Tragedy, Betrayal, Unexpected Love

"Not a word to anyone, not even Linda, only Grandma knows. I am going to ask her before dessert at Christmas dinner." I put my hands in, the kids added theirs, and we did a 'GO Team Potter' cheer.

Sally was a little less loud than my kids. I had a surprise for Sally that she would receive on Saturday.

Friday was organized chaos. Linda, and the girls were in the kitchen cooking what could be cooked early for Christmas dinner. The extra chairs and tables arrived; Tom and I set up the portable heaters in the garage and back patio. I had tent-type walls put around the patio. My house was quite unique, as there were glass French double doors between the dining room and the patio, and between the dining room and garage. We set up tables in the garage and patio. The girls decorated the garage with a rug and tapestries; it almost did not look like I had parked two cars in it just a couple of days before.

Mom came very early to help the girls, they all got talking about boys and they were giggling the whole morning and afternoon.

Linda, Sally, and Celly put on their new dresses, Tom even put on a nice shirt and tie!

My sisters, brothers, their spouses and children, and every cousin and spouse who had helped when I lost Celeste were there. When Tom counted, he came up with thirty people and three infants.

I was able to place the head of the main table so that almost all could see where I sat. Tom acted as usher, placing Linda at my right and mom at my left, with Sally next to Linda opposite Celly, and where Tom would also sit. The meal was fantastic; the food was served by Celly and Sally. Mom and Linda just beamed at the compliments and tried to give each other the credit. As the girls and Tom cleared the table of the dinner plates, I stood and asked for quiet.

When I had the attention of all, except for the smallest of children, I said, "I'd like to thank mom, Celly, Sally, and most of all, Linda, for helping. Linda, stand up, please."

The whole family over thirty-five strong applauded, and Linda started to sit.

"Linda, hold on, I have more things to say." I knelt taking mom's ring out and asked, "Linda will you marry me?"

Linda broke out with tears, nodded her head, and said, "Yes, yes, yes."

An uproar followed! There were hugs, kisses, handshakes, happy tears, laughter.

I held up my hands for quiet. "I have one more question."

Tom grabbed a sheaf of papers. I asked Sally to stand, as Tom slipped some of the papers that Ronald had prepared into my hand, behind my back.

I, again, took a knee and asked, "Sally will you please let me adopt you and become my daughter?"

Sally dropped to hug me, saying, "Yes daddy, yes." I put my hands in, and the kids added theirs and we did a 'GO Team Potter' cheer; this time, Sally was the loudest!

Then it was Tom and Celly's turn to ask for quiet. My kids walked around the table, Tom had the rest of the papers, when together they announced, "We have a very important question. This question we have wanted to have answered for fifteen years. Linda, will you stand up, again." Both Celly and Tom took a knee and asked Linda, "Will you please adopt us, so we can call you the names you have earned in our hearts, Mommy, Mother, and Mom?"

Linda almost passed out, but was able to get out the answer of, "Yes, yes."

I was bawling like a hungry baby. I looked at mom and I knew she had a hand in this part; she had gone to the lawyer for the kids. There were more hugs, kisses, handshakes, happy tears, and laughter.

Only enough wine was poured for one drink per adult, so no one needed to stay over, except for mom which we planned for. When we were cleaning up, we found that there was over fifteen hundred dollars stuck under the dessert plates, from family.

Mom laughed. "They did that at mine and your father's engagement party. But we only saw five-dollar bills, you have so many fifties and hundred-dollar bills! A sign of the times."

"MOM! How did they know to have cash?"

Mom answered, "Ask me no questions and I'll tell no lies!"

"Guys, to tell the truth, I told everyone that there might be a proposal, but by another family member. I swore everyone to absolute secrecy, I basically told everybody a different person was proposing before dessert."

Family filed out for the next hour, leftovers were packed and given away, hugs were given, cheeks were kissed.

Mom asked quickly, "Have you decided when yet? ... Wait! Before you answer. Linda has until January 5th off, right? You have all the time you want since you are the boss, right? To get married by Elvis in Vegas costs two hundred dollars. The plane round trip is cheap for two...or even six. And rooms at this time of year are cheap. If you two want, you could fly to Vegas, get married, enjoy Vegas, and have family attend and be nearby for around eight to ten thousand dollars. And by family, I mean me and the kids. I'll watch the kids and that way; we can all be there! THINK ABOUT IT. Goodnight!" And mom scurried to the guest room.

Linda and I looked at each other. I took her hand and we walked to the master bedroom.

Linda said, "A penny for your thoughts?"

"Mom has a point. We could be married December 31, before midnight, and celebrate our new marriage as the new year comes in. We could file all the adoption papers before we leave, and I am sure it will make us a family a lot quicker since we both are surviving parents, maybe only six weeks."

Linda exclaimed, "That sounds wonderful and that is why I am going to make fantastic love to you tonight, Merry Christmas, honey!"

I was very happy with the split bedroom design of the house. The master bedroom was on the east end and the other bedrooms were all on the west end of the house, with all the other house's rooms in between.

We retired to the shower. We stripped each other and washed each other's body. I shampooed Linda's hair; she gave out a relaxing moan. She took a hold of my hardening cock. "I need something to hold onto, so I don't fall." She was sitting on the shower bench. We 'washed' each other 'til we were wrinkled. We dried each other off.

Linda took a shy-girl pose, with a finger touching her teeth. "What are you going to do now, Mr. Porter?"

I moved toward her and lightly kissed her red lips. Linda wrapped her arms around my neck. My hands found her ass and pulled her closer.

