Chapter 22: The House

Later Elena woke up and kissed me. I smiled at her, happier than I could remember being for a long time.

"I have to get ready for work," Elena told me.

I rolled over and kissed her solidly and she welcomed the kiss and kissed back using her tongue. But in a second, she pushed me away, giggling. "Later, dear Laura!"

She wouldn't shower with me either, but then again, she had to run home and change clothes, so I knew she had to rush. "I'll be back," she said, her voice gruff, but not very deep.

"You'd better!" I kissed her nose. "Bring a change of clothes and a toothbrush."

She looked at me. "Is that what you really want?"

I nodded.

"That means we're more than friends."

I laughed. "Anybody who can get me to do a mile in less than six minutes has to be more than a friend."

"Later," she told me and was gone.

I was contemplating what to have for lunch, being suddenly famished, when the doorbell rang. Karen Wheeler smiled at me. "Do you have a second?"

"I was contemplating lunch," I told her.

Karen looked at her watch, and then grinned. "I have an idea! Do you have any time?"

"As in how much?" I replied, thinking again about house hunting.

"Two hours."

I laughed, "My husband used to take two hour lunches. Sure, I just want to be back in time for Susan to get home from school."

"Tell you what, we'll leave her a note to go over to our place if she gets home before we do. Let me go and get Gus. We will have a really nice lunch!"

The next thing I knew, Karen was driving us in her Saturn, and rapidly ended up on the freeway, heading west.

She turned to me. "I bet they don't drive twenty miles to lunch on Manhattan!"

"They got excited going four blocks," I told her.

She smiled at me, as I sat in the front passenger seat.

"I wanted to talk about a couple of things, girl things," Karen went on.

"Sure."

"June is totally smitten by Carolyn," Karen said baldly. "I think it's a case of frustrated mother syndrome, but Sunday June was excited about getting Carolyn to a proper coach, then when she figured out Carolyn's problems with her mother -- her libido went into overdrive. Now it's cubed again. She's hanging around your house morning and evening, hoping Carolyn comes to visit."

I nodded. "Carolyn is twelve," I said, wishing I could meet her eyes. "But I don't think that's a problem. Carolyn isn't as -- practiced -- as June, but I don't think that will be a problem either." I didn't want to offend anyone, but I wanted it said.

"June doesn't want you to be jealous," Gus told me.

I did glance at her. There was a hint of amusement in her eyes, not anger or rage.

I shrugged. "I'm not going to be jealous."

"Then we need a way to facilitate my daughter's libido," Karen said.

"It's going to be a little hard, Carolyn is under some scrutiny," I informed them. "On the other hand, tough shit!"

Gus guffawed and clapped me on my back. "Language! I hear you're a stickler for proper language!"

"Except when the conversation turns to social workers."

"Damned right!" Karen added from next to me.

A while later we whisked into a New Orleans-style Cajun restaurant, Papa Deaux's, a long ways from the house. The food was superb and we talked about light topics and the baseball team.

On the way home, I spoke up. "Can I ask you two a personal, practical question?"

"Sure," Gus said.

"You live next to each other, but why didn't you get one big house?"

"Money," Karen said.

"Zoning," Gus said.

They laughed. "Let's just say the legal infrastructure isn't in place for two families to buy a single family residence, no matter how many bedrooms," Karen said.

"And any remodeling changes have to go to the zoning commission. They get snippy with you if they think the reason you want a bigger kitchen is because two families are going to live in a single family dwelling," Gus explained.

"I love to cook," I told them with a straight face.

"Well, if we had your kitchen, we wouldn't have had to think about remodeling," Karen said drolly.

"Could I buy a house and ah, rent out all of the bedrooms?" I asked

"That doesn't make much sense," Gus said, looking curious.

"I don't know," Karen said. "I'm sure though, if it's a good idea, there's a law against it."

We parked in Karen's driveway and she turned to me. "So you don't have a problem with June seeing Carolyn?"

