Rumors

Disclaimer: All sexual activity described in this story is between fictional characters over the age of 18.

~~~~~

The first time my relationship with my sister Annie changed was after our dad died. Her mom had died a decade before, so she was now an orphan. As Annie was 16, the court was requiring that she have a guardian until she was 18. In the meantime, she was stuck in foster care. She'd even needed the foster family's permission to attend the joint birthday party my mom threw for my 20th birthday and Annie's 17th. At Annie's request, I agreed to try to become her guardian, although I was in college in Boulder, Colorado at the time and lived with my mother otherwise. I was only 20, but I was Annie's only blood relative closer than some 2nd cousins on Dad's side.

I was sitting in the courtroom, as nervous as I'd ever been, wearing a new suit that was a bit too warm for the July weather. My lawyer, Jacob Gooley, was sitting beside me.

The bailiff intoned, "All rise! This session of the Marin County Family Court is now in session, the honorable Maxine Jorgenson presiding."

I stood as requested, wiping my sweaty hands across my suit pants.

"You may be seated," the judge said. "In the matter of the application of Tyler Campbell to become the guardian for his minor half-sister Anne Campbell, I am unable to approve the application."

I heard Annie start to softly cry behind me.

The judge continued, "Mister Campbell, I have only one objection to your application. You are a student at an out of state university, with two years remaining to complete your degree, yet you indicate that it is your intention that your sister live in your father's home while she attends her senior year of high school here in San Rafael, by which time she will be 18 and no longer legally needing a guardian. That very lack of supervision was the reason I denied her petition to become an emancipated minor five months ago. She needs adult supervision that you cannot provide

from Colorado

. If you can arrange a transfer to a local college and agree to live with your sister, I would reconsider my decision. Until then, your application is denied and your sister remains with the foster family she was assigned after your father's death."

My mom surprised me, although I should have expected it, when she stood and said, "Your honor, may I speak?"

"You are?" Judge Jorgenson asked.

"My name is Shelby Campbell, your honor. I'm Tyler's mother. I was the late John Campbell's first wife, before Annie was born to his second wife, Maria. While that doesn't technically make me Annie's stepmother, I have often thought of her as my stepdaughter, especially after her own mother died when she was six. John frequently turned to me for babysitting, since it meant Annie and Tyler got to spend more time together, including during week-long business trips he needed to make, roughly once each month, usually arranged when Tyler was already going to be in my custody. It was during one of those trips that John died. Annie has had her own bedroom in my home for the last ten years and it was there that I delivered the bad news to her. I should have offered to be her guardian at that very moment, only I hesitated due to the lack of a blood relationship. I wish to make that offer now, in combination with my son. If you would approve his application to be the guardian of Anne's estate, I would happily be her custodial guardian until she is 18, next March."

The judge responded, "Mrs. Campbell, I appreciate your willingness to assist your son and his sister, but as you have admitted, you are not Anne's family."

"Yes, she is!" protested Annie, jumping to her feet. I turned to look at her, afraid that her outburst would hurt Mom's chances to intercede. This was out of character for her, she was usually quieter and reserved. She'd changed a lot in the nine months since Dad died.

"Be quiet, Miss Campbell," warned the judge.

"I absolutely consider Aunt Shelby to be part of my family, regardless of biology or marriage." Annie countered. "You've just heard her say the same."

"She is not your aunt, either," said the judge, beginning to sound irritated.

Annie said, "It's the name I grew up calling her, Judge Jorgenson. It wasn't until my 10th birthday party that I learned, from her parents, that it was an honorary title and why she also wasn't technically my stepmother. Fifteen minutes later, as I blew out my birthday candles, I wished my dad would remarry Shelby, so that the four of us could live together as one family, instead of in two homes across town from each other. I made the same wish the next two birthdays, too. I wanted Shelby to be my mom, your honor, and have always considered her house to be my second home. I would like it to be my first home, now. If my dad

had

remarried her, would your opinion of her guardianship request be different?"

"Certainly. She would have been your step-mother, legally," the judge said.

Annie asked, "So, because Shelby married my dad

before

he married my mom, instead of after, she's not my family, no matter what our hearts feel? But a pair of total strangers are preferable in the eyes of the court? The Josts are nice people, but they're not my family, to any degree. Shelby and Tyler

are

my family, regardless of legal relationship. Tyler is my big brother, not just my half-brother. As many as three weeks out of four, he and I lived together, with the third week at Shelby's house when my dad traveled. She helped raise me, just like a step-mom would, the only mom I really remember. Shelby and I are mother and daughter in our hearts, your honor, which I think matters a great deal more than any legalities. Please approve her petition and let me move into her home, my home, rather than my father's house." The tear that rolled down her cheek as she finished put an emotional exclamation point on what she had said.

The judge sat for two minutes, considering it, before saying, "Alright. Presuming the completion and formal approval of an amended guardianship application, I am ordering that Miss Anne Campbell be released from the foster care system and be allowed to move into the home of Mrs. Shelby Campbell and her son Tyler Campbell, with Mrs. Campbell to take responsibility for Miss Campbell's behavior until she turns 18. Mister Gooley, have that amended application on my clerk's desk by noontime tomorrow. Bailiff, call the next case."

"Thank you, your honor," I said, thrilled with the outcome. Annie could come home.

Annie was already hugging Mom tight before I even got up from the table, shook Mr. Gooley's hand and joined them. My lawyer hadn't had to say anything. I almost wished I had only needed to pay him by the word. "Let's go home," I said, steering the two of them into the aisle and out of the courtroom.

As executor of her estate, I had the responsibility to safeguard Annie's finances, while Mom took charge of the day-to-day oversight of her, not that she was an irresponsible kid. It took some balancing to be both her substitute parent and her brother at the same time. Especially when she needed to ask me for access to her own money that she'd inherited from Dad. But we made it work, happy that we could spend more time together until I returned to school and dealing with the few issues that came up while I was at school.

