Chapter 7

The morning after Ginny's 'night in heaven' was Saturday, and Cord was home for the weekend. Her husband, Perry, had been in bed asleep when she got home. She had no desire for any sexual activity with him then, anyway.

Perry must have had a hangover because he did not move when she got up. Her first thought was about her kids and how they would feel about the night before. For herself, she was still high, with not a single regret. She had to be sure that she wasn't the only one.

There was a little risk, but she had to take it. Instead of going naked, as she would have preferred, she pulled on a T-shirt that covered everything - barely. Then, she went first to Cord's room and crawled right in bed with him. She had no intention of starting anything, but she had to know how he felt.

She found out very quickly. As soon as Cord realized that she was there, he clamped her in his arms. He had wrestled in high school, too, and she feared for her spine briefly. "God, I love you, Mom!" he told her.

"No regrets - no guilt from last night?" she probed.

"Not from me. You?"

"Not a bit. We'll be able to act normal around each other?"

"Except that I may not be able to keep my hands off of you," he answered, reaching under her shirt to squeeze her bare bottom.

"We'd better not give your dad any clues," she cautioned.

"Mom, why don't you just dump him?"

"That's ... not so easy," she said. "It's hard to admit that I've failed after so many years."

"You haven't failed, Mom!"

"I haven't looked good enough to keep him interested," she countered.

Cord heaved a sigh, not knowing how to respond to that. "Mom, I'm not all that experienced, but I can't imagine a sexier, more passionate woman. Dad's just a damned fool. He's lost track of what's important."

"I ... I need to talk to your sister and brother, too. Thanks for the encouragement. I love you."

By the time she had heard the same recommendation to dump Perry from all three kids, Ginny was doing some serious thinking.

She knew that Perry seemed to be irritated when she showed too much skin around the house, so she decided to stick in to him. She took a scissors to the T-shirt she was wearing and cut it off right below her breasts. She did not want to go into the bedroom, so she remembered a basket of clean clothes still in the laundry room and put on the skimpiest panties she could find.

It was strange. After the night before and all of those pictures, she felt good about her body. It was what it was and it would never be much different. She had seen the TV screen while the pictures were being taken. She had nothing to be ashamed of. To hell with Perry! She would dress the way she wanted to!

She and the kids were sitting at the table eating breakfast and enjoying being with each other when Perry came in. He apparently felt pretty rotten already, and when he saw how she was dressed, he snarled. He pointedly sat at the counter with his coffee and picked up the paper.

"I have to leave for the airport. Have to go early for another conference," Perry finally said.

Ginny made the decision on the fly, but she felt completely at peace about it. "OK. When you get home, I'll have papers ready. While you're gone, decide if we should do it the easy way and use the same lawyer, or if you want to make two of them rich."

"Huh?" He obviously was not in a mood for that type of discussion. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't be so dense. Divorce, Perry. Divorce. Do you really expect me to believe that bullshit about going early to another conference?"

"Now, wait. Let's, uh, talk about this when I get home on Wednesday."

"Nope. You leave today, you get served when you get home," Ginny said firmly.

"I can't just cancel at the last minute!"

"You can always cancel me - us - at the last minute. Why not her?"

Perry looked rather frantically back and forth between the four of them at the table. No face showed him any sympathy. "Fuck it!" he spat out and stomped off to the bedroom.

"It seems incredible to say it about flushing twenty-three years of marriage," Ginny said softly, "but that was almost fun!" The bravado ran out then, though, and all three kids did their best to comfort her through a long siege of tears.

Chase left the table for a short while. Just after she returned, the phone rang and Chase motioned for Cord to answer it. Ginny was not quite up to talking on the phone right then.

"Well, good morning, Mrs. Crosby ... Ok, Emma. Tonight? We'd love to, I'm sure. Who all will be there? Sounds like quite a mob. Very casual? Swim suits? Got it."

"Emma and Jack are throwing a monster barbecue. Sounds like about thirty people will be there. Including us. Any time after three."

"Guess I can patch up my face by then," Ginny said.

