Chapter 8

When we were finished loving on each other and showering, we dried, dressed and went inside. Edwina was in the kitchen looking terrified. To alleviate her fears I took her in my arms and kissed her with all the gusto I could manage and then held her until the trembling stopped. “You never have to be afraid to tell me how you feel, Sweetheart. I love you far too much to try and make you do anything.” My lips found hers again and we kissed with a new passion, devoid of concerns about doing more than kissing.

When we broke apart I sat on the closest kitchen chair and drew her onto my lap. “Edwina, I love you far too much to hurt you. At seventeen you need to wait as long as you wish before giving your virginity to me, or anyone else. Don’t feel like you have to sleep in the bed with us unless that is exactly what you want. We all love you too much to expect you to do anything but what you feel safe and comfortable doing.”

Edwina clung to me and tried to speak, but kept welling up, instead. “Take your time. Go slow. Breathe in and out and wait until it passes. Then we’ll talk, not before.” She held on for a few more minutes, and then said, “When I watched you and Tara doing it I got so excited that I couldn’t wait for you to ... do ... you know ... it ... for the stuff to come out, so I could have my turn.

“I wanted you to do it with me so bad I ached inside, but when you ... you know ... got ready to do it and I felt your ... your ... thing ... I got so scared, Michael. It is all kind of scary...”

Edwina was wrapped around the axle worrying about my feelings when it was all about how she felt. To drive home my point, I called for Cary. She bopped in, happy as a clam and waited for me to speak.

“Cary, did you feel like I pushed you into making love with me?”

Her incredulous look said it all. “Are you kidding me? Edwina, I had to almost hold him down to get him to do it. He was being so patient and kind, but it was going far too slow. I wanted Michael in me so bad; I finally grabbed him and jerked him all the way inside to get him moving. We’d still be waiting if it was up to him. If I didn’t take him, he’d have never taken me.” To make her point she grabbed my head and kissed me, slipping her hand inside my slacks to grab Mr. Johnson, all in plain sight of Edwina.

“Don’t be afraid of Michael. He is the most loving, gentle and kind person I’ve ever known. I’m not pretty like you and Tara, but he makes me feel like a princess when he looks at me and smiles. I am so glad he was my first. Just like Tara, I couldn’t possibly have given that much of myself to anyone else. I just couldn’t ... no way...” Edwina sighed, held on for dear life and let me kiss her until she calmed down.

With that crisis averted, I turned my attention to the white Chevrolet pick-up sitting in the circle driveway out front. “When did Jeff deliver the truck,” I asked to no one in particular?

Cary looked stricken. “I’m sorry, Michael. I forgot to tell you the truck was here when you went to shower. Jeff sent it over with another driver and they took the rental back with them. The keys are hanging on the fridge.” She jerked her head to indicate the key ring hanging from the side of the Frigidaire.

Seeing the truck made me happy. “Who wants to take a ride in my new truck?”

Cary was about to volunteer, but Tara nudged her and nodded toward Edwina. She immediately got the point, and said, “You two go. Tara and I need to get this corn ready to cook.” Edwina smiled and grabbed my arm as we headed outside.

“You really do like me,” Edwina was quiet for the first few minutes of our ride, while I got acquainted with the new truck. “You look at me like you like me and you treat me like someone special. It’s not just an act, is it? Boys are always pretending to be nice hoping they can get their hands under my shirt, but you really – Really – like me for me, don’t you, Michael?”

My smile should have said it all. “Edwina, I love you so much it hurts. You have such a sweet and gentle spirit and you’re gorgeous. I totally understand why guys want to be with you. I want to be with you. The difference is this ... I want you to decide who and when and where. If you decided to be with me, it has to be because you just can’t wait any longer, not because you think you need to give me something so I’ll love you. I’ll always love you.”

I let that sink in before saying, “And I’ll always think you’re the sexiest woman in the world.” That got her laughing, which was the point.

Eventually Edwina worked out the terms of her dilemma. She accepted that I found her beautiful and desirable. That seemed to be all it took to get her over her fear. Once she stopped worrying about everything, we picked up a half-gallon of ice cream and headed home. I was tired of talking about Edwina’s hymen. She would either keep it, or give it up. Either way, we’d all know when we knew.

