It has been a rough two months in Colorado for Don, Lanh, and Karole. Luckily Kim-ly and Trung have stayed by their sides to help get ready for the big move back to Minnesota, Kim-ly remained close to Don and Lanh, and Trung has spent almost all of his time with either Karole or helping Don pack up the house. Karole's house has been sold, and there is a buyer eagerly waiting for the final closing on Don and Lanh's house. Now, it's time to go home to the farm in Minnesota...

________________________________________________

We're a Wonderful Wife

Chapter 13

The Love Boat

Don and Kim-ly finished stacking up boxes in Don and Lanh's garage and when he stacked the last box on the pile Don started gasping for air. "Where's your oxygen tank?" Kim-ly demanded.

"That stuff is all packed in Lanh's SUV," said Don as he eased down and sat on a box.

"You dumb fuck," scolded Kim-ly. Normally she wouldn't talk like that to Don unless she was scared or drunk, and right now she's cold sober. She gets terrified when Don starts gulping and gasping for oxygen and with everything that has happened to Lanh, he's neglecting his own health and his damaged lungs are not going to heal without his care. He's busy packing and cleaning and he's tired of tripping over his oxygen line, he's not taking his medications as required, he's too worried about Lanh and Karole to worry about his own health. Kim-ly handed Don the Albuterol inhaler, the same device used by asthmatics, and Don took a couple of puffs before handing the inhaler back to "Nurse Nguyen." At Lanh's request Kim-ly carried that inhaler whenever she was in Colorado, because Don refuses to carry it.

"Sorry, I get..." Don gave up on whatever weak excuse he was going to use, the look on Kim-ly's face said "I ain't buying it," loud and clear.

Kim-ly sat down on Don's lap and put her arms around him and said, "You need to start taking care of yourself, let Trung and me deal with the heavy lifting. Why don't you take care of the babies instead."

Don chuckled at her words. "Taking care of those terrorists is more work than anything else happening." But to be honest, things are getting better, Lanh is now walking on her own and Karole is in a wheelchair but she's finally out of the hospital. Movers were showing up in the morning to grab this pile of boxes, a charity was scheduled to pick up the remaining furniture and they were leaving for home in the morning. Real home, Minnesota - land of 10,000 lakes and two dozen dairy cows with Don and Lanh's name on them.

Watching Don suddenly start gasping for air reminded Kim-ly of four years ago when she and Tam flew to Germany to support their sister Lanh when Don was injured so horribly. Seeing Don lying in the hospital bed, it looked like every part of his body was bandaged or set in splints, terrified Kim-ly and forced her to face her feelings about her sister's husband. She has yet to admit to the L word, but time is drawing near when the three of them are going to have to face it. As she pondered her own feelings she noticed that Don was trembling. "Why are you shaking so bad?" Kim-ly scolded.

"I'm freezing," gasped Don. It is frigid in the garage, but it's not really bothering Kim-ly, with all the hauling and working they've been doing, she's been pretty warm, in fact she's sweating, which is dangerous in the cold, it's a quick trip to hypothermia when the temperature is low and your body is covered with sweat. She suspected that she would be shaking like Don is doing pretty soon.

"Ok, let's go hit the shower then I'll put in our very last load of Colorado Laundry," said Kim-ly as she helped Don to his feet. Don's gasping was over, he was back to breathing normally and they entered the house then checked on the babies, Danh and Krissy. They were snoozing together in their playpen so Kim-ly covered them up then followed Don to the laundry room where they stripped down, tossed their dirty clothes into the washing machine, then proceeded naked through the house where Don followed his sister-in-law into the bedroom.

Not long later a shiny new Ford F-150 wheeled into the driveway, what wasn't glossy black on that truck was glittering chrome and it wore shiny chrome twenty inch five spoke Crager SS Mags. Trung Nguyen hopped out of the driver seat and pulled the wheelchair out of the bed of the pickup truck, unfolded it, then wheeled it over to the passenger side. He opened up the rear door and helped his tiny sister Lanh out of the lifted truck, unfolded Lanh's walker and Lanh slowly headed off to the house. Trung then went to the front door of the truck and scooped Karole out of the front seat and set her gently in the wheelchair. Years of playing collegiate and semi pro hockey showed with the ease that he lifted Karole who was not a small girl. When she was able to stand, she stood "Five foot fourteen inches" tall because her momma told her it wasn't lady like to be over six foot tall. She and her best friend Lanh make quite a couple, Lanh only stands four foot eight, the foot and a half difference in height is very noticeable when the friends go shopping together.

"What do you think of your new truck?" Lanh asked Karole as Trung wheeled Karole into the house. Before he packed up his tools, Don made wheelchair ramps for Karole to make it easy to wheel her into the house through the garage.

"That thang is awesome!" Karole was in a wheelchair, her hands and arms in soft splints, steel rods were surgically implanted to repair the damage done by a drunken driver on Christmas Eve. They wheeled her around a tower of boxes that the movers were scheduled to pick up tomorrow. "Ah can see why Don says that these new trucks aren't trucks, he calls them four door limousines with a big trunk."

As they entered the kitchen, they found the house dark. Most of the furniture was gone, donated to different charities, the babies, Krissy and Danh were in their playpen standing up holding on to the sides. "Momomomomom!" Krissy held her hands out, opening and closing her hands as Trung lifted her up and set her in her mother's lap.

"Here you go pretty girl, here's your momma." He turned and picked up Danh and said, "Where's your momma little guy?"

"I think they're in the shower," said Lanh and she hobbled off toward the master bedroom.

Trung shrugged as his youngest sister hobbled off, the clacking of her walker announcing her transit through the empty house. Her husband is in the shower with her sister? As he pondered this, Danh made a grab at Trung's nose then laughed at him. "Damn this guy is cute, he really is. I wonder who his daddy is." He wasn't surprised that Kim-ly had a baby out of wedlock, she was always the rebel of the family, but no one ever mentioned the father when he was told about Danh.

"Don," said Karole as she kissed her daughter.

"Don what," asked Trung. The prodigal brother chuckled like this was a knock-knock joke or something like that.

"He's Danh's father."

"Bullshit!" Trung looked at Karole in shock.

"You didn't know?" asked Karole in complete surprise. "It's a little something that Lanh and Kim-ly cooked up after Don got almost killed in Saudi Arabia, they were both terrified of losing him and Lanh is infertile, so they made a little Don." Trung looked shock and angry, and Karole continued, "To be completely honest you might say that Danh's daddy is a test tube, but genetically Don is Danh's daddy." She explained how Lanh gathered Don's semen with a handjob and took it to their doctor who made the miracle happen with an egg cell from Kim-ly and the budding little egg cell was placed in Kim-ly's womb and that they didn't tell Don until the last moment.

"You're kidding!" But Karole shook her head. Trung looked at Danh and said, "Is Don your daddy?"

Danh didn't say anything, but Krissy started chanting "Da da da da da da!"

"Her too?" Trung asked.

"No, but Don is the only daddy she's ever known, no one else took the position... I'm still waiting for someone to come along."

Meanwhile, Lanh trundled into the bedroom and heard the shower in the bathroom running, Kim-ly was showering and Don was laying naked on the bed. "You ok, honey?" Lanh asked.

"Been waiting for you," he gasped as he tried to get up. The pain in his back was excruciating and it was nearly impossible to get up.

"Stop," Lanh gasped as the pain was clearly painted on Don's face. "Has the neurotomy worn off?"

"Yeah, I think so," gasped Don. He has several vertebrae that were compressed in the accident in Saudi Arabia, the bones have healed but the pain will be with him forever. A procedure known as radiofrequency neurotomy uses microwaves to "cook" the nerve cells that transmit the pain. It's a good procedure, relatively painless and quick, but it is temporary, in six to twelve months the pain returns. "I've got a pain specialist lined up in Bemidji, I can make an appointment for you too." He worked his way up to a sitting position and Lanh sat next to him. "Maybe it's good we don't have kids the way we keep busting ourselves up." Lanh nodded with her agreement.

Kim-ly stepped out of the shower, lithe and shapely, beautiful round breasts that wobble merrily with every step. She dried herself off with a towel and said, "We already have one kiddlet, do we want more?" She put a robe on and sat down next to Don.

"Yeah, three more," said Don. Kim-ly scoffed and rested her head on Don's shoulder.

"Let's make it five more," said Lanh as she leaned against Don and rested her head on his other shoulder. "Mom did it."

"They had an earlier start than we did," said Don. Kim-ly and Lanh's parents Duong and Mai were 19 when the oldest, Tam, was born.

"What, you think I'm a brood cow?" asked Kim-ly. Don started chuckling softly, then Lanh joined him until Kim-ly demanded, "What is so funny?"