"I've got an idea, Mom! Let's really put on a show. Let's act like this party is the only important thing going on. Don't let on that dumping him has bothered you at all. I'll make it a point to ask if there will be any unattached men your age there. Make one up for Dad's benefit."

"Don't have to make one up," she said, then slapped her hand over her mouth.

"Who? Who? Who is it?" Chase was bouncing in her chair with curiosity.

"I have no idea if he will be there."

"Tell me who and he'll be there!" Chase almost shouted. "Give! Give!"

Ginny threw a frightened look toward Garrett, and the boy had a flash of inspiration. "Mr. Mason? Mr. Mason? You met Mr. Mason?"

"Ohmygod!" Chase enthused. "The hunk of the school! Wow!"

"Hey, Hey! Calm down!" Ginny said, trying to exert a little motherly influence. "I've met the man once. He's had a rough time and he's not interested in a relationship. Especially with a fat soon-to-be-divorcee."

The noise actually caused Perry to come out of the master suite to see what was going on. When he saw it, he still had no idea what it meant. His squealing wife was being held across Cord's lap by Cord and Garrett while Chase spanked her bare ass, her panties down around her thighs.

"What the hell?" Perry spat out.

"Sorry, Dad," Chase said brightly. "Mom just needed some attitude adjustment." He snorted and went back to his packing.

It took an all-time scramble, but it was good for Emma. She was still a little down about what had happened at the special mix session. She got Ellie's family, minus Bert, the Murtaugh's, Emily's whole family, including her husband, Claire and Clark, Rad and his girls, Fran and Nils, and of course Ginny and her kids. It was everyone she had wanted.

When Chase called to say that Ginny needed cheering up and that she thought Rad was pretty special, that's all it took to launch Emma into action. They had stalled on closing the pool, and she ordered Jack to get the heater going immediately. It was going to be a perfect fall day. The possibility of a little matchmaking just made it all that much more exciting.

At almost the last minute, Emma had another inspiration. Miraculously, the dining room table and chairs all got to the garage with no damage, the rug was pulled up, and the hardwood floor polished to a sheen. Moving the stereo made it and the adjoining entry foyer a perfect little dance hall.

Jack scrambled and found a foosball and an air hockey table to rent. Two computers were set up with games and Andy was to bring along his Playstation.

Emma had been very forceful with Emily. "You are arriving in your swimsuit, and you will need my permission to put on anything more - the whole day. Do you hear? Oh, and one other thing. If that suit has any more than a string between your ass cheeks, you'll have to go completely bare-bottomed, got it? You think I'm kidding? ... So hurry up and go buy one!"

Ginny had plenty of pressure, too. Chase was relentless. She had gotten Ginny out to shop for a new swimsuit, and the selection process had become almost a pitched battle. Finally, in exasperation, Chase hauled her mother out of the store to the food court, where they managed to get off by themselves.

"So, Mom, last Tuesday night, Rad Mason saw you naked, right?"

When she managed to close her mouth, Ginny nodded. "And he didn't run away in disgust, did he?"

"N ... no. He was very nice."

"So, how much different is your body going to look over the next year? The next ten? The next twenty? How much skinnier are you going to be?"

"Why are you talking like that?" Ginny asked, almost in tears. "I'll never be skinny!"

"Exactly!" Chase said. "And you don't need to be. You saw the pictures last night. You've got a wonderful body. You're all woman."

Ginny gasped and stammered "That's ... that's what he said."

"Who? Mason?" When Ginny nodded, Chase chortled. "See, you're halfway there. Look, Mom, make this a new start - a new attitude. Stop feeling bad because Dad didn't know what he had. Promise yourself to take good care of your body, but no more complaining, to yourself or to anyone else. You will never say a word about too many pounds or too many inches. You will walk around like the sexiest woman alive. That's what you need to do."

"And if he doesn't like me like this?"

"Then he's an idiot, and you wait until a smart man comes along. You walk around and swing your hips and stick your boobs out and melt every man down with your smile. You let them know that if you get them in bed, they'll have more fun than they can stand."

"One of the men said I had a 'fun' body," Ginny mused aloud.

"Cord was a lot stronger than that. He said he'd love to play forever."

