Chapter 7

"Mom's mad at me," I said, tossing my cell phone on the unoccupied bed and shutting the door.

"What'd you do now?" Traci asked, dealing six cards to Robbie. I don't know why everyone doesn't want a little sister.

"Not sure." I looked over Robbie's shoulder at the cribbage board. She and Traci were just a few points apart about halfway through the game. Tami, Darlene, Mikee, and Kelly sat around the edges of the bed watching.

I sat down next to my phone. Mikee and Kelly had shown up a few minutes after Darlene, Robbie, Tami and I got back from the play. Their parents, like mine, were staying at the Holiday Inn instead of the Hilton. Traci wandered in a few minutes after that and told me that Mom wanted me to call. I'd grabbed my phone, then took a walk around the hotel a few times while I talked to her. "Is there a reason everyone is hanging out in my room?"

Tami gave me a sharp look. "Actually, it's my room. And unless you want to go sit by yourself in YOUR room, you'll be nice to my friends."

I nodded, though she'd turned back to the game and couldn't see me. "Where's Peter?" I asked to change the subject.

"He went with Mom and Dad to get something to eat," Mikee said. "We weren't hungry." Figuring I was in enough trouble, I ignored the pretzels in her hand.

Robbie cut the deck and Traci turned over an eight.

"Damn!" Robbie muttered.

I smiled to myself. "Let me guess. You discarded two perfectly harmless cards, but that eight made them valuable."

"How'd you know?" Robbie almost snarled.

"Who do you think taught her to play cribbage when he got tired of losing at Monopoly?" It was a rhetorical question, and no one answered me. "Traci always gets a good top card when it's her crib."

"I should have let you bury her in the woods when we were on our road trip," Robbie said, leading a six.

"Hey!" Traci complained. "I'm right here."

"Not for long." Robbie said. "Mikee, see if your brother is back. Maybe she'll go make out, and somebody else can win."

Mikee giggled but didn't move.

"So, why's your mom mad?" Tami asked.

"I think it's the Darlene situation."

"Hey!" Darlene whined. "It wasn't my fault."

"No, it's the situation, not you. Though if she met your step-daddy in a dark alley he'd leave with some bruises. I think she wanted to do a family dinner after the play. But since we didn't get out of there until almost midnight..."

"Oh," someone said while Robbie counted the cards in her hand and looked disgusted.

"Anyway, Trace, tomorrow you and I are doing the brunch thing with the parents. Ten-thirty sharp, and bad things will happen if we're so much as a minute late." Traci nodded as she counted her hand and moved her peg far in front of Robbie's. "Tami and Robbie, you are specifically invited, with the same dire warnings applied about lateness."

"My mom..."

"Is in the loop. I'm not sure if she's coming, but Mom said your mom and Robbie's dad knew all about it."

Tami nodded as Traci turned over her crib, three eights and a seven to go with her eight top card.

Robbie looked at the cards and stood. "I'm going to bed," she announced.

"But the game isn't over yet," Mikee said.

Robbie shook her head. "After she pegs all that she needs one point, and next hand, she counts first," she explained.

I grinned. Traci's luck could be annoying. "The rest of you weren't specifically invited, but weren't disinvited either, so feel free to come. And now..." I stood and moved over to the other bed, laying my hands gently on Tami's shoulders. " ... I hope you take this in the spirit of friendship, love, and respect in which it's meant. Get out," I said to the rest of them.

"Your mom called," Tami said as I opened the bathroom door to let out some of the steam.

"Here?" I asked as I toweled dry.

"Yes, here." Tami said and giggled. "We're supposed to meet them at the restaurant, not here or their motel. I've got directions." When Mom told me she knew about Tami and me having sex, she'd said to keep being discreet. I wondered if her calling Tami's hotel room to leave me a message counted against that. Hell, I wondered if she'd even bothered to call my room first.

"I see you brought a friend," Tami said with a grin as I walked out of the bathroom. "Put it away. I'm not getting grounded 'cause you were late to brunch."

The clock said ten straight up. "But we..."

"No," she said in a tone that indicated that not only was the discussion closed, but anything I said could be used against me.

I shrugged, turned to my suitcase, and started pulling out clean clothes. Tami was on the room phone as I dressed. She hung up as I pulled on my second sock. "Any idea who all is coming?"

"That was Robbie. She and Darlene will be ready in a couple more minutes. I called Traci, too. Did you want to hear about a sleepy male voice in the background of her room?

"No!" I said emphatically as I tied on a shoe. "Is he coming?"

"Nope. Peter and his sisters are going to Olympia with their folks. They'll be home tomorrow."

I nodded and stood up.

"Were you going to put on pants, or were you planning to give my dad a thrill.?'

