Chapter 26

Counting Our Blessings

We walked for another ten minutes; I kept looking down the trail, hoping to see Furey, "I don't like him going ahead too far. Not only is it a slippery trail, but there are bears and other people on the trail."

Greg rolled his eyes, "It's less than a quarter of a mile and there are no bears on this trail this time of day. He's big for his age and smart. You have to trust kids or they give you reasons not to trust them."

"Hmmm." I pursed my lips and furred my brow. I didn't like Furey getting ahead. Being an FBI agent, I was trained that there was disaster around every bend.

He laughed at me! "You're not convinced. You think I'm a lousy Dad!"

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to him. He stopped too. I searched his eyes and almost read his thoughts, but remembered my lecture to Furey. "That couldn't be further from the truth. If anything, I've gained a whole new respect for you today. You're a phenomenal Dad and I was stupid not to see that. Teags knew what she was doing when she fell in love with you. You may not have wanted it Greg, but you're good at being a family man."

He grabbed me, pulled me in his arms and kissed me so quickly, I didn't even have time to open my lips. I was so tense that I'm sure he must have thought I didn't want it. So I grabbed behind his neck and started all over, slightly parting my lips and lifting up to meet him. This time we kissed so passionately, I felt sensual signals all through me.

"Auri. I came out here to be angry with you, to tell you to get out of our lives, to leave us alone. But, I was miserable. I didn't want to acknowledge that I missed you almost as much as I missed Furey. When we get back, I'd like to start again. I want you to stay with us."

"Stay with you?"

"Move in with Furey and me. I want you to live with us."

I was flattered, but I stepped back and started walking.

He was flustered, "Well?" He hobbled down the trail as fast as he could, "What's your answer?"

We turned the bend and could see the falls. I also saw Furey running back towards the falls. He must have come looking for us and, finding us, decided to go back to the falls.

"I think we should date. Greg, I don't think moving in with you and Furey is a good idea."

His nose wrinkled, "What? It's everything he wants!"

"No, he wants a family, not a roommate. I want more from a relationship than that."

He stopped and flopped his arms down, exhaling sharply, "I don't believe this. You're blackmailing me into marrying you?"

I turned, my mouth dropped and eyes narrowed, "I'm not doing anything except telling you that I'm not moving in with you… unless we were to decide… at some point…not necessarily now…to get married."

He shook his head with one of those 'I don't believe it' grins, "So we don't get you unless we marry you?"

"No, we can date, we can even be close. But moving in when there's a child involved, not unless you and I have made a commitment. Furey is too sensitive. I don't want him going through me moving out. He needs a committed family."

Greg walked beside me, finally calm enough to talk without raising his voice, "You do know that even married couples divorce."

I chuckled, "Yes, I know. But, just try getting rid of me if we're married. I take it very seriously."

"Okay, we date when we get back."

I smiled, strangely sad that he didn't just ask me to marry him, but I held it in. I was just grateful that we were starting over again, "Great, that's a good start."

Furey was running across the footbridge towards us as we stood taking in the 317-foot drop of Vernal Falls.

His long, boyish face was sparkling with joy, "You guys were kissing! You like each other again?"

We both laughed and Greg reached out, grabbed my hand, to seal the deal. Greg nodded at Furey.

I gave him a kiss on the forehead, "We always liked each other. We just needed some time apart to think about what we wanted."

He looked Greg squarely in the eye, "Are you going to marry Auri? Dad? Please, please?"

I blushed so red that Greg pulled his head back and laughed at me, "Boy, you two are pushing just a little too hard. Let me have some time to think this through."

I stammered, "G…g…gosh, Furey, I …uh…uh…I think your poor Dad is right. That's a huge step and we need to know we're right for each other before we take any leaps into matrimony."

His face dropped and he gave us a whiney, pouty face, "But Dad! You were happy when Auri was living with us. You remember…it's good when you guys are together."

He chuckled, pulling me by the hand across the footbridge, "Let's go to the top of the falls."

I shook my head, "Greg, the path is very steep, very narrow and very slippery. I don't think it's a good idea for you to try it."

"You need to have more faith in me."

I wanted to complain, tell him it was still a bad idea, but I didn't dare. He was testing me, seeing if I'd say something to the effect that I didn't trust him. We started up the trail and about one hundred yards up there was a chain across it and a sign that said, "Closed." A ranger was coming down the trail on the other side.

"Why is the trail still closed?" Greg asked, clearly disappointed.

