Chapter 3417 - 1

"You'd marry me, even if I loved Annie more?" she asked.

I answered, "I would, if you and I make each other happy being together. I've read enough about polyamory to know that monogamy isn't the only model for relationships. We don't have to get all our needs met in one person, so if you get something from your relationship with Annie that I don't provide you, I'm going to support that. Just like I hope you'd support me if I get something from my relationship with Mom or with Annie that I don't get from you. Trying to get everything we want from one person just doesn't make sense."

"I guess I still need time to wrap my mind around all of this," Marissa added.

"We all do," I said. "It's one thing for a couple to move quickly, but to make all four of us work, we need to be more deliberate to find out what works best and communicate honestly. Anyway, I'm glad you and I got this time together, no matter what the future holds. Ready for sleep?"

"For sure. I'm not sure my chocho can take another round tonight," she answered.

"Chocho?" I wondered.

Marissa chuckled. "You haven't heard that word? It's a Spanish slang for female genitals that I was taught as a child. I'm not fluent in Spanish, since my parents prefer to speak English at home, but a few things did get passed down from my grandparents. I'm actually three-quarters Mexican heritage, but my parents were born here, and both of my grandfathers. My grandmothers were immigrants, brought here as kids while their parents worked in the vineyards in Sonoma County. My grandpa Gutierrez, on the other hand, was born in San Rafael to immigrant parents, while my mom's biological father, Peter Walsh, was a mix of Irish, Polish and German. We think part of his line can be dated back to the Gold Rush, we're not really sure. He got Grandma pregnant before he left for Vietnam, then died there. Grandma married Mario Hernandez instead and Mario adopted Mom before having two more kids together. We don't have any contact with the Walsh side to know more about him."

"Holy shit. Marissa, how do I say this? We might be related. My maternal grandmother Delia Smith's maiden name is Walsh and she had a brother named Peter who died in Vietnam. She made me take pictures of his name on the Memorial when our 9th grade class went to DC. There was only one Peter Walsh on the wall, so they must be the same man. She never mentioned that he left any kids behind, though."

"Dios!" Marissa exclaimed. "My Mom made me do the same thing, when Annie and I went to DC. Why didn't Annie realize the connection then?"

I replied, "Why would she? Delia's not Annie's grandmother, so Annie probably never once heard Grandma talk about Peter, never had to research that family tree for school to even know her maiden name. After the divorce, Grandma shunned my dad, then extended that to Annie. My mom's the only one that has treated Annie like family. I wonder how Grandma's going to react to finding out about another niece, four more grand-nieces and two grand-nephews, especially that I'm dating one of them?"

"That would make us, what, second cousins?" she asked. "That would be legal, right? I didn't just commit incest too, did I?"

I replied, "Not criminally, at least. Even if we were first cousins, we'd be legal. We should talk with our grandmothers in the morning to confirm this."

We chatted a little while longer, then faded off to sleep in each other's arms. I don't think I'd ever had a better night's sleep.

~~~~~

Marissa and I woke to the smell of bacon and coffee. Marissa pulled one of my tshirts on, and I got sweatshorts and a t-shirt on and we went to the kitchen, where Mom and Annie were preparing blueberry pancakes and more scrambled eggs.

As I poured coffee for Marissa and myself, I asked, "Mom, Grandma's brother, the one who died in Vietnam, his name was Peter Walsh, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" she responded.

"I'll give you three guesses what the name of Marissa's maternal grandfather is."

Before Mom could answer, Annie exclaimed, "Oh, my god! That's the name Marissa photographed off the Vietnam Memorial when we went to DC!"

I responded, "Yes. So did I, when I went, at my grandma's request. I can tell you there's only one Peter Walsh on that wall. They have to be the same man, right?"

Mom asked, "So what relation is Marissa to me?"

I answered, "If we're right, her mom Angelina is your first cousin, Marissa is your first cousin once removed and my second cousin."

"And still not related to me," Annie griped.

"Not yet, querida," Marissa said. "We're exploring options for me to marry into the family, aren't we? If I someday become Tyler's wife, that would make us sisters-in-law. Can we think of ourselves as sisters-in-love right now?"

"I love it. And you, Riss. Thank you," Annie answered.

After breakfast, Mom got on the phone with Grandma Smith, confirming that her brother Peter Walsh had been involved with Carmen Rosado, Marissa's grandmother, before leaving for Vietnam in 1969, but the Walsh family had never known that she was pregnant with his daughter. Grandma sounded interested in making contact with the newly revealed branch of the family.

Marissa then called her mother Angelina and broke the news that we had discovered a link between us, passing along my grandmother Delia's phone number, her new aunt. Apparently, Marissa's grandmother Carmen had stopped by for breakfast there and you could hear Angelina questioning her quite loudly about denying her a connection with the Walsh family. When things settled down, Angelina relayed to Marissa that Peter's parents hadn't liked Carmen much, so she kept her pregnancy a secret from them, while later telling her daughter that they actually had rejected her. Whether they would actually have done so was lost to history, since they died not knowing about Angelina.

While this was going on, Annie whispered, "Are you going to keep dating Marissa, now that you know she's family, too?"

"Why not?" I responded. "She's only my second cousin. That's legal in every state, not just California. It's not like we grew up thinking of each other as family, either. Not that it formed that much of an obstacle between you, me and Mom. What if it had turned out that she was related to both of us on Dad's side instead? Would that change things between the two of you?"

Annie responded, "I see your point. I just think the two of you are meant for each other, big brother, as much as Riss and I love each other. I don't want anything to get in the way of that."

I hugged her to me. "We're good, on the way to being great, Annie. I got this."

Marissa got off of the phone, saying, "My Mom is both stunned and ecstatic. She wants to invite the three of you over for dinner tonight. She's going to call your grandmother to introduce herself and invite her and your grandfather too. Then try to arrange a bigger family reunion with Peter's other siblings and their families for later in the summer."

~~~~~

Dinner at the Gutierrez house was, to say the least, chaotic. Marissa and her five siblings, her parents and maternal grandmother, plus my maternal grandparents, mom, Annie and me. 14 for dinner, using a combination of dining room table, kitchen table and card tables. Angelina made beef enchiladas and arroz con pollo. It was all delicious, although I noted Marissa limited herself to one small portion of each.

Her mom Angelina was Marissa's height, but carried 70 pounds more weight, in bust, hips, ass, tummy and thighs. She was still beautiful a beautiful woman, but I could see where Marissa's concern about her weight came from. Her dad Ramon, on the other hand, was slender, so I hoped those genes would help Marissa stay as fit as she wanted. I realized I didn't actually care that much. If Marissa gained weight, it wouldn't stop me from loving her.

After dinner, I was coming back from going to the bathroom when I overheard a conversation between Marissa and her mom in the kitchen.

"Which of them is your lover, Marissita?" Angelina asked.

Marissa answered, "Would it bother you, if I said 'both', Mama? I was with Annie on Friday night, Tyler last night. I think I might love them both."

"Niña, be careful," Angelina warned. "It's dangerous, being involved with two members of the same family like that. People will talk. You'll need to choose, sooner or later."

"We're doing nothing wrong, Mama. I haven't been with both at the same time."

Angelina audibly inhaled. "Please don't tell me there's a 'yet' missing from the end of that sentence."

"Okay, I won't," Marissa said, walking away from her mother, bumping into me around the corner.

She took my hand and walked me outside. Once we were out of earshot, she asked, "You heard?"

"Enough to worry that your mom is going to guess our secret."

"I think she might already have guessed, Ty," Marissa said. "At least you and Annie. She's pretty intuitive. I just don't think she wants to actually ask, because then she might have to decide what to do about it. Would reporting the two of you hurt me or help me? She knows and likes Annie pretty well, but you and your Mom are strangers, even if you are newly discovered family. Even if she becomes convinced, I think she'll look away from it and stay quiet. I hope so, anyway."

"Yeah, me too."

Mom, Annie and I wound up returning home pretty late, so the three of us went straight to sleep, only snuggling in Mom's bed until the alarm went off in the morning. Monday, Annie went to school and Mom headed to work, leaving me a "honey do" list of some repairs.

Annie was the first one home, while I was under the sink, disconnecting the garbage disposal to check on a rattling sound Mom said it was making. I didn't hear Annie come into the kitchen.

"We've got trouble, Ty," she said, causing me to jolt and nearly bash my head into the disposal.

"God, sis, you startled me," I said, looking out at two pairs of legs on either side of my own. The other pair was Marissa's. "What's the trouble?"

"Gary," she answered, as they crouched down so I could see their faces. "He's spreading a rumor that you and I are having sex."

"Based on what?" I asked. "He interrupted my date with Riss, so clearly he knows about her and me, but how does he connect me to you?"

"That's the thing," Marissa said. "He used my attraction to Annie to get me to have sex with him, by promising a threesome. Now that you're dating me, he's assuming I now want a threesome with the two of you, which puts you two together in bed. Even though I said the exact opposite at the restaurant table, Saturday night. He must not have been listening very closely, with you yanking his arm behind him."

