Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Title: Colleen Ch.  02


Summary: Romance for Colleen and her brother continue.


Keywords: inc,fic



   "Girls, meet you new sister, Noelle Rose O'Conner."

   Meghan and Molly were literally shaking from excitement, their smiles as
wide as it was possible to stretch.  Patricia was studying Noelle's face
intently and then whispered, "she looks just like Aunt Colleen...'cept no
hair."

   Mom pulled up a chair to the side of the bed.  She gently took the baby
from Colleen and sat down.  Meghan, now age eight, Molly, seven and
Patricia, three years old, crowded around her and continued to watch the
baby up close as she slept.  Mom studied the three girls that surrounded
her and then the baby before raising her head.  She had that contented half
smile that she and Colleen share and said, "When it comes to making babies,
my kids do a pretty good job."

   Everyone took turns holding Noelle for at least a few minutes.  Even
Patricia got a chance when she sat in Sharon's lap and Sharon helped her
hold the tiny bundle tightly wrapped in the blanket.

   Jimmy and Mike showed up at the hospital just after lunch and the nurse
told us that everyone would have to visit in shifts because the room was
too crowded.  As the sun was going down, Jimmy, Mike, Sharon and Patricia
got ready to head back to Santa Teresa.  Mi Lin had stayed behind to watch
all of the cousins and get everything ready for the Christmas dinner. 
Colleen got a hug from Mike and Jimmy and Noelle got a tickle under the
chin and kiss on the forehead.  I got a handshake and a slap on the back.
As he left the room Jimmy said, "It's a good thing she looks like Colleen
and not you, otherwise the poor kid would never get a date when she grows
up."

   Colleen was getting tired so Mom took Meghan and Molly home to have
dinner and get some sleep.  Colleen and Noelle could come home the next day
as soon as the pediatrician had checked Noelle and given the seal of
approval.  Mom was going to stay with us for a few days to help out until
Colleen was back up to speed.  Everyone tried to get me to go home and get
some rest but I was adamant.  Ever since our first date, Colleen and I had
not spent one single night apart and that was not about to change.

   I sat in the chair next to the bed holding Noelle.  Colleen lay on her
side watching us and softly talking to me until she slowly closed her eyes
and went to sleep.  Holding my daughter close to me, I felt emotions that I
had never experienced before or even dreamed were possible.

   I suppose they were the same emotions that my father had felt when his
children were born.  They were feelings of intense love and awe at the
wonder that I held in my hands.  I knew that I would lay down my life to
protect this tiny life from the evil that is out there in the world.  I
looked over at Colleen and watched her breathing, thinking, "Good Lord, she
even smiles in her sleep."

   It was as if someone had slapped me awake from a deep sleep and
everything became crystal clear to me.  Looking at Colleen and Noelle I
suddenly understood what the word family meant.  All of the things that my
father had said to us as children about family being the most important
part of a person's life came rushing back to me.  I had to smile and
finally accepted that maybe Dad knew what he was talking about after all.

   I will let you in on a dirty little secret.  There is another emotion
that all guys feel, and if you confront them, they will deny it.

   The first time we hold our newborn child, we are scared shitless.

   We are afraid that somehow we will fail as fathers, that we will do
something that will screw up our child's life.  I was almost trembling from
this combination of love and fear that were raging inside me when Noelle
opened her eyes.  She looked at me with an expression that said, "It's ok
Dad, you can do this," then closed her eyes and went back to sleep.  After
that I calmed down and knew that once again my life had made a major shift
and that it was all for the good.

   Eventually the nurse came to take Noelle back to the nursery.  She
advised me to get some sleep while I still could.  It wasn't until later
after we got home from the hospital that I could appreciate what she was
telling me.  As the nurse left and closed the door, I reached over to hold
Colleen's hand.

   She slowly opened her eyes and whispered, "hey sweetie."

   "Hey yourself."

   Colleen gave me her half smile and asked, "Have I told you today that I
love you?"

   "Not yet, you were kind of busy earlier."

   "Oh yeah, that whole giving birth thing...I love you."

   "I love you too.  Noelle is beautiful."

   "I know." With that she squeezed my hand as her eyelids drifted shut and
went back to sleep.

   I sat next to her, again just watching her breathe as she slept.  This
was all new to me, unexplored territory.  The only thing that equaled my
love for Colleen was my love for Noelle.  I should have experienced this a
year ago, but Barbara had ripped that away from me and left my life in
shambles.  It was my sister Colleen, along with Meghan and Molly that had
helped me glue the pieces of my life back together.  Eventually I leaned
forward and lay my head on the bed next to Colleen's and fell asleep.

   I felt movement on the bed and could sense daylight through my closed
eyelids.  I got one eye open and started to sit up when my back rejected
that notion.  I struggled to get my spinal column into a straight line when
I saw Colleen sitting on the side of the bed watching, trying not to laugh.
With great difficulty I got my legs to unfold and stood up.  Colleen hopped
off the bed and came over to put her arms around my waist.

   "You should have gone home and gotten a decent night's sleep."

   "No...I'm fine...I'm ok...except...I...I can't feel...my left foot."

   Colleen patted me on the check and said, "Poor baby." This was followed
with a quick hug and a kiss.

   "Why don't you go downstairs to the cafeteria and get yourself something
to eat.  Just be back by 8:30, that's when the pediatrician starts her
rounds.  We should be able to get out of here by noontime."

   As I headed out the door I heard her call out, "And bring me some
coffee..."

   Down in the cafeteria I sat and had a muffin and a glass of milk while I
finished waking up, getting the rest of the kinks out of my body from
sleeping in the chair all night.  I grabbed two coffees and headed back to
Colleen's room to wait for Noelle's release so we could go home.  I stepped
into the room and stood there like the village idiot with my mouth hanging
open.

   There are times when you already know what to expect and have done all
the mental preparation that you possibly can and yet when the event
actually happens, you're still left dazed and confused.

   This was one of those moments.

   Colleen was sitting in the chair at the side of the bed with the front
of her gown open.  She held Noelle to her chest, nursing at her breast.

   Of course I had seen other women breast feeding their children, but this
was different.  This was my sister Colleen, my best friend, nursing our
daughter.  I stood there spellbound, drinking in the sight, totally
incapable of speech.  Reaching out her hand, Colleen smiled at me and spoke
of the only thing on her mind at that moment.

   "Give me that coffee before I die."

   It was a good thing that I had put lids on the paper coffee cups because
the way that my hands were shaking, I would have scalded Noelle as I handed
the cup to Colleen.  Colleen knew instantly what was going through my mind
at that moment.

   "Relax, you're going to do fine."

   "That's easy for you to say, you've already done this twice before. 
This fatherhood thing is leaving me a little shaky.  What if I drop her on
her head or something?"

   Colleen laughed, "That's a chance we'll just have to take."

   Moments later the pediatrician walked in and said good morning to
everyone.  She was Meghan and Molly's pediatrician and looked more like
someone's grandmother than a highly trained doctor.  Colleen had told me
months before that she was the best in the county if not the state and she
immediately put my mind at ease.  She lay Noelle in the hospital bassinet
and opened the blanket that was tightly wrapped around her.  She began to
gently poke and prod different parts of Noelle's body and listened with the
stethoscope.  She laughed when Noelle smiled in her sleep.

   "Ok, ten fingers and ten toes, got a great start there." She wrote
something on small business card and handed it to Colleen.  "Call the
office and get an appointment for a one week check up.  She's a beautiful
baby and she's going to break a lot of hearts when she turns sixteen.  Now
you people get out of here and enjoy what's left of Christmas."

   I called Mom at the house while Colleen was taking care of all the
paperwork to leave.  We walked out of the hospital at the same time that
Mom drove up to the sidewalk in Colleen's car.  I was holding Noelle as Mom
hopped out of the car, walked around and opened the door to the back seat.
I stood there staring at Mom and then at the infant car seat that was
sitting on the seat.  Finally Mom pointed to Noelle then at the car seat.
Colleen and Mom began laughing as they watched me struggle to figure out
how to strap Noelle in to the car seat.  At last Colleen pulled me back and
went up on her toes to give me a kiss.

   "You really are new at this.  Don't worry, we'll get you trained in no
time."

   We got back to the house just before lunchtime.  The teen-aged girl from
across the street had been recruited to watch Meghan and Molly while Mom
had come to pick us up at the hospital.  She was quick to let us know that
she had a lot experience babysitting infants and was always available at a
reasonable price.  Colleen immediately got her telephone number and told
her that we would definitely be calling her in the future.

   Meghan and Molly had already eaten lunch so we went into the living room
to relax for a few minutes before getting lunch for ourselves.  As we
stepped through the archway Colleen and I were surprised at what we saw. 
The Christmas tree was in the corner just as we had left it the day before,
the presents still under the tree, unopened.  But there was something new
there.

   Next to the tree was a rocking chair.  It was at least sixty years old
and had been painted black when it was new.  The paint was worn on the
edges but was still in good condition and all of the joints were still as
tight as the day it was made.  The back was straight and the arms were the
perfect height for holding and rocking a baby.  Colleen and I recognized it
instantly.

   The chair had been a present from our grandfather to our grandmother. 
It had been passed on to Mom when Colleen was born and she had held all
four of her children in this chair, accepting their hugs and kissing their
cut fingers.  Now it was sitting in our living room.  Colleen turned to
Mom.

   "How did this get here?"

   "I had Mike and Jimmy bring it when they came up yesterday."

   "Why?"

   "Well, it's not like I'm going to be needing it, and in another thirty
years you can decide which of your daughters will get it to pass it on to
her daughter."

   Colleen gave Mom a hug, nearly crushing Noelle in the process.  She sat
down in the rocking chair with the baby and Colleen and Noelle both had a
look of utter bliss on their faces.  Colleen looked at Meghan and Molly and
said, "So girls, I think it's time to open some Christmas presents.  Who
wants to start?"

   Meghan and Molly looked at each other then went over and reached under
the tree.  They walked to the rocking chair, each holding a present that
Colleen and I had not seen before.  The packages were wrapped in paper of
an indeterminate nature and held together with many yards of scotch tape.
On the outside of each present, written in a child's handwriting was a
single word, "Noelle." They walked over and lay the presents on Colleen's
lap next to the baby.  Then Mehgan spoke.

   "Santa didn't know about Noelle so these are for her."

   Colleen handed the baby to me and carefully opened the presents.  She
stared at the contents for the longest time and then with tears in her eyes
she hugged Meghan and Molly and whispered, "Thank you."

   Inside the packages was Meghan's baby blanket and Molly's small teddy
bear.  They were the objects that were most important to the girls and
every night they refused to go to sleep unless they could hold them tightly
to their small bodies.  Now, they were gifts to their baby sister. 
Children aren't supposed to make their Mom and Dad cry like that, it blows
the strong parent image right out of the water.

   I stared in amazement at the two young girls who less than forty-eight
hours before had asked if they could call me Daddy.  It was Mom who was
able to speak first.

   "Those are very special gifts.  I'm sure that Noelle will love them
forever.  But I think it's time for you girls to open your presents."

   With squeals of delight and hand clapping, they both ran to the tree and
began pulling the presents out.  As they opened each present in turn, they
brought it over and held it up for Noelle to see, even though she was
contentedly sleeping through everything.  This symbolized how the bond
between our daughters was to strengthen and grow with each passing day.

