Chapter 9: Family Dinner

Saturday December 19th, 1998

We both slept in the next morning; it was almost 8:00 when we woke up. I stretched, trying to gentle move my arm from underneath Heather without waking her. She stirred, and rolled over, facing me.

"Good morning, honey," I said, kissing her forehead.

"Mmmm, what a nice way to wake up," she replied. "I don't seem to remember how we got home last night; obviously, we must have, because we are in our bed."

"You slept most of the way back," I said. "You woke up when we got home, but you were still a bit out of it."

"Oh, sorry, leaving you to drive back by yourself," she apologised. "I do remember dinner, and making love in the river, then the police arriving. I was shit scared we were going to get busted, and after they left ... I was uncontrollable, so fucking horny - I've never been so desperate for you to be inside me."

Her description of our activities the previous night was starting to arouse me, and I could feel my prick growing, pressing against her stomach.

"Now what do we have here?" she asked, reaching down between us. "He's awake, too! I would have thought everything we did last night would have left him worn out today, but..."

She rolled over on her back, pulling me on top of her. As she opened her legs, I reached down between us, but she knocked my hand aside, guiding the tip of my prick between her wet pussy lips.

"Do it the same way you did the final time last night," she ordered.

I tried to recall through the fog in my mind, images came back piece by piece. I placed my hands on her shoulders, pushing my upper body up and away from her. She wrapped her legs around my backside, and moved in time with me as I thrust in and out.

"Oh, God, that's so good," she moaned.

I bent down slightly, positioning my mouth over one breast. I had to time things right; they were moving back and forward, responding to my thrusts. Finally I was able to clamp my lips over an erect nipple, sucking on it and rubbing the tip of my tongue across the tip.

"Yes! Keep sucking!" she cried out. "I love it when you suck my tits as you fuck me!"

She was moaning, crying out with pleasure; it was such a turn on to hear her responses; I was never left unsure if my technique was right, or I was doing the right thing to pleasure her. I moved my mouth to her other breast, suckling on her enlarged nipple, taking as much of her lovely breast into my mouth as I could fit.

"Oh, GOD YES!" she cried out, digging her nails into my back as she started coming.

Her whole body shook violently, her hips moving up and down and her legs locked around my thighs, keeping me deep inside her. She squeezed her vagina muscles, they seemed to pulse; relaxing and clenching rapidly as her orgasm took her. I could feel my own orgasm getting closer; once she relaxed her grip with her vagina and her legs, I adjusted my position; angling my prick so the sensitive underside rubbed harder against her opening.

I took my mouth from her breast, and sucked in some air. I felt my muscles start to tense, I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes. Then, with a loud gasp and exhalation, I came. Heather cried out as she felt my spurts inside her, and again she gripped my back tightly, digging her nails into my flesh.

I collapsed against her chest, panting, and my heart pounding.

"That's some way to wake me up," I said eventually. "Are you going to do that every morning?"

"Why? Didn't you like it?" she asked.

"I didn't say that," I replied. "I would have thought that after last night, where you came maybe 4 or 5 times, at least, you would want a quiet morning."

"Did I come that many times?" she asked. "And just who would have made me come? I'm just making up for lost time; twenty-odd years of lost time."

"Now, what time will we have to leave in order to be at Ballina in time for lunch?" I asked. "I'm thinking of calling a mate back in Sydney, to talk about rental accommodation for us; I assume you don't want to stay at my parents place any longer than is absolutely necessary."

"Mum mentioned getting there maybe 11 or 11:30, that way you can meet James, tell him what's going on. His grandfather will be dropping him off," she said.

"How do you think he will react?" I asked. "Will he resent having a step-father?"

"I don't think so, I think he was unhappy when I agreed to let his father have custody, and then I moved away; I'm sure he feels I abandoned him," she replied. "But at the time, it seemed the best arrangement."

"Will you want to see if we can get the custody changed?" I asked. "I've got a good solicitor friend; we can start the ball rolling on that if you want to go through all that."

"We can talk to him about that today if you want; are you sure you want a stepson?" she asked.

"Well, if - when - I marry you I automatically get two stepsons, it comes as a complete package," I replied. "It's a question of if we want James living with us. I guess if we are going to do that, then if he could move down before school starts in February, it will mean less disruption for him."

"We can see what he wants, and I can talk with his father," Heather said. "But Jim spends most of the time at his grandfather's house, since his father is out fishing most of the time."

"Ok, I need to call Martin, to get the phone number of an estate agent we went to school with," I said. "I'll also float that ideal, the custody changes past him; see what we will need to do to get that done. He should have an update on the sale of my old house, too; that will go towards a deposit if we want to buy a place. Maybe - and I'll see what Cliff has available - maybe we could rent somewhere with the intention of buying it once settlement is finalized."

"So this is really happening?" she said, her eyes starting to mist up. "We are going to be living in our own house, even if we start by renting, but living in OUR HOME, as husband and wife?"

She put special emphasis on the words 'our home'. I squeezed her hand, and kissed her.

