Rating: R

Summary: Water babies.

Spoilers: Nah.
 

Kelly's real tired, and getting her up the steps-well, if I could carry her...

Even if I could pick her up, if she was that much smaller than me, well, I couldn't do it now. My side still aches a little from swimming.

She's got her eyes open a little, and I'm rummaging through her bags to find something for her to put on to sleep in. She's got a couple T-shirts, one of which looks pretty familiar...

She's got my Atomic Fireballs T-shirt. So that's where it went.

Cool.

Since I don't see her wear it during the day, I'm guessing she sleeps in it.

Not tonight she's not. She's gonna fucking freeze in that. The place is awesome, but it's also drafty.

I brought two pairs of sweats-definitely overpacking, I thought when I threw them in, but now I'm glad I did, she can wear one of my sets, it's not gonna be that big on her.

When I get back upstairs, she's fallen asleep again, she's fallen over on the bed and she's got her fist in her mouth.

"C'mon, sleepyhead," I whisper to her. "You gotta get changed."

She mutters something I can't make out, and she's like dead weight.

I start by pulling off her sneakers and her socks. She sort of blinks, but she is like way dead.

Next come her jeans, and that, my friend, is a challenge. All that delicious little body is packed tight into those jeans, and it's not like she scrimped on the calories at dinner...

She is gorgeous. She also wears cotton undies. This pair is dark blue.

Does the job. And they do show off a nice plump set of cheeks.

I pull my sweatpants on her, and I'm thinking maybe I should've left her socks on, the floor's probably cold. I'll leave them near the bed so she can put them on if her feet are freezing.

Next I've got to pull off her sweater, and it goes over the head, and it's sort of hard, since she's so sleepy, but she sort of wakes up and she cooperates a little for this.

She trusts me. She knows I won't do anything to hurt her.

I'm down to her bra, which I don't know if it hooks front or back. I check around, it's a back hook. My hands are shaking now. I loosen it and I am treated to the most gorgeous creamy mounds I've ever seen.

Oh my God.

She's got these pinky-beige nipples, and it's cold in the room, and I can see them stiffen up.

I could just gaze on them all night, but she's shivering.

I do, however, bend down to kiss one sweetly curved tit. She shivers again, but this time it's not from the cold.

She presses her face into my shoulder. "Michael, your dad's gonna kill us."

And she's exhausted. I work my sweatshirt on her, and she looks all warm now. I pull back the covers, pile on a couple extra comforters, and lean down to kiss her goodnight.

"Just stay a minute," she mumbles.

I snuggle up into her side, I'm on top of the covers, she's under them. She leans into me, and her eyes close and her fist falls back into her mouth.

She is so incredibly cute. I don't want to get up.

I'd better. Before she notices that there's this erection pressing into her thigh.

God, I hate that I have to go downstairs.
 

The night might be chilly, but let me tell you, no way was I gonna be able to get to sleep without a cold shower tonight.

I'm half frozen when I get out. Even getting in my sweats I'm not warm.

I want to be upstairs with Kelly, warm and soft in her bed with her curled up in my arms and my face buried in her breasts.

Dad's snoring away, but I suspect if I were to go back upstairs and spend the night in Kelly's bed, he'd know it in less than thirty seconds.

At least this place has piles and piles of blankets. It's almost as stocked as Chateau Langly, where not only does Ally think everyone's going to die of starvation, but freeze to death as well.

Finally, I get cozy in my cocoon of blankets and comforters, and I fall asleep, dreaming of my girl.

I wonder if Dad's dreaming of his.
 

March 30, 2001

I wake up to the smells of breakfast cooking-Dad must be exercising his culinary skills. I grope around till I find my glasses, but before I get up, I've got to get some control here.

Yeah, I dreamt good.

Dad's making what looks like some kind of pancakes, but there's lots of apples sliced up and I can smell cinnamon all over the place. Jo and Kelly grabbed a bunch of groceries yesterday. I guess this is why.