"Yeah, well," I muttered, before asking, "So, how do we deny a rumor that's basically true, even if he's got the sequence of events and motivations wrong? We have had sex with each other, just not as a threesome. Not yet, as your Mom pointed out."

Annie answered, "We've just been telling people Gary doesn't know what he's talking about, which is usually true."

I blew out my breath, before inhaling and saying, "Either we keep denying it, or..."

"Or what?" she demanded.

I responded, "We could have you date Marissa separately, making sure people know that we're splitting her time, rather than being with her together. Admitting that Gary is right about the attraction between the two of you, while denying the threesome. Let's see what Mom thinks when she gets home, too. Meanwhile, I still have this disposal to work on."

The disposal problem turned out to be a small piece of ceramic, a chip from a plate that had been dropped in the sink a month before, that had fallen into the disposal. I was amazed that it hadn't been ground into dust, but it just kept getting knocked around inside the disposal instead. After shaking it out, I put the disposal back in place, the rattle gone.

When Mom got home, the three of us explained the rumor situation. She responded, "I've got a better idea. First, Annie and I need to abstain from further sex with Tyler, in case any people are taking this rumor seriously. If some police officer shows up to investigate us, with a rape kit in hand to take samples, finding any trace of Tyler's sperm inside either of us is evidence of the crime once it is matched to his DNA."

"You don't have to consent to testing," I said.

Mom said, "Refusing would make us look guilty, though if someone shows up this week, we would have to do it. Better to be safe and be able to submit a sample which shows nothing. Douching should reduce any sperm that's left in the vagina, but that's no guarantee. Women get pregnant all the time who try to use that as birth control, usually because the sperm has already gotten into the uterus. Continued abstinence is our best bet, for now. We should wash all of our bedding, too."

"What next?" I asked.

"Second, you each respond to the rumor by saying that Gary is trying to make trouble, using outdated information about the Annie and Marissa. We go public with the fact that Annie and I became a couple after she broke up with him. We would need to, eventually. Annie, you've kept quiet about it because you were concerned some people wouldn't understand, which is certainly true. Marissa, you can tell people you've reconciled with Annie as friends, but you accept that Annie's involved with me now. Tyler then asked you out, with Annie's approval, so he's your focus now. Your sole focus."

"What if someone then guesses we're in a foursome?" I asked. "That still is our goal, isn't it?"

Mom answered, "Our goal is for nobody to know about that but us. If someone makes that leap, it's much easier to deny that as two couples than publicly being a triad where you and Annie have to insist over and over that you keep your hands off of each other while both being intimate with Marissa, even if you say it's at different times. Marissa, your mom is nearly reaching that conclusion already, because you admitted to having sex with both of them. Let Annie publicly be my lover, instead of yours, then deny there's any further connection between the two couples. It's closer to what people would expect."

"You're right, as usual, Mom," I said.

Mom said, "I hope so. My prediction is that the small-minded people will be too busy going nuts about Annie and me being a couple, given the age difference and the almost-stepdaughter relationship, to think past it to the four of us being together. I'd rather give them something legal to go crazy over, in place of rumors about something illegal. Let the smoke from one fire hide the other, until both die down. We also need to face the possibility that it may never be safe for the incest to resume, that Friday night might have been the beginning and end of it and truly be two couples who don't have sex with each other. I almost wish the two of you hadn't rented your dad's house out. Having Tyler move in there for the summer would help show more distance between you."

Annie asked, "Mom, how about making prom our public reveal? Marissa and I were each planning to go solo until we decided on Friday to go together, but now that only reinforces Gary's rumor. If the four of us show up on Friday as two couples, everyone at school would know about it by Monday. Wouldn't that be the fastest way to blow Gary's rumor apart?"

Mom said, "That's an excellent idea. You're going to have to call me Shelby in public to downplay our family connection and Tyler shouldn't dance with you or me, nor should Marissa slow dance with either of us. Girls fast dancing together is so routine that it would look suspicious if we didn't. Are you ready to be Marissa's prom date, Tyler?"

"She only needs to ask me," I responded, grinning. "It's her prom, after all."

In a sing-song voice, Marissa quipped, "Will you go to prom with me, Tyler?" then asked in a normal voice, "Do you have a suit already? It's probably too late to rent a tux."

I answered, "Yes, to both questions. I fit into most of Dad's clothes, so I've got his suits and a couple of tuxedos, in addition to a couple suits of my own. I'm sure we can find something that will match your dress and be fashionable. Better than any rental tux I could find now, anyway."

Annie said, "Marissa and I already have prom gowns. We even both have corsages reserved at Milligan's. I'm pretty sure Mom... pretty sure Shelby has a dress that will complement my gown. Dang, Mom, I've got to get used to calling you by your name, again."

Mom said, "Just in public, honey. I mean, the plan here is to discourage the idea that you would ever have sex with your brother. Telling people that we're lovers but that you still call me 'Mom' leaves your attitude towards incest in doubt. Even 'Aunt Shelby' would raise those suspicions now."

Annie gave a small shrug. "I get it. You can't be both things at once if we want to discredit the 'sex with family' idea."

Mom and I went through our closets, finding a dress for her and one of Dad's tuxedos for me, that went with our dates' gowns. Marissa had to head home after that, as her parents were expecting her for dinner. She was excited to tell them we were all going to prom and to reveal Annie's relationship with Mom as a way to curb Angelina's suspicions. She would explain her night with Annie as a one-time thing.

We also stripped all three beds and threw the dirty sheets in the washer, first. It was time to switch to summer bedding, anyway. The quilts would go to dry cleaning the next day.

As we were eating dinner, I asked, "So, I guess I'm sleeping alone tonight? Even cuddling, we'd have to worry about my DNA winding up on the wrong set of sheets."

"You'll survive, bro," Annie teased. "Just think of it like we both started our periods."

I shrugged, then said, "It's not like I was getting laid every day back at school. Or even every week. I actually had more sex this weekend than in the last couple of months, not counting jerking off. I just wish Gary had gotten the message to leave the girls alone."

