Sharing Sisters (The Gardeners) (3 page)

I was still inside of her, and now that the pillow was off of me, she laid out across me, kissing my face, neck and lips while she cried quietly.  I held her for a long time with that one arm.  She then slid back and I slipped out of her.  Her breath caught for a second then she got up and walked to the bathroom still crying.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked Kara and Sara.

“I don’t know…” Sarah said and walked out of the bedroom, Kara turned to follow but I stopped her.

“Are you going to let me loose?” I asked her.  She gave me a lopsided grin and tossed me the handcuff key and hurried after the other two.

I got loose and went into the bathroom looking at the marks on my wrists and ankles.  I hopped into the shower to rinse off.  Whatever was bothering Nancy was bugging me, and I hoped it wasn’t something major, although today was another first of firsts for me.

I was toweling off when I could hear Sammy boy stirring on his baby monitor, then his steady murmur of “dadadadadadadada mamamamamamamamamamma”.

I pulled on a pair of sweat pants and went to the bedroom.  He was sitting up in his crib rubbing the sleep in his eyes.  He saw me and reached up “Dadadadada” Until I grabbed him.  He gave me a Sammy hug by patting me on the shoulder and putting his head there.  He then pointed towards the kitchen.

“The master requires nourishment,” I said mostly to myself as I headed that way.  I could hear the girls’ murmurs from the guest bedroom where Sarah had been staying off and on.

I pulled out various things until he pointed when I pulled out a jug of milk.  Yup, that’s what Sammy boy wanted, so I sat him on the floor of the kitchen and poured him one of those big boy cups that isn’t a bottle, but isn’t a sippy cup yet.  When I turned around he’d taken off. 

That kid can crawl fast, and in the last week or so I’d taken quite a bit of time to baby proof the house, because a mobile baby is a scary baby.  I wasn’t worried about him going exploring and remembered I had shut the bathroom, the only room that I wasn’t comfortable with him.  So in other words, I went on a Sammy Hunt.

He hadn’t gone into his bedroom, and I found Sarah coming out of my bedroom with Kara’s robe.

“Sammy boy in there with you girls?” I asked her.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m grabbing Kara’s robe,” She said with a grin. 

I followed.  Sarah and Nancy had already pulled their clothing back on, but Sam was sitting on his moms leg playing with her hair, despite his laughs and how she was using her long blonde locks to tickle him around his ears and the side of his neck.  It hit me right then that this, how we’d been living our life, didn’t have to be all this complicated.  That’s when I noticed Nancy was still crying softly.

I sat down next to her and put my arm around her while Sarah saved Kara, so she could put her robe back on. 

“What’s the matter Nance?” I asked her.

“This,”

Everyone stopped and even Sam looked around to see what made the grown-up’s so solemn.

“What do you mean?” Kara asked tying the robe around her waist and sat on the other side of Nancy putting her head on her shoulder.

“It’s just that,” she said and gave a big hiccupping sigh before continuing “that someday I want to have a man in my life, and I want to have a baby of my own,” she said looking first to me, and then to Kara.

“Oh honey, I knew that,” Kara told her running her hands through her hair.  “This is great and I hope it lasts forever, but unless Cory wants us to go all ‘Sister Wives’ then I always knew realistically that it wouldn’t last forever,” Kara said looking over at me.

“Wait, was that a question for me?” I asked the girls.

Sarah nodded and came over with Sam and sat on my lap.  The twin bed was getting a workout with the five of us sitting on it.  I tickled Sam’s cheek a second, and gave him the cup I had forgotten I’d been holding the whole time.  He tried to say something around the mouthpiece but just dribbled milk around the edges of his mouth.

“You know,” I started “I was stressed out earlier, but when I walked in here and saw all of you sitting here with Sammy boy I realized that I was ok with this,” I told them.

“With what exactly?” Kara asked me.

“All of it, your romance with Nancy, with Sarah carrying my baby and with me feeling like we have an earthquake when we all make love,” I told them.

“What about me?” Nancy asked me, still wet eyed.

“Nancy, I never thought about it, because I always thought of you as Kara’s girl.  At least for these past months,” I told her.

Kara slugged me.

