Chapter 5: Saved by the Beach

Larissa had been waiting on the beach for them.

“Be nice to everyone” was on her mind, but everyone was way more teenagers than she anticipated. She tried to keep track of who was who, but she had no chance. There was Kat and Dave. Talking to Dave was weird after everything that had happened, and she was hit by a bolt of desire when she saw him, so she just said hi. Then there was Sal and Lem. She held Lem’s hand and thanked him deeply. And, fuck, Maria had been right about Lem. Just in his board shorts: fucking spectacular.

Then there were twelve teenagers, age range from thirteen to eighteen or so. Some of them were friends, and some belonged to Kat and some to Sal, but she had no chance to figure out who was who. And she couldn’t tell from looks – all of them were fit and toned, with tight little bikinis on all the girls. And she couldn’t tell from actions either – all the teenagers regularly hit up any of the adults for hugs, and they were always welcome. Or they hugged each other, or randomly paired up for sunscreen application. She did eventually pick out that there were some dedicated couples – these must be the ones having all the sex, but there was no hint of that now.

Larissa swam with them, and played ball and beach cricket with them, and joked with them, and enjoyed all of it. What a blast. When she saw Kat start getting lunch ready, she went over to help. “Hey, thanks. The food is simple – just hot dogs and sauce, and fruit salad. Do you want to serve the fruit?”

Yeah, that sounded good. Sal handed out the hot dogs, and she served all of the family, from a big container of fruit salad, and then, once they all had some, she and Sal grabbed themselves some lunch. She looked around for a place to sit and saw Dave and Lem with some space around them, and a spare towel next to Dave. He waved her over. Taking a deep breath, she went and sat next to Dave, and started on her lunch.

Initially she said nothing, and just ate. But here she was, eating with the two men of her dreams, each in their own way. But look along the beach, and there were their awesome wives, in their own itty-bitty bikinis, chatting happily to a bunch of teenage girls. So what could she be to them? She had a strong desire to get closer to them. Irresistible: she just wanted to soak both of them up. But she couldn’t. She needed a new word for this. Like friend-zoned, but something else.

“Hey Larissa, tell us about your course,” Dave asked her. “What degree are you doing, and why?”

That broke the ice nicely, and she excitedly told them about how much she loved animals and wanted to help them. Then they told her about their pet lambs, and she asked them which children belonged to them. They looked confused and said that they could never figure it out anymore, and then a super fit young girl landed on Lem and said “Dad!” and hugged him tight, and then jumped onto Dave, and hugged him tighter, said “Thanks Dad!” and went off running out into the water.

“See,” Dave said. “I don’t think they know anymore either.” Then they both burst into laughter. She laughed too, enjoying them mucking with her like that.

And then it popped out ... Larissa said, without really thinking about it. “I’d love to have a father I could hug, let alone two.”

Suddenly, Dave and Lem were looking at her seriously. “You could, you know,” said Dave. “You could have an honorary father. Or two. They’d look after you, and rescue you when you were in trouble, and get their wives to help you out, and they’d talk to you about your hopes and fears, and they’d hug you when you needed it.”

She looked at them in disbelief.

“Yeah,” said Lem. “You’d have to call them something like D-One and D-Two, since they’re not really your dads. But that’d be cool, you know. You could sit on their laps no problems.”

She didn’t need any more hints than that, and she launched herself into Dave’s lap. She cuddled up to his chest, and just sat there, soaking him up. What an awesome feeling, snuggled up against his chest, skin to skin, and his arms around her. Suddenly her tears were flowing, though she didn’t really know why. She wanted to stay like this forever. Dave and Lem were talking, and a girl, and then a boy, came and gave Lem a big hug. But Larissa didn’t listen to any of it. This, this was her safe space.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been there, she was just so happy, but eventually Dave gave her a poke. “Hey daughter, you awake there?”

She looked at him. “Yes, D-One. I’m awake. I’m just so happy here.”

“Oh, no,” D-One said, “I’m D-Two. He’s D-One. Look at his chest!”

Larissa laughed at him, but nothing was going to change her mind on this. “Nah,” she said, “D-Two – his chest is twice as awesome.”

To her delight, both of them burst into laughter.

Then D-One was looking at her seriously. “You know, daughter, that everything has a cost, don’t you?” Larissa nodded, though she had no idea where he was going. “When you sit right there and cuddle up, that means you’re going to be a good daughter. Yes?”

Larissa smiled at him. “I want to be a good daughter for you.” She was happy for him to take this wherever he wanted to.

“Our daughters are the kind who make the right friendships. They think about themselves, and they look after themselves, for their dads. And they love the people around them, and then they choose very carefully about who they’re going to make love with, and then, once they’re sure and ready, they blow that person’s mind right off the earth. Is that the kind of daughter you are?”

