Chapter 11: Decisions and Announcements

By eight-thirty Sunday morning the rest of the Circle members had shown up for breakfast. While Dave was busy at the breakfast grill, he watched carefully as his brother Aaron appeared with Holly and Rachel. The three split up upon reaching the picnic tables, and Aaron went and sat at the empty seat that Shelby had saved next to her. Shelby had been quiet in the morning, and very contemplative. She had clearly been psyching herself up to talk to Aaron. The two of them kissed hello, and then started on their meals.

After breakfast, Dave watched Aaron and Shelby walk between two of the houses to perambulate around the Circle, no doubt at her invitation. He said a small prayer for Shelby and hoped that Aaron didn’t act like an asshole. Growing up in the same house, Dave knew that Aaron could often say or do things that defied logic and were downright rude and inconsiderate. He hoped this wasn’t one of the occasions where he did that.

Dave checked a little later, and the couple was still slowly walking around the road that formed the outer perimeter for the ten homes that surrounded the core. Off to one side, a construction crew worked on the townhouses that were beginning to take shape as the first addition to the Circle. Both Aaron and Shelby had serious looks on their faces. He noted that Shelby was clutching a tissue in one hand and often blotting her eyes. Aaron had his hands dug deep into his pockets.

Dave sat with Roy, Donna, and several others but kept a watchful eye out for Aaron and Shelby. About thirty minutes later, the two emerged from their house. Both were smiling, and Dave took that as a good sign.

Aaron came up to his brother and gave him a sign that he wanted to talk. Dave rose and he and Aaron went to walk around Circle Drive. As they reached the sidewalk, Aaron said, “Thank you for urging Shelby to talk to me. She was scared stiff after she started to think what had happened. We’re OK now.”

“What’s ‘OK now’ mean?”

“She got pregnant by our friend, at least she thinks that’s the case. I’d gone on record saying that I wanted to sire our kids, but that may not be the present case. I am going to be the best father this child could ever have, and I am going to keep trying to be the best husband, too. This is just a small hiccup in an otherwise strong and loving marriage.”

“Grudge? Revenge? Retribution?” Dave asked in a serious tone.

“None of that. That’s not the spirit of the Circle and certainly not me. When I was sixteen, I would have been all over those things, but not today. Cut your little brother a little slack for growing up a little.” He chuckled.

“Ooooookay,” Dave said. “I love you and I love Shelby. I don’t want to see anything come between the two of you, and certainly not something that will impact this impending child for the rest of its life. If you want to talk or take out some aggressions, come and see me before anything serious happens. Leave your wife and the baby out of it.”

“I promise, but the more I think about it, the less reason for concern I have other than that Shelby is careful of her habits during her pregnancy. I’ll go with her to the local OB/GYN that Grace recommended next week to be sure we get started on the right foot.”

Dave said, “As for the rest of the Circle?”

“I’ll tell everybody at dinner tonight. I want to get some flowers for Shelby before then. I won’t announce the paternity, but I’m not hiding it either. If you want to leak that tidbit of information that’d probably be the best way to treat it. In my family, that’s a non-issue.”

Dave breathed easier after that. He also chided himself for not giving Aaron the benefit of the doubt earlier in his thinking. Aaron had grown up, become less self-centered, and more obliging of Shelby and others. Dave realized it was time to throw away the impressions he still carried of his brother as a teenager. He stood and gave his brother a strong hug.

Heather brought Matthew outside to play at the pool and have meals with us. A few people slipped on clothing of various kinds. Matt didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the nudity or partial nudity around the pool. His focus was on diving and seeing how long he could swim under water without needing to come up for air.

Dave had hugged Matthew and welcomed him. He then went with him to the pool’s edge and watched some of his aquatic skills. While the lad was treading water, Dave reached in his pocket and pulled out a penny. “Matthew, here’s a penny. See if you can dive to the bottom and fetch it up.” He tossed the penny towards the deep end of the pool. Matthew took to the task right away. He dove under water and came up about thirty seconds later with the coin.

Dave knelt as Matthew handed him the coin. He then opened his hand and showed Matthew five coins. “I’m going to toss five coins out in the middle. See if you can get all of them with one dive. If you can’t, work on it until you can.” He tossed the coins all together into the center of the deep end.

Matthew went under and he could watch him jerking around picking up the coins off the bottom of the pool. Finally, he came up gasping for air. He slapped down the five pennies on the side of the pool. “I DID IT!” he loudly and proudly announced. He loved his ‘dad’ giving him challenges.

“Next week, I’ll add a few more pennies to make it harder. You practice holding your breath in the meanwhile.”

“OK, Dad!” he said excitedly. He talked about how he’d practiced in the bathtub at his nana’s house.

Heather came and sat. Dave asked, “I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to you. How’s life?”

“Ugh!” she exclaimed. “I seem to lurch from one test to another with an immense amount of studying in between. I’m so lucky to have you, mom, and Owen supporting me in various ways, and then the love of everyone in the Circle.”

“We want you to succeed.”

“I’m holding onto a 4.0, but just barely. I know there are kids that have that and they barely crack a book. I have to work for every one of my grades. If I didn’t have you and mom, I’d be squeaking by as a very average student because I wouldn’t have the time to study.”

“Maybe it’ll get easier as you go along? Don’t hurt Matthew by lack of motherly attention.”

“Oh, no. He gets lots of attention. I am doing better with the computer science courses than the electives. I click with that material right away; some of it seems intuitive to me. I think the other departments think they have to prove something about how tough they can be with their course work.”

“I bet everyone says something like that. I remember having that feeling when I was in college studying electrical engineering.”

