El Rancho del Corazón

Copyright ©2015 2021 by Elder Road LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be submitted via e-mail to ElderRoadBooks@outlook.com.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and highly improbable.

Cover photo by Alenavlad ID 162480920 licensed from Shutterstock.com

Second Edition

ISBN 978-1-939275-35-6

Designed by Nathan Everett
ElderRoadBooks@outlook.com

Part I
Up in Smoke

1
Burning Dreams

IT WAS SUCH A DELICIOUS DREAM. Everything I’d ever wanted had come to me. I luxuriated in Hannah’s arms. My cock throbbed in her pussy. Her lips were soft against mine. My casa—my cónyuge—were stirring and glancing our way. They smiled. My family was complete. I sighed and opened my eyes as I came up out of sleep. There was a squeeze on my sensitive cock as I looked into those deep green eyes.

It wasn’t a dream.

For a moment, I had to turn my head and see who was stretched out to my left to be sure it wasn’t Sarah who slid forward and back again on my erection. On my right, Rose peppered my shoulder with little kisses. I looked back into the eyes above me and Hannah softly kissed me again.

“It isn’t really icky at all, anymore,” she whispered.

We laughed, sending vibrations all up and down where we were joined. Tears flooded from my eyes and she kissed them away.

“It’s true. It isn’t a dream. You are really making love to me. Oh, my precious love,” I responded.

“Yeah. I kind of did most of the work this morning, but I’m ready for you to take over for a while. Make love to me, Brian. Make love to me.”

Sarah edged aside and I rolled to my left to get Hannah under me. I lowered my lips to her nipples and kissed them, sucking them one at a time into my mouth to touch them with my tongue. Hannah mewled her pleasure, muffled by her sister’s mouth as they kissed. I turned my head and met Rose’s lips on the other side. She smiled at me and hugged herself closer to Hannah and me.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” I whispered.

“I can’t believe I’m so turned on that I’m going to have another orgasm,” Hannah said. “I thought… I thought I was broken.”

“Dr. Brian fixed you,” Sarah giggled. I pushed myself up and Rose and Sarah each latched onto one of Hannah’s nipples. Her whine crescendoed and, as her muscles fluttered around my cock, I gasped.

“I love you, Hannah. I have always loved you. I will always love you.” My sperm rocketed out of me and, as I pulsed, Hannah’s orgasm overtook her with a scream.

“I want to do this all the time now,” Hannah giggled. “Do you think anyone would mind?”

“Well, your parents are supposed to be here in an hour. They might object.”

“Let them. I love you, Brian.”

We were still in bed and it was nearly eight o’clock. At different times during the morning, different girlfriends had moved in to lie next to us for a while. Rose and Sarah had been replaced by Samantha and Courtney. Elaine and Sora had bracketed us for a few minutes before they went to start breakfast in my absence. Jennifer and Whitney had taken their place and were soon replaced by Cassie and Nikki. Liz and Mary were beside us now and all I could think was that everyone was welcoming us—welcoming Hannah—into our family.

“Would it be okay if I give you a hug, too?” Josh asked from the other side of Hannah. He’d pulled a pair of briefs on. Hannah rolled toward him slightly and pulled him into a hug.

“Please don’t ever hesitate to give me a hug, hearthmate,” she said. “And you don’t have to bother putting clothes on every time, either. I trust you. Thank you for making me part of the family.”

“You’ve always been a part, Hannah,” he said. He reached across and gave my shoulder a pat and then headed off to finish dressing and head downstairs.

I kissed Hannah again. I still could not believe I was holding her in the afterglow of making love.

“It was your feet that did it, wasn’t it?” I asked her as we rubbed noses.

“I was more afraid of doing that than anything else. I knew what having you rub my feet did to me. But I thought, ‘What if it doesn’t work?’ Then I wouldn’t have any hope. And then Sarah was holding me and you started rubbing my feet and it all connected. It wasn’t bad that Rose shoved her nipple in my mouth, either,” she giggled.

“I noticed that even when I offered to give you a foot rub Friday night, you came upstairs in socks.”

“I didn’t need them. We were so busy and I was so excited that you couldn’t have tied me down to give me a massage.”

“Maybe we should go take a shower. Everyone else has gone downstairs for breakfast.”

“Will you… will you wash me, Brian?” Oh, shit! She’s feeling dirty. “I just want to feel the love in your hands. And please… don’t maintain your professional caring mode. I want to know that I turn you on and… and maybe we could make love in the shower, too.”

Oh, yes!

Samantha, Jennifer, and Courtney were already out with the horses by the time we got downstairs. Cassie, Josh, and Mary were getting ready to leave. Nikki and Liz had their leathers on and were planning a ride to Lake Michigan. Anna, Mom, and Dad were sitting at the dining table with Sarah and her parents. Elaine was still cooking and Sora was running food in and out of the dining room. Rose and Whitney met us at the foot of the stairs. They were just about to come and get us. Hannah and I went with them to the dining room and greeted our parents.

I think that as soon as Brighty said, “Good morning,” Hannah and I blushed. Really, really blushed. Sarah giggled.

“Oh, my!” Mrs. Gordon said. Brighty cleared his throat but Hannah held her hand up to stop him from saying anything.

“We’re not getting married,” Hannah said. Her agreement specifically stated that she couldn’t be given permission to marry before she was eighteen. “Ever,” she concluded. I was a little shocked and maybe even stung. Hannah turned and hugged Rose. “I would never do that to you, Rose, or you, Whitney. Or to any of my hearthmates. I’m wondering, though, if after we move to Bloomington, we could have another bonfire.” Rose hugged Hannah to her and Whitney reached for me and planted a kiss on me that threatened to become R-rated.

“Hannah. My baby,” Brighty said. “When you want it, I will give you the best advice I can. But I’m never going to try to enforce my will—or that of the bishop—on you again. Please forgive me, my daughter, and don’t think you have to defend your decisions. If this family… casa is your choice, God’s blessing on you, daughter. But remember the words of a true and faithful man, and know they come from your father, as well. No matter what, I will always love you.”

Well, that kind of ended all intelligible conversation for a while. It was mostly tears and ‘I love you’ for the next half hour. I was so proud of Hannah when she sat on her father’s lap and hugged him. And I was proud of Brighty. He looked over Hannah’s head at me and mouthed the words, ‘Thank you.’

There were fewer of our hearthmates present Monday night as Hannah and I made love again. She was actually getting a little sore and her last orgasm nearly knocked her out. She fell back into Samantha’s arms and Sam held her and kissed her. Whitney immediately threw a leg over mine and kissed me. Hannah came up and looked at Whit and I thought for a minute sparks would fly.

“Oh, Whitney! I’m sorry. I’ve monopolized Brian all day today. I didn’t mean to keep him away from everyone else. I just… I just…”

“You just found out what it was like to make love to our man and didn’t want to let go of him,” Whitney chuckled. “We understand. It’s your honeymoon. We just all want a little attention, too.”

“No! Wait,” Hannah said. A vestige of panic was in her voice. “It’s not our honeymoon. He’s not my cónyuge. He’s my novia. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take him from everyone.”

“Shh. Hush, honey,” Rose said as she came up behind Sam and petted Hannah. “We thought this was your handfasting day. What is it, sweetheart?”

“I want a fire,” Hannah said. “I’m making love with my novia, but I want to change my robes from green to red at a bonfire and become cónyuge with Brian… and Samantha if she will have me. I want it to be witnessed by our casa. I don’t want to sneak in. I want trumpets blowing.” We all laughed.

“That’s sort of what your last orgasm sounded like,” Sam laughed. “Hannah? You really want to be my cónyuge, too?”

“Yes, Samantha. I don’t know if I can really do girl sex. But I know I love you. I want to be your cónyuge.”

“Yes! My novia!” Samantha screamed as she hugged Hannah to her. “My novia. I love you!”

We shifted around a bit. Hannah never really left my side, but she made room for Whitney to completely straddle me and after I was finally hard again—which took a little work—and sheathed, Whitney settled down on me with a sigh. If I had a super-power, I’d want it to be the ability to get hard whenever one of my girls wanted me. I was a teen, but still only human. Whitney was going to be the only other girl who got a piece of me tonight. We fell asleep with her still partially on top of me.

I woke up with Rose gently nursing my cock back to life. I looked over at Hannah and she smiled at me.

“Make love to our Matrón,” she said. Hmm. I liked that term. A feminization of the word they all used to describe me. I was definitely going to use this. It served her right.

“Rose, my Matrón, please come and make love to me,” I said. She was a little startled and cocked her head as a grin spread across her face. Then she crawled up my body and settled back onto the cock that she had nursed to rigidity.

“I think we should float that concept by the rest of the clan before you start tossing it around,” Rose said as she descended on me. She sighed. “This is really the only honor that I want.”

“I don’t think it’s an elected position,” I said. Gotcha! “We’ll just use it and see if it sticks.”

“Have you been planning this, little minx?” Rose asked as she reached over and kissed Hannah.

“Me?” she answered in all innocence. “I’m sure I just heard it somewhere. It’s just another word for queen of the clan, you know.”

