Author's note: This is 6th and final chapter of "Fourth Year After", the last book in my series that began with "First Year After". Then Second, Third, you get the picture. If you have not read the earlier books in the series, I recommend you do, so you'll know who the characters are, how they relate to each other, and how they got to where they are now. Thank you for sticking with this series to the very end.
As always, all sexual acts described here involve fictional characters over the age of 18.
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August 6, 2016
In the end, the move-in date got pushed by just a week, but the pool got done ahead of the earlier estimate, so that we would be able to begin filling the swimming pool in the courtyard in two more weeks, meaning we could hold our Labor Day party in the new house, after all. I let Duke know he was off the hook for that, and wished him good luck on his own move.
The week before the move was chaotic, of course, trying to pack up three houses, while maintaining one of the nurseries until the new nursery could be set up for the kids to occupy. Sandy was staying with Mandy at the Jensen/Adams duplex and Patti was too pregnant to be of much help in packing and toting, being two weeks from her due date, but that still left six of us, including Eden, to get everything ready for the movers to pick up that we had not already moved ourselves.
The day of the move went pretty smoothly, everything into the new house and guest house that wasn't staying in storage, although plenty of boxes needed to be unpacked, and all of the kids moved as well, by 5 o'clock, when we celebrated by placing our first pizza order to the new house.
The surprise of the day was that Henry had somehow found the time to construct another double-queen bed and more sets of bedding, and had those beds set up in the two master bedrooms instead of our Kings.
I asked him, "How are we going to explain these, now?"
Henry answered, "We just tell people the new master bedrooms are bigger, so we decided we could splurge on bigger beds, especially so we can let the kids sleep with us, sometimes. We'd never accomplish that in a King with three adults and multiple toddlers, anyway. Even two toddlers with two adults would make a Cal King seem crowded. Give people a non-sexual explanation, and they'll accept it, because their imagination won't take them to the alternative."
"I hope you're right," I said.
The five bedrooms for the kids were already equipped with a toddler bed as well as a crib, not that we thought any of them were ready for that transition yet. It would be enough to get them used to being in their own rooms and getting them started using a potty. Except for Gavin, they'd always shared a room, and he was used to being with the other three more often than not. An extra crib was set up in the room that would eventually be Toni's baby's room, for Tommy and Jeremy to use after they were born, if Sandy brought him to stay with us at all, instead of being at the Jensen/Adams duplex. Tommy and Toni's baby would eventually share that as the new nursery, until we were ready to move Tommy into a toddler bed in KJ's room two or three years from now.
Eden was gleeful over having the guest house all to herself, but asked Toni to spend the first night there with her. Patti chose to sleep in the guest room, because she wasn't sleeping well.
We were all too worn out from the move for any lovemaking, and just cuddled with each other, Amber with me, Mom with Henry.
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August 9, 2016
It only took a couple of days after the move before Carrie came to visit Eden. Toni told me later that they used the hot tub, naked, then disappeared into the Guest House for the rest of the day. Carrie left just before the rest of us got home, apparently expected home by Mimi.
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August 12, 2016
Suzy, Danny and JD finished the last third of their internships working with my team in the programming department, with me supervising them as a trial run at being a team lead. I let my boss Mike know of the friendship between my family and Suzy's and he said he would take that into account after I turned in my evaluations of them, along with the other staff working with them. This was their last day and the whole team threw them a small party on their last day. I was objective as I could be in my evaluations, but truly felt that Suzy had shown the most promise in the skill-set we used at ABC.
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August 18, 2016
Aaron returned to town on the 13th in preparation for Jeremy's birth and Nancy and Paula arrived on the 17th. They were all staying at the Jensen/Adams' duplex. About two hours into my workday, I got a call from Aaron saying that Sandy's water had broken and the five of them had headed to the hospital. It was still early stages of labor and the doctor wasn't expecting a delivery for several more hours.
It was my last day before starting my paternity leave, and it was tough trying to stay focused, knowing that my step-sister was bringing my new nephew into the world, but I made it through the work day and headed to the hospital.
Paula, Nancy, Steve and Suzy were in the waiting room when I arrived, both Mandy and Aaron were in the delivery room with Sandy and the doctor wasn't letting more of the family in.
Patti had started her maternity leave on the 15th, and was home with Toni and Eden, just in case Eden needed to drive Patti to the hospital, too, while leaving Toni with the kids.
Amber, Henry and Mom arrived around the same time that Sandra and Nick arrived from their jobs.
An hour after that, Mandy came out of the delivery room with a paper gown over her clothes, to announce, "He's here, 20.5 inches, 7 pounds, 10 ounces. He's just so beautiful. Dad only fainted once, Mom's doing fine, Jeremy already latched on and is nursing like a champ. They'll be transferred to a maternity room in about 20 minutes, which will only leave about 30 minutes until visiting hours are over. I'll let you know when I know the room number. They're only allowing Aaron to spend the night, because I'm legally not one of the baby's parents, although they let me into the delivery room as her Lamaze coach. Yet another reason for Sandy and I to get married."
We waited the 20 minutes, and were then allowed into the room in groups of four. Mom, Henry, Amber and I went in first, and we spent our ten minutes gushing over baby and Mom and taking lots of cellphone pictures to share with those at home.
Steve, Paula and Nancy took our place, and we chatted briefly with Sandra, Nick, Suzy and Mandy before heading home.
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August 21, 2016
Sandy, Aaron, Mandy and Jeremy moved into the guest house after Sandy was released from the hospital on the 20th. Nancy and Paula were flying back to Minneapolis. Eden moved over to the guest room in the main house.
At 11 PM on the night of the 20th, Patti's water broke. I drove her to the hospital, and after a six-hour labor, Thomas Scott Barnes was born, 22 inches, 8 pounds three ounces.