Chapter 15

May 24, 2018

The two tall, young girls stepped in the front door of their house to, “I thought we were meeting you at the compound.”

“Mo-omm, something bad’s happened.”

“What? You’re not hurt. What...”

Maren replied, “Not to us. To Padme. We don’t know what, but we ... Fuck! Oh, sorry. Nothing’s happened directly to Padme, but something happened at their home and we ... suspect that ... her mom’s been killed.”

Kalina wrapped both girls into her arms and tried to soothe them, but they both broke down into tears. The mother had tears in her eyes at the thought that her biological daughter was now going through a second situation involving a friend’s parent, although that other friend’s father was not, yet, dead and had already outlived the initial prognosis. She encouraged the girls to move to the couch where she had both girls pressed tightly to either side of her.

Once they calmed, she got them to explain, and, as usual, the two tag-teamed the story.

Maren finished with, “And ... Kalina-Mom, you should have seen Beth and Meka, particularly Beth. They took charge, got Charlie to get their lawyer there for the girls, talked to that Assistant District Attorney who also dealt with Brit’s case, and ... just ... provided such immediate and ... forceful ... organization, I guess, that Padme and her sister just followed her direction, and the sister is ... probably Celeste’s age. How does she keep doing this?”

“I don’t know, Honey ... Um, Maren-Honey.” Kalina grinned at the smile she got from the young girl from that stratagem, then added, “I doubt that I could have done that at her age. You two know that she’s a lot of the reason we allow you so much latitude there, as we’re confident that she wouldn’t allow you to get over your head in ... anything and, if at all possible, she’d protect you from ... anything.”

Civia responded, “We know. I find it hard to imagine ... me ... doing some of the things she does. And, Mom, she saw the ... ADA ... and immediately started doing stuff, beginning with calling Charlie. Meka sent us home after Beth talked to ... Umm, I probably shouldn’t say unless Beth okays it.” When her mother looked sideways at her, she added, “It’s not at all bad, but I really shouldn’t say.”

Kalina nodded, then took a different tack with, “I assume that if the Williams clan is working on something that the get-together is canceled. Yes?” When they both nodded, she added, “Why don’t you two take a shower. You could use it, for both cleaning and ... soothing reasons. Your other parents will be home soon, and we can discuss this further after dinner.”

May 30, 2018

With their backs to the headboard, their usual position for gabfests, Civia and Maren were behind their closed door, so were nude.

Maren asked, “Do you think there’s a real chance we could get our parents to allow us to do that? Wear what we do when Brett’s at the J?”

“I really don’t know. I think there’s a chance. However, what we can’t do is just ... do it. Sure, your mom would probably be fine with it, but ... my biological parents would want to discuss any change in status quo before we tried to ... make changes.”

“Should we work up to it, or suggest tonight what we’d like to wear here?”

“No, they don’t like making small changes over a short period that result in a big change. We might get the first through, but then they’d probably not budge on successive suggestions. While I think going straight for what we want may not work, I think it’s the only tack that could. Additionally, even if they don’t allow J skimpywear, they may allow some ... semi-significant change in our dress code to balance telling us ‘no’ on what we want.”

Maren looked long into Civia’s eyes, then nodded, and replied, “I can see that. You know, Civ...” Maren breathed deeply and gathered her courage, then finished, “It’s stuff like this, sitting here having a serious discussion about, essentially, getting us understanding how to deal with our new parental situation is ... Civ, I really like this. It’s like we’re really sisters, and sisters that love each other.”

Civia sniffled once, then pulled Maren into a tight one-arm hug, responding, “We are, Maren. We are sisters. We must be. Right? We have the same parents. And, Maren, I really like what Emma brings to our new parental situation. While Mom and Dad are certainly ... loosening ... due to her input, I guess, even more it seems like they’re ... using Emma as a way to justify ... stuff that they may have wanted to do before, but just weren’t sure whether it would be right. It’s like ... they’re both somewhere ... on the fence on some things, just not knowing which side to step into, and Emma casts the deciding vote.”

Maren looked deeply into Civia’s eyes, again, and slowly nodded her head, but increasing its nod rate as she replied, “Yes. That’s exactly it. I’ve been ... sort of seeing that but couldn’t define it in my head. Civ, I think we make a pretty good team.”

