Wynter and Jimmy Part Two: Best Friends

Nine

The heavier boy, on the left, swallowed something from a can and threw the empty container aside. His hands and moon-shaped face were so grimy as to be positively unsanitary. His torn jeans and black, sleeveless tee shirt were no cleaner. Wynter wasn't surprised that he was a litterbug. She knew he was also the kind of guy who would burp just to be gross, and he proved her right.

"Well, if it isn't Pencildick," he said in a nasal voice. His head looked like it had been set directly on his shoulders, without a neck to elevate it. "Out with Bugboy and a girl. I didn't know girls would associate with your kind, Pencildick. Did you, Long Dick?"

The skinny second boy's face reminded Wynter of a rat. His stringy, wispy attempts at a mustache and his short-clipped hair heightened the resemblance. He looked like he had added the first one's missing neck to his own. "Nah, I didn't, Big Willie. Must be something Bugboy picked up for his collection. She look like a bug to you?"

Big Willie shrugged. "Might be a cockroach. Hey, you a cockroach, bitch?" He held both arms forward and beckoned her toward him with the joined fingers of each hand. "C'mon over here and get some real cock. It'll fill you up better than Bugboy's, and definitely more than Pencildick's skinny little worm."

Wynter felt her face heat as Kenny shouted, "Hey! That's enough, Will! You and Dick let us pass."

The two laughed at each other. Dick sneered. "Or else what, Pencildick? Your guardian Angel ain't here to save your scrawny ass this time. Maybe we'll take turns, one of us whompin' on you while the other shows Bugboy's cock hound..."

"Cockroach," Willie corrected.

"...cockroach what a real cock feels like, and then we'll switch off. Bugboy won't mind 'cause we'll let him watch us teach his cockroach how to be a cock hound, long as he behaves hisself. And when we're done, we'll take all that lunch money you owe us."

"Wynter," Jimmy whispered, "back up slowly until you can turn around. Give Kenny some room. When he's ready, you go, and we'll be right behind you." He straightened and pointed, raising his voice. "You two move aside and let us through. We're not bothering you. We're going down to the drink stand. You mind your manners and we might buy you a Coke or something."

"Who the fuck are you to be giving orders, Bugboy?" Will asked. "I'm in charge around here."

Kenny whispered, "Now!" Jimmy made a panicked face and pointed behind the two thugs. "Look out!"

Will and Dick jerked their heads around, saw nothing, and turned back to see the three friends racing north with Kenny pulling ahead, putting Wynter in the middle of a column. They gave chase.

The pair caught up to them before the bridge. They were faster, and the trio was held back by Wynter, the slowest of the three. Jimmy, in the rear, began weaving back and forth, trying to prevent the two from passing him. Dick managed to clip the side of Jimmy's rear tire and caused him to swerve left off the trail, slam into something, and pitch over in a grassy patch among the trees. Neither boy stopped for Jimmy but continued after the other two.

Wynter glanced back and saw Jimmy tumbling along the ground, stopping at the base of a tree. "_Jimmy!_" she screamed and slammed on her brakes. Dick swerved to avoid crashing into her and sideswiped Will. Both boys went down. Limbs in a nearby aspen began quaking.

Kenny looked back, saw Wynter turning around, and hit his brakes. Will and Dick were moaning and cussing and trying to disentangle themselves as he accelerated past them. Wynter was kneeling beside Jimmy when he skidded to a stop.

"Jimmy, tell me where it hurts!" Wynter was demanding as her fingers felt along his arms and ribs.

Kenny knew. By the way Jimmy was grimacing, with one arm crossed low over his stomach and the other hand gripped between his legs at his crotch and trying to breathe, Kenny knew. "Hey! Wynter, stop!" he said. "You're going to make it worse."

"How? What's wrong with him?" she cried. Her hands didn't stop moving.

Kenny knelt behind her and wrapped his arms around her, gently tugging her away. "Stop! Remember when you fell on that tree branch and busted your cherry?"

Wynter struggled to get back to Jimmy for another breath and then froze. "He landed on the bar?" She understood why Jimmy was in such pain and hoped he didn't have any other injuries. That was bad enough all by itself!

"Yes. If you tug his arm while he's holding his b...--while he's holding himself you can cause more pain, and if he has a ruptured testicle, you can make it worse. You gotta do a visual exam before you touch in a trauma case." He released her. "Remember?"

Before she could agree, Kenny suddenly flew backward. A grimy hand shot down in front of her face and grabbed her blouse. The cloth tore almost to the bottom hem as she was yanked to her feet. Fetid breath and body odor singed her nose as Will grinned into her face from inches away and said, "Make sure Pencildick pays for the damage they did to our bikes, too. I'll take over after Miss Cockroach learns how to kiss a cock properly."

"What about Bugboy?" Dick asked, his voice quivering as he struggled to restrain the thrashing Kenny.

Will glanced at Jimmy. "If he's got any nuts left, we'll cut 'em off after we're through with Pencildick and Miss Cocksucker. He ain't gonna bother anyone." He dragged Wynter over to the base of another tree, pinning her arms down with one of his while his other hand pushed through her torn blouse and under her bra. Overhead, a tree limb jerked violently, then bounced to a stop.

"You starting to grow tits, bitch! Those aren't just kleenex. Good. Means you'll be deep enough for us to fuck too. But you're gonna learn to kiss the snake first."

He yanked down his zipper and fished out a short, thin erection. Then he pushed Wynter to her knees in front of him, turned her to face him, and began pulling on the back of her head as she struggled.

Wynter knew that in emergency situations people sometimes had strange experiences, like when time displacement made an accident seem to take forever. That was happening to her now, and it was moving even more slowly than it had in Suzie's bedroom. It seemed to take minutes for Willie to twist her head around until it was facing his skinny erection. All sorts of thoughts rushed into her mind. She had time to think about them and choose among them, and then they were replaced by another rush. One thought stood out, and she had _no_ idea why. It was a joke her father had told her. Actually, it was the punch line: "That looks just like a penis, only smaller."

Jimmy needed her help, and all she could think of was the punch line of a joke? She wondered if that meant she was going crazy. Suddenly an idea jumped into her head, and she thought it might work.

Something moved behind Will. She gasped as she realized what she was seeing and knew without a doubt that she had to be really and truly out of her mind.

~ ~ ~

_Fuck!_

Suzie buried her face in her pillow, kicked her feet on the mattress, and screamed into the fluffy mass of feathers. It wasn't fair. And it was all that stupid Kenny's fault! The stupid dolt just_ had_ to ask if he could give her a breast exam the way Jimmy did in exchange for a hand job for him, too. He kept at it until she lost her temper and screamed at him to fuck off and die, and of course her stupid mother just _had_ to hear her. The stupid shit had caused her to get grounded. It wasn't fair!

She needed to get to Jimmy and turn his head back around before... _She_... got her hooks any deeper into him. She needed to do... well, something. Anything. But what? So far Jimmy had rebutted and ignored her attempts. But she was so mad at Kenny for getting her grounded that she couldn't think of what to do. After Jimmy had rebutted her--another expression that made no sense to her because she hadn't butted him in the first place so how could he re-butt her?--he barely talked to her. First she had to get him talking again. _He sure didn't have any trouble talking to Kenny about it...._

Her back felt like a mouse with icy feet raced down it. _That's right! He talked to Kenny about it!_ She rolled onto her back and glared at the ceiling in thought for a couple of minutes.

The obvious conclusion hit her so hard that she was surprised it hadn't knocked her off the bed. Jimmy had talked to Kenny about it. She felt so stupid for not seeing it immediately. Well, no. It wasn't her fault she hadn't seen it immediately. That stupid knobby-kneed dwarf had made her so mad she couldn't think, even about her dolt.

Jimmy was always reading those stupid fairy tales about stupid knights and telling her about how they were shiverous. She guessed that having to wear all that stupid armor in winter without parkas and overcoats was what made them shivery. And because they were shiverous, they didn't have any sex. So, here it was summertime but her dolt was being shiverous like it was wintertime and turning down her implied offer of sex. She sighed. Yet another item on the ever-growing list of stupid things she had to straighten out once she got his head turned back. He was going to do her every night they were married no matter what season it was outside.

She realized her thoughts were straying and forced them back onto the problem. So, Jimmy had told Kenny what had happened. Why? Obviously because, once he'd left her house, he realized he'd made a mistake. He probably didn't realize it until he was talking to Kenny, and then it was too late. He couldn't brag about being shiverous to Kenny, because Kenny would call the dolt an idiot for passing up the opportunity. So, instead, he bragged to Kenny about playing with her boobie and getting a hand job. Just like Caroline had once said that men would do. Maybe she should start paying more attention to the stupid slut.

She briefly thought about asking her sister for advice on what to do next. _Oh, sure. Get another lecture on how stupid you are for not knowing already and then get laughed at. I'll think of something myself._

And she did.

~ ~ ~

Wynter blinked, hard, and tried to shake her head, but the weird vision didn't go away. Will was looming over and partially around her, but she had a limited view behind him and to the side. A pair of shoes, heels together and toes slightly apart, had floated downward into her field of vision just behind Will's armpit. Because of time displacement she had time to marvel that she didn't feel any different now that she was insane.

Then legs appeared and the feet settled gently to the ground. Will started to say something, but his words were cut off by a double thumping/cracking sound, and he pitched toward her. Somebody grunted just behind him, and he suddenly reversed direction, toppling backward.

Wynter looked up. Concerned brown eyes in a friendly face seemed to cover all of her in one rapid movement, as if they were a super-efficient CAT scanner. He was Hispanic and only a couple of years older than she was and about as tall as Jimmy. His arms and shoulders, visible because of his sleeveless black tee shirt, were solid muscle, but they weren't grotesque like those silly bodybuilders she'd seen on television. He held what looked like a polished wooden tool handle in one hand and two ends of an overhead rope in the other. He brought a finger to his lips, then turned and moved quickly, but without a sound, toward Kenny and Dick.

Dick had forced Kenny against a tree a dozen feet away and was still talking to him, slapping him hard after each sentence or question. He knocked Kenny's glasses off. When Kenny's eyes focused behind Dick and went wide, Dick said, "You ain't foolin' me with that trick again, Pencildick." He drew back his hand, this time making a fist. He screamed in pain as something smashed down on top of his hand. He released Kenny and grabbed his fist, spinning around. His eyes bulged as the newcomer grabbed his shirt at the throat and slammed him back into the space Kenny had just vacated. Two feet of polished hickory waved back and forth before his face.

Wynter couldn't believe it. The stranger was a head shorter than Dick, yet he was moving the larger boy around like Dick was an infant. She continued to watch as Kenny put on his glasses and stumbled toward her.

"Dick, Dick, Dick," the stranger said in slow, even words, shaking his head. He had the faintest trace of a Spanish accent. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Dick whimpered and clutched his injured hand to his chest. His voice was a high squeak that suited his rat-like appearance. "We thought you was out of town, Angel."

"Out of town?" The voice remained gentle and pleasant. He slowly shook his head again and then sighed. "Out of town. Dick, did I say, 'Don't ever bother Kenny again unless his guardian Angel is out of town,' or did I say, 'Don't ever bother Kenny again or I'll thump you'? Hmmm? Lemme give you a hint: it was the second one." He shook his head once more and sighed again. "Now I gotta thump you."

Dick struggled but he didn't try to hit the stranger. "Willie!" he screamed.

"He couldn't help you even if he was awake. He'll have to wait until his collarbones knit before he'll be helping anyone, even himself. Gonna be fun watching him trying to take a piss with both arms in casts, isn't it? Maybe you'll have the same cell and you can hold it for him. You'd like that, wouldn't you, Dick?"

Kenny reached Wynter, who was holding both her ponytail and the edges of the ripped blouse in her left hand. Her other hand gripped his chin and turned his face for a fast visual examination.

"Hey! Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. Are you?" she asked in her Mother Hen mode. "You're getting a bruise...."

"I'm okay," he said, and gave Wynter a hug. "I sure am glad you're okay, too." He looked over her shoulder at Will. "Shit! And those bastards call _me_ Pencildick?"

Wynter felt her head duck. "C'mon! Let's help Jimmy! Kenny, who _is_ that?"

"That's my guardian Angel."

Wynter looked back to see Dick pinned against the tree by the stick across his throat. When the stranger moved the stick, Dick tried to dash away to the side. The stranger hooked his toes in front of Dick's ankle, and the ruffian crashed to the ground, crying out as the stick whirled about in a blur and crashed down four times in rapid succession.

She knew her eyes were wide open, but she couldn't make them go back to normal. "Looks more like a guardian devil to me, and I'll bet Dick thinks so, too," she said.

Kenny grinned. "Well, that _is_ his other name."

They knelt beside Jimmy, who was moaning through gritted teeth but able to focus on the two. Kenny patted Jimmy's shoulder and said, "Hey, easy, buddy. I know how it feels."

"Me, too," Wynter said with a sad smile, settling her free hand to his other shoulder.

Jimmy turned his eyes to her and gasped, "No, you don't."

Wynter shook her head. "Just because I'm built different doesn't mean it hurt me any less when I did it."

"And she landed a lot harder than you did," Kenny said. "You hurt anywhere else besides the family jewels?"

They could barely understand his strained words. "How the heck should I know?"

"Just lie still and try to breathe," Wynter said, leaning forward to plant a quick, soft kiss on his forehead before she had time to think about what she was doing.

Jimmy looked startled for a moment and then gave her a gentle smile before the pain contorted his face.

"Damn!" drawled Kenny, stretching the word into two syllables.

"Hey! What about me? I'm injured too. Don't I get a kiss?"

Wynter gasped with the realization of what she'd done. She lifted her face to look at him. "No. You're okay now."

"I'll go crush my nuts, too, if it will help. It would be worth it."

Wynter rolled her eyes.

"Hey! It would! It was worth crushing your nuts for that wasn't it, Jimmy? I'll bet you'd do it again for another one, wouldn't you? I'll bet you'd bounce off that bar and then smack 'em with a hammer if she'd offer you another kiss."

"Wynter?" Jimmy wheezed. "Do it? Please? Shut him up?"

She looked at Jimmy's pain-filled eyes for a moment, understood that he meant it, and leaned forward to give Kenny a similar kiss on the forehead.

Kenny stared at her with wide eyes, and then said, "Man, this whole experience was worth that. Wasn't it, Jimmy?"

Wynter goggled at Kenny, unable to believe he was saying such horrible things to his friend who was in such terrible pain.

"Yes," Jimmy wheezed, "except for what happened to Wynter."

Kenny looked chagrined. Wynter knew that he looked chagrined because Kenny had looked that way once before, and that was how Jimmy had described it. Kenny's shoulders slumped. "Yeah. Except for that."

"That's Ron?" Jimmy wheezed.

Kenny grinned really wide as he turned to see Ron picking up Dick by the throat, only to knock him down again by slamming the end of the stick in Dick's abdomen. "Yeah. He's got it under control again. He's already taken care of Will for what he tried to do to Wynter. Looks like Will passed out from the pain. He always was a candy-ass bully. Dick has to take all the rest of Will's lumps for him as well as his own. But Ron made sure Will got some lumps, too."

Jimmy coughed, causing him to moan. "Good."

Kenny looked down at Jimmy, then frowned and turned his gaze to Wynter's chest. "Hey, you want to show those babies to Jimmy and me, I don't mind, but I think he'd be happier if you waited until his goodies stopped hurting."

Wynter looked puzzled and glanced down. She gasped. The torn edges had slipped from her fingers, and her bra was showing. She released her ponytail and held only the edges of the rip in her blouse.

"Kenny," Jimmy wheezed, "you putz."

Kenny grinned at Wynter. "But I could be wrong. I guess he was enjoying the show, too."

She tried not to blush, but she failed miserably.

A minute later Dick crashed to the ground next to Will. He lay curled up in a ball and didn't move, though he whimpered like a puppy. Ron knelt and tied Dick's shoelaces together. "You try to untie these, I'll break your fingers." Wynter thought Ron's calm voice sounded like he was teaching Dick basic patient care. "If you do untie them and try to run away, I'll catch you. You know that. And after I catch you I'll break both your shins and _then_ your fingers. Understood?"

Dick groaned what might have been, "Yes," and Ron rose to his feet. He twirled the hickory in his right fingers and caught the end in his armpit, holding it forward parallel to the ground. With his left hand he grabbed one end of the double rope hanging from overhead and began coiling it around his right elbow and the stick as he moved toward the three friends. The other end of the rope rose into the air, to where it was looped over a fat limb.

"Is Jimmy okay?" he asked. Wynter saw in his face that he was really and truly concerned.

"Nope," Kenny said. "Crushed nuts. Aren't you going to tie those two up?"

Ron stopped in front of Kenny and continued coiling the rope. He spoke loud enough for Dick to hear. "Nah. I'm hoping that Dick will try to run away. Now that he's violated his probation, we won't get to play again until he gets back from Buena Vista when he turns eighteen. It'll be my last chance to play with him for a while."

"I ain't goin' nowhere, Angel!" Dick shouted. Wynter thought he sounded terrified and guessed he had reason to be. "I swear! I'm stayin' put like you said! I ain't leavin' this spot 'till you say so!"

Ron grinned, then knelt beside Kenny, dropped the coil of rope, and put his free hand on Jimmy's shoulder. "You gonna live?"

"Unfortunately," Jimmy squeaked.

Ron grinned and shook his head. "Yeah, I know whatcha mean." He looked at Wynter, then Kenny. "So, hey, dude, is this your girlfriend?"

"I wish!" Kenny said. "But Jimmy won't share. Wynter, this is Ron."

Wynter felt her face blushing furiously as Ron bowed slightly and said, "My distinct pleasure to meet you, even more than the honor it is for you to meet me." Keeping his sparkling brown eyes on Wynter he said, "I called my dad and the EMTs while I was still in the tree That's why I was delayed getting to the ground. They'll be here any minute." He cocked his head and said, "And unless there's a fire, that should be them coming now."

The distant sound of sirens slowly grew louder.

Wynter held her torn blouse closed and thanked him. "Why does he call you Angel?"

"Cause that's who I am: Kenny's guardian Angel. Renaldo Angelo Lopez at your service," he said with a formal dip of his head. "I have them call me by my middle name as a reminder not to mess with Kenny, but it seems they've had memory problems. Everyone else but my dad calls me Ron. My dad calls me Diabolito because," he pulled his head into his shoulders and made a funny face, "I'm a little devil."

Wynter lowered her head slightly as she smiled and said, "I guess they think you're a little devil, too, after that."

Ron waived a dismissive hand and raised his voice. "That was just love pats, compared to last time. Wasn't it, Dick?"

"Yeah! Sure! Whatever you say, Angel!"

Ron flashed teeth as white as Wynter's. "So, Jimmy, it looks like I was right."

Jimmy seemed to be breathing easier, but still gasped and strained when he asked, "About what?"

"I said that when you finally took an interest in girls, you'd attract the prettiest one in town. Remember?"

Wynter's face grew so hot she thought it had sunburned. "Oh, no! It's not like that. We're just friends."

Ron looked at her hand resting on Jimmy's shoulder, then looked deeply into each of her eyes. His eyes crinkled and his smile grew even wider. "So I see. Too bad he became 'just friends' first. Latinos do make the best... well, 'friends,' you know."

Wynter blushed more and couldn't keep her head from dipping as the sirens to the south suddenly cut off and the cell phone on Ron's belt rang.

"Yeah? No, we're in the same place." Brief pause. "Of course they aren't going anywhere. You can stop for coffee and donuts if you want, and they'll wait for you. No, he's okay. You park there. Bring the stretcher 'cause he's had the wind knocked out the hard way. Yeah, that way. Okay. But stay off the grass!"

He clipped the phone to his belt.

"Does everybody in town have to know what happened to me?" Jimmy wheezed.

"No," said Kenny. "But in about an hour they all will."

"Great." He closed his eyes and shook his head.

Wynter gently squeezed his shoulder. She felt sorry for Jimmy. She sure did know what it was like to be embarrassed. She'd just had a graduate course reminder. "Um, Ron, what were you doing up there?" She indicated the treetops with her head.

"Collecting samples," Kenny said. "Ron's gonna be a botanist. Aren't you?"

He gave Kenny a cross look. "Is your name Ron? It's not nice to answer a lady's question when she didn't direct it at you." He moved his eyes to Wynter's as Kenny rolled his and shrugged. "The class springbutt is correct. I'm assisting in a summer research project with Dr. Britt at CU."

"Really? You'll have to tell me about it some time. I'm a Future MD, just like Kenny."

Ron's brow drew together. "Future.... Wynter? You're Richard King's daughter?"

"Uh huh."

"Oh! Well! My dad thinks he's the greatest. Dad was the one who was with him while they waited for the jaws of life three years ago. Or was it four?"

Wynter's face lit up. "Your dad's Officer Lopez?" When Ron nodded she said, "Oh, wow! My dad thinks he's the greatest, too!"

Ron's eyes turned serious and his smile faded. "I'm sure he'll also be happy to meet you, though not at all happy about the circumstances. But this time we might finally get rid of those two jerks for a while."

Jimmy spoke in a soft, strained voice. "If it means they're finally going away, I'd do my part all over again."

"Fortunately for you, kemo sabe, that shouldn't be necessary. They violated the terms of their probation. We got 'em dead to rights on attempted rape, assault, and battery. Too bad that they'll be released when they turn eighteen, though."

Wynter looked over at Kenny and then back up at Ron, who remained standing. She guessed that was in case he had to go chase down Dick if he tried to run away. "Well, they certainly aren't very nice people."

Jimmy kept one hand between his legs but moved the other up to close it over Wynter's. Ron turned his bright smile up a few hundred watts when he saw that and said, "No, they aren't. Sure was nice around here while they were gone. I didn't know they were back. But they won't be back for long."

"Were they in jail?"

"I wish," Kenny said.

Ron shook his head. "Will's dad is a district judge. Every time he goes to court, Judge Green presides and cuts him slack because of dear old dad. Rumor is his dad pressures Judge Green to do so, and a lot of people here are fed up with that. It was just fines until last winter, when Will moved up to breaking and entering. Judge Wilson spent a lot of money repairing the damage to the house and the things inside. Judge Green gave Will six months at the reformatory in Buena Vista, but suspended the sentence if he stayed out of trouble until he turned eighteen. Judge Wilson sent Will to his mother in Salt Lake City, but he was so much trouble she sent him back after a few months."

Wynter frowned as she thought about that. "What about Dick?"

"He disappeared while Will was gone. Followed him, I guess. Ah, here they are."

Six officers and four paramedics came running up the trail. Ron intercepted them, spoke briefly, and then returned with two paramedics and three officers, one of whom looked like an older Ron with a mustache. The other half of the new arrivals went to Will and Dick.

The paramedics and one officer knelt and spoke to Jimmy. The second officer took Kenny aside. The third stopped before Wynter, and Ron introduced him. "Wynter, this is my father. Dad, this is Richard King's daughter."

Officer Lopez sprouted a smile as bright as Ron's, but it faded when Wynter rose and he saw her clutching the torn blouse. His eyes turned very angry as they shifted to his son, and Wynter was surprised that Ron didn't flinch. "Which animal did this?"

"The one who can't use either arm for a few weeks."

Officer Lopez drew a deep breath and exhaled. "Was that necessary, Diabolito?"

Ron stared directly into his father's eyes. "Yes."

Officer Lopez looked at Ron for a long moment and then nodded.

"Bueno." He turned to Wynter and bowed slightly. "I regret that our first meeting was not under more favorable circumstances, Miss Wynter, but except for that I am very pleased to meet you."

Wynter was getting tired of feeling her face flush, but this time she kept her head up. "Thank you. I'm glad to finally meet you, too."

"Aha!" Officer Lopez beamed like a kid. "Your father has told you what a charming and gracious human being I am!"

She giggled. "He said you called him Senor Klutz."

Officer Lopez made wide eyes and put a hand over his heart. "The truth is _not_ an insult!"

She giggled again. She knew where Ron's charm and manner had come from, and she knew why her father thought so highly of this man. If she were trapped inside a wrecked vehicle, she'd want someone like Officer Lopez to keep her mind off her injuries.

_Daddy! Drat!_ "Officer Lopez, Daddy doesn't know about this. He'll worry about me!"

"Well, he won't really worry because he doesn't know. We'll let him know that you are okay and tell him what happened and ask him to meet us at the hospital."

"Hospital? But I'm not hurt. Jimmy is."

"I understand. But, one, it's routine procedure to have a doctor examine you in these circumstances. Your dad knows that. Two, Kenny will insist on going along anyway, as usual, because he's going to be a doctor and it's a 'learning experience.' And three, since you're also going to be a nurse, I thought you'd want to go along with Kenny, especially since it's one of your friends who is hurt."

"Excuse me," said one of the paramedics, "but we need to examine the patient's injuries."

"Certainly. We'll move over there, but first give me some safety pins out of your kit." Officer Lopez took the pins, put an arm around Ron and Wynter and gently guided them toward the trail.

"Moving's not really necessary," Ron said.

Officer Lopez thumped the back of his son's head. "Hey! That is _no_ way to talk about a lady. I taught you better than that."

"No, Dad, not _that_. Wynter and Jimmy are 'just friends.' I meant that she's going to be a doctor like Kenny. She's already seen... well, what's involved here. Who do you think cared for Senor Klutz when Ellen Carter was trapped in town last spring?"

Officer Lopez sighed and turned to Wynter. "I apologize for being such a horrible father that I couldn't instill any manners in my son. I...." He frowned. "Wait a minute. Doctor? I thought Senor Klutz said you were going to be a nurse. So who changed your mind, Kenny or Kevin?"

"It was Doctor Taylor."

He laughed. "I thought so. That man could sell snow to an Eskimo in the middle of a blizzard."

Wynter laughed, too. "Daddy said he could sell water to Noah during the flood."

Ron said, "Well, I thought...."

"No you didn't," his father said, cutting him off.

Wynter was shocked. How could such a nice man like Officer Lopez talk to such a nice person like his son that way? She looked at both their grinning faces and realized the truth: it was some special thing between just the two of them, like her nose-and-lips kiss with her father. Sure enough, Officer Lopez rubbed his son's head while Ron looked like his heart was too big for his chest.

They had reached the edge of the trail. Officer Lopez gave her the safety pins and then turned away with his son while Wynter fastened her torn blouse together. When she was finished he turned back, his face looking as if he were a little sad.

"Wynter, I'm sorry we have to do this, but I need to take a statement from you. I'll have it typed up, and you'll have to sign it later, when...." He turned and looked down the trail. A noisy bunch of people were approaching. Wynter guessed they were coming to see why the police and paramedics had run down the trail. "Ron, keep them back, please."

Ron sprinted off without a word, and Officer Lopez turned his attention back to Wynter.

~ ~ ~

Wynter and Kenny walked their bikes down the trail. Jimmy was carried on a stretcher, so Ron brought Jimmy's bike, rolling it on the rear wheel only because the front one was bent. Will, both arms in slings, was now conscious and had to walk, as did Dick in his handcuffs. Officer Lopez called Wynter's father, told him what had happened, and let her reassure him--four times--that she was okay. He said he would meet her at the hospital with another blouse.

After the bikes were locked in a bike stand, Officer Lopez escorted Wynter, Kenny, and Ron to his patrol car. He told Kenny that because Will would be in the ambulance, he couldn't allow Kenny and Wynter to ride along with Jimmy to the hospital. Kenny looked the way Jimmy had in the museum when he learned there were no dissected mummies.

Officer Lopez parked in a police-only space, and they entered through the emergency room door. Jimmy was already in a treatment room. An unhappy-looking policeman was escorting Will into another. Wynter was surprised that Doctor Taylor and his wife weren't waiting for them when they entered the emergency room. But, she reasoned, Doctor Taylor would have patients who needed care, and it would be selfish to take time away from them if Kenny wasn't hurt bad. And Mrs. Taylor, who was the Blue Spruce Hospital's Human Resources Director, was supposed to have a team from the state Board of Health doing an inspection that week.

Mrs. Erland, a pleasant-looking, big lady with poufy red hair, gave Kenny a smile and then a worried frown when she saw his bruised face. She smiled again and reached for the phone when he gave her a thumbs-up sign and then made a telephone with his right thumb and little finger.

Wynter's father shot up from a chair and headed toward them, his ruggedly handsome face a dark mask of worry. Wynter knew that family usually had to see for themselves that a patient was okay, even though they had been told that there was no cause for alarm. After he was satisfied that she wasn't injured, he shook hands with Officer Lopez and Ron. They talked in a relatively quiet corner until a pleasant young redheaded nurse came for her just as Jimmy's parents arrived.

Wynter was disappointed that her father couldn't come into the examination room with her, but she understood. She sure couldn't tell the nurse that her father wouldn't see anything he hadn't seen before, no matter what kind of examination she had. She took the blouse her father had brought and followed the nurse into the examination room. As she changed into an examination gown she introduced herself. Nurse Daniels smiled and asked her to wait while she took the torn blouse to Officer Lopez for evidence. Wynter explored the room. She was checking the wall-mounted sphygmomanometer when the door opened behind her.

"Doctor King, I presume?"

Her face exploded into a big grin as she turned around. "Doctor Taylor!"

He squatted, and she rushed into his outstretched arms. He gave her a big squeeze just like always and said, "You didn't think I would let another doctor be examined by a mere resident, did you?"

She tried to frown, but her grin wouldn't go away. "I thought you'd examine Kenny."

He wrapped his arms under hers and picked her up, setting her on the examination table. "Nah. He's not a doctor, he's my son. The resident can practice on him. You, however, are my favorite ex-nurse." He backed up, looked stern, and stabbed a finger at the tip of her nose. "But don't get the idea that this means I've forgiven you!"

Wynter giggled. "Never." Doctor Taylor always said that he'd never forgive her for deciding to be born at home early during a storm on the first day of winter. Snow had closed the mountain road to their old home, thus depriving him of the privilege of being the first person ever to see her.

"All right. Let's get your vitals out of the way first and then we'll get to the serious part. You understand, of course, that this is routine and I may have to ask personal questions."

She nodded, thrilled that he was speaking with her in a matter-of-fact way as if she were a staff colleague. "Sure." She suddenly worried about what those "personal questions" might be. Will hadn't reached into her underpants, so she had assumed that a pelvic exam wouldn't be required. But what if one was? Could Doctor Taylor tell she'd been engaging in sexual activities? Of course he could! What would she tell him then? She sure couldn't tell him about her father!

Nurse Daniels came back into the room. Doctor Taylor checked Wynter's blood pressure while Nurse Daniels checked her temperature and pulse. He made notes while Nurse Daniels weighed her. Then he indicated she should sit in the chair by the desk instead of on the exam table.

"Okay, start from the top and tell me what happened. Attention to detail, as usual."

When she finished he nodded and said, "Excellent detail as usual, Doctor King. So you suffered no trauma from a bicycle accident?"

"No, sir."

"Other than fondling your breast, he did nothing else to you? No attempt at rape other than the oral intercourse that didn't happen because Ron stopped him?"

Wynter thought she should have been embarrassed, but she was a doctor talking with another doctor about a patient. She pretended she was talking about someone else and wasn't embarrassed at all. "No, sir."

He looked at her head and felt several spots on it with his fingers. "No bruises." He palpated her neck. "No soreness here? That's not tender? Good. No neck injuries. I need to check your chest for bruises. Not because of any worry about your health, but because he'll be going to court. If he bruised you, then it's that much worse for him."

_If it would help put Will in jail after he caused Jimmy's accident_, Wynter decided, _I would show the whole waiting room my bare chest, Kenny included_. As she loosened and began lowering the top of her examination gown Nurse Daniels said in what Wynter thought was a condescending tone, "There's no reason to be embarrassed about this. The doctor won't see anything he hasn't seen before. This is...."

"Charlene," Doctor Taylor said, cutting her off gently, "you're speaking to the finest physician some lucky medical school will have the honor to graduate. She understands. You can save your speech for someone else." His gray-green eyes twinkled. "Or, you can let her quote it for you."