We all laughed. God! It was wonderful to make love to my women. And to have them around me. Loving me. I just wanted to crush them all to me and all of us be one.

I finally pried myself out of bed, fighting my own reluctance more than anyone holding onto me. As soon as I was upright, Sora tossed sweats to me and headed downstairs. When I finished in the bathroom, I went to join her. She already had all the ingredients for bread out on the counter waiting for me.

“Well, go ahead,” I said. “You have everything needed. I’ll make coffee while you make the bread.”

“Really?” she squeaked. “I’ve watched you and Elaine bake, but I’ve never tried it myself. What do I do?”

I walked Sora through the process as I made coffee, helping her adjust the temperature of the water for the yeast and stripping the sticky dough off her fingers when she kneaded it. We did a lot of laughing while I was teaching her to bake bread and once the bread was set aside to rise, we did a lot of kissing.

We were in the middle of that when the phone rang.

“Hello?” I answered. It was only seven a.m.

“Monroe County Sheriff’s Department calling for Anna Pratt,” the male voice said.

“Sheriff Donaldson?”

“Yes.”

“This is Brian Frost. Anna’s asleep. I’ll call her. Is everything okay?”

“If you have an extension, stay on the line when she answers. This involves you, too.”

“Hang on. I’ll get her.”

“What is it?” Mom asked from the kitchen doorway. She looked sleepy.

“Sheriff Donaldson needs to talk to Anna, Mom.”

“Oh dear. I’ll get her.” Mom went to get Anna and I went back upstairs and to my extension. In a second Anna came on the line.

“This is Anna.”

“Mrs. Pratt, this is Sheriff Donaldson from Monroe County. Brian, are you there as well?”

“Yessir.”

“I’m afraid we have some bad news. There’s been a fire at your property. The damage is pretty extensive. Can you get down here?”

“Yes. Of course,” Anna said. “Is it the house?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Oh no.”

“It will take us about five hours to get there, Sheriff,” I said. “We’re on our way.”

There was minimal discussion about who was going. I asked Hannah and she said, “No. I’m supposed to start shadowing Harvey this morning. Samantha said she’d come with me.”

“Okay, then. Who should go?” I asked no one in particular.

“Jennifer and Rose,” Courtney answered. “I’m sure Anna and Hayden are going. That will make five of you. You can ride comfortably in your car. I’ll stick around here and coordinate things with Marilyn Mom and anyone else you need when you get there.”

“My courtesan, you are a treasure. I wouldn’t even have thought of that. I’ll call as soon as we know something and I can get to a phone.”

Mom was headed in to work and Dad called Rex Davis to tell him what had happened. Rex had handled Anna’s closing and our lease. He reminded us to take our insurance papers and he called the insurance company. Inside half an hour we had a thermos of coffee and were on the road.

It was a pretty quiet trip down to Bloomington. Rose sat between Jennifer and me while I drove and Anna cuddled up against Dad in the back seat. Everybody was a little tired, but with my coffee cup kept full in Rose’s hand, we sailed down US 31. I pulled into McDonald’s in Bloomington and got sacks of burgers and fries and a bunch of chocolate shakes, while Anna called Sheriff Donaldson. Dad got on the phone next and called Rose’s dad. He said the insurance adjuster should meet us at the house this afternoon, but he didn’t have any information on the condition of things.

When we got out there, it was really sad. Anna, Jennifer, and Rose started crying and I had tears in my eyes as soon as the deputy, who recognized us, waved us up the long driveway to the ruins. Our house. The place we were going to renovate and planned to move into. Our home was gone. Oh, there were still some standing pipes, the chimney, and part of a wall, but the rest was pretty much ashes. There was still a fire truck there and a Suburban almost like mine but with the Fire Department emblem on the side. Sheriff Donaldson showed up a few minutes later.

We were just standing there holding each other and staring.

“Hayden. Anna. Rose. Jennifer. Brian,” he said as he approached and held out his hand.

“How did this happen, Jim?” Dad asked. “Do they know yet?”

“We don’t have anything definite. Brian, do you know where all the members of your clan were last night?” he asked.

“My whole family was with me overnight at our house. I’m guessing the other families were together, too. Most of us just graduated on Sunday.”

“We’ll need to know for sure in order to eliminate you all as suspects.”

“Suspects? You think this was arson?” Anna cried.

“Like I said, we don’t really know yet. The fire inspector is still in the rubble looking around. They’ve had to bridge into the structure with ladders as the floor is caved in or unstable in most areas. That’s him crawling around over there,” the Sheriff said. There was a long ladder stretched across the whole width of the house and he was crawling along it looking left and right. He poked his head down through the rungs of the ladder to look through what was left of the floor under the kitchen.

I turned and surveyed the rest the property. The barn and silo were still standing. They didn’t look like they had been touched. The toolshed looked fine. I walked over to the fire pit in the back yard but it was cold. We’d made sure it was completely out and raked the coals into mud with the amount of water we’d poured on it two weeks ago. Nothing there was disturbed. There were a backhoe and a grader a little farther away. The excavation for the modular had been completed and was staked out, but no cement had been poured yet. A ditch ran away from the excavation about fifty feet where there was a hole. Next to the hole was a concrete tank. That was the new septic system for the bunkhouse.

In front of the barn was a trailer and a light pole was next to it. I assumed this was the General Contractor’s headquarters while he had a crew on site. Work had started on everything but now there was nothing to remodel.

“Where’s the construction crew?” I asked.

“We sent them home as they showed up this morning. Until we’ve cleared the investigation, we can’t have anyone else around here,” the Sheriff said. “Right now, even having you here requires an escort.”

“How long will that be in effect?” Rose asked. “Doug, Doreen, and Rhiannon were moving down this weekend. Doreen starts work Monday. They were going to live in a trailer out here until the bunkhouse is installed. We planned to use that as a base of operation while the house was remodeled. We expected to be finished and moved in by August.”

“I can’t predict how fast they will finish the investigation. Did you have the property insured, Ms. Pratt?”

“Of course. It was part of the closing. My attorney insisted on it, both for my protection and for the kids. The adjuster should be out this afternoon,” Anna said. “And please, Jim. We established a couple of weeks ago that you could call me Anna.”

“It’s difficult when a person who could be considered a friend becomes involved in what could be a criminal case. Still, thank you, Anna.”

2
Ashes

THERE WAS REALLY NOTHING we could do but hang around and wait. Sheriff Donaldson had to leave, but another deputy was assigned to the site in his place. The insurance adjuster showed up about two-thirty. He was not nice.

“So, you decided to just burn it down and start over,” he started off the conversation. It didn’t really sound like a joke.

“I beg your pardon?” Anna said.

“An old, run-down farmhouse wouldn’t be worth much and it would be easier to build new than remodel it. You know your policy doesn’t cover arson.”

“First, who said this was arson?” Anna demanded. “And second, it was old, but not run-down. I bought replacement coverage. In fact, I paid quite a premium for it.”

“It won’t make a difference if you burned down the house to replace it.” Dad and I stepped up on either side of Anna. I’d let Dad handle this one. Gladly.

“Mr.…?” Dad started.

“Randall. And you?”

“Frost. Exactly what is your job, Mr. Randall?” Dad demanded.

“To assess the damage and assign a value. That’s what insurance adjusters do,” Randall said.

“I see. So, you aren’t a fire investigator. You aren’t a law enforcement officer. And you aren’t, obviously, an insurance sales person. Your job is actually over there assessing the damage and is not harassing your clients. Is that correct?” Dad demanded.

“I’m only stating the coverage of the policy,” Randall replied indignantly.

“Have you read the policy?” Dad asked. Randall shrugged. “I would suggest you do your actual job and get your statement into a written form such that our attorney can use it to sue you. Your job, as you say, is to assess the damage and assign a value. We actually know what the insurance policy covers,” Dad said. His voice was steely. This dude had verbally attacked one of his women. It was awesome to see. Apparently, Randall didn’t get the memo. He glanced over at the ruins.

“Total loss. Value, $50,000. Recommendation, no payout due to arson. I’ll put that in writing and mail it to you. You should have it in a week to ten days. It takes a while to write these things up. Paperwork, you know.” Randall turned on his heel and went back to his car. He actually spun his tires as he pulled out of the drive. Anna started to cry. Dad wrapped her in his arms and comforted her.

“Deputy, there doesn’t seem to be much reason for us to stay onsite now that the insurance company has shown its colors. We’re going to find a place to stay in town for the night. I’ll let Sheriff Donaldson know as soon as we have a location,” Dad said.

“For all five of you? There’s a Hampton Inn just on the edge of town. They have some pretty big suites.”

“Thanks. That’s where we’ll try first. We need to make some phone calls and get our lawyer working on this whole fuck-up. Please let the inspector know where we’ll be if he manages a report today.”

“For what it’s worth, Mr. Frost, I am a legal witness to your conversation. I will type up a statement for your use.” The deputy wasn’t the same guy who tried to arrest us all a few weeks ago. I was thankful for that.

