El Rancho del Corazón
68 Announcement
“ARE YOU READY for this?” I asked as I turned down Mosquito Road Wednesday afternoon.
“I never thought I’d be this nervous,” Doreen said as she hugged my arm. “Is it too early? You can’t see anything yet.”
“If we don’t do it now, word will filter out. Everyone at the ranch knows. Hell, they were all present!”
“Oh, God! I never in a million years thought I would ever have to face your parents and tell them I was pregnant by their son. Brian, do you love me?” I glanced over at her and tears sparkled in her eyes.
“Mother of my child, I love you with my whole heart,” I said. I turned down the cinder drive to my parents’ house.
Anna was in the kitchen when we got there. She took one look at Doreen and me and said, “Oh my God! Marilyn will faint.”
“Don’t say anything!” I said as I hugged Anna to me. “We want to tell them.”
“I won’t need to say anything,” she laughed. “Doreen, please let me hug you. I’m going to be a grandma!” Wow! I never even thought about that. If Mom and Dad were grandparents, then Anna was, too, even if she wasn’t related by blood. Our baby was going to have so much loving!
“How did you know?” Doreen asked.
“Oh, honey. You just glow. And Brian is hovering over you like a mother hen. Brian, get the martini makings ready. I think your parents are going to need a cocktail tonight. And if you want to make the announcement before they guess, you’d better do it as soon as we settle into the big chair for our drink.”
Doreen hid in the bedroom until I had served martinis to Mom, Dad, and Anna as the three cuddled in Dad’s big recliner. I noticed that he’d replaced it with a bigger model and wondered what he’d done with the old one. As soon as they were settled, I brought Doreen out and stood in front of them.
“Mom, Dad, Anna. I knocked up my sister’s best friend. You’re going to be grandparents,” I said as we came into the room. Mom spit martini out her nose and dumped the rest on Dad’s lap. Oh, that had to hurt. She was up out of that chair so fast that Anna spilled her martini, too. Mom crushed Doreen to her in a hug. Then she pointed a finger at me.
“You!” Tears sparkled in her eyes and she pulled me into a hug, too. “You made me waste a perfectly good martini.” Dad and Anna crowded around us to hug as well and all five of us were wiping tears from our eyes.
Once there had been the obligatory tummy pats, hugs, and refreshing of martinis, we sat back down in the family room and Mom and Anna curled up in Dad’s lap again. Not to be outdone, Doreen sat on me on the sofa.
“We have to call your sister,” Mom said. I’d noticed she dragged the phone to the side table. Doreen kissed me to keep me from giggling while Mom dialed. We could only constrain ourselves through more kisses as Mom connected with Betts. Anna shot us a meaningful look. That woman is way too perceptive sometimes.
“Well, guess who is sitting in our living room,” Mom said into the phone. “No, it is not President Bush. Your brother and your best friend are here.— Yes, I’ll let you speak to them. I think you should have a little talk with the two of them.” She reached out and Doreen grabbed the phone.
“Hi, Betsy baby. Guess what. I’m preggers.— No. It was your evil little brother.— Well, you know. The usual way.— No, I’m not mad at him.— Married?” Doreen turned to me. “You didn’t bring me up here to marry me, did you?” I shook my head. “Definitely not getting married.— Well, what are they going to do with the other fifteen when they get pregnant? They are going to have a lot of grandchildren, you know.— Okay. I love you.” Doreen handed the phone back to Mom. “I think she wants you to lecture me.” She buried her face in my neck and started to giggle as Mom put the phone to her ear.
“You’re what?” Mom screeched. Anna caught her martini before she could dump another one on Dad. Dad had started laughing, so either he heard Betts or had just figured it all out. “I am going to disown all of you! I’ll leave my fortune to The Salvation Army! You all planned this. You have to have been planning it for months! How am I supposed to be at both my grandbabies’ births when you live 2,000 miles apart? You’d better have that figured out before they are due, let me tell you!” Mom’s rant dissolved into laughter as she gave the phone to Dad and let him congratulate Betts.
“I never thought about how you’d be at both births, Mom,” I said. “You have to choose ours. Betts has already had her first.”
“Don’t you look so smug,” Mom said to Anna. “They’re your grandbabies, too. We might have to split the duties.”
“Oh, wouldn’t Betts love it if I showed up at her baby’s birth instead of you!” Anna laughed. “I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out when Brian served the martinis. I knew as soon as they walked through the door. I’ll even bet that none of those answers Doreen gave on the phone had anything to do with what Betts was saying.” Dad handed Anna the phone. “Me? Hello, Betts.— You would?— But…— I love you, too, Betts. ’Bye.” Anna’s eyes were leaking. “She said she’d love to have me with her when her baby is born.” Mom and Dad both had tears in their eyes, too.
“Sometimes that girl surprises even me,” Dad said. He kissed both his women thoroughly. I took the opportunity to follow his example.