“We do.”

“Hi, Mom. How was work?”

Maren grinned at Emma as the latter rolled her eyes at her biological daughter as well as her daughter-by-marriage.

Before Emma could respond, Maren asked, “Isn’t it weird that you’re tied into the group of people that caused the Williamses to expand their ... water features in the yard, and you’re the lead electrician on the job?”

Emma grinned, answering, “I thought that many more than once while we’ve been working on it, but today was my last day on that job.”

Civia chuckled and responded, “Yes, but only so you can be the inside lead on the remodel of another house that the girls spend lots of time in. It seems that Charlie really likes your ... the company for whom you’re an electrician.”

“Yes, the boss tends to bend over backward for them ... all of them, as he was able to keep employees working in the past solely because Charlie came up with a job the Williamses wanted done on short notice at a time when we were really slow. You remember, Maren, that we came back early from vacation for that first job in the W.”

“Yes, and ... your husband was not happy about that.”

Emma breathed deeply, then responded, “No, he wasn’t. He did agree that me working was better than me going without income. And then the oddest aspect of all that is that almost directly due to that job, which was a bit less than a year ago, I found a much better set of spouses for me and parents for you than he ever was.”

The two young girls were studying at the kitchen table when, first, Kalina, then Jeff arrived from work around their normal Wednesday evening times of a bit after 8:00.

As Jeff passed the kitchen, he announced, “I really need a shower, so I’ll join everyone as soon as I can, and I’ll give greetings once I don’t reek of sweat.”

“I’ll join you,” Kalina said as she gazed at her two daughters.

Civia giggled, stood, hugged her mom, then said, “I’m so happy you and Dad are so much more willing now to ... live here like you and Dad really love each other.”

“I agree,” Maren cut in, “but we should get our own house remodeled so we could have a shower that would fit all three of you.”

Civia put an arm around Maren and stated, “What Maren said. The Williams ... marriage has a larger shower and the girls have had a larger shower to accommodate ... their love for each other ... for almost a year.”

Kalina shook her head at her occasionally-too-precocious-daughters, responding, “That would be nice, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.” She shook her head rapidly, then added, “Civ, Maren, Jeff and I truly enjoy this ... more-open ... relationship we have with our kids. I couldn’t have imagined anything like this last summer, but I’m very happy we’re here. You two are ... almost like I imagine you’d be if you were visiting us after you’ve finished college and are living on your own. While aspects of that are at least partly true, this is ... It’s ... comfortable and ... very nice.”

Both girls stood and enveloped Kalina, during which she stated, “And I really love having a second wonderful daughter, too.”

Jeff stated, “The floor is yours, girls.”

Maren started with, “We had a discussion about how the two of us would present this and ... we’re just going to do it how the two of us do things like this in the LA, that is, basically a ... tag-team event.”

Civia stepped in with, “We ... propose that the two of us may wear ... what we do in the J when Brett is there, and which we call J skimpywear.”

Maren added, “For Civ, that would be a panty ... and only that, while I’d wear a tube top and a panty.”

Civ held her hands up at the three parents, saying, “The panties we wear are usually G-strings, but we’d be perfectly willing to wear bikini briefs.”

While Jeff’s mien went a bit sour and Kalina’s expression was very nearly blank, Emma cracked up.

After both giggling and chuckling for a bit, Emma stated, “Ah, yes, a tried-and-true stratagem: Offer immediately to moderate the proposal, leaving the other side in the discussion no ... room for maneuver. I’m a bit surprised you didn’t start with nudity and then come all the way back to a brief and a tube ... for one of you.”

The two girls looked at each other, and Maren shrugged her shoulders at Civia, then said, “We wear G-strings there because, usually, most of the girls are naked. Since you guys wouldn’t be, we figured it was only right to cover more than we do in the J.

Kalina asked, “Emma, what is your thought on this?”

“I suggest that both girls wear tubes, and not the skimpiest ones or even the nearly-skimpiest ones, and briefs, and those briefs must ... cover their buttocks nearly completely. What do you think?”

Kalina stared into Emma’s eyes for a quarter-minute or so, after which the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, and she replied, “I’d be fine with that. Jeff?”