Different Circles

The food at Sandpiper’s was pretty good. Not the best Jake had ever had, but pretty good. He enjoyed a filet mignon with a fully loaded baked potato. Laura and most of the rest of her clan had the prime rib, which was a specialty of the house and something the Bests rarely were able to afford. Jake and Laura shared a $127 bottle of 1993 Merlot from the Napa Valley of California. Joey and Sarah drank Budweiser, but from the bottle instead of the can. They ignored the glasses that had been brought with the beer and drank directly out of the bottles. Grace, Chastity, Julie, and Brian all drank Pepsi in the glass. Little Everett drank from a bottle of apple juice.

The tab turned out to be just over four hundred dollars, to which Jake added an eighty-dollar gratuity. They then piled back into the Bronco and headed back to the house, Brian and family following behind. Once there, the canned Budweiser began to flow once again and they talked some more of the upcoming spring break trip to California and some of the things they might do there. Everyone definitely wanted to ride the ATVs and go deep sea fishing, but the girls also wanted to make a visit to Los Angeles to see Hollywood. And Chastity wanted to know if there was even the remotest possibility that she might get to meet Celia Valdez.

“I’ll have to check with her,” Jake said, “but if she’s available she would probably be open to coming by for dinner one night. She likes our house.”

“She just bought a new house of her own,” Laura said. “It’s in Malibu, right on the ocean. You can literally walk out her back door, down a flight of steps, and you’re on the beach. She’ll be moving into it next week.”

“That’s so cool,” Chastity said. “What’s she like?”

“She’s just an ordinary person like you and me,” Laura said.

“She’s so beautiful,” Chastity said. “Is any of that true about her getting it on with that female pilot?”

“Chase!” Joey and Sarah barked in unison. “You don’t ask people things like that!”

“None of it is true,” Jake assured her, lying through his teeth, of course.

They turned in relatively early that night since they planned to be wheels-up for the flight back to San Luis Obispo by 11:00 AM. Jake, as had been the case every night of this stay, did not sleep all that well thanks to the combination of sexual frustration, a bed that was about a foot too short for him, a mattress that was lumpy and uncomfortable, and the complete absence of any sort of white noise beyond Laura’s gentle breathing.

The next morning Jake dressed in his jeans, a t-shirt, and a pullover sweater. Laura put on a summer dress. And she removed her panties, failing to replace them with a fresh pair.

“Nice,” Jake said with a smile as he watched this maneuver (Laura made sure he saw her doing it). “Is Laura the Prude staying behind in Pocatello?”

“She most certainly is,” Laura said. “And good riddance to her. Laura the Nymph needs to have her lust slaked in a bad way.”

“Thank God,” Jake said, his motor already starting to rev a bit.

Breakfast was served shortly after they emerged from the room. It consisted of scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, and hash browns. Brian, Julie and Everett came over to partake in the Sunday morning family breakfast and to say goodbye to Jake and Laura. Sarah and Chase both made comment on the fact that Laura was wearing a summer dress in December.

“It’s like twenty-five degrees out there,” Chasity said. “You’re going to freeze your boobs off.”

“Chase,” Sarah said warningly.

“Sorry,” she said (although she obviously was not), “but I’m right, right?”

“Yes, you are right,” Sarah conceded. “Are you sure that’s how you want to dress, Little Bit?”

“I’ll wear my jacket until we get in the air,” Laura told them. “Remember, we’re flying to southern California. It will be in the sixties when we land.”

This was not entirely true. Jake had checked the weather forecast for the central coast of California and saw that it was going to be windy and rainy today with a high of fifty-six degrees. He did not correct her misinformation, however.

After the breakfast mess was cleaned up Laura snatched up Everett and spent much of the rest of her available time holding him and playing with him. Finally, around ten o’clock, she reluctantly surrendered the baby back to his grandmother and she and Jake went and packed their things. They carried their bags out to the Cherokee and loaded them inside. They then went back in to say their goodbyes to everyone.

Jake found that during his visit he had been elevated to hugging terms with the Best females. Sarah, Julie, Chastity, and even shy little Grace all put their arms around him and embraced him warmly, thanking him for visiting and for inviting them to visit in turn. Hugging was apparently not done among the Best males, not even a bro-hug, but he shook hands with them all and they seemed quite sincere when they told him it had been nice having him as a guest.