When we got to the lobby, Alan, Tina and Susan were waiting on us. When I saw the enthusiasm displayed by the three girls while Alan and I stood back, I realized that the giggly, happy trio was seeing life as a much broader, brighter path to adventure then I was. Don't get me wrong, but at this stage in life, I was deliriously happy with Cindy as a wife and friend, and I could easily see a path forward for us.

What I was seeing with the three girls was that they were EXCITED about where they were going. They weren't looking for comfort and ease, they were on the path to adventure. Cindy looked over her shoulder at me and smiled. If anything in my life needed to be contagious, it was the joy that I saw Cindy and her 'sisters' displaying.

"Come on, Alan," I said. "We just as well join in. We're here for the ride anyway."

Alan looked at me, amused. "I wasn't that excited when I graduated, Dan. And they're excited about GOING!"

"Tell me: When you left to go to college, it was just YOU, right..."

"Uh ... yeah, as far as going into engineering. There was a bunch from my graduating class, but I was the only one majoring in engineering."

"So you started out on your own. Got friends, whatever, after you got there."

"You did something different?" He asked.

"Nope. Pretty much the way I was. But this bunch ... similar goals, standing at the door together ... I guess they have a reason to be excited." I thought for a second. "Was there anyone in your family that could back you up? I mean, academically?"

"No," he said. "Pop was an operator at a chemical plant. He would've helped if he could've. But all he had was a high school diploma and anything like college math was out of his league."

I pointed towards the three girls. "They have us..."

"If we can keep up," he said. "Those are three bright girls. I dunno..."

"You have a point," I said. "I know my Cindy. It's liable to be a rough time..."

We stopped that conversation when the trio turned around and started toward us.

Alan asked the question first: "Where are we going and what are we doing when we get there?"

"Dinner an' a movie," Tina said. "We wanna see THIS one, an' while it lacks the blood, mayhem and explosions necessary to satisfy the male of the species, we have determined that both of you have the capability to endure temporary privation in the interest of future reward."

I chuckled at Alan. "You married her?"

Cindy jumped in. "Uh, Dan, my SISTER is a woman of much worth. Alan recognizes this. You should learn..." And Tina and Susan BOTH stuck their tongues at me.

Amid laughter we walked out and got in the minivan and headed to the movie theater. Tina was correct. A man WILL endure things in the interest of future reward. Actually, the movie was funny, and the company pleasant, and one can hardly ask for more than that.

The girls' dinner selection was a chain restaurant. Wasn't a big hit on the pocketbook, not that such a thing mattered. Susan protested when I picked up her tab.

"Oh, let 'im," Cindy smiled. "He needs to win every now an' then..."

Susan grinned at me. Pleasant little thing, she was. "Then go ahead. Cindy knows best!"

My little redhead smirked at me. "I know YOU, baby!" Her fingers touched my arm.

"Don't worry about me, cutie," I said. "I've been winning since I met you."

"Awwww," the other two girls said in unison. And Tina patted Alan's arm.

Back at the hotel, Susan came up to the room with me and Cindy.

"Get the cards out," Cindy said.

I got the cards out. The three of us sat cross-legged on the bed, playing rummy, laughing, talking.

"How do you do it, Cindy?" Susan asked. "I catch all kinds of crap at school for bein' smart..."

Cindy shrugged. "I did, for a while," she said. "But I'm helpin' a bunch of kids in math, an' some of 'em are football and basketball guys who NEED to get good grades to keep playin'. I'm kinda 'off limits' to anything other than the occasional strange look." She sighed. "I got more crap from bein' married."

"Really?!?!" Susan said. "How?"

"First, EVERYBODY thought I was pregnant. Had to be, yaknow ... until a few of my teachers met Dan. An' we hang out with Jim an' Ann Hardesty. He's my guidance counselor and Mizz Ann's the music teacher. But one guy made a remark one time when I was trying to help him with math. Said that since I was married, he knew I was 'used to doin' it' and he made an indecent suggestion. I shut my book an' walked away and told the teacher that HE would NOT get any more help from me. He came to me himself an' apologized."

