Chapter 9: Philadelphia

After our pirate wedding and brief honeymoon cruise, we got down to practical matters. Cindy had two weeks of school left, so the four of us lived at the hotel. We decided that when school let out, we should have a nice home for all of us and have all the practical details worked out. We divided up our tasks. I would handle financial matters, Kelly would find us a nice home somewhere convenient, and Penny would take care of any medical or personal issues.

Mine was the easy part. I gave a voting proxy for our board seats to a trusted friend at the company, sold some of our stocks, and drew up the documents to split our interests in the company. I also made a long list of other financial and stock transactions.

The next day I gave Cindy her bank card and told her, “We set up an account for you and some investments for when you’re older. You’re covered financially when you want to go to college, or get a car, or get married and buy a house. Your card will start working tomorrow morning. It works like a credit card but takes money from your account. No credit card bill.”

She realized it was a good thing, but I hadn’t explained how good. She eagerly asked, “So ... uh ... what’s in my account, how much can I spend? Can I get ice cream for everybody?”

I laughed and told her, “As much ice cream as you could ever eat! Enough ice cream to float the Castle!” We laughed together. “Your mom gets a list of what you buy but feel free to spend a thousand a month. You don’t need to ask first. In an emergency, you can spend up to fifty thousand.”

Her eyes got huge. She almost looked like an anime character. “WOW!”

“Have fun with it but don’t go too crazy. Buying a dozen motorcycles for your friends isn’t an emergency.” We laughed and smiled.

She said, “Thank you!” many times, then hugged me and kissed my cheek sweetly. “I love you Daddy! I love you SOOO much!” As we were ending the hug, I thought I felt her hand sliding down to rest on my butt. I figured that had to be an accident, she was an innocent kid.

“Oh, I almost forgot, you’re going to have a busy afternoon.” I took a stack of cash out of my pocket and said, “Here’s the back allowance I owe you, for the years we were apart.” I handed her a stack of hundred-dollar-bills. “There’s a mall close to here. Go get a bunch of clothes, or toys, or candy, or something! Your new friend Anne will go with and help carry whatever you buy.”

I had hired Investigator Anne to be Cindy’s chaperone and bodyguard until we got settled into a new home. She was a former Army MP. I mused, “A nanny who’s good with a baton and a gun. What more could an over-protective Daddy ask for?”

Cindy hugged me again, kissed me on the cheek, and did a mock salute; “Yes, sir, Daddy!” That night, she returned with bag after bag of clothes, a laptop computer, and a new purse.

Later that day I sat down with Penny and Kelly. “Here’s your card, Penny. It’ll be active tomorrow morning.” I put a stack of cash on the table near her. “Here’s five grand in case you need anything today.” She was obviously surprised.

“There’s five million in your account. Sign at the bottom of this paperwork, and you’ll have shares in the company worth a little over 200 million, and control of Cindy’s 200 million in shares until she’s 25 or gets a degree.”

“Cindy also has an account with 5 million and a card, with a limit of 50 thousand a month. You’ll get a monthly list of what she spends. I told her to feel free to spend a thousand a month, and up to the 50 thousand limit if something is a real emergency, but that’s up to you now. You can take off the limit when she’s older, or change it if you feel the need.”

“If you only consider the account balances and intrest, you can each spend five thousand a month, until Cindy’s a hundred and forty-six years old. With the stocks, it’s closer to four million a year. Each. Even if you decide Kelly and I are jerks next week and you leave us, it’s yours. You’re way better than fine financially, for life. We want you with us the rest of our lives and beyond, but we want to know you two will be ok, no matter what happens.”

Penny was in shock, “This is ... No! This is WAY too much! No way! This can’t be real! What the...”

Kelly patted Penny’s back and reassured her, “This is real. We really love you this much. It’s yours. You deserve more, but it’s all we can give you.” She kissed Penny’s cheek and hugged her. They cried together for a little while.

Penny had been hurt too many times before, and was still a little suspicious. “Sorry, but I have to ask, for all you’re giving us, what do you want from me?”

Kelly answered better than I ever could; “We want you to love us and be happy. Hopefully happy, naked, and on top of us, but love and happy is all we need.” Kelly lightly licked Penny’s lips. “If you decide to leave us right now, all that is still yours. But please don’t! Please?”

Penny laughed and replied; “Happy and naked with you two sounds pretty damn good!” She kissed me on the lips and gently squeezed Kelly’s boob.

“This is really embarrassing, but when I saw that ‘contract’, I was so desperate, I needed money so bad...”

She took a deep breath; “For enough money and a place to stay, even if you were mean to me, I would have done everything on the list, except maybe the butt golf.”

