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Christmas morning . . .
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Everyone had awoken the next morning to the smell of cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs and hash browns wafting up the stairs. Despite their claims the previous evening, all the girls were suddenly hungry again. Breakfast was lively and everyone seemed to be in a genuine state of good cheer. Heather sat back and looked at the mob. Pamela and Marvin were definitely family oriented people and, despite the fact that THIS family was a little unconventional, they seemed to enjoy being part of the gathering. Freddie was playfully feeding Jane hickory-smoked sausages while Michelle discussed increasing the number of horses on the ranch so she could teach basic riding when they finally started taking guests. Alice seemed to be doing the same thing as Heather, watching everyone and getting a kick out of everything they said. The two girl’s eyes met for a moment and the straight-faced shy girl broke out into a beautiful smile. ‘Good,’ thought Heather. ‘Haven’t seen as many of those as I’d like recently.’
Laurie broke into the moment the other two girls were sharing by asking Alice if she had started writing anything new over the trip. Michelle piped in with someone questions of her own, and Alice suddenly became the center of attention. Heather glanced over at Laurie, who had a twinkle in her eye. ‘Yep,’ thought Heather, ‘she did that on purpose.’ Laurie noticed she was being stared at.
“What?”
“Just come here,” Heather said with a smile, drawing in Laurie’s head and kissing her on the lips.
The rest of the day went by smoothly. Alice and Michelle went out to check on the herd of buffalo, giving them a chance to chat. The rest of the girls sat down and watched Christmas movies until the two women returned from their ride, then they all opened presents. Jane’s parents had bought everyone clothes, which delighted Laurie, Alice, Jane and Freddie. Heather and Michelle looked at each other, exchanging some silent question about what either of them was going to do with a sweater. Much to her relief, all of Heather’s gifts went over better than she had expected. Within an hour, the floor of the living room was littered with glittery paper and shiny bows. That was when Heather, Laurie and Alice were given a bit of a surprise gift.
Jane cleared her throat, getting everyone’s attention. “Well, there is something that I would like to give to the youngest members of our little entourage. Now I know that some of you may have had designs to come down her in a few months for spring break, but I think you may want to rethink your plans. We’ve got professional builders coming out that week to put in an indoor pool over in the old bathhouse. Freddie had the idea that an indoor pool, while slightly breaking from the whole ‘authentic’ fell, would be another attraction for guests to enjoy and use to wash the dust off. And we’re also going to have some people working on restoring the barbershop, which will be turned into a modern salon with an old-fashioned feel. We had planned on doing this all ourselves, except for the pool, but my recent hospitalization has put us further behind than we’d liked. After your generous assistance this last summer, we had gotten our hopes up to open this upcoming summer, for which you still have guaranteed employment if you so desire, and we would like to keep to that new schedule.”
“Sweetheart,” said Michelle, “would you PLEASE get to the point?”
Jane looked down at Michelle and stuck her tongue out, causing the entire group to bust out laughing at the very-much un-Jane-like maneuver. “Very well. Anyway, I decided that since we had everyone else doing the work that I might use that week to make another trip to Dallas for what will hopefully be my last follow up appointment. But we didn’t want you three to sit around your college moping while other students were off having fun, so . . .” Jane grabbed an enveloped from her pants pocket and handed it to Heather.
The dark-haired girl looked inside and her eyes shot open. She pulled out eight airline tickets. “Florida?!? For spring break?!? But . . . Why so many?”
“Well,” interjected Freddie, “we figured you had two band-mates, each of whom might like to bring someone, and we threw in another one in case Alice would like to invite someone.”
Mr. Voorhees took over from there. “And my wife and I have a beach house down in Fort Lauderdale which we usually use for the winter. But we figured you kids could use it . . .” He was abruptly interrupted by Laurie hugging the breath out of him, while Alice went for Jane’s mom. Heather started hugging Jane, then moved on to Freddie and Michelle. After everyone had been suitably hugged, Jane’s father handed Heather a spare set of keys to the house. For some reason, everyone just assumed the dark-haired siren was the spokesman for her little group, but neither Alice nor Laurie every seemed to object.
“Cool!” said Laurie, looking like she just had an epiphany. “Swimsuit shopping!” That got a laugh out of everyone. Except Heather. “Oh c’mon,” said Laurie to her forlorn looking girlfriend, “shopping isn’t that bad.”
