's expression dropped and she glanced at me.

"She wears it for me," I said with my chin up.

"That's right," Jill added, openly bumping her hip into me for emphasis.

"You do look really good in that Jill," Marie said.

"Thanks."

"Is that from that catalog we were looking at the other day?"

"It is. Louis got it for me."

"You picked it out," I reminded her. "I picked out something else but Jill's being shy." Jill slowly looked over at me. I was grinning. My grin melted and she looked away slowly.

"Which one?" Chloe asked.

"One of those stripper one-pieces that I'm not even sure is a bathing suit," Jill replied.

"Hmph... I bet he picked one of those out for you," Nicole said. "You could model anything in that catalog Jill. That's what your little fence builder liked too if I recall." Nicole saw me look at Jill. "Ohhh, somebody got jealous!"

I chuckled as I took a swig of beer.

"Sort of," I said. "More like, I thought he had good taste, so..."

"So you gonna model it for him?" Nicole asked.

"Ha!" Marie laughed. Chloe giggled too.

"I bet he'd blow a spark," Nicole added.

"Would you shut it?" Jill said, looking around. "My goodness the mind on you!"

"It's gotta be on somebody," Nicole chuckled, taking a drink.

Jill looked to see me already staring at her and she did a double take. I didn't flinch.

"So where is your little helper anyway?" Nicole asked. "We didn't scare him off, did we?"

"You almost scared me off!" Jill said, tipping her cup back.

"Nobody scared him off," I said. "About all done with the fence is all."

I looked at Jill in time to see her briefly glance over at me.

"Well it does look really good," Nicole said. "Maybe I can get him to come over to my place and see what needs fixin'" she added with a smirk as she tipped her cup back and finished the rest of her coolie.

That got a face from the others, except Jill, who held in the protests she was giving Nicole the last time.

"Louis what's this?" Jill asked, holding up the twisted handle.

I pointed toward the gate.

"So it's totally off now?"

I nodded.

"Hmm," she said.

"The fence looks great, Louis," Marie said.

"Yeah it does. So it's all done?" Chloe asked.

"Except for the gate handles," Jill said, holding up the metal in her hand. "Hear back about those?" she asked.

There was no double meaning in Jill's eyes. She was talking about the gate handles. But she was still asking about Cedric. I just gave her a friendly smile as I shook my head slowly. She returned the slightest of smiles and reached over for her drink.

Once I'd finished with blowing up the pool chairs the girls went in.

As usual, they started at the shallow end and talked their way across to the other side, floating on blowup chairs and sipping champagne coolies Marie brought over. It was fairly warm, so I joined them via cannonball right smack in the middle of all four, even getting Chloe and Jill to tip over. As soon as they surfaced I submerged and made my way to the shallow end.

"Oh if you hadn't done all that cooking you'd really be in for it!" Jill shouted as she struggled to get back on her floaty chair. "Here," she said, tossing me her plastic cup. "You dumped it, you refill it! Chloe, toss him your cup."

I gladly refilled their drinks, threatening another cannonball as I did and almost getting Chloe to tip back over just from the threat. They stayed in for another half hour or so while I prepared the grill and fiddled with the gate handle I broke off. The conversation earlier got me thinking. As the idea of Cedric coming back to work on the gate handles, if for no other reason, was still on the table, then if he did come back it might be easier as far as Jill was concerned if he came over when we had company. I considered this a while. The girls weren't paying me much attention. I announced I was going in to the kitchen to check on something.

Once inside I sat at he breakfast bar and prepared a text message to Cedric. I thought carefully, so as not to be too direct, for Jill's sake in case I had to explain his presence, but not too ambiguous either, knowing I wanted him to come over.

Gate handles? I typed into the heading. As I did before, I stared at the words on the screen for several moments. Then out the window at Jill. And like before I clicked the send button before actually deciding to. I felt my heart rate increase. It literally jumped when my phone suddenly vibrated showing a reply from Cedric.

"Got them should i bring them over?"

I stared at his words. Yes. I wanted him to come over. I realized it very likely would be a benign visit, and that was okay. But it might be the only one.

"Remember what I told you?" I typed.

"I remember mr holden"

I hoped he did.

