Chapter 14

May 1, 2018

Civia and Maren are sitting at the Palecek dining-room table with their respective three parents as Jeff asked, “We’ve asked Civia not to explain much because we wanted Emma and you here before we discussed it, Maren. How was the weekend?”

Civia had a mouthful of food, so Maren piped up, “It was so wonderful. I love being with those girls. Saturday was spectacular. Oh. I don’t remember, so maybe we didn’t tell you. Steph and Matt asked the girls for a ... formal portrait of the LA. Rache had...”

Emma interrupted, “I want a copy if you two are in it!”

Jeff followed with, “We would, too.”

The two young girls looked at each other, then Civia responded, “That would require ... unanimous consent from the members. I think that would not be a problem but...” She held up her hand to forestall comments or questions and seemed to be thinking furiously, then stated, “The girls ... we’re being ... irreverent, so much so that the photo will probably be better thought of as an ... anti-formal portrait. The girls just ... aren’t formal and there are a lot of ... wicked senses of humor among them. We had a practice session Saturday, which is one of the reasons Maren thought the day was so wonderful. However, we also ... Wait. Let me finish one story at a time. We had a practice session that was focused mostly on design, like how we’d interact in the portrait, who would be where, that sort of thing. While it was fun, no one was particularly thrilled with the design, so we’re having another practice session this Saturday.”

Maren immediately took up the story with, “I think Civia got side-tracked by the other part of why Saturday was so wonderful. After we finished the design session and had dinner, we spent the next four hours just sitting around in the living room having the most interesting and varied conversation in which I’ve ever taken part, and nothing else is even close. Those girls are all so smart and they’re ... interested in and know something about a lot of things. And the best part is that ... they expect us to take part and they respect our contributions.” Maren breathed deeply a few times while facing the ceiling, then finished, “I’ve never felt so ... accepted, so much a part of such a wonderful group of people. Saturday evening was ... the best evening of my life.”

Civia continued, “And that was after a very enjoyable day with them.” She held a hand up at Emma who looked like she wanted to respond, and then added, “I have a lot more experience with them than Maren does, so while it may not have been the best evening of my life, if it wasn’t, it was very close to being so. Maren’s also feeling what I felt so many times last summer and fall when I spent time with them. I’m around three years younger than the youngest of them, so I found it ... crazy that they accepted me, wanted me with them. I was so worried that I’d do something stupid, something little-girl-like that would cause them not to want me with them, but they continued to include me often. Maren’s reactions in the past few weeks of spending time with them has helped me remember the amazement I felt when girls so much older completely accepted me as part of their gang.

“Moms, Dad, we both enjoy spending time with you and you always treat us with respect ... particularly when we earn it. However, it feels a bit different to have people that don’t have to put up with us because they’re not related to us in any way, but still obviously not only like us, but want us with them, that want to know our opinions, our thoughts on various subjects. And those girls are not only three years older, but some are five or six years older, and two are eight years older than us. Celeste and Andy are nearly twice my age, but they still look to me to present my opinion, my thoughts on the subject at hand. You must know how powerful that is for us.”

Emma replied, “I completely understand. Unlike Kalina and Jeff, I’ve spent time in the presence of the Go5 when I wasn’t one of their friends’ mother, and I found them all to be bright, respectful, and self-motivated. We know ... and you know that we’ve put some ... boundaries on your interactions with them. However, you also know that, while we believe in those boundaries, we also will not be surprised if you’d some day want those boundaries ... relaxed, I guess. Maybe that time won’t come for months or years, but I’d be very surprised if it were the latter and reasonably pleasantly surprised if it took as long as months for you to request their relaxation.”

Emma smiled as she raised her hand at the girls, continuing with, “Please keep us updated on how you and they interact. As Jeff stated, we would be very disappointed if you told us something important months after the fact, something like ... I don’t know ... that you’re all hanging out naked when Brett’s with you. We don’t want to tell you that we expect that to happen, as it could seem to us that we’re encouraging that to happen. We’re not encouraging that, but we would understand if it happened. If some sexual aspect were included in that, we’d be very disappointed. To beat a dead horse, please tell us about any significant alterations to how you interact. You might be surprised by what we can accept, but only if you tell us about it in a timely manner.”

