Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Chapter Twelve



   Tina was dressing in jeans, just right fit, and a long-sleeved dark blue
cotton shirt that set her hair and face aglow.  We pulled into Elise's
driveway, got out, and knocked on the door.  Brother-in-law Joe met us at
the door.

   "Damn, Alan, she's a cutie.  Hi, Tina, I'm Joe.  Elise's husband.  Ya'll
come in!"

   We walked into the house, smelling the wonderful aromas of the foods I'd
been raised on.  "What's she doin, a pork roast?" I asked.

   "Smells like my grandma's," Tina said.

   Joe laughed.  "Smells like everybody's grandma's.  She's gotten good
over the years."

   Elise stuck her head around the corner.  "I heard that!" she said.

   "Deb!" Joe yelled.  "Come out here!  Your Uncle Alan an' yer new aunt
are here!" He turned to us.  "Deb's here.  Haley's at a friend's, but
she'll be here in a bit.  We tol' 'er to be home for supper."

   Sixteen year old Deb popped around the corner, smiling.  Her smile
broadened when she saw me and Tina.  Tina was two inches taller, and Deb's
hair was a curious arrangement of brunette and blonde streaks, and they
could've been schoolmates.

   She bounced up to me and hugged me, kissing me on the cheek, then she
turned to Tina.  "Hi!  I'm Deb.  Deborah, actually, but Deb works better."
And she hugged Tina.  "Mom says you're graduating this year?"

   "Uh-huh," Tina said.  "You?"

   "I'm a sophomore,' she sighed.  "Haley's a senior."

   "Let's go sit," Joe said.

   "I'm gonna see if Elise needs help," Tina said.

   I looked at her and winked.

   Tina and Deb went to the kitchen.  Joe looked at me.  "Wow, bud!" he
said.  "Elise told me, but I didn't quite believe it.  Seventeen?"

   "Uh-huh," I said.  "Damnedest thing I ever saw.  Out of the clear blue."
I told him how we met.

   The women came back into the living room and Tina sat beside me.  "I
heard you talking about me, baby," she said.

   "I was telling him about the day we met," I said.

   She smiled.  "Wasn't one of my better days, Mister Joe," she said.

   "Please don't call me mister," Joe said.

   "Okay, Joe, then," she said.  "But Mom an' her boyfriend and I were
evacuating from the hurricane, and we stopped for breakfast..." She told
the story.  "And after the deputies showed up, I didn't have any place to
go.  And Alan offered..."

   "In that trailer of his?" Joe asked.

   "Yeah, but you know, he didn't... he was a perfect gentleman.  I was a
high school dropout 'cuz of my mom, and he got me back in high school, and
got legal responsibility for me so he could do it, and treated me like,
well, he never tried anything.  Like he told the deputy, he was just my
friend."

   Joe and Elise looked at me.  "I was.  Seriously."

   "Yes.  He was.  Got me into school.  Bought me a car so I didn't have to
ride the bus, and so I could run errands after school while he was still at
work.  You know, so we'd have an easier time.  And I thought I was just
gonna be a normal school girl.  But the first time I went out, I got
shocked back to reality.  And I asked myself what a REALLY wanted." She
looked at me.  "And I decided it was Alan.  So here we are."

   I tugged her against me.  "And we're gonna stay this way."

   Deb looked at her mom, eyebrow raised.

   Elise snorted, "You go right ahead, little girl.  You bring home a guy
with a six-figure job, we'll talk about it."

   The front door opened and my oldest niece walked in.  "Hi, Uncle Alan,"
she said, hugging me.  "An' you gotta be Tina!"

   "I am.  And you're Haley, right?"

   Haley smiled.  She was Tina's height, carrying twenty more pounds, her
hair shoulder-length, the dark brown that ran in our family.  "Mom says
you're a senior?"

   "Yep.  You too, huh?" Tina smiled.

   "Oh, god, yes!  Finally!" Haley smiled.

   "Sit down!  Tell me about your plans!" Tina replied.

   "Plans?  I guess, college, huh Dad?" Haley looked at Joe.

   Joe shrugged.  "Baby, we've been through this.  Do you have any idea
what you want to do?"

   "Oh, I dunno," Haley said.  "I think I'm going in for mass
communications.  My friend Kayla's doin' that..."