"What is a brood-cow?" laughed Don.

"It's a... you know! A..." she was lost for words. Before she could say anything, Trung wheeled Karole into the room. Karole heard the brood cow remark and she joined in with the laughter, but Trung looked angry.

Trung saw two of his sisters sitting next to a naked Don. He set Danh on Kim-ly's lap and demanded in a loud voice, "What is this?" then Trung started to shout in Vietnamese but Kim-ly stopped him.

"Don speaks Viet," she said softly. "Don't say something in anger that can't be taken back."

"I just want to know what this is!" Trung demanded. He waved his hands at Don, Lanh and Kim-ly.

Don pointed to everyone in the room including Karole and Trung. "This is five broken people who have come together to support each other. That includes you."

Trung looked at Karole who nodded in agreement with Don. "This isn't some weird sex cult, we're just here for each other. Ah probably would have been stabbed to death by a meth-head a couple years ago if it wasn't for Kim-ly, Don, and Lanh."

"I just want to know what their story is," demanded Trung. "How did one guy end up with two of my sisters?" They looked at Trung and shrugged their shoulders simultaneously. Trung closed his eyes and shook his head sadly and asked, "Did you guys practice that?"

"Let's go get hotdogs, get some sleep, then hit the road," sighed Don. "You and me, we'll talk over dinner." When it looked like Trung was going to get angry Don said, "Trung... we really haven't put our relationship into words yet, give me a little bit to put it together."

"Ok... but hotdogs? Seriously?" asked Trung. He was expecting something fancy for a going away party, maybe Mexican, good Mexican is rare in Minnesota. Maybe even barbeque, the barbeque here in Colorado is really good, but they insisted on hotdogs. After getting dressed Don and Kim-ly got the last load of laundry in the washing machine and they headed out to the Big Dog.

The Big Dog was a great roadside restaurant made out of a giant concrete hotdog on a giant concrete bun constructed in 1948 out on highway 85 and was moved up into the mountains a few decades ago. Next to the giant concrete hotdog the new owners built a dining shelter with a roof and three walls. The open side provided a beautiful view of a wide canyon filled with trees and a babbling stream tumbling down the mountain. It's beautiful all year round, but with a gentle snowfall it's magical.

It was getting dark but there were lights scattered here and there in the area to illuminate the trees, the stream, and the gently falling snow. The three-sided dining shelter was kept warm by several wood fires that snapped and popped as the flames danced on the logs, the fires provided all the entertainment that Danh and Krissy needed. They cheerfully wolfed down their French fries and apple juice as the adults remained curiously silent.

It was a beautiful location and even with Trung's misgivings the hotdogs were incredible, he never had a Chicago style hotdog before, but it came buried under mustard, relish, onion tomato wedges, dill pickle, and peppers and was incredible. Kim-ly and Karole had BLT dogs covered with chopped bacon, lettuce and tomato with mayo, Don and Lanh had chili cheese dogs, but the evening had a sad taste of failure to it. Karole, Don, and Lanh moved here for a new chance and their attempt to grab the brass ring was destroyed. It was time to head home with their tails between their legs, lick their wounds, then come back out fighting. While Lanh, Karole, and Kim-ly sat with the kids, Don and Trung stepped outside into the snow and sat next to another fire where Don and Trung lit cigars and sipped a beer as they watched the fire in silence.

Trung finally broke the silence by asking, "Are you going to tell me what is going on with my sisters?"

"Sure, what do you want to know?"

Trung sounded angry. "I want to know what is going on with you and my sisters, it's like you're married to both of them."

Don slumped, his shoulders sagged, and he slowly shook his head. "I honestly don't know. All I can say for sure is that when we're apart we don't do very well."

"What do you mean?" demanded Trung.

"Before the accident, Lanh and I were falling apart... not our marriage, US. We as people were falling apart, Lanh was losing hours at both jobs, I was losing speaking engagements, we were trying to care for ourselves and Karole and Krissy because they lost everything. Karole's fiancé ran off leaving her alone and pregnant, then that asshole Jayce told the RCMP that she was cooking up meth for him. She lost her job, her truck got repossessed, and she was afraid that she was losing her house. Meanwhile Kim-ly was dying of loneliness so much she had a baby just so she wouldn't be alone," said Don as he stared into the fire. He didn't dare say the truth that Kim-ly was so in love with him that she had Don's baby so she could be with him. Don didn't even dare say it to himself.

"I didn't know," said Trung softly.

Don continued, "then Mai, Karole and Lanh got run over. It felt like someone ran over my brain, I couldn't function, I couldn't think. I honestly don't remember what happened between the time that Mom called while they were under the car and when Kim-ly showed up... but suddenly she was here. When she came out to join us it was like our lives were being put back together. I don't think Lanh would be walking now if it wasn't for Kim-ly. They're inseparable now." Don finished his beer and said, "and Kim-ly is really close with Karole, they called themselves "belly buddies" when they were pregnant."

"Weird," said Trung, "Kim-ly and Lanh weren't that close when we were young."

"Lanh says she was very close to Tam back then, she just remembers Kim-ly being mean to her," said Don as he continued to gaze into the fire. He heard this both from Tam and Lanh, and for a year before they got married, he felt guilty for driving a wedge between the sisters. That was until he met Jake, Tam's fiancé, at their wedding rehearsal dinner and realized that it was a natural drifting apart.

"I've heard that from Tam too," said Trung. "I don't think that Kim-ly was being mean, her and her twin brother, they were very playful."

Don turned to Trung and said, "look, if this bothers you, I'm sorry." He stood and tried to do something with his hands but neither he nor his hands felt at ease. He didn't want to continue but he, Karole, Lanh, and Kim-ly needed Trung to hear this. "This is us, right or wrong we fill a hole in each other's lives. No, we're not having a three-way group grope every night, we're still trying to figure out so many other parts of our lives before we could consider that." He warmed his hands over the fire and started on the hard part.

"We can't sleep separately; you couldn't possibly believe the nightmares. Each one of us has them, but Lanh is probably the worst. It takes both of us holding her close to calm her down, her terror is just..." Don shivered at the memory of Lanh's shrieks of terror, whatever she's seeing in the dreams must be horrific. "We hold each other close, and the night terrors pass us by."

Trung looked sad, "I didn't know..."

"I had been having nightmares before the accident, it was a premonition or something, but in the dreams, Lanh died... I was really falling apart. The only one we've really talked to is Mai, my dad, and my shrink. And no, Karole isn't fully part of this, she has no memory of getting hit by that asshole, and that's a blessing, she just remembers hurrying to see Lanh and Mai. But we're all close and we want to remain close. When the settlement money comes in Karole is considering buying the farm next to mine, so if you want to be part of this family, you have your work cut out for you Doctor Farmer."

Trung smiled when he was reminded of his degree, a PhD in Agronomy. "A hobby farm? You need to remember my specialty is poultry."

"Meh," said Don with an amused smirk. "You'll be downwind from us. Besides, I have a job lined up for you."

"What kind of job?" asked Trung.

"A teacher that's very important to Lanh, Rosa, and myself is retiring, Grant Valley high school needs a new boys athletic teacher and coach for the school hockey team. I want you to fill that position."

"Me? I've never taught gym."

"No, but you have taught, and you have coached hockey. I need you in that position. I'll introduce you to your mentor and the guy you'll be replacing as soon as we get back... Have you ever been to one of our swim meets?"

"Swim? Me? No... sorry I wasn't able to get away," said Trung.

"That's ok, you're in for a surprise. Luckily you speak the language," grinned Don.

After hotdogs they went back to Don and Lanh's house for the last time and put the kids to bed in a playpen that would be picked up by a charity within the week and finished up last minute packing. "Can you check to see if our call signs have been assigned?" asked Karole. The mobile radio in her truck was driving her crazy! She wanted to use it so badly, but she didn't have a license.

"If I hate it, can I change it right away?" asked Trung.

"Yes, but it takes a few weeks for the FCC to get their act together" said Don.

When Karole had regained consciousness in the hospital, she was soon bored. She's a very smart person and watching TV for sixteen hours a day was turning her brain into mush. While Don was visiting with her, she saw Krissy playing with Don's ham radio HT (handi-talkie) and asked what it would take to pass the license test. "You take a test of 35 questions, and you have to guess right 25 times." Before she knew it, she was studying to test for the technicians level ham radio license with Don and Lanh teaching herself and Trung. A local Amateur Radio club set up a test session for her and she passed her technicians exam with flying colors, and so did Trung.

