Chapter 21

The rest of Wednesday afternoon and evening, we mostly lounged around the lake. When Mom returned from Columbia, she was tired and a little subdued. She came down to the lake to tell us she’d returned and then headed back up the hill to our cabin.

As a treat for Mom, Susan and Erin fixed dinner for our family. The two of them had a great time, laughing and goofing around. It was like Susan was suddenly a teenager again. Mom wasn’t exactly sad, but I could tell that she already missed Dad. He’d be gone for nine days, but he always called whenever he had a layover.

Dinner was fried pork chops, mashed potatoes, peas, and cornbread. When Susan set the bowl of peas on the table, she looked at me meaningfully. For a moment, I was confused. When her eyes flicked from the peas to my penis and then up to my face, she smirked, and I suddenly Got It. (The year before, her creative use of frozen peas as an impromptu ice pack had sparked our relationship.)

She saw the recognition in my eyes, grinned mischievously, and continued setting the table. I sat down hastily, afraid of my reaction if I kept thinking about Susan and her oral talents. All through dinner, we talked about everyday stuff, but Susan enjoyed surreptitiously teasing me. It was all I could do not to get an erection.

After dinner, Gina, Kendall, and I went for a walk by the lake. Gina and I were both tired, however, and decided to go to bed early. When I got to our cabin after dropping Gina off, Erin was there with Leah. I said “hi” to the girls and then climbed into my bunk.

For a while, I just lay there, deep in thought. I was tired, but I also had a lot on my mind. I was thinking about Kendall, and how I felt about her. I didn’t think I could have sex with her and leave my emotions out of it. More to the point, it would be incredibly unfair to her for me to prey upon her feelings simply for my own (or Gina’s) gratification.

Before I drifted off to sleep, I resolved to talk to Gina about it.

The next morning, I pulled Gina aside after breakfast. Unfortunately, it was her morning to do the dishes, so she couldn’t immediately talk with me. When I volunteered to help her, she smiled and thanked me. Much to my chagrin, Mom smiled and thanked me too, gesturing to my family’s dishes. I guess her theory was that if I could help Gina with the dishes, I could also do them for my family. Gina grinned at my outmaneuvered expression and then helped me gather the plates, silverware, glasses, and skillets. While she washed the dishes, I dried them, and we quickly finished.

Afterward, I led her out the side door of the clubhouse and down the steps toward the sand volleyball court. When we sat on the bench facing the court, she turned to me, her eyes smiling.

“Did you have fun yesterday?” she asked.

I nodded.

“I can’t wait to see if Kendall wants to join us,” she said excitedly. Then her brow furrowed in concentration. “Only, I don’t really know how to ask her.”

“Actually,” I said, “I think I know how to handle that.” I had a few ideas, but they weren’t what I wanted to talk about at the moment. “We need to talk about something else first, though.”

Her expression grew concerned.

“It’s nothing bad,” I assured her. “It’s just something we need to talk about.”

To her credit, she didn’t even bite her lip as she nodded.

“We’ve talked about this before, a little, but we need to talk about it seriously now.” When she nodded, I continued. “I know you want Kendall to join us, but it’s going to be different from how it was with Kara.”

Her brow wrinkled. “How?”

I thought for a moment, trying to come up with an example. “Remember when Kara and I were kissing each other, right above you?”

“Yes.”

“Did it look the same as when I kissed you?”

“I dunno. I’ve never seen you kiss me, not from another person’s perspective,” she said, trying to drive away some of her trepidation with humor. When I smiled, but didn’t laugh, she grew serious. “Sorry, I know what you mean.” She thought about it for a few seconds. “No, I guess it didn’t look the same.”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t. I don’t love Kara like I love you. With her, sex was just sex.”

She nodded.

“I mean, I like Kara, and I think she’s really sexy, but I don’t like her as anything more than a friend.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“With Kendall,” I said seriously, “it’ll be different. I really like Kendall.” I paused and took a deep breath. “I probably love her.” No probably about it, I thought. I definitely love her, but I don’t want to say that to Gina. Not yet, at least.

She nodded.

“And I’m pretty sure she feels the same way about me. You even said so yourself.”

“Yeah,” Gina said. “I think she does.”

