Chapter 35

The four of us had fun together, during Roland's five days on the Island. We spent evenings in the best restaurants we could find -- on either half of the Island. The Dutch side even had a southern-style barbecue rib joint, and it was superb. North Carolina barbecue -- the vinegar-based kind -- is loyally supported by many, but give me Southwestern style, anytime. Sint. Maartin -- as the Dutch called it -- had to be the easternmost outpost for barbecue going in the New World.

We sailed, we shopped in Phillipsburg. We talked to the locals -- friendlier, I thought, than any population I had come across, in my travels, in a place where the locals had to put up with multiple tourists in their midst. These people really seemed to be comfortable with themselves, and with us. Maybe when we left, they made faces at us and called us unpleasant names, but if they did, I never got an inkling.

And we spent time -- lots of time -- on that nude beach. We all liked it, and Kim and I knew that Tess loved it. We indulged her. It was her honeymoon. Perhaps never in the history of honeymoons did so many men see a recent bride, naked. If you counted the repeat visits, surely the numbers were, eventually, into the thousands. There were guys on Orient Beach who never stopped walking by us, all day long.

Roland had his admirers, too, but, by and large, the women were a lot cooler about it than the guys. Then again, maybe some of the guys who were trooping by weren't there to see Tess.

The day Roland left, we had a wonderful lunch, in his honor, at our favorite semi-outdoor bar and grill in Phillipsburg. The French side had the nude beach at Orient, but I thought the Dutch side, on the whole, was more fun. If you could avoid the ubiquitous real estate types, selling island timeshares, you could have an enjoyable afternoon in Phillipsburg, bar-hopping or souvenir shopping.

Tess and I stayed at the bar while Kim drove Roland the short distance to the airport. She was back within the hour, looking especially pleased with life in general.

"You're pretty chipper, considering your main squeeze is now flying homeward," I said.

"Yeah. We had a good time."

"Too bad he couldn't stay longer," I said.

I examined my statement, internally. And, what do you know? I decided that I had actually meant what I had said. Roland had become a friend.

"I'm going to be seeing him soon -- right after we head back," Kim said. "We're going to spend Christmas and New Year's together."

I couldn't help wondering why she hadn't just planned to go back to Portland with Roland in the first place. I wondered if, tonight, or tomorrow night, we really were -- the three of us -- going to resume our sexual relationship.

"Anything else... interesting... happen today?" Tess asked Kim.

Kim smiled broadly. "Yes... I think he wants us to get married," Kim said, quietly, almost matter-of-factly.

"Married! Really! That's fantastic!" Tess said.

Kim smiled. "Yes. Yes, it would be."

"And you're gonna... right? Marry him?" I asked her.

"Oh, yes," Kim said. "Yes, I am! But he hasn't asked -- exactly -- yet. But I know."

Well, that was great news, and we all had another drink to celebrate. Then we puttered around the city, sobering up before attempting the somewhat harrowing mountain drive back to our rental house.

When we got back, we took a shower together -- the three of us -- in the fine outdoor facility behind the house, sheltered from the view of neighbors by the sheer mountainside behind us. We fooled around. Lots of soap. Private parts, especially, got thoroughly cleaned. Kim joined right in. She stood behind me, soaped my hardening penis thoroughly, and gave me an expert hand job, from much the same position as I normally administered my own. I stopped her before the gun went off, but I was pleased -- and a little surprised -- at her artistry and skill. "You didn't use to have one of those things of your own, did you?" I asked.

"Learned that from an old boyfriend," she explained.

It was strange, thinking of Kim with "old boyfriends" in her past. We'd never talked about them, much. Tess and I had exchanged some intimate stories of old lovers -- we'd used the stories, sometimes, to spark our foreplay a bit. But, until Roland, Kim's past sex life had been pretty much tabula rasa for Tess and me.

Well, for me, anyway. Who knows what-all Kim might have told Tess, that wasn't considered appropriate for my ears.

I was curious, though, about one bit of girl-talk they might have had. Alone one day with Tess, I asked her whether Kim had ever mentioned, before our island get-together, how unusually well-endowed Roland was.

"She told me that he was very good in bed," Tess said. "And, once, I think she said something about his being 'big.' I must say she was never explicit enough to... prepare me... for his visit."

"It's not as big a thing -- whoops -- you should pardon the expression -- to a woman, is it?... As it is to... other guys, I mean?"

Tess thought about it. "Well. We notice. I mean, I think I was as wide-eyed as you were, that first time we saw him, on the beach. But it's true, women focus less on it than you men do. To you, everything is so... competitive. I know that you've had a hang-up about size for a long time -- it's one of the reasons I've teased you so much. And I've known other guys like you -- normal in every respect -- who've been the same way."

"We all think guys like Roland have an advantage -- in bed."

