Chapter 1

It was an early winter, which promised to be a bad one. All during the move we had been getting rained on and the new flat smelled like wet cardboard. The last of the boxes had been hauled up the winding flight of outside stairs, the furniture was all moved and the traditional pizza and beer had been devoured by our friends we'd roped into helping us. We had the bed set up and the flat to ourselves. The moving part of the move was over and now all that remained was getting it all unpacked and put away.

"This can wait 'til tomorrow. Let's go try out the tub."

"You talked me into it."

The flat in Fairfax was smaller than the apartment we'd had in San Francisco, but the back yard butting up against the hill had sold us on it. The friends of ours that had had it before us had done a lot of gardening and we'd spent many a pleasant summer evening there. Soaking out the strains of a long moving day in the tub seemed like just the ticket to me.

We grabbed the last four beers from the case and a couple of big bath towels from the box marked linens and left the chaos of the unpacking and went out to the deck outside the back door. The first thing that Nancy had done on the first trip was to turn on the heater for the tub. There was a fiberglass canopy over part of the deck where we stripped off our jeans and t shirts and hung them on the hooks on the shake covered back wall. With sighs of relief we eased ourselves into the water and sat across from each other.

"Here's to the new place." I toasted her with the long neck. She clinked her bottle against mine

"Here, here!" She took a long swallow and we smiled at each other. "I'm sure glad we're done with the heavy part of this."

"Yeah, you and me both. I thought that box spring was never going to go around that corner." The stairs to the flat meandered around the side of the house and had a fence that made it tricky to get the box springs around. We'd had to up end it to get it up the bend.

"Sure glad we had some friends to help with all the heavy stuff."

"Yeah. Well, nothing got broken anyway."

"Remind me to put the rest of the wet stuff into the dryer after we get out."

"Sure." The only disaster had been a box that had opened up over (of course) the big puddle by the curb. Fortunately, the flat had a washer and dryer.

"Well, it could have been worse. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow."

"Me neither."

The living room was one isle through boxes of stereo gear, the kitchen was crammed with boxes of stuff waiting to be shelved and the bedroom was the only room where you could walk around without bumping into things. At least we had all the stuff out of the old place and that was cleaned up.

"I'm going to take a mental health day tomorrow." Nancy said. "I just can't face going into work."

"Good plan." I said. "We'll sleep in and face the mess later on." I was grateful that she was going to play hookie. I wasn't looking forward to having to deal with the unpacking by myself. "Besides, I'd have the kitchen so screwed up that you'd never be able to find anything."

She chuckled. "My thoughts exactly."

We soaked for a while companionably, listening to the rain. The drops falling on us in the hot water felt good. After a while I asked her to massage my lower back and she did. There are some things that I love about Nancy that have nothing to do with how great she is in bed or how much I like her off the wall Texas humor. The way that she can find the knots in my muscles and ease them out... oh god!

Of course, we started to fool around out in the tub. I had her sit up on the side of the tub and lay back on the towels and parted the petals. Which was a nice way of saying I went down on her.

I thought that she was about to come at one point. She kind of gave a start and tensed up. When I increased my tongue speed, she pushed me away and then had me stand up on the bench and fuck her while she lay there. It wasn't anything memorable, just one of those lazy fucks that are nice, but not earth shattering. Hey, after moving boxes all day in the rain, what do you expect?

We got our rocks off and then went in and slept for the first time in our new home.

The first night in the hot tub, when I thought that Nancy was about to come, she'd looked up and seen this kid up on the patio that was above the deck looking at us. It had startled her, but she figured what the hell, all kids are curious and she didn't want to make a big deal of it and embarrass him. The truth was, I think, that Nancy has a kinky streak in her and it kind of added to the moment for her. If she'd said something, then I would have had to stop what I was doing and chased him off.

What the hell, she thought. Let him watch. She'd wondered what the kid was doing out in the rain, but figured that he was probably taking shelter under the canopy on the upper patio deck.

We had settled in and everything (mostly) put away where it belonged. I had to go out of town for a few days on a shoot and she was there by herself. She was soaking in the tub one night when she looked up and saw the kid sneaking into the yard. She thought about it for a while. She wondered what he was doing, sneaking around like that on such a rainy night. She thought that he might be just being a peeping tom, but she watched out of her slitted eyes and he didn't seem to be looking at her, just sheltering from another rainy night.

Nancy has more than her share of curiosity and fear doesn't seem to be in her vocabulary. She climbed out of the tub, put on her robe and went up to the patio. The kid was at the back of the patio on the built in table.

"Whatcha doin?" She asked him. It was only six or seven steps to the patio, so he didn't have time to run off. He started, not having seen her coming.

"Nothin'! Honest!"

The kid was wearing baggy pants, a loose jacket and a floppy cap. One of those caps that look like something a street urchin from before World War I would wear.

Nancy looked at him curiously. "So whatcha doin' here on such a lousy night?"