Fuck yes. It hit her hard, the desire that came with that. That was exactly the kind of daughter she wanted to be. “Oh, yes, that’s me. Please, let me be your good daughter.”

D-One smiled at her. “Great. Now, your other dad has been missing out. But make sure you give me another cuddle with one of my favourite daughters before we leave the beach, OK?”

Larissa smiled at him and switched to D-Two’s lap. Man, he was a hard body. She tried to squeeze herself into his chest, and Lem put his arms around her. Awesome. She zoned out again. Would life ever get better than this?

Suddenly, she said “Won’t your wives be upset I’m doing this?”

D-Two laughed. “You think we’d ever do anything to upset our wives?”

No. Not those wives. But then she thought about Dave and Kat just up the beach that first time, with Kat tied up. But no, Dave hadn’t upset her, then or now. “Of course not,” D-Two said. “Anyway, why do you think you were invited here?” Ah. Of course. It was all a setup. And what an amazing thing to set up.

“Anyway, daughter,” Lem said, “now that you’re on my lap, I’ve got another rule for our daughters.”

She looked at him, smiling. Yes, to whatever it was.

“Our daughters are the kind who keep their word, who make promises that are meaningful, and their friends know they’ll be there, and faithful. Our daughters are strong and stand up for the right thing even when no one else is. Because our daughters carry our flag, and that’s how people know what we are.”

Larissa looked at him, mind blown again. What the fuck? They trusted her with this? But then she felt the hardness of his chest, and thought of his story. This man wasn’t some exercise in looking good. This was a man who built things, families, rescued people. Her. He knew what it was to be broken, and to be redeemed. And she knew that if she ever needed to stand up for the right thing, she could just feel his chest in her heart, feel his words in her head.

“I want that to be me, but wow. Please, help me be your good daughter.”

D-Two smiled at her. “We will. Sal will. Now, the rest of our children want us to go play soccer with them. So you’ll have to come back to our laps later, but please do. But before you go, you have to kiss us both like our other daughters do.”

They were chaste kisses, just lips, but not just pecks either. Wow ... it’d been a long time, if ever, since she’d had better kisses than those.

She watched them get up, their strength, as two of the kids jumped on each of them, and they burst into laughter.

Then she went and squeezed in between Sal and Kat. They were already sitting close, and they put their arms around her. “Thank you for that. It was an overwhelming experience.”

They smiled at her. “It was our pleasure,” said Kat.

“OK,” said Sal, “you ready to talk?” Larissa nodded with a smile. She was ready for anything right now. “OK, you have your honorary fathers. We agreed that they’d tell you that, but after that, it was whatever they wanted to say, given what they know about you, which is a fair bit. But what we wanted is that they’ve given you some strength, some assurance. There will be a guy out there who can do that for you without taking anything from you. And we’re going to find him with you.”

“Ooh, yes, they’ve given that to me. Thanks so much. And I know what to look for now – that’s what it was about, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. We think that having confidence that you have a dad who cares for and loves you makes a huge difference at your age when looking for a partner. It just settles you, and that’s important. We can’t get you a real father, so we gave you the best alternative we know of.”

Larissa gave them a dreamy smile. “I think they’re pretty good too. I’m amazed that you shared them. Thanks.”

“Oh, we have total confidence in them. Part of the experience for you was to understand that – choose the right man, cultivate him right, blow his mind ... you can truly rely on him.”

“OK, moving on. I’ve been thinking about your mother. She wrote to you, so I think you should write back to her. A handwritten letter, telling her about how you feel, and what you’ve been doing, particularly sexually, how you’re healing, and how you’d like to meet her, when she’s ready. It’s difficult for a mother, when their children get in trouble sexually, but particularly if she’s part of the problem. And you told her about the single worst, riskiest thing you ever did, without any of the context around it. No wonder she ran. That’ll give her time to get her head around it. But you know that she loves you more than anyone else now, given what she did. And tonight is a great time to write that letter.”

Larissa agreed with that.

“Good. That means that we’re ready to talk about sex. Are you game?”

Fuck yes. It would always have been ‘yes, I want to,’ but now it was ‘yes, I’m ready.’

They talked for about two hours. The conversation was interrupted occasionally for some teenager to join them for a hug with one or both of the mums. Once it was interrupted from behind, Dave leant over and pulled Kat’s head back and made out with her for a little while, holding her face tight. Kat had a dreamy look on her face when he stopped. One of the teenagers hugged Kat, and then Sal, and then Larissa, exactly as if she was another mum. Then she ran off, Larissa looking at her in astonishment. “Oh, no, we didn’t arrange that,” said Sal, “Toni just did that. You like?” Fuck yes.