“So it wouldn’t be fair to her or fair to me if I ... if we just had sex with her,” I said. “In many ways, I feel the same way about her that I do about you.”

She nodded soberly.

“It’s not the same, really, but close enough.”

“If you wanna be with her instead of me...”

I quickly shook my head. “I want to be with you, but I know you want Kendall to join us. And,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat, “I want to have sex with Kendall too.”

She smiled at my shy grin.

“But you need to realize that I’m not going to toy with her emotions just so we can have some fun. Sex with Kara was fun. Sex with Kendall would be quite a bit more.”

“I understand.”

“I mean, imagine how you’d feel if I’d used the fact that you loved me just to have sex with you. You’d feel used, betrayed, or worse. Kendall would probably feel the same way.”

From the look on Gina’s face, it was clearly something she hadn’t considered. She sat, stunned, for several long moments. Finally, she looked up and nodded her understanding.

“If I have sex with Kendall,” I said, “it’ll be like she’s my girlfriend too, and it’ll be complicated. Sex with you, or sex with Kendall can’t be about just the orgasm. I can jerk off and not hurt anybody’s feelings. If we want her to join us, it’s got to be serious.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

I nodded, my expression solemn. “If it’s something you really want to do, then I’ll talk to her about it. If not, she’ll never have to know and we won’t hurt her feelings. We both know she’s not the kind of girl to try and break us up, but adding her to our relationship will be a whole ‘nother can of worms.”

“Yeah, I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

“And we don’t even know if she likes girls or not,” I said. “Even if she does want to have sex with me, she may not be comfortable with you watching.”

“I hadn’t thought of that either,” Gina said guiltily.

I shook my head. “There are a lot of things we have to consider. Like I said, if we don’t want to do this, we don’t have to, and Kendall will be none the wiser. With Kara, it was pretty simple, for a lot of reasons. With Kendall, it’s a lot more complex.”

She nodded slowly and then turned introspective. “I don’t know why I’m like this,” she said softly. Then she looked up at me. “I just am.”

I nodded. “It’s okay that you are. But I can’t imagine how unhappy you might be with a regular guy. Well, with a guy who didn’t understand how our parents’ relationships work.”

She smiled brightly and cheered up a bit. “That’s why you’re perfect,” she said. “You do understand.”

“Well, I try to understand. But there are still a lot of things I have to take some time to figure out. I just try to understand them before I react.”

She nodded.

“And I’ve been thinking a lot about Kendall, and whether or not we want to ask her to join us.”

“Yeah.”

“It basically boils down to one question. Can you handle seeing me with a girl I love, a girl who’d be like my other girlfriend? If you can, then I’ll talk to Kendall. If you can’t, we won’t say anything, and we’ll all remain friends.”

Before she could open her mouth to answer, we heard a shout from up the hill.

“Hey! Where’ve y’all been all morning?” Manfred asked as he strode down the stairs. His long legs quickly ate up the distance between us.

Jenny followed behind him at a more sedate (and ladylike) pace.

“We’ve been looking all over for you,” he said, panting slightly from his rapid descent.

“We’ve been right here, Manfred,” I said with a wry grin.

“Oh. Yeah.”

Jenny caught up with him and smiled at us in greeting.

Gina and I smiled in return.

“Jenny and I were thinkin’,” he said.

I glanced at Gina. Judging by her expression, she knew where this discussion was going as well as I did.

“Since our families are leaving on Sunday, we want to hike to the quarry on Saturday.”

I nodded.

“And you know how Jenny’s mother is,” he said with a mild grimace.

“Yeah.”

“She won’t let us go by ourselves.”

I nodded mildly.

“So we thought we’d see if you two wanted to go with us,” he said.

“Sounds good to me,” I said. Then I turned to Gina. “What d’you think?” I asked her.

She paused and gave the question far more consideration that I thought it warranted. After several long moments, she nodded. When she glanced up, she had a determined look on her face. “We should probably invite Kendall,” she said, holding my gaze with her own. My eyes must’ve bugged out a little, because she grinned.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

She nodded.

I ignored Manfred and Jenny, and took Gina’s hands in my own. “You’ve thought about it?”

