Different Circles

Ordinarily on Friday evenings Jake and Laura would go back to Celia’s house with her and the three of them would get naked together and do the sorts of things that three naked, horny people liked to do. Jake and Laura would then shower and drive back to the airport and fly home so that Meghan could start her weekend off after earning a little time and half bonus for the extra Friday night work. But that was not going to happen on this day. Instead, the three of them would be staying the night at Tom and Mary’s house outside Cypress. Caydee was going to visit Grandma and Grandpa with Jake for the weekend. The ladies had their own plans. They were going to drive to Sacramento tomorrow morning to attend the Dixieland Jazz Festival that was held every Memorial Day weekend in Old Sacramento. They had hopes of finding a sax player there was the excuse they used. Jake suspected they just wanted to drink and have fun, but he kept his suspicion to himself.

Jake used his cell phone to call Pauline and let her know they had knocked off early and were heading out of town soon. She was at the KVA studio working on some paperwork related to the upcoming tour. She had been invited to come with them but had passed. She and Obie and Tabby were going to spend the holiday weekend at an all-inclusive resort in Mazatlán. They would be flying out on a chartered business jet at 9:00 AM the next morning ... He then called the house phone in Oceano. Elsa picked up and he asked to speak with Meghan.

“Hey, Jake,” Meghan greeted a few moments later. “What’s up?”

“We knocked off a little early today,” he said. “We’ll be touching down at around...” He looked at his watch and did a few calculations in his head. “ ... oh, say five-thirty-five or so.”

“I’ll be there,” she promised.

“You’re the best,” he told her.

“Uh ... thanks,” she said shyly.

“You’re supposed to answer: ‘that’s what they say,’” Jake informed her. “Work on your witty retorts a little, will you?”

She giggled a little and then promised she would work on that.

“All right,” Jake said, stuffing the phone in his pocket. “Let’s blow this scene.”

They blew the scene, grabbing their luggage from over by the door and then tossing it into the trunk of Celia’s Mercedes. They let the security guard on duty know that they would be leaving Jake’s truck in the parking lot for the weekend. His name was Frank and he was a young kid in his early twenties who was quite awed to be regularly scheduled for this particular assignment. He promised that he and his colleagues would keep an eye on the truck as well as the warehouse and all of the expensive musical gear inside of it.

Celia drove them to Whiteman Airport with Laura in the front passenger seat and Jake in the back seat (“where you belong,” his wife told him with a giggle). Celia parked her car in the hangar where Jake’s truck was normally kept. They then boarded the Avanti, Celia in the copilot’s seat, Laura sitting just behind Jake. In the seat next to her was one of the four car seats they owned. This one was permanently kept in the aircraft. Another was kept in Jake’s BMW, another was kept in Laura’s cursed minivan, and the fourth was usually kept in Meghan’s new car (she had used her new earnings to buy herself a brand-new Honda Accord). Jake fueled up the tanks to about three-quarters full since jet fuel was cheaper at Whiteman than it was in San Luis Obispo or Heritage. Jill would have been proud of him. They took off a little past 5:00 PM and touched down at SLO Regional at 5:33. Jake taxied over to the general aviation terminal, where Meghan’s new Honda was sitting in the parking lot. He shut down the engines and the three of them stepped out of the plane.

“Where’s my little Caydee?” Laura asked in her high-pitched voice as Meghan walked toward them, Caydee in arms. “Where’s my little girl?”

Caydee, seeing her mommy and daddy and the cool lady who hung out with them a lot, broke into a huge smile. Laura took her out of Meghan’s arms, gave her a big hug, and then covered her face with kisses. Caydee giggled and cooed and kissed her mommy back with her wet, sloppy lips.

“I swear to God,” said Celia, smiling at the display, “she’s grown another inch or two since I saw her last week.”

“She definitely outgrows her clothes long before she wears them out,” Jake said. “Come here, Caydee. Come see Daddy.”

She held out her arms to him and Jake plucked her out of Laura’s grasp. He gave her a few kisses of his own and then hurled her up into the air, catching her neatly as she came down. She laughed in delight at this game, which was one of her favorites.

“I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” Laura said, chewing her lip nervously as Jake did it again, making Caydee laugh even louder.

Meanwhile, Meghan was staring at Celia with an expression of awe that bordered on religious worship. The two of them had not met yet but she was on record as being a huge Celia Valdez fan.

“Apparently they forgot their manners,” Celia said to Meghan with a smile. “I’m Celia.”