On Monday, we signed the adoption papers and told Ronald to file them, since we were getting married on New Year's Eve. On Wednesday, we flew to Las Vegas— the kids, mom, Linda, and me. We applied for our marriage license, where we had to fill out a form certifying we were no closer related than first cousins once removed. Mom helped certify that.

The Potter tribe invaded Los Vegas. We went sightseeing, took a helicopter flight over Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, we went to the top of The Strat Tower. Fun was had by all.

Oh, we got married, too! At 11:50 PM with 'Elvis' singing 'Can't Help Falling In Love'.

Mom had taught the kids the words and mom and the kids sang the chorus with 'Elvis'. Mom caught the bouquet; I'll have to watch out for any boyfriends she may acquire, haha.

We returned home and Linda said she wanted to take us to a special place. She blindfolded Tom, Celly, and me. She got us in the car and drove around for about fifteen minutes. She led us through what felt like a grassy park, with Sally bringing up the rear to help guide us. She had some chairs placed where she led us to. We sat down quietly.

We heard her talking. She was talking not to us, but was talking to Celeste.

I took off my blindfold. We were in the cemetery, by Celeste's grave. And there was Linda, on her knees, in front of Celeste's tombstone.

The inscription was still there: Celeste Ann Potter ... Loving Wife, ... Loving Mother.

Unbeknown to me, two new lines had been added: Loving friend, ... Our Guardian Angel.

I listened to Linda.

After her silent prayer I heard....

"Celeste, I have taken care of your beloved Thomas, your handsome Thomas Jr, and your gorgeous Celly. My dearest friend. Please fulfill my prayer... Amen."

I knelt beside her. By this time, Sally had removed her brother's and sister's blindfolds, and they, too, knelt. We took time to say our own silent prayer. Linda held my hand throughout the family prayers.

Sally finished her prayer with a simple, "Aunt Celeste, I love you so much... Amen."

Tom Jr's and Celly's were like they always were since they could talk, finishing their prayer with a simple, "Mommy, I love you... Amen."

I finished my prayer with a simple, "Celeste, I love you, and I am doing okay; thank you for leading me to Linda... Amen."

I wanted to know Linda's prayer, but I did not dare ask; this was something between Linda and Celeste.

*****

We settled down to family bliss.

The kids began to argue like blood siblings; the girls talked about boys; Tom was not into girls... yet! He was interested in how far he could hit a baseball or throw a football. He made room for girls when he hit the game-winning homer his first game as a freshman, and got a couple of hugs and, I thought, even a little kiss on the cheek from a cute friend of his sisters, Addy, short for Adeline.

As the kids entered tenth grade.

I got mom to watch the kids over Labor Day weekend; basically, she was there to make sure the house didn't burn down, and that curfew was followed. She was tight and the kids knew it! She said, "If I hear 'aw grandma', I know I am doing my job."

We went to a little bed-and-breakfast in the next town. We decided this was going to be the honeymoon that we did not take after our Vegas wedding. We checked in and no one saw us, except for lunch and dinner, while we were there. Which was also the only time we had clothes on.

We made love almost nonstop. When I would go flaccid, Linda would simply suck me back to life most of the time. I lost count of the number of times I filled my wonderful wife's vagina with my seed. We only used missionary and doggy-style lovemaking over the weekend because we liked it that way. It was just so hot to just look at my love, nod my head toward the bed, and in moments, I would be deep in her warm pussy.

***

Tom played on the baseball team, football team and yelled a lot at the girls' volleyball and basketball games. Sally and Celly both played volleyball, but Celly loved playing basketball

Remember when Linda said she was at her most fertile time when we first made love? Well, she was fertile at the bed-and-breakfast. We got to tell the kids that they were going to have a little sibling. We both felt that we were at the limit of our child-rearing years, we agreed no matter what, this was the last one. We had four children, three of whom could probably do some babysitting, haha.

Lynda Celeste Potter was born late in the kids' sophomore year at high school. Linda insisted on using Celeste's name. By the way, Lynda Celeste Potter was what Linda prayed to Celeste for.

Since I was now the president and majority owner of my company, money was no problem, so Linda became a stay-at-home mom.

Senior Year High School.

Sally and Celly both had boyfriends that were 'Tom approved' (his criteria was harder than mine.) That friend of the girls that kissed him, Addy, became his girlfriend; they both went to State. The girls, somehow, kept it from Tom for a long time, that they decided to go to State, too. All three had scholarships: Tom in baseball; Celly in basketball; and Sally, volleyball.

Tom was still the protecting brother.

Cindi?

Oh yeah, about Cindi. I found out that I was not the only one she embezzled from. She had embezzled from her next job; she got five years, three suspended for being a first-timer, and got out in ten months for good behavior and overcrowding. While in prison, her mother had died. Without that bad influence, Cindi cleaned up her life and got married. She had two kids and a husband who was not only attentive to her needs, but watched her like a hawk. (He has a prenup written by, yes, you guessed it, Ronald Overly, Esq.)

Today

We, now, are waiting for Sally and John, Celly and Bob, Tom and Addy, to arrive for Thanksgiving with our grandchildren. The grandchildren were all born within days of each other, the first week of October. We blame it on Vegas. We all had gone up to Vegas to celebrate mine and Linda's wedding anniversary at New Year's. Our kids had celebrated and had gone to bed early. You do the math.

Linda Celeste is just over the moon to see her brother, sisters, nieces, and nephew. She is in middle school now, and is looking forward to babysitting to pull in the big bucks from her brother and sisters.

We all sit at the Thanksgiving table.

I give a short blessing.

"Thanksgiving is a time of family togetherness, family gratitude... we thank all our family. It is a time for family remembrance... we honor the lives of our departed family members. It is a time for family love... we hold our family members in our hearts ... Amen."

The end.

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