Third Year After

Author's Note: Welcome to the first chapter of "Third Year After", the continuation of the story begun in "First Year After", and continued in "Second Year After". I recommend that you read the two preceding series, before beginning this one. I hope you enjoy the ongoing story.

I'm shooting for a target of 10,000 words per chapter, as Second Year After wound up a bit shorter than First Year did. This chapter is coming in around 11,500.

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

~~~~~

December 20, 2014

Still rocking our babies, the sun rose, brightening the nursery. The babies had fallen asleep in our arms, all at the same time, and it looked like my wives were about to follow them into slumberland. I stood slowly, and put Kyra into her crib, then took KJ from Amber, giving her a light kiss on the lips as I did, and put him into his own crib. Then I did the same for Patti and Sharon, putting Sharon in Gavin's crib. I whispered, "Go lay down, you two, get as much sleep as you can." I lent a hand to Amber to help her up, as I knew she was still feeling tender three days after birthing the twins.

Patti and Amber took each other's hands, and went to Amber's bedroom, to lay down together. Sandy was still asleep.

I peeked in on Mom, and she and Henry were sleeping, with Gavin between them, so I closed the door softly, and moved into the kitchen, and used Henry's Keurig brewer to make myself a quick cup of tea, and grabbed the tablet I'd gotten for my birthday off the counter, where it had been charging. I had a text message from Toni, "Went back to East for some sleep before work. Hope the babies let you get some."

I messaged her back, "Quiet now, for as long as it will last. Don't let the Christmas shoppers get to you. I love you."

I surfed the web for a little while, before I heard a baby cry. It turned out to be Gavin, and Mom gave me a tired smile when I opened the bedroom door, watching her give him boob again, quieting him. I slid into the bed behind Mom, and she teasingly whispered, "You did this to me."

"I wasn't the one who forgot her pills at home," I teased back.

"You're not going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Nope," I responded. "I can't wait until we have to tell Gavin the whole story."

She was silent for a little while, then said, "Drew, do you think he's going to hate us, when we do tell him? That you're his Dad?"

"No, I don't," I answered. "Do you know why? Because the most important truth of all is the one Gavin's going to know his whole life, that he's loved, by all six of us, regardless of what the biological connections are or aren't. All of the kids are going to have six parents helping to raise them, and that's more important than everything else. Henry's going to be as much their Dad as I am, and I'm okay with that."

I had thought Henry was still asleep, but he whispered back, "Thank you, Drew. For your trust, for helping all of us build this family together. I know I haven't been the easiest guy to share lovers with, and now you're sharing your children, too? I can't put into words how much that means to me."

"Dad, if we start debating who is the most grateful here, we'll never get any sleep. And I think we're going to need every minute we can get." I snuggled into Mom's back, and soon drifted off.

~~~~~

Later that afternoon, I went over to East House, and retrieved the last of the tri-color necklaces that I had bought, so I could give it to Amber as her marriage symbol.

At the dinner table, I knelt by her side, and told her, "Amber, when I asked Patti and Mom to marry me, I knew Mom couldn't wear a wedding ring from me, so I gave her the three heart necklace she wears, to symbolize the three of us. Over the following summer, events led me to believe that we might add other people into our group, and I went back to the jeweler and bought two more. Toni's wearing the second one. Would you please accept the third, as a symbol of this group marriage we're in? Henry and Mom's wedding rings follow the same theme as mine and Patti's, and you're now the only one who doesn't have either a ring or necklace."

I saw Mom and Toni both stroking their necklaces.

"Who was this originally meant for?" she asked.

"At the time I bought the two extras, I was thinking of Toni and Jean, hoping they would change their minds about being in our group marriage. As you know, Toni changed her mind, but I know Jean won't. Even when that became clear, something in my heart told me not to return this. When you came into my life, and back into Patti's, I knew it was meant for you, if you joined us."

She put her hand to my cheek before gently saying, "It's beautiful, but I have to say 'no', Drew. Not just because this was meant for another woman, but because it's going to look conspicuous that three of us are now wearing essentially the same necklace. Giving a nearly identical necklace to Tina and Toni as your mom and aunt, you can explain, but not me as either your step-sister or the mother of one of your daughters. Either return this necklace, or give it to someone who isn't part of this group, to deflect attention. One of your other aunts or grandmothers. I want whatever I do wear to be something bought just for me, and to come from all of you. Does this jeweler have a website?"