Mom said, "I've dealt with his type on the dating scene. Some are just too dense to learn that their approach isn't working, so I wouldn't get your hopes up too high about changing Gary. Who we really need to convince are the people who have heard him spread the rumor, so they don't believe a word he's saying and chalk it up to a vendetta."

~~~~~

The rest of the week went rather slowly for me with Mom working and Annie and Marissa in school. I spent at least a couple of hours each day with Marissa, including several more dinners with her family, getting treated like royalty as newly discovered family. But since these were school nights, we really didn't have time for lovemaking.

Angelina said nothing else about Marissa being involved with both Annie and me. Marissa's revelation that she'd been covering for Annie's relationship with Shelby helped damp that down, as we had hoped.

The rumor at school seemed to be persistent, but Annie started to tell a few people that she was involved with Shelby and that Gary was only trying to stir up trouble where none existed.

The night of the prom arrived. I picked Marissa up in Dad's Bronco, while Mom and Annie were going in Mom's car, planning to arrive 10 minutes after Marissa and me.

I'd been gone from the high school for three years, so most of the students had no idea who I was, but several of the teachers who were there as chaperones recognized me but left us alone.

The reaction when Mom and Annie arrived, holding hands, was quite different. Mr. Kimball, one of the math teachers both Annie and I had, immediately walked over to Mom, before they'd even had a chance to greet Marissa and me, but close enough that I could hear them.

"Mrs. Campbell?" he asked. "I didn't know that you'd volunteered to be a chaperone."

"I didn't. I'm here as Annie's date." Mom answered, gesturing to Annie, who leaned her head to rest on Mom's shoulder. You could hear the undercurrent of gossip begin spreading around the room, underneath the music.

"But, you're her mother," he said.

Mom smiled, saying, loudly enough that quite a few people could hear, "Actually, I'm not her mother, I've been her girlfriend for about a month." The gossip spread further. "When you and I met for parent-teacher conference last fall, I was there as her legal guardian after her father's death, but that role mainly expired when Annie turned 18 in March. I am not her biological mother or even her step-mother, because I divorced her father before she was born to his second wife. She's my son Tyler's half-sister and continues to live in our home, rather than take over her father's house. None of that establishes any legal obstacle to the two of us having a romantic relationship."

"You're old enough to be her mother, though!" he said, even louder.

Mom laughed. "Obviously, Dan, since I'm Tyler's mother. Look, we know that we seem like an odd pairing and the route by which we came together is odder still, but our love evolved over the past few months, after Annie turned 18, especially when her last boyfriend cheated on her and she turned to me for comfort. We decided to use tonight to step out of the shadows, in part because of some idiotic rumors that ex-boyfriend is spreading about Annie because we'd kept quiet about our relationship until now."

"I don't understand it, but I suppose I don't have to," Mr. Kimball said. "Have a good prom, Shelby, Annie."

As Mom and Annie approached Marissa and me, I caught sight of Gary across the room, standing with Wendy, another friend of Annie and Marissa who had been at Annie's last birthday party, but was apparently Gary's date for prom. If he had noticed the four of us, he wasn't showing it.

My palms started itching, wanting to pound the snot out of the guy. Marissa read me perfectly, whispering, "You can't go after him here, Ty. Standing up for Annie's honor right now is only playing into his hand. It was one thing to stand up for mine during our date last weekend, but you can't afford to act like you're Annie's boyfriend, even if you only want to slam him as her brother. Your mom handled Mr. Kimball perfectly, let the rumor mill play out."

The four of us moved onto the dance floor, each couple distanced from the other.

It wasn't 10 minutes before I heard Gary scream, at a sudden lull in the music, "You're kidding me! She's fucking her own mom?" The whole ballroom went quiet and the DJ didn't start the next song.

Annie spoke into the silence, with the confidence I'd first seen in the courtroom 10 months earlier. "Gary, you know Shelby's not my mother! Stop making shit up about me and leave me the fuck alone. You're not getting me back with your bullshit rumors."

"You call her 'Mom'," he countered.

"I did, for a few months while Shelby was my guardian. But I don't call her that now, for obvious reasons." Annie turned and kissed Mom full on the lips, making it as obvious as she could that she was swapping tongues with her.

Parting, she turned back to Gary and said, "Would I really do that and still call her Mom? Good luck with him, Wendy. You're going to need it."

"But you and Marissa?" Gary continued challenging.

Marissa stepped forward and said, "Annie and I are only friends, Gary. My admission tonight is that I did want more than friendship with Annie and I let you use that fact, let you manipulate me to have sex with you, so you could hurt her for not wanting to have sex with you. That actually pushed Annie closer to Shelby, okay? But you know what? I'm happy for them. Because that's what you do when you love someone rather than wanting to own them. Instead of admitting that you were a cheating asshole, you make up disgusting shit about Annie and her brother Tyler because I started dating him, after Annie revealed her relationship with Shelby to me? What are you basing that on? The fact that I said the other night that I could date either one of them?"

"Well, yeah," he admitted. "You even said you could date both of them."

"Emphasis on the word 'could'. That doesn't mean I am dating both of them or having sex with both of them, especially at the same time. I also said there wouldn't be any threesome, if you remember. I'm dating Tyler. Period. Get that straight in your head. I would say 'eat shit and die', Gary, but you're already so full of shit you must be immune to it. Can we all get back to dancing, please? We're sorry for the interruption, everyone."

Gary slunk away, with Wendy clearly asking him a bunch of uncomfortable questions about him and Marissa. The DJ resumed the music and we returned to dancing. All eyes were on the four of us for about 15 minutes, but eventually people stopped staring, figuring that the excitement was over.

Over the course of the rest of the night, several female students approached Annie and Marissa during times we weren't dancing, to discuss the whole situation of Gary's rumors. I'll spare the reader the repetitiousness of those conversations, other than to note that Annie and Marissa were consistent in their statements. A few engaged Mom in the conversations, but I was able to just kept quiet. Nobody actually asked if the rumors were true, but the effect was a denial all the same.

About an hour before the prom was scheduled to end, we agreed that we'd had enough dancing, so we headed home.

"So, do you think it worked?" I asked, as we sat around the living room. "Gary couldn't have played into our hands better. Will this end it, though?"

"It's too soon to tell, Ty," Annie answered. "We won't really know until the coming week at school. We especially don't know how Gary is going to respond to this, if he does anything at all. Maybe we shamed him into silence, or he might try some other way to make trouble for us. Mom and I need to stay off-limits until we're sure we're in the clear."

I agreed, "Yeah, I agree that we're nowhere near safe enough for that. In the short term, we're at increased risk, as parents might start hearing about tonight's altercation. If any of those parents calls the police, despite our denials, they're not going to find me anywhere near either of your bedrooms. They might find me naked with Riss in mine, if she wants to spend the night with me..."

"I do," Marissa said, moving to sit on my lap, while lowering the zipper on her gown. Her boobs popping out almost wrecked my train of thought.

"...and the two of you together in Mom's room," I finished. "That's all they'll find, though."

Looking back at me, Marissa said, "Tyler, I do want to be with you tonight. But I also want to be with Shelby and Annie, too. Both because I haven't been intimate with Shelby yet and because I really want to see the two of them together. It's not like my having sex with them is illegal, it's just you. Can we maybe start out with the four of us together, without you touching anyone but me? Or I can come to your room after I've been with them for awhile?"

I asked, "What do you think, Mom? Can a foursome where I don't actually touch you or Annie still get us in trouble? Assuming the cops do show up and see us in action, what can they do, if I'm only touching Marissa? Isn't penetration a necessary part of the crime of incest, not just being nude or sexual in each other's presence? If I jerked off in front of you, that's not incest."

Mom answered, "It's true that they have to prove penetration to convict for incest. But... Marissa, we just went to considerable effort to declare that the rumor about Annie and Tyler can't be true because you aren't Annie's lover, I am. Having that exposed as a lie wouldn't do us any favors right now. Even if Tyler were waiting in his room and it was the three of us who got caught. I would rather we wait until we're certain the police aren't going to show up."

Marissa sighed and I could tell Annie was disappointed as well. Annie asked, "How long do you think that will take?"

Mom said, "Well, you graduate in two weeks. I doubt the rumor could keep spreading, once school is out, unless it gets traction with parents. I figure if nobody challenges us by then, we'll be in the clear. Besides, we're headed up to Tahoe for a week after that, to stay at the house that my ex-husband's parents left him. It's owned by a trust in Annie and Tyler's name, rented out most of the year to fund their college educations. We get to stay there a couple weeks per year, off-peak. You're welcome to come, Marissa. We'd certainly be safe to indulge ourselves there. Meanwhile, you two need to focus on term papers and finals. I know you've got your acceptance letters to college, but you still need to graduate and maintain your averages. So, I'll even declare a moratorium on sex and dating between any partners after tonight so you'll study. Can you all wait that long and then let our first foursome, with no restrictions, be a graduation present up in Tahoe?"

Annie and Marissa nodded. I said, "I'll do whatever it takes to protect the three of you, short of joining a monastery."

Annie laughed. "You and a vow of chastity? Yeah, right."

"Hard to picture any of you in nun's habits either, sis."

Retreating to my room with Marissa, her gown was nearly falling off of her already. I started undressing to match her. She said, "Tyler, I hope you understand that I wasn't expressing any dissatisfaction in making love to only you back there. It's just that my dreams lately have been filled with images of the four of us, like a prediction of the future. I've had dreams like that before, which usually come true, but I get impatient with them happening."

I kissed her forehead. "I didn't think that, at all. I'm feeling impatient about it, too. Understand, we're all imagining what it will be like. I had a brief glance of them in a 69 and then watched Mom go down on Annie just before you got there, but haven't seen Annie up close with Mom. And I haven't seen what you look like with either of them. Now, I almost wish we'd done the foursome last Friday night, instead of trying to take it slow. Even if we still had to put the brakes on after that, at least we'd know. Maybe if we hadn't gone on that date, Gary wouldn't have started this rumor."

Marissa was out of her gown, down to just her thong panties. As she reached for my belt, she said, "Even if we could change the past, I wouldn't want to erase that night, Tyler. Having you defend me from the creep proved that I could trust you with my heart. And my body. I love you, Tyler."

"I love you too, Riss," I replied.

"You're not saying that because I just did, are you?" Marissa asked.

"I don't believe in making that a rote response. If I say it, I mean it. It might have taken your nudge to get my brain to recognize what my heart already knew, but I do love you, Marissa Gutierrez."

