Empty Nesters

Notes [Last revised September 21, 2015]:

- All characters are the product of the authors' imagination, and are 18 years of age or older.

- Suggest reading the previous chapter of this series.

- Although this is a standalone series there are undisclosed details in

Unintended Consequences

and

An Unwitting Discovery

.

- We don't think there is a particular order to read these since the reveals make it more interesting in the order published. However, several readers have commented the order should be

Unintended Consequences

,

Empty Nesters

and then

An Unwitting Discovery

.

* * * * *

I awoke from the most sound sleep I can remember having. Katie was no longer in bed with me. My morning wood was telling me I needed to make a bathroom visit. The light coming in through the hurricane shutters of the house told me it was getting on in the morning. So I motivated myself to get up. As I arose from the bed, I realized all the activity during the previous couple days was telling me my exercise routine definitely needed updating and should maybe include some yoga. In my bathroom, I determined I'd brush my teeth and have a sit down visit.

Katie must have heard the noise and appeared at the door to the water closet portion of the bathroom. "Dan, you shouldn't brush your teeth while using the toilet," she scolded me.

"I was just saving time. Plus I see plenty worse hygienic habits aboard the rig," I tried deflecting the criticism.

"Give me that toothbrush, you goof," she persisted.

She'd only been here a few days now. But it seemed my big sister was taking charge of a few things. I couldn't argue with her of course. I had just been thinking of how much I loved her. Now with her walking away in her silk nightgown with the sunlight beaming through I ached to have her again. Finishing up I joined her back at the double basin sink. After washing my hands, I took the toothbrush and restarted. I noticed she'd moved some of her necessities into the other side of the counter.

Finally, finishing my morning ritual, I commented on her move. "I see you are moving in now."

"Yeah, I know I said we had all the time in the world. Some things just make sense though. Having my stuff in here makes things easier. You were right, your timing was just a little weird at that moment," she said lovingly. Then she gave me a peck on the cheek.

My timing had been fairly off. I'd just been so excited with the birthday gifts she'd given me. I hadn't had sex in such a long while. Then yesterday, she'd given me more sex that I'd ever had in a single day. I had found myself plunging into a relationship with my sister like I'd never expected.

My gaze wasn't meeting her eyes as she was explaining. The light coming from the skylight was giving her shape in that nightgown an angelic aura. "What should we do today?" I asked, finally refocusing on her face.

"Well, I think we should give you a break," she teased. "I was thinking, maybe you can give me a bit of a tour around."

"Yeah, I'd planned on that for sure. I was thinking we might go see my travel agent today, too. That shouldn't take too long, I just want to get her looking in case there might be some deals."

"That should be enough for the first part of the day. We can take it as it comes," she said gazing down at my still erect member. "I definitely want to get in some more aerobic activities though," She commented with a devilish grin appearing on her face.

"It really does have a mind of its own, Sis. We can just ignore his opinion this morning," I said.

"I think I could use a break for a bit too. I'm still adjusting. I hadn't had any sex for over a year. Also, while your thickness has been wonderful, it has been stretching my um - my abilities a bit."

"Yeah, we don't want you getting rubbed raw either," I agreed. "You hungry? I was just thinking scrambled eggs and fruit, but if you would like something else we can certainly do that."

"Simple sounds good this morning, Danny. My body is reminding me I'm forty-four."

"Katie, you look damn good to me. I wouldn't put you much over thirty, honestly."

"Okay well, you might be biased," she said adoringly.

"Well, I'll go get breakfast ready, then we can get showered and head out," I offered, heading towards the door. I stopped and have Katie a big groping hug. Looking at us in the mirror, I really thought she looked about the same age as me. Her body was firm and her face was soft with no noticeable lines. Her long blond hair just as I remembered it from her last visit. It was hard to see the family resemblance, I had a darker complexion and hair, kind of dirty blond. She'd gotten our mother's looks and I'd gotten our father's.

"What are you thinking, Danny?"

"Just how lovely you are and how much I love you, Sis," I whispered in her ear.

"I love you more," she teased back.

