This is a continuation of In The Arms of Angels Pt. 7.
Recap - When last we were with the Hughes family, they had finally completed their redecoration of Jason's house to scrub out the last of David's taint left on the home. Jason's plan for investing money pays dividends as a windfall comes his way. He plans to invest in the future of his family with the funds, paving the way for their children's security. The family passports arrive, but Demura Megumi tells them that Belgium requires new passport recipients to wait three months until visiting. Paige arrives with a small cadre of neighborhood children, enraged at the lack of swimming instruction they have received despite nearly all the homes near them having pools. It goes off without a hitch and she plans to continue training them for the foreseeable future. But the question of remaining in California or moving elsewhere remains unresolved. After finding out that Belgium does not prosecute consenting adults living their unique lifestyle, and with some urging from real Paige—not Other Paige—Jason finally decides to leave the U.S. behind. With Elin's Belgian citizenship still intact, Demura advised that it opens more doors for Jason, Paige, and Elaina to gain their citizenship as well. In speaking with their attorney, however, they are shocked to find that their family secret isn't as secret as they thought. Demura has known for weeks but assures them that it's not as big an issue as they believe. Well, as long as they don't go flaunting their relationships around town.
All characters in this story are 18 years old or older. This is a work of fiction.
---------------------------------------------------
Now that the family had charted a course for their future, they suddenly found themselves in a holding pattern of sorts. Elaina was affected more than the rest since she had just begun to spread her wings with her budding photography business. She still had several customers on the hook as word spread about the shoot she'd done for Caitlyn Byers, a neighborhood acquaintance, so the woman could send updated photos of herself and the children to her husband who was deployed with the U.S. Navy. Over the next month, she had booked seven shoots like Caitlyn's, requiring her to go to various locations for attractive backgrounds according to the customer's requests, and two wedding shoots.
It wasn't as if Elaina needed the money, but she had always worked. The idea of going stir crazy at their house, or going out just to go out, did not appeal to her at all. She loved having a lavish home, a large pool, and a variety of lovers with high sex drives to choose from while at home, but she wanted to keep busy. She had spoken with Jason about her need to be on the move, worried that he would be upset that she wasn't around as much as Paige or Elin were. But he put those concerns to rest quickly. He only wanted her happiness, and if being busy doing something she loved made that happen, he supported it fully, even prompting her to purchase more equipment to maximize her capabilities. His only caveat was that she pay close attention to the child growing in her belly, and her own physical health as her pregnancy progressed.
Paige wasn't affected in the slightest other than continuing to put her plans for attending university on hold a bit longer. While taking online courses could be done anywhere, she didn't want to potentially have a grade decrease if they were too busy with their move for her to focus on completing her work to the high standard that she held herself to when it came to her education. So, she busied herself with training the neighborhood children in the pool, preparing for and eventually passing her Red Cross certifications, continuing her yoga, and making sure her body was available to her loving master any time he, or she, pleased.
Elin, however, in her duties as a housewife, just kept on doing what she had found that she absolutely loved. She was meticulous with her grocery shopping, keeping spreadsheets of what meals had been made so she didn't create the same thing for her family too often for variety's sake. She also kept a separate spreadsheet of every single piece of food in the house, updating it with precision once anything was used so she could plan out her weekly shopping list to replenish supplies while cross-referencing with her meals spreadsheet to create said list appropriately. ...let's just say that Elin had numerous spreadsheets to track anything and everything in the home to help her in her duties as a housewife, all in service to her beautiful master. She kept the home clean, scheduled the lawn and pool cleaning service, kept up with the laundry, and kept a regular rotation of fresh linens in the bathrooms and bedrooms. And she had never been happier in these duties.
And then there was Jason. As the head of the family now, his only responsibilities were keeping the family financially secure, seeing to his wives' happiness and, specifically for Elin and Paige, working to get them pregnant as they desired. But it left him feeling useless. He wanted to do more for them, and to be more involved. Every time he offered, however, Elaina insisted that she didn't need his help and didn't want to put him out—whatever that meant; Elin more or less dared him to mess with her very regimented schedules, spreadsheets, and housework; and other than just being there for Paige, he was a swimmer, but his youngest wife was an Olympic level swimmer who had forgotten more about training people in swim safety than he had ever known. That was assuming that Paige's mind could actually forget things, which he highly doubted.
