A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting. I am still struggling with what comes next. Between RL & the fact that I also managed to fall into a new fandom (you know how that goes . . . .) I haven't been able to work on this as much as I would have liked. Concrit keeps me motivated though.
# ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Trying desperately to change the subject away from sex, Brianna looks at her mother's bracelet, "The hugs and kisses charm has always been my favorite."
Kelly agrees. "It was so cool that you and dad still signed everything to each other with X's and O's."
Logan bursts out laughing.
Six pairs of feminine eyes give him death glares as Mandy chastises her father, "When did you get so un-romantic, Dad?"
Lily has her head back in her magazine.
Mac covers her mouth and turns away giggling and blushing.
Looking from Logan to Mac and back again, Veronica finally remembers the real story behind that particular charm. "You never told them?"
No, Mac shakes her head with some guilt.
Realizing she was about to, Logan reaches out to Courtney. "C'mon little one. Uncle Logan is taking everyone out for ice cream." Mac smiles at him gratefully. Logan wonders if he should make Mandy come too. He's not entirely sure if he wants his daughter to hear this story, even if she is married with kids of her own.
As soon as Logan and Courtney are out of earshot, Kelly asks. "What's the matter with hugs and kisses?"
By now Veronica is giggling too. "Dick didn't know that meant hugs and kisses."
"What did he think it meant?" Savannah demands looking expectantly at her mother.
Mac continues to blush furiously. She's still covering her mouth and staring at the table. "I can't," she wordlessly begs Veronica to tell the story.
"Well," Veronica begins, glancing around the table to make sure she had her audience's full attention, "The way I heard it . . . Logan and Dick had gone shopping to get us graduation gifts. Dick bought this charm for Mac and gave it to her graduation night. She thought what you thought – hugs and kisses – how sweet, but Dick thought it meant something else entirely."
Mac interjects, "X-rated orgasms."
Now even Lily is paying attention because this story is getting good.
"In fact, I thanked him for the hugs and kisses but he looked at me like I was nuts. He was so dejected when I told him that's what the symbols stood for. Then he pronounced that interpretation 'lame' and explained he thought they meant X-rated orgasms: the first two were for the ones we'd already given each other and the other two were for all the ones yet to come." Mac finishes her tale and breaks into a fresh round of tears realizing that there weren't any more Dick induced orgasms in her future. Veronica comes around the table to hug her sobbing friend.
Brianna is aghast. No one wants to think about their parents doing it. "So every time you two would sign something with X's and O's you were really talking dirty, right in front of all of us?" Her sisters all make supportive noises of protest, along the lines of "ew".
"I think it's actually kinda hot," Lily supplies.
Still sniffling, Mac nods in admission as she tries to pull herself together and regain her composure.
Now it's Savannah's turn to change the subject. "I'm almost afraid to ask about the other charms."
Mac chuckles, "That's the only dirty one." She flicks her wrist to show off some of the other dangles. "The wedding bell was when we got married. Baby booties with birth stones for all of you. The palm tree is for our 25th Anniversary trip to Hawaii."
"He should have gotten you another pineapple," Lily suggests. "Unless you stopped."
Brianna holds up a real pineapple in the fruit bowl on the sideboard. "They didn't stop," Kelly assures Lilly pointing to the fruit. Every Casablancas child had caught their parents in a compromising position at least once, and that was just within the last year.
Mac smiles but continues, "The dollar sign is for the first million dollars we made from the business. The holiday ones are obvious – Christmas tree, Easter egg, shooting star for the Fourth of July."
Lily can't take it anymore. "I think it's time to break out the wine."
"I'll get the glasses," Savannah volunteers.
Lilly continues, "But you gotta tell me how the nice, respectable friends of my stodgy father ended up owning a porn empire."
"It's not a 'porn empire'," Mac protests while the Mandy parrots the corporate line oft touted by her husband, Rick, the company president, "It's a marital aid business."
Scoffing, Lilly retorts, "You sell adult toys, videos and kinky lingerie."
"Sexy Surfer is also the leading distributor of women's surfing gear," Kelly reminds her brother's girlfriend.
"That's only because Dick could never give up the waves," Veronica offers without realizing what she said.
She falls immediately silent at Mac's stricken face. Trooper that she is, Mac attempts to lighten the mood, "It's actually Logan's fault."
Now Veronica is intrigued. "I can usually find ways to blame Logan for all kinds of stuff . . . global warming, . . . Suri Cruise's existence . . . but how can it be Logan's fault that you own a 'porn empire'?"
"Remember when you came home for Christmas that one year at stayed at the beach house with us?" Mac asked.
"Yeah, we hadn't been home in what seemed like ages," Veronica joined in the reminiscing.
Mac corrected her. "A year and a half, but who's counting?"
"You're point, Mac?" Veronica urged her friend to explain her earlier statement.
