The Swim Team Ch. 08

"You can't be cold," I said.

"What? She asked as she squirted sun block into her hand. "Oh, I just caught a chill. Maybe we're going to have an early fall."

"Honey, it has to be more than 90 degrees out here. I'm sweating like a stuck pig."

"Oh, you're exaggerating."

"Look," I turned and pointed to the thermometer hanging on the patio wall, its display showed 93 degrees in large block numbers. "And that's in the shade."

Carrie looked confused for a moment before shrugging. "Oh, well, it doesn't feel that hot to me."

She may have dismissed it, and I probably would have, too, except that I had noticed her appetite had been off lately, and she seemed to be losing weight. Still, she was a grown woman, and she knew her own body. Besides, she had mentioned she wanted to lose some weight before she got pregnant again.

Carrie's master plan was to have our second child ten years after Brenda, but her career pushed that a year, then my job made the timing difficult. A couple of weeks ago we decided it was time, and we had fun doing our best to make a baby, but we hadn't had any luck so far. We had made an appointment for the next week with her gynecologist just to make sure there was no medical reason for our difficulty.

That visit was the beginning of a dark chapter in my life.

The doctor performed routine tests and determined that Carrie's female parts were all in good working order, but one of the blood results was a little off. Not one that would affect pregnancy, so it wasn't why she wasn't getting pregnant, but the OB/GYN still wanted to consult with another doctor. She told us not to worry, and to enjoy our attempts at procreation. We took her at her word and made a beeline to the bedroom to fulfill her prescription.

A day later, the doctor called back and wanted to see us both as soon as possible.

Despite the lump of dread roiling around in my gut, I had no idea what she was going to say. That maybe Carrie's hormones were off, and that she would need injections to get pregnant, or that we would have to try in-vitro fertilization, or worse, that maybe I was the reason we couldn't get pregnant. What we were told made my worst-case scenarios joyous occasions by comparison.

"Acute staphylococcus aureus infection," the doctor looked at us over the rims of her glasses. Her face was blank, though her eyes cried as she told us. Carrie gasped, and I froze. The only thing I could do was blink. I'm not sure I was even breathing at that moment. "Given the results of your first blood culture," the doctor continued, "it is a particularly virulent strain. There are a number of treatment options..." her voice droned on, and I did listen like my life depended on it--because it did--but all I could see at that moment was Carrie. She said that they would start Carrie on broad spectrum antibiotics immediately and, if it responded well, with the best-case scenario she could be cured within fourteen days. The doctor didn't elaborate on the worst-case scenario.

Once her initial shock passed, Carrie took out a notebook and a pen and began taking notes. Her hand scribbled across the page at light speed before flipping to another page. She didn't stop to break down and cry. She didn't scream in denial--like I wanted to do--instead, she leapt into an action plan. This woman, whom I've loved from the moment I first laid eyes on her, was still the same effervescent yet no-nonsense force of nature that I sprayed with foam in that lab class so long ago.

We went home that night and Carrie immediately began diving into our records to find our insurance policies and she made a list of the accounts that needed to be updated. I cooked dinner and kept Brenda busy while Carrie did her research. Her first coughing spell came shortly after we went to bed. The spell passed after a drink of water and some cough syrup, but her breathing sped up. The fever set in around midnight. I woke up to damp sheets and a five-foot-three furnace radiating enough heat to make me sweat. Carrie was panting with the effort to breathe, and she wouldn't wake up when I shook her. I grabbed my phone.

"Kelly! I have to take Carrie to the ER. Can you come over and sit with Brenda?"

"We'll be right there." Kelly closed the call before I could tell her they all didn't need to come.

I bundled Carrie up in blankets and carried her to my car. I laid her out on the back seat and strapped her in the best I could. She stirred only slightly when I moved her. Her eyes opened, but they were miles away, glassy, and unfocused. I don't think she even registered I was carrying her. My heart was a trip-hammer pounding in my chest and I had to force myself to slow down and think calm thoughts. This is just a fever from the infection. It probably happens all the time. She'll be fine. Somehow, I knew I was lying.