"Then make love to me, Tyler Campbell," she said, pushing my pants and briefs down in one motion.

I swept her into my arms, carrying her the remaining distance to my bed. Laying her down, I slipped her panties off and spread her legs so I could eat her out.

"Do I taste blueberries? And coconut?" I asked, after my first couple of licks.

She giggled and said, "I once read in this story online that you could use olive oil mixed with a flavoring to soothe the skin after shaving and it would taste better for a guy going down on you than most lotions. I use coconut oil for the same purpose after shaving my chocho, but I don't shave every day, so I didn't use it the night of our first date. I ordered some blueberry flavoring just for you tonight."

"You were already delicious, Riss," I told her. "It is interesting, though." I went back to licking her folds. Would I ever be able to have blueberry pancakes without thinking of her, now? I realized I'd be okay with that, if I was having them with her by my side.

For a few seconds, I pictured myself as being in a pie-eating contest, trying to eat a slice of juicy blueberry pie with no hands. Thankfully, the image faded before I tried to bite into her clit as if it were a fleshy blueberry.

Still, the extra fervor did not go unnoticed. "God, Ty! It's making you wild tonight! I'll have to tell Annie and Shelby about this."

In between licks and nibbles, I said, "Could this... be just... between us?"

She answered, "Unless you're... dios... the only one eating me out... oh, right there, Ty... they're going to taste it, too."

"Right," I muttered, just before sucking her clit between my lips, flicking it with my tongue three times and backing off.

I introduced a finger into her pussy, using my thumb to tease her clit, as I raised my head to say, "I'd still like it to be just your flavor, then. Not something all three of you use for me. Maybe let them pick their own."

"Okay," she muttered. "Oh, fuck! No fair... trying to make me... make me talk while... rubbing my gspot. Please! Get your tongue back on my clit!" Her hand atop my head pushed me back into her pussy.

My tongue attacked her clit while I strummed her gspot and I was rewarded by her first orgasm of the night. Her body shook beneath me, grunting with each spasm of her stomach muscles, her hand grasping my hair.

"Wow, Ty! That was intense!" Marissa said, at last. "Imagining Annie and Shelby with their own flavors, imagining what they'd pick, really turned me on."

"No surprise," I responded. "Thinking about eating pussy, with any of you, is enough to make me hard. Why wouldn't it add more charge while I'm going down on you for you to think of Annie or Mom riding your face at the same time?"

Marissa moaned briefly, then said, "I was actually picturing the two of them in a 69 next to us, but that's a hot image, too. Maybe a daisy chain, instead." Sitting up slightly, she said, "Ty, I don't know if I can wait until after graduation to be with the two of them. I want to be able to study for finals with Annie, but I'm not sure I'll be able to think straight, sitting next to her, thinking about Tahoe."

I moved to lay beside her so we could talk better while I also caressed her skin, raising goosebumps. I asked, "How did you manage, before you admitted your attraction to her? Was studying with her a distraction then?"

Marissa answered, "Yes, but I managed to keep it together, because it was still imaginary. I could kind-of picture the two of us together, but I didn't know. Now, I've actually been with her, although just for one night. Now I know what she tastes like, what her nipples feel like under my tongue, what her tongue feels like on my clit. I want more of that, but I need to stay away from her right now because of this damned rumor. Don't get me wrong, I think all three of you are worth being super careful, I'm just feeling impatient."

"What is impatience, if not an expectation about time?" I asked. "We expect things to take less time than they really will, then let that expectation not getting met dictate how we feel about it. If we keep our expectations realistic or have none at all, we don't feel impatient. Are you prepared for this arrangement to be for the rest of our lives, Marissa? If so, what's two weeks, against our lifetimes?"

"Is that a marriage proposal, Ty?" Marissa asked.

"Not yet, Riss," I answered, more calmly than I expected. I realized that, a week earlier, I might have panicked at that question. Now I was a lot closer to committing my life to her. It was simply too soon to propose. "Just shining a light on a potential future, hoping we all get there together. I was only asking if you could see that same future, even if you ultimately decide it's not the right one for you."

Marissa sighed. "I can not only see it, I feel it in my heart, Ty. It feels right. So right that I want it now. I don't want there to be this obstacle, this rumor keeping the four of us apart."

I had to laugh, which made Marissa frown. I explained, "I wasn't laughing at you, but at the universe. I used to joke that 'What Annie wants, Annie gets.' Seems to be truer than ever. Of course, this path we are on combines both of your birthday wishes, me loving her and her loving you, without being in conflict. Add in Annie's older wishes, for my mom to be in her life, and here the four of us are, itching to make the foursome real."

"You think wishes have that much power?" she asked.

I responded, "What is a birthday wish but another form of prayer? You believe in that, don't you? Even if you're not consciously directing the wish to God, how else is it going to come true?"

"Your Mom talked about intention last Sunday, when it came to expectations. Do we maybe have the power to make our own wishes come true?"

I answered, "We certainly have the ability to get in the way through pessimism, so I suppose we also have the ability to bring the things we want into our life by being more optimistic about them. Sure. Maybe there's a bit of the divine in all of us and prayer and wishing are two ways we unlock it."

"How do we keep winding up in these philosophical discussions in the middle of making love?" she asked, while reaching her hand down to my cock, which had softened.

"At least they're philosophical discussions about our love life. Doesn't that count as foreplay?"

"Not unless they keep your dick hard," she said. "Now I've got to rev you up all over again. Poor me."

Never letting my cock go, Marissa began kissing her way from my neck to my collar bone to my chest. She spent a minute each sucking and licking on my nipples. I was stiff by the time she reached my belly button. Shortly after that, her mouth covered my glans, her tongue whipping around it.

"Vroom, vroooom," I muttered.

"Don't make me laugh with your cock in my mouth," she warned. "I might bite."

"I'd much rather make you moan," I said.

Satisfied with my hardness, Marissa turned and thrust her pussy over my cock, then lay down on my chest, kissing the underside of my chin. "I like moaning," she responded. I'd almost forgotten what she was answering, I was so distracted by the feel of her pussy.

I rolled us over, so I was on top, and began thrusting into her. I had my arms braced beside her shoulders as her knees spread and her legs wrapped over mine. "Te amo," she whispered.

"I love you too, Riss," I answered. "Fuck, you feel great," I said, as I thrust deeper into her.

"Better than Annie?"

"Don't do that to me," I pleaded, stopping mid-thrust. "I will not declare a favorite between the three of you. My cock will always favor the woman he's in, anyway. Right now, he's in you and feels great."

"Sorry, a little self-doubt there," Marissa said, flexing her hips to get us moving again. I resumed thrusting, trying to focus on our pleasure again.

It nagged at me, though, delaying my orgasm. It's one thing to last because you have the willpower, but another because your focus is split by your thoughts and your arousal suffers. If it's bad enough, your erection fails. It had happened once with Darcy, after an argument left my mind more focused on her words than her pussy. Still, I came in Marissa after about 10 minutes, just as she reached her own climax.

As I pulled out and laid beside her, I said, "We need to discuss what just happened, because it cast a serious cloud. Are you really feeling insecure about how you compare to Annie? Or Mom, for that matter?"

Marissa snuggled against my shoulder, whispering, "I guess. I mean, I know Annie's pussy is tighter than mine, from fingering her. But it's also how deep your love is for her, your Mom too, that you'd be willing to commit a crime to show them how much. And it's hard to let go of the idea that I'm just a cover story for the three of you."

I said, "Let me answer that point by point. The biggest factor in how tight a woman feels is her vaginal muscles. They relax when she's aroused, or she can clench them consciously, making her vagina tighter. If a baby's head can fit through there, there's no cock that's truly too wide or pussy that's too tight for it. Length is another issue, of course. But, if I wanted to experience your pussy at your tightest, I'd skip any foreplay and enter you before you were aroused, when your muscles are still contracted. You'd kick me out of bed before I got to the second stroke."

"You're damned right about that," Marissa agreed.

I kissed the tip of her nose. "So, Annie giving up her virginity meant needing to relax with me and letting herself get used to those muscles relaxing inside her. I don't expect there to be a major difference going forward other than the fact that she's a couple inches shorter than either you or Mom and the experience you each have in flexing those muscles consciously. Her hips seem about the same size, just not as padded. But, like I said, my cock prefers whatever pussy he's in."

"This pussy likes having him inside," she said.

"As for you feeling like I love them more, that's another unrealistic time expectation. Comparing the two of us having been romantic for just a week to my love for Annie and Mom being rooted in two decades of familial love, even if we're just as new to being intimate together. I know what I'm feeling for you is love, Riss. Give it time to deepen. If we had been dating for three years, would this be an issue now?"

She snorted. "I would have been 15 then. As thrilled as I would have been, there's no way you would have looked at me before I turned 18 in January."

I continued, "Probably not. Let me rephrase. Do you expect it to still be a problem three years from now? We're off to a good start. Just realize that it is still new, so don't compare it to something that's older."

"I'll try, Ty. I know I'm falling for you already."

I said, "As for you being a cover story, I thought we discussed that several times, already. I want our relationship to be a real one, not something we have to fake for public consumption. I don't want my relationships with Mom and Annie to depend on the two of us working out, or vice versa. If Annie, Mom and I decide to stop being intimate because it proves to be too risky, that doesn't put an end to our relationship, unless you prefer to be with Annie over me. Otherwise, you're my girlfriend now, no matter what prompted me to ask you out. Only my second serious one, really, because I've been involved with a series of girls in college who were only looking for casual sex, not a boyfriend. They wanted to focus on their studies. What can I do to prove that I'm not just using you as a smokescreen?"

"Nothing," she answered, shrugging. "Because I know it's my fears talking, not anything rational that you could actually change. I need to trust the love I feel coming from you, the love I'm feeling for you, instead of seeing negative outcomes around every corner."

"Good advice for anyone," I said.

"Yeah. Simple advice, but not always easy. How to let someone into your heart, without being afraid that they'll hurt you. Especially after what I went through in trusting Gary. Not that I was in love with him, but he did make me doubt my instincts for detecting bullshit."

I said, "I could get huffy and say, 'I'm not Gary,' but that's both obvious and immaterial. I need to earn your trust, not demand it. And I will, Marissa. We may have some bumps along the way, like any other couple, and a few that are unique to the larger question of the four of us. I think we're putting too much pressure on ourselves, because we're letting the prospect of the foursome mess us up in terms of developing as a couple. I think, when we look back on it, having to wait another two weeks before we pursue sex with Annie and Mom will turn out to have been a good thing, giving us the time to get closer as a couple first."