~~~~~

Of course, the second time our relationship changed was when those guardianships mostly expired, on her 18th birthday, back in March, which coincided with Spring Break. We were back to being just brother and sister, now that she was legally an adult. Mom retained her right to list Annie as a dependent for purposes of taxes and health insurance, but Annie was now free to leave, if she wished. She didn't.

We held Annie's birthday party separately from mine, because hers was the bigger milestone. The 'we' consisted of a small group consisting of Mom, Annie's friends Marissa Gutierrez and Wendy Sharp, Annie's latest boyfriend Glen Colby, and me. I was home on Spring Break, having celebrated my 21st birthday with the Smith side of the family the weekend before. They did not consider Annie family like my Mom did, in part because of bad blood between them and my Dad over the divorce. Mom and Dad used to throw us joint birthday parties just to get them there to sing Happy Birthday to both of us. If our birthdays hadn't been 3 days apart, I doubt they would have come for any of Annie's parties. I couldn't quite comprehend not wanting to love her.

I hugged her, then said, "Happy Birthday, sis. What's next, now that you're free of the court order to live here?"

Annie answered, "I've decided I don't want to move into Dad's house now that I'm 18, after all. I would rather keep living here through college and Mom agreed to let me. So, either we sell Dad's house, rent it out, then you can move into it after you graduate next year, or we keep renting it out until I graduate instead. Once we know which of us is ultimately going to live there, we can work out buy-out terms from each other. Or just keep using it as an income property."

I said, "If we sell it before we're ready to buy our own houses, we'll have to pay capital gain taxes on any appreciation since Dad's death. Renting it out on a 1-year lease makes more sense to me. We'll see where I wind up finding work, before I decide on living there or not. So, 'Mom,' huh? Not 'Aunt Shelby' any more?"

Annie blushed, saying, "I finally worked up the courage to ask if I could call her Mom after you went back to school in January. She cried, I cried, you would have made fun of us."

"Maybe," I admitted, grinning. "I was actually surprised you didn't just start doing it after court last summer. You declared pretty clearly that you thought of her as your Mom."

Annie leaned close and whispered, "Saying that I wanted her to be my mom or step-mom to the judge isn't the same as actually calling her that, Ty. Honestly, I was afraid to, when I first moved in full-time. It still felt tenuous and temporary, like she could change her mind if I did something wrong and I'd be right back with the Josts. But the more time we spent together with you away in Boulder, the more I wanted what was in my heart to be what I called her. It came naturally, once I started."

