Chapter 19

"I was wondering..."

Part of my brain reacted to Tami's voice, but the rest just concentrated on keeping the van between the lines on the road. Hell, I was having enough trouble just keeping my eyes open.

"... how much Cinnamon is there in you?"

That got my eyes open. For a second I panicked. Was Tami jealous? I mean, she'd given permission. Or maybe I just thought she did. Maybe I read too much into a couple of off-hand remarks she'd made to Cinnamon.

"I mean, how much of you is there in Cinnamon?"

'About a cup and a half, ' I thought, remembering the five separate deposits I'd left in my redheaded cousin. "Uh..."

"I'm not saying it right," Tami said. "When we have kids, how much Cinnamon will they have?"

It took a second, but I untangled her sentence, then applied real logic to girlspeak and tried to anticipate the path of female logic that got us here.

"Well, half of me comes from my mom, so a quarter comes from Grandma Vickie. Vickie was Cinnamon's grandmother's sister, so an eighth comes from Gran's mom. Which means our kids will have a sixteenth of Cinnamon's DNA." I don't think I'd pass genetics with that analysis, but I was pretty sure I'd answered Tami's question. "Why?"

"I was just thinking how hard it would be to raise a girl like Cinnamon."

I grinned and concentrated on the road. "Actually, I think she's raising herself. I don't think you have to worry. Our kids are going to have my looks and your brains. They'll be a snap."

Tami laid her hand on my thigh, which woke me up enough to avoid the motorcycle that pulled off the shoulder without signaling. "What if they have my looks and your brains?" She asked.

"Then we could be in trouble. Maybe we'll get lucky, and they'll take after their Aunt Traci. She's kind of slow."

"I heard that," came a sleepy voice from the back.

It had been a quiet morning.

A little after nine I heard Rosita yelling about breakfast. I opened my eyes in time to see Hailey take a deep breath. I clamped my hand over her mouth and Cinnamon's too, for good measure, then yelled back that I was awake and would be in in just a minute. I didn't know if Rosita would be surprised to hear either Cinnamon or Hailey in my tent, but figured I didn't want to find out the hard way.

Hailey licked my hand as I pulled it away. Cinnamon just looked... amused.

"Oooh, kinky stuff," Hailey cooed. "Are we going to do ropes and gags and things now?"

While the bondage scene has never turned me on, I had no trouble picturing Hailey naked and tied spread-eagled on a bed.

"We are going to get dressed and go into breakfast like an ordinary and dull set of cousins," I told her stiffly.

Hailey pouted for three or four seconds, then stood, bending over again to pick up her clothes. "Pickledick," I heard her mumble.

My hand, without bothering to wait for input from my brain, shot in the air and slapped down hard on her bare ass. It made a satisfying crack as she jumped forward at least a foot. And made an even more satisfying handprint.

Cinnamon grinned, shaking her head slowly. "You know that'll just encourage her." She pulled on her shirt, covering her magnificent tits. I'd decided that they were bigger than Darlene's, but just barely. The TVLand network sometimes ran old commercials. There was one for a cigarette that was 'a silly little millimeter longer. I decided that Cinnamon's tits were a silly little millimeter bigger.

I looked at Cinnamon and shrugged. Or I should say I looked up from her tits to her face and shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

Breakfast was pretty peaceful.

Or as peaceful as could be expected with a table of nine teenagers.

Rosita made omelettes to order and piled the table high with hash browns, bacon and sausage. Afterward, everybody hugged everybody else as we said our goodbyes.

I was loading the van and the trailer when Huntly and Wynter showed up, and the hugging and the goodbyes started all over again. Not that I minded. Hugging cousins Cinnamon and Hailey was a treat, not to mention adopted cousin Wynter.

I noticed a look pass between Wynter and Cinnamon, and then Cinnamon passed a half smile back, and somehow I had a feeling that Wynter had just been fully briefed on last night's sleeping arrangements. Damn female telepathy.

Huntly had brought a football for Robbie to autograph, and it didn't take much persuasion to get her to throw a couple passes. I was drafted to receive. Huntly wanted to see Robbie tackle someone, but Cinnamon put her foot down and said it wouldn't be Huntly. There was a short private discussion, and I caught the words 'knee, ' 'skiing, ' and 'shithead.'

Then the universe smiled. Kenny showed up.

I looked over to where Huntly was still arguing with Cinnamon. "Huntly, watch this," I yelled, then nodded to Robbie. "Kenny, head's up," I yelled, then lobbed a short pass right into his surprised arms. Robbie was half-a-second behind it. She hit him at the waist, and they sailed six or seven feet before landing with a loud thud.

I grinned at Huntly. "That's how Monster Girl hits." I walked over to the pile and offered Robbie a hand up.

"That was mean," she said softly as I pulled her to her feet.

"Why tell me? You're the one who hit him."

Robbie shook her head and walked over to Huntly and Cinnamon.

Kenny looked slightly panicked as he fought to get air back in his lungs. I knelt, put my palm on his sternum, and pressed, instructing him to take small breaths. A minute later he was breathing normally again, and I helped him to his feet.

He looked at me, then Robbie's back, then back at me. "Holy shit!" he said finally.

I grinned and slapped him on the back. I had to admit, I was impressed. He'd held onto the ball. "Want to do it again?"

I was pretty sure it was the first time in his life that Kenneth Taylor ever said no to playing with a girl.

It was almost an hour later before I put the van in drive and pulled away.

Now, another hour later, I was just trying to stay awake as I piloted us down the highway toward Wyoming. For some reason, I didn't get much sleep last night.

"Where are you going?" Tami asked. "These aren't the directions I gave you.

"New plan," I said simply. The idea that I had a little control back in my life helped wake me up.

"What new plan?"

"Well, Robbie let it slip that were we going to Cheyenne today. It didn't take much imagination to figure out we're spending the night at Curt Gowdy State Park." Not much imagination, just a few minutes on Cinnamon's computer and my cell phone. "I'll get us there."

"How? You're going the wrong way."

"You know what they say, 'All roads lead to Rome.'"

"What's Rome got to do with it? We're going to Wyoming."

"Oops. That could be a problem." I looked at her and grinned.

Tami pouted. Tami's not a world-class pouter. She doesn't get enough practice. But she's good enough to let me know she's annoyed. I grinned at the back of her head and kept driving.

Half-an-hour later we pulled into the parking lot. Cinnamon had given me directions to miss most of the traffic and construction. Tami had fallen asleep pouting, but as I stopped the van she and the other girls all starting waking up.