   "And you're thinking it's a good idea to spend five figures on 'I'm
thinkin' 'cuz this friend of yours is 'doin' that'?"

   I surmised that this conversation had been run through before.  Haley
decided to enlist a new ally: Tina.  She turned to Tina, her brown eyes
showing hope.  "So, Tina, do you, like, have a solid plan?"

   Tina perked up.  "Yes, I do.  I'm hoping for scholarships, but it
doesn't matter.  In the fall I'm starting on electrical engineering.  Four
years." She turned and smiled at me.  "Like Alan."

   Joe smirked.  "That's a plan.  And she actually KNOWS somebody that's
making a living as an engineer.  Do you know anyone with a 'mass
communications' degree that's not living in their mom's house?  I mean,
really?"

   "But it's a college degree, Dad," she whined.  "What'd'ya think, Uncle
Alan?"

   "I think it's between you an' your daddy," I waffled.  "But I do see his
side.  Don't you think it would be nice to go after something that makes
you employable?"

   "But isn't important to LEARN?  Isn't that what college is about? 
Learning?"

   "Learning is certainly honorable," I said, "and I've never stopped
learning.  But I had my eye on paying for my own future when I got out of
high school.  The wrong college degree just means you're going to have a
better chance at being under-employed than somebody with a high school
diploma.  So you're working for ten bucks an hour after you paid a hundred
thousand for the privilege."

   She was a bit somber-looking.  "uh..."

   "No, sweetie, don't be sad.  You're at the door to your future, like a
few million other eighteen-year-olds are." I drew a breath.  "I went right
into college and then the army.  Your dad went into the navy, then got out
and fought a job AND school, and raising a family.  It wasn't so easy. 
He's probably tried to explain, but I know how you are.  I was eighteen
once too, you know."

   "Well, it's hard, Uncle Alan," she said.

   "So think about it, baby.  And don't just talk to your friends, because
most of them are as confused as you are.  And remember, a lot of people at
the school are in the business of education, and you're getting out of
their world into the REAL world."

   Elise peered around the corner.  "Looks like a funeral in here.  I need
help setting the table."

   The girls jumped up.  Joe sat back.

   "You didn't go easy on 'er," he said.

   "Was I supposed to?" I asked.

   "Oh, god, no!  She's been talking about it all year.  And I've been
tryin' to tell 'er, but I'm just poor ol' dumb Dad, you know... You're her
successful uncle.  Maybe she'll listen." He sighed.  "And do what the hell
she wants."

   Tina came into the room.  "Dinner's ready," she said.  "An' it looks
GOOD!"

   Joe looked into the dining room.  "Oh, sure," he picked, "Set the table
for your BROTHER.  Me, I eat off a TV tray."

   Elise caught that comment easily.  "Dear husband," she said, dripping
sarcasm and humor, "I didn't do it for HIM, either.  I did it for Tina,
just to show her that I am on a higher plane of existence than the two of
you."

   We approached the table and Elise handed Joe the carving tools.  "See,"
he said as he sliced up the roast.  "She even got meat without bones in
it."

   "I'm just showin' how successful you are, babe," Elise quipped.

   The meal was great, the roast tasty, and dessert was home-made pies.  We
managed to keep the conversation light and friendly.

   After the meal, Joe and I got out of the way and let the dining room and
kitchen be cleared out.  When the last door closed and the dishwasher
started making washer sounds, the family ended up at the table playing
Trivial Pursuit.

   Elise laughed.  "Now, Tina, the only way we let HIM," pointing at me,
"play is that he spots everybody two pieces."

   I caught Tina's eyes as they flashed at me with a little twinkle that I
instantly recognized.  "Let the games begin," I said.  I wasn't married to
a dummy, seventeen or not.

   A couple of hours later Tina answered the last question and won and I
sat back with my arms crossed, smiling.

   Elise said, "Get that grin off your face.  You look evil."

   "I married 'er for her BRAINS, sis," I laughed.

   Tina giggled.  "Well, we get to pull that stunt ONCE, huh?"

   Haley was propping her chin in her hand.  "How do you KNOW that stuff?"

   "I read a lot.  Alan and I talk about everything under the sun.  D'you
know I flew us here?  Yeah, he's... I'm learnin' to fly."