"Ice. There's still a few patches towards the top. But you can take the long way around, use the Muir trail to get to the top. It'll take an hour or more, but it's safe."

"Thanks." I turned to the boys, "Well let's climb out on the rocks and have our snack." I pointed to the rocks at the bottom of the falls. We climbed over them and sat at the base of the falls eating our granola bars and having boxes of juice we had brought. Furey couldn't help it, he had to go down closer to the water and jump across some of the rocks. My heart was in my throat as I watched him, but it didn't seem to bother Greg. He had a lot of faith in his son. I wanted to lasso the boy and bring him back over and nail him to a tree.

When we were done we all agreed not to take the hour long trip up and hour long trip back from the top of the falls. It was already eleven in the morning and we still had a lot to see in the Valley. When we got back to the car, I suggested we go hike around Mirror Lake, but Greg shook his head.

"We're going someplace very special to have lunch."

I couldn't imagine where we were going in our jeans, t-shirts, light jackets and hiking boots. So when he pulled into the Ahwahnee, I freaked.

"Greg! We can't go in there dressed like this."

"No, not if it were dinner, but it's lunch. They don't care at lunch, trust me."

"Dad, what is this place?"

"This is the famous Ahwahnee Inn, where you were conceived."

I snapped my neck to look at him, "Really?"

Greg giggled, "Yep."

Furey leaned forward, putting his arms around the neck rest behind me. "What's conceived?"

I was going to tell him some pg rated version, but Greg piped up, "I got your mother drunk and had sex with her in one of the hotel rooms without using birth control. One of my fast little swimmers made it to one of your Mom's lazy eggs and boom, you became a zygote."

"A zygote?"

"Yeah, it's a fertilized egg. By the time you latched onto your Mom's uterine wall you had divided into more cells, becoming a blastocyst. Then you turned into an embryo, leaching off of your Mom's blood before finally turning into a fetus."

Furey cocked his head, "So when Auri lost the baby it was a fetus?"

I swallowed hard at the thought of it.

Greg was nonchalant, "Yep, a fetus."

"Do women have to be drunk to get pregnant?"

Greg nodded, "It helps."

I jumped in, "That's not true! Don't joke like that; he'll think it's true. No, Furey, most women are not drunk when they get pregnant. Your Dad just has to get women drunk before they'll sleep with him."

We both laughed. Furey smiled, but didn't get the joke.

We walked through the lobby and towards the dining hall. There was a short waiting list so we went and sat on the couch next to the fireplace. The stone fireplace was so huge that Furey could have stood inside the fireplace if it didn't have a fire in it. Furey asked the man on the sofa across from us to take a picture of us. He agreed and so I set the camera up for the shot and he took it of us standing in front of the fireplace as I'm sure millions of similar photos have been staged.

We ate lunch then took Furey to see Dr. Medina who was flabbergasted at how tall Furey was.

"You're so tall and handsome! You've got to be in the top 90th percentile on the height chart." He shook his head in disbelief, "Your Mom was one of a kind. She was sweet and lovely, the nicest person you could meet. I hope you take after her."

Furey was very gracious and I'm sure he was picking up his Mother's affection for this kind man. According to the lodge, he had given Teagan free medical care when she was pregnant and after Furey was born. He was a great guy and when we left, I could feel his sadness. We were leaving him with his thoughts of Teagan, who he thought of like part of his family.

We looked around some more before stopping at Yosemite Falls on the way home. We hiked around the area and, by the time we were done, it was four in the afternoon and the sun was starting to go down behind the granite cliffs in the Valley. We were half way out of the park, about twenty minutes into our drive, when a bear crossed the road. I thought Furey would explode.

"Oh man! A bear! Oh cool!" He ripped his seat belt off and rolled the window down. My camera was on automatic so I handed it to him. He began taking a billion pictures of the brown bear as it waddled, unfazed along the side of the road with us following slowly. The bear finally gave us a look as if we were a fly buzzing around his snout and then leaped through the woods. We watched the huge butt disappear and then Greg gunned the SUV towards the west. Furey couldn't stop talking about him. "Man, did you see the claws? They were six inches long!"

"They sure were big." I responded.

He was on a high from that when we ran across a herd of deer. The camera started whirring as he took numerous pictures of the startled deer. By the time we got home, Furey was really excited. We climbed out and he ran towards the cabin. Greg and I had gone to the back to get the backpacks.

Greg yelled at him, "Gumby, come and get your backpack."

Furey and I stopped and looked at Greg.