May 3, 2018

In the Palecek living room, Civia asked, “Moms, Dad, what did you think about ... Sandy and Meka sitting on your laps in the not-so-hot tub?”

The three parents looked around at each other, but Kalina responded, “I liked it. Jeff and I are becoming much more comfortable with the other parents and Sandy’s request to sit on my lap was as definitive a sign as I can imagine that she and they very much like us. The evenings are a highlight of our weeks, and we enjoy ... very much enjoy how close the various parents have become.”

Emma cut in to say, “And that thesis is further supported by the fact that everyone is now hanging around ... in the tub and out ... in swimsuits. I’m very much enjoying the ... closeness, I suppose, but particularly the camaraderie. I’ve never before so enjoyed such a large group of adults.”

Maren squeaked in response, then said, “Mom, it’s so great to see you so much happier. I’m so much happier now than I’ve been ... ever, but it wouldn’t be as enjoyable if you also weren’t happier. Mom, I love this life we have now more than any previous version.”

“Maren, I feel exactly the same way and frequently find myself amazed that ... this happiness is directly or indirectly due to a group of five teenaged girls that happened to live in a house that I was helping remodel.”

May 7, 2018

As Civia and Maren sat to eat with their parents, Emma began asking, “How was ... Let’s see your nails, Maren.”

Maren grinned and thrust her hands into the air space over the table toward Civia’s parents and her mom, then asked, “Aren’t they great?! Brit is just incredible!”

“Wow, the solar system! That’s stunning,” exclaimed Jeff. “We’ve seen what Brit’s done with Civia’s nails a couple of times, and this is right up there. Perhaps I’ll ask her to do mine sometime.”

Civia nearly leaped from her chair, stepped around Kalina to the back of Jeff’s chair, and wrapped her arms around him from behind, saying, “I’m sure she’d be willing and interested. Would you really consider it?”

Jeff appeared to ponder the question for a few moments, then answered, “In the right situation, yes. I’ve seen her paint on Brett’s nails and on Charlie’s, and I agree with your assessment of Brit’s abilities. It would probably have to be just the right ... idea, but I’d strongly consider it.”

Civia placed a long peck on her dad’s crown, then said, “I love you, Dad, for many reasons. Right now, I love you because you actually thought about it and didn’t just blithely agree or take a Y-chromosome stance against ‘girly stuff.’ Ever since Brett began insisting that his nails be painted, too, I’ve realized that painted nails is not ... or shouldn’t be ... just a girl thing. Guys get tattoos, earrings, nose rings, and other body ... adornments. Why not painted nails? Brett really loves it, and marvels at every ... scheme Brit does for him. Thanks for being ... a non-typical guy. As Maren and I spend more and more time around the girls and Brett ... and around you and Mom, we have a better understanding of what we’d want from ... our guy or guys if we have that interest. We don’t want Neanderthal ... That’s not right, because, who knows? Neanderthal guys might have been ... less Y-chromosome-poisoned than sapiens guys. We don’t or wouldn’t want stereotypical macho guys. We’d want guys like you or Charlie or Brett.”

Maren squeaked, then agreed, “Exactly right. If I like guys, I’d be happy with any of those.” Her eyes suddenly rounded, and she amended, “Sorry. I’d be happy with guys like any of those, although I’d also be happy with Brett, himself.”

May 10, 2018

During the walk from the Williams compound to the Palecek house, Maren asked, “Moms, Dad, what do you really think about ... everyone spending the Thursday get-togethers in swimsuits? Are all of you comfortable enough with that to do it, and may we?”

Emma replied, “We Moms and Dad have agreed to coordinate how we deal with you two, as it would cause strife if one of you had different constraints and allowances than the other. However, we began discussing last week the subject you just raised, and we’re inclined to be fine with that ... for all Thursday participants. Don’t get your hopes up, as we don’t have a final decision, but we...”