“It’s not that. Well, not entirely. It’s just that I won’t be going in the water, so there’s not much point in buying a suit. I figured I could go check out the concerts and stuff . . .”
“Pish posh,” returned Laurie. “You are NOT going all the way to Fort Lauderdale for spring break and NOT go to the beach. We are going to get you some sun, and we are going to get you stared at by guys and girls who can’t have you and we’re going to go swimming and . . .”
“Um,” Heather said nervously, “that might be a problem.”
The room went silent for a moment. Michelle finally broke it with, “Don’t tell me you can’t swim?” Heather’s blush was all the answer she needed.
Heather felt a need to answer the unasked question. “My parents never really showed any interest in my learning to swim . . . or me doing anything for that matter. The opportunity never presented itself and it didn’t seem particularly important, so I just never learned.”
“Well, we’ve got three months to figure something out. But even if you don’t do anything but lay on the beach and get a tan,” said Laurie sternly, “you ARE going to let me see you in a swimsuit. End of discussion.” Laurie turned and promptly started discussing some things with Marvin regarding the rules of the house, and Heather was just sitting there with a confused expression on her face.
“Seven months ago,” whispered Jane.
“Hunh?” was Heather’s reply.
“Seven months ago is when you lost sole control over your life and gave some of it over to Laurie. Get used to it.”
Heather grinned. “I don’t mind so much anymore. But dang it, I’m going to drag her cute little butt to do some stuff that I want to do down there.”
“And she’ll probably go along. Being part of a real couple is strange, isn’t it?”
“Yep. So, did you talk to Michelle and Freddie about the . . . . you know, physical thing?”
“You mean sex?” Jane grinned. “No, but they definitely seem to be loosening up. But I don’t mind waiting a few days for the physical aspect of our relationship to return.” She whispered into Heather’s ear in a conspiratorial manner, “You see, regardless of how old you are, having sex while your elderly parents are in the next room is . . . well, icky.” She and Heather stared at each other for a moment before starting to laugh outrageously, and no one else in the room had any idea what they were going on about.
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The day quickly turned into evening and the Christmas movie marathon continued. At one point, Alice went up to the kitchen to get some more soda, and Heather joined her under the pretense of wanting more coffee. Well, it actually wasn’t a pretense. Heather went through coffee like a fish went through water, but she really wanted to talk to Alice.
“So,” she said when the two girls were alone, “Did you have anyone in mind to take with you to Florida?” Alice blushed a bit, and Heather hurried to make sure that her friend didn’t think she was being made fun of. “I didn’t mean to say . . . Shit, I’m not good at this.” She stopped and took a deep breath. “Alice, I know you don’t like talking about your love-life that much, but I’ve been concerned. I know you’re looking, which is cool. I just wanted to know if you wanted my and Laurie to help you look or if you want to do it on your own or what?”
Alice gave one of her shy smiles. She gave Heather a quick hug, which thankfully didn’t feel awkward for Alice. Whatever had happened on Halloween seemed to have gone away. Maybe there was something ABOUT Heather which Alice liked, and all she needed to do was figure out what it was so she could seek it out in someone else. “I wish I knew. I realized I don’t know myself yet what I want. I mean, if you know someone who is gay, or at least bisexual . . .”
“Don’t you mean ‘bicycle’?” said Heather with a Cheshire cat grin.
Alice shot her a dirty look. Heather was never going to let her live that comment down. “I’m SURE the word is ‘bisexual.’ Anyone, if you find someone . . . well, trustworthy, I don’t mind if you bring them by. But don’t bring them by just for me. Does that make sense?”
“I think so. Give you the opportunity, and maybe the right one will present itself. I think I could do that.”
Alice gave her another quick hug. “Thanks again for looking after me.”
“It’s the least I could do. We have a really inbred little group here. You’re like the mom, but I’m like the big brother. Sounds like that Ray Stevens song.”
“You mean, ‘I’m My Own Grandpa’? I love that song.” The two girls grabbed their drinks, and Alice started scolding Heather for drinking so much coffee, claiming that it COULDN’T be good for her. Heather rolled her eyes, took another sip, and the two of them went back to the living room.