And he's got real coffee, Jo got some Arabian stuff before we left town, Kelly says. Kelly's a Sumatran fan, but she says she's gotten addicted to good coffee, doesn't matter what it is.

I like to think Kelly's gotten addicted to a different life now. She still misses her mom, and she tries to talk to her, but every time she does, she gets so bummed 'cause Mommy Dearest won't have anything to do with her.

I should take her some coffee. I pour two mugs.

"Where're you going?" Dad's like, he looks at me from the stove, real hard.

"I'm gonna give Kelly some coffee."

"Don't stay up there long."

Jesus. I'm not a teenager, Dad.

Not that I would have put up with this shit when I was a teenager. No way. I didn't put up with jack when I was younger.

Now I do...but only to a point.
 

Kelly's still sleepy when I get there, but she kind of opens her eyes when I come in. She sniffs a little, and I think the coffee wakes her up.

She sits up and she's got her flossy hair flying everywhere. I set the mugs down on the table next to her bed, wrap my arms around her, and she falls right into me, and it's so damn warm to hug her like this...

"Sleep okay?" I ask her.

"Did I ever." She's yawning, and when she does, she presses her fist against her mouth, just like she does when she's sleeping.

And she's so cute in my sweats.

"Something smells good," she's sniffing the air even after she takes the coffee.

"Dad's cooking. I think it's almost ready. And he did say something to the effect of, don't stay up there too long."

Kelly giggles a little. She doesn't giggle much-that's Ally's turf-but when she does, it's so sweet. "Your dad certainly doesn't want us getting in trouble, does he?"

Oh, I think it's way too late for that.
 

Dad can cook awesome these days. His addiction to the Food Network has managed to plump us all up a bit-I got down to 122 (!) after my surgery, but in just four weeks, I've managed to jump up to 129...and there looks like there's no stopping in sight.

So he can't say Kelly and me aren't good customers. These are fabulous. We tell him they are. He likes compliments, whether he says anything or not.

Jo must've smelled it, she's here, too, she's got on this big huge old robe, the ones that look like big old towels, and she looks like she slept good, too. Must be the air here. Even Dad looks like he got some real rest for a change.

One of the reasons I think Kelly-and Jo-are so cool is because they don't worry about that they don't look perfect right now. I mean, some women, they sweat because they've got bedhead and no makeup, but these guys don't seem to care.

And Jo doesn't talk your ear off in the morning. Sometimes taking an 8:00 from Casey is a real drag, because that woman just won't shut up in the a.m. She's a great teacher, but man, she could lower the volume a little first thing in the morning.

Kelly's sort of in the middle. She mostly talks to my dad, who doesn't say a lot, but he's being nice to her. I just can't say much in the morning. I save it for ranting later on.

Jo's sipping her coffee, waiting for Dad to deliver breakfast to her-Kelly and I pigged so much, he had to do another batch but he didn't bitch. I think he's happy we liked it.

"I love it here," Jo says to us, and she smiles, a big smile-Jo's not a smiler, either.

She needs to do it more often. Just like she needs to wear skirts more often.

"We used to go to the shore every summer, on the Outer Banks," Jo tells us. "My brothers and I had the best times."

"How many brothers do you have?" Kelly asks her. Even I don't know this. Jo doesn't talk about her family much, although I know she visits her brother in Baltimore a lot.

"I had two, but I only have one living," she answers. "I see him frequently. He has my nieces and nephew, and I love visiting with them."

"You don't have any kids?" Kelly asks her.

Jo shakes her head. "No, it wasn't meant for me, I think." She's not feeling sorry for herself. It's just a fact about Jo.

Dad glares at us. He doesn't like where he thinks this is going.

"I do love children, but after my fiancee died-"

"Your fiancee died?" Kelly looks horrified.

"Killed in country. Vietnam. By friendly fire, of all things." She still says this like she's telling us the weather outside. She smiles again. "I loved him so much...there's just never been anyone like him."