"Except Shelby suggested a moratorium on dating until we're done with finals," Marissa said. "Although my mama would say the same thing."

"Mom did it to me after prom three years ago, too," I said. "It's not like we can't see each other at all, though. I'll be available to help both of you study, then your finals are over Thursday morning, with graduation that night. Then we'll have time for a couple of dates before we head to Tahoe on Saturday morning."

"Then we've got to make the most of tonight," she said, kissing me. Her hand reached between us to grasp my cock, which was half-hard already, just from lying beside her nakedness. My hands went to her breasts, caressing both nipples as I continued to kiss her.

Once I was hard enough, she coaxed me onto my back, straddled my waist and slid her wet pussy over my cock. She braced her hands on my shoulders and began her ride, pushing backwards and forward over me. Starting out with slow full length strokes, she gradually increased her pace.

I kept my hands on her hanging breasts, squeezing them and tweaking her nipples. We looked into each other's eyes, finding love in each other's gaze. "Te amo," I said.

"Siempre," she breathed back. Always.

I gradually drew my knees up so I could start thrusting more with my hips. Soon, her firm ass was slapping against the front of my thighs, as I felt my orgasm drawing nearer. From her moans and grunts, I could tell she was getting closer, too.

"Oh, god, Ty! You fuck me so good! Aaaiiiiee!"

While she shuddered above me, her vaginal muscles fluttered and I couldn't hold back any more. "I'm cumming," I cried, as my cock jerked and started spewing several streams into her pussy, which got squirted back onto my balls along with her juices, running between my thighs.

Marissa collapsed onto my chest, nuzzling into my neck as her body came down from its high. My cock was still deep inside her, not wanting to go soft. I rolled my hips, drawing my cock back three inches, then gradually pushed it back in. My glans was too sensitive for anything faster.

Marissa whispered, "I like slow, too." We luxuriated like that for another fifteen minutes, quietly caressing each other, neither of us getting that close to another orgasm but enjoying being connected and close.

Just before I was going to increase my pace, Marissa suddenly drew herself off of me, muttering, "Gotta pee..." before she ran out the door for the bathroom, her hand between her legs. Whether she was worried about my cum dripping out or stopping herself from peeing, I didn't know.

Ten minutes later, she still hadn't come back, so I got up to look for her, not bothering to cover up. When I reached the open bathroom door, I was stunned to see Marissa and Mom making out, standing next to the vanity. Their hands were caressing each other's breasts.

"Ahem," I voiced, getting ignored.

I felt a pair of arms slide under mine to wrap around my ribs, a pair of small breasts pressed into my back, right before the rest of a torso. "They look nice together," Annie whispered, pulling me back into the hallway, halfway to my bedroom, before she let me go. I turned around to hug her to my front, careful to keep my softened cock from touching her. Still whispering, she said, "Mom had to pee. I wondered what was taking so long. I guess the same happened with Marissa?"

"Yeah," I whispered back, as I felt my cock start to refill, forcing me to step back. "I thought we were waiting until Tahoe."

"For sex with you, at least," Annie said. "Why should the two of them kissing be off limits? It's 1:30 in the morning, I doubt the cops are going to show up right now, if they haven't already. I'd like a kiss from her, myself."

A bit louder, I answered, "So long as none of my sperm gets transferred to you or Mom," which made Annie's eyes widen. "Riss did go down on me but just to get me hard. I didn't cum in her mouth, but precum can contain sperm. The cops could swab your mouths to detect sperm there, too."

"I did ask Marissa about that, but felt it was worth the small risk," Mom said, coming out into the hallway, holding a blushing Marissa's hand. "She was just too cute, running into the bathroom just as I was washing my hands, to resist a test kiss once she finished peeing and washed her hands. We did get a little more carried away than that, as you saw. But you're right, your jizz in her pussy makes it a danger zone right now, as much as I'd love to drag her to my bed to eat it out of her."

"I just wish we knew whether the cops were actually going to show up," Annie said, walking towards the living room, since it looked like a conversation was in order. "Are we being paranoid about this?"

"If the rumor that incest is happening in this family is still active around town," Mom answered, "It needs to not be happening, at least in the short term. Not because the odds of the cops investigating is high, but because the costs are too high if they do."

"What if the rumor never goes away, Mom?" I asked, sitting beside Marissa on the couch. Annie and Mom took the love seat.

She responded, "That's not really the issue. The issue is determining how much risk we're at. If the rumor goes away, the risk goes way down, but there's still risk based on our behavior in public going forward. If it doesn't go away, the risk of police involvement could still turn out to be zero. They could turn out to be uninterested, unless we do something stupid like that woman in Oklahoma who sought an actual marriage license with her formerly estranged daughter because the daughter's birth certificate was changed to remove her mother's name. Or we might simply have to move somewhere else where the rumor can't affect us."

"Like where?" Annie asked.

Mom said, "I would like nothing better than to move to the Tahoe house full-time, if we could find jobs there that would support us."

I said, "We can't move into it, Mom. You and Dad set up the trust to own the Tahoe house. The terms of the trust only allow us the two weeks to use it, otherwise the trust is required to rent it out for market rates, which it does through a management company that services a bunch of other vacation rentals in the area. If we want to amend the trust to remove that requirement, we have to wait until Annie is 25 to do it."

"I admit to not paying that much attention to the trust language and let your Dad be the trustee, since that house came from his side of the family. I was just happy your education was going to be funded and you'd have the house left to you afterwards."

Annie snorted, drawing everyone's attention to her. She said, "Tell her, Tyler. See if her reaction is as strong as mine was."

Mom asked, "What's going on, you two? What don't I know?"

I answered, "When dad died, I became co-trustee with Mark Johnson, one of the trust officers at the bank, until I turned 21 and became the sole trustee, with their help making sure I don't violate any of its terms or the law. I almost passed out the first time I went through the financial reports with Mr. Johnson. As of the last fiscal year, the value of the trust fund has risen to seven million dollars, far more than we needed for our educations, even going to graduate school. About a million of that is the house and land, the rest is the investments that accumulated from all those years of renting the house out, then reinvesting dividends, etcetera."

Mom covered her lips with her fingertips, her eyes wide. Marissa's jaw dropped open. "You guys are millionaires?" Marissa asked. The glint in her eye appeared to be excitement, not greed.

"Yes and no," I answered. "Those are assets of the trust, which is legally separate from us but for our benefit. Except for my college expenses, I can't touch any of that money until after I graduate with my Bachelor's degree. Even then, I can only withdraw $35,000 per calendar year until I'm 25, then $100,000 after that. Annie's under the same terms, but we can modify or dissolve the trust after she turns 25. In 2024. We'll become multi-millionaires then, if we do that, but no sooner. If we haven't graduated, our share either has to go to charity or the next generation."

Shaking her head, Mom said, "I never imagined it would grow that big. We expected the $35,000 would be a good limit for your first few years after college, then the $100,000 withdrawals would drain the remainder of the invested rents, leaving just the house. That was even when you were the only one in the trust, before Annie was added. It will take what, 35 years to drain, at $200,000 per year?"

I chuckled. Time to drop the other shoe. "Actually, Mom, we'll never drain it, at that withdrawal rate. The trust is generating a shade under $600,000 in either income or asset appreciation every year between the rental and the investments. Peak rent was $1100 per night last winter and the company that arranges the rentals has already set a $1200 per night peak rent for this next winter. After paying the management company its fee, capital improvements each year and property and income taxes, that's bringing in around $80,000 in cash flow. But the other investments produce most of the income now. At the top of that list is a 20% stake in the rental management company itself. It brings in roughly $180,000 every year between dividends and valuation growth. I expect the trust might be generating $800,000 by the time I'm 25 or even a million by the time Annie is 25. At that point, even taking the house off of the rental market and drawing out $200,000 won't keep the trust from growing. We'd have to see whether the next generation could make a dent in it, but I doubt it, given another twenty-five years to grow. I don't think either of us want as many kids as it might take. More likely, we would need to modify the trust to accelerate the withdrawals or dissolve it and take the tax hit all at once."

"Do you two even need to work, after college?" Mom asked.

I shook my head. "I'm not even considering just living off that money. It's not how either of you raised us. Probably the main reason Dad didn't tell us how well the trust was doing was he didn't want us slacking off because of it. Although we've always known we need to graduate with a Bachelor's degree to qualify for distributions, we could have chosen majors that aren't as... commercially valuable, shall we say? Also, keep in mind that as some assets are liquidated to allow for withdrawals, there are capital gain tax implications. You can find plenty of professions that will pay $100,000 as salary, with the right skills, but will that still be considered a high salary 40 years from now? Will even $400,000? No, I'd rather work to produce an income that's even higher than that. I've always wanted to run a business that will make the trust seem tiny. The trust money can be seed capital to make that happen sooner, is all."

Annie said, "I agree with Ty. Dad would want us leveraging this money to be productive, not coasting. When Ty told me about the trust's value, I had visions of starting a free-standing birth center after I get certified as a nurse-midwife. It's why I'm adding some business electives, maybe even a second major. I could make the birth center a non-profit, if I don't have to be as reliant on it providing me a salary."

Marissa asked, "Didn't you guys inherit from your Dad, too?"

I answered, "Yeah. Dad actually was a millionaire, mostly through the appreciated value of his house and his retirement savings, valued at 1.3 million. Thankfully, the current value of the trust wasn't counted towards determining his estate tax, just his half of the value of the house at the time he and mom gifted it to the trust, when it was only worth $120,000."

Mom interrupted, "And I've had to keep filing an estate planning form with my taxes every year just because of my half of the gift."

I continued, "Then Dad had a $500,000 life insurance policy, giving Annie and I each a net worth of $900,000."

Marissa said, "So, you're almost millionaires, even without the trust."

I said, "Well, the IRAs we set up from Dad's IRA are pretty much untouchable until we retire ourselves. The tax basis of Dad's house is now the fair market value when he died, so we don't have to worry much about taxes when we sell. Excluding those, the other investments and assets we have are about $300,000 each, mostly the invested insurance money. It really wouldn't take us long to burn through that if we start living extravagantly. Like the house, we left Dad's car out of the division of assets. Annie drives it, for now, but we both own it."

