Allyson wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks as she recalled those painful memories, and then pulled back out onto the highway and continued on toward the ranch.
As if on cue, the billboard for the historic steam train in Jamestown popped up along the side of the road. ‘Railtown 1897 State Historic Park’ read the billboard.
Immediately, more pleasant memories of Josh and his six closest friends flooded Allyson’s mind. These fond memories were from when the boys were in their early teens. Those were the happy times, Allyson mused as she approached the quaint little California Goldrush village of Jamestown.
She and the boys had spent many happy hours riding the old steam train and visiting the ice cream parlor in the old western town on their way to the ranch and then again on their way home.
If only she could stop time there, Allyson thought to herself as she began to weep softly again. Those were the happiest days of her life―when Josh still actually thought of her as his mother.
Quickly Allyson’s thoughts turned to the coming two weeks with her boys. As with Josh, it had been nearly two years since she had seen any of them. The last time she saw all of them together was at their high school graduation. She had been so proud of all of them. Not only were they all going off to university, they were going together.
It had taken some finagling, but Nunn and three of the other dads, who were among their ‘intimate’ friends as Nunn liked to put it, had pulled strings to get them all into USC. The families had decided to go in together and buy a condo for the boys to share near campus.
All of that, of course, had gone by the wayside when Covid hit. Each of the boys and their families had to navigate their way through Covid on their own over the last two years. The boys had started classes by sharing an apartment as they looked for a condo to purchase, before putting the search on hold once Covid hit.
But the boys had remained friends and were now planning on following through on the original plan, if their families were still willing to go along. Allyson had already given her approval. If nothing else, it would get Josh away from his grandparents in Pasadena.
Allyson couldn’t wait to see the boys and see how they had grown. She remembered them from high school graduation, of course, but her enduring mental image of the boys was from when they were much younger, when they used to take turns sitting on her lap as she read them stories in the bunkhouse at night and then later, when they were older, when she fixed them popcorn and watched movies with them.
Mike, Chris, Matt, Nick, Andy, Dan and Josh had been inseparable growing up. They did everything together and Allyson had been part of it in her own way. Allyson liked to joke that Frank Sinatra had his Rat Pack, but she had her Lucky Seven. She couldn’t wait to see them!
In addition to the close relationship that Josh had with his six friends, Allyson and Nunn were also close friends with three of the boys’ parents. Ironically, it was the three boys who were all ‘juniors’, sharing their father’s names.
So to keep things straight, they were referred to as Michael and Mike, Andrew and Andy, and Daniel and Dan. The son’s all being referred to by their nicknames, and the fathers by their proper names.
They were all handsome boys! Mike had flaming red hair and stood well over six feet when Allyson had last seen him. He had been a forward on the high school basketball team. Josh had told her Mike was majoring in engineering now.
Chris and Matt were both blonde and were just shy of six foot tall. But both were muscular and had played football. One had been a receiver and the other a linebacker, Allison seemed to remember. She didn’t know much about football. Chris was also an engineering major and Matt was studying to become an actor.
Nick had wavy brown hair and was a little over six feet tall. He was barrel chested and had been a wrestler in high school. According to Josh, he was majoring in Criminal Justice and hoped to become an FBI agent.
Andy had always been a free spirit and preferred surfing to team sports once he was in high school. He was the tallest of the boys at six foot five. Even at eighteen, he had looked much older than the other boys. Allyson had always found him somewhat aloof, perhaps even brooding. She sensed that he had a dark side.
Josh joked that Andy had gone native since moving to LA and now wore his long brown hair in a ponytail like some Italian beefcake model. Andy was majoring in marine biology and splitting his time at the beach between surfing and field work. Josh also said that Andy had become a real lady killer on campus and at the beach. He’s gotten into some trouble after fucking one of his professor’s wives.
Dan had eschewed sports altogether in high school and focused his attention on his true passion in life, photography. Once at USC, Dan became fascinated with cinematography and was studying Cinematic Arts with an eye toward becoming a cinematographer.
For his part, Josh played baseball in high school and had been the team’s star first baseman. But once he was at USC he ended his flirtation with baseball and focused on a degree in finance with an eye to ultimately getting an MBA and following in his father’s footsteps.