"Of course we are," I replied. "What the fuck did you think I meant by wanting to marry you?" I finished, with a joking tone to my voice. "How could we be married if we didn't live in a house together? And of course that will be our home, even more so if we can raise Jim together."

She held me close to her, and buried her head in my shoulder, sniffling. I was worried, maybe I had pushed too fast; was she upset? It sounded like she was crying.

"Are you ok?" I asked. "Did I upset you?"

"No, silly, I just can't believe all this," she replied. "It's like a fairy tale, you know where a fairy godmother has waved her magic wand, and all of a sudden things are starting to go right for me. I'm not used to things turning out right for me, I always see to screw things up, and it's all a bit ... a bit overwhelming."

We lay there while I stroked her hair, then we got up, and had a long, hot shower. I just hoped that everything would turn out right for both of us; Heather wasn't the only one with a history of things screwing up.

Martin was in his office when I phoned; I gave him a brief update on how well things had progressed up here.

"Look, Mate, I need some help on a couple of things," I said. "The first might be changing child custody arrangements with Heather's youngest son."

I gave him a background on the situation, telling him I would know more later in the day.

"What will we need to get, what's the best way to sort all this out?" I asked.

"Well, things like that tend to never go as easily as we would hope," he replied. "Once you start dealing with custody, access, and all of that, it's such an emotional issue, that rational decisions, like what does the kid actually want, what's the best for him, they get pushed aside. But talk to him - James? - see what he wants. Then if he wants to move back here with you, talk to his father, and if he agrees, we can petition the family court for a change in custody arrangements. If it's not contested, then it's pretty simple. If you can get the original divorce details, I'll contact the court, get myself added as Heather's attorney, and then get a copy of all the details. Assuming we don't have to fight for anything, it's a piece of piss."

"Ok, we'll do that," I replied. "The other thing, you mentioned Cliff Bridge runs an estate agent's office in Mona Vale, I want to talk to him about rental property, see what we can get to move into before buying something once my old place settles."

"Yeah, he's the L.J. Hooker agent here; I deal a lot with him, helping with contracts, all that property management stuff. He's probably in working this morning; I'm just about to drop an eviction notice around for some deadbeat tenants in one of the properties he manages."

Martin gave me his phone number, and after a few more exchanges, we hung up.

I told Heather what Martin had said about the custody; she went to get a copy of her divorce papers so he would have all the details. I then called Cliff, to see what properties he might have.

"Hey, Cliff, Will Morris here," I said once he was on the phone.

We talked briefly, catching up with what each other had been up to in the last few years.

"Anyway, to business - Martin gave me your number, I'm getting remarried, and my future wife will be moving back to Sydney after Christmas with me. Now, we will need some place to live, I've been at my parents place for a while, and I'm just about sick of that, and I'm sure she won't want to live there for more than a few days.

"Ideally we want to stay somewhere close to Mona Vale; I take the bus to town for work each day. Initially we don't care if it's an apartment, house, whatever; I'm just waiting for settlement to happen on my old place, and then we can see about buying something."

"Ok, congrats on the new bride, mate," he said. "I hope everything works out for both of you.

"Now, houses to rent and buy; there's not a huge stock of places for sale at the moment, not houses anyway. There's lots of apartments, and quite a few condos in that new development in the Warriewood valley, not sure that you would want to live there though. I've got a few huge places around Bayview, Church Point if you are looking to spent a million or two..."

"I wish, mate," I replied, laughing. "Just an average family house is all we need."

"Fair enough," he said. "I might have something that could work, would you consider renting a place with the option of buying? It's a rental, but the owner has had enough of the hassles of tenants. It's in a bad way, the previous tenants have trashed it, I'm getting them evicted today. It will need a lot of work, even to make it habitable, but I know we could do a deal if it turns out to be what you want. Despite how it looks, it is basically a great place, three bedrooms plus study, double garage underneath, a good block in Mona Vale, just the other side of Maxwell Street."

"That might work," I said. "But we would want to look at a few places, stuff to rent in the short term, as well as a place to buy."

"Ok, give me your mobile number; maybe after Boxing Day we can check it all out," he said. "It might be a few weeks before the one I'm thinking of is ready, this time of year it's a bugger of a job getting trades work done, all the tradies are on holidays."

"Great, that sounds like a plan," I said. "Anything you need from me? References, stuff like that?"

"When did you last rent a house?" he replied.

"Shit, back in the early 80's," I said, "back in Canberra - actually, from another Hooker agency."

I gave him the details of the place we rented, the agent's name and all that.

"Since then I've owned my places, except for the last few months after the divorce, when I moved back home to my parents' place," I added.

"No worries, we've probably got information in our corporate system somewhere," Cliff said. "If we go with a rental, that will be fine. Now, let's get some info on what you might like. First, what areas are you considering; near the beach, water front, what suburbs?"

"Doesn't have to be near the beach, or a waterfront, that would probably blow my budget," I replied. "Locations; well, Mona Vale, Newport, parts of Warriewood, all of those. Somewhere close to the High School or on a bus route for it. Not too far from the shops, and close to a main bus stop to the city. Apart from that, I'm easy."