I got up and pulled the site up on my tablet, and handed it to her, returning to my chair.

She browsed a while, then said, "Oooh, I like these," and handed me the tablet back. What she had chosen was a hoop earring, with three hearts inside the hoop, each one of the gold colors that had become our 'mind, heart, spirit' theme. "It's a total of six hearts, it's just perfect."

We passed the tablet around the table, and everyone agreed that this would fit the need for a symbol perfectly, without being too similar to our other jewelry. I put in the order immediately, for store pickup the next day.

Patti and I took Sharon back to our house, where we were joined by Toni. We cuddled, but didn't have the energy for more than that. Without the other three babies to wake her, Sharon slept better, too.

~~~~~

December 21, 2014

Aunt Toni woke me up with a blow job, her tongue slurping around my glans over and over, while her hand worked her spit up and down my shaft. She smiled when she saw I was awake, and crawled up my body to give me a wet kiss. Her labia were pressed on top of my cock, and she was rocking her hips to slide along it. Hot, wet and slippery, it almost felt like I was in her already.

"Where's Patti?" I asked, realizing she was not in bed with us.

"Nursing Sharon," Toni answered. "She woke me when Sharon started crying, and told me to give you enough loving for both of us."

I rotated my hips, and felt my cockhead slip down into her entrance. I thrust up into her, and was halfway in. Bracing her arms alongside mine, her hands grabbing my shoulders, Toni rocked back, and finished getting me as deep as I could go. Still kissing, we thrust our hips against each other, her clit getting a lot of contact, her breasts sliding across my chest, the tips of her hair tickling my face, and she was soon moaning into our kisses. "Damn, you feel good in me, Drew," she said, breaking contact to push herself up into cowgirl position, and began bouncing on me, as I reached my hands up to take her tits in each palm, her nipples slipping between my fingers.

I couldn't help grunting on each of her downstrokes, as I felt my orgasm approaching swiftly, tingling through me. Suddenly, I felt a tongue at my balls, and spotted Patti behind Toni, climbing the rest of the way onto the bed as I spread my legs to give her more room. When she sucked a testicle into her mouth, I lost it, shooting my juice into Toni, who came from the sensation, crying out, "Fuck... fuck... cumming!"

When Toni fell to my right side, Patti followed her, licking up my spend for several minutes, giving Toni another orgasm, before crawling up to give us both spermy kisses, then cuddling between us. "Gawd, I needed that," Patti said.

I asked her, "I thought you weren't supposed to make love for six weeks."

Patti chuckled, "The doctors mean vaginal intercourse, silly. It's my pussy that's out of commission, between pain in my pelvic floor and the nasty discharge from my uterus. Plus, my tits haven't gotten used to feeding Sharon, so they're pretty tender, but the rest of me works just fine. I can't guarantee that I'll have the level of energy needed for a lot of lovemaking, or the same level of sex drive, but I'm not going to be completely celibate for six whole weeks. We can't leave Toni all the wifely duties, can we?"

"Awwww, I was kind of looking forward to seeing whether Henry and Drew could keep up with me," Toni said. "But if you keep giving me orgasms like that, I won't complain about sharing."

~~~~~

December 23, 2014

I was just putting the last of the Christmas gifts, including Amber's new earrings, under the tree at Center House, while Patti was napping upstairs with Sharon, when the doorbell rang. Going to the door, it was Duke and Jean. "Merry Christmas, guys! What brings you by?" I asked, as they came in.

"Kenny stopped by," Duke answered, his face blank. "He told us everything that happened on Friday. At first, I couldn't believe it, but after he left, Jean confessed that she not only knew about you and your Mom, but participated, in addition to the threesome with you and Patti that I already knew about. I thought I better give you the opportunity to explain first hand."

No getting around it. I explained how Mom, Patti and I had gotten involved, Toni's discovery and her role in Jean finding out, and how Henry and Amber fit into everything. I left Sandy out of it.

