A Long Time Coming Ch. 06

*Simone*

I woke up with a need, and I was so very grateful that the answer to that need was right there in my bed next to me. My twin brother Robbie was as naked as I was and was sporting the infamous morning wood that eighteen year old guys are known for.

They say that men are more visually driven than women. I certainly liked the way Robbie looked at me when I'd present my body to him, whether clothed or naked. It's not boasting too much to say I had a figure that killed in the Stage Bitch bustier I wore for gigs.

Meanwhile I enjoyed looking at Robbie just as much. He swam a lot because he enjoyed swimming for it's own sake after his competitive high school career. It showed in his shaped but not bulky muscles. His abs were totally ripped and I ran my fingers down them, bump, bump, bump.

Robbie was a definite catch, classically handsome and keenly intelligent. Not just book smart but quick thinking as well. There was no one I would want more with me in an emergency.

He had dated several girls in the past, but they all failed to understand the really important thing about him. Robbie had always embodied the adage "Still waters run deep". Even as a little kid his emotions didn't readily show, at least not to the degree most everyone else's did. He was attentive and considerate, but emoting didn't come easily to him and people mistook it for coldness.

Somehow he was always able to take whatever crap people threw unthinkingly at him and keep going out into the world. It was never a shell for him, just strength and courage to carry on. He always had me and Mom to unload to, and when he did it made me admire him more.

I ran my hand past his erection and down his thigh. He didn't wake up, but I still caught a twitch of a smile. I smiled because it was the small area of tan line on him that showed we originally had the same skin tone.

Robbie was handsome, smart, a kind soul, my brother, and he thought the world of me too.

I took his dick in my hand and then in my mouth. He was a little funky with my dried juices from the night before, but it was just a reminder of the pleasures we had shared. I bobbed up and down, twisting my tongue around to reach every surface of him I could. I hummed in delight at the taste of the two of us together.

"Ahhh! I'll give you until sunset to stop doing that," said Robbie.

I took my lips off of him and slid myself along his body until I could rub my pussy against his cock. The friction of my breasts against his skin made me shiver.

"I would love to play all day, but Lynne is coming to pick me up for class in an hour," I said.

Robbie reached up and ran his fingertips along my jaw.

"There is something else, isn't there?" he asked.

Like I said, Robbie only appears cold.

"I was having dreams about Mom's and Grammy's stories. I can't imagine being apart from you for twenty-three years. I would rather be like Grammy and run away with you and leave everything else behind."

"I would never ask that of you," Robbie said, "you belong on the stage, rocking thousands of people at a time. And I'm not going anywhere."

"I'm so glad Mom accepts us, and we don't have to choose. As if we needed another reason to love her."

I only felt a little guilty, sitting astride Robbie while getting even more turned on remembering secretly masturbating along with Mom as she was putting on a show for Uncle David via the backyard security camera. It had taken all my willpower not to rush out there and throw myself between her legs and make her come on my mouth.

I had shown Robbie the video and asked him to rub me down in mimicry of Mom. I knew it would be the closest we would come to the threesome I had imagined as the perfect Plan Z outcome.

Now it was the next morning, and I had Robbie right where I wanted him. I moved up to kiss him, his hands went to my lower cheeks. I reached between us and angled his cock up to meet me as I slid back down onto him. As always I lost myself in his dark brown eyes as we made our connection. For all of his nearly unshakable composure, in those moments I saw his need to be vulnerable and accepted.

I sat up and ground my hips into his. He fit into me so well and I used his manhood to chase and scratch the itches that drove my need.

His hands shifted up my back and were about to come around to my breasts when I caught them. I laced my fingers with his and held his hands outward, away and using them for more leverage.

"Not this time," I breathed, "no cheating."

"Me cheating or you cheating? You're not leaving me much to do."

"Mmmhmmm. I want to be better at working you with my body. And you seem to really like it when I squeeze you," I clenched my Kegels as hard as I could as I rose up his length, "when I come."

"Oh, damn," Robbie moaned. "I like it very much when you do."

"So I want to make you happy by getting my orgasm and letting you feel every last spasm and twitch your beautiful cock inspires."

"Let me go and I'll get you there two or three times."

I gave him a roll of my hips and tried to do a ripple of my abs like I saw on a video of belly dancers. That felt wonderful with Robbie in me to his hilt.

"Lovely offer, but I'm enjoying being in control right now."

I spread his arms out wide and bent over him. My tits brushed against his chest and I shivered yet again at the friction.

An idea occurred to me then. I hunched my back to where I could run the tip of my tongue over his nipple.

He gasped and shivered just as I had a moment before.

"Looks like you are my twin after all," I teased. I put a big lick over his nipple and his back arched.

"Oh, shit!" he moaned through gritted teeth. He bucked his hips up to drive even deeper into me and his hands tried to break free of my grip. "Keep that up and you won't be coming first."

I decided to stop playing around and released his hands. Both of us grabbed into the other's chest. I couldn't tell who was mimicking whom but it was as if teasing Robbie's nipples caused sensations in mine. I could tell that the new sensations were bringing Robbie's orgasm as quickly as mine.

Quickly became imminently, and my pussy lead the rest of my body into a protracted rictus of pleasure.

Robbie's face looked downright pained. A moment of concern broke through the bliss until my body unlocked into shaking. My breath went out in a guttural moan vibrated by every muscle in my core singing it's own tune.

With a wordless cry Robbie released himself into me. He clapped his hands onto my hips and his back arched to try to get even deeper into me.

I finally collapsed onto him and hugged him as best I could while the tremors slowly faded. He wrapped his arms around me. He was still trembling as well.

"Every time I think it can't get any better," he said. He didn't finish the thought, but he didn't have to.

I put little kisses on his chest, too wrung out to crawl the few inches to his mouth.

"Oh yeah," I whispered. Unfortunately it was time for reality to intrude. "We need to get up and start acting like adults again."

"I think this was very adult."

I chuckled at that.

"Responsible adults."

"Darn," he said, and put a kiss on the top of my head.

I was getting out of bed to find my bathrobe when my eyes fell on my computer. There was something I needed to do.

"Robbie?"

He looked up, and I gave him the singular "come over here" nod as I turned toward the computer. He stepped up beside me. I grabbed the mouse, clicked the file of the video of Mom, dragged it to the Recycle Bin, and deleted it.

"You were right," I said, "it wasn't for us."

Robbie embraced me from behind and I sighed. I might not have had all that I wanted, but I had all that I needed.

He gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"That was the right thing," he said.

"I know, but it's not like it isn't seared in my memory."

"If Lynne is driving you know she won't be late, so you better get a move on."

I twisted to put a kiss on his cheek.

"Right again," I said, "better to shower alone for the sake of timeliness."

Robbie did the gentlemanly thing and yielded the shower to me, and I was ladylike in keeping it short. We swapped shower and sink with only a few seconds of kissing in the process.

I finished my cosmetics routine in my room. It included a lot of sunscreen and dark yet lightly applied touches to my eyes and lips. I went with black tights under a short skirt and a long sleeved white frilled shirt under a black corset.

There was enough time for a cup of coffee and a slice of the leftover pizza for breakfast. I heard music coming from Mom's office. I chuckled a little when I recognized a song from her Our Songs playlist.

I walked to her doorway and stuck my head inside.

"Morning, Mom."

"Morning, Sweetie." She was at her desk but didn't have her computer open. Instead she was looking through a small box that was covered in a pattern meant to blend with the decor. I remembered seeing it on a shelf in her office since I was a kid, but I could never recall it having ever been moved.

"What you got there?" I asked.

"Old letters I had received from David during his deployments. A few days ago I remembered a picture he had sent me and I want to make sure I still have it. Aha!"

Now I had to see. I moved around her desk to look over her shoulder at the photo she found. There were eight young guys in the pic, all of them shirtless and dusty and wearing sunglasses. I was going to ask which one was Uncle David but a closer look made it obvious.

"Wow, he looks like someone combined Robbie with a brick wall."

Mom chuckled.

"David was always a big guy. He played football in high school."

"Pops beat him in a fight?" I immediately regretted bringing that up. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned that."

"No, that's okay. The Army bulked him up some. David wrote that often there wasn't anything to do other than lift weights. And by the time you can picture your grandfather he had been in management for nearly ten years after a lifetime of blue collar work. That night they were pretty evenly matched but Dad had experience. He didn't get out of it without a black eye and a bloody nose though."

Without thinking about it I knelt down beside her chair and wrapped her in a hug.

"I am so sorry you had to go through that. I can't imagine what it would be like to have Robbie ripped away from me for years that way."

Mom hugged me back and put a kiss on the top of my head. I hadn't realized that I had wrapped myself around her the way I had as a child when my shyness would become overwhelming, with my head tucked up under her chin. Mom set a hand to stroking the hair behind my ear.

"What happened happened. I took a bit of time over the past few days to mourn the time I didn't have with him. But listen," she put her other fingertips under my chin to guide my eyes up to hers, "it was a good trade so that I could meet the two most wonderful people ever."

I just wanted to fall into her eyes forever, just fall upward into them until our lips met. I tried to put my one wish through that eye contact, "Please want me the way I want you!"

"Is there something on your mind, Sweetie?" she asked. I felt a surge of hope so strong that doubt in my senses came rushing in behind it. Was her voice a little breathier? Did I see her pupils dilate? Or was it wishful thinking? I had to decide.

And then the fucking doorbell rang. Lynne and her perpetual punctuality.

I closed my eyes and rose to my feet. Whatever spell I was under was broken, and I couldn't bring myself to look at Mom.

"That must be Lynne," I said. I made my way to get my book bag. "I need to get to class, I'll talk to you later."

I thought I heard Mom say something, but right then I needed space.

I opened the front door to the petite ball of energy that was my best friend since elementary school. Back then she was tiny and fit under Robbie's protection as well as I did. Even at eighteen she only broke five feet in the right shoes and weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet.

"Hey, Simone," she said, closing in for a quick greeting hug. "Mind if I come in real quick? I'd like to say hi to your Mom."

"Of course." She was by me before I even closed my mouth.

Lynne looked into the office and spotted Mom.

"Hi, Mrs. B. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to offer my condolences before you had to leave. How are you holding up?"

"Thank you, dear. I'm doing alright."

"Hug?"

"Of course," Mom said with a fond smile. She stood up and Lynne met her behind the desk. It was a quick hug, but long enough for Mom to glance down at Lynne and then a probing look to me.

I understood what she was thinking and I didn't see a way of getting around it.

Lynne stepped back from the hug but caught onto Mom's hands.

"I know I've thanked you a thousand times already for being there for me after my Mom passed, but especially now if there is anything I can help you with just say the word."

"Thank you, Lynne." Mom looked so genuinely touched that the concern she had was set aside for just a moment.

Lynne was turning to come back around the desk when she spotted the picture sitting on it. Robbie sometimes compared me to Sherlock Holmes, but my skill focused on reading people. Lynne is the go-to for spotting the importance of things around her. That was why I turned to her to help with the clean up just before Mom got home. I think that the way we complemented and taught each other was why we had bonded so quickly as little kids, and our music cemented it.

"Ooh, hunky Army boys!" she exclaimed spotting the picture on the desk and hovered a finger above its surface. "Who is that?"

Mom didn't bother to look down, she had become familiar enough with how Lynne thought.

"That's my brother David, back in his first deployment to Afghanistan."

"He's like someone ordered a double-beef Robbie."

