Chapter 30

I woke up the next day sandwiched between Megan and Sarah. Sarah apparently was cold, because she kept snuggling closer to me, pushing her little butt as close to me as she could. I realized that might not be the case when she started crying out softly in her sleep. I reached out and put my arm around her and she immediately turned around in her sleep and threw her arms around me, hugging me tight. She laid her head on my shoulder and cried, still asleep. Finally, her eyes opened and I saw the look of terror in her eyes.

"What's the matter, honey?" I whispered, trying to keep from waking Megan up.

"It wasn't a car accident, was it?" She whispered back. I didn't know what to tell her. As I struggled to think of something to say, she put her finger over my lips and giggled half-hysterically.

"It's ok. Kitty says not to tell, so don't tell. Did he really get that big?" She giggled at the panicked look on my face.

"Don't worry, he won't hurt you. It's not your fault if someone guesses or figures it out. He just doesn't want you telling someone that doesn't need to know. Like Sammi!" She giggled. "Poor Sammi! She doesn't want any of this."

"How long have you known?" I asked. I wasn't sure what I was asking, but I just wanted to see what would come out.

"Since the second week we had him. He doesn't hide his thoughts in his mind as well as he thinks he does. At least not from me. Do what he says. Don't tell anyone. He wouldn't even think of hurting you, but he is powerful and you don't want to irritate him. But you're safe. Megan would be mad at him if he even thought of hurting you, and that he cares about a lot. Besides, I don't think he could hurt you. Or would want to."

"I'm not really worried about him, honey, but do you know who he really is?"

"I do," Sarah said, nodding her head, smiling brightly. I waited. And waited.

"Gonna tell me?" I asked. She shook her head.

"Nope," she giggled. "Can't. Not time yet. Figure it out. No one told me!" She giggled. I tickled her until her squeals, as much as she tried to muffle them, woke up Megan. Megan looked at us, bleary eyed, and tried to look cross.

"I'm trying to sleep here, children. Sarah, honey, take him into one of the other rooms and practice kissing with him, ok? That should keep both of you quiet." She smirked at me as she turned over and went back to sleep. She didn't see the look of exasperation I gave her.

"Thanks a lot, Megan," I replied, as Sarah grabbed my hand and hauled me out to the hallway.

Sarah really didn't need any practice kissing, I discovered. She could kiss just fine. In fact, she was much better than fine. She was a great kisser. I was going to have to ask her where she learned that. She wanted to practice other things too, but I reminded her that Megan just said kissing. She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at me and said she was going to go ask Megan if we could practice other things too. I held her arm.

"You really don't want to do that," I warned her, ominously, speaking in a low scary voice. "She's horrible when little girls wake her up. Did you know she used to have six children? She ate four of them because they woke her up!" I whispered, a look of horror on my face.

Sarah looked at me, horrified, and whispered back.

"She wouldn't do that to me today. I know, because we ran out of ketchup last night!" She proclaimed seriously. "She just hates little girls without ketchup!" Then she couldn't help it and started giggling hysterically. I helped a lot by tickling her mercilessly. During the middle of the tickling, she grabbed my hand and held it on one of her breasts. Suddenly, neither of us were laughing anymore. She had a smoky look in those pretty silver-gray eyes of hers. I don't know what would have happened if the phone hadn't started ringing just then.

I knew I would have to answer it. Nobody in my house gets up for anything less than a natural disaster before eleven. Even then, it has to involve at least half of the country or it just isn't worth it. Normally, I would have been irritated, but this time I jumped at the chance to answer it. I was sure it had just saved me from something neither Sarah nor I was ready for. Well, at least I wasn't; she seemed to think she was ready. Sarah looked at me with big sad eyes, then just sat back and watched me. It was my Dad. He had never understood the concept of not calling early in the morning.

"Hi Son. You sound really chipper this morning. And you answered the phone before the fourth ring. What's up with that?" That louse! He knew he was waking us up early in the morning every time he called! He got it; he just chose to ignore it.

"Well, I was up anyway. Sarah and I woke Megan up with our horsing around, so she threw us out of the room..." Me and my big mouth. I was hoping he wouldn't catch on and ask why Sarah was in the room with us. Not that anything was going on; I just didn't want to explain.

"Ah! That explains the tone of voice. Sarah trying to have her way with you, Son?" He laughed.

"Now, where did you get that idea, Dad?" I evaded.