"Wow," Susan said. "I guess, fourteen an' all that..."

"I think that's a lot of it," I said. "Word got out about Cindy graduating high school about the same time word got out about our marriage. That's a lot of stuff to get around a middle school."

"I bet," Susan said.

"Oh, it was VERY interesting," answered Cindy.

"Well, I remember the 'she's pregnant' talk about Tina when she showed up with a ring. And now, six months later, she's NOT and some people had to eat their words." Susan smiled. "Mom was one of 'em. But it didn't take Mom six months. After she met Tina 'n' Alan..." She sighed. "But I know some of the stuff that was said about Tina, so I can imagine..."

"Oh, it's been quite a ride," I said. "But Cindy's worth every bit of it."

Cindy smiled. "And Dan's worth it. Even if we were livin' under a bridge somewhere..."

Susan took that opportunity to lay down her last card, ending the hand, catching me with a handful of cards, and she and Cindy giggled as my score went negative.

"I finally got used to the distraction of playin' cards with a cute little redhead," I said. "You're a new distraction, Susan."

The cute, plump blonde giggled. "Tina says that if I keep my head about this stuff, I can find a guy like you or Alan. And maybe HE can play cards."

Cindy laughed.

We continued playing, the two girls running neck and neck, me trailing badly. The room phone rang.

"Dan an' Cindy's room," Cindy answered. "Hi, Sis!" Pause. "Sitting in the bed beatin' Dan at rummy." Pause. "Yeah, here she is..."

She handed the phone to Susan. "Hi, Tina," Susan said. "Yeah, we're havin' fun!" Pause. "Okay, I'll be up there in a minute!" she hung up the phone.

"You goin' to Tina's room?" Cindy asked.

"Uh-huh," Susan said. "For a little while. You know..." she smiled at Cindy knowingly. "Later. Call..."

She left the room.

"I take it this is all one of those plans?" I asked Cindy.

"Uh-huh. I get Dan time. Tina gets Alan time. And we all get to spend time with Susan." As she was talking, she was shedding clothing. "Big shower, baby ... me an' you..." and twinkling green eyes.

I undressed and as soon as my feet came out of the pants at my feet, she was up against me, soft, warm, eager.

"Oh, NOW I remember..."

"Remember what?" she asked.

"What these weekends are for..."

Giggle. "Oh, me? Naked? You get ME all the time. I'm YOURS, remember..." And we kissed. Then she started the shower.

We spent a long time savoring each other, lathered, wet, happy. Rinsed off under unlimited hot water, I knelt and suckled her delicious young breasts, then I stood and she knelt. I thought my knees would buckle. I enjoyed my Cindy's enthusiasm. I wasn't so experienced as to be able to comment on skill, but every time her mouth closed on me, I was transported.

We got out of the shower and attended to our respective tasks, her hair drying, my shaving, then we headed straight for the bed, still nude, and tossed the covers back to clear the playing field. And we played.

The playing over, we washed our faces and she bounced back into the bed and grabbed the phone. She dialed Alan and Tina's room. "Hi, Alan! Where's Susan?" Pause. "Hi, Susan! Whenever you wanna come back over. We can play another game of cards!" Pause. "'Kay, See ya!" and she hung up.

"Tonight she sleeps in this room, so Alan 'n' Tina can have a night. Tomorrow night, we get the room to ourselves."

"Ooooo-kayyyy," I said.

"You don't mind, do ya, sweetie?" she questioned, smiling at me. "We're forever ... an' we still get to snuggle, just have to wear clothes, okay?"

"Okay, kitten," I said.

"This is gonna be good, you know ... We, you an' me, Alan 'n' Tina, and now, Susan. We're going to do wonderfully. Just wait."

"Okay, sweetie," I said. And somehow, her enthusiasm was contagious.

I heard the knock on the door. Cindy let Susan in. The two of them exchanged knowing glances before they jumped on the un-used bed.

"Get the cards, baby," Cindy said.

"Just one hand, then I gotta take a shower," Susan said.

