Alpine Affairs Addressed

Alpine Affairs Addressed (Part 5)

If you haven't, read Alpine Affairs - the Wives, the Husbands, the Party, and the Aftermath before you read part 5, the finale.

I repeat the warnings about gratuitous sex, counseling, and psychology; about minor bondage, and about some biexploration, though that isn't pursued. Hope you enjoy the finale.

****

As he expected, after a week of the kids ranting about their new teachers and friends, their super-cool castle house with towers, and how much fun they're having in Comfort with Daddy, Robert asked for permission for Christy, Sandy, and him to come to the house to pick up the kids and have a look around. Will agreed, and offered to provide supper if they wanted to eat there. Robert quickly took him up on that, and promised they would be there early to avoid the Friday afternoon traffic leaving San Antonio.

He didn't ask, but after they got home Thursday afternoon the kids called their mother, and then excitedly told him that mommy was taking a personal day so they could come early tomorrow!

Danni bubbled with delight, saying, "Daddy, Mommy is going to love this house and all the pretty trees and hills! Can't she stay with us this weekend? I don't want to go to Nanny and Gramp's house! I want to stay here and show mommy everything and explore all weekend!"

JR didn't say it, but there was hopeful pleading in his eyes. Daddy replied, "We'll see. Remember your grandparents will be here too, and we don't even know if anyone will want to stay. Right now, finish your homework and I'll finish making supper, we'll eat, and then we can ride back into the hills in our old Land Cruiser."

That drew a whoop out of JR, who insisted he had finished all his homework and would help Danni so they could eat early and go in the big jeep! Will followed the easy path with sliced ham, mac and cheese, green peas, and a fruit bowl, pleasing the kids and expediting their explorations.

The '76 Toyota Land Cruiser looked like an overgrown, high cab jeep with oversized, deep zig zag tread tires for mud and bad winter weather. Will bought it from the Stehlers, and had quickly learned it's gear ratio was so low it sounded wound up at 55 mph on the highway. But it's high, wide wheelbase, four wheel drive, and low gear ratios made climbing, going over rocks and sloshing through mud seem easy, but thrilling.

They took the ranch road to the back fence, and then to the southwest corner. There was a turnaround because the road ended there, due to small creeks and arroyos that carry runoff during rain, and a tall, crumbling, limestone ledge along the south side of the highest hill on the ranch. Will had already surveyed the area in the Land Cruiser and found a way to work around the deepest creeks and traverse the limestone ridge, but it was a rough ride with a few tough climbs, a couple of nose dives into dry creek beds, with exhilarating climbs out.

With the kids snuggly buckled into seatbelts he had added to the jump seats on either side in back, he began the drive. Danni's squealing and screams when they were going down or up steep inclines, and giggling when they made it safely, were expected, but JR's were not! It was if he had turned six again, a being cool meant temperature, and his reactions were spontaneous! Will whooped and hollered with them, and the tough old Cruiser made noises of its own to complain and to celebrate.

The climb up the limestone ledge was over 20 degrees, and it felt like it might flip backward in spite of the owner's manual saying 25 degrees was the limit. The screaming on that stretch was unanimous, but the four wheel drive pulled them over and onto level ground, and their screams became cheers.

On the way back, Dad suggested they not exaggerate their ride to Mommy, and Danni amened that to tell JR they should probably not talk about it much or she might get mad at Daddy and not let them do it anymore.

Will found it unsettling that Mommy still made the rules, although they lived with him. The kids still lived by 'what would mommy say?' rather than the edicts of their custodial parent. He didn't know whether to be jealous, pissed off, or thoughtful about what that meant, but it occupied his mind.

Christy and her parents knew the kids got out of school at 2:45 and rode the bus home, so they were at their campus early, stood by the car, and signaled the kids over. A watchful teacher stopped the kids and escorted them over to the car. "Hi, I'm Anita Jones. Who would you folks be?"

"Hello," a defensive Christy replied, "I'm their mother, and these are my parents. We're here to pick them up and take them home."

"Do you have a note from Will? I don't mean to be disrespectful, but you aren't on their list of people to whom we can release them, and we've had problems with non-custodial parents taking kids before."