"For now? What'chu talkin' about, Willis?", Annie said, parroting the line from the "Diff'rent Strokes" show that used to be on reruns.

"Well, I heard something about somebody graduating in a couple weeks?" I teased. "Mom and I figured you could use new wheels, up to $25,000 worth, so I can use Dad's Bronco for the summer, rather than sharing it. That's why I left my car back in Boulder. In the fall, we can donate Dad's car to charity and split the tax deduction. I'll drive my car home next summer."

Annie nearly levitated out of her seat. "No way! You guys don't have to... I can afford my own, can't I?"

Mom said, "Annie, we'd never be able to get you a gift again, if we let the fact that you can afford something yourself get in the way. You earned it, honey. Even with the upheavals of the past two years, you didn't let your grades slip. In fact, you improved on them. Your brother and I are proud of you and love you. Let this be our way of showing you, one that can be public, anyway." Mom tweaked one of Annie's nipples to indicate the non-public aspect.

"I love you both, so much," Annie said, looking close to tears. "Damned Gary! I wanted all four of us making love tonight. But we can't, because of him and his rumor getting too close to the truth."

I said, "We'll get there, sis. In Tahoe, for sure."

"How much closer to the truth could Gary have gotten?" Marissa asked Annie.

Annie answered, "He didn't link Ty to Mom, only to me. Hopefully, everyone accepts our denial that my being with Mom is instead of being with you and, through you, with Ty. If anyone suggests that it's in addition to being with you, it isn't as big a jump to suggest that you and Ty are intimate with Mom, too. It would still have to be proven, of course. Which is why Mom and I are keeping our hands off of him, to avoid creating evidence and keeping mostly away from you to avoid spoiling the denial."

Mom yawned and said, "We should all get back to bed or we'll be talking until the sun rises. I'll see everyone at breakfast." With that, Mom rose, came over to kiss Marissa deeply and me softly and went down the hallway to her bedroom.

Annie stood, came to me and said, "I really want your cock again, Ty, but I know we have to wait." Then she kissed me softly and kissed Marissa hard on the mouth and said, "I miss you too, querida. And I'm a bit jealous. Don't fuck him all night. I need to drag Tyler with me to show him what kind of car he's getting me before we're so buried in school books that we won't have time."

I snorted. "You show me, huh? Don't trust me to pick out something good?"

Annie laughed. "When have you ever gotten my style right, from clothes to music? You couldn't even buy the right personal hygiene!"

"Point taken," I said. "The less said about buying you pads, the better. I still shudder whenever I pass that aisle."

"We'll get you trained, one of these days, big brother. After all, you're going to have three women in your life, if we can work it out. Good night, both of you."

As Marissa and I got up from the couch to follow, she said, "Don't worry. My dad's clueless about tampons and pads, too. With a wife and four daughters, no less."

Back in my room, Marissa and I laid in my bed and started to caress each other again. Marissa looked troubled, so I said, "Whatever's on your mind, tell me."

She paused, before saying, "You know I'm not dating you for your money, don't you?"

"Of course," I reassured. "You didn't even know about how much money I have until just now, unless Annie told you. I don't talk about it much, because I have mixed emotions about it, myself. I'd rather have my dad back over having inherited from him. Also, Annie and I were taught to earn what we wanted. The money doesn't feel earned, y'know?"

"Still, your dad wanted you to have it, right? To do good with it?" she asked.

"Yeah. Except for buying myself a car, I've avoided spending it on myself until I'm ready to leverage it into a business. Buying Annie a car is only the second big transaction I've made, since the insurance paid off. I'll use my share of the rent on Dad's house to replace it, after leaving myself some spending money. I'm undecided whether to find a summer job to keep me busy. Spending lots of time with my new girlfriend this summer has appeal, too."

"Well, Annie and I both have summer jobs, me at Macy's, Annie volunteering at the hospital," she replied. "We both start the Monday after we get back from Tahoe, which is why I'm able to go with you up there. You'll have time on your hands if you're the only one not working."

A yawn crept out of my mouth. "Sorry. I guess my body is more tired than my mind right now. I want to make love to you again, but I'm not sure I have the energy left."

Marissa answered with her own yawn. "That's alright, Tyler. I think I'd rather just cuddle now, anyway." She rolled over, and scooted her butt into my groin. My half-hard cock pressed into her buttocks. While its reaction was to stiffen, another yawn told me to leave it be. I wrapped my left arm over her body, whispered, "Te amo," and fell to sleep without even hearing if she responded. I awoke in the morning remembering a dream of the four of us making love in Tahoe, on a futon mattress covered by a blanket in front of the big fireplace, with a fire burning and snow falling outside, a Christmas tree not far away.

Over breakfast, I described it and said, "We've never actually been to the house in the winter time, all these years. I've gone on a couple of ski outings, but not to the house."

Mom asked, "Is there any reason we can't be the ones to rent the house during the winter time?"

I said, "I suppose not, but those winter rents are steep. Usually, there's a big group of skiers or multiple families, usually 20 to 30 people, who split the rent and after the beds are full, they're sacked out in sleeping bags on the sofabeds and the floor by the fireplace. It's the only way to make it economical compared to hotel rooms."

"Just how big is this place?" Marissa asked.

I replied, "Two story timber-frame, 50 feet by 50 feet, but a full height great room equal to a quarter of that reduces the square footage inside to 4400, plus a deck along the two sides that face the lake, with a hot tub at one end. Furnace and so forth are in a basement along with some storage, but it's only about 5 feet high, unfinished. Four bedrooms, three baths. Two of the upstairs bedrooms have two bunkbeds in each, twins over doubles, so you could sleep six adults in each room, more if you're bunking kids in there. One bathroom between them. The other two bedrooms have king beds and their own bathrooms, although the Master downstairs is a bit bigger. Figure between two and four adults in each of those. Then there are two queen-size sofa beds and several futon mattresses to use in the great room, since air mattresses don't do as well in winter time. They disperse your body heat."

Mom asked, "It still rents out only 12 months in advance?"

I answered, "They release each month a year before. So, to reserve for this June, I had to inform them last May before they made the month available on June 1st. I've already reserved a two-week block for next May, on either side of Memorial Day, after I graduate. Christmas for next year isn't available for renters until December 1st of this year. We would have to hope someone else doesn't snag it before us."

"The trustee has no pull to get our name in first on the list?" Mom asked.

"Nothing in the contract with the property managers grants me that power, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask them. I thought we weren't going to live extravagantly on Dad's money, though?"

Mom snickered. "You don't have to pay for it with Dad's money. You can pay for it with part of your first trust withdrawal next year and most of the money even goes back into the trust. Unless Christmas is still open this year."

"I doubt that, but I'll ask."

Annie said, "Before you call, can I ask a question about my new car? If I find one I like that's more than $25,000, is it okay if I make up the difference from my own money? The model I have my eye on is about $40,000 new. If not, I'd have to find a used model."

I glanced at Mom, who nodded. "Not a problem from our end, sis. We want you to have the car you want, after all. Think of the $25,000 as a cash gift, anyway. You'll be the official buyer."

I called the rental management company after breakfast.

"Tahoe Sunrise Rentals, Melanie Gobles speaking. How can I help you today?"

"Good morning, Melanie. This is Tyler Campbell, of the Campbell Trust."

Melanie responded, "Good morning, Mister Campbell. Is this regarding your stay in two weeks? You're not canceling again, are you?" Dad had scheduled the previous year's trip before his death, but we had needed to cancel it due to the court dates to set up Annie's guardianship. I wouldn't have felt right going without her, anyway.

I said, "No, we're still coming. I actually had some questions about possibly renting the trust's house during peak season, in addition to our two week allotment. First, is there any possibility that the house is still available for Christmas of this year?"

"Let me check... No, it has been rented for the whole week. There are actually no empty weeks left on the current calendar, through next May, no blocks bigger than 2 nights midweek, either. June 2018 goes online in a few more days."

I said, "Then my second question is whether it would be possible for my family to reserve for Christmas week, 2018, right now? We understand that it's separate from our alloted time and we're prepared to pay the market rent. Or do we have to wait until December 1st and try to make the reservation then?"

"That decision's above my pay grade, Mister Campbell. Mister Randall will have to answer that. He's not in the office right now. He's actually over at your trust's house, overseeing some upgrades to the Internet access that were budgeted. I will have him call you back."

Jack Randall phoned, just ten minutes later. "Good morning, Tyler, Jack Randall here. Melanie tells me you want to jump in line to rent the house for Christmas 2018? I don't see a problem in that, although we haven't set the rate yet. I'll just match it to this year's, for you. And forgo the security deposit, too. You do realize that the trust is a minority owner in my company, don't you?"

"Certainly, but my understanding is that we're a silent partner. I was asking mainly as beneficiary of the trust, not as trustee or as partner."

Jack said, "Well, your Dad rescued me from some financial difficulties 10 years ago, by directing your trust to invest in the company, in exchange for reducing our management fee from 35% to 30% plus holding a 20% ownership stake. It allowed us to quadruple the number of rental properties we manage today, because of that capital infusion. So, I figure I can do some favors for John's son, even if you weren't the new trustee. So, are you looking at the full week, Saturday night to Saturday morning, or just part of it? Christmas falls on Tuesday next year."

"The whole week, Jack. If you're matching 2017's rate, that's $7500 for the week, right?"

Jack said, "You got it. When you arrive in two weeks, bring a check for 10% with you to lock it in, the balance is due two months before you arrive. Anything else, Tyler?"

"No, that's it for now, Jack. I'll stop by your office on Monday morning with that check and to discuss next year's capital improvements, after I've inspected the current state of the house. I hear you're working on the Internet access today?"

He answered, "Yes. This is the weekend we set aside for it, so it would be ready before you arrived. You approved the work last year - upgraded cable modem, WiFi repeaters to cover the whole house, upgrades in the media cabinets to replace the old DVD players with WiFi-enabled Blu-Ray players so you can also watch Netflix and so forth in each bedroom and the projection system in the great room. Settings will be password protected so guests can't change them."

"Right. I'll see you in two weeks. Thanks for the great work and for approving our Christmas stay."

As soon as I was off the phone, Annie was itching to go car shopping, so off we went. At least, we only had to hit Toyota, not wander from place to place. What she had her eye on was a Rav4 SE hybrid, but with some options and a bright blue paint color that wasn't in stock. We put in an order, due to be delivered the day of graduation, which we thought was perfect timing.

