Page 18 of Finding Basil (Foggy Basin Season Two)

Chapter Eleven

Lila’s house, though quite cluttered, was more comfortable than he imagined it would be. Sure, she had a collection of cows, from ceramic to cows on her towels, throw pillows and even a rug.

And she also seemed to collect magazines, as she had small wooden crates filled with them all over the living room. There were farming magazines, Field and Stream and more.

But her sofas were worn and comfortable, her lamps shed soft light, and the tea and cookies she served were delicious.

She had the most amazing brass telescope in her living room too, that Herb just couldn’t stop staring at while they nibbled her pecan cookies.

“That’s beautiful. Antique?”

“Sure is. Was my grandfather's, and his dad's before him. He gave it to me when I was twenty.”

“May I?”

“Sure! Your eyeball can’t break the thing.”

After wiping crumbs from his hands with a napkin, he went to the telescope and looked through it, adjusting the lens just a little to see his own home come into view. He stood back up straight and stared over at her, nearly laughing. “Um, Lila, have you been spying on me.”

“Hey, you told me to watch out for your house. You think I can see it from here with my eyes? Shit, I can’t read a newspaper without my coke-bottle glasses.”

“I’m not upset. It’s not like I run around my yard naked.”

“Feel free to check it whenever you want. You might catch something. That damn fire chief don’t know his ass from his elbow. He’s a volunteer, never took no classes for fire investigating, but he knows it all, he thinks.”

After he sat back with her and sipped his tea, he had to agree. “I don’t want to make enemies here, but you’re right. I didn’t have grease on my stove. I worked half the day cleaning, knowing that Basil was coming. I don’t want him to think I’m some slob.”

“You can tell you’re not. Clean clothes, nice nails, not a scuff on your shoes. If your house was a mess, that would be a surprise, and I’ve been in it. Even when you first moved it, it was clean enough, where there weren’t holes all over.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“You’re getting it fixed up nice. For an old house, that is a good, charitable thing to do.

I don’t believe in hocus pocus, but houses…

they have a spirit in them. All those laughs, tears, hollering, hugs, they have to rub off on a place.

You can feel it when you walk into most. If there was bad feelings, well, you get that.

If good ones, you feel comfortable in the place right off.

I wasn’t a fan of the former owners, but they were good enough to one another. ”

“I wasn’t sure about it at first, but I have fallen for it. The original wood framing all the arches between the rooms, and the thick walls, high ceilings. The kitchen, even as dated as it was, felt like it had seen the baking of a lot of birthday cakes and Sunday dinners.”

“You see a lot for a young man,” she said, her eyes narrowed at him but warm. “I like that.”

He slept that night in a big bed that was covered in a beautiful quilt he suspected she’d made herself. The bathroom was shared, but clean and very…blue. A blue toilet, sink and tub to make all the blue tile, but he didn’t mind it. It was grandmotherly.

The following day, he was treated to a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and the fluffiest waffles he’d ever tasted. They shared their food and the strong coffee she made with a little conversation.

“I sent Basil to you for a reason. That boy needs a good man in his life.”

“Matchmaking? You?”

“And why not me?”

Herb laughed but said, “Just don’t seem the type.”

Lila sat back, rubbing her belly after she finished her huge portion of food and said, “I may not seem the type, but like any decent person in the world, when we’ve known great love, we tend to want others to do the same.”

He’d seen the pictures of a much younger Lila with a handsome man, and their smiles invoked pure joy. “Your husband.”

“We never married, to be truthful. We never felt the need, but in every way except the legal one, yeah, he was my husband.”

It wasn’t everyone that a person could know in various ways. To the general population, meeting Lila, they’d see a rather cranky older woman, set in her ways, stubborn and forceful.

Herb was lucky in that he saw her in that moment too. Her eyes were soft as she thought of the love of her life. Her smile was warm, melancholy, and her voice was like a songstress, harmonic and lilting.

He saw the years fade from her, and there was the young woman who was deeply in love, and knew what it meant to be with a true partner.

It was beautiful. She was beautiful.

“Lila, all I can say, then, is how grateful I am. To show me to a man that…possibly could be for me what your man was to you is the greatest gift anyone could have given me.”

“Love his family too,” she warned. “No matter what. That boy is a family man, through and through. He glows when he’s with them, like he does when he’s with you.”

“That’s not hard. They’re wonderful people.”

“They are that. And tough. They work hard and play hard.” She smiled awkwardly, then mentioned, “Speaking of the Jimenez family, uh, I’m going to help Basil’s grandma today make two quilts for the new babies’ bedroom wall.”

“Oh, that’ll be beautiful.”

“Yes, and quilting, it takes a long time. I’ll probably be gone, oh, until six or so.”

Herb nodded and said, “I’ll be at the house, cleaning up.”

“I’d rather you stayed around here, you know, watch the place, and, well, maybe ask Basil by to…you know, visit with you.”

Her eyes were shining with mischief, and Herb finally got the heavy hint she was throwing. “Oh. Oh, sure, watch over the place. It’s the least I could do.”

“Yes, it is. How else could you possibly repay my generosity?”

“I’d be an ingrate to deny you this favor.”

“Yes, you would,” she said as she rose and grabbed his empty plate.

“No, please, I’ll clean up. You go feed your chickens and get to quilting.”

“I like that. See ya later, Herb.”

He hurried to clean the kitchen and then he was on the phone, inviting Basil over for a day of love, like Lila had so casually insisted upon him having.