"Bring them over when you can." I paused, looking at what I'd typed. Again I paused, looking from the phone to Jill and back again. The girls had gotten out of the pool and were seated back on the patio. Jill was going to wonder what I was doing unless I got back out there. I hit the send button, deleted all but my initial inquiry in case I needed it to back up a story should the need arise, then turned my phone off and headed back out to the patio.

I thought enough to bring the tray of parfaits out with me.

"Oh look what he's got!" Chloe said, her voice rising as she set her cup down. "Oh gimmie gimmie gimmie!" she said, waving me toward her. Just as I neared her chair I swung to the side and set the tray in front of Jill, giving Chloe a silent apology.

"Normally I'd say guests first, but..." Jill said as she took hers and stuck her tongue out at Chloe.

"Okay, Chloe, here you are," I said, turning back her way.

"Mmmm! Thank you!"

"I guess I'm very curious," Marie said, taking hers.

"I mean it, Louis. You and me," Nicole said.

I handed hers to her, then her spoon, then a napkin, then refilled her coolie...treatment I didn't even give Jill.

"Uh! Well thank you!" Nicole said, watching as I did all this.

I looked at Jill and she gave me a nod of approval.

Nicole took a lot of flak for her blunt personality, but it didn't mean we couldn't take that extra step to be nice. Even something as small as handing her a spoon and a napkin and no one else.

"Mmph! Lord that's good!" she gushed. "I'm telling you..." she said, waving her spoon back and forth between us.

I looked at Jill. 'Flirting with you,' she said, nodding toward Nicole. I widened my eyes and pretended to fall over and Jill stifled a laugh.

"I don't know, Nicole," I said. "Jill's turning into a pretty good cook herself. I might just have to retire and let her take over."

Jill heard that and blew her tongue at Nicole.

"You two were made for each other," Nicole said dismissively.

"Aw, Nicole! That's so sweet of you!" Jill said, flashing her a grin. She looked over at me and couldn't resist the urge to feed me a spoonful of her parfait. "Louis loves these!" she said, grinning at me. I opened my mouth and took it.

"Where's yours?" Chloe asked me.

"Ah, Chloe," I said, chasing my spoonful of parfait down with a mouthful of beer. "Euuw! Beer? With that?" she said, making a face.

"That's the only way to eat them. Not with those...those whatever the hell it is you girls are drinking there."

"Champagne coolies!" they shouted in unison. I tilted my head back in laughter.

"Oh, what a good crew!" I said, getting up. "Anyone want a burger? I got enough for everyone?"

With mouthfuls of parfait and coolies they all looked up at me like I was crazy.

"Then I'm going for a swim!" I said, running between them and hitting the water with a cannonball. I surfaced to find them all hovered over their food and drinks, with Chloe and Marie having gotten the worst of it.

"Uhhh! You bum!" Jill shouted.

"Toss me another beer, would you babe?" I replied, heaving myself up onto a floating recliner in one swoop. Jill tossed me a beer with a perfect underhand throw, spiraling the can right into my hand. "Nice!" I said, getting two thumbs up from her.

The girls went on chatting as they snacked on chips and salsa and sipped their coolies.

I floated around, listening to them yap for what felt like close to an hour. The fact that Cedric hadn't shown up right away had me wondering if he would at all. I assumed he'd be right over. I was even starting to daze when I heard Marie announce she was leaving.

"How'd you get here?" I asked.

"In separate cars. Mark had to go to work for a little bit, but I told him I'd head back early so we could still spend a good part of the day together."

"Well does he wanna come back?" Jill asked.

"Maybe next time."

"Well okay. Please tell him I said thanks again for the pool house decorations."

"Yeah! Tell 'em thanks!" I said, getting a look from Jill.

"Hold on Marie I'll walk you out," she said.

I was admiring the view of the fence from the pool when I heard Jill's voice.

"Hey Louis?"

I looked over and saw Cedric on the other side of the gate, reaching over and grabbing what remained of the handle as Marie stood watching.

"There he is!" Nicole said, pouring herself and Chloe coolie refills.

I slid from my chair and swam to the edge of the pool. I hopped out, grabbed the piece of handle I'd ripped off and walked over to Jill, who was headed back toward me. As I approached, Marie was telling her and Cedric goodbye and gave me one last wave before heading out front.