Kalina’s soft touch on Emma’s shoulder caused Emma to pause, into which sonic space Kalina added, “I think we’re all in agreement, now. Once all the other parents begin arriving in swimsuits on Thursdays, the five of us will do the same.”

Maren squeaked and Civia squealed, but Jeff held a hand up, then stated, “But not until that happens. Kalina and I are still a bit nervous about all ... however many of us there are eating dinner just in swimsuits. When dinner is on the deck, that’s one thing, but it would seen quite ... odd to be sitting to dinner wearing only swimsuits – with the torsos of all the guys bare – in the dining room.” Civia began to interject, so Jeff held a hand up again and finished, “Yes, most of the dinners will probably be on the deck ... unless it’s just too beastly hot – for the foreseeable future. However, that doesn’t decrease the oddity of sitting at a relatively formal dining-room table with five bare-chested guys and some large number of bikini-clad girls ... of a wide variety of ages.”

Civia then responded, “I can see that, but Mom and ... both of our moms have obviously become more comfortable with everyone, as they’re now wearing much ... smaller swimsuits than when we first started taking part. That is comfort. Right?”

Kalina replied, “Yes, very much so. To a parent, they’re all intelligent, interesting, and fun, and they’ve helped us greatly – indirectly and subtly, but helped us greatly get a better understanding and acceptance of ... that gang of girls you call your sisters. While we haven’t lost all concern with you two spending so much time with girls older to much older than you, we’ve decided that a lot of our former concern was unwarranted.”

Kalina waited while Jeff unlocked their front door, everyone got inside, put their various carry bags in their respective rooms or, in the cases of Emma and Maren, by the front door. When they gathered in the living room still in their swimsuits, she continued.

“As Emma stated earlier, we’re trying to coordinate on our directions for you two, and she’s convinced us ... not that we didn’t truly believe that earlier but convinced us that you were mature enough to deal with relatively elevated levels of independence. We still want you both to be more constrained with the girls and Brett than you might want, particularly around Brett, but you’ve shown the ability to consider the possible results of your actions, thus generating appropriate responses to novel situations. The more you two can exhibit this sort of responsible behavior, the more leeway you’ll get from us.”

The three parents were somehow swarmed by two happy girls.

May 21, 2018

The front door swung open and a curly-headed brunette girl called out, “We’re home!”

“Kitchen, once you’ve got your stuff put away,” came via the woman’s voice that both recognized as Maren’s biological mom.

The straight- and long-haired brunette girl answered, “Okay. We have lots to talk about.”

“So do we, but we should save most of it, probably on both sides, until after dinner cleanup,” came via the woman’s voice that both recognized as Civia’s biological mom.

Once the girls reached the kitchen, hugs were given and received all around, both within and across family boundaries.

Maren stated, “I don’t know if this should wait until after dinner, but I need to say it, now,” as she looked up to Jeff’s eyes while in his embrace. “I meant what I said on Friday night. I love you ... Dad.”

Jeff pulled the girl back into a tight hug with a glimmer of a tear in one eye. While he maintained the hug, possibly to keep Maren from knowing how much her words had affected him, Civia exited Kalina’s arms and nearly threw herself into the other hug, putting her arms around her father and Maren.

Huskily, Jeff asked, “Civ, no concerns about Emma joining us?”

“None at all, Dad. We’ve been hoping for this. May we all start living that new life, now, tonight?”

Emma asked, “What do you mean?”

“We mean that there’s no reason that either of you goes to your old house, that you both begin living here, officially, tonight. Now.”

Emma tilted her head back and obviously worked hard to maintain equilibrium, but she lost the battle ... at least a little. With tears in her eyes, she added herself to the developing scrum, putting her arms around the two girls. Kalina could not help adding herself, but on the other side, throwing her arms around Jeff, Maren, and Emma.

From within the middle of the scrum, Maren stated, “This is the sort of ... relationship we have with the LA and we want this here, too. Civ and I want to be able to hug any of our three parents at any time, and we want our three parents to feel free to hug either of us at any time. We love hugs, and we love our three parents, and we’re so happy for you three, but also for us.”