I asked; “MAYBE the butt golf? So there’s still hope?” We all laughed until we couldn’t breathe.

“When I told Karl to wait a minute, I was debating if I was willing to go through with the ‘contract’.”

She blushed intensely. “Do you remember what I said, Karl?”

“Honestly, I was so excited to see you again, and so fascinated with your pretty face and those long fingernails, I didn’t hear what you said. I was trying to come up with an answer to an unknown question, when my Pirate Queen came in and saved my bacon!” I hugged Kelly tight. “Thanks again for that!” I kissed her cheek.

Penny hid her face in her hands in shame, and went on; “I said I would do it for a nice place to stay and a thousand a week. I’m so terrible!” She cried intensely. “I was so worried and angry because I thought you were going to ask how much for Cindy!”

Kelly reassured her; “No! We love Cindy! We would never hurt her! We loved her since we felt her kicking in your belly!”

I said, “I loved her since you were in the hospital, and told me you were pregnant! We would never hurt her, or you. We feel so bad you had to go through all that.”

Kelly and I hugged and kissed her gently. I said, “You had an impossible situation. You were doing the only thing you could to survive!”

Kelly and I really did feel horrible for her. The three of us hugged for several more minutes.

Once we calmed down, Penny finished signing the documents.

Kelly licked her lips, and teasingly said; “Don’t underestimate yourself. Forget a grand a week, you’re worth at least a grand an hour!” She hugged Penny and French kissed her.

I squeezed Penny’s breasts from behind her; “Nope! These are worth at least three grand an hour! But you get much more than that, just because we love you. Sleep with us or not, screw us or not, totally your choice.

But please! Please! Screw us!”

We laughed again and had another group hug.

After a while I continued; “There are just a few other things. We’re Kelly and Karl Thompson. You’re Penny Baker. So why is our daughter Cynthia Wallace?”

Penny explained; “When she was born, I just gave that name because I didn’t want any chance of you getting in trouble. Wallace is the last name of the boy I ran away with from the first foster home. It didn’t mean anything. I was just trying to spare you any problems.”

“That makes sense. I was just curious.

The other issue is that we were married BEFORE Kelly was actually a captain. So legally, we’re not married yet.”

Kelly said, “Penny and I had a talk about that earlier. We were trying to figure out a way that the THREE of us could all be married, like in some Muslim countries. But since our last name is the same ... we have a meeting with an international law specialist next month to try and figure something out.”

I said, “No problem, we’ll take care of that later then. How are we doing on finding a house?”

Kelly said, “I have pictures, hold on...”

As Kelly turned to get her laptop I teasingly asked; “So how much for some butt golf?”

Penny punched my shoulder.

“Hey! That’s Kelly’s job!” I smiled.

Kelly grabbed my lower lip with her fingers and thumb, and quietly said; “I’m only saying this because I love you, and you have no people skills. SHUT THE HELL UP!”

We had another good laugh.

“This house is just outside Miami, near the marina where we have the Castle. Four thousand square feet, five bedrooms, courtyard, outdoor pool and spa, Roman columns in front, palm trees in the yard, marble and stone everywhere. It’s only ten minutes from the airport too.” I thought it was nice and Penny loved it.

“This one is a little bigger, log cabin-style, atop a large hill in upstate New York. I figured that would work nicely if we decide to be more involved with the company again, and go to meetings in the city. It used to be part of a ski resort. It has two fireplaces, a large deck with outdoor hot tub, and a sauna. And EIGHT BEDROOMS! If we want, we could make a lot more babies!” She gave a naughty laugh.

“There are three ski hills within walking distance. The airport is half an hour away, which isn’t bad.” I loved it! Penny thought it was a little old-fashioned, but nice.

She showed us the third set of pictures; “If we want something in a historic city area, the top floor of this eight-story building in Philadelphia is available. 3,500 square feet, and they’ll remodel it to suit us. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson used to live on the same street. We can dock the Castle a couple miles away.” It was a large empty space, that we could arrange to our liking. There were lots and lots of historical sites nearby. Penny kind of liked that idea, and I saw that it had a lot of potential.

She showed us three others, all nice, and in areas that seemed to make sense.

Kelly asked; “Are there any of them you don’t like?” We shook our heads.

Kelly sent a text from her phone and said, “Great, we just bought all six!” She paused, then giggled, then laughed like crazy. “The look on your faces! I should have recorded you two! Hah ha hahaha! We can decide for real with Cindy tomorrow.” We decided on both the Miami and New York houses.

I asked, “So how are we doing on medical issues?”

Penny said, “My casts come off in a month. The three of us girls had exams and blood tests. That just leaves you. Your doctor appointment is tomorrow morning.”

“The only personal or family thing I think we still need to discuss is, do we want more children?”