"He did?"

"Damn right." Chase got moist-eyed then. "Mom, you didn't deserve the shit Dad laid on you. You deserve a man who wants you just the way you are. I happen to think that's pretty damned special. You need to act like you think so, too.

"I've got an idea. Before we go the party, we'll spend a half-hour looking at pictures from last night. That'll put you in the right mood. Now, let's go get you a suit that doesn't try to hide what should be shown off."

A number of the people who arrived at the Crosby house that afternoon had never met, so there was a lot of introducing going on. As is the way with kids, the process for them took all of ten seconds before they were heading off to the pool together. Most of the adults came in swim-wear, too, but most decided that it might not be safe in the pool until the teens wound down just a little.

As Rad led Carter and Madison into the house, he saw Garrett right away and introduced him to the girls. He had learned a lot in a few months and he saw Carter's reaction. Of course, almost anyone could have seen it. "Um, Garrett, I think Carter may be attaching herself to you. Sorry!"

"What sorry?" Garrett said with a grin. "I assume you've noticed that she's a babe. I'll be nice to her, don't worry."

As soon as Carter and Madison arrived at the pool, Garrett found his mother and sister and did the intros. As Garrett and the girls went into the pool, Ginny said to Chase "There's the primary target for today."

"Mason's daughters?"

"What better way to a single dad than through his kids, especially daughters. He was lamenting to me how much they needed a woman's hand sometimes."

"Go for it."

Garrett was turning on his own charm, not even having to stretch the truth to do it - much. "I've been anxious to meet you two," he told the girls when they were in the pool.

"How did you know about us?"

"How? Your dad talks about you all the time. He didn't exaggerate, either."

"Why? What does he say about us?"

"Well, the way he talks, I was expecting supermodels or beauty contestants. he was right." The girls were just young enough to eat that right up.

"No way!" The protest was, of course, obligatory.

"Way. He is so proud of you two he can hardly stand it," Garrett assured them. If he had wanted to avoid a couple of shadows for the evening, he went about it the wrong way.

Ginny knew it was ridiculous, considering how much time she had spent naked lately, but she had to steel herself to take off her beach wrap. She could tell that Emma was about to come over and rip it off of her. Chase had pretty much won the swimsuit war. Ginny had managed to hold out for a top the provided good support for her substantial breasts. She had been routed as far as the lower half. Her belly was totally out in the open, and she had to do a bikini shave.

She stalled quite a while and saw that Garrett might appreciate a chance to mingle with the guys for a while. Motioning for Chase to join her, she got in the pool and went up to the girls and Garrett. "Is my son monopolizing all of your time, Girls? Garrett, go play foosball or something for a while. We want some girl talk with Carter and Madison."

They did not look thrilled that Garrett was leaving them, but their politeness won out. "I was noticing how pretty you two look," Ginny said. "Chase is very good at hair and makeup. She does it for all of her high school friends - has for years. Do you use any makeup?"

It was an excellent guess on Ginny's part, and Garrett was a memory in an amazingly short time. It took a little while, but Carter finally complained about how her dad was no help with stuff like that. Ginny moved right in with an invitation for them to come over for some tips from Chase. Of course, knowing the grand scheme, Chase was more than happy to volunteer her help.

"Do you girls usually go to the wrestling matches?" Ginny asked.

"Only sometimes. We didn't usually have anyone to sit with," Madison complained.

"Well, I always go to watch Garrett. How about if I pick you up so you don't have to go early with your dad. I'll make sure it's OK with him."

Between Ginny's naturally appealing personality, a little awe at being around a senior like Chase, the chance to learn some important girly stuff, and the chance that Garrett might be around, Carter and Madison spent a good part of the afternoon and evening with Ginny and Chase. It was not just devious on Ginny's part, either. She could easily fall in love with the pair.

Rad had not forgotten Ginny, although he did not necessarily remember her in the way she would have preferred. He came over when Ginny was deep in conversation with the girls about clothes. He waited for a break in the conversation, then asked "Ginny, are you interested in getting back into massage therapy? Have you kept up your license?"