After dinner, we talked late into the night. I explained what we wanted to do with the barn. We had enough cash left in our construction account to do the planned addition of the front porch. In fact, Ron already had his crew slated to come out and do the foundation on Friday. We would do most of the work after the foundation was poured. There was no plumbing or HVAC for the porch and limited wiring. The roof of the main part of the porch would be a deck accessible from the front windows on the second floor. That had all been planned last year, but we ran out of time before school started. Based on the plans and recorded costs of the loft last year, we had a pretty good estimate of $22,000 for the completion of the dormitory. We had nearly $10,000 in our casa savings account from the sharing of proceeds from the television show. That wouldn’t dip into the Hearthstone accounts. They were set up to fund further production.
“Are you sure you want another bunkhouse duplex out there?” Anna said. “I don’t object in principle, but I’d hate for it to start looking like a cookie cutter development. The exterior of the bunkhouse was supposed to look like a natural addition to the features of the ranch. A second bunkhouse might spoil that.”
“We had originally thought of two cabins instead of the bunkhouse,” I said. “We’d even considered two mobile homes. What do you think we should do?”
“I think I should come down to Bloomington and talk to Casa del Sol,” Anna said. “We should really think long term. It might be best to subdivide it. Maybe we could all go down next week.” Mom and Dad readily agreed.
We stuck around Wednesday evening. It was just too exciting to share this info with Mom and Dad and Anna. And when we all went to bed, Doreen and I made sweet love while talking about our dreams for our baby. And until baby was born, we were exempt from the condom rule. Sliding into Doreen’s pussy with my bare cock was heavenly and we replayed our favorite scenes from getting her pregnant.
Thursday, though, both Doreen and I had agendas. We spent most of the day scurrying around to her friends’ homes. I dropped her off and ran to the mall to pick up my tux and flower. The tux rental place was a little miffed at me because I’d put on some breadth in my shoulders. They fussed, but in the end, I ended up with a good fit. I went to pick up the corsage for prom as well, but the florist just stared at me.
“Prom flowers won’t be ready to pick up until Friday,” she said. “They don’t keep forever, you know.”
“Oh, right,” I said. “I just was here to pick up my tux and thought I’d do everything at once. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“As many times as you’ve done this, you’d think you’d know. What did you do, have to repeat your senior year?”
“No. One of my girlfriends is a senior this year. I’m sure this is the last one I’m going to.”
“Five?”
“Yes, though one of them was in Kokomo. I still got the flowers here.”
“Oh, yes. Flowers for two. And how many Jobie events?”
“Three. Nikki never really liked to go to them unless she was required.”
“And Valentine’s Day?”
“All right. Yes. I should know about this by now. And now that I add them up, I’ve been keeping you in business for the past five years, haven’t I?” She actually snorted at that.
“You and every other lovesick puppy you know. You just happen to have the most occasions. Where were you at Valentine’s Day this year?”
“Oh. We live down at Bloomington now. I’m sorry, I had to get all twelve flowers locally.” That shut her up at last. Her mouth opened and her head shook as I left the shop to go pick up Doreen.
“I’m staying at TK’s house tonight, in case you want to bring Mary home,” Doreen said. “She’s in our casa and is excited that I’d stay with her after all the times she’s stayed with us.”
“I don’t know if Mary and I will sleep together at all on this trip,” I said. “We’re kind of building up for after graduation.”
“Well, you could call any of the juniors,” she laughed. “Have fun, Brian.”
“Doreen, are you upset that we aren’t getting married? Mom kind of harped on that a lot last night,” I said. I guess it was predictable that she’d want her grandchild to have parents who were married to each other. Doreen argued effectively, though.
“No, Brian. You can’t marry every girl who bears your child. Just know that we will always love you and always welcome you.” That really said something to me. I pulled back by the barn and led Doreen to the hayloft. I had so many memories of this place. I still had an hour before I needed to pick up Mary for our date this evening. “Are we going to have a make-out session in the legendary hayloft?” Doreen laughed.
“Maybe, but that’s not why I brought you up here. Doreen, I just realized that we are intimately bound together forever. We are going to have a child together. I know he’ll be raised as part of Casa del Agua, but Doug and I will both be fathers to him, just like you and Rhiannon will both be mothers.”
“And Hannah,” Doreen added. “I was serious about that.”
“Dor, we have a term for a couple or more who agree to a long term, intimate relationship. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before,” I said. I seated her on an old bale of hay and knelt before her. “Doreen Swift, will you be my cónyuge?”
“Oh my… oh my… ohmygod! Brian! Can we do that?”
“I don’t see why not. We meet the definition. I have several cónyuge. Hannah and Samantha have two. Jennifer and Courtney have two. Doug, Rhiannon, and you have two. Carl, Louise, and Brenda have…”
“I get it! Okay. But we’re members of different casa. How does that work?”