The Wi-Fi was shut down and the laptops were all packed up, so Lanh pulled out her phone and looked up the FCC database one last time before they left. The wait for their license to be issued and posted on the FCC data base was sheer agony, they weren't allowed to use a radio until they got their call signs, and Don had a mobile radio installed in Karole's new truck. "They're there!" cried Lanh as she looked up Trung and Karole in the database. Karole found out that she was now KX0AFN and Trung became KX0MYL. It was a total nerd thing to do but they did it just in time to go home.

"Here you go Alpha Foxtrot November," said Don as he handed Karole a small box.

"And for you, Michael Yankee Lima," said Lanh as she handed her brother Trung an identical box. Trung and Karole opened up the boxes and both found in the box a small, handheld ham radio. Karole actually squealed with excitement, she realized that it was an inexpensive Chinese knockoff, but it was her first radio.

"So that leaves only Kim-ly without a license," said Karole, sad that her friend was left out of the group. But Kim-ly reached into her pocket and pulled out a Yaesu VX-8 quad band radio and waved it around with a smug smile. It's a pricy radio, over $500, twenty times what Don paid for Karole's radio.

"She's an extra, KX0RA," said Don. There's three levels of ham license, technician, general, and extra and Kim-ly took all three tests and aced them all. "She tested weeks ahead of you guys."

"It's not you guys," smiled Kim-ly. "I did it to piss off Bao. He failed his technician test a few years ago."

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

They were able to leave early the next morning, yet they didn't make very good travel time on the road; it was snowing, and they had to stop for potty breaks more often than expected, additionally, Lanh needed to get out and move every one or two hours. They also found that getting the injured girls and the kidlets in and out of the vehicles took longer than expected, so they decided that while they're not exactly zooming along, they might as well do some sightseeing if the opportunity presented itself.

Along with their hand-held radios, Don had the mobile ham radios installed in Lanh's SUV and Karole's new pickup pre-programmed with the frequencies they would be using on the trip. They had fun chatting as they went, it was easier to use than cell phones and not as noisy as CB. Their first stop was Chugwater Wyoming, a small town about 100 miles north of Greeley on Interstate 25, a former locomotive water stop on the Union Pacific Railroad. The term Chugwater didn't come from the locomotives chugging water, although there was water there, it came from the name of the steep sided valley they were in, the native American tribes called it the Valley of the Chug.

They pulled into the station and Trung hopped out of the pick-up and pulled the wheelchair out of the back. He set the chair up on the passenger side of the pickup and scooped Karole out of the truck and gently eased her into the chair. As she got herself settled, Trung got Krissy out of her seat in the back seat and placed her on Krissy's lap. It was an exercise he would repeat over and over for the next several days as they journeyed to Minnesota.

The first stop for gas was Orin Junction, a truck stop was there, and they pulled in to top off the vehicles and go to the bathroom. The smell of the cooking food was so tempting but they were on a tight budget for this trip. They could make a call home and get all the financing they needed from their families, but Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly were dead set against it, this was their trip, they didn't see a need to drag their families into their expense.

After the stop at Orin Junction, they were no longer on the interstate, they were on two lane prairie roads that headed north and east through the open Wyoming prairie. There were no towns here, just open ranch land. They were so far from any town that there was nothing on AM or FM radio and soon there was no access to cell towers either. Now Trung and Karole saw the wisdom of their amateur radios, they could talk to each other still, and occasionally chat with a local rancher on their ham radios but they could no longer use their cell phones.

As they drove through open prairies of Wyoming, Trung and Karole spoke at great length. Being the middle child of six kids, and a family consisting of two parents and dozens of nephews, nieces, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great uncles, and great aunts, Trung felt suffocated by his family. Karole grew up with just her mother and often dreamed of having sisters and brothers like Trung had. She had no idea who her mother's family was, nor her father's family. Hell, her mother never told her who her father was, and Karole suspected that she didn't know. When Trung started complaining of the problems of living in a large extended family Karole eventually cried "Stop! Please. I used to dream of everything you're complaining about. I used to wish for what you hate."

"What do you mean?" Trung couldn't believe that someone didn't understand the horrors of a large, noisy, nosey family.

"Lanh told me that on Sunday you all sat down with a refrigerator full of leftovers from dozens of different recipes and you'd argue over which one was best and how to improve the worst..."

"It was a way to get rid of leftovers," groused Trung. He thought about it for a bit then said, "mom and dad made us do that, so we'd learn the difference between each dish."

"That's the knowledge they had," intoned Karole, "That's what they could teach you," she sniffed and started to tear up. "Wanna know what my momma taught me? She would say "A swallow beats a stork every time!" Who would say that to their daughter? Your parents taught you a trade, my mother taught me that the best birth control pill is an aspirin held between my knees. Seriously, what kind of woman would say that to their daughter?"

"I didn't know..." sputtered Trung.

But Karole continued, "she also taught me that it was ok to eat bread with green spots, it will make you healthy, it's what they make penicillin from. That's when I taught myself to make my own dinner."

As Karole spoke of her childhood the weather turned nasty, visibility dropped until all that Trung could see was three car lengths ahead of him, and soon that too disappeared in billowing clouds of white. He slowed and pulled over to the edge of the road, putting on the four-way flashers. When they stopped, he gently stroked her cheek and wiped the tears away. "You didn't have to stop because of me," she sniffed.

"No, I'm sorry I was so stupid, I know I have a big loving family, and I do miss it, I... I'm terrified of going back and I feel like I'm talking my way into coming up with excuses to avoid going back."

"Why?" asked Karole.

"Because I earned the title of đụ má ngu. I just don't want to be reminded of it."

Karole looked at Trung, such a handsome man, muscular, tall, confident. She saw the pictures that Lanh and Kim-ly had of him and damn, he's hot! But right now, he looks as busted up on the inside as she is on the outside. "Trung, I don't speak Vietnamese. Hell, I don't even speak English, I speak 'merican. You need to tell me what you said."

"Oh... đụ má ngu means stupid fuck." Trung shook his head sadly as he considered how his life had fallen apart so horribly in the past year and a half. "I was so crazy about that girl and all she did was fuck with me, she even got me released from my job hoping I'd go back to hockey. I went in to work and my replacement was there, and my boss said, "Didn't you quit?" Angela sent them a resignation letter in my name!"

"Oh my god," gasped Karole. "What did you do?"

Trung shrugged. "I went home, and she was all excited, a team in Alberta wanted me, but I told her I was too old to go back to getting beaten up for a living, so she said, "Fuck you ya coward" and went to Alberta without me. I found out later she was already pregnant." He pulled out his phone and showed Karole a picture of the blond that she recognized from their last meeting; she was holding a baby that definitely wasn't Asian.

"Aww, I'm sorry," said Karole softly.

"My mom says that the divorce paperwork just arrived," Trung continued. "I was in Denver to look for work when I got a text from Kim-ly and found all of this. I didn't have anywhere to go so I crashed at Don and Lanh's place, and there you were. I kept hearing a voice in my head telling me that you needed me..."

"Lanh's angel," said Karole, an excited smile in her eyes. "I remember a voice telling me that someone was waiting for me. I thought she meant Krissy but when I woke up, you were there."

"Kim-ly said that Lanh has a thing for angels." Just then the truck lurched from a sudden gust of wind causing Karole to panic. All that could be seen was white as the wind rocked the truck and a quick exchange on the radio told them that Lanh, Don, and Kim-ly were getting hit hard wherever they were. This was nasty, Trung hasn't seen weather like this in a long time and Karole has never seen it.

The statuesque blond was terrified, and she gasped every time a strong gust hit the truck and shook it. It has been hours since her cell phone worked, even AM/FM radio has been silent but for static for hours because they were in such a remote area. Now she was injured, incapable of walking and she and her baby were trapped in a blizzard in the middle of the vast Wyoming prairie. She was one more heavy gust of wind away from a complete mental collapse.

"You stay close to me," Trung offered as he held Karole's hand. "Trust me, I've been through this a few times." He wriggled out of his parka and wrapped her in it, then he turned around and covered Krissy with a few receiving blankets that were available and made sure she was sleeping soundly. Then Trung and Karole held each other as the truck rocked and the wind howled. A couple of times Trung dashed out and cleared the snow off of the flashing taillights so any vehicle that was traveling would see them.

In about an hour the wind calmed; Trung scraped the windows using a credit card because they didn't think to get a window scraper for this new truck. With the windows cleared and visibility up to over 300 feet, Trung started to move closer to Don and Lanh who had gotten far ahead of them before the storm hit.

Finally moving again, they were making horrible travel time, small snow drifts stretched across the highway every twenty feet or so, they weren't big, but you didn't want to hit them going too fast or you may break something in the undercarriage. Trung called the little snow drifts "snow snakes."