I lost another one, then one went my way when Cindy and I played while Susan was showering. She came out wearing pajamas and looking quite cute. The three of us played another couple of hands and it was bedtime. Cindy and Susan found a channel suitable for setting the sleep timer on, and we went to sleep.

I don't remember ever sleeping with Cindy with my pajama bottoms on, and the only time SHE wore panties under her nightshirt was during her period, but tonight we slept like that, cuddling wonderfully, her hand exploring me gently, mine savoring the wonders of her body. We were quiet, in respect for Susan sleeping in the adjacent bed.

Waking was a function of simply yielding to bladder pressure for me. I eased out of the bed as stealthily as possible, but my movement woke Cindy. She pursed her lips to send me a kiss as I headed to the bathroom.

I relieved my bladder, then washed my face, waking myself up completely. I walked back to the bed, bent over, and kissed my redheaded kitten.

"Guess I should get up," she said.

I grabbed my clothes and dressed in the bathroom, then came out and sat in the chair and watched her dress. After she pulled a sweatshirt over her head, hiding my view of a pair of cute titties, she walked to the foot of Susan's bed and jiggled her toe.

"Hey, Susan! Wakey time!"

Susan sat up for a few seconds, gaining her bearings and parsing the unfamiliar inputs. "Oh, hi, little sister," she said. "G'mornin', Dan!"

"Mornin', Susan," I answered. "How'd you sleep?"

"Oh, really good," she replied as she got out of bed.

"Bathroom's yours," Cindy said. "I'm gonna call Tina an' we'll go find breakfast."

"'Kay," Susan said. She took a travel bag into the bathroom with her.

I watched her disappear, a pleasant young thing in her own right, but the impact of a hundred-odd pounds of wiggly redhead in my lap reminded me that I already had far more than I'd ever hoped.

Cindy wrapped her arms around my neck and we kissed.

"I love you, Dan," she whispered. "Good morning! I love you some more!"

"That's how I know I'm having a good day, baby! I wake up and YOU love me."

She gave me one more little kiss and then picked up the phone. After she dialed, she flashed those green eyes at me, smiling.

"Hi, Alan! Are ya'll up?" Pause. "Us too! Susan's getting dressed. We'll meet you in the lobby in a few minutes."

Susan popped out of the bathroom, brushing her hair. We put on shoes and went downstairs and out to breakfast.

Banter. Happy talk. Plans. Back and forth between Tina and Cindy and Susan, the conversation was about apartments and 'going to school' cars.

"I won't be able to drive for two more years," Cindy pouted.

"If only you were normal, then you'd be right in the middle of your middle school class, worrying about getting a 'B' in social studies and who was going with that new cute boy and stuff like that," Tina said, BEFORE I got a chance to make a similar comment.

"Cindy, between Tina an' me, we'll make sure you get to where you need to go, if Dan can't do it..." Susan said. She looked directly at me. "That's one of the things about our little community, Dan." (Now I was "Dan" to Susan, too... ) She continued, "We'll have that 'diversity of scheduling' thing going, so chances are better that we can support each other for transportation an' stuff."

Alan looked amused. "Diversity in scheduling?"

"Yeah, you know, baby," Tina said. "Chances are good that of the three of us, with a little planning, at least TWO of us will need to be at the campus on any given day of the week, and if there are TWO of us, then by inference, at least ONE of the two will have a license and a car."

And Cindy finished the discussion, "And it might not be exactly as convenient as if all three of us had licenses and cars, but we're still willing to put up with a little inconvenience, you know, waiting for a class to start or end, so we can ride together."

I looked at Alan. "That's what we talked about. You and I didn't have that. We had to figure it out on our own. They go in with a built in support group."

"Yeah," he said. "Big problem is to find housing for US that won't be surrounded by the party kids from college..."

"That is a problem," I said.

"We'll get it figured out. But I think we should be, like, CLOSE," Tina said.

Cindy's eyes mirrored agreement, as did Susan's.

"So," I said to Alan, "What's our business going to look like? Seems like the girls have the social and housing angle worked out."

"Working it out," Cindy said. "But ya'll talk. We can handle this."