"This is our family, sis," I said, pulling her into a hug. "It's not split up any more. Nor is it ordered to exist by the court. We get to stay together because we choose it."

~~~~~

The third time my relationship with Annie changed was two months later, when I finished up my Junior year of college.

My schedule for final exams let me leave campus a day early, on Friday morning, rather than Saturday. I didn't tell my Mom, hoping to surprise her and Annie. Boy, did I.

I took the Marin Airporter bus home from SFO, then a Lyft the rest of the way. Annie was using Dad's old Bronco, which we co-owned, while the Jeep Cherokee I bought with life insurance money after Dad died was garaged in Colorado. Mom and I planned to get Annie a new car for her graduation in early June. I'd then have Dad's to use for the rest of the summer before I returned to Boulder for my senior year.

Around 4 PM, I unlocked the front door and set my two suitcases and backpack down, when I heard the first moan. It caught me so off-guard that I thought it was someone in pain, so I ran towards the sound. As I heard it again, the sounds led me to my mother's bedroom, its door ajar. I pushed it fully open and froze, my eyes not believing what I saw. My mom and my sister were both naked on Mom's bed, in a 69 position, Annie on top, both of them shaking against each other's face and crying out their mutual orgasms.

They didn't look like they noticed me, so I slowly backed out of the room, returning the door to where it had been, then retreated to my bedroom to deal with the erection that I'd formed.

As I stripped naked and lay back on my bed, my cock grasped by my fingers, the images in my mind as I jacked off fought with the word incest. It wasn't so much because the two of them were having sex, which isn't actually incest since they aren't biologically related. I was thinking about incest because part of me wished that I hadn't left the room. That I had walked over to the bed and joined Mom in licking Annie's pussy. Or gotten the two of them to form a daisy chain with me. Those were the images my head was struggling with, while they equally turned me on.

I was rock hard and seconds away from cumming, when the door to my bedroom opened, both of them there, still naked. They wordlessly watched me spurt into the air, splattering down on my chest and stomach. The extra surge of adrenaline at being caught made each spasm more intense, my grunts louder.

When my mind returned to my body, the two of them were sitting on my bed, their hips to either side of mine, looking down at my face. Annie was on my left, Mom on my right.

Mom spoke first, "You're home early. This isn't how I wanted you to find out about us, but now you know."

I responded, "Not the when or the why."

Annie answered the implied questions, "Last month, three weeks after you went back to school, I caught Gary cheating with Marissa. He had been pressuring me for sex for a while. When I made it clear that I didn't want to give him my virginity any time soon, he went after my supposedly best friend, then made sure I walked in on them, a lot like you just did. He thought I would join them. I screamed at both of them and left. I came home to Mom for comfort and it turned into... more than that. I hope you can be okay with it, Ty. We love each other."

I took a deep breath before saying, "Why would I have a problem? Two of the people I love most in this world are finding happiness together. I just..." I couldn't say it.

"Wish you could, too?" Annie asked. She swiped a finger through one of the puddles on my stomach. "The evidence is clear, your honor. My brother got so turned on seeing his sister and mother making love that he shot off in record time."

I let out a burst of breath. "I can't deny that, can I? But, it's incest, Annie. It's not incest between you and Mom, but you and me, or Mom and me, those are pretty damned clear."

I watched Annie stick that goo-covered finger in her mouth and suck it clean, before she leaned close and said, "I don't care, brother. I want you to make love to me."

I then watched Mom run her finger through another puddle and repeat the same action. "Doesn't bother me, either. We were planning to seduce you when you got home. Tomorrow. I didn't quite expect it to be so easy to get us all naked, though."

I blinked several times. "Ummm, mind blown to smithereens here, but if that's the plan, I'd be taking Annie's virginity. Why me and not Gary?"

Annie took my hand in hers, looking me in the eye, before sighing, then saying, "Dad was supposed to do it, once I was 18. He insisted we wait until then. Now, he's gone, so I want you to be my first in his place. I love you as much as I loved Dad. I couldn't exactly tell Gary that, of course. Admitting it to Mom after the breakup is part of how we wound up in bed together."