It was an apt description and should have tickled some funny bones, but the reference to Robbie brought both Mom and me back to the five foot tall elephant in the room.

Lynne looked up and immediately picked up on the tension. She looked back and forth between Mom and me trying to crack the communication between the two of us.

"Is something going on?" she asked.

Mom looked straight at me and left me to break the jam. So I spoke out into the air between them, addressing neither so that I was speaking to both.

"She knows all about me and Robbie."

"Oh, damn," Mom said in a heavy sigh. She slumped back down into her chair. She waved at the two client chairs meaning she wanted us to sit. It was going to be a conversation.

For her part, Lynne looked first to me. I let the the corner of my mouth on her side hint at a smile, and a slight nod of my head that between us meant, "Things are OK, talk later".

Then she looked at Mom and took in her composure. When Lynne went to sit she wasn't worst-possible-scenario tense.

"I suppose," began Mom, "that I should have remembered that this family is essentially bigger than me, Robbie, and Simone. That you would inevitably be part of the equation as well, Lynne."

"If it matters at all," said Lynne, "I didn't find out because either of them told me or they were being careless." She looked to me. Her glance asked "How much have you told her?"

"All of it." I looked back.

"Alright, then it was the day after the graduation party that I could tell that Simone had fallen for someone. Honestly it kind of pissed me off that she denied it at first and then refused to tell me who he was. I was here a couple of days later and it was the first time I saw them together under their new circumstances. I wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't for what I learned from Simone over the years."

"Using what I taught her against me," I muttered.

"Now you know how the rest of us feel," said Mom.

"Anyway," continued Lynne, "Simone was doing some otherwise well-restrained mooning over Robbie. I doubted myself at first until I studied Robbie. There was more smitten affection breaking through than I had ever seen on him before, even that time he was talking up how great Monica was."

"Yuck," I muttered.

"I'm finally seeing that mooning over Robbie," said Mom.

"And I've been seeing yours too, Mom," I thought.

"Right, so there I was absolutely thunderstruck that my brother-and-sister best friends were falling for each other so hard that Simone didn't even notice I was sitting there thunderstruck. My mind was racing, trying to figure out how to feel or what to say about it. I knew that Monica had decided a couple days before to go off and join the sorority of bitches who couldn't appreciate how great a guy Robbie is. I knew it would take someone with Simone's insight to appreciate him properly. Then I thought that if anyone deserved to have a guy as great as Robbie it would have to be Simone. Right then I decided that if they were doing what I thought they were doing then I would guard their secret to the grave."

"That was if however," said Mom.

"True, that's why I took a chance and said, 'I swear, if there is going to be more yearning going on around here I'm going to start calling you Heathcliff and Catherine.' You should have seen the guilty looks on their faces."

Despite her efforts to be serious, Mom couldn't keep from laughing at that.

"Couldn't have been much different from when I told them I knew."

"May I ask how that happened?"

"Robbie and I went skinny dipping after the party and forgot about the backyard security camera," I said.

"Oof!" said Lynne. An uncomfortable silence fell over the conversation.

"So what does this mean going forward?" asked Lynne.

"For reasons that shall not be discussed further," said Mom giving me a glare that said this was a line not to be crossed, "I am allowing Robbie and Simone to continue their relationship. They know it will be kept strictly within this house. Outside there is to be zero displays of affection inappropriate for a brother and sister. I am asking you, Lynne, to understand how important this rule is, and how the futures of my children rely on your discretion."

Lynne drew herself up into the regal posture she had learned through years of piano recitals. As also happened at those performances and our gigs with the band, she projected a presence far greater than her petite frame implied.

"Mrs. B...," she started

"Dana," interrupted Mom, "you are privy to the most intimate secret of this family, for this at least I'm coming to you as an equal."

"Dana," said Lynne as if Mom's name felt strange in her mouth, "For my love of Robbie and Simone I have already made that promise. I will add my love for you to it. You have been there for me when I needed a mom more times than I can count. I, Lynne Chen, pledge myself to House Bowman and swear to keep its secrets."

Mom got up and opened her arms.

"Thank you, Lynne."

Lynne got up as well, but grabbed my hand and pulled me along. The hug turned into a group affair, and I knew that I was going to have to redo my eyeliner on the way to class.

From the middle of the hug Lynne said, "Can we workshop that 'House Bowman' part? Your ex doesn't deserve that honor."

"No he does not," I agreed. We broke the hug.

"We really need to get going," said Lynne.

"Drive safe. Better to skip and bum notes if you need to," said Mom, settling into her chair.

"Will do. Bye Mrs. B."

I got my bag off the floor and grabbed my parasol from beside the door. Lynne and I walked close in its shade to her car.

"She's really okay with you and Robbie?" she asked under her breath.

"She is," I said.

"Did you guys actually pull off Plan Z?"

"No, it wasn't that."

Lynne sighed dramatically.

"Now that's disappointing, I had a nice spot picked out for your mom in my naked Bowman cuddle pile, although now that I say it that name can stand to be changed too."

We climbed into her car. She started it up and her phone synced and began playing her curated blend of opera and heavy metal.

"On a completely unrelated note," I began in an insincere tone, "do you remember me telling you about my uncle retiring from the Army?"

"I remember. Is he still a hunk?"

"He looks good in a suit. Anyway, he's gotten a job here in the city and is going to be staying with us for a while."

"Bummer, that will be cramping your time with Robbie I guess."

"I don't think so," I blithely replied. She shot a questioning look at me. "Do you mind if I change the music?"

"Go ahead."

Lynne followed Mom on the music app like I did, and I chose the Our Songs playlist. The piano opening of Because the Night started playing. Lynne unconsciously fingered the tune on the steering wheel.

"That's her list with all the sexy songs, right?"

"That's right."

We came to a red light. I watched her as the pieces fell into place.

"No!" She was looking at me in complete disbelief.

"I can neither confirm nor deny whatever baseless supposition you may be operating under," I said with faux innocence.

"I have got to meet this guy!"

"You will. He arrives tomorrow, but let them have a couple days before you come over, Okay?"

"Okay, you lead, I'll follow."

*David*

I saw Dana waiting by the luggage carousel. We made eye contact from a dozen yards away and I wanted to run over to her, sweep her in my arms and kiss her like the sailor kissing the nurse on V-J Day of World War II. But she had asked me in our conversation of the night before to remain strictly familial in public. Despite that she was wearing those damn jeans.

Still, it felt good to hug her again however briefly. I found myself nostalgic for that morning just over a week before when Dana hugged me simply as my too-long parted sister, just before she found Mom's diaries. Just before all of the secrets and hurt and shame built up over the years had come tumbling down and I could have her as the love of my life as well as my twin.

Keeping with her wishes we made innocuous small talk as we waited for my bags to arrive. Then we walked to her car in the parking garage.

"So how am I doing?" she asked quietly once no one was in sight.

"Doing what?"

"Concealing how badly I want to climb you like a treehouse and kiss you until we pass out."

"Then I'm impressed. Of course, most of my mental faculties had to go to reining in my inner caveman once I spotted you in those jeans."

"Your caveman, eh? I think I've met him a couple of times and enjoyed his visits."

"I like your wild woman too," I said. "Let her out to play I will definitely Unga your Bunga."

She laughed.

"You are still such a dork," she said.

"You're the one who fell in love with a dork."

"Guilty. Now let's get home so I can finally kiss you."

"To the house," I corrected, "I've been home since I saw you there."

"Dammit, David, saying things like that makes it really hard to set a good example for my kids."

Dana kept the conversation on me for the drive. I told her about the ambush the staff of the school had set for me. The colonel in command called me out to the front of the assembly and read out a final commendation in recognition of my service. The commendation included a last day promotion to First Sergeant. It wouldn't touch my pension at all, only a matter of honorifics. He rendered me a final salute, and quietly over a handshake offered his condolences for Mom. As of that morning I was sure that most of my fellow non-comms were cursing my name for leaving Monday as the only option for a retirement party at the enlisted club. Word was that a few rounds of drinks that came our way were paid for by the officers. Fortunately my hangover didn't last too long this morning.

The sun had set by the time we got to her neighborhood. The streets and the houses were starting to look familiar. An odd feeling started forming in the pit of my stomach. I laughed out loud when I finally recognized it.

"What is it?" asked Dana.

"I am, truth be told, feeling kind of scared right now."

"Seriously? After everything you've been through this is scary?"

"One thing I've learned is that there are all sorts of different kinds of scared. This one I haven't felt since I met Shari's parents for the first time just before I took her to the Homecoming Dance. It's as if all of my hopes of happiness are riding on making a good impression. I'm practically a stranger you are bringing home."

She reached across and took my hand in hers.

"They know I love you."

"And I have to prove to them that I'm worthy of it."

She let go of my hand to slug me hard on my shoulder.

"I told you, worthy of me is my decision."

"Hey, I know that. I'm just worried that they might come to a different conclusion than you have."

Just then we arrived at the house. She pulled into the driveway and shut off the car.

"Your best and only option is to be yourself. Simone will see right through you if you try to shape an answer to what you think she wants to hear. You are a good man, more in every measure that I fell in love with when we were teens. Just lay that out there and they will see it too."

I took a deep breath and let it out.

"Right," I said, "let's do this."

As we got out of the car I saw the front door open. Robbie came out, and like at Mom's memorial service I was struck by how much he had grown in the five years since I had seen him previously, and more so compared to the one time I'd been at this house.

"Uncle David, welcome," he greeted me with a hand outstretched to shake. I took it, his grip was firm but not trying to prove anything. He looked me right in the eye, near enough to exactly my height so as not to make a difference. It wasn't like looking in the mirror, but I still saw a lot of Dad in him. "Can I help with your bags?"

"Thank you very much," I said and offered him my carry on. He went past it and hefted my duffel bag onto his back. "OK then, I can handle the rest."

The three of us headed to the front door. The memory of the spot just in front of the stoop arrested me for a moment.

"David?" asked Dana. She put a hand on my arm.

I looked up. Robbie was still going forward to the door, but I did see a silhouette I presumed was Simone looking out of the doorway. I couldn't make out her expression in the light, but with the way Dana built up her skills I was sure she caught the hitch.

Simone was indeed holding the door open for us.

"So nice to see you again, Uncle David," she said, "please come in."

"Thank you," I said.

"Your hands are full," she observed and stretched upward and slightly to the side. I picked it up that she wanted to kiss on the cheek and I obliged. At first glance Simone had a lot of contrasts with Dana, from a curvier shape, slightly shorter, to her blue eyes and blonde hair. In the bone structure of her face, however, there was absolutely no denying that she was Dana's daughter.

Those blue eyes were intent upon me. The difference in her from the last time I was there was remarkable. Back then she had been a ghost, peeking around corners and darting back whenever I would look in her direction. If I did manage to catch her gaze for a split second I could tell she was scrutinizing me.

Tonight she was owning her space, silently announcing that she would be the Mistress of Ceremonies for this meeting. Her scrutinizing gaze hadn't changed in the least, and it was directed wholly upon me. I had experienced my share of inquiries over the years, but I could tell that this would be more intense than any of those.

That made my goal clear: prove to her that I loved her mother and agreed that she was worth the trial.

"Where am I taking the bag?" asked Robbie.

Before Dana could say anything I said, "The guest room, in the spirit of the evening let's not put the cart before the horse. Lead the way."

"Hold up," said Dana, as she shut the door behind her, "I've had to wait too long for this."

