Her blue eyes flitted from him to Rhea, Anna, and Emma before she to him and added, “Nor did I ever think I would have to share you with anyone else, nor want to. So, here I am alone in the world except for the baby in my belly, the love of the man who put it in me, and my love for him. Thomas Goodspeed, this is my New Year’s resolution. My goal this year l is to have a family. Married. Unmarried. I don’t care as long as you will accept me as a part of your family, that’s all I want. That and more babies.”
Deborah was about to step in close to Thomas but Rhea intercepted her. She smiled weakly while Rhea wiped tears from her eyes, then Rhea enfolded her in a hug as she whispered, “Welcome to the family, Deborah.”
Deborah choked off a sniffle then hugged Rhea fiercely as Anna and Emma joined in. Everyone else remained silent during the emotional exchange.
After a few seconds Kinsae raised her glass and hollered, “Cheers Debbie! Good for you! I, however, don’t really care to limit myself to one man. Thomas, this baby growing in my belly is yours, and my New Year’s resolution is for you and me to remain friends. Friends with benefits would be even better, but if not then at least friends. I want you to be involved in raising our baby, however, I don’t want to marry you. Sorry, stud.”
Jessica thrust her champagne glass into the air with a guffaw before adding, “Here here! I am with Kinsae. Thomas, I love you man, but I don’t want to be anything other than fuck buddies. Though I got to say, after seeing your harem I think I would like one of my own. Just, made up of guys and girls. Let me know if you wanna join. There will always be a place for you!”
Annalee was the only one that laughed in the silence that followed, then as if on cue everyone laughed a second later. Wine glasses filled with wine or cranberry juice were clinked together and everyone started conversing. Ben found the remote to the stereo and turned the music and everyone settled in to have a good time.
A short time later friends of Damien, Ben, Thelma, Annalee, and Amanda started showing up. A few of Emma’s friends showed up and then some of Anna’s friends. Thomas actually knew some of them, then lastly a few very open minded friends of Rhea’s showed up. They were all older female divorcees. Thomas kept Rhea on his arm as she introduced her friends to Janette. After the sun set in a dazzling display of reds, oranges, pinks, and greens no one noticed when Thomas, Rhea, Anna, Emma, and Deborah left the party.
“So,” Emma said from the back seat of Rhea’s Lincoln Navigator, “Thomas, now you have six wives. What do you think of that?”
“Six,” Deborah said from right beside Emma who was sitting in the middle, “There’s four of us here. Who are the other two?”
“Oh, well, one of them is just Cinderella,” Emma replied sarcastically, “The other, well, I’m not sure where she fits in. But, then again, there could just be the four of us if Margaret and Leslie don’t get their butts in gear and patch things up with Thomas.”
“Margaret? Leslie?” Deborah mumbled, “Patch things up?”
“It’s a long story,” Thomas said from the driver’s seat.
“Don’t worry Deborah, I’ll tell you the whole story once we’re home,” Rhea promised.
Deborah nodded but Anna preempted Rhea by starting the story anyway, and so, as they drove home Rhea, Anna, Emma and occasionally Thomas shared his recent events and romances.
—-(!)—-
After New Year’s Eve Thomas didn’t return to the beach house. Rhea’s home became known as the compound and it was where everyone lived and loved.
Thomas went out and bought six women’s Claddagh wedding rings. Six. However, he waited on giving any of them to the four women that loved him until he had an answer from the two that started him down this path. For himself, he had a custom wedding ring made. It was made up of six thin pieces fitted together with the final band having an overlapping triangular piece with an Irish Chladaigh that overlapped the other five pieces, locked them together, and pointed up his hand toward his heart. It had been–something–trying to get every woman’s ring size without asking them or getting help.
Deborah moved in and found herself with an instant family. Even Rhea, who also explained who she was in relation to her son and was ten years older than herself, seemed like a sister to her. Anna also explained who she was, Rhea’s sister and Thomas’s aunt, and for a while there she was completely revolted by the idea and reality of the incest obviously practiced between the three. But then she rationalized it by examining her own heartfelt desire to have a very close, very loving family of her own. Then she excused it by imagining how she might have loved her father and brothers, the lengths of affection she would have gone to express her love and desire to hold on to the only family she had if she had had such a family in the first place. Then, she found that she wasn’t so revolted anymore and accepted her place in her new family.