Their original plan was to follow US 85 north to Newcastle then cross over into South Dakota and bypass the winding roads through the Black Hills National Forest. After questioning Don and Trung on their milage and estimated range, Lanh informed Don, "We're not going to make it to Newcastle. That storm killed our gas intake."

"What's our other option?" Don asked.

"We go to Edgemont," Lanh concluded after looking at an old-fashioned paper map. "Being in a tourist area gas is going to be more expensive there but it's in range and we still might be able to re-route around the Black Hills."

"OK. Number one, chart a course." After an hour of slamming into "snow snakes" they were exhausted, Danh thought they were entertaining for some reason, every so often the SUV would go Bump! causing him to laugh. Kim-ly, who slept through the whole storm, was laughing with him in the back seat. But soon they crossed into South Dakota and were sheltered by trees; the trees broke up the winds and the snow dropped in the forests and prevented the white-out that they got out on the open prairie.

They weren't exactly on fumes when they rolled into Edgemont, but their tanks were low. As they filled up their trucks Trung and Kim-ly did a diaper swap on Krissy and Danh, the poor little tykes were soaked, both needed their clothes changed. Once they were complete with a fuel up and a potty break in Edgemont, they started heading north into the Black Hills. Kim-ly started playing with her cell phone and took a quick look at Don's bank account and gasped. "Don, call Bao, put him on speaker."

"Ok, hang on," and Don told his phone to make a call.

After a few rings they heard Bao answer, "Nguyen Accounting, what's up Don."

"Hey Bao, it's Kimmy," said Kim-ly using a term of endearment that Bao used on her in their past. She used it hoping Bao would understand that this was some serious shit.

"What's up em, you on the road yet?"

"Yeah, we just crossed into South Dakota. What the hell happened to Don's checking account?"

"Didn't Huy tell you? That was part of a settlement."

"We're still waiting for the settlements," said Kim-ly.

"No, this one is Don's settlement... remember four years ago? When he got blown apart by an unnamed jet jockey of unspecified allegiance?" said Bao. "Huy reached out to He That Shall Not Be Named and described the medical and financial problems you were having and threatened to sue Big Evil and make the details public."

There was a gasp from the back seat and Don said, "Big problem Kim-ly?"

"I just looked at your savings account... Bao what did you do?"

"I simply took what Huy sent, put it in savings and moved ten percent into checking," said Bao. "Standard procedure."

Don glanced back at Kim-ly and said, "Sounds good to me, what's wrong with that?"

"Don, you have forty thousand dollars in checking."

It was silent in Lanh's SUV for a long time, then Lanh picked up the microphone to the ham radio and said, "Kilo X-Ray Zero Alpha Romeo November this is Kilo Oscar four Juliet Poppa November."

In a moment they heard Karole's voice saying, "Go ahead Lanh, what's up?"

"I hope you guys are hungry, we're having steak and lobster for dinner."

~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~

There was no lobster but Lanh and Kim-ly split a grilled walleye fillet that covered both plates easily. Trung and Don both had 23-ounce tomahawk ribeye steaks and Karole had the buffalo beef stew because she wouldn't have to ask someone to cut it for her. She's never had buffalo before, and they promised her it was nothing like buffalo wings. Honestly, she didn't know. When her meal came she found the bison meat to be tender, delicious, and the flavor was like regular beef with more beef flavor. "When ah git me a big freezer I'm going to fill it with a whole side of buffalo."

The restaurant was decorated in South Dakota Black Hills chic, it was done up as a big log cabin with log beam ceilings, wagon wheel lamps, elk heads mounted on the wall, horseshoes and branding irons hung everywhere. Trung turned to Don, "Ok, you've talked to your lawyer, you've talked to your accountant..."

"Yeah, and?"

"You people," Trung chuckled, and he shook his head. "Ok, for Karole and me, what is going on? Where did the money for this dinner and resort accommodations come from?"

"Ok," said Don, "How do I say it without violating a gag order... An outfit? Consortium? Let's just say a group who I cannot name, were doing something I cannot describe, in an area I cannot identify. Something that I was told didn't happen resulted in eleven people wounded and three killed..."

"And?"

"And... thanks to our brother, our lawyer Huy, we got gas money. I have an income of $100,000 per year, and so do the families of my friends who were not with me in a land we have never been to." Maybe another nightmare ended, thought Don, the one where he sees the horror-stricken face of the widowed husband of Cynthia Daniels glared at him over Cynthia's coffin with an accusation in his eyes that causes Don to wake, pangs of guilt twisting his insides. Or maybe the one with tough chick Wendy Addams weeping, wailing for her husband who abandoned her there on the ramp as they got off the med-evac flight. He took one look at her injured face and left. Don can never forgive himself for allowing those events to happen and his conscience is not letting him sleep.

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

The small convoy pulled up in front of Nguyen's Pho just as dusk was beginning to settle in which in the north is about 4:45 PM. A small crowd poured out of the restaurant to greet the SUV and pickup that parked in the handicap parking spots at the front of the restaurant. Trung quickly swung into action getting the wheelchair set up then he tenderly scooped up Karole and set her in the wheelchair, then he placed Krissy in her lap. At the same time Don was helping Lanh out of the SUV while Kim-ly unbuckled a sleepy Danh from his child seat.

They heard a familiar cry of excitement and Mai fought her way to the front of the crowd, "There's my hero!" Mai cried, "She saved me, she saved my baby!" she rushed up and hugged and kissed Karole. Mai laughed and cried at the same time, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Looking up she saw Don and Lanh coming around the end of their SUV followed by Kim-ly who was carrying Danh. Mai hugged Don, then Lanh then Kim-ly, and she came away with Danh in her arms. "There's my big boy! Look how big you are! Răng! A tooth! Let's go show grandpa your new tooth!"

Don was hugging his dad and Sandy and they noticed Trung who was navigating Karole through the crowd of well-wishers. This welcoming mob was completely unexpected, but when Momma Mai says something, people listen, and it looks like the whole family is here. It was cold, really cold, but the altitude was 4,800 feet lower than what Don has had to put up with for the past two years and he was feeling so much better.

When they got inside the restaurant Karole was talking to Rosa like a long-lost sister, while she clung to Trung's hand and occasionally kissing it, and that wasn't lost on Mai. "Again, with the blonds?" she demanded, but if Trung noticed it he ignored her.

Kim-ly led her mother away from Trung and whispered into her mom's ear. "Karole is not a hockey groupie, and that's for sure" said Kim-ly. "We were cleaning out the garage and found Don's hockey stick and Karole said, "What's that?"

"Perfect!" said Mai who always had suspicions about Angela. Trung's soon to be ex-wife started as his teaching assistant and she pursued Trung for years. After they married, she discovered that Trung was only playing hockey for the scholarship money, he wasn't interested in playing anything other than a pick-up game here or there after graduation. Angela had her eyes set on the lofty goal of NHL wife and when Trung told her that he was all about agronomy, she dumped him for a semi-professional player in Alberta.

At the same time, Don and Lanh were moving around the room saying hi to everyone, then they found Mr. Mach. "Coach Mach!" cried Lanh and she threw her arms around the man who had so much faith in her so many years ago...

"Coach Nguyen!" laughed Mr. Mach as his favorite assistant coach hugged him.

"Geez, what happened to you?" said Don. "You let yourself get old!"

Paul Mach chuckled, "so did you, fish." Fish was his favorite nickname for members of his swimming team. "I hear you're politicking to take over the school board."

"Me? Never! I'm just a broke, broken dirt farmer who wants to see my kids get a quality education. Speaking of which..." He gestured to Trung to join them, "I want you to rest assured that you will have a skilled replacement carrying on your legacy while you retire on a beach somewhere. Trung, this is Coach Mach, Paul, this is Trung Nguyen. Sit here and chat with each other," and Trung sat while Lanh and Don wheeled Karole away.

"Where are you taking me?" demanded Karole. She wanted to hear Trung's conversation with Coach Mach. The two were chatting like old friends already.

"Someone here wants to see you," said Don and he wheeled Karole over to a familiar booth near the front window.

Karole looked out the front window, it was just over a year ago when she looked out that window for the first time. Back then it was ringed with tinsel garland and Christmas lights, it was when Karole saw her very first snowstorm. She saw snow in Colorado but nothing like what she saw that peaceful day in Grant Valley. Now she was back, this time permanently, and it was snowing again, cars passed on Main Street silently, the snow muffling all of the sound. Her new truck was covered with snow already.

"Karole!" cried out a familiar voice, "My goodness, you act like you've never seen snow before!" and Karole was taken back to a day that seemed almost magical, big fairy-tale snowflakes swirling gently from heaven, the scene framed by garland, lights, holly, and ornaments, not like that hell spawned blizzard in Wyoming. She stood transfixed looking out at the snow that fell gently, but the voice came again, "Oh waitress!"