When I had Carrie strapped in and ready to go, she grabbed my hand. "Purse," she croaked. I ran in and grabbed her purse from the desk, where she had been doing all the work earlier. As I passed Brenda's room, I almost woke her up to get in the car, since Kelly had not shown up yet, but thought better of it. It would scare her, and she did have to go to school in the morning. We'd probably be back before she woke up anyway. As I opened the garage door, Dennis was pulling up to the curb. He carried a sleepy Linda into the house while Kelly jumped in my car.

"Drive!" She commanded.

We made it to the hospital in minutes, where we were greeted by an initially disinterested nurse, until she touched Carrie's face.

"She's burning up," she observed with wide eyes.

"Ya think?" I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"This way." The nurse led us to an exam room where she began taking Carrie's vital signs before I even had her on the exam table.

Kelly was standing near the nurses' station, afraid to venture back into the treatment area. The sign next to her said "Patients and immediate family only beyond this point." Her hands were wringing the leather strap of her purse.

Carrie's cough brought my attention back to my immediate concern. A doctor had already appeared and was checking her pupils.

"When did the fever start?" He asked the question without looking at me.

"About 40 minutes ago, more or less. We were asleep. She got so hot it woke me."

"Are there any other symptoms?" He was prodding his fingers under her jaw.

"A cough. We saw her doctor this afternoon. She has a Staphylococcus infection. He put her on antibiotics."

"Did she take them?" He pressed the diaphragm of his stethoscope to her chest while he listened to her lungs.

"Two doses so far."

The doctor turned to the nurse and began barking orders. "Draw a CBC, Hematocrit, type and cross, and blood cultures. Oh, and a blood gas. Walk them to the lab and wait for the results. Get her records here, stat. Hang a liter D5W," he turned to face me, "does she have any allergies?"

"Not that we know."

"500 milligrams Penicillin I.V. push," he finished addressing the nurse who had dutifully jotted every order on her pad.

The technicians and nurses darted around carrying out the doctor's orders, but all I could see was the love of my life lying there in distress. Carrie's cough came and went, but her fever never broke. The doctor had her admitted to the ICU around five in the morning and Kelly and I stayed with her. Dennis got the girls ready for school and told them that Carrie wasn't feeling well, but that she was in good hands, so they wouldn't worry. Around six, Carrie woke up. She was still disoriented, but she could respond to my voice.

"Hey, babe," I said through a plastered-on smile. "Are you feeling any better?"

A groan was all I got in response. Her eyes sought out the sound of my voice, though, so I knew she heard me. "B...B...Barry?"

"Right here," my hand clutched hers for dear life. "I'm right here. Kelly's here, too."

"My throat hurts," she rasped.

"I'll get some water," I said, and I went to find a nurse.

When I returned, Kelly and Carrie were crying and hugging each other, until Carrie began coughing again. Kelly backed away clutching her purse and a crumpled envelope when the nurses came in to try to help Carrie, who couldn't stop coughing.

When all was said and done, Carrie had to be sedated and intubated. The lab results later said she developed a secondary case of pneumonia, which the doctors told me is not uncommon in these situations. I spent the rest of the day by her side listening to the monitor beep and the respirator hiss in the darkness of the room. The nurses came and went, charting her declining vitals and changing I.V. bags. Every time, they looked at me with pity. At the end of the day, the doctor finally came in and urged me to go home. The doctor told me it could be days before her condition changed, so, after a feeble protest, I left Wednesday morning.

Carrie passed alone in the dark hospital room that night. I was not at her bedside when my wife died. I was not there to hold her hand as she crossed over. I was not there to say a final goodbye. I had failed her.

#

Kelly watched me as I dried my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. It was as though a boulder had been lifted from my shoulders. The morning of a sunny day after a fog. I felt like I was looking at life through new prescription lenses after a lifetime of bad vision. I had been an idiot, living with blinders that kept me from experiencing life and seeing the joy around me. That was gone now, and I looked forward to the day with an eagerness I hadn't felt in a long time. I guess a good cry can do that.

Kelly was putting the final touches on her makeup and hair when Dennis showed up. It was still early in the day, but I had showered and dressed, and Kelly made herself look ravishing in anticipation of Dennis' visit. She knew what was riding on the outcome, and she also knew that to get Dennis out from under Diane's spell, she would have to remind him of the Kelly he married back in college. Dennis looked a bit surprised to see me when I opened the door.