The waitress came by, cleared the plates and refilled the coffee. Alan slipped her a ten dollar bill. "We're gonna be here a while," he said.

"Ya'll go right ahead, Hon," she told him.

We talked business. "We need a few GOOD technicians that aren't afraid to think on their feet and don't mind hands-on, either." I was thinking of a couple of names. I'd already talked with one of my guys. He's my lead tech, and he's thinking about it."

"Seriously?" Alan questioned.

"Yeah. Wants to know how we're gonna structure it. Pay, work hours, equipment, an office, whatever ... He'd be a good one. I got another one, too..."

"I haven't talked to mine. But I will."

"It'd be nice to have at least three techs. Four would be better. What's that term? 'Diversity of scheduling'?" I commented.

Susan perked up and looked at us, smiling. "You paid attention!"

"I'd be stupid not to," I said. "You're part of the crew now..."

Squeal! "Did ya hear that? Dan says I'm part of the group!" The three of them smiled.

Alan chuckled. "Surrendering to the inevitable," he said.

We prepared to leave. The girls got up en masse and headed to the restroom. I pushed a credit card at the ticket and turned to Alan. "Susan's a good fit, you know. She's right there, mentally. I just..."

"Odd man out," Alan said. "I know ... but she's Tina's best friend, and I like her and her folks and I can't..."

"I know," I said. "She's a cutie, too..."

"Plump little doll..." Alan commented.

"Major league humor when she gets going," I said. "I'm serious. Part of the crew. As long as she wants. I don't think she'll be a problem, you know..."

"Speaking of non-existent problems, here they come..." Alan said, standing.

I stood and the five of us walked out of the restaurant.

We turned the morning onto a visit to a park and a museum, and the afternoon was a walk under leaden skies along a nature path. Dinner came and went and the evening was a neat little concert by a local bluegrass group in a family venue.

We were enjoying ourselves. The music had the easy feel of friends playing for the joy of it.

Susan leaned over and whispered, "Doesn't Dan do this stuff?"

Cindy's head bobbed. "And me! I sing! But we're not PURE bluegrass. Dan plays a bass guitar, an' that needs an amp."

"Oh, that's RIGHT!" Susan said.

During the band's break, Cindy and I talked with some of the players, adding to our enjoyment of the evening.

"What songs do you sing?" the banjo player asked.

Cindy shook her red head and ran down her list, smiling.

"You wanna do one with us?" he asked her, looking at me.

She looked at me. "Can I? You don't mind?"

"Certainly not," I said.

I was suitably proud of my Cindy on stage. She can't sing any but the saddest songs without that smile creeping in, and with her choice in music, she smiled through a couple of numbers, and left the stage to applause.

The performance made for interesting conversation after the concert, when we stopped for a late snack.

Back at the hotel, we did the drill with Susan moving between the two rooms until both couples had showered, and then she ended up in Tina and Alan's room for the night. That put me in bed with a very naked Cindy. A delicious, very naked Cindy. Who went to sleep in my arms after a couple of memorable orgasms.

Meant extra time for a shower in the morning, and the breakfast place was filled with the church crowd when we got there. We took the first available seating, a booth normally meant for four, and I ended up wedged between Cindy, who was against the wall, and Susan, next to the aisle. Fortunately I am ambidextrous when eating, so I managed pancakes without badly bruising the sweet, plump blonde to my right.

Sadly, our weekend was winding down. We made our way to the airfield. On the flightline, after pre-flighting the two planes,, we said our good-byes, Alan and I shaking hands, the girls hugging, kissing. Alan got a kiss on the cheek from Cindy and I got two, one from Tina, one from Susan.

Twenty minutes later we were cruise-climbing on course for southern Alabama and what we called home.

"So, baby," Cindy said over the intercom, "Susan..."

"She fits. I just hate to see her alone. I know how that is. Being the odd man out..."

"Yeah, I know," Cindy answered, "but she's so friendly an' sweet, and this community thing would be good for her. And us."

"I know. I agree with that part a hundred percent," I replied. "She's talkin' about staying in the dorms?"

"We're still talking about THAT part."

"Oh?"