"No. Normally I'd suggest another pool party this weekend, but I'm going off for a little R & R. I think it would be best if June dealt with this herself."

Karen chuckled at that. "You can be cruel at times, Laura! Not that it won't do my daughter good to defer gratification for a while."

"If she gets upset, mention to her that I was a virgin in all ways on my twenty-first birthday," I told her.

Gus and Karen both thought that was even more cruel... but they were both laughing.

I walked home and found Sherrie waiting for me, wanting to talk. I sat and listened to her worry about how she was sure that our having sex had changed everything between us and that she was sorry and it wouldn't happen again. After about ten minutes she arrived back where she'd started from, starting to repeat herself.

"Sherrie," I said, smiling. "I care a great deal for you. But you and I both know that it's never going to work for us."

"I know. I just don't want to be kicked out." That, of course, had been the crux of the conversation, even if she hadn't mentioned it before.

"Sherrie, if you want to stay, you can stay. I may have to buy a hotel, but you can stay, okay? I don't intend to kick you out of my house, much less my bed. I'm just trying to balance a lot of eggs right now. There are so many people I want to help!"

That brought her close to tears, thinking she was interfering. I ended up hugging her for half an hour, until Susan and Jamie got home. To my surprise, they had Carolyn in tow.

"My dad said he'd come and get me," Carolyn told me. "He had to go see the lawyer, then Mom. Then he wanted a nap before he goes to work." She looked at me soberly. "They want to take me away again. They say that I shouldn't be home alone."

It was on the tip of my tongue to say that for the first time I agreed with a social worker. Then I remembered that Terry had said he worked the graveyard shift. Right in the middle of my musing about that, June, Tony and Sylvia arrived, and the girls all went out to the pool.

Sherrie appeared at my elbow as I stood in the kitchen, watching the six girls splashing in the pool, having a good time.

"I'm not making this any easier, am I?"

I turned to her, leaned over and kissed her nose. "The only person making my life difficult at the moment is myself. Me, me, me. It's the things I want to do that are the issue." I nodded towards the front door.

"Elena is coming over after she gets off work. Seven, I think she said. She's going to stay the night."

"And what would she say if I wanted to watch?" Sherrie looked like a cat, contemplating whether or not to have goldfish-in-the-bowl or bird-in-a-cage for dinner.

I laughed, and to remove the sting, hugged her. "Sherrie, you've never asked me if you could watch that I remember. Marybeth asked for you."

She blushed and I hugged her harder.

"Sherrie, my love, relax. Enjoy."

"Laura, I think you love everyone."

"I guess," I replied. The pressure of Sherrie's breasts against mine was rapidly eroding my desire to be platonic. Only an industrial strength bra on her side and a more modest one on mine kept sparks from flying.

"I guess it wouldn't be a good idea," Sherrie said softly. "How am I ever going to explain my tastes to Mike?"

"The young officer?" I asked and Sherrie nodded.

I nodded at the pool. "I've had half the girls in the pool in my bed. It's not something I can explain to myself, much less anyone else. I have no idea."

"Life is really complicated," Sherrie observed.

"Life is," I agreed. "But, we can reduce it to some basics. Like, having ribs and broccoli tonight would be yummie."

"You are inviting someone over for broccoli?" Sherrie asked, astounded.

"Broccoli's good for you," I told her.

"Oh, yeah! Right! Green squishy stuff! Ick!"

I smiled politely, thinking about a plot to change Sherrie's mind about green vegetables. Only Susan would realize what was going on, because Roger had told me what he thought about Brussels sprouts. After my plot, he agreed they were very tasty. In regards to food, Susan was a proper teenager: when she was hungry, she'd eat anything. If she was hungry enough, she'd chase it down and fix it herself.

It was an odd thing. I felt the house change. One second, it was the house, and then it was something more. I was standing and watching the timer on the microwave count off the last few seconds of defrosting the ribs. I tried to put my finger on the change, but I couldn't. Then Elena kissed me on the back of my neck, and then she wrapped her arms around my waist.

