Chapter 12: Parents Visit

Brian and Beth Wolcott were a handsome older couple. He was a strapping man about six-foot-four with hair starting to fleck with gray. He sold farm equipment, but from his form and muscles, I was sure he lifted most of it by hand, including the combines and tractors. Beth was a school teacher and librarian in Carbondale – a nearby community close to the state university in Chapel Hill.

Crystal was doing some portrait work in someone’s home, so their daughter Trish and I welcomed the women’s parents to the house. They’d driven down. Things had been rearranged so that they’d use the room officially assigned to Trish. She’d be with my father, as usual.

Crystal hurried in with her camera bag over her shoulder. Set things down and then hugged her parents. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Well, we had this long weekend, and we’d also heard via the grapevine that BOTH our daughters had gotten engaged to a father-son combination. We had to see this for ourselves, and to meet the lucky men.” Beth turned and winked at me.

Ross came hustling inside from his day at work. Despite the Florida heat, he still wore a suit and tie to work. His concession to a casual day was to wear a sport coat rather than a complete man’s suit with vest.

Trish made introductions all around, and Ross and I stood next to each other, obviously on our best behavior. There was a fuss then over the engagement rings we bought for our fiancées, and then over Ross’s fabulous large house and pool.

I fielded the first tricky question that I’d worried about, “Why are you also living here?” All the implications that a guy my age should be on his own were evident.

I politely replied, “Trish wanted to live with Ross, my father, and the sisters wanted to be close to each other, so I opted to move back to dad’s home since Crystal and I felt the same way. It’s temporary. The house is large and I still have my condo downtown. Crystal and I will probably move back there sometime soon. This has worked out, as I’ve gotten to know my future step-mother well, and my dad has gotten to know his future daughter-in-law.”

Crystal had not thought of those relationships in that way. She whirled to her older sister, “I will NOT call you MOM!” There was laughter all around. Ross laughed the loudest of the lot. He worried that he’d be seen as either a cradle robber or an older guy that lusted after a young trophy wife.

I let Ross play host and get the Wolcott’s situated in their room. I did help with their luggage.

Crystal and I had a brief chat, but there wasn’t much to say beyond what prep we’d already done for the relatively unexpected visit. We had five days to prepare. I asked about the photo shoot she’d had that afternoon; it was a more traditional portrait for business, and had gone smoothly for her.

We were talking about revamping the website for Crystal Blue Photography when Ross, Trish, Brian, and Beth came back into the kitchen area. Ross offered up drinks, since it was the cocktail hour. I was already working on getting some things ready to barbecue.

Brian asked his daughter, “Why did you use the word ‘Blue’ in the name of your business?”

Crystal smiled, “There’s a song that still played a lot on the radio named ‘Crystal Blue Persuasion’ by a group called Tommy James and the Shondells. I’ve always liked the sound of that song – it’s mellow, plus my name is Crystal, so Blue just seemed to fit in the name.”

He was chuckling but added, “‘Blue’ does have other meanings, such as the type of movies or photography you end up with.”

I about choked. Yes, ‘Blue’ is a term usually coupled with the word ‘movie’ to indicate a pornographic film. Crystal and I had done three of them so far; one each for Molly, Allison, and Kit and Deke. We’d been together in the last film because Deke wanted what we called an MFMF video, and she was still doing the editing and composition of that. The four of us had fucked each other’s woman all night long – on film, so to speak.

Crystal and I had even teased one another two weeks prior about the ‘blue movies’ that we’d been making – we’d even used that vocabulary. Did Brian know something and was he probing before creating a huge awkward scene with what we were doing – what Crystal Blue Photography was doing?

I think I held my breath for a while. Beth asked about barbecuing, and I was conscripted to show her the permanent grill on the rear patio along with the finer points of the pool and spa. I cast a glance at Crystal, but she seemed unflappable. She was going to handle whatever situation arose just fine, unlike what I’d probably do. I led Beth through the kitchen, and we picked up some of the dishes and condiments to take outside to the picnic table where we’d all eat dinner.

“What’s that?” Beth asked as she pointed.

“Oh, that’s our Jacuzzi or hot tub if you prefer. It’s very relaxing. We can go in later, if you’re interested. We use it all the time. Coupled with a swim, it’s fantastic to get the kinks out of your muscles. It’s very relaxing.”

“I’d like that. Knowing my daughters, I bet you guys skinny-dip and go naked in the Jacuzzi?”

I was sure that was a trick question, but I opted to treat it as a statement, so I gave a nervous chuckle and tinkered with one of the burners on the grill, as though it was being a problem. I’m sure I was also blushing. She’d nailed exactly what usually happened, only she’d left out the fucking on the picnic table, one of the chaises, or on the cushioned side of the Jacuzzi.

Beth shrugged since I hadn’t answered her question, and then asked a question about the size of the pool. It was large. Ross had been a lap swimmer when younger and was only getting back into it at Trish’s urging.

After we went back inside, I freshened up everyone’s drinks and even made a batch of margaritas that were popular with the women. As I puttered around with the ingredients and the blender, Crystal came and told me to relax. Her words helped, especially as she was so calm.

Then Crystal hit me with a hammer, so to speak. “My parents know that Trish and I are very sexual creatures; mom especially. If they guess that we have sex together or that we even have friends over to also play, that’s not going to throw them into a hissy-fit. Stop worrying.”

I did another one of my eye rolls, suspecting that she was underestimating her parents reaction. She then delivered the punchline. “Besides, they’d probably want to participate. I can tell my mother already has the hots for you.”