"I am licensed. I'm not working because..." Then it hit her that her reason for not working no longer existed. "You know what? I would like to work again. What do you have in mind?"

"I've been talking to the athletic folks at school," Rad said. "I know from experience that massage therapy can speed healing. I think I have convinced them to set up a little work area accessible to both locker rooms. If you apply first, you could have a good chance. There wouldn't be a lot of work, but it would be a start."

"Who do I see?" she said eagerly. The work would be nice, but being around the school and Rad a little would be the real benefit.

As they were talking, Chase managed to draw the girls away. As soon as they were alone, Ginny said "I'm sorry about the shape I was in the other night. I'm feeling much, much better today. This morning, I told my husband that divorce papers will be waiting when he gets home from his current liaison."

"You did? What made you decide?"

"Oh, I've known it was inevitable for some time. I just couldn't admit it and take the big step. After the other night, Emma and Jack organized another special night for me last night. My kids were all involved. It made me realize that I wasn't alone and I wasn't a fat, ugly loser."

"I don't know how you could ever have thought that you were," Rad said. It thrilled her because he said it so simply. Yes, she had been fishing, but only a little.

"Thank you, Rad. That was a sweet thing to say. Anyway, this morning he said he had to leave early for a conference and I knew that was bullshit. It was the last straw."

"That took guts. I'm sure there'll be some tough times, but congratulations."

"Oh, I hope you don't mind if I poach on your daughters a little. They are absolute dolls. Anyway, I..." and she described what she had arranged. He was amazed, pleased, and very impressed with the much different version of Ginny.

After dinner, only the hardiest of the teens felt like swimming any more, so things moved inside. Ginny wanted to put more clothes on but she was met by a stern Emma with hands on hips. "The wrap skirt is all you're allowed. My house. My rules."

"But my belly..."

"Is your belly, and it ain't going away. If he wants you, he'll have to want your belly," Emma interrupted.

"Have you and Chase been ganging up on me?" Ginny demanded.

"If you'd rather just strip, that's fine, too. My house. My rules."

"OK. OK. You win." Then Ginny grabbed Emma by the hand and dragged her into the master suite. There, she wrapped her in a huge hug. "There's just no way I can thank you enough," she said.

"Yes you can. Marry that Greek god and make both of you insanely happy."

"If it was just up to me, it would already be done," Ginny said.

"Of course it's all up to you!" Emma declared. "And it sounds like you're off to a damned good start."

"I wonder if I'll ever again have a secret," Ginny said with a giggle.

"So who has secrets here in the Heights, anyway?" Emma answered back.

Ginny held back from starting the dancing, but once it started, she did not hold back. She did wait until the third dance to ask Rad, and he took over after that. After one particularly strenuous number where they got cheers from everyone, they were sitting down with a drink afterwards.

"I really enjoyed that," he said. "I hope this doesn't offend you, but I can't help thinking of the way we danced before." Ginny was pretty sure she had him at that moment. From then on, it would just be a matter of not blowing it.

Carter and Madison were helping Ginny a lot. Sunday morning, the day after the Crosbys' big party, Rad called. "Ginny, remember you said last night that you and Chase had offered to help my girls with makeup and hair? Well, they're bugging me to death about it. I promised I'd at least set something up."

"Is today too soon?" Ginny asked with a laugh.

"Really? Not too soon for them, that's for sure," Rad said.

"Tell you what. You bring them over, leave them, and pick them up sometime around eight or nine. We'll make a girls' day of it. You know, talk, lunch at the mall, talk, shopping, talk, primping, talk ... well, you get the idea."

"I'm pretty sure they'd love that," Rad said.

"Oh, Cord is going back to school yet this morning, and I'll send Garrett off to a friend's. He'd be, um, a distraction." They both laughed at that.

Ginny was already dressed, but she scrambled around to get 'un-ready'. She dressed down to panties and a cut-off Tee, told Chase not to dress, and chased Garrett off with instructions not to come back without calling first. Fortunately, she had not done her face or hair for the day. That would be a great first step.