“Ouch, what was that for?” I asked her and now I had three angry faced woman looking at me, Sarah had gotten off my lap and I was slowly being pushed to the wall.

“Cory, I want to give you a little advice,” Sarah started telling me. “Women aren’t possessions.  Kara doesn’t own Nancy and vice versa,”

“What a dumb-ass,” Kara said looking me in the eyes from about eight inches away.

“I’m sorry, but what didn’t I get?” I asked her.

“That’s why you never took me serious,” Nancy said. “You really did think that didn’t you?” She told me as my back finally hit the wall. 

She looked to make sure Sarah and Kara had Sammy out of the way, then she straddled me and sat in my lap and got nose to nose with me staring into my eyes.  Damn, she’s gorgeous, I could see the gold flecks in her green eyes.  I hadn’t noticed it before, even though I’d been in a couple of intimate situations with her or her and my wife.

“No, I mean, yes.  That’s what I thought,” I told her.

“You just told us that you were ok with all of this though,” She told me.

“Yes,”

“Kara, Sara, do you mind if I try to change his mind?” She asked them, and although I couldn’t see her grin I could see the skin around her eyes pull tight.

“We’ll take Sam to the other room.  Try not to be too loud,” Kara said standing up.  Sarah just nodded but as she was leaving the room Nancy squeaked and jumped half a second.

“What was that for?” She asked Sarah who had goosed her.

“Just reminding you and Cory, that ass is mine,” She said with a grin.  I was even grinning at that point.  They pulled the door shut as I could hear the sisters giggling and start talking a mile a minute.

“So Cory, how does it feel sharing sisters?” Nancy asked me.

“Until James and I had our talk, this whole situation terrified me.  I guess I was more worried about what everybody else thought than just going with the flow,”

“Where do I fit in with all of this?” she asked me, tilting my head down so she could kiss me softly.  I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and hugged her close.

“Let me say this, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you aren’t Kara’s girl,” and I stopped talking when she pinched me.  It startled me so I sort of jumped and she flopped to the side giggling.  I grinned and we wrestled around, tickling and kissing each other until she grabbed a pillow and smacked me on the side of the head with it.

“So you want to play rough?” I asked her, and she just shook her head, hopping off the bed and trying to get around me to the door.  I was playing blocker and figured I could easily grab her as she tried to sneak by.

She feinted one way, and then another and I snagged the spare pillow from the foot of the bed before she made her break for it.  I missed, and apparently swung it around too hard because the room was filled with feathers and I could hear Kara and Sara laughing at the other side of the door.    I was grinning pretty good myself and was blowing feathers out of my face when Nancy slammed into me pushing me into the door.

“Maybe we’ll play rough later,” She said putting her hand in my pocket and turning the door knob.

Sarah and Kara almost fell over backwards when we pushed the door open, and Sam was sitting in the hallway clapping his hands.  I led Nancy past the giggling sisters towards the living room, and a feather free area to finish talking.

“So did you two ‘Work it Out’,” Sarah said using some heavy sarcasm there.

“No, but when we do, you can watch,” Nancy shot back at her and Kara grinned.

“Let me get the feathers vacuumed up real quick,” I said but Kara made a shooing gesture towards me and Nancy.

“What?” Nancy asked Kara

“I got this, you two have reservations,” she said looking at me with a grin.

“Reservations, where?” she asked but I just shook my head.

“Good evening, Mr. Gardener.  Would you like a moment to order, or shall I choose for you tonight sir?” Clyde asked me.

“I’ll take whatever you recommend Clyde,” I said to Nancy’s puzzled looks.

We spent the rest of the evening talking, trying to make our bottle of wine last through the evening.  She was surprised how well Clyde knew me and assumed we were old friends.  I didn’t correct her, but the truth is, I barely knew how he knew so much about me.  I’d come here on other time (without the girls) and had a conversation with him about the Sarah situation.

His shift had ended, and it had been a while since the night I got her pregnant.  I was able to drive again (double vision from hitting my head), and we had a few drinks.  His advice was basically to suck it up, and talk to the girls’ father.  The situation wasn’t ideal for most folks to wrap their mind around, but he knew many folks who lived in a sort of “plural” relationship as he put it.