"We could do like we did this weekend, you know ... she stays at one place for a while, then the other..."

"That's kinda hard when you're talkin' two different addresses," I said.

"But you wouldn't be against it, then..."

"No, I think we could reach some sort of equilibrium. Especially if we got a place with two baths."

"I'm glad you're thinking it's okay, baby. But you gotta know, you an' me, WE come first..."

"Yeah," I said. "Usually at the same time..."

Squeal! And a punch in the arm. "You're a BEAST!" she giggled.

"I'm YOUR beast," I smiled. "And one of these days you have to let me fly in the left seat again."

"Oh, you know you can any time, baby," she said. "But you created THIS monster." She smiled, her hair pushed in delightful disarray by the bulky headset.

I smiled back. Every time I saw that face, I gave up my soul. She knew it. I was all too happy to admit it. I reached over and played with the hair that fell behind her ear. She giggled.

"Do us a steep turn, baby," I said.

She grinned and banked forty-five degrees to the right, sweeping around, holding back pressure. Three hundred and sixty degrees later, I felt the little bumpiness as we ran into our own wake turbulence, one sign of a well-executed maneuver.

Squeal! "I feel it," she said. "Same altitude. Same heading!"

"No doubt about it. You're getting good," I said.

An hour later our wheels touched down in Alabama. In another half an hour, we were driving away from the hangar.

"Only bad thing about the way things are, baby," Cindy opined, "is that I'm fourteen an' I can't drive an' I can't fly by myself. That's what makes me jealous of Susan 'n' Tina."

"We've talked about this," I said. "That's something brains can't fix, baby ... they'll let somebody with the IQ of a sack of potatoes get a license if they're sixteen, and after you get a license, you can be almost blind and not able to hold a coffee cup, and you can KEEP your license. But the government's all about putting people in little boxes, and age is a good place to start. Just like that marriage thing. Keeps a lot of people from doin' it before they're ready, stops some that are..."

"Still sucks, though," she said. She realized her word usage. "I mean, it's stupid."

"Not a battle we can even start to fight, baby ... we got lucky on the marriage thing."

"Yeah, we did." She smiled. "I would've stayed with you, married or not, baby ... That's what we thought we'd have to do."

"Yeah, sweetie." I thought about how nervous I was with our situation back then, and how relieved I was to have a marriage certificate filed away.

We stopped by the park office and talked with Helen and Charlie for a while, recounting the adventure and going over plans.

"Lemme know when you decide to incorporate, ' Charlie said. "I think I can find you a lawyer..." he grinned. In the six months I'd know him, Charlie was surrogate grandfather, filling in for my own who'd passed away years ago. And he did a good job, exactly like grandfathers were supposed to do, wisdom, stories, humor ... And Helen, friend, surrogate mom, unexpected jewel in my little universe.

Charlie said, "You know, son, I'll, that is, Helen and I will do anything we can to help you out."

"Charlie," I answered, "this right here is the best thing anybody's ever done for me. Fixing things so I could have my Cindy."

"Yessir, Dan," he said. "But really, let me take care of your legal stuff. If there's a conflict with anything you need to do, I'll see that you get the proper assistance. Just so you know."

"I appreciate that, Mister Charlie," Cindy said.

Helen reached across the counter, touching Cindy's face. "Baby, all we want to do is make things better for you. You an' Dan seem to be doin' a pretty good job of it, you know..."

"We're trying," I said. "And we have friends and family. You two are at the top of the list."

"OH, let's not get all weepy," Helen said. "We're just doin' what we can."

Cindy and I went to our little trailer and put our weekend's effects away.

"Too early to eat," she said, tuggin my hand towards the bed at the end of the trailer. "And NOTHIN' on TV. What did people used to do for entertainment?" she giggled.

"I dunno," I said, falling backward onto the mattress. "Why'n'cha lay down with me an' we'll think about that."

Her crawling up atop my body answered that question.

An hour later she handed me the phone. "Call the Hardesty's an' see what's up this week," she said.

"Okay, but tomorrow I gotta take you out to the project. They want you front and center in the group photo for the end of the thing."