Before Christy could go ballistic, in spite of her immediate recognition that this was a good policy, JR pulled out an explanation and permission slip signed by his dad and gave it to Ms. Jones. She thanked him for being prepared, and said to tell his daddy she appreciated him providing the note.

After reading the note and description of Christy, she smiled, wished them a good weekend, and walked away. "Is that your teacher, JR?"

"Yes, Mom. She's a great teacher! Now, let me show you how to get home."

Christy hoped Will wasn't having too many teacher-parent conferences with the very attractive Miss Jones. She would see what she could get out of him later.

As further proof that their plan to surprise Will by coming early hadn't worked, he was under a big oak tree on the side of the castle's bailey (yard) where he was slow-cooking meat on an oversized grill with wheels. The greetings with her parents were enthusiastic while hers was muted, but at least he didn't turn away.

When the meat was ready a few minutes later, he carried it inside wrapped in butcher paper, and then called, "Kerris, how are things going?"

"I just finished up, Will," she called in accented English as she walked down the stairs. "Can I help you prepare the meal for your guests?"

Christy froze in place, and her parents gawked at seeing the 6' tall, very pretty, very blonde, very blue-eyed recent German immigrant coming down the stairs in cutoff jeans and a loose shirt that was tied at her waist. A waist that was surprisingly small and tight for such a big girl. And she did appear to be a girl - a teenager, most likely. Christy's green eyes flashed, and her jealousy spiked.

Kerris caught it and held the smile she wanted to give his ex-wife. Will had shared a lot with her over coffee, or when they shared a coke after she finished the housekeeping. She was a teenager - nineteen, just like Christy's lover, and she couldn't help but dress in skimpier clothes than usual, to irritate the harridan that had so injured sweet Will.

Kerris didn't overdo it, but she made sure she touched Will and gave Christy good looks at every side of her: big, muscular butt; flat stomach; large, jutting breasts; and smooth, very long legs. She watched the jealousy peak, and then deflate as the realization hit her: Kerris was Carlos, and she wanted Will like Carlos wanted Christy. Lesson taught, she asked Will, "Same time next week?" and left with cash in hand.

Christy's mom handled the inquisition. "Is that your housekeeper, Will? She seems... young to be doing that kind of work."

"She's here on a Visa, and has to work as well as keep up with her classes. She's the oldest child from a large German family, so she has a lot of experience in cleaning and cooking. She usually prepares our meal when she's here, but today I cooked the meat and she did the rest. Hope you enjoy the meal; she's an excellent cook."

There was still a couple of hours to sundown, so the kids insisted they take mommy for a ride in the big jeep cruiser before they went to Alamo Heights. Will took the longer, safer route, but there were screams and squeals anyway, mostly from mom, and threats that he was NOT to take her children out in this thing again!

Back at the castle, they showed everyone around, took them up in the towers, and let them see the view to the west with the sun setting.

By the time the tour finished, Robert was hesitant to start back through the worst of San Antonio traffic, so they played dominos and chicken foot, and then everyone was tired. Will went along with the plan because he knew it was coming, and he saw no harm in humoring them.

"Since it's so late, why don't you just stay here tonight," he asked. "Maybe tomorrow we can look around here a little more, go into town for lunch, look around at historic sites, and then y'all can leave? We have plenty of rooms and bathrooms."

They 'reluctantly' agreed, hoped they weren't intruding too much, received their assurances, and Will had the kids show them to their rooms while he and Robert retrieved the bags they so fortunately packed. "I'm sorry, Will, but they were so insistent. You upset the apple cart by moving up here so suddenly, and they just had to come see why. My wife was worse than my daughter, so I had no choice."

"Don't worry about it. I was a member of your family for more than ten years, so I saw it coming. You're always welcome, as long as Christy doesn't misunderstand."

"She will, I'm afraid, but let me say this. She's changed so much I hardly recognize her, and I mean that in a good way. We spoiled our only child, and her brains, personality, and looks got her special privileges from others. Last summer was an accounting for the selfishness we thought she had put behind her when she married you and had your precious children.