I knew enough to put my bags down and I finally had the freedom to sweep her up in that V-J Day kiss. Before I put my lips to hers I saw the light in her eyes as I dipped her back. Unlike that famous photograph, Dana wrapped her arms around my shoulders and seemed intent on her threat to kiss me until we passed out.

"Aw, that's sweet," Robbie said.

"Yeah, it is," said Simone. A few seconds later, "Who do you think it's going to come up for air first?"

"Military physical training focuses on endurance so he has that going for him."

"But that pose has to be tiring. Then again, Mom hasn't been training her vocal breath control much over the years."

"Maybe not for singing, but I have seen her do eight lengths of the pool without a breath."

"Eight? Really? Mother! Language!"

I had felt Dana release one arm, and I knew her well enough that she had just flipped off her twins.

I made a show of breaking first.

I whispered, "I'll let you win in front of your kids."

"Rematch later?" she asked.

"Hell yes." Only then did I finally put her back on her feet. Then to Robbie, "Lead the way."

I followed Robbie. As I did I saw from the corner of my eye Simone take me in from top to bottom.

Once in the guest room I told Robbie to just leave the bag at the foot of the bed.

"I going to put the steaks on the grill," said Robbie. "How do you take yours?"

"Medium rare, thank you."

"And I'm doing sautéed onions and mushrooms if you'd like."

"Yes please to both."

I followed him out of the bedroom to find Dana and Simone in the kitchen. Simone was slicing cucumbers for a salad, Dana was opening a bottle of wine. The plate of steaks was next to Simone, and Robbie stopped to give her a soft but lingering kiss. It was a simple, gentle moment of intimacy of two lovers in their home, and it was beautiful in a way I had never considered before.

I looked over to Dana just as she was turning to me from them, and she was giving back exactly what I was feeling. She and I were about to begin a life with that type of happiness ourselves.

Dana stepped to me, put her arms around me, and leaned her head into my chest. It might have been a long time since she had had a moment like her kids were having, but for me it was altogether new.

Dinner preparations gained momentum from there. Robbie manned the grill, and despite their protests I insisted on helping set the table. Both Dana and I noticed that Simone had continued her top to bottom examination of me. The addition of a sly little smirk finally induced Dana to comment.

"Excuse me, young lady, why are you eyeballing your uncle like that?"

"Well, he has Robbie and me at a disadvantage from being there when you caught us on camera, so I've been using a little stage fright cure to level the field a bit."

"Simone!" Dana exclaimed scandalized.

"I'll apologize for seeing you," I said, "but it doesn't seem it is bothering you."

"You haven't been leering. Plus, while you were there to see us intimately in the first place," said Simone, "Mom also said you kept her from tearing into us. Robbie and I are grateful for that, and we've decided to call it even."

"Well thank you," I said.

"Just so you know," whispered Simone in an exaggerated conspiratorial tone, "the smile on Mom's face when she's eyeballing you has significantly informed my mental image." She even topped it off with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

"That's quite enough, Simone," said Dana with a touch of the reproaching tone I remembered our mother using on us, "you have your brother, and I'll have mine." If I hadn't known of Dana's attraction to Robbie I would not have noticed the hint of wistfulness in her voice.

What I also noticed was that Simone had caught it too. I had figured that that cat was out of the bag. Dana knew she had been doing a bad job concealing her yearning for her son since she got home. Even with only the short time that I'd seen her work, I realized that there was no way that Simone would have missed it. Curiously, I hadn't picked up on any jealousy from her.

Simone shifted her eyes to me. My training said to drop the scrutiny before she saw it on me, but right then I decided it was the time for honesty. I let her see me tracking the points on her face where micro-expressions revealed themselves. I saw her fall into the tiny mimicry of my expression that would allow her brain to connect the sensation of the facial expression to an emotional state. It became a feedback loop that in a way was intimate yet communicated nothing more than "I'm reading you".

Simone broke the loop with a surprised gasp.

"You were reading me."

I nodded.

"I'm not a natural like you are," I said. "Some higher-ups in the Army saw the knack I had from growing up with your Mom and offered me training in 'social awareness' and local languages. There were more than a couple of times it kept me and my unit from walking into an ambush."

"And one time it didn't", came the thought that sometimes kept me up at nights.

I watched Simone see the thought cross my face and then take in the reflex of my left arm curling in defensively.

Dana saw it too. She stepped into my arms and put her hands lightly around my face so I could lose myself in her loving eyes.

"You are home, my love. You are safe." She drew me down and kissed me tenderly. I was such a blessed man to be loved by a woman like her.

The kiss ended and we spent another moment in one another's eyes.

"Steaks up in five!" called Robbie through the back door.

"OK," said Simone, "let's get the salad, potatoes, and fixings out."

"Can I get a hand for the veggies?" asked Robbie.

"I'll get it," said Dana, and she headed for the grill. I followed Simone to the kitchen.

"You learned face reading off of Mom?" she asked. "She's not exactly difficult like Robbie."

"Maybe not," I admitted, "but even when we were little I found her endlessly fascinating. I'd say I learned 'vocabulary' from her and developed 'sensitivity' watching Dad."

We were moving items to the table.

"That I can see," Simone said. "I remember some visits where Mom and Grammy were talking around the kitchen table, but I would rather watch Robbie and Pops play checkers. They were totally silent, but it still seemed like they were communicating more than the talkers."

"I can imagine. Sounds like something I wish I had seen for myself."

Robbie and Dana came in behind us with the steaks and sauteed toppings. I caught a look between Robbie and Simone as we were sitting at the dining room table. The table was meaningful to them, but I decided not to pursue why a table would be remarkable to a pair of eighteen year-old lovers.

"So, Uncle David," said Robbie, "we are very glad that you can join us."

"And I'm very glad to be here."

"I was hoping that you might be of assistance in helping Simone and I get some things that have been in extremely short supply around here."

I had trained around some of the best liars in the Army, and the tiny amount of information Robbie's face gave away would put better than half of them to shame. Still, it wasn't that he had no tells, it was that his tells were very, very subtle. He was up to something and I decided to play along.

I passed the salad bowl to Simone as I replied, "I'd be more than happy to help where I can, what is it that you're looking for? Please be advised that I am still bound by rules of classification secrecy."

"I don't think those would apply to embarrassing stories from Mom's childhood, would they?"

"Hey!" protested Dana.

"Seeing as how neither of us were in the service or employ of the United States Government at the time I would say 'no'."

Dana's voice said, "Don't you dare!" but her expression said, "I'll give as good as I get." And that was how dinner was spent telling Dana's kids stories about growing up together. We kept the time frame to pre-adolescence, highlighting some of the more hare-brained schemes she had dragged me into. Still, I made sure to take at least fifty percent more embarrassment than I gave.

I got to hear stories of Robbie and Simone as well. She told of struggling with shyness and how music helped her overcome it. Despite his innate stillness, Robbie's face lit up at her love of singing as if she was some magical creature. I reached over to take Dana's hand. I shared a look that mirrored Robbie's. I wanted the twins to know that I felt for their mother just the way that Robbie felt for Simone.

"If everyone is done," said Dana, "let's clean up real quick and get to your plans for the evening." Too bad she wasn't referring to my plan of just getting to bed.

The kids snapped to and demonstrated that Dana's house ran as tight as Mom's did. I was glad they took to tidiness, I didn't know if I could break with twenty plus years of Army order.

From there we went into the family room. Robbie and Simone lead the way and he gestured to the love seat. Dana gave me a sly smile as we walked by the kids.

We sat together and she took my hand.

Robbie and Simone took the couch. Robbie put his arm around Simone. She made a show of crossing her legs and smoothing her skirt over her knees.

"Uncle David, thank you for sitting down and talking with us like this. Robbie and I are really happy that Mom has found love or found it again for the first time however it may be. Falling in love with your womb-mate," she looked up at Robbie who indulged in an eye roll while Dana and I held laughs in until we made eye contact with each other, "seems to be the way our family does it.

"Mom had the benefit of eighteen years growing up with you, but then twenty-three years apart with precious few days actually face to face. Our experience has been that a person we love can change drastically over years."

"Your father," I prompted.

"Yes," she replied, meeting my eyes resolutely.

"You saw me hesitate outside."

"Right where you and Dad had your... conversation."

I nodded.

"My biggest worry coming to meet the two of you like this is that you would see me as the wrecking ball that came through and demolished the last chance of your family coming back together and fixing itself."

I saw Simone's eyes fill with painful memories for a second that almost ended with timidly looking away, but with an act of sheer will she kept her focus on me. I only had Robbie in my periphery, but I could still see tension in his shoulders being fought to remain a comforting arm around his sister. Dana's hand in mine tightened, and then I felt her second come down and wrap mine completely.

"I watched our father change into a stranger," Simone said, "I watched him lie to Mom when I couldn't comprehend how he could do such a thing. The anger that grew in him scared me more than any monster I could imagine." I gave a miniscule flinch at the word, she clocked it and set it aside for the moment. "If you were a wrecking ball, then what was left of our family with him in it was a condemned building ready to collapse and crush everyone beneath it."

"Please don't ask for forgiveness," said Robbie, "there is nothing there to forgive."

Perhaps there was nothing in that event that I needed forgiveness for, but there were still weights I carried that I couldn't have comprehended when I was his age. Dana told me he wanted to be an ER doctor. Looking at him I recognized the resolve I had felt once I knew I was heading to war and that people were going to count on me. He was going to be a warrior going against death itself. There would be fights he would lose, and I suddenly knew that my sister's son would need someone who had lived the experience of not having enough power to stop it.

I simply nodded to his statement.

"What did you say to him?" Robbie asked.

I drew in a deep breath.

"I threatened him with your mother."

Befuddlement crossed their faces and then they looked to their mother. She turned to me. I hadn't told her the details of the conversation at the time in case Bruce had later pushed matters to needing definitive action.

"During the days while you were at school I was teaching her to shoot the gun she bought, I was teaching her how to use whatever was handy as a weapon, how to punch at his throat and scratch at his eyes. When he came to the door that night I told him that I was a teacher of war, and that I had just taught everything I could to my sister so that she could defend herself and the two of you from him. I told him that should he try anything once I left there would be no chance whatsoever that he would get out of it uninjured or necessarily alive."

The two kids looked positively stunned. Their eyes shifted from me to their mother simultaneously.

"He wanted to take you from me," she said, "either to start a new family with her or to ensure that I wouldn't have you at all. I would have killed him to keep him from laying a hand on you."

The resolution in her voice hadn't changed from eight years before. Her expression must have been the same as well, because I saw a flash of fear cross their faces. They had just seen a side of their mother they hadn't known existed.

Simone shot a glare at me.

"Don't put blame on him, Simone. That rage was in me before he came. David only showed me how to use it so that I would be able to win and not lose you anyway."

Simone's expression softened.

"It bothered you, didn't it?" she asked me. "Teaching her those things."

I looked to Dana. She looking back at me, concern on her face.

"Teaching you was necessary, but it still felt like sacrilege."

"What do you mean?"

"You have been my definition of beauty in the world for as long as I can remember. I have faced, and done, some of the ugliest things the world has to offer. Part of me still hoped I could keep those two things separated. Then I found you in a situation where teaching you the ways of my world was the only option. I couldn't shake the feeling I had helped defile you..."

"Stop that right now, David. Bruce brought that ugliness to our home. He created the fury I felt. You were exactly who I needed right then, for me to be who I needed to be."