I tried to keep that conversation in mind while talking to Nancy, and even though we’d be sort of “dating” and living together off and on lately.  Then it hit me, this was our first date.  Like literally our first date.

“Holy shit,” I muttered to myself.

“What is it?” Nancy asked me putting her hand on my arm.

“I think I’ve figured out why I felt so out of touch, and why everything was so confusing to me,” I told her.

“Well, don’t keep me waiting,” she told me while refilling my wineglass.

“This is our first date,” I told her.

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” she told me with an amused grin.

“But, I am just realizing, we are always together, as a group.  We hardly do things one on one, I mean, not just you and me, but all of us,”

“I sort of thought that was part of your freak out moment earlier,” She said holding my hand.

“Maybe it was, was it yours?” I asked her

Nancy thought for a second, then nodded her head and leaned over the table to give me a big kiss.

“Lucky motherfucker…” I heard somebody behind me mutter.  I tried to look back and see who it was, because it would be weird to have the same guy commenting months and months later in the same restaurant… and as I was turning I heard a smack and saw a guy holding his hand over the side of his face where his wife decked him.

I gave her an amused wave, which she returned and poured the rest of the wine in Nancy’s glass.

“Would you two like dessert?” Clyde asked me.

I raised my eyebrows to Nancy, silently asking the question.  She clammed up and just shook her head, not making eye contact with him.  I patted her hand and shook my head to Clyde.  He just nodded.

“Nancy, this is where Clyde gives us some advice, sometimes a bit of a shock,” I told her grinning.  Something about him frightened her and she wouldn’t look at him.

“Well now, I don’t know about that,” Clyde began “But I think you’ve figured your situation out rather well.  As for Nancy,” he started and when he said her name her head jerked up in surprise “she won’t have to worry, she just got the job with the county but was afraid to tell you,” He said pausing.  Nancy’s jaw hit the floor.

“Did you baby?” I asked her, and she nodded.

“And she’s hoping for twins, one boy, one girl,” 

I don’t know who was more shocked, me or her.  I paid for dinner and palmed Clyde’s tip to him when I shook his hand.  He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Cory, you’re about to have a very fun, but interesting life,” he told me.

“God help me,” I started and he laughed, showing lots of teeth.

“Maybe he already is,” he told me, letting me go.

Two weeks later I was sitting at my desk, and Sammy was playing with some toys on the floor of my home office.  I had the monitor’s receiver in the office because Sammy had been napping earlier, but wanted out to play while I did some quick paperwork before heading in for work.  Somewhere off in the house I heard the phone ring.

“Hello? Darn, hold on, it’s on speaker phone,” Nancy said.

“That’s alright.  This is Dr. Kamet’s office, should we call you at a later time?” The female voice asked her.

“No, just let me go somewhere, ok, I can talk in here
,” She said, and now I could hear it through the baby monitor again.  My skin broke out in goosebumps.

“We’re the doctor’s office that did the drug testing for your employer, do you remember us?”

“Yes, of course,”

“Everything came back fine, no worries there, but dear; didn’t they tell you that you’re pregnant?”

“What? Are you sure?”

“Yes Nancy, but even though we flagged your file for a phone call, I didn’t see the alert until the computer was recommending prenatal’s for you…”

I’d heard enough, I scooped up Sam and knocked on the door to the guest room, poked my head in the bedroom where Kara was doing her make-up and motioned for the sisters to follow me.  They kept asking me what’s going on, but I wouldn’t say anything until I handed Sam off and opened his door where Nancy was sitting on the carpet with her cell phone in her hand, tears streaking the mascara.

“What’s the matter?” Nancy asked with a sniff, wiping at her eyes.

“Nothing at all.  I just wanted Kara and Sarah to share in our news,”

“What news?” All three girls asked.

“Nancy and I are having a baby,” I said. 

The bomb dropped, not seeing any damage, the girls rushed over to Nancy and gave her hugs and squealed like schoolgirls, rubbing her stomach, kissing and hugging her.  Through her tear stained eyes, I caught Nancy’s stare and she shot me a smile. 

“Everything’s going to be fine,” I said

“When is it my turn?” Kara asked sliding her arms around me, holding me close.

“Soon baby, Soon,” I told her…

“I have got to talk to Clyde,” I thought to myself.

………………………….