He had already planned on waiting until they'd decided on where their lives would go next before he returned to college, so he couldn't even do that. He returned to the one thing he had let lapse for quite some time: mixed martial arts. It got him out of the house, it gave him a workout, and it made him feel more secure in his ability to protect those he held dear.
What surprised him when he notified the ladies that he would return to his training, was that all three jumped at the opportunity to train with him. The only real issue was Elaina's pregnancy which obviously required her to keep to non-contact training. After one of her checkups with the OB/GYN, she was pleased to find that her doctor highly recommended physical training of some sort since it would not only help relieve stress and improve blood circulation through the exercises, but the physical activity could also help prevent gestational diabetes. So, twice a week, their unique family got to leave the house for something fun.
"This...is not...fun," Elin grumbled as she tried to escape being pinned by using her hips and creating frames with her arms as she had been instructed. The mechanics of it made sense to her, and she was in good physical shape from years of exercise and continuing to do so with the addition of their home gym in the garage. But she just couldn't make it work when she was the one pinned to the ground. The smirking face looking down at her didn't help matters, either.
Paige just grinned from atop her. "You can do it!" she said in a very Rob Schneider-sounding voice.
"How are you doing this?" Elin asked, exasperated. "I should be able to fling you off, you tiny little brat."
Paige giggled.
Finally, Elin scowled and ceased her attempts. "I want to go back to that Muay Thai stuff. The kicking was fun."
Cocking her head to peer at Elin, Paige shook her head. "Learn to fight. Protect wives. Protect babies. This is the way."
"That's it," Jason said as he watched the two beautiful blondes. "I'm cancelling our streaming services."
"Don't. You. Dare," Paige said, her head popping up in an uncharacteristically serious tone.
His brows popped up in surprise, then his hands raised in defeat as he laughed.
* * * * *
Two months later, Jason took his wives out for a family dinner at a high-end steakhouse on Melrose. He had exciting news to share with them, and thought a nice meal, great ambiance, and joyful moods would set the scene.
Evan Wright's steakhouse and butcher shop was a mainstay in town, having opened its doors in the 1950s and gaining notoriety over the years as a premiere location to have a fantastic dinner experience with fine wine and spirits, excellent cuts of meat, and service that was out of this world. There was a dress code, and a waiting list, but Jason had made a few contacts in the world of finance who had friends who could grease palms to get them a table—essentially, money talks and Jason made it happen.
The restaurant was elegant, but with the feel of an old western steakhouse. Everything from the tablecloths, dishes, silverware, and glasses were of the highest quality, along with an eclectic array of darker toned paintings and photographs from well-known artists lining the walls. But the floor, booths, and walls were made with the dark wooden style going back to saloons from the 1800s. Then there was the array of fresh meat in a large glass case on the far end of the restaurant, with butchers working behind them to show customers exactly where the meat was coming from that sold customers on just how fresh their beef, poultry, or seafood was.
There were no tables, only large booths, which made the seating arrangement cozy for their family, but also kept the two on the ends far from each other. Jason sat at one end, with Paige next to him, then Elin, and Elaina on the far end, just in case she needed to quickly find the potty, an issue that had arisen now that she was farther along in her pregnancy.
"Jason, this place is absolutely lovely!" Elin gushed
"Did you see the wall art?" Elaina asked, her eyes bouncing back and forth across the walls, focusing mostly on the sizable photos.
"I'm hungry," Paige grumbled.
A server came by with glasses of water for them all, then introduced herself and went over the chef's special creations for the evening and promised to be back soon once they'd had a chance to view the menu.
"Elaina?" a woman called.
"Oh! Trish!" Elaina replied, smiling wide. When Elaina stood, Trish immediately gave her a hug and looked down at her growing stomach.
"Don't you just love this place?" Trish asked. "Edwin and I have only been here twice—well, this is our third time, but it is simply amazing."
Elaina smiled at her. "It's our first time here," she said, gesturing toward the booth. "A family dinner."
Elaina introduced Trish as one of her clients, a client who couldn't stop gushing about how absolutely amazing Elaina's photography skills were to anyone who would listen.
