Chapter 1

"Mama ... I love him and he loves me!" Megan Richards exclaimed as she clung to her lifelong friend and soul mate, Brad Seldon.

"Aunt Dee ... I know you probably think we're too young, but we've known each other our whole lives. We know everything about each other ... I love her and I want to marry her!" Brad stated emphatically as he pulled the bed sheet up around them. Oh, God ... this so embarrassing ... his girlfriend's mother catching them in bed together...

Diana Richards' heart pounded as she took several deep, calming breaths. Oh, God ... this just couldn't be happening! She'd opened the door expecting to find Megan in bed with Jonnie! Why couldn't she have seen this coming... "Megan ... Brad ... I'm going to shut the door and the two of you will get out of that bed and put your clothes on immediately. I'm going to call your fathers at work and get them home! All of us need to sit down and have a long talk."

"It doesn't matter what any of you have to say, Mama ... it's not going to change our minds! We love each other and we want to be together! Brad is the only one I'll ever love..."

Diana's heart constricted at the tears gathering in her daughter's hazel eyes. "Megan, sweetie, just do what I said. If the two of you aren't dressed and out here in five minutes I'm coming back! This is very serious ... do not argue with me!"

She shut her daughter's bedroom door and headed straight for the phone and dialed her best friend's number. "Lynda ... it's Diana. We have a big problem! I just caught Brad in bed with Megan! Oh, God ... What are we going to do?!!"

Lynda gasped and then was silent for several seconds. "Oh, God ... Diana ... this is going to kill them! Have you called Charles and Tom yet?"

"No. I was going to call them as soon as I called you to get you over here!"

"I'm on my way, Diana. I'll be there in about five minutes!"

"I just don't understand what the big deal is! It's not like we're actually related!" Brad ranted as he paced back and forth in the living room between his parents, Tom and Lynda Seldon, and their long time best friends, Charles and Diana Richards. Uncle Charles had been his dad's partner with the FBI for over eighteen years. He and Aunt Dee had been like a second set of parents to him and his three other siblings, but they were not blood relatives.

He and Meggie had grown up together since infancy and had been playmates along with their other siblings and close friends throughout their lives. But he'd always felt a special pull toward her for some reason. For a while, he'd felt closer to her than he was to his own sister. But when they hit puberty and Meg's body had blossomed to be as shapely as her mother's ... She didn't seem like a sister to him any more.

When they'd turned fifteen, the dreams he'd been having of her suddenly had him waking up in a sweat with a raging hard-on almost every night. Her deep-set hazel eyes framed with sparse lashes would deepen in desire as she stared at him while he took her virginity ... He was determined to be her first ... they would be each other's first. Every time he saw her start to get interested in another boy, he'd swoop in and tell her everything bad he knew about the guy to make her think twice. Though he did feel guilty at times for keeping Jonnie away from her...

He'd finally had to reveal his feelings to her. At the beginning of their senior year in high school, she'd started dating the quarterback of the football team ... another friend of his. And there was nothing bad he could tell her about Lee ... he was a good guy. But when he saw Lee making out with Megan in the parking lot at school one afternoon in December and saw the look in her eyes...

New Year's Eve 1974, Megan Richards had gotten the shock of her life. Brad had gone to a party with his and Meg's close siblings and childhood friends; Meg's twin brother Charlie and Brad's younger sister Didi, and their close friends Jonnie North, Barbie Estevez and Lily Wilson. Jonnie's parents, Jon Sr. and Barbara, Barbie's parents, Rick and Dawn, and Lily's parents, Larry and Maria, were also good friends of Meg and Brad's parents. Meg had come to the party with Lee, but she'd ended up going home with Brad.

Megan recalled the moment she found out that Brad loved her as much as she loved him...

"Brad, have you seen Lee? I can't find him!"

"I sent him away, Meg."

"Why?!! I thought you liked Lee! What is it now? Am I not good enough for HIM?!!" she asked with tears in her eyes. God ... why did Brad have to keep treating her like she was his sister?!! She couldn't get him to notice her because of Barbie ... she'd seen him kissing her a couple of weeks earlier. But did he have to keep interfering with every guy who did notice her?!! And why wouldn't he let Jonnie anywhere near her any more? "Why do you keep doing this to me?"

He grabbed her shoulders and hauled her against him. "This is why..." he said quietly as he lowered his lips to hers and kissed her. It had started out as a slow, tender kiss but it quickly morphed into a full-blown, deeply spine tingling, toe curling kiss. Their bodies felt like they had fused as soon as their lips parted and their tongues stroked together.

Megan clung to Brad's strong, athletic body, molding her full breasts against his lower chest. Brad tangled his hands into Megan's long, wavy, golden brown hair. Then he quickly backed her up against the wall behind her, pressing the full length of his body against hers so that she would be in no doubt of how he felt about her.

Megan gasped when she felt the hard bulge in the front of his jeans pressed against her. Oh God ... all of a sudden she wasn't his sister? When Brad finally broke the kiss, she saw the need in his deep hazel eyes ... eyes very similar to her own ... But there was also something else ... something she hadn't seen since that dance five years earlier...

"I've been dreaming of you since we were thirteen years old. But I was afraid to let you know. I somehow sensed that you felt the same way and we could've gotten in way over our heads when we were too young. So I treated you like you were my sister ... looking out for you at school ... making sure no boys got out of line with you ... making sure you never fell for anyone else."