Both Nunn and Allyson had encouraged him in this direction since middle school, since they expected his to inherit and properly manage the fortune they were building for him.
As Allyson passed through Sonora and approached the turnoff to the ranch, she thought about each of the boys. She tried to imagine how they looked now, two years older. She was proud of them for their success so far in college and liked to think she had played even a small part in their success.
Allyson was only five miles from the ranch when her cellphone rang. Looking at the dashboard screen, she could see that it was Josh. She immediately pressed the button on her steering wheel to connect the call.
“Hey, I’m glad you called,” said Allyson cheerfully. “I left early and I’m a couple of miles from the ranch. Where are you guys?”
“We got off 99 at Merced,” replied Josh. “We’re taking the scenic route from Mariposa up 49. We’re in Coulterville now.”
“You’re making good time!” said Allyson enthusiastically. “You should be here in another half hour to forty-five minutes.”
“Yeah, we left early too,” said Josh. “The guys and I can’t wait to see you. We’ve all missed you.”
“Oh! Thank you baby,” gushed Allyson. “I can’t tell you how much that means to me. I’ve missed all of you too―but most especially you!”
“Oh, wait a minute,” replied Josh. “Dan has a question―he wants to know if you brought along that skimpy knit bikini you used to wear?”
“Really?” replied Allyson, feigning surprise. “No, I brought along a one piece and a more conservative bikini. Something safer to wear around a bunch of testosterone filled young men like all of you.”
“Dan says he is disappointed,” replied Josh. “He said he wanted to photograph you and video you for one of his cinematography projects.”
“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint,” replied Allyson, pretending to share his disappointment. “I don’t even know where that one is anymore. It might even be in one of the dresser drawers at the ranch. But don’t count on getting me into it in front of you boys. You might start to get ideas! After all, I’ll be just one lonely woman trying to fend off seven handsome studs!”
Allyson slyly understood that flirting and teasing the boys would win her some points with all of them and perhaps help begin the process of mending her fences with her stepson. But at the same time, she also realized that she needed to be careful.
She reminded herself that by the time the boys were beginning high school they started to look at her differently. They no longer saw her as their soccer and baseball mom. They began looking at her with the lustful eyes of testosterone crazed teenagers. They began seeing her as the beautiful and desirable woman that she was.
But Allyson wasn’t all that concerned, she had been fending off men since she was fifteen. She was sure that she could engage in a little harmless flirtation with the boys without it getting out of hand. And if she was being truly honest with herself, she was looking forward to being the center of male attention once again.
As her husband had proved with his video camera, she was a brazen exhibitionist who enjoyed showing off her body. And she was absolutely shameless when the camera was trained on her. She realized that she would have to contain her impulses in front of the boys, lest they get the wrong idea.
It had only been in the last few months that Allyson had reluctantly come to grips with her sex addiction with the help of her therapist. She recognized that she needed to maintain self-control, otherwise things could spiral out of control.
Allyson was drawn back into the conversation on the phone as she heard the boys laughing over the phone. Allyson wondered what that was all about.
“What’s so funny?” asked Allyson, her curiosity piqued.
“Dan says maybe you can pose for him sans the bikini,” laughed Josh.
“Not very likely, sport,” laughed Allyson back. “Tell him to dream on!”
“You can tell him yourself in about a half hour,” replied Josh. “See you soon. The traffic is slowing down ahead. I think there may be an accident.”
“OK, baby,” said Allyson. “See you in just a little while.”
~~~~~
Friday Afternoon / Day 1
It was almost noon when Allyson arrived at the ranch. The boys would probably be at least an hour behind her because of the accident.
Allison carried her bags into the master bedroom and then went around the house making sure everything was in order. She checked the fridge and then the coffin freezer in the pantry to make sure all the groceries she had ordered were there.
Her Instacart driver and his family had gone around and opened all the windows, just as she requested, and everything appeared to be in order. As she walked through the great room on her way to the front door she peeked into her husband’s former office. It was just as he left it on their last trip. It was too painful for Allyson to even step inside. She decided to ask Josh and his friends to go through the office and straighten things up.
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