A somewhat grumpy Garrett had barely left when Rad dropped the girls off. Ginny had told him not to come in until he picked them up. She wanted the impression she made as she opened the door. Her panties showed her pubic hair quite plainly, and the half-shirt did not do much to restrain her breasts. She had purposely played with her nipples to get them hard before opening the door.

"Hi, girls! Glad to see you again. I hope you don't mind if I didn't dress up yet. The boys are gone, so I figured with just us girls here, why not be comfortable?"

Ginny had come up with a quick strategy. She was going to flirt rather blatantly with the girls. In other words, she was going to act like they were boys and she was trying to arouse them. The point was that she did not think the girls had been exposed to that much 'girls dorm' behavior, and it would be good for them.

"Hey! Do you two think you know Chase well enough to go and roust her out of bed?" At their age, potential mischief was about the best ice-breaker imaginable. This, too, had been rehearsed. Chase had to tousle her hair and get back in bed, but the girls would never know. There was only one slight modification. Chase wore only a Tee and not her usual panties.

By the time Ginny showed them to the door of Chase's room, the girls had reverted back to kid stage and could hardly restrain their giggles. When Chase ambushed them and pulled them into a tickle fight, the shrieks and yells were all Ginny could have hoped for. She wanted the girls to feel completely at ease with her, and she was off to a great start.

While Chase went for her shower, Ginny invited the girls to the master suite. There, she stripped as if she was alone, talking all the while. She didn't cover up after showering and drying off, either. As she was working on her hair, she suddenly stopped and said "Girls, I'm sorry! I didn't even think about it! Does it bother you that I'm naked?"

Truth be told, the girls were agog at Ginny's voluptuous body. Living mostly without a woman in the house, casual female nudity was something they had been deprived of. They managed to stammer out that it was fine with them, and Ginny managed to suppress her grin.

When Ginny and Chase were all fixed up, they sat the girls down for a quick do, which impressed them greatly. "What are we going to shop for?" Madison asked as they head for the mall.

"How about we shop for the fun of shopping?" Ginny asked. Another home run. That was one feminine pastime that poor Rad never even realized was essential.

The four ended up spending almost six hours at the mall, just shopping, eating, and being girls together. It had started the night before, but Ginny became very aware that the little darlings were not just her hook for Rad. She was rapidly becoming very, very fond of them. Their energy, the evidence of loving, careful upbringing, their obvious appreciation of what she was doing with them - the day was turning out to be just plain fun.

Ginny hoped Rad would not be upset, but she had bought each of the girls a dress-up outfit. They were standard LBDs, with pumps, stockings, and some costume jewelry. None of it had been expensive, but the girls had been in awe. Their reaction spawned another idea in Ginny's mind.

Back at the house, she had Chase get busy making the girls up while she got on the phone.

At seven-thirty in the evening, Rad, dressed in his best suit as per orders from Ginny, followed the head hostess down the aisle of the restaurant and stopped dead in his tracks. Ginny was dressed to show her assets off to the best possible advantage, as was Chase. Garrett looked only moderately uncomfortable in a blazer and slacks with a tie.

Rad really didn't notice Ginny, Chase, or Garret, though. It was the two elegant young ladies that somehow resembled his daughters that froze him where he stood. Chase had done some rapid magic with their hair and makeup. The dresses were simple and understated, which was what their lovely young bodies deserved. It was a revelation to Rad.

He took another big jump in Ginny's estimation, as if he needed it. Showing an unsuspected flair for drama, he took one of each of their hands in his, bowed forward, and kissed the backs of their hands. "I thought I was getting better at noticing how you too were growing up," he said, then shook his head in dramatic resignation. "I had no idea!"

The restaurant was nice, but not upscale. The food was good, but not exceptional. None of that mattered a bit. Ginny had engineered on the fly what turned out to be the most meaningful little coming out party the girls could have had.

She had also sparked a desire in the girls for more of the kind of intimate female companionship that had filled that day. In the process, she had rediscovered the joy of shepherding a daughter from girlhood to womanhood.

As might be expected, Rad was not quite sure what was going on. He just knew that things were happening very rapidly. It had been less than a week since he had met Ginny, but she seemed to have become the dominant person in his life. How had that happened? Was it a bad thing?

