Chapter 10: A Night of Nights

Our house had become Grand Central Station for teens. ‘If you give a mouse a cookie... ‘ It started slowly. Whitney showed up early in the morning some days and challenged Brian to basketball in the freezing cold before they caught the bus to school. Janet Anderson often picked them up to take to school for early practice. Basketball! My son, still the shortest male in his class, was on the basketball team! Practice was seriously cutting into his cooking schedule and either Candace or Hannah would show up on Saturday morning to help prepare meals that could be frozen and heated later in the week. It was sweet and I liked having the girls in my kitchen in the morning. But it wasn’t just girls who showed up. Saturday afternoon half a dozen kids plopped on the floor in Brian’s room to study.

I checked on them. Often. They were studying.

Oh, I’ve no doubt there were breaks and a little kissy-face that went on, but what I was seeing was kids working hard and supporting each other. The boys wanted to stay eligible for basketball, of course. But it seemed to be more than that. They all seemed interested in learning and it was a positive activity for their dating group to do together. The numbers started to increase.

And then we were in the midst of the holiday. Betts arrived home and was ensconced in her bedroom or off with Doreen so much that we didn’t see her any more often than we did when she was at school. And of course, we all had to go to the basketball tournament in Warsaw the day after school let out. They lost the first game, but he played. And Whitney, one of his girlfriends, was on the team as well.

We went home between games and convinced Betts and Doreen to go to the consolation game with us in the evening. That might not have been the best idea. Betts is ... still unpredictable. She was appalled first that there was a girl on the court. It wasn’t the proper place for a girl. Betts’ concept of femininity, however, was at war with her pride in girl-power. A scuffle broke out on the court when Whitney was intentionally knocked to the floor and one of our players hit a player from the other team hard enough to bloody his nose. Betts would have charged onto the court to do battle if it hadn’t been for Doreen restraining her.

Whitney was none the worse for wear and our other player was ejected from the game. Brian went in and Betts and Doreen were jumping up and down about their little brothers playing a team sport together. Our team won the game and we left. The girls jumped into Doreen’s car and were gone five minutes after we got home, the game forgotten. I will simply never understand that girl.

While being involved with our own quiet Christmas celebration, we were also helping the Gordons prepare for a massive New Year’s Eve party. Fortunately, the parsonage was large enough to have the gathering. A number of years ago, the church and parsonage had burned down. That was before I was the secretary. The congregation decided to build a big parsonage before reconstructing the church. It not only gave the minister a place to live but gave the congregation a place to meet. For over a year, Sunday services were held in the living room and church school for the children in the basement. They built the church in stages, completing the sanctuary first and then expanding the space for classrooms. Kindergarten was still held in the parsonage basement as it had been when Brian was that age.

For our purposes, the kids would be relegated to the basement and the adults would be upstairs. We cleverly positioned it as a party for the kids with the parents just tagging along. That meant the kids were responsible for cleaning, decorating and cooking. Brilliant. It was a great opportunity for all the parents to get to know each other. We didn’t make a big deal about the dating group, but all the parents attended the party except Jim and Jill Swift who were in Florida. Doreen was having a party at their house and we reluctantly agreed that Betts could go. There wasn’t much we could do about it. She was eighteen and could do as she pleased. I had to trust that they’d be sensible.

Anna arrived with the girls about three o’clock in the afternoon. Since they had room, the Gordons had graciously invited the Prices to spend the night at their house—possibly to help keep track of the five girls who would be spending the night. Hannah and Sarah were hosting Jennifer, Courtney, and Samantha overnight. I figured a couple of extra parents was probably a good thing.

As soon as the kids were all occupied in the kitchen, we took Anna home to get her settled for the night.

Hayden carried her overnight bag, but we were no more than in the door than Anna turned to kiss us. He dropped the bag in the kitchen and scooped her up in his arms. She was still holding my hand when he settled into the recliner and I wormed my way in with them. We had a moment of panic when it appeared the recliner would tip over backward with the three of us overbalancing it, but that was quickly replaced by the adrenalin shooting through our veins as we kissed in every possible combination as we cuddled together in the big chair.