Wynter looked down between the small unmarked small mounds topped by pink cones. If her heart swelled any bigger, it would burst through her chest like that yucky creature in _Alien_, and she didn't want to miss seeing it happen.

~ ~ ~

_Anxiety disorder_, Wynter diagnosed. It was the sixth time her father had asked, "You're sure you're okay?" since her exam, and they weren't even out the front door of the hospital yet.

"You can ask Doctor Taylor again if you don't believe me," she said and was immediately sorry that she'd sounded cross.

"She's fine," said Kenny with a big grin.

"The _other_ Doctor Taylor."

"Oh." He shrugged. "Well... I thought he wanted a second opinion."

Wynter felt a whole lot better when her father suddenly started laughing. He mussed Kenny's perpetually mussed hair.

"The only one who's really hurt is Jimmy," Kenny added.

Wynter shook her head. "Don't forget Will's broken collar bones."

Kenny looked very angry. His furious snarl made her heart skip a beat. "Will doesn't count after what he tried to do to you."

"Kenny! They hurt you, too, you know."

The door opened and they stepped out into the late afternoon heat. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that they hurt Jimmy and they were going to hurt _you_."

Her father rested a hand on Kenny's shoulder. "Kenny, you are a real gentleman. The way you care about other people, you're going to make a fine doctor some day."

Kenny flashed him a big grin. "I guess the good news is that the broken bike was Jimmy's. He won't feel like riding it for a few days anyhow."

Wynter rolled her eyes up to her father's. "You want to take back that statement now?"

They stopped at Otter Park and put the bikes in the back of her father's pickup. They dropped Kenny and his bike at his house first. When they reached Jimmy's house the car was pulling into the driveway.

Wynter greeted Jimmy's parents as his father opened the back door of the sedan. "Want me to carry you?" he asked.

Jimmy groaned. "No. That hurts worse than walking." Wynter fidgeted while Mr. McCauley helped ease Jimmy out of the car. Her father sat the bicycle on the ground and spoke to Mrs. McCauley. Jimmy straightened, grimaced, and looked at Wynter. "You sure you hurt yourself worse than this?"

Wynter nodded and put on her most sympathetic expression. "Uh huh."

Jimmy's shy grin tried to break through as he nodded. "Then I'm sorry it happened to you."

"Well, I'm sorry it happened to you, too. You get some rest and take your pain pills and it'll be better in a day or two. Ice packs will help. If you need anything, have your mom call me. Even if it's just to stay with you while she goes out. Okay?"

"Okay. And thanks. For, um... everything. Um... even, um, for Kenny's."

Wynter tried to keep from blushing when she realized what he meant. "Um, that's okay. It was, um, letting the patient know, um, that the doctor, um, cared." _Anxiety disorder!

_"Yeah. Well, uh, the patient appreciated it because, ah, it helped."

"Really?"

The grin did break through this time. "Yeah," he said in a breathy whisper as his eyes sparkled.

Wynter wished all the parents weren't around so she could kiss his forehead again. She immediately regretted that thought. They were around because they were concerned and because they loved their children. She was being selfish.

_But, it was also good treatment for my patient_, she argued. No, that didn't work. She was trying to justify being selfish.

She realized with a start that Mr. McCauley had moved over to Mrs. McCauley and her father, leaving them some privacy. They were being that nice for her, and she was being selfish. She sure wasn't living up to the billing Doctor Taylor had given Nurse Daniels.

She tried to keep from turning any redder. "Well, um, maybe it will last a long time."

Jimmy's eyes dropped to her feet. "I hope not." He looked at her from under his eyebrows. "It was a nice treatment."

She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "Yeah." She grinned and said, "Now go lie down. We can't go adventuring again until you stop hurting, and I'm going to be stuck in the house with Aunt Dumb and Uncle Bozo while you recrup... re-cu-per-ate. Understood?"

Jimmy's grin widened. "Understood. Doctor."

~ ~ ~

Dragon danced about the yard as Wynter's father parked the truck in the driveway and punched the garage door opener. She opened the driveway gate, petting and speaking to Dragon as he sniffed, whimpered, and danced. Her father unloaded her bike from the truck and put it in among the clutter that kept him from using the other half of the two-car garage. As the garage door rumbled down the three stepped into the cool air of the family room.

Wynter turned and opened her arms. Her father picked her up and gave her a fatherly kiss. "Honey, are you _sure_ you're okay?"

"No."

"I _knew_ it! What's wrong?"

She pulled her eyebrows together and stuck out her lower lip. "I have a father who doesn't believe me when I tell him I'm okay, even though I have no reason not to tell him the truth."

He stared at her for a moment and then blushed, looking like an old sheep. She'd seen her father blush before, but she could count all the times on one hand. Maybe, two. "Well," he said, "you'll be a parent some day and then you'll understand."

"A."

He frowned, obviously confused. "What?"

"I started labeling your responses to reduce filing space. That's Standard Answer A."

He shook his head and looked like an old sheep again. "Well, it's still true."

She tried giving him a lover's kiss, but he pulled back, turning it into a father-daughter kiss. She guessed he was still worried about her.

"Lemonade?" he asked.

"Please! I'm dying of thirst."

He put her down and followed her into the kitchen, where they worked together to pour the refreshments. They sat at the breakfast nook table. Instead of taking his customary blocking position, Dragon sat at her feet and rested his chin on her knee. He seemed to understand that something was wrong. His eyes reminded her of the way her father's had been in the hospital waiting room. She scratched behind his ears with her free hand.

Her father looked at the glass as he rolled it between parallel palms. "Ron said he groped your... your breast."

Wynter shrugged. "Yeah. I guess he was a tit man."

Her dad's eyes moved sideways to look at her. "No. He was just an animal. A beast."

Wynter shrugged again and frowned. "Well, he sure wasn't very nice."

"And he tried to force you to blow him?"

Wynter's lips tightened into a thin line. "Yeah. That was pretty stupid, wasn't it?"

His head jerked to look directly at her. "Stupid? It was criminal!"

She shrugged yet again. "Well, it was also stupid. He had Jimmy lying there proving that you couldn't do anything, not even move, with a bad enough pain down there. So that made me realize that if Jimmy couldn't do anything, he couldn't either. If he made me do it, then I was going to bite him as hard as I could and punch him in his testicles at the same time."

She watched as he sat there blinking at her, his face a blank mask, for several seconds. "I always knew I had a very smart daughter," he said. "I just never understood how calm she could be in an emergency."

Wynter guessed that was because she usually wasn't very calm in an emergency. "Nurse Carter said that you can't let yourself get overwhelmed by the situation. You have to stay calm so that you can think and do what's best for the patient."

"Ah," he said with a nod. "I have Ellen to thank for your staying calm and thinking about what was best for you."

"No, Daddy! Not for _me!_ For my _patient!_ Jimmy was hurt and I needed to help him!"

Wynter had seen that look on Uncle Bob's face once. Her father had described it as "looking like he'd been pole-axed." She wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but it was the same look that was on his face now.

"You weren't thinking about what was going to happen to you?"

"_Daddy!_" She had thought he understood this. "A good doctor has to think about her patient, not herself."

"Your mother isn't going to believe me."

She frowned. "Why? About what?"

He didn't explain. "But what about the other one. Dick. What would you do about him when he came after you next?"

She hadn't thought about that. "I don't know. I was too busy worrying about the problem I had to worry about one I might have later."

The look on his face slowly changed to the one that always made her heart feel too big for her chest. It was one that said he loved her with all his heart. "And your mother and I were worried about how you'd get along by yourself in town. I think we underestimated you. But that's a lot easier to do than overestimating you."

He smiled.

And she knew he really and truly meant it.

~ ~ ~

Richard lay on his side and looked at the way the bedside lamp cast a soft glow over her sweet face and its frame of long, blonde hair. He placed a hand over one of hers. "If you don't want to do anything tonight except cuddle, that's okay. I understand after what happened today."

A semblance of her panic attacks flitted across her face. "Kenny told you?"

_Well, that's interesting_. "I meant after what Will tried to do. What do you think I meant?"

She blushed. "Oh. I thought you meant something else."

"And it's something you don't want to tell me, right?"

"Well.... Um...."

_Obviously not._

"Oh, I might as well. Kenny will tell everyone anyway. When Jimmy was lying there in pain, holding his testicles, well, um, I..."

_Oh, God, she held his balls for him!_

"...I sorta kissed his forehead. Just a little. Because, um, because.... Well, I don't know. I thought it might help him if he knew that, well, you know, that somebody cared."

He noted the irony in being relieved to hear that his daughter had kissed a boy. "Well, honey, there's nothing wrong with that. I've always told you that a kiss was good medicine. Sometimes that does more good than pills."

He watched her eyebrows creep together before she spoke. "You're not mad at me?"

"Mad at you for being a good doctor who takes care of her patient the only way she can? Honey, I love you! Why would I be mad at you for being the kind, loving, caring person your mother and I have always tried to raise you to be?"

Relief washed over her face, but it dried in an instant. "But, well, Kenny started complaining that he wanted one, too, and Jimmy said to do it and shut him up, and so, well, Kenny wasn't hurt like Jimmy but.... Well, I kissed his forehead, too."

Richard forced himself not to laugh. He thought for a moment, seeking the best words. "Because your patient was in pain, and Kenny was making it worse, your patient asked that you do something that would help him. Okay? And because you are such a good doctor, you did what your patient needed to make him feel better. You didn't do it because Kenny asked. You didn't do it for... for selfish reasons. You did it because it was what your patient needed. That's another sign of a caring, resourceful doctor." He hoped he hadn't overplayed that one.

The relief again returned to her face, this time staying.

"Thank you, Daddy."

"You're welcome, Doctor Daughter."

She grinned. And froze. "Uh oh."

"What?"

"When I was leaning over Jimmy one time, I was holding my ponytail and my blouse together in the same hand. The blouse slipped open, and both Jimmy and Kenny saw my bra."

Richard chuckled. "Honey, Jimmy hurt too much to get horny and make the pain worse."

"No. I mean, what if he thought I was like Suzie and showing him my tits on purpose?"

"How well do you know Jimmy?"

The startled look on her face told him she was wondering what he'd meant by a question that had such an obvious answer. She was analyzing the question to determine what other meanings it might have. Finally she said, "What do you mean?"

Richard shrugged his upper shoulder. "Well, I thought you knew him better than I did, so either you don't or else you're deliberately insulting one of my best friends."

"No, I'm not insulting Jimmy! I'd _never_ do that!" She frowned. "One of your best friends?"

"Well, I wasn't blessed with a son. I was blessed with the smartest, the sweetest, and the prettiest daughter any father ever had. But if I had been blessed with a son," he raised his free index finger before her face, "I'd want him to be Jimmy." He traced an "X" over his heart.

She blinked at him. "Really?" she asked in a breathy whisper.

"Really. That's how well _I_ know him." He smiled at her. "Wynter, trust me on this if you never, ever, trust me on anything else: there is no way that Jimmy is going to think you are like Suzie. No way. Jimmy is far too smart to think that accidental is deliberate. He knows how you are in here," he touched her forehead, "and in here." He touched her chest over her heart. "If you think Jimmy would confuse you with Suzie in this situation, then you don't know him a tenth as well as I thought you did. I, for one, refuse to believe you're that dumb. I know that Jimmy isn't."

Her eyes seemed to be wetter than usual. Yes. She sniffed once. Then she said, "Daddy, would you just hold and squeeze me for a couple of minutes?"

~ ~ ~

_FUCK!_

_Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity-fuck, FUCK!_ She wanted to scream the words into the darkness of her bedroom, but her stupid mother would hear her and ground her another three or four days. It was that stupid Kenny's fault that she was grounded in the first stupid place, and now he just _had_ to call and tell her what had happened to _her_ Jimmy and that stupid Wynter just so she'd scream "fuck" and get grounded even longer. And he'd waited until right at bedtime so that she'd be sure to lie awake half the night thinking about it, too.

_Her_ Jimmy was lying at home in his bed in pain because his stupid nuts had been crushed--served men right for having the stupid things out there where they could get hurt in the first place--and she was _grounded!_ Now that stupid Future MD could spend all her time with him and....

_No!_ Wynter's stupid aunt and even stupider uncle were coming for a visit. She would be stuck at home with them and there would be nothing stopping Suzie from taking care of _her man_. Well, except for the inconvenient fact that her stupid mother had grounded her. She needed to get to Jimmy! She'd massage his nuts the way he'd massaged the cramp in her leg, and he'd be so grateful he'd probably marry her right there on the spot if he could. Little Miss Prissy would never touch Jimmy's nuts. Even if the dolt let her, which he wouldn't.

_Oh, that's right_. He wouldn't let Suzie touch them, either, unless she could come up with an excuse. She knew that once she got her hands on the stupid things and started massaging the hurt out, he'd be ever so grateful. There had to be a way. First she had to think of a way to get to Jimmy's and then she needed to think of a way to get her hands on his stupid nuts for a massage.

That problem might be too much for a lesser woman to handle, but _she_ was Suzie Middleton, and _her man_ was in pain and needed her!

Ten

Wynter held back her hair so that it wouldn't tickle her father and awaken him as she gave him a gentle nose-and-lips kiss. "I love you with all my heart," she whispered and then slipped out of the bed. Dragon followed her to the bathroom. After she had voided the overnight accumulation of urine she washed her split--her pussy--really good with soap and warm water in case her father wanted to eat her when he woke up. It was, after all, his last chance for sexual activities until after Aunt Diane and Uncle Bob left on Sunday. She used some minty mouthwash, too. She really wanted to crawl back in bed with him and snuggle back to sleep, but she had a patient to care for.

After her father had turned the light out she had wondered what she could give Jimmy to make him feel better. Her father reminded her that his flowers drawing had made him feel especially good when he was trapped in all those casts back in the spring. She didn't think that Jimmy would like the flowers as much as her father had, but she just knew he'd like a drawing of the deer and her baby. But she wouldn't have time to do it right if she were going to give it to Jimmy the next day. She'd draw it for him, but she'd take her time and do the best job possible. But what to give him for now? The answer had come to her as soon as she awoke.

As Dragon established his bedroom door blockade she whispered, "I love you," to her father, put her hair in a ponytail scrunchie, and then sat at her desk. The cold wood of the seat on her bare butt made her shiver, but it wasn't unpleasant. She thought for a moment and then pulled out a small drawing pad and her colored pencils. The first four attempts went into her trash can rather quickly. She was almost finished with the fifth attempt when she heard a sigh behind her and the sound of a hand searching the sheets. She turned around as he rolled over and looked at her.

He made a frumpy face. "There's no teddy bear to squeeze," he complained.

She put down the pencil and stood. "I guess you'll just have to squeeze me," she said, sliding under the sheet. "But it'll cost you one dragon-breath kiss."

"I just happen to have some," he said and drew her to him. Afterward he asked, "What are you doing up early?"

"I was making something for Jimmy. You made me think of it when you mentioned your flowers picture last night. It's sort of a cartoon, but I've never done any cartoon-style drawings before. It may not be very good, and I'm afraid he won't like it."

The look he gave her made her think he was going to say "Earth to Wynter!" in Kenny's weird voice. Instead he kept looking at her, like he was thinking of what to say. Then he adjusted his head on the pillow and said, "Class is now in session. I will call the roll of students. Doctor King?"

She was so surprised that he'd said "Doctor King" that she failed to respond. He repeated it. "Uh, yes. Present!" she said.

"Good. Everybody is here. Today's class will start with an oral pop quiz. Doctor King, you have a patient with a fever. Does he have peritonitis, the flu, or pneumonia?"

Her response was obvious, so she started trying to apply it to what she'd just said. She couldn't make it fit. "I don't know. I need to know the rest of the symptoms."

"So what you are saying, Doctor King," he replied, "is that you can't diagnose a medical situation without considering all the facts. Am I correct?"

"Yes, sir, that is correct." She thought she understood where he was headed but wasn't sure of his specific point.

"Can you explain why the need to consider all the facts is not relevant in a non-medical situation?"

He waited patiently as always while she turned the question over and examined it from all angles. "It should be relevant in all situations, both medical and non-medical."

"Aha!" She giggled at his wide eyes and upthrust forefinger. "So do you know what facts you have overlooked in this situation?"

"Well...." She thought for a few moments. "Not all of them, I guess."

"I guess not." His smile made her heart feel too big for her chest again. "The most important one, aside from the fact that it's something you made just for him, is that it's your very first cartoon. There can be only one first item of anything. You can make a million of something, but only one can be the first. The very first item of anything is almost always something special. It's a collector's item or a museum piece or whatever it may be. But it's special because there's not another first one and there never will be."

He was _reinforcing the lesson_ again, just the way it would be done in medical school. She understood what he was saying and agreed. "But sometimes the very first of anything is very primitive and not very good."

Up came his finger again. "Aha!" That made her grin. "So you're saying that Leeuwenhoek's first microscope is not worth having because it's so primitive compared to today's instruments?"

She saw his point and conceded. "I just hope he likes it anyway, despite its being a first effort."

"Honey, you could give him a road-kill skunk mounted on used plywood and he'd treasure it."

She blushed. "Well, maybe if his alternative was hospital food."

He chuckled and brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek. "Is it private, or do I get to see it?"

"You can see it, but it's not quite finished."

"Maybe seeing it partially finished might teach me how to draw better."

"Well," she said, sliding her hand down under the sheet, "I might be able to finish it if I wasn't distracted by being so horny." She wrapped her hand around him and gave her best exasperated sigh. "Nobody's eaten my pussy in two days."

He rolled over on his back, turned his face up, and said, "Have a seat, please."

~ ~ ~

Suzie couldn't believe how simple the answer was once she'd calmed down from Caroline's refusal to help her. She simply waited until she heard her mother in the basement, moving clothes from the washer to the dryer, and called Grandma Binns. "Mother just works ever so hard keeping the house clean and everything," she said, "and she never goes anywhere. It would be nice if you invited her over for lunch to visit for a couple of hours. 'Course, if she knows you're asking her over for her benefit, she won't come, and Grandma, I'm afraid that she's working so hard that she'll make herself sick if she doesn't take a break."

When she hung up the phone it was with the agreement that Grandma would call back in a few minutes and tell her stupid mother some stupid story that would make her mother want to go visit the sanctimonious old bag. Suzie didn't know what "sanctimonious" meant, but she knew it wasn't a compliment and she liked the sound of it. Suzie didn't much care for Grandma Binns because she never gave Suzie anything except stupid clothing for presents at Christmas and on birthdays.

~ ~ ~

Wynter giggled as she came down from her second orgasm. The sound came out in bursts because she was lying on her back, her legs up and mostly over the points of her father's pelvis as he thrust into her.

"Okay?" he gasped into her ear.

She though it was incredibly sweet of him to hold back his orgasm until she'd had her second one. "Uh huh," she moaned, unlocking her arms from around his neck. "Your turn."

As his head rose she grabbed his face between her hands and gave him the best lover's kiss she could in the time available. That wasn't very much time because his body kept rising and quickly pulled his face away from hers. His back arched away and his face twisted into what should have been the most frightening grimace in the world, but instead it looked more wonderful than she would ever have words to express.

He began short-stroking into her with such fury that she was glad she had lots of pussy juice for lubrication. She sure didn't want friction heat to set the sheets on fire before he had his relief. She was aware, as always as this moment, that he was just barely reaching to the end of her pussy and stopping before he went too far. She was deeper now than she had been the first time they had made love and fucked, but his hard dick was still too long for her to hold all of it. She knew he was getting plenty of stimulation from the tight fit of her pussy stretched around him--so was she--but she decided his thoughtfulness deserved a reward. She squeezed her pussy muscles tighter around him.

He gasped and growled something she translated as, "I love you."

"I love you, too," she said, rubbing her hands up and down his sweaty rib cage, as if masturbating his body. "Your turn to cum now."

His eyelids squeezed together and his lips pulled back from his clenched teeth as he pumped even faster. His throat strangled a growl into almost a whimper, relaxing and freeing it as his cum began spewing into her. She thought she'd never see a more beautiful sight and clamped her pussy muscles even tighter, trying to give him as much pleasure from his release as he'd given her. Eventually, and far to soon as far as she was concerned, he relaxed, holding himself up with shaking arms as he visually measured the spaces to either side of her. He eased his shrinking dick out of her body and crashed to the mattress at her right side, gasping for air around short, happy laughs.

Wynter knew that if she died right now, they'd have to bury her with the biggest smile ever on her face because nobody could take it away. She lay with her head on her father's left shoulder, his arm wrapped around to snuggle her close to him. She felt a warm trickle of his semen run down her split and the crack of her butt. "You're going to make me stay in the wet spot, aren't you?" she said between gasps of air.

"If I had my way and the stamina," he gasped, "there wouldn't be a dry spot anywhere on this bed."

She giggled and both lay still, quietly enjoying the closeness of each other and getting their breath back. They resumed normal breathing just as the phone rang. "Drat." Mother should be on the plane at that time, so Wynter knew that it couldn't be her. It was on her side of the bed, so she rolled over and answered it. It was Mrs. McCauley.

"Oh, good morning. How's Jimmy?"

_"He's feeling better, but I don't want to leave him home alone while I go shopping. Can you come over at twelve-thirty and keep him company while I go to Safeway and run some errands? I'll be gone about an hour."_

"Sure! I mean, yes, ma'am. I have something for him that I need to drop off anyway."

_"I'm sure that will cheer him up. I'll see you then. Good bye."_

"Bye." She hung up the phone and jumped as her father pinched her naked butt. She explained the phone call to him.

He gave her a weird smile as she spoke, but then he told her that he loved her. "You're the best doctor ever," he said. "Guess we'd better get cleaned up so you can finish the drawing before you get too horny again."

~ ~ ~

Suzie looked at the clock. It was almost noon, and her stupid mother hadn't left yet. She had both daughters in the living room and was issuing final instructions.

"Don't you let her leave the house," Mrs. Middleton warned, "or I'll ground you, too."

Caroline huffed and shook her head, causing her auburn hair to fan out. "Mother, please! I _told_ you I won't let her out. Okay?"

"And don't you go off and leave her alone. Understand?"

Suzie glanced at Caroline. The stupid slut was wearing the stupid gold chain necklace that Ray Simons had given her. She couldn't believe that her mother was so stupid as not to realize by now that wearing it meant she was about to do the stupid dolt again. From the sounds she'd heard coming from Caroline's room she knew that she was preparing to do him there instead of in his car somewhere. Caroline always closed her stupid door and told Suzie to stay out while she was doing her stupid boyfriends. Suzie could leave and take half their family's stupid cheap furnishings and the stupid slut wouldn't know until she opened her stupid door and came out.

She looked out the living room window, half expecting to see Ray parked across the street and waiting for her mother to leave. The street was empty.

When they were finally alone in the house Caroline said, "I'm going to my room, Twerp. I don't want to see you or hear from you until after Mother returns." Which was her stupid way of telling Suzie that she'd better get out and stay out. Which was Suzie's plan anyway.

Suzie opened the back door, in case her mother was watching the front from the end of the street, and heard the house phone and Caroline's phone both ring almost at the same time. Well, the stupid slut didn't want to hear her, so she was out of there. _Her man_ needed her! She hopped over the wooden back fence into the Jacksons' yard, scurried around to the front, and began running east on Funderburg Way toward Ninth Street. As she crossed the bridge she realized that she could have taken the direct route north. Porcupine Creek was low enough that she could have removed her sneakers and socks and waded across the shallows along the line of Twelfth Street.

~ ~ ~

As Wynter taped the bow to Jimmy's present, her mother called.

She had been at the airport for an hour, but Aunt Diane and Uncle Bob were not there to pick her up. Worse, they weren't answering their cell phone, either. Nobody was surprised. Mother was going to give them one more hour and then rent a car rather than ask her father to come get her.

Wynter put the carefully-wrapped package in the saddlebag basket of her bike, being extra careful not to damage the bright blue bow. She gave her father a good-bye kiss and Dragon a dog biscuit and hug, warned her father not to hurt himself while she was gone because she didn't need two patients, and pedaled toward Jimmy's house. She was surprised to find Jimmy's mom backing out of the garage as she arrived. Mrs. McCauley explained that Suzie had just arrived and was with Jimmy. Wynter wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Mrs. McCauley told her to go on in because Jimmy was expecting her, wished her a nice visit, told her to help herself to any juice or milk she wanted, and left. Wynter removed the package from the basket, feeling sorry that she hadn't brought something for Suzie, and rushed up the sidewalk to the front door. As she opened it she heard a scream from upstairs. A scream of pain!

She rushed up the stairs and spun around the newel post. Suzie was standing against the wall, her hands over her mouth and tears streaming from her wide eyes. Wynter raced into the room. Jimmy was curled up in a ball under part of the sheet. He was obviously holding his crotch.

She had to remind herself not to do anything until she understood the situation. She put the flat package on the night stand and a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Jimmy, what's wrong?" When he could do nothing but groan she turned to Suzie. "Suzie, what happened to Jimmy?"

Frightened green eyes turned to hers. "I was just... I was trying to help. I wanted to help him feel better."

Wynter fought down a wave of panic. Doctors had to stay calm in emergencies. But her anxiety showed in her voice when she asked in too harsh a tone, "What did you _do?_"

"Well, I...." Tears streamed down her cheeks. "He made me feel so much better when he massaged my legs that I thought if I massaged his nuts... Um, you know, if I could relieve the ache like he did...."

Wynter couldn't believe her ears. "Where's your ice pack, Jimmy. Up here?"

"Freezer," he gasped.

"Wait right there," she said to Suzie as she raced down the door, not regretting the harsh tone this time. She had to force herself not to run down the stairs. She took one of two gel packs from the freezer, wrapped it in a dish towel, and hurried back to Jimmy's room. Suzie was still cringing against the wall, her hands again over her mouth. Wynter reached for the sheet and stopped.

"Um...." _Anxiety disorder! Calm down. Doctors don't panic._ She offered him the pack. "Can you do it?"

Jimmy groaned. Somewhere in the middle was an "uh huh" sound and a hand crept out from under the sheet to take the pack.

Wynter turned to Suzie as Jimmy's hand and the ice pack disappeared. "Suzie! He landed on the bar of the bike! It's like... like... well, it's sorta like a broken leg. You wouldn't have wanted him to massage your leg if it had been broken, would you?"

Suzie's face was so red that it made her hair look light blonde. "I guess not," she whimpered.

"You can't just treat something without knowing what's wrong and how to treat it properly!" The lights came on. "Just like," she said in a softer voice, "just like you shouldn't start feeling for injuries until you visually assess the situation. Like I did after he was hurt."

Suzie didn't stop crying, but she did frown at Wynter.

Wynter felt her face redden. "When I tried to move his arm so I could check his abdomen. Suzie, I'm sorry for the way I yelled at you, but I was worried about Jimmy. I guess I was panicking again, and I shouldn't have. I should have known you wouldn't hurt him on purpose."

She gave Suzie a little hug, but didn't feel any less tension in Suzie's body. Wynter guessed she couldn't blame her friend for being mad because she had assumed the worst. She guided Suzie toward Jimmy. They stopped beside his bed. He was no longer moaning loudly, though he occasionally whimpered and his legs slowly moved around under the sheet.

"Are you better?" Wynter asked.

"I'll live." Wynter thought the look he was giving Suzie was most unpleasant and was glad he wasn't glaring at her that way.

"Jimmy, Suzie's sorry. She was just trying to help and didn't know the right thing to do. I've explained it to her. Okay?" She gave a little tug with the arm around Suzie.

Suzie looked to Wynter and then back to Jimmy. "Yeah. I'm sorry" (sniff) "Jimmy. I was only" (sniff) "trying to help," she mumbled.

Jimmy looked a Wynter for a moment and then at Suzie again. "Okay," he said. Wynter thought he sure didn't sound like he really and truly meant it, but maybe it was because he was still in pain. In a strained voice he said, "You never answered me. I thought you were still grounded."

Suzie sniffed once more. "I am, but you were hurt and I wanted to help you. Mother's at Grandma's and I snuck out."

Jimmy moved slightly and winced. "Suzie, I don't want to you get in more trouble over me. You'll be grounded until school starts if your mother finds out. You need to get back home as quick as possible so you won't be grounded the rest of vacation."

Suzie shrugged. "She'll be gone a couple of hours."

"Yeah, but what if she calls to check on you?"

Wynter felt Suzie stiffen. Obviously that thought had never arisen. "If she knows you've gone out when you were grounded before, she'll probably check on you, trying to catch you."

She and Jimmy quickly convinced Suzie to hurry home before she was caught. After a few mumbled wishes for Jimmy's quick recovery and an apologetic farewell, Suzie left. She didn't look very happy about leaving, but that probably was because she was worried over how she'd accidentally hurt Jimmy.

Jimmy nodded at the edge of the bed. "You can sit here. If... if you want to."

Wynter felt her heart swell and eased down on the mattress, careful not to shake it. She smiled at him and then her eyes dropped to her lap, where she was trying to decide what to do with her hands. "You should have warned her not to squeeze," she said.

When he didn't speak she looked up. He was giving her _that_ look. She felt her face redden.

His voice was very soft, but he didn't sound angry. If anything, she thought it sounded disappointed. "I didn't have time to say anything. She said, 'I know just what you need,' shoved her hand under the sheet, almost hit... them, grabbed, and squeezed. I didn't have time to stop her. You said you knew how it felt. You think I'd _want_ anybody touching them right now?"

Wynter gasped and wanted to crawl under the bed. "I'm sorry. I was so worried about you that I wasn't thinking, I guess. I'm not being a very good doctor for you, am I? Or a good friend?"

His hand slid out from under the sheet and into her lap, closing around her left hand. "You're being the best friend I have," he said with a shy smile. "And the only two doctors I would trust right now are Doctor King and Doctor Taylor. The older Doctor Taylor, of course."

She smiled but didn't duck her head, maybe because it was already down.

"And, I'm sorta glad that you made a mistake, you know? If you were perfect all the time, I guess I'd be intimidated and afraid of you."

"You shouldn't be in... in-tim-i-dated by me." _Drat!_ she thought, upset at stumbling over the word in his presence.

His smile grew slightly. "I guess I'm not perfect, either."

Her own smile grew across her lips. Then she remembered. "Oh! I brought you something." She took the flat package from the night stand and offered it to him.

"That looks too pretty to open," he said, making her heart feel too big for her chest again. His other arm appeared and he took it in both hands. He carefully removed the bow and then the tape holding the silver paper closed. She put the bow and paper on the night stand as he said, "Wow! Bristol board! Just what I needed!"

Jimmy had the same smirk Daddy had on his face when he was being a smarty pants. "It's between the Bristol board, silly." She hesitated. "Um, it's my first time trying to do this."

"Really?" She thought he looked even more happy. "Just for me? Wow." She thought he was being a smarty pants again, but his eyes said he really and truly meant it.

He removed the front protective board, looked, and started laughing. That caused him to pull his legs up under the sheet and grab his groin with his hand.

She hadn't thought about that! Wynter was shocked at how thoughtless she'd been. "Oh, Jimmy, I'm sorry! I didn't think about making you hurt yourself!"

He shook his head on the pillow. "Remember when I said it was worth landing on the bar to get rid of Will and Dick? Well, that little ache was even more worth it for this. I _love_ it! Especially Kenny!"

That made her feel better as he lifted it for another look, bringing his other hand up to point.

"Okay, that's me as Anakin, you as Senator Amidala...." He looked from the cartoon to Wynter. "But I think I like the ponytail instead of this hairdo," he said, making her heart swell again. "Ron as Obi-Wan. And Kenny...." He started laughing again at the short figure that was nine-tenths Yoda but with parts of Kenny's face and his black, rectangular glasses.

When he reached for his groin again, Wynter's hand moved toward his. She suddenly realized what she was doing and, instead, placed it very lightly on his forearm, careful not to cause him to press down or pull back. He gave her a gentle smile and nod, and she felt her own smile spread across her face. Then he looked at the cartoon and started laughing again. With tears in his eyes the laughter finally gave way to giggles. "This is the third best thing you've ever given me."