A thought occurred to me.

"You were my Angel, hurt and become a Fury, but the most I could do was make you a Valkyrie."

Dana leaned in and kissed me.

"There's my warrior-poet."

"I found my muse."

She gave me another touch of a kiss and then nodded toward the kids. We turned back to them, but this time I put a protective arm around her shoulder.

Simone had settled back into Robbie. Even Robbie had a touch of mist in his eyes.

"Angels of war," he said into his sister's ear.

I saw wheels turn behind Simone's eyes.

"You're right, that is good."

"What's good?" I asked.

"Are you actually a poet?"

I chucked at that.

"That's something your Mom came up with just a couple of days ago."

"The loveliest... sweet talk I've ever been courted with," Dana said, giving me an obvious wink.

"I never wrote anything," I continued, "but I would imagine lyrics for her to sing."

"Why didn't you ever tell me this, or share any of it?" demanded Dana.

"What, and ruin my reputation as the macho football stud? If the guys got wind of it I'd have never heard the end of it."

"What you said about Angel, Fury, and Valkyrie," said Simone, "sounds like it would fit well in a song my band is writing called Angels of War. If the two of you wouldn't mind sharing that I'd like to work on it with the others."

"Again, reputation," I said, "feel free but be sure to take all the credit for yourself."

"Thanks," she said. Then I watched her refocus. "Back to you, I have another question: Why didn't you come back for her?"

This one I had expected and knew was going to be hard.

"When I drove away that night I knew that I could never go back. Not that I didn't desperately want to. But I knew that I didn't deserve to go back, that everyone would be better with me gone."

"No, David," whispered Dana.

"It may not have been what was real, but it is what I felt. I had struck my father, I had raised my hand to my mother. I wanted my sister in a way that would ruin her life. I had become the monster they told me I would be if I gave into my urges.

"I had been considering the Army previously, mostly in terms of paying for college if I didn't make the team at the JC. I sat in my car all night waiting for the recruitment office to open. When I went in the recruiter gave me first aid and then did everything he could to convince me at least to think over the long weekend before committing. But in my mind I had nowhere else to go. I needed to be gone forever and I signed up for as close as they offered, which at the time was eight years.

"Basic training would start a few days later right after Labor Day weekend," I said. "It was well-executed misery, but I was glad to lose myself in the physical misery and be too exhausted at night to be kept awake by the emotional misery I couldn't outrun.

"I punished myself with my individual training, but the squad exercises pulled me out of the shell I tried to wrap myself in. Being part of a team was the one thing from before that I was able to hold onto. Then 9/11 happened and everyone knew they were training to fight even if they thought they were just there to get college paid for. I redoubled pushing myself and picked up pushing the guys in my squad. Turned out I was good enough at leading teams that I was offered an opportunity to train for the non-commissioned officer path. A shot at a career sounded really good at the time.

"I had the option, after four years, to change my commitment from Active to Reserve, not that it made much of a difference at that point in the War on Terror. But I hadn't reconciled with our parents and your Mom had gotten engaged and was planning on moving out of state. And the longer I was away the easier it became to believe that I had been wrong all along to think she wanted me the way I wanted her.

"Then she made the call about your father, and all the rationalizations for staying away just vanished. When I saw her for the first time since..." I paused and let out a rueful chuckle, "since I had come rushing to her defense that night. I can see in my mind both of you," I said looking at Dana, "the defiant teenager stunned at the slap you had just received and the enraged mother finding an ally. That girl's defiance was still there, wrapped in the wrath of a defending mother. I regretted in that moment all of the time I had kept myself away, not accepting your offers to visit, and having missed watching you become that, this, awesome woman. But, as you said, I was who you needed to teach you, and that was because I went away."

"I wanted you to stay beyond that week," said Dana. "Our best of both worlds could have started then if..." she looked to where my scars were concealed under my long sleeved shirt.

"Wouldn't have worked. The Army owned me for at least two more years, and your kids might have gotten the idea that it's okay for a brother and sister to live like husband and wife."

"Still not sold on it," piped up Simone. "We'll see." She took the hand Robbie had draped around her shoulders and put a little kiss on it.

"You know from our point of view that the two of you have gone from zero to married in a week," said Robbie. "This type of rash decision," I felt Dana tense at that description, "is really out of character for her."

"Not to mention her newly wild behavior," said Simone. "Nude sunbathing? Much less making a display of it on camera."

"Oh, sweet child," said Dana, "the camera may have been new but that was hardly the first time I've been outside for some all-over rays. So many nice days while you were at school."

That scandalized Simone, but I had spotted something she had nearly let slip. She had been forming an "M" but then shifted to the "N" for "nude". "M" for masturbate, which Dana had done for me on camera. Had she seen what Dana had been doing? Had she been watching? She was blushing, but was it from her Mom's revelation, or from her revelation?

I looked at Robbie and he met my gaze. He was keeping himself locked down, definitely one of the better impressions of a brick wall I had ever seen. He had gotten serious when the topic of the intensity of my relationship with Dana came up. Was he jealous? Had he picked up on, or had Simone told him about, Dana's attraction to him? I thought back to the handshake out by the car. He had looked me square in the eye and all I could remember was sincere welcome. Zero hostility then, and none now.

If they knew then they were respecting a boundary. Like Dana had said, "You have your brother, I have mine."

The conversation had continued between Dana and Simone.

"I always knew you weren't as 'mom' as, like, Mrs. Chen," Simone was saying, "but you are always so sensible when we are around." Simone looked to me. "Mom isn't the 'Let you get away with,' um, 'stuff' cool, more like sincerely interested in the scene type of cool."

"Then it's good to see I had kept my compartmentalization intact," Dana said.

"But then," interjected Robbie, "it had never been tested, at least where we've seen it. Like how we've never seen you go claws out."

"I've heard about it," said Simone.

"What?" Robbie asked incredulously.

"Word got around about the hot accountant who masterfully emasculated a creepy God's-gift lead singer. One story goes he asked her to sing into his 'microphone'."

"Well that was dumb," I said, "set himself up for 'putting the micro in microphone'."

"Close," said Dana, "I told him he'd never get get quality out of the lavalier he was using."

"Oh, shit!" Robbie said busting out laughing. I must have looked lost. Simone mimed talking into a tiny microphone between her thumb and forefinger, then clipping it to her lapel.

"Who was that?" asked Robbie. "In case I see him around."

"Don't worry about it," said Simone, "he decided it was a good time to try L. A. after Brian had a conversation with him."

"He's the band's bass player," said Dana.

I thought back to the music video she had shown me of Simone's band. I knew enough about music to recognize a bass from a six-string.

"The red-headed side of beef who only wore a kilt and Braveheart paint in the video?"

"That's him," said Dana. "You wouldn't recognize him from the last time you were here, but you met him and his mother, Jane, while she was helping us during the crisis."

I remembered the two of them. At the time the boy had just hit the on-ramp to his awkward years. Jane had been a bombshell redhead ready to explode if it would help protect her friend and her friend's family. She had sheltered the kids on occasion, as had the Chen family, and had joined us for a couple of sessions at the firing range.

"She's your coach, right?" I asked Simone.

"At first, yes," she said, "but just as much auntie and Mom's best friend since then. Oh, and speaking of compartments, Jane is also Mom's wing woman on her wild delayed-birthday nights out."

"Simone! I told you, all Jane and I do is karaoke and drink too much."

"Uh-uh, Mom, that may have flown when we were little, but we know that you smile too much when you get home for your only vice to be alcohol."

Dana was blushing to beat the band.

I went immediately to defuse her discomfort.

"You don't get to our age and not have a pile of stories," I said and leaned in conspiratorially to fake whisper loudly enough for everyone to hear, "if you ask nicely I'll show you the entire training course a particular rifle instructor had put me through. She took the whole weekend."

"There's more?" she asked

"For you, always."

I truly didn't care if she had other lovers in the past. I certainly had. I was just wondering why she had said none in the past eight years, although she did qualify it as anyone good.

"Robbie," asked Simone, "may I have a word with you in the kitchen?" When I turned from Dana to look at her, the best I could describe Simone's expression was playful. I fought to keep my reaction blank, mostly to let her keep her game of anticipation viable.

Robbie simply nodded and followed her out of the room.

"I can't believe she said that," muttered Dana.

"That was the last test," I said. "Would I react jealously? She was addressing you but her eyes were on me."

Dana leaned in and whispered, "About that..." I could see tension forming in her shoulders, apprehension behind her eyes. She had always been one to seize on a plan and drive it to her goal. Sometimes though she'd get hit with something altogether out of her control and she'd paralyze herself with analyzing in preparation for every possible bad outcome. It was never as frequent as she thought it was, but when it did I could usually get her out of the cycle with a laugh.

I cut off her explanation with a kiss. It startled her at first, but I felt her tension melt away as it continued. Too bad I wouldn't be able to use that method in public.

"I think," said Dana once I let her up for air, "that I like you breaking me out that way better than your jokes."

"Me too, but the jokes are top notch."

She gave me an indulgent smile.

"They like you. You're in," she said.

"Think so?"

"Yeah. They're just thinking they'll let us squirm a bit before they come in all solemn then deliver the good news."

"I'm thinking that too."

Dana put her arms around my shoulders.

"And what shall we do while we wait?"

I kissed her again. It quickly deepened, my hunger for her finding hers for me. It was not long at all before I was trailing tongue tip licks from just under her ear down to the pulse points of her neck.

"Oh, yes," she quietly moaned with a shiver. I reveled in her, her scent, her taste, the wonder of her in my arms pressed against me. She had moved her arms so she could put her hands around my head and squeezed me to her as if it were impossible for us to be close enough.

Suddenly I felt her lightly tap the back of my head.

"Done with your deliberations already?" Dana asked.

I snapped my head up, truly feeling like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Simone was standing a few paces from us, dramatically rolling her eyes. Robbie was right beside her with an arm behind her back. He wasn't working to control his expression, so I could see the quirk of his mouth that I figured for him was the equivalent of an ear to ear grin.

"Two minutes," said Simone in mock exasperation, "We stepped out for two minutes and come back to find you with your hands all over each other. If you two are so hot and heavy into each other, can we trust you two to keep it strictly in the house?"

"I'll have you know your uncle was a perfect gentleman the entire trip from the airport."

"Even with those jeans?" asked Robbie.

"It was a devious test of my mettle," I said, "but I maintained discipline."

"And we get to send you to your room if you two are misbehaving," said Simone. It was clear what her definition of misbehaving was.

"No no, Sweetie," said Dana, "I am still the grown up paying the mortgage here. I may demand, you may request."

"Although," I said, giving the matter deep thought, "if we were at that level you could expect us to take up the suggestion more often than not."

Simone looked at Robbie.

"Still good?" she asked.

"Still good," Robbie answered.

"Okay," she said and turned to Dana and I. "Please stand."

Dana and I shared a puzzled look and followed Simone's direction.

Simone turned first to me.

"Do you promise to love our mother as your wife?"

"For all the rest of my life, I do," I answered, looking deep in Dana's eyes

To Dana, "Do you promise to love our uncle as your husband?"

"For all the rest of my life, I do."

"Then get in there and kiss your husband."

Dana did as our impromptu officiant directed. We had spoken vows to one another several times in that week of discovering one another, but having her kids' blessing lifted away more apprehension than I realized I had been carrying.