Tami stuck her tongue out. "I figure your mom gives your dad enough thrills."

I shuddered. "Not going there."

Tami grinned, stood, and started pulling on a pair of jeans over her candy cane panties. "You are so weirded out by that."

"I was thinking. Your dad's such a big guy, and your mom..."

Tami made a face. "Point taken." She fastened her jeans and sat down again to put on shoes. "Think our kids will be weirded out by us?"

I shrugged. "It's traditional."

"Except in those stories you used to read."

I grinned. "Yeah, in a lot of those it's traditional for a father to initiate his daughters into sex and a mother to do her sons."

"Hands on sex ed. I can't imagine a girl having sex with her father. Think anybody we know... ?"

"Nah. Happens a lot more in fiction than in real life."

"What was the name of this place again?"

"The Ugly Duckling," Tami answered Darlene as I held the front door open for the four girls.

"Think they serve duck?" Robbie asked, holding open the inside door.

"Not for breakfast, I hope," I said as I followed the troop inside.

"I don't know how you could eat a cute little duck," Darlene said, running her hand through her hair. Between the wind and a light rain it looked a little disheveled. It had been perfect when we left the hotel.

"You eat cute little chickens," Traci pointed out.

"That's different," Darlene insisted.

"Don't worry," I said, laying my arm on her shoulders. "It's breakfast. I'm sure they have eggs and pancakes and stuff." Darlene looked relieved. "How do you feel about scrambled duck eggs?"

Darlene looked shocked. "They don't?"

I shrugged. Personally, I'd never heard of the place until Tami pulled into the parking lot.

"Don't pick on Darlene," Robbie said, flicking my arm off Darlene's shoulders and giving her a hug. "She's my new chicken coop cleaner."

"Chicken coop cleaner?" Darlene seemed surprised.

"You have to pay for room and board somehow."

I grinned and stepped up to the glass counter filled with ceramic and chocolate ducks. "Hi. We're meeting my parents for breakfast. Sims."

The waitress, a cute twenty-something in a starched pink uniform with a duck head emblem over her left breast, consulted a chart on a clipboard. "Sims. That's meeting room two." She picked up five oversized menus. "Right this way."

We followed her through a pretty standard dining room, except for duck paintings everywhere, to the far wall with four doors numbered one to four. The waitress opened number two and ushered us in.

It was a long paneled room with more duck pictures on the walls. Mom and Dad sat at the far end of a long table big enough for twenty or so. A couple of people I didn't know were sitting to my parents' right, opposite a Hispanic woman. She looked vaguely familiar, but her head was turned mostly away from me, talking to Mom.

Dad smiled at us, but before either of us could say anything I was tackled from the side by one of those alien creatures that suck the soul right out of you. The creature attached itself to my body, and it's soul sucking tentacle wormed into my mouth. I probably would have fallen on my butt, but Robbie braced me. Knowing Robbie, she'd done it instinctively. If she'd had time to think, she would have let me land on my ass.

It took a second to realize that the alien was actually a girl. And the tentacle a tongue, one that was actively dueling mine. It was another second before I realized it was... "Hailey!" I gasped, disengaging her and setting her on the ground.

"Hi, Cuz."

"What are... ?" I couldn't finish the question because another bundle was in my arms. Red-headed this time. Cinnamon kissed me, but without a tongue. Cinnamon let go of me to hug Robbie. I could see Hailey hugging Traci, though not as actively. "I..." A third bundle interrupted me. Blonde this time. "Doctor Blondie," I said after a perfunctory kiss. Of course, after Hailey, anything short of a blowjob was perfunctory.

My mind was spinning. Cinnamon and Wynter should be in Colorado. Hailey should be in Hawaii. No, Oregon. No, Colorado with the other two. But they were here. Definitely here. My cock twitched, and I wished Tami and I had had more time after my shower. And Mom and Dad sitting with the three strangers. Three ... Rosita.

What was Rosita doing here?

And Mom? What was Mom going to think about Hailey's greeting? Where were my hands when Hailey tackled me. God, I hope I hadn't grabbed her ass. Had I fondled her ass in front of my mother? I was never going to hear the end of it.

The strange man looked slightly annoyed. The woman, his wife, I guessed, had her hand covering a grin. Mom, Dad, and Rosita looked amused.

What the hell was going on?

Hailey, Cinnamon and Wynter had finished hugging all the girls. "Cousin Tony, Cousin Traci, ladies, these are my parents, Gerry and Viv," Hailey introduced. She noticed the confused look on my face, because she added, "Hey! Do I, like, need to explain which is which?"

"Hailey!" the strange man, Gerry, said sharply.

Hailey frowned at him. "Oh, cram it, Daddy! Tony's, like, so the family!"

