Family Ties

"I don't know how one person could do that to another," she choked out. "My parents have been married for 26 years, and I think they are more in love today than when they got married. I remember when Mom got pregnant with Elvie; Dad was in heaven. I know a lot of people might have thought about an abortion at that point, but I don't think it was ever an option for my folks. They just have so much love to give. I hope someday I can find that."

Although it had been almost three years since my divorce, I wasn't sure I was ready for that kind of commitment just yet, but I figured there was no reason to voice that thought out loud. I'd just take it one date at a time and see where this led.

Elvira actually accompanied us on a couple of our dates. Kim was really tight with her sister, and I have to admit she grew on me quickly. She was adorable and quick-witted and her total devotion to Kim intrigued me. Their closeness drew me into a closeness with Elvie, as well. She would come over and hang out with me, even if Kim was doing something at the time. Kim encouraged me to get closer to Elvie. She didn't want her sister resenting me for "taking Kim away from her." Instead, it served to give me--an only child--someone I considered to be a sibling.

I'm sure when we were together people probably thought Elvira was my daughter and Kim my young wife. I caught some women in particular giving both Kim and I the once-over. I know she passed the test; I wonder how they viewed me.

Kim was fine with me taking things slow, and she loved the dates when we took Elvira. We didn't rush the physical part either. In fact, we didn't have sex until our 10^th date. We took a long weekend in Indianapolis, and on the second night we did dinner and a show. We were staying in separate rooms, but we didn't use one of them that night. The hotel downtown was close enough that we walked back hand-in-hand from the show, and I knew we were both feeling the electricity between us.

When we got back to the hotel, we headed to my room. We started kissing and Kim's hands started to roam down my body. I took that as a sign, so my hands started roaming as well. Her C-cup boobs felt great in my hands before I cupped her ass cheeks through her dress. I'm not sure how, but we somehow got to the queen bed, and proceeded to use every inch of it. I slowly removed every stitch of her clothing and made sure to appreciate every body part that came into sight. I kissed down her body, starting at her lips, and wound up licking the back of her knees. She gave a shiver, and then I kissed and licked my way up to her very wet pussy.

I gently rubbed her vaginal lips with my fingers, then slowly placed one and then a second finger inside, gently rubbing the rough nerve endings of her G-spot and causing her to moan and shake. I moved my fingers in and out several times, eventually causing a small orgasm. I then dove into her insides with my tongue, and within 30 seconds she shrieked and locked her thighs around my head. I waited for her orgasm to subside so I could pull my face back enough to get a fresh breath of air, then dove back in with glee. She tasted sweet yet musky, and I brought her to three more shrieking orgasms before she insisted I mount her.

"P-p-please Dan. Oh God, please. Climb up here and make love to me."

I didn't need to be told twice. We took our time to hit our stride, then she locked her legs around my waist and we picked up speed. We came together about 20 minutes later.

We cuddled and laid together for about 30 minutes, then I felt her reach down and rub my flaccid prick. It wasn't flaccid a minute later, and this time I made her get on all fours and took her doggy, at least to start. We eventually moved to the edge of the bed, where I flipped her over and put her legs up with her heels over my shoulders, getting inside her as deep as I could go. Judging by her screams, she really liked that. She came twice before I finally let loose.

We fell asleep entwined and woke the same way. I knew right away that I wanted to do that with this woman for the rest of my life, if she'd have me.

I proposed to Kim a month later, and she made me the happiest man on the planet when she accepted my diamond ring. We were married a year later. At just 10 years old, Elvie was her sister's maid of honor.

No one gets rich working at a medium-sized newspaper, but I was doing okay for myself and Kim had been promoted at the bank, so we decided to stay in Muncie after we got married. This made her parents, Larry and Arlene Warner, very happy.

Larry and Arlene were every bit the great couple Kim described them to be, and we hit it off well. They were really great in-laws. Elvie, of course, was a great sister-in-law. She hung out over at our place a lot, which was fine with both Kim and I. In fact, I took Elvie with me on several photo assignments as she expressed an interest in photography. I taught her everything I knew about the craft, and I thought she had a real talent for it. In that regard, she was the exact opposite of Kim, who couldn't seem to shoot anything in focus.