"What? What did I say?"

Furey came over to the SUV and grabbed his backpack from his Dad, "You called me Gumby."

Greg tilted his head and then looked down, smiling, "I guess I did."

"Dad, did you used to call me Gumby?"

Greg nodded, "When you were a baby I called you that. Because your name was Greg…I don't really remember how it started. But I stopped calling you that when your Mom died."

"Did she call me that?"

Greg smiled, "Sometimes. Do you mind it?"

Furey shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, "Nah, it's okay."

I grabbed some wood and Furey came back out to help me. We started a fire as the cabin started to get chilly with the sun now firmly set for the night. We weren't hungry, the meal at lunch had been filling, so we just snacked. We played Aggravation and laughed so hard at Greg, who we kept catching trying to cheat.

I hit him playfully in the arm, "You idiot; you can't cheat with two psychics playing!"

He got in my face, "That's the challenge…to see how much I can get away with you two around."

Furey started looking around, "Dad are you sleeping on the sofa bed with me?"

He looked at Furey and then me as if I should answer. But I waited. He finally asked Furey, "Why are you asking?"

"Because don't you have to get Auri drunk if you're going to sleep with her."

I laughed so hard I peed my pants. "Furey, we were just joking. I think a few sober women might sleep with your Dad too."

Furey smiled, "Good, because there's only one comfortable spot on the sofa and I didn't want to share it with Dad."

We went to bed at nine, all of us too tired to stay up. We didn't have sex, not with Furey so close outside. But we did do a little fondling and kissing before we fell asleep in each other's arms.

Greg took us to the lodge the next morning for breakfast and you'd have thought a celebrity had shown up from Hollywood.

Yolanda screamed, "Greg House?" She looked at me, "I knew you had arrived, but I didn't know when you'd show your face. Good to see you sweetie." She grabbed him up in her arms and hugged him. Greg's affectionate, but only with a few people. The fact that he patted Yolanda's back said a lot.

We spent several hours letting everyone catch up. Furey went out and played baseball with some kids staying at the lodge. When everyone left to go back to their jobs, I sat back in my chair with a cup of cocoa and looked at Greg.

Greg finally whispered to me, "You think we have time to sneak back and have sex?"

I nodded. As we went out on the porch I said, "Wait, this will be the test of whether we have time." I yelled across to Furey out in the field, "Furey, time to go."

He didn't disappoint me, "Ah, Auri…can't I finish this game? Please?"

"Okay, but then you walk back to the cabin. Okay?"

"Okay!"

I smiled at Greg, "Now since we can drive back, we not only have the time it will take for him to finish the game, but for him to walk back too. Houston, we have lift off."

Greg and I piled into the SUV and he immediately grabbed me around the back and pulled me over the gear shift. Kissing me and panting from excitement. I started rubbing the bulge in his pants and it took everything we had not to screw right there in front of the lodge.

We drove back and he practically ran inside throwing clothes in a path to the bedroom. I was following behind doing the same thing. By the time we got to the bed I only had my panties on and he was butt naked with a huge hard on.

"Wow, are you happy to see me?" I asked.

"Stop the jokes and get your vagina over here."

"Hmmm. How romantic."

He pulled my arm and I went face first flying onto the bed. Before I could turnover, I felt his hands on my ass as I hung over the bed from my waist down. His knee nudged my legs apart and he lifted my butt up a little, put a pillow underneath and then found the folds between my legs with his fingers. He wasn't wasting time. The urgency of his desire just made it hotter. I felt him push partially inside of me. He hesitated, adjusted his body and then slammed up inside as far as he could go, letting out a sharp cry as he did.

He stopped for a second and then made small thrusting motions to keep just enough friction to keep himself hard. He slapped the cheeks of my ass several times and then leaned down, feeling my breasts and pinching my nipples.

The slow, almost imperceptible movements inside were a tease. I wanted him to fuck me hard from behind, but he wanted to touch, fondle, rub. He rubbed his groin up against my cheeks and started to grind in circular motions without saying anything. My head was turned to the side and my torso lifted up on my elbows. His erection filled me completely, making it hard for me to do anything but wait for his moves.

He found my clitoris and then leaned over the back of me to play between my legs with his fingers.

"God, you feel so good, so tight. I want to pound you until you can't take it anymore, just like this." He pulled out almost the entire length then slammed so hard up into me that the air pushed out of my lungs in one huge rush, his skin slapping against mine, his balls slamming up between my legs. He did it again to get the message across. "But not yet. First we play with your clit, until you can't take anymore, then we'll go back to giving you the pounding you deserve."