That particular first kiss came to an end in laughter as we felt ourselves being pelted with what at first felt like sand. Dana and I opened our eyes to discover that Robbie had, since they came back from the kitchen, been concealing a container of rice behind Simone's back, and now they were throwing it over us.

"Enough! Enough!" cried Dana, "You will be cleaning all that up!"

"Of course," said Robbie. He put the container down on a coffee table and then stepped up to me with his hand outstretched to shake. Again he looked me square in the eye. "Be good for her."

"You have my word."

Simone and Dana embraced. Simone whispered something to her. Dana looked shocked and Simone had a wicked glint in her eye.

Robbie and Simone switched places and she pulled me down for a hug.

"Make her sing," she whispered, "and lots of encores."

"You read my mind," I said and gave her a wink.

Robbie and Dana's hug ended with cheek kisses, and she turned to me and offered her hand.

"Shall we retire to our bed, my groom?" she asked.

I took her hand.

"Indeed we shall, my bride," I answered. Instead of heeding the pull she put on it I pulled her into my arms and picked her up into a bridal carry as I had the first time I had taken her to bed at Mom's house. Dana squealed and giggled as I swept her up. She nuzzled her face into the side of my neck and sucked and nibbled on my earlobe as I carried her down the hallway. Meanwhile, Robbie and Simone resumed pelting us with rice as we walked.

I carried her through the doorway into her, our, room.

"Turn around," said Dana, "and I'll get the door."

I did as the lady directed. Robbie and Simone were right outside laughing and cheering us on. With one hand Dana grabbed the door and with the other gave her twins a saucy little fingertip wave. She shut the door with my making another turn and I drove it home with a bump from the backside.

I was fairly certain I heard a girlish squeak of surprise outside followed by Simone saying, "Oh yes, baby!"

I started to stride toward the bed when Dana said, "No, set me down."

I put her down on her feet. She had replaced her arms around my neck and was kissing me before I could straighten back up. She didn't press herself against me, instead leaving enough room to run a hand down my chest and over my crotch.

The groan was out of my mouth before I knew it was coming. She took hold of my belt buckle and took us through a half spin so that I had the bed to my back. At least I was reasonably certain it was behind me as Dana hadn't released our kiss so I had my eyes closed. She was working at my belt with one hand and the other behind my neck. Her patience ran out and she gave up on the kiss to focus on getting my pants down. She dropped my pants and briefs down to my ankles and pushed me backward onto the bed.

The near frenzy we were in ended with a moment of stillness. Dana stepped into my arms again and we kissed, softly and slowly and tenderly.

"Finally," she said with disbelieving glee, "I have you in our bed." Kiss. "Promise me something?"

"Stars and the moon, all you have to do is ask," I said.

She chuckled, the breath of it tickling my lips.

"Nothing so grand. Just be in bed with me when I wake up? I don't want so much as a second of thinking this had all been a dream."

"Done, and I'll make it worth your while if I have to wake you before I get up to do the necessary."

"Are you implying that you use this," she wrapped her fingers around my cock, "for more than just pleasing me?"

"I wouldn't have designed it that way, but it is the gear I was issued."

"Come to think of it, there is something else it is good for," she mused. Her fingers began stroking up and down my length.

"And what is that?"

She went to the floor on her knees before me.

"Making you go mad with pleasure." She licked the underside of my dome with the tip of her tongue and a shiver ran through my entire body.

"Don't worry though," she said, then put the same licks around the corona. That got a loud moan out of me. "The promise I made with these jeans still stands. You can have that treat whenever you help me take them off." With that she set to alternating between licking and kissing all up and down my shaft and balls.

By then I had lost track of all the rest of the world beyond Dana and the wonderful act of intimacy she was performing upon me. Even my sense of myself reduced down to just the organ she was tormenting with her fingers, lips, and tongue. I heard inarticulate grunts and groans that sporadically gained enough form to become vulgar exhortations and Dana's name as if it was a prayer. It must have been me because Dana's mouth was too wondrously occupied.

My control was rapidly running out and Dana could tell.

"Say my name," she commanded me. "Shout it out when I let you come."

I nodded dumbly. Anything to have her mouth covering me again.

She did more than cover me, she engulfed and swallowed me. The grip of her throat broke the last of my restraint.

"Oh Fuck! DANAAAAA!!!!" However much energy I put into that shout paled in comparison to the force of the eruption of my cum into her throat. The first time she had done this had been the best I'd ever had. This time was beyond even that. I was coming with such force, encouraged by her humming and swallowing, that I could likely have shot my soul out into her. Not that I would have minded, it belonged to her already.

She kept sucking and licking for many seconds afterward.

I must have zoned out briefly because next I knew Dana was standing in front of me examining her handiwork. She was topless with her left arm crossed under her breasts to hold her right elbow. Her other hand was raised to her face where she held the tip of her middle finger between her teeth. She stood with her weight to her right, giving her hips an alluring tilt. She was still in the jeans, although she did have the button and zipper undone.

Her eyes still had a hungry look in them despite how she had just devoured me. She might still have been hungry, but it was my turn to feast.

My sister had been busy while my senses returned to me. My shoes and pants had been removed and my shirt unbuttoned. I sat up slowly and slipped the shirt off.

And then I struck. Lightning fast I grabbed Dana around her waist and pulled her to me. She cried out in surprise, then laughed, and then moaned as I sucked as much of her breast as I could into my mouth and lashed her nipple my tongue.

"Oh fuck yes," she moaned. Her hands held my head, mine were high on her back, both of us adding force to my face into her bosom.

In time I slid my hands over every inch of her back. Ultimately my hands dipped under her waistband to fill themselves with her muscular cheeks. Her jeans and panties slipped only slightly and I found myself as impatient as she had been with my pants. I grabbed the waist and roughly pulled both garments down in three tugs.

I spun around with her in my arms and dropped her onto the mattress. As she had before, I felt the weight of a dream coming true. Dana, naked and waiting for me in her bed. The talk earlier had brought so many old feelings back to the fore. The pain of driving away that night. Had I heard her calling out to me as I turned the ignition? So many years of being ashamed of those fantasies, memories banished by her merely raising a hand in invitation.

"Come to me, brother," she whispered.

It was my turn to kneel. I ran my hands up and down her legs. I took her feet and set them on my shoulders, lifting her legs up so that I could encircle a thigh with both hands and stroke her from knee to just short of her center. Each time I did that she drew in a breath as my hands went up only to release it in a frustrated moan. I was watching her face as I went. Her eye lids were heavy with the building pleasure, and behind them I saw trust that her patience would be rewarded.

Keeping eye contact I began placing small kisses to her calves. She moaned as I worked my way up with tender kisses and flicks of my tongue. A long, light lick along the crease of her knee brought a gasp.

The scent of her arousal started a war in me. My intention to build her up to the greatest orgasm I could give her clashed against my thirst for her. Three days without tasting her honey was entirely too long. I resisted rushing to the treasure, keeping the slow pace, adding nips with my teeth as I crept ever closer.

"Oh, David," Dana moaned, "that feels so good." She put her hand on my head, trying to rush my approach. I resisted. Her breathing was becoming ragged. Her moans intensified. Like I had she was vocalizing her pleasure, sometimes saying my name, other times vulgarities. Her volume became such that I thought I heard echoes a couple of times.

I finally reached my destination. The last of my willpower went into slipping my tongue between her outer lips and slowly licking from the bottom up. Dana shook as I pushed as deep as I could into her vagina. I continued upward, her shakes intensified.

"Oh god, David, please," she demanded.

It was time. My tongue reached her clit. Her body snapped shut like a snare, her hands drove my head inward. Her legs, which she had kept relaxed and under control, coiled under my arms and trapped me.

But is it really a trap when there is nowhere else you would rather be?

The orgasm held Dana frozen for seconds. Then it broke through her with a groan projected with all the force of her core.

Then I got to work actively licking and sucking on all the parts of her pussy. Every part was given worship. I intended to keep her at that peak as long as she had done for me.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," she was chanting between gasps for air.

I whipped the tip of my tongue over her clit.

"Oh, FUCK!" she yelled. Her legs clamped down on me again. I used that tension to sit up higher, her legs on my shoulders lifting her up off the bed. I didn't need to hold her up myself so I used the freedom to slip a finger into her dripping channel and found her G-spot.

"Aaaah! DAVI-I-ID!". Her orgasm had shot up another notch. The catches in her cry synchronized to the rubbing of my fingertips in her.

I kept my efforts going on her through many seconds of groans and cries until her legs relaxed and she couldn't hold herself up anymore. I gently lowered her and laid myself down alongside her. She reached for me blindly, as if she didn't have enough energy to turn her eyes towards me, but once she felt me she found enough power to roll over and drape herself across me.

It took several minutes for her to catch her breath. At first I thought I was hearing an echo of her breathing, then I realized that the echo was calling Robbie's name. Very happily calling it.

"My minx of a daughter," said Dana, "asked that she and I sing a duet tonight."

"She told me to make you sing," I said, shifting a hand down to cup her butt, "with encores."

We held one another quietly for several minutes. Robbie and Simone were just beginning their play.

"You know," I said, "it hadn't occurred to me before, but Simone sounds like you. She has your voice."

Dana chuckled.

"Jane has said as much. Simone does so much more with it."

"I really need to hear more of her work then."

"Give Robbie a few minutes." I felt her shoulders tense for a moment and then relax. "About that other thing Simone said earlier..."

"I don't need you to explain anything..."

"But I do. You are the first man I've been with since the divorce. Each year Jane and I go out once I'm clear of the tax deadline. We would pack the twins and Brian off to the Chen's house and head out to drink and rock out at this one karaoke club." Again I felt her tense and then relax with a breath. "And then we'd come back to one of our houses and have sex together for the rest of the night."

She was looking up at me apprehensively, as if what she had just said could have possibly changed how I felt for her.

"Wow," I said. I really hadn't even considered that possibility. "How is Jane these days?" I asked. I had only met her two or three times in that one week, but I remember being impressed with the steel she demonstrated on behalf of Dana and Simone and Robbie. And I remembered she was incredibly hot.

"Still hot." Dana was looking at me with a little smirk. "I was jealous for a hot minute when she flirted with you."

"She did?"

"Please, that time we all went to dinner? All the times you were repeating 'situational awareness', and you, Sgt. Social Awareness Training, didn't notice the smoking hot redhead batting her emerald green eyes at you?"

"Nope, I was focused on the gorgeous brunette." Said gorgeous brunette shifted her leg across me. The situation was surreal in so many stimulating ways. Dana draped across me, imagining she and Jane being intimate together, and the sounds of Robbie and Simone in the next room, soon I found the relaxed state I was in banished.

"Were the two of you together at the time?" I asked.

Dana ran her fingernails lightly around my pecs and nipples. That elicited a shiver from me, and I did the same along her back.

"Mmmm, no, the nights out didn't start until after the divorce was final. That night I simply needed to get obliterated, but I did remember enough when we woke up naked in her bed to know we had both wanted," her hand slipped down and grasped my stiffening manhood, "and enjoyed what had happened. Since then, that one night a year, we're a couple of single women finding a bit of pleasure without complications."

"Oh, yes!" Robbie moaned from the other room. I felt Dana's body shake at the sound, her hand slowing in its stroke.

"I have a hard time seeing Jane remaining single if she didn't want to," I said through heavy breath.

"Nothing ever serious. She's never gotten over the death of Brian's father, even if that's been almost twenty years ago."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, YES!" That was Simone. She hit the same notes her mother did.