   "But what'd'ya do for FUN?" Haley asked.

   Tina smiled.  "I LIVE!  Life is fun.  Sometimes.  And when it's NOT fun,
you just do your best, thinking of when it was good, and hoping that it'll
be good again.  The day Alan rescued me; I thought it might've been my last
day on earth.  It got better."

   Haley hadn't heard the story, or at least much of it.  After all, it was
about an uncle who was gone most of the time.  "So he rescued you?"

   "Mom's boyfriend was getting ready to slap the crap out of me in a
restaurant, and Alan stepped in.  Mister Jeff had me by the shirt and when
Alan told him to stop, he dropped me and started to pull his pistol.  Alan
was faster.  Then the sheriff department got there and arrested him an'
Mom. And I didn't have a place to go."

   "And so you married him?" Haley said.

   "Oh, no, it's not like that at all.  He just gave me a place to stay,
and it took me a while to figure out that he needed me and I needed him and
here we are."

   "Amazing," Haley said.  She looked at me.  "Mom always said Uncle Alan
was good for some unusual things."

   "I'm a 'thing'?" Tina giggled.

   "No, that came out wrong," Haley backpedaled.  "He just does some
curious stuff.  D'you know he has a CANNON in his garage?"

   Tina looked at me.  "Uh, Alan, you never told me THAT!"

   "Oh, it's NOT a cannon.  It's a bowling ball mortar.  Me and a buddy
each made one on a project a couple of years ago.  It shoots a bowling ball
into the air.  Not a big deal."

   Joe laughed.  "Unless you're under the bowling ball when it comes down.
We had fun with it one afternoon.  And Haley's right.  Alan has always been
different like that."

   I patted my wife's hand.  "And you're a wonderful part of that."

   "Awwww," Elise said.

   We returned to the living room and talked until after ten, then it was
time to go.  We left with plans to meet at a restaurant for a late
breakfast.

   In the car, Tina pulled as close to me as she could with the console
between us.  "Well, husband, how'd we do?"

   "Good," I said.  "You're a curiosity to the girls, though."

   "I figured that.  I am at school, too, you know... being married and all
that." She sighed.  "But they just sort of accept me, don't they?  Your
family?"

   "Our family," I corrected.  "And yes, I think they do, sweetie."

   The bed at OUR house took another work out, as did the shower, and back
in bed, we were in each other's arms, very happy.

   Walking out to the car the next morning to go to breakfast, I waved to
my neighbor, walked over for a quick chat, introduced Tina to him, and then
we met the family at the restaurant.  During breakfast, we promised to be
back down for Christmas.

   They followed us home and I stowed the car back in the garage, made a
pass through the place to make sure everything was in the configuration I
desired for our extended absence.  We collected bags and everybody squeezed
into Joe and Elise's big SUV.  They drove us to the airport.

   Tina gave her two new nieces a tour of our plane while I did the
pre-flight inspection, then she slid into the left seat.  She waved as we
taxied to the runway, and after completing the pre-departure checklist, we
lifted off for our return trip to Tennessee.

   The next several weeks were a blur of her school, my work, her flight
lessons.

   Oh, yeah, you know how hard it is for a parent to watch his kid drive
off on his own for the first time?  Add an order of magnitude one Saturday
when I stood on the apron with Charlie as Tina taxied the little plane away
for her first solo.

   "You knew it had to happen, Alan," Charlie said.

   "Yeah, but it's still scary."

   "Come on.  Let's go get a cup of coffee.  She's gonna do a couple touch
and goes and then she'll be back here.  And I'm gonna sign her off to go
take her written, too.  She gets that, some practice, a little more dual
instruction and she'll get her private license."

   "Yeah, I know.  But still... my wife..."

   "She's plenty good, Alan.  She says you let her fly all the time, and
she translates what she does in the 182 to the 152."

   "Yeah," I said.  "she pretty much pushed me out of the left seat when I
told her she should learn." I poured us each a cup of coffee.

   In twenty minutes I watched her taxi up.  I was walking out when the
engine stopped and she bounced out, ran into my arms, and gave me a
wonderful hug and a kiss.

   "Okay, enough of that, young pilot," Charlie said.  "Let's have the
shirt-tail!"