"I know if she had done what she did last summer while she was married to me, I'd have been more hardnosed than you have been. But I live with her, and I see how that affected her, and how not being with her full time children affects her, and how 'losing the only man I've ever loved' is affecting her, and I know she's changed.

"I'm not asking you to take her back; I just want you to know."

"Thank you, Robert. Is she seeing a counselor?" Will countered.

"No, at least as far as I know, but she and her mom have long conversations when I'm not around, so she might, but they aren't telling me. She has her own insurance through the school, which is another reason I wouldn't know."

"I think she should, Robert. I did, to help me get over my rage. It hurt to talk about it, but it helped."

Christy's room was on second floor next to their children, her parents were across the hall, and Will was in the master suite downstairs. He had watched the looks of envy and then sadness cross her face when she was given the royal tour, and the angst when she saw the luxuriously appointed master suite with four poster bed.

'Good,' he thought, 'she needs to see firsthand what she did to me and to herself! This is literally the home of her dreams, minus the whole castle façade, and she's living with her parents! Bad actions have dire consequences, don't they, my cheating wife?'

And yet he took no pleasure in her situation. It was as hard on his children as her, and hard on him. They were so in love and so affectionate that people teased them. They held hands, he wrapped her in his arms when she was cold, she slept nestled against him, and they had sex almost every night and a majority of mornings. He missed those things. Especially the sex, but all of them.

He didn't want to kill her like he did when he found out what all she had done, but there were still times...

He wouldn't, of course, and he wasn't one of those guys who thought a pussy was ruined because someone else used it. If that were true, only virgins would be marriage worthy, and you're back to those 13 year-old brides of yore.

But the trajectory of the dismissal of her marriage vows still mystified him. Was John Henry the first? What was behind her willingness to take on multiple partners, and had she done that in the past? He thought he knew her sexual history and predilection's, but it was hard to believe her actions in Alpine were all without precedence. They were taken too easily.

And try as he might, he didn't buy the 'alcohol plus ecstasy equals fuck toy' explanation. He believed

in vino, veritas

because he had seen that play out too often. A girl drinks, and suddenly she is overcome with the need to fuck whoever she's with. Tomorrow she claims it was the wine/ beer/ whiskey... or he forced her. However, by their morning fuck, the alcohol was mostly gone, and then they did it again, and maybe again before she returned to the dorm or apartment. So it was hard to blame the alcohol for their decisions.

No, Vino might release your inhibitions, but that only allows you to do what you want to do anyway, while giving you an excuse for doing it! Likewise, from what he had learned, Ecstasy intensifies sensations, but hardly makes a nympho of you. The 'magic' drinks Vince supplied were something else, but she shouldn't have been in our van with eight hard dicks and three other sluts anyway. So unless Christy could and would give him an explanation he could buy, there was no chance of a relationship beyond co-parents, and 'Sorry, I lost my way for a few weeks' didn't cut it.

He doubted she had the self-analyzation skills to accomplish that awakening; she tended to work back from the action taken and devise an explanation that fit her needs. That might come from being the only child of older parents, who were beyond euphoric at her birth and who would accept any plausible explanation. But he knew she would resist any counselor who wouldn't let her tell it the way she wished it had happened.

****

Although it was later than her usual bedtime of ten, Christy couldn't go to sleep. She tried to rid her head of the swirling thoughts, but being in this enormous and well-appointed house with Will downstairs was torture! She wondered how and why he chose these beautiful furnishings; she expected massive wood furniture like that he preferred in his office and den/mancave back home, but this was a perfect mixture of male and female, and the artwork was exquisite. How did Will, who paid no attention to aesthetics before, furnish this mansion so tastefully? Was another woman involved?

And what about this Kerris? She was big, well endowed, gorgeous, and she was affectionate toward Will and the kids, though she had known them for a short time. Did she pose a threat to her efforts?

She had a toe in the door, thanks to her kids and parents, but while he was friendly and warm toward her parents, toward her he was lukewarm at best. Was his indifference feigned or real? Was it too soon to push him? Did he need more time?

She prayed his indifference was affected, for she had heard that hate is only the flip side of love, but indifference is unbroachable. From her viewpoint, if Will would have been cold, angry, and hateful toward her maybe she could turn that around over time. She had done it before with his jealous fits, though this was hardly a response to her flirting too much, or letting someone's hands roam while dancing.

