Chapter 9

“Maybe we could work out something where you wouldn’t have to stop completely,” said Julie. “Like I said, we need to discuss that further. What that would mean is that two women are kind of sharing one man. That almost never works, Baby.”

“I’ll never be jealous of you,” said Erica, firmly. “Do you get jealous when you think about him and me kissing and stuff?”

“A little,” Julie admitted. “Except I know you and I aren’t competing for the affections of one man. We both love him and he loves both of us. It might be hard on him, though.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s not used to taking care of two horny women every day,” said Julie. “He might feel like he can’t keep up.”

“Is it possible to wear a man’s ... um ... penis out?”

“Well, no, not in the sense that I think you mean it. But he might feel like we’re taking too much of his time. He has work to do. He can’t spend all his time satisfying a couple of women. And he might be dating, and that would mean a third woman he has to deal with. Maybe more.”

“Nope,” said Erica. “If he has you and me, he won’t need to date. I won’t let him date.”

“We don’t own him, Baby,” said Julie.

“I know that,” said Erica. “I don’t want to own him.”

She smiled for the first time since Julie found her.

“We’ll just lease him, instead,” said Erica.

The swings sat motionless in the still-warm night air. The park looked a little forlorn with no one in it, giving it purpose or life. There wasn’t even any breeze to make the seats move that had so recently cradled feminine butts as the owners of those butts came to an extraordinary agreement. It was extraordinary for more than the fact that a grown woman agreed to let her daughter of very tender years continue to be sexually active - to a degree. It was remarkable because both women were quite happy to share the same man as their sexual lives went forward. It was marvelous in that one of the women sharing this man was just beginning her sexual life, while the other was resuming it after a hiatus of half a decade. Had outsiders known what was decided on the swings in the park that night, words like ‘ridiculous’ or ‘absurd’ might have been used.

But nobody else knew about it, not even the man they agreed to parcel out.

And that was what they both decided needed to be done next.

When Julie parked her car at the curb in front of Bob’s house, there were no lights showing in the windows.

“Maybe he’s asleep,” said Erica.

“I don’t think so,” said Julie, looking at her watch. “It’s only nine-fifteen. I told him not to wait up, but I don’t think he goes to bed that early.”

“You told him not to wait up?”

“It was more important to find you,” said Julie.

“Awww.”

“And I’m pretty sure if I was missing from the house, the boys would notice and inquire,” said Julie.

“That’s very true. Those guys would starve to death if it wasn’t for you.”

“Which brings up something we haven’t talked about. You can run off to Uncle Bob’s house whenever you want and your brothers won’t notice, but more people pay attention to where I am and what I’m doing. And neither of us can actually spend the night with him. That’s good, in your case, because if you actually slept with him your virginity would be toast. I know you don’t think so, but I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

“Not lately,” said Erica, sweetly. Then she frowned. “I shouldn’t tease you about that. I know Daddy understands all this and approves, but I still shouldn’t tease you.”

“I’ll always be a widow,” said Julie. “Nothing can change that. But you’re right, I can still have a meaningful life.” She blinked. “Not that my life hasn’t been meaningful.”

“I know what you mean,” said Erica.

“That’s part of why this seems so surreal,” said Julie. “You’re fourteen, but sometimes you act much older.”

“I’m just trying to figure things out,” said Erica, shrugging her shoulders.

“And I’m just trying to help you,” sighed her mother. “I think,” she added. “It’s crazy for me to agree to what I’ve agreed to, tonight.”

“I don’t think it’s crazy at all,” said Erica.

“You wouldn’t,” said Julie, but there was no rancor in her voice. “Shall we go in and rock this poor man’s world?”

“Oh, very much,” said Erica, suddenly animated. She opened her door and bounced out. “What are we going to say to him?”

“I haven’t figured that part out, yet,” said Julie.

Bob was lying in bed, but not because he was tired. Primarily he lay there amid the rumpled sheets because he didn’t want to leave the nest in which he had so recently expanded his emotional life. What had happened with Julie had been just as unexpected for him as it was for her. It seemed like a dream, but he knew it wasn’t. He also knew it was unlikely that there would be a repeat of that intimacy. Julie had plenty on her widowed plate already, without the added complication of having to navigate that kind of relationship. Not with him, anyway. Maybe she could bring a stranger home to her bed and her children might accept it, but good old Uncle Bob couldn’t show up and hop in bed with their mother without there being major upheaval. Especially on Erica’s part. Her actions this night illustrated that.