Ginny and Alicia could not have been more different. Even after what she had done to him, he could not see Alicia as anything but a very desirable woman. Ginny, though, was somehow just more of a woman, and it was not just her size.

Over the years since his divorce, much of Rad's naivete had been eroded away. There had been several serious campaigns by applicants for his 'Mrs' position. Some of them had been women he cared for. Like Ginny, every one of them had been a divorcee - wait a minute! Ginny was not even divorced. She had not even filed!

What appeared to be happening now was so different than with the other hopeful women. It was like a whole new life was being constructed for him and all he had to do was step into it. Could it really be that simple?

What about Ginny? Could he be happy spending the rest of his life with her? He would certainly have to accept a different template for feminine beauty than he had held before. But he did find her desirable. Her lush, generous body definitely excited him. Instinctively, he knew that she would be a wonderful sex partner.

Why was he worrying about all of that tonight. He certainly was not going to propose to Ginny any time soon. He was not even going to take her to bed until ... well, that was a tough question. Would he have to wait until the divorce was final? How long was that? Why was he even asking those questions? Was this already a done deal and he was just the last to know it?

Rad could have just offered to pace the girls in the car while they flew home from the restaurant. That was approximately their mood. He hoped they would calm down enough to function in school the next day.

At twelve and thirteen, patience is not among a girl's major personality traits. Rad would not have time to consider the future, Ginny, and whether they coincided at his own pace.

They waited until he was in bed, something that had become a habit. He should not let them be up that late, but how could he think of cutting off the magical day they had been through.

These conversations on his bed had become showcases for the most revealing sleep-wear and under-things. He had talked to a counsellor and been assured that it was just their way of 'bragging' to him about their maturity and getting his approval of their sexuality.

"Do you like Ginny, Dad?" Madison asked as soon as they sat down.

"She's a very nice woman. I only met her last Tuesday, you know," he answered. "Why? Do you like her?"

"Well, du-uh! I mean, we just had the most awesome day with her," Madison answered.

It was risky and he did not want to squelch their mood, but he couldn't resist. "But you didn't go anywhere exotic and you didn't do anything expensive," he pointed out.

That stopped them cold and he felt bad for a moment. Carter showed remarkable maturity, though. "I guess we kinda deserved that. You felt bad sometimes when we came home all excited about stuff Mom took us to, didn't you? I guess we bitched a lot about what we didn't have, too. We're sorry, Daddy!"

"So, what was so special about today, then?" he asked, eager to get away from the subject of Alicia, sorry he had even introduced it.

"Well, Ginny's such a ... such a girl! I mean, she seems to think like we do. We were laughing and giggling so much it almost hurt. We shopped forever and hardly bought anything. It was a blast. And Chase is so cool. She didn't treat us like kids at all."

"Except for the tickle fight when we woke her up," Madison corrected.

"Well, I certainly didn't see any kids at dinner tonight," he commented. That brought giggles. When that died down, both got very quiet, clearly wanting to ask something but afraid to.

"Girls, Ginny is a married woman. I know she is planning to divorce, but that hasn't happened yet. I can't even date her right now. It could mess things up for her divorce."

"But her husband is cheating on her," Carter protested.

"Yes, but if she should be caught dating, he could accuse her of the same thing. She would lose her advantage."

"Oh. Would you date her if you could?" He had to handle this one very carefully. He knew without a doubt that everything he said would get back to Ginny word for word.

"Yes, I would like to date her. She is the first woman I have felt this way about since ... well, you know when."

"Dad, even if you can't date her, can we go see her when we have girl stuff we want to talk about?"

Damn! He had read that part in his 'Divorced Father's Handbook'. "I need you to think about something, Girls. It would be wonderful for you to go to Ginny for those things, but what about your mother?"

That really brought down a silence. Once again, Carter's maturity brought him to tears. "Dad, when we're with Mom, it's never like it was today with Ginny, even when we're there. To be a real mother, she has to be here when we need her. It's like Mom doesn't remember what it was like to be a girl. Ginny does."