At this point I had a fairy tale life. I've always been a realist, and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. So what happened next was a huge surprise.

It was yet another boys' basketball season. It was a long drive to an away game, and as usual I got in about midnight. It was almost déjà vu when I went to turn into my driveway and found a car parked right in the middle.

"Son of a bitch!" I shouted to no one again.

I backed up the car and parked in front of the house, absolutely furious. Then I took a look at the car in the driveway. Although I didn't recognize the vehicle, it had Pennsylvania plates. My parents lived in Pennsylvania, but why would they be here unannounced on a Saturday night?

I was sweating profusely. I was angry beyond belief. I ripped open the door expecting the worst... and was greeted by six people shouting, "Hey Daddy! About time you got home."

"What the f...?" I yelled, suddenly feeling numb. It got quiet in my head for a moment, then I realized what the six had said.

"Daddy?" I hazily repeated.

Kim approached and wrapped me in a deep hug.

"In about six months, Honey," she said quietly into my ear.

I screamed something unintelligible in my celebration.

I spent the next three months getting the baby's room ready in our small house.

I got the call about three in the afternoon. Kim had been taken by ambulance to Ball Memorial Hospital after passing out at the bank. When I got to her room, she was out, with a bunch of cables running into her arms.

"We're not sure exactly why it happened, but your wife suffered a miscarriage," Dr. Hiram Lefkowitz told me. "She'll be okay, at least physically, in a couple of weeks. But this is going to take a toll mentally. I can give you the name of a therapist."

The therapist, a Dr. Joan Cullibrant, was a godsend, because losing the baby was tough on both of us. We spent a couple of weeks gingerly walking around each other on eggshells, but Dr. Cullibrant made us see that the way to healing was not being quiet around each other, but sitting down together and communicating. I will be in that woman's debt forever.

Although we kept trying, we never did have a child. I guess there's a reason for everything.

On a rare weekday off, I decided to make my famous veal parmigiana for dinner for Kim, Elvie and me. Kim picked up Elvie, now 13, on the way home from work, where Kim was now an assistant vice president. I had been in the kitchen for several hours, working on the parm, spaghetti and garlic bread. Personally, I thought I outdid myself. It was delicious, and there weren't many leftovers. Since I cooked, Kim and Elvira had clean-up duty.

"Really, Dan? You managed to use every pot and pan we have?" Kim smart-mouthed as she and her sister cleaned up.

Elvie remained silent, but when Kim turned around she stuck her tongue out at me and crossed her eyes. I shook my finger at her until Kim started to turn her head.

I took Elvira home a couple of hours later. As Kim and I were getting ready for bed later on, she had a pain in her stomach. Nothing big, she said, probably just a little indigestion.

"Should have put a helping of Alka-Seltzer on the menu," she wisecracked.

"Oh shit. You're never going to let me live this one down, are you?" I asked.

Kim's indigestion was back again two days later. More wisecracks. More apologies from me. More Alka-Seltzer.

When the indigestion stayed for yet another day, I insisted she see her doctor. That led to an X-ray, and two days later we were sitting in the doctor's office while he explained that she had a small mass in her stomach. He scheduled a biopsy for a week later.

I knew things weren't good when the doctor came out and told me it would be best for everyone if we waited for Kim to wake up and clear the anesthesia before he talked to us. Two hours later my worst fears were confirmed: she had cancer all throughout her body, and the doctor just closed the incision. Kim had less than a year to live, and the best we could do was make her comfortable. Both of us cried like babies for the next hour before we called our parents and gave them the horrible news. Then we cried for another hour.

Kim's parents and Elvie came to the hospital the next day, and we all discussed our limited options. I had to continue to work because we couldn't afford not to have any money coming in, but my boss was understanding and said he would give me time off unpaid as I needed it. Larry was in the same place with his job as I was, but Arlene and he decided she could leave her job to help take care of Kim as much as possible, with help from an in-home nursing service as time went on. Elvie, too, volunteered to help as much as possible. I felt extra-bad for Elvie: only 13 and having her best friend and sister destined for death.