I shook my head, trying to clear it. "Hang on. Dad divorced Mom just because she admitted to being bisexual and wanted a threesome with another woman. That's how freaking homophobic he was. You want me to believe he was going to be okay with incest instead?" Although I had been too young to remember their divorce directly, my mom's parents had voiced more than a few complaints about it and him over the years.

Mom said, "Tyler, public opinion of homosexuality was different 20 years ago. John was different, too. Very repressed because of his parents. People do change, though. Many become less open-minded, but your dad went the other way, opening up. He admitted to me about 5 years ago that he was wrong about homosexuality back then and wrong to demand a divorce, at the same time realizing that he wouldn't have had Maria and Annie in his life if things had turned out better between us. It didn't erase all the bad things he said about me during the divorce, but it helped clear the air finally. I can believe that he became open-minded enough that he'd be willing to make love to Annie. He certainly loved her to pieces. Also, I have no reason to doubt Annie when she says it was true."

I said, "Okay, so that's Annie's motivation. What's yours, Mom?"

Mom took my other hand. "I love you both, equally. I haven't let the lack of blood relation stop me from loving Annie like a daughter. Why would I let its presence in you determine how I show you my love? If I can be physical with her, why not you?"

"Because it's not a crime with Annie, but is with me?" I pointed out. "I'm not saying no, Mom, but I just want to understand why you want to run that risk."

Mom smiled and said, "Because my parents did for me what Annie wanted her Dad to do for her."

I snorted at the idea of it. "Grandpa Smith took your cherry? Really?"

Mom chuckled at my reaction. "And Mom gave me my first taste of pussy, just like I did for Annie. Taught me how to give a blow job, too. They insisted it be only the one time and we couldn't speak of it again. I never regretted it. Second most important day in my life, next to giving birth to you. Above even my wedding day. Not that I think you're still a virgin, but I would have been willing to be your first, too."

Annie asked, "Was it Lacey?" My girlfriend senior year of high school.

"Yeah," I answered. "Neither of us were really ready, though. All this buildup around prom and it was just a mess. We got a little better at it before we broke up, but not much. It was a couple of girls in college who really taught me how to make love to them the way they wanted and helped me learn what I like. They only wanted to be my fuck buddy, though, so I haven't really had a steady girlfriend since Lacey."

I thought back to Lacey, how much she hurt after I had slammed my cock into her too fast and too soon, bloodily tearing her virginity from her. I didn't want that for Annie. The idea of Mom teaching me first, had appeal, in hindsight. Was I really going to do this?

"I hope I'm more than that," Annie said.

I pressed our clasped hands to her heart. "You're so much more than that, Annie. You're my sister and I love you, just like I love Mom. That's why I'm more hesitant about changing that into a physical love than I would be with anyone else. It would change things between us, permanently. I may not want to let you go after just one night."

Annie raised my hand to her mouth and kissed the back of it, before letting it go to lean down to kiss me on the mouth, pivoting to lay beside me, her head on my shoulder her left leg draped over mine. "Who said anything about just one night? Just because that's what Mom's parents wanted? I want you both for the whole summer, at least, before I head up to college and you return to yours. If not the rest of my life."

"I can't marry you," I pointed out, realizing as I said it that I wanted that very thing.

Annie smiled, though. "No, but we could move to another part of the country and pretend to already be married."

"And never have kids without a huge risk," I added.

"I never thought I'd have to argue you into this," she said.

I caressed her cheek, then said, "Annie, let me have more than a few minutes to get used to the idea, okay? You've been thinking about it for a month?"

She answered, "Off and on since Dad died, really, but more seriously since my birthday, especially once I was intimate with Mom and she said she'd not only support us, but wanted to participate."

Looking from Annie to Mom and back, I said, "And I've had less than half an hour since I got home. If all I was absorbing was the idea of you and Mom being lovers, I'd still be spinning, okay? Add on the proposition of my becoming intimate with both of you and my brain feels like a tornado. We're all naked, you're laying halfway on top of me, skin to skin. I feel your dampness against my hip, your nipples against my side, my left hand's almost on your butt. My right hand is itching to caress Mom's boobs. My dick is stiff again, so you know which way it's voting. If I were a no, those things wouldn't be happening, okay? Just let me work some of the negatives out in my head, okay?"