"Just trying to keep dry." He looked at her warily. The kid was somewhere between twelve and fourteen, she thought.

"So why aren't you home?" Nancy asked. "You got a home?"

"Yeah, I got a home."

"Yeah? Where?" He pointed to a house a few doors down. Nancy could hear a loud angry voice coming from it.

"Folks givin' you a hard time?"

"My dad drinks." The kid said flatly.

"Oh." They stared at each other for a few moments.

"Well, you want to come in and have some hot chocolate?"

The kid looked at her for a moment, weighing his options. It was cold and windy up on the patio. "Sure."

"I'm Nancy."

"I'm Cat."

Nancy has a lot of love in her. The Cat was the first of the strays that she picked up while we were living there, but not the last. The Cat had been using the patio to get out of the house when dad was loaded and started shouting and smashing things.

Dad was one of those instant assholes. Just add alcohol.

Nancy and The Cat sat down, had hot chocolate, and talked for a while. Nancy has good instincts about people and told The Cat (which is how we always referred to the kid) that anytime things got weird at home, come over and hang out. The kid wound up sleeping on the couch that night and a lot of nights afterward.

There was something very cat like about the kid. When things got tough at home, she'd sneak out the bedroom window, across the roof, up through the oak tree at the side of the house, walk along the top of the fence in the back yard of the house next door and into our yard. She had a very cat like wariness to her and she had a cats way of moving.

By the time that I got back from the shoot, she had adopted Nancy.

The cab let me off at the bottom of the steps. I left my suitcase at the bottom of the stairs and lugged the camera cases up the stair. Nancy was in the tub with a stranger when I let myself through the gate.

"Hi hon! Welcome home!" She jumped out of the tub and gave me a kiss. Getting my shirt wet was a small price to pay for one of her kisses.

We broke off the kiss and hugged for a while. "Who's your friend?" I asked.

"That's The Cat." She turned. "Cat, this is Tony."

"Hi, Tony!"

"Hi, Cat!"

We smiled and waved to each other. Then I put the camera cases in the living room and went down to get the suitcase. Going through an airport, I can move all the gear by myself, but the airports don't have stairs. By the time I the suitcases up the stairs, The Cat was alone in the tub.

Nancy was waiting for me in the bedroom and when we got back, The Cat was gone.

Cat like manners, was Nancy's comment.

Nancy explained about The Cat's home scene and I understood. My cousin used to come over to our house when his home scene got grim. I wasn't too enthused about having a teenager hanging around, but I went along with it. I figured that it would cramp my plans to chase Nancy around the house stark naked, but what the hell. Life doesn't always work out the way you plan it.

The next night was clear, but cold as hell. Well, cold for California. We were in the hot tub, when there was a whistle from out of the night.

"Come on down, Cat!" Nancy called. There was a thump and the kid came bouncing down the stairs from the patio. The thought of a horny teenager ogling Nancy didn't exactly thrill me, but what the hell. She was worth ogling.

"Hi Nancy! Hi Tony!"

"There's some cold Coke's in the icebox. Grab one and join us."

The Cat hesitated for a moment and said, "Sure it's okay?" Asking Nancy, but actually making sure that it was okay with me.

"It's fine. Grab me another ginger ale while you're at it."

The Cat went in and brought out the beverages. I was facing up the hill and could hear the kid undressing behind me. The Cat slid in on the other side of Nancy. Smart kid. I'd have sat next to her too. I just hoped that he didn't develop grabby hands.

"Hope I'm not intruding."

"Don't worry. We'll tell you when you're intruding."

"Yeah. We didn't really get a chance to meet last night." I held out my hand and we shook hands.

"Pleased to meet you." The kid had the most amazing colored eyes. Grey green.

"Likewise. What grade are you in?"

"Ninth."

"Cool. How do you like school?"

A shrug. "It's okay."

I nodded. "You go out for sports?"

"Yeah. Gymnastics and soccer."

We talked for a while, sort of sizing each other up. The kid had a mop of hair, cut more for ease of maintenance than style, or so it seemed to me. There was an initial wariness with the both of us, but the kid seemed nice enough in spite of the bad home scene. The kid was likeable and I figured that it was going to work out okay with him hanging around.

We soaked and chatted for a while. Nancy's Timex went off at five to ten. There was a thing on TV that I wanted to see and she'd set her alarm for me. I got out of the tub and shut it off.

"You want to watch TV with us?" I asked. "This friend of mine did this special for PBS that I want to see."

"What's it about?" I told The Cat about the show while I toweled off. Nancy climbed out and then The Cat. I gaped at The Cat for a second.

I'd made the assumption that the kid was a boy. Wrong!

She cocked her head at me, all narrow eyed suspicion. I closed my mouth and shrugged.

"Sorry, Cat. I thought... well, I thought you were a guy."

"Well, I'm not!"

"You guys want popcorn?"

Cat and I both said simultaneously, "Sure!"