Karole looked and it was Mrs. Farstad and Mrs. Grady, her favorite customers. Karole almost wept with joy, once perfect strangers now old friends being happy to see her, this truly must be what having a home is all about. The two sweet old women gathered around her wheelchair along with several other regular customers who were eager to see the return of the waitress that talks like a truck driver. "Thank you so much y'all," wept Karole as flowers were piled up in her lap, "thank you all."

"We missed you so much," said Mrs. Grady, "you should have stayed here with us, you were healthy when you left!"

"Ah can't rightly argue with that," said Karole letting her voice slip into her deep South Georgia accent.

"Ohh there she is!" cooed Mrs. Farstad as Duong walked up carrying Krissy whose tiny hand was clutching a single flower that she plucked from a bouquet somewhere in the crush of well-wishers. Krissy found herself in the midst of a collection of adoring people, a position she happily held.

Mrs. Grady tickled Krissy and said, "The last time I saw you, you were inside your mommy's tummy." Krissy's response was a giggle, and she rubbed her tummy.

"Such a happy child!" said Mrs. Farstad, "not like her grumpy boyfriend." They all had a sympathetic little laugh for poor Danh who was not happy at all with being looked at. He was having a good nap and didn't want to be woken up and now people are bothering him. Kim-ly and Lanh were standing behind Karole trying to keep the crowd away as Karole talked to Mrs. Farstad and Mrs. Grady.

Danh didn't like the attention at all and clung to Kim-ly like a terrified spider monkey. He didn't even want Duong. When Kim-ly tried to hand the little guy over to his grandpa he began crying and he wouldn't let go of Kim-ly's blouse. He didn't even want Grandpa Ralph, who had been his mentor for 10 of his first 12 months of life. "Oh come on, don't you want to see your Aunty Lanh?" asked Lanh, her hands open, but Danh just turned his head away with a pout and a little grunt.

"He didn't want to wake up," said Kim-ly, "he was sleeping so good... lets go find your daddy."

"He's probably in the kitchen," said Rosa. "He said he has a project to work on."

"He's supposed to be setting up the big table for the family," said Tam as she leaned over from behind Karole and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I know I said it before but thank you for saving my mom and my sister."

"Who is this?" said Mrs. Grady.

"I don't know," said Mrs. Farstad, "but she looks like someone who used to work here."

"This is my big sister," said Karole with a smile and she patted Tam's hand with her good hand.

"Ok, ok you two," said Tam with a laugh as she greeted Mrs. Grady and Mrs. Farstad with a hug and a kiss, "I've been a little busy teaching college and raising four boys." They caught on quickly and realized that the fourth boy was Jake. "I'm sorry Mrs. Grady and Mrs. Farstad, but Mom wants everybody to get to the dinner table." And with that she wheeled Karole and Krissy to the long table that was made up by pushing tables together. She wheeled Karole to the long table and parked her across from Don who appeared from the kitchen and sat across from her at the end of the table. They placed Lanh at the head of the table so Don could have Lanh on his left and Kim-ly with Danh on his right.

Shortly after everyone sat down, Mai brought Karole out a bowl of pho. "What's this?" asked Karole.

Mai simply smiled and said, "Ask him," she said as she jerked her thumb toward Don.

Karole gave Don a questioning look and he answered, "It's a Nguyen family tradition, you save Lanh, you get a bowl of soup." He kissed a blushing Lanh and continued, "It's kind of how we met." This time Lanh returned his kiss warmly.

"He made this for you," said Mai, "Don cut everything, all the noodles, vegetables, and beef to spoon size for you so you wouldn't have a problem eating."

Karole smiled, she had a great humorous reply, but it caught in her throat when she realized that Don left his own welcome home party to work in the kitchen just for her. He showered her and Trung with gifts and souvenirs at Mount Rushmore, getting them a private cabin with a view of Mt. Rushmore, it had a jacuzzi and a fireplace, and when Huy couldn't get TBF Consulting (formerly Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting) to accept Karole's new truck as a moving expense, Don helped pay for it. She was going to repay him when her settlement money came, but it was so sweet.

She tried to say something, but Don beat her to it. "Eat up sweetie, it's getting late, we all want to lay down on a bed they're not going to try to take from us."

"Don, ah love ya, but sometimes you can be a dick, ah'm tryin' to say thank you."

Don took Lanh's hand and reached over and gently took Karole's hand. "I can never say thank you enough."

Their welcome home dinner lasted about an hour and soon it came time for Karole to make a decision that she didn't have the heart to make. Both Sandy and Mai had set up a room for her in their homes, out at Campbells farm and here at the restaurant. As the final dishes were cleared from the long table and Danh started to cheer up, Don asked Karole, "where are you going to sleep darling?"

Karole was torn, she had no idea where she wanted to sleep. She wanted to sleep out at the farm because she enjoyed her favorite Christmas out there, but Mai and Duong had been begging her to stay with them, the big empty house is getting on their nerves. Finally, she turned to Trung and asked him where he wanted to stay.

"Mom and dad asked me to stay here... and I miss them." Trung looked apologetic over his choice, but Karole patted his hand.

"Then you should stay here, and I think I'll stay here too... in case you get lonely... where did Krissy get to?" Karole immediately thought she was a bad mother; her baby was gone, and she just noticed now. But Krissy had been passed from hand to hand all evening, at one point she even toddled off to inspect the kitchen.

Before Karole could panic, Mai came up to her and said, "the poor little dear is sound asleep in her bed, so it looks like you're staying whether you want to or not. You look very tired too, let's get you off to bed."

"I think we should get going too," said Don, and he rose and started helping the staff bus the table until Rosa stopped him.

"You're not on the clock tonight, we're not paying you for this," said Rosa as she took the dirty dishes from Don's hands. "Why don't you take your wives and kid home, they look beat."

"I think I'll do that, thanks fish."

"Go get some sleep, fish. What was that you and Trung were talking to Coach Mach about?"

"We were trying to convince Trung to apply for the open position over at the high school," said Don. But when Rosa responded with a questioning look Don continued, "Mr. Mach is planning to retire. Trung was a college teacher and an athlete, there's no reason why he can't take the spot."

"They were also talking about you and the school board, what's that all about?" asked Rosa.

"School board? Me? That's just crazy talk! Don't let it worry you." But it did worry Rosa, her daughters are now fourteen and twelve and she doesn't like the way the school board has been acting. Don continued, "Now that I have one of my own, I may be interested in the way the school is run, that's all we're saying."

"Speaking of kids," said Lanh as she started to pull on her parka, "Here's one who is sad you didn't say hi."

Don turned and there was his little buddy Arlo. "Arlo! How ya doin pal?" Ignoring the pain in his back, Don picked up the four-year-old and gave him a big hug. "You're getting old! You must be in fifth grade by now!"

Arlo was playing with his own fingers, and he said, "Cats don't have hands, they have paws so they can climb trees."

"That's just silly!" said Don as he tickled Arlo's tummy.

"Guess who wants a cat," said Tam as she pulled her coat on.

"Well Arlo can come over and play in the barn all he wants, I'm sure there's a stray ol' barn cat or three in there. Auntie Lanh might need help naming all of them." Lanh always had an affinity for the grouchy feral creatures that prowled the cavernous, ancient barn. With all the feed and hay in the barn, a few cats are an important part of the barn's ecosystem to keep the rodent population under control.

"Ok!" and Arlo twisted around in Don's arms. Conversation was over, time to go. Don set the little guy down and Arlo immediately saw Danh who was standing, holding on to Kim-ly's chair while she pulled on her parka. "Hi Danh!" said Arlo excitedly. Finally, someone younger than him to play with! Danh let go of Kim-ly's chair and took a wobbly step toward his cousin and grinned, then took another as Kim-ly, Lanh, and Don watched in amazement. "Wanna play?" asked Arlo. "Come on!" and he ran off toward his brothers leaving Danh in his dust. Danh took one more step trying to chase Arlo and fell to the floor. Kim-ly scooped up her son before the howling could truly begin.

"Those were his first steps," said Don, still in shock at what he just witnessed.

"And nobody had a phone or camera out," said Lanh sadly.

"It happens all the time," said Tam. "All the video we have of first steps are usually the eighth or ninth attempts. By then you know what to look for and have the camera ready."

As Don was talking with Tam, Kim-ly came up to Don and gave him a kiss on the cheek and whispered, "We're ready to go daddy," followed by a nibble on the earlobe That was followed by a hug from behind from Lanh that included a lot of groping.

"I suppose I should be expecting a big sister talk soon?" asked Don.

Tam smiled and patted Don's cheek. "Not quite yet, just take care of my girls, they're both in a fragile state right now." The gorgeous woman kissed Don's cheek and said, "We missed you, please don't run off again."

