Chapter 16

July 1, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

[Written on July 2, 2017]

[Wow. This catching up on the diary is quite the time sink. I’ve been at it all afternoon after the girls left today around noon (July 2). I just checked: Yesterday’s entry was nearly 10,000 words! Wow. I think that this entry will not be nearly so long, what with no peeking in on parents sexing each other in the kitchen, no bedroom love scenes, no tender shower scenes. There is one ... emotional scene that needs replaying, but first, the start of the day.]

Rhee and I woke before 8:00. I felt well rested, so we apparently didn’t make love “all night,” though I know not when I went off to la-la land. I woke spooned to Rhee’s backside and once again thought, ‘this is a wonderful way to greet the day.’ Seemingly, we were both sated by last night’s amorous adventure, as we managed a relatively short shower with little horseplay.

The breakfast conversation was a little stilted. No, Mom and Rhee and I carried on as usual. Dad was subdued, which worried me. Is Mom pushing him too hard regarding semi-public sex? If so, how much is my responsibility?

Rhee and I were ready to go by 9:10 and, with a couple of soccer balls for the ad hoc practice with Heather, waiting in the kitchen for our driver. I was surprised to see Dad come into the kitchen dressed and with car keys in hand.

“Come on, girls, let’s go,” he said.

I glanced at Rhee, who had glanced at me; I gave a tiny shrug of my shoulders. We followed him through the mud room to the garage and got in Dad’s lovingly maintained 2001 Isuzu Trooper. I got in the front passenger seat, thinking that it would be best, though my reasoning was a bit nebulous; Rhee got in back. After we were on the road, I decided to beard the lion.

“Dad, are you mad at us? Or Mom?”

His shoulders and head drooped, and he stared out the windshield. After a few seconds, he gave a barely audible sigh and replied, “No, Cupcake.”

Just the using of his pet name for me relieved much of my concern.

“No,” he continued, “I’m not. I am a bit confused and more than a little concerned.” He then looked in the rearview and said to Rhee, “For a long time, now, I’ve thought of you as a second daughter that lives with her mother most of the time, leaving me, her dad, to see her only sporadically and too briefly.”

With that, Rhee started tearing up, and she put a hand on Dad’s shoulder. She started to say something, but Dad interrupted.

“No, let me get this out. While I like many aspects of the clothing-optional policy, I am concerned that the policy may not be the best for you two. I am also concerned that you two are covering personal dislike of such ... obviously sexual displays of affection with blithe acceptance.”

Dad held his hand up in the “stop” signal while he dealt with traffic, then continued by turning to me.

“While I know that had I had the same experience as you have recently, I would have thought that it was great. But I have that Y chromosome and I cannot trust the reactions of a growing, horny boy to enable me to determine what is good or bad for my daughter ... daughters. Our society is only just starting to emerge from the belief that females are weak and do not appreciate a lot of things that we now know as a society – not just individual people – that they do appreciate. Sexuality is one of the most contentious of those beliefs.

“I am particularly having difficulty because my two daughters are such attractive young women, young women that at your age I would have loved to see naked daily as I see you now. Obviously, I would have loved a lot more. What teenaged boy wouldn’t?

“I guess what I need from you two is your truthful reactions to the recent change at the house and all of the results of that change. In particular, are there results that you don’t like, even hate? I am also really concerned with you two catching us in the kitchen last night. I would hate it – really, really hate it – if a result of last night is that you two were afraid to spend time at the house.”

I looked back at Rhee and then back at Dad, who was paying attention to his driving. Or, at least, appearing to do so. I didn’t really know what to say, as I was the one that instigated the change, but if he knew that, he might wonder why I was driving that change and how. And that could just not be made obvious in his head, as our family might very well self-destruct. I was, for the first time, beginning to doubt my great idea.

Rhee, bless her, took the lead. She put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed it, then responded to Dad’s query.

“Dad,” she started, “Beth and I have talked a lot about the clothing change. Not once has either of us expressed any doubt, any concern, about the clothing policy. We both really like it. Yes, it’s titillating at times, particularly ... umm ... when ... uh ... when you get excited. From my point of view, I think that two things are most important. I have felt a bit like part of your family for a few years, ever since my home situation went to ... Hell. Yes, I know that many kids have it worse, with some situations approaching real Hell. But it was very distressing to me when my parents’ marriage was breaking up and having the safe haven of your house, your family, enabled me to come through that taste of Hell relatively unscathed.

“So, when you guys considered me family enough to include me, and by extension, M ... uh ... First Mom, it really struck home that I was, indeed, a member of your family, and a loved member at that.”

With that, her eyes started leaking (mine were in sympathy with hers), and Dad’s left hand reached across himself and took her hand. Despite the tears, she bulled on, staring into his eyes through the rearview mirror.

“Honestly, I have felt not one iota of concern about the clothing-policy change. I have embraced it. It probably helped at least a little that we did the same at ... my primary house? ... a bit before you did, but I don’t think that I’ve ever spent as pleasant an evening with family as I did the other night. It was like ... umm ... clothing was unimportant. We were just a family having an enjoyable time together, laughing, talking, bonding.

“While it would probably have seemed very odd to the nine-year-old me, the fourteen-year-old me is very happy with her two families that, at times, are only, perhaps, one-and-a-half families; maybe only one-and-a-quarter families. That is, there doesn’t seem to me to be much difference in which house I am, because both houses are pleasant, enjoyable, and I am loved in both houses.”