   Tina's grin was epic as she turned away from Charlie and pulled her
shirt out of her jeans.  I held her shirt-tail as Charlie made the cut, the
tradition for a first solo.  The three of us pinned the bit of cloth on the
bulletin board in the little office.

   Charlie smiled.  "It's been a long time since I did one of those," he
said.

   "Alan, you wanna let her go have an hour to herself?  I usually do that
after a first solo.  Let 'em go play by themselves."

   I looked at Tina.  She was grinning and her eyes were atwinkle.  "Don't
get lost," I said.

   Off she went.  Preflight, crank up, and she was gone, a little white and
red speck receding into the distance.  Charlie and I piddled around an old
aircraft he had open for inspection in the back of his hangar..

   In an hour we heard her on the radio over the speaker, notifying the
non-existent traffic that she was returning to the field.  This time we
fueled the little plane up and tied it down on the flight line.  Before we
left, he laid out the plans for the next lesson.

   We got that part behind us, and a week later she went to a testing
center to take her written test.  As expected, she passed, so now it was
just a matter of time.

   The rest of life was good, too.  We had friends we could visit, and we
stayed on the road or in the air on weekends, looking for new things,
concerts, festivals, whatever.  With four seats available on the Cessna
182, we took Brad and Sandra on one trip with us, and on another we brought
Susan.

   That was interesting.  Don't get me wrong, Susan's a cutie, even if her
conversation does come off as a little addled at times.  She's very smart,
in the same classes as Tina, but sometimes I wonder about her thought
patterns.

   We flew into a general aviation airport outside St.  Louis, picked up a
rental car, and checked into a nice hotel where our room had two queen
beds.

   "Uh, is this gonna be a problem?" Susan asked.

   "What kind of problem?" I asked.

   "Us all in the same room.  I mean, like, you two are MARRIED!"

   Tina fielded that one.  "Come on, Susan!  I spent the night in the same
room with Alan the first day we met, and he and I managed to be very proper
and chaste."

   "Did you ever stay in a hotel with your mom and dad, Susan?" I asked.

   "Of course," she said.  "But that's Mom and Dad.  Ewwwww!"

   "We'll be okay," Tina said.

   "Do I need to go to the lobby for a while, or like, the GYM?"

   "WHY?" I asked.

   Susan smirked, "So... You KNOW..."

   "Uh, Tina and I can probably make it a day or two without ravishing each
other.  Relax, little girl..."

   We did enjoy our concert, and Mike and Kathy had a laugh when we related
the events on Sunday evening when we brought her home.

   Work rolled right along, too, pretty well, actually.  A worker from a
specialty contractor made a mistake and caused THEM to eat the costs of a
very expensive piece of cable that failed from incorrect test procedures.

   One of the engineers from another discipline walked in one day and
announced he was quitting for a lucrative job overseas.  I put my 'rotating
equipment' hat on and picked up the slack until they brought in a new guy.

   I got to exercise my patience AND my rudimentary German when a couple of
engineers from the Fatherland showed up to commission some
material-handling equipment.

   And through all this, Tina and I were inseparable.  Except when I
watched her fly off on one of her flying lessons, or for solo work.  She
was on track for her private license in time for Christmas.

   December came, bringing with it cold weather.  We kept up our walks
around the park, but added a membership in a little gym in town.  After a
couple of weeks we were settled in as regulars.  That meant that everybody
knew us and placed us together.  The first couple of trips, though, well,
leggy, athletic-looking, cute brunette, and she was new to the gym, and the
best I can say is that more than one guy walked up to her with a winning
grin on his face, spoke a few words to her, then looked in my direction
with a sheepish grin.

   Christmas was nearing, and life was pretty good, actually.  Regular
phone calls with Elise kept her updated as to plans, and we called Terri
twice a week, too.  She was anticipating Christmas with Daddy, and I think
that she was developing an affinity for Tina, too.

   We started watching the weather a week out from Tina's last day at
school.  That was a Friday, and it coincided with the Friday that we shut
the project down for the holidays.  As it drew closer, we saw that Saturday
was going to be our departure day.

   A call to the ex-wife confirmed the travel arrangements for Terri. 
She'd come in late Saturday to the big airport forty miles from home.  The
schedule was do-able.  Tight.  I made another phone call to Elise and lined
her up as a backup to pick up Terri.  We had a plan.

