Chapter 25

Brock took a seat on the couch as he considered Zoe's words. They could have so many meanings.

"We're not brother and sister?" he asked.

Zoe's mouth twitched slightly.

"I think we are," she said. "That's not what I've lied to you about."

"Just tell him," Meredith advised gently. "It will be fine. You'll see."

Zoe nodded slightly.

"When I asked you yesterday if you minded about, uh, well, Emmy," she said. "I wasn't just asking because of her. You see, I'm that way, too. I'm a lesbian."

"OK," Brock said as he glanced from Zoe's face to the faces of Randi and Meredith beside her. Surely, he thought, there was more to the situation than this. Zoe just stared at him. He wasn't sure anything else needed to be said.

"OK?" she asked. "That's it?"

Apparently, Brock was wrong. Something more did need to be said. He just didn't know what it might be.

"Uh, I'm happy for you?" he tried. "Hell, Zoe, what more do you want? I don't care that you're gay. I mean, not in the slightest. Unless, you know, you start making comments about how great Meredith's boobs are or how nice Randi's butt looks. Nope, even those I'd be OK with, I guess. I'm not sure exactly what you want me to say."

"Well, let's see, when I told my mom she gave me a lecture about how hard my life would be unless I reconsidered my choice," Zoe said angrily. "When I told my best friend, she immediately worried that I had been perving on her in the shower. So, I guess maybe I did expect something more than 'OK.' I know what you said yesterday but it's different when it's a family member."

"Really?" Brock asked. "Well, it's not for me. Look, Zoe, I can't tell you how happy I am that you are part of my life. I'm thrilled that I'm getting to know you. It has nothing to do with the fact we share 13 chromosomes. It's because you're a really great person. I'm really proud that you're my sister. This news doesn't change that."

"Thanks," Zoe said sincerely.

"You should go ahead and get it all out," Randi said.

Zoe nodded again.

"It's about Emmy," she admitted. "The reason I suspected she is gay is because she told me. She told me because she identified me pretty quickly too. So lunch yesterday was actually a date. We like each other and we want to go out together. I know you like her. Actually, she knows you like her, too. I should have told you from the beginning but I wasn't sure how you'd react. So is it still OK?"

Brock shrugged.

"She means is it OK with you if she and Emmy date," Meredith clarified.

"Sure, why wouldn't it be?" Brock asked. "Although it does put me in a bit of a predicament I guess."

"I thought it might," Zoe said sadly.

"I suppose we can work it out," Brock said thoughtfully. "I mean, as it stands, I'll have to threaten to beat up Emmy if she hurts my little sister. But at the same time, I think I'm obligated to threaten to beat you up if you hurt my friend. The problem is, I'm scared of each of you individually and I don't even want to think about what sort of bodily harm you could inflict if you team up on me. I know! Al's her uncle. I'll get him to threaten to beat you up. There, problem solved."

Zoe had started shaking her head midway through Brock's speech.

"Seriously though, I'm happy for you," Brock said. "Emmy is really a nice person. So are you. I hope you're both extremely happy and you both realize how fortunate you are to have found the other. If things don't work out, I really hope you can remain friends."

"If it gets to the point where we end things, I'm sure we'll both ask your advice on how to accomplish that," Zoe said. She glanced over her shoulder to Meredith and Randi. "I guess you were right. I'm sorry I was such a wreck when you found me."

"It's no problem," Meredith assured her. "No one you've been close to has been willing to accept you for who you are. I knew Brock would and now you know we do, too."

"I should get going," Zoe said. She was still wearing her uniform.

"Why don't you just stay here?" Brock asked. "I have plenty of room."

"Oh, I don't want to be a bother," she said.

"And you're not," Brock replied.

"I have some clothes that will fit you," Randi offered. "It's late and you've had an emotional day. I think you should take Brock up on his offer."

Zoe's glance shifted between her two friends.

"I sort of figured that one of you might be staying here tonight," she admitted.

"Hey, that's a great idea," Meredith said. "I was going to go home but we could all stay here. It will save me from driving back over in the morning and it will save Randi that arduous walk through the fence. Why don't you go wash up while Randi gets you something to wear for bed?"

"If everyone is sure," Zoe said.

"We're sure," Brock said. "And I'm the only one who gets a vote."

"We let him believe that," Randi said with a smile. "But it's really not true."

Zoe chuckled as she headed up the stairs.

Brock was met with approving gazes from the two women left in the room.

"That was handled perfectly," Meredith said. She pulled Brock forward to kiss him. He was a little embarrassed to kiss Merie with Randi standing so near but Randi didn't appear disturbed. In fact, when Meredith released him, Randi pulled him forward and did the same thing.