"How... ? Why... ?" I stammered.

"The play," Tami said, seeming to be as stunned as I was.

"They came up to watch," Mom confirmed.

"Close your mouth, Sport. And come sit down." Dad hadn't called me Sport in a long time.

We sat, Cinnamon and Hailey on either side of me and Wynter across the table with Robbie and Tami on either side of her. Traci sat between Hailey's mom and Tami.

"Somebody stop the world. I'm ready to get off now," I said as Robbie passed out the menus the waitress had left on the end of the table.

"Your cousins came to watch the play," Dad said.

"It would have been nice if you'd actually invited us," Rosita said sternly. She held the stern look for several seconds, then laughed.

"But... ?"

"Here we were, just moved to Oregon, only a few hundred miles away, and you didn't even tell us there was a play," Hailey's dad said, giving his hand a dramatic overhead flourish.

"But... ?"

"We find new family and he ignores us," his wife added, stabbing an accusatory finger at me.

"But... ?"

"Tony!" Robbie said sharply. I looked across the table at her. She took a deep breath, held it, and let it out. I took the hint and followed suit.

"Party pooper," Hailey mumbled.

"They all came to see the play," I said. It may not have been the most intelligent comment I could make, but I was still trying to catch up.

"I invited them and got them tickets."

I looked over at Robbie again. "You did?"

She nodded. "You and Tami were busy with gymnastics and other things." Her last two words were barely audible, but with the nod she gave me, I knew she was talking about worrying about her.

"I knew you'd forgotten that Gerry and Viv had just moved to Oregon, so I got their phone number from Cinnamon, called, and invited them. Then I invited Cinnamon's family for good measure."

"I invited Wynter since she's a cousin too," Cinnamon added.

"So you were all there last night," I said brightly.

"Right in the eighth row between us and Robbie's sister," Dad said. "We..."

"Sam was there?"

I grinned at Robbie. "I guess you weren't the only one with a surprise."

She stuck her tongue out.

Cinnamon's eyes had moved non-stop, observing everyone while we interrupted her. When she saw that we were finished, she continued. "Daddy was going to come, but Mrs. Rikorson is due in a few days and was having complications."

"Hey, it was either leave him or, like, leave Wynter. We so couldn't take both of the best obstetricans at the same time. It, like, so wouldn't be fair!" Hailey added.

Wynter smiled at the compliment. "He's worried about Mrs. Rikorson and an abruptio placentae. It's not life threatening, but has to be watched closely.

"And he wouldn't want you traveling without the best OB in Colorado," Traci said.

"What?" Rosita said startled.

I looked at Traci, then Rosita, then back at Trace.

"You're pregnant, aren't you?" Traci asked, a little embarrassed now.

"How did... ? I'm not showing. I know I'm not."

I got up, stepped around Cinnamon and kissed Rosita on the cheek. "Congratulations."

"But how did she... ?"

"Traci always knows," Mom said.

"A few dozen woman have heard from Traci long before the rabbit died," Dad added.

"They don't use rabbits anymore," Traci giggled.

"They don't?" Dad seemed surprised. I guess it was a good thing he never gave me much of a sex talk.

"They never actually used rabbits much anyway, it was usually mice," Wynter explained.

"The mouse died. Doesn't sound right," Dad commented.

"Actually, the mouse or rabbit always died, independent of the test results." I recognized that Wynter was going into lecture mode. I just hoped there wouldn't be a test afterwards. "Well, almost always. They were testing for the effect of the human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG hormone produced by the embryo and the placenta on the animal's ovaries." I saw the look of concentration on Wynter's face and knew she was trying to make sure she pronounced everything right. I think she did, but what did I know?

"First blood or urine are subcutaneously injected into an immature test subject."

"Ewwww," Traci said, voicing my opinion too.

"Then the test animal had to be surgically examined to determine pregnancy by looking to see if the hCG induced ovulation, and it usually wasn't worth the time or expense to keep it alive."

"That's terrible," Darlene said.

"That's why back in the fifties they replaced it with the frog test."

"The frog died," Dad said making a face.

Wynter smiled. "They didn't have to kill the frog. If there was hCG, the frog would produce an egg within twenty-four hours. Since frog eggs gestate outside the body, it wasn't necessary to kill the frog. But now the test is entirely chemical, though both chemical and animal testing can give a false negative reading if performed too soon after fertilization."

Wynter smiled. It was the exact same smile that Mrs. Ustinov always had whenever I gave wrong answer in the fifth grade. Especially when I sounded sure of myself.

I glanced at Cinnamon. Her head was tilted slightly to one side and her unblinking eyes were fixed on Dad in that computronic way she had. She wore a smile of pride that I realized was for Wynter, her adopted sister, as she studied his reaction.