"Don't you get lonely?" Kelly asks.

Dad is looking a little pale here. I'm tempted to make him come out on the porch with me, let the girls chat, but he's still cooking. Apparently Jo is no lettuce-leaf nibbler, either.

"Do I get lonely? Once in a while. But I have family. I have good friends. My work satisfies me. I have my faith. And I had a great love, and how many people can say that?"

And Jo actually looks content.

When I met Jo, I figured her to be kind of boring. No imagination, not much to her.

God, was I ever wrong.

She's a lot like Dad, but here at the beach, she talks more. Not babbling type talking. She tells us stuff that's important to her.

And she looks up, sees that Dad looks kind of uncomfortable, and drops the subject, no problem.

I wish Dad could talk to us like she does. Tell us about things that happened to him.

There's way much I don't know about him.
 

Kelly wants to go swimming.

Oh God. It's early and it's still kind of chilly, at least for swimming. But she's like, I wanna get this down.

Kelly's like a terrier with a rat. Give her something, and she won't let go of it. She'll just bang away at it till she's got it.

A very good quality in a doctor. And a girlfriend.

So we head out to the water again, and I'm trying not to scream as I hit it-damn, it's cold in there!

Christ, if I ever want to have kids...

No, don't even go there, Frohike.

It's hard to concentrate when you've got a gorgeous girl in a tight swimsuit right up against you, but Kelly really wants to learn to swim.

And she wants to go out a little further today. We walk out till the water's chest high today.

I may freeze to death, but what a way to go.

And she keeps doing it, and she keeps getting a little better.

I think I'm almost blue when she looks back at the house, and says, "They're gone."

I can't see anything more than six inches away clearly, so there's no way I can verify this, but Kelly's got great vision. She is so fucking lucky.

"You sure?"

"Uh-huh. They just drove off."

"So whaddya wanna do?" I smile at her, way too eagerly.

"Hmm...I was thinking we'd try out that huge bathtub downstairs," she gives me this evil little grin back.

This is too good to be true. But it is true...

We can't race in fast enough.
 

I really did get kind of chilled. I suppose considering what kind of winter I had, I ought to be careful...but right now, I've got the ultimate therapy going.

I've got a tub of steaming water, and cuddled up next to me is a warm, slippery, naked Kelly.

This is the first time we've been naked together...and I can't describe how awesome this feels.

Her cheeks are all pink. The sun and the cold and now the heat are making her all rosy.

Her skin is all soft as all the salt dissolves off it. I run my hands over every inch of her, and she just smiles and makes some sweet soft noise, eyes closed, and she starts to run her fingers over me.

I think I just died and went to heaven.

She's got her fingers on my chest, and if she can't feel my heart beating like crazy, well, she lost all sensation in the water outside.

"Mmm. You know what I like about you?" She asks me.

"I dunno. I taught you how to swim?"

She laughs, that musical little laugh. "That. And that you're perfect."

Huh? Are we talking about the same guy here?

"I mean, you're the perfect size for me...and you have just enough hair on you that it's not like you're a bear or something, but just enough that I know you're a guy."

Oh, honey, I am such a guy right now. Head down about a foot and you'll find out.

And she's slowly traveling down towards my stomach, and yeah, I've got love handles...and I'm kind of self-conscious about them. This tends to be where I pile on the pounds. Not to mention I'm kind of ticklish there. I sort of jump when she gets too close to the navel, but then she starts running her fingers down my hairline...

She better watch it. I'm so close to exploding, it's not funny.

And it would be incredibly tacky to do it in the water.

She nestles herself on top of me, not taking me in-if she did that, it'd be over in a second, but she's just leaning up against me, she's all hot and wet, and I'm like, I am the luckiest guy on the planet...

And then we hear the door, and voices.

OH SHIT! They're back!

Kelly moves down off me-not that this is gonna help, since we're both still naked and soaked-but I'll tell you, nothing can get you out of the mood faster than hearing your dad calling for you.