"Ooh, raspberry lip gloss," she said when she'd finished. "I want to try that sometime."

Meredith shot Brock a quick glance and pulled Randi into a warm kiss. Brock remembered when Meredith had done the same thing to Jen a few years earlier and he laughed aloud.

Randi seemed to realize what had just happened and pulled away quickly.

"I've got to get her some clothes," she muttered before she shot out the door.

"That probably didn't go as you planned," Brock said.

Meredith shrugged.

"She kissed me back," she said with a laugh. "So it must not have been too traumatizing."

Randi was still blushing when she returned to the house carrying clothes for Zoe. Brock took the shirt and shorts from Randi's hands and passed them to Meredith with a meaningful look.

Meredith gave Randi a short kiss on the cheek as she passed and seemed to whisper something in her ear because Randi's lips twitched into a small smile and she leaned the side of her head against Meredith's for a moment.

Brock patted his lap and held open his arms to Randi as soon as Meredith's butt was out of view up the stairs. Randi snuggled against him while he embraced her.

"Merie has a weird sense of humor," Brock said.

"No shit," Randi agreed with a laugh. "Don't worry about what happened. I wasn't upset."

"You sure seemed upset," Brock supplied. Randi burrowed a little closer to him.

"I've kissed girls before," Randi assured him. "I mean, I've goofed around. I'm not like Zoe and Emmy. But I've even sort of made out with a girl as a dare once."

"OK," Brock said. "I just didn't want you to, I don't know, get the impression that you were some sort of sex doll or something. Meredith always goes for shock value."

Randi chuckled slightly. He felt the vibrations against her shoulder.

"It wasn't that she kissed me," she said softly. "Like I said, I've done that a few times. It was that I enjoyed it. I promised not to go full-Lohan on you, remember."

"I remember," Brock laughed. "About the last thing in this world I want is for you to be uncomfortable. I'm not really sure about all this but I know that I expect you to tell us if things are getting out of hand or if one of us says or does something that makes you uneasy."

"Thanks," Randi said. "We're going to have to sit down sometime and figure out what's happening. I wish I had more time here but I have to leave Friday for my Labor Day gigs. God, I wish you could come with me or that I could be here with you."

"Merie might be able to go," Brock said.

"She is," Randi told him. "I mean, sorry, I think she was going to talk to you about that tonight or tomorrow. Don't be mad."

"I'm not mad," Brock told her. "First off, she's her own person and capable of making her own decisions. Secondly, I'm going to be gone a lot of the month. Tonight was the first of 30 games in a row. We have a bunch of day games over the next few weeks because we're travelling so much. You could both be sitting on this couch 24 hours a day and I'm not sure I'd be able to see you much."

"You know, Meredith has never really been anywhere in her life," Randi pointed out. "She said she's only been out of California once and that was when she was seven or eight years old."

"I'm sure it will be fun for her to see some new things," Brock opined. "I read where you were going to be back East at the start. We're in Pittsburgh on the same day in late September but we're playing during the day and you're there at night. Where are you playing there?"

"I'm not positive," Randi said. "It's someplace I've never played before."

"PNC Park?" Brock asked.

"Maybe," Randi replied. "I can't keep it straight. That's why I have an assistant. You might know her as Meredith."

"If I can swing it, I'll stay to watch you in Pittsburgh," Brock promised. "You've been to 50 of my games and I've never seen you perform."

"What about yesterday?" Randi asked, pulling back from him and wiggling her eyebrows. "I would say that was truly an inspired effort."

Brock was still chuckling when Meredith and Zoe came back down the stairs, Zoe dressed in a pair of loose shorts that Randi had provided and one of Brock's T-shirts.

"Her boobies popped out of the side of your shirt, Randi," Meredith said with a smile, giving Zoe a hip check. "So I had to improvise."

"I should have thought of that," Randi added. "Sorry, Zoe. I wasn't trying to embarrass you or anything. I just grabbed the first thing I saw."

"No problem," Zoe said, sitting down in a chair across from the couch where Randi was still perched on Brock's lap. Meredith shifted her friend's legs across her own lap as she sat down beside Brock. Brock put his arm around her and she put her head on his shoulder.

Brock was happy that Zoe appeared much happier than when he had first seen her.

The four young adults talked and joked for a few minutes until Zoe yawned.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't sleep well last night. I think I'll just head off to bed."

"I'm not going to be far behind," Brock added.

"Just as long as it's a different bed," Meredith joked.

"I really do have to get some sleep," Brock said a few minutes after Zoe had wandered upstairs.

"I think bed is a great idea," Meredith said with a grin. "Last one in Brock's bed is a rotten egg."

She had shifted positions with Randi so Brock wrapped his arms around her waist to hold her in place.

