Family Ties

We were still dozing on the couch in the living room when the front door banged open. Trip and Wren blew in with a gust of rain and leaves. They were distracted by their suitcase and a couple of shopping bags, so they didn’t notice me pull my hand from under Christy’s sweater or her adjust her bra.

“Damn sky opened up as soon as I popped the trunk,” Trip said when he saw us.

Wren’s eyebrows shot up. “Don’t you two look nice and cozy.”

“We are,” I said unapologetically. “Or were, until you woke us up.”

“Long night?” she teased.

“No, long flight. And rough weather.”

“No kidding,” Trip said as he raked fingers through wet hair. “Took us almost five hours to get home. Bad accident near Crossville. I-40 was a parking lot.”

“You all wanna change into something dry and then come back down?” I suggested. “I have a sort of business proposal for next summer.”

“Can it wait?” Wren said. “Never mind. Christy and I can talk upstairs while you guys talk down here.”

“Is that okay?” Christy asked me.

“Sure. But if you’re going to tell her everything, don’t forget the thing with the handcuffs. Oh, and the orgy in the hot tub.”

Her eyes widened with shock.

“Handcuffs?” Wren said with relish. “Orgy?”

“He’s kidding,” Christy said hastily.

“I was afraid of that. Still, I wanna know all the details. Come on, let’s go upstairs so I can get out of these wet clothes.”

Christy sat up and shot me an exasperated look. I wasn’t the least bit repentant, and she conceded defeat with an indulgent smile.

“Thanks, man,” Trip complained as the girls headed upstairs. “Now I’m gonna be shut out of my own bedroom in wet clothes.”

“Sorry, dude. Grab a towel from the linen closet. You have anything dry in your suitcase?”

“Yeah, but… it’s the principle.”

“Relax. Pretty sure you’re gonna have a wild night after Christy and Wren finish talking.”

His eyebrows shot up.

“Yeah. Go dry off. Then we’ll talk.”

He returned ten minutes later wearing a sweatsuit with a towel draped around his neck. He tossed his wet clothes in the laundry room and then called to me from the kitchen.

“I’m gonna fix a drink. Jack and Coke. Want one?”

“Sure.” I joined him in the dining room and told him about the weekend in broad strokes, guy-fashion. He didn’t expect details and didn’t ask.

Besides, we both knew he’d hear them later from Wren.

“But I really wanna talk about this summer,” I said. “So… Gunny was the

camp maintenance man, right? He did okay with day-to-day repairs, but he wasn’t Mr. Fixit. On top of that, I don’t think the camp’s ever had a renovation. A professional one, at least. It’s had little updates here and there, but nothing major. I mean, you’ve seen the place. ‘Rustic’ is the polite way to put it.”

He nodded. “A realtor would say, ‘Great fixer-upper.’”

“Exactly. So, I was thinking… maybe instead of doing two or three houses this summer, we can do one house and the camp.”

“It’d be a big hit to our bottom line,” he said.

“Maybe, maybe not. Susan would pay for the work, I’m sure. Maybe not as much as we made last year, but…”

“Dude, we got lucky on the rancher. It put us so far in the black it isn’t funny. Don’t expect profits like that again unless you pull another bidding war out of your bag of tricks.”

“Yeah, true.”

“But lemme think about the camp thing. Is there another reason you wanna do it? Besides just helping Susan?”

“Guilty as charged. It’d be a great place to introduce—” I double-checked to make sure the girls hadn’t come downstairs. They hadn’t, but I still leaned forward and lowered my voice, “It’d be a great place to introduce Christy to the joys of swinging.”

“Thought you might say that.”

“I’m getting way ahead of myself,” I admitted. “We haven’t really done more than heavy petting.” I made a show of wincing. “And it pains me to say this, but… Wren may’ve been right. I think Christy’s a lot wilder than she lets on.”

He chuckled.

“I’ll deny it if you tell Wren I said that.”

“Never,” he swore. “But… you really think…? I mean, Christy… a swinger? For real?”

“It’s possible. No guarantees.”

“Of course.”

“But yeah. Maybe. Besides, the camp thing was her idea.”

“You’re kidding!”

“No. She doesn’t know a thing about the swinging, but she really enjoyed being a nudist. Surprised the hell outta me.”

“Wow, yeah.”

“So… that’s just another reason to do it.”

“Right,” he said thoughtfully. “To be honest, I have a pretty big reason too.” He quickly held up a hand. “And not just ’cause I wanna nail your girlfriend, although I do.”

We shared a grin.

“It’ll make Wren happy,” he continued, “and that’s worth a dozen ranchers by itself.”

“Christy had no idea what she was doing, what she was really suggesting.

But as soon as I started thinking about it…”

“It’s perfect,” he finished. He swirled the last of his drink and then finished it. “Well, I guess our plans for the summer just changed. Big time.”

“No kidding.”

He raised his empty glass. “Ready for another?”

“Sure.”