   On the last Friday, we were all packed and ready to go.  Dinner was a
trip to a local restaurant, and we were back home before seven, the next
day's clothes laid out, and we hit the shower in sequence.  When I finished
shaving and exited the tiny bathroom, the lights were out in the trailer,
except beside the bed.  And in the middle of it was Tina, the light turning
her hair on the cusp of brown to red.  And she was smiling.  And completely
naked.

   I figured it made no sense to get dressed, then.

   Giggle.  "Tomorrow night we'll have our daughter in the house, so we'll
have to be more... restrained.  Tonight?  Not so much."

   She wiggled and I was in bed with her and she was pulling me down beside
her.  We knew each other.  And we were already aroused.  When my fingers
found her slit, it was juicy, slick, her lips pink and turgid and I tore my
mouth from hers to kiss my way down her body to a whole new dimension of
taste, texture and smell.  When my tongue touched her clit, she threw her
head back and moaned, her hands on the back of my head, encouraging me.

   Like I needed encouragement.  She squealed through her first orgasm,
recovered, and pushed me onto my back and I saw that auburn head in my lap,
her mouth working pure magic on me, fingernails scraping lightly on the
underside of my scrotum, her other hand gripping my shaft to keep me from
plunging too deep into her mouth in my enthusiasm.

   "Mmmmm," she said, pulling me out of her mouth.  "I love getting you
like this!" Her head bobbed back down and she bit me lightly, her teeth
right behind my coronal ridge, tugging.  I didn't last long before her
tongue was stripping the last vestiges of my orgasm from my dick.  She
released me and climbed up my torso, lying atop me, smiling.

   "Love me forever, Alan." She kissed me lightly on the lips, and then
harder, more insistent, her tongue in my mouth where mine caressed it.  She
lifted her face.

   "I will love you always, princess." I ran my fingers through her short
hair, relishing the soft texture, stirring up wisps of perfume, sweet in my
nostrils.  I felt her small, firm titties pressing against my chest.  My
hands left her head, slid down her sleek form, and cupped the cheeks of her
firm ass, pulling her against my hardening dick.

   "I feel that, lover," she said.

   I felt the soft hair of her pubic mound brush against my hardness as she
raised up and shifted position, spreading her thighs, rising astraddle me.
Only the smallest of movements and I found myself as deep inside her as I
could get and she was looking down at me with her blue eyes, biting her
bottom lip, the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile.

   "This is where we're supposed to be," she said.  "Mated."

   My hands grasped her waist, pulling her down on me, my hips thrusting
hard up into her, listening to her breathing and tiny whimpering sounds,
gradually gaining in volume as she approached her orgasm, her hips
delightfully mobile, eager.  I curled up and took her right nipple into my
mouth, sucking like I wanted to merge her lifeforce with mine, and I came.
Hard.  And as my second spurt went into her, accompanied by an upward
thrust of my hips, she said, "Ohgodohgodohgod... Nnnnnghhhhh!  Alannnnn!"
and collapsed into my arms.  I eased back onto the pillows, holding her.

   A soft towel was positioned on the nightstand beside the bed.  I reached
over and retrieved it.  She identified the motion.

   "No, love," she said.  "I'm still hungry for you." She turned around as
I watched, skin flawless, well, except for a mole on her left asscheek that
was absolutely NO distraction whatsoever.  Her mouth went down over the
entire length of my soft dick, sucking, lick, cleaning up the vestiges of
our mutual rapture.

   I found a perfect pussy in my face, a mix of milky and clear fluids
oozing from between still puffy lips, and I savored every drop of me and
her as I licked and sucked, taking care to apply only the lightest of
flicks to her clit, no matter how much I wanted to attack it.  No, she was
good for a third orgasm, but she needed to be brought to it gently.  When
she came again, she was whimpering against the base of my soft dick.

   Finally I helped her into her nightshirt and donned my own, and we went
to sleep clinging together.

   The alarm went off as the merest hint of dawn tinged the sky. 
Yesterday's frontal passage left us with clearing skies and we grabbed a
fast food breakfast sandwich on the way to the airport.  She was sitting in
the pilot seat of the 182, the engine warming up, as I backed her little
car into the hangar and then pulled the doors closed.  I climbed into the
right seat, buckled myself in and put on the headset.