She nodded again. “Yes. I have.”

“Okay,” I said. “Then we’ll ask her.”

“What’re y’all so serious about?” Manfred asked.

I shook my head and then looked up at him. “Nothing. Just something we were talking about earlier.”

“Oh. So, do y’all wanna go or not?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said. “We’d love to go. And Kendall will probably join us.”

If he noticed that I didn’t ask so much as stated a fact, he didn’t react. He was obviously uncomfortable with the idea, though. “Are you sure she’ll wanna go?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, but she’ll probably spend most of her time with us,” I said, indicating Gina with a toss of my chin.

“Can she even hike that far?” he asked, doggedly trying to wriggle free of having Kendall join us.

I nodded again. “Yeah, Manfred,” I said with a short laugh. “She can hike that far. She hiked it with us, last year after you two left.”

“Can she keep up?”

I shrugged noncommittally. “Yeah. But if she can’t, Gina and I will hang back with her. I know the way to the quarry as well as you do, Stick.”

He was outmaneuvered and knew it, so he merely shrugged. Then he did something singularly brilliant. He put his arm around Jenny, turned to her, and asked, “What d’you think, Jen?”

Good man!

She shrugged dismissively. “I guess it’s okay,” she said, sliding her arm around his waist possessively.

“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to allay some of her unspoken concerns. “Like I said, she’ll probably spend most of the time with us.”

“Sure,” Manfred said, tossing his head. “Whatever. We wanted to leave early, though, so we can stay there as long as possible.”

“No problem.”

“Are you sure you want Kendall to come with us?” he asked in a last-ditch effort to dissuade me.

I’m pretty sure he was asking solely for Jenny’s benefit, but I didn’t begrudge him the fact. As long as they were polite to Kendall, I was happy. Before I answered, I looked at Gina. At her slight nod, I turned back to Manfred and Jenny. “We’re sure.”

“Okay, Little Man. Whatever you want,” he said, emphasizing that it was our choice. Then he turned and looked at Jenny (another smart move).

She smiled at him.

“Well, we’re gonna head down to the lake and cool off,” he said. “You wanna join us?”

I shook my head. “Nah. Thanks. I think we’re gonna stay here for a while. You know,” I said with a meaningful look, “I wanna spend some time with my girl.”

He nodded sagely and then smiled at Jenny. “Okay. Seeya.”

With that, they walked off, arm in arm.

As soon as they were out of earshot, I turned to Gina. “Are you sure?” I asked.

“Do you love me?”

“Very much.”

“Then I’m sure,” she said. When I raised my arm, she slid next to me and snuggled against my side. “And I love you too,” she said quietly, but with conviction. “Ten times more than very much.”

Eventually, we did head down to the lake. Kendall joined us and we swam out to the raft. Manfred and Jenny were already there, and looked up with neutral expressions. When it became obvious that we planned to join them, they scooted toward one end of the raft. If we lay close together, there would be room for all five of us. I subtly made sure Gina lay next to Jenny and then I directed Kendall to the end of the raft. As soon as the girls were settled, I lay between them.

The day was once again brutally hot, and we all went for a swim before lunch. After lunch, we lounged around for a while. In spite of the heat and crushing humidity, we heard someone yelling “volleyball.” (Whenever you wanted to strike up a volleyball game, all you had to do was go to the court and yell “volleyball” as loud as you could. If enough people showed up, you could play. A small game was five or six people, while a big one could have twelve, eighteen, or more, with people siding out at the change of serve.)

All five of us decided to go play, and we quickly had more than enough people for a twelve-person game. Gina, Kendall, and I were on one team, while Manfred and Jenny joined the other. Since Manfred was so tall, he always tried to jump-spike the ball. John, his father, played for our team and blocked his son’s spikes every time they met at the net.

Note to self: Maybe age and experience really do beat youth and enthusiasm.

I grinned to myself. No way.

Our team won the first game easily, 21–13. Once word spread that there was a good game going, more people showed up. For the second game, we played nine people on a team. This game was hard-fought, and the other team ended up winning 24–22. For the third game, all of us were hot and sweaty, but we were determined. Manfred’s father “got in a groove” (as he put it) and started sending killer serves over the net. Since we always played friendly games, the serves were underhand, but his were some of the fastest, lowest underhand serves I’ve ever seen. Due almost entirely to his service, we established a commanding lead. The other team rallied, but we eventually won the game, 21–18.