"You might consider keeping your time with your friend," I said. "You know, keep up appearances that having your brother living with you wasn't resulting in sexual fulfillment."

Dana reached across me and took my arm. Her pause at feeling the scars was less than ever before. She pulled enough to signal I should roll to her.

"We can talk about that later," she said. She guided me to rest between her legs. "Now tell me more about this 'sexual fulfillment'."

"I could tell you, but I'm better at demonstrations."

"Oh yeah? Prove i... Oh FUCK!!" Driving into her again was heaven, but there was also great satisfaction in wiping away the saucy look on her face by giving her exactly what we both wanted.

She pulled me down for a hungry kiss. I ground against her in a slow and steady rhythm. Our need to breathe broke the kiss, but she quickly set to nibbling at my neck and collarbones. Her hips demanded more speed and I obliged. Her legs around my hips demanded more force and I obeyed.

Soon her arms and legs tensed around me and I knew she was as close as I was. There was only one thing I could do to properly honor making love in our house for the first time. I wrapped my arms around her and lifted as I sat back onto my heels just as I had our first time together.

"Oh, yes, David!" she moaned as I lifted her. She found joy in my strength, and I swore to remain strong for her.

I allowed her weight to drive her down harder onto my cock. Her orgasm tore through her with a roar.

I held her in that position. She rested her head against my shoulder as our breathing slowed.

The quiet that followed was broken by the voices from next door.

"Oh yes!" moaned Simone, "Just like that touch me just like that! Uuunhhh!"

Dana softly laughed into my chest.

"The morning after the talk when I got back they were so contrite about being noisy."

"So much for that then."

"They've gotten slightly better over the past couple of days. They usually sound like they enjoy edging up until they can't hold back anymore." Dana began a slow grind on my still hard member. "Then they cut loose so loud I've reminded Simone to be careful of her voice. We'll settle on etiquette between the four of us later. Tonight we can all have our celebrations."

I was too lost in the sensations she was creating to answer. Her rhythm fell into pace with the sounds.

"They've claimed you," she whispered in my ear. "The way Simone leaned on 'our uncle' in our vows."

The other room had quieted.

"Let's switch," she said. I reluctantly let her go. She moved to all fours across the bed, and as I moved behind her I finally noticed the mirrored closet doors. We made eye contact through the reflection.

"Give it to me hard," she commanded. I lined up and went home in a resolute thrust.

Her eyes bore into me. "More!"

I grasped her hips and slammed in with a resounding clap.

"Yes! That's it!" Dana called out, loud enough that Robbie and Simone could hear it for certain.

I set a slow rhythm of stroking out until only my glans remained in her and slamming back into her delicious tightness.

"Of fuck, yes, baby!" Dana practically grunted out a word with each clap.

Soon I heard a counterpoint rhythm. Dana heard it too, and a look I knew from our childhood came across her face.

She was up to no good.

"That's it! Fuck your sister!" she loudly exhorted.

"Oh, God! Yes!" cried Simone in pleasure. She was definitely enjoying what Robbie had been inspired to do. Dana's eyes were on me. She had spoken to me, but she had also spoken to Robbie. I kept pounding into her as Robbie and I semi-consciously came to match pace. I was lost to the bliss of bringing ecstasy to my sister.

Dana was reduced to squeaks of pleasure as I kept up my assault. Simone, however, was not.

"Do her good, stud. Harder, fuck your sister!"

She may have meant her brother, or else she was her mischievous mother's daughter and meant the words for me. I didn't take a chance and went to another gear. I pulled Dana's hips to me with each thrust. Robbie must have done something new as well.

That blissful haze took over Dana's face and her pussy was constricting on me.

Both women were reduced to a four-beat mantra as their brothers pounded pleasure into them:

"Fuck, Your, Sis, Ter"

"Fuck, Your, Sis, Ter"

"Fuck, Your, Sis, Ter"

"Fuck, Your, Sis, Ter"

If either Dana or Simone began her orgasmic wail before the other it was too close to call. Even through my encroaching orgasm I was struck by how mother and daughter came in such perfect soprano harmony, Dana the lower, Simone the higher. A pair of bass roars followed.

Dana collapsed flat onto the bed. I managed enough strength to lift her up and turn her so our heads were in the general direction of the pillows. Despite her stupor she grabbed onto me like metal onto a magnet.

"There," said Dana, "Simone got her duet. Bravo, Maestro! I love you."

"Love you too."

*Simone*

The next morning was the time to process the revelations of the night before.

Uncle David had impressed the hell out of us, and it was obvious that he loved Mom as much as she loved him. There was no way we could bring ourselves to keep them apart any longer.

The "deliberations" Robbie and I had in the kitchen were little more than confirming one another's opinion and Robbie checking that I didn't get any creep vibes from David. I told him no.

"But get this," I said, "he said he grew up reading Mom and developed it more in the Army."

"Thought so," said Robbie. "He has exactly the same expression you have when you are doing a deep dive on someone's face."

I recalled his expression from when we fell into that reflection loop. The moment was unsettling, so easy to lose yourself in the other person.

"How come no one ever told me I had a look?"

"Most of the time it's simply 'Shut up and let Simone do her work'."

The sounds coming from her room last night had been eye opening. And incredibly hot.

I had had fantasies of Mom being sexual with me and Robbie, but what I had imagined had lacked information. Even watching her masturbate for Uncle David hadn't prepared us for the wild woman we had heard.

That she had such a primal side in her was the most surprising. That look in her eyes when she said that she would have killed our father to protect us had struck me to my core. It made me wonder if I would be capable of that if I became a mother.

For all of the world changing insights of the previous night, the next morning was still Wednesday. Robbie had an early class like most mornings, which had resulted in the older folk carrying on later into the night than the teenagers. If Robbie's drive wasn't one of the things I admired about him I would have objected to the unnaturalness of the circumstances.

As if fucking your brother while listening to your mother fuck hers was all that natural. But damn was it hot.

Lynne was coming to pick me up and I was waiting in the kitchen having a breakfast of bagel and coffee. I heard a door open and shortly later Mom came into the kitchen. She was wet from the shower and wearing a pool cover-up, a very happy expression, and I was certain nothing else.

"Good morning, Mom. Aren't you positively glowing."

She jumped nearly a foot in the air, so lost was she in her post-coital haze. Her shower had awesome acoustics.

"Oh! Sweetie! Thank you. I thought you had class this morning."

"Nope, Wednesday, so not until a more civilized hour. Lynne will be by soon."

She went to the cabinet and took down a pair of coffee mugs. She set the maker up for a fresh pot.

"Are you okay with last night?" she asked so quietly it was almost lost to the coffee maker.

I stepped over next to her so our conversation could be quieter.

"You got your star-crossed lovers finally united happy ending. You deserve to be shouting your happiness to the world."

"Not just that though. I mean, that one part."

My heart fluttered a bit at her bringing it up.

"That part where you were embracing the, um, brother-loving?"

She game me a knowing, side-long smile.

"Being siblings is a good start on the star-crossed part. But I want to be honest with you, I was also talking to Robbie."

I had wished that she had. Her being present and guiding us as Robbie and I made love was my dearest fantasy next to her joining us as a threesome.

Mom continued after watching my stunned reaction.

"It wasn't possible for your grandmother to keep quiet either, and sometimes I could hear her and I would imagine that I was making love with David at the same time. I would imagine that Mom knew of us and approved of us. In that moment I had an idea and decided to give you what I had wanted at your age."

I wrapped an arm around her waist in a side by side hug and rested my head on her shoulder.

"Then thanks for that, it was something I wanted too. Robbie definitely obeyed. Did Uncle David obey me?"

I felt a shiver pass through her.

"Oh yes."

A moment of happy silence passed between us.

"You being happy for me and Robbie is important to us. I know that it can't happen with Robbie, but do you want me to be a mom?"

"Hoo boy have I been going around and around in my head about this." Mom turned to me and took both of my hands in hers. "My inner eighteen year-old is howling at the betrayal, but my mother was right, being your mother has been the single greatest part of my life. From here I wouldn't change a single step regardless of how devastated I felt that night. I am angry at her and grateful to her that she restricted my choice like that. But she did take the decision from me, and that is what I am not going to do to you. The choice has to be yours. Whatever way you choose I will be here for you no matter what."

"I know you will be. It's just that I've been scared most of my life, music is a crutch, I don't know if I can be fierce like you."

"I didn't know I could be fierce until your father forced me. Then I found out that I had nearly too much. If David hadn't come I might have ended up the subject of a true crime podcast and you and your brother living with your grandparents while I was in prison. And don't worry about being fierce, my daughter, you already have been. You were fierce for Robbie when Monica hurt him. You have my bitch in your blood."

She had that look in her eye again. Under the love and comfort she had for us, my mother was metal. Pure, sharpened metal, and it called to me to stand alongside her for those we loved. Robbie was right, Stage Bitch had nothing Simone didn't have because Stage Bitch was the courage the shyness had hidden from me all along.

"I like that. Can I swipe it for a lyric?"

"Yes, but unlike your uncle I'd like a little credit."

"Sure thing," I said. My phone pinged with the more typical text message that Lynne had arrived. "Gotta go."

"Have a good day, Sweetie." Mom had pulled out a tray and was loading it with the coffee pot, mugs, and some fruit. Clearly she and Uncle David weren't planning on leaving her, their, room all day.

I stopped for a moment.

"Hey, Mom?"

"Yes?"

I sang the notes Robbie had brought out of me in that fantastic moment the four of us had shared, only a hundred times softer.

Despite her laughter Mom caught up to me with her part of the harmony.

There was no way in hell that that was not going to be a thing for the rest of our lives.

The next morning Robbie had the very early shift at the pool watching over people getting their laps in before work. He tried to get out of bed without disturbing me, but failing that he consoled me with a lovely orgasm from his tongue and fingers. I whipped a pillow over my face to muffle a scream so as not to wake anyone else.

Turned out there was someone else awake. I heard voices from the kitchen before I drifted off. Curious, I put on a robe to check it out.

"Holy fuck," I heard Robbie say. He didn't swear much, when he did it meant business. "You didn't end up with nerve damage?"

"Not a lot," I heard Uncle David say. "There are some numb spots even beyond the grafts. I got lucky. Lost maybe quarter of a pound of muscle, some chips off the bone, and near enough blood to do the job."

I had turned the corner while he was speaking. David was wearing a t-shirt with Army written across the front and a pair of exercise shorts. He looked as if he had just been out for a pre-dawn run. He had one leg of the shorts hiked up to his hip. Robbie was squatting down, his eye level at David's thigh.

David's face didn't look like he felt lucky. Sad, not lucky.

I moved around to see what Robbie was looking at. Mom had told us that David had been injured by a bomb. He hadn't emerged from the room any time we had been home yesterday so we hadn't seen him out of long sleeves and slacks. The scars looked like roadmaps or rivers surrounding islands. My imagination ran straight to what they must have looked as open wounds and I had to look away. David looked up at my gasp.

"Sorry," I said.

"It's OK," he said.

Robbie was practicing a clinical detachment. He was naming off blood vessels and nerves in the area.

"It wasn't as bad as it could have been," David said.

"Not as bad as it should have been," said Robbie. "Thanks for letting me see."

"No problem, Doc."

"I've got a lot of work to do before that. I have to get to work, see you later. Oh, and if you're looking for weight training I can set you up at the Y." Robbie stood, came to me, and gave me a simple tender kiss. "Have a good day, I love you."