Wynter frowned. "Third best?"

"Uh huh," he said, twisting his head as if trying to see his neck. She looked and saw a leather thong mostly hidden by his pajama top. "This was the second best."

Her heart _really_ swelled up when she saw he was wearing her arrowhead. "What was the first?"

He blushed, but his eyes stayed on hers. "My doctor's special treatment after I was hurt."

"Oh. Um... is your, um, prescription still working or did it, um, run out?"

He seemed to almost shrug. "Well, um...."

_Mutual anxiety disorder!_ she realized.

"I, um, wouldn't mind, um, a refill." He seemed to almost shrug again. "If," he added hastily, "the, um Doctor prescribes it, of course."

She nodded shyly, moved her hand from his arm to his other shoulder so that she wouldn't cause any painful pressure, and leaned forward over his forehead. Even though he was still in pain he made a happy sighing sound.

She pulled back until their faces were a foot apart. The pain was visible only in the corners of his eyes. The rest of his face was a happy smile that made her feel good all over. "Thank you," he whispered. "If, um, I have a relapse, can I, um, call my Doctor for a refill?"

She thought her voice sounded strangely deeper as she whispered, "Maybe you, um, need the extra-strength prescription." When he nodded she lowered her lips to his.

~ ~ ~

_FUCK!_

Suzie couldn't stop crying as she wandered, head down, south on Twelfth Street. Why hadn't somebody _told_ her that you shouldn't squeeze a guy's stupid nuts when he'd hurt them. _It's Kenny's fault_, she decided. _He never told me and he should have!

Probably wanted to keep it his own stupid little secret to share with Little Miss Future MD_.

But Little Miss Perfect had never touched Jimmy's stupid nuts.

She'd admitted it.

But Jimmy had sent her away so that he could be alone with... _Her_.

Well, maybe not. He'd forgiven her and said she should get home so that she wouldn't be grounded until the stupid school started. Her head came up as she realized the truth. _Of course!_

He'd finally had time to think about what he'd felt at the movies. He'd told Kenny he'd played with it. He'd probably been lying there in his room, holding his stupid nuts, when he'd started thinking about how he'd played with her boobie, gotten a stiffy, and played with his stupid thingy while he thought about her boobies!

He didn't want her to be grounded so that he could play with them some more! If Kenny hadn't made her grab Jimmy's nuts and hurt him again--and if... _She_... hadn't shown up--she'd be sitting there on his bed with one of his hands discovering that she wasn't wearing a stupid bra and the other discovering she wasn't wearing any stupid panties! _You stupid dolt, Kenny! It's all your fault!_

Well, wait. Jimmy wanted to take her out again, so he'd still have sent her away so that she wouldn't be grounded and they could go out again! She'd finally turned Jimmy's head back toward her. But she just _knew_ that he wouldn't have sent her home until he had first played with her boobies without anything between them and his hand, and had finger-fucked her so that he could smell her fairy moans on his finger while he played with his stiffy. If only that stupid Kenny had told her about how to handle a guy's nuts, Jimmy would probably have asked her to play with it for him. And she would have, right after he got her off first because he loved her.

"Hey, Suzie!"

Startled, she turned toward the voice. It was David Corman leaning over his front fence. "You wanna go...."

"_FUCK OFF!_"

Well, wasn't that just the second dumbest thing she'd done today. If anyone had heard her and told her stupid mother, she be in trouble twice. Mother would know that she'd left the house....

_Fuck!_ She ran down the street, hopped the fence, and disappeared into the woods, stopping only long enough to remove her shoes and socks at Porcupine Creek and replace them after crossing it. She cut through the Jacksons' yard again, this time to save precious seconds. She pulled herself up on the fence and jumped, losing her balance when she landed. She staggered backwards into one of the stupid tea rose plants her father raised. She threw her arms out and caught her weight on the fence, barely avoiding falling right in the middle of the stupid thing. He spent so much time with them that he'd know if she damaged one. Her stupid mother would put the damaged plant together with the scratches she'd get, and she'd be grounded until Christmas next year.

Her hand hurt as she pushed away from the fence. She'd picked up a splinter as the base of her thumb. She couldn't get it out with her fingernails and had to wait until she could get to the tweezers in the kitchen junk drawer.

She grabbed a cola from the fridge and let the cold can soothe her hand. She paused to catch her breath while she drank it, occasionally giggling because Jimmy loved her again. She tossed the empty can in the recycle bin and then headed to her room to consider her next move. In the quietness of the house she could hear the springs of Caroline's bed squeaking as she did Ray. She reached for her doorknob but froze when she heard a boy's laugh. It sounded sort of familiar and not at all deep like Ray's. She spun around to Caroline's door and slowly turned the knob. She eased it open enough for her to peek inside.

She saw her naked sister's big stupid butt clenching and unclenching as she sat on top of someone and rode him. When Caroline's butt unclenched and lifted Suzie could see, thrust up between the slut's stupid shaved cunny lips, a small, thin stiffy glistening with cunny cream. Or it seemed to her to be small and not what she'd have expected from someone the size and age of Ray, based on the pictures she'd seen in some of the magazines Kenny had snuck out of his house.

Caroline whispered something Suzie couldn't understand, and the guy giggled and raised his legs slightly. That was enough for Suzie. She'd know those knobby knees anywhere. She felt her face turning scarlet and her heart pounding as she took a deep breath, threw open the door, and screamed, "_KENNY!_"

Eleven

The cell phone rang as Angie was reaching for her driver's license. She looked at the caller ID and switched it on and snarled. "Where the hell are you, for piss sake?"

"_We're outside door 617, where you said to meet you, waiting to pick you up. Where are you?_"

"I'm down at the Enterprise rental counter"

"_What?_" Diane paused to repeat that to Bob, who asked why she was doing that. "_Bob wants to know why you're renting a car. Did you forget that we're picking you up?_"

Angie forced herself not to scream. "You were supposed to pick me up two hours ago. You weren't here. I couldn't reach your phone...."

"_Oh, well, we turned that off so that it wouldn't wake Baby Christopher after he went to sleep. Wait a minute._" Diane apparently covered the mouthpiece because Bob's voice became too muffled for her to understand the words. "_Sis, Bob says you better get up here in a hurry or they're going to make him drive around the loop again. We can only wait for a few minutes, and we've wasted most of our time because you weren't here and we thought you would be, like you said._"

"Like I..." Angie forced her voice back to normal and eased her grip on the phone before she crushed it. "Where the hell have you two been?"

"_Aaangela,_" Diane said drawing out the first syllable in the slow, patient voice she always used when she said Angie's given name. "_There's three of us now. You shouldn't ignore Baby Christopher or you'll give him an inferiority complex._"

Angie drew a deep breath and let it out through clenched teeth. The boy was barely a year old. The young woman behind the counter looked at Angie's face and withdrew to take care of some suddenly-remembered urgent business anywhere else. "Fine. Where.

Have. You. _Three_. Been?"

"_Oh, well, we left yesterday and stopped in Sterling for the night. A guy who used to work with Bob lives there now. Did you ever meet Karl Daggett? He married Karl's crazy sister who was older than me. She drove that little green foreign car when you were away at college? He has another foreign car. This one's a black one, though. Looks much nicer than her green one, but it's still a foreign car. I don't know why he can't buy a good American car like decent folks._"

"Sis," Angie interrupted, feeling her temples starting to throb, "you had plenty of time to get here from Sterling by eleven-thirty."

"_Oh, well, he called again as Bob got out of the shower this morning. You know, for a supposedly nice motel, according to their advertisements anyway, they sure did have some stinky shampoo. And I wouldn't use their conditioner on Wynter's mutt. They should be sued for false advertising. You shouldn't never, ever stay in one of those when you're travelling. We should have stayed in a Motel 6 or a Red Roof. You should always stay in one, too, if there's one there. Unless you're overseas. I guess they don't have any outside the country. They don't advertise any foreign locations on tv._

"_Anyway, he invited us to eat breakfast at some new restaurant that has a breakfast bar. So, after Baby Christopher finally woke up and I fed him, we went there for breakfast. He'd already had a half-a-dozen cups of coffee and a cinnamon roll! Can you believe that? And the coffee wasn't nearly as good as what we have at the truck stop! The food wasn't bad, but they put chunks of green pepper in the scrambled eggs, and you know how I feel about green peppers._"

The throbbing in her temples became a pulsing ache. She put an elbow on the counter, dropped her head to her fingers, and massaged the painful spots. "You went out for a late breakfast knowing you had to pick me up, for piss sake?"

"_Aaangela,_" she drawled patiently, "_he asked and we had to accept. It would have been impolite to refuse him. Honestly, Sis, don't you ever think of anyone but yourself? Wait a minute._" More covered mouthpiece and muffled conversation while Angie wrestled her wrath into submission, and then, "_Well, now you've done it. We have to move the car. Bob will drive slowly around the loop. Try to be here when we get back, okay? Baby Christopher's been in the car long enough as it is, and we still have to drive all the way to your place after we stop off at one of Bob's suppliers._" She switched off the phone without another word.

Angie jerked herself upright and turned to glare up at the approximate space where Diane was located. She fumed at the silent phone for several long seconds, flipped the cover down, and then turned to the leasing agent who had reappeared behind the counter. She opened her mouth to say something apologetic, but the woman cut her off with a wave of her hand and a pained look.

"Believe me, I understand completely. I have one just like that." A sly smile crossed her face. "Want to rent anyway? I would."

When Angie shook her head the young woman nodded with a you'll-be-sorry look and tore the rental form in half. "Good luck, then. I'm sure you'll need it."

~ ~ ~

Wynter struggled with the urge to slip her tongue out in a lover's kiss, and was saved by the doorbell. It was Mr. Tucker with the mail. He had a package that was addressed to Jimmy and was too big for the mailbox. Wynter thanked him and answered his questions about Jimmy's recovery. She didn't mention the relapse Suzie had accidentally caused. He told her that several people on his route had asked if he had any news about them. Then he turned a little red and asked how she was. When she said that she was fine, he promised to tell everyone the good news.

The package was a large book--Jimmy called it a "coffee table book" and it sure seemed to be about the size of one--about gems and semiprecious stones and had lots of pictures. She couldn't wait to tell Daddy what Jimmy had ordered so she could see the look on his face. They tried to determine the best way for her to sit so that they could look at it together. Finally she lay down beside him. On top of the sheet, of course. Jimmy wasn't wearing any pajama bottoms or undies.

She held the book in her left hand and he in his right so that they could hold hands. "Comfy?" he asked when they were settled.

She turned her head to answer and saw his face an inch from hers. "Uh huh," she said and gave him another quick kiss on the lips. She had thought Ron had a bright smile, but Jimmy's seemed to blind her as he sighed with happiness.

She felt a horniness in her vaginal region. That was an odd thought, but she couldn't make herself think "in her pussy" the way she did when she gave her father a lover's kiss. It kept flashing through her mind as "in her vaginal region." She guessed that she was finally putting her father, who loved her with all his heart, first in her feelings the way she was supposed to do.

They stopped reading after about an hour, when Jimmy asked if she'd swap the ice packs for him. While she was in the kitchen she poured a small pineapple-orange juice for Jimmy and a small orange juice for herself. She waited while he adjusted the frozen gel-pack under the sheet and then handed him his juice. As he took a sip she asked if he was feeling better.

"Um, it's getting better, but I think maybe a prescription refill might make it work faster."

She grinned and bent over him, then wiped his lips. "Pineapple," she explained before kissing him. When she pulled back he looked avast. Or was the word _aghast_? She'd have to look that up in her dictionary.

"You don't like pineapple?"

She shrugged. "Not really. Especially since Aunt Diane insisted I eat some of her pineapple upside-down cake once."

"Oh, Wynter, I'm sorry. I didn't know," he said. His face said he really and truly meant it.

She ran the tip of her tongue around her lips. "That's okay. Besides, I don't taste it anyway."

He looked relieved as he smiled gently and nodded in his particular way.

A thought came to her. "Can I tell you something?"

"Sure," he said, looking happy as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Remember the day you helped me put the stuff away in my room?"

"Are you kidding? That was the best day of my life! Well," he added, looking a little like an old sheep, "except maybe for today."

She started to argue that he was injured today, but then she realized what he meant. She was pleased with herself because she kept her head from lowering. "Uh huh. Well, before you came by, Daddy brought home a new swamp cooler pump and some chicken. Mother got to kiss him first and they just stretched it out longer and longer and longer until I said I was going to eat up all the chicken if I didn't get my kiss. Then they acted like a couple of smarty pantses and I still couldn't get my kiss from Daddy. So..."

She realized she was looking at her juice glass and forced her eyes to Jimmy's. "...I told them that if I didn't get my kiss right away, I'd come see you and you'd kiss me."

He looked startled. "You knew?"

"No, I was just trying get them to let...." His words sank in. "You would have?"

He suddenly looked _very_ self-conscious and his freckles vanished in all the red on his face. "Well, yeah. I mean, well, you were...." He shrugged. "You were the prettiest girl I'd ever seen. I mean, you still are. Well... you know I don't go around kissing girls all the time. But when I saw you I thought, 'Man, I'd sure like to have her be the first one to kiss me.' And I'm glad it was."

Wynter made her mouth close, then opened it again just enough to ask, "Really?"

"Uh huh."

Daddy had told her how guys liked to be the first one to do things with a girl. She had never thought about guys wanting a certain girl to be the first to do things with them. She guessed it made sense, but she'd have to ask him about that later. When she could do so without Aunt Dumb and Uncle Bozo around.

"And then I discovered that you were also the smartest girl I knew. I couldn't believe that I was lucky enough to have you living down the street from me. And, well, I just... I decided that even if you never kissed me, I still wanted you to be my best friend."

"Really?"

"Uh huh." He gave her that grin and nod again.

She stared at him a long moment. "Maybe I could learn to like pineapple again." And she kissed him, holding her lips against his for several seconds. Right in the middle of it she heard him sigh softly through his nose. It made her heart swell even bigger.

~ ~ ~

_FUCK!_

Suzie stormed out of her room, where the stupid slut had sent her, and into the living room. She picked up the remote to the stupid television and stared at it for a minute and then threw it at the stupid couch. It bounced off the cushions, skidded across the stupid coffee table, and landed on the stupid floor.

_FUCK!_

She grumbled her way into the kitchen and fetched another cola from the stupid refrigerator. She took a sip and put it on the counter. She reached into the cookie jar that was shaped like a stupid cow and brought out...

...a stupid Fig Newton. She looked into the jar and stamped her right foot. That's _all_ that was in there! Caroline and their stupid mother loved the stupid things, but Suzie _hated_ them! It wasn't _fair_! There _never_ were any cookies that she liked! She grumbled her way back to her room, kicking the tv remote aside as she passed it, and threw herself on her bed.

_FUCK!_

She'd forgotten the stupid cola! She crossed her arms under her boobies and tried to decide which word was the best one to scream on this occasion. Just as she decided to scream all of them she heard Caroline's door opening and Kenny whispering something.

She glared at her door. Kenny walked in with his stupid "patented shit-eating grin" across his stupid face. Caroline, her hands on both of his stupid shoulders, was right behind him, wearing that stupid see-thru short gown that she hadn't even bothered to fasten. A stupid narrow row of short, curly auburn hair was growing back in a line up from her stupid slit. The stupid slut looked smug, like the canary that ate the stupid cat in that old saying she never understood.

"I gotta tell you, Twerp," Caroline said as Suzie wished she had the stupid remote again so she could throw it at the stupid slut, "you are definitely missing out. I ain't never seen anyone who can suck a tit the way this little guy can. I may pay him to give the other guys lessons. Sure was a good thing that he called just as Ray cancelled our afternoon date."

Kenny's grin widened and didn't let up in the least as she snarled, "What'd you do, call the town slut and say, "I heard Ray couldn't come over and bang you, so I'll do it?"

"No," the stupid shit said, shaking his stupid head but not losing that stupid grin. "I was calling to talk to you, but Caroline said you'd already skipped out even though you were supposed to be grounded."

"And we got to talking," Caroline continued, just like they were one person with two voices, "and I learned you were giving Jimmy anatomy lessons. Kenny said you weren't being fair, offering them to Jimmy but not to a future doctor. So, I said I'd tutor him if he'd tell me more about you and Jimmy."

Suzie now wished she had the stupid cola to throw, too.

Kenny picked up the thread without a pause. "We got to talking while I was giving her a physical exam, and next thing you know she had me checking her temperature with my meat thermometer."

The stupid look on his stupid face said he clearly thought she should appreciate his stupid little joke. From what she'd seen of the stupid thing under Caroline's fat ass, it certainly _was_ a "little joke."

As if her stupid slut sister had read her mind, Caroline cooed, "And it was the best thing I ever did. He made me wish I'd taken him on earlier. But, I suppose if I had, I might have been disappointed and not let him back in again, and then I'd have missed out on the _best_ fuck I've had in _months_. Yes ma'am, I _sure_ am glad that silly twit Ray had to 'work.' Which he didn't, of course. Annie's period ended yesterday, and he's over banging her instead." She shook her head. "He'll pay for lying to me, of course," she added as she rubbed one of her stupid little boobies against Kenny's neck.

Well, remind her to look surprised next Tuesday. The stupid slut didn't care that Ray was fucking around on her, not even that he was doing it with her stupid best friend. No, she was just pissed because the stupid dolt had lied to her. If Suzie ever caught Jimmy fucking around, or even kissing another woman, she'd have his stupid nuts in a blender so fast it would make his head spin.

"How come you aren't at Jimmy's?" Kenny asked. "You got back in a hurry."

Well, just how the hell was she supposed to answer _that_ question? "Well, we, uh, talked for a little bit and then he had me come home so that I wouldn't get in trouble and we could go out again before school started."

Suzie didn't know what kind of reaction she'd expected but it certainly wasn't the dolt turning to the slut and saying, "I win. You owe me."

Caroline's face had its own stupid shit-eating grin, one getting bigger by the second. "Damn. And I was looking forward to having you muff dive me again. Okay. You want it right now?"

Kenny actually smirked at Suzie before saying to Caroline, "Let's go back to your room so that we don't embarrass the virgin."

As Suzie took a deep breath to scream, Caroline said, "Okay, but after I blow you, you have to fuck me again." Caroline winked at her. "Y'know, Twerp, he's _so_ much more better than that silly Ken doll you use."

"_GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, YOU STUPID...!_"

A sharp "_Suzanne!_" from the kitchen shut her up. Her mother had left the garage door open when she left and didn't close it when she returned. Nobody had heard the door between the kitchen and garage open.

Caroline grabbed Kenny, shoved her tongue down his throat, and squeezed the stupid dolt's thingy as he squeezed one of her stupid boobies. She whirled around and dashed into her room before their mom could see how she was dressed. Or not dressed. "I'll collect later," Kenny said in a loud whisper.

_FUCK!!!_

It wasn't _fair!_ She'd just gotten Jimmy's head turned back and he wanted to date her, and now her stupid mother was going to ground her even longer, and it was all the fault of that knobby-kneed little dwarf again. And her stupid slut sister! _IT WASN'T FAIR!!!_

~ ~ ~

Marti McCauley was a little startled to find Wynter in her son's bed, but she wasn't a woman prone to jumping to conclusions. It wasn't as if her son was in any condition to actually _do_ anything about the situation. And he was under the sheet, while she was on top of it. They were looking at a large book together, and there couldn't have been any other way to do so that would have been comfortable for Jimmy. Okay, it all made sense. And Wynter had reached puberty, but she was obviously as sexually inexperienced as Jimmy, and was undoubtedly as bashful about, and as eager to avoid, the subject as her son was. She put it aside. "So how are you two doing?"

Wynter looked around the side of the book with a huge grin and pointed at it. "Mrs. McCauley, look at the book Jimmy got! I can't wait to tell Daddy about it. He'll dance around like Dragon when he hears about it!"

While she laughed at the image, her son added, "And look at the neat present Wynter gave me!"

Wynter sat up, took the cartoon from the night stand, and handed it to her as she approached. She laughed so hard at what was obviously Kenny that she had to wipe tears from her eyes. "Wynter, this is priceless," she said as idea came to her. "Say, do you think you could do something like this for me for Keith's birthday, if I can think of what I want?"

The startled look on the girl's face made her wonder if Wynter had any idea of how great her talent was. "Sure! I'd love to! It'd be my pleasure." Sincerity flooded the girl's voice and shone in her face.

"Then let me think about it. We have a couple of weeks. How much time to you need to do one of these?"

"Well, that one took about half an hour, but it was my first time doing one. I guess doing one right would take a couple of hours."

Marti knew she'd heard the girl wrong and had her repeat what she'd said. "Doing one right? Honey, there's nothing wrong with this one. Not a thing."

Wynter's eyes shifted to her shoes. "Well, you know," she mumbled. "More detail and stuff."

She stretched out a finger and tilted Wynter's face up until their eyes met. "Wynter, cartoons don't necessarily need a lot of detail. Some of the best cartoonists put in a lot of detail, but some of the great ones don't even put shading in. I think some poor cartoonists put in a lot of detail to hide the fact that they have very little talent. A really good cartoonist can draw a squiggly line and reveal more than a mediocre one can with a full-color drawing." She looked at Jimmy. "Or am I just a dizzy old bat who's rattling on about how things were in The Good Old Days?"

"Mom's right," he said. "How much trouble did I have identifying everyone, either movie character or real person?"

Wynter looked at him. "None," she admitted.

Jimmy brought his forefingers and thumbs up in circles in front of his eyes and imitated Kenny's weird voice. "_Earth to Wynter! Duh!_"

Everyone started laughing, which caused Jimmy to suddenly squeeze his eyes shut and reach under the sheet.

Mother Hen worry flashed into Wynter's voice and look, startling Marti with its suddenness. "Do you need your ice pack replaced? It's been long enough."

He grunted and pulled it from beneath the sheet.

"I'll take it," said Marti, placing the cartoon back on the stand. "I need to run downstairs for a moment anyway, and I'll bring you the cold one before I put away the groceries."

She thought the concerned look on Wynter's face was quite touching and was not surprised to notice how much she sounded like Jimmy when she said, "Oh, I don't want you to have to make an extra trip. I can bring it back up for you." Her tone clearly said she meant it. It wasn't just a ruse to keep her from interrupting them.

"Thanks, honey," she said, "but I rather like doing things for him. He's not going to be mother's little boy much longer. Besides, I don't want to separate him from his Doctor. You're good medicine for him."

She couldn't stop the grin, and the looks on their faces when they saw it was enough to make it worse. She turned and left the room. While it was very unlikely they had "played Doctor," she just couldn't shake the feeling that they had been kissing. Maybe it was because Jimmy looked so much like his dad at that age. She couldn't resist kissing Keith then, and she doubted Wynter could resist Jimmy, either. And Wynter's eyes were looking at Jimmy the way she had looked at Keith after they had started kissing.

She couldn't help thinking, as unkind a thought as it was, that Wynter would certainly make a better daughter-in-law than Suzie. She'd make a hundred trips a day up and down the steps if it would make that outcome happen.

~ ~ ~

If Dragon hadn't caught her attention, Wynter would have pedaled her bicycle right past her own house. He brought her out of her daydreams in time to turn into her driveway. Mrs. Ferguson looked up from weeding the flowers along her driveway to call a greeting and ask about Jimmy. It was after she'd replied that she realized that Uncle Bob's Jeep wasn't in the driveway. Which was good news, except that it also meant Mother wasn't home, either.

She gave Dragon a big hug and rushed inside to tell her father about Jimmy's new book. From the look on his face you'd have thought she'd told him that Jimmy had been elected President of the Colorado Geological Society.

They took some juice to the family room and sat on the couch, where he held her under his arm and made her feel all warm and safe and loved. "So, when's Mother supposed to be here?"

"It's been an hour since I last talked to her, but they showed up two hours after she landed. They'd stopped in Sterling last night and decided to stay for a late breakfast. Then they had to see one of Bob's suppliers in Commerce City. That didn't take long, but that man mentioned someone else who had source for some part Bob wanted, so they went to Englewood to talk to him. Naturally Bob didn't call first. The man was tied up in a meeting, so Bob decided to wait because it was 'important.' Your mother is furious."

Wynter felt very sad when she heard that. "Poor Mother. I'll bet her headache's back."

Daddy gave her a gentle squeeze. "It's supposed to go away on Sunday,"

"Let's all run away from home until then."

"I don't think you'd have any trouble convincing your mother to make the vote unanimous. By the way, I still haven't told her about what happened. She has enough on her mind with all the delays and those two. Worrying about you until she gets home would just make it worse for her."

"I know," she said, looking sideways up at his face. "Sometimes parents don't believe that you are all right."

"A," he said.

"I'd already guessed that and filed it." She turned to give him a nose-and-lips kiss.

He gave her a big bear hug, asked about Jimmy's recovery, and then said he needed to go up to his office. He'd had a call asking for some numbers and had promised to deliver them to Denver tomorrow. He sounded awfully happy that he was going to be gone for a few hours, and she didn't blame him. She could always go see Jimmy--for medical reasons, of course. But poor Mother was stuck.

"That's okay. I want to work, too. I need to start on a present for Jimmy."

He pulled away and twisted to look at her. "Another one?" He made big smarty pants eyes.

She decided to ignore the look. "Well, the cartoon was just a temporary one. His real present will take a couple of days."

"I see," he said, and she noticed him giving her a weird smile for a second. Then he looked normal and said, "Am I permitted to know what it is?"

"I want to give him a picture of that deer and her baby I told you about."

He looked happy when she said that. "That's very nice. I'll bet he'll like that as much as I like my flowers. Is it commemorating a special occasion?"

She thought it was awfully sneaky of him to ask a personal question that way and decided she should remember that trick in case she needed it some day. "Maybe."

He frowned for a second, then laughed and kissed the top of her head. "I should know better than try to trick the brains of the family," he said, rising from the couch and offering her his hand, the way Doctor Taylor always did.

They put the empty glasses in the dishwasher. Halfway up the stairs she stopped and turned to him. "Um, I have a question if you aren't too busy."

He gave her that warm smile that told her he loved her with all his heart. "I always have time for my daughter's questions."

The question that had wanted out so desperately suddenly became very shy and went into hiding. "Um... well, maybe I shouldn't ask. I'm not sure how to word it."

He leaned against the wall and said, "I'll help you word it if you want and won't think about it until it's the way you want it to be."

She felt her heart swelling again. "Are all daddies like you?"

"Nah. Most are never admitted to the hospital more than once or twice in their lives."

That made her relax, and the words were there again. "If, um.... You said that, well, guys like to be the first one to do things with a girl. Do they, well, do they like certain girls to be, you know, the, um, first to do things with them?"

He moved down a step and then bent to look deep into each of her eyes. He looked sort of like she had felt when she had learned that there had been no mummies to dissect when he straightened. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Yes. Now, if you don't mind a direct personal question, does he kiss as good as me?"

She gasped. _He knows! He really and truly knows! He didn't see it on my lips, he saw it in my eyes!_ "Well, um.... No."

He moved back up to the step below hers and squeezed her to his chest. "He'll get better with time and practice. And a good doctor."

She looked up to see him smiling down at her with love all over his face. "Well, you do plan to teach him how to improve his technique, don't you? Good doctors are also teachers."

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, hugging her cheek to his chest. "Other daddies may not spend as much time in the hospital, but they can't be any better as daddies than the one I have."

"Darned right about that!" he said, squeezing back. "None of them love you as much as I do."

She closed her eyes and smiled, enjoying the warm satisfaction of his hug. "I know."

Twelve

The look in his wife's eyes had told Richard all he needed to know for the moment. She had greeted him and their daughter, said hello to Dragon, and hurried to their room with her bags. Lightning seemed to hover around her head, seeking a target.

Diane was, as expected, oblivious to her sister's mood as she presented a severely overweight Baby Christopher for him to appreciate and then air-kissed Richard's cheek in the middle of a comment on the poor choice of hallway wallpaper. While she was doing that, Bob squatted in front of Wynter and said hello to her the way you would greet someone Baby Christopher's age. Wynter turned her cheek to him as he tried to kiss her lips.

When Bob rose, Diane held Baby Christopher down in front of Wynter and said, "Wynter, this is your cousin, Baby Christopher," as if Wynter had completely forgotten about him.

Wynter overlooked the slight this time, though Richard was certain she wouldn't be overlooking any before the day was over and said, "Hello, Baby Christopher. I hope you had a nice trip." She puckered to kiss the boy's chubby cheek, but Diane snatched the baby back.

"Don't touch him!" The panic in her shrill voice startled Richard. Wynter was standing there petrified, as if Diane had accused her of slapping the baby. "You've been petting that creature," she said, glaring at Wynter's shadow. Dragon didn't look all that pleased with Diane, either.

"So?" Wynter said, her brows pulling together. The sharp tone registered on Dragon and Richard, but obviously not on anyone else present.

"So you're liable to give Baby Christopher spotted fever! Don't touch him until you've thoroughly washed your hands!"

"Spotted fever isn't transmitted that way. It's tick-borne, and Dragon doesn't have any ticks."

"Oh, nonsense," Diane said with a dismissive shake of her head. "How would you know? You're just a child!"

Richard interrupted before Wynter either burst into tears or a medical lecture. From the look on her face he thought either was possible. "Diane, Wynter's been studying. She's going to medical school when she's old enough. She knows a lot more about medicine than I do. Kevin Taylor says she's a natural as a doctor, even more gifted than his own son."

He saw the stunned look as Wynter's head turned to look at him. Obviously Kevin had never told her that last part because her face said she didn't know whether to believe him or think that he was pulling Diane's leg.

"Riiichard," she said in that patient tone. "Honestly! Even if she thinks she's going to be a nurse some day, and who knows how long that phase will last, that doesn't automatically mean she _knows_ anything about medicine. You should know better than that yourself!"

Richard bit back the words that wanted out. "I didn't say she's going to nursing school, Diane. I said she was going to medical school, and that she's been studying."

"That's right," said Wynter. The defiance in her voice was on her face. "I'm a Future MD!"

Diane shook her head. "You kids and your fantasies. Girls are nurses. Boys are doctors. Honestly, Richard, she should start acting her age now , and you aren't helping by playing along."

"Aunt Diane is right, honey," Bob added. Then he saw the look on Richard's face and somehow found enough sense to drop the topic. "Well, we need to put these bags away. Where do I go?"

"Top of the stairs, turn left. That's your door straight ahead at the end. My office is the door beside it on the right, and Wynter's is opposite the office."

They moved sideways into the living room to give Bob room to get to the stairs. Richard should have offered to help, but Bob had already pissed him off, and he didn't want to leave Wynter alone with his lunatic sister-in-law.

He turned to the latter and saw a look on her face like she'd been sipping from the acid runoff in a mine sump. "Well, where's Baby Christopher's room?"

Richard blinked. "Come again?"

"Baby Christopher's room! Surely you don't plan for him to sleep in the Jeep, do you? I swear, Richard, you and Angie both keep forgetting about him. He's going to grow up with a complex like Sparky Windermere's, and you know what happened to him. Do you want that to happen to Baby Christopher, too?"

Richard had never heard of Sparky Windermere, but he knew better than to say that. He didn't have an hour to listen to the lurid, and probably incomprehensible, details that would have explained nothing when she finished.

"Well, I guess he'll have to take Wynter's room." Diane looked around as Wynter gasped. "That couch looks comfortable enough for her."

Richard fought to keep his voice level. "Wynter is staying in her room. That's where she and Dragon sleep and that's where they will continue to sleep."

Diane looked at Dragon as if he had suddenly teleported into their presence. Then she gave the baby a quick look before glaring in horror at Dragon. "You let that... that _creature_ sleep in Wynter's room?"

As if she'd never once visited since Wynter had found him. Dragon had slept in Wynter's room ever since that first night when nobody thought that the abandoned puppy would survive. "Is that a problem?"