Duke shook his head, a little overwhelmed. "Whoa, that's even more than Kenny knows about, isn't it?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he didn't exactly give us any opportunity to explain, just blew up at Amber over Kyra, then at me when I revealed I am her dad and accidentally revealed that Gavin's my son, as well as my brother."

Duke thought for a few seconds, before saying, "So, Kenny was right about Henry and Amber? They're lovers, too?"

"Yes," called Patti, as she came down the stairs. "But you can't tell him that. He has enough ammunition against us already."

"Merry Christmas, Patti!" Jean called out.

"Merry Christmas to you both," she responded, coming over to give them both hugs, and Jean a quick kiss on the lips, which made her smile. "I wish I could just tell you that Amber and Henry are none of your business, Duke, but even that would be an admission, wouldn't it? You talked to Kenny, I take it. Did he indicate what his intentions are?"

Duke said, "That's another part of why we're here. You can all relax, Kenny's not going to tell the police on you, or anything like that. He's more upset about being lied to than he's weirded out by the incest, but he hasn't forgotten that Drew has been his friend for a long time, so figures he owes Drew his silence. He got offered a transfer to his company's LA office about a month ago, but turned it down at the time, because of Amber. Now that he knows that Amber's not in love with him, he changed his mind, and he'll start work there right after the first of the year. He's going to sublet his apartment to a cousin of his, then the cousin will take over the lease when Kenny's lease runs out."

"So, he's just going to run away from KJ?" I asked.

"He doesn't see it that way, of course," Duke replied. "He justifies it as giving everyone the space to cool down, even though he's apparently the only one who really needs to," Duke answered. "And it truly is a good job opportunity for him. Even after paying California income taxes, he'll be making significantly more money. He is setting aside that pay bump towards child support for KJ, if that's any consolation for Amber. He just doesn't see a way to co-parent with her at the moment, while he's still angry. He's probably right to keep his distance, for now."

"Any chance he'll fight her for custody?" Patti asked.

Jean said, "I asked him that. If both babies had been his, he might have. But he really believes that KJ and Kyra should grow up together, that splitting them up isn't in their best interest. Plus, it would be hard for him to take on being a single dad in LA, without any support system, locally. At least here, Amber has the support of all of you. He can see that much, even if he's not aware that you all consider yourselves married now. You may have another problem with him on that, since you left him with the impression that being with Amber was something you only did a few times before the wedding."

"There were only a few more times after graduation and nothing after he proposed," I said. "It's been six months since I've had sex with her, because she was trying to make things work with Kenny. I know Henry was honoring her choice, too." Whether she was still being intimate with her Dad behind Kenny's back was really none of Duke's business.

Patti said, "More importantly, I asked her to marry us first, before our wedding, and repeated that proposal after she revealed her pregnancy, so when things did fall apart with Kenny, it was actually her saying yes to the proposal that was already there, not us asking her a third time. This wasn't some affair going on behind Kenny's back. In the end, it came down to two bad decisions Amber made. First, her belief that she had to hide her relationship with Drew and me in order to hide her relationship with her Dad, particularly because Kenny had revealed opposition to polyamory, and she expected his opinion of incest would be no better. Second, she coupled that with a belief that she needed to be publicly married for her kids' sake, to lead her to think that a loveless marriage with Kenny was preferable to being publicly either unmarried, or in a polyamorous relationship with Drew and I. But even the engagement wasn't working, well before the fight about Kyra. It just made the eventual breakup more explosive."

Duke hesitated before he asked, "So, can I ask why you didn't trust me enough to know about all of this, as it happened?"

I looked him straight in the eyes, before saying, "Duke, we were uncertain that we could trust

anyone

enough. The best way to keep a secret is to actually keep it secret, right? How do you know how someone's going to react to incest, without signaling to them why you're asking, even if you would trust them with any other secret? It's not something that comes up in everyday conversation, even with your best friends. We wound up swapping secrets with Amber and her Dad, which got us to where we are today, but otherwise have only intentionally told one other person, and even that resulted in someone else finding out. Everyone else who knows found out through one slip or another. The way Kenny initially reacted scared the hell out of me, and I would have trusted him just as much as I do you. At least until Friday."