   "You know," I said, Just because you have your private license doesn't
mean you get the left seat ALL the time."

   "You started this," she giggled.  Ten minutes later she eased back on
the yoke and our wheels cleared the runway, Louisiana bound.

   An hour out from home, I called Elise up on my cellphone and told her
when we were going to arrive.  As Tina rolled into the landing pattern, I
saw Elise's SUV pulling onto the apron to wait for us.  As I loaded the
last of our cargo of luggage and gifts into the back the car, Tina and
Elise were already in the front seats.

   Climbing into the seat behind them, I said, "I should've known THIS
wouldn't be any different.  She didn't let me touch the controls the whole
way down here."

   Elise laughed.  "You've met your match, huh?"

   Tina smiled.  "We ARE a match, huh, babe?"

   At the house, we ran the load inside, promised Elise that we'd see her
the next day, and then checked the groceries in the fridge.  Elise had us
stocked.  Air freshener overcame the staleness of a closed up house, and we
took advantage of a couple of hours to lay together on the bed and hug.  A
bit before three we got in our car to go get Terri.

   We were half an hour early so we walked the terminal and then sat to
watch people coming and going.  The arrival of Terri's flight was
announced. We eased toward the arrival gate, waiting.  And we saw her, hand
in hand with a middle-aged flight attendant, all four feet something of
seven year old Terri, blonde hair in a ponytail, blue eyes searching.

   And she saw us.  "Daddeeeee!" she squealed.

   The flight attendant asked for my ID.  "Procedure," she said.  "She's
too cute to let loose to some random dude at the airport."

   "Thank you for helping her," I said, fishing out a driver's license. 
"C'mere, sweetie!"

   And I got to hold my daughter for the first time in months.  She
plastered herself on my hip and looked.  "Are you Tina?"

   Tina smiled.  "Yes.  And I assume you're Terri, right?"

   "Umm-hmmm," Terri said.  "You're pretty!"

   "Thank you.  So are you, sweetie." Tina said.

   Terri slid down off my hip and grabbed my hand on one side and Tina's on
the other.  "We have to go get my stuff," she said.

   We navigated to the baggage claims and got two bags full of whatever it
takes for seven year old girls to live for two weeks.  With me loaded down
with the two bags, that left Terri and Tina holding hands as we exited to
walk to the car.

   Terri's head swung.  "Miss Tina, you don't mind holdin' my hand, do
you?"

   "Of course not, sweetie.  And we've been over this before.  You don't
need to call me 'Miss Tina'.  Just 'Tina', okay."

   "But it doesn't sound right.  You're my step-mom." Her blue eyes
twinkled.  "I call my step-dad 'mister'."

   "Yes, but your step-dad's older than I am.  I'm closer to 'big sister',
okay?"

   Terri smiled.  "Okay.  Dad, you're okay with that, aren't you?"

   "I'm happy if you two are happy." I was, too.  They were walking ahead
of me, seven year old Terri in jeans and a sweatshirt, her blonde ponytail
swinging, the tip just below her collar, and my Tina, almost two feet
taller, also in jeans and a sweatshirt, reaching into her pocket to
retrieve her keyfob for the car.

   I loaded the bags into the cargo compartment of the SUV, got in the
driver's side, and Tina started to get in the back seat.

   "No, Tina.  I get the back seat.  You sit next to Dad.  That's where
wives are s'posed ta go."

   "You sure, sweetie," Tina asked.  "I don't mind."

   "Nuh-uh!  This is fine, really!" And Terri got in the back seat.

   "Okay," I said.  "Now where do we want to eat dinner?"

   Tina was twisted sideways in her seat.  She looked at Terri.  "Terri,
how about you pick something?"

   Terri grinned.  "Pizza?  That place that has the buffet?"

   And the game room.  Inwardly I groaned.  Nothing like buffet pizza.  But
I realized that sometimes it wasn't about me.  "That'll work," I said,
knowing full well that two slices of pizza and Terri was going to tap me
for a five dollar bill to buy tokens for the kid games.

   Tina giggled.  "I used to drag Grandma to one of those places, you
know."