Diane's eyes turned to him, clearly telling herself that he was hopelessly thick. "Riiichard! Who _knows_ what kind of diseases it might be carrying!"

"His name is Dragon," came a sharp interruption at Richard's right elbow, "and he's a _he_, not an _it_."

Diane shook an index finger at Wynter. "Young lady, you need to learn some manners when talking to adults!"

Richard was startled to realize that the bright orange fingernail polish wasn't the same shade as her toenail polish, and neither was the same shade as her dark orange lipstick. They had to be severely mis-matched if he noticed it. Then he wondered why he had been startled by the choice of nail polish and lipstick on a woman with teased hair that looked like a Cleveland Browns football helmet because of all the spray she'd used. A woman wearing enough eyeliner and eye shadow to paint over the wallpaper she had condemned. A woman who was wearing an ivory-colored, long-sleeved Victorian blouse buttoned to her chin, faded neon pink hot pants that showed off thighs that had begun to turn lumpy, and high-heeled sandals that might once have been brown. But what did he expect from a woman married to a man wearing, of all things, a mauve leisure suit that must have been lost in the back room of some Goodwill store for over a quarter-century?

Richard put a restraining hand on Wynter's shoulder, moving it slightly in a loving caress. "Diane, this is not your house and not your daughter. We decide where our guests stay if you choose to stay here instead of in a _hotel_, which you are free to do. We thought Christopher would stay in your room while you were here. That's why we agreed to accommodate you."

He heard Bob tell Angie to go ahead first at the top of the stairs. Apparently both were coming down to broker a peace treaty.

Diane looked horrified again. "In _our_ room? Richard, what if Bob, uh...." She glanced down at Wynter. "Well, what if.... I mean, there are some things a child shouldn't see until he's old enough... well... if you know what I mean."

One mind in the room was working faster than Richard's. "He's too young to know what you're doing if you want to have sex."

Diane clapped one hand over the baby's ear and squeezed the other to her breast. "_WYNTER!_"

There may have been another moment or two when Richard had been more proud of his daughter, but damned if he could remember one. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze-and-rub, hoping she'd interpret its true meaning of "Attagirl!"

"Well, she's right, Sis." Diane's face seemed to be undecided between horror and disbelief as Angie turned the corner and stopped behind Wynter. She put a hand on her daughter's other shoulder and slid behind her, leaving room for Bob to reach Diane.

"Oh, nonsense. What would she know about... _that_."

Richard thought he could hear Wynter's eyes rolling in their sockets. "Aunt Diane, I've reached menarche."

Diane was obviously searching her memory for that word. Richard felt Wynter move under his hand, as if Angie had gently nudged her other shoulder.

"You know. I've started menstruating."

"_WYNTER!_" Diane's eyes shot to the startled baby to Bob to Richard and back to Wynter. She looked ready to run screaming from the house.

_Fat chance_, Richard thought. _We're stuck with her._

"You _never_ talk about that except among _women!_"

"Oh, for piss sake, Sis."

"How would she know about... uh... s-e-x." Diane whispered the latter, apparently afraid that her one-year-old had learned to spell during the trip from Nebraska. "You should keep a close eye on her, Angela. She must have some dirty little Eddie Thomas she's been fooling around with."

Angie exploded with an intensity Richard had never seen before. For the first time he was actually afraid of his wife. Her teenage exploits with Eddie Thomas were the entries in her diary that Diane had used to blackmail her.

"So, Bob," Richard said in a forced cheerful tone, hoping he was loud enough to be heard over Angie without interrupting her, "how about a beer and a tour of the patio?" He tugged Wynter along and led his brother-in-law through the living room and dining room, pointing out the door to Angie's office along the way, to the kitchen. He pulled two Killian's Reds out of the fridge as he asked Wynter if she wanted any juice.

After he closed the patio door, the sound of the argument wasn't all that noticeable. If you were partially deaf. He put his mouth next to Wynter's ear and whispered, "You know, honey, it actually went better than I had hoped this time."

Wynter giggled and sipped her apple juice.

~ ~ ~

Angie's hands shot to Wynter's shoulders, turning her slightly to either side as she gave her daughter a once-over. She glanced at Richard as if she didn't believe him and then asked Wynter, "Are you sure you're all right?"

All three were seated on the same side of the patio picnic table, with Wynter in the middle at Richard's request. Bob and Diane were unpacking and "organizing" their room, whatever that meant. As long as it didn't involve carpentry and got rid of them for a while, Angie didn't much care to know. The patio was the best place to avoid being overheard. Angie had considered several potential topics for the secret family meeting, but the attempted rape of her daughter had never entered her mind. Richard had been right to keep it from Diane and Bob, no question about that.

"Mother, I'm fine! Jimmy's the one who got hurt, not me."

"Yes, and I'm sorry to hear that. But one of them ripped your blouse off...."

"No, Mother. He just tore it."

"Whatever. And he groped your breast and tried to force you to have oral sex?"

Richard started to rise when the house phone rang. "Let the voice mail pick up," Angie snapped, wondering where in the hell men got their priorities. "This is more important."

"But Ron stopped him. I told you."

Wynter's voice was perfectly calm, as if she were discussing the attributes of band-aids. Angie wondered if Wynter were in shock. Trust a man to overlook that possibility. Kevin had said she was okay, but shock occasionally set in some time after a traumatic event. "But are you _sure_ you're all right?"

She was startled when Wynter and Richard looked at each other, said, "A," and began laughing. Perhaps Richard didn't think of it because he, himself, was in shock?

The patio door flew open. Diane poked her head out, eyes wide. Her voice trembled as she spoke so rapidly that it sounded like one word. "Some policeman is on the phone and says that Wynter's statement is ready for her to sign. Some of her friends tried to rape her yesterday!"

~ ~ ~

Suzie couldn't believe it! Kenny stood there with his wrists crossed down near his stupid thingy, looking up at her stupid mother's furious face with big stupid round eyes behind the rectangles of his glasses. He had replaced his stupid "patented shit-eating grin" with his "phony mask of genuine sincerity" and overlaid that with his "authentic aura of fake contrition." He gulped as if he were admitting to stealing some of those stupid Fig Newtons, and he dug the toe of his left sneaker into the stupid beige carpet as his stupid lower lip trembled like he was about to burst into tears. "It wasn't Suzie's fault, ma'am. Like she said, Caroline and I were teasing her about Jimmy, and we made her mad. We didn't stop when we should have. Don't blame her for losing her temper, blame me. She's not the one who should be punished."

Suzie had _no_ idea what the stupid dolt was up to, but he was taking the blame for her. If he didn't make some last minute "just kidding" statement, she might be able to avoid any extra grounding. She kept her mouth shut but was ready to jump in if Kenny was trying to pull a trick on her.

Kenny continued. "She wants to go see Jimmy because he was hurt. She's kinda sweet on him, you know. That's why we were teasing her, and she got mad at us. I see now that it's my fault, and I don't blame her for getting mad. I guess I'd have lost my temper if it was me."

Her mother started giving him one of her stupid lectures about Jimmy being hurt as well as Kenny having bruises on his face because he'd been hurt, too, and getting hurt wasn't something to tease anyone about, especially if he wanted to be a doctor. Suzie didn't pay any attention to the stupid details. She doubted that, at its basic elements, it was anything she hadn't heard before, anyway. She was watching Kenny hang his head in shame. Only the stupid dolt was doing so because he couldn't control the stupid grin on his stupid face and didn't want her mother to see it.

Her mother finally ran out of hot air. "_Caroline!_"

The stupid slut opened her door immediately. She'd thrown on a stupid tee shirt and pair of cut-off jeans, but Suzie could tell there was nothing underneath them. She'd obviously been standing at the door, listening, but her mother was, as always, too stupid to realize that. The stupid cow repeated everything Kenny had said.

"All right, Suzie," her mother said after turning to face her. "After today you're no longer grounded. You can go check on Jimmy tomorrow. But you had better watch your mouth, young lady!" She left without waiting for a reply.

Caroline and Kenny had a quick whispered conversation and then groped each other as they shoved their stupid tongues down each other's stupid throats. Caroline smirked at Suzie and went back to her stupid room, closing her door behind her, leaving her alone with Kenny.

Suzie folded her arms under her boobies and kept her voice down as she snarled, "Okay, what was _that_ all about?"

Kenny shrugged. "Hey, I was just trying to help. After all, you're my friend. But if you'd rather stay locked up for the rest of the summer like Will and Dick, I can fix that with your mom."

"No, wait!" she said as he turned to leave. He stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. She looked deep into his eyes. "I was worried that it was some kind of trick you were playing on me. You're really serious? This isn't some trick?"

"Well, yeah. Hey, I don't go around taking blame for everybody, you know. Just my friends."

"Oh." She didn't know what to say, feeling deep in her heart that any moment now he would return to his "patented shit-eating grin" and say "_Gotcha!_"

He turned around and came to her, putting his hands or her upper arms. She wondered if he was about to grab her boobies or something, but he just said, "Hey, friends try to help each other, and it was partly my fault." He gave her arms a gentle squeeze and dropped his hands.

She couldn't turn loose of her suspicions. "So, is this gonna cost me, or something?"

Kenny shrugged. "Just... I dunno. Just be nice to me once in a while."

_I knew it!_ The heat rose to her face. " Be '_nice_'? What's _that_ supposed to mean?" she barked.

He shrugged again and shook his head. "You know. Just don't put me down all the time. Act like I'm a person instead of a... a... I dunno. A thing. An animal. Dirt. I don't mind if you tease, 'cause I do it all the time, but it hurts when you're serious about it."

She tapped her right forefinger on her left elbow. "You really mean be 'nice' like Caroline was 'nice' to you, don't you!"

"No!"

_If he doesn't mean it, he's getting better at his "phony mask of genuine sincerity."_

"Hey, I have feelings, too, you know. That was all I meant. Honest."

She thought for a moment and then dropped her arms. "Okay. I'm sorry. I'm used to you always trying to play tricks on me. But this had better not be another one."

He crossed his heart the way she'd watched Little Miss Perfect cross hers. "It's not a trick."

She didn't see any sign of one in his eyes. She relaxed. "Fine."

~ ~ ~

As Kenny climbed the stairs he still couldn't believe that Suzie had swallowed that crapola as easily as Caroline had swallowed his pecker. And Caroline! That was something else he couldn't believe: from boy virgin to experienced muff diver, blow job recipient, and stud in less than an hour. And if he played his cards right, he'd soon be doing Suzie, too. He was looking forward to that. Not only was Suzie more his size than Caroline, she'd probably be tighter in the cootchie, too. Not that he didn't enjoy Caroline's, but he barely felt her around him. If he hadn't been so excited about his first honest-to-god fuck, he'd probably still be trying to get off in her.

_Man, I need to find a tighter cootchie. Or get a bigger dick._ He'd heard some eighth graders talking about a cock pump once. He'd have to learn how to build one. Or trick Jimmy into building one for him. Jimmy wouldn't make one if he knew what it was for. He pushed open the door.

"Hey, wanna go horseback riding at your Uncle Jim's tomorrow?"

"You putz."

Kenny giggled as he pulled Jimmy's desk chair beside the bed and sat down backward, resting his arms atop the chair back and his chin atop his arms. "I heard you had a visitor."

The suspicious look in Jimmy's eyes gave away something. Kenny wasn't sure what. Yet.

"Wynter told you she came to see me?"

_Well, that narrows it down_. "I meant Suzie. Why did she jump on me for not telling her more about guys' balls? I got the feeling something happened that she didn't want to tell me about."

Jimmy squirmed. "I don't blame her." He related the story. By the time he was finished, and it was a short tale, Kenny had turned the chair around so that he could cross his legs. He couldn't stop squirming at the mental image.

"Hey, man, am I ever sorry. But better you than me, huh?"

That didn't get a rise out of Jimmy. Instead he said, "If our positions had been reversed, I'd feel the same about you."

Kenny couldn't argue when Jimmy was right. "So how are the jewels today?"

Jimmy shook his head. "They look like Tyrone Hayes's."

"Oh, man, if they get _that_ black it's gangrene and we'll have to amputate."

"What is this?" Jimmy wailed. "Everybody wants to get their hands on my balls!"

"Not me!" Kenny protested, thrusting his hands forward as if pushing himself away from Jimmy. "I'm not some Trinidad faggot. Hey, maybe we could get your Future MD to cut 'em off. She could save time and do it now instead of after you're married!"

Kenny was so pleased with himself for getting Jimmy to detonate that he didn't even listen to the explosion. After a few exchanges he asked, "Hey, I got a question. You think it really hurt Wynter the same way it hurt you. I mean, since she's got a cootchie instead of a dick and balls combo?"

Jimmy stared at him as if he were trying to decide whether he was being serious. Kenny had seen the same look on Suzie's face that afternoon. He thought it looked better on Suzie's.

"Well, yeah. All her weight dropping onto that limb would be like being hit with a baseball bat. If I'd done that, my nuts would've exploded."

"Yeah," Kenny conceded. "But if all things had been equal, say that she landed on the bar the same way you did...."

"Getting hit on their bush beans would be like getting hit on the head of your dick. You're the Doctor. Why am I having to tell you this?"

Kenny ignored the question. "I guess. Especially if it got smashed between the bar and the pubic bone."

Jimmy squirmed under the sheet. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Good idea," Kenny said, also squirming as his eyes roamed the room. His eyes locked on the night stand. "Hey! What's this?"

"A present from Wynter." Kenny thought Jimmy did a fairly good impression of his patented shit-eating grin and wondered why.

He reached for it and saw it was a cartoon drawing. "Hey! That's really.... Wait a minute! That does _NOT_ look like me! Stop braying like a jackass!"

Kenny didn't remember what they said for the next five minutes as his mind struggled with how much to tell Jimmy. Then he put the cartoon back on the night stand, opened his mouth to say something about school starting, and was startled to hear himself ask, "Hey, do you think Caroline's as pretty as Suzie?"

The silence was broken by Kenny himself when he finally turned, saw Jimmy's distorted face, and asked, "What?"

"Is... is this some kind of trick question? I don't feel like being the butt of any jokes right now."

"No," said Kenny as he sat down and pulled his left foot up over his right thigh. "I was... well, I just, I dunno, thinking about it, you know, and...." His voice trailed off as words avoided him.

Jimmy stared at him for several more seconds before saying, "No. Maybe if she did something with her hair instead of just letting it droop to her shoulders like she just washed it. And she, uh, well, she looks.... I dunno. Primitive? Sorta Neanderthalish to me. Maybe it's because she's got a heavy skeleton and her face is kinda flat. Why?"

Kenny ignored the question and thought for a few seconds. "And her ass is too broad and awful flat, too. Suzie's is rounder and sticks out better."

Jimmy's eyes narrowed. "Yeah." He said nothing else, as if waiting for Kenny to lead in this dance of words.

"D'ya think that her tits have stopped growing? They're not even as big as Suzie's."

"How would you know."

Kenny shrugged one shoulder. "I saw Suzie's when she got grounded that first time. She leaned over to scream at me, and I saw her birthmark and everything. Then today I, uh.... Well, I sorta saw Caroline's. She definitely wears padded bras."

Jimmy frowned. "You saw Caroline today?"

"Well, I went by Suzie's to see her, but she was here, so I talked to Caroline." He suddenly didn't know what to do with his hands and began cleaning his glasses. "When she got back we teased her. Her mom came home just as she was screaming for Caroline and me to get the fuck out of my room!' and, of course, her mom grounded her longer."

"Oh!" said Jimmy. Kenny thought he sounded relieved.

"But I told Mrs. Middleton that it was my fault and Caroline's so that Suzie won't be grounded for the rest of summer vacation."

"Oh." Jimmy's voice was just the opposite of how it had sounded before.

"Caroline and I talked about you before Suzie returned. Maybe, y'know, I can take Suzie's mind off of you for a while."

Jimmy winced as he changed position, rolling on his side to face Kenny. "You think you can do that?"

Kenny's patented shit-eating grin crept back in place. "Well, now she owes me one."

Understanding dawned on Jimmy's face. "You gonna take her to the movies next?"

"Got any scary ones to recommend?"

"You just want to play with her tits."

"Nope."

Jimmy snorted. "You're the one who tried to convince her that it was possible to die of horniness, and now you're trying to tell me you don't want to play with her tits?"

"Hey, you said I _just_ want to play with her tits.' I want to play with more than that."

"She'll massage your nuts, too."

"Maybe I'm smart enough to teach her the right way first."

"Idiot. I hope she uses an iron glove."

"Suzie's tits are bigger than Wynter's, aren't they?"

Jimmy started to say something. Then his free hand, the one that wasn't under the sheet holding the ice pack in place, flipped him the bird. "You putz."

_Well, it almost worked_, he realized. _Jimmy almost said something, but he caught himself._ Whether it would have admitted having seen Wynter's or not, Kenny didn't know. But something was positively different about Jimmy, and it wasn't related to his accident. It had nothing to do with pain at all. Jimmy looked.... Kenny didn't have words for it, but he thought Jimmy looked like he had felt after his session with Caroline.

_Maybe that's it!_ "Hey, Wynter didn't massage your nuts too, did she? I mean, she'd know how to do it properly."

"Kenny!"

"Or maybe kiss them and make them feel better?"

"_NO!_" Jimmy turned red and looked away.

_Mistake, dude_. Kenny thought for a moment. _Of course!_ "I didn't know Wynter wore lipstick."

Jimmy looked him in the eye again. "She doesn't."

"Then how'd that lipstick get on your forehead. Your mom wasn't wearing any when she let me in."

Jimmy's eyes bulged like a frog's. "There's not any!"

Jimmy furiously rubbed his forehead with his free hand. When he stopped and looked at his fingers, Kenny said, "Then what are you trying to wipe off if there's no lipstick there?"

_Touchdown!_ Kenny thought when Jimmy closed his eyes and groaned. "Hey, does this mean I get to have another kiss, too?"

"No!" Jimmy snapped. "Unless you get it from Suzie. Or Caroline."

"Oh, she already...." _Crapola._ It had been a while since Jimmy had gotten the best of him. _And I screwed up and let him do it when he didn't suspect a thing._

Jimmy's imitation of Kenny's patented shit-eating grin was back. "Oh? You mean I gotcha? You got Suzie to kiss you. That explains the goofy look on your face."

"No, she didn't!"

Jimmy snorted. "Gimme the phone and I'll ask her myself."

_Uh oh. Now what?_ "Uh, don't bother. No, Suzie really didn't, but, um...." Kenny was sure Suzie would tell Jimmy what had happened and thought it best to get his own version in first. Jimmy would be less likely to believe the version he heard second. "Lemme close the door first in case we don't hear your mom coming upstairs."

Kenny was amazed at all the facial expressions Jimmy used at various points in the story and at how wide Jimmy's eyes could get. Clearly Jimmy didn't believe some of it, and when he finished, Jimmy asked him, "How much of that is true and how much is jack-off fantasy?"

"It's all true," said Kenny. _Even the parts I left out._

"And Caroline's going to help you with Suzie?"

"She said nobody ever munched her muff like that before, and that she'd help me into Suzie's pants if I'd do it to her like that again."

Jimmy still looked skeptical. "And just what'd you do that was so special?"

Kenny shrugged. "I dunno, but I hope I can do it again."

Jimmy's face seemed to look eager. "What was it like?"

Kenny shrugged again. "Good. It was really good. I dunno. Hey, ask her. She might let you do her, too."

"Kenny!"

"Hey, you can practice your technique on her so Wynter'll like it enough to let you do it to her a second time."

Kenny decided that the only thing better that day than listening to Jimmy detonate was sex with Caroline.

Thirteen

Richard couldn't help grinning at the look on Joe Lopez's face when Wynter pointed to the document and said as if she were correcting a school paper, "There's two 'L's in 'fellatio.'"

Richard strangled his grin before Joe turned a flustered face to him. "She's right, you know."

"Uh.... You can correct it and put your initials beside it." Since Jimmy was still on bed rest, Joe had brought his statement to his house. He'd brought Wynter's along since her house was just down the street. He said it also was because he didn't want her to have to come to the police station and be an object of curiosity.

She did as he said and continued to read through the typed statement as Richard said, "Thanks again for bringing it by. And for the help with Diane." His sister-in-law had spent the remainder of Wednesday afternoon and night alternately attempting to obtain details from Wynter, lecturing Richard and Angie on the stupidity of moving to town when Wynter was so much safer at the mountain home, and lecturing Wynter on necessity of avoiding the "friends" who had tried to rape her. She had ignored any explanation that Jimmy and Kenny had been attacked, too. She started in again at breakfast. He, Angie, and Wynter had decided to ignore anything else she had to say about it, but it was growing harder for each to remain silent under Diane's relentless assault.

Diane had insisted on being allowed to read the statement since she was "family." Joe invented a local ordinance that said only a parent or legal guardian was allowed to be in the room when Wynter read and signed the statement. Richard, Joe, and Wynter were using Angie's home office while Angie kept her sister and brother-in-law at bay in the living room. Richard suspected that Angie mostly wanted an excuse not to read the statement, but quarantining the two doofuses was also necessary or they'd be listening through the door.

"The dispatcher is new," Joe explained. "She's also the mayor's daughter, so she's keeping the job whether she's competent or not," he whispered, doing a reasonable impression of Groucho Marx waggling his eyebrows. "She assumed that Diane was Angie and started yapping instead of asking first. It's not the first time she's FUBARed a delicate situation, and I doubt seriously it will be the last."

Richard stroked his chin. "Maybe she's Diana's real sister instead of Angie."

Joe snorted a laugh. "That would make sense."

"The rest looks okay, Officer Lopez," Wynter said. "Do I sign right here?"

He showed her where to sign, initial, and date the typed documents. As he tucked them back in the document envelope he said, "I hope we can avoid going to trial on this, so you won't have to testify. I heard Judge Wilson's trying to talk them into not prosecuting Will as an adult. If that happens, then there's no real need for a trial since they'll be in Buena Vista until they're eighteen anyway. Personally I want them prosecuted as adults or at least Will and then have them cop a plea bargain. That'll get the felony on record for the future and maybe get him a longer sentence."

Wynter rose from the chair and came around to the front of the desk, a dark frown on her angelic face. "I wish they would put them in jail until they are old and gray."

Joe gave her his dazzling smile. "Well, I, Miss Wynter, hope you get your wish. And I'm very sorry we never get to meet under more pleasant circumstances so you can have enough time to tell me the truth about Senor Klutz. Please do me a favor and keep him out of any more accidents. You have no idea what a pain it is to be stuck with him while we wait for the Jaws of Life."

Wynter sighed in exasperation. "Officer Lopez, I try so _very_ hard, but he never listens to me. Sometimes I don't know what I'm going to do with him."

While Richard looked at the floor and shook his head, Joe said, "It's a common problem with fathers. Diabolito says the same thing about me all the time. Come to think of it, so do his brothers and sisters."

Rising voices on the other side of the door interrupted them. Richard sighed and turned to Joe. "Don't rush off. We may need you to cart out the bodies."

Bob and Diane had been on the sofa in front of the living room window. Bob was still seated and holding the fat Baby Christopher, but Diane was now on her feet, arguing with Angie who was standing with her fists clenched at her hips on the opposite side of the coffee table. The argument stopped when the office door opened and the trio emerged.

"You're right, Sis," Angie said. "For piss' sake, you're absolutely right. Joe, can I see you in my office for a moment?"

Diane looked surprised at first, and then angry as Angie turned away. Angie led Joe back into her office and closed the door.

Richard frowned at Diane. "What's going on?"

Diane fumed. "I was merely explaining to Angie what a horrid example of a mother she was being by not reading Wynter's statement."

He had to suppress the laugh but couldn't, startling Diane into wide-eyed silence before she resumed her angry frown. Diane hadn't expected Angie to leave the room. She'd thought she'd get a look at it while Angie was reading it.

Bob rose from the sofa. "Honey, if Angie doesn't...."

"Will you shut _up_ you idiot? This is _Mother Business_ and you don't know _anything_ about it!"

Bob cringed and mumbled some reply. The office door opened and the two emerged. They hadn't been in the office long enough for Joe to remove the statement from the envelope and replace it. "Okay," Angie said to Joe, "I'm satisfied."

Diana looked like she could chew through a titanium drill head.

"I'll escort Officer Lopez to the front door," Wynter said. "Then I'll be in my room if anyone needs me." Richard could read the, _But please don't!_ in her eyes.

Joe made his goodbyes. As soon as Diane had acknowledged him she rounded on Angie and started berating her again about what "the family" meaning herself, of course needed to know. Richard tuned it out and watched Joe speak with Wynter. Something Joe said got a huge laugh out of her. The Battling Babes from Breckenridge, as his college roommate had named them, never noticed. Neither, apparently, did Bob who was checking Baby Christopher's diaper. When Wynter offered her hand, Joe snapped forward smartly at the waist, turned the back upward, and kissed it, triggering a giggle attack.

Before Joe stepped out the door he gave Richard a look of sympathy and mimed sticking his fingers in his ears. Wynter did the same thing and then made good her escape.

"For piss' sake, that's enough!" Angie snapped. "I've got work to do. I'll be in my office. _Alone!_ I need to finish the report on my trip."

Diana stepped on Bob's foot in her rush to follow her sister. She ignored his yelp of pain. "Really, Angela, you should get a real job and stop spending so much time away from home."

Angie stopped and whirled. She looked ready to bite, the way her upper lip had pulled away from her teeth.

"I thought so. Somebody has poo-poo in his diaper," Bob announced.

Diana didn't look at him. "Then stop being so fucking useless and _change it you idiot!_"

Bob nodded, mumbled something, and cooed to the boy as he took him toward the stairs.

Angie's eyes showed her building headache. "Look, Sis, let's compare how many hours a year I'm away from here with my job to the number of hours a year you spend waiting tables at the truck stop. Let's compare the number of hours per year that I'm not here at night because I'm out of town on business to the number you spend working swing shift or graveyard. I can tell you my time down to the quarter-hour. Want to?"

Diana changed her tactic. "At least I'm close to home so that I can get there in a hurry when my kid is gang-raped by her so-called friends."

Angie's voice resembled Dragon's warning growl. "One: she wasn't raped, she was only attacked, but she was saved by that policeman's son before those two little shits could harm her. Two: it wasn't her friends who attacked her, they were attacked and injured, too. Three: what, for piss' sake, could I have done if I were here that Richard didn't already do, and quite capably, I might add, because I married a man _with some fucking intelligence?_"

"Well, if he's so all-fired _smart_, why'd he let her out of the house with those little _delinquents_?"

Angie threw up her hands, turned, and disappeared into her office, slamming the door behind her.

Diana rounded on Richard, who shook his head. "I have to run some numbers down to the Federal Center. I'll be back this afternoon. I need to tell my wife goodbye first. Alone."

He opened the office door just enough to slide in. Angie was sitting with her elbows on the desk and her head in her hands.

Diana, finding nobody else in the living room to shout at, began arguing with herself.

~ ~ ~

Wynter sat with her elbows on her desk and her head in her hands. Aunt Diane had just berated--another word she liked and one that sure seemed appropriate here--Uncle Bob for not knowing how to put a diaper on a baby and had redone the job, never stopping her lecture on how stupid he was for not knowing the basic fundamentals of child raising. She had shouted so loud that it was like having Aunt Diane in the room with her. If it has been anybody else but Uncle Bozo, she'd have felt sorry for him. Things quieted down when Aunt Dumb announced she was going shopping at the Aspenleaf Center and nothing had better happen to Baby Christopher while she was gone _or else!_ Wynter heard her yell something at Mother and then the front door slammed.

She took a deep breath and let it out, then picked up the medium brown colored pencil and began shading the mother deer's neck. The front door slammed again. Wynter grinned. Aunt Dumb couldn't remember where the Aspenleaf Center was. A minute later the door slammed a third time.

There was a soft knock at her door. She groaned, glanced to see what was uncovered on her desk, and said, "Come in." She wished she hadn't sounded so disappointed, but she knew it wasn't Mother knocking.

Sure enough, Uncle Bob stuck his head in the door. "May we come in?"

He had asked politely. She didn't have the heart to tell him to stay out since he'd been polite to her. That's not what Jimmy would do, and she really and truly wanted to live up to Jimmy's standard of politeness. And her father's and Doctor Taylor's of course.

"Sure." She'd tried to sound like she meant it, but she thought it sounded awfully flat.

Uncle Bob looked over her shoulder at the drawing. "Holy shit! That's really nice. I didn't know you could draw like that."

Wynter remembered Daddy telling both of them on the phone about her skills after she gave him the flowers picture while he was still in his casts. Mother had told them, too. She decided her next thought wasn't very nice and pushed it out of her mind. "I'm trying to do extra good on this one because it's a present."

"Really? For who?"

She knew it had been a mistake as soon as she'd said it was a present. "Jimmy McCauley."

"He's the boy who was hurt?"

Well, at least Uncle Bob understood what had really happened. "Uh huh." She forced herself to concentrate on the picture and pressed her lips together very tightly. She'd almost pulled the pencil at the wrong angle.

"That's really good detail, Wynter," he said, bending down to look over her shoulder. He mumbled something about the detail as his head started moving around the way Kenny's did when Kenny was trying to look down her blouse.

Wynter always wore a bra when Uncle Bob came to visit, but he seemed to be a bra man as well as a tit man. _Or maybe, like Kenny, he just has hormones, too._

"Did you see this somewhere? It looks so real."

"Uh huh. There's a big flat rock by a pool in Porcupine Creek where we watch the fish and birds and things. They came to drink Sunday while we were there." She wished Uncle Bob would stop trying to look down her blouse. She didn't know what to say, but he seemed to give up. He straightened and sat on the bed. Dragon must have sensed her discomfort because he moved to lie down between them at Uncle Bob's feet.

"You've been going to the woods together, eh?" he said in a yucky voice. "So is this Jimmy your boyfriend?"

"No. We're just good friends. We like a lot of the same stuff, but he doesn't want to be a doctor though. He wants to be some kind of scientist. Daddy's trying to talk him into being a geologist 'cause Daddy says he's got talent for it."

"If he's any good, he should get into sales. That's where the money is."

Wynter bit her tongue to keep from being impolite and saying, "Then you must not be very good at it."

"So he busted his nuts, huh? So are you being his nurse like you were for Richard?"

She concentrated extra hard on the shading. It wasn't embarrassment that was making her face red this time. "No. I'm a Future MD now."

"Oh. Right. Well...." His dismissive tone made her feel really _pissed off_. "So you're playing doctor with him?"

"No!" She was sorry she sounded so sharp. Jimmy would have been more polite. She told herself to remember to be polite to the... _Well, that wasn't a very polite thought, was it?_

"Well, you were alone with your dad those several days, and he was demobilized. You obviously learned what to do with his 'package'."

Wynter felt her breath catch and her eyes get really big. _He knows? No. He's just drawing the obvious conclusion and being yucky with the words._ She resumed shading, blending the dark brown pencil into some shadowed areas. "Uh huh."

There was a long silence. Maybe she should have said something different.

"You're really growing up. And out." He was quiet for a moment. "I'll bet Jimmy'd really like for you to take care of them for him."

"Jimmy's really polite. He'd never want something like that."

"Honey, all boys want 'something like that,' especially when his girl's starting to grow a nice little set of knockers like yours."

She tried to change the subject away from her breasts. "Uncle Bob, I'm not his girl. We're just good friends, that's all. We hang out together and go places and see things together, but I do that with Kenny Taylor and Suzie Middleton, too. I'm not any of them's girl."

"Of course." Uncle Bob didn't sound convinced. His hand reached out and squeezed her upper arm. As the fingers relaxed his hand slid forward slightly and his fingertips pressed against the side of her left breast.

"Uncle Bob! You're gonna make me mess up the picture!"

The hand disappeared when Dragon suddenly growled and she heard him rise between them. "Um, I think Baby Christopher and I will, uh, do... uh, something I forgot about in our room."

After he closed the door Wynter turned to Dragon. "Thanks," she said. Dragon responded with a tail swish and a wet tongue on her cheek.