I threw my neck out of joint when I jerked my head around to look at her. She was serious. I was in trouble. I’d have to walk a tightrope over the burning lava to get through this visit. Did Crystal’s remark mean that her mother – of all people – liked me in a sexual way? O. M. G.

Crystal’s remarks also made me look at Beth differently, of course. She was about fifty, and a perfect MILF. If anything, Beth was boobier than either of her daughters. She’d gone through the middle-aged spread of her hips, but that left her just as desirable – big hips, big tits.

She was wearing tight shorts, and those proved that she still had a nice ass and great looking legs. Along with a very photogenic face and beautiful light auburn hair, she was a delicious package. I mentally hit myself on the side of the head for lusting after my future mother-in-law. Of course, I was already routinely fucking my future step-mother-in-law.

Beth actually kept me company while I did the grilling of the hamburger and chicken patties. I also had some ears of corn on the cob on the grill before I started in on the meat. Everything came together for a nice meal. I was, however, still on edge.

Over dinner, Ross and I were both questioned in more detail about each of our jobs. Ross talked about his investment strategies based on picking undervalued stocks in industries with modest price-to-earnings ratios. He gave a few examples, and then talked about how he’d also avoided some of the bust cycles in various industry segments; for instance when the whole tech industry crashed and burned before executing an awkward recovery.

I talked about the work I was doing in cyber security and how I was trying to protect companies against viruses and ransomware attacks. I told about the situation in our own city only a few months earlier with the ransomware attacks, and how I’d untangled that mess.

We also learned more about Brian’s business and Beth’s teaching in middle school and her library work. He had few stories to tell: people just came in with a need for farm and construction equipment, and he matched up their needs with what he had and sold it to them. John Deere loved him. Caterpillar loved him.

Beth, on the other hand, spent most of her time teaching high school civics, and she was a consummate story teller. She taught in a school with over a thousand hormone-laden kids that wanted to put themselves in harm’s way over and over. She was constantly separating couples who wanted to fuck in janitor’s closets or chemistry labs, and then there were all the other PDAs that she had to contend with.

Beth said, “If there’s a virgin among any of them by the time they finish their sophomore year, I’ll eat my hat. I’d never imagined the situations we find, and of course they didn’t warn us about any of that as we got our teacher’s certificates and training.” She laughed gaily.

We chuckled, and I tried to change the subject to ... hurricanes. Hurricanes were always a good subject to talk about in Florida. There was never enough to say. I tried to get Ross to talk about how strong his house was – build to the Miami-Dade building code, and all that.

Brian, however, redirected the conversation. “Ross, you’re my age. How’s that going to play out with my older daughter. I understand you were married before?”

Ross handled things with élan. “My first wife was the love of my life, and then she was suddenly gone. Diane passed from an auto-immune disease about ten years ago. I was sure I’d never find anybody to love or to love me. And then, Trish came into my life.” He looked at her with true love.

He told how he’d met Crystal at a coffee shop, and then how she’d brought her older sister to a dinner that I would also be at. He talked about how I’d met Crystal on a couple of my flights, the name mix up with her using ‘Alice’, and then how he’d fallen for Trish.

“I couldn’t hope that she felt the same way that I did, but she read me like a book. She knew that I loved her, and she told me the feeling was mutual. We were more open with our emotions after that, and we were – we are – on the same page.”

Trish was smiling and nodding. She added, “You know I want a child. We’re even going to give Dave a little brother or sister in the near future.” Ross was nodding and smiling. I hadn’t heard that news before. I was going to be an uncle. My brother or sister would be the same age as the kids I’d have with Crystal. We hadn’t talked about children. Hmmm.

I thought about how interesting that would be – a sibling thirty-plus years younger than me. Ross would probably feel like a grandfather. I’d help raise their kid along with any children that Crystal and I had.

The thoughts I just had got articulated by Brian. He challenged Ross regarding raising a child between the ages of fifty and seventy. My father didn’t back down. “Yes, it’ll be a challenge, but I’ve never backed away from one, especially in my own family. After all, I raised Dave as a single father, and he seems to have turned out all right.”

Beth turned to me, “How do you feel about having a new sibling?”

I laughed, “Fine on all counts. Crystal and I will help raise him or her. It takes a village and all that. I suspect we’ll have some of our own. We haven’t talked about that other than to acknowledge that we want a family.”

Beth said, “All the fun is in the conceiving part, in any case. Brian and I sure enjoyed creating the two of you.” She gestured to her daughters.

Brian added, “I sure was dumb about planning to be a parent – eighteen and dumb. I’m glad that Beth’s parents were so forgiving when she got pregnant. At least, they let us get married. Now, we’ve been married for over twenty-five years.”

Trish teased, “And I still worry about them having more kids.”

Brian laughed. Beth blushed.

Beth smiled, but pointed back at Trish, “And I wonder which of these two handsome men will get YOU pregnant.”

My brain froze, cracked into a billion pieces, and shattered onto the patio deck like spilled like a trillion salt crystals. I replayed the last thirty seconds of comments by everyone in the room. Yep, my future mother-in-law had just unequivocally made reference to the fact that Ross and I fucked both her daughters. Were there no secrets to be had.

Ross looked like he’d swallowed a frog. He’d had the same realization and reaction. Our eyes locked together and then looked skyward hoping for that hurricane to sweep us away.

Crystal and Trish both were looking at their parents like deer in the headlights of an oncoming locomotive.

My brain reboot took a full minute. I was still trying to understand the conversation and how to shift direction, only there wasn’t any easy way – just a huge awkward silence. Somehow, Beth precisely understood that Ross, Trish, Crystal, and I were a sexual foursome. We had sex together or apart with either of the opposite sex. We did that often, frequently, and repeatedly, too.