   "No doubt," I opined.

   Okay, it wasn't THAT bad.  Well, the pizza was, but the sight of Tina
and Terri playing games together was pretty much a fair swap for the bad
pizza.  We left and drove home.

   Terri walked in, head swiveling.  "Looks the same, Daddy," she said.

   "We don't hardly live here, sweetie," I said.  "We're just here for the
holidays."

   "Place needs a Christmas tree, Daddy." She turned to Tina.  "Don't you
think so, Tina?"

   Tina grinned.  "Can we, Alan?  Grandma had a Christmas tree.  I didn't
have one last year with Mom."

   Okay.  Two bright, expectant faces.  How could I refuse?  "Okay," I
said. "tomorrow we go get the first Christmas tree this place has seen
since your mom moved out.  And all three of us will decorate it."

   Squeal!  Twice.  Terri's hug was totally little girl, unrestrained. 
Tina wrapped the two of us together in hers.  "Thank you, Alan.  Families
do that."

   "They do, Daddy," Terri affirmed.

   I made hot chocolate while Tina and Terri pulled out a Monopoly game.

   "Alan, she wants to play Monopoly." Tina was a little skeptical.

   "Tina!" and the pouty lip came out.  Terri said, "I can count better
than anybody in my class.  And I can read better, too."

   "Okay, baby," Tina conceded.  She looked at me as I brought a tray in,
bearing mugs of hot steaming chocolate.  "We'll try it out."

   Tina and I were pleasantly surprised.  Terri could count quite well, and
with us helping her with the math, we had a lot of fun playing, but at
nine-thirty we called the game a draw and put it up.  I let Tina and Terri
commandeer the big bathroom and I made do with the smaller one.  When I
finished shaving, I saw the bathroom door open and Tina was behind Terri,
brushing and drying her blonde hair.  Terri was in pink flannel pajamas and
Tina was wearing her favorite nightshirt.  And panties.  I saw an
uncharacteristic panty line.  Oh, well... we had little Terri and decorum
was advised.

   It was bedtime.  Terri's room was a shrine to little girls.  Every time
she came to stay with me, we added more of the trappings of little girls
everywhere, and there were stuffed animals and a few dolls and cute
pictures and now there was a little blonde girl-child sitting on the bed
with her new step-mom/big sister and I looked in.

   Tina spoke up.  "Alan, I think we can make room in our bed for her
tonight.  She misses her daddy."

   Blue, pleading eyes.  "Not EVERY night, Daddy.  I know you an' Tina are
married an' you s'posed ta sleep together.  But just SOMETIMES?"

   "Okay.  Just sometimes."

   Tina rested her chin on Terri's head, holding the little girl wrapped in
her arms.  She mouthed, 'thank you' silently to me.

   Tina and I could've been perfectly happy in a twin bed.  In a normal
night we entwined and snuggled and spooned and caressed, sleeping together.
Adding Terri to the mix, though, the king-sized bed was barely enough
geography.  She was an active little thing when awake, and didn't slow down
much when sleeping.  I remember seeing her bed in the morning, the covers a
knot.  Our night of 'sleep' was punctuated with elbows and knees and legs
and when I got up in the morning, she and Tina filled in the gap I'd left
between them.

   I made a pot of coffee and started biscuits and gravy and when things
were stabilized in the kitchen, I went back to the bedroom and woke the two
females I loved most on the planet.  Two hugs.  Two kisses, one a little
longer and deeper.

   We sat at the table eating.

   "I miss your cooking, Daddy," she said.  "Mostly I just have cereal at
home.  This is sooo good!"

   Tina was grinning.  "I like it when we cook, too, baby.  In that little
trailer where we've been living, it's kinda hard sometimes."

   After breakfast came coffee for Tina and me, and Terri got coffee milk,
a little coffee and a lot of milk and some sugar.  After that, we put the
house in order and I was shoved out the door by two young girls in search
of a Christmas tree.  We visited a department store first, and loaded up on
lights and ornaments, and then we found the perfect tree, and amid giggles
and smiles, the smell of fresh conifer filled our house, making it a home.

   While they were busy decorating, I put together the quintessential Cajun
get-together dish, a pot of gumbo, and called Joe and Elise to come over
for a visit.