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

Finally, home for good. This was something Don and Lanh originally dreamed of doing eight years ago, but careers kept them away until injuries finally dragged them home. "I'm not saying "I told you so" or anything like that, but doesn't it seem weird?" Don asked. "We decided to make the Air Force a career and I got jet blasted. We decide to make your career our future and you got run over."

"I wish you hadn't brought that up," said Lanh. "I was thinking the same thing all the way home." Don had built a fire in the fireplace and the wood was starting to burn merrily. Bach's aria Bist Du Bei Mir played gently on the stereo, outside the snow fell gently. Kim-ly was sitting in the wingback chair in front of the fire with a fussy Danh on her lap. The three days of traveling, not counting a day of souvenir shopping and sightseeing at Mount Rushmore didn't sit well with the little guy.

Lanh was naked, fresh from her shower, for the first time in a long time Don's cock began to rise, is it too soon after the accident? "Why don't we get one of those big soaking tubs that all three of us can fit in?" Lanh asked Don as she dried off from her shower.

"Where would we put it?"

"I was thinking right next to the shower," with a wave of her hands Lanh showed where it would fit.

"Where would we hang our clothes?" The area indicated by Lanh was the current walk-in closet. Once it was too big, but now Don's clothing was being moved out as Lanh and Kim-ly's wardrobes competed for space.

"Why don't we put it right here?" said Kim-ly as she lay a sleeping Danh down in his crib beneath the window in the sitting room. "Instead of a sitting room, a bedroom, and a bathroom, why don't we have a large bedroom with a fireplace and a water closet?"

Don got into the spirit of their plans. "We could take down this wall between the sitting room and the bedroom and make it all one room." He sat down in the wingback chair in front of the fireplace with an exhausted sigh. These chairs were older than him, and he loved them. There's something about the wingback design that collects the warmth from the fireplace.

"We could see the fireplace from the bed," said Lanh as Don pulled her into his lap. She was wearing a towel wrapped around her body, still warm from her shower, as did Kim-ly who leaned on his shoulder. Don was still dressed from travel and the evening's festivities; he was watching Danh as Kim-ly and Lanh took their showers. Now the little one was asleep and tucked away in his bed, happy to be home with his stuffed caterpillar that didn't get packed in the headlong rush to Colorado two months ago. Sucking on a favorite pacifier and cuddling his toy, the little guy was now sleeping the deepest, best sleep he's had in ages... months. Months are ages when you're only 11 months old.

They sat by the fire and let the magic of the dancing flames soothe their inner fears and drive away the horrors. Lanh's horrors were obvious, of being trapped under that mountain of iron forced to watch her best friend dying just inches from her. Add the helplessness she felt when she raced across the Atlantic ocean on a military charter flight, helpless while her husband was being medevac'd toward her, the horror of not knowing his condition.

Don's horrors were similar, being injured in Saudi Arabia, flown to Germany for a series of surgeries, laying helpless in the hospital listening to a friend die. He would do that over and over for eternity if it could erase the horrors he felt as he was forced to wait just yards away as they dug Lanh and Karole out from under the car.

For Kim-ly, twice she had to race to their sides after a horrific accident, twice she had to hold them, console them. Her major fear is that the holding would end, she even had Don's son to insure she could hold him... but Danh will leave her someday, and that was her greatest fear, the horror that only their touch could erase...

"Người thương," Don said softly as he stroked a finger gently behind Kim-ly's ear, which sent shivers through her body, as did hearing him say Người thương which means "my loved person." She's heard him saying it to Lanh for sixteen years, so she didn't think too much about it until she looked up and saw those sky-blue eyes were looking at her.

"Huh?" was all she could say, he said that to her?

"You had that look on your face, the look I see at night when your fears creep up," said Don.

"Huh?" she was so eloquent tonight.

"You talk in your sleep," said Lanh.

"I will make you a promise," said Don. "If you don't leave us, we won't leave you." And he gave his stunned sister-in-law a gentle kiss on the lips. "And with that, I'm going to go take my shower, it's almost bedtime." He lifted Lanh off his lap and stood, then gave Lanh a kiss, followed by a kiss for Kim-ly, then he headed off to the bathroom.

Kim-ly sat in stunned silence, neither woman missed the bulge in Don's trousers as he rose and headed off to the shower. Finally, she said, "Aren't you...?" The question hung in the air.

Lanh sadly shook her head, "not yet, I'm still not good at all." There comes a point where chronic pain crushes the sex drive, Don and Lanh were dealing with his pain and their sex life was getting back on track, then this happened to Lanh. Sometimes their sex life has been reduced to gentle mutual masturbation, other times it's solo masturbation while the aching partner rests and encourages, life just isn't fair sometimes.

Lanh leaned forward and whispered, "go, it's ok. You're part of us now." Kim-ly looked at her sister, confusion racked her mind and was easily readable on her face, so Lanh rose, and holding her towel with one hand she led Kim-ly by the hand into the bedroom and closed the door then led her to the bathroom and took Kim-ly's towel from her and opened the shower door for Kim-ly. "Go get him, just don't break him."

Don felt rather than heard the shower door open and there was Kim-ly standing there with him. They've showered together before, to help Lanh before she regained what mobility she has. Insecurity was clearly overwhelming Kim-ly, which was not a good look for the stunning Asian beauty. Don was sure that the terror and confusion that wracked his mind didn't translate to a confident good look for him either. A movement behind the droplet covered glass shower divider showed Don that Lanh was seated in her make-up chair at the vanity watching, and Don wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

Now Don allowed his eyes to roam over his sister-in-law's body. Like Lanh, Kim-ly's skin was light with just a hint of a golden complexion, but free from any blemish or tan-line. (Well, this is Minnesota.) While Lanh's breasts are well rounded and small, Kim-ly's breasts are large, a good handful, could this be from motherhood? And like Lanh, Kim-ly's nipples are coral pink but her areola and nipples are larger than Lanh's. Lanh's nipples are tiny nubbins of delight that make themselves profoundly noticed when she's turned on with areola just slightly bigger around than a penny, meanwhile Kim-ly's nipples are easily larger than Lanh's with areola as big around as a half dollar.

Don drank in the sight of Kim-ly's body, full breasts, slim waist, round hips, a body other woman would kill for, and here she was looking so unconfident alone with "just Don" as he thought of himself. The insecurity and taunting of his childhood has left Don insecure with himself well into manhood, especially now naked with the woman he once (and still) thought of as the most beautiful woman on earth, to be honest he's terrified.

Kim-ly broke the uncomfortable silence by cupping Don's soft cock and saying, "You don't like me anymore?" With a trembling hand Don tilted Kim-ly's chin up and leaned in for a kiss. Their kiss was sweet but spoke more about insecurity than passion.

Finally, Don pulled Kim-ly close, her lush body pressing against his. "What's wrong," he asked softly.

"Tell me this isn't some weird little fantasy that is going to end when you get tired of me..." she said, just barely audible over the sound of the shower.

"If I was ever going to tire of you, that would have happened long ago," said Don as he held Kim-ly close. "Remember when we were stationed at Spangdahlem and you came out to stay with us and I didn't see you, my wife, or my check book for a whole month?"

Kim-ly chuckled, "You were so mad at me." What a road trip! France! Belgium! Amsterdam!!! Actually Kim-ly didn't remember a whole lot about Amsterdam, but Lanh and Lanh's friend Annie Brown said she had a good time. Three Viet chicks touring Europe, what a summer. "I suppose you weren't really happy that I stole your new wife."

"I didn't mind that, but I wanted to see you," said Don. "You just started to be nice to us when we got married. Then you got off the plane, grabbed Lanh and Annie and disappeared and returned just in time to get back on the plane home. Then there was Grand Forks."

"What about Grand Forks?" Kim-ly sucked up all the courage that she could gather and let her fingers start to explore.

"You lived with us in base housing for months and I only saw you when you were working from the kitchen table or hung over."

"I was hung over most of the time I was working from the kitchen table..." Kim-ly let her fingers roam over his chest, it wasn't as chiseled as it was when he was swimming, but they're home now, maybe a summer or two swimming in the pond... "We had fun in Korea."

Don smiled at the memory of her visit to Korea, she was confused at first, however. "I remember how upset you were, living in a country full of Asians and none of them spoke Vietnamese."

"I wanted to meet new people and the only ones I could speak to, wanted to sell me something." That's it, thought Kim-ly, enough talking. Her mouth closed on his nipple as her hands squeezed his ass cheeks and pulled him tight. Don's cock began to grow as her tongue flickered over his nipple sending jolts of erotic pleasure throughout his body. Now her hand closed around his cock and began stroking. As his cock grew hard Kim-ly smiled and said, "you do like me!"