   At long last the ordeal of opening the Christmas presents was over and
we were all picking up the debris when I suddenly looked over at Colleen in
great embarrassment.

   "Damn, with everything that's been happening lately I completely forgot
to get you a present...I am so sorry."

   Colleen hugged Noelle closer to her chest and gave me her contented half
smile.

   "I think you gave me the perfect Christmas present."

   After the adults had finally gotten a chance eat, we sat around the
living room relaxing, just talking.  It had been awhile since we had been
able to have Mom all to ourselves for any length of time so Colleen and I
were very happy.  The weather was cooperating so Meghan and Molly were
allowed to go outside and play in the yard.  They didn't understand when we
told them that it probably wasn't a good idea to take Noelle for a ride in
the wagon just yet.

   It was that afternoon that I had my next lesson in fatherhood...changing
the diaper.  This is a process that while second nature to female of the
species, is a definite test of the male's dexterity and commitment to their
offspring.  I learned early on that it is a good idea to have a fresh roll
of duct tape close at hand to insure a successful completion of this
exercise.

   Later I learned another interesting fact regarding this peculiar
parenting skill.  If the child is breast feeding, never...ever...and I mean
NEVER allow the mother to eat Mexican food.  The results the next day will
have you racing to the telephone to call the Office of Emergency Services,
begging them to send the Toxic Waste Disposal Unit to your house. 
Remember, what goes in the mother's mouth comes out the baby's bottom and
if the windows in the house are painted shut, you are in for a very
unpleasant three days.

   As the day wound down, Meghan and Molly had their only argument of the
Christmas season.  They both wanted Grandma to sleep in their room and were
not going to comprise under any condition.  It was finally settled when Mom
suggested that all three of them sleep together in Meghan's room because it
was bigger.

   At last Colleen and I were able to go to bed ourselves.  The crib was in
our room so Colleen took Noelle in to get ready for bed while I went around
turning off the lights and locking up for the night.  We had only been gone
for one night but it felt like we had been away for months.  Our own bed
was going to feel good.

   I stopped just inside the doorway of the bedroom.  I will always
remember the times that I have watched Colleen nurse our children and be
filled with a sense of awe.  Colleen was already in the bed, propped up on
the pillows, leaning against the headboard.  True to her promise, she was
not wearing any nightclothes, the sheet spread across her lap as she nursed
Noelle at her breast.

   I sat on the edge of the bed and just watched Noelle sucking at the
nipple, smiling at how lucky a person I was.  Finally Colleen pulled Noelle
away from her breast and adjusted the blanket around the baby.

   "She's asleep, why don't you put her down?"

   At this point I was still new to holding an infant so I carried the
fragile life the five steps over to the crib and gently lay her down.  It
took me ten minutes to get her settled just right with repeated checking
and constant monitoring to make sure that she was still breathing.  I could
hear the smile in Colleen's voice as she whispered, "Bobby, she's ok. 
Leave her alone or you'll wake her up, now come to bed."

   The bedside lamp was on leaving most of the room in shadows and only
lighting the bed.  Colleen was still propped against the headboard as she
watched me get undressed in the semi-darkness, a smile of eager
anticipation on her lips.  As I crawled into the bed, she pulled back the
covers so that I could see her in all her naked glory.

   The nurses at the hospital had shaved Colleen's pussy completely smooth
for the birth so she spread her thighs apart, letting me see it's new
condition.  "How do you like my new hair cut?" she asked.

   "It's...interesting...but I prefer the old one.  Rubbing my face on your
hair is so much more...naughty...don't you think."

   "Don't worry, it will grow back, maybe thicker than before."

   "You're just saying that to get me excited."

   "Just thinking about you rubbing your face there is getting me excited."

   She pulled me closer to her until we were face to face and then kissed.
It had been forty-eight hours since I had held Colleen this close and it
felt great to have her back in my arms.  Colleen put her hand on top of my
head and began to gently press downward until my mouth was in line with one
of her nipples.

   "You're going to like this.  Bill used to love it."

   Lifting her breast up and holding it in place, Colleen guided my head
until my mouth was touching her nipple.  I took it between my lips and
began to suck.  I was startled when sweet cream began to flow out of the
nipple, into my mouth and down my throat.  I had never experienced any
thing like this before...well, actually I had but not since I was two years
old.

   It was divine.  I had to have more.  I began to suck harder, gulping
everything that flowed out until there was nothing left.  Colleen gently
pulled her breast away from me.

   "That one is empty, try the other side."

   I became a madman.  I turned my head and grabbed the other nipple with
my mouth, my arms around Colleen's waist.  I drank like a man dying of
thirst.  Colleen softly stroked the back of my head until I had drained
that side as well.

   "So...did you like that?"

   "Like it?  I loved it!  I don't ever want to stop doing that."

   Colleen laughed.  "Here's the deal.  Noelle always gets first dibs but
if she is anything like Meghan and Molly there will be a little left over
for you every night.  And who knows, if the schedule works out right, you
just might get a little before you go to work in the mornings."

   "Oh my God, I will love you forever."

   "You already do Bobby."

   After a moments rest, Colleen again gently pushed me down until my face
was almost between her legs.  I rubbed my cheeks against her pubic area
where the swollen lips of her vagina came together; her skin felt as smooth
as satin.

   "But the doctor said that we couldn't have sex for eight weeks."

   "You weren't paying attention, Bobby.  He said that we couldn't have
intercourse for eight weeks, not that we couldn't fool around." Colleen lay
on her side, reached for my cock and gently tugged, forcing me to scoot
around until I was facing the opposite direction.  She held my cock with
the tip just inches from her mouth.  "I believe that you know what to do
from this point on, so hurry up so we can get some sleep."

   "What is this obsession everyone has with sleep?  I don't understand."

   Colleen looked down into my face with a smile.  "Don't worry, you'll
find out soon enough.  Now get down to business, you're wasting time."

   With that she spread her thighs wider.  She placed my cock into her
mouth and began sucking in a slow rhythm.  I wiggled my head around until
my lips were in full contact with her vaginal lips and began to French kiss
her pussy.  I pushed my tongue in as deep as possible, scooping out as much
of her juice as I could.  I nibbled all around the opening, gently tugging
on the lips of her cunt for as long as I could before I needed more.  I
changed the angle of my head until I could get her clit between my lips. 
By instinct, I began to nurse on her button the same way I had nursed on
her nipples a few minutes earlier.

   We continued to suck on each other for minutes, hours, days...who knows
how long, we just kept going.  Colleen stopped sucking on my cock just long
enough to give her deep-throated groan.  Suddenly she convulsed and gripped
my head with her thighs.  Half way through her orgasm she pushed her head
forward, jamming my cock down her throat and began sucking and swallowing
with wild abandonment.  Within seconds of Colleen starting her orgasm I
started pumping cum down her throat.

   When we had both stopped twitching from the explosion, we lay relaxed
against each other, our lips still holding on.  I slowly turned around
until we were lying in the same direction and pulled Colleen into my arms.
I reached down and pulled the covers up over us.  As she was fading off to
sleep Colleen whispered in my ear, "You eat my pussy almost as good as you
fuck me."

   It was obvious that I would not be seeing very much daylight in the next
eight weeks.

   When the screaming started I instantly sat upright and saw what was
happening.  I leapt out of the bed and in two strides made it to the crib
and rescued my daughter from the danger that was about to harm her.

   At least that was what I intended to do but it didn't quite work out
that way.

   When Noelle started crying it scared me so bad I nearly wet myself.  I
jumped out of the bed but became so entangled in the covers that I ended up
falling down, my face on the floor and my hips and legs still in the bed.
Colleen calmly got out of bed, picked up Noelle and lay back down as I
continued to flop around like a dying fish, trying to free myself from the
sheets.

   "Bobby, what are you doing?"

   "What happened...  what's wrong...why is she crying?"

   "Nothing's wrong, she's just hungry.  Calm down and get back into bed."

   With that Colleen grabbed the covers and gave a quick snap of her wrist.
This released me from the sheets and I slid the rest of the way down onto
the floor.  As I got back into bed I looked over at the clock and was
astonished to see that it was only 2:30 in the morning.

   "Hungry, how can she be hungry?  She just ate a couple of hours ago. 
Why is she crying like that?  Doesn't she know that people are trying to
sleep around here?

   "Honestly Bobby, don't you know anything about babies?"

   "How am I supposed to know, I've never had one before."

   "Well, you might as well sit back and relax because you're in for the
ride of your life."

   As soon as Noelle's lips latched onto Colleen's nipple she stopped
crying and ten minutes later was asleep back in her crib.  I wrapped my
arms around Colleen and faded off to sleep at last...until...

   Noelle's shrill screams brought me back to consciousness.  By the time I
had forced myself to sit up, Colleen had already picked up Noelle and was
getting back in bed.

   "Oh God, what is her problem?  Doesn't she understand the concept of
sleep?

   "Get used to it.  She's going to have to nurse three or four times
during the night.

   "Every night?"

   "Every night."

   "Jesus, I haven't done anything to her and she hates me already.  All I
want to do is get some sleep.  How long will this last."

   "With Meghan and Molly it was only five or six weeks before they slept
through the night."

   "FIVE OR SIX WEEKS?  You have got to be kidding me.  I'll be a dead man
before then...wait a minute, did you say 'only five or six weeks.' Does
that mean it could last longer?"

   "Do you remember my friend Cindy?  It was six months before her son
started sleeping through the night."

   "Christ, just shoot me and get it over with."

   Colleen just smiled.  She whispered into my ear, "No can do bucko. 
Welcome to the wonderful world of fatherhood." She snuggled into the crook
of my arm with her head on my chest.  After a few moments of quiet she
whispered again.  "Bobby..."

   "Yes?"

   "I love you."

   "You better, or I'm not going to make it."

   One of the odd things that happened after Noelle was born was that we
didn't have to set the alarm for the next several months.  Every morning
without fail, precisely at 6:45, never varying more than a minute, she
would wake us up to get the entire house started on the day.

   I had called the office and Peterson told me to go ahead and take the
rest of the week off but be back in the office the day after New Years, no
one was getting much work done during the holidays anyway.  It was a good
thing that Mom was in the house with us.  If she had not been there I don't
know what we would have done.  Mom kept everything in the house running,
leaving Colleen and I to focus on Noelle.  Colleen was right, after several
days of training by Colleen and Mom, along with Megan and Molly, I had the
father act down pat and was working like a pro...well, actually more like
an advanced amateur, but at least I wasn't terrified by own daughter
anymore.

   When Mom was with the girls I could overhear her telling them about
their responsibilities.

   "A big sister should always..."

   "Because you're older you need to..."

   And they did.  Meghan and Molly jumped right in and did everything they
could to help while at the same time doting on their new baby sister.

   All too soon it was the day before New Years Eve and Mom had to get back
to Santa Teresa.  She needed a couple of days to get ready to return to her
classroom of thirty second graders.  Mike drove up with his daughter
Patricia to bring Mom home.  Mike said that Patricia had insisted that she
come along because she wanted to see Noelle again.  Now that I was a father
myself I understood how difficult it is to deny something to your
three-year-old daughter.