Rhee was crying now, so I unbuckled my seat belt, turned, and embraced her. Dad pulled off onto the side of the country road. However, she quickly got enough handle on her emotions to continue without much in the way of emotional breaks.

“You must see that Beth is suffering no ill effects of the policy change. I certainly see none. I see an amazing girl ... young woman ... that has taken on heavy duties for the soccer team, ones that would cause problems for a lot of kids. But she accepts those responsibilities with aplomb and then proceeds to figure out how to make things even better. Her personality is primarily due to the way that she was raised by two incredible parents, parents that I am very happy to have adopted.

“Beth can tell you that if I don’t like something, I am not shy about expressing that dislike. You certainly saw some of that when I was, for all intents and purposes, living with you guys. She can also tell you that I really dislike lying, so please believe me when I say that I have no qualms, no concerns about the new clothing policy. In fact, I very much enjoy it.

“Beth and I have, over the years, spent quite a bit of time naked together, though that’s mostly been restricted to our various bedrooms. I very much enjoy being unclothed, so the policy change just gives me more latitude for my enjoyment. Even when you get excited. I am not concerned that you would ever do anything to me that I didn’t want, so I feel safe, comfortable, even happy when I’m naked in your house. And I don’t lose those feelings of safety, comfort, and happiness when you ... uh ... get hard. I love Beth and I love both of her parents, parents that I consider to be Dad and Second Mom and I know that neither of those parents would ever willingly hurt me.”

During this expostulation, Dad had turned halfway so that he could look at Rhee. I could see his body becoming less tense. When he turned, he took Rhee’s right hand in both of his, holding them, petting them. When she seemed to wind down, he looked at me with a questioning face.

“No, Dad,” I responded, “I have no concerns. I really like the policy, being naked. If I could get away with it, I’d go everywhere naked. Well, maybe in summer, anyway. And, please believe us when we tell you that we do not mind a little naked PDA in the house, even a lot of naked PDA in the house.”

Whereupon, Rhee immediately took up the argument. “Yeah, Dad. You and Second Mom are very attractive people. It is also very obvious that you love each other, and neither Beth nor I have any problems with you expressing that love, even if it gets involved and even if it happens in a place or time at which one or both of us happen to be present. We’ve talked about this very thing. Not only do we not mind it, we like it. From personal experience, I can tell you that it is WAY better than yelling and screaming.”

Then she blushed and dropped her head.

Dad looked dumbfounded. I grinned at him and tousled Rhee’s head.

“She’s right, Dad,” I continued. “It’s also way better than that stuff that is available online, though most of that seems like crap to me. Besides, you guys often don’t close your door and I have snuck a peek more than once.”

Dad blushed. And lowered his head. I giggled.

Rhee again took the gauntlet. “Yeah, so if you two start feeling ... umm ... amorous, don’t mind us. We REALLY don’t mind.”

After some hemming and hawing, Dad finally dropped the subject and returned to driving. As we were driving up Gracey’s street, I said, “Remember, Dad, you and Mom have to be clothed when we get back from practice.” I paused a beat or two, then continued, “Or not. I’m sure that Gracey and Liya wouldn’t mind,” and then grinned maniacally at him. Rhee just about busted a gut. Oh, if only he knew that all four of us wanted him.

Dad blushed at that and had an odd look on his face. My mind went into hyperdrive, and I wondered, “Does Dad’s thing for girls include those two?” While Gracey and Liya were not pretty, they were far – very far – from ugly, and both were in shape, particularly Gracey. Hmmm. Food for thought.

Heather was there when we got to the field. Liya would run down errant soccer balls while Rhee, Gracey, and I put Heather through the paces, usually with Rhee and Heather being offense and Gracey and I being defense. While Heather’s left-foot skills are a little weak, she is blazing fast, with Gracey not being able to catch her if Heather got any kind of a head start on breaking for the goal.

Despite all the work, we also had a lot of fun, and Heather seemed to fit the gang and its idea of humor. So, I asked if she wanted to come over for lunch. She started to answer, but stopped, considered, then said, “Let me call my mother. I think that it would be all right, as we can go underwear shopping anytime today.”

I’ve noticed that, though she’s very impulsive, she has the ability to step herself back and think about things on which she feels impulsive. I think that that’s good. Her mom was fine with picking her up at our house after lunch, so the five of us trooped home.

My parents were clothed when we got there. After all the girls said “hi” and hugged both Dad and Mom, I introduced Heather to them. Dad said, “Oh, you’re the speedster, right?”

Heather, with her very pale complexion, turned bright red.

Dad took pity on her. “Don’t worry about it. The three team members of the Gang of Four are quite demonstrative about the team and soccer, so you’ve come up in conversation. Since I know how fast Rhee is, you must be a real speedster to be faster than she is. I understand that you’ll be filling in at right wing while Lissa is out. Having watched a lot of their games over the past two years, if you’re fast, then the offense obviously needs to figure out what it needs to do differently, as Lissa ... has a very different style. I assume that Beth, here, the overly demanding Assistant Coach, wants to use you as a streaker. Yes?”

I was proud of Dad, but Heather looked both flabbergasted and in awe. I thought that I knew why and told myself to ask her later. She nodded her head at Dad and quietly said, “Yeah.”