"They're baaack." I'm trying to be funny, but I'm like, oh god, what do we do now?

She's thinking. Kelly can think on her feet, better than I can at any rate. Which is good.

"Okay. Here's what we'll do. You get out first. Your sweats are hanging on the door, so you're okay there. I'll hang here for a couple minutes. You get them outside, I'll run upstairs and jump in the shower up there, and then I'll come down."

"What if I can't get them outside?"

"Try." I'm scrambling out of the water, and I yell, "Just a minute!" to my dad, who keeps calling for me.

But at least I think he's out on the porch, the sound's a lot more diffuse.

I'm still not totally dry when I get my sweats on, but I'm decent. At least.

And Dad's on the porch. I don't know where Jo is-shit.

"Where were you?" Dad demands.

"Soaking in the tub. I got kind of cold while we were swimming."

"Where's Kelly?"

"Think she went up to take a shower."

A couple minutes later I hear little footsteps scampering up the stairs. It's Kelly. I look out the corner of my eye and I see she popped her suit back on.

Inside out.

And Jo comes wandering out leisurely. "Michael, you missed Fort Macon. You and Kelly should go over there."

Jo, I missed something, but not what you think.

"I just saw Kelly, she said she was going to take a shower and get the salt off her. Did you two have a good swim?"

"Yeah, she's getting better."

In more ways than one.

Jo says she's gonna take one of the loungers and read on the beach. She's got shorts on, and her big floppy hat-Jo is sunburn-averse.

She turns around and says, "Remind Kelly to put on some sunblock. She's getting a little red."

That's not the only thing she was red from.

I get the feeling Dad is seeing right through me right now. But when he opens his mouth, I find I can remember to breathe again.

"And you, dear boy. Try not to get chilled. I don't think you feel like being sick again, and God knows I don't."

Okay, safe for now.

We have got to find things for them to do.
 

Dad and I hang on the porch while I wait for Kelly to come back down.

He looks over at me, hard.

"I hope you two were behaving yourselves while we were out."

"Jesus, Dad, what did you think we were doing? Boffing each other's brains out?"

"I wouldn't have put it so crudely, but, yes."

"Well, we weren't."

"What were you doing, then? I saw Kelly run out of the same bathroom you came out of. And don't tell me she wasn't there."

Oops.

"Well...we got cold."

"And you decided to warm each other up."

Oh God. Give me a break.

"Hey, whaddya want me to do? Not feel like I do about her? Huh?"

I'm having the best time of my life, and he's like a big, heavy wet blanket on the whole thing. I didn't come down here to be hassled.

"Michael, I know how you feel about her...that's normal."

Ooh, major concession on Dad's part. I need to file this one away.

"But...I think you two may be pushing it too fast."

WHAT?!

Is he out of his mind?

Does he have a clue how long I've been waiting for this?!

"Dad, when do you think I'll be old enough?" I'm real irritated now, and I can't keep it out of my voice.

He sighs, big time. "When you're 60."

This cracks me up.

"Dad, no way I'm waiting till I'm 60. Or even 30. Forget it."

He shakes his head. "I hope you two know what you're getting into."

Kelly comes bouncing back down. And Kelly's not a bouncy type chick.

I think being here changes everybody.

Well, everybody but Dad. He reminds me of one of the rock formations in the distance. Water smacks on it, sand blasts it, the birds shit on it, but it never moves, just stays there, the same.

"So, do you wanna go for a walk on the beach?" Kelly suggests.

Honey, I'll go anywhere if it gets me away from the old man right now.
 

MELVIN'S BRAIN ON OVERLOAD:

I know what they're up to. They may not have consummated their relationship this morning, but they've been intimate. It's all over them. They radiate it like the sun radiates here.

I watch them walking down the beach, hand in hand. They look so young, so innocent.

They are anything but innocent, though.

But at least they saw the beach while they were here.

Which is more than I can say for my first trip down to this house.

END OF PART 80