After a few minutes of shared bliss, Jeff stated, “Let’s get dinner finished, eaten, and cleaned up, as we’ve got a lot to tell you and I’m certain you’ve got a lot to tell us, with all of us needing to discuss all topics raised. I can see this taking a while.”

Dinner conversation was convivial, but all participants seemed to be somewhat preoccupied with non-conversation topics, creating something of a start-and-stop table discussion at odds with the local norm. Once all five were installed in the living room, with Jeff sitting between his two wives on the couch, the two girls crammed together into a single easy chair, the resultant long and varied discussion began, one that resulted in many surprises ... on both sides of the space between seating units.

Emma cut off the nervousness the five seemed to be experiencing in getting the talking going by stating, “The three of us are very happy with your suggestion that Maren and I effectively become residents of this house, now, tonight, as we had planned to suggest that very thing. She and I will take the rest of the month to move our stuff here, although we may have to do a bunch of culling so we don’t overstuff this house with stuff.” She held up a hand at Civia and added, “I know that you and my spouses will help.”

Civia agreed, “Of course we will. On a different tack, I had finally gotten my ... biological parents to stop worrying about making PDAs with each other in my presence, and I sincerely hope your addition, Emma, will not curtail that. We both know you three love the others, and we see no need for you to hide those feelings. Additionally, we understand that ... in the new excitement of your marriage, you might find yourselves overwhelmed by hormones. Be assured that if we come home to find our parents having sex in the living room, we’ll simply tell you we’re home and go to our room.”

Both girls grinned maniacally at their parents’ surprised expressions and speechlessness.

That response continued, and the two girls looked at each other and giggled, with Maren saying, “That worked even better than we thought. I wonder how long it will be until they stop looking like fish.”

Emma recovered first, saying, “Lord, help us. Loves, I think we’ve created a monster by allowing our daughters to become besties. Each was enough of a handful by herself. I’m not sure that even three of us can sit on them effectively enough.”

“Ain’t that the truth?”

Emma looked at Kalina, responding, “It’s probably a good thing our list of topics tonight includes the items it does.” As her face softened into an obviously loving mien, she softly added, “We’re in for some interesting times, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m so very impressed by the young women our girls are becoming. The three of us have lots of room for pride in them, although we need to give a substantial portion of the credit to those girls. We might have gotten them to this point, but it might have taken a much longer time.”

Civia looked astonished and asked, “You really like where we are, what we’re becoming?”

Jeff replied, “Of course. While we ... particularly Kalina and I ... have some qualms about portions of all you girls are, and the direction you’re headed, those qualms are only for your relatively young ages. If you were... 16 and 17, our joy with you two would be unalloyed (he spelled the word), pure, undiluted by other substances, either literal or figurative, as here.”

The two girls vaulted off their chair and onto their parents’ combined lap.

Maren said a bit burbly, “We love that you ... and the girls ... never stop teaching us. Please don’t be afraid to do that, even in serious family discussions, so that our pleasure can be unalloyed. What’s ‘alloy,’ specifically?”

Conversation got a bit side-tracked with the explanation of alloys, but the girls soon returned to their chair, this time with Civia sitting partly on Maren’s lap, the reverse of previously, where Civia stated to Maren, “We’re where we should be ... in both our houses. We have so many of the world’s best parents – eight ... or even ten of them – and bestest friends – 16 of them.”

Maren said, “We don’t know what your list of topics includes, but we have one or two that will probably ... no, almost certainly be something you want to discuss. May we start and then see where it takes us?”

The parents put on thinking miens briefly, then agreed, so Civia breathed deeply, then began, “Immediately after we got back to the J on Friday night after the discussion here, Maren and I began stripping with everyone – including Brett – in view. We both thought ... Let me back up. During the process of creating the group portrait you saw on Friday, Brett, Maren, and I came to an agreement that bare butts were not critical. That is, if Brett saw our bare butts or we saw his, we would not make a fuss about it. That agreement was somewhat necessary for the portrait creation, as we needed to save the time that Brit otherwise would have spent on painting – and then subsequently cleaning, the ... back sides to our painted apparel.