I took a deep breath, the position was hot, but not the most comfortable. I soon forgot about that as he rubbed circles around my clit and then started rubbing back and forth in a steady motion. All the time he was doing this, he was still making little thrusts into me, reminding every nerve ending, every muscle that he was inside of me ready to start banging away. I was tense with excitement.

I thought about him pounding me like he promised and my clit tingled. I could start feeling the pre-orgasmic wave, a tightness, push through my body. He must have felt it too, because he encouraged me.

"Yeah, that's it. You're so hot, this feels so good. It's so wet and warm inside you. You're so soft and hot, your breasts dangling, your ass up in the air, come on Auri, let it ride."

I threw up my head as the orgasm prickled at first. He took one of my hands and placed it on my clit, then stood completely up and started to thrust, pounding away so hard and fast that I had a hard time keeping the rhythm of my finger on my clit. Within a minute I clamped down on him over and over as the congestion broke through and the waves of pleasure bled through me.

His voice wavered, "Ohhhh Goood. Oh Auri, ahhh, ahhh. Jesus, you're like a vise grip. Damn, I'm going to explode." He screamed out.

Between the sound of his flesh slapping against mine, the rhythm of my finger, the feel of him penetrating deep inside of me, I thought my orgasm would go on forever. It was Greg who had to stop. He'd ejaculated half a dozen times and then threw his head back.

"Oh God, my heart. It's beating so hard; I think it's going to jump out of my chest." He pulled out slowly, dripping semen down my leg as he did. "Whew, that was incredible."

I was trying to catch my breath. "No joke. That was the best…yeah, it was the best orgasm I've ever had. I didn't think it would stop."

"You're telling me. You flushed pink all down your back and the contractions just kept coming. You're a human milking machine."

I laughed and rolled over. He was still standing but was pretty wobbly. I grabbed the pillow, threw it to the top of the bed and then crawled under the covers, inviting him to join me. He crawled in and threw his head back in exhaustion.

"My heart is still pounding." He moaned.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but I have to realize that I'm not a teen anymore. That was a lot of work."

I grimaced, "Thanks."

"No, I mean physical exertion for me. Fun. Hot. But now I don't think I'll be able to get out of bed for awhile."

"Well rest for a minute." I rubbed his forehead and his hair. He closed his eyes and fell asleep. So did I.

It was the slamming of the screen door and Furey's yelling that woke me.

"Auri, Dad…where are you?"

I snatched up the blanket and sheet, pulling them up over us. I knew he was making a mad dash for the bedroom. Bam, the door flew open.

"Oh! There you are. Why are all your clothes…" He was standing looking down at my panties on the floor along with his Dad's boxers. "Did you guys have sex?"

I blushed and was trying to get out the right words when Greg growled without opening his eyes, "Yes, now get out of here so we can sleep a little. Go read a book, we'll be up soon."

Furey looked at me, "Does sex make you tired?"

I nodded.

"It's like a sport?"

Greg piped up again, "Yeah, it's like strenuous martial arts, lots of wrestling. Now go do what I said."

Furey closed the door and went out to the living room. I dropped down to the pillow.

"Crap, we've been caught."

"He didn't see anything."

"He saw my panties; he knew we were nude under the covers."

Greg rolled over and looked into my eyes, "Sex is nothing to be ashamed of."

"But it's different when you think about your parents getting jiggy."

"You aren't his mother."

I winced, "You know what I mean. Besides, you are his Dad."

"Yeah, and when he's a teen, he's going to be grateful that his father could still get it up in his fifties. It will give him something to look forward to."

"I'm going to take a shower." I jumped up, grabbed as many clothes as I could in the bedroom and put them in the dirty pile. I pulled clean clothes out of my suitcase and went into the bathroom which was just off the bedroom, the only bathroom in the cabin.

When I got out of the shower, Greg yelled to me, "Hey, come here."

I went out wrapped in my towel, water dripping down my neck and shoulder and running from my thigh to my ankle. "What?"

He grinned, "I didn't get to see much of your body except the back. Why don't you dress in here so I can watch?"

I laughed, "Most men want to watch as you undress."

"I've always been a little different."

"No argument there." I dropped the towel and he grinned.

"Mighty fine."

"Thank you. At my age, I'll take all the compliments you want to dish out."

"You wouldn't know you were 64."

I threw a shoe at him.