"Well, the tone of your voice gave you away... A mixture of 'get me out of here' and 'I want that so bad I can taste it'. I only know of one thing that my Son, the big, bad, fearless ex-FBI agent is afraid of, and that is the possibility of having sex with a beautiful girl. They always have to trip you to catch you! Since you've probably already had all the others living there, that just leaves Sarah." He was laughing his butt off, having a good time at my expense.

"Don't exaggerate; I haven't had all the others here! Want to come over and help me, save me?" I asked, not admitting anything. Yeah, right.

"Are you kidding? I took enough of my life in my hands taking Megan off your hands that time when she was being crazy, and she's an almost mature, almost responsible adult. A real teenager would kill me. I'm afraid you're on your own on this one, Son." He was laughing harder than I had heard him laugh in years.

"Fine. If you're not going to be any help at all, then why are you bothering me this early in the morning?" I asked, pretending irritation. He decided to play too.

"Oh. Sorry. If you want, I can hang up and let you go back to being raped by a beautiful, sexy teenage girl with raging hormones. Shouldn't be too hard; she's really cute! Well, I guess it might be hard... so to speak..." He laughed

"No! I mean... take your time, Dad, it's nice to talk to you. Don't rush; we don't talk to each other often enough anyway," I temporized.

"You sure? I can hang up if you want. Just trying to help; I'm just that kind of guy."

"You're just that type of guy, all right! Yes, I'm sure," I assured him. Sarah was listening to my side of the conversation, alternating between giggling while trying not to bust a gut to mock pouting, pretending she was upset.

"Well, the reason I was calling was to ask you and Megan to come over sometime in the next few days when you have time. I need to talk to you about something. It's not urgent, but it is important, so whenever you have time, stop by. I should be around most of the next few days, so at your convenience." He sounded official.

"Should I bring everyone with me to visit?" I asked. I knew Dad wouldn't discuss it over the phone, but I thought I could get an idea what it was about.

"Up to you, but we three would need to meet in private. Probably better not to bring the others," he said, with a wistful tone in his voice. Ah, so it was some kind of official business. I couldn't imagine what it would be that involved Megan and I together, but I guess I would find out.

"Ok, I'll give you a call beforehand, just to let you know when, and to be sure you'll be home."

"Sounds fine. See you later. Oh, and Son... save yourself some wear and tear and just give in. Enjoy it. You live with ten females, Son... you don't stand a chance!" He was still laughing when he hung up the phone. He was probably right.

Sarah hopped back up on my lap when I hung up, wrapping her arms around me.

"Now, where were we when we were so rudely interrupted?" She asked, grinning slyly. I kissed her carefully, and then set her down on the floor.

"WE were making breakfast, Little One. Think you can get your mind on that?" I grinned. Sarah stuck out her tongue at me.

"Spoilsport! You're not going to win. You know that, don't you?" She giggled.

"I never do, Precious One," I smiled. She smiled back. I melted, and turned to make breakfast before I did something I would regret later. Sarah laughed at me.

About that time, the cat drug in some poor unfortunate half-dead animal it had found somewhere... oh, no, wait, that was just Amy wandering into the kitchen after having gotten up way before noon, and before her daily primping! She looked so beautiful when she was rough. I ruffled her hair (you couldn't tell!), turned the kitchen light on (she screeched and covered her eyes!), and asked in a loud voice, very near to her, what she wanted for breakfast. She finally had enough, snarled, and backhanded me halfway across the room. I got up and wandered over to Sarah.

"Let that be a lesson to you; that's what you get if you're cheerful in the morning around here," I told her as she just stared at us with a shocked look on her face. I figured I had just saved her life. Amy wandered over and laid her head on my shoulder, her arm around my waist.

"Sorry, Daddy. You deserved it though. Love you." She said, looking at me bleary eyed.

"Love you too, little girl," I said as I ran behind Sarah for protection. Amy stared at me, a look of disbelief on her face that I would be that mean... and stupid.

Eventually, all the girls got up. I had breakfast made for all of them. Megan looked at me as if I were sick, and felt my forehead. Then her eyes lit up. She pointed at Sarah.

"You! If this is what I get, you get to practice with him EVERY morning!" Megan laughed, Sarah squealed with joy and jumped up and down, clapping her hands, and I turned nine shades of red. All the others looked confused. Sarah got this real scared look on her face, and I swear the little brat started crying 'real' tears.

"You wouldn't really eat me, would you?" She sobbed.

"WHAT?" Megan demanded. "What are you talking about?"

"P... P... Patrick told me that if I went in to bother you, you would eat me, like you did your other four children because you used to have six but they bothered you when you were sleeping so you ate them and I was only going to ask you if we could practice other things too. Are you really that awful?" She sobbed as she backed away from Megan.

