"I'm thinking of shish kabab for tonight. How does that sound to you?" she asked, trying to sound natural.

Kevin stared into his brandy Alexander for a moment, then lifted his eyes and studied the snug apple-curve of his mother's full firm tits that protruded against the robe tied tightly around her waist.

"Sounds as delicious as you look, Ma. Don't you think so, Nat?" Natalie had raised a hand to her mouth, suppressing laughter.

Liz Rouelle stiffened in her chair, uneasy and strangely frightened by the suggestive remarks by her son. He sounded exactly the way his father used to sound and with no respect for their relationship just as Tom never worried about such details. The sudden emergence of this salacious side to her son's personality was unfamiliar to her, at least on this scale. She was now reminded of moments off and on through the years, but most especially from his high school days, when she caught him looking at her with very adult glances. When she found those glances titillating her, she had scolded herself severely. Were such things normal? But they couldn't be! She had decided then that there was a side to her own personality that required suppression and had attended to it successfully. Or so she thought. Now she stood up from her chair and, looking down at the two of them, smoothed her robe uneasily, excused herself and went to her bedroom to change.

Before dinner, she fixed a pitcher of martinis. If the kids wanted to stick to brandy, they could fix their own, she decided. When the shish kebab was ready, she called them.

"I guess it's time for that drink we were talking about before dinner," she smiled, having regained her composure now.

"Sounds great, Ma. Do you think gin will upset my brandied innards?"

"Oh, you don't sound as though you had too much to drink."

"We didn't, Ma," Natalie spoke up, using her husband's term for her mother-in-law. It unsettled Liz to have her do that, but it was something she would have to become accustomed to, naturally.