"Ok, the block," he continued. "What things are important with that; size, pool, you know, all that stuff."

"Not a huge block, just a quarter of an acre will be fine. Fenced back yard, level, area for outdoor entertaining. No pool. A two car garage, detached would be acceptable, but under the roof line even better. Garden shed, place for tools, lawnmower, all that shit."

"Yup. The house, how big, bedrooms, all that?" he asked.

"Three bedrooms, plus study would be nice. All on one level, but garage underneath would be fine. Eat in kitchen, en-suite off master, separate dining room. Built ins or closets in each bedroom. Separate laundry room," I listed what I thought were reasonable requirements.

"Ok, that gives me something to go with," he said. "Let me get your mobile number, and an email address, I can send you some details over the next few days. When are you back in town? Boxing Day?"

I gave him my number and email address, and told him when we would be back. He would show us some potential places that week, and said he had a couple of good possibilities for us. All that was left now was to work out how to get all of Heather's furniture and other stuff back to Sydney, and both of our cars.

I contacted a truck rental place up in Coolongatta, they said they could have a 20 foot truck for me to pick up on Christmas eve, along with a trailer large enough to hold both cars. On Monday we would go up to fill out the paperwork, and collect a bunch of boxes, so that week we could start packing everything up. Once we got back after Christmas lunch, we could start loading the truck up; I got a phone number to arrange for some removalists to help with packing the heavy stuff. Another phone call to the storage place where my furniture was stored got me a second storage unit for Heather's furniture, which we would need until we found a house.

I emailed Martin giving him the details of Heather's divorce decree and the child custody arrangements, and then it was time to get changed to leave for Ballina. All in all, a very productive morning, lots of arrangements set in motion.

"Things are starting to move, move really fast," Heather said. "I can't believe that I'm going to be packing everything up this week, and after Christmas, we will be looking at houses for us to live in."

"It's not too fast for you, is it?" I asked, worried she might be having second thoughts.

"No, not at all," she replied, reaching over to squeeze my thigh. "It's just ... just so hard to believe. I never imagined when you said you wanted to come up to see me, that, well, maybe it was a wild fantasy of mine, but I never seriously imagined this would be the result."

I smiled, wondering just what other fantasies she had before my visit, and concentrated on the traffic. Being the start of the main summer holiday rush, the traffic was noticeably heavier than it had been in previous days; people were getting a start on their annual vacations.

I tried to work out just how long it would take to drive the distance from Tweed Heads to Sydney, in a moving van towing a large trailer. At least the bulk of the traffic would be heading the other way; Boxing Day was the traditional start of the holiday rush, people leaving after Christmas. There would be huge traffic jams at the various bottlenecks, people waiting hours to travel just a few kilometres. But they would all be heading north.

"What do you think about packing the truck up Boxing Day morning, and driving that afternoon, stopping at Ballina for the night?" I suggested to her. "Then leaving early the next morning, and driving the remainder of the way to Sydney? We could unpack everything the next morning. It will probably take us the best part of 12 hours in a truck to get from there to Sydney."

"That sounds like a good idea," she said. "Will we be able to get some help unpacking stuff there? I don't want you doing it all yourself."

"I can contact some friends," I replied. "One of the people I know at the sailing club has some teenage boys; they would be willing to help."

"There's so much I have to do to get organized," she said. "Cancel my lease; sort out what stuff I want to keep, what I don't want, and pack everything else. At least we have a week to do it."

"Tonight we can make a list, check nothing gets forgotten," I said. "How do you think your mother will react?"

"Once the shock wears off, she will be happy for me," Heather said. "I know she was worried about me being up in Tweed, all by myself with no friends or family close by. They will want to come down and meet your parents, though, particularly with us getting married."

"Our mothers can get involved in planning the wedding," she said. "Although I think I would want something simple and quiet."

"Me too," I replied. "Just us, our immediate families, and some close friends. We can plan what we want for a honeymoon, though."

"If we have Jim living with us, we will have to time the wedding and honeymoon to fit in with school holidays," Heather said. "Will that be a problem?"

"I can't see that being an issue," I replied. "How do you think he will react to our news?"

"Like most teenagers, he will pretend he really doesn't care one way or the other," she replied. "Now, more immediately, what would you want him to call you?"

"Not 'Dad', that wouldn't feel right," I said. "I guess he could call me 'Will', what do you think?"

"That should be fine; we can ask him, anyway. As long as you are comfortable with that, that's the main thing."

I had to admit, that was one aspect of our future relationship that I had never really thought much about. I guess because neither of Heather's kids was living with her while we were rekindling our relationship, it had never crossed my mind. I understood why she had agreed to have Jim living with his father; but once we were established in our own place, she wanted him to be with us. It would be quite an adjustment for me, I had never had to consider sharing a house with kids, and we would have to be on our best behaviour with him around. Maybe he might be interested in sailing; I knew that when I saw parents at the sailing club teaching their kids how to sail, and encouraging them, congratulating them when they did well; I felt the odd pang of jealousy. But that was something to work towards in the future; don't run until you can walk, I told myself.