Chapter 19

If that Cheshire Grin hadn't been glowing at me when she said 'Gotcha', I'm sure I wouldn't have laughed with her. Like I'd thought of her ten year old counterpart, I was wondering if strangulation was too good for her.

Then I realized, a good whipping would resolve my dilemma. And I had the perfect weapons' expert to help me. My good ole friend, Barney. Of course even the most perfect plan, like asking to see her bedroom so I could 'Punish' her more than likely would go astray.

Even before I'd completed the thought, "Breakfast is served," came from the hallway. Well, that ended that one of my ideas for a bit.

Bright me, had taken us into the dining room to be alone. That sure hadn't worked. I had been alone with Claire only in my own mind. It seems the interesting odors of the meal's preparation, which had been wafting into the rest of the house from the kitchen, had silently moved in behind us.

When I turned around, the buffet table had been stocked. It was filled with sufficient quantities of breakfast fare that could conceivably satiate a Battalion of hungry warriors.

Two for the home team.

Zero for mine.

Although, when Claire gave me a kiss my spirits surged. Her offering whisper confirmed somehow we thought alike, "If you behave, I'll show you how it can be done in a twin bed.

"It sort of works like bricklayers have to do when they're building a high wall," she said with a chuckle. "One thing gets stacked upon another."

I felt a wonderful surge in my midsection. 'DMTA' crossed my thoughts. A nice alteration of 'Great Minds Think Alike' with the substitution of 'Dirty' in just the right place. With my whip, applied in just her right place, that would be 'Very Interesting'.

I was about to say, 'Great Idea', when our own personal Imp was back, tugging on us, "Hey, you guys gonna eat or just swap spit all day?"

'Say WHAT???' crashed through my brain. Where on earth did she come up with that one.

I didn't have long to wait to find that one out. Laughing, our nemesis admitted, "Susan told me to say that." Of course, there she was, proud of her accomplishment, large grin on her face.

Perhaps Susan was the one I should take hold of and strangle.

Sandy. Innocent Sandy. She was hard enough to deal with. But how was I going to deal with the possibility of being ganged up on by the stair stepped trio of ages and heights. Most assuredly I realized, they were going to stretch my capacity to withstand pain and agony. Why I'd thought being alone with all three of them for any extended period of time would be a good idea was momentarily beyond me.

It's like that first childhood shot depicted for all time by Norman Rockwell. The Doctor standing there with the nine inch needled syringe, all smiles declaring, "This won't hurt a bit."

My answer to that one is 'Yeah ... Right'

I'm just glad that cows don't fly because I wouldn't want their type of dewdrop to fall on my head. I was already stepping lightly in this mine field ... or was it MIND field ... these lovely three women had planned for me.

I guessed I'd possibly made a slight miscalculation in even thinking I could handle the three of them together. Of course, when I changed the emphasis to the 'H' word instead of the 'M' word, 'Interesting' came to mind.

There it was again. That incessant tugging. "Hey. This time YOU get your own plates!"

Sandy was right into her form and it was impossible to be the slightest upset with her. The heat that cute smile of hers emitted would have saved the Titanic and instantaneously melted the rogue iceberg and averted that dreadful tragedy.

So Claire led me over to the table and she piled four slices of French Toast onto my plate. Then as I watched, she put a single pat of butter between each of the stacked slices and one on the top.

With a sprinkling of cinnamon and a large dash of maple syrup, my plate was complete. It looked and smelled perfect. I'd hesitated just a bit and watched as Claire set up her plate and moved over to choose a table.