This is the third part of this story. I've already had complaints about the poor ending of part two, in the mistaken belief that the story was finished. Sorry it's taken so long!
Back home, back walking on the beach on a morning wearing shorts and a t-shirt, the contrast couldn't have been greater between that and where I'd been just days earlier. I had thought to give Rachel and her daughter 'Becky ' some space, time to say hello and for Rachel to give the gifts that she had brought back from a very cold and snowy Scotland.
My plans went awry as soon as we had walked out of the airport. Rachel's dad Paul was waiting for us and insisted that I join the family at a local restaurant for dinner. I tried to rain check, but as he was driving straight there I was stuck with it.
I had an ulterior motive for going straight home as well. Rachel had told me shortly after we had arrived in Scotland that she had admitted to her parents that should the occasion arise, she would willingly be sharing my bed. I wasn't sure how they would react to that situation, Rachel was over twenty one and old enough to make her own decisions, but I was older than her parents, and although she steadfastly insisted that it had nothing to do with her parents, we all know that life just doesn't work like that. So, I admit that I was nervous, if Rachel decided to tell about our sleeping arrangements then frankly I would rather give them time to get over it or come to terms with it, or whatever, before facing them.
We sat, we ate, we made Smalltalk, little Rebecca was in her most boisterous mood, her mummy was home and she had gifts to come, she was a little disappointed that she couldn't get at them until we got home but she was pretty good about it.
Then, suddenly Angela asked the question, not straight out but by looking at Rachel and saying "Well?"
Rachel and I both knew exactly what she was asking as she kept looking between the two of us. Rebecca was preoccupied talking to Paul, so Rachel looked at her mother and answered a simple "Yes!"
Angela's reaction was not at all what I expected. She called our server over and ordered a bottle of champagne! It must have been a prearranged signal because Paul didn't even ask, he just patted me on the shoulder and congratulated me!
The following morning as I was walking along the beach, my head pounding and my senses not working correctly at all, I pondered on my situation. Apart from tiredness and jet lag, I was feeling very strange. Paul and Angela were both almost ten years younger than me, and yet, they both seemed quite happy with the fact that their twenty-three year old daughter was sleeping with me. I was not at all sure that had our positions been reversed I would have felt the same way! I had to admit to being surprised. But, more surprises were to come later in the day.
I had expected Rachel to come over that evening, but when there was a knock on the door I knew it wasn't her, it was paul.
He came in at my invitation, bringing beer with him. He asked if we could talk; "here it comes", I said to myself!
"We stayed up talking quite late last night, Rachel told us a few things."
I didn't like the sound of that, just how much had she disclosed, had she told them about our cam room activities, had she shown them?
"She admitted that she had been less than fully honest with us about your sleeping arrangements for your trip, she said she'd known all along that she would be sleeping with you and that she had already done so, long before you went away."
Well, I couldn't deny any of that, and I felt that I should defend Rachel's choices, she was after all well over the legal age. However, as I started to speak, Paul just laughed, "We don't have any problem with that, no, it's what else she told us that she had told you! You are the only person other than me, Angela, and Rachel, who knows about Rebecca's parentage. I thought I should come and give you my, or rather Angela and I's side of the story." He probably heard my sigh of relief .
"We had tried everything to have a second child, we hoped for a boy, you know, one of each and a dog, the perfect family unit. But after years of tests and procedures we were finally convinced that it just wasn't going to happen." He stopped and we both opened and drank from our cans of beer, I knew what was coming, and it couldn't have been easy for him.
"We were offered a surrogate service, at huge cost, the cost wasn't so prohibitive that we couldn't afford it, and we did look at it, but the thought of a woman having our baby and then being asked to just give it up and walk away just didn't sit right with either of us. Then Angela thought of Rachel."
Paul finished his beer and immediately opened another, I didn't comment, this was hard enough without me making it harder.
"Angela talked to Rachel, Rachel was pretty quick to agree. We had originally decided to go to a fertility treatment clinic but Rachel was horrified at the projected costs and said why don't we just give her the money and cut out the middle man? When we suggested getting a kit she just laughed and said she wasn't frightened by the way the birds and bees did it!"
Yes, that sounded like the Rachel I had come to know and love.
"Surprisingly Angela was all for it, she even volunteered to hold Rachel's hand while I impregnated her. Well, Rachel didn't go for that she said she wanted to go to New York, see the sites, go to shows, and I could come visit regularly until she was confirmed pregnant. That was her price, she didn't want our money, just an extended vacation."
He paused in his narrative, and opened yet another can. After drinking deeply he continued.
"So that's what we did. She and I went up to New York and I put her in a hotel. I was incredibly nervous when it came time for our first time, she was far from it. It was almost clinical, she took off her panties and kneeled on the bed, she pulled her skirt up to her waist and I kneeled behind her. It was as simple as that, we didn't even speak, when I had finished she pulled her skirt back down and laid on the bed for half an hour before carrying on as though nothing had happened. It was the same every time, several times a day each time I went to see her. After four weekends with her over three months she told us she had tested positive. Never once in all the times I had intercourse with her did we even look at each other's faces."