~~~~~

As the next two weeks passed, Annie and Marissa reported that Gary's rumor was thankfully ebbing among the students. He had stopped spreading it and hadn't introduced any new ones to take its place. I expect that he was just as busy with homework and studying as the girls were. His enlistment in the Navy would likely be scuttled if he didn't graduate.

Mom had heard from a few parents who were upset about her dating Annie, which she handled. But nothing more than that, which is what we'd hoped for.

Still, we remained on guard. All it would take is one call to the police and we'd be defending ourselves.

I helped both Annie and Marissa study, hauling out old notebooks that I'd saved from high school for that purpose. Annie was carrying A or A-minus averages in all of her classes, Marissa mainly Bs in hers, in part because she'd let her studying slip after what had happened with Gary. Term papers and final exams were her chance to regain A grades in those classes. I probably worked harder on helping the two of them than I had on my own finals, because it gave me an excuse to spend more time with them.

Four days of finals, one or two exams per day. Gradually, the grades from papers and exams were posted and A after A was revealed.

I picked Annie and Marissa up from school at 1:00, after their last exams and went straight to the car dealership, where Annie's new Rav4 was waiting for her. We took delivery and Annie drove hers home to get dressed for graduation, while I dropped Marissa off at her house so she could do the same. I then drove her back to school to prepare for the ceremony.

The grades from the last exams were posted barely an hour before graduation was to begin. Another pair of As for the two of them and they both pulled straight As for their last report cards. Final 4-year GPAs 3.84 for Marissa and 3.91 for Annie. Not valedictorian territory, but they had reason to be proud.

Mom met me 15 minutes before the ceremony began and we took our seats. Mom and I cheered both of them on from the stands as they got their diplomas.

In the crowd of people on the field of the stadium afterwards, Mom and I hugged Annie, making sure to make it familial, not intimate, and I hugged Marissa with a deal more warmth.

From behind me, I heard Gary's voice. "Congratulations, Annie, Marissa."

I watched Annie cringe and felt Marissa stiffen in my arms. Marissa grabbed on tight to prevent me from attacking Gary. Instead, Annie wheeled on him and shouted, as loudly as she could, "Save it, Gary! First, you come to my house to apologize for cheating on me a month after doing it, then you turn around a couple days later and try to smear me and my brother when I chose not to date you again. Now you want to act like we're somehow friends, without so much as another apology that I wouldn't believe was sincere anyway? Fuck you! Maybe the Navy can drill some honor into you, but you sure as shit don't have any today! Leave me, my family and my friends alone. Or I'll have Marissa let my brother loose to help you scratch your head."

About a hundred people watched Gary slink away, followed by his own parents, who looked furious with him. Clearly they weren't aware of everything that had gone on between him, Annie and Marissa, or the rumor he had started about us. The fact that he was about to get yelled at for accidentally being right about Annie and me almost made me feel sorry for him. Almost.

The four of us, soon joined by Marissa's parents, continued celebrating for another twenty minutes, before the graduates lined up to return their graduation caps and gowns, keeping only their tassels as a memento.

I accompanied Marissa to a celebratory dinner at a Chinese restaurant with her parents and siblings, after which she and I were going to a movie, ending with her spending the night with me. Marissa and I wound up across the table from her parents, her two brothers to her right, her three sisters to my left. Her sister Carmen blushed whenever I looked her way.

Her mom Angelina said, "It still feels weird, thinking of you as our cousin, Tyler. But I don't imagine it's as weird as your mother and sister being girlfriends."

"It is unusual, I admit," I said. "But if they're happy with each other, I'm happy for them."

From the table behind me came the exclamation, "Did you just say his mother and sister are girlfriends? Isn't that incest?"

I turned around to face the man, saying, "Not that it's really any of your business, sir, but my half-sister and I have the same father but different mothers. She and my mother are both biologically related to me, but not at all to each other. There's no incest."

'Not with each other,' I thought, but did not say.

"Sorry for eavesdropping, kid. It just sounded weird," the man said, turning back to his dinner.

After I scowled at the back of his head for a few seconds, I turned around myself. Angelina said, "Sorry, Tyler. I should have asked about that in private."

"It's okay," I said a little louder than necessary, figuring the guy behind me was still listening, apology or not, so I might as well take advantage of it. "We're all aware that public opinion might not be completely on their side in this. What's their alternative? Hide the relationship forever? End it because of those who disapprove, either because of their links to me or the age difference? Like my Walsh great-grandparents disapproved of the relationship between their son and your mother because she was born in Mexico, making her afraid to reveal to them that she was pregnant with you? I have every intention of defending my mom and sister as many times as needed. Just as I would defend your daughter from any racists who would go after her for her last name or skin tone."

Angelina looked at me for a couple of seconds, before saying, "I am so glad you and your sister came into Marissita's life, Tyler. Not just for her, but because your discovery that the two of you are related enabled me to connect with aunts and uncles and cousins that I wouldn't have known, otherwise, although I knew you and your mother a little bit. My aunts and uncle are even digging into their pockets and sharing what would have been Peter's percentage of their parents' estate with me. $124,000! Enough to pay off the last of our mortgage. Although they said the checks have to be written to both me and Ramon for some reason."

"It's simply to avoid filing a form on their income taxes," I said. "If an individual gives more than $14,000 to another individual this year as a gift, you have to report it to the IRS, so that the amount over the $14,000 can be tracked and eventually be deducted from the exclusion amount for the estate tax. It's meant for those repetitively giving gifts to their children as estate planning, but applies even if it's only a one-time gift. A married couple can give a combined $28,000 to the same person, but in your case each of the four couples needs to give you $31,000. So, to avoid reporting that extra $3,000 on every tax return going forward, they either add Ramon to the check, or write a second one to him."

Ramon asked, "Is that just trivia that you happen to know, Tyler?"

I answered, "No, sir. I first learned about it because my parents had to file the equivalent form years ago and followup forms every year after that. Rather than fight during the divorce over the house in Tahoe that Dad had inherited from his parents, they agreed to use it to set up the educational trust that pays for Annie and me to go to college, pretty much for the rest of our lives, if we wanted to be professional students. The house counted as a gift to me via the trust, well in excess of the limit at that time, so they had to report it."