"Miss me?"

I put my hands over hers, hugging them to me. That was how the house felt. Complete. Happy, satisfied. It was how I felt.

"Enormously," I told her.

"I was a wreck, today," Elena whispered in my ear. "I just wanted to come home to you."

I turned to face her. "Please, come with me." I reached out and took her hand, and led her to the pool. Sherrie was sitting at the table, reading a schoolbook. The others were playing some sort of game that involved riding on someone else's shoulders, trying to dunk each other.

I stood at the edge of the pool and smiled. "This is my friend, Elena," I told them. "I expect you'll be seeing a lot of her."

Sherrie looked away, a smile on her face.

Susan and the others in the pool looked at me, looked at Elena... and went back to what they had been doing.

Elena patted me on the bottom. "I think that was a sign they are more interested in dinner than anything else."

"I guess!" We shared an easy laugh.

It was odd, I thought. One minute I was desperately searching for something, and not entirely sure what. Now I'd found it and I was content, even if I still wasn't sure what I'd found.

Before dinner, June and her friends left. Linda picked up Jamie and Terry came for Carolyn, leaving just four of us. We talked for a while, then Susan and Sherrie went to study, leaving Elena and I sitting alone, next to the pool.

"I brought things for tonight and tomorrow night," Elena told me. "I'll take care of myself over the weekend; I suspect you will be busy enough yourself. Marybeth let me read the good book once. It's a lot to think about."

"You're sure it won't be a problem?" I asked.

She smiled. "We have our own definition of fidelity, many of us. Some people don't understand; well, maybe most people wouldn't understand. There are people in our lives who are important to us; we love them beyond compare. But we love each other in different ways, to different degrees. Most of the girls who joined the team when I did are happily married now, busy raising families. Divorces aren't as common among us as with most other people.

"Yet, we all remember our lives together, no matter how far we go down our own paths. The good times, our unity... coming together as a group and having it mean something special.

"Have a good time this weekend; don't think about me... well, maybe a little."

I leaned close and kissed her on the cheek. "That won't be hard."

Much later we lay together in bed, trading long kisses and occasional caresses. Elena wasn't in a hurry, and in spite of thinking I was, I was content to move at her pace.

"You are unusually submissive tonight," Elena whispered into my ear, her tongue then assaulting it furiously.

I had to stop for a moment and laugh. And after a few minutes, I still hadn't stopped.

"I didn't think it was that funny," Elena said, shaking her head helplessly.

"I'm sorry. Of all of the things in the world I feel right now; submissive isn't on the list. Content and happy head the list. I'm enjoying every second we're together." I squirmed, and in spite of her more muscular build, I had no trouble flipping her over on her back, and then pressing down against her. Of course, she wasn't resisting very hard.

"Have you ever been with a man?" I asked boldly.

"A couple of times. Once it wasn't a disaster, but afterwards he started beating on his chest, telling the world I was his. I wasn't."

I smiled at her and kissed her very hard, much more passionately than we'd been kissing. My hands went to her breasts and I tweaked her nipples into hardness.

"I was only with my husband, Roger," I said, breathing hard a little later. "I talked to a couple of other women I knew, some of them much more experienced than I was. Am." I corrected myself.

"Roger appears to have been a prince among men. There were times that he spent as much as a half-hour in foreplay. Most times, less. And yes, there were times when the foreplay was in parallel with the sex. With you, sweet Elena, you are content with foreplay."

It was her turn to laugh. "Some guys, Laura, will tell you, all we do is foreplay. And if you think I'm going to be content with foreplay..." Her hands wrapped around my bottom and she pulled me tightly too her. Our midsections started grinding together. I went back to rubbing and tweaking her breasts and there was a hard urgency when we kissed.