"So, when I first met Jean, if I had decided that I wanted to expand her threesome with you into a foursome, what then?" Duke asked.

Patti answered, "We would have had to think about it, but we probably would have told you, because it would have been hard to avoid, if that foursome turned into something long-term between us. I'm sure Jean not wanting to be part of the marriage would have been a factor, too."

"Hang on," Duke reacted, looking at Jean, who also looked surprised. "You asked her to marry you?"

I responded, "No, we didn't, relax. While I'll admit the possibility crossed my mind once Jean found out about my Mom and me, she said she wasn't interested in being another wife well before we would have even been ready to ask. The only reason the subject even came up was because Toni said she wasn't interested first, and she eventually changed her mind."

"Honey," Jean said to Duke. "I got involved with Drew and Patti expecting just a summer fling, without looking to get my heart involved. And I didn't, until I met you. You're the one my heart belongs to, and my body goes with it. Are you asking about this because you're now interested in a foursome with them? You seemed opposed when Amber brought up the idea this summer."

Duke hugged her, saying, "No, I'm still preferring monogamy with you, Sweetie. I want to be their friend, not their lover or spouse. It's mainly a question of knowing how strong our friendship really is, and feeling like I wasn't being trusted." He turned to me, and said, "You do know I'd jump on a grenade for you, don't you, Drew?"

"You play too much Call of Duty, man, but I love you." I hugged him. "Thank you for being my friend."

~~~~~

That night over dinner, I told the family that Duke now knew the secret, too.

Henry sighed. "How many are in on the secret now?"

I thought for a moment, and answered, "Not counting us, there are six other people who know some or most of the secrets. My aunt Maria and our ex-roommates Matt and Sophia know about Mom and me, but nothing about you and your daughters. Kenny suspects you and Amber, and Duke and Jean know for sure, but nobody knows Sandy's involvement, that I know of."

Sandy said, "Well, It won't take much for someone to guess that I know about all of this, and then question whether I am involved. Even if they haven't asked you directly."

"I know. We've been lucky so far, and hopefully the secret won't spread further."

Mom looked guilty, and softly said, "Maria knows about Henry and his girls, too. I told her back in the spring, after I realized I was pregnant and Henry proposed."

Henry said, "We've got to do a better job than this. We're letting too many people know."

Toni reached her hand to him, and said, "Henry, honey, remember that if both families were perfect in keeping this secret, we wouldn't all be together today. It's risky, but some revelations were meant to happen, and some people deserve to be trusted."

~~~~~

Christmas Eve, 2014

Rather than travel with the babies, we invited our families to come visit us, and meet the babies. Mom's and Patti's families came by for dinner and gifts on Christmas Eve, and we had all four babies in the two cribs we had set up in the Center House living room.

As we were showing off the babies, I said, "Everyone, we have some news to share. I'm Kyra's father, not Kenny."

Grandma Anna and Grandpa Scott looked slightly stunned, but were quiet. Aunt Maria told me she was beautiful, but whispered, "Wow, you don't do things the easy way, do you?"

I could only shrug.

Patti's parents were furious at the implications. "How dare you cheat on my daughter, Drew?" Jack asked, his hands balled into fists.

"Daddy, he didn't cheat on me," Patti said, stepping in front of him. "I invited Amber into our bed, because... because I love her, too."

"You're gay!?" Carrie accused.

Patti frowned at the tone. "The correct term is bisexual, Mom, but yes, I have sex with both of them and obviously they've had sex with each other. I was Amber's lover back in high school, and we reunited when her family moved in next door. If it were legal, I'd marry her, too."

Jody, who was still holding KJ, looked bewildered, not sure what to think. I could see tears in Amber's eyes, as she took Henry's hand.

"Baby, this isn't right," Carrie said.

"Why?" Patti asked. "Because it doesn't fit in with what 'polite society' wants from us? When what society wants is for me to give up one of the people I love in order to fit in, then I choose not to fit in. Amber and I love each other and we both love Drew and he loves us, and we've decided to live our lives together. You always treated Amber like another daughter before. Treating her at least like a daughter-in-law shouldn't be a big deal."