“We’ll have to run it by our hearthmates, but I think it simply means that you are fully a member of two different casa. Will you, Doreen? Will you be my cónyuge?”
“Yes! If our hearthmates agree. I love you!”
Well, we did make out in the legendary loft, but I managed to get to Mary’s house in time for our date.
“Miniature golf? I’ve never played!” Mary said excitedly. She was dressed perfectly in a miniskirt and halter top. I hadn’t chosen our activity until I saw the day was bright and the evening was warm.
“Well, I’m no pro, but I’ve played with one, so I’ll try to pass on any tips I have,” I grinned.
“Why do I feel this is like other activities you have more experience with than I do?” she laughed.
When we got our clubs and balls, I stopped her before we reached the first hole.
“Mary, I always thought that golf was a game for people who thought fishing was too fast-paced. But my tutor showed me ways to make the game more fun. I give you my explicit permission to touch me outside my clothes in any way, as long as it doesn’t draw unwanted attention to us. May I have your permission for the same?” I said. She grinned at me.
“To touch me? Outside my clothes? In any way that doesn’t draw unwanted attention? Permission granted. Golf might become my favorite sport.”
We played and it didn’t take Mary long to figure out the fun part of playing miniature golf. We both maxed out our strokes on the first two holes. They ask you to pick up your ball and move on after eight hits. I think we could have hit at the windmill all day without getting through the blades. Somewhere around the sixth hole, Mary landed her ball a couple inches from the hole on the first hit. She turned in my arms and kissed me. Hmm. A new category. Friendly. Intent. Promise. I’d have to say this kiss was flat-out hopeful. I nudged her ball with my toe.
“Look at that! Hole in one. You are going to have to start teaching me.” We laughed and had fun, stealing a lot of kisses and a few subtle gropes.
“Brian, if my skirt happens to ride up in back—you know, while I’m stroking your putter or something—and you find my bare butt pressed against you, I suppose it technically wouldn’t be touching beneath my clothes. You know. Because it wasn’t covered. By anything.”
Well, hell. My putter’s certainly straight now. We let another couple play through and when Mary asked me to guide her swing, her skirt did ride up, almost to her waist. I investigated thoroughly with one hand while I ‘guided’ her swing with the other and found the skirt was the only layer of clothing between me and all her treasures. I carefully smoothed it down as I backed away.
We went to King Arthur’s Ice Cream Parlor and had one of their massive sundaes. After they ran around the restaurant—literally—with it, ringing bells and blowing sirens, we found that even with two of us, we couldn’t eat the whole thing. I guess I’m getting older.
“You got me so hot playing that game,” Mary said. “Is there someplace we can go make out for a while?”
“You can come home with me and spend the night if you want to,” I said.
“I’d love to, but it’s a school night and I still have a midnight curfew. Mom says it’s a parental benefit from our agreement. We all agreed to midnight curfew on school nights.”
As it turned out, all the make-out spots I knew of had changed in the past year. The abandoned farms over on Henry Road had been cleared and you couldn’t get across the road construction. They’d changed the parking lot behind the elementary school and had big lights overhead everywhere. I was at a loss.
“Just take me to my house and we’ll park in the driveway.”
“Won’t your parents be upset?”
“Not as long as I’m in the house by midnight. Set the alarm on your watch.”
I did. We made out pretty hot and heavy in her driveway and she had three orgasms. Then she dipped her head to my lap and made sure I had a good one, too. Our lips were still together at midnight, but we were on opposites sides of the doorframe.
“See you tomorrow night,” she sighed. “I love you.”
“I love you, Mary. See you tomorrow.”
It was a short but peaceful night and I was up at four-thirty to bake bread.
She’s really fun, sweetheart. I told her I loved her, and you know what? I do. I’m looking forward to tonight and to the prom. I don’t really care about the prom, but I want it to be perfect for her.
Guess what I did. I asked Doreen to become my cónyuge. It makes sense, doesn’t it? She’s going to have my son! Or daughter. I don’t even care which. She just keeps saying son. But, honey, there’s something that happened when she got pregnant. She stopped being just my best friend’s sister or my sister’s best friend. I sort of still thought of her as a temporary girlfriend like she was when Betts got married. That was almost four years ago! All of a sudden, I can’t imagine the world without Doreen near me. It’s going to make life more complicated. I have to talk to Doug. I shouldn’t have asked Doreen without talking to him first.
Now I’m getting all worried. What happens if Doug gets a great job in Florida? Does Doreen go with him? With our son? For that matter, what happens if I get a job in Florida? Or if you get a job in Hollywood? Don’t laugh. The way you are going, you could definitely be directing a major TV show before long. I am so freaking proud of you. Wherever you go, I’ll find something for me to do there. If you want me with you. Geez! I’m panicking over things that can’t possibly happen for at least three years, right? Everything could be different by then.
I just… I can’t imagine being without any of you.
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