So, the memory of Julie’s warm body on these sheets, her lingering but ever fainter scent, was all he was likely to have going forward. He didn’t want to give that up until he just had to.

He had headphones on, listening to one of his David Arkenstone CDs, so he didn’t hear the noise of his front door opening and closing. He hadn’t gotten up to lock the door after Julie left, looking for Erica. He wasn’t worried about burglars. It was a small town and lots of people left their doors unlocked.

Eyes closed, his body moved in time with the music, which swelled majestically in the headphones. When his eyes opened and he saw the two women standing just inside his bedroom door, it didn’t register with him instantly and his eyes kept going. They jerked back and his abs tensed as he saw them standing there, just looking at him.

He jerked the headphones off and instinctively pulled the sheet over his lower body to hide his nakedness. He had no idea that, to their eyes, he looked like a lion, king of the veldt, lolling around waiting to mate with his lioness of choice. Neither woman felt like a lioness, but both reacted viscerally to what they saw.

“What’s up?” asked Bob, his voice high. “You startled me.”

“I found Erica,” said Julie. “We need to talk to you.”

“Let me get dressed,” he said.

“No!” came the twin voices of two women who spoke as one.

Julie didn’t look at her daughter, and stepped forward one step.

“You can stay like that. We won’t take long.”

To Bob’s ears, that sounded like a prelude to, “We won’t be seeing much of you in the foreseeable future. This is goodbye.”

“Oh,” he said, feeling his gut clench in a different fashion. “Okay.”

Julie came to sit on the edge of the bed she’d made love in only two hours earlier.

“Erica and I had a talk,” she said. Her voice sounded much firmer than she felt. “We need to ask you something.”

“Ask me something?” This didn’t fit with the prediction he’d just made.

“Yes. We know you love both of us, and you know we both love you.” She got that much out before her courage flagged.

“But?” he suggested.

Erica had been standing, more or less patiently, but now her patience ran out. She moved to the bed, going behind her mother, and crawled to flop down beside her uncle. Her hand went to the sheet that barely covered his penis and tugged until said penis was uncovered again.

“What she’s trying to say is that we both love you and we want you to love both of us. You don’t have to pick one of us. I’m still not going to have actual sex with you. Mom can do that. But everything is cool. As long as you agree to let us share you. Do you agree? Please do, Uncle Bob.”

Bob had turned his head to look at her and now it swiveled so he could look at his sister-in-law’s face. That face was beet red.

“I’m a horrible mother, I know,” she said. “But we can’t change how we feel about you and there’s only one of you so we have to share.”

“You’re not a horrible mother,” he said as his mind whirled. “You’re an unconventional mother, but your daughter is highly unconventional, too.”

“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” said Julie.

“She thinks you won’t be able to take care of both of us, but I’m not worried. It’s not like we’ll be over here all the time. And you can’t give us any attention at our house because my brothers would see and get freaked out. So you’ll be able to rest and do your work and all that. Please? Please, please, please, please?”

“Let me get this straight,” said Bob. “You’re worried that a man - a normal man - might object to having to have two gorgeous girlfriends, who not only know each other but are happy to share him? Do I look insane?”

“No, you look naked,” said Erica. “Which has made me horny as hell.”

“Five dollars,” said Julie and Bob together.

“Oh, come on. Hell isn’t a bad word. It’s just descriptive,” complained Erica.

“It’s bad in the context in which it was used,” said Julie. “Just because I’m insane enough to let you lose your virginity with the man I love doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon all moral stances.”

“Wait!” said Bob. “What?”

Erica put her hand on his chest and stroked the hair there.

“Mom is convinced that if I keep playing with you, I’ll let you pop my cherry. That’s silly, of course, but she’s stubborn about it. All I want to do is what we’ve already done.”

Bob’s penis, which had enjoyed plenty of “down time” after Julie left, had perked up at the mention of cherries being popped, and now contemplated “what we’ve already done” which included surprisingly adept blow jobs. It thickened and lengthened and, in the process, moved from its former position to lie twenty degrees away. Both women noticed this.

“See?” said Julie. “Just talking about your virginity has him starting to get excited. I’m telling you, nature will move you forward, whether you want to be moved or not!”

“Is it getting hard?” asked Erica, moving her hand down to his abs. “Is it getting hard for me ... or Mom?”