   There were hugs all around and then Mom was gone, and our family was
here in the house alone.  I was standing alone in the living room when I
began to feel a sense of abandonment and panic beginning take hold of me.
At that moment Meghan walked into the room and looked at me.  She put her
arms around me and gently squeezed saying, "don't worry Dad, you're doing
fine.  I love you."

   "I love you too sweetheart.  Let's go see what everyone else is doing."

   Each night before I fell asleep, what little of it I could get, I would
lay in bed with Colleen on my arms and marvel at the beauty of our daughter
and how much in love with Colleen I really was.

   The next few days were uneventful except for the fact that I still could
not get a complete nights' sleep.  Noelle not sleeping through the night
did not seem to affect Colleen and the girls but it was turning me in to a
physical wreck.  On the appointed day I returned to work looking like the
walking dead.

   "Good God Robert, you look like hell."

   I can count on Miss Jennings to always get directly to the point.

   At the end of the day Colleen brought Noelle into the office to pick me
up.  As soon as they walked through the door, Noelle was snatched out of
Colleen's arms by the first grandmother they ran into.  We didn't see
Noelle for the next hour as she was passed from one mother to the next.  We
could catch glimpses of her being passed along the way but never heard a
peep out of her.  Finally Harold Peterson was the last to person to hold
her.  He was standing in front of Colleen looking down at the sleeping
bundle in his arms.  He raised her up and kissed her on the forehead before
handing her to Colleen then looked directly at me.

   "She's beautiful child.  Take good care of her."

   He made it sound like both a request and command at the same time.

   We made our good-byes and headed out to the parking lot.  When we got
there we were surprised to discover that every available inch in the
backseat and trunk had been stuffed with presents for Noelle; clothes,
blankets, toys, things that we had no idea what they were for.  You name it
and the people in the office had wrapped it up and given it to us.  Turns
out that this is the standard operating procedure for every baby born to
the office.

   Life quickly fell into our normal routine, as normal as it can be for a
household with a new born.  Meghan and Molly were back in school with all
the exiting news about their sister.  They would race each other home after
school, the winner getting to be the first to hold Noelle.  Colleen put all
of her illustration jobs on hold and did not take any new projects for the
next several months.  She used her time during the day to focus all of her
attention on our daughter.  It was during these first few weeks that
Colleen built the bond with her child, just as she had with Meghan and
Molly.

   Colleen still met me at the door every morning to send me off to the
office for the day.  Only now she was holding our daughter in her arms. 
Now, I got to kiss two beautiful women as I went out the door.

   I was back in the office full time.  Miss Jennings did something for me
that earned my undying gratitude.  For the fist three weeks after I
returned, she sat at her desk during lunch and would not allow anyone to
enter my office between 11: 30 and 1:00.  This allowed me to get a full
hour and a half nap that would keep me going until I got home.

   Noelle did better than Meghan and Molly.  By four weeks, she was
sleeping through the night and Colleen and I began getting a full night's
sleep.  The next step was to deal with the bedroom situation.  We didn't
want it to appear that we were playing favorites about who got to have
Noelle in their room, so our first thought was to have Meghan and Molly
share a room and put Noelle in Molly's smaller room.

   After dinner one night I brought up the subject but before I could get
very far into the discussion, Molly stopped me.

   "Meghan and I already talked about it Daddy.  We think that Noelle
should share a room with Meghan."

   Meghan was sitting next to Molly, nodding her head in agreement. 
Colleen and I looked at each other in confusion.  If this was what the
girls wanted, it was ok with us, but from the way they were grinning at
each other I had the uneasy feeling that there was something going on
between them that Colleen and I didn't know about.  Seven and eight year
old girls are not supposed to be involved in conspiracies.

   We spent the next Saturday rearranging the furniture in Meghan's room
and moving the crib in.  Once again Colleen and I were alone in the
bedroom. My initial guess had been correct; I was spending more time with
my face between Colleen's thighs than I could keep track of.

   One of the first things Colleen had done after bringing Noelle home from
the hospital was to march over to the calendar on the kitchen wall and draw
a big red circle around Friday, February 19th.  When I asked her what that
was for, she just stared at me for few moments before answering.

   "Eight weeks Bobby.  Eight...long...weeks.  God I hate this part about
having kids."

   "Eight weeks?  Eight weeks for what...oh...that eight weeks."

   At last the day arrived.  I had finished my breakfast with Meghan and
Molly, getting ready to go to work.  I was rinsing the dishes out with in
the sink when Colleen grabbed me by the arm and dragged me over to the
calendar on the wall.  She stood there holding Noelle on her shoulder with
one hand and was tapping the large red circle with the index finger of her
other hand.  She looked at me with excitement in her eyes and her half
smile on her lips.  She leaned in and whispered to me.

   "You had better eat a lot of protein for lunch today.  You're going to
need it tonight."

   "Do we have to wait?  I could call in sick."

   "NO!  Now get going, the girls are listening."

   February the 19th was the longest day in history.  It was at least three
weeks long.  It is very hard to pay attention to the business at hand when
all you can think about is crawling between your lover's delectable thighs.
It was made even more unbearable because several corporate officers had
made their semi-annual visit to the San Miguel office.  Fortunately, most
of the time was spent sitting at a conference table so no one could see the
obvious visible signs of what I was really thinking about while they droned
on endlessly about corporate policy and projections.  Even more frustrating
was the fact I had been selected along with two other people to assist
Peterson in taking the corporate people to dinner and then get them to the
airport in time for the flight back to New York.

   By the time I got back home it was after eleven o'clock.  Everyone had
already gone to bed so the house was dark except for a light in the hall. A
faint light shown from under the bedroom door letting me know that Colleen
was waiting for me.  I stepped into the room and looked at the bed. 
Colleen was lying on the bed with only the sheet covering her, pulled up to
her chin.  She was grinning as I began to undress.  When I started to hang
up my clothes she spoke to me for the first time.

   "Why are you taking so long?  Leave those on the floor and get over
here."

   When I got to the side of the bed, Colleen flipped the sheet back and
spread her thighs wide.  I crawled onto the bed, got on my knees, settling
in between her legs and looked down at her almost laughing.

   "What is this?"

   Colleen had used the brightest red lipstick she had and written
instructions on herself.  On her chest and stomach just below her breasts,
in large letters, were the words, "INSERT COCK HERE." She had also drawn
half a dozen large red arrows below her navel and on the inside of her
thighs all pointing to her newly returned thick crop of pubic hair.

   "I was afraid that you might have forgotten where all the pieces go."

   "Well, it is a little hazy for me.  I think that you'll have to help me
get started."

   Colleen reached down between us and took hold of my cock.  My cock that
been standing at attention almost all day was now like an iron bar.  After
stroking it a couple of times, she gently pulled it into place and inserted
the tip just inside the lips of her pussy.

   "Ok, I think that you can figure out what to do from here."

   I leaned over Colleen until I could rest my weight on my elbows.  I
gently rocked my hips forward and began to push my dick into her.  It was
fortunate that she was as wet as she was because her cunt seemed to be even
tighter than it had been before Noelle was born.  Colleen was flexing her
cunt muscles to make her pussy swallow me.  I stopped when my pubic bone
was resting on her clit.

   "Oh GOD Bobby, I've missed having you inside of me."

   "Not half as much as I've missed being there."

   I began to withdraw until I was almost out then reversed direction.  I
slid back in, feeling the wet smoothness that grasped and squeezed my cock.

   "Oh sweet Jesus I need this...thank God you remember what to do."

   All I could do was grunt in response and begin the next stroke of my
cock.

   "That's it baby," Colleen moaned into my ear.  "More, just like that."

   Colleen had raised her thighs until they were gripping my ribs, her
heels resting on the cheeks of my ass.  She began to rock her hips upward,
impaling herself on my cock at the same time that I was pushing myself
inside of her, trying to go deeper with each thrust.

   "It is so good to be back where I belong...I love you so much," I
whispered back to her.

   We lost all ability of speech and the only vocal sounds we could make
were the grunts and moans of uncontrollable love.  The slapping of our
bellies and the slurping sound of my cock sliding in and out of Colleen's
juicy cunt seemed to echo in the quiet of the night.  We kept up a steady
rhythm of pushing and pulling against each other for quite some time and
then began to pick up the pace.  I could see the expression on Colleen's
face as she began to concentrate on what was happening to her body, her
eyes begging me to make it happen.  She started throwing her hips faster
and harder onto my cock as I began to slam into her cunt with everything I
had.

   I could feel my nuts begin draw themselves up into a tight ball at the
base of my cock in preparation for the impending explosion.  Colleen put
her lips next to my ear as she franticly whispered.

   "There...now...now...almost there...Bobby...NOW...GOD YES I'M
CUMMING...cumming..."

   At the same time that Colleen's body began to spasm, my nuts began
pushing my sperm out the end of my dick and into Colleen's waiting cunt. 
The harder her cunt swallowed the sperm, the harder my balls pushed it out.
Finally she relaxed at the end of her orgasm but my body kept pumping the
white juice into her.  Colleen's smile grew bigger when she realized that I
was still draining sperm into her.

   "That's it Bobby...give it all to me.  You know how much I need your
cream in me."

   At last I was empty and I rolled us over onto our sides, my cock still
inside of her.  Colleen kissed me deeply then pulled her head back and
looked into my eyes.

   "I loved Bill very, very much but my God he couldn't make me cum as hard
as you do."

   Her cunt was flexing and gripping my dick that was still embedded in
her.

   "Your cock isn't going down, does that mean what I think it means?"

   All I could do was nod my head yes.

   Colleen rolled us over the rest of the way until I was on my back.  She
was straddling my hips with my cock going straight up inside of her.  She
began raising and lowering herself, driving me as deep as possible on each
downward stroke.  Colleen never took her eyes off of mine, her breasts
flopping around wildly as she pounded her crotch against me.  Soon her eyes
started to glaze over and I knew that she was ready.  I grabbed her hips
and with one last effort I pulled her down at the same I shoved up into
her. Her orgasm triggered my own; we grabbed each other and held on as
tightly as possible.  Once again my balls were pumping sperm into Colleen
long after she had finished cumming.

   We slowly fell apart and lay on our backs, holding hands, staring up at
the ceiling for a few moments, when Colleen rolled onto her side and lay
her head on my chest.  Her hand slowly slid down my stomach and I could
feel her fingers traveling through my pubic hair.  Colleen cupped her hand
and gently cradled my balls.

   "How many times are you going to drive that freight train across me
Bobby?"

   "As many time as I can, sweetheart, as many times as I can."

   Eventually Colleen's slow rhythmic breathing let me know that she had
fallen asleep so I wrapped my arms around her even tighter and nodded off
myself.  At some point during the night we woke up and made long slow deep
love, then went back to sleep, my cock still inside of her.

   I awoke to the sound of someone, several someone's, walking into the
bedroom.  Meghan and Molly had come into the room and Meghan was holding a
whimpering Noelle.  They walked around to Colleen's side of the bed and
gently nudged her on the shoulder.

   "Mommy wake up, Noelle is hungry."

   Colleen stretched and rubbed her eyes then sat up.  She arranged the
pillows against the headboard then sat back, took Noelle into her arms and
began to nurse.  The girls and I watched as we always did in fascination.
Eventually Molly said, "We're going to get some cereal for breakfast Mom."