"Got those handles?" I asked.

"Yeah, sorry I'm late," he said, walking over to me and Jill.

'Late?' Jill mouthed, standing with her arms folded.

"Hey Jill," Cedric said.

"Mm,...hey, Cedric," Jill said. "Finally got the gate handles, huh? Can't wait to see them on."

"Yeah, me too."

"Well just in time," I said. "Jill broke that one today."

"Oh I did not!" she said, looking more concerned than teased.

"Ha," Cedric chuckled. "That's okay. I can fix 'em both. Just need to borrow some of your tools."

Cedric looked at Jill and she returned a polite smile.

"Okay, good," I said. "That way if they don't work I can blame you."

"N'ah I'll get 'em on right," he replied.

"Tools are in the garage. Want a burger?"

"Sure."

"All right. If you need any help just holler."

"All right. Just take me a little while."

As I figured, Jill wanted to know what he was doing there as she and I headed back over to Nicole and Chloe.

"Louis?"

I slowed my pace so we'd have time to talk real quick.

"I remember what we said, Jill. After ripping that handle off earlier, I thought I'd let him know we were waiting on them."

"Today?" she asked. She stopped walking and leaned close to me, slapping my arm, "You bum. I was gonna wear that anklet for you after the girls left."

"Really?" I said, surprised.

"Yesss!"

I looked down at Jill's feet. "Well, where is it?"

"They haven't left yet you genius. It's over there with my stuff, holding my place in my book."

"Jeez, really? Wow, Jill...that's kinda sexy."

"Ugh!" she groaned, folding her arms and looking around.

"Jill I...I just sent him a brief text and said bring them when you can. The gate handles."

"And?"

"Just that, really."

"But you wanted him to hurry on over here, I'm sure," she said looking away.

I exhaled and a grin slipped with it. Jill rolled her eyes and started to walk.

"C'mon," I said, stopping her. "The way you said that was funny." Jill just stared at me. "Okay, maybe it wasn't. But I didn't want him to hurry over. Though...I did think if he was going to come back, it might be better if company was here."

"Jill you want another one?" Chloe asked from the patio, holding up her plastic cup.

"Just a sec...uh, sure, thanks!" she replied. "Okay...that's true, what you say. Just...you know you snuck that by me," she said, lowering her voice.

"Okay, but I meant what I said. Do you believe me?"

"I believe you."

I stared down at Jill smiling until she did too. Then I stole a kiss.

"Aw! Look at the two lovebirds!" Nicole teased from the patio, loud enough to make Cedric look over. Then, "Toodle-loo, Cedric!" she sang, raising her cup.

"Hey, Nicole," he shouted back from the gate he was working on.

"Lord he remembers my name!" Nicole said, laughing to Chloe.

Jill and I resumed our talk.

"You'd have gone along with it if I told you I texted him?" I asked.

"I dunno. Maybe!...you bum." Then, "I dunno," she mumbled. Probably not. But it wasn't for you to assume."

Jill just stared at me.

"You're right," I said, not knowing what else to say.

Again she studied me.

"It's okay...Louis. I shouldn't be so stubborn about it. I said I didn't want to be mean. Of course it would be okay if he came back to fix the handles, especially with the girls here."

"So...does this mean you're gonna wear the anklet?" I asked.

"Are you kidding? Wait... What am I saying? Of course you're not kidding," Jill deadpanned.

"I mean after the girls leave," I said.

"And if he's still here?" she asked.

"Mm, well...he saw it before. And, really Jill he didn't say much about it."

"He said something?" she replied, as if reminding me. "Louis I only wear it for you."

"I know you do."

"Do you believe me?"

"'Course..."

"You better," she said, still staring at me funny.

Jill clearly had something else on her mind.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm curious. Did you see which bathing suit he picked out that time Nicole showed him that catalog?" she asked.

My mind raced. I knew I had to answer quick or either give myself away because I was stalling or by having said the wrong thing.

"Jill I just heard him say 'bikini' when they asked him about that. I didn't see which one. Honest."

Again she stared at me. Then it hit me that what I'd said was true.

"Ha...and I think I'm right, and you know it!" I grinned, poking her.

Jill recoiled with a reluctant and disappointed grin of her own.