"That's the same house we're going to on Saturday, Mama," Marissa added. "Ty and Annie get to stay there two weeks a year."

I continued, "I'm sure my grandmother and her siblings checked with the attorney who handled my great-grandparents' probate, to see if they needed to reopen it or could just gift you the money. I'm sure the latter is the simpler option, if the will had been changed to omit mention of your father. The attorney must have given them the advice to add Ramon to the check. When Mom and I decided to get Annie a car for graduation, we set a limit of $12,500 from each of us, so we'd stay under the $14,000 line for this year, after adding in birthday and Christmas gifts. But even if I hadn't already known about that aspect of the tax law around estate planning, I hope to leverage the trust and my inheritance to build a business that would make the estate planning necessary, so I had the trust guys at the bank walk me through the rest of the tax rules for estate planning when I became trustee for that trust."

Ramon raised his eyebrows before saying, "Excellent, young man. People complain about Millennials being lazy, but you seem to have your head pointed towards the stars."

I said, "My father was a firm believer that a combination of good fortune and drive could take you anywhere. The President is certainly a good example of that, if not much else."

Ramon waved his hand to signal no. "I find that politics and food are not a good mix, even if I probably agree with most of what you would say about that man. Let's save it for a different occasion and avoid the indigestion. Right now is about celebrating my daughter and her own ambitions. I assume she has told you that she is attending your college, pursuing the same business administration major that you are."

"Yes, sir. If our relationship continues its present course, I hope we might make for good business partners down the road, or I could help her get her own business off the ground."

Marissa coughed. "Why can't you just ask 'What are your intentions for my daughter?' like a normal dad?"

Ramon and Angelina both laughed. Ramon answered, "Because, given your pronouncement this morning that you are not coming home tonight after you and Tyler go to the movies, I already know what his and your intentions are, in the short term, just like I knew the night of your prom. I am okay with those. I do remember your mother and I being your ages and you have been on Depo Provera for two years. Given the way this young man already looks at you, I can guess what his medium term intentions will be, around Christmas or New Year's, after he spends a whole semester at college with you as his girlfriend. I expect to be okay with those intentions, when he and I have that conversation. All that really leaves is the long term, mi hija."

Although they ran together to sound like 'me-ha', I knew 'mi hija' was two words meaning 'my daughter'.

"Papa, don't scare him off," Marissa said.

I squeezed her hand, saying, "Your dad just gave me about the biggest green light he possibly could have, querida."

"You're learning Spanish for my daughter, too?" Ramon asked. "Or from her?"

"I took four years of high school Spanish, sir. I hope I retained most of it. Although Riss certainly knows some slang that the teachers didn't share with us. I firmly believe businesspeople should be multi-lingual, or have staffs which are, or they abandon large markets. Insisting on 'English Only' is simply unprofitable. After Mandarin, Spanish is the second most spoken language on the planet. English only comes in third, then Hindi and Arabic. Those five languages represent a third of the world's population. I want to take courses on Mandarin and Hindi, too. It would be important to understand those cultures and that starts with their languages, if I choose to pursue an international business. Even if I only run a local one, I have to at least expect Spanish-speaking customers here in California."

He asked, "You haven't decided on what business you intend to be involved in?"

I answered, "I'm looking around for options for a job after graduation, but capital I could use to buy or start a business is locked up in that trust I mentioned, for several more years. Annie and I can restructure or dissolve the trust only after she turns 25. That gives me some time to consider my options."

He asked, "Between now and then, you can control where the trust invests money, as trustee?"

I responded, "Yes, although we've got a pretty profitable portfolio now. Why?"Ramon said, "Well, if I were in your position, I would check whether the trust could invest in a small business for you to run after graduation, with you as manager or CEO and drawing a salary from it, rather than waiting until you can be the direct owner. Start small, so it's not the only asset the trust has, but if you're as good a manager as you think, you'll only wind up ahead, compared to working for someone else for six years."

"CEO at 22," Marissa whispered to me. "Holy shit."

I said to Ramon, "I'll check into that, sir. Thank you."

Our entrees to share with the table arrived right after that and conversation reduced to "Can you pass the orange beef?" After fortune cookies, Marissa and I said our good nights and headed to the movie theater.

By coincidence, Mom and Annie arrived at the same time. I lightly hugged them both next to the Rav4, whispering to Annie, "Are you here for Wonder Woman, too?"

As she stepped back and we began walking towards the ticket window, she whispered, "Yup. It's okay to be seen in public together, Ty. We just have to act like two couples would. It would be more suspicious for us to completely avoid each other, don't you think?"

Inside the theater, we grabbed four seats together, Annie, Mom, me, then Marissa. The urge to hold Mom's hand was strong, but I resisted, keeping my attentions mainly on Marissa. The movie was fantastic.

Back home, we had been chatting about the movie in the kitchen, for about 10 minutes, when the doorbell rang. I went to answer it, only to recognize the police sergeant who had been the school resource officer when I was in high school. I didn't remember his first name. He was out of uniform, but I still asked, "Can I help you, Sergeant Tobin? Is it still Sergeant?"

He answered, "Relax, son. I'm not here officially. You're in no trouble. I just thought you should know that the San Rafael Police Department opened an investigation into some rumors that were swirling around the high school about you and your sister that I believe you know about. That investigation was closed earlier tonight, when the detective in charge of the case caught up with Gary Boyd and his parents right after graduation. He admitted to fabricating the rumor as revenge, for being dumped by your sister and her friend Marissa and an altercation you had with him. He has been ordered to leave you and your family alone, if he wants to avoid a harassment charge that will prevent him from going into the Navy."

I asked, "Why tell us this? I'm grateful that Gary will leave my sister alone, but this seems an unusual decision, to tell a suspect that an investigation is over when I wasn't even aware it was underway."

Sergeant Tobin answered, "As I said, I'm not officially here. The investigation never reached the point where you would be brought in for questioning. I chose to tell you this because my twin sister and I were subject to the same kind of rumors when we were younger, twenty five years ago. We were close and affectionate with each other, so people assumed we were intimate, too. Once those rumors started, we always felt we had to be super-cautious about our interactions in public. It put a strain on our relationship that ultimately resulted in her moving to get away from it and we drifted apart. Your case reminded me of us, so I thought you deserved to know that it was closed. I know it can be stressful, having people suspect you, whether or not you're doing what they think. Just know that the SRPD isn't among those looking at you. Have a good night."

I immediately wondered whether he expected me to admit to something. Or if he was the one making an admission. I said, "You, too," as he turned and left.

As soon as I reentered the house and had the door closed, Annie asked, "Who was that??"

I said, "Sergeant Tobin. He was a school resource officer when I was in high school."

"Still is," said Marissa. "You must not have noticed, but he was a chaperone at prom, too. He would have seen everything that went down that night."

I said, "He wanted us to know that the police had been investigating Gary's rumor but stopped after Gary admitted tonight that he made it up. He said the case is closed and Gary has been warned to leave us alone. But he said he was here unofficially."

Mom put her index finger to her lips, signaling for silence, before pulling the shades in the kitchen windows. She walked over to a dry-erase white-board on the refrigerator, and wrote, "May be lie to get guard down." She erased that and wrote, "Ty go to Bronco like you forgot cell phone..." then wrote, "Check for cars on street watching/listening to us."

I went out to my car, going around its back to and from the driver's door, and looked along the cul-de-sac we lived on and didn't see any cars parked on the street or any unknown cars in the driveways. Certainly, none with drivers inside them or suspicious vans with listening equipment pointing out the windows.

I came back into the house, writing, "Nothing," on the white board.

"Okay," Mom said aloud. "I doubt they have a microphone trained on the house, without a car to monitor it. That visit seems an unusual step, for a police officer to take as an unofficial visit. Any idea why?"

I said, "He told a story about he and his twin sister being subjected to the same kind of rumors, twenty-five years ago. His sister eventually moved out of town, because it was stressful being careful about their public interactions. Then he said something weird, that it was stressful being suspected, whether or not you're doing it. I don't know whether that was to imply that he and his sister were actually intimate, or if he thinks we are. If it's both, we might just have an ally on the force, someone truly sympathetic to us."

Mom said, "I remember Don Tobin and his sister Melanie in high school. They were a grade behind me, but the whisper campaign against them was pretty brutal. Melanie would be reduced to tears some days. Don seemed to get in a fight per week over it until guys stopped saying anything to his face. At least he's being honest about that. Still, it's not enough to assume we're in the clear. We're still delaying the foursome until Tahoe. We'll re-evaluate whether it's safe to continue here in San Rafael after we get back. Certainly, if the police react somehow to our absence, we know we're still being watched."

"Is this need for caution ever going to end?" asked Annie.

I answered, "Hopefully, we don't have to worry about the police as much, but Mom's right. We can't be 100% certain that wasn't a ploy to get our guard down. We'll always have to be careful in public, but that would have been true even if Gary hadn't said anything. Are you going to be like the sergeant's sister? Giving up on our relationship because protecting our secret gets stressful?"

"