   "Ok...be sure you put the bowls in the sink we you're done this time"

   As the girls went out the bedroom door and down the hall we could hear
them talking.

   "Something smelled funny in there."

   "I know, I think they were eating tuna fish in bed last night."

   Colleen and I were both sputtering, trying not to laugh out loud.  I
looked at Colleen and began to openly laugh and pointed at her chest.  She
gave me a confused look and then glanced down at herself.  She grinned at
what she saw and lifted the sheet to take a good look at my chest before
she began laughing herself.

   The lipstick instructions that were on her chest and legs from the night
before were now smeared all over her body as well me and the sheets.  We
were laughing so hard that Colleen almost dropped Noelle.  We heard Meghan
and Molly running down the hall and pulled the sheets up to our chins just
before they burst into the room.

   "What's so funny?" they asked.

   This sent us into another round of uncontrollable laughter.

   "I'm sorry honey, it's grown-up funny stuff.  We can't tell you."

   The girls frowned and went back to the kitchen.  As they went out the
door Molly said, "They never tell us any of the good stuff."

   Even after a long shower and continual scrubbing, our skin was stained a
light pink that lasted for several days.  The white sheets were a lost
cause.  The lipstick color never did come out but everytime Colleen put
them on the bed, I knew that I was in for a very long and intense physical
workout after the kids went to bed.

   Life was good.

   I found great joy and contentment in being the family man.  Even this
early Noelle showed signs of developing a personality that involved lots of
smiles and laughter and by the time she was three months old had mastered
the art of sitting up.  Meghan and Molly were nothing but a pure delight.
They, as much as Colleen, were instrumental in teaching me the art of
fatherhood.

   It was in about the middle of March that Colleen came down with some
type of bug that settled in her stomach.  For a couple of days she was
tired and listless and her stomach seemed to be queasy most of the time. 
One morning we were standing in the kitchen.  The girls had finished
breakfast and had gone to get dressed for school while I was gathering up
my things to go work.  I heard Colleen make a strange noise and I turned to
look over at her.

   She was standing there holding Noelle with a strange expression.  It was
a look of panic, dismay and confusion all at once and then the color began
to drain from her face.  I stepped towards her as she shoved the baby into
my arms, turned and ran down the hall.

   I walked after her and found her in the bathroom, on her knees, her face
in the toilet.  She was making gagging noises and then with one long drawn
out moan began to spew out every thing she had eaten in the last
twenty-four hours.  I took Noelle back to the kitchen and Meghan and Molly
came in with a panicked look.

   "Is Mom Ok?"

   "She'll be alright; she's just not feeling well right now.  So go finish
getting ready for school."

   Over the next twenty minutes, the girls and I could hear Colleen in the
bathroom.  There would be several minutes of silence and then the retching
sounds would start all over.  At last we heard the toilet flush and the
sound of running water in the sink.  Colleen came out of the bathroom
looking pasty white with a dazed look on her face.  She took Noelle into
her arms and rocked her gently.

   "Bobby, call the office and tell them you're staying home today.  Take
the girls to school and stop at the pharmacy on the way home."

   "Of course.  What do you want me to get at the pharmacy?"

   Colleen only stared at me with no color in her face and a bewildered
expression.

   Then it hit me what she was telling me."

   "You're kidding me, right?  It can't be..."

   "Oh yes it can.  Now get going."

   I dropped the girls off at school then stood at the pharmacy door for
half an hour waiting for them unlock and open up for the day.  As soon as
the store manager turned the key in the lock I shoved the door open and ran
past him.  I grabbed the kit off the self and threw some money at the
cashier.  I sat in the car for a minute thinking, then ran back into the
store and bought two more kits for insurance.

   When I got home Noelle was already down for her morning nap.  Within
minutes Colleen was bent over the bathroom sink, moaning and grunting as I
stood behind her slamming my cock in and out.  After we had calmed down
from our climax, Colleen picked the stick up from the counter and studied
it for a moment.  She handed it to me and pointed to the plus sign that was
showing in the little window.

   Positive.

   Colleen was pregnant again.

   To say that we were stunned is an understatement.

   I took Colleen's hand and led her back to the bedroom.  I slowly
undressed her and she lay on the bed.  I undressed myself then lay on top
her and we began to make love, and that's what it was, love.  The first
time you make love with your partner after finding out she is pregnant is
one of the most glorious experiences two people can share.  We made love
until we heard Noelle waking up.

   Noelle was not old enough to comprehend that her mother and father were
spending the entire day completely nude, feeding her and playing with her.
Minutes after Noelle was down for her afternoon nap, Colleen was lying on
her back in the middle of the living room floor as I lay between her legs,
pumping my hips up and down, pushing my cock in and out of her as we both
grunted out our love for each other.  We did it one more time with Colleen
lying back on top of the dining table while I stood between her legs,
leaning over her, huffing and puffing until we both screamed "OH GOD YES!"

   We were lying still, catching our breathes when I looked up at the clock
that I could see through the kitchen doorway.

   "OH shit," I yelled and grabbed Colleen's hand.  I dragged her into the
bedroom just as we heard the front door open and two small voices sing out,
"MOM!  We're home."

   That night after the kids were down for the night, Colleen and I lay in
bed talking.

   "How could this happen?"

   "Well, it's not like we were using a whole lot of protection here."

   "No, I suppose not."

   Colleen studied my face for a few moments then asked, "What are you
grinning about?"

   "I just realized that I get another chance to fuck my favorite pregnant
woman."

   Colleen rolled over to lie on top of me and began kissing my face.

   "That sounds pretty good to me." She scooted her hips back until the end
of my cock touched the lips of her pussy.  "I think now would be a good
time to start..."

   Telling people the news was going to be much easier this time, but we
decided to wait just a little bit anyway.

   The next morning I went into work and as I walked past Miss Jennings'
desk, she looked up and gasped.  Miss Jennings followed me into my office
and when I sat down at my desk I saw her staring at me, her eyes wide. 
After a minute of silence I asked the inevitable question, "What?"

   "Colleen is pregnant again, isn't she?"

   "Good lord how did you know?  Did she call you?"

   "No, you have that same stupid grin on your face as the last time. 
Don't ever try to play poker; you'll be destitute before you know what hit
you."

   "Listen, we're not ready to tell anyone right now so can we keep it just
between us?"

   "Alright, but if you don't get rid of that idiotic grin the entire
building will know before lunch time."

   Miss Jennings was right.  It was almost impossible to not go around all
day with a smile on my face.  At home Colleen was the same.  Meghan and
Molly kept asking her what she was smiling about and when we were out in
the neighborhood, total strangers would look at us and smile.

   When Colleen was three months along, it was time to tell people, and
since we were repeating the cycle again, we started with the girls.  I said
that I would tell them this time just so I could practice my new parenting
skills.  So, one night after dinner, Colleen reached into the cupboard and
brought out the lemon meringue pie.  After Colleen cut it and served the
pieces to everyone, I began.

   "Girls, can we talk for a minute?"

   "Sure Daddy, what's on your mind?"

   Meghan and Molly were trying not to smile, looking at each other out of
the corner of their eyes.

   "Meghan, who is your best friend in the world?"

   Meghan looked startled, showing that she was caught off guard with that
question.

   "Molly is...Molly is my best friend."

   "And Molly, what about you?  Who is your best friend?

   "That's easy Daddy, Meghan is."

   "Ok, here is a hard question, who is going to be Noelle's best friend?

   Their brows were furrowed for a moment and then their faces relaxed into
smiles as understanding came to them.

   "We don't know Daddy, do you and Mommy know?" The grinning got even
bigger.

   "Well, your mother and I were thinking that the perfect way for Noelle
to have a best friend would be for Mommy to have another baby."

   Meghan and Molly threw their heads back and began to laugh.  Noelle was
sitting in her high chair and began to imitate her sisters, laughing when
they did and clapping her hands when they did.  But she soon lost interest
this and went back to eating her favorite desert, a pile of dry cheerios
lying on the tray of the high chair.

   The girls finished their desert then scooted back their chairs.  As they
walked away form the table, Colleen and I could hear Meghan whisper to
Molly, "See, I told you they would."

   Molly quickly spun around and returned to the table.  With a serious
expression she said, "Remember, no brothers.  She's going to share a room
with me," and walked off to find Meghan.

   Colleen looked at me with a questioning look and said, "You don't
suppose they already knew, do you?"

   "I don't know."

   Telling Mom and the twins was much easier this time also.  The next
weekend we drove down to Santa Teresa to Mom's house then called Mike and
Jimmy to come over for a while.  After lunch we were sitting around the
table talking while all the cousins were outside.  There was a lull in the
conversation when I spoke.

   Mom...guys...Colleen and I have some news to share with you."

   Everyone's faces were blank for a second, and then began to change. 
Mike's face had a questioning look, Jimmy was suspicious and Mom looked
panicked.  Sharon and Mi Lin glanced for a second at Colleen who was
wearing her contented half smile then all three of them broke into huge
grins.

   "Colleen and I are pleased to announce the impending birth of a new
grandchild for Mrs.  Margaret O'Conner."

   The statement was a tad overly grandiose but somehow fit the occasion.

   Everyone came around the table to hug us with their congratulations
except for Mom.  She was still sitting down, one elbow on the table,
forehead in hand, slowly shaking her head back and forth.  At last she
raised her head up and looked first at me then to Colleen.  She gave us a
shrug of her shoulders and a small smile.

   "Well, I survived it once; I guess I'll live through this one too.  Just
make sure this baby is as good natured as the rest of the kids.  The one
thing I will not tolerate is an ill tempered grandchild."

   Mom stood and hugged us, then all of the women drifted into the
livingroom for an extended session of pregnancy talk.  This left Jimmy,
Mike and I alone in the kitchen.  Mike and Jimmy were standing next to each
other, arms crossed, their backsides leaning against the counter.  Mike was
smiling and Jimmy seemed to be lost in thought, both of them just looking
at me.  I could stand the silence for only so long before I spoke.

   "Hey, don't everyone talk all at once."

   Mike gave a small laugh then came over and put his arm around my
shoulders.

   "For a complete nitwit, you're ok.  Don't let them let them tell you any
different."

   There was another pause of silence then Jimmy spoke.

   "Bobby, I owe you an apology."

   "Apology?  What for?"

   "Last year when you and Colleen told us she was pregnant, I thought both
of you had lost your minds.  Do you remember what I told you at the time?"

   "Yeah...something along the line of you would kill me if I ever hurt
Colleen."

   "I meant it then and I still mean it, except now it's different."

   "Different how?"

   "Mike and I have been watching you and Colleen since then, especially
since Noelle was born.  You're totally incapable of doing anything to hurt
her, you love Colleen too much, you always have."

   "What does that mean?"

   Mike gave me a gentle slap to the forehead.  "Get real!  Even when we
were little kids the whole world could see that you were in love with
Colleen.  I think the only people who didn't see it were Mom and Dad. 
Colleen couldn't see it because she was so gaga over you.  That's why we so
surprised when she married Bill.  You know, sometimes you had such a goofy
look on your face when she was around, it was down right embarrassing to
admit to people that you were our brother."

   "I think there's a compliment in there somewhere, I just can't see it
right now, but thanks, I appreciate it."

   There was another moment of silence as we all looked down at the floor,
processing our individual thoughts.  Jimmy spoke softly without looking up.