It was both a blessing and a curse, but the doctor's estimate of Kim's condition was way wrong. Seems that opening her up made the cancer metastasize at an incredible rate, and just seven weeks later she was back in the hospital at death's door. When her kidneys started to fail and her lungs started filling with fluid, I knew the best thing I had going in my life was about to leave this earth. She was in pain and groggy for much of the last dozen hours. I was sitting in a chair next to the bed holding her hand and rubbing her arm, trying not to let her see me cry, when she whispered to me.

"Baby, don't cry for me too long," she said. "We had a good run, just a little shorter than I think we both planned. I'm sorry I couldn't give you children to help you remember me. You're too young to go without someone to love you; please don't lock yourself away from love. I will be patiently waiting for you."

As her eyes closed, I managed to croak out, "I love you, Babe." I stood up, leaned over her and planted a soft kiss on her lips. I'd like to believe I saw a small smile on her face as she breathed her last.

My in-laws really went to the wall to help me get through the pain and show me they loved me, inviting me over to dinner frequently and making sure I didn't spend too much time sitting home alone. Elvira spent weekends with me from time to time, and her teenage goofball antiques certainly put a smile on my face from time to time. I couldn't help but notice that she looked even more like Kim as her light freckles began to fade away.

Being alone, so to speak, gave me the impetus to take the next step in my career. Normally, the goal is to keep moving up in the profession every few years, but I put the two of us ahead of my career goals and stayed in Muncie. Now, I applied for and got a sports writing job at the Columbus Dispatch in Columbus, OH. Since I was low man on the totem pole, I got high school sports as my main coverage in the winter, and the Triple A baseball team, the Columbus Clippers, as my spring and summer coverage. Columbus, by the way, is the home of the Ohio State Buckeyes, and the top writer had them for both football and men's basketball.

I didn't see Kim's parents and Elvie much after I moved to Columbus for the first year, but Elvie chose Ohio State for college, so she spent a lot of time over at my apartment the next year. I had always considered Elvira like a little sister, and was very glad to have her with me whenever she wanted to hang out. Otherwise it was back to just me and Leo.

I knew Elvie was a beautiful young woman, but I didn't quite realize how beautiful because I had always considered her like a little sister. Not only did she look like a red-headed Kim, but she was built very similar to her sister. That was as far as I saw things, though, because first, she was Kim's little sister, and second, she was 18 years old to my 39.

I had bought a Pentax K-1000 camera to go along with my ancient Spotmatic, and Elvie and I would hit the Columbus Zoo and museums in the area to take photos. We'd go out to eat after a day of shooting, and we spent hours talking about everything.

Elvie apparently saw our relationship differently than I did, because a few months into the school year she started staying over on my sofa occasionally. I didn't necessarily have a problem with that, but I tried to persuade her to do more with her schoolmates and soak up the college experience. What I said apparently didn't matter much, though, because she didn't spend any less time with me.

I had given Elvira a key to my place so she could come over whenever she wanted, even when I was working. I got in my usual late Friday night time, and Elvie was sitting on the sofa drinking a glass of red wine and crying. Even though she was only 18, I didn't have a problem with her having a glass or two of wine, and I assumed she was crying because she was watching what looked like some sort of a chick flick. I plopped down on the sofa next to her with my own glass of wine.

"So how's your love life?" I joked when I sat down.

She looked stricken, then started to cry harder. Being a typical man, I was completely lost. I scooted over on the sofa, slid my left arm behind her and pulled her into a tight hug. She cried for another few minutes, then looked up at me, waiting for me to look back at her before she started to speak.

"Don't tease me, Dan. You know I don't have a love life. You know I'm waiting for you to get over mourning my sister. She always told me you were the best man she knew, and she asked me to watch over you after she was gone."

I sat there in complete shock for what seemed like minutes.

"Please, Dan," she whispered.

I thought long and hard about Kim and how close she and Elvie were. I wasn't sure Elvie was breathing while I was thinking. I must have thought for a good minute before I realized Elvira was right. I picked her up in my arms and carried her into the bedroom, laying her down gently on my bed. I put my lips on hers, and she sucked my tongue into her mouth. I thought back quickly; Elvie was 16 when Kim died. Surely Kim wouldn't have talked that much to her little sister.