Basil giggled like a little kid at the invitation and the explanation. “She didn’t.”

“She never came out and said it, but that was the implication.”

“She’s terrible, but I love her. I’ll ask Abuela to make sure the quilting lasts a very long time.”

“Just don’t tell her why. I don’t want on her bad side.”

“No, you don’t.”

After showering, Herb drove to his house to get the things he needed for their lovemaking, and then drove back, arriving just as Basil pulled into the driveway. He got out of the truck and leaned against it, looking delicious as usual.

“Are you telling me she told you to bring me over here to…” He stopped and looked around before he whispered, “have sex?”

Herb took him into his arms and kissed the side of his neck before he said, in his best gravelly voice, “In so many words, yes.”

Basil’s head fell back as he groaned, Herb continuing to kiss and nibble on his neck, the tip of his tongue drawing lines between the nibbles. “Want you,” Basil said before another groan came straight from his guts.

Herb took his hand and led him into the house, locking the door behind him.

“Herb, won’t it be weird, you know, doing it here?”

“I’ll wash the sheets after.”

Basil laughed, embarrassed. “You’re awful.”

“That’s not what you said the other night.”

“Herb!”

He was the sweetest man alive. Herb was in love with him, and it was more than just him. The goodness, beauty of his heart, that was bigger than just the gorgeous package. It radiated from him by miles and touched everyone that felt it.

He made the world a better place just by being in it.

They hurried to undress, unwilling to take the time to do it in any kind of seductive way. After the last time, they knew they couldn’t count on extra time.

Herb sunk into him finally after what seemed like months. Basil was warm and tight, his mouth on Herb’s neck, suckling, his fingers dipping into the muscles of Herb’s back, one leg snaking up to wind around Herb’s.

Herb pushed deep, watching the beauty’s face as it went slack with pleasure. Those eyes rolling back, lips parting in a silent moan…

Every part of Basil was in the sex, every muscle.

He moved with Herb, and against him, and Herb thrust faster without knowing it.

The tangle of their bodies made him crazy, every bit of him feeling every bit of Basil.

They soon sweated, and slid easily against one another, the smell of their sex enveloping the room, making it that much hotter.

God, his little whimpers in between kisses that were sloppy and filled with passion.

They were making him shake with desire, like he wanted to be further inside of him than he was physically.

He wanted to be consumed by Basil, taken by him so completely that he was no longer himself, but just one of the many sparkles in Basil’s pretty eyes.

Leaving the sounds, smells and feelings aside, he saw the faces Basil made and let himself concentrate on nothing but those as he felt his orgasm rushing him. The slow movement of his head from side to side, the way his mouth worked to speak words that wouldn’t come.

Licking those perfect cherub lips, taking in a long breath, swallowing another, his neck corded, his jaw clenching, all of it so…perfect.

Basil whimpered as he came, holding Herb so tightly, he thought his ribs would break.

He panted after, and Herb slowed his movements, watching him come down from the orgasm, then jump every single time Herb’s cock ran across his prostate.

That overly electric feelings of sex after an orgasm, they were…

almost too much. They were something that felt good and bad all at once, and both to such an extreme, a body felt as if it would tear apart.

Herb pulled out of him and turned Basil around so he could hold him from behind, pushing back into him to slowly make love to him until he was ready to come again.

Basil’s head turned so Herb could kiss the side of his mouth, and right after, with the same hot breath, Basil whispered, “I love you so much.”

To hear that, it was incredible. To have a man like Basil love him, it felt like the world had finally opened to him, giving him a treasure that men would die for and never find.

Squirming against Herb, Basil waited impatiently for Herb’s return of the affection, and he wouldn’t disappoint him in a million years.

“I love you in a way that doesn’t seem possible.

I love you so big, Basil, that it’s a thousand times bigger than me or anyone.

I love you, baby, and I plan to love you forever, even if you don’t want me that long. ”

“I’ll want you that long. It doesn’t seem possible that I found you and love you already, but it’s because you’re my person. I found my person.”

Herb stopped moving, letting those words just wash over him in a way that made him feel warm and good. “You said it so much better,” he finally admitted.

“No. I liked yours.”

When Herb came, it wasn’t some huge explosion that he had to come down from. It was a slow-moving, soft orgasm that perfectly matched the slow way they were making love. It bloomed out into his body, heating it, waving like a pebble thrown into a lake and rippling to every cell of his body.

They held each other for a long time, silent, loving, small kisses given to his chin and jaw by Basil, a soft caress of his side by Basil’s long fingers.

“I want you to know I wasn’t just saying what I said,” Basil cautioned him. “If you don’t want a long, monogamous relationship, all that, just tell me now.”

“Honey, that is exactly what I want. You and only you for the duration.”

Basil laughed and turned to face him. “The duration?”

“Of our lives, Basil. Damn, do you need it in writing?”

“Eventually. Yeah.”

He’d ducked his head as he’d said it, and Herb knew in that moment what he meant.

A marriage certificate.

The thought of it scared him, but excited him more. Thinking about the quinceanera , the way his family celebrated, it was exactly what he wanted.

“We have a way to go, but I can see it.”

With his eyes slowly moving up Herb’s face, Basil’s smile showed he was happy Herb had interpreted what he’d said. “Yeah. Me too.”

“Best get your family ready to have another party one of these days. I want it twice as big. After all, it’s a wedding, not just a birthday party.”

“Herb. It wasn’t just…”

He saw Herb laughing and playfully smacked his arm. “Ass.”

“Yeah. I know.”