"Love you too." I watched him go out the door then turned to Uncle David. "I'm sorry if I offended you just now."

He smiled warmly.

"I've gotten both empathy and disgust when people see this. You're definitely on the good side."

What happened next was the most intimate experience I had ever had with someone from across a room. We each let our wariness down and fell into reading.

"I am disgusted by them," he showed, memories rushing by, his scarred arm curling in as after he spoke about his reading skill protecting his squad. I knew he felt as if he had failed them.

"You didn't fail us," I thought, recalling being the timid mouse of a girl seeing the giant of a man who should have terrified her yet gave her comfort because he was Mommy's brother-protector as Robbie was hers.

"I never will," steel resolve behind his eyes, serious as the oath he gave our mother.

"Nor we you," the silent promise pulling my shoulders and chin up. I shed the mouse and wrapped myself in the metal my mother gave me. Because I had my mother's bitch in my blood.

Still, there was something from that time I needed to make amends for.

"I was so glad you were here to help Mom and make her feel better that time," I said, "but I couldn't make myself say thank you and give you a hug. Can we make up for it now?"

"It's never too late for family," he said and offered open arms. I stepped in and wrapped him up and immediately felt as safe as when Robbie held me.

He really was like Robbie crossed with a brick wall. I could feel the extra inches around his chest.

"I was an idiot for not visiting," he said. "I missed out on knowing you as you grew up."

"It's never too late for family," I repeated.

We laughed and parted.

"I think the first thing," he said, "is that I'd like to hear more of your music. Your Mom showed me the video."

"Do you have SoundCloud?" The blank look told me that not all Millennials knew the basics.

Once set up he asked me, "What name am I looking for?"

"Somnitorium."

"Dream Room?"

"Nice," I said, "we usually have to explain it to those who don't read file notes."

"I picked up some Latin while getting my history degree. Why that though?"

"Tim, drums," I filled in when his expression reminded me that he hasn't met any of my friends yet, "first suggested it after rounds of rejects about night and dreams. Everybody found something they liked about it. For me, it's about the spiritual place we go when we dream. Lynne, keyboard," he had the look that he had heard of her from Mom and that she'd be a topic to discuss later, "likes 'the implications of the psyche and the mental state'. If you ask Dot, rhythm guitar, she'll insist it's the physical space of the bedroom and give you a ridiculously lecherous eyebrow wiggle. Malcolm, male vocals and guitar, just likes that it sounds like 'sanitarium' and that we're all nuts."

"The one song I've heard had some really big sound, like there's a whole damn orchestra behind you."

"That's Lynne. She can make a synthesizer do things that border on witchcraft."

That second mention of Lynne caused a cloud of concern to fall over David's face. That was not a conversation I wanted just then so I needed to head it off.

"So tell me, who's your favorite act?" I asked.

That derailed him. I was surprised when he got a devious expression.

"Well, there was this one band, but they were really underground, you've probably never heard of them."

I laughed out loud.

"I'm sorry but hipster does not work for you."

"Let me show you something," he said. He lead me to the guest room and opened his duffle bag. He pulled out one of those folders people used for CDs. "Take a look through this."

I unzipped it and looked at the first disc. It was a home made disc with the songs listed in sharpie on the front. I was reading the titles and artists for insight into David when what was more important hit me.

"That's Mom's handwriting," I said.

"That's right, she had sent me about one a month whenever I was on deployment. Army radio sucked, and those discs practically made me the squad DJ. At least for grunge and metal fans."

I flipped through the pages, reading names that had the songs playing in my mind's ear I had heard them so often growing up. I would often sing them with Mom.

Towards the end I came across an odd one. It had a printed face, a simple ice blue field, "Frostglow" written across the top which I guessed was the band name, "Crescendo" smaller to the left of the hole, "Frostglow" again as a self-titled song to the right, and a phone number on the bottom.

"A demo disc?" I asked.

"Yep," he said. David was being cagey and he was good at it. On one level I was insulted, on another I was intrigued, I couldn't remember the last time someone other than Robbie was a challenge. "Give it a listen."

"If I may take this to my room?"

"By all means," he said, gesturing for me to lead the way.

I sat at my computer while David stayed at the door. The computer started up when I opened the disc drawer. The disc went in, and I put on my good headphones.

The first song started. The drums through the intro were totally cringe. The guitar was passable.

Then the vocals started. The woman's voice was clear and precise and was transcendent over the mediocre instruments. The song was rage and rebellion but the voice was unmistakable from when it had soothed us with lullabies.

My hand tapped the space bar to pause the music without my mind giving it instruction.

"That's... Mom," I whispered in awe. David nodded. His gaze was thousands of miles away. I could almost hear the music playing in his head.

Tap again and the music returned. As appropriate for a song called Crescendo, each verse built to a burst in its refrain, and each refrain built a promise of a clarion call to war and the righting of wrongs.

And then she missed it.

Her pitch was prefect, the timing precise despite the sloppy drumming. It was technically perfect but emotionally anticlimactic. She needed to trigger a release, but she didn't. Couldn't?

I looked up to see David. He saw my confusion and couldn't understand it. He wasn't immersed in music the way I was. I wanted to explain to him that she had been so close to perfect, but to him she already was.

I was trying to bring together words to say that I was both awestruck and unsatisfied when the second song started.

All of my questions were answered in seconds. Frostglow was about yearning and separation through the metaphor of a frozen world. The moonlight was mockery as the warmth of the one she loved was too far away to see the same face she saw.

Mom had failed on Crescendo because it was bravado and bluster. Frostglow was her truth, and her singing was masterful amidst merely competent instrumentation.

I had closed my eyes to lose myself in the sound. Tears still escaped regardless. When I opened them I saw David. He was so proud of Mom, and he was pleased that I understood.

"She was singing to you," I said.

"I liked to think so."

"She absolutely was. I'm kind of mad at you that you heard that and didn't go running back to her."

"I was still hating on myself back then. I believed," I saw his right hand flex as if to shake away the pain of striking something, "a lot of things that made me the villain of what happened. I saw her as every beautiful thing, and I cast myself as the beast."

Across the frame of the doorway Mom's hand appeared and rested lovingly on his arm. Neither of us heard their door open and we startled.

"Beauty and the Beast had their happy ending, and so have we," she said. "I know you went for a run, what are you doing up so early?"

The wonderful voice and the messy haired mother connected seamlessly in my mind. Along with that an idea I had been toying with solidified.

I whipped the headphones off, raced to them, and wrapped us all in a big hug. I relaxed only enough to look from David to Mom.

"I just heard the most amazing singer ever!"

Mom looked from me to David and back. A look of horrified realization settled over her.

"You didn't..." she said with a betrayed glare at David.

I cut that right off.

"Mom, you were, you are magnificent! You are my hero, Dana Smith is my idol! I've been thinking about it for a while now, but now I'm sure: when I'm singing, when I am my awesome bitch self on stage, I want to be Simone Smith, Dana Smith's daughter, not Bruce Bowman's. If not a full legal name change then at least my stage name."

"Oh, Sweetie, I'd be honored," Mom said. She looked up to David. "I've been considering going back to my maiden name myself."

I was feeling giddy. Mom and David each had an arm around me. I stretched up and put a kiss on David's jawline. I turned to Mom for the same, but she reacted to my turn and my lips connected with hers. Both of us surprised, but neither pulled away. I became keenly aware of her breast pressing into mine, my other crushed into a masculine torso as many of my fantasies included.

"Oops," she said, pulling away with a nervous chuckle.

"Yeah, sorry," I said. I turned quickly to get back to the computer, not risking a look at Uncle David. There was no way I could conceal from him the storm of emotions that kiss had started.

"Come on," I heard Mom say, "let's get you cleaned up before we start the day properly."

"Now that sounds like a nice idea," David said. "Have a good day, Simone."

"Um, yeah, you too," I said. I just knew that I had to be glowing from how I just embarrassed myself.

I needed several minutes after I heard their door shut before I could get my mind back under control. I went back to the songs on the disc, and the one thought that came to mind was that Mom had deserved so much better than the players she had. I ripped a copy of Frostglow to the band's shared cloud drive and sent a message to Lynne and Tim to listen to it ASAP.

I was surprised when the three dots popped up from Lynne.

Lynne: What the hell are you doing up so early?

Me: Robbie had an early shift, then I got into a conversation with Uncle David where he showed me a disc with that track on it. Why are you up?

Lynne: I was having a dream where Lzzy Hale and Taylor Momsen were competing to give me the better sexual favors for the role of Brunnhilde in my metal opera. I woke up so horny I had to take care of business. Just now finished.

Me: Who won?

Lynne: I did :: peach:: :: water drops::

Me: Slut. Anyway, give that track a listen

Lynne: OK, firing it up

About thirty seconds later the video call alert sprung up from Lynne.

"Holy shit!" she whisper-yelled, "Is that your mom?!"

"Yes! It's from a demo she cut... you know, I didn't ask Uncle David exactly when it was from. Anyway, from before we were born obviously."

"Hang on, let me finish listening to it." She went back to her headphones, and I could tell she was getting emotional as well. "I knew she was good, but damn. If she had a better band behind her she would have gone places."

"I know, and that's why there's something I want to do for her. I want Tim to lift her vocals out of the track and we lay down better instruments for her."

"That would be awesome, but tell me something, did she write this? Do you think she'd let us use it?"

"I don't know." That hadn't occurred to me. The emotion she put behind that song told me that the lyrics were all her. I wasn't sure how I felt about doing a cover of it when I was more interested in giving Mom the presentation she deserved.

"Just think about it. We can do the cover and your Mom's version goes on as a bonus track."

"I'll have to ask."

We settled into details about the song until it was time to get ready for class.

I had a hard time facing Mom and Uncle David over the next couple of days. Did people walk on eggshells like that around me when they had something they felt embarrassed about? On honest reflection, yes they did and I could tell when they were.

Neither Mom nor David brought it up or even indicated that they thought anything of what happened. I was sure Mom thought there was nothing more than "oops", but I felt too much respect for Uncle David's skills to count on him thinking the same.

It all came to a head on Saturday. Robbie had gotten up a little before me and intended to get a swim in. We could hear Mom and David up and about in the backyard.

I pulled on a pair of panties and the sweatshirt that had formerly belonged to Robbie. It was modest enough in length on me for careful lounging about the house. The timing worked that we came out of our respective rooms and into the kitchen together.

Outside Mom was in the pool and David was doing calisthenics. He was shirtless and he hadn't lost much of the "hunky Army boy" of Mom's picture. He was holding himself in the bottom of a push up with his hands on the rim of the pool. Mom had her arms around his shoulders and pulled herself up out of the water enough to engage her brother in an intense lip lock.

"Now isn't that cute?" I said. Then David hopped his feet under himself, hooked his hands under her arms and lifted her up and out of the pool. Mom let out a joyful yelp. Proof positive, Mom really liked the strength maneuvers. It was so nice to see Mom being playful.

I gave Robbie a sidelong look and found him looking back. Just after Mom's door closed that first night Robbie threw me over his shoulder and carried me to my bed. I loved being handled by my man's strength as well.

We were standing by the door and Robbie asked, "Let me slip by?"

I slid open the door and said, "There's a toll though." We kissed in the doorway and I helped myself to a none too subtle grope as he walked by.