Dad was pissed. He asked for my keys. The girls and I got in the back seat while Dad and Anna took the front. We got into the edge of town and could see the Hampton Inn. Dad pulled up and got us a roomy suite. There was no question about the assignments. He and Anna went into the master bedroom and closed the door. The girls and I took the second. It was the first chance we’d had to be alone and talk all day. We kicked off our shoes and cuddled on the bed.

“Where are we going to live?” Jennifer sobbed. “My poor mommy. It’s her whole savings.”

“Shh, baby,” Rose comforted her. “Can’t you see how mad Papa Hayden is? He’s not going to let us be homeless, and he sure isn’t going to let Anna Mom go without anything. If we all have to stay up north and go to school at IUSB for another year, we can do that.”

“I don’t think we’ll have to do that,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “There’s six perfectly good bedrooms in the barn and the horses will only have three of them.” Both girls looked at me through their teary eyes and then Jennifer snorted. Rose laughed right out loud, but I’m not sure if it was because of what I said, or because Jennifer’s snort shot snot out of her nose.

“That’s a great idea,” Rose laughed. She grabbed a tissue and wiped up Jennifer’s face and the goobers. “And there’s that big water tank right outside, too. A bathtub we could all fit into.”

“Maybe I could fix a heater for it and Brenda would get her hot tub,” I laughed.

“I am not going to poop in the pasture,” Jennifer said. The jokes were cutting through her despair and the three of us cuddled together.

“We need to call the rest of our family, too,” I said. I held each of the girls in my arms cuddled up against me as we lay on the bed. “We’ll have to wait for Dad to quit making calls, though.” We just lay there for a few minutes and before we could get up the energy to get off the bed, we dozed off for a badly-needed nap.

What are we going to do?

“Brian!” Dad called. It took me a second to figure out where I was and why Rose, Jennifer, and I were sound asleep with all our clothes on.

“On my way, Dad!” I called out. Rose and Jennifer rubbed sleep from their eyes as I crawled out from between them and opened the bedroom door. “I guess we needed a nap.”

“I don’t blame you. Anna crashed for half an hour, too. Why don’t you run out and get us some food? Maybe Chinese.” He handed me fifty dollars. I could about feed the whole casa on that.

“Is it that late already? We should call home,” I said. The girls came up behind me and handed me my shoes. They leaned against me while they put on their own.

“I’m waiting for another call from Rex,” Dad said. “You can call after you get back with food. We might be on and off the phone all night.”

“Any word?”

“No. Jim called to let me know the inspector was leaving and he’d be back in the morning. They’ve posted a security guard out there for the night,” Dad said. “He warned us not to go out to the farm before eight tomorrow morning.”

“Ranch,” Rose said firmly. “El Rancho del Corazón.” Dad smiled at her.

“I’ll remind Jim of that,” he chuckled.

The hotel was near the campus, so there were lots of food places nearby. Summer session was already in full swing and there were a few students around. Not so many as there would be in the fall, but it gave us a little bit of a feeling for what it would be like when we started classes this fall. While we waited in the restaurant for our takeout order, Rose went to the payphone and started dialing numbers. She was looking at a card in her hand.

“What’s that?” Jennifer asked.

“A calling card. Dad insists that we have one at all times in case we need to call home and don’t have change,” Rose said. We crowded up next to her and she held the phone a little away from her ear so we could hear.

“Frost residence. This is Courtney Price. How may I direct your call?”

“Courtney! You sound so professional!” Rose laughed.

“Rose! Are you all okay? Is Jennifer with you?”

“I’m here, sweetheart. We’re all fine,” Jennifer said over Rose’s shoulder.

“What’s happening? We’ve all been so worried.”

“Courtney, you are now the official news courier,” Rose said. “I’ll give you the status update and then you can tell everyone else. Then we’ll call back to talk to everyone after a while, so you have a chance to pass the word on. That way, we don’t have to repeat the same thing over and over.”

“I have a pen and paper,” Courtney said. “You wouldn’t believe how many calls there have been today.”

“Okay, then, here’s the scoop.” Rose rattled on about what we’d seen and heard today to the accompaniment of Courtney’s exclamations of dismay, horror, and anger. By the time she was finished, our food was ready, too. We all chimed in with I love you and Rose hung up.

Dad was on the phone most of the way through dinner, so we didn’t talk too much. Most of the time he was talking to Rex Davis, Rose’s dad. He also talked to Arthur Pratt, Jennifer’s father. He was a litigation specialist. Dad was preparing for war. When he hung up, we thought we’d get a chance to make our call, but Dad shoved another bite of food in his mouth while he dialed again. Well, we couldn’t blame him for this call. It was obvious that he was talking to Mom and when he was finished, Anna talked to her for another fifteen minutes. Man, we were sure running up the long distance phone bill.

Anna turned and handed the phone to me.

“I think there are a few people at the house that want to talk to you three,” she laughed. “It was all we could do to get Marilyn alone!”

“I love you, Brian,” a voice said softly into the phone.

“Hannah? I love you, too. How are you holding up today?”

“I’m really, really tired. Producer school is a lot harder than high school. But I learned so much! I’m just so tired that I’m about to collapse,” she said.

“Oh, honey, I understand,” I said. “This has been a tough day for all of us and I don’t think anyone is going to be awake for more than an hour. It’s just getting dark and we’re all sitting around yawning.”

“Well, you’ll have two girls who love you to cuddle up with.”

“Yes, I will. But you know I still miss you.”

“I know. Actually, I have two girls who love me to cuddle up with, too. They might have sex, though. I’m sure you won’t have to put up with anything like that,” she giggled. Two girls? What? Who?

“Um… who?” I asked. “I’m not objecting; I’m just curious.”

“Well, who do you think, silly? My assistant producer and our administrative assistant. I suppose that’s against some kind of law to sleep with the hired help.” We laughed.

“I didn’t know you’d hired help,” I said. “I think that as long as sleeping with you isn’t figured as part of their job responsibilities or compensation, you won’t have to worry.”

“I love you, Brian, but I really am tired and I want to get ready for bed now. ’Night!” There was a shuffle and Samantha was on the phone.

“Hi, cutie,” I said.

“I am so freaking turned on, I’m leaking,” Samantha said. “You could slide in so effortlessly.”

“What has your engines running so hot?”

“Our novia. She’s been teasing me all day. I probably stunk the whole studio up.”

“You didn’t do anything that would embarrass us or make them not want to work with us, did you?” I asked. I was a little alarmed. Harvey and Miss Polly and the whole television station were important to our success.

“No! We would never do that. It was all so subtle. Mostly looks. Occasionally, a touch that was completely innocent, but still made me tingle. And then a little kissing while we were still in the parking lot,” Sam said. “I love you, Brian, and I wish you were here, but I need to get ready for bed now because… well, Hannah.”

“I love you, Sam. Hannah’s still not sure what she wants to do, so don’t rush her too much.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got a relief valve. Speaking of which, better get Jennifer on the line.” I handed the phone to Jennifer.

“Hi. I love you, baby.— What kind of games?— Really?— Are you wet?— Well, I am now!— Sure. Here she is. I love you.” Jennifer handed the phone to Rose and jumped into my lap. She laid a kiss on me that made Dad and Anna leave the table and head for their bedroom.

“What was that all about?” I asked, trying to catch my breath.

“Those girls are playing very naughty games. I feel so sorry for your mom being in the house without Mom or Papa Hayden with her. She’ll eat them up when we get home.”

“I never even found out who all was there.”

“Well, the two slippery ones are Samantha and Courtney. I guess they’ll be with Hannah, but you are right and they know she is just teasing them. Your room is occupied by Whitney, Liz, Nikki, Doug, Doreen, and Rhiannon. Cassie, Josh, and Mary are in our room,” Jennifer said. “Sora and Sarah have gone to Sora’s house to get ready for tomorrow.”

“Oh, God! I should have thought of that. Thank you, sweetheart,” Rose said into the phone. “Okay. I’ve got it. I better talk to Rhiannon.— Love you, too, dear.”

“Love you, Courtesan!” I called toward the phone.

“Hi, Rhiannon. You guys are still going to make it?— Well, we don’t have clearance yet, but we’ll work on it first thing tomorrow. If worse comes to worst, we’ll just all bunk here until they clear us.— We really don’t know anything yet.— Okay. About noon should be fine. If we can’t camp at the ranch, we’ll find a campground. It’s so beautiful out here. Can I talk to Whitney?”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Everybody is still planning to come down tomorrow. Everybody who was going to. So, Casa del Agua will be here. Sora and Sarah are pulling her family’s travel trailer down, so we’ll have a place to stay out at the ranch while we watch things. We’re going to have just a quick hello with the rest of the casa now,” Rose said. “You heard?” she spoke into the phone. “Yes, we love you, Whitney. I’m feeling more and more like we need your training.— Okay, but next week.” She handed the phone to me.

“Hey, Whit.”

“I love you, Brian. Thank you for getting a message to us today. We were getting pretty worried.”

“Not having a phone out there really sucks,” I said. “We had to wait until we got into town and then Dad had to use the hotel phone, so we had to find a pay phone in order to call. Are you all holding together?”

“As well as we can. We’re all worried about what we’ll do. I have stuff I have to do this week, though, and can’t come down tomorrow.”