“We quickly became comfortable with that agreement, enough so to spend four hours after the ... practice run ... having the most wonderful conversation in the J, a time in which everyone remained in their portrait paint and/or clothing ... or lack thereof. She and I both found it amazing that we both had bare butts during the entire time, but only rarely thought about them, and then only very briefly until we dove back into the conversation.

“Thus, on Friday night, we were very surprised when we both removed our shirts but found ourselves unable to remove our panties. For both of us, baring our ... pelvises to Brett suddenly seemed much more significant than we had thought it would be, given how easy and simple we found having bare butts in front of Brett. Maren was also concerned that she had bared her breasts to Brett, and, once again, he proved why it is that the girls love him so very much.”

Maren stated, “I asked him if he could forget what he’d seen, but he told me – and I quote, ‘Probably not, because they look lovely.” The 13-year-old girl stepped on her parents’ reactions, adding, “Then he said that I should reconsider the decision I made, that I should be more certain of it. Brett’s such a great guy!”

Kalina asked, “I assume you did reconsider it.”

“Yes, and I’ve not been topless in front of him since, and neither of us has been bottomless. We’re ... just not ready for that. We need to tell you more in that vein, but this is probably a good point for our parents to provide comments ... if they have any.”

After the three parents seemed to commune together, Kalina responded, “I have to say that I’m pleased with the decision you made to alter course. While we ... did not command you not to be naked around Brett, we hoped that you had understood that we were not at all crazy about you being so, with even Emma having some qualms. We’d...”

Civia interjected, “We probably need to tell you the rest, now, rather than waiting, given your response.” She breathed deeply twice, continuing, “In talk with the girls, the compound’s pool came up in discussion, and Maren and I realized that the girls would probably skinny dip in it when appropriate, and Maren and I agreed that we should probably begin becoming comfortable with being ... fully naked around Brett. We planned that Maren would begin by going topless for a while, and she might have started that this coming weekend. However, we had a long talk today about that at school during lunch when we walked around ... campus, and we’ve decided that, no matter how much we really want to be fully comfortable with being fully naked with the girls whether Brett’s there or not, we’re just not ready to take that step with him. We’re not sure why, but I suspect that it’s because ... we both may be ... developing ... feelings for Brett that are ... not just ... the love of friends.”

The parents looked at their girls, while the girls split looking at them, looking at each other, and looking at the floor while the silence became somewhat nerve-wracking.

Emma broke the silence with, “As you two suspect or know, I’ve been less opposed to you two being naked over there, regardless, than Jeff and Kalina. However, I applaud your decision. Although I seriously doubt either Brett or any of the girls would allow you to have sex with him, it’s still better that you made the decision, yourselves, not to ... make a significant change in your relationships with him. We cannot overstress how powerful sexual excitement is, because it’s very difficult to follow a pre-determined course of refusing intercourse if one starts down the road of enjoying sexual feelings with others. Since I’m sure your ... biological parents are sitting here most anxious to ask you about your feelings, you should probably volunteer more information about your last statement, Civia.”

Civia nodded and started tentatively, saying “I should probably back up again,” after which she tilted her head back until it softly impacted the top of Maren’s. After some time of thinking, she righted her head and stated, “As you know, the girls took us to Armoire d’Amour on Saturday morning. The floor manager there is a good friend of the girls and the subject of my uncertainty about ... my sexuality came up.” She raised her hand at Kalina opening her mouth, then stated, “The woman’s about 30 and she and the girls are very good friends, and their discussions are apparently wide-ranging, and have previously touched on various aspects of sex, which is why the girls ... and I didn’t worry too much when my ... problem came up. The woman was really nice and when she understood what I was going through and my ... frustration and concern that I might never feel ... sexual excitement, she told me that she’d had the same frustration when she was my age. She said that she was 13 before she felt the feelings ... and experienced the physical responses of what she now knows as sexual excitement. She offered to talk with me if I wanted a sympathetic ear. She also told me that while I might be like her, just very late in ... developing, she warned me that I might not be, and that I shouldn’t get my hopes up for an end to my frustration, but that if I needed someone other than the girls, particularly someone that had experienced my frustration, I was welcome to talk to her at any time. She’s so nice, and the girls really like her. Maren and I do, too, although the girls know her much better than we do.