Mac fixed her eyes on her friend. "It seems that you two got into our 'special' closet," she accused without a trace of venom but with a hint of mischief.
Now it was Veronica's turn to blush as Mandy gaped at her mother.
*~*~*~*~*~*~FLASHBACK *~*~*~*~*~*
Shortly before graduation Dick discovered that his favorite surf shop was going to close because the owner wanted to retire. Not having a job lined up for after college, Dick decided to buy the place. After all, he reasoned, he loved surfing and selling was in his DNA, along with some other darker things he didn't want to consider. How hard could it be? Open a few hours, sell a few boards and wet suits. Catch a few waves. Sounded perfect.
The business manager who controlled his trust fund and his absentee mother both thought that this plan could actually work. Dick was about to get a degree in business and the investment would be minimal. The inventory on hand, the company's goodwill and the remaining time on the lease weren't overly valuable assets but they should afford him a comfortable living, even if not the lifestyle he had grown accustomed to.
He bought the business and the little store rolled along just as it had always been until the day Mac agreed to let Dick teach her how to surf. Knowing she needed gear, the pair headed over to the shop where they quickly realized that there wasn't much in the way of women's surfing equipment readily available. Men's gear in smaller sizes simply didn't offer the right fit, especially when the surfer in question was both as petite and curvy as Mac. The surf lessons never happened because the couple spent the next several weeks expanding the women's section of the store. They virtually searched the globe for manufacturers who catered to women and they started to design what they couldn't obtain from other vendors. It took a while to secure the proper patents and reputable manufactures but once the pieces were in place, Dick's little surf shop quickly became the industry leader, especially after Mac designed the on-line e-tail portion of the business.
#~*~*~*~*~*
At the end of the summer after graduation Logan and Veronica were taking off to Virginia where Veronica was beginning her F.B.I. training. Logan had gotten accepted into graduate school back east so they could be together but he wouldn't be bored all day while Veronica was at work. When Parker moved home after graduation, even though she was working at a small software company Mac struggled to afford the rent on the apartment without a roommate.
It was mid August and Mac was getting ready for work. Since he didn't have to be at the surf shop until 9:30 and it was only a ten minute drive, Dick stayed in bed most mornings while Mac got ready. He liked watching her and in time she was able to overcome her innate shyness about having her body on display to Dick's lustful eyes. They learned early on that if Dick jumped into the shower with her in the morning, Mac would be late for work. They hadn't mastered the art of the quickie with each other yet because they always gave into temptation and went for round two.
"Wanna come with me to check out apartments after work?" she asked Dick as she stepped out of his en suite bathroom.
"What for?" the sleepy blond replied.
"So that I have some place to live. My lease ends in two weeks and I can't afford that two bedroom all by myself," Mac explained as she finished getting dressed.
"So move in here," Dick said like he was asking her to pass the salad dressing at dinner.
"Just like that? Move in together?" Mac queried.
Dick looked at his girlfriend like she was crazy. "What? You're here all the time anyway. Logan's leaving. What's the big deal?"
"Moving in together is a huge step," Mac countered.
"How much 'huge-r' can it get? We're together all the time. I don't want to be with anybody else. You don't want to be with anybody else. You don't want to be with anybody else, do you?" Dick couldn't keep a little bit of panic out of his voice.
Smiling softly at the naked man sitting on the edge of his bed, Mac walked over to him and kissed him softly. "No I don't want to be with anybody else, silly. You're a stud," she teased, pinching one of his nipples slightly to lighten the increasingly somber mood.
"Then I don't see the problem," Dick retorted. "Seriously, when was the last time you slept in your apartment anyway?"
Without hesitation Mac replied, "At the beginning of the month."
Cocking his head to the side, Dick took a moment to process her response. Sighing with disgust he clarified, "That was when Logan and I were in Tijuana." She nodded. "When was the last time you slept in your apartment while I was in the country?" He thought he had her with that one.
"During finals," she answered.
"Only because you said you couldn't study here," Dick conceded.
"You naked, massaging my shoulders and blowing in my ear wasn't really helping me understand the finer points of Advanced Programming."
By now Dick had gotten up from bed and walked up behind Mac as she was putting her earrings on in front of the dresser mirror. Sweeping the hair from the back of her neck, he started to nibble on that special spot behind her ear. "Sure it does. When I kiss you here, your body is programmed to get all hot and wet for me." He ghosted his hand across her breasts and started to slide it down her stomach before she grabbed it and stopped his teasing.
"I have to go to work." Mac knew if they started, they wouldn't stop. Then she'd need another shower and she'd really be late for work.
"I'll stop if you agree to move in here, Cindy," He was dead serious.
"Well if you're gonna stop, I'm definitely not moving in," she quipped.
Dick laughed at her little taunt. "Like I could ever get enough."