“We’ll figure something out. I love you, sweetheart.”

The next two conversations went pretty much the same. Nikki and Liz were both worried about us and said that if we were still in Bloomington on Friday, they were coming down on the bikes. Cassie, Josh, and Mary all leaned into the phone at once to wish us well. Finally, we had to say goodnight and hang up.

“We need to call our contractor,” Rose said. “He called the house this afternoon, but there was no way to reach us. He’s anxious about what to do since the cement delivery for the slab is supposed to arrive tomorrow.” She dialed but just got an answering machine. She left our phone number and told him that if we didn’t connect by phone, we would be at the ranch by nine, and no one was allowed there before eight. I sure hoped we’d keep that part of the process on schedule. It would at least give some of us a place to stay.

It was still early, but we were just as tired as everyone else and headed for our shower and bed. We did a lot of touching as we washed and a lot of kissing as we dried. The three of us stumbled into bed and I thought we’d have a little gentle loving, but we were still too keyed up to relax into love making.

“Brian, the whole clan needs you to be strong though this,” Rose whispered in my ear. “We’ll support you and encourage you, but everyone is worried about the living situation down here now and they need you.”

“Don’t worry. Dad’s going to take care of everything. You heard Anna say she had replacement value insurance. They have to replace the house. I’ll do my best for the clan, though, Matrón.”

“I love that word,” Jennifer said as she began moving her pussy against my leg. “And it couldn’t apply to anyone but Rose. You are like a special mother to all of us.”

“Hmph,” Rose breathed. “You think of me as an old matron. Well, at least I know that your own mother is a fox, so I shouldn’t feel too bad.”

“I have an idea, Rose,” Jennifer said. “Why don’t you have Brian make love to you and when you’re done, and he’s filled you with his sperm, I’ll… um… clean you up.” Jennifer licked her lips and Rose moaned a little. It didn’t take long, though, until Rose was riding my cock and Jennifer was riding my mouth. And then I pumped into Jennifer from behind while she ‘cleaned up’ Rose and both girls got their cookies again. Soon after, we were asleep.

3
The Foundation

THE PHONE WAS RINGING at seven in the morning and Dad had grabbed it in his room before I could get untangled to get the phone in the living room.

“Brian! This one’s for you to handle. I’ll be out in a minute.” I stumbled on out to the living room and picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“This is Ron Filmore, your contractor out on your farm. I know Rose said she’d be out at nine o’clock, but we have cement trucks and a crew scheduled this morning to pour the foundation of the modular. I need to get them cancelled if they can’t work this morning. It might cost us a load of cement if they are already turning.”

“Dang, Ron. We have to call the sheriff to see if we can get in. They had it roped off for the fire investigator yesterday. Our foundation shouldn’t be affected, so let me see what he says. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

“Okay. Time’s ticking. I’ll get off.”

He hung up and Dad was standing beside me. I explained the situation briefly and he dialed Sheriff Donaldson’s number. He used the phone in the bedroom and I made coffee. Dad came out a couple minutes later.

“Go ahead and call him back. Jim says we should be able to continue work on the foundation, but we need to get out there this morning, too. They have preliminary results of the investigation,” Dad said. “Get dressed.”

Well, we were partly dressed. Rose took enough time to call home and tell Courtney where we’d be after I called the contractor. It didn’t take long for us to pull up to the McDonald’s drive-through to get breakfast sandwiches and more coffee.

We got to the ranch before either the sheriff or the contractor arrived. The deputy on duty called in and told us to go ahead, but stay outside the yellow tape. Dad and I walked around the excavation. We had a set of the plans for the modular with us and he said that as long as we were here, we might as well take a couple of measurements. The places where the plumbing, sewer, and electric were set to enter the house had to be exactly according to the plans from the modular company or they wouldn’t match the units when they were ready to be installed. Without the house, we really needed that modular. It would be the only place on the property habitable for a while. I still didn’t know what we’d do to replace the house. I hoped we could.

Damn it! It wasn’t just our home. That was bad enough. It was also our studio and anticipated source of income. I hadn’t thought about that. There wasn’t a chance we’d get a replacement that had those high ceilings and open kitchen plan. We were going to have to look for a new studio.

The contractor led a crew in four pickup trucks onto the property and they parked next to his trailer. Ron headed for Dad and me immediately.

“Don’t you trust that we measured it?” he started.

“Never hurts to measure twice,” I said extending my hand. He hesitated and then shook it a little begrudgingly.

“Sure. You don’t have to worry, though. We guaranteed that the foundation would be ready for correct installation of the modular. If it doesn’t fit, I have to fix it.”

“Thank you for the reminder on that, Mr. Filmore,” Rose said. “Sometimes those little guarantees get forgotten until it’s too late to get a timely remedy. With the units arriving in less than two weeks, we won’t have time to redo anything. Especially with our current living situation.” She nodded toward the burned-out house. Ron Filmore looked at Rose and then shook his head chuckling.

“You folks know something? I wouldn’t have taken this contract for a bunch of kids under most circumstances. From the first time we met, and Mrs. Pratt wouldn’t talk to us, I realized there was something special about you all,” he said. “Eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds don’t get that kind of respect from their parents unless they’ve earned it. Ladies. Brian, we’re going to get this unit up as quickly as possible so you’ll have a place to live. And it will be right. Then we’ll help you figure out what to do about the mess over there. I’m sorry about the loss of the other house. Damned shame. Now if you’ll excuse me, we need to get the moisture barrier and rebar in place before that first truck gets here. We should have had it in yesterday.” He nodded to us and turned to get his crews in motion. Dad put a hand on my shoulder and nodded.

About that time Sheriff Donaldson rolled up and the fire inspector right behind him. I saw the other deputy take off. A fence contractor was right behind the inspector.

We shook hands all the way around with Sheriff Donaldson introducing each of us to Dan Armitage, the fire inspector. Of course, he was focused on Anna. She was, after all, the property owner.

“I’m afraid we need to fence off the damaged site for safety and security,” he started. “Even though I found no direct sign of a malicious act against your property involving fire, there are questionable bits that require some lab work. In other words, while I don’t think at the moment that it was arson, I was told about your confrontation with the adjuster yesterday. I’m securing the site so that you can request a State Investigator for a second opinion. It’s likely your insurance company will want an independent investigation, as well. What I found last night as I was crawling around in the cellar was what appeared to be rat-chewed wires. The question remains as to how that contributed to the fire starting after the power had been on for two weeks. The lab work will reveal if there were any unexpected substances on or near the wires.”

“Our insurance should cover it then,” Anna said, breathing a sigh of relief. “What was the name of that adjuster, Hayden? I’m going to call him and tell him to get his ass over here. Well, if I had a phone, anyway.”

“Be patient, sweetheart. Rex is on his way. He’ll straighten them out.”

“And it’s not a sure thing, Ms. Pratt,” Dan said. “The insurance company might contest the findings. State Law is getting tougher on insurers, but most will do anything possible to minimize a claim.”

“Insurance is a racket,” Sheriff Donaldson said.

“You remember the old Fergusson place?” Dan said, nodding his head at the sheriff. “That’s exactly what happened to him. Place got hit by a tornado. He had it on the market for over half a million and the insurance company settled for $125,000. They said the real estate hadn’t been damaged and was still worth the same as before. It was only the house that was damaged and it wasn’t worth much. Still put Fergie pretty much on the street after the settlement.”

“Shit!” I said.

“I think we can all agree with that,” Dad said.

The fencing contractor had to stake out an area with a ten-foot perimeter around the house. That put it right out into the driveway. Ron tested the ground and determined the cement trucks could navigate the grassy edge without getting bogged down. We talked for a while, though, and agreed that we needed to do some quick excavating this week in order to prepare a firm surface for the trucks delivering the modular. They were going to drive in here with a freakin’ house!

The first cement truck arrived and I looked over to see the guys all set up with trowels, levels, long bars, and implements I didn’t recognize. Ron directed the truck and in about ten minutes, cement was spewing out its trough and was being guided into the trenches and beam cuts. Another truck was waiting in the drive before that one was empty. No wonder they needed so many guys out there. They were hustling to get the cement leveled and to tamp out bubbles as fast as the truck dumped its load.

Trucks kept coming for several hours. It took seven big mixer trucks to bring in enough concrete. If it weren’t for that damned chain link fence and the charred ruin behind it, this would have been a really exciting day. Jennifer had her trusty 35mm camera out and probably took two rolls of pictures of the rubble and the new foundation. We joked that if anyone ever needed to see a close-up of cement coming out of a trough, we were covered.

The power company showed up with a pole digger and had a new, albeit short, pole installed near the construction trailer. Then wire-stringers showed up to run a line down the off-edge of the driveway so none of the construction trucks had to cross under it. They also ran the power lines for the modular as far as the barn. The line was coiled there and would be run across to the bunkhouse after the installation.

Rex Davis arrived about ten o’clock and took Dad and Anna off to work on the insurance claim. There was nothing Rose or Jennifer or I could do regarding that. The insurance was on Anna’s property. About one o’clock, just after we’d come back from getting McDonald’s for everyone, Doug, Rhiannon, and Doreen drove in, followed by Sora and Sarah pulling the trailer.