It's a good thing I have a nice-sized bed, because we used it. We rolled over and over, one way or another; kisses and caresses, teasing tongues and breasts rubbing together. Her hand dropped and she started fingering me, first my clit, then inside me. Her technique was different than Marybeth's; Elena wanted me to come, Marybeth wanted to leave your knees shaking before and after you came.

After she'd brought me off, I slid down and started licking her inner thighs, then the folds of her pussy, then her clit and then deeper inside her. "Ahhhh!" Elena sighed sibilantly. "I'd forgotten how nice this is bare!"

So I did it again, and in the middle of listening to Elena's rising passion, I heard a soft, familiar gasp. I moved slightly, glancing quickly. Sherrie was at the door to my room, her hands between her legs, rubbing furiously. Other than that, she was nude.

Elena lifted her head and looked too, then grinned at me. She tilted her head so she could watch Sherrie, as Marybeth had, and I went back to pleasuring her.

Later Elena and I lay relaxed in each other's arms, Sherrie gone once again.

"You'll be back by Sunday night?" Elena asked, her eyes glowing.

"Yes."

"And you won't mind if I show up with clothes for a couple of days?"

"Not at all."

Elena leaned over and kissed my nipple, then pillowed her head on my breast. "I love you," she said softly.

"And I love you."

We swam with June again the next morning. Afterwards, June said she wanted to talk to me so Elena wandered into the kitchen looking for something to eat.

"Laura, did you talk to my mom about Carolyn?"

I contemplated things and nodded. "We also talked about Cajun food, zoning, and baseball," I interjected.

"It's okay. Sometimes Mom thinks she has to protect me from myself. She gets this look on her face that says everything.

"I just wanted to tell you I'm okay about Carolyn. I swear I wouldn't do anything to hurt her."

"Can I tell you something, something from one woman to another?"

June nodded, suddenly wary.

"Moms have concerns about their daughters. Their kids, whatever gender. I'm a friend of yours, your mom, and your friends. June, if I thought for a second you were out to hurt someone, you'd be out the front door so fast, your head would spin."

She nodded.

"So, you don't have to tell me how you feel about Carolyn, just like I didn't tell you how I felt about Elena. People know these things, June, without having to be told."

She grinned. "I figured. She's nice."

"She is very nice.

"I am not spying on you for Karen -- she told me how she thought you felt about Carolyn. June, Carolyn needs friends desperately."

June nodded gravely. "I wanted to have Dad ask her dad if she could come with me to swimming Saturday morning. I told my coach about her and she says she would give Carolyn a tryout."

I smiled at June, reached out and squeezed her hand. "You would make Carolyn happier, I think, with that, than anything else."

"You're saying I shouldn't..." she waved her hands helplessly.

"Make love. June, that's not my choice. It's something the two of you have to decide, one at a time, then together. I don't think it would hurt, but I think a friend would take it slow."

June looked at me steadily, an uncanny gaze. Some of the commentators were right, I thought uneasily. Our kids are growing up much faster than we did, than our parents did. But what about kids from times gone past? When girls June's age were married? When boys her age worked just as hard as any adult? It was something to think about.

I waved at the house, towards Susan's room. "My daughter and her friends compare it to butterflies, flitting from flower to flower. They enjoy each other's company; they make love and then move on to someone new. I don't think that would be good for Carolyn."

"Everybody's different," June agreed.

"We are. Which means we have to understand the people we care about better than most, so we don't mess up."

June nodded, her eyes bright. "Mom says the same thing. When she says it, I feel like she's trying to control me, make me do things her way. When you say it, it's different."

"It's not really different. If I were to say something like that to Susan, she'd probably tell you I was 'going all mother' on her. That's a phrase I heard a few times back in New York. Not so much any more."

No, we had reasons why we clung to each other tightly in those days. Even now we have reasons. Even if they were different that what they had been.

June nodded, then got up. "Thanks for letting me swim."

"You're welcome," I told her. "We need another pool party, I think. Not this weekend, but how about the week after that?"