~ ~ ~

Wynter had volunteered to fix lunch so that Mother could have some time to herself. Aunt Diane wasn't back to help cook, fortunately. Wynter wondered if she was still shopping at the Aspenleaf Center or if she was lost. It was too much to hope that she was lost and couldn't find her way back. Besides, if she didn't come back, Wynter might be stuck forever with Uncle Bozo.

Who chose that moment to come into the kitchen without Baby Christopher. She heard the music from the baby's wind-up swing in the living room. Wynter was surprised that the fat little boy wasn't too heavy for the swing to work properly. Uncle Bob sat on a kitchen chair facing her, and said in a very serious tone, "Wynter, I went back into your room to see that picture you were drawing again because it was as pretty as you are. When I picked it up for a closer look I saw the one under it."

_What was under it?_ She gasped.

"You did see his balls, didn't you? And then drew them. Come here."

At the stern tone in his voice she turned from the stove to face him. He put his hand on her back, right at the top of her shorts.

"No, I didn't," she said. "I just guessed at what they looked like. I've never seen his or any other boy's except Baby Christopher's. And Daddy's when I was his nurse. I was worried about Jimmy 'cause he's my friend. It's a way to release pent-up anxieties. And it's just a medical drawing, anyway."

"Don't...." He glanced down at Dragon, who had his eyes open and was watching him. His stern voice softened and his hand started sliding. "Don't tell fibs, Wynter."

"It's the truth. Just ask Jimmy."

"Oh, I have no doubt he'd cover for you since he's guilty too."

"No, he _isn't!_"

Uncle Bob glanced at Dragon again as her protector rose to his feet and shook everything back into place.

"Maybe I should tell your Mother that you're drawing pictures of your boyfriend's balls. What do you think?"

She couldn't stop herself. "I think it would be a mistake to tell Mother that you've been prying in my room uninvited, and I think I should tell Aunt Diane about how you're playing with my butt."

The hand jerked away. Dragon stopped beside her, hackles raised, and stared, without blinking, at Uncle Bob. Wynter felt rather pleased with herself for finally realizing what to do about her yucky uncle.

"Well," he said, glancing nervously at Dragon, "I guess we've talked about it long enough. But you watch your step, young lady, or you'll end up pregnant and unable to go to nursing school."

Wynter just shook her head. "The soup's gonna burn." She turned back to the stove.

~ ~ ~

Wynter hoped she hadn't groaned out loud when the front door opened. Aunt Dumb shrieked and then began yelling at Uncle Bob about leaving Baby Christopher in his swing alone. That woke up Baby Christopher and he began crying. Aunt Dumb took that as proof that Baby Christopher had been unhappy about being abandoned as well as being placed in mortal danger.

"What mortal danger?" Mother asked as Aunt Dumb stormed into the kitchen with Baby Christopher in her arms.

Aunt Diane's face got even redder as she looked at the three of them seated at the kitchen table. "What is _this?_ You can't wait for me to return before having lunch? Don't you people ever think about anyone else but yourselves? Starting lunch without me and putting Baby Christopher in such peril! I haven't seen such thoughtlessness since Irwin Johnst...." She stopped in mid-word and glanced at Uncle Bob and then Wynter before swallowing and turning her glare back to Mother. "Honestly!"

Mother's voice reminded Wynter of Dragon's growl. "We waited until after one o'clock. Then we started because we didn't know _when_ you planned to return. And what 'peril' are you talking about?"

"_Aaangela!_ Honestly! Did you think I should come back before I was finished shopping, just to make _you_ happy? Don't you every think about me first just once?" She thrust the bawling Baby Christopher at Uncle Bob, who looked at him and then frowned up at her. "Well, take him, you idiot! Looks like you've already enjoyed your lunch without me. Don't you think I deserve something to eat, too?"

"Yes, dear," he mumbled as he drew the boy toward him.

"And you ever abandon him like that again, I'll report you to child services, you hear me?" She stormed over to the cabinet and picked up her bowl.

Wynter knew how Mother felt about having to defend someone as yucky as Uncle Bob. Nevertheless, as Aunt Diane lifted the lid of the soup pot, Mother took a deep breath and put down her spoon. She turned around in her chair and said, "Nobody 'abandoned' him. He was asleep in the living room. Or was until you woke him up."

"She's right, dear," Uncle Bob said.

"Shut _up_ you _idiot!_" Aunt Diane shouted at Uncle Bob, and glared at him until he started bouncing the baby in his arms and cooing to him. Still holding the lid, she shook her index finger at Mother. "And just in time, too! In a few more seconds he could have been _dead!_"

"For piss' sake, Sis, what the _hell_ are you talking about?" Wynter hoped Mother hadn't hurt her fist after hitting the table so hard.

Aunt Diane's finger moved to indicate Dragon, who had been lying in the dining room doorway next to Wynter's spot on the bench. He had sat up when Aunt Dumb began shouting. Now he was rising to his feet. "_THAT!_ It's a miracle the beast hadn't already mauled and eaten poor Baby Christopher!"

Dragon didn't help Aunt Diane's attitude as he issued his first warning growl.

Diane screamed and jumped backward. Fortunately the heavy soup bowl didn't break when it hit the floor. "_See what I mean?_"

"Sis, both Dragon and Christopher were asleep until you barged in and began screaming like a banshee. Besides, Dragon won't leave Wynter's side when it's just us here. He certainly won't leave her when there are strangers in the house."

"_Aaangela!_ We're not 'strangers,' we're _family!_"

Wynter couldn't help giggling when Mother fired back with, "Bullshit! You two are the strangest goddamned people I've ever seen!"

Aunt Diane turned her hot glare on Wynter. "Why am I serving myself? It's your responsibility to serve guests in your house, young lady, instead of sitting there on your lazy behind!"

This time Dragon showed teeth when he growled. Aunt Dumb shrieked again and backed up, bouncing off the cabinet in front of the sink.

"'Guests,' Sis? You've been saying all day you were family. You'd better sit down now, because we've never learned whether Dragon will give a third warning or just rip your face off." She turned to Wynter, and her snarl, which was the equal of Dragon's, eased into a smile. In a voice that said she loved her with all her heart Mother asked, "Wynter, dear, would you serve your Aunt Guest her lunch please? And also see if Uncle Family wants more, too, please? No more for me, thanks. I've lost my appetite."

Wynter managed to keep from giggling, but it sure wasn't easy. Everyone else was already finished. They had been sitting at the table waiting for Uncle Bozo to get to the end of whatever story he was telling about the problems some wheat farmer outside Grand Island was having with the warranty on his combine. Wynter didn't understand half of it, and Mother's eyes had started glazing over, too. Mother had picked up her spoon and started scraping at drops of soup to distract herself.

The phone rang as Aunt Dumb was pulling her chair away from the table. She grabbed the handset off the wall and snarled, "_What?_"

Wynter cringed. Mother and Daddy were always insistent on proper telephone manners.

"Young man, don't you have any better manners than to call people at mealtime? Who did you say this was?"

Mother's face got even redder. "Diana!"

Aunt Dumb waved her off. "What? Why, how _dare_ you call her you little son of a...." She glanced suddenly at the baby and cut off her words. "I'm reporting you to the police!"

As everyone watched she hung up for a moment and then punched the keypad three times. _Nine-one-one,_ Wynter realized.

"Hello? Yes, one of the delinquents who attacked my niece just called to harass her."

Wynter froze, the ladle of soup halfway between the pot and the bowl, dripping its contents on the stove. Mother's face turned white as she looked at Wynter and Uncle Bob. Uncle Bozo put his hands over the baby's ears. "What? Who? Wynter King, of course. How many girls did those thugs rape, anyway? I tell you, I don't know what's the matter with you people, letting them make harassing phone calls from jail to their vict.... What?" She covered the mouthpiece with a hand and said, "Idiots," as she shook her head. Then she uncovered the mouthpiece. "That Carlton kid. What? Who are you talking about? No, not Sarrel. No, not Wilson either. It was Carlton, or something like that. Don't you idiots know who you have in your own jail?"

The lights came on. "Oh, _no!_" Wynter dropped the ladle in the pot and put the bowl beside it. She rushed down the steps to the family room and into the garage to get her bicycle. She had to get to Jimmy and explain.

~ ~ ~

Angie practically had to wrestle the phone away from Diana. She was aided by eighty pounds of growl-and-snarl. When Wynter wasn't around, Dragon became her protector. She needed a couple of minutes to get the man at the emergency office to understand. The man insisted on sending someone out to the house. Angie suggested that he talk to Joe Lopez first, and if he still wanted to send someone, he should send Joe.

There was a moment's silence. "That's the sister Joe was talking about?" It didn't exactly sound like a question.

Angie breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes."

"Oh. Have a nice day, ma'am. Or the best you can have under the circumstances."

Angie put the handset in its cradle, glared at her sister, and pointed to the front door. She spoke slowly and deliberately through gritted teeth. "Get. The. Fuck. Out."

"Angela! How dare you use that kind of language in front of...."

"_NOW!_" She inhaled and spoke softly, in a voice that sent shivers down her own spine. "I don't care what hotel you stay in as long as it's in any other town but this one. I want you out of here before Wynter returns. That probably gives you an hour, but don't press your luck.

"And you," she said, turning to Bob, "don't steal the soap, shampoo, or towels this time. If you want to steal them from the hotel, that's not my business. But this is my home and this _is_ my business." She stormed off toward her office, Dragon following.

She heard Bob start to say something, only to be cut off with, "Shut _up_ you fucking _idiot!_"

She closed the door, dropped into her chair, and put her head in her hands. "Dragon, I don't suppose you can get me something for my headache so I don't have to go out there again?"

She heard a whimper at her side. Dragon's chin pressed down on her leg. "If you're begging to stay in here rather than go out there where those two are, I can't blame you. Sorry I don't have any treats for you. I guess we'll just suffer together."

~ ~ ~

Wynter told herself to calm down and speak slowly when Mrs. McCauley answered the doorbell. Mrs. McCauley's job, like Mrs. Middleton's, was homemaker. Wynter was glad that her mother's telecommuting let her stay at home most of the time, the way Mrs. McCauley and Mrs. Middleton did.

"Mrs. McCauley, may I speak to Jimmy, please? I need to apologize to him for something my aunt did."

"Yes," she said with a nice smile. "We were expecting you. Would you like me to bring you something to drink? Lemonade or juice?"

"No, ma'am. I just finished lunch."

Mrs. McCauley gave her shoulders a warm hug. "So I heard. Go on up."

"Thank you." She forced herself not to hurry up the stairs. Mrs. McCauley didn't seem mad at her. Maybe Jimmy wouldn't be too mad.

She grabbed the newel post with her left hand and spun herself around it. She knocked on the frame of the open door, being careful not to look inside until she was invited in.

"C'mon in," he said. Then, "Hi," as she stepped inside. He didn't look mad to her. She thought he actually looked happy.

"Hi. Um, how are you today?"

"Not as uncomfortable as yesterday. I'm okay if I watch out when I move." He gave her that soft smile. "But I feel a lot better now that my doctor's here."

She felt her own smile appear, then fade as she said, "I came to apologize...."

He waved it off as she brought his desk chair to the side of his bed. "You're not the one who needs to apologize. Besides, it doesn't really surprise me after what you told me about them."

The fist that had been clenching her heart relaxed. "You're not mad at me?"

"Heck no. Are you mad at me because of what Suzie did?"

"Of course not."

He smiled and shrugged. "There you go. But I am a little bit uncomfortable. My ear hurts from being screamed into. Since you're my doctor, I thought you might have a prescription that would make me feel better."

Did she ever! She kissed his ear first. He told her that it was the other one, so she kissed it, too. Then she pressed her warm coral lips to his and heard him sigh through his nose. That made her feel warm and tingly all throughout her body. She sighed, too, before she pulled back and watched his green eyes open and sparkle at her.

"That's much better," he said. "I might survive another minute or two."

"Well, if you need a refill after that, you can have one."

He grinned and nodded in his special way, the one that made her heart feel too big for her chest. "So, how's life in the zoo?"

She sighed and sat down in the chair. He put his arm on the side of the bed and held his hand out to her. She took it in her hand and wondered where to begin. She decided to start at the beginning and go through the whole thing. Except for the part about Uncle Bozo trying to look at her tits and play with her butt, of course.

Mrs. McCauley interrupted at one point to see if they needed anything and to remind Jimmy it was time for his medicine. She gave Wynter an odd smile before she left. It was a nice smile, one that made her whole body feel warm all over, but odd.

When she left, Wynter turned from looking at the door and saw her hand holding Jimmy's. She'd never turned loose when Mrs. McCauley came in. She looked up in time to see Jimmy's eyes moving from their hands to her face. Both grinned, and she rose to kiss him again.

After all, Mrs. McCauley had said it was time for his medicine.

~ ~ ~

_Fuck!_

Suzie rose on her heels and shoulders, tugging her shorts and panties up. It was bad enough that her restriction had been extended to noon because she forgot to wash the stupid dishes after breakfast. Again. And then she had to wash the stupid lunch dishes, too, even though it was Caroline's turn to do them. It wasn't fair, because it had taken too long and now Jimmy was with... _Her_. She threw the "Jimmy" doll off the far side of the bed and said, "Come in." Sure enough, it was the stupid slut who stuck her head through the open door. Her day just kept getting worse. It wasn't fair!

"Hey, Twerp, can we talk a minute?"

_Well, she did back up Kenny's story and keep me from getting grounded longer._ "I guess." She sat up and scooted back against the pillows. That sure felt better when it was just her bare butt on the sheets.

The stupid cow closed the door and sat on the corner at the foot of the bed. "I wanted to talk to you about Jimmy."

_Well, remind me to look surprised next Tuesday. Wait a minute! Does she know?_ "Who told you?"

The stupid cow blinked at her like well, just like a stupid cow. "You must mean something besides what Kenny told me yesterday."

She threw up her arms in exacerbation or whatever that stupid word was and led them fall back to the bed. "I called him a few minutes ago to see if he wanted to see me and his stupid mother said Little Miss Future MD was with him. I said I'd call back later. I _just_ got him liking me again, and now... _She_... is turning his head again! It's not _fair!_"

"I see." She shook her stupid head. It looked like she was trying to shake flies off her ears. "Did it occur to you that you might be going about this the wrong way?"

Suzie's eyes narrowed. Was the stupid slut trying to play a trick on her? Both Kenny and Caroline taking her side in the same week was just too much of a coincidence to be real. "Like how?"

"You're trying to force him to take you over Wynter. Men have to believe everything is their idea, Twerp. Everybody knows that. They resist unless they think of it themselves. You have to let him decide it's his idea."

She slapped her bed with one hand. "How am I gonna get him to think it's his idea if _Wynter_ keeps taking all his attention?"

Caroline shrugged. "Jealousy? It always works for me."

"Huh?"

The cow shrugged one shoulder and half-closed her eyes in a slow blink. "Kenny thinks Wynter's a virgin. That true?"

Suzie humpfed. "I don't think she even knows how to kiss, except for that stupid nose-and-lips thing she does with her father."

"And you think Jimmy's hormones are kicking in?"

"I guess. You sure can't tell it, though."

"So, if he sees you kissing and hugging someone else, he'll think it's a fun thing to do, and since Wynter doesn't do that, who do you think he'll go to?"

Her eyes narrowed in accusation. "Kenny went to you," she snapped.

"I was available. If you had been, Kenny would have gone to you instead. But if you're available for Jimmy when he needs someone...."

Suzie felt her eyes get really big with insight. "He'll come to me?"

Caroline's answer was a big smile.

There was just one problem that Suzie could see. "But who am I going to get to make him jealous?"

She thought Caroline looked positively exacerbated. "Jesus, Twerp, am I the only one in this whole fuckin' family with any brains? Kenny, of course!"

You could have knocked her off the bed with a feather. "That dolt?"

"I guess I am," Caroline muttered to herself, shaking her stupid head. "Listen, you go cuddle up with somebody Jimmy's never heard of, how's he going to get jealous? You cuddle up with somebody Jimmy hangs out with, especially while all of you are together, don't you think he has a better chance of getting jealous then? Especially if he sees Kenny having a good time with you while he's stuck with his hormones and a virgin?"

She had to admit that it made sense. And it certainly sounded likely to work better than any of her own plans had so far. "It's just that...." She shuddered. "Kenny."

"Hey, don't put him down until you try him. I was serious. That boy eats some serious pussy. You can make Jimmy jealous and have a hell of a good time while you're doing it. He's not bad looking. He's not a bad kisser, either. Says he practices a lot when he's alone." She tilted her head to the side and stared at the ceiling. "Or did he mean sex?"

Suzie rolled her eyes.

The stupid cow frowned at her. "You seriously a virgin, Twerp? Planning on saving it for marriage?"

She looked at her feet, brushed one set of toes with the other, and shrugged. "Not necessarily."

"Well, Kenny can help you learn what you want while you're waiting for Jimmy or whoever. The kid's a natural stud. He can help you learn what you like and don't like, and how to do what a man likes."

"Yeah, but...." She sighed. "But.... _Kenny?_"

"And he can show you how to handle a pair of sore nuts while he's at it. He'll show you how to make Jimmy the most grateful person on earth."

She wanted to believe that, even if it was with Kenny. However, "Is this a trick?"

The slut made big cow-eyes. "Nah."

"Why?"

Caroline looked a little uncomfortable. "Well, you're my little sister. It's time I started acting like a big sister now that you're ready for the fun things. And I owe Kenny a favor, too. I think you'd be good for him. Of course, so would a stump-broke cow, but he'd like you a lot better."

Suzie had to have her explain that expression. At first she thought she'd been insulted, but after she heard the definition she guessed she might have been a little hasty.

"And he's a good lay. He'd be even better with you because you're his size. His dick's way too small for me, though he has an instinct for using it. You could both have a lot of fun while you were waiting for Jimmy to come around."

She thought about that and nodded her agreement. "Okay. Thanks." Her voice was flat.

Caroline stood up. "Let me know if you want any help with techniques or anything. Whenever you're ready. Just ask."

Suzie decided maybe she'd misjudged her sister. Maybe. "Okay."

Caroline smiled. "You're welcome." She sniffed deeply. "I know that smell. You, uh, wanna borrow one of my vibrators? That will get you off better while you're waiting to go out."

Suzie thought her face would catch fire from the sudden heat.

Caroline didn't seem to notice. "I got one that would be just right for you, whether you use it on your clit or fuck yourself with it. I've had it since I was your size. It's strong but quiet, too. Mother won't hear it if you have any music playing. I'll bet you fall in love with it."

Suzie waited while Caroline brought it, then thanked her. After Caroline closed the door she put on a CD and yanked her shorts and panties to her knees. She threw herself flat on the bed, shoved her knees outward against the cloth, and put the tip of the short, thin vibrator in her slit. She rubbed it around to get it wet and slid it onto the tip of her hard, aching clitty. She flipped the switch and gasped as she felt the most exciting thing she'd ever experienced.

She came in less than a minute.

~ ~ ~

Caroline threw herself on her bed and buried her laugh in the pillow. After she regained her composure she reached for the phone. She had to tell Annie MacReady what Suzie had fallen for this time.

Fourteen

Wynter opened one eye. She was facing her window. It was daylight, but cloudy outside. Rain was definitely on the day's schedule. By lifting her head an inch she could see the clock. Almost time to get up. She ran her morning diagnosis, decided the only problem was a distended bladder that wasn't serious, and decided to close her eye for a few extra moments of peace and quiet. She took a deep breath and then remembered. _Aunt Diane and Uncle Bob are gone!_ A little rain sure couldn't stop this from being a nice day!

The faint sound of dog tags in the hallway told her that Dragon had been out through his doggie door to take care of his own distended bladder problem. She heard him enter the room, collapse in front of her doorway, and heave a heavy sigh.

It was a Friday, but she'd told Mother last night that she was willing to give up her Friday night with Daddy because Mother had earned it putting up with The Weird Couple, as Daddy had named them. She also thought Mother had earned a special treat by sending them out of the house early. That wasn't very polite, but then neither were Aunt Dumb and Uncle Bozo.

She scratched at an itch on her neck and sighed almost as deeply as Dragon had. She wished Jimmy could feel like going to the big rock at Porcupine Creek that day, but if it was going to rain, they wouldn't be able to go anyhow. Still, she wished that Jimmy could stop hurting and be well. But it sure would be nice if she could lie next to him on the rock and look at the fish and squirrels and birds. She'd have to settle for giving him his picture of the deer and her baby today. She had finished it before she went to bed.

They had decided to read more of his new book yesterday. She had felt extra-nice lying next to him with her on top of his sheet, of course with each holding one side of the book and holding the other's free hand. That made her heart feel too big for her chest and gave her that special warm, tingly feeling through her whole body, the way she felt whenever she realized how much her parents and Dragon loved her. She thought it strange to feel that way with Jimmy, but maybe that's how good friends felt with each other.

The feeling almost made her forget where she was when she kissed Jimmy. Twice she caught herself about to open her mouth as her tongue moved forward. She was afraid of what might happen if she accidentally gave him a lover's kiss. Then Jimmy might really and truly be angry with her, and she sure didn't want that! But she also couldn't stop thinking about what it might be like to give him a lover's kiss, even though they were just good friends.

Her legs tightened and drew up, her eyes squeezed shut, and her whole body shook several times. As she lay giggling between gasps for air she realized she hadn't been aware of how busy her finger had been in her split.

~ ~ ~

A sharp pain awakened Jimmy. It took a moment to realize that the pain was in a dream. All he had was a dull ache that wouldn't go away, but the pills made it much duller if he didn't move wrong and pinch his nuts between his legs. His dad had bought him a jockstrap to sleep in, and that helped at night, but it seemed to be more uncomfortable during the day. Or it had yesterday. The ache seemed to be better this morning. Maybe he could leave it on.

He stretched and looked at the clock. Mom wouldn't bother him for another half-hour at least. No sense going to pee now, or she'd hear the flush and be in to see him. He wanted to go back to sleep and maybe dream about Wynter. He'd been dreaming about climbing trees with her, and he had slipped on a limb and fallen on it, crushing his nuts. Okay, he could do without any tree limbs in his dream, for either one of them. His left hand closed around the arrowhead in his pajama top.

He rolled over to his other side, keeping his grip on the arrowhead. _Looks like rain_. That wouldn't stop Wynter from coming to see him, but he didn't want her to get wet because of some rain. What if it made her catch a cold, or something? He was happy that Will and Dick would be going away where they couldn't hurt Wynter or Kenny or anyone else, and he really meant it when he said he'd go through this pain again if it would put them away, but he regretted the fact that school was starting in eleven more days and he wouldn't be able to spend some of them adventuring with Wynter. He sure didn't want her to catch a cold and take away even more days.

He missed lying next to her on the big flat rock as they looked at the fish and birds and especially the deer. He was dumbfounded at how good it felt to hold hands with her at the movies, and again as they walked on the trail along the creek. But when she scooted next to him while they were lying on that rock he searched his mind for an adequate comparison. _Well, it was just orders of magnitude better_, he decided.

He closed his eyes. Something was uncomfortable. He adjusted the jockstrap with his free hand and thought of Wynter lying next to him as they read the gemstone book together. Having her next to him on the bed was almost as good as on the rock. That seemed strange to him: _almost as good_. He guessed the difference was the separation caused by the sheet, even though it wasn't any more separation than their clothing had been. Still, he wished he could lie next to her without the sheet between them. Not both under the sheet, of course. Wynter wasn't cheap, like Caroline. Like... like Suzie. No, Wynter was a lady and deserved to be treated with courtesy and respect.

But, man, was kissing her ever fun or what? He thought he'd never kiss a girl until after he was out of college, and never, ever expected to kiss one as pretty as Wynter. And it was all the more special because she wasn't just a pretty girl, she was someone he... well, he really and truly _cared_ about. But it wasn't the kissing itself that was the most fun. No, it was the fact that she had liked it. The fact that it had made her happy.

The fact that _he_ had made her happy.

He didn't know if his own eyes looked as enraptured as hers had after that first time they had kissed on the lips, but he sure did feel that way. He got a thrill like a splash of ice-cold water all over whenever he thought of how her eyes had sparkled afterward. He wished he'd known about her not liking pineapple before he asked for the pineapple-orange juice. He wouldn't have asked for it. Not because he expected that he would get to kiss with her, never in a million eons. But because it was something she didn't like, and he didn't want to do anything she didn't like.

Which was why, when he suddenly realized that the back of his left hand was pressing against the side of her right breast yesterday, he slowly moved their joined hands away. He had noticed before she had, and that gave him the opportunity to move away before she noticed and was embarrassed. He wanted to apologize so badly that it hurt worse than landing on the bicycle bar, but he knew that if he'd said anything he'd have embarrassed her. He sure didn't want to do that.

Which was why he had to keep fighting the urge to try French kissing her. Some of the guys thought it sounded disgusting, but if it was, then why did people keep doing it? They wouldn't, of course! And Kenny had told him that French kissing with Caroline was almost as good as a blowjob. Well, Kenny would say that, whether it was true or not, just to see what he would get in response. But it seemed to be extra-special, so he wanted to do it first with someone who was extra-special. Like his first plain kiss was with somebody _very_ extra-special.

He began to drift off, thinking of how beautiful those blue-green eyes looked every time she turned her head on the pillow to face him and how they sparkled just before she puckered for another kiss. He loved how nice her breath smelled for the moment before their lips closed the distance. He wondered how her tongue would feel against his. Would it feel as soft and as warm as her breast?

His eyelids squeezed together, his toes curled, his legs drew up, and his body began convulsing. He'd been completely unaware of what his right hand was doing and, though it had felt great, was sorry that he'd done it while thinking about somebody as special as Wynter.

And he was amazed that his nuts, while still throbbing, actually felt better afterward.

~ ~ ~

_FUCK!_

Suzie sat up in bed and stared down its length to the window. She just _knew_ it was going to rain because of the way the sky looked. It wasn't fair. Rainy days always made her stupid hair unmanageable. It would look as bad as a buffalo's butt, and she was supposed to meet that stupid Kenny at Jimmy's this afternoon to make Jimmy jealous. How was the dolt going to get jealous if she didn't look her best? It wasn't fair!

Her clock said it wasn't time to get up yet. She slid her bare butt along the sheets _That feels pretty good!_ to the edge of the bed, bounced off, and pulled on her panties. She'd just as soon leave the stupid things in her bed, but if she did, her stupid mother would see her not wearing them under her short nightie and give her another stupid lecture. Or, with her luck these days, would ground her for a few more hours. She stormed quietly into the bathroom, peed, wiped, and washed her hands which seemed like a stupid thing to do considering what she had planned for when she got back to her room.

She scowled and stomped her way lightly back to her room, hearing her parents talking in the kitchen and....

...and a very faint buzzing coming from Caroline's room. _My vibrator!_ She had forgotten about it. That felt even better than the fingers she had planned to use. She closed her door and retrieved it from its hiding place in her closet. She put it next to the pillow before pulling her panties down to her ankles and hopping onto the bed. She slid to the center with her legs straight out, crossed her legs at the ankles, and then placed her hands on the mattress to either side of her body. She lifted herself until her weight was no longer on her body, closed her eyes, and the humped her cunny up and down the sheet a few times. It felt so wonderful that she repeated it, longer this time. _Damn, that's good!_

Finally, with a little sigh of satisfaction, she turned to face the foot of the bed and the stupid rainy day forming outside her window and pulled her panties up to her knees before lying down. She grabbed the vibrator in her left hand while two fingers of her right stroked her clitty. Humping the sheet had made it hard as a little pink pearl. She pushed her knees outward against the tension of her panties and tightened some muscles in her cunny. Her lightly-fuzzed outer lips parted slightly, enough for her to feel a coolness as the morning air found some of her moisture. She used the two fingers to spread them wider and felt a thrill as they parted with a soft, wet sound and the cool air reached all of her down there.

One indication of how much she was aroused was how swollen her outer lips were. They felt like two little sausage links with a puddle of grease between them. She might have been able to cum if she'd just humped the sheet a minute longer. It had been some time since she'd last done that. If she didn't have her vibrator, she might just do it again this morning. She looked at the plastic cylinder for a moment, wondering if Jimmy's thingy was that big. She hadn't touched his stupid thingy, so she had no idea how big it was with or without a stiffy. Her fingertips had spiked his stupid nuts right at the bottom. _What if his thingy is no bigger than Kenny's?_

_But Caroline said that Kenny's would fit me better. Does that mean Jimmy's would fit me better? Better than what a stupid cow? Or does that mean Kenny's and Jimmy's if it's the same size would be a good fit?_ She didn't know. Sometimes there were big disadvantages to not being a slut like Caroline. But Caroline had said that she could ask her any questions. Maybe after she finished with her vibrator she'd go as the stup....

Maybe after she finished she'd go ask _her big sister_.

Her first and ring fingers held her cunny open as the middle finger flicked the short reddish-blonde hair out of the way. She dipped the finger inside to pull out more cunny cream and smear it around her slit and over her clitty. That last felt so good that she almost came before she remembered the vibrator.

It was a tapered at the end and flared out a little wider near the front than along most of its five inches. She liked the feeling of that flare as it slid into her. Men's thingies had a sort of flare. If they were as hard as the plastic of the vibrator, then they'd probably feel that good, too. Wouldn't they? Maybe that was why the vibrator had the flare: to make it feel like a thingy. She felt her clitty with her fingertips. It was hard, but not as hard as the vibrator. So which was how a thingy felt?

She had to force herself to stop touching her clitty or she was going to come before she was ready.

She moved the end of the vibrator around, like she was stirring a cup of hot chocolate, to get it nice and wet. _Hey, that feels pretty good! I wonder if Jimmy can do that?_ She slowly twisted the end of the vibrator, turning it from off to fully on, gasped for air, and then moved it around again. _If he can't, he's damned sure going to learn!_ Maybe she'd have Jimmy do her with a vibrator before he put his thingy in her. He'd do it because she asked; because he loved her, if he knew what was good for him.

She discovered that if she pushed the end down toward her butt, so that the vibrator pressed against the inside of her front, it felt_ really_ good. She had to stop, though, before she came because that wasn't how she wanted to do it. She twisted the base and shut the vibrator off, though she left it inside her. She liked the full feeling in her cunny, but it wasn't enough to make her more excited. Still, she needed to calm down or she would cum immediately when she started again. She needed to think of something else, something that wouldn't excite her.

_Kenny_.

She wished Jimmy's best friend was better looking. Why did _Kenny_ have to become best friends with Jimmy after that dolt Chipper went and got himself killed and deserted her? Okay, Kenny wasn't all that bad looking when he tried to look nice. She'd seen him dressed up, but that never lasted. Usually he was a mess. Okay, his clothes were usually clean cleaner than most boys' in fact. And, okay, they were nice name-brand things, even though Kenny just threw them on and left them however they landed on his stupid skinny body. He'd look ever so much better in gold-metal frame glasses instead of those stupid thick, black plastic frames. Of course, the way he treated them, the gold-metal frames would be destroyed in an hour or two. And however he shoved them on his stupid face was how they sat, even if one earpiece was up above his stupid ear. And his stupid hair was always trimmed nicely, even if it looked like he combed it with an eggbeater. Maybe she should straighten him out while she was making Jimmy jealous? It would be an improvement, making him more pleasant to use for her jealousy plans, and he might be grateful enough that he wouldn't tease her after she didn't have to flirt with him because she had Jimmy's head straightened out.

She supposed she _could_ use Kenny to learn how to fuck so that the first time she did Jimmy he'd forget all about... _Her_. Caroline said Kenny was good. And she'd said he was a natural muff diver. She could learn what she liked best from Kenny so that Jimmy would do her the right way from the very beginning. She wouldn't have to experiment with him for however it took the dolt to learn how to do it right for her. And Caroline had said that Kenny could give lessons in tit sucking. She'd never had her boobies sucked. They weren't big enough for her to try it on herself, even if they were bigger than Caroline's and... _Hers_. She wondered how it felt. From how Caroline was acting, it must feel pretty good, even better than playing with the nipples with her fingertips. Maybe using Kenny to learn how she wanted Jimmy to do her wouldn't be so bad. It might even be fun while she was using that dolt to make her dolt jealous.