Ron had taken a few minutes to go over our plan for housing while we were waiting for the others to show up. He pointed out that there was an RV pad back next to the barn. He thought it was mostly for storage as the area for entrance was pretty tight. But it did have a sewer hookup and power run from the barn. It had the added advantage of water. I was impressed with how well Sora backed her family’s trailer into the little space we had.

I got girlfriend greetings from all four of the girls who had just arrived. Sarah and Sora were all over me as soon as the trailer was parked. Then Rhiannon and Doreen each demanded some deep kissing to welcome them to El Rancho del Corazón. I was thinking seriously about hauling Doreen into the trailer immediately.

“Where are Anna and Hayden?” Rhiannon asked breathlessly when we were finished kissing.

“They went into town with Rose’s dad to talk to the insurance adjuster,” I said. “What’s up?”

“I have such cool things! I need to stake out a space in the barn to set up my drafting table. There isn’t enough room in the trailer,” Rhiannon bubbled. “We talked to the modular builder in Nappanee. We swung by there this morning before we met up with Sarah and Sora. I picked up plans they said we could modify for a new house.”

“Really? You think we can replace the old house with something that is just as good?” Jennifer asked.

“Better!” Rhiannon answered. “They gave me an instruction book on how to customize the plans. We could get a 4,000 square foot house on this lot, complete with the kind of kitchen you want, and probably come in well below what the insurance will pay for replacement cost. Five bedrooms and four full baths. With enough room in the living room/family room area to have the entire clan over for one of your home-cooked meals!”

“Rhiannon! Slow down! We don’t even know what Anna will get for a settlement. It looks bleak. And then she is the one who will have to approve the plans,” I said.

“I’m going to occupy a horse stall and turn it into my interim office,” Rhiannon declared. “I’ll sell her on the idea.”

I glanced over at Doug. He had a complete fish-out-of-water look on his face. I decided maybe the guys should take a walk and let the girls jump up and down over things for a while. We headed toward where they were still leveling cement and then turned toward the pasture.

“She is so excited!” Doug said. “I mean, you know Rhiannon. She can really get excited. But I’ve never seen her like this. She was on the phone half the day yesterday with the people over in Nappanee. Man, I think they might have offered her a job. She’s been talking about how this is the first one she will design.”

“I don’t know how you can keep up with her,” I laughed. “She was pretty overwhelming just now.”

“Well, you know what that means?” Doug asked. “Tonight, either she is going to crash before sundown and sleep till morning, or she’ll be too excited to sleep and I’ll get ridden until I can’t stay up anymore. You know, I always thought that Liz was the insatiable one in our group. Especially when she decided she wanted both you and me. But Rhiannon… I’m kind of glad I’ve got help with her. If she goes like I think she will tonight, I might send her to be with you tomorrow, just so I can get some sleep.”

“Shit, Doug. I don’t even know how to respond to that. I’ve got four girls here who want attention, and I’m betting your sister does, too. How am I supposed to handle all that?”

“With both hands, cousin. With both hands.”

4
Big Sister

“WE’RE GOING on down to Evansville tonight,” Sora said as I hugged her behind the barn.

“Tonight?” I said. “Why so quickly. I thought you’d stay with us tonight.”

“Sarah promised her parents she’d help them get ready to move. She’s been through it enough times to not want her parents to face the move alone. There’s so much packing to do, even though she and Hannah are out of the house,” Sora said. “I think Sarah wants to check for things they should bring up here. She won’t move anything here yet, but she’ll pack them so they are marked for here.”

“It’s so tough on them,” I sighed. “Maybe we should all go help them move.”

“Kind sentiments, but I don’t think that’s the kind of help you’re best equipped for now.”

“They probably aren’t ready to see me packing things in their house,” I said.

“There’s another way you could help,” Sora said, pressing her lips against mine. We let our tongues play together. I touched her breast with my fingers and she pushed it toward me. I could hardly breathe when we finally stopped kissing.

“Um… how can I help?”

“Just keep doing what you started. I’m a little horny and I’m pretty sure Sarah is a lot horny. I miss you, Brian.” Sora grabbed hold of me in a fierce hug.

I’d never even thought we would be lovers, but she and Sarah were the next in line after Whitney. I wasn’t going to leave her hanging. We just walked into the pasture and lay down. We didn’t even get our clothes all the way off before I had a rubber on and was pushing into her steamy center. She’d be a sophomore at IU this year and I was really looking forward to her guidance. She was certainly guiding me now. She lifted her left leg up and hooked my neck with the back of her heel, pulling me down to her lips. As I descended, I penetrated, and then I ascended.

I got a quick look at Rhiannon’s new studio in ‘Stall One’ of the barn. Stall One was pristine and was the nearest to the front door of the barn. The whole floor of the barn was hard-packed clay. It didn’t even seem dusty.

“Look at this one,” she said as I came in. “It’s almost ideal right out of the box. There’s a large living room and a master suite on one side and what they call a ‘great room’ on the other side. It’s kind of like a kitchen/family room/dining room combination. Then the living room is an ell off of it. Upstairs there are four more bedrooms.”

“It looks huge, Rhiannon. How could we ever afford something like that?”

“It’s neither as big nor as expensive as it looks from the plans. It’s just 3,500 square feet. That’s roughly what the farmhouse was,” she bubbled. “Look, this is even better. The second floor is all above the living room and master suite. The whole great room is like an atrium with a really high ceiling and it’s almost all windows along this wall. It’s perfect for the studio kitchen.”

“It does look perfect,” I admitted.

“Almost. The downside is that there is only one bath upstairs for four bedrooms. And the bedrooms are a little small. I think it should be cut to make it just three bedrooms up. If we combine these two bedrooms into a new master suite and add an en suite bath, it would relieve a lot of traffic problems in the morning.”

“Why would we need two master suites?” I asked stupidly.

“Well, why don’t we call the main one downstairs the Patrón Suite and the one upstairs the Matrón Suite?”

“What? You think I don’t want to sleep with him?” Rose asked. She’d adapted to the title of Matrón a lot more quickly than I had to Patrón.

“Oh, no! But there might be nights when our Patrón is entertaining one or two or five girls, and you don’t want to be buried under them. Or, you might need to do a little entertaining yourself, luscious.” We just got to giggling about that. I left Rhiannon to her dreams. I really didn’t think we’d be able to afford that kind of a house. It was pretty cool, though. And it gave us some hope.

I caught up with Sarah outside. I managed to get beside her and steer her to a quiet spot behind the construction trailer.

“Would you like some private time with me before you head down to your parents’ house?” I whispered to her.

“Why? Um… you mean…?” She looked at me as if she was seeing me for the first time. “Brian! You mean you still want to make love with me?”

“Sarah, of course I do! Why wouldn’t I, my compañera?”

“Well… but…” Tears were sparkling in her eyes. Oh shit! Is she going to tell me she’s breaking up with me? “But you have Hannah now!” she blurted out.

“Oh no! Oh, Sarah, I thought you were okay with that. Please don’t break up with me because of your sister. I didn’t know,” I pled.

“No-no! That’s not what I mean. I mean…” The tears were definitely coming now. “Now that you have the real thing, I didn’t think you’d want the substitute anymore.” It took me seconds to comprehend what she was saying. How could I have ever let her think that? I wrapped her in my arms.

“Sarah. Oh, dear, sweet Sarah. You are not a substitute. Yes, I know you look similar. Sometimes I have trouble telling your voices apart. But that is not why I love you. I love you. Did you hear that? I love you,” I repeated. “I have never considered you a stand-in for your sister. I couldn’t have. I love you for you. You found your way into my heart before you ever went off to college and Hannah moved. Please don’t ever doubt how much I love you and want you, Sarah.”

She was a weeping mess. How could I have been so stupid as to let her think that I would dump her when I had Hannah?

“I never thought I would fall in love with you,” she sobbed. “I didn’t want to fall in love with you. I thought I’d just take advantage of you while you were waiting for my sister. Not the first time. That was different. I just couldn’t not be with you. But then when you kept inviting me back and I kept coming back and everyone else seemed to want me there… I let myself slip and fall in love with you. What am I going to do? How am I ever going to leave?”

“Why would you leave, honey?”

“Next week. I’m going to Chicago for my internship at the Field Museum.”

“It’s only for the summer. And Chicago isn’t even as far as Oberlin.”

“School is so far away from here. Now, instead of Hannah being 500 miles away from you, I’m ٥٠٠ miles away.”

“Sarah, we’ll do whatever is necessary to keep us together. It’s temporary,” I said.

“But that’s just it. My chosen field. If I continue with this degree, my job could take me anywhere. What if I have to move to Africa or India or China? How can I ever leave you?”

