Chapter 15

The Fourth of July was a big celebration, with parades and fireworks galore. We'd gone to the parade in Mandan, across the river, which is a five-hour extravaganza. We got home that afternoon about six o'clock and collapsed on the lounge chairs in the back yard. After getting us a beer, Connie started taking her clothes off. She didn't stop until she was naked.

"The kids are home, sweetie," I said.

"I know. I'm going to play in the sprinkler," she replied.

She turned on the hose and pulled the sprinkler head out to the middle of the yard, letting the fine spray arc through the air and fall on her shoulders. It was unbearably hot, somewhere in the neighborhood of 102ºF, and extremely muggy. I stripped to my panties and joined her under the gently falling drops.

"What are we going to do when the kids see us?" I asked.

"I don't know what you're going to do, but I'm going to stay right where I am. I'm too fucking hot to move," Connie said wearily.

The kids came outside in their swimming suits, probably wanting to ask permission to go to Wanda's to swim. When they saw us under the sprinkler, they threw down their towels and ran to join in the fun. It didn't take long for everyone to get naked, including me.

The excitement wore off about an hour later, and we settled into chairs and loungers with fresh drinks. I'd moved the sprinkler so the water was falling onto the garden.

Connie asked, "Did you guys have fun?"

Emphatic nods, giggles and shouts of "Yes!" were her answer.

"Do either of you feel embarrassed or ashamed?" Connie asked.

They both blushed a little, but shook their heads no.

Connie said, "All right. Since we're all girls here and nobody's embarrassed, what say we eat supper out here in the nude?"

I didn't hear any shouts, but there were giggles aplenty. I went inside to fix supper, leaving Connie and the girls outside. I brought out some old towels and put them on the chairs; I didn't want the cushions to get stained. Supper was cold cuts, salad and fruit, with plenty of liquid to wash it down. After supper, Connie and I basked in the late afternoon sun, drinking beer and watching the girls play in the sprinkler until dark.

I loved the girls, but there is something about being alone in the house and available for sex that is very appealing to me. My relationship with Connie was still in the honeymoon stage, and we had sex every chance we got. Often, there was a quickie when she got home, with more after the kids went to bed. Sometimes, we waited until late at night, took a bottle of wine downstairs to the big bathtub, and soaked.

Connie had just inserted two fingers in my pussy, searching for my G-spot. I had one foot on each side of the tub, my legs spread wide. I was leaning against the back of the tub with my head on a fluffy towel, my eyes closed and anxious to begin some serious lovemaking.

Very softly, I heard Donna say, "Hi."

Connie's fingers quit moving and I opened my eyes. I started to sit up and Connie's fingers tightened, holding me in place. I looked at her, and she shook her head no. She was right, of course; we were caught, dead to rights. The only thing preventing Donna from seeing what we were doing was the murky water. Thank goodness for bubble bath.

I relaxed and asked, "What are you doing out of bed?"

Donna sat on the toilet a few feet away and said, "I went to your room, but you were gone. I heard you talking down here and..."

Connie asked, "Is Sarah with you?"

Donna said, "No, she's asleep."

I said, "What do you want, honey?"

"Nothin', I guess. I'm just lonesome."

Connie said, "You're not sleeping with Sarah anymore?"

Donna flushed slightly and said, "Gail's her girlfriend now."

I pulled my feet down and sat upright, wiggling off Connie's fingers. She turned and picked up her glass.

I took a healthy swallow of wine and asked, "Since when?"

Donna shrugged. "Last week sometime."

"Does Gail's mother know?" I inquired.

"I don't know," she replied. "I wouldn't worry, though."

"Why is that?" I asked.

Donna giggled. " 'Cause Sarah won't do anything but kiss."

It was a relief to hear, and smiles and soft laughter filled the room for a moment.

Then Connie asked, "How do you know?"

Almost inaudibly, Donna said, "I tried once."

I could see the headlines: "Lesbian love nest on northside nets two suspects with underage girls. State's Attorney promises complete investigation."

I motioned for Donna to come closer, and she walked to the side of the tub. I reached out and hugged her. Connie wasn't saying anything, so I made a desperate bid for time.