   "I wish Dad was here, I think he would be very happy about the way
things have turned out.  You and Colleen were always special to him." Jimmy
raised his head and laughed.  "Dad told me one time that he wanted all four
of us to have ten kids each so that he and Mom could have a never ending
supply of grandkids."

   Mike and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.  At the same
instant we said the same thing out loud, "I don't think so." Still
laughing, we went into the livingroom to be with the women we love.  As we
went through the doorway Jimmy whispered in my ear.

   "Just remember what I said, hurt her and I will hunt you down."

   This time, pregnancy was not a new thing for me and it seemed to go by
much too fast.  I don't think I am some kind of a pervert, but making love
with Colleen when she is pregnant adds a whole new dimension to our lives.
I absolutely adore her.

   One night after a particularly satisfying session of love, we were lying
in bed relaxing before turning off the light to go to sleep.  I was lying
on my back with Colleen cuddled in my arms.  Her head was on my chest with
her thigh draped across my legs, her ever expanding stomach firmly held
against my hip.  Her hand was slowly rubbing my chest at the same time that
I was stroking her back.

   I could tell by her body language that Colleen was thinking about
something so I wasn't going to disturb her until she was ready to share it
with me.

   "Bobby, can I ask you something?"

   "Of course cutie, what do you want to know?"

   Colleen's face had that same furrowed brow frown that I had seen
countless times on the girls when they were trying to get their courage up
to say something.

   "Do you ever think about us?"

   "Of course I do.  I think about you all the time."

   "No, not me...us."

   "What do you mean?"

   Colleen sat up and looked down at me.  "I mean do you think about us,
you and me together, as a couple?"

   I sat up and looked at Colleen.  "What is there to think about?"

   "Well for one thing there is the fact that we are brother and sister. 
We had a baby together and we're about to have another.  This is
California, not Arkansas, but I'm pretty sure that this is illegal in all
fifty states.  Does it ever bother you?"

   "Oh, the incest thing." I paused to get my thoughts in order because it
was important that I get it right the first time.

   "You're going to have to bear with me because I really don't know if I
can explain this so anyone can understand it." Colleen sat waiting and
listening.

   "That night of our first date, and then that whole weekend, I didn't
think about it at all.  But after Meghan and Molly came home, that was all
I could think about.  Do you remember what you said about us having
separate bedrooms?"

   "I told you that I couldn't stand not having you in bed with me every
night."

   "Right, and I feel the same way.  You also said when we started this
that it was for the long haul, and you were right.  You mean the world to
me and I would die inside if we couldn't be together as partners."

   I leaned over and kissed her on the nose.

   "Look, we were grown ups when we got going.  It's not like we didn't
know what was happening; we had both been married before.  And it's not
like some sick adult taking advantage of an innocent child...well, you are
older than me so it's all your fault and I'm totally blameless here."

   I smiled at her, she stuck her tongue out at me and muttered, "blameless
my ass."

   "So, do I think about us?  Yes, all the time.  Do I think about us being
brother and sister?  No, I don't.  I only think about how much I love you
and how empty my life would be without you."

   Colleen's head was bent down as she listened, her finger drawing slow
lazy circles on my leg as she thought.

   "I feel the same way Bobby, but sometimes I wonder if we're doing the
right thing."

   "It's not a question of right or wrong, it just is.  I know that to
other people it might seem weird and all, but I've never felt that anything
was so meant to be as this, you and me.  Under other circumstances, our
lives might have gone down a different path, but things are the way they
are.  When I moved here from Chicago, if Bill were still alive, or Barbara
hadn't done what she did, would we have still ended up in a relationship
like this?  I doubt it but you can't tell because there is no way to change
the past.  Bill died and Barbara did it.  I am not going to spend the rest
of my life playing the 'what if' game.  The only thing that matters is that
I love you and you love me.  And there are three little girls right down
the hall that we both love just as much.  It's called family."

   I reached over and stroked Colleen's belly.

   "And I can't wait to meet the next member of our family."

   Colleen reached up and placed her open palm against my cheek.

   "I love you so much Bobby...sometimes I wonder...if I really loved Bill
at all?"

   I pulled Colleen close and held her tight.

   "I have no doubt that you loved Bill, I could see it in your eyes
everytime you looked at him.  And he loved you, that's why I liked him so
much myself, because he was good for you.  You can't compare your love for
Bill with your love for me; it's a different time, different place."

   Colleen was quiet then whispered her biggest question of the night.

   "Do you ever think about Barbara?"

   I took my time before answering.  I knew that Colleen was feeling
extremely vulnerable right then and if I wasn't careful, I could hurt her
very badly.

   "When I first got here from Chicago that was all I could think about. 
But you, with a lot of help from Meghan and Molly, showed me that there is
another life out there in the world.  That I not only could, but would,
live through everything and find a different happiness.  Once I understood
that, she just faded away from my memory.  The answer to your question is
no, I don't thank about Barbara.  In fact I surprise myself sometimes when
I realize that I was married before.  It's almost like it was a story I
read in a book a long time ago.  It was something that happened to a
fictional character, not to me."

   I could tell that Colleen needed more reassurance from me so I
continued.

   "I loved Barbara very much when we got married; there is no escaping
that fact.  But that love no longer exists.  That love is gone just a much
as Bill is gone.  They have both died and they are never coming back.  You
and I have been released to continue living our lives in the here and now,
not somewhere in the past."

   "Do you think you should have stayed in Chicago and tried to work things
out with her?  Talked to her, at least let her tell you why she did it?"

   "No, I don't, there would be no point in that.  It's like this.  If a
drunk walks out of a bar, gets behind the wheel of a car, then drives sixty
miles an hour down the street and kills a small child in the intersection,
no matter what the drunk says, or explains, the child is still dead.  The
driver knew the possible consequences before he got drunk, but he made the
choice to drink and drive anyway.  For him to try and justify anything and
hide behind some lame excuse that he was impaired by alcohol does not
change the fact that the child is dead."

   "It's the same thing in a marriage.  Love is a living and breathing
thing.  Barbara made the same promise to me that I made to her.  The vows
say 'forsaking all others.' She knew before she made her choice what it
would do to our relationship, but she did it anyway.  My love for her is
just as dead as that child in the intersection."

   "What could she say that would make a difference?  That it was just sex
and not love?  That she loved me but had to have someone else's dick inside
of her?  That infidelity is acceptable in a marriage?  That because I loved
her I should accept that she would screw anyone anytime she felt the urge?
That type of relationship might be OK for some people, but not me.  I don't
believe any of that.  It's all a line of horseshit by someone who won't
accept responsibility for their own failure in a relationship."

   "I suppose that on some level maybe Barbara still loved me when she got
pregnant by another man...she loved me...but not enough to put me first, to
be number one in her life.  If there was something wrong in our
relationship, she obviously didn't love me enough to come to me and try to
work it out; she just didn't care.  That's why your love is so different,
because I know that I am number one for you.  I don't for one second doubt
how you feel.  I know you will never betray me."

   I had to pause for a moment to digest in my own mind what I had just
said.  Colleen gave me a gentle kiss on the lips and sat back, waiting for
me to continue.

   "Barbara never said it out loud, but I knew that she was jealous of
you."

   "Me?  Why?"

   "Who knows.  Maybe because it is so easy for you to be beautiful, it
comes natural for you.  She always felt that she had to work at being
glamorous.  I think she was jealous of how close you and I are...maybe
that's why she did what she did...I don't know.  The sad thing is that she
had no reason to be jealous...I was in love with her, but she chose to
destroy that."

   We sat on the bed facing each other, just being silent together when
Colleen took both of my hands in hers and squeezed.  She smiled and spoke.

   "When we were younger, I used to brag to all of my friends about how
cute my little brother was...and still is I might add.  I never did feel
the same way about the twins as I did about you.  They were always just my
brothers, but you were special to me.  Always have been, always will be."

   I nodded my head in agreement.  "Yeah, same here.  As far as the incest
thing goes, it's really not part of the equation.  I don't get all hot
fantasizing about hopping into bed with Mom..."

   "Please, that's not a good mental picture for me."

   "...and I'm not standing around drooling at the thought of all the
nieces growing up..."

   Colleen laughed.  "That certainly puts my mind at ease."

   "...the only important thing is that we love each other, no matter what
our biological relationship is.  I really don't understand this 'soul mate'
thing I've heard people talk about, but I do think that you and I were
meant to be together from the very beginning.  The fact that you and I are
brother and sister was just a bad accident on the part of nature.  I want
to tell you something that Mike said to me a long time ago."

   "What's that?"

   "One night when we were in college, Mike and I were sitting around
talking, being philosophical, solving all the problems of world and we
ended up talking about the family and stuff.  Mike said, 'I'm sorry Bobby,
you're my brother but Jimmy is my friend.' I never really understood what
he was saying until I came back from Chicago.  You're not my sister; I
don't think you ever have been.  You've always been my friend, and now
you're my lover.  Does any of this make any sense?"

   "Yes it does." She leaned in gave me a small kiss.  "Thanks, I feel a
lot better." Colleen lay down, pulling me with her.  She reached over and
turned off the light.  In the quiet of the darkness she held my hand and
whispered, "I am never going to let go of my friend."

   The relationship between Colleen and I was always good, but the
conversation we had that night cleared up a lot of the lingering issues
both of us had in the back our minds.  It added a new dimension and depth
to our love.  But...

   Gradually, something else began to creep into the back of my
consciousness.  I couldn't put my finger on it, I just felt that something
was missing and I didn't know what.  The more I thought about it the more
it eluded me.  For several weeks I struggled with it, trying to find the
answer.  Even Peterson and Miss Jennings commented that I seemed to be
preoccupied.

   It sounds like a scene in a low budget movie, but the answer came to me
in a dream in the middle of the night.  I sat up in bed with a jerk and
yelled out, still half asleep.  Colleen didn't open her eyes, just groggily
asked, "What going on?"

   "Nothing honey, go back to sleep."

   I lay back down and stared at the ceiling.  Now that I knew what was
wrong, I had to figure out how to correct it.  I spent the next few weeks
playing out different scenarios in my mind, rejecting most of them, looking
for the perfect plan that would fix everything.

   Then one night I was in the kitchen cleaning up when Colleen walked in
after putting the kids to bed.  She stood there watching me for a few
moments before she spoke.

   "What's wrong?"

   "What do you mean?"

   "Something is bothering you.  You're quiet all the time and half the
time you don't even hear me or the girls.  Now what is going on?"

   I was having trouble finding the right words.  I stood there looking at
her before I spoke.

   "I want to get married."

   The expression on Colleen's face couldn't have been any worse if I had
punched her in the stomach.  Her eyes slowly got bigger and her bottom lip
began to tremble.  A tear rolled down her cheek then she turned and walked
out of the room with out saying a word.  I heard her walk down the hallway
and close the bedroom door.

   I tossed the dishtowel onto the counter and went to the bedroom.  I
stopped, took a deep breath before opening the door and stepped in. 
Colleen was sitting on the edge of the bed; her arms wrapped her
mid-section, rocking back and forth holding our unborn child.  Tears were
pouring down and she was shaking when she looked up at me.

   "How could you?  You promised me."

   "How could I what?"

   "You promised me that you would never cheat on me, who is she?"