I rocked her in my arms. It was all I could do. We’d made a huge step with most of us coming to Bloomington for college. Of my casa, Elaine was in Indianapolis, but that was only ninety minutes away. Nikki would be in Rhode Island. Cassie and Josh would still be in Mishawaka with Mary. And Sarah was at Oberlin. I was pretty sure that Nikki, Cassie, Mary, and Josh would scarcely miss me. Nikki had always been a little strange and was more likely to miss Liz than me. The other three would probably form their own casa eventually. I couldn’t imagine they would want to stay a part of our group if Josh really became a minister, or missionary, or something. Elaine had already said she planned to spend weekends with us unless she was in production. Poor Sarah. She would be the most isolated of all of us.

“Make love to me, Sarah? Please? We can use the trailer,” I said.

I took Sarah’s hand and we walked to Sora’s travel trailer, glanced around to see who was watching us, and went in. We headed straight for the bedroom and Sarah started removing her clothes.

“Wait,” I said softly. She turned. “Let me.”

She was wearing shorts and a T-shirt with flip-flops. I pulled her to me and kissed her. We edged to the bed and managed to lie down without breaking the kiss. I slid my hand up under her T-shirt along her back and sprung the catch on her bra. She caught her breath, but I just kept stroking her back, not moving to her suddenly free breasts. I dragged my hand around front to her tummy and she rolled her body slightly away from me while keeping her tongue in my mouth to give me better access to her front. I still didn’t move up to her breasts, though. After dipping just to the waistband of her shorts, I pulled my hand away from her. She moaned. When I ran my hand up the back of her leg and under the hem of her shorts and panties to cup her butt she whined into my mouth and smashed herself against me.

“Oh! You surprised me again. I thought you’d touch my breast and you got my behind instead. Brian, touch me some more. Your touch does such wonderful things to me.”

I was only too happy to oblige. This time, I did lift her shirt and bra off, and buried my face in those perfect titties, kissing and tonguing her nipples as I pushed her shorts and underpants off her butt. She managed to wiggle them on down and kick them off her feet. It didn’t take long for her to get me naked either. Rose had stuffed my pocket with condoms this morning after counting up how many possible lovers I would have at the ranch today. Sarah simply didn’t want to stop kissing me, even to get the condom on, but I managed one-handed. She rolled to her back and opened her legs, pulling my cock to her wet center. I hesitated there and felt her fingers dig into my ass.

“Please?” she said. “Please make love to me.”

I sank slowly into my college lover and we moved together. It was soft and gentle. Each movement brought us closer. The light touches of her hands on my back, of my fingers on her butt, drove us closer and closer. I was determined not to come before her and she seemed just as determined to outwait me. It worked. I couldn’t hold back any longer and pushed into her as far as I could go, just touching the end of her vagina and the hard cervix there. She gasped with my first spurt and then gasped again with the second as the tip of the condom filled. Then, with a long, low whine, she clasped down on my cock and I felt every muscle in her pussy flutter as she came.

We continued to kiss and nibble at each other. Eventually we could breathe again and I began to wilt. I pulled out and grabbed the condom.

“I am not going to be another Jessica,” Sarah murmured. “She was so stupid. She left true love to have fame and fortune. I won’t be like her.”

Jessica. My Heaven. In her way, she brought me Sarah, too.

5
Making Plans

DAD, ANNA, AND REX returned late in the afternoon with the insurance adjuster and I could tell that Rex was laying it on the line to the guy. It didn’t sound like it was going well. Both of them had gone to their cars and I saw that they had car phones against their ears. I was pretty sure we were going to have a long call home from the hotel tonight.

“Brian, we’re going back with Rex. There’s really nothing more we can do here. I paid for the room tonight, so you can all stay there if you want to,” Dad said.

“I think once Doug, Doreen, and Rhiannon are settled in Sora’s trailer, there won’t be anything for us to do here, either,” I said. “Doug’s been talking with Ron to get the foundation to this point. Rhiannon has the plans. I’m not sure if Ron was able to organize an excavator to do the new driveway tomorrow. We brought all the new power lines down along the fencerow so they don’t cross the drive now at all.”

“We talked to Ron, also,” Dad said. “He still plans to survey and mark the drive tomorrow, even if they can’t get heavy equipment out here that fast. The modular will be here in two weeks. Are Doug, Rhiannon, and Doreen staying?”

“Doreen starts work at the newspaper Monday, but I think they are spending the weekend at Spring Mill. They won’t be back to Mishawaka until the bunkhouse is ready to move into. Then they’ll come for the things they’re moving,” I said. “It really sucks that their folks put their house on the market Monday after graduation. They have to pack out everything they don’t want given to Goodwill. I just don’t get it.”

“Different families are different. Don’t be too hard on the Swift’s. Jim and Jill aren’t bad people and they love their kids,” Dad said. “We might bring the pickup and camper down and spend the weekend if Doug and his family aren’t going to be here. Brian, this is a tough time for everyone. The insurance company is currently following the recommendation of the adjuster and is sending their own investigator out to look for signs of arson. That’s why I don’t want the place left vacant this weekend. We’re doing everything we can, but this could take a while. You need to be thinking of alternate plans for this fall.”

“Shit, Dad.”

“I’m sorry, son. We’re doing everything we can.”

“We’ll see you tomorrow afternoon. I need to come up and be with my casa so they don’t fall apart over this,” I said. “This isn’t going to go well.”

I could almost have predicted what the night would be like. Doug and Rhiannon went back to the ranch after we’d had dinner and stayed in the trailer. Doreen went back to the Hampton with Jennifer, Rose, and me. Doreen and I took Dad’s vacated bedroom. It was always fun to make love with Doreen. There was something a little wicked about it. She was my older sister’s best friend.

What she told me, though, almost made me freak out.

“Brian,” she said between rounds, “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“What is it, doll?”

“Well, you see, I’m older than most of you. My best friend is married and has a baby. I always thought we’d raise our babies together and walk down the street pushing them in a carriage side-by-side,” she said. “Silly, isn’t it? But… I guess I’m a little jealous. Anyway, none of us can support a child right now, but I expect that I’m going to want to have a baby before you guys are all out of school. I don’t think I’m the only girl who is thinking of a baby within the next couple years. I think Sugar is going to want to get started right away. Did you know her mother asks her at least once a week if she’s pregnant yet? That woman can’t wait to be a grandma.”

Doreen was rambling. I kissed her. She spent a couple minutes getting me hard and covered. I slipped into her again. We rolled over so she could be on top and push herself up to look down at me.

“A favor?” I reminded her as we started moving together.

“Yeah. Oh yeah. I’d like… I’d like to bear your first child.” I almost dumped her off of me, I was so startled. “Not right now! Not until Doug and Rhiannon are ready for us to have a baby in the family. And even though I want you to be involved in more than planting the seed, the baby would be part of our casa, raised mostly by Doug and Rhiannon and me. But I’d always make sure that our son or daughter knew you were his or her father and you’d always be able to visit and all. You just wouldn’t have the responsibility of being the full-time father. Doug would.”

“Doreen,” I said, “honey, that’s something I really have to think about. I mean, my first child. It seems like I should be involved a little more than that. I don’t know.”

“Well, it’s not like it is today or even this year. Probably not for a while yet. I just want you to know that even if I’m not first, I want your baby. And then I want to take him to Seattle—just to visit—and show him to his Aunt Betts. Maybe when she has number two. I miss her.”

Doreen had leaky eyes when she talked about missing Betts, but they flooded when she came.

Something had changed this week.

I still woke up at four-thirty, at least briefly, and I still whispered a few words to Hannah. But there was a strange sense of peace and love when I woke up for this brief pause in life. My conversations had often been an unburdening, mostly to my benefit rather than to Hannah’s. But now I felt like the burden had shifted. I was eager to get back home today. I missed her. I missed all of them. I think my connection and focus on Hannah had overwhelmed the connection I felt with each of my hearthmates at times, no matter what our relation. I even missed Josh. Now it was like the whole web was complete and I couldn’t miss one without missing them all.

But there was this overwhelming responsibility I felt, as well. I needed to take care of them all.

I love you, Hannah. I love you, Samantha. I love you, Rose. I love you, Jennifer. I love you, Courtney. I love you, Whitney. I love you, Liz. I love you, Sarah. I love you, Sora. I love you, Elaine. I love you, Nikki. I love you, Cassie. I love you, Mary. I love you, too, Josh. Just don’t make anything of it, okay?

I certainly loved the wiggling mass of naked girls that had all eventually found their way to my bed during the night. Rose was between my legs with her head on my stomach. Doreen was under my left arm. Jennifer was under the right. I lived in a world of love.

All the electric lines had been rerouted. We had both an electric and a telephone line run to the construction pole next to the trailer and one to Stall One in the barn. A utility crew checked all the lines to make sure none of them had been damaged by the fire. No propane tank had been included with the house, so we didn’t have to worry about that hazard. Ron and one of his workers walked the property planting flags on six-foot poles over the septic tank and well, and marked a solid boundary between the ruins and the new foundation. They marked the path of the new driveway that bypassed the fence around the ruins. There were poles marking the watershed of the nearest trees, as well, and I was thankful that he was taking care not to damage any more of the surrounding eco-culture than necessary. You could see that some of the nearest limbs of the big sycamore—at least twenty feet away—had still been seared by the heat from the house fire.