"Kim-ly, I'm not sure..."

"Shh, let me..." they kissed as her hand stroked his cock. His aching balls needed release so bad, it's been weeks since they've been able to release his tension, months since he and Lanh had been able to make love. Kim-ly moved to his side where he wrapped his arm around her and held her close. They kissed long and sweetly as her hand stroked his aching cock.

God, it felt good! But soon the shaking of his balls began to hurt. Each stroke of his cock made his aching balls bang together and it was starting to hurt a lot. "Kim, stop. Please."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm aching, my balls... please stop."

No stranger to blue balls, she's caused enough, Kim-ly eased down to her knees and began to gently lick his cock as her hand cradled his swollen balls. That was so much nicer, easing him closer and closer to orgasm as her mouth gently glided up and down the length of his shaft. Soon he was at the very edge of cumming and beautiful Kim-ly continued her ministrations, her tongue massaging the sensitive underside of his cock, his body tensing. He was going out of his mind with her skillful sucking, but he still couldn't cum.

Kim-ly looked up at Don, she's had enough men in agony because of her, she knew what she was doing. She winked at him, kissed the head of his cock, and whispered to it, "Cum in my mouth, it's ok." Then taking the big, swollen head in her mouth she swirled her tongue around and around the head of his cock, massaging the underside behind the head, sliding her lips up and down with a hungry "mmm... mmm... mmm..." with every plunge of her mouth taking him a little deeper into her mouth and throat. At the same time that her sucking mouth slid up and down his cock, one hand gently cradled his balls while the other hand stroked up and down his length in time with her lips.

This was the cock of her dreams. Ever since the day that she and Tam walked in on Don and Lanh here at the farmhouse and saw eighteen-year-old Lanh swallow the entire length of Don's large cock, no other cock has been good enough for Kim-ly. Now she was trying to match her little sister's feat, but she started gagging, she just couldn't get the last few inches in. "It's ok," whispered Lanh, "don't force yourself, he hates that. Just relax and have fun." Lanh had joined them in the shower and was giving blowjob advice to her older sister.

Kim-ly gave Lanh a sweet kiss then turned back to Don's cock and Lanh straightened and leaned on Don's side. He wrapped an arm around his tiny wife and pulled her close as she whispered, "Cum for us." She leaned forward and started to suckle on his nipple while she reached around behind him, a fingertip exploring his asshole. The minute her tiny finger touched his sphincter, Don groaned "I'm cumming!"

Waves of blissful relief washed over Don as his cock spurted over and over into Kim-ly's thirsty mouth. If the first spurt caught her by surprise, she didn't show it. Then Don and Lanh's lips met, and his tongue began fucking into Lanh's mouth, his groans of ecstasy muffled by their kiss. The sensation was incredible, almost mind blowing to be kissing Lanh as his cock spurted into Kim-ly's mouth. Thankfully Kim-ly eased up on her blowjob as his orgasm waned so the sensation didn't become unbearable. Don fell back against the shower wall and slid to the floor and the two girls slid down with him. "That was truly amazing," he groaned as he sat on the floor of the shower.

Kim-ly gave him a closed lip smile that looked like she had a challenge in mind, and Don pulled her close and kissed her deeply and passionately. For her part Kim-ly was stunned that he kissed her after a blow job, so few men she knew did that, and she was utterly shocked when after the kiss he said, "Thank you."

"Who says thank you after a blowjob?" Kim-ly asked.

"He does," said Lanh. "Every time."

"You just did my favorite thing in the world for me," said Don, "why wouldn't I say thank you?"

"I don't know, it just seems weird. But you kissed me, that was pretty cool, most guys avoid my mouth like the plague afterward."

"Get used to it, he does that every time also," said Lanh.

"I love kissing women after a blowjob, I love the feel of their lips, all puffy and hot, and their mouths are so warm..." he kissed her again and said, "Thank you" one more time.

Kim-ly chuckled, "You're such a jerk," and threw her arms around him. Laughing, Don and Kim-ly got up then carefully helped Lanh to her feet. They ended up in bed with Lanh sitting at the head of the bed and Don wrestled Kim-ly around until she was laying sideways across the bed with her head in Lanh's lap. Don began licking Kim-ly's pedicured toes which caused the beauty to start wriggling and kicking, and fighting to keep quiet so she didn't wake the baby in the next room.

Don's kisses found their way up Kim-ly's legs growing closer and closer to her pussy. The beautiful Asian grinned, she was finally going to feel Don's mouth on her pussy. Lanh had told her in the past how he loved to go down on her, and now he's almost there for Kim-ly. She whimpered in need as his lips drew closer and closer to her hot, wet cunt. Don could smell her excitement, and her perfume egged him on.

Time seemed to stand still for Kim-ly as the man she loved slowly lowered his head to her pussy. She found herself holding her legs open wide with her hands, offering her pussy up to him but it seemed like he was taunting her. Finally, it was Lanh who put an end to Don's teasing, she reached forward and twined her fingers in Don's hair and guided her husband's head to her sisters cunt.

"Ahhhh," gasped Kim-ly softly as his tongue flickered gently over her clit, it's been so long! The last time a man touched her pussy was before Don was injured, and that guy could not lick a pussy like Don was doing to her. Kim-ly gasped and groaned as quietly as she could but Don was pressing all the right buttons. His tongue flittered over her clit and lips as gentle as a butterfly but soon he was tongue fucking her pussy with all the gusto that she needed. Soon he was fucking her pussy with two fingers and sliding his fingertips against her G spot while his tongue continued to lap at her clit. She felt the fingers of his free hand begin to twist and pinch her right nipple, but she also felt her left nipple being pinched and pulled. A quick glance showed Kim-ly that it was Lanh who was stimulating her left nipple and the realization was like throwing gas on a fire.

Kim-ly's hips began to rise, pressing against Don's mouth trying to get his fingers inside of her deeper... all the while her sister held Don's mouth to task keeping his mouth worrying on Kim-ly's clit like Don has done for Lanh countless times. The realization that the two people she loved most were giving her such bliss set her off. An orgasm that rattled her teeth and short circuited her brain washed over her, and her body went into spasm after spasm, shaking and shuddering, waves of blessed release crashing over her. Kim-ly's fingers clawed the sheets and she bit down on her lower lip, desperate to hold back her shrieks of delight.

Soon she relaxed, her needs sated, her passions cooled, and her breathing slowed. "Oh my god," she gasped. "My leg... it won't stop shaking."

"I know," smiled Lanh who quite often has the same reaction.

They snuggled with Kim-ly in the middle, occasionally Don would lean over Kim-ly to kiss his wife, and occasionally he'd kiss Kim-ly. Eventually Kim-ly and Lanh got up to put on night gowns and when they returned to bed Don was asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Don stood on the porch of an ancient cabin. The weather was frigid, and the wind blew so hard that Don thought it would knock the old building over. The cabin was a ramshackle looking thing that appeared to be built out of old packing crates. A pair of ancient snowshoes hung on a nail by the door, a pair of crossed wooden skis stood by at the ready also. Most of the porch was covered with stacked firewood.

Don realized that he had a plastic bag in his hand, in the bag was a white foam take out box that had a post-it note the kind of which the cashier at Nguyen Pho uses to mark to-go and DoorDash orders. This note simply said "Grandma Noah" in Karole's distinctive, blocky but still feminine handwriting. Don knocked on the door and the jazz music that was emanating from the cabin stopped and a voice said, "Come on in!"

Don slowly opened the door and entered. "Come on in! Jes don't bring ol' man winter in with you." He closed the door and turned and saw a wizen old black woman sitting in a rocking chair in front of the fire, a warm quilt on her lap and a tall glass of what looked like lemonade on her side table.

"I have a delivery for Grandma Noah..." he said, and he held out the bag.

"Ah! My bánh mì! Bring it here!" The old lady cackled with joy as she opened up the bag then opened the white take-out tray to reveal the perfect bánh mì. A Vietnamese submarine sandwich made from a fresh made baguette filled with shredded pork, sliced cucumber, cilantro leaves along with pickled carrot and daikon radish slices and mayonnaise. That mystery was solved, it's not from Nguyen Pho. Duong and Mai do not like bánh mì, they say that the bread is too much work, so it isn't even hinted at in their restaurant.

The old lady eyed her sandwich hungrily and said, "as soon as I find my teeth, I'm going to have my lunch!" She looked at it one last time before closing up the box. "It looks like little Sophie made this one, she's got the touch! After her Uncle Trung makes the bread, that girl makes sandwich magic!"

Grandma Noah threw off the quilt that was covering her legs to reveal she was wearing men's trousers and men's slippers. "Let me find your tip..." She placed her sandwich on the side table and started looking for something on the mantle over the fireplace.