Nancy had meet The Cat's mother and given her our telephone number. I wasn't there when she came over, but it was okay with her that her daughter had a safe place to hang out when things got bad at home. Her father was a binge drinker and every now and then would go off on a bender. She was trying to get him to join AA, but that wasn't flying. He was a nice guy when he wasn't drinking. Nancy hadn't met him but had made The Cat's mom understand that she didn't want to.

Having The Cat around wasn't a problem. We had people coming to visit us often. The Cat didn't make a pest of herself. She was a good kid.

I had been initially a bit wary of having a teenage girl hanging out with us. You know how it is. A guy in his twenties naked with a thirteen year old girl in a hot tub. There were a lot of people who would make something out of that. The thing of it is, The Cat was a lot older mentally than physically. She was able to hang out with our friends and hold her own in conversations. One friend of mine was talking to her once and then started to ask me things about her. I blew him away when I told him she was only thirteen. He'd been upping his estimate of her age the longer that they talked. He was getting around to hitting on her and was shocked that she wasn't just flat chested.

Speaking of flat chested, she started developing tits around that time. It was odd, her going through the normal teen age growing spurts and worrying about what they would look like. She and Nancy were talking about breasts in the tub with me one night and it was funny in a way. I made damn sure not to smile or laugh though. The Cat was worried about having her center of balance thrown off. She was torn between wanting big tits and the way they were throwing off her gymnastics. She was becoming very good at gymnastics. Now her legs were going through growing pains and her breasts were hurting.

Nancy had gotten into the role of big sister with her. Of course, this particular conversation was just a continuation of one that they had going. I was interested in it, feeling privileged to be given this insight into the way that the female of the species regarded those protuberances that were of such interest to the males of the species. I would have been happy just to listen to them, but Nancy turned to me and said, "Why don't we ask Tony?"

"Yeah. So what do guys think?"

"Well, that's a tough one to answer. I don't think that it matters in the long run, but big ones sure have a way of attracting guys."

"So bigger is better?"

"I won't say that."

"Well, Nancy's are sure big."

"You ever hear the expression anything over a hand full is a waste?"

"Yeah. You every hear size doesn't matter?" The Cat asked.

I laughed. "Touche, you little monster." I took a drink to give myself time to think. "You know that tits are mostly fat, right? And with you being a jock, you're going to burn off the fat."

"Hmmn. So your saying that they will get bigger if I stop going out for sports?"

"Yeah, at least that's what I think will happen. And I'll tell you something else."

"What?"

"Big tits don't make you a better lover."

"Yeah, but they sure draw boys."

"But they don't keep em, honey." Nancy said.

"You kept Tony."

Nancy laughed. "Tell her about Ellen, honey!"

"Okay. Ellen was the first real lover that I ever had. Uh, she was maybe the third or forth girl I ever went all the way with."

"I was really jealous of her," Nancy injected.

"Yeah. That you were."

"Well, the way you talked about her all the time..."

"All the time? Who was the one that was always questioning me about her?" I countered.

"Whatever. Tell the story."

"Yeah. Well. Old ugly here," that got me a splash in the face. "Okay. You want me to tell this or not?"

"Hell with it. You're dragging it out. Thing is, I was just so jealous of her. He'd get all cow eyed every time he mentioned her and I figured that she had to be some kind of goddess from the way he talked."

"Then she met her."

"Yeah."

"And she turned out to be flat chested and, in Ellen's own words, had a 'dowdy body.'"

"So she wasn't good looking?"

"She wasn't ugly, if that's what you mean. She just wasn't a looker."

The Cat thought about it. "So the point is?"

"It's not what you look like, it's what you do that makes you a good lover or not."

"I see, I think." She thought for a moment. "And what makes someone a good lover?"

I dodged. "Ask Nancy."

There were a lot of times when The Cat would come by when we were hanging out in the tub. She'd take off her clothes and join us. She once in a while caught us doing something sexual and would fade off into the night. Good natural manners, like I said.

One night I was standing behind Nancy working on her neck muscles and down her spine when she came bopping down the steps and started telling us about this fantastic play she'd made while she took off her clothes and joined us. Nancy was very composed about the whole deal, but I was very embarrassed. After all, I had my cock snuggled up inside her.

Cat piled into the tub and was babbling away, oblivious of what was going on right in front of her. They chatted away for a while, Nancy leaning on the side of the tub while I worked on her. Nancy wiggled her bottom and unsheathed me. She was totally self possessed and at ease. I sat down quickly, but from Cat's expression, I knew that she had seen what we were doing. She blushed scarlet and averted her eyes.

"Sorry about barging in like this," Cat said, mortified.

"It's all right." Nancy said. "Tony'll get over it."

I shrugged. "No big deal."

"Sorry."

"Well, it's not like the it's the first time you've ever seen us having sex."

That really set her off her blushing. "Well, I didn't mean to."

"Shush, honey, we don't have much body modesty. It ain't the first time someone's seen us fucking and it probably won't be the last. Don't worry about it."

"Just don't blame us if it keeps you in therapy for years." I injected drolly.