   "Who is who?"

   "The tramp...the slut you want to marry."

   My head was starting to spin, everything had gone terribly wrong. 
Colleen's face was in her hands and she was sobbing uncontrollably.  I
walked over and knelt on the floor in front of her.  I carefully pulled her
hands away from her face then held it between my own.

   "You are."

   "I am what?"

   "It's you.  You're the slut I want to marry."

   Colleen sat straight up and snapped her head back with a look of total
shock.

   "ARE YOU CRAZY?"

   "No...I'm not.  I've never felt so sane in my life.  Colleen, I love you
and I want you to marry me."

   "But that's impossible!"

   "Why?"

   "Why?  Because it's against the law, that's why."

   "So?"

   Colleen was frantically looking around the room, trying in her mind to
latch onto something that would bring this moment back into reality.  As
her breathing began to slow down her eyes settled on mine.

   "There is no way we could get married."

   "Sure there is.  All we have to do is get a marriage license, invite
Reverend Stevens over, she says a few words for us out in the garden and
then we have a nice party.  Pretty simple actually."

   Colleen was having trouble assimilating what I had said.

   "We can't just waltz in and get a license."

   "Sure we can, it's easy.  Here, let me show you."

   I went over to the dresser, took Colleen's wallet out of her purse and
removed her driver's license.  I pulled my wallet of my back pocket and
took out my own license.  I sat down on the bed next to her and held them
out for her to see.

   "This all we need."

   "What?"

   "Look, when we get the license, we only have to show them identification
to prove that we are who we say are, we don't have to provide a copy of the
family tree.  What name does it say here?"

   "Robert Mathew O'Conner."

   "And what name is on this one?

   "Colleen Margaret Wilkowski."

   "Ok, who in San Miguel knows that we are brother and sister?"

   She had to think about that for a few seconds.  "No one as far as I
know."

   "Alright then.  As far as anyone knows, we are two unmarried people
living together, we had a baby and now another one is on the way.  We want
to make the ultimate commitment to each other and publicly say we are in
love, what's wrong with that?"

   The look in Colleen's eyes told me that she was not having any better
luck in processing any of this.

   "What about Mom and the twins?"

   "Now that does have me worried a little, but I'm betting that if they
can deal with us having two children together, then they will be able to
cope with us getting married.  What do you say?  Will you marry me?"

   Colleen stared at me for a few minutes then got up and walked over to
the closet.  With her back to me she began to undress and said, "I can't
deal with this right now, it's making my head hurt.  We'll talk about it
later."

   When she had finished undressing, she came back and stood in front of me
in all of her naked glory.  There was a confused look on her face and her
hand was rubbing her forehead.

   "Christ, the father of my children is a raving lunatic...I'm going to
bed now."

   Colleen got under the covers and rolled over with her back to me.  She
lay there quietly then spoke.

   "And don't you ever call me a slut again."

   The next morning Colleen was unusually quiet at breakfast.  When she met
me at the door before I left for work, I tried to talk to her but she put
her hand over my mouth and shoved me out the door.  When I got home that
night it was just as bad.  She interacted with the girls but completely
ignored me.  Even the kids were picking up that something was wrong.  They
didn't say anything, just looked at us with questions in their eyes.

   I sat on the sofa trying to read as Colleen put the kids to bed.  After
fifteen minutes I had read the same paragraph a hundred times and still had
no idea what it said.  I had given up when Colleen walked into the room and
stood in front of me, her protruding belly in my face and staring down into
my eyes.  I waited for her to say something to me.

   "Yes," she said.

   "Yes what?"

   She rolled her eyes, looking up at the ceiling for a second and then
back down at me.

   "Yes, I will marry you.  Apparently insanity runs in our family.  I hope
we haven't passed it on to the girls."

   She turned and walked away.  At the doorway she stopped and looked over
her shoulder.

   "Bobby, it's time for bed.  We have a lot details to discuss."

   And we did discuss the details, but first we...well, let's just say that
we did lots of other stuff before talking about a wedding.

   After two pregnancies for Colleen, telling the family about the wedding
was a piece of cake.  Sharon and Mi Lin were startled at first but that
quickly turned to delight.  Mike just smiled and under his breath said,
"It's about time." Jimmy rubbed his temples with his fingers for a long
time before he looked at us.

   "You do realize that I'm a deputy sheriff, don't you?  I'm going to
pretend I didn't hear anything you just said."

   Mom's only comment was, "You two only do these things to make my hair
turn gray.  How can we help?"

   For all of the bravado that I had shown to Colleen when I first talked
with her about getting married, I was terrified when we went to get the
marriage license.  Colleen and I drove to city hall one afternoon and
walked up to the appropriate window.  An old lady who was somewhere between
eighty and death was behind the counter slowly writing something on a form.
It seemed like she took hours before looking up at us.

   "Can I help you?"

   "Yes," I said.  "We need to get a marriage license."

   She looked at me, then at a very pregnant Colleen who was holding
Noelle.

   "I should think so," was all that she said before handing me a form to
fill out.

   Once we had returned it to her, she gave us the license, showing us
where to have the minister and witnesses sign, telling us to return it
within thirty days of the ceremony for it to be recorded and become legal.

   Because of the circumstances, the wedding was kept exceptionally quiet
and very small.  Since there were three kids in our house and another on
the way, Sharon and Mi Lin took charge so that Colleen wouldn't have to
deal with any of that stress.  For obvious reasons, the wedding would be in
our back yard in San Miguel, too may people in Santa Teresa knew who we
were.

   Sharon and Mi Lin made numerous trips to San Miguel to take care of
everything and Colleen was having a blast spending time with her two
sisters-in-law.  Mom made the trip with them half of the time and there was
so much laughter going on that I had a hard time believing they were
getting any work done.

   A couple of days before the wedding I got a call from Mike.  After
exchanging pleasantries, Mike asked his question.  "Have you guys got your
rings yet?"

   Rings.  I leaned over and began pounding my forehead on the top of my
desk.

   "Jesus, Mike.  I didn't even think about getting rings.  What am I going
to do now?"

   "Relax little brother, I've got you covered.  Some how I knew you
wouldn't remember.  I will bring the rings with me on Saturday."

   The day of the wedding started out crappy.  It was early fall and there
was gray fog everywhere, but by 10 AM it had burned off leaving the rest of
the day bright and sunny.  The temperature us just right for wearing a suit
without working up a sweat.  Bill had built a small arbor in the backyard
that was now completely covered with climbing roses.  At 4 PM that Saturday
afternoon, I stood in front of the arbor with Reverend Stevens waiting for
Colleen.

   For the actual ceremony, the only people there were Mom, Jimmy and Mi
Lin and their two daughters, and Mike and Sharon and their three daughters.
The only additional people were Harold Peterson and Miss Jennings from the
office plus Frank and Linda with their daughters from next door.  Frank and
Linda had bought the house next to us about a month after I came from
Chicago.  Their two daughters were the same age as Meghan and Molly, and we
had all become close friends.

   We heard a small noise and we all turned to look at the back door.  The
first one to walk out was Molly who holding a small bouquet of flowers in
her hands.  Meghan was next and she was holding Noelle who was sound asleep
on her shoulder.  All three of the girls were in the new dresses that Mom
and Colleen had bought for the occasion and they were very far off the top
of the cute scale.  The girls walked to the arbor and waited.  Then Colleen
stepped out.

   Stunning - breathtaking - there aren't enough adjectives in the English
language to describe what I saw.  Colleen was wearing an ivory colored
dress made of raw silk that fell below her knees.  It was devastatingly
beautiful in its simplicity.  It displayed every beautiful line and curve
about Colleen including her pregnancy.  While everyone else was smiling at
how wonderful she looked, I was struggling to take a breath without
wheezing, she was that beautiful.

   As Colleen took her place next to me we turned to face Reverend Stevens.
On Colleen's left was Meghan, holding Noelle and next to her was Molly. 
Just as everyone moved in and formed a semi-circle around us, I felt a
small hand slip into mine.  I looked down to see Patricia who was now four
years old looking back up at me.

   "What are you doing?" I whispered.

   "You didn't have anybody on your side," she smiled back in reply.

   The gathering settled down and waited for Reverend Stevens to begin.  As
she opened her little black book Patricia leaned in and in a clear voice
innocently informed the Reverend, "My daddy says that now Aunt Colleen is
going to be an honest woman."

   The entire group was struggling to not break out into unbridled laughter
except for Mike whose face had turned bright red and was trying to hide
behind his wife.

   The ceremony itself was very short.  When it came to the point of
exchanging rings, I glanced over my shoulder at Mike who smiled and pointed
at Patricia.  She was very slowly and carefully unbuttoning the flap
covering the pocket on her dress.  She reached in and handed two objects to
the pastor.  She said her blessing over the rings then handed one to me and
one to Colleen.  We looked down at what lay in our palms and both of us
gasped.

   It was our parent's wedding rings.

   We both looked at Mom who was smiling and nodding yes.  We said our vows
and exchanged the rings.  The rings fit perfectly, as though they had been
custom made specifically for us.  After the last prayer, I kissed my new
bride.

   I felt Patricia tugging at the hem of my coat and she was wiggling her
index finger at me to bend down.  Cupping her mouth with her hand she
whispered into my ear.

   "Are you still Uncle Bobby?"

   I picked her up, swung her around and kissed her on the check.

   "Yes sweetie, I will always be Uncle Bobby."

   The caterer's that Sharon had hired began putting out the buffet and the
other guests began to arrive.  We had invited about twenty other people but
we didn't tell them it was a wedding reception, we just said that it was a
formal garden party.  It was evenly divided between our friends in the
neighborhood, my closest co-workers from the office and several of
Colleen's clients.  Soon the newcomers knew that Colleen and I had been
married, secretly we were counting on the rumor mill to spread the news. 
The live-in boyfriend finally married the nice widow woman.

   As soon as we could we found Mom to ask her about the rings.

   "I want you to have them.  I talked with Jimmy and Mike and they agreed
with me.  The rings are yours now." She paused for just a second with a
small smile and said, "I know your father would want you to have them too."

   The party went into the evening with Mom and the twins meeting most of
our friends for the first time and everyone having a good time.  There was
one incident that happened where I could not have foreseen the future
disaster in store for me.

   Mike and Jimmy met Harold Peterson.

   I have a used set of golf clubs and play eighteen holes maybe once or
twice a year, almost always with my brothers.  I don't play very well so it
is not something I enjoy doing a lot of.  After nine holes, my score is
something that a professional bowler would be proud of, somewhere around
280 or 290.  The twins are the opposite.  They are fanatics when it comes
to golf and every year they spend a fortune on new clubs and greens fees.
As I said, once or twice a year they harass me into a round of gold.  The
problem with this is that I am by far the best one of the bunch.  After
years and probably thousands of dollars spent on lessons, they simply
continue to get worse.

   And then they met Harold.

   Harold Peterson is possibly the only person on the face of the earth
that could be more obsessed and worse at golf that Mike and Jimmy.  I now
had three people constantly nagging me to be the fourth man on Saturday
mornings.  Sharon and Mi Lin tolerated this small personality disorder of
their husbands and knew that it was perfectly harmless as long as everyone
wore a crash helmet.  Harold on the other hand, was a widower with no one
to keep him on a short leash and occasionally would slip into an
uncontrolled frenzy at the mere mention of golf.  It was inevitable that I
would raise my number of golf games to five or six games a year.  Colleen
simply smiled and gave me big hug.