I just started laughing as I remembered our conversation yesterday. "Oh yeah, it's your turn; isn't it?"

Out in the kitchen I made some scrambled eggs in a small nonstick pan. While they were cooking a made a couple bowls of banana and strawberry slices. Then I stuck a couple pieces of some whole wheat artisan bread in the toaster. When Katie appeared everything was just about ready. She was wearing a cute sun dress and sandals.

"I guess you didn't trust I could make it through a shared shower," I teased her.

"Yes, Danny. I just went ahead and got mine to protect you from yourself," she flirted.

"Well breakfast is ready," I replied.

Katie helped herself to a small plate and served up small servings of each item I'd prepared. I did likewise and started eating. This wasn't a big meal, just a small refueling event. I ate quickly as was my habit from the rig. On the rig, time was money, and not much time was spent eating. When I finished, I put my dish in the dishwasher and excused myself to go and get ready.

This morning I short cut the process again and took my wet/dry razor into the shower with me. Since I'd just shaved last night, it probably didn't need all the extras. Shampooed, washed and shaved I emerged revitalized from the shower. When I got out and dried off, I proceeded back into the bedroom.

In the bedroom I found Katie had already folded and put most of my laundry away. There were a couple work shirts she'd left out. As I hung them, I figured she probably hadn't seen my special spot in the walk-in closet for them. She was amazing. I just need to get her to stop doing so much for me; before I became spoiled. The help and thoughtfulness of it was great, I just didn't want her to become my house keeper. Thinking on her words yesterday, I moved several items in my relatively sparse closet so that Katie would find a place that was just for her clothing. As I finished, walked back into the bed room, pulled a pair of boxers from the drawer, next to Katie's undergarments. I was pulling them up as she appeared in the doorway to admire me.

"You're gonna wake him up, you big tease," I accused her.

Her eyes were twinkling as she responded "I think a light breeze might wake that up. He's seems to get up every time I see him."

"Yeah, that's the key," I played along. "You see him." Changing the subject I said, "Anyway, is there anything you wanted to see in particular? I mean around Corpus Christi?" I went on dressing hoping my quickly corrected Freudian slip wouldn't bring too much more innuendo. Otherwise, we might have a tenting issue to wait out.

"Well, the Lexington is probably like a half day trip. I was thinking maybe some of the lay of the land kind of stuff would be fine. Pointing out some of the places I could go after you leave would be good. I'm sure you've been to most of the main attractions multiple times by now. But maybe something a little off the beaten path like the botanical gardens would be a short-ish thing," she concluded.

Hearing her words melted my heart. She was clearly going to stay here in her mind. Not just some words said before or after love making. She was planning how to live here when I was out on the rig. I had in fact already been to the gardens; but it was one of those places you could go and see over and over. "I'll definitely point out several of the places around as we go, so you can see them when I've gone to work on the rig. I think my travel agent is on the way to the gardens. Maybe we can stop and see her before we go there?"

"That sounds like a plan," she said.

We headed out to the truck and I helped her into her seat. "I keep thinking it's time to get rid of this old thing. Is 38 an OK age to have a midlife crisis?" I asked her.

"Dan, you're young. What has changing vehicles got to do with age?"

Closing her door and walking around to the driver side. I hopped in and said, "Nothing I guess. I always thought I'd get more use out of this thing. Now it's just a gas guzzler that doesn't offer much convenience at all. The groceries roll around in back. I just keep feeling like I should get something more practical. I just bought Tommy that Ford Taurus. That thing was pretty nice. Lots of room. What kind of cars do you like Katie?"

"Well, until I arrived here; I hadn't been in much but a minivan for the past umpteen years. I think a car would be nice. The trip here reminded me of the thing I don't like about the minivan. It's just noisy."

"Hum, maybe we keep your minivan for running around town, but look at something quiet for road trips?" I said half thinking aloud.

With that we were off to see the layout of Corpus. I showed her how I came directly to the grocery store and the two closest shopping areas. We drove over to the campus on Ward Island to see how it looked. Here we parked at the main office to see what degrees they offered. We quickly found out that they had a BS program for Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Technology and Electrical Engineering Technology.