Her stupid mother always did her weekly shopping for a couple of hours on Friday mornings. If she could get out of being dragged along, she could have Kenny come over and she could practice, and then they could go make Jimmy jealous that afternoon. Heck, it might work better if Jimmy saw a look of satisfaction on Kenny's stupid face.

This wasn't exactly calming her down the way she had wanted. She couldn't wait any longer.

Slowly, but with increasing speed, she fucked herself with the vibrator, turned it on, and repeated it.

_Oh, Jimmy, that feels wonderful!_

_I learned how to make my thingy vibrate inside you because I love you so much, Suzie._

_And I love you, too, Jimmy._

_I wouldn't have learned how to do that for any other woman but you, Suzie. All I want is to make you happy forever._

_You know what would feel really good, Jimmy? If you could make your thingy vibrate like that on my clitty._

_Because I love you so much, Suzie, I learned something even better! I learned how to vibrate my tongue on your clitty. Would you like me to do it now?_

_Oh, yes, please, Jimmy! I can't wait any longer. I need to cum now!_

_Then one muff-diving orgasm for the only woman in my dreams is coming right up. Would you like me to play with your boobies while you have it? I will do anything if it will make you happy._

_Oh, yes, Jimmy! Please! I can't wait! I need you now!_

She dragged cunny cream over her clitty and pressed the tip of the vibrator, which was already smeared with it, to the hard little pearl. She pulled up her nightie, grasped her left nipple with the tips of her fingers and began pulling on it in a sucking motion.

_Oh, Kenny, I'm cumming now!!!_

Her teeth clenched together hard enough to crack walnuts. Her toes clenched into little foot-fists. Her body tensed, becoming like a diving board, flexing enough to slam her head and shoulders into the mattress several times. She thought it would never end, and then it was over all too soon. She had to move the vibrator off her sensitive clitty, but her hands didn't want to obey. She couldn't release her nipple with her other hand. Nothing wanted to obey as she alternated between feeling as limp as a wet washcloth and as firm as a brick. Before she could get the vibrator off her throbbing clitty she was swept away by another orgasm that was almost as intense. This time the vibrator moved away when her arms and legs collapsed from weakness.

She lay in the middle of her bed and gasped for air. The cool morning air played about her sweaty body, causing a chill that hardened her nipples into little pink berries. Her knees were lying wide apart on the mattress, meaning she'd ruined another pair of panties, but she didn't care. The vibrator was lying on the mattress, jiggling her thigh. She wasn't sure where the hand that had been holding it had landed. A giggle fit raced through her. She couldn't believe how good her cunny felt at that moment. She said a silent thank you to...

_*KENNY???*_

_FUCK!_

She'd just had the biggest orgasm of her entire life, and that knobby-kneed little dwarf bastard had horned in on it, pushing Her Jimmy away at _that_ moment? _It wasn't fair!_ She ought to punch him in the nuts as soon as she could get him over here. How _dare_ that little son of a....

There was a soft knock at the door. She ignored it, but the door pushed open anyway. _Fuck!_ She couldn't cover herself up in time!

It was Caroline, who glanced at her splayed out on the bed and then looked only at her eyes as she closed the door before sitting on the edge of the bed. Caroline smiled down at her. "Must have been a damned good one, huh, Sis?" she asked in a quiet voice as she picked up the vibrator and turned it off. "I told you you'd like this." Without removing her eyes from Suzie's Caroline shoved the vibrator in her mouth and sucked it clean.

Suzie thought she would fall through the mattress. She wanted to say something but no words came to her tongue.

A smile teased one corner of Caroline's mouth as she tucked the vibrator under the pillow next to Suzie's head. "Don't look so shocked, Twerp. You need to develop a taste for pussy juice as well as a man's cum. If you really want to make your man happy you need to learn how to suck his cock clean after he fucks you. Only you do it gently because he'll be as sensitive as your clit after he cums."

Nobody had told her _that_ before!

Caroline's face turned serious. "Listen, Mom heard you out in the kitchen when you came. I caught her in the living room and told her you'd been having nightmares after what happened to Jimmy. I said you'd had another one earlier this morning, while it was still dark, and that I'd heard you when I got up to pee. She bought it, of course. But until you get used to how that thing makes you cum, you need to find a way to keep quiet or wait until Mom and Dad are out of the house."

Suzie managed to force her thoughts away from Caroline sucking her cunny cream from the vibrator. "Uh, yeah. Okay. Thanks."

Her sister reached for the hem of her nightie and pulled it down so that it just covered the thin layer of reddish blonde curls on her cunny. "It's not fair, Twerp. I'm sixteen. You're five years younger than me and you've got the biggest tits, and yours are still growing."

"Do you think yours will get any bigger?"

Caroline sighed. "I doubt it. The only advantage is that I'll be able to go braless when I'm fifty and it won't matter. And while yours are still growing, I wouldn't expect them to grow too much bigger. Small tits are the thing in this fucking family."

Suzie thought it felt really weird to be talking with Caroline like this. She was used to asking a question about sex, getting treated like an idiot, and then maybe getting an answer instead of a lecture on how every other girl knew it and she should already know, too. "I guess the only big ones are Aunt Carrie's. And she's only an aunt by marriage."

Caroline smiled and nodded. "Yeah." She turned and pulled the torn panties from under Suzie's legs. "You like to push against these while you're doing yourself?"

Suzie felt like she blushed all the way down to her cunny. "Yeah."

Caroline laughed. "Me, too. Wanna know how to keep from tearing up so many?"

_That was unexpected_. "Sure!"

"If you look under my mattress you'll find a belt. I use that. It has extra holes so I can adjust it as wide or narrow as I want."

She'd never thought of that! It was a great idea. She decided to ask something, bracing herself for a lecture, just in case. "Can, um, can you use that while a guy is.... You know, while he's doing you?"

Her sister grinned and nodded. "And you can pull your legs up and have him hook his arms around your knees. There are other things you can do then, too. But later, because Mom will be coming to get you up in a few minutes, and this room smells like a whorehouse. I don't think you want her coming in here right now. Okay?"

"Yeah. And, um, thanks. For everything."

Caroline leaned over and kissed her forehead. "You bet. Have you decided to do anything with Kenny while you're waiting for Jimmy?"

Suzie twisted her nightie around one forefinger. "I think so," she mumbled.

Her sister smiled. "Good. Welcome to the Wide, Wide World of Sex, Sis. Sometimes a vibrator is best, sometimes your finger is best, but you just can't beat a boner. Unless you're giving a hand job."

It wasn't that funny, but Suzie laughed anyway.

~ ~ ~

Kenny yawned and stretched. He scratched his head and looked out the window. It was going to be a rainy day. He crammed his right hand down his pajama bottoms and scratched his balls with a great amount of enthusiasm, sighing in relief. He bet Jimmy wished he could do that. Jimmy could have, if not for those two scuzzbuckets, Will and Dick. They should get an extra year in jail for every day that Jimmy couldn't scratch his balls comfortably. One month per day would have been adequate for anyone else, but for his best friend, Kenny wanted it to be a year per day. It was worse than criminal to keep a guy from enjoying a good ball-scratching!

And he wished Ron had castrated Will, instead of just breaking the bastard's collarbones, for trying to make Wynter blow him. And cut his dick off. And made eat all of it raw And then pour salt in the open wounds, too. He rubbed the back of his other hand on his left eye to remove some sticky crud from the lashes, wincing a little he bumped his injured cheek and made it twinge. It never occurred to him to wish extra punishment for what Dick had done to him.

He sighed and gave his balls one last, good scratch. He hoped Will and Dick had to become his patients after he got his medical license. Sure, he believed in the Hippocratic Oath, but some times a little flexibility was required. He'd prescribe pain relievers for them, but only had half-strength. Or maybe less. Maybe mix in some chemical castrator, too.

It was embarrassing to have Ron saving his ass all the time. He wished, not for the first time, that he was able to stand up to them the way Ron did. But his not being able to help his friends was even more embarrassing and frustrating. Why did he have to be such a runt? His dad wasn't. But Dad had said he was a late-bloomer as a boy and he guessed that his son would be, too.

Damn genetics, anyway! Steroids could help boost him along, but they'd make his balls shrivel up to the point that they wouldn't be worth scratching anymore, since one fingernail would be enough to do the job. And his dick would shrivel up like a Vienna sausage.

He felt his dick, since his hand was there anyway. Damn. A Vienna sausage would be an improvement. Still, it did feel rather good to....

"Kenny?" said his mom as she knocked on the door. He yanked his hand out of his pajamas as the door opened. As she sat on the edge of his bed his father came in, adjusting his tie.

Dad checked his bruises while Mom said that Charlie had gone back to sleep. "We're leaving early this morning because this is the last day of the inspection team's visit. Mrs. Holland won't be here for another half hour. If Charlie gets up before she arrives, I want you to get up and supervise him."

"You mean you want me to be his babysitter."

His dad laughed. "No! If you were his babysitter, we'd have to pay you. We just want you to be his supervisor."

"Well, what's the difference between supervising a six-year-old and babysitting him?"

"Five dollars an hour," Dad said, ruffling his mop of hair. "You going over to Jimmy's today?"

"Yeah. I thought he might need cheering up. Wynter might need a break from being his bluebird of happiness."

"No offense, son, but I don't think Jimmy would find that to be an improvement, and I doubt she'd want to take the break."

Kenny merely grinned in reply.

"Well," his mother said, and he quoted what was coming next in his head as she said it, "it looks like rain, so if you go out, don't forget your raincoat, even if it isn't raining at the time."

"Mooooom!" he moaned.

His dad held up a finger. "Son, don't even try. You should know by now that it's just a waste of breath. Your Grandma Taylor still tells me not to forget my raincoat and not to forget to wash my hands before sitting down at the table. It's that double-X chromosome thing at work."

Dad just grinned when Mom called him a "goddamned smart-ass," and then they said good-bye. By the time he heard the garage door rumbling down he already had a magnificent maximum boner and was climbing out of bed. It had been over a month since he'd last checked. He grabbed the ruler off his desk and laid it along the top of his regal rampaging ramrod. He didn't have his glasses on, so he had to mark the spot with a thumbnail and then hold the ruler where he could read it.

"_Shit!_"

He threw the ruler down in disgust and let his perpetually pygmy-sized pecker lead on the arduous trek back to the bed.

He pulled the magazine from its hiding place between the mattress and box springs, turned on the nightstand lamp before climbing into bed, and flipped it open. He decided his balls needed another good scratch before he got serious about pulling his pud. He needed a new magazine. His eyeballs had about worn the ink off the pages of this one, and the girls in it weren't as exciting as they used to be.

They did have some damned nice tits, though. He didn't like the huge ones, especially if they had scars from the implants or if the implants were poorly done, making them lumpy. He wondered once again if he'd like being an implant surgeon and getting to handle tits every day. However, he was still leaning toward gynecology, where he could get his hands on some cootchies on a daily basis. Maybe he could do tits as a sideline specialty.

Page twenty-seven. That was his favorite. She had nice, round tits that weren't too far apart and didn't have nipples that made her tits look either cross-eyed or wall-eyed. They looked like a couple of softballs the way they didn't sag. Those, he had decided, were ideal tits, the ones to measure all others against.

Caroline's sure didn't measure up to them. If those were a ten, then Caroline's were a three or four at best. From what little he'd seen of Suzie's, they were a six, maybe a seven, though he might have to deduct a point for the birthmark. He'd be more certain when he finally got his hands on them. Wynter's were probably a six. If Jimmy had seen them, he wouldn't admit it, so Kenny couldn't get a description from him. He hadn't been able to see them for himself, either. He could wait. He was sure Jimmy would see them sooner or later, even if he didn't.

On to page twenty-nine, where there was a spread shot of Miss Perfect Tits. Kenny didn't much care for the wad of _labia minora_, the inner cunt lips, wadded up in the shot. It looked like her cootchie was trying to eat a raw hamburger patty. Caroline's tits might have been low-scorers, but Caroline's cootchie had this girl's beat by two laps around the track.

He lowered the magazine and began stroking faster, remembering just what it was like lapping his way around Caroline's track. He wondered if Suzie's cootchie smelled and tasted that good. He sure hoped so. If his plans worked out, he'd soon know. He understood now why Jimmy hadn't been able to describe the smell, great as it was.

His hand moved even faster as he thought of Suzie lying naked on her bed, with his face between her thighs as she moaned and humped her cootchie on his face. He pictured Caroline's cootchie on Suzie, only with sandy-blonde curls instead of brown stubble. He wondered briefly if Suzie shaved hers, too, and what it would look like, but put the curls back on, deciding he liked it better that way.

His hand must have been a blur as he came, but he wasn't able to open his eyes to check. He kept stroking afterward until it was too sore to continue. He was looking forward to tasting Suzie for himself, maybe even fucking her the way he'd fucked Caroline.

You could bet your sweet ass that Kenny Taylor was going to have as much fun with Suzie's tits and cootchie as he could possibly have before he finally dumped her. It would serve her right for trying to come between Wynter and Jimmy. He would fuck her for fucking with his friends.

~ ~ ~

_Two minutes to go_. Richard switched off the alarm so that it wouldn't awaken Angie and then he stretched, working out the kinks. He'd let Angie have those two minutes before he awakened her. She'd certainly earned it after the ride she'd given him last night. The only way the Beast was going to get up this morning was if someone lifted it. _Looks like rain. Good day to stay here and work on that report for the Geological Service. A damned good day to stay here now that those two freaking idiots are gone._

He had decided to surprise Angie with dinner at the Bighorn Hotel's dining room that night. Wynter had thought it was a great idea, but had uninvited herself, even though the Bighorn was her favorite restaurant. She said that after what Mother had been through she needed some time with just the two of them. One of these days he had to stop being so amazed at his daughter's thoughtfulness.

He didn't know any other eleven-year-olds that he'd feel comfortable about leaving alone for a few hours at night. He guessed that was because there weren't any other eleven-year-olds like her.

Well, one.

He wouldn't mind leaving the two of them alone together, either. They weren't sexually active together yet, but it was just a matter of time. And even then he wouldn't mind. That thought didn't bother him as much as it had before. The residual sense of jealousy was barely noticeable. Was it because she was already sexually active? Was it because he was coming to terms with having to give her up some day? Was it because he felt like Jimmy was already part of the family? Was it....

_Aw, who the hell knows?_ Maybe it wasn't important that he knew why at this moment. It was important only that he knew he was comfortable with the fact that he trusted the two of them. And while he certainly didn't know Jimmy as well as he knew Wynter, he did know that her demonstrated ability to be analytical even during sex meant that she wouldn't do anything rash or possibly harmful. Not with her already prodigious and not just for an eleven-year-old girl medical knowledge. And he couldn't see Jimmy letting his emotions and hormones override his common sense, even though Angie insisted that every male with a hardon was incapable of any rational thoughts whatsoever.

He wondered when would be the best time for him to approach Angie about putting Wynter on The Pill. She didn't seem to be as accepting as he was becoming of the fact that Wynter would sooner or later be doubling her number of sexual partners.

Or maybe keeping the same number but switching the identity? That thought gave him a little pang, but it was more of regret than of jealousy.

Maybe Angie would be motivated by the worry that history might repeat itself, but next time the would-be rapist wouldn't be stopped. It was a horrifying thought, but it was always a possibility. Periods or not, he didn't think Wynter could get pregnant yet, but he certainly didn't want to risk having a little Will Wilson or Dick Sarrel growing inside of her.

_Time to get up._

He spooned behind Angie, cupped one of her breasts in a hand, and began nuzzling her ear.

Fifteen

Harry Green stuck his white-ruffed bald head through the door and into the chambers beyond. "You wanted to see me?"

William Wilson the Third looked up from the legal brief on his desk and peered at him with piggy eyes over his half-moon reading glasses. With stubby, fat fingers he closed the folder and placed it atop the pile in the left tray on his desk. "Yes, I did, Harry. Come in and close the door."

Green sighed. He'd suspected why the junior judge had summoned him, and the overly-warm, familiar tone in William's voice confirmed it. He seated himself in the padded green leather chair, gently because his arthritic knee was bothering him, and said, "Look, William...."

Wilson ignored him. "Harry, Buck will insist on trying Will as an adult at today's hearing. I want you to deny his request."

Green let the silence stretch, staring at Wilson without blinking. Finally he sighed, a sound that rattled like old parchment. "Why?"

Wilson's beefy face reddened. "Why? Harry, he's just a boy! And he's my son. I don't want him going to prison. He doesn't belong there."

Green put one elbow on the arm of the chair, pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger, and rubbed where his own reading glasses had left a sore spot. "No, William, he belongs in the reformatory in Buena Vista, which is where he'd be right now if you hadn't talked me into granting him probation."

"Blast it, Harry! He deserved probation. He's a boy, _not_ a criminal!"

"Curfew violations. Shoplifting. Petty theft. Breaking and entering. Willful destruction of property. You've sent 'boys' to Buena Vista for that much. And now Will's graduated to attempted rape of an eleven-year-old. What does he have to do to earn the title of 'criminal'? Kill someone?"

Wilson leaned back and folded his soft, pale hands over his prodigious abdomen, carefully displaying the large diamond in the heavy gold ring on his right hand. "I'll bring Ellis in to defend him. He'll tie that jury in knots. The best Buck will get will be a hung jury."

Green shrugged his narrow shoulders. "I don't care if you resurrect William Jennings Fucking Bryan, William. You know that."

"You _don't_ use that kind of language in my presence!"

Green stopped rubbing his nose and let his hand drop. "Now, that's quite strange, William. I don't remember you correcting Will when he called me a 'goddamned fucking shitbird asshole' _after_ I granted him probation on his last sentence."

Wilson's eyes bulged, his chins wobbled, and his voice imitated a dog choking on a bone.

"And I'm merely quoting your son's own words."

Wilson struggled to regain his composure, something he'd never do if he weren't trying to curry a favor. "He's just a boy, Harry. He deserves another chance!"

"William, who's Will's father: you or me?"

"I am, of course!"

"Then why am I the only one who ever disciplines him for any infraction?

"That's _not_ the blasted issue here!"

Green shook his head. "William, we're both up for a retention vote at the election next year. Doesn't matter to me because I'm retiring anyway..."

"Then give him another chance, dad-blast it!"

"...but you want to keep your job. Before you tell me there's a year for the public to forget, all you need is for Will to get in trouble one more time and I can guarantee you they won't forget. You may not squeak by after this rape trial, even if I send him to Canon City. He's crossed paths unfavorably with far too many people here. Now, the people in this district are fairly tolerant, but they aren't stupid. If he gets away with this, they'll know why, and you'll be out of here and back in private practice. Of course, you'd have to move because nobody in this town would hire you."

Wilson pressed his lips together and glared at Green for a moment. Then his voice grew quiet. "Buck won't charge that Lopez boy with assault. I want to you to force him to do so."

"No."

Wilson nodded. "Very well." He pulled a document from a desk drawer and signed it. "Then," he said, folding the document and waving it at Green, "I'm filing suit against him."

"Go ahead. What do you think your chances will be when the jury learns that the injuries occurred while the Lopez boy was trying to stop an attempted rape in progress, and that Will is charged with the crime?"

"I'll see to it that the prejudicial charges are excluded from testimony."

Harry Green grunted a tired laugh. "You're welcome to try. I might even retire early and defend the boy myself, William. Pro bono."

Wilson straightened in his chair. "You have just admitted a bias in favor of that Lopez brat, which implies a bias against Will. I demand you recuse yourself!"

"If you wish. But you might want to check the schedule first. If it's not me, then there's at least an eighty percent chance that it will be Harry Fairfax presiding. He'll refuse to dismiss the charges and he'll never permit a plea bargain. And you know how Harry sentences this type of offense. You'll be very old before Will walks the street again if he's the judge."

Wilson collapsed inward, as if he were a deflating balloon, and slumped back in his chair. "Well, a change of venue then...."

Someone knocked on the door, hard and fast. "Judge Wilson? Your honor?" The voice was high and strained and insistent.

Wilson looked up and sighed. "What is it, Lucas?"

Wilson's bailiff, a small, solid mountain named Lucas Caldwell, rushed in, his ever-present clipboard tucked smartly under his left arm and his tie as crooked as ever. He spotted Green, and said, "Oh, Judge Green. Looking for you, too. Judge Wilson, Will escaped."

Wilson's eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Hospital sent him over for the hearing. Doobie Jenkins was in their cell. Made himself a jailhouse knife. Sarrel got it away from him, wrestled him to the floor. While he was down, Will kicked him in the temple. Hard. Three, maybe four times. Medics took him to the emergency room. Nichols went to get Molly. Likely she'll learn she's a widow when she gets there."

Green closed his eyes and smoothed down his narrow white mustache with a forefinger. "How'd they get out?"

"Will and Sarrel started screaming Doobie was having a seizure. He was twitching at the time. Quit as Billy Carstairs--that new kid they hired last month?--got there. Carstairs saw him go limp. Ignored procedure and rushed into the cell alone to see about Doobie. They jumped him. Things get hazy after that. Chief's sorting it out. Somehow got away. Carjacked a ride, _somehow_ managed to get lost from pursuit. Carstairs is still a hostage."

Wilson's face reddened. He jerked his bulk to his feet and shouted, "How do you know Will did anything to Jenkins? Sarrel did it! Will wouldn't do anything like that!"

Caldwell shrugged an apology. "Three witnesses in the facing cell. Saw the whole thing."

"_Criminals?_ They're _not_ credible witnesses!"

"William, please," Green sighed in a tired voice. "Shut up. It's too late now. Whether it's murder or it's accessory to murder, either way Will's now earned that title of 'criminal'."

Wilson's secretary stuck her head through the door. "They abandoned the car and stole another one at Wizard Basin. Billy was stabbed and left in the car. Lost a lot of blood, but it looks like he'll live."

Wilson dropped the lawsuit filing as he sat. It bounced off the edge of the desk and landed in the floor, to be crushed under a caster as he rolled his chair forward. He put his elbows on the desk and buried his face in his hands. "But he's just a boy!" he sobbed.

~ ~ ~

Marti McCauley saw the package and grinned. "Another cartoon?" she asked as she opened the storm door.

"No, ma'am. It's something special that I hope he will like and make him feel better since he's not able to go adventuring right now."

Marti hugged her shoulders. "Honey, I'm sure that anything you give him will be something he will like." She shrugged. "Unless it's the flu or bubonic plague. That, he might not like."

Wynter giggled, handed over the package, and removed her raincoat. "I came early to get it here before the rain started, so the paper and ribbon wouldn't get wet."

"That was a good idea because it's wrapped so beautifully. The rain will start at any second now." Large drops began splashing on cue.

Wynter looked at the falling rain and then goggled at Marti, who shrugged and waved a hand at the precipitation. "It's a gift. Gypsy blood," she said, causing more giggles from Wynter. "I just took Jimmy some pineapple-orange juice. Would you like some?" she asked, exchanging the package for the raincoat, which she hung on the hallway coat rack.

"No, thank you. I don't care for pineapple."

Marti wondered briefly if she should take her son another flavor, but realized it would be too late now. "Something else? Plain orange or apple or maybe some lemonade?"

"Apple would be nice. We can take it when we go up and you can see Jimmy's present when he unwraps it."

Marti smiled and motioned for Wynter to precede her into the kitchen. "I'm not sure Jimmy would want me there when he opens it. I'll see it later."

Wynter slowed and turned her head to gape up at her. Marti wondered if she'd accidentally said, "Jimmy would rather see Suzie than you."

"Sure he would," Wynter said. "Unless you think maybe he won't like it."

_Damn!_ She had forgotten how sensitive the girl was to criticism, even if it was unintended. "Of course I don't. I just thought that since it's something special from you to him, he might not want any other people around."

"Oh. I sort of thought that since I'd like to have my mom and dad there that...." She let it taper off.

Her mind raced as she handed Wynter a glass and then opened the refrigerator. "Okay," she said as she poured. "It's Jimmy's present. We'll let him decide." She felt better when the coral lips parted and the perfect white teeth reappeared in a smile.

Jimmy was sitting on the far side of his bed, his back to the door. He wore two sets of headphones, one attached to the portable CD player in his left hand and the other to the keyboard under his right. Marti waited until his fingers stopped moving on the keys and announced, "You have a visitor."

She was amazed at how much her son's face brightened when he glanced over his shoulder and saw Wynter. His gaze lowered to the package briefly, but he didn't brighten any more. She didn't see how he could without igniting.

"Hi!" he said, removing the headphones and turning gingerly to face them.

"Hi! I brought you something. Is it okay if your mom stays while you open it?"

A flicker of a frown found its way onto the bright face, as if he couldn't believe Wynter would ask that. "Well, of course."

Wynter grinned up at her. Any other girl would have said, "Told you so!" but Wynter was too much like Jimmy. Marti, however, could clearly see the words in the girl's expression before she placed her apple juice on the night stand and handed her package to Jimmy. Marti noticed that her son managed to brush Wynter's hand and keep the contact for just an instant longer than was necessary. She honestly concurred with her son's assessment of the quality of wrapping and commented on the color coordination between the paper and the ribbon.

Truth be told, she was eager to see what constituted Wynter's idea of "something special" after that wonderful _Star Wars_ characters lampoon.

Jimmy carefully removed the paper. "Oh, wow! More Bristol board!"

Wynter turned an exasperated face to her. "He's getting to be too much like Daddy."

Marti nodded. "His father's the same way. I think all men are like that."

Jimmy made his own exasperated face. "Just for that, I'm going to be the only one to see it first. And with that, he slid the top board away. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open. "_Holy shit!_" he whispered in a reverent tone.

Which was Marti's clue that it was, indeed, something extraordinary. She said nothing about his language as his eyes roamed over whatever he was seeing.

"Mom? C'mere. You _gotta see this!_"

Wynter moved aside so that she could stand there and look at...

"_Holy shit!_" she heard herself whisper, no more in control of her words than Jimmy had been. She gazed at the two deer standing by the stream. They seemed to breathe. Magpies and jays and sparrows and bluebirds sat on branches or soared with the butterflies around the deer. A trout was in the water, and a squirrel in the foreground ate a pine cone, dribbling debris from its mouth while a ladybug perched atop its head. And it was all done with colored pencils. What on earth could the girl do if she learned to paint with oils or acrylics?

For a minute she and her son pointed to different areas and commented on what they saw. Suddenly she realized they were ignoring Wynter. She jerked her head up and saw the girl standing quietly, her hands clasped in front of her, her chin down and her ponytail hanging over her left shoulder, but with a happy, if expectant, look on her face. And Marti McCauley felt terribly out of place. She rose--when did she sit down on the edge of the bed?--and held her arms out. Wynter stepped into them, and she hugged the girl the way she hugged her son. "I can't believe how beautiful that is! Wait until Keith gets home tonight and sees it. Thank you for doing that for Jimmy, dear. He was right when he said he was lucky to have you for his best friend."

She heard a faint gasp from Wynter. "Now," she said, releasing her, "I have work to do downstairs. If you need me, just yell."

She couldn't leave without one final, and long, look at the drawing. On her way out she straightened the cartoon, which hung beside the door.

~ ~ ~

Jimmy held out his hand and nodded to the spot beside him on the bed. Wynter placed her hand in his and bent for a quick kiss before sitting down. He thought he was going to float out of the bed. When she was settled he handed her the Bristol board. "Would you put this on the night stand for me? I'll add it to my collection later."

As she put it on the night stand she said, "Smarty pantses don't get their medicine from their doctors."

When she turned back to him he frowned. "Isn't that unethical?"

She pursed her lips and pushed them to one side in thought. "You're right," she said and leaned forward for a long, wonderful kiss. Somewhere in the middle of it, for just an instant, he thought he felt her lips part and something warm and soft and wet touch his, but then it was gone. He held his drawing away in his right hand and wrapped his left arm around her. When he squeezed, she sighed in what he thought was a happy sound and circled her arms about him. It was their first hug-and-squeeze kiss, and it was rapture.

He opened his eyes slowly afterward and saw hers still closed for a moment before they, too, crept open, sparkling with delight.

He knew his face was grinning the way hers suddenly did. "Wow!" was all he could say, and only in a whisper.

Her own voice was a breathy whisper. "That's what I was going to say!"

"Um, Kenny was right, you know."

She looked like she was trying to stop grinning, but she was having no more luck than he was. "About what?"

"Falling on the bar was worth it for a kiss from you. Especially that one. I mean, I love the drawing. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! Well, um, except for, um, well, you. But the kiss was even better."

Her head lowered slightly but she kept her eyes on his. "You don't have to land on the bar again just to have another one, okay? Just ask."

He nodded. "I like that idea lot better. Did you get any sleep while you were doing this? When did you find time to draw it?"

"I had to do something to stay away from Aunt Dumb and Uncle Bozo." She looked like she was about to say something else but had changed her mind. He didn't press. If she wanted to tell him, she would when the time was right. "Oh! They're gone! Mother told them to get out."

He gave her a big grin and nodded his head to let her know he understood her relief. He felt Wynter's hand caress his back and realized with a start that they still held each other. "You said I don't have to land on the bar again, just ask? I'm asking."

He wasn't sure how long that kiss lasted, but it sure wasn't long enough.

They released each other as he heard the phone ring. He stayed upright and put the painting in front of them. Wynter snuggled up against him, took his hand, and started commenting on different objects in the picture.

Both heads snapped up when they heard his mom scream, "_Oh, my God!_" and come rushing up the stairs, calling their names in a frightened voice.

~ ~ ~

Richard carried his empty coffee mug down to the kitchen for a refill. He had an error in a spreadsheet and could not find it. He thought a break for additional caffeine might help his subconscious mind work out which formula was causing the problem. He glanced out the kitchen window at the rain. Well, it had been a dry summer, and they needed the moisture.

He heard Angie talking on her phone, so he didn't bother her. Dragon, not having Wynter around, had moved to assume his secondary role as Angie's shadow. _A sugar cookie would be good with this_, he decided and reached for the cookie jar. Only a few remained. They weren't as soft as they had been, but he was planning to dunk it anyway.

The rattling of the cookie jar lid brought Dragon to inspect. "You, too, boy?" he asked and reached for the green dragon-shaped jar of doggie treats when Dragon's tail wagged in response.

He heard Angie say, "Goodbye," and then follow that with something her mother would never have approved of. He tossed a doggie cookie to Dragon and ambled to his wife's office. She was sitting with her elbows on the desk and her head in her hands. She looked up when he entered but didn't release her head.

"Sometimes I'd rather deal with Diane than with Pete. He has the rare ability to actually make her sound rational."

"You want me to go find her and bring her back?" he asked around a mouthful of cookie.

"Fuck you."

He swallowed and shrugged. "I've got time if you do."

"You...." The house phone rang. She shook her grinning head at him and answered it.

"Oh," she said in a bright voice. "Hi, Joe. How's...." Her face went ghastly white, as did her fingers when she tightened them around the receiver. Her panic-filled eyes turned to Richard as her tight throat squeezed out, "Oh, fuck! Oh, no!"

Richard's mind flashed to Tuesday's phone call telling him about the attack on Wynter. His world reeled, and he had to sit down before he fainted while waiting for the bad news.

~ ~ ~

"Yes, Mrs. Holland," Kenny said for at least the three hundred and fiftieth time in the past two minutes. Suzie had called and asked him to come over for some "special practice sessions," and here Mrs. Holland was, repeating everything Mom said whenever he left the house as well as everything she always told him. He was wearing his silly raincoat even though it wasn't raining yet, just to get Mrs. Holland to stop bugging him. Suzie had said, "We won't have much time while Mother is gone," and he could only interpret that phrase plus "special practice sessions" one way.