We kissed hard for another couple of minutes, then I slowly began to undress her. With the exception of some light freckles on her upper chest and some wispy red pubic hair, the body looked and felt awfully familiar. It was a little more than weird, and a couple of times I had to shake my head to clear it.

I started by gently pulling on her erect nipples, then I ran my tongue up her jawline to her collarbone, causing her to lightly squeal. I nibbled her shoulder, then licked down the right side of her body to her hip, which I bit solidly. I ran a couple of fingers up and down her pussy before tickling her hard clit. She cried out and came at that point.

I next put my face up to her slit and gave a slow lick from her opening to her clit, causing another orgasm to rumble through her. My next parry was to stick my tongue as far as I could get it inside her pussy, resulting in yet another "O." Then I looped my tongue around her clit and sucked it into my mouth for about 15 seconds, and she tried to break my neck by bucking hard with her hips and legs. I took a peek up to her eyes and they were rolled back in her head, with just the whites showing. When she came out of her stupor, I crawled up to line up my hard dick at her opening and I immediately felt some resistance.

My God, I hadn't considered that Elvie would be a virgin! I had only done one other virgin, about a hundred years ago, it seemed. I was just an 18-year-old kid then, so I really had no idea what to do with a virgin. I was a 39-year-old man this time, and I knew I could do much better. I did, and Elvie got off twice more before going just about comatose.

I lay in bed cuddling Elvira while she slept. Surprisingly, I didn't feel guilty for having sex with Kim's sister. I did feel guilty for having sex with Larry and Arlene's younger daughter.

It took me a few minutes to sort things out when I woke up wrapped around a woman who both looked and smelled like Kim, except for the long red hair. Then I remembered the last night, and I gently kissed Elvie's shoulder. I slowly moved some of her hair to create an opening to her neck, then I licked it as she shrugged involuntarily. She turned to face me, then kissed me gently yet passionately. We then did round two.

We spent the rest of the weekend in bed, occasionally making forays into the kitchen to eat. It wasn't all about sex, though, as we talked about everything in our lives, especially Kim. I also told her about my first marriage and divorce, and how Kim's love had both saved me and brought me back to life. She admitted Kim had told her some of the Traci saga, but had made her promise to never bring it up to me. It was Kim's mission in life to keep me upbeat and happy, she told Elvie.

We made love once in the morning and a second time in the afternoon. Considering I hadn't made love in two years prior to the night before, four times in less than 24 hours had taxed my 39-year-old body. I realized that while I was only seven years older than Kim, I was 21 years older than Elvira. That was more than a little significant. As if to emphasize my point, I promptly fell asleep.

When I woke up about an hour later, Elvie had a leg and an arm draped over me. I couldn't tell if she was asleep or awake, so I hesitated to move. She must have felt me wake, because she pulled back a bit and looked me in the eyes.

"Sorry Baby, but I'm an old man compared to you. I needed a nap," I said.

"Did I wear you out?" she asked innocently. "Not sorry."

She giggled. Elvie always had a great giggle. I used to really like it when she and Kim would get to giggling. They'd do something goofy, and set each other off. When they got like that, the laughing would go on for 10, 15 minutes.

She must have been reading my mind.

"I know you miss her, Dan. I do, too." Elvira said. "But honestly, I'm not trying to replace her. She was her, and I'm me. But we talked about things a lot, and I hung around with you guys enough to see why she loved you so much. I want that, Dan, and I'm sure you can be the one to give that to me like you gave it to Kim. Please, give us a chance.

"But Elvie, I'm 21 years older than you. You deserve somebody that can keep up with you. When you're in your sexual prime 10 years from now, I'll be 49 and on my downhill slide," I said.

"Was it all about sex for you and Kim? I don't think so. I expect the same for you and me. Besides, they have pills for that sort of thing, and I don't think that magic tongue of yours has an expiration date, does it?"

"Well then, we can give this a shot, but I want you to really think about this," I responded. "I would much prefer we end this as friends before either one of us does something to hurt the other. Remember, I've been there, done that once before."