My wife, my daughter and the incomprehensible
Author's note:
This is Part 3 of a 4 part story arc. As with all my stories, this one starts slowly with background and character development. Please vote -- it is the only way I can see if I am pleasing you, the reader.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"Jesus Christ! Not again!"
It was Eddie's voice from the doorway, waking me up again. And waking Sherry, who was on one side, and Beth, who was on the other.
"Oh, man..." I moaned and rolled over, trying to at least sit up. "What time is it?"
"It's damned near noon," Eddie told me. "I thought I better come up and check on you before I bring up Linda, Maggie and the horse trailer. Good thing I did, too. They showed up early this morning and were raring to go. I made an excuse of needing to check the road before I brought up the trailer and told them I'd be back to get them. So get your sorry ass out of bed, get dressed and come on back with me in the Jeep to load up the horses. We'll have to take them across the ford."
"Oh... and good morning, Sherry... morning, Squirt."
"Morning, Eddie..." and "Morning, Uncle Eddie" were the greetings he got, followed by two eye-popping naked women standing up and stretching.
"Coffee?" Sherry asked.
"Water," Beth answered her. "Kitchen." And she walked past Eddie, proud as a jaybird, in search of water to make coffee.
"I am
not
getting used to that," he mumbled, but I caught it. I think the women did, too.
I pretty much put it on autopilot, not wanting to handle any questions from Eddie, and managed to hit the head, get dressed, get coffee and some Danish which Eddie had brought along, then told him I was ready to go. The women pretty much did the same thing and announced they were ready to go help, also. We shinnied our way across the bridge and piled in the Jeep. Sherry decided to leave the Suburban. We drove back in to Eddie's and my next encounter with Fate.
It is not possible to describe how twisted my guts were at the thought of having to lie to my wife. Some guys can do it like second nature. I can't. But there was no way I was going to tell her about what happened with Beth and then Sherry. I got to Eddie's and despite the feelings of extreme guilt, my heart did a little happy-dance when I saw her, followed closely by Maggie.
She sped up a little as she approached me and held out her arms. I wasn't going to miss that opportunity -- I took her in a bear hug and lifted her off the ground. She kissed me hard.
"Damn, I'm glad to see you in one piece!" she told me as we eased up. "I know Eddie said you were alright, but that storm did some severe damage across the area. I take it you've been roughing it?"
"Yeah, love, and we still are," I told her. "If you come up now, we're on backup power and mostly wood fire heat. For now, we're cooking in the fireplace and can use the microwave if we're careful. At least the indoor plumbing works."
"I don't care what shape the cabin's in," she told me as I let her back down to the ground. "I'll be with you anywhere, anytime -- Maggie's college trip excepted."
"How'd that go?" I asked as I let Linda down and took the patiently waiting Maggie in my arms.
"Fine, Daddy," Maggie told me. "It was mostly administrivia and a sales pitch. I applied last year and got accepted on my GPA and ACT scores. And now that I've seen the campus, they're in the running. Do I get to use a chainsaw?"
"Uncle Eddie, Beth and I already got the tree cleared yesterday," I told her. "Sorry."
"Damn! She got all the fun!" Maggie virtually pouted.
"Hey, we've got a bunch of wood to split, so you can use a chainsaw on that if your want. And the ram-splitter." She definitely brightened up at that.
"Look, let's get the horses loaded," I told her. "We can sort the rest out once we're back up there."
She figured that was a great idea and ran off to find Eddie. I turned to walk towards Eddie's stables. My wife caught up with me and took my arm as we walked along.
"So," she asked conversationally. "Did you deflower Beth?"
WHOA!!
"Jesus Christ!" I stopped in mid-stride. "Are you in on this, too?"
"You don't expect something like that to happen without us women being on the same page, do you?" she asked.
"It would've been fucking nice if someone had told
me
about it," I told her. "I've got so much guilt, I'm sweating it out my pores!"
"Nope," she informed me. "If you'd known, you would have avoided her like the plague."
She was right -- I would have. But still...
"Baby, this really fucks with a man's mind, you know?" I asked. I wanted her to know I wasn't just some kind of horndog.
"I didn't think that was the part you fucked with," she smiled and I realized I needed to let it go. But still, a conspiracy between my wife, my sister-in-law and my niece to take her cherry... I still would have liked to have been in on it. Maybe it would have spared me a lot of guilt.
I shut up, but I must have looked pretty sullen.
"Honey, you're fine," she told me. "It's nice to know you can feel guilty. But you don't need to. Sherry told me Beth had all this angst about picking the right guy to deflower her, and that you were her top choice but no way was she going to screw up a loving relationship. She and I reminisced about the times you, me, Tom and she got together and how the fun was the important thing, not the incest. I told Sherry that Beth needed to wait until she was eighteen, but after that, I was okay with it. I trust your moral compass."