As we looked around the campus, I could see there was some doubt in Katie's eyes. Taking her hand, I said "I want you to do this for you. However, you don't have to do the college thing at all. You have some money coming in, I am thinking I will sort of semi-retire at 45 and have sufficient funds to do everything I want."

"I'm just thinking about it, Danny. I know it'll be a lot of work and I'll probably have repeat many of the courses I had twenty years ago. If I go, I might want to wait to start until next fall term. Right now, the prospect of tagging around the globe with you seems like it'd be an even better distraction. I just need to figure out what to do when you aren't here to keep me busy."

"Oh, well I didn't bring you over here to get you to enroll or anything. I just thought you'd like to see it. How about we head over to my travel agent," I offered. Hearing her rethink her plan out loud gave me more conviction that she was really going to stay with me long term. My heart was racing. We held hands back to the truck and set out to the travel office I used.

Pulling into a space right in front of the travel agency I said, "I've used this lady for almost all of my trips. She finds me the best deals and even all inclusive packages." Assisting Katie down from the truck I continued on. "She got me this one trip with a live aboard dive boat that was out of this world."

Inside I walked over to her office and poked my head in the door. "Hey Julie, is this a good time?"

Julie looked up from her computer screen with a smile. "Hey, Dan. Great to see you. You thinking about a trip?" Standing up she reached for Katie's hand which was outstretched.

"This is Katie, sorry Katherine. We're thinking about taking a trip to Europe together. It could be longer term, but if there were some short term deals you knew about or could find, we'd definitely be open to going as soon as - um"

I looked over at Katie and she took the ball and ran with it. "We'd be available to go tomorrow if it were a good deal, right?"

Julie was a nice grandmotherly looking lady. Her eyes had just a few wrinkles around the edges. Her hair was permed in that old way and had that slight tinge of blue; a fashion I never understood. Sitting back down Julie started a search looking into the quick deals. She looked up as the search was running, "You two come on in here and have a seat. I hope this means you've found a keeper Dan. You two just make a really cute couple."

"I'm definitely hoping to keep her," I said cheerily. "We just thought it might be fun to see some of the world while we seal the deal." Katie was squeezing my hand pretty tight. I looked over to see what I might have done wrong. All I could see was love and adoration. I quizzically gave her a shoulder shrug to see if she'd let on if anything was up.

"My passport has my maiden name on it. I just got it during the divorce. I'd been thinking of traveling when I ordered it," she whispered.

"So it should be good to go, right?" I answered in a hushed reply.

"Maybe, I don't know," she said, relaxing a bit.

"She's never been out of the country, Julie. I'm hoping she love's traveling as much as I do."

"Oh, here's one that leaves um - let's see - uh, right that'd be Sunday. It is an all inclusive deal to Amsterdam for one week. Looks like another good one here by the same people for Vienna. Where, in particular where you thinking about going? You know October in most of Europe is going to be much cooler weather than here, right?"

"Yeah, that's a good point," I said. "What do you think Katie? Warmer or cooler weather?"

"Well, it is sort of fall here. I'm okay with either really though," she said thoughtfully.

"There are a of couple others" Julie continued. "One in the south of Spain and coastal France. The prices range from $2000 - $3000 per person. Which isn't bad considering they are inclusive. That might decrease if you share hotel accommodations. There are several here that are just flight and hotel which are much less than $1500 per person on the higher end."

"Julie, can you print us out the list of both that have a Sunday or later departure?" I asked.

"Sure thing, Dan. Most of those Sunday packages will require payment by Friday, so you have a little time. Say close of business tomorrow?" she asked.

"Perfect. Katie and I will get back to you one way or another by tomorrow," I said, standing to walk with her to the printer.

With the list in hand we went back out to the truck. Katie was still clearly not quite right with something. After I helped her in and got in myself I asked "Hey, is something the matter?"

"Maybe," she said. "I told you I had my passport made with my maiden name. That's the same as yours 'Anderson'."

"Oh, you're worried about Julie figuring out we're siblings, since we didn't say we were married," I surmised. "Anderson is a pretty common name, though."