Megan shot me a look that would have killed most men.

"Patrick, what the hell have you been telling this poor girl? I don't believe this! How could you scare that poor girl like that? I am going to kick your..." She looked at Sarah and Rhonda, trying their best to keep from laughing, their hands over their mouths. Rhonda was finally able to speak.

"She's really good, isn't she? I used to get in so much trouble with Mom because of this little brat," she sputtered, hugging her little sister. Megan looked really embarrassed that she had fallen for it. Then she helped me trap Sarah and we tickled her until she almost wet her panties. I didn't tell Megan they probably already were wet!

Midway through breakfast, John wandered in. I suddenly was embarrassed. I hadn't even thought about sleeping arrangements for him last night! I wondered if he had even slept last night, then I decided to take my mind in another direction. I didn't even want to go there! I realized that sleeping arrangements were probably not a problem when he patted Rhonda on the butt affectionately and she blushed furiously. When he reached over and kissed Victoria, I decided it might not be as simple as I thought and I decided to think about something else. I saw Megan laughing softly at me. I glared at her, making her laugh even more.

We started talking about living accommodations. We had enough empty rooms that Sarah and Rhonda could each have one. They first thought they would like to stay together in one room, but I remarked that Sarah was probably old enough to have a room of her own. When I looked pointedly at Rhonda, then at John, Rhonda got the idea and agreed, blushing again. Sarah looked clueless, but we had just seen what a good actress she was.

John thought he would find an apartment in town. I suggested instead that he stay in the little hunting / ranch hand cabin we had in the woods, just out of sight of the house. When he stated that he didn't want to be a bother, I just bluntly told him that I would rather have Victoria and Rhonda close at hand if I needed them than to have to track them down in town somewhere. All right! Now we were getting somewhere. Almost everyone had blushed now! He graciously accepted. We walked out on the back porch together, so I could show him the cabin. Once we were out there, alone, he looked at me, a little nervously. Well, as nervous as John ever got.

"Victoria and I had a long talk last night," He said. I nodded. "I've known about you two for years. Robert and I were good friends. More importantly, we were in the same unit, the same squad. You don't go on some of the missions we have been on together, spending days out in the desert or the jungle, without knowing everything about each other. It never even occurred to me, once I realized that a relationship with the one woman I have loved for years might be possible, that it would not be on the same terms as it was with Robert. Mind you, I would much rather still be loving Victoria from afar, secretly, and have Robert still alive, but if this is possible, I'm not going to let something that Robert was very comfortable with stand in the way. I can't be happy if Victoria isn't happy, and she can't be happy without you."

"Then I asked her about your relationship with your daughters. If it was what I thought it was, I was ready to beat the hell out of you. I'm very protective of underage girls. Victoria said something that stopped me in my tracks. First, she asked me to name one thing, one problem that the girls had because of that relationship. I couldn't. I had to admit these are the sweetest, most well-adjusted girls I had seen in a long time. Then she reminded me of the way she saw me check out Amy the first time I saw her, and asked me if I had any room to talk!" He grinned at me. I looked at him sharply.

"So just how far does the situation go here? What if I took a liking to Amy? What if I took more than a liking to Amy?" He asked, looking at me steadily. I swallowed hard.

"If Amy seduces you and drags you off to her bedroom, you're probably ok. I don't know that I would like it, but you're probably ok. If you seduce her and drag her off to your bedroom, even though she goes willingly... I just don't know what would happen," I answered honestly. "I know it isn't fair, right or equitable, but it's the way I feel and I can't help it."

He looked at me for a minute and then laughed softly.

"Almost exactly what Victoria told me you would say. Except she wasn't sure I would even be ok if Amy dragged me off. Relax. I could never touch Amy. Victoria assumed I was checking out Amy that day. This is why I was looking at her." He pulled out his wallet and showed me a picture of a young teenage girl. Although you could clearly see the differences, she could easily be mistaken for Amy's sister.

"This is my sister, Lori. She's about Amy's age. I was startled when I first saw Amy with the similarity in the way the two resemble each other. That's why I was looking at her, not for the reasons Victoria thinks. I figure I can get used to being with Victoria and Rhonda together, if that happens. It will take some doing, but I can overcome that taboo. I don't think I could ever touch my sister that way. Amy reminds me too much of Lori. She's off limits. Actually, all the girls probably are. I much prefer Victoria's age." He laughed as I unconsciously sighed in relief. "Man, I sure wouldn't want to be Amy's first boyfriend!" He said.