"You said it was important, so I came over just as soon as I could. But, you don't look like you're having an emergency. In fact, you look good. Better than the last time I saw you. What's up?"

"It is very important, but more to you than to me. Come in. I even have a Stella for you."

"Well, this must be an auspicious occasion..." he stopped short when Kelly appeared with his beer. His face twisted into a mask of aggravation. "What are you playing at, Barry?"

"Just listen to what she has to say, Dennis."

"I've listened to her preaching for over five damn years," he began, but Kelly shushed him.

"I know, and I was wrong, honey," she said putting one hand on his shoulders as she handed him the sweaty bottle. "I shouldn't have forced you into the same exile I put myself into. It wasn't fair to either of us, or Linda either."

She led him to the sofa and the two of them talked together for the better part of an hour, while I made myself scarce. I retreated to my room and checked my phone to see if Brenda had texted, but there were no messages from her. I did have a few from a number I didn't know, and when I opened them, I had to sit down.

They were from Austin.

"I can't stop thinking about you."

"I need to see you again."

"I want you."

I had to assume she was used to getting what she wanted when she went after someone. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to have her again. She was one of the best looking girls I knew, and she was a sexual dynamo. But with everything going on, it would just make things more complicated between me and Brenda. And Linda, for that matter.

Linda. I smiled when I thought about her. I couldn't not smile. As pretty as Austin was, she wasn't Linda. I was just about to text Austin back to tell her it wouldn't work out when another text came in.

"I have something you'll want to see."

I stared at the message for an eternity of seconds before my fingers moved. I texted back before my brain realized what my fingers were typing. "Where?"

"Your place."

I agreed before I knew what I was doing. How stupid would I have to be to invite a girl I barely know to my home? All of the women I had slept with since Carrie I had taken to hotels. I never brought a woman into my home before. This was Carrie's home. Also, I didn't want to subject my child to a parade of different women, didn't want to risk them forming some kind of attachment that would be torn when I inevitably broke it off. I also didn't want to risk letting a potential stalker know where I lived. But then again, Austin knows Brenda, so she probably already has my address.

I shook it off and went to check on Dennis and Kelly. I'd given them the better part of an hour to talk, and I never heard any shouting. I took that as a good sign. When I entered the living room, any doubts about their relationship vanished. Kelly was bouncing on Dennis lap while he sucked on her nipples. They hadn't even bothered getting undressed. Her blouse was hanging off her shoulders, her skirt was bunched up over her ass, and I could see his cock splitting her pussy below her cheeks while his pants were bunched up at his ankles. He still had one of his shoes on.

I walked around them to the side of the couch and they both noticed me at the same time. Kelly smiled beneath her smoldering eyes. It was that same look I saw back in college on spring break. Dennis smiled too.

He released her nipple and pulled her down for a smoldering kiss. When he pulled back he held her gaze while he nodded to me. "You want him, too. Don't you?"

Kelly stopped bouncing and started a slow grind on his crotch before fixing her eyes on me. "God, yes!"

"C'mere buddy. It's okay. She's been wanting to taste you for years." The look on his face took me back almost 20 years, and all I could think about was the passion. I didn't think about Carrie. I didn't think about Brenda. All I saw was Kelly and Dennis enjoying each other and expressing their lust in a primal moment that struck a spark in my loins. He and Kelly had their problems, but Dennis always knew how to have a good time. Here he was, offering me his wife to enjoy without a moment's hesitation, for nothing more than the simple joy of it.

My mind flashed for the briefest moment to that Spring Break trip where I first saw Kelly and Dennis in a group encounter. At the time, I never thought about joining them because I had all I wanted with Carrie. Now, looking at Kelly, I could see her as a sexy woman who wanted me, and who was already making my cock hard just looking at her.

I stepped over to the couch and Kelly grabbed my pants and had my cock out in a flash. Her hand slid up from the base toward the head, rubbing the skin with the soft heat of her palm sending warm tingles that sparked my entire body. Her hip rocking made her nipples bounce as she massaged my steel. She licked the palm of her other hand and slid it up the same way while licking the other. She smeared her spit all over my hardon with her hand getting it dripping wet. In no short order, she milked a drop of precum from the slit, which she licked off with an amazingly long tongue. She made a show of licking her lips and groaning with satisfaction as both of her hands pulled my shaft closer to her face. Her tongue returned to my cock and began swirling around the ridge.

