"Hell, honey," Curt rejoined, "don't hold it against a man for wanting to take a look at you when he happens to catch you like that. You got an awfully nice set of jugs hiding under there, you know."
She grinned acknowledgement of his compliment, but she secretly wished he'd perhaps shown just a little bit of jealousy instead of being so Goddamned magnanimous about another man sneaking looks inside her blouse. Curt didn't used to be so easy-going about such things. Now she almost wished he was like he'd been back then. At that time it was a bother to her to have him flare up once in a while with a strong dose of jealousy, but now she would feel differently.
"I'll have to admit I'd do the same thing if I walked up on his wife and caught her with her blouse unbuttoned," he went on. It peeved Karol a little that Curt seemed so willing to stay on the subject.
"Oh Curt, really," she chided, "you're terrible. You haven't even seen his wife. She might be ugly as a mud fence for all we know. You might not even want to see inside her blouse."
He gave no response, intuiting that Karol was getting a little worked up over the conversation. "Oh hell, honey," he told her after a few minutes, "whatever she looks like, she couldn't hold a candle to you. Don't you know I think you're the sexiest woman around?"
She was made to feel better by his compliment, light-hearted again. She leaned over to him and said, "If the girls weren't around I'd give you a demonstration. I'd give you a taste of how sexy I am, lover."
Curt grinned. "Is that a pun?" He was well aware of how much Karol enjoyed having him use his mouth on her when they were making love.
She returned his grin. "Take it any way you like," she replied, her eyes twinkling.
The girls took their attention then, calling to Karol from a few yards away.
"Mom, will you please come tie my hair up for me?" asked Kelly. "It's really making me hot."
Karol rose to do it but Lilly yelled, "I'll do it for you, Kelly. Here, just a minute."
"Oh no you wont!" exclaimed Kelly. "Not with all that fish gunk on your hands. That's why I'm not doing it myself. Think I want to smell like a garbage pile?"
"Oh, I forgot," retorted Lilly. "You have to keep yourself all spick and span so the boys will like you, don't you?"
"Any boyfriends I have are none of your business, little miss," shot back Kelly.
"Now girls," Karol interrupted, "that'll be enough."
She tied up Kelly's hair as they went on cleaning the fish. "You know, Lilly," Karol continued, "it wouldn't hurt you to take a little more interest in the way your hair looks, either. Not to mention the way it makes you so uncomfortable in weather like this. Mine was bothering me even before noon today. Here, let me pull yours up too, honey. I know it must be bothering you."
Lilly allowed it against her will. "Heck, it doesn't bother me any," she bragged. "I'm not as persnickety as some people. So what if it does make your neck sweat a little when you wear your hair down? What does that matter?"
Curt said, "I guess this hot weather does make it a little hard on you girls, but you all sure do look pretty with your hair long like that. So much better than if you had it short, believe me."
Lilly only frowned and shrugged her shoulders but Karol gave him a big smile, as did Kelly. They both knew how well he liked women to wear their hair long and were pleased that he noticed how long and thick they kept theirs.
They were a family of extremes. There was as much difference between Curt's hair and Karol's as between daylight and dark. Hers was coal black and his was blond as could be. And their daughters had taken after them with no reservation -- Kelly's hair was every bit as dark and thick as her mother's, yet Lilly was golden blond like her father. Since she was so much younger, hers was a very clear, bright color that Curt no longer possessed. Kelly's hair reached past her firm breasts all the way to her navel and Lilly's, although not as long as her big sister's, still struck her far down her back. When she pulled it around in front, the tip of it fell well below the pert little beestings of her juvenile young breasts.
The girls offered to fix dinner and set to work while Karol and Curt sat back under the shade of a big tree and watched the proceedings. After their continual arguing, it was pleasant to see them working together and being halfway nice to each other for a change.
The sun beat down on them mercilessly. "Mom," Kelly complained, "it's really hot. Mind if I dash into the tent for a sec and shuck my bra? Nobody'll see me way out here in the woods."
The subject of Kelly going around with no bra had from time to time been a matter of heated debate. She claimed all the girls her age were doing it and she should be allowed to join them, while Karol maintained that no daughter of hers was going to run around in public with her tits flopping like a cow. The decision had finally been that she could go around without one at home even when she had friends in, but that in public she had to keep in harness.
This was neither home nor public. Karol paused. "Well, I don't know..."
"You don't care, do you, Dad?" she asked him, putting the responsibility on his shoulders. She smiled innocently, thinking how much more comfortable she'd be loose and breezy under her shirt than all trussed up in the stricture of her bra.
"Oh, I guess it wouldn't hurt if..." he began, only to be cut off by Karol.
"Now wait, honey," she pressed. "What if a car would drive by on the road there? We're just a few yards from it. You want some guy to see your daughter flopping around with no bra?"
Before he could answer, Kelly spoke up. "Mother," she cried in exasperation, "I do not flop around! Jeez, you'd think I was built like an old milk cow to hear you talk!"
It was true, Karol knew. She had been exaggerating. And maybe deep down she resented that Kelly didn't flop, she admitted to herself. Because, even though her own breasts were great for her age, she was nevertheless quite aware of how much firmer and more succulent those of her daughter were. She knew that she at least jiggled some without a bra, while Kelly's were solid as fresh fruit.
"Honey, I'm not just trying to be hard to get along with," Karol said. "If Lilly wanted to take hers off, it'd be different. Don't you see? But you're a young lady now, you're so mature that I just don't know if..."
"Waddya mean, if I wanted to take mine off?" butted in Lilly. "Heck, I don't even wear one yet. Remember?"
Karol realized she'd used a very poor example. It was true: their younger daughter had yet to be fitted with, her first training bra and couldn't care less about the matter.
Kelly was standing right in front of her parents now and since she was a little upset, she was breathing harder and making the front of her shirt puff out with each breath. The thread on the buttons down the front was getting a real work-out.
"I mean, may be I... maybe I bounce a little once in a while," she persisted, "but I sure don't flop, Mom!"
She pouted prettily and her face reddened from talking about such things in front of the whole family. Lilly thought the entire episode was funny and just remained back by the work area giggling.
Karol was being swayed. "Well, okay," she relented finally, "go ahead and take it off if you want to. I guess it can't hurt anything way out here. But if we hear a car coming by..."
"Don't worry, Mom," said Kelly, already heading for the privacy of the tent. "If anyone drives by, I won't let them see anything they shouldn't."
"You know, speaking of Lilly," Karol said, turning to her husband, "it is about time I had her fitted for her first bra. I was just thinking about that the other day but I guess I let it slip my mind. Look at her. She sure has been growing awfully fast this summer. See how the front of her little shirt's pooching out there? I probably should have got her one long before this actually -- I've seen girls around town with less development than she's got, and their mothers have them all decked out in bras. What do you think?"