She had screwed up to the N'th degree, and if his response now was indifference, she was well and truly screwed. You can't influence or manipulate people who don't give a damn, and you certainly can't reconcile with them.

She dressed carefully; too sexy or too conservative and he would know what was afoot. But she needed to look pretty and sexy in a mommy-wife way. It was a cool day, so the white tights under a pink and pale blue cashmere sweater with a band that gathered at the bottom of her butt was appropriate. He loved her round butt, shapely legs, and jutting breasts, all of which were displayed in a flattering manner.

She assumed numerous poses in front of the full length mirror behind the bathroom door, and decided any man would agree that she looked very doable. She pulled on her glitzy white and pink tennies, checked the mirror again, and proceeded to the stairway.

Purely by chance, Will walked around the corner and toward the stairs just as she started down. He stopped, looked up the stairs at her, and she could see his approval in his eyes. She almost smirked, but caught herself; well, even if nothing else worked, her get up for the day did its job nicely.

"Good morning," she chimed in her best clear, sweet, young girl voice, "you certainly look nice - are we going somewhere special?"

It took a moment before Will responded, and she was thrilled that it did. "We are! Breakfast on me, a guided tour of Comfort, shopping in the historic downtown, or a walk to a couple of nearby historic sites. Lunch will be under the Cypress trees at a café along the river, and then I guess you guys can head to Alamo Heights."

"That sounds wonderful, Will! Comfort seems like such a cute little town; I'd love to see it, and meet some of the people you know!"

He chuckled. "I know a real estate agent, the butcher and a checkout girl at Lowe's Grocery Market, the man who runs the early shift at the Comfort Stop, Kerris, and the aunt and uncle she lives with, so don't expect many introductions. Oh, and the kids' teachers, Miss Jones and Mrs. Bergquist. I met the principal, but fortunately, so far I haven't been called in for their misbehavior."

"We met Miss Jones when we went to get the kids, and thanks for sending that note with JR. She sure wasn't releasing them to us without it!" said Christy with one of her winsome smiles.

"Small, close knit town. I'm a damn move-in, but at least I moved from a small town and not San Antonio, or, God forbid, California! That gives me fourth tier status."

"Fourth tier?" she asked.

"The families descended from the original settlers are first tier, and any family that moved here during the Civil War to avoid Confederate conscription is second tier. The old Germans here and up in Loyal Valley in southern Mason County refused to have anything to do with that war, and there were consequences about which they will angrily inform you.

"Third tier is people who married into the original settlers or loyalists, and anyone whose great-grandparents or grandparents lived here. That makes me fourth tier, slightly ahead of the big city invaders and damned Californians.

"And I might have been fifth tier anyway, but I bought this house and land from one of the original settlers, the Stehlers, and they spread it among their friends that I was a good guy."

Will's lighthearted explanation of his lack of social life warmed her panties; that was vintage Will, and there were no jabs, innuendos, or sarcastic remarks about her major fuckups, for the first time in a long time. That plus his seeming lack of anger made her heart thump wildly in hope.

All six crowded into Will's Suburban and drove to The Grill, which featured 'Comfort Food' according to the menu. Will ordered Biscuits with sausage gravy for the table, and told them to pick whatever else they wanted. Christy and her mom ordered oatmeal, Robert added two 'homemade' pancakes, and Will, Danni, and JR ordered scrambled eggs. The oatmeal was only half-eaten when they left, and Robert was complaining about his belt being too tight; the café's brag was right - "Our Biscuits and Sausage Gravy is the best in Texas!"

The grand tour didn't take long, even including the ride down the river road east, toward the camps around Welfare and Ware. That caused Christy to reminisce about her camp days, the friends and boyfriends she made that didn't last.

He told them about the famous food and barbeque at nearby Sisterdale, and said they would have to eat there sometime. Christy silently cursed the bucket seats and center console that kept her from showing off her legs better, but she put on the best show she could by letting her sweater rise, and saw the corresponding rise in Will's khakis. That was another win, and she was on a streak!