"Really?"

"Yeah. This is Bill's last week here. Jerry wants to get him and the other key players in a picture before they take off. They'd like YOU in the middle of it."

"Should I wear anything special?"

"Yeah," I said. "Long-sleeved work shirt. Steel-toe shoes. An' your pocket protector. Gotta look like the 'Engineer's Apprentice', you know..."

I dialed up Jim's number. Ann answered. "Hi, Dan!"

"Hello, Ann. What's 'himself' up to?"

"He's participating in some male bonding ritual with our son. Apparently it involved slaying of mythological characters in a virtual universe..."

"Oh, don't let me interrupt that. Was just seein' what your week looked like..."

"Standard week, Dan. You an' Cindy were out of town this weekend?"

"Yeah. Flew up to meet her new sisters."

"Multiple? Last time she talked with me, she only had the one."

"They've consorted to add another. I'm sure that she'll be better at explaining the situation than I would, so I'll let her fill in the details. Ya'll up for a pizza Tuesday?"

"I don't see why not," she said. "I'll have Jim call you when he's loose."

"Okay. I guess I'll email the school. I'm keepin' Cindy out tomorrow. They want her in the group photo for the end of the project."

"Oh, that's just CUTE!" Ann giggled. "We need a copy of that photo."

"Everybody who's heard of it wants one," I said.

"Hi, Mizz Ann," Cindy said loudly.

"Hi, Cindy," Ann said.

I handed the phone to Cindy. The two of them chatted for a few minutes while I put a load of wash on and puttered around the trailer, then I felt footsteps as Cindy came beside me, clad in her nightshirt.

"Dinner here, baby?" she questioned.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Your grilled cheese sandwiches and some canned chili works for me," she said. Then a walk around the park, if it's not raining. Then the sofa or the bed. Book. Music." She smiled demurely. "And you again."

The griddle was on the stove in a flash, as was a little pot for the chili, and the sun was low in the sky, half-hidden by treetops when we left the trailer for our walk.

We stopped and greeted some of the people who were out doing the same thing, enjoying the crisp air, knowing that the same clouds that gave us the colorful sunset would likely tomorrow bring nasty drizzle and rain.

The next morning Cindy joined me for breakfast and we sat with Bill, greeting many of our co-workers, knowing that the project was almost over and some of these people would be leaving for parts unknown. Such was the life of a construction worker. Promises to keep in touch, well, we made 'em, but things have a way of going by the wayside after a while.

One of our inspectors whipped a camera out and took pictures of me and Cindy and Bill. "For posterity," he said.

We showed up at the project. I left Cindy in the company of Sara.

"I know you have stuff I can help you with," Cindy told her. Made Sara happy.

I went about my business for an hour, patrolled the control room for a look at the 24-hour operation, strolled through my high voltage switchgear, listening and smelling for signs of problems. Jotted a couple of notes and passed them on to the new owners and then to Jason and Phil. We did a few quick code changes to make the indicator lights look consistent. I went to my new office and saw a stack of boxes, each holding a pile of drawings and manuals.

I synced my laptop to the desktop computer that would stay on after me, and I went to work. At ten, Cindy and Sara showed up.

"They're trying to get everybody together for the picture, Dan," Sara said.

"Okay," I answered. I put the computer into standby and followed her and Cindy. I enjoyed following Cindy. Jeans did her youthful form quite nicely, the pockets and stitching framing that delectable young ass as she walked.

After several minutes of radio calls Bill finally had everyone herded into the new maintenance shop and we arranged ourselves into a couple of rows. Everybody on the front row was kneeling, except for a five foot three inch redheaded fourteen year old in a blue sweatshirt with an Auburn logo on it.

The project paid a real live photographer to make the shoot, and for the money he received, he pleasantly took the time to shoot the scene with HIS professional camera as well as a half-dozen others handed him by the crew. A sign-in sheet listed email addresses so he could send out the digital versions to the bunch. Cost extra. Project covered that, too. The big, 'official' print would go on the wall in the atrium of the new office building. And there was Cindy, recorded for posterity.