"Yeah, but won't we have to show proof of marriage or something in these places?"

"I don't think so. This is Europe we're talking about here. However, we can check it out on-line when we get home."

"You're probably right. I was just getting spooked. I never really thought about how this might play out in real life," she paused. "I guess fantasies are better in that regard."

"You are better than any fantasy I ever had about you," I said emphatically.

"You're so full of it sometimes. You know that, right?" she giggled. Then she turned her eyes to the list.

I started the truck and started for the botanical gardens. As I drove I kept thinking how it was weird to hear us both admitting that we'd both fantasized about somehow being together. I looked over at Katie who was reading through the list of destinations. There was no one else for me; I knew this was right. Despite here assertion, that I was inflating my opinion of her, I really did think she was better in real life than I had ever dreamed or fantasized. I convinced myself that it wasn't the one day of extended sex and love making. It was the lifetime of support we'd given each other over the years.

When we arrived at the botanical gardens, the place was pretty vacant. I'd been there a few summers ago with Tommy. There were a lot more people there on that visit. The gardens were nice and provided a soothing background for all the thoughts running through our respective heads. We walked through all manner of plants. I can't name many of them or remember most of the names. There were some particularly nice flowering plants that we both recognized, orchids, hibiscus, plumeria and roses.

At one point we stopped in a kind of secluded area with some benches to sit for a bit. "Danny, do you think this is going to work?"

"

This

- meaning what exactly?" I asked back.

"Our arrangement, what we're doing," she ventured a little further.

"Well, there is no law preventing us from living or traveling together I'm pretty sure. I don't really know about the other stuff, but surely there are places where people in a consensual relationship are not harassed by law enforcement, right?"

"I guess we need to look into that," she said heading towards the butterfly house. "I know Virginia allows first cousins to marry. One of my friends had two cousins that were married with several kids."

The butterfly house was definitely a hit. They had a wide variety and we got to observe some newly metamorphosed butterflies emerge from their chrysalis. It was really somehow reassuring. Here were these tiny delicate creatures that just knew what to do. They emerge from this chamber completely different from when they entered. They begin very slowly fanning their wings in the heat to make them dry. Within an hour or so they would become air born. All driven by instinct; no training just pure instinct.

Should our instincts be trusted less?

I wondered.

Katie didn't want to have much to do with the reptiles on the grounds, but we both loved all the different birds. We finished up in the parrot area. Her favorite here was a beautiful white cockatoo. It was pretty obvious that Katie was trying to tease me up again with the word play. The bird was magnificent. I tried to act as if I had ignored her. However, her gaze on my trouser front gave me away though. It was pretty clear I'd not just heard what she'd said, but I was stimulated by it as well.

I took her arm and whispered in her ear, "OK, you win. I'm taking you home now. I think break time is over."

A little giggle escaped from her lips. Her face was blushing slightly. She whispered back, "You don't know how wet I am. I'm not sure I can wait to get back to the house."

"The beach encounter was almost entirely secluded. And we had the cover of water. I don't feel like there's anywhere private enough here, Katie."

"Yeah, I know. I just might have to take the edge off in the truck," she said quickening her step towards the exit.

It was getting towards 1pm I guessed and my stomach was telling me the light breakfast and several days of light or no meals would necessitate satisfying my hunger before we exerted too much energy. However, watching her from behind another hunger was winning. I just had to marvel at her form. The shapeliness of her bottom in her sun dress would make most men drool. Just up ahead she stopped and bent down to adjust her sandal.

"You have the most exquisite ass," I said, as I stopped behind her admiring.

"You want my ass now?" she asked kind of lustily.

My thoughts took an unexpected leap as I considered the connotation. "I hadn't really ever considered that, but I'm open to anything you want." I guess I was always just a regular guy, not super adventurous. I always liked sex in various positions but just never had anyone ask me to or even suggest anal sex. "Is it something you like, Sis?" I said finally wrapping my thoughts up.

"I haven't ever done it either, but I've always wondered," she said, continuing on to the truck now.