Chapter 32: Grown Up Kids

“Mom, can I use the car?” Emily called as she hung up the phone. She was sixteen years old with her driver’s license and I found that once again if I wanted to go anywhere, I rode the bus. On a Sunday afternoon in July, though, all I wanted to do was go to the bedroom and lie naked in front of the air conditioner. Hmm. Robin was with a friend’s family at the beach. Lily had volunteered to run Charlotte to a friend’s house over on Sheridan Avenue. Bruce was puttering in the garage. Maybe that air conditioner could get a workout this afternoon.

“Where are you going?” I asked responsibly. Just keeping track of the six of us required a calendar in my head.

“Um ... just out to Lake Minnetonka to meet some friends. We’ll probably go swimming.”

“What friends?”

“Uh ... Ted. Lisle is coming, too.”

“Ted invited you and Lisle to Lake Minnetonka?” I asked.

“He sort of invited me. He watches birds, you know. He told me he’d teach me how to spot loons on the lake,” my daughter bubbled.

A wave of vertigo washed over me. I’d been here before. Willa. When so much was different, could this first date of my daughter’s be so close to the same? Déjà vu all over again. It always took me by surprise. I sat at the table and did my best to continue the conversation with Emily.

“And Lisle?”

“Well, John sort of invited her to swim off his parents’ boat.”

“So you are double dating?”

“Date?”

“Emily, a boy invited you to go birdwatching with him. A boy invited Lisle to go swimming on a boat. Don’t you think that qualifies as a date?”

“Oh. I guess so. Can I go?”

“Of course you can. But do Ernie and Margaret know?”

“I don’t know.”

“Get Lisle on the phone and make sure she tells them because I’m going to call to make sure they’ve agreed. Then we will talk about the rules.”

“Mo-om.”

“Don’t worry, honey. I’m not going to interfere with you having fun. I just want to make sure you are safe and prepared.”

“Prepared?! We’re not going to have sex!”

“I meant for emergencies. Like what are you going to eat while you are swimming off the boat?”

“The boat?”

“Do you really think you are going to spend all your time birdwatching while your best friend and her boyfriend are laughing and splashing in the water?”

“Oh.”

“And honey...”

“Yes, Mom?”

“The answer is yes. You can use the car. For your very first date. Ever. I love you.”

When I talked to Lisle’s parents, Ernie was set to drive them in the Lincoln and stay on shore watching them the whole time. I discouraged him. Margaret discouraged him.

“Ernie, you can’t drive your daughter on a date in the pimp-mobile,” Margaret screamed at him. “Never! Ever!” Eventually, both Emily and Lisle thanked me.

“There are no children in the house,” I said when I stuck my head in Bruce’s garage workshop.

“Really? That’s unusual.” Dense.

“I’m going to spend some quality time in front of the air conditioner in the bedroom.”

“That’s cool.” Clueless.

“Naked.”

“Oh?”

“With Lily.”

“Oh!”

“Just in case you develop an interest.”

The interest developed rather well. With three children, after-school activities, work schedules, volunteer work, school, and friends, it seemed like we didn’t spend nearly enough quality time with just the three of us. Lily was already naked when I got to the bedroom, stripping off my sports bra and shorts. Walking from the July heat into the air conditioned room had predictable results for both Lily and me. We spent our first few minutes standing in front of each other with just our lips, tongues, and nipples touching. When we paused to catch our breath, we found Bruce standing next to us showing his appreciation.

We went to the shower and I washed Lily’s hair while Bruce washed mine, his cock wedged nicely between my butt cheeks. Lily and I had made a concerted effort to regain our shapes when the kids started school and even though I was a little broader in the bum than I’d been as a teenager, I was pleased that Bruce was turned on. We switched so Lily and I could wash Bruce’s hair. That took as much time as washing ours since Bruce wore a ponytail that extended below his shoulders.

“I love you, my darling wives,” Bruce whispered when we lay in bed. “I am so lucky to have found you.”

“I want to feel you in me,” I sighed. “Now. Please.” Bruce rolled on top of me and I felt his marvelous cock part my folds to slide into my hot center. I tugged at Lily to straddle my face. It was a favorite position for all of us. And as I looked up into the moist flower of my wife, I couldn’t help but think how much I enjoyed licking her and how different it was than when I was a frightened nineteen-year-old. Somehow things had changed so that when I touched her clit with my tongue, not only did she get excited, but I got more slippery as well.

Bruce noticed the difference as his cock glided more fluidly.

“Our lover is getting turned on because she’s licking you,” Bruce whispered to Lily.

“I’m getting turned on because she’s licking me,” Lily responded. They kissed and we were all too busy to talk any longer.

In other news, I mortgaged my house and the shelter for as much as I could get in 2009 when rates dropped below 5%. I knew they’d go lower, but I needed the money to invest in other properties that were coming on the market. Housing prices started dropping in 2009 and I bought two apartment buildings in the Washburn Neighborhood. Those were two of the twelve buildings that were picked up at fire sale prices that year. The previous owners were already mortgaged to the hilt with loans advanced by banks that couldn’t support the notes in the final years of the Bush presidency. They filed bankruptcy and let the properties go to banks that were happy to get thirty cents on the dollar for their loans. Jim followed my lead and bought five apartment buildings. Gordon bought three more. The last two were purchased by Ernie Anders. He immediately turned them over to Jim for management as did Gordon and I.

My baby was graduating from high school.

And my other babies were finishing fifth and sixth grades. They had three happy and proud parents. Even though Emily had shocked us in April, just before her senior prom. I couldn’t believe she chose to address all three of her parents at once. She waited until everyone was in bed before she knocked on our bedroom door. The three of us had just settled into bed but hadn’t turned out the light yet.

“Moms and Dad, can we talk?”

“Of course we can, sweetie,” Bruce said. “What’s on your mind?” We were lying with Lily sandwiched between us, but we’d long-since learned to wear something to bed unless we locked the door.

“Well, I guess I’m eighteen so I wouldn’t have to talk to you about it, but I’ve always talked to you about everything, you know? So, anyway, I’m a little behind many of my classmates, but I’ve always been really careful and ... well, I want you to know that I think I’m going to become sexually active.”