Chapter 69

ANN'S PLACE — FLORIDA

Fred, being a smart guy, made sure Brenda was seated on his left. They had asked for the big round booth in the corner. Sure enough, shortly, Brenda was practically glued to his arm. Not that he didn't like it; he certainly did, but if she had been on his right, he would have had a hard time eating.

"You look good, Girl," Audrey, who was sitting next to Brenda, said.

"Fresh fucked, you mean," Brenda giggled.

Carla and Jessica stopped just before they slid in. Carla made a production of getting a quarter out of her purse and flipping the coin up. Catching it, she slapped it to her forearm.

"Heads," Jessica called out.

Carla peeked under her hand. "Darn."

Jessica slid in next to Fred, with Carla coming in next to her.

"Little minx never loses," Carla grumbled.

Fred wondered if that was the way they decided who slept next to him, but he wouldn't ask.

"We're right on time, but they're all late," Audrey said, breaking Fred's chain of thought.

"Well, one is a doctor, and the other is a cop. Both professions tend to throw the unexpected at you," he reasoned.

"Not as if we're in a hurry, anyway," Carla said as she glanced around at the crowded restaurant. "We're lucky to get this table."

They all ordered drinks, and Fred told the waitress they would be waiting for the rest of their party.

The drinks arrived, and shortly, so did Doc and Betty. Betty had that look about her. As the doctor and his wife were being seated, Fred and his women looked at each other, then Fred chuckled. It caught on and the rest joined in. Brenda and Betty smiled at each other and blushed.

Dodson and his wife walked in and were soon seated. "Sorry we're late. We were, uh, unavoidably detained. We, uh..." he said.

"In other words, he screwed my brains out," his wife inserted. "I just found out I'm pregnant. So we took a few hours off to celebrate, but we do apologize for being late."

Doctor Harris took his wife's hand. Blushing, she looked around the table. "We've decided to start our family. And ... we might have already."

Carla, Jessica and Audrey all looked at Brenda, knowing she wasn't on birth control yet. Brenda suddenly blushed crimson.

"Uh, shall we order?" Fred laughed.

A little more than two hours later, the impromptu party finally broke up. The guys argued over who was going to pay the bill, but Fred won out in the end. Dodson and the doctor split a very good tip for the waitress. Outside, everyone stood near the PT Cruiser as the men swapped cards and everybody promised to keep in touch.

"So where are you headed this afternoon?" Dodson asked.

When Fred started to answer, Carla spoke up. "About ten miles down the road, if the nurse's directions for the campgrounds are accurate. We need to service the RV tanks, and well, we need to..."

That brought on laughter and final hugs from everyone. Fred's family in the vehicle, everyone waved as the cruiser pulled out of the lot. Soon, Fred's group was back to the parking lot and had the Cruiser hooked to tow. "Sit up front," Carla told Brenda as they got in the RV.

"No, that's where you usually sit."

"Nonsense. We swap out, and besides, this is your rig and you haven't even gotten to ride up front yet."

Brenda giggled as she sat next to Fred, then looked over at him. "Actually," she said to Carla, who had just turned to go back to the living room, "I've always been in the driver's seat, or at least it felt that way since I was hitching a ride in Fred's mind. But this is all so ... new. I have a body. I can actually sit here," she finished as she snapped her seatbelt. "And making love to my husband was wonderful." Turning to look behind her, she softened her voice. "I want us all to make love, though. I won't be able to be in your minds and I'm going to miss that. Miss it a lot, but feeling my husband inside me is..."

Choking up, she stopped as Fred reached over and held her hand. "We'll all make love tonight."

"There are four of us women, and you, my sweet husband, aren't a little guy by any means. We can't all fit in that bed."

"Hah," Jessica called out as Fred eased the big vehicle onto the street. "Wanna bet? I've got it all figured out. Two on one side of him and one on the other, like we've been doing — well, when I don't sleep on him," she laughed. "Anyway, someone can sleep crossways at the foot, if they don't want to sleep on top of him. If we get tired of that, a couple of us can take turns sleeping in here. We'll make it work."

Startling Fred, they all loudly chorused, "We'll make it work," then all laughed together.

A couple minutes later, "Slow down when you go by the front of the hospital. I want to get a couple shots from the door," Jessica said as she put action to words.

"Pictures of a hospital?" Fred said, bringing the rig to a halt and opening the door for her.

Jessica stood in the doorway taking pictures. "Yep, we took some in the room, as you know, and I took some of the RV sitting in the parking lot, but these are the only ones I'll have of the front of the hospital. Might want to show them to our kids one day when we tell them where Brenda got her new body."

Fred looked over at Brenda and winked as Jessica hurried back to her seat. He closed the door, checked for traffic, then pulling back onto the highway, headed south.

THE RETREAT

Jeff, coat slung over his shoulder, knocked on Wainwright's door. When he opened it, Jeff said, "Feeling left out?"

"Yeah, but gladly," Frank laughed as he ushered Jeff inside. "All I want to know about the wedding is when to show up. I'll gladly stay out of the planning. Besides, that's what we're paying all that money to the wedding planner for, although, I haven't even seen her yet. Want something to drink?"