"They probably do," Tess said. "But the biggest advantage they have, I think, is in the locker rooms. I'll bet that half the men who try radical things -- like penis enlargement surgery -- are doing it as much for their locker room appearances as they are to try to impress some woman!"

"Yeah. You could be right... But... you've thought about it, right?"

"About what?"

"About... Roland. I mean, tell the truth -- when you saw him on the beach, you thought about what it would be like? Right?"

"Oh, yeah. They hadn't even gotten to where we were, on the beach, yet, and that thought had already gone through my mind. I wasn't alone, either. I think every woman on the beach that day, who saw him, had that same thought."

"Yeah. It would be natural."

"Don't agonize over it, Will. How many women -- just today, alone -- did you see on the beach, or in town, that you briefly visualized yourself fucking?"

"Quite a few," I admitted. "Quite a damned few. I don't blame you for having those thoughts, Tessie. Anybody would."

"What about you?" Tess said. "Did you have those thoughts? Yourself? About Roland?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "I was thinking I was really glad I wasn't gay. I thought, 'Jesus, but that would really hurt!'"

Tess laughed at me. "You haven't got a gay bone in your body," she said, "but if you ever did, that wouldn't be the bone I'd advise you to start with!"

Roland, certainly, had at least landed somewhere back in the United States before we went to bed that night. But when we did, Kim was with us. She and Tess engaged in some lovely girl-on-girl action, which I enjoyed from my very good seats.

Despite all Kim's previous declarations, I was still a little surprised, a short while later, to find myself lying under her churning body, as she rode me to what, from all appearances, was a mutually satisfying orgasm. She hadn't felt "stretched," and at no point did I feel (as I had fantasized) that I was failing to touch the sides.

One size, it seems, truly fits all.

We had almost another full week to spend on the Island, and we enjoyed it immensely. The long phone calls with Roland resumed, but when the phone was put down, Kim came back to us, and we resumed, also.

I had never had it so good.

Two weeks and one day after our arrival in Paradise, Tess and I flew back home. Kim flew to Atlanta and made connections there for Portland, Oregon.

We had barely finished celebrating Christmas Day -- sharing it with both families -- when I got a call from Roy, Junior on the 27^th. He was calling me from his office. The first thing he said was, "I didn't know that Kim had gone with you to Saint Martin."

Well, I had known that he didn't know. We hadn't told anyone -- except Roland. I wondered how Roy Junior had found out now -- after we were back.

Then I knew -- how he knew. It had occurred to me, earlier, that if photographs were taken of Tess, then the rest of us -- Kim, and me, and maybe Roland -- might appear in some of them as well.

All these thoughts raced through my mind in the instant it required for Roy's conversation to resume: "There are pictures of Tess -- of all of you -- published in a European magazine."

"A magazine?" I said. This wasn't exactly unexpected news, but I still found myself reeling a bit. It wasn't just theoretical, now -- it was real. And how, exactly, did I feel about that?"

"Yeah," Roy said. "Something called -- I probably can't pronounce it right -- something like 'Shewn Brooste, ' -- or something like that?

"Shoon Brewst?" I repeated.

"It's in German," Roy said again. "I think it means, like, 'nice tits, ' or something like that."

"But -- you said there's a picture?"

"There's a shitload of pictures!" Roy said. "Page after page, apparently! Living color! Christ, leave it to you two to go to a nude beach!"

"Pictures of Tess? How... where'd you hear about it?"

"Got a call from Charlene. Friend of hers at school saw something about it on the Internet. He was home, in Virginia, on vacation, but this guy knew Charlene and I were dating, and about my being Tess' brother. He called and told Charlene, and she called me. I've seen them -- about eight or nine of them. The Internet squib says it's ten-pages of pictures -- in the magazine!"

"Where do you think we could... get the magazine?" I asked him.

"No idea. Nowhere around here. Maybe New York. 'Don't know."

"Can you call somebody -- somebody you trust -- in New York, see about getting us a copy of the magazine?"

"Sure. I know somebody who can probably find it -- if it's on sale, yet, in New York."

"Spell the magazine's name, for me," I said.

"OK, but you probably don't need it. Just go to Google and write in 'Tess Henderson' and 'beach', and you'll see what I've already seen. Believe me, that'll hold you until you get a copy of the magazine. Anyway, it's spelled "S-C-H-O-N-E -- The 'O' has those little dots over it -- an umlaut, that's called, I think, right?... And the other word is B-R-U-S-T-E, and there's the little dots, again, over the 'U, ' there."

"OK. Thanks for letting me know, Roy. We'll... look into it. If you hear anything else about it, please call."

"Right... Hey, Will... Who's the guy with the big crank? Was he with you guys, too?"

"Yeah. Friend of Kim's."

"Poor baby!" Roy said. "Listen, Will, these pictures are something else! There's one showing you rubbing suntan lotion on Tess' ass! Prepare yourself, Dude... Those are really some pictures!"

Yeah, I thought. First time you've ever seen your sister naked -- outdoors.