   "Maybe you can give the boys a few pointers."

   By nine o'clock everyone had left, the caterers had cleaned up and the
only one who was still with us was Mom.  She had taken a weeks vacation
from teaching her second graders to stay with the girls in San Miguel while
Colleen and I went on our honeymoon.

   The honeymoon wasn't an extravagant trip.  Because of Colleen being so
close to the time of giving birth, we couldn't travel very far or be gone
for too long.  We left on Sunday morning to drive up the coast for a couple
of hours to Carmel where we had rented a bungalow on the beach for the
week. By Wednesday night we missed the girls so much that we decided to cut
the trip short and was back home Thursday afternoon.

   Friday morning, Colleen and I were in the attorney's office starting the
paper work for me to adopt Meghan and Molly and legally change their last
name from Wilkowski to O'Conner.

   One month later, with me holding her hand, Colleen Margaret O'Conner
gave birth to Brigid Fiona O'Conner.

   But this time, I was an old experienced hand in the maternity ward.  I
was on my way back from the cafeteria with two cups of coffee for me and
Colleen when I passed a young couple in the hallway that looked to be
barely out of their teenage years.  She was wearing an open robe over her
hospital gown and looked to be ten months pregnant.  He was much taller
than she and had his arm around her, helping her to move along very slowly.
He had a look of panic in his eyes as though he might bolt for the door at
any second.  I stopped and handed him my cup of coffee.

   "Here, you're going to need this much more than I will."

   Having a new born in the house was not that new for us any more, it was
just part of our daily routine.  Noelle was now eleven months old and
immediately took notice of the new life form that had invaded her
territory. Colleen was sitting in the rocking chair with Brigid in her lap
when Noelle toddled over and stared at the first person she had ever seen
that was smaller than she.  Noelle squealed "BeBe," clapped her hands, bent
over and kissed her sister on the cheek.

   Molly immediately stepped in and took over the care of Brigid, impatient
that she couldn't move onto her room right away.  When it came to Noelle
and Brigid, Colleen and I are the parents, but Meghan and Molly are the
guardians.  The sisters' bond between the four of them is stronger than any
I have ever seen.

   There are certain images that are burned into my memory.  One of those
images is when I was in kindergarten and sick.  I had some type of virus
and was in bed for a couple of days, weak and not able to do much of
anything.  To this day I can see Colleen sitting on the edge of my bed,
wiping my face with a washcloth and then reading me my favorite story. 
Another image I have is when I was about eight years old.  I walked into
the livingroom on Christmas morning and there next to the tree was a
bicycle with my name on it.  Standing next to the bike was my Mom and Dad,
the joy in their smiles just as big as my own.

   But there is one mental picture that I keep pulling out to look at.  It
was the day after Thanksgiving when Brigid was just a few days old. 
Outside it was cold and dreary, everything inside was warm and we were
wrapped in the cocoon of our house.  I was standing in the dining room and
looked through the archway into the livingroom.  A blanket was spread out
on the floor in front of the fireplace and Meghan was helping Noelle play
with her blocks.  Molly was lying on her stomach, watching and laughing. 
Colleen was sitting in the rocking chair with her blouse unbuttoned while
Brigid nursed at her breast.  Colleen was humming softly to Brigid as she
alternated her attention between her daughter in her arms and her daughters
on the floor.  Occasionally she would look in my direction and give me the
gift of one of her contented smiles.

   I love my family.

   Now, with four kids in the house we had to address a specific logistical
issue.  We became the first family in the neighborhood to own a minivan.

   The same afternoon that we brought Brigid home from the hospital,
Colleen grabbed a red marker and walked over to the kitchen calendar.  She
counted off eight weeks and raised her hand to circle the date when I
grabbed her wrist.  I moved her hand down to the following Friday and
wiggled the pen until that date was marked.

   "Bobby, what are you doing?  That's nine weeks, not eight."

   "I know, but what day is that?"

   She looked at it for a second then broke into a huge grin.  "My
birthday, I like the way you're thinking."

   "This year you are having a special birthday," I said, wiggling my
eyebrows.

   Colleen's response to this was to give me her contented half smile and a
hug.  "Just do what you need to do, I can't wait."

   I had been thinking about this for some time.  My part of the settlement
after the divorce had been a little over $7,800.  Somehow it seemed like
tainted money to me and I hadn't wanted anything to do with it.  I was
earning good money at work plus Colleen had her income from her
illustration jobs and Bill's insurance.  We hadn't needed to use any of the
blood money from Barbara.  All of this time it had been sitting in a mutual
fund account collecting interest.  Because of the rising stock market it
was now over $13,000.  I knew what I wanted to do with it.

   Our parents had taught us to be careful with money.  The four of us kids
aren't cheapskates, but we don't spend money on frivolous extravagances
either.  We save our money and surround ourselves with comfortable things
without living in debt up to our armpits.

   Now, I was going to spend the dirty money on something that was
outrageously expensive for no other reason than to celebrate Colleen's
birthday.  I had already spoken to Mom and the twins and they were saving
that date to help us celebrate.  When I told Colleen what I had in mind she
felt my forehead to see if I had a fever.

   About ten miles outside of San Miguel is a large rambling farmhouse. 
The descendants of the original owners from the gold rush era had expanded
the structure and modernized the utilities without changing the charm of
the architecture.  It was no longer a working farm and the house had been
converted into a restaurant and named after their great-grandmother, "Gypsy
Sally."

   It is also the only five star restaurant between Los Angeles and San
Francisco.  There was a one year wait to get a reservation and many people
planned their vacation itinerary around the reservation.  It was the type
of restaurant that did not have prices on the menu, but the cost at the end
of the evening was about the same amount as a down payment for a house.  I
talked to Harold Peterson, he made few phone calls and got us a reservation
on Colleen's birthday.

   The nine weeks wait meant more time spent with my face between Colleen's
thighs - not that I was complaining.  But as her birthday drew closer, the
more excited we became.  This was going to be the once in a lifetime
extravaganza.

   One of the things that I had done was to hire a limousine.  The limo
picked up Mom plus the twins and their wives and brought them to San
Miguel. This way they would not have to be concerned about the hour long
drive back to Santa Teresa at the end of the evening.  After they had
arrived at the house, I ushered everyone into the livingroom where we
waited for Colleen to finish getting ready.

   As we stood around making small talk while we waited, I observed once
again that the women in the O'Conner family were beautiful.  Mom is an
older version of Colleen with golden blond hair and deep brown eyes. 
Tonight she was wearing a pair of black silk tuxedo pants with a white silk
blouse and a strand of pearls around her neck.  We could all see where
Colleen had got her curves and good taste from.  Mom also had a while silk
shawl with a twelve inch fringe around her shoulders.

   Sharon is five eleven, only slightly shorter than Mike.  Her medium
brown hair is straight and falls down her back to her waist.  Most of the
time she wears it in a single thick braid but tonight it was hanging free
with just a hint of a curl.  She was wearing a jade green dress that
accented the golden glow of her skin tones.  The dress floated around her
figure and was cut to fall below her knees, showing just the beginning
cleavage of her ample bosom.  Sharon was a big woman and while she would
never be considered fat, she would never be accused of anorexia.  Her
Norwegian Viking heritage was obvious.

   Mi Lin is five-six and thin.  Her hair is jet black and hangs like a
thick mass of shining silk thread, curling under at her shoulders.  Her
dress was a deep navy with a slit on one side that went from her calf to a
couple of inches above her knee, showing just a hint of her thigh.  The
mandarin collar accentuated her slender neck.  Her dark almond shaped eyes
contrasted pleasantly against her fair skin.

   Sharon and Mi Lin were roommates in college and double dated the
O'Conner twins on a dare from one of their friends.  The date must have
gone well because within the year, the four of them were married in a
double ceremony.  Jimmy and Mike were just as much in love with their wives
as I was with Colleen.

   Jimmy looked at me and smiled.  "Nice suit.  Let me guess, Colleen
picked it out, didn't she?"

   "Yeah, how did you know?"

   Mike laughed.  "Because it fits and it doesn't look like you slept in it
last night."

   They were right.  Colleen had insisted that if we were going to do this
we were going to do it right.  She had gone with me to buy a new suit and
spent an hour telling me to be quiet as she conferred the tailor while I
tried on various options.  My reward for being patient during this ordeal
was a couple of hours of incredible toe curling sex that night after the
kids were in bed.

   Colleen kept us waiting for only a few minutes before she entered the
livingroom.  This time even Mike and Jimmy's jaws dropped when they saw
their sister.  I had not seen what she had chosen to wear before this very
moment.  I stood there speechless.  In all of the times I had seen Colleen
dressed up for an event, I had never seen her this stunning.

   Colleen had designed her dress herself and had it custom made for her.
As in everything she does it was clean and simple in its line but in its'
simplicity it was stunning.  It was a sheath dress but had been tailored to
fit Colleen like a glove.  It skimmed along every line and curve of her
body but was not so tight that she couldn't breathe or move around.

   The dress was made of black silk velvet that seemed to reflect the light
everytime she moved.  The shoulder straps were wide and it was cut low in a
scoop across her chest revealing about three inches of her cleavage.  It
was the lowest neckline I had ever seen Colleen wear.  The bodice of the
dress was constructed so that her breasts were held together but still
allowed them to sway gently as she moved about.  In was cut so that the
back of the dress was six inches below her shoulder blades.

   It was obvious that Colleen was not wearing a bra.

   The hemline of the dress was about four inches above her knees and had a
six inch slit on top of her left thigh.  This slit gave her the freedom to
move about without being constricted.  She wore a pair of sheer nylons that
were silver in color with a sparkle to them and a pair of low heeled shoes
that were held on by a series of tiny straps.

   Her nail polish and lipstick matched in bright deep red, a shade that
our father used to call "Harlot Scarlet." The hosiery was sheer enough that
we could see that the toenails matched the color of her lips.  Depending on
how the light would hit her, Colleen's appearance would change from simply
tasteful to highly erotic and back again.

   Colleen, Mom, Sharon and Mi Lin were congregated on the other side of
the room from us, commenting on each others clothes as Jimmy, Mike and I
were drinking in all of the beauty that was standing there.

   Mike looked at Jimmy and I and whispered, "Is it legal to have so many
beautiful women in one spot?"

   Jimmy answered in his own whisper, "Gentlemen, I hope you brought your
clubs because the animals out there are going to try to steal our women
tonight."

   Then all four of the women turned to look at us.  This reduced my
brothers and I to incoherent morons.  The image of Colleen, Mom, Sharon and
Mi Lin standing there smiling at us is one that is burned onto the retinas
of my memory forever.

   Finally Mom said, "Mike, will you do the honors please?"

   Mike reached inside of his suit coat and drew out an envelope and handed
it to Colleen.

   "Happy birthday Colleen, this is from all of us."

   Colleen read the papers she had pulled out of the envelope and smiled.
She handed them to me and said, "That is great, thank you guys so much."

   Mom and the twins had paid for a weekend for two at the Saint Francis
Hotel in San Francisco and two advance tickets for the De Vinci exhibit
that would be opening at the Legion of Honor Museum that same week, an
exhibit that had already been sold out for six months.