Mrs. Holland heard a crash and went back into house to see what Charlie had done. Kenny made good his escape. He headed south on Chaparral Street since that was the shortest way to Suzie's. Eventually he'd have to take Cheyenne Road, the main north-south street, to Harbor Club Road, where he could begin the westward zig-zags to Suzie's house. It was a shame that Suzie didn't live as close to him as Wynter did to Jimmy. Because of Porcupine Creek, getting from his house to hers was one of the most convoluted treks in the town.

Getting to Wynter's or Jimmy's was much easier: half a block north and then west on Seabridge Trail, stop when you get there. He guessed that taking Seabridge to Ninth might be faster, but the distance looked longer on the map, so he wasn't going that way.

Four houses down he saw a real estate agent putting a sign in the Hamiltons' front yard. Mr. Hamilton had died of old age two years ago, and Mrs. Hamilton, a frail woman, was steadily getting less able to care for herself. He knew it was just a matter of time before she had to move into The Haven in the Pines, and it looked like her time had arrived. He vaguely remembered The Haven from the short time his great-grandmother had been a resident when he was little, and he hoped Mrs. Hamilton would be happy there. Too bad Suzie didn't live in the Hamilton house. Or maybe some nice girl with bigger tits.

_Tits!_ He pedaled faster. Suzie said her mother was almost always gone two hours. He didn't want to get there after Mrs. Middleton left and lose precious minutes that _Studman_ could put to good use enjoying Suzie's hidden charms.

He liked the name "Studman" a little better than "Superstud," but he was waiting before making a final choice. He wondered if he could get Wynter to draw a cartoon of him in a tight, crotchless leotard, with a flowing, bright red cape and a massive erection that was causing naked women to swoon and lie down before him. _Probably not_. He thought about fixing his raincoat so that it could flutter behind him like a cape. And that's when the rain began.

~ ~ ~

_Studman_ wondered if he could sneak away for a little action with Caroline. Suzie had wanted to practice French kissing. After five minutes she had excused herself and went to Caroline's room for a consultation on techniques. Caroline had followed her back to Suzie's room and showed her, using Kenny as the demonstration aid, what she was doing wrong. Caroline let him feel her titties while they kissed. It was the highlight of Kenny's day to that point.

Caroline's advice was, of course, what Kenny had been saying all along. She followed Caroline's advice and stopped forcing her mouth wide open, as if Kenny was a Future Dentist instead of a Future Gynecologist. She also began sucking on his tongue and chasing it back into his mouth with her own, where he tried to show her how to tongue-wrestle. When Caroline went back to her room, Suzie had them stand in front of the mirror and practice, checking for what she thought would be most arousing to Jimmy, without once asking Kenny what he thought. They had wasted almost _forty-five minutes_ of _Studman_'s precious two hours!

Suzie stepped back and put her right hand under her left elbow. She held her chin in the curve of her left thumb and forefinger and tapped her right toes as she stared into the mirror, thinking.

"Um...."

Her head snapped around to him. "_WHAT?_"

He flinched. "Well, you told me I should have told you how to handle a guy's balls. I thought while you were, uh, thinking that you might want to, uh... practice?

"Why? So I can play with your stupid balls in front of Jimmy? How's _that_ going to make the goofy dolt jealous instead of pissed off?"

That was his confirmation that this afternoon was to be a Make-Jimmy-Jealous situation. He'd thought that was Caroline's message when she grinned at him and nodded when Suzie wasn't looking.

"Ah. Well, uuuhhh.... I thought that if you got the chance to handle Jimmy's again, you'd want to be prepared. You never know when opportunity will knock." Kenny desperately hoped that it was banging on his own door at that very moment.

Anger faded to puzzlement. After a moment's thought she replied, "Well, I don't think I'll get the chance if you and... _She_... are there. We'll practice that later, when I'm going to have time to be alone with him. But now, let's pretend that Jimmy's lying at the bottom of the mirror. You put your arm around me like this."

Kenny let her drag his arm around her. She placed his hand just above the bend of his elbow. When she released it, he slid it toward her right titty.

"_Kenny!_" She jerked into a turn to face him, forcing his hand away.

He put on his "phony mask of genuine sincerity" and said, "I thought if he noticed me barely touching it and both of us enjoying it, he might realize he was missing out on something. Sorry."

Her eyebrows arched, her lower lip pushed upward as she stared at the floor, and she shrugged with one shoulder. "Maybe. Okay. But right now just put your hand on my arm." She grabbed it and slapped it into place, holding on for a moment as waiting for it to glue itself into place. "Now, we look down there where he's lying, and then I'll say something and turn to you. You'll look into my eyes and pretend you like me...."

"Um, Suzie? Why should I have to pretend I like you when I already do?"

She started to huff at the interruption, but the words stopped her.

She gave him that look that said she wasn't about to believe anything he had said. "You don't have to pretend?"

"Heck, no. I told you when I took the blame for you that you're my friend. How could you be my friend if I didn't like you?"

"Is this a joke, Kenny?"

"Look, Caroline's in her room alone. I'll bet I could be in there with her having a _really_ good time, but I'm here trying to help you. That either means I like you or I'm crazy."

Her face told him which options she believed. But she turned so that they were both facing the mirror again, said "Okay," and put his hand back on her arm, this time sliding it forward until the fingertips had reached his goal. His _first_ goal, that is. He felt a surge in his groin as he slowly began circling the fingertips against the side of her double-covered little hemisphere.

Suzie started to say something, then looked down at his moving fingertips, then looked him in the eye. He put on his most pleased expression, which wasn't hard to do at all, and said in a breathy whisper, "Damn! I can't believe how much nicer that is than Caroline's!" Which was the truth. Caroline didn't have much padding between skin and rib cage. Suzie's was soft yet firm to his touch.

She looked surprised for a moment and then sly as she said, "Really?"

"Yeah! I hope I make you feel as good as you're making me feel. I really want to, you know."

She flashed a grinning "So there!" sort of look at the door, toward Caroline's room, and then smiled warmly at him. "Let's turn this way so you don't have to move your hand and Jimmy can see where you're touching." He let himself be guided. "And now let's kiss like this."

He had to admit that this time he put more effort into the kiss. Suzie noticed and put one hand on the back of his head--her left one, which meant that he didn't lose fingertip contact with the orb of his desire--and pulled him into the kiss. He slid the fingertips forward until he could just feel the hard little nipple, and then began stroking the soft flesh at its base. Caroline had taught him that trick, and it was a good one because Suzie suddenly inhaled. When she pulled back he felt the grin spread uncontrollably over his face. "Wow! That was the best kiss I ever had!"

"Me, too," she said with a giggle.

He was a gentleman--this time--and didn't ask how many other boys she'd kissed. He knew that answer, anyway.

"My!" she said, moving back and causing his hand to slide until the fingertips were barely grazing her arm. "It's warm in here. Maybe I'd be cooler if I took this off."

His heart leapt as she reached under the hem of her blouse, but she merely unhooked the front of the bra. She then reached through each sleeve, pulled the strap down until she could remove it from her arm, and then pulled the pink garment down behind, tossing it in the general direction of the hamper.

_One down, three to go_, he thought. Then he changed it to four, and then seven to go, assuming each shoe and sock counted separately. He stepped forward and put his hands on her upper arms. She flinched, then relaxed. "I thought you were going to grab them. Were you planning to play with both of them in front of Jimmy?"

Fortunately he'd expected the question. "I wish I could. But only if you wanted me to. I would love it if you could enjoy it while I massaged them for you in front of him. Like this."

He let his hands slowly slide to cup those soft, warm titties, giving her time to tell him to stop. He wondered if stopping would be as difficult as moving slowly was. This sure was a heck of a time to learn patience. However, this way was about as much fun learning it as he could think of. They filled his small hands. He began a slow, gentle massage, watching her eyelids droop and her eyes glaze over as her lips parted. A tiny moan soon crept from her throat.

"This is how you massage a guy's balls. Softly and gently. A little more than a caress, but not much more or it will hurt. But I think Jimmy's will be too sore for even this much for another week or so." Several seconds later he couldn't resist any longer and started playing with her left nipple while his right hand rubbed all of its toy. He thought he'd die if he couldn't go jack off soon.

When she moaned again he added, "I hope I'm doing it right. I don't know as much about what girls' tits like compared to what my balls like. I want you to enjoy it." Caroline had told him that when Suzie voiced her masturbation fantasies aloud, she always had "Jimmy" or... or "Chipper..." say how much he wanted to please her. He'd reasoned that he'd have success with that procedure. "If there's anything I could do better, please tell me so that I can make it better for you."

He could just imagine what all the guys at school would say if they could hear him say _that_ line. But that's okay. He was standing here playing with Suzie's titties, and they could only play with themselves. And the look of satisfaction on Suzie's face grew stronger. And something else was there. Desire, perhaps?

She looked down at his hands. Her eyes quickly focused farther down. "You've got a stiffy!" It was an accusation despite the pleasure in her voice.

He put on his "phony mask of genuine sincerity" and said, "Well, of course I do. What guy wouldn't be turned on, standing here with a pretty girl and playing with the prettiest and nicest tits I've ever seen or felt."

She looked surprised. "You've seen them?"

"Yeah, the day..." how the heck should he word this one to keep from pissing her off? "The day I was... well, I was an ass and got you grounded when we were out on the porch. I'm really and truly sorry about that." He winced when he realized he'd used one of Wynter's phrases. He hoped it wouldn't make Suzie any madder if she chose to be pissed off about his getting her grounded.

Instead, she looked down and drilled one toe into the carpet. He stopped playing with her goodies but didn't release them. "So, you've, um, already seen them?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"So, you know about the, um...."

"Yeah. I figure that makes me special."

She looked up, her face clearly indicating she thought a joke was coming at her expense. "Special?" she asked in a cool voice.

"Yeah! Everybody else out there is playing with ordinary, everyday titties. I'm getting to play with some that are specially decorated. That makes me one of a kind. I feel like that's sorta special because nobody else gets to. Don't you?"

Her eyes moved back and forth as she looked deep into each of his. "You really mean that?"

"Heck yeah!" And, he guessed, he really did.

"You don't think it's ugly?"

"Of course not." And he meant that, too. Okay, it wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as one without a birthmark, but it certainly wasn't ugly, either.

"Oh." She looked faraway and tapped her foot. "I'm getting tired of standing up. Let's sit on the edge of the bed. We can practice kissing there. Is it getting warmer in here?"

Kenny thought it was and said so. She started to lift her blouse.

"Suzie? Could I do that for you? If it would make you happy, of course."

She shrugged, looking uncertain again. "Sure."

He bent forward, and as he lifted, he kissed her abdomen, the bottom of her sternum, and up her sternum as each inch was exposed. He stopped at the top of her sternum and kissed his way down to her right nipple. He kissed it, took it in his mouth, swirled his tongue around it and sucked the way Caroline had taught him to do. He removed his mouth, kissed the birthmark, and then kissed a trail to her left nipple and repeated the swirl-and-suck.

He'd been right: it was a fun thing to do for _both_ of them. He sure was glad he'd seen it on one of the Cinemax channel movies after he discovered the code for the satellite dish's parental control was Charlie's birth date.

He kept the bright pink nipple in his mouth when the phone rang. "Oo anna et at?" he asked around it.

"Caroline can get it," she said, holding his head in place with her arms and falling backward onto the mattress.

He continued nibbling the hard little berry as he put his hand on the inside of her mid-thigh and slid it upward. He slowed at the leg of her shorts, but he didn't stop moving it higher. His fingers slid under the polyester and brushed soft, damp, hot cotton cloth over padding that resembled the tit in his mouth. Suzie shuddered and moaned.

_YESSSS!!!_ He had just reached the ultimate goal, the Holy Grail of Femininity, the Nobel Sex Prize!

The door flew open and Caroline rushed in. They lifted their heads to see her pallid face and wild, shocked eyes. She was gasping for air. "Kenny! That's your dad on the phone for you! There's trouble!"

~ ~ ~

Ron knocked on the door frame.

Kevin Taylor, ashen-faced, was on the phone. He looked up with worried eyes and waved him in. "In fact, he's just arrived. Now, you stay there, son. I don't want any of you going out without someone along to protect you, even if it's only Mrs. Middleton. Don't leave unless you are with her or Ron. Tell Caroline to make sure all the doors and windows are closed and locked while you're waiting. I think that house has a basement. It does? Make sure those are locked, too. I'll get back to you. If you need something, you call. No, I mean it. I love you son. Bye."

Ron dropped onto the padded chair as Kevin hung up the phone. "I don't think Mrs. Middleton will be much protection, Doc, even if it's only Dick who can do anything."

"I know." He shook his head. "But it's the only way I can keep Kenny from doing something stupid on his own."

Ron laughed and nodded his head. He knew the truth of that, just as he knew that "something stupid" would take the form of anything except what was obvious. Kenny always found some unusual way to get into a bind.

"Joe says you're volunteering to be the shadow for all three of them? Isn't that stretching yourself awfully thin?"

Ron searched his pockets. "Not really. While they'd most likely go after Kenny rather than Wynter or Jimmy, the one they really want, and the one they are most afraid of, is me." He found what he was looking for and wondered how they'd ended up in the wrong pocket. "They'll need an advantage for that," he said as he pulled out two peppermint candies and tossed one to Kevin, "and Billy Carstairs was unarmed. They'll need a gun before they'll come after me. Not," he added as he unwrapped his treat, "that it will do them any good unless they ambush me. Shoot me with my back turned." He popped the candy in his mouth and sighed happily. There were few things in life Ron liked better than peppermint candy. Thumping Will and Dick was among those few.

Kevin nodded his thanks for the candy and unwrapped it. "What if they do that?"

Ron laughed and scratched the top of his head. "They think I'm kidding when I tell them that if they kill me, I'll come back from the dead for revenge. They think I'm kidding, but they are also worried that it might be true."

"And is it true?" Kevin placed the candy in his mouth, which told Ron just how nervous the doctor was. Any other time he'd have tossed it in the air and caught it on the descent.

"You want to kill me and find out?"

"No."

"Damned smart move, Doc. Kenny's at the Middletons' house?"

"Yeah. And Jimmy's still on bed rest, though I expect him to be up today or tomorrow. You young people heal a lot faster than we geezers do."

"Geezer? As I remember, you won the last one-on-one at the basketball hoop."

Kevin laughed, but the worry remained in his voice and on his face. "You accused me of cheating, remember?"

Ron scratched his head again. "Oh. Yeah. You did."

Kevin shook his head. "Kenny and Suzie were planning to visit Jimmy this afternoon. I'd like you to escort them if you're serious about being his shadow."

"Of course I'm serious. I'm his guardian Angel. Remember?"

"But I don't want to take you away from your work."

Ron flipped a dismissive hand. "We were almost finished anyway. The rain ended it. The samples are no good after they've been rained on, and there's not enough summer left to wait for more and continue. Doctor Britt will pick these up this weekend, so I don't have to make a trip to Boulder. Look, I wouldn't worry if I were you. They'll not be seen here for a while. They'll want revenge against me, but they'll wait until they have an advantage, and they'll wait until they think people have dropped their guard. They are about as smart as toadstools in most areas, and I do mean stool samples from toads, but they are reasonably bright in criminal matters. They waited over six months before attacking Kenny again, and they waited until they thought I was out of town."

Kevin obviously wasn't convinced, but he trusted Ron. They exchanged handshakes and Ron endured words of caution from someone who had at best a minimal idea of what he was talking about and no idea of who he was talking to. Like everyone else who hadn't crossed him, Kevin Taylor underestimated Ron Lopez. That was Ron's greatest asset.

"And now," Kevin said, "I have to go tell Candis the bad news, before she hears it from someone else."

Ron clapped him on the shoulder. "You're the doctor. Dispensing bad news is your job. Being bad news is mine. Kenny will be fine."

~ ~ ~

"Mom's wrong," Jimmy said as she left his room to check the locks. "With the patrols combing the streets, they won't try to come here while Will's injured. They'll get out of town and hide until he's healed. And I think they're smart enough to try to take Ron out before they try anything with anyone else. Or dumb enough. I can't think of anything dumber than them trying to take on Ron. I'd almost feel sorry for them if it weren't for what they did to Kenny and tried to do to you."

"Are you sure?" The frightened look on Wynter's face wasn't for herself, he knew. She was worried about Ron, about Kenny, and about him. He held out an arm in invitation for her to sit on the bed with him. He wrapped it around her when she did. She trembled slightly, and that made him sad.

"Of course." He had to get her mind off the subject of the two bullies. He reached for the portable CD player with his free hand. "Say, Mrs. Evers loaned me this. She said it was like some of the stuff I like listening to. Want to hear it?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"Tangerine Dream. Can I have my arm back for a minute to swap the headphones for the speakers?"

"If I can have it back," she said with a grin, and then puckered and leaned toward him.

Eventually she pulled away and let him swap the plugs. Jimmy was almost sorry about that. He couldn't think of anything better than kissing Wynter. _Wellllll.... NO! Don't think about THAT!_ Wynter was a lady and he was embarrassed that such a crude thought had slipped into his mind.

"Who's it by?"

Her question pulled him out of his roiling thoughts. "That's the group's name. I was listening to _Optical Race_. I really like it and was trying to learn it. This is it." He punched the Play button and the introductory drums burst forth. "It's much better on the big speakers, of course," he said as he replaced his arm around her.

He closed his eyes as the bouncy tune swept him away with Wynter at his side. Halfway through he realized he could feel her body grazing his as she bounced along with the beat. He forced himself to think about the music.

"Oh, wow!" she said when it ended and he hit the Stop button. "That's great! Um, would you mind if I learned it, too? I mean, it's sort of got two parts and it'd sound better if we played both of them together. If you don't mind."

Little cold feet race up and down Jimmy's spine. "Mind? I'd love it! You want to come around to this side and I'll show you what I've figured out so far?"

"Sure!" He watched her scurry around the end of the bed to sit on the other edge, by the keyboard. Her movements were almost in slow motion, and he was thrilled by the sight.

Ten minutes later she had picked up what he showed her and had worked out most of another part herself. "Y'know, to really sound good, we'd need somebody to play drums while we did the rest," she said before she kissed him again.

Jimmy decided that all they needed was to teach his heart to pound in the right rhythm when she kissed him and tape a microphone to his chest. Maybe they wouldn't even need the microphone.

~ ~ ~

You talk about throwing a bucket of cold water on a fire. Kenny had Suzie all heated up and ready for action with _Studman_, and those two lousy, stinking bastards had managed to make his life miserable once again, because now he wouldn't get to fuck Suzie. Or even Caroline. Both were fish-eyed nervous wrecks, jumping at the slightest sound and waiting for Will and Dick to break down the door and.... Well, he had no idea what their imaginations were conjuring because they were too scared to speak except single syllables and grunts.

Suzie had put on her bra and blouse. AND a long-sleeved sweatshirt! Caroline wouldn't check the doors and windows unless both Kenny and Suzie went with her. And just as they finished, Mrs. Middleton returned home with the groceries. Caroline more or less accurately blurted out what had happened. Mrs. Middleton closed the garage door before letting them into the garage to help carry in the groceries. Ron arrived in time to help put things away, making for an awfully crowded kitchen until Ron organized tasks on a zone offense.

Mrs. Middleton didn't insist Kenny leave, even though without his presence there was minimal danger to herself and her daughters. Kenny was sure that Ron had noticed that, too.

"Mother, Kenny and I were planning to visit Jimmy this afternoon," Suzie said as the last of the groceries disappeared into the pantry.

Mrs. Middleton put her hands on Suzie's shoulders and looked genuinely sympathetic. "Suzie, I'm not so sure that's a good idea now."

Kenny tried to memorize what made that sympathetic look so convincingly real while Suzie stamped her right foot. "I haven't seen Jimmy since his accident, and now I can't go see him again? It's not _fair!_"

"Suzanne...."

Ron interrupted. "Mrs. Middleton, I'll take both of them there and return both safely home. Nothing will happen while I'm with them."

That was exactly what Kenny feared, though Ron didn't mean what Kenny was thinking.

After several minutes of discussion Mrs. Middleton called Mrs. McCauley while Caroline and Suzie made sandwiches. Neither daughter voiced her usual complaint about the arduous, back-breaking chore, Suzie because she didn't want to blow her chance to see Jimmy, and Caroline because she apparently had out-of-the-house plans of her own.

Mrs. Middleton hung up the phone. "Wynter's already there, so Ron can protect all of you at the same time."

Kenny watched Suzie out of the corner of his eye. Her lips had clamped together and her face flamed as red as _Studman_'s cape would be if he were wearing one. But it was white compared to how red it became when she learned that Wynter was staying through the evening while her parents went out to dinner.

Sixteen

Ron stood at attention in the door and bowed from the waist. "Good afternoon, Future Doctor King. How's our patient today?"

Wynter grinned and curtsied. "Good afternoon, Mr. Lopez. He's not nearly as difficult as Senor Klutz."

"No," Ron replied, noting from the shape of the bed covers that she obviously had been sitting on the edge of the bed next to the keyboard instead of the chair beside it, "I'm sure he isn't. Good afternoon, Mr. Less Difficult Patient. I do hope your recovery is proceeding with all possible speed. May I present my entourage of adoring followers? They can't get enough of me. First the most lovely and gracious flower to ever sprout on Wheeler Way, Miss Middleton." He flowed into the room and swept his arm toward the door in a graceful arc.

Suzie swooped into the room like a puppy learning to walk. "Hi, Jimmy," she said in a coquettish tone. She curtsied in a manner suggesting she hadn't practiced that maneuver since she was four. The way she looked at Wynter when she noticed where Wynter had been sitting and the absence of a greeting for her spoke volumes to Ron. Wynter's "Hi, Suzie!" similarly went ignored. Jimmy's cool response was also informative to anyone who knew him as well as Ron did.

"And last, but certainly least, a boy who was kicked out of a family of dwarves for being the runt of the litter, and a future Doctor himself if he can find a desperate enough medical school with absolutely no standards and a disposition to accept bribery, Mr. Kevin Kenneth Tayloooor," Ron paused for a dramatic breath, and then said in a flat, quiet voice, "Junior."

Kenny clomped into the room, gave Ron his best "Your turn's coming!" look, and then bowed at Wynter. "Good afternoon, Future MD King." After she responded in kind he said, "And good afternoon, Captain Blackballs the Pirate. How're they hanging today? Or hasn't Wynter removed your jockstrap to let 'em hang yet? _*OW!*_" Ron had thumped the back of his head with a snap of his forefinger.

"Mind your manners, Possible Future Doctor Kenneth. There are ladies present." That earned him a grinning, red-faced giggle from Wynter and a very appreciative look and nod from Suzie. While the latter wasn't in the same category as the parting of the Red Sea, Ron knew it was the greatest miracle he was going to observe that day. "I must apologize for Kenneth. Dwarf children don't learn manners until the age of sixty or so. Entourage, you may approach the patient."

Kenny extended his elbow to Suzie and escorted her to the bedside, where she released his arm and put hers around his waist. Kenny's snaked around below her shoulders. Ron thought the move looked... he couldn't pin it down. _Rehearsed_, he decided. It wasn't a natural motion.

He spotted the drawing on the nightstand. "Holy frijole, kemo sabe! Where'd this come from?"

A dead person might not have noticed the look Jimmy gave Wynter, but nobody else could have missed it. Or the huff from Suzie. "It's a get well present from Wynter. It's the deer and her baby we saw at the creek Sunday afternoon. Isn't it wonderful?"

Ron held the picture before him and let it draw him in. He stood in the forest and smelled the musky scent of the deer, the perfume of the foreground flowers, the tang of the pine needles, and the richness of the loam where old vegetation decayed, returning its nutrients to the poor soil. The blue jay screeched, while the sparrows twittered. Porcupine Creek plashed around the log he remembered just off the right edge of the picture, and the squirrel's teeth sounded like a tiny buzz saw ripping through the pine cone. He opened his mouth to compliment what he saw. What came out was a soft, "_Holy shit!_" He barely noticed the same comment from Kenny several seconds later.

He pulled himself back into the room with an effort and looked at Wynter, who had one hand on the edge of Jimmy's bed and a hopeful, questioning look on her beautiful face. "No wonder Senor Klutz can't do anything right. You have all the talent in the family. Is there anything you can't do better than everyone else?"

Her reply was immediate. "Oh, sure. Kenny's much better at diagnosis. Jimmy understands organic chemistry better and is lots better on keyboards, especially with baroque and jazz music. And nobody in the whole state is a better swimmer than Suzie, even if the girl from Alamosa did win last year. Those judges made a mistake."

Instead of acknowledging Wynter's compliment, Suzie smirked at Jimmy and tugged Kenny a little tighter against herself. That made it much easier for Ron to sort out the social dynamics as he replaced the picture on the nightstand and everybody began talking at once. Common topics quickly emerged and took over.

When he noticed that Suzie was being left out of the conversation, he guided it to swimming and skiing, two things he knew she was interested in and was good at. But shortly thereafter, as the only unpaired person in the room, he was decidedly a fifth wheel. He excused himself, saying he would see if Marti needed any help.

He found her dusting the family room. He grabbed a cloth and started on the shelves by the patio door without asking her if she needed help. He knew what her answer would be if he asked first, and he wasn't willing to take "No" for an answer. "Interesting social dynamic playing out upstairs," he said.

Marti gave him a sly grin. "You noticed?"

"It's difficult not to notice a porcupine in your soup tureen." When she stopped dusting an end table and frowned at him he added, "It loses a little in the translation."

Her head tilted sideways. "That's a Mexican proverb?"

He grinned. "Un unh. Pig Latin."

"Oh, you.... I swear, Ron. One of the days I'm going to realize when you're setting me up. Nobody's going to blame you on the milkman instead of Joe. You're too much like him."

"Thank you!" For Ron there was no higher praise. "How much of that," he indicated the second floor with a jerk of his head, "have you worked out? Other than the fact that Wynter and Jimmy are," he paused, lowered his voice an octave, and said slowly, "'just friends'."

Ron knew what a happy woman looked like. Marti McCauley was a happy woman when she said, "Oh, they're no longer 'just friends.' Now they're 'best friends'."

Ron chuckled. "It's about time _they_ realized that. Is this you?" He held out the framed photograph he was dusting.

"Yes. That's Grampa Mercer, my mother's step-dad, holding me. I was three."

"So you've been beautiful all your life? It wasn't just something you started after you were swept off your feet by my presence?"

She grinned at him as he replaced the picture the shelf. "Do you reuse all of your dad's lines?"

"Most of them. It's hard to improve on perfection."

"Yeah," she sighed with a nod. "You do. I think that's his favorite one."

"The way I see it," he said, getting back to the subject as he started in on another shelf, "Jimmy and Wynter are... _best_... friends. Suzie's not happy. She has her sights set on Jimmy. But she's made him mad."

"You think so?"

"You ever see him treat somebody with tolerance instead of respect?"

She thought a moment. "Just old man... oh. And he's doing that with Suzie now? Must be a new development. Maybe it's just because Wynter's his 'best friend' now."

"That's not the Jimmy I know. Not the one you know, either. Something's changed him, and to do that he'd have to be really mad at her. Unless he's suddenly become a different person."

She laughed. "Ron, he's been doing that for over a year, now. Something about this town makes you kids reach puberty early. But, no, not that different. You're probably right."

"Suzie's aware of it, too. I think she's using Kenny to make Jimmy realize he made a mistake in choosing Wynter over her."

Marti straightened, placed her hands against the small of her back, and stretched. "What makes you think so?"

"Because of the way she's suddenly cuddling up to Kenny. She didn't even look at him half the time at her house or after they got here, but now, upstairs, they have their arms around each other. And the whole thing just looks phony."

She thought about that as he moved to the last shelf. "When you're done with that one," she said, "I have some iced tea the way you like it. And I just happen to have a bag of peppermints, too. I'll trade some for details on your summer research project. So do you think she's going to take Jimmy away from Wynter?"

"I think she's going to try, but the Rockies will win the World Series first. She's making a huge mistake that's going to backfire. Okay, I'm ready for that tea now." He stood and folded the cloth.

Marti looked at him for a moment. "Are you sure you're only sixteen?"

"Not for another couple of weeks, actually."

She shook her head. "I swear, Ron, if Jimmy turns out to be as sharp as you, we might have to shoot him for self-protection."

He grinned. "I don't think Wynter would let you."

~ ~ ~

_Fuck!_

Suzie knew things could be worse, but at the moment she just couldn't see how. If she squeezed Kenny any closer to her left side she'd bruise her ribs. She'd maneuvered them farther to Jimmy's left so that he'd have to look at her instead of Wynter to his right, but he barely looked at her when she spoke. And Kenny was getting almost as little notice, too, as Jimmy's eyes kept drifting back to... _Her_.

Talk centered around school starting. She said she hoped she would share some of her classes with Jimmy so that he could help her with the difficult ones. She was counting on alphabetical seating with no last names between theirs and a lot of names between "King" and "McCauley." Jimmy's response was yet another stupid saying that, as usual, made no sense to her. He obviously needed a _lot_ of training.

As soon as Jimmy looked at Wynter again, which wasn't long at all, she twitched her arm as a signal for Kenny to touch her boobie.

The stupid dolt thought she was trying to tell him to turn loose, and he did. Jimmy was still looking away. She looked at Kenny, grabbed his left butt cheek and squeezed hard, and dropped her eyes to indicate her boobies.

He frowned for a second and then caught on. All the men she knew were dolts, but at least this one could follow orders, unlike Jimmy. Kenny clasped her upper right arm again and slid his fingers to contact her boobie.

_Yeah! Kenny can follow orders._ She hadn't thought about that. And he understood subtle, too--more or less. Unlike the _other_ man in the room.

Kenny's fingertips made tiny circles against the side of her boobie. She felt a jolt like electricity shoot from her boobie to her cunny. _Hey, that feels pretty damned good!_ It was even better than having Jimmy rub the "cramp" out of her leg, especially since she wasn't wearing a stupid bra.

Jimmy's eyes finally returned to them, only to drop to what Kenny's hand was doing. Suzie also saw... _Her_... eyes widen and stare. She just knew Little Miss Future MD had no idea of how good it felt to have your boobies stroked by someone else. Little Miss Professional Virgin probably didn't even touch hers except through a stupid washcloth. Suzie twitched her arm slightly--being careful not to scare the dolt off--as a signal to make bigger circles.

Instead, Kenny's fingers lessened their pressure began sliding down the curve and underneath, to the bottom, then returning to the side over period of several seconds. It was making her cunny wet. She remembered how excited she'd been when he'd almost had his fingers in her panties. But then his stupid dad had called and interrupted. She was surprised to find herself wishing that he'd had time to get her off first. Her clitty was responding to the boobie-stroking with aching need.

She dropped her hand to his butt cheek again, but this time she merely gave it gentle strokes. She was on fire now. She wondered if there were some way she could let Kenny get her off before they had to go home. She was so desperate that she'd even let him muff dive her right here in front of everybody. _Who knows? It might be fun Caroline said it was, and she was right about how Kenny could suck boobies_.

Jimmy's soft voice was more jarring than a dynamite blast. "If we're an inconvenience, Wynter and I can go join Ron and Mom, and you two can use this bed."

Her eyes focused. She was staring at the wall. She looked at him. He didn't look happy. And Little Miss Future MD was all wide-eyed and red in the face. Suzie guessed you got embarrassed like that when you'd never had anyone play with your boobies before.

"What? Oh. I guess I got distracted by a _real_ man."

"You mean the kind that knows how to kiss?"

_He remembered!_ She guessed maybe the dolt _could_ grasp subtle if it was obvious enough. "Yeah. Like this." She turned and grabbed Kenny's face between her hands, opened her mouth, and pulled him forward. Nobody in the room was more surprised than Kenny, but he responded immediately. She made sure that their faces were turned just _so!_ She made sure that Jimmy could see her tongue writhing into Kenny's mouth and her sucking his back into her own. Kenny moaned slightly. He put one hand behind her head and the other on her butt, crushing her body to his. Her eyes unfocused again.