Around two o’clock Erin appeared from between two of the houses. Dave looked surprised at her arrival. She had a bounce to her step, came over to him, and gave a hug and brief kiss. “Hey, you did give me a gate code and told me I was welcome any time. Besides, how do you expect me to build intimacy with you and the others if I never see any of you.”

Dave relaxed. “Well, you are welcome any time.” He patted the seat next to him.

Erin sat and teased, “But sometimes are better than others, right?”

“You know the answer to that. Aren’t there times when you don’t want to be interrupted?” he teased.

Erin sat down, and removed her t-shirt, leaving her wearing only some cutoffs that molded nicely to her hips and ass. Dave watched, but didn’t say anything. She was very appealing, and she was slowly winning him over.

Erin said, “Speaking of open-ended invitations, I happened to stop by at what was an inopportune time, so I turned around and left, but not without being a voyeur for a while.”

Dave’s eyebrows rotated up to his hairline. “When was that?”

“Last night. It took me a while to identify you. You were on your back. Shelby had your cock as far inside her snug pussy as you could get and she was doing one slow and sensuous fuck with you. It was amazing and hot as hell. Holly had your tongue inside her quim as far as you could get it, too. They were making out, but it seemed very romantic and tender. It was highly erotic. I got naked and masturbated when I found a new friend.”

“Oh, and who might your new friend be?”

“It was a very handsome guy, as far as I could tell in the dark, named Dale. I told him that I wanted to be a Circle member but right at that moment I’d rather just make love because I was hornier than anything watching what was happening on the patio. I pointed at you and told Dale that I wanted to fuck like that for a while. We went to a chaise and then spent about two hours fucking, sucking, blowing, eating, and anything else we could think of. He is one great lover. I hope that was all right. I left after that although he invited me to stay all night with him.”

“And what will Dale tell me about the encounter?” Dave teased.

“I hope he’d say that we fell in love. I sure feel that way about him. I know he’s married, but he told me that his pregnant wife Susan was somewhere making love with Mike and that he was available to please me.”

Dave explained, “I’m feeling like you jumped the gun, but on the other hand I am glad that you discovered a new and intimate friend here – sexually intimate.”

“Oh, we talked as we stroked each other’s bodies after our first passionate encounter. We talked between the others, too. I did explain to Dale how we met, and that you were developing our intellectual relationship before jumping into the physical one. He said he understood and hoped that our interactions wouldn’t interfere with what you and I were building between us.”

Dave was quiet for a while, watching the others around the patio as he sipped some iced tea, and also studying Erin. She was sitting in an erotic position with her legs slightly spread, just enough so he could see the hint of her pussy lips inside the gusset of her Daisy Duke shorts. Her breasts were truly succulent, and very appealing. He felt himself harden inside his athletic shorts.

Dave was just about to reengage in conversation when Dale bounded over to where they sat. “Erin. I’m so glad to see you here. And Dave, I feel we never see each other.” He took a long minute to give a long kiss to Erin.

After greeting, Dave teased, “I hear that you met Erin last night and really got to know each other.”

Dale looked chagrined. “I know you talk about intimacy before sexual intimacy, but we kind of did it backwards last night. Erin, now however, is one of my favorite people in the whole world. She’s wonderful, and smart, and very pretty as you can see, and lots of other great things. I just have a feeling we’ll be spending more time together in the future.”

Erin blushed slightly, “And so are you, Dale.” At her gestured invitation, he leaned down and the two of the shared another long and tender kiss. The kiss obviously took both of them to some other universe for a few seconds. Erin’s eyes sparkled in love as they reopened. She held one of his hands to a breast and whispered to him, “Thank you and thank you last night, too. I needed you and you were there for me at exactly the right moment in the right way. As I told you last night, I love you.”

Dave felt a tinge of jealousy at the interchange based on the obvious sexual intimacy the pair had shared, and the kiss and portent of further interaction. His rational mind stepped in and argued with the raw emotion that he had no ownership, no interaction, and no hold of any kind of Erin. He realized that the voice in his head was actually his ego that had wanted Erin first, before any of the others in the Circle got to make love to her. Now, that ship had sailed. He actually smiled at his logic and self-realization. It had been a while since he had faced his own ego over something like this.

After Dale left, Dave asked, “Could you feel that way about eleven men?”

Erin cocked her head to one side and looked at him. “You mean allowing myself to be intimate with that many men?”

“Exactly. Please don’t attach negative labels to that behavior. We all know that you could call people like that sluts or worse. In our case, we believe in sharing our love with each other, just as you did with Dale last night, and as I did with Shelby and Holly.”

Erin nodded slowly. “I think I could. I have a great attraction to you, as you know, and now Dale. I met some of the other men last weekend, and they were really nice, although we weren’t intimate. I can now see that potential with each of them, especially after the long talk Holly and I had where she really gave me food for thought.”

Dave visibly chuckled, “Now, for a twist on things for you to consider; what about the same kind of intimacy with the women in the Circle?”

“Oh!” Erin reacted. “I ... I thought of that briefly and then put the idea aside. Do the Circle women interact that frequently?”

“Yes, they do. The men are mortal. We have no claim to superpowers in terms of our sexuality, so after we have done what we can to express our love and lust, the women are more or less on their own. Each of them has learned how to share themselves in a sapphic sense with their Circle sisters. Eating pussy is a favorite sport.”

“You have four women who are your wives,” Erin stated as a fact.

“Yes, and they all interact with each other or whomever happens to be in our bed – male or female. We see some people more than others, and I can see that happening in your case as well as Donna’s, too.”