When I looked back up to Mom and David her playfulness was gone. I saw she had her face in his chest and her arms were tense as if clinging to a rock in a stormy sea.

David put his fingertips to her chin and lifted her face up to his, and he gave her a look filled with empathy and love for her. They shared a brief kiss and a quiet whisper. They parted and as she turned she slipped into her "Of course I've got things handled, I'm Mom" mask.

"Good morning, Honey," she said to Robbie as he walked by him. I couldn't miss the repressed urge to touch him or the hitch when she said Honey.

"Good morning, Sweetie," she said to me as I stepped aside for her at the door.

"Good morning, Mom," I replied. I didn't bother to ask if something was wrong. I knew what it was and that she would never put that burden either Robbie or me.

She went by and I looked back into the yard. Robbie had just dived into the pool and David was coming to the door. In a moment of eye contact we established that we needed to talk.

I went about making some coffee and toast for us to kill a little time. Mom came out from her room in her casual work clothes and told us that she'd be booking client receipts from Friday night. Soon she was in her office with Stone Temple Pilots playing. Robbie was doing laps and his usual habit was to catch some rays and then more laps.

I sat at the kitchen counter next to Uncle David. There was a moment if silence before he spoke.

"When you went to visit your grandmother, did she refer to your mom as 'Sweetie'?"

"Yes, she did." I smiled at the memory, the childish befuddlement at Mommy being referred to by the same girlish name as she used for me. Then the next step of the pattern fell into place. "You were Grammy's 'Honey' then?"

"For a long time, yes." His eyes were distant, seeing memories rather than here and now.

"Until it stopped," I prompted.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"One day very soon after we turned eighteen Mom surprised me with a different type of hug. Kind of like the way you would slow dance with someone. I was a typical eighteen year old guy except I had been struggling with incestuous thoughts frequently of my sister and occasionally of her. So when she held me like that I, um, got an erection."

The pain on his face was immense. I hardly knew him beyond the fact he loved my mother more than anything in the world, but I could tell this was the deepest hurt he had to share.

"She screamed 'No!' at me, ran to her bedroom and barricaded herself inside. I tried to apologize but she yelled at me to go away. From that day on she would barely tolerate my presence and never again called me 'Honey'."

I reached a hand towards his.

"May I?" I asked.

He simply turned his palm up and I clasped his hand in mine.

"I don't understand why she reacted so forcefully," I said. "With her own history, how could she not so much as talk to you?"

"For the longest time I didn't either. All that summer I felt like a whipped dog. I just accepted that I deserved it. Then that night came and she hit Dana. Then everything went to hell."

"What changed? What ended the longest time?"

He came out of his memories and looked at me with respect for my insight.

"The same that changed everything between Dana and me, Mom's diaries. She didn't push me away because she was disgusted with me, she kept herself away because she was sexually attracted to me."

He gave me a moment to process that information.

"She doubted her self-control that much?" I asked.

"Mom had always been the free-spirited, spontaneous one between Mom and Dad. Any random day we weren't in school she could tell Dad to take a sick day and we'd go to the zoo or the river something like that. Turns out she was like that even when they were kids."

"Like Mom was the instigator between the two of you," I prompted.

He stopped to think, then laughed.

"I never made that connection. You're right." Then his face became serious.

"Ultimately I think she was afraid that she'd have an impulsive moment like when she had hugged me. Afraid that she would be unable to stop herself from seducing me and ruining any chance of Dana and I having lives that were more than truncated copies of her and Dad. Instead it all ended when she impulsively slapped your Mom."

"Like when she impulsively kissed her brother and made love with him," I said, and then waved a hand to encompass us and everything around us as if to say, "and here we are".

"Right again."

"So Mom is walking on eggshells out of fear of hurting Robbie on one hand or you on the other," I said.

"Or you, that you'd think she was showing too much affection towards your man."

"I think I'd prefer that to the way she keeps herself locked up since she has been back."

"As opposed to how she was before?" he asked.

"Yea..., " I started before I could clap my trap shut. He was looking level at me with the same respect. "Yes, Robbie and I knew she has a thing for him. Or at least I know and Robbie doubts it as too good to be true."

"Heh," David snorted, "now that's a tune I'm familiar with. Were you and are you okay with your mother and brother having those feelings for each other?"

"Yes. In fact I would have accepted them exploring those feelings so long as I had my time with Robbie."

David nodded but kept his gaze steady on me. I met it and we fell into the reading loop again.

Him: "Is there anything else?"

Me: "You know there is, but I don't want to talk about it now."

Him: "Whenever you are ready."

"I think," I said, "that Robbie should be here for this topic."

Robbie was drying himself for a sun worshipping phase when I called him inside. Uncle David told his story again.

"Oh god," said Robbie, "I had thought that what she felt for me was just displaced wanting you. How can I tell her to give me up without hurting her? Damn that sounds narcissistic, but you know what I mean."

"That may be not the right way," said David. "Is that what you want?"

To anyone else it would have been like Robbie froze up. For me his face simultaneously showed it wasn't what he wanted and fear of telling an experienced soldier that he had designs on his woman.

"Don't worry about it," David said with a sad laugh, "I had those same feelings for my Mom, and I let them make me the bad guy of what happened for a lot of years. Your mother and I will not do that to you."

Robbie drew and released a big breath.

"I do want to make love with her."

"Then we're going to have to get her in this conversation," said David. "Should I go get her?"

"No!" Robbie and I exclaimed together.

"If she hasn't told you yet," I said, "if the office door is shut and the music is playing Do Not Interrupt The Flow."

"Seriously," said Robbie, "she's got the Beautiful Mind-Rain Man numbers-floating-around-her-head mental state going. Snapping her out of that would be like waking her up with a glass of ice water in her face."

David was laughing.

"She was like that just listening to music, and last week as she was plowing through your grandmother's journals. Years of writing in a few hours."

"Saturdays aren't that long for her," I said, "maybe another hour or so."

"Well if we're going to do a family meeting I should go get a shirt on at least," said Robbie.

"Aww, if you must," I teased.

"A good idea for all of us," said David. I looked from Robbie to him, somehow I had forgotten he wasn't wearing a shirt either. He wasn't the lean and shapely form I liked on Robbie. I remembered that Pops had been a bulky guy. David still had it as muscle. I felt the protective aura on him from eight years before, that he would be dangerous to anyone dangerous to us. It was a different energy to the way Robbie had protected me, but it was still comforting. And, now that I was older, alluring.

The guys put on t-shirts and I got tights. We had iced teas with a spare for Mom. The music cut off after just under an hour later. Mom came out a few moments later quietly singing Interstate Love Song.

"What are all of you doing out here?" she asked when she saw us in the family room.

"Here," said David, "have a drink and a seat." He patted the spot on the couch next to him. I had him where Robbie and I sat on the night he arrived, which was where we at when Mom confronted us about our relationship.

Mom took drink and seat and looked around to find all attention on her.

"What's going on?" she asked. "This is starting to feel like an intervention."

"In a way it is," I said. Robbie and I were on the love seat, but I suddenly felt this needed more intimacy. I stood up, moved Mom's and David's drinks to the other end of the coffee table, pulled it out from them a couple of feet, and beckoned Robbie to come sit on it with me like Mom had when she first told us of her story with David. I made sure Robbie was directly opposite of Mom.

Mom was starting to look nervous. David put an arm around her and gave her an assuring look.

"We need to talk to about how you take responsibility for everyone's happiness. I know, I know," I said putting up a hand to forestall her objection, "you are the mom and you have to look out for Robbie and me. Now you have David and things should be great, but there is something dragging you down and it's time to face it. For your sake most of all."

"I'm sorry...," she whispered.

"No," said Robbie, "don't apologize. Simone and I know you have feelings for me." Mom's face twisted in agony. Robbie took her hands and made sure to catch her eyes. For the first time, he let out that he felt the same pain and longing she had. "I have them too, and the way you've been pulling yourself away from me..."

I was stunned. How could I have missed how much he was hurting?

"This is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I don't know what to do." She looked to David.

He squeezed her shoulder and she turned to him. He leaned in to whisper in her ear. She tensed and looked at him in disbelief for a moment. Then she gained her resolve and said quietly, "Always."

He whispered another question.

"Yes," she said aloud. She turned to Robbie. "I'm sorry. Yet again protecting each other only seems to cause hurt. How do we make his better?"

"First, let me choose how I'll risk being hurt. Then, how about the hug you've been afraid to give me for the past week?" asked Robbie.

Mom smiled sadly, stood, and pulled on his hands to stand. When he did she stepped into his arms and wrapped hers around his waist. He held her and rested his cheek on the top of her head. They both relaxed into the embrace.

Mom looked to me and David. Both of us gave her a subtle nod. She shifted her arms to around his shoulders and pressed herself to her son more intimately. His hands began to roam over her back and Mom made a happy little sigh.

Both suddenly froze. She shifted her hips as she confirmed what she felt. Robbie was terrified. A moment of conflict crossed her face, torn between the choices she faced. Then I watched her make one.

"Thank you, Honey," she said, "that is the truest compliment a man can pay a woman." Robbie relaxed.

The way Mom said "Honey" was as it should have been, sweet and smooth. Her timidity around Robbie was gone.

Mom took one hand from around Robbie and held it out to me.

"Sweetie?"

Did she want me to join them?

I stood and went to take her hand. She surprised me as she took mine from the back. Then slipped it between their bodies, and placed it on Robbie's groin. He and I both groaned at the contact. She kept her hand on mine, slowly guiding me in stimulating him.

"I want to make love with you Robbie, and maybe we will later," she said. "Right now though we are two couples in very new relationships. We should take our time before making things more complicated."

She turned to me.

"Our brothers are both very attractive men, don't you agree, Sweetie?"

I was lost in the sensation of Robbie in my hand on one side and Mom's hand on the other. I was very happy to be the tool she was using to stimulate her son. I looked at David, and she was right. The pleasures my mother had found in him were magnifying the imaginings I had created in my "stage fright cure".

"Yes they are, we are two very lucky sisters," I said.

"Would you mind if I flirted with Robbie? I have craved to feel his muscles."

My eyes were on Uncle David. His muscles were of a different type, and I wondered what his felt like.

"I wouldn't mind at all. What do you think Robbie? Would you like Mom to touch you?" As I asked I gave his cock an extra little squeeze.

"Whenever you like, Mom," he said. His breathing was deep and rapid. "May I?"

"I'd like that, Honey."

I turned my eyes back to David, traveling up and down his form. We met eyes and our silent communication began.

"May I?" I thought with a nibble of my lip.

"I shouldn't," he gave with a look away and back.

"I trust you," with a nod.

"Simone," Mom said. I turned to look at her and she had a knowing expression. "Your brother has gotten all worked up. Perhaps you should take him to his room."

"Yes, Mom." I looked at Uncle David. "Your brother is worked up too. You should do the same."

Mom considered. "Request denied. Now get to your room because I am going to make good use of my couch."

"Yes, Mommy," I said, matching her wicked grin. "One question, how do you make him yell like that?"

"Use the tip of your tongue on specific points of his cock," she said, guiding me for long strokes on Robbie. "Now if you will excuse me, your uncle needs to be punished for sharing that disc without my permission. Come down here please, Honey." Robbie leaned down and Mom put a soft kiss right on his lips.

I lead Robbie to his room. Mom had made him putty in my hands, except for the part I would torment with the tip of my tongue. Soon two men were begging for release, and a little later mother and daughter found their harmony again.