"You get a head start," Brock told the little blonde girl sitting beside him. "Hurry, I can't hold this wildcat for long."

Still, Randi didn't go anywhere.

"I can sleep somewhere else tonight," she said, glancing to her friends beside her. Meredith was trying to twist out of Brock's grasp and Brock appeared to be trying to tickle her. Randi was certain that Meredith really didn't want company but was trying to be nice.

Neither Brock nor Meredith answered. Instead they shifted slightly until they both could reach Randi – which they did, dragging her across them and starting to tickle her ribs.

"I will never lie to you," Meredith said. "I doubt Brock will either and I hope you never lie to us. If one of us didn't want you to share a bed with us tonight, we would have spoken up a lot earlier. If you don't want to, that's fine. I've never, not once in my life, spend the night alone in Brock's bed. I've slept beside him a few times but I always had company. Tonight, I hope that company is you – otherwise I'll have to drag Zoe across and that would be awkward."

Randi was still laughing from having four sets of fingers digging into her ribs but she nodded her head.

"I want to," she said between gasps. "Now let me up."

Brock ceased tickling but Meredith took the opportunity to tweak Randi's boobs. Randi looked at her for a minute, frowned, and then pinched Meredith's nipple through her shirt.

"That's the only way to handle her," Brock advised. "If she picks on you, you pick right back."

"I liked it," Meredith said, sticking her tongue out at both of them. "So you might want to find something less pleasurable if you want me to stop."

"Who said I want you to stop?" Randi asked with a saucy grin – just before she jumped off Brock's lap and headed up the stairs. Brock dumped Meredith on the floor before racing off after Randi. Randi and Brock were exchanging high fives when a scowling Meredith entered the room.

"I do not like the dynamic that is developing," she said with a pout. Over the years, Brock had learned when Merie was pretending to be angry. Randi apparently hadn't because she started to apologize. Brock cut her off.

"You're just mad that I'm porking her and not you," he said. "Get over it, Cherry Girl."

Meredith responded by pulling her shirt over her head and jumping into Brock's arms.

"Oh, I plan to get over it pretty damned soon," she said. She yelped when Randi swatted her on the butt that Brock was doing his best to present as a target. "Hey!"

"Looks like I found something she doesn't like," Randi replied. "I thought you were seriously pissed at me."

"She's not," Brock said. "You'll learn to pick up the signs. It took me a while but I can usually figure out when she's goofing or serious. Still, it's good to know we have a way to bring her to heel if we need to."

"Put me down, you oaf," Meredith said, leaning her head forward to nip Brock on the ear. Rather than put Meredith on the floor, he lifted her upward, burying his face in her cleavage and giving her a raspberry between her boobs.

Randi burst out in laughter as Brock finally put Meredith down.

"That's called motor-boating," Brock announced proudly. It was a term he had picked up from one of his minor-league roommates. Until Meredith, he had never had the opportunity to try it, let alone use the word in a sentence.

"You're supposed to shake your head from side to side," Meredith told him with a sad look. "Jesus, I'm the virgin and it still looks like I'm going to have to teach you everything."

Brock was amazed. He had noticed the opportunity the first time he had seen Meredith's unfettered breasts and had plotted a way to do it that was funny – but didn't run the risk of interrupting something if Meredith took it the wrong way.

"Seriously?" he asked. "I mean about the head-shaking thing."

"Seriously," Randi confirmed, rolling her eyes. "Jesus, Brock, you act like you're the first person to ever do that."

As if to prove it, she buried her face between Meredith's boobs, blew a raspberry and shook her head. Meredith was laughing uproariously and Brock was thankful that Zoe had selected a room at the far end of the house.

"Here, try it now," Meredith offered, unlatching her bra and letting it fall. Randi shrugged slightly and then repeated the motions farther down on Meredith's chest.

"Fine," Brock replied. "Damn, now I'm going to have to find something else. That was pretty much my whole repertoire of sexual slang."

"Ooh!" Randi said. "I have one. Have you heard of the 'Etch-A-Sketch'?"

Brock and Meredith exchanged glances and shook their heads. Randi beamed and she grasped both of Meredith's nipples and started to play with them by turning her fingers to one side and then the other as though she was tuning a radio dial.

"I'm trying to draw a smiley face!" Randi said, still smiling broadly.

Brock couldn't help but laugh at Randi's antics.

"It appears to have worked," Meredith said, also laughing. Randi seemed to realize she was still playing with Meredith's nipples because she pulled her hands away as if it were a hot stove.

The trio was still joking about other things they'd heard about as they got ready for bed. Meredith seemed to have no compunction about stripping down to only a pair of thong panties. Brock, despite himself, noticed they were not black.