"Why don't you go back to bed? I'll talk with you in the morning, and we can decide what to do, okay?"

She nodded and stepped back. "Okay."

I stepped out and wrapped a towel around me under Donna's watchful eye. I left damp footprints on the floor all the way to their room and tucked Donna into her bed. As I walked out, Donna said, "I love you. G'night."

I returned to the bathroom, climbed into the tub and spread my legs. "Now. Where were we?"

The next morning, Donna and I curled up at opposite ends of the couch downstairs in the den. Connie was at work, and Sarah was at Gail's house, hopefully doing nothing more than swimming. Donna was reluctant at first, but I bribed her with a Coke. I asked her what she'd meant by 'tried'.

"You know she was scared at first, right?" Donna asked. I nodded. "Well, she started crying, and I sat on the bed with her and talked to her. She blamed herself for not being there for her mother sometimes. She hugged me, and I ended up sleeping with her for a few nights."

"Nothing happened?" I asked.

"No, not right away. Later, she started asking questions."

"What kind of questions?" I asked.

"Sex stuff, like in the books you gave us."

"What did you do?"

"I showed her."

I sat there thinking for quite a while. Experimentation wasn't unusual between siblings or best friends, that much I knew for a fact. Where Donna had learned what she knew was the mystery.

"Who showed you?" I asked.

She fidgeted a little and wound the hem of her shirt in her fingers. "If I tell, it won't get anybody in trouble, will it?"

"No, honey, this is between us."

"You know I've lived with a lot of different families?" she asked. I nodded, and she said, "The one before the Prentices, they had a lot of kids. The two older girls and me played around, touching and kissing."

"Then what?" I asked. I knew that wasn't the whole story.

She hung her head and said, "The oldest one, Marcia, she..."

I patted her knee and said, "I understand. You don't need to say any more."

She nodded, then started crying quietly.

A wave of relief swept over me and I said, "It's okay. I won't tell anyone."

I hugged her to me, absorbing her tears on my shirt. There was no way of telling whether she had enjoyed it or regretted it, and I wasn't going to ask. Every girl has secrets to keep from her mother, especially the ones about her sexuality. It was best left alone.

The rest of the summer I debated between confronting Sarah with my knowledge about her and Gail and leaving them alone. They were thirteen and acted accordingly. One day they were the best of friends and the next they were mortal enemies, promising never to speak to each other. Wanda appeared oblivious to the truth, or knew what was going on and didn't care. I banned Sarah's visits to the Harper pool unless I accompanied her.

Donna asked permission to date, which we denied. Libby's boyfriend, Kyle, had a brother named Jared who was 'a hunk', to use Donna's words. I met him and his brother at Wanda's pool one day, and he was a nice looking boy. He seemed to be more interested in the contents of Donna's swimming suit than he was in her as a person, so I told her no dates. She said he was in her grade at school and she'd see him anyway, but I was firm. She was a little cranky for a few days, but she finally accepted my reasoning. A short but very graphic mother-daughter conversation helped her see my side of things.

School was scheduled to start in August, mainly because they add the estimated snow days to the beginning of the school year calendar. School ends some time in May, depending on the winter weather. We got the girls their physicals and some new clothes, arranged for the bus to pick them up and drop them off, and I prepared to go back to work.

I didn't tell Connie about Donna's sexual status. There was room in our relationship for secrets. I wouldn't ever lie to Connie, but she'd left most of the discipline and decisions about the girls to me, and I'd decided Connie didn't need to know. Donna had trusted me with that information, and if I ever wanted to learn more, I knew to keep my mouth shut. Previous experience had taught me that there is nothing more shattering than having your secrets exposed, especially by someone you trusted.

Getting back to a routine is frustrating at times; the girls were always running late with one excuse or another, and I couldn't wake up fast enough in the mornings to get everything ready. Connie always left on time, while I was hurriedly searching for misplaced socks or underwear. Sometime in September, we'd figured it all out and things were going smoother. That ended with one phone call.

Amy and I were in the office, going over paperwork. Lois was working the computers, trying to find current addresses on three offenders the probation department had managed to lose. The phone on my desk rang, and I answered.