As it turned out Emma got pregnant early in November and didn’t even realize until her belly started growing outward by the end of January. She had no sickness at all. So, as February came to a close Thomas had four pregnant women sleeping in bed with him on the largest bed he’d ever conceived of. It was a double king pushed together with huge custom sheets and comforters. Anna and Debbie were the furthest along. Anna got pregnant her very first time having sex with Thomas at the movie theater, or possibly the five or six times later that evening. Debbie’s last period made it so that she evidently got pregnant on Halloween night. That put Anna at four and a half months, and Debbie at four months along and both were showing every bit of it. Emma was next but she barely appeared to be pregnant at all, and then there was Rhea. Rhea guesstimated from her last period that her conception was sometime during to a little after her and Thomas’s long Thanksgiving weekend, so she was only three months pregnant and barely showing.
Another thing that happened was that a grim-faced Mary June and George drove over from Jacksonville and deposited a sniffling fifteen-year-old Cheryline with all of her possessions on Rhea’s doorstep. Rhea asked Mary June and George in and took them to the kitchen for tea while Scot very quietly ushered Cheryline and all her stuff off to his room.
Once Rhea had Mary June and George settled she asked, “What is this all about?”
George opened his sneering mouth but Mary June held up a hand to forestall him and said, “Cheryline is pregnant. Your son got my little girl pregnant. She refuses to abort the incestuous bastard, so here she is. You, Thomas, Scot, and Cheryl can all live with the consequences now, I wash my hands of it all!”
“What about Thelma, Amanda, and your other children?” Rhea asked.
“Jasper’s pregnant too,” Mary June growled, “We’ve already dropped her off with Lionel and Bianca.”
“So,” Rhea asked in a quiet but horrified tone, “You’re just writing off your children?”
“This was their choice and your negligence,” George growled, “If you had done your job instead fucking your son and sister like some incest-crazed succubus then this never would have happened!”
Rhea blinked, her mouth open just a little from her surprise, but then she gathered herself and replied, “Okay then. If this is how it is to be then fine. I will take Cheryline in and–any of the other children too if you don’t want them.”
“Want?” Mary June gasped, “Do you think we don’t want them? Do you think that we don’t love our children? Well, I got news for you Sis, we love them all! But, our hearts are broken and they must learn that there are consequences for their decisions, and so do you!”
“Don’t you remember being their age, Mary?” Rhea asked while shaking her head, “Don’t you remember being fifteen and determined that you were going to be pregnant before you were sixteen?”
“Yes!” Mary June admitted, “But I didn’t fuck my brothers or cousins to get that way!”
“Mary,” Rhea replied softly, “Don’t you understand? They’re young. They’ve never really spent much time with anyone outside of the family. Of course, they think they’re in love with their cousins and siblings…” She paused for a second as a thought occurred to her then continued, “You know, it’s said that a woman’s husband is usually her first great love while her firstborn son is her last. I don’t know if that applies to men as well with their wives and daughters, but I’ve also heard that a boy’s first love is his mother, and it is she that teaches him what a good woman is. So, I guess we all start a little incestuous from birth.”
“That as may be,” Mary June hissed, “But you don’t just go plunging headlong into incestuously fucking your son, or daughter, or sister, or brother, or cousins! It just isn’t done! It’s not proper!”
“Neither was fucking a fifteen-year-old,” Rhea chided right back, “And yet, you two did it!”
“And accepted the consequences of our actions,” Mary June retorted immediately.
“And so shall they,” Rhea said, speaking of all the children that had made the very adult decision to have sex Christmas Eve, “However, like mom and dad didn’t cut you out of their life for your behavior, neither will I cut out my children and nieces and nephews for theirs. I suggest you reconsider your actions as well.”
“Well,” George growled, “On that point, we will have to agree to disagree.”
Then, they got up and left.
A few days later, Lionel and Bianca arrived just long enough to leave a bawling Jasper, Jamin, Reagan, and Ingrid on Rhea’s doorstep. All four girls were, in fact, pregnant.
A few days later, Raegan suddenly got her period. The day after that Jamin got hers, and a week later Jasper got hers. Since they were longer pregnant, Rhea asked if they wanted to go home and reconcile with their parents; they all refused. That left Cheryline and Ingrid as the only girls still pregnant. And so, by the close of February Rhea’s house was bursting at the seams.
—-(!)—-
When the plane landed in Florida, Margaret searched for Martin Green’s law office on her phone, then she walked out and hailed a cab. It was quite a drive to Martin’s office. She walked in and found that he looked nothing like she had imagined. He was much younger than she had assumed from their short conversations on the phone.
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