Afterward, everyone congratulated each other, albeit tiredly, and we all headed back to the lake. I was sweaty, and had sand in places I didn’t know I had places. I was also tired, but because of all my jumping rope and general conditioning, I wasn’t completely worn out. After we washed the sweat and sand off our bodies, the five of us older teenagers hauled ourselves onto the raft.

Drew, who hadn’t joined the volleyball game, was lounging on the shore of the lake and enjoying the attentions of Jill and Trish. True to my prediction, Jill had on a pair of bikini bottoms. She and Trish were alternately begging Drew to go swimming with them. They kept trying to tug and cajole him out of the lounge chair, but it was clear that he was merely toying with them.

I shook my head in mild disgust and looked around for Erin and Leah. They hadn’t been at the volleyball game either, and when I didn’t see them around the lake, I began to wonder where they were. A few moments later, they crested the top of the hill and started walking toward the lake. They seemed to be having an animated discussion, so I turned my attention back to my friends on the raft.

For a while, we laughed about the volleyball game and our various blunders. The girls gave me a hard time about taking a nosedive into the sand and then knocking over Karen Delozier. (I rolled onto my back, into her, and she fell on top of me. When she went to steady herself, she accidentally grabbed my dick. She kept her hand there until she realized where she’d put it. We both blushed about it, but no one else had seen what happened. Since neither of us were hurt, the girls simply thought it was funny that I’d knocked over the petite woman.)

They also ribbed Manfred about trying to spike the ball and getting tangled in the net. It was really funny at the time, especially when Jenny had to patiently help extricate him. He had red marks on his arm where it had been caught, but nothing worse than a bruised ego. I grinned in sympathy as the girls teased him.

While we laughed and joked, Manfred and Jenny slowly became more comfortable around Kendall. When she finally worked up the courage to actually tease Manfred about having his spikes blocked by his dad, Jenny merely grinned and joined in. I think Manfred was coming to realize that Kendall may be built like a goddess, but she was just like us.

In addition, Kendall gradually got over her initial shyness. Instead of passively watching, she joined in the conversation more and more. As we watched Kendall come out of her shell, Gina grinned at me. For Manfred’s part, I think his illusions about Kendall’s goddess status were finally shattered when she laughed so hard she rolled off the raft. As we stared at each other in surprise, Kendall sputtered to the surface.

“I think I’ll take a swim too,” I said with a grin.

I took two quick steps, launched myself over a startled and very embarrassed Kendall, and then knifed into the water behind her. When I surfaced, the others were diving in too. We goofed around for a while, but were all too tired to do more than that. After we climbed back onto the raft, we relaxed in comparative silence, simply basking in the afternoon sun.

After dinner, Gina looped her arm through mine and we walked onto the clubhouse’s side patio. She immediately angled for one of the round tables in the far corner, where we could have a little privacy.

She spread her towel on one of the chairs, sat down, and then elegantly crossed her legs. For a moment, I merely admired her stunning body. Not for the first time, I marveled that such a beautiful girl could be in love with me. I’d slowly come to realize that I was handsome, but I sometimes wondered what Gina saw in me. With an effort that came much easier than it had in the past, I put the thought out of my mind and smiled at her.

“Have you thought about how to ask Kendall?” she asked after a few quiet minutes.

I nodded. “Yeah. I think so. Only...” I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts. “Well, I think I should talk to her alone.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything.

“I don’t want her to feel like she’s under pressure. Besides,” I said with a guilty grin, “I think she might be more open if she doesn’t think she’s got to put on an act for your benefit.”

Gina nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.” Then she paused for a moment and looked at me funny.

“What?” I asked, a little nervous.

“You’re good at that,” she said simply.

“Good at what?”

“Thinking about things, about what will happen if you do something.”

I nodded. “I try to be.”

“You are.” She hung her head for a moment and then looked up at me bashfully. “I guess maybe I need to be more like that.”

“Oh, I don’t know—”

“I do. Sometimes I don’t think about things before I do them.”