“The change in our decision to begin working toward full nudity around Brett was caused this morning at breakfast. Brett and I were both wearing our respective panties, and I got this odd feeling. I don’t know that it was what you described to me, Mom, but I’ve never felt precisely that, before. I thought about it all morning ... which got me a reprimand from a teacher for not paying attention, so at lunch Maren and I talked about it. She agreed that if my situation was suddenly changing, we should be ... more conservative until we know where things wind up with me.”

After a short period of silence, Emma asked Kalina, “Do you need further evidence of the maturity of our girls?”

Kalina breathed deeply, shook her head slowly, and replied, “No. You’ve probably been right the whole time, but I find it hard to do this, to give them so much ... latitude. My mom was ... is a good mom, but once I began growing breasts, she became very conservative about boys and sex, and that caused a bunch of ... bad arguments between us. I really have been trying to balance opposing forces, but I probably haven’t fully taken into account Civia’s ... original maturity as well as her ... J-influenced ... bootstrapped maturity. I do know, to my core, that those girls have my girl’s ... well-being ... as well as that of your girl ... as a strong focus of their interactions with our girls, but I’ve been finding it difficult not to fall into my mom’s persona for this topic.”

After further silence, Jeff softly added, “The girls were certainly correct that one or two of their items have direct bearing on our topics. Perhaps now is the relevant time for our primary topic.”

Kalina turned and looked deeply into Jeff’s eyes for quite some time, but eventually she nodded once, then pointed her chin at him.

“Girls, we made this decision, and it was a very difficult one, last night. It touches on many topics but resonates well with what you two have shown us tonight. It’s become very obvious to us that you’re very happy being in the compound and that you’re ... in things that truly matter ... very responsible. We ... the three of us are feeling powerful feelings and we’ve ... been greatly enjoying the chances that your weekend absences provide to learn how we work as a trio, and much of that learning is ... sexual in nature. Before we have a ceremony at the compound to ... formalize our relationship in front of our family and our friends, we’d like to delve more completely into ... us.”

The two girls squealed and squeaked quietly with an air of expectation.

The corners of Jeff’s mouth turned up, but he continued, “We’d appreciate more ... unfettered time together here, and we thought that, if all relevant parties can agree, that we’d give you girls more time at the compound.”

The subsequent squeaks and squeals were not at all quiet, and the girls again leapt into the combined lap of their parents, with Maren surprising Jeff by kissing him briefly on his lips, then hugging herself tightly to him, with Civia hugged into his right side and Kalina’s left. Parental arms went around girls, and there was no space among the five torsos for nearly five minutes.

When Civia pulled back a bit, she stated, “While we said it partly as a joke, we really would tell you that we’re home and go to our room and close the door if we arrived while you were having sex in the living room ... or anywhere else in the house. We wouldn’t think poorly of you as parents at all. While we ... While I still don’t understand the powerful feelings you describe, the girls tell us that you’re absolutely correct and that it’s easy, very easy to get carried away. Please don’t worry if we catch you at something like that. Maren, who has lived through two failed ... families really wants you three to work, and I’m not at all far behind her in wanting the same. While the girls don’t talk mechanics with us, nor about who does what with whom, over the past few weeks, we’ve talked about sex a lot, and they’ve been very helpful in our understanding of the ... joys and pitfalls inherent in sexual relationships, and we’ll gladly tell you the specifics of those conversations, which they’ve asked us to tell you. Celeste has been particularly important in those conversations, as her experience is so different from that of most of the girls, and she can provide a lot more personal cautions of the ... less-good aspects of being ... sexually active.”