Different Circles

The Best males were impressed with Jake’s skill on the grill. No slouches with a charcoal grill themselves, they found it quite down-to-Earth that Little Bit’s highfalutin husband—who had most of his actual housework and other chores done for him by a live-in housekeeper—actually knew had to perform a manly skill like cooking a steak on the old Weber. And when they tasted their steaks at the dinner table, their opinion of him shot up a few more notches. The steaks were juicy, grilled perfectly, and had a smooth, exquisite texture unlike anything they had ever tasted before. Naturally (though perhaps a little reluctantly), they attributed this to Jake’s touch with the coals and the spatula and not the fact that they were eating expensive, restaurant-quality meat instead of the cheap cuts from the local Walmart meat counter, which was what they were used to.

After dinner, while Elsa cleaned up (Jake was paying her an extra three hundred dollars a day for the duration of the visit, though none of the Bests knew this), everyone else went out to the cliff to watch the sunset instead of breaking up into gender groups as was the Best family tradition. Chase and Grace donned their modest one-piece swimsuits and climbed into the hot tub to watch it from there. Joey, Sarah, Brian, and Julie all gave the cognac Jake offered a try, dutifully drinking it as directed. They then switched back to Budweiser in the can. Joey and Brian did, however, legitimately enjoy the Cuban cigars that Jake produced for them. They were, however, quite scandalized when Celia fired one up as well and sat in their circle, smoking with them and drinking her cognac just like one of the boys.

Hollywood people, Joey thought, resisting the urge to shake his head. He hoped that Grace was not being too influenced by the Mexican singer she worshiped.

And that night, after everyone had gone to bed, Celia, fresh out of the shower and wearing a long t-shirt and nothing else, crept out of the smallest of the guest rooms and slinked down the main hall to the master suite. She slipped inside, where her hosts were eagerly waiting for her, both of them naked and freshly showered themselves, the only light in the room that coming from a series of candles that had been lit. She slipped out of the t-shirt, climbed into their bed, and the three of them spent the next hour putting their bodies, fingers, lips, tongues, and genitals together in as many ways as they could think of. Celia was particularly fascinated by and drawn to Laura’s pregnant belly, which seemed to be getting a little bigger by the day now. She touched it and rubbed it and kissed it frequently. And they found a novel way to keep the entire house from knowing their business when Laura came. When it happened under Celia’s tongue, Jake would put his member in her mouth. And when it happened under Jake’s member, Celia would plant her wet vagina on her mouth.

Celia did not sleep in their room when the act was finished. No one commented on this or protested it or even thought much about it. It just seemed like the right thing to do and it happened by unspoken mutual agreement.

Everyone, even Elsa, spent the 4^th of July out on Brent Hadley’s charter fishing boat. As promised, Brent took out all ten of them, plus baby Everett, privately on his boat (which was capable of accommodating another twenty fishermen plus five or six more guests) for the price of letting him use pictures of Jake and Laura in his advertisements. They left Morro Bay marina at 6:30 AM, just as the sun was rising in the east, and motored out into the Pacific Ocean more than fifteen miles. The sea was reasonably placid, with gently rolling five-foot swells that imparted an almost soothing rhythm to the vessel as they chased after schools of ocean fish that lived and fed off the central coast of California. No one got sick and everyone had a great time. Everyone except Everett caught their limit of rock cod and Gracie even managed to hook into a ling cod, which she had to fight for the better part of thirty minutes before they could gaff it aboard and kill it. Brent’s deckhands took plenty of pictures of Jake and Laura, particularly when they were reeling in fish or holding their catch.