After we met with Ron, we went to see Rhiannon in Stall One. I needed to talk to Ron about some better wiring in her ‘office.’ She had plans laid out on her table and Doug was reading off measurements from the remodel drawings.

“Hi, Brian,” Rhiannon said. “Look what we’ve got!”

I looked over her shoulder at a beautiful rendering of a house from the catalog. It had the same look and feel as the best of classic Hoosier homesteads. But there was something special about it as well. It looked… homey.

“It looks huge!” I said. Jennifer snorted.

“Only 3,200 square feet, but really well laid out. Only a few issues, really. The six bedrooms might come down to five when we’re finished with the redrawing, but four-and-a-half baths. That will keep your women satisfied,” Rhiannon beamed.

“This must be driving you crazy, trying to get everything done and researched so quickly,” Rose said.

“I love it! This is the exciting thing about architecture. I know the parameters and I have to find or create the absolute best solution. It’s such fun!”

“Well, we’re getting ready to head back north,” I said. “There isn’t really much we can do down here right now. I know you guys wouldn’t even be down here yet if Doreen wasn’t starting work Monday. You should have a long romantic weekend together. Maybe go over to Spring Mill State Park.”

“Could you give us a minute, Brian?” Rhiannon asked. She grabbed Doug and ran out the door of the barn.

“You suppose the very mention of a romantic weekend got her so charged up she had to get satisfaction right away?” Rose laughed.

“Whatever it was, she really needed to get together with Doug and Doreen right away,” I laughed. “We’d better get ourselves ready to go. I should let Ron know we’re headed out and Doug and Rhiannon are in charge.”

By the time I was done with Ron, Rhiannon was bouncing out of the barn again with a bunch of tubes and a satchel.

“Can I hitch a ride back with you?” she asked, running up to us.

“Of course you can, Rhiannon,” I said. “But aren’t you going to spend the weekend down here?”

“Your idea of a romantic weekend down at Spring Mill was a great one. Doug and Doreen need some alone time to reconnect. They’ve had me between them almost non-stop for weeks,” Rhiannon said. “And I need to be where I can talk to Anna and to the guys in Nappanee. This is so exciting, Brian! We’re all going to have brand new houses!”

“Some of us might need to come back down tomorrow,” I said. “Dad doesn’t really want the property vacant while this insurance scam is underway. We’ll be fine for now, though.”

6
Crime and Punishment

THE HOUSE WAS QUIET when we got home. In fact, the only people home were Courtney and Anna. Court was sitting at the kitchen table with notebooks in front of her and the phone beside her when we came through the door. She almost knocked over the table scrambling up to come and greet us. Jennifer got the first big kiss, but before they had parted, Courtney pulled me in to join them. Courtney and Jennifer are the only ones who ever do this with me, and I will never get tired of feeling both their tongues dueling with mine as the three of us kiss together. Nor will I ever stop springing an instant boner when they do.

Let’s just say that I didn’t get a chance to say ‘hi’ to Anna, who had been peeling potatoes at the kitchen sink, when Rose and Rhiannon both rushed her and began talking at once. Courtney had Jennifer and me upstairs and in bed before my car had stopped ticking in the driveway. That three-way kiss just disconnects my brain from anything outside the reality of these two girls. Courtney was on top of Jennifer as they licked each other’s clits. I got sheathed and slid deep inside Courtney’s incredibly tight pussy. Jennifer began her usual routine of alternating licks on Courtney’s clit and my balls, sliding up along my shaft to descend on Courtney’s clit again. I petted Court’s butt and slapped it lightly as she mounted toward her peak. After her first, she turned her head from Jennifer’s juicy snatch.

“Brian,” she panted. “You know I love your cock in my pussy, but I need it an inch-and-a-half south of there.”

“Now, Court?”

“Right fucking now!”

I reached into my nightstand and retrieved my bottle of lube. I needed to remember to get some more after this use. I ran it into Courtney’s crack and massaged it into her anus with my fingers as she panted, “Yes. Yes. Bump. Bump.” I pulled out of her tight hot pussy and lined up with her little brown hole. “Bump. Bump. IN!” I slid into Court easily and she was on-track for an ear-shattering orgasm that caused Jennifer to scream as well—a sound that reverberated against my balls. Three more long slow strokes into Courtney’s ass and I was spewing my load. Courtney screamed again.

I collapsed against Courtney, pulling her to the side so we didn’t crush Jennifer under us.

“My Courtesan, I love you,” I said.

“It was that kiss,” she sighed. “I just can’t resist that kiss.” I pulled out of her bottom and she breathed another sigh.

“I should not have been here for that,” Anna said from my desk. Rose and Rhiannon stood at Rhiannon’s drafting table next to her.

“Aren’t they incredible?” Rose said.

“It makes my butt twitch,” Rhiannon sighed. “I don’t think I could do that. But it was so sexy.”

“Anna, what are you doing spying on your daughters?” I said with a grin. “That is very naughty of you.”

“Brian,” she warned. I could see she was flushed. “We didn’t know you were going to do… that!”

“Oh. But you knew we’d be doing something, didn’t you, Mommy,” Jennifer giggled.

“Don’t you dare… tell Marilyn,” Anna whispered. This time, I thought, I needed to have a little talk with my mom.

Hannah and Sam got home about four and both ran to greet and kiss me. Samantha plastered herself to me and tried to crawl down my throat tongue-first. Another couple minutes and I’d have undressed her right there in the kitchen where I was helping Anna prepare dinner. Anna ran out of the room and I heard the bedroom door close. Hannah was more demure in her kiss, playing with our tongues, but still exploring our response to each other.

“I missed you, my novia,” she smiled and hugged me tightly.

“I can’t wait to have the two of you in my bed tonight,” I sighed, pulling Sam into our hug.

“Oh, not tonight. We’ll have to wait our turn. If Whitney and Liz don’t get you tonight, we’ll all wake up dead in the morning,” Samantha giggled.

“But…”

“Don’t worry, my novia,” Hannah said with her face still pressed against my neck. “I want both my novia tomorrow night. All night. I love you both. I love each of you.” I got a little lump in my throat. “Besides, we have to work tomorrow. Harvey is such a slave-driver.”

“And don’t you dare turn into Miss Polly, or we’re all going to quit,” Sam said firmly. I laughed.

“Just be thankful you don’t work for her,” I said. “She’s a great person and a wonderful host, but she’s not the greatest with her employees.”

“So we noticed.”

Mom, Dad, Whitney, and Liz all arrived in plenty of time for dinner. Fortunately, the capons had already been put in the oven in our clay pots before Anna disappeared. We made a big salad and more vegetables. Clay pot chicken is big on root vegetables, but not much for greens. I shredded Brussel sprouts and sautéed them in butter with a hint of oregano. Yummy. When we were all seated and had food, I decided to have some fun. I winked at Rose.

“Mom,” I said. “Hypothetically speaking, what would you do if you caught one of us, say one of the girls, spying on you and Dad and Anna while you made love?”

“Hypothetically speaking? Brian, has someone been violating our privacy?” Mom asked sternly.

“Oh no, Mom. Not that I know of. Of course, there’s a lot that goes on in the common areas of the house. I’ll bet you’ll be glad when there aren’t so many others around to limit your activities,” I grinned. “But I was just thinking about our anticipated living arrangement in Bloomington and thought we might benefit from our parents’ knowledge about how to handle a violation of privacy, as you put it.”

“Well, I can certainly see your point. We’ve always assumed certain rules of privacy here at home. You should probably make sure that it is one of the explicit rules for your casa,” she said. She turned to look at Dad and Anna. Anna was fire-engine red. Mom caught her breath and looked back at me with one eyebrow raised.

“You know that I’m not above corporal punishment when it’s appropriate. Of course, with Courtney that’s not really punishment. But with Jennifer, even the threat of one hard smack on her bare bottom is enough to send her into paroxysms.” Jennifer jumped and squirmed in her seat, an act that was almost mirrored by Anna. Mom started to smile as she watched. Dad had both eyebrows hidden in his non-existent hairline as he watched the conversation.

“You beat your women?” Mom asked.

“Oh no, Mom. Well, occasionally I get a good punch in on Whitney, but usually it’s the other way around. As a general rule, I think you and Dad had it right when you punished Betts and me with love. We always felt so ashamed at having let you down,” I said. “But I’ve just begun to realize that different people are simply wired to respond differently to… uh… different stimuli.”

Anna jumped up from her chair and stood at the table.

“Stop it! Stop! I confess!” she said. “I didn’t mean to do it. I just followed Rhiannon and Rose upstairs to the drafting table to look at Rhiannon’s plans and they… Jennifer, Courtney, and Brian… were on the bed and he…”

“Anna,” Mom said kindly. “The children. Please sit and finish your dinner. Hayden and I will discuss this with you later. In our room.” She glanced around at the rest of us and said firmly, “In private.”

“That was so wicked,” Whitney giggled as we got ready for bed.

“It made my bottom itch funny and I’m definitely not into getting spanked,” Liz laughed as she stepped out of the shower. Hannah and Sam got in.

“Brian, you aren’t going to punish me for something. Are you?” Jennifer asked as she undressed outside the open door.