"Sounds more like you're relieved to be right," she said, looking skeptical.

"C'mon! You were there!" I laughed, grabbing her and forcing a bear hug on her.

I squeezed her tight enough to pick her up and kissed her forehead.

"Something suspicious here," she mumbled, letting me tilt her head up by the chin.

"Your highly tuned brain, counselor," I said in between the small kisses she was letting me peck about her lips. "It's why I love you." Then I looked at her. "Jill, I didn't see which one he picked out."

She gave in and wrapped her arms around me for a tight hug.

"Is that why you love me?" she said, her voice muffled against me.

"Mm, that and this," I said as I reached behind her and pat her bottom. She slapped at my hand and I quickly scooped her up and ran to the edge of the pool.

"Aaagh!" she screeched. "Don't you dare!"

I let her down. Jill surprised me by tiptoeing up to hold my cheek and plant a kiss on the other. We shared a knowing grin and took our seats by Nicole and Chloe. They just stared at us.

"You guys are so lucky," Chloe said.

"I'm the lucky one," I said.

Jill smiled at Chloe and scrunched her nose me.

The bunch of us spoke for a while longer and at one point Nicole mumbled something and I noticed Cedric was walking over.

"Hey Cedric," she said. "Still got you working' hard?"

"N'ah. Just puttin' on that other handle and I'll be done. New bikini looks good," he said to Jill.

"Thank you," Jill said, taking a sip from her coolie and looking over at me.

"I think so too," I said, exchanging glances with her.

"How'd you know it was new?" Jill asked Cedric without breaking eye contact with me and now squinting.

I held up my hands, eyes wide.

"Not the orange one you and Louis picked out, though," Nicole said to him.

"Nicollllle," Chloe chided.

"It all looks good," Cedric mumbled sheepishly.

"So that one's all done? The front gate handle?" I asked, still exchanging "what the hell?" and "I don't know what he's talking about" glances with Jill.

"Yeah it's on there. Wanna see?" Cedric asked, glancing over at her.

"I trust you," she said, pulling her knees up in front of her and turning sideways in her seat. "But thank you."

"So, you good with that one too?" I asked.

"Yeah. Shouldn't take long," Cedric replied.

"Great! I'll have a burger up soon if you're hungry. Oh, uh... before I forget," I said, handing him an envelope. "That bonus I mentioned. It looks good, Cedric. Good work. That's from both of us, so you know."

Jill looked at me. I raised a finger for her to hold off a moment. Cedric opened the envelope, then looked up at us smiling and tilting his hat back.

"Really? Aw, wow... I mean, that's nice y'all. Thanks!"

Cedric looked at Jill and she scrunched her nose up at him with a friendly smile.

Nicole was staring at him. "Cedric I thought you were helping with the fence 'cause you broke it. Now they're paying you?" she said. "Quite the little business man. I'm impressed."

"M'eh. Just a couple bucks for making sure it turned out nice," I said, looking at Jill. She nodded. "That's still contingent on the handles actually working though, so... You better put that where Jill can't find it in case they don't!"

"Ha, yeah okay," Cedric chuckled, putting the envelope in his backpack. "No, don't worry. They'll work."

"Actually Cedric, I said we should've given you twice that," Jill told him. "So if they don't work I'll just blame Louis." She looked over at me with tongue in cheek. I reached over to grab her and she dodged my arm with a laugh.

"Just put the damn thing on," I told Cedric, shaking my head.

"Ha, all right," he said, chuckling to himself as he gathered his things and headed off to the gate at the back of the yard.

"Mmph!" Nicole said as she tipped back her drink. "Little bit 'o brown round on that one."

"Jesus, Nicole... Would you wait until he can't hear you?" Jill said, shaking her head.

I headed to the grill while the girls sat and chatted. At one point Nicole and Chloe got in the pool and were floating around on blowup chairs as they chatted with Jill and I as we sat on the patio. When Cedric was done he came over and joined us. As soon as he did Jill stood up and wrapped a towel around her waist.

"I think I'll take a look at those gate handles now," she said, smiling at us. "Come with?" she asked me.

"Love to," I said. "Be gentle," I said to Nicole and Chloe in the pool, glancing toward Cedric