He untangled his right hand from her hair to stroke her cheek. "I've loved you all my life, Meg ... we belong together. You're my soul mate..."

They had agreed that they didn't want anyone else to know how they felt about each other. They were both afraid that it might make their friends or family members feel uncomfortable for some reason. They'd promised each other that they wouldn't make love for the first time until they graduated. Both of them were going off to college the next fall. They'd decided that they were going to spend a magical summer together before they had to part. Once they were through college and knew that they belonged together, then they'd tell everyone else...

They had stolen moments over the months since New Year's to kiss and make out as often as they could when no one else was around. They'd even progressed to some pretty heavy petting, stroking each other to mind-blowing orgasms. They'd just graduated a week ago ... Friday, June 6, 1975.

They had skipped the graduation party to go to a secluded beach in Malibu to give their bodies ... and their souls ... to each other for the first time. It couldn't have been any more beautiful and perfect ... Megan had hardly felt the sting of his first penetration. He'd given her a powerful orgasm with his lips and tongue and then entered her for the first time in the midst of her climax.

Brad had practiced while masturbating, learning how to control when he wanted to come. He'd kissed her deeply and stroked her body with his until he brought her to another climax and then he'd let go to join her. It had surpassed all his dreams ... They were making love for only the third time when Aunt Dee unexpectedly came home from work early and caught them together...

Megan's attention was torn away from Brad by her mother's anxious voice. "Just how many times have the two of you been together? And please tell us that you've used condoms!"

"Oh, Mama ... this was only our third time and yes, we've used condoms every time. I'm not stupid and I'm not ready to get pregnant! We're being very careful! We just want to spend as much time together as we can this summer before we leave for college! We'll be careful ... we promise! We love each other ... and you can't keep us apart!" Megan exclaimed as she threw herself into Brad's arms.

Tom Seldon sighed wearily and stood up to approach them. He said quietly, "Kids ... it's not that simple. It's not about being careful. We have something to tell you ... so please ... sit down and let us tell you a story."

Brad and Megan's similarly colored eyes stared defiantly into his weary hazel eyes. He put his arms around their shoulders and walked them over to sit them down beside him on one of the couches. Charles and Diana sat down on chairs beside their daughter and Lynda sat beside Brad.

Tom began, "Charles and I were assigned as partners in September of 1956. We've told you that your Uncle Charles and Aunt Dee were responsible for introducing your mother and me and that we fell in love the second we saw each other. And I'm sure you've figured out by now that your mother was pregnant with you before we married." Brad rolled his eyes and nodded.

"As a matter of fact, it was that traumatic event just before Thanksgiving of that year that we'd told you kids about that had all of us a little anxious to have children as soon as possible. And as you know, all five of you oldest kids were born that next year ... you and Charlie were the last ones, Meggie. Your Mom and Dad weren't even sure they'd be able to have children at all, but we all prayed for a miracle that Christmas. As a matter of fact, we did a little more than just pray...

"It all started while your father and I were working on our first big investigation together. We all realized by the time that investigation was through, how fate or destiny had been twisting our chances and choices to make sure ALL our lives would be forever intertwined..."

Tom began to relate the events of the arms smuggling investigation after reminding the kids of the tragic story they'd told them years ago. "Also because of that incident, your Mom and Dad realized they could communicate telepathically, Meggie. And then your Mom discovered that she could actually hear your Dad's thoughts even when he wasn't trying to communicate them to her!"

Brad interrupted, looking at Charles and Diana. "I've always believed that you two could communicate without words! I've watched you do it over the years. That's why I believe Meggie and I are soul mates ... we can read each other's thoughts sometimes, too! I'm just glad you were never able to read my thoughts about her, Aunt Dee ... I'd have been in big trouble!"

Diana looked at Brad with a sad frown. "Bradley, dear, just because you and Meggie can read each other's thoughts, it doesn't mean you're meant to be soul mates! And I've never been able to read the thoughts of any of you kids ... but I wish I could've! Just let your Dad continue with the story."

Tom smiled sadly at Diana and continued, telling them about how Donald Price and Robert Clark had past connections to them and about running into them at that Christmas party a few weeks later. "Your mother was none too pleased to see Donald and your Aunt Dee wasn't very happy to see Uncle Bob, either. And, at the time, Aunt Lisa was the wife of your mother's ex-husband, Brad, and she was not happy to see your mother. This was also the night we realized that your Uncle Bob and Aunt Lisa knew each other. But it wasn't until the end of the investigation that we learned they were more than just acquainted."

Megan jumped in. "Is this story why Uncle Bob and Aunt Lisa always say they're grateful to you guys for the way things worked out for them? You all started out hating each other and now you're friends? Man ... this is starting to sound like a really twisted story. I can't even imagine how it's going to end..."

The adults all glanced at each other. They knew Megan wasn't going to like the ending...

Tom continued again. "It was during this part of the preliminary investigation that your Dad received some devastating news, Meggie. Your Mom had been so upset, wondering why she hadn't been able to get pregnant, so your Dad went to the doctor to get checked out. He was told by the doctor that he was virtually sterile ... most of his sperm were dead. Your Aunt Lynda and I were the only ones they told about that."