It happened that both Anna and I were wearing house dresses and our bare legs slid together in Hayden’s lap.

“Oh, my God!” Anna whispered as we caught each other’s eye and held there, our legs sliding against each other. Hayden caught on as soon as he glanced down and saw our skirts hiked up almost to our panties. I could feel his response.

“Anna, I have never been intimate like this with anyone but Hayden,” I moaned. “It took us five years to have our bare skin touching each other. I’m so ... overwhelmed.”

“I think I’m in love with you, Marilyn,” she said. “Hayden, I think I’m in love with you, too.” Hayden’s arms wrapped more tightly around the two of us and we lay our heads against his shoulders, breathing each other’s air. He kissed each of our foreheads and we looked up at him, ready for his lips on whichever of us he chose first.

“Anna, you’ve taken us to a new dimension in our relationship. We don’t know where it goes from here or how to make it work,” he said. “But we love you. And I love both of you.”

“Oh, Hayden,” I said, “put my words back in my mouth so I can speak them, too.” Our mouths met and meshed as I felt Anna’s lips at my throat, kissing her way up as well. I parted from Hayden’s lips so she could join them, but instead she captured mine and our legs involuntarily moved against each other as our kiss deepened. She broke from my lips to be captured by Hayden’s as I spoke. “We love you. I love you, Anna. I love you, Hayden. Please, God, show us how we can be together.”

We didn’t progress beyond making out before we got a call indicating the Prices had arrived at the Gordons’ house. But before we got ourselves pulled back together, my breasts had been touched by another woman and I had held hers in my hands. Hayden had managed to work his hands around us far enough that he could stroke our legs and lift our skirts high enough to expose bright damp spots on our panties. I wanted to ignore the whole party thing and take Anna off to our bed and...

That was a problem. First, even though Betts would be staying at Doreen’s tonight, Brian would be home. Thankfully, he was a sound sleeper. But more importantly, after we sneaked Anna into our bedroom and into our bed, what then? I had no earthly concept of how three people made love together. Do we take turns? With whom? I wanted both Hayden and Anna. I know she wanted both Hayden and me. And as much as I knew Hayden wanted to make love to Anna, I was confident that he wanted me just as much. How the hell did this work?

It was an agonizingly long party. Oh, we had fun. The Gordons were incredibly practiced at putting everyone at ease and were gracious hosts. Of course, we checked on the kids periodically and found them simply having fun. Board games, card games, and music were keeping them all engaged. And in addition to food, Saul and Evelyn had a variety of games suitable for any church group. Even conservative John and Bea Clinton were laughing at Irene Nowicki’s breast-groping charade of ‘two-by-two’. And Bea proved her own sense of humor with a tissue poked full of holes as she mimed ‘Holy, holy, holy’. At midnight we cheered for the new year and surprisingly, our children cooperated in getting cleaned up and out of the house by twelve-thirty.

I was prepared for an even longer wait when we got home, but Brian had brushed his teeth and gone to bed before Hayden had finished opening a bottle of champagne for the adults. We toasted each other and then took the bottle and glasses to our bedroom. Hayden snagged Anna’s overnight bag from the guest room and carried it in with us.

“Anna, will you spend the night with us?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” she breathed as she kissed me. “I don’t know what to do, but I so want to do it with you.”

“I should ask up front so none of us get carried away with anything, um ... do we need to consider any kind of protection? It wouldn’t do for any of us to start raising an infant at our age.”

“We’re not so old as that,” Anna giggled. She sobered and looked at us. “I hope this doesn’t make me sound like a woman of loose morals. I try, really, to walk a straight and narrow path for the sake of my daughter if nothing else. But after our weekend here for the Halloween party, I went to my doctor and started on the pill. I hadn’t used anything for a long time nor had I needed to, but after that weekend with you, I wanted to. I’ve been looking forward to tonight for two months.”