The truck ran fine.

Supper was nearly on the table when Alistair called. “Michael. We have begun a thorough examination into your former attorney. There are some very serious issues arising and we are preparing a list of complaints to file with the State Attorney on Monday morning. There are a number of unconnected withdrawals, assigned to invoice numbers that simply don’t exist, but all came out of your accounts within days of the accident.

“It appears that your attorney has a severe cash problem that might be connected to a gambling habit he seems to have. The total he may have taken inappropriately from your accounts looks to be over eleven thousand dollars.” He assured me he would continue to delve into Kelvin’s scheme and keep me informed.

I turned to the girls, and said, “That was Alistair,” for Cary and Edwina’s benefit I explained. “Alistair is our new lawyer. He says Kelvin started taking money from our bank accounts right after the accident. Alistair thinks Kelvin has a gambling problem and needed money to pay his gambling debts.”

I would have continued, but Cary stood up and grabbed the phone. She motioned for us to remain very quiet and made a call. “Marcie? It’s Cary. Hey. How are you? ... Yeah. I guess everybody heard about Helen and her brother ... Oh? ... You have to be kidding! No?? Really? ... Oh ... my ... goodness ... Well that sure changed my opinion of them. Thanks for telling me. I had no idea whatsoever ... Yeah ... yep ... See you soon ... Thanks ... Bye!”

She turned to us with a stunned look on her face. “My friend Marcie lives next door to Helen and her parents. She says that Kelvin and Helen are way too close for brother and sister, and there is a rumor going around that Kelvin took her for an abortion in the last few weeks.

“One of Marcie’s girlfriends’ mother works for a doctor that sees patients at that private clinic - hospital place over in Brandon and about a month ago she overheard her mother tell her father that Helen was rushed in with injuries that you get from having a bad abortion procedure.” Cary talked to her sisters while I thought about her news.

That little bomb explained several things. I needed to call Alistair back. “Hello? This is Michael Ryan ... Hey ... I just heard from a pretty reliable source that Kelvin might have recently gotten his sister Helen pregnant and taken her for an abortion. I further understand that he rushed her to a clinic in Brandon because the abortionist injured her pretty badly.

“That might explain money problems, especially if he was the father and had to pay someone off to keep them quiet.” I left Alistair to deal with that little bomb and joined my girls at the kitchen table.

After dinner we all pitched in and cleaned everything up. The evening was not quite as hot and came with a gorgeous sunset that we all enjoyed in the quiet out on the front porch. Tara took my lap. Cary squeezed in tight against my left side and Edwina chose to sit on the floor next to us, rather than use the rocker or loveseat. Other than the fact that I was sixteen and the three women competing to sit closest to me were my aunts, we looked like the perfect, average, American family.

We talked in depth about our family for the first time since I arrived in Michael’s body. There was so much I wanted to hear. Apparently Tara and Cary had a lot of things to ask me. Even though they lived as siblings for all intents and purpose, Connie managed to maintain what she thought of as a proper distance between her sisters and her oldest child. The result of that distance being three sisters and a nephew who really didn’t know each other very well.

“Did you ever feel like Connie didn’t trust us around you?” Tara asked the perfect question to get us going. Our conversation wandered all over the landscape before landing back at the unusual way Connie ran her house.

“Connie was always watching us,” Cary said in response to Tara’s inquiry. “It hardly mattered what we were doing. She seemed terrified that one of us would see you naked.

“When you began to handle the groves on your own, Ed decided to put in that shower so Connie would shut up about making us all go in our rooms and close the doors so you could undress on the back porch and run upstairs to shower without us seeing you in a towel.”

Michaels’ memories confirmed that, but left me a little murky about Tara’s next statement. “You know something, Michael? Connie obsessed about keeping us from looking at you, but she never hesitated to walk out to the shower with towels, or soap. She couldn’t have cared less about standing beside you while you stripped on the back porch and grabbing your clothes so she could put them straight in the washer.

“It never made any sense. Connie constantly saw you naked and at the same time treated us like perverts if we were downstairs when you came in from the grove...”