I nodded.

“And I should. Like when we were at the nature walk clearing and I was still angry with you ... As Kara was talking to us, all I wanted to do was make you suffer as much as I could.”

“And?”

“Well,” she said with a rueful grin, “it backfired. I didn’t realize you’d get angry. When I saw the look on your face, I felt all the heat, all the anger drain out of me. I was suddenly cold and scared. But if I’d thought about how you’d probably react to my ... well ... to my childishness, I never would’ve acted like that.”

I nodded.

“Before you do anything, you think about how your actions will affect other people. That’s what I like about you,” she said. “One of many things, actually.”

I wanted to say “thank you,” but I got the impression that it was important for her to talk this through. So I remained silent.

“You’re deliberate.”

I cocked my head to the side, a little confused.

“I mean that in a good way,” she said hastily. “You think about things and you pay attention to people’s reactions. That’s really nice. I mean, I can tell you’ve thought a lot about Kendall. I was thinking about her only as someone we could have sex with.”

I hastily looked around to make sure no one could overhear us.

“But she’s a person too, not just a sex object.” She laughed derisively. “If I’d thought about it, I’d’ve realized that it’s one of the things that bothers her most, being looked at as only a set of boobs—or a beautiful body—instead of a person.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“She is a person, and she’s got feelings, just like I do. You were thinking of her feelings. I wasn’t.” She looked up and gazed at me for a long, drawn-out moment. Then she swallowed hard. “You love her, don’t you? I mean, you said you ‘probably love her,’ but you really do, don’t you? You love her like you love me.”

I could tell by her inflection that the last words weren’t a question. I took a deep breath and then held her eyes with my own. Finally, I nodded once.

She looked down for a moment and clasped her hands together. “I guess I knew you did, but I just now admitted it to myself.” Then she took a deep breath. “I was watching you today. Did you realize that?”

“No.”

“Well, I was. I was watching you, and how you acted around Kendall. You look at her like you look at me.”

“Yes, I do,” I admitted.

“I wanted to see if you treated her differently, or if you paid more attention to her,” she said. “I guess I was worried, or jealous, or something.”

“Are you still?” I asked quietly.

“Hmm?” She looked up and paused, internally repeating what I’d said. “No,” she said with a tiny headshake. “I’m not. As I watched you with her, and how you treat her with respect, I was kinda proud of you.” She grinned hesitantly. “I dunno why, but I guess I realized that you treat me with the same respect, the same thoughtfulness.”

I nodded. “I try to.”

“You do. It’s just the way you are. You treat people nicely, and I see the way they respond to you. I like it. It makes me feel good to be your girlfriend. I mean, even when Manfred does something really super dorky, you’re patient with him. You start to act the way you wish he would. It’s like you’re showing him how he should be, like you’re quietly saying, ‘Hey Manfred, this is how you should do things.’”

I nodded.

“And I guess today is the first time I watched you. I mean, really watched you, instead of looking at you and thinking how hot you make me, or wondering if you like Kendall more than me.”

“I don’t.”

“I know.”

“I may like her almost as much as I like you,” I said. “But it’s ... different.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I think I understand that now. I mean, I may have appeared brave this morning, when I said I wanted Kendall to join us, but I was really nervous too.” Then she grinned bashfully. “I guess I was also horny. But watching you today—with her—and seeing how you treated me the same as you always do, I knew you could love us both. Does that make sense?”

I nodded. “It does.”

“I still don’t know why I’m the way I am, but I’m glad you love me.”

“I do love you,” I said. “Unconditionally.” I leaned forward and reached for her hand. When she took it, I pulled her toward me.

She stood up, turned, and then sat in my lap. With her arm around my neck, she swung her legs over the arm of the chair.

I enjoyed having her body next to mine, and put my hand on her outer thigh, resting it comfortably against the smoothness of her skin.

“You remember when you said it’s the little things you love about me?” she asked.

“Mmm hmm.”

“I didn’t really know what you meant until today.”

“Oh?”

She nodded. “Today, when I was watching you, I noticed a lot of the little things you do. Like when Kendall fell off the raft. Instead of laughing at her, you jumped right in like she’d simply had a good idea and it was time for us to take a swim.”