I pulled my shirt over my head while she gave the head of my cock a tongue bath. Carrie had once commented that Kelly knew what she was doing when it came to giving head, and it seemed she was desperate to prove that to me now. She pursed her lips and kissed the main vein, sliding her lips along the length, her hot breath searing my flesh.

"Does his cock taste good, baby," Dennis hissed as he held her hips, trying to steer her motion. "Is it as good as you hoped it would be?"

"MMM," she moaned. "So good," she said before sucking the head back into her mouth. I felt her tongue swirling around before she relaxed her jaw and allowed it to bathe the underside of my cock while she tried to inhale more of it.

I was torn between throwing my head back, closing my eyes and reveling in the sensation of Kelly's lips constricting on my shaft, and watching her eyes as she did so. That wanton lust that I had seen so long ago was burning bright in her eyes, spreading to ignite everyone with whom she came in contact, especially me. My legs started to tremble from the awkwardness of our position and the pressure buildup of my impending orgasm, so I backed away. Kelly tried her best to keep me in her mouth, but eventually my cock popped free, and Kelly whimpered.

She pointed to the other side of the couch. "Sit there," she commanded as she pulled herself off of Dennis and knelt beside him on the couch, presenting her ass to me. "Give me that cock," she commanded. "I want all of it."

As I knelt behind her, she slurped her husband's coated cock into her mouth with a throaty "mmmmmmmm". Her pussy was slick and open, hot pink flesh peeking from between the moist meaty labia and beckoned me inside. I obliged. I slid the spongy head up and down her lips to pick up moisture, then drove home slow and steady, feeling her core heat searing every inch of me as I pushed in deep. My hands stroked the tight muscles of her back as I moved inside her.

I fucked her with slow, languid strokes, punctuated with hard slams. By varying my stroke, I hoped to stave off an orgasm for a while. I didn't want this interlude to end too quickly. We were all glistening with the heat of our joined passion, and my hands kept slipping and sliding up and down her back from her shoulders to her hips. We were going at it like that for several minutes, long enough that I lost track of time, until the doorbell interrupted us.

"Shit!" I exclaimed.

"Who's that?"

"I think it's Austin. She says she has something to show me. Why don't you guys go to my room? I'll get rid of her as quick as I can."

"Austin? As in that girl you fucked the other night?" Kelly was smiling, that fire in her eyes flaring even brighter. "Maybe you should invite her in."

Dennis got up, kicked off his other shoe, and dragged Kelly by the arm toward the hallway. "We'll be in here when you're done."

"Bring her with you," Kelly added as the pair disappeared behind my door. I pulled my pants up and went to the door shirtless, with my belt dangling open. I didn't do it to make any statement. I was just wanting to get back to the fucking sooner rather than later.

I was mildly surprised to see two silhouettes through the frosted glass of the door, and more surprised when I opened it to see Diane standing there with Austin. Diane looked every bit as alluring in her form-fitting business attire as she had when I first met her at the district office last week, only this time, she was sporting fishnet stockings, and Austin, well, she always looked hot. She was wearing a tight purple halter and boy-shorts combination, that revealed every inch of her femininity. She also had on a matching silk choker with the red jeweled heart, similar to the one she wore Saturday night. Both women smiled when they saw me.

"Hey, Barry," Diane said. "I hope you don't mind that I came along as well. May we come in?"

I turned to look inside as I scratched the back of my head. I hadn't thought this far ahead. I shrugged. "Sure. Why not."

"Did we interrupt your workout?" Austin ran her fingers over my sweaty chest as she walked past me.

"Oh, Pretty, he was working out, but it wasn't just exercise." Diane looked at the couch where Kelly had left her top draped over the back. The smell of sex lingered in the room, and I couldn't help blushing when both women looked at me with knowing smiles. "Tell me, did you shoo her out the back when we arrived?"

I glanced at my bedroom door but remained silent. Then I heard Kelly moan.