   Sharon was smiling when she said, "The weekend is for two, maybe Meghan
or Molly would want to go with you."

   Colleen only grinned.  "No, I have a date with my husband that weekend.
I think I can probably talk him into going with me."

   I looked at her with a serious expression, "Only if you promise to be
nice to me.  Come here, I want to give you my present."

   When Colleen was standing in front of me, I bent over and opened the
drawer of the end table.  I took out a small box that was gift wrapped with
a large pink bow.  I had spent months looking for this gift and was nervous
about how Colleen would react to it.  Colleen pulled the end of the ribbon
untying the bow and peeled off the wrapping paper.  She held the small box
in her hand and smiled at me before lifting the lid.  When she saw what was
inside her eyes grew larger and she gasped.

   "My god Bobby, they're gorgeous."

   Colleen held out the box for everyone to see what was there.  Inside was
a pendant necklace with matching pendant earrings.  The stones were
teardrop shaped and were the deepest dark red that is only found in the
purest of rubies.  Everyone was ooohing and ahhhing and Mike slapped me on
the back.

   "What do you know, you're not as tasteless as we thought you were."

   Jimmy was laughing, "Damn you Bobby, now I'm going to have to take Mi
Lin shopping tomorrow."

   Colleen stepped over in front of the mirror that was above the
fireplace. She hooked the earrings in place, turning her head from side to
side admiring how they looked.

   "Bobby, come here and do the necklace for me please."

   I stepped behind her and could see the huge smile on her face in the
mirror as I fastened the clasp at the back of her neck.  I whispered into
her ear, "I can't give you the rest of your present until everyone is
gone."

   The pendant hung down midway between her neck and the beginning of her
cleavage and lay against her chest.  The contrast between Colleen's soft
creamy skin and the deep rich red of the ruby was arresting.  Colleen
turned and put her hand behind my head, pulling it down until she could
whisper in my ear.

   "Thank you husband."

   "I love you wife."

   Colleen shifted her head until her lips were in contact with mine.  My
mouth opened and Colleen's tongue slid inside and began its dance of love.
My arms went around her, one around her back and the other slowly sliding
down until I could cup her ass.  Colleen kept one hand at the back of my
head, running her hand through my hair as the other went around my waist.
Slowly she brought her leg up, the inside of her thigh massaging the
outside my own as she hooked her calf around mine.  Our groins were
together and we began a small gentle rocking motion.

   "AHEM"

   I was startled by the sound of someone loudly clearing their throat.  We
immediately released each other as I spun around to face the room.

   Mike and Sharon had suddenly discovered that the top of the lampshade
was the most fascinating thing they had ever seen.  Mi Lin was looking down
at the floor with her hand shading her eyes and Jimmy had turned his back
and was staring at the ceiling.  Mom was standing there, staring with large
saucer sized eyes and her mouth opening and closing like a guppy.  I could
feel more that see the color in Colleen's face turning a bright red to
match my own.  After several seconds that seemed like hours of
embarrassment, Mom spoke.

   "Will you two try to control yourselves!  Colleen, go fix your make-up.
Robert, you have lipstick all over your face."

   Mom only calls me Robert when she is near the snapping point.

   Like two small children that had been caught being naughty, Colleen and
I slipped into the bathroom to repair the damage.

   Once we arrived at the restaurant and the meal was begun, we understood
why it had the reputation it did.  There were a total of ten tables in the
room but each one had the atmosphere of being the only one there.  The
staff was quiet and unobtrusive; the only thing for us to do was enjoy the
meal and the pleasure of our guests.  The experience was proving to be
worth every penny.  As the waiters were serving the desert I looked down at
my watch.  I thought that we had been there for only an hour or so and was
surprised to see that more than three hours had passed.

   As we began the desert course, Sharon asked the question that we had all
been wondering about.

   "Margaret, how are things going with you and Dutch?"

   Dutch was the husband of Mom's best friend.  Lydia had died a few weeks
before Dad and Mom and Dutch had turned to each other for support during
the grieving period.

   "Oh, things are going fine, not much new."

   "Do you think that you and Dutch will ever marry?"

   Mom gave a gentle laugh.  "Good heavens no.  Dutch is a dear friend and
one of the sweetest men I know, but it's never going any further than what
it is now.  We both agreed that we're just not interested that kind of
relationship, we're simply not attracted to each other that way.  All of
our dates are when one of us has to go to some function and we need someone
to keep the sharks at bay.  Once you reach middle age and suddenly become
single, it's amazing how much the rest of the world thinks of you as fresh
meat.  But we did agree that once we turn seventy-five, if we're both still
single, we'll become roommates just so we can have someone to talk to at
night."

   Colleen asked, "Do you think you'll ever remarry?"

   Mom smiled.  "I don't know, I don't really thinking about it.  But if I
did it would have be someone very special.  Your father set a pretty high
standard."

   We were all lost in thought for a moment as we individually remembered
Dad.  Mom was still looking down at her plate when she spoke.

   "I would like to say something." Then she looked up.  "First I want to
say Happy Birthday Colleen, you look absolutely radiant tonight."

   "Thank you Mom."

   Mom paused for a moment then took a deep breath before continuing.  She
glanced at everyone around the table before settling her attention on
Colleen and I.

   "I don't know quite how to say this correctly so I guess I'll just jump
right in.  When you two first came to us with the news about Noelle coming,
I was not pleased, but you are my children and I will never turn you away.
Since then, and especially after Brigid was born, your brothers and I have
had a lot discussions and they have pointed out a lot of things that I had
never seen before.  I don't know how your father and I were so dense as to
not see how much you two have loved each other your whole lives.  But I do
see it now and I'm OK with what you're doing.  Family or not, I've never
seen two people who care for each other like you two.  Mike and Jimmy, that
goes for you too.  Nothing makes a mother happier than to see their
children find the person they love and give me such wonderful grandkids. 
If your father were alive, I think...no, I know that he would be very
happy. What I'm saying is that...that I am sorry for being so late to say
this but you have my blessing.  Keep making each other happy." Mom's voice
was too filled with emotion to continue so she stopped speaking.

   Colleen, Sharon and Mi Lin each sat with tears in their eyes.  Then
Jimmy spoke.  "Mike and I feel the same way you guys, happy birthday
Colleen."

   I didn't speak until I could get my emotions under control, and then it
was barely above a whisper.  "Thanks Mom.  You don't know what it means to
us to hear that from you."

   We all sat in silence for a few minutes, then finished the desert and
sat enjoying the after dinner coffee.  Jimmy was telling us a story about
some adventure involving him and his patrol partner, making us all laugh.
Colleen was sitting with her arm on the back of my chair, slowly and
lightly stroking the back of my neck.  There was a lull in the conversation
when she leaned over and whispered in my ear.

   "I'm not wearing any panties."

   Fortunately the coffee cup was empty when it slipped from my fingers,
bounced off the plate and landed on the floor.  The racket startled
everyone except for Colleen who stood and said, "If you'll excuse me, I
need to go to the ladies room."

   Sharon and Mi Lin immediately pushed their chairs back and stood up.

   "Sounds like a good idea, we're right behind you." Then they all left
the dining room.

   As we watched them walk away, Jimmy's brow was furrowed as he asked the
question Mike and I were wondering about.

   "Why do they do that?"

   "Do what?" Mom asked.

   "Why do women always go to the bathroom in a group like that, is it some
sort of herd instinct?"

   Mom only laughed.  "It's one of those secrets that only women know and
I'm not going to be the one to tell.  You're just going to have to suffer
without knowing, just like your father did."

   The four of us continued talking but after a while I noticed that our
wives had been gone for quite awhile.  Just as I was getting up to go look
for them they returned to the table.  As she sat down, Colleen had her half
smile on her lips and she gave me a kiss on the cheek.

   "Where did you go, I was starting to get worried."

   Colleen only smiled and whispered, "We had a very interesting
conversation in the ladies room."

   "What about?" I whispered back.

   "Oh just girl stuff, I'll tell you later...when you're ready."

   Sharon and Mi Lin had sat back down by their husbands.  Mi Lin scooted
her chair closer to Jimmy and it looked as though she had subtly put her
hand in his lap under the tablecloth.  Jimmy's mouth opened part way and
his eyes rolled back as he slowly tipped his head upwards.

   Sharon leaned over and was whispering into Mike's ear.  His head snapped
around and looked at Sharon, his eyes bugging out as she slowly nodded her
head yes.  Mike looked first at Jimmy and then me, beads of sweat beginning
to form on his forehead.  He gulped as he spoke.

   "This has been a lot of fun, but...umm...I...uh...I...I...I have to get
out to the job site early so we better get going."

   Jimmy was quick to add, "uh...yeah, me too...I mean I have a lot of
paper work to finish at the station...we better get going...quick."

   Mom and I looked at each other, confused, but shrugged our shoulders and
began gathering our stuff to leave.  Mike and Jimmy were doing everything
they could to get us to hurry and I noticed that Colleen, Sharon and Mi Lin
each had a small conspiratorial smile on their faces.

   On the ride back to the house, conversation was stilted and the twins
seemed nervous and agitated.  I invited everyone in for some tea before
they had to go back to Santa Teresa, but Mike and Jimmy both yelled "NO!"
The last thing I heard as Colleen and I got out of the limo was Jimmy
yelling at the driver, "There's an extra hundred bucks in it if you get us
home by eleven."

   The tires were screeching on the pavement as the limo pulled away from
the curb.

   Colleen and I stood on the sidewalk and watched the taillights of the
limo as it sped down the block and turned the corner.  I was baffled by the
twin's behavior and looked at Colleen.

   "What was that all about?"

   Colleen looked at me with her half smile and said nothing for a few
moments before answering.

   "Let's get inside; I'm sure that Debbie wants to go home."

   We walked up the steps of the porch and stood at the door.  Before I
unlocked the door to go in, I took Colleen in my arms and pulled her to me.
I kissed her lips softly and quietly said.  "I love you Colleen."

   "I love you Bobby."

   After we got inside the house, we found Debbie sitting at the dining
room table with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk, working on some
math problems for her homework.  Debbie was the teenager from across the
street that did most of our babysitting.

   "Hi Debbie, how were kids?"

   "They were great.  Noelle fussed a little about going to bed but Meghan
took care her right away.  When she and Molly get a little bit older, I
think I'm going to out of a job.  How was the restaurant?"

   Colleen and Debbie were talking as Debbie gathered up her things to
leave while I went to kiss the girls good night in their sleep.  I was
coming back down the hallway when I heard Colleen call out softly, "I'm
going to walk Debbie home, I'll be back in a few minuets."

   I raced into the bedroom and began ripping my clothes off.  I knew that
Colleen would take a few minutes to exchange pleasantries with Debbie's
parents but time was short and I wanted it to be just right.  Finally
everything was ready and I lay down on the bed just as I heard the front
door open.  I listened as Colleen locked the door, turned off the last of
the lights in the dining room and heard her footsteps in the hallway.

   When she stepped into the bedroom, the light from the hall was shining
through the doorway and the backlight made her hair glow even more golden.
She looked at me lying on the bed as her half smile slowly turned into a
grin of eager anticipation.

   "I'm ready for the rest of my birthday present."

   This is definitely not the end of the story.


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