"That sounds good, let's take it with us. Why don't we take a ride up to the ski lodge and chat for a bit?"

"Anything I should worry about?" Frank said as he went over and opened the refrigerator door.

"Oh, crap, no. We haven't had a chance to be together much lately, and I've heard you mention a couple things in passing that I would like to pursue. Mostly, I just want to get out of the building for a while."

At Frank's gesture, Jeff said, "Anything you have is fine."

Wainwright took out two bottles of water, then handed Jeff one. Grabbing his coat, Frank followed his buddy toward the inside garage, but Jeff changed his mind. "I haven't driven my Expedition lately. Let's go get it from the outside garage."

"Fine with me," Frank said.

Shortly they were in the Expedition and backing out. Jeff glanced at his friend and said, "I heard you and Bill talking about your new plane, but that's all I was able to hear at the time. I guess it got my curiosity up. You going to get rid of your current jet?"

Wainwright looked over as Jeff started the vehicle toward the driveway. "No reason to get rid of it. It fits the bill nicely most times, but with the wedding coming up and with you ... uh, shall we say, expanding your harem, I thought we could well use a larger plane on occasion. This Bombardier will seat eighteen passengers and has a little more range."

Jeff slowed at the top of the drive, but it was obvious that Dave had done his thing this morning. They hadn't had much snow last night, but what little they had was plowed out.

"He's a good man," Wainwright said, guessing Jeff's thoughts.

Jeff sighed. "Yeah, and sometimes I feel like I don't deserve him. He and Evie bust their asses for me." Realizing that Frank and Margaret did too, "Uh, Frank I didn't mean to sound as if..."

Wainwright broke in with a chuckle. "Just stop before you even start. I've become ... callous about friends — close friends — over the years. There is always someone trying to get close enough to untie my purse strings, as my dad used to say. So I guess, I've become more than a little reserved and cautious. With you, you will spend money when you need too, but it doesn't run your life. You love and respect that fine building that Dave and Evie built for me, but you would be just as happy anywhere as long as your family is with you. You aren't after my money, and I've never been closer to anyone since my parents died."

"Thanks, Frank. We all feel the same way about you and Margaret."

As Jeff maneuvered down the driveway, Wainwright looked over at the Prime. "Margaret and I have been — humbled — by you and your wives referring to us as family. She and I fly together a lot, as you know, and well, things happen sometimes. I just want to let you know that ... she and I have changed our wills."

Jeff brought the SUV to an abrupt halt. "Frank, what the fuck..."

Wainwright took a long drink from his water, deliberately delaying his answer, making Jeff wait. "Sorry, we tried to figure out how to tell you, but the time just never seemed right. Don't get your panties in a wad my brother; we have some distant relatives who will be well taken care of if anything happens to us, and a few business associates as well, but yeah, the major portion of our holdings will go to you and your family. We don't expect to die soon," he laughed, "and I haven't had any premonitions, but well, we just wanted to take care of things up front, in case something did go wrong."

"Frank, I..."

"Don't say it. No need. Besides, it's a done deal."

Jeff looked over at Frank for a minute, then puffing out a breath, started the Expedition moving again. "Diana and I have a will, but maybe I need to think about expanding it a little. Then again, all my wives and I have a contract with each other that is a lot more binding than a marriage contract. I wanted to make sure nothing would go wrong if I didn't come back from one of my missions. But maybe Diana and I need to sit down and discuss this some more. If something should happen to all of us — say a plane crash..."

As Jeff turned onto the small country road and headed uphill, Frank asked, "Tell me again what Little One said about our life ... expectancy."

Jeff sighed. "I know that I've told you she and I occasionally have a problem trying to communicate about time. Sometimes, I think we understand each other just fine, then she just blows me out of the water with a deluge of information, concepts, feelings, and so forth that leave me wondering what happened. I think... remember I said, think, that time is mixed in with her understanding of the dimensions. Her understanding. Not mine. I can't seem to wrap my mind around what she's showing me. When she tries, I guess you could say, 'my mind goes all weird, ' to use one of Arlene's expressions."

"And all this is in preface to..."

Jeff hesitated, then looked hard at his brother-Alpha. "I think that when I ask her how long I'll live, well, I think she's fucking saying forever. She always shows herself as part of me — us, when we discuss how long I'll live; hell, I don't know. I've asked her this three times since we started communicating enough to understand each other. All three times, I get something that makes my stomach want to be somewhere else, and something comes across that scares the shit out of me. I can't describe it ... It's beyond words."

"Well, that certainly answered a lot of questions — not," Frank laughed as they pulled into the parking lot of the ski lodge.

Jeff put the vehicle in Park and sat staring at the building for a moment. "I am certain that our cells now perfectly replicate, and according to Little One, we won't ever catch any disease, but beyond that, we're back in the twilight zone as far as understanding is concerned. But there is something, though. I had a statistics professor prove that no one could live forever, or anything even approaching it — statistically..."