Chapter 12

As I sat there in the silent interlude, it was as if a light had snapped on in my brain. Sometimes things come up on me and completely surprise me and other times, I'm well ahead of the game. That's the way I felt right then.

Things made a lot of sense the way I was putting the sequence of events together. I was sure I was right about what Claire had revealed. From all I'd learned about her since we met, the nitty-gritty of it all didn't matter to me.

I was sure sooner or later we would talk about it, but we had something else more pressing to deal with. Susan. She was on the settee next to me, her head snuggled to Claire's chest, who was softly stroking her hair.

Claire was looking over at me, a hint of concern in her eyes. I knew what she was concerned about. There was a lot I wanted to say to her, to alleviate her concern but given the circumstance, I just said a barely audible, "It's OK."

As Claire's frown softened Susan asked her, "You mean even when you were dating, you didn't even find a boy who you were interested enough to have sex with?"

"Yes sis. Not a one."

Then after a thoughtful pause Claire admitted, "Well, you know, we'd find a place to do some heavy petting and that was nice. But nothing ever clicked between me and the guys I saw.

"I just had other things on my mind."

"Man, that's a long time," Susan said.

"Like I said, I had other things on my mind.

"My mom began to get real sick and as she went downhill, well, I just wasn't interested in boys. It's real tough watching your mom die.

"I knew it was going to happen, I just didn't know when."

Slowly Susan raised up and even though all I could see was the back of her head, I knew she was smiling. She lunged into a huge hug saying, "You called me 'Sis'.

"Do it again ... SIS!!!"

Distracted from her concern I'd be upset at her, Claire pulled her face back from Susan's and through one of her huge smiles said, "Hi Sis!"

"Oh, that feels so nice," Susan admitted and then their lips came together. It wasn't a cursory, quick kiss. No, it was more intense than that. It was totally and mutually feminine. There was no urgency about it. Just an expression of love.

I'm not sure how long the kiss would have lasted but a sound broke the spell. The pocket doors opened and our little Minx, rubbing the sleep in her eyes, came lazily into the living room.

As she climbed into my lap, she tried to say, "What's going on," but sleep took over once again and she relaxed into my arms. Unfortunately, whatever mood had developed changed rapidly.

Claire looked down into Sandy's lap and she got that 'Ooops' look in her face. I followed her eyes there and knew just what she was seeing. 'Red!'.

I sighed and struggled to get up with the seventy-five pound bundle I had to maneuver. Anyway, I was able to get my butt to the front edge of the settee and with a push on the arm, I was up and on my way to the bathroom.

Just as I set Sandy on the toilet seat, Claire and Susan joined us. I started the water flowing into tub and let it begin to fill up a little with tepid water. "What's happening?" Sandy finally said as she drifted out of her slumber.

"Little accident," said Claire.

"Oh," said Sandy through a yawn catching sight of the red on her robe and then a bit on her fingers.

Sandy, as she felt her crotch, said, "I feel all squishy down there."