As much as she wanted to move in, she knew it wasn't realistic. "Dick, even though I make good money, I can't afford to cover Logan's share of the rent. It just won't work."
Dick was momentarily confused. "Logan doesn't pay rent. I own this place, remember? Bea- . . . Cassidy . . . . the Phoenix Land Trust you two did."
[A/N: If you want a more detailed explanation about how Dick came to own this beach house read chapter 15 of my story, Queen of the Castle, s/8368760/15/Queen-of-the-Castle which this piece treats as canon.]
"All I did was the website and the graphics. I forgot you own this place." Mac conceded. For whatever reason even though she knew Dick had as much money or more than Logan, that fact didn't always resonate. Other than his sports car and his cavalier attitude toward work, Dick's tastes were simple and he didn't throw their class differences in her face any more. He even let her pick up checks once in a while because he knew she hated feeling like a 'kept woman'. Granted, she paid when they went to Del Taco while he paid went they went to real restaurants where dinner for two sometimes cost more than her father made in a week but it was the principal of the thing. Mac honestly didn't always remember that at 22 her boyfriend owned a million dollar beach house. She was never with him for his bank account.
"We can't just move in together. We've barely been dating for six months."
"Six months and three years, remember? Your logic," Dick threw her argument from their first night back at her. It was his favorite tactic whenever she tried to protest that they hadn't been together long enough to do something.
Mac looked at him, trying to come up with something to forestall the inevitable.
"What am I supposed to tell my parents?" she challenged.
"That your new address is 2032 Ocean Drive," Dick retorted.
"Just like that?" Mac still didn't think it was that simple.
Dick frowned. "You're parents already think you live here."
Mac's eyes flew open in shock as she yelped, "What? No they don't. They'd kill me. They'd really kill you."
"It's cool. After graduation when we call came back here for brunch, your dad needed to use the head so I brought him up here with me when I was changing out of the monkey suit you made me wear. He saw two toothbrushes in the holder and some of your clothes in the closet when I had it open. I remember he came out here and picked up your hair brush off the dresser."
"Oh my God," Mac couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"He just kind of hit it in his palm a couple of times and asked me how long you'd been living here."
Mac was still staring at Dick with her mouth wide open in astonishment. There had been no scene. Her parents didn't yell. But now she was learning that they thought she'd been living here for months and they were seemingly okay with that.
"I couldn't exactly lie to him. I mean there was . . . you know . . . like evidence. I just told him the truth that you weren't living here but you . . . ah . . . stayed over a lot."
"And what did my dad say?" Mac asked afraid to know the answer.
Dick smiled. "He just said that he and your mom weren't fools and that they were young once too. He did the fatherly thing and threatened me if I hurt you." Mac stared at him but Dick just shrugged as if to say that such threats were expected. "He asked me what my intentions were."
Mac looked sheepish. "He didn't?"
"Yeah, he did. You're his little girl, babe." He kissed her nose. "That's what dads are supposed to do."
Swallowing, Mac asked, "And what did you tell him?"
"What do you think I told him?" Dick teased.
"You didn't?" Mac squeaked. Only one statement popped into her mind that Dick could have said that wouldn't have caused her dad to kill him.
"I told him that I intended to make you the happiest women on earth."
"That's it?" It hadn't been what Mac was thinking.
"What? You don't really think that after only a few months I told your father that I wanted to marry you, do you?" Now it was Dick's turn to be concerned. This discussion started because Mac didn't think they had been together long enough to be moving in with him but now she was pushing for a proposal.
"Honestly, I never know what's gonna come out of your mouth some days," Mac clarified.
Dick didn't say anything.
"Look, I gotta get to work. I'm gonna be late. Can we talk about this when I get home?"
Shaking his head Dick refused. "There's nothing to talk about. You're moving in."
Mac glared at him. Part of her wanted to scream. He was being too stubborn and unyielding about this.
"There's nothing to talk about. You're always here anyway. Half your stuff's here. Your parents are cool with it and you'll save money."
Sometimes Mac hated it when Dick made sense. She didn't want to give in to him on principle even though everything he said made sense.
"Besides, you just called this place your home. We're only gonna make it official with the Post Office 'n shit."
"I did say 'home' didn't I?" Mac was smart enough to back down when she knew Dick was right, which happened more often than his surfer dude persona would lead one to believe.
"Are you out of arguments yet?" Dick smirked.
Resigned, Mac agreed, "I guess it's settled. I'll move in when Logan moves out."
To Dick that seemed a little too easy. "You know you're not moving into his room, though, right?"
Raising her hand up to cup his cheek, Mac assured him that she knew her place. "I'll be right here where I belong, roomie."
Dick rewarded her with a sweet kiss then stepped back and slapped her playfully on the butt. "Then get to work, woman. The utility bills around here aren't gonna pay themselves."