“Little Girl Scout,” I said as I came out and gave her a hug. “We’ve suspended that game. You’ll have to tell me explicitly if you ever want to reinstate it. You know how much I love you. I would never hurt you.”

“I love you, Brian. It was exciting, but we’ll save it for when we need excitement. I’ll think up a code-word that I can use so that you’ll know when it’s okay,” she said. “But oh! My mommy! I think she might be about to get her bottom spanked!”

“I never told on her,” I said. “She just stood up and confessed.”

“I’ll bet she was creaming her panties all through dinner.”

“Uh, Brian? Is it okay if I spend the night?” Rhiannon asked. “I didn’t mean to be a voyeur. I didn’t even realize what was happening until Courtney screamed. But I don’t want to invade the privacy of your casa.”

“Isn’t there some Spanish word for that?” I asked.

“For tonight, mi casa es tu casa,” Rose supplied.

“Mmm. Not for us, please,” Hannah said. “Sam and I are going to sleep downstairs. I’m really tired and I’d want to stay awake and watch if I slept up here. Okay?”

“Honey, you know it’s always okay. Either way,” I said. She was still dripping from the shower as Jen and Court stepped in. She hugged me, getting me almost as wet as she was.

“Are you going to… spank me, Brian,” she whispered in my ear. She was shaking. I held her away so I could look into her eyes. It broke my heart that she could be frightened of me.

“My sweet, precious novia. I swear to you… I promise… I will never raise my hand to you. No matter what. I promise.”

“I don’t think… I could take it. I knew you wouldn’t, but… I still get scared.”

“Never. I promise.”

I had a great night with Liz jumping on me for a marathon session before we went to sleep. She’s usually one and done, but this time, she wanted to go again and again. I had to apologize to Whitney, who was lying beside us fingering her own pussy and occasionally managing to get a kiss.

“It’s okay, Brian. You’re mine in the morning.” And I was. She fucked me into submission when we woke up and then took me out back and beat me into submission as we sparred for nearly an hour. I was ready to go back to bed and actually get some sleep.

Instead, I spent the day hunched over Rhiannon’s drawing table with Rose as we went over every inch of the new plan that she was creating. It was beautiful. I just had a feeling that if we ever saw this house, it wouldn’t be for a long time.

Hannah and Samantha were gone to the studio again by nine, and Jennifer and Courtney disappeared with the horses for most of the day. I was surprised that Courtney’s butt wasn’t too sore to ride.

By one o’clock, Rhiannon had been on the phone to discuss the plan modifications with Isaac Schroyer, the manager of Nappanee Manufactured Housing. After they’d been on the line nearly half an hour, Rhiannon and Rose talked to Anna for another half an hour. The three of them took off to go to the plant and show the plans to Mr. Schroyer.

All of a sudden, I was alone in the house.

It was such a weird feeling.

7
No Cure

I SAT AT MY COMPUTER and toyed with my recipe data base, but the quiet of the house distracted me. I couldn’t get that nagging feeling out of my mind. Dad had said I needed to start thinking about alternate housing for the fall. What could we do? I went downstairs planning to start dinner. I knew there would be a houseful again tonight. When I got to the counter, there was a note from Mom.

Brian, Dinner is taken care of tonight. Don’t forget your appointment with Dr. McCall at three.

Crap! I forgot all about meeting with George’s mother. It was already two-thirty. I ran upstairs and changed out of my sweats and into real clothes and headed for my appointment. Meeting with Dr. McCall had really helped me deal with the changing situation since I beat the crap out of Hannah’s former boyfriend in Evansville and brought her back to live with us. This was scheduled to be my last appointment with her before I was too deeply involved in Bloomington to get back on Friday afternoons. I would talk to her about my feelings about moving to Bloomington with nowhere to live.

I was surprised to find Hannah and Sam in her office when I got there.

“Brian, in light of events this week, I thought it would be best to have a sit-down with the three of you. Do you have any objection to using your last session with me to all talk together?” Dr. McCall asked.

“No. Of course not,” I answered. I hugged both girls to me. We all three sat on the couch with Hannah between Sam and me.

“So, things changed this week,” our counselor said by way of introduction. We glanced at each other and giggled a little.

“I told Dr. McCall about making love this weekend and about having an orgasm. Or a few,” Hannah laughed. “I give you both explicit permission to talk about our relationship in any way you need to.”

“Well, that is what this session is all about,” Dr. McCall said. “Let’s start with you, Hannah. How do you feel about the new step in your relationship?”

“Happy. In love. Sexy. I’ve never felt sexy before. Um… healthy,” Hannah answered.

“Those are good descriptive words. How about you, Brian?”

“I feel like Hannah is really back with us,” I said.

“A feeling, Brian.”

“Oh. Happy. Excited. Energized. Just ready to take on the world.”

“Samantha?”

“I feel so loved and in love, my heart is about to burst.”

“No jealousy of either Brian or Hannah?”

“Why would I be jealous?” Sam asked.

“Well, they made love. Without you,” Dr. McCall said.

“Oh, Hannah and I made up for that Tuesday night!” Samantha exclaimed. “And Wednesday.”

“Okay. Let’s go back to what Hannah said she was feeling. I want to focus on one word. Healthy. What does that mean to each of you?”

We had quite a little discussion about that. It finally centered on not being depressed anymore.

“Can I stop taking the drugs now?” Hannah asked.

“Let’s talk about that,” Dr. McCall answered. “I certainly think we can moderate the drugs you are taking. I’m not in favor of depending on manufactured chemicals to balance body chemistry. So, I want you to consider this. What is making you feel healthy? Is it just sex with your lovers?”

“Well… that sure doesn’t hurt. I didn’t know it could be like that,” Hannah answered. “But… I think there is more than that. It’s like my life isn’t in the shitter anymore.”

“What happens when things get rough again? Say you have an argument with Brian or with Samantha. Say you have to be apart from the two of them for a while. They’ll both be in school and you won’t. Are you going to get depressed again?” Dr. McCall asked.

“Maybe a little.” Hannah was looking worried.

“I wish we were going to be seeing each other for another few months,” the doctor said. “Unfortunately, I understand you will all be leaving for Bloomington soon.”

“We’re not sure when, now,” I said. “The house burned down Monday night. We don’t have any place to live there now.”

“Oh, dear. Well, that’s depressing.” We all laughed. “If you are still up here, I’d like to keep meeting with you, but you can let me know. Let’s talk about some of the tools you can use with each other to keep depression and anxiety from controlling your lives. First, not to be a downer on you, but your depression isn’t cured, Hannah.” That made us all sit back. “The good news is that you are learning some coping mechanisms. Some of them you have stumbled into, but it’s good to know that you can call on them at any time.”

“Like sex?” Samantha asked. “It always makes me feel good.”

“As it should! But sex is more likely the result of feeling good. As a fix for depression, an orgasm is great for a little while. But you shouldn’t make it a magic pill or it will lose its romance and fun. It is probably not possible to have another orgasm as soon as the effects of the first one start to fade. Feeling sexy was something new for you, Hannah. But more importantly, you felt loved.”

“A little proud, too,” Hannah said. “I actually did it!”

“Pride is a good antidote for depression. Tell me how you feel about producing the television show.”

“Scared out of my wits! That’s part of what I’m proud of, but there’s so much to learn. Challenged, because I feel like I have to really stay on my toes so as not to get behind. Sometimes a little overwhelmed. I guess I’m proud that I’m actually doing it and able to do it and be a contributing member of our family,” Hannah said. I hugged her and Sam pulled into it with us. “I feel so secure with my novia on either side of me,” she sighed.

“Good. So, you’ve identified things that you need to keep in balance. Fear. Challenge. Overwhelmed. Proud. Loved. Secure. You see, guys, part of having your body chemistry out of whack is a tendency to let one of those emotions override all the others. If all you feel is fear, you will become depressed. If all you feel is orgasmic bliss, you will be blind to things that can hurt you. All three of you need to be sure you are talking to the other two and that you are listening to what they have to say. Samantha, don’t you feel some of those same emotions?”

“Yeah. Like right now, I’ve been helping Hannah with the show and I get overwhelmed just taking notes with so much going on. I worry that I won’t be able to help her when she needs it.”

“Brian?”

“I pretty much feel all those things. I feel responsible for everyone in our casa—even our clan—and then I got angry at the insurance adjuster because he was just plain rude. And afraid…” I didn’t intend to go there with Hannah and Sam with me. Doctor McCall nodded and encouraged me to go on.

“Can you express what you are feeling with your lovers in the room, Brian?”

“I don’t know. I’m afraid they’ll think… I’m weak.” My head was crashing in on me. It was different a month ago. A month ago, we didn’t have plans. We didn’t see the future. Now we saw it all snatched away from us. I was desperate to find a solution.

“Brian, you are not only my lover and my novia,” Hannah said, “you are also my hero. I know you are human. But you’ve been faithful to me—I mean faithfully caring and waiting for me—for months. Years. Even when it is hard, I—we—will be faithful to you. We are your partners.”

That was a preview of El Rancho del Corazón. To read the rest purchase the book.

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