"You shouldn't," I pointed out. "I'm as much of a horndog as the next guy, fully capable of lying to his wife about an extramarital affair."
"No, you're not," she informed me. "You are a kind, considerate man who tries to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. And yes, I understand field-expedient ethics and how you need to use them from time to time. But overall, you're not out to hurt anyone. And besides, you can't lie worth shit."
Nothing quite like being put in your place.
"In the interests of being straight with you," I told her, "Beth did seduce me -- raped me, actually -- and when Sherry came up, they double-teamed me. And yes, I enjoyed the hell out of it and hopefully gave as good as I got. And now that you're here, it's done. I'm not going to go down that path anymore. I've got what I want." And I gave her waist a squeeze as we walked.
"Well, that's being stupid," she informed me.
"What?" I was well and truly confused. A little slow on the uptake, I guess.
"It's stupid to cut off your nose to spite your face," she told me. "Since I don't have a problem with it, there's no reason for you to stop having Beth and Sherry as balling buddies -- and God knows, Sherry needs one. Just keep it discreet and for Christ's sake, don't spread it around."
I walked along in silence for awhile, thinking.
"Okay," I finally decided, "I'll let it ride for now... see what happens. But you are always first in my heart, love. I will
never
do anything to intentionally hurt you."
"I know, silly..." she told me. "That's one of the reasons we're married."
* * * * *
We got the four horses loaded and I elected to ride with Eddie in the pickup. That F-350 Supercrew should have been classified as an armored personnel carrier. On the way up, we got into discussing the bridge.
"I've got a buddy that runs a construction company," Eddie told me. "He's got temporary bridging equipment and he'll put one in for $400 plus $20 a day, or $100 a week. He can be out there as soon as tomorrow."
"Fine," I agreed. "Drop $600 on him for two weeks and let's get it done. That buys us some time to figure out how to repair the old one. Take it out of the trust we set up for the cabin."
"Roger that," he told me. "I'll call him when we get to the cabin."
"The phone lines are down, Eddie," I pointed out.
"Satellite phone," he told me, pointing behind my seat. "Be Prepared."
When we got to the ford and unloaded the horses, I pointed out that the river might have crested, but it was still flooding. Each of me, Eddie, Sherry and Beth took a horse and forded the river at the gravel shallows, thankfully without incident. Linda asked if I wanted her to try to bring the Jeep across and I decided we could wait the day for the temporary bridge.
We got the horses up to the barn and stabled, then adjourned to the Great Room.
"Well, that looks cozy," Linda commented on seeing the king-sized mattress in front of the fire.
"It was," Sherry told her before I could say anything, "but now that you and Maggie are here, we should probably put everything back and start fires in the heater stoves in the bedrooms."
I noticed Beth and Maggie huddling over near the kitchen in some kind of animated discussion, and prayed it wasn't Beth telling Maggie about me and her. I shook it off and turned my attention to helping put everything back. We got the bedroom stoves lit and it didn't take long for them to warm the place up. We went back to the Jeep and horse trailer and pulled out those essentials we'd want for tonight and tomorrow, including food and drink, and hauled them back up to the cabin.
I got told to go be lazy while the women straightened out the kitchen. I decided it would be a good idea to bring in some more wood from last year's pile, which had already been split and dried. Then I found other maintenance chores to keep me out of the kitchen until dinner was called.
Our routine fell into place, adjusted for the lack of power, and we had a great time chatting about what had been happening -- Sherry's jewelry business, Linda and Maggie visiting the college, my travels as a consultant, Eddie's experiences at the Spa... overall, a very pleasant meal and evening.
Linda and I had taken the master bedroom suite since we were the only married couple. Not my idea, somebody else decided. Anyway, we were lying in bed cuddling and talking story about nothing in particular when Beth knocked, then walked in.
"Hi, Aunt Linda, Uncle Jim," she greeted us. "I just have a quick thing to put out there and then I'll leave. Aunt Linda, you know Uncle Jim was successful in deflowering me. The follow-on problem is, now I'm horny all the time and I want him, badly. But I'm not going to interfere with you guys, so I just want somebody thinking about how I can get some alone-time with him so I can get laid again -- by a lover with consummate skills. Without interfering with you." She looked relieved to have said it and a little anxious waiting for the answer.
Linda looked at me for moment, then turned to Beth.
"Come here, Squirt," she told her, patting the space in the bed between us. That confused me but I sure wasn't going to argue with her.