I nodded, although I hadn’t thought about it that much at the time. I’d just done it.

“Or when we got back on the raft. You waited until Kendall and I were safely on top, and you kinda hovered behind us, to catch us if either of us fell.”

“Oh,” I said, blushing. “I didn’t realize I did that.”

“I did,” she said with a nod. “And you always make sure I’m seated before you sit down yourself. You open doors for me, and stuff like that.”

“I’m just being polite,” I said, trying to downplay things.

“Yeah, you are. But girls notice things like that, trust me.”

I nodded, wishing that I noticed all these nice things I was supposedly doing on purpose.

“I know Kendall notices them too,” she said with a smile. Then she wrapped her other arm around my neck and clasped her fingers together. She gave me a smoldering look and her lips parted slightly.

I leaned forward and our lips met. It was a short kiss, but full of promise.

Then she looked at me seriously. “So when you said it’s the little things that make you love me, I finally understood. I love some big things about you,” she said. Her serious expression turned to a grin as she wiggled her ass over my flaccid penis. “But I think it’s all the little things that make me hopelessly in love with you.”

“Good,” I said succinctly.

Her lips moved toward mine and I kissed her again, softly at first, but with growing enthusiasm. Our kiss had the predictable result, and I began to stiffen against her bottom. She sighed her appreciation and pulled my hand against her breast. Her nipple immediately stiffened as I began to massage it. Fortunately, I remembered where we were and pulled back. She was breathless, her lips glistening, her eyes hooded and glassy with lust.

“We can’t,” I said. “Not out here.”

“Unnnnh.”

I shook my head.

“I want to feel you inside me,” she said softly, heedless of who might see us.

“Not here.”

“Yes here,” she said. “You can slide down a little, I’ll sit on your lap and slide your dick inside me. No one will know.”

I shook my head again, more firmly this time.

“Please?”

“No.”

When she realized I was serious, she came to her senses and looked around guiltily. Luckily, no one was around to see us, but that could change at any moment. She realized that, and settled for grinding her hips against my trapped erection.

“I’ll take care of you later,” I said.

She licked her lips and nodded.

“For now,” I said softly, “let’s just enjoy the feeling of my hard dick pressed against your ass. And you can imagine what it’ll feel like when I slide it into you later.”

She nodded enthusiastically and then rested her head on my shoulder.

We sat like that for ten or fifteen minutes, neither of us feeling the need to speak. She nuzzled my neck and kissed me lightly. A couple of people came and went through the clubhouse door, but no one paid us any attention. After a while, Gina lifted her head and gazed at me intently.

“Do you know what you’re going to say to Kendall?” she asked.

I bobbed my head. “More or less.”

“Yeah,” she said, teasing me a little, “you’ve been going over it in your head, haven’t you?”

My blush was all the answer she needed.

“See? That’s what I like about you, you’re logical, thoughtful, deliberate.”

“Thanks.”

“And later, you can logically, thoughtfully, and deliberately make love to me.”

“Uh-huh.”

“But right now,” she said, “I want to talk about what you’re going to say to Kendall.” She paused for a moment and sighed wistfully. “I wish I could watch when you talk to her.”

I started to try and dissuade her, but she cut me off.

“I know, I know. I can’t. But I wish I could.”

I nodded.

“Will you at least tell me about it? After?”

“Mmm hmm.” I shifted her slightly, and the tip of my erection pressed against her labia. “As hard as it is,” I said with mock solemnity, “to sit here and think about it, there’s something else we need to talk about.”

She couldn’t help but grin at my bad allusion. Then she batted her eyes and wiggled her ass. “Yes?” she asked innocently.

“What if it works?”

“Huh?”

“What if my talk with Kendall works? If things go the way I think they might, she’ll be pretty worked up. What if she says yes, that she wants to join us?”

“Yeah,” Gina said, nodding. “I see what you mean. You’re a gentleman,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “You’d never get a lady all hot and bothered and then leave her to take care of herself.”

I shook my head, a grin splitting my face.

She turned serious. “Are you going to have sex with her?”

I quickly shook my head. “No, that’s for the three of us together. If she wants to.”

Gina nodded.