When Kenny finally drew back, she was gasping for air and her clitty was demanding attention. If she'd had Caroline's gift vibrator, she'd have used it on herself right there on the floor. She turned to the two shocked faces, one still bright red, gaping at them. "That's how a real man kisses. Too bad you don't know how."

"Who says he doesn't?"

She was almost as surprised to hear Wynter speak as she was at her words. Wynter's face was still red, but it wasn't red in the same way as seconds earlier.

"Him? He wouldn't know a real kiss if he had one. Or what to do with it." She finished with her best smirk, the one she saved for special occasions. Like when she was showing up a rival woman trying to steal _Her Man_.

Wynter continued to glare for a moment, her fists on the points of her hips. Then she nodded slightly, as if to herself, and muttered two words Suzie just knew she'd misunderstood if they had come from... _Her_. She sat on the edge of the bed, facing Jimmy, and wrapped her left arm around Jimmy's neck and her right around his waist. He jumped, then relaxed and turned his head slightly so that his nose wouldn't bump hers as it closed the distance. Several long seconds later Suzie heard both of them moan and then sigh. More long seconds followed. Many more. Jimmy's arms folded around Wynter, and one hand made slow circles on her back.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity-fuck, FUCK!_

Something had gone wrong with her plan! No, not some_thing_. Some_one!_ _She_... had interfered. Now what was she going to do? She should have waited. Trust Little Miss Perfection to choose _this_ moment to decide to learn how...

_Wait a minute. Those two know exactly what they're doing. This isn't their first time kissing! FUCK!_

She turned back to Kenny and dropped her hand between them. The stupid dolt had a stiffy! She snarled in a low whisper, "You're supposed to be helping me, not getting a stiffy from watching them, damn it!"

Kenny gulped at the feel of her hand squeezing his favorite toy and shook his head. "That's not what gave me the boner. You did."

She blinked, and then frowned in suspicion. "Is that a joke?"

"No," he whispered. "I got it when you played with my ass. I was trying to keep from getting one while I was playing with your titty, but then you did that and I lost control. I'm really horny and it's all because of you. Honest!"

Suzie stared at him for a moment, then scooted closer and rubbed her cunny against his crotch. "Yeah? Well, you made me real horny, too. Listen, um, you think, maybe, you might wanna go home with me and, um, maybe get away from Mom and, um.... Well, you wanna muff dive me?"

Kenny grinned behind his crooked glasses. "I'd rather eat you than triple-fudge ice cream," he whispered.

They didn't really need to speak quietly. Nobody else in the room was paying them the slightest bit of attention.

~ ~ ~

Wynter felt her face redden as soon as Kenny and Suzie left. "You, um, aren't mad at me for doing that, are you?"

Jimmy's familiar grin sat under dinner-plate-sized eyes and made her heart feel too big for her chest as one of his hands closed over hers. "Heck no! It's what I wanted to do with you, but I was afraid you'd be mad at me if I did it 'cause it would be too personal or something. Wow! It was even better than I'd imagined, and it was so... so... so _special!_ And it was okay for you to kiss me in front of them. I figured Kenny wouldn't say anything after, um, after what he'd been doing."

She felt the red vanish as her smile spread. "Yeah, it really was special! And I thought so, too. About Kenny. So that's why I did it."

His shy grin spread wider. "Well, you can do it again if you want to."

Did she ever! She crushed his body to hers, opened her mouth, and poked his lips with her tongue, then let his into her mouth for the second time ever. He wasn't as good as Daddy with his technique, but it was heavenly just the same. And Daddy had said that she should teach him to be better at kissing. She decided to show him by example and forced his tongue back into his mouth. As she writhed her tongue around his and swept it behind his teeth she felt a brief pang. She wished Jimmy would rub her tits--no, her _breasts_; Jimmy was to polite to say "tits"--the way Kenny had rubbed Suzie's.

And that thought made her mad at herself. Jimmy was too polite to do that, and here she was, selfishly wishing he'd change just to meet her needs. It wasn't fair of her to do that. Well, she couldn't apologize directly to him in words because she didn't want to embarrass him, but she could do so with her actions. She forced her anger into her tongue and it exploded with renewed energy.

Jimmy first did a muffled gasp of surprise and then the longest, happiest sigh she had ever heard.

~ ~ ~

Kenny was trying desperately not to hump the mattress and bring about an orgasm as Suzie's hands crushed his face into her hot, wet slit. Her pubic bone banged his nose twice as she humped violently, distracting him from the sparse, thin, reddish-blonde hairs that were tickling his eyelids. He sure had enjoyed the view when he was able to keep his eyes open, but Suzie's right hand had tried to shove his head up her twat on each of her three orgasms. Her left was holding a pillow over her mouth to keep from attracting her mother's unwanted attention.

Suzie had wanted him to wrap his arms around her legs while he ate her, but that would have meant covering his ears with her thighs. One of them had to listen for Mrs. Middleton's approach, and he knew Suzie wouldn't be able to. Especially not with her head under a pillow. As a temporary compromise she had pushed her shorts and panties down to her knees and pulled her feet up to her butt. She couldn't remove them because of her mother's presence in the house.

Kenny had promised that if she liked being eaten, he'd come back when her mother was out and hold her legs however she liked it for as long as she wanted. She'd readily agreed, on the condition that she liked being muff dived.

Kenny knew a return trip was in the bag. As she began to relax, he pulled his face back and opened his eyes. Her wet, dark pink cunt lay open an inch from his nose. It pulsed twice, looking exactly like someone gasping for breath and pushing her mouth forward as she exhaled. After it stopped pulsing he kissed the small, gaping hole and the short, reddish inner lips, gave everything one upward slurp, and kissed her clit. She jerked and giggled.

This was about as close to heaven he was going to get today, unless Dick and Will got their hands on him and sent him there with a one-way ticket. But Ron's dad had called as they were leaving Jimmy's and said that Dick had held up a convenience store in Granby, and that Will had been seen in their stolen car. Ron's dad thought they would try to flee the state. Ron hadn't been so sure, but he was certain that they would hide somewhere and avoid town for a few days, probably a few weeks.

As she pulled the pillow from her face, he wiped his upper lip. He found a mixture of pussy juice and saliva instead of blood from his nose as he had half expected. "How was that?" he asked as she pushed her torso up to rest on her elbows. One look at her face and understood the meaning of a woman looking "fresh fucked." It was a much brighter look than he'd seen on Caroline's face.

Suzie giggled. "I hope Mom has to go somewhere before next week's shopping trip."

"Better than a vibrator, huh?"

She frowned from her nose up. Below that she couldn't stop grinning. "How do you know about my vibrator?"

_Oh, shit. Now what, Bigmouth?_ He stammered until he came up with an idea. "Well, I was sorta making a joke. I mean.... Well, everybody jokes that girls keep vibrators under the mattress. Like Caroline does. You mean it's true?"

The smile crept back up the rest of her face. "Oh. Well, yeah. But I don't keep it under the mattress."

_She bought it!_ "You, uh, wanna break some more new ground?" he asked, rising to his knobby knees and tugging suggestively on his zipper.

"We don't have to," he added, trying to look at least as disappointed as he felt, though muff diving Suzie had put an almost indelible smile on his face, too. "I just thought you'd like to practice. For when you get to do Jimmy, of course."

She seemed to frown for an instant. "Well, yes. I guess. But we might be pushing our luck with my stupid mother if we both have our pants down."

He thought she sounded a little disappointed. Too bad Caroline wasn't home. He'd give her another twenty bucks if she'd distract Mrs. Middleton for thirty minutes. He liked eating Suzie more than he'd enjoyed eating Caroline. Suzie even tasted better. He wanted to see if her little twat was as tight around his peewee pecker as it had been to his tongue and fingers.

Her voice faded as she continued. "Well, I could, um, well, you know...." The last was unintelligible.

He shook his head. "I didn't hear you."

She sighed. "I said I could give you 'fee-lo-she-oh.' You know. Blow you. Maybe."

_YES!!!_ He shrugged. "Well, if you think you'd like to. I wouldn't want you to do anything you wouldn't like, as much as I'd love to have you do it." That was the corniest line he'd ever heard, but Caroline swore that it would work on Suzie. And she'd been right with every other suggestion.

"Well, you did get me off three times. I guess it's only fair. But lemme get my shorts back up first, in case Mom shows up."

Kenny helped, first kissing the small, thin patch of fuzz on the front of her mound, and then each of her lips, her hole, and her clit before giving everything a slurp with his tongue and then tugging her panties and shorts down from her upraised knees. Suzie moaned at every contact, then lifted her butt and tugged her clothing the last few inches into place.

Kenny kissed her twat through her shorts, just for good measure. He thought it might seem sincere. And, in truth, he had sincerely enjoyed muff diving her.

They experimented with positioning, fully clothed, of course, and settled on him sitting on the edge of the bed. She knelt in front of him and unzipped his shorts. He let her fish it out, telling her that was what guys liked and that she should practice on him so that she didn't hurt Jimmy when she got the chance.

He almost came in her hand.

She pulled it through the fly. "Looks kinda weird," she observed as she twisted and turned it.

He talked her through he mechanics of a hand job--briefly, because he wanted to feel her mouth around it before he came--and then watched her head lower. She kissed the tip before she opened her mouth and lowered her head around it.

It was almost like fucking Caroline, but she finally closed her mouth, putting needed warmth and pressure on it, and rubbed the sensitive underside with her tongue.

"Uh, oh," he moaned. "I'm so horny I can't hold back much longer." Ten seconds later the pleasure wave hit him. "_No, don't stop!_" he groaned as her head pulled back. He had to hump his ass because she closed her mouth around it and did nothing more.

When it was over and he was able mutter, "Okay," she pulled back. Her lips were tightly closed and her cheeks bulged. He'd never shot that much before. She grabbed a tissue from the nightstand and spat a tiny amount of liquid into it. That was more like it. Her mouth had been full of air.

"That was wonderful," he mumbled as he fell back on the bed. And it really was. It wasn't all that _great_, but any time Kenny got off was _wonderful_. Okay, so she needed practice giving head before she'd be as good as Caroline. He was willing to be her practice dummy.

It was the least he could do for her.

~ ~ ~

"_Holy shit!_" Keith McCauley wasn't even aware that he'd whispered the soft words. The cartoon had shown talent and skill, but this.... Keith regretted never attending college. But as he looked at this new drawing, he realized that even college wouldn't have given him the words to describe what he was seeing or the feelings it evoked.

"Dad?"

He tore his eyes away and looked at his son's face. It found a look of curious expectation. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just that you haven't moved for a couple of minutes."

Wynter laughed. "When Daddy does that, we call it 'going someplace else'."

_A couple of minutes?_ "Oh. I was in the trees. Just... just looking around. Wynter, this is unbelievable. Marti said you'd given Jimmy something spectacular for a present. I think she grossly understated it." He put the drawing back on the nightstand, not without a feeling of regret, and opened his arms to her. With the soft smile that was so endearing on her coral lips she stepped into the hug and wrapped her arms about his waist.

"Thank you," she said.

"Thank you for caring enough about Jimmy to draw that for him. I wish I had a daughter as talented as you." He remembered the looks on their faces when he had entered the room. They'd obviously been "swapping spit", even if they were practicing music on Jimmy's electronic keyboard. "Maybe someday I will."

Her arms squeezed him tighter. "I was just trying to cheer him up. That's what best friends do for each other."

He released her and lowered his face to hers, whispering, "Well, I'll tell you a secret: nobody else cheers him up the way you do." He was pleased to see that she didn't blush or look away this time.

Marti had said that something had happened between Jimmy and Suzie that had strained that relationship. He didn't dislike the girl, who certainly didn't have Caroline's reputation, but he was far happier that his son had been swapping spit with Wynter. He'd been taken by the girl within the first five minutes of meeting her, wishing for the first time that he had a daughter just like her. Today's wish had been number.... Well, however many times it had been that he'd seen her since she moved down the street.

Wynter grinned at him. "I've had lots of practice cheering up patients."

"Perhaps so. I'd be just as happy, though, if you didn't have to cheer up Richard and Jimmy as patients after this."

"Me, too," she said with a firm nod and an exasperated sigh. "They're bad enough when they're well. When they're hurt, they are worse than puppies."

He drew back in mock horror. "Then remind me never to have to be your patient! Listen, Marti said supper will be in about half an hour. I hear you're brightening out table with your presence. I have to go clean up now, and then I'll help you downstairs, son. Mom said you wanted to eat at the table tonight."

Jimmy grinned and nodded. "I didn't want to leave Wynter alone with the two of you."

Of that, Keith had no doubt.

~ ~ ~

"To us," Angie repeated as she rang her wine glass against Richard's. It was her favorite cabernet sauvignon and it was wonderfully warm and bright to her taste buds. She presented her glass. "To our daughter," she said.

"To our daughter," Richard repeated. He tapped her glass and they sipped again. This time Richard presented his glass

She saw the sly smile on his face and realized what was coming. She spoke in unison with him. "To our future son-in-law." She certainly hoped that was the case, but if things didn't work out between Wynter and Jimmy, she prayed that her daughter would find another like him.

She started to return her glass to the table, but Richard checked her with a shake of his head. "One more," he said, and she raised it again. "To peace and quiet in the house."

She could toast that one all night long. Or until she passed out, whichever happened first. It was such a relief not having Diane and Bob in the house that she finally realized just how much of a strain their presence had really been. And, fortunately, they hadn't called since they'd left. She pushed the thought out of her mind. The night was too special to waste any of it thinking about The Weird Couple. Richard had brought her to The Bighorn for a special romantic evening, and she wasn't going to waste another moment of it thinking about those two clowns, even if a part of the purpose was to celebrate their departure.

"To peace and quiet in the house." The salad arrived as she set her glass on the table. She waited for the waitress to add a touch of fresh ground pepper and a little grated romano cheese and then waited as she served Richard. When he lifted his salad fork, Angie picked up hers. He gave her a special look before spearing his first bite, one that said he still loved her after all these years together.

Life just couldn't get any better than this. She raised a cherry tomato on her fork and dipped her head in appreciation to him. Before the morsel touched her lips an all-too-familiar voice in the direction of the entrance screeched, "Shut _up_ you _idiot!_"

Seventeen

Wynter couldn't believe it. Daddy told her that Mother's special night out had almost been ruined by The Weird Couple, who hadn't left town after all. When Mother had pointed out that she and Daddy had a table for two and it wasn't big enough for all of them, Aunt Dumb wanted to pull her table over to make a larger one. When the hostess said there wasn't room to do that and besides that, Aunt Dumb's table was in the next section, her crazy Aunt had demanded a bigger table for all five of them, counting Baby Christopher. When one wasn't available because the restaurant was full and people were waiting for a seat, Aunt Dumb told her to move the people at the next table, who were in the middle of their meal. When the hostess said she couldn't her crazy aunt had berated--another grown-up word she decided she liked--the lady for incompetence and not planning ahead like she always did at the truck stop restaurant.

Daddy said that Mother suddenly became very calm, as if watching everything on a television program. Mother told Aunt Dumb that they were celebrating the fact that she had been thrown out of their house, but that they could change it to a celebration of her being thrown out of the restaurant because the owner was a good friend of Daddy's. Fortunately, Aunt Dumb didn't know that the owner lived in Boise and that Daddy had never met him.

Mother said that Daddy left an extra big tip, saying half of it was for the hostess because of the way Aunt Dumb had treated her. Wynter felt good about that. Daddy was always so thoughtful.

Wynter wanted to be thoughtful, too. She volunteered to give up her following Friday night with Daddy, in addition to this one, so that they could have a special night without Aunt Dumb showing up and ruining it. Mother declined and said the offering was more than enough of a gift because it showed that somebody respected her feelings. She said that at that moment, the respect for her feelings meant even more to her than a night with Daddy. Wynter thought that was a very grown-up response and filed it away for future use.

The next two weeks were a blur of activity.

Dick pulled two more robberies, one near Steamboat Springs and one in Rawlins, Wyoming. People began to relax, saying that it was clear that the pair had fled the state. Wynter and her friends were allowed more freedom.

On Monday Jimmy felt like walking to the flat rock, where they lay next to each other and watched the birds and fish and bugs. They talked about school starting, and Jimmy told her more of what to expect. Wynter was a little nervous about actually attending school for the first time instead of being home schooled, but Jimmy eased her fears. They wanted to take the same classes and hoped that they could have the same schedules so that he could be there to help her. Neither brought up Suzie's actions with Kenny last Friday. But they kissed. Wynter loved hearing Jimmy's sigh every time she gave him a lover's kiss. And the "Mmmm" of satisfaction he made after just quick pecks made her heart swell, too.

Daddy bought her an electronic keyboard, based on Jimmy's recommendations, and the "best friends" started practicing music together. They bought several Tangerine Dream CDs and began studying the group's techniques. Mrs. Evers also loaned them several other CDs, saying that she thought they'd especially like Cusco, since it was founded by a former Tangerine Dream member. She was right. Wynter couldn't decide which group she liked best. When Mrs. Evers learned that Wynter played the piano, she added David Lanz's albums to the mix and told Wynter that it was possible to buy sheet music of his works. Amazon had a lot of e-business that evening.

Sometimes Jimmy would play his electronic keyboard while she played the piano. By the time school started she had begun to learn _Eagle's Path_, with Jimmy playing the guitar accents on his keyboard. She was still struggling with parts of the sheet music while he had learned the guitar part in a day just by listening to it. Then he explained how to "feel the notes" in her fingers and to let them play instead of concentrating so hard on the sheet music. She didn't know why, but it worked. A couple of days later she realized that in her drawings she "felt the pictures" in her fingers and just let them draw instead of concentrating so hard on the blank paper in front of her. It opened a whole new door for her. Jimmy's reward was the biggest and best kiss she could possibly manage.

On Friday he suggested she play her flute while he accompanied her, since he'd never heard her play it. She didn't want to make mistakes on her flute in front of him and tried to find a way to turn down the idea. He sensed her discomfort and said it was just an idea and that they didn't have to do so if she didn't want to. "I think you should know," he added, "that if you change your mind, it's okay, and that if you're worried about your technique, that's okay, too. You don't have to be perfect for me to like you. You just have to be you."

Those words were the last thoughts in her mind as she drifted off to sleep.

The following Monday was Labor Day. Instead of having a picnic in the park like everyone else, the King family trekked to their old home in the mountains. The Golds, the elderly couple who bought it, had invited them to come up and enjoy the fields and woods again before cold weather and snow settled in. The McCauley family joined them. Jimmy wasn't very comfortable during the bumpy gravel road portion of the journey. Wynter saw the discomfort in his eyes, but he didn't complain. He was happy to be going to where Wynter was born and had grown up. Fortunately the rough part was less than a mile.

The creek that crossed their former property also had a big flat rock. There Wynter had dangled her feet in the water and practiced her flute, away from the house where nobody but Dragon could hear her mistakes. She showed Jimmy the rock and told him. He smiled and nodded, saying with that simple gesture that he understood and also saying that he hadn't changed his mind about what he'd told her on Friday. She didn't know how she knew that second part, but she did know that it was what he was telling her. It was almost like she was sharing his thoughts.

They spread out the picnic blankets near that rock, in the shade of the trees lining the banks. Dragon was so happy to have his fields to run through that he almost ignored the food. Daddy and Mr. McCauley brought gloves and baseballs and played catch while "the three women" organized the food "under Jimmy's supervision."

After they ate, everyone played Frisbee, even Dragon, who would chase it down when it sailed off in the distance. Once it landed in the creek, and Dragon plunged in after it. Dragon took it to Mr. McCauley, released it into his grasp, and then shook the water from his fur. Wynter thought Mr. McCauley looked more like a schoolboy than like Jimmy's father when that happened. He went chasing after Dragon, saying he was going to "get him." After that, Dragon started looking at Mr. McCauley with much the same look he'd always given Jimmy.

As they packed up, the air grew slightly chilly, as if reminding everyone that it was the first day of September and summer was ending. They chatted briefly with the Golds. Wynter showed Jimmy the house, and in her old room they kissed. Then they returned to town.

Wynter was really and truly disappointed that, after such a nice day, she hadn't been able to kiss Jimmy good-bye.

~ ~ ~

Griffin Middle School was on the southwest corner where Seabridge Trail met Cheyenne Road, a half-mile east of Jimmy's house and one block west of Kenny's, unless you counted the half-block from Kenny's house north to Seabridge. When she asked Jimmy whether she should count the extra half-block, he told her that it depended on whether she meant travel distance or direct distance. She'd never thought of it that way.

Tuesday was only a half-day and was registration, class assignments, orientation, and other administrative details. She was thrilled to be assigned a locker next to Jimmy's, and if he wasn't pleased, too, he sure did a good job of faking it. Most of her classes coincided with Jimmy's. She was disappointed that while one had English the other had PE.

"Well, we couldn't shower together anyway," Jimmy said absently as he studied his class schedule. Then he realized what he said and turned bright red. He tried to stammer an apology, but she said, "You aren't Kenny. I know what you meant." He looked so relieved she wanted to kiss him right there in front of everybody.

She knew several of the girls and a couple of the guys in her classes, as well as a few in the fifth, sixth, and eighth grades. Some of the girls were really friendly. Others started out friendly and then cooled. Jimmy said the pecking order was developing. She had to have him explain that.

She liked most of her teachers, but especially her science teacher, Mr. Shelby, a short, somewhat heavy little man with his black hair pulling back at the temples, gray above his ears, and a twinkle in his eye like he was about to play a trick on everyone. Jimmy said he was the best teacher in the whole school and also the friendliest. Jimmy introduced her to Mr. Shelby when he was showing her where all the classrooms were located. He told Mr. Shelby that Wynter was a Future MD, and he grinned so big she thought his neatly-trimmed mustache was going to slide right up his nose.

"You and Kenny! Excellent! I hope to have more lined up by the time this school year is over. You'd be doing me a big favor if you could talk Jimmy into becoming one as well. I wanted to be a doctor, you know, but they wouldn't take me for physical reasons."

Wynter was shocked. Mr. Shelby didn't seem to have any physical limitations, even at his age now. "You have a handicap? They shouldn't keep you out of medical school for that."

Jimmy, who was grinning broadly, shook his head. "Not that. The only reason he wanted to go to medical school was to give physicals to all the girls. This is what Kenny's going to be like if he ever grows up."

"Why should he?" Mr. Shelby snorted, looking over his glasses at Jimmy. "I never did. Do you play chess?" When his head snapped around she realized he was asking her.

"No, sir. Well, I know the pieces and how they move, but I never really learned."

"I wouldn't teach her if I were you," Jimmy warned.

The dark eyebrows arched. "And why not?

"'Cause you don't like to lose to anyone younger than you, and the way Wynter does everything better than anyone else, she'll be winning every game after a couple of weeks."

His look turned to one of admiration. "Really? Excellent!" Then he looked at the two of them, and she saw that same look she'd seen on Daddy's face and Mrs. McCauley's and Ron's. "I take it you two are, um... best friends, right?"

"Yes, sir."

He laughed when they spoke in unison. "Then I look forward to having you both in my class. That makes three people I won't have to try keeping awake right after lunch."

"Three?" Jimmy asked.

"Kenny."

Wynter didn't exactly understand what Jimmy mumbled, but she knew that it was a good thing that Mr. Shelby didn't understand the words, either.

~ ~ ~

Kenny didn't get lucky again until Tuesday, and then they had to take their bicycles to the park. They slipped off into the trees hand-in-hand, stopping when they reached a secluded thicket. Kenny searched the treetops until Suzie asked him what he was looking for.

"Ron."

She helped him look. Finally they decided they were alone. Kenny leaned back on a large rock. She dropped her shorts and panties and gave them to him to hold. She straddled his face and humped it until she came twice. Then she sat bare-assed on the rock and blew him, carefully spitting out his tiny load afterward. She wiped her mouth, frowned, and said, "I suppose you want to do me now?"

"Of course I do," he replied. Then he uttered the most difficult words he'd ever said in his life. "But not now. Not here. I want it to be something special just for you, where I can hold you just the way you want and you can be comfortable and enjoy it."

She looked at him for the first time as if she no longer considered him to be a walking slime mold. "Really?"

"All I want to do is make you happy, Suzie."

She smiled at him. Really and truly smiled at him. And then she rode his face to a huge third orgasm, after which she blew him a second time. This time she swallowed.

Kenny thought he'd have to wait until Friday to fuck her, but the next day she called him at Jimmy's house to say her mother was going to take Gramma Binns to a doctor's appointment and for him to hurry over. He hurried, telling Jimmy that he had to provide emergency medical assistance to a patient dying of terminal horniness. Jimmy, who still wouldn't admit whether he'd seen Wynter's tits or not, didn't say anything except, "Good bye."

He saw Mrs. Middleton turn south onto Ninth Street as he approached Funderburg Way. He pedaled faster, turning onto Wheeler Way in a wide, sweeping arc, and arrived at Suzie's house out of breath. She met him at the front door, horniness glowing in her eyes, and said he'd cool down faster if he came to her room and removed his clothes. He wasn't sure that would cool him down, especially if she removed hers, too.

She was nervous when she lay back on the bed. He told his peewee pecker to wait just a little longer while he lifted her legs, wrapped his arms around them, and buried his face in her steaming little twat. She almost ripped his arms out of their sockets when she came, but her nervousness left and was replaced by more hornies.

He moved above her, his arms behind her knees and his hands to either side of her shoulders. "Would you like to put me in?" he asked afraid that he was going to cum, if not while waving in the air over her sparse reddish-blonde bush, then as soon as she touched him. "That way I know I won't hurt you and you can enjoy every minute of it just the way you like."

That corny line still worked. She slid the head between her lightly-furred lips, positioned it, and said, "Okay."

He eased it in. She was so much tighter than Caroline that he almost came before his balls bumped her butt. Half a minute later he was short-stroking and then he came. He vaguely realized he should apologize for cumming too quickly. "I was overwhelmed by how good you are compared to Caroline," he added, using his phony mask of genuine sincerity for extra effect.

She pulled his face to hers and rammed her tongue down his throat. His erection, which had been growing flaccid inside her, sprang to full tumescence. Ten minutes later they were gasping for air as he told her how good she had been, which was true, and how he hoped he'd pleased her as much as she'd pleased him, which was intended to gather invitations for repeat performances.

On Friday her mom went shopping as usual, and they experimented with different positions. Caroline suddenly appeared near the end of the first hour, not bothering to knock before entering. Kenny was banging her doggie style, his hands on her hips, pulling her backward as he slammed forward. Not that you could work up much of a slam over that short distance.

Suzie started to fuss, but Caroline held up a leather belt and said, "I thought you might want to try this." Suzie thanked her instead and then listened to tips on the best way to position herself for doggie style from a short dick. "No offense meant," she said to Kenny. "It'll grow. This time next year Suzie will be humping a whole new dick."

_Maybe_, thought Kenny. _Or maybe I'll just keep her around if I haven't found someone better_.

~ ~ ~

Suzie wasn't too thrilled with school starting. She never was. She had science and math classes with Jimmy. And... _Her_. The former didn't excite her as much as she thought it would, and the latter didn't really bother her. She was more excited that she had most of her classes with Kenny. She decided she'd be better off with Kenny in her classes anyway.

Because... well... because he would be available to help her, while Jimmy would be distracted by Wynter, of course. That was why she was excited to have Kenny taking classes with her. It was the only reason she liked having the knobby-kneed little dwarf in her classes. He could follow orders and would do anything to please her. And he didn't make demands; he just accepted any sex she wanted to give him as if it were the most precious thing on Earth to him, and he was happy just to make her happy.

Unlike Jimmy, who seemed to care only about what Miss Future MD could do for him. She guessed maybe she was lucky that she had escaped being saddled by someone who cared only about his needs and nothing about hers. Or... _Hers_. She was lucky that Kenny came along wanting nothing more than whatever it took to please Suzie Middleton. And that was the _only_ reason why she was excited about Kenny.

Who, she decided, also needed a lot of work. Fortunately for Kenny, she was there to straighten him out and make him presentable for... well, for whoever got him in the future. When he was a rich doctor. When he was looking for a woman to make happy by doing whatever she wanted whenever she wanted it and the way she wanted it, while also providing her plenty of money to spend on whatever she wanted for herself.

_Yeah_.

~ ~ ~

On Friday the four friends decided that Saturday would be spent in Hargus City, the mining ghost town in the hills south of the city, west of the county road that led to Wynter's old home. It might be their last big adventuring expedition of the year because the chill in the air was increasing. Jimmy was looking forward to the ride on his new bike. His father had decided he was outgrowing his old one, and it was best to replace it now rather than repair it. Going by bikes instead of having Wynter's father take them meant Dragon wouldn't be able to accompany them. Wynter was disappointed for Dragon's sake, but she remembered that he'd been able to run through his fields again that Monday. It made her feel less upset about his being left out.

Except for Suzie they did all their homework on Friday night. They left early Saturday morning. Three of them wore large backpacks that made them feel like gypsies. Suzie had a small one with little more than food and drinks in it, and she was complaining about the weight by the time they traveled the couple of blocks to Merv Elementary School on Eleventh Street. Kenny and Jimmy wore sheathed knives, while Wynter carried a small folding knife in her pack. They skirted to the west and south of the downtown area. As Seventh curved eastward to become Timmers Trail they saw a road crew building the stretch of Buffalo Road from Twelfth southeast to Sixth. Buffalo Road, currently in several sections, would eventually be the main route around the southern side of the town. They wondered if Jimmy's dad was out there with that crew since he was supposed to be on the sites today. Hargus City was due south of them at that point, but they'd need ropes and pitons to climb the almost vertical rock face just beyond Buffalo Road.

They turned south when at Dunne Drive, which what was First Street was called in that new part of town. After two blocks they had to stop at Dunne High School while Suzie caught her breath. Bicycling with a backpack didn't use the same muscles as swimming, but it did tell Suzie that she was out of shape. She decided Kenny was going to take her to the indoor pool in Otter Park on a regular basis and help her work out so she'd be ready for the spring swim meets.

At the hills south of the high school, Dunne Drive began climbing up to Wynter's old home. South of an existing four-block section of Buffalo Road they turned right onto Hargus Road. It crossed Panner's Creek and ended after about five blocks. From there it was a dirt trail to Panner's Creek again. The unsafe, rickety wooden bridge had been fenced off three years earlier. It had yet to be torn down, but it looked as if it would collapse on its own at any minute. They crossed the virtually dry creek just below the bridge and began the switchbacks up to the small ghost town.

Little was left but rock foundations and a few stone walls. It was too isolated for human vandals to come here and destroy things. It was disappearing thanks to the vandalism of time and natural forces. Scavengers had carried off most of the items that had been left behind, but occasionally the weather uncovered hints that people had once lived here. Jimmy's Uncle Jim had found a one dollar gold piece about twenty years earlier. Since then people had found only corroded pennies and nickels and occasional buttons and forks and spoons and other everyday items. Some signs remained, the paint so worn and flaked away that it was impossible to tell what they had once said.

They discussed how people had lived there and what life must have been like. To everyone else's amazement, Suzie found the topic fascinating and contributed her own ideas.

To the west of the small town was the entrance of the mine in the face of a small bluff. Wynter's father said that the ore vein had traveled almost horizontally and the main shaft extended toward the middle of Buffalo Peak. It had been a rich vein, but not a large one. Hargus City was born and died in a decade.

The entrance to the mine was fenced off and had warning signs. Their parents had again cautioned them to stay out of the mine. Wynter's father stressed that he would never again enter it because of the danger. The supporting timbers were rotting away, and the shaft could collapse on its own at any moment. Any disturbance as minor as nudging a supporting timber could cause a catastrophe. They four friends stayed well away.

And thus they did not see that the fence had been pulled loose from one post and carelessly reattached with short sections of wire. Four eyes watched them from within the gloom. One spoke in a nasal voice. "Well, well. Pencildick and Bug Boy without their guardian Angel. And this time they brought us two bitches."

Copyright 2005 Russell Hoisington

Concluded in Wynter & Jimmy Part 3: Boyfriends and Girlfriends