"I don't need a tip," Don started.

"Oh, but you do!" She lifted a small toy boat off the mantle and handed it to Don. It was a nice model, nothing fancy, but too nice to be a bathtub toy. It looked like one of those large yachts that he and Lanh saw rich people sitting on at the marinas when they visited Royce and Annie. The boat had a name, something Dream, he couldn't tell because there was a stern door open that covered the first word. "Now you come along, your wives are waiting for you," Grandpa Noah said.

Don looked up from the boat and the person in the room was a very old black man. Grandma Noah's silver afro was now just a silver stubble, and her strong chin was now covered with a silver beard. "Wha... what happened?"

"This is just a reminder that things have changed, ever since that young girl saved your wife and surprised us all, nothing is the same. Those nightmares of yours are gone, aren't they?"

"Mostly..."

"And that lady of yours is healthy and happy, right?"

"Sort of..."

"Both of them, right?"

"I don't know..."

Grandpa Noah opened the front door, and it was HOT outside, stifling hot. The snow was gone, and the forest was thick with green leaves. A wide lazy creek oozed past the cabin and Don could see a rowboat headed their way. "Here's your tip," said Grandpa Noah and he tapped a long boney finger on the toy boat that Don held. "The only thing better than having a boat is having a friend with a boat."

"Wha...?"

"Never turn down the offer of a boat ride," said Grandpa Noah with a wide grin and a wink.

"Huh?" Don woke and found himself snuggled between Lanh and Kim-ly, and the two of them were generating incredible heat. Coupled with the two heavy quilts the girls pulled over themselves, Don was roasting. He wiggled free from between the two women, crawled to the end of the bed, then walked out to the sitting room to check on Danh. The little guy was out like a light, his plush caterpillar cradled in his arm. The pacifier in his mouth moved occasionally as he sucked on it.

The fire in the fireplace was a pile of glowing red embers that crackled softly. Don put a couple more pieces of wood on the embers and sat in his wingback chair and watched as an occasional small flame appeared and began to illuminate the room that he built for Lanh. The hand carved cuckoo clock on the wall ticked away, it was still before midnight. Shadows danced on the walls as Don pulled a blanket over his lap, he was starting to feel upset. As he sat and pondered his actions the wind came up, the house shook with each gust. Being recently rebuilt, the former bunkhouse was well insulated against the winter blast, but Don was chilled to the bone by memories of storms in his youth.

"What's wrong?" Lanh asked as she eased into his lap.

"What makes you think something is wrong?" he asked as he pulled the warm throw onto their laps.

"You're here feeling guilty about the sex we had with my sister and you're agonizing over where we are going in our relationship with Kim-ly."

Don looked at Lanh in shock, she knew exactly what was going on in his head. Before he could speak, Kim-ly sat in the chair next to him and leaned on his shoulder. "Typical man, he's worried about this room, he put so much work into it for you and he's afraid to tell me to get out."

"I don't know why you girls need me here, you got everything covered."

Lanh hugged her man close, "you're worried, and we worry about you." With a finger she lifted Don's chin and looked deep into his sky-blue eyes. "It's ok, I understand." Her eyes began to glisten with tears, "Somebody told me about a bottle of pills you carried with you."

"Are you mad?"

Lanh smiled softly, she was so beautiful in the flickering firelight, a tear started to ease down her cheek. "No." She smiled a bittersweet smile, and her eyes sparkled. "Now I know if I didn't live, I wouldn't have been alone... you would have been there for me. But that means you weren't taking your pain meds, instead you were collecting them." She frowned and shook her head. "I made sure somebody put them in your dresser drawer." Their foreheads touched and they rubbed their noses. "I love you," said Lanh, "You are my man, and I am never going to give you up." They kissed long and passionately and when their lips parted a hand on his cheek urged him to turn to Kim-ly who was looking misty also.

"I love you," she whispered. "I know Lanh will always be number one in your heart. I know I can never take her place and I don't want to, so I'm not going to try. It's just..." the Asian beauty teared up as she searched for the words, "I don't mind being alone, but I'm tired of being lonely, does that make sense? I don't want a husband, but I want a father for our son, I want a fuck buddy, and sometimes when I want to be close... can we do this?"

Don was confused, normally shouldn't Lanh and Kim-ly, the wife and the mistress be beating the hell out of each other? He started to turn to Lanh but Kim-ly said, "I asked you a question, not her." She sounded angry.

"This is a question that involves both of us, Lanh and I, we're a team."

Kim-ly smiled and kissed his cheek, "good answer."

Don looked at Lanh, who smiled and nodded, agreeing with Kim-ly. Keeping his eyes on Lanh he said, "I do love you Kim-ly, but let's take it one day at a time, ok?"

"That will work," said Kim-ly hugging Don from behind and nibbling at the back of his neck.

After being kissed in front and back Don realized that he passed a test of some type, but was it him that was being tested or was it Lanh and Kim-ly testing their new relationship? But there was something else he needed to know first, "how did you guys figure out what was bothering me?" he finally asked.

"That's easy," said Lanh. "When something is on your mind, you talk in your sleep."

"Scared the hell out of me," agreed Kim-ly.

"Let's go back to bed," groaned Don. He felt greatly relieved, but still confused.

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

They were housebound for the next three days as the late winter storm vented its fury before it blew itself out. Don set up a rope between the house and the barn, a lifeline to safely navigate back and forth. It's a sad fact of life in Minnesota but occasionally a farmer will get confused in a white-out and lose his way walking from his barn and his house and freeze to death just a few yards from safety. The orange nylon rope that Don set up was needed on several occasions as cows were milked and Don and Ralph took turns manning the snow blower clearing a path between the house and the barn and the tractor shed. They also made sure that the exits were clear and that the wood boxes for the living room and bunk house fireplaces were full of good, seasoned firewood.

Lanh wanted desperately to get out of the house and help with milking when she discovered that none of the cows had been named. Someone had to name them, she insisted. Sadly, they lost three cows to the fury of the storm and had to drag the bodies out of the feedlot with a bobcat loader. They were set aside on plastic sheets so they wouldn't freeze to the ground and will be dealt with after the storm passes.

On the plus side, Danh loved the attention he was getting and loved showing off his new walking skills without Krissy upstaging him. He toddled around the living room from Ralph, to Sandy, to Lanh, to Kim-ly then back to Ralph, laughing as he walked past Don who sat on the floor and tried to grab him.

As they laughed at Danh's teasing of his dad Karole called to see how they were doing. It's only been a couple of days since they parted ways, yet they call each other several times a day and share the option to hear her cheery southern accent; they missed their heroine. Kim-ly placed her phone on the coffee table and she, Lanh, and Don gathered around it. "How is it going in the restaurant?" asked Kim-ly knowing that her father wouldn't close. "Getting lots of customers?"

"We're getting some," said Karole. "Duong said that we're not going to lock the doors, somebody may need us. I've been parked at the cash register and Chau has been training me." Chau is Rosa and Bao's oldest daughter and she's been working at the restaurant since she was born. "We're getting a lot of take-out orders, lots of bánh mì to go."

"Bánh mì?" asked Don, his mouth went suddenly dry, and his stomach knotted up tight. He remembered Mai emphatically declaring there would be no bánh mì in their restaurant.

"Yeah, people had been asking about it, so Chau said, "let's try it." She bakes the baguette and Sophie makes the pickled veggies and then either one puts the sandwich together while Rosa watches them like a mother hawk. Trung is helping in the kitchen, now he's the one baking the baguettes."

"How are things with Mr. Coffee?" asked Lanh.

"Mr. Coffee?" Karole was confused, "we have Bunn coffee makers."

"Have one of the girls run into the kitchen and get you a can of Vietnamese coffee," said Kim-ly once she stopped laughing.

"Well... ok." They heard Karole ask Sophia, Bao and Rosa's youngest girl, to get the coffee, then heard Karole check out a customer, then she broke up in cheery laughter as Sophia returned with a can of Vietnamese coffee. The brand name on the can proudly said, Trung Nguyen, the top selling brand of Vietnamese coffee.

"Now you know why we called him Mister Coffee as kids," said Kim-ly.

"Things are going a lot better than I deserve," said Karole. "I told him flat out that the settlement money goes into a trust fund for Krissy and we live off the interest and what money we can make, so if he hooks up with me, he's not getting an heiress. He said "Fine, I don't know how to not work." So, we're happy."

"How happy are you?" asked Lanh slyly.

After a long pause they heard Karole whisper into the phone, "really, really happy."

"I think all three of us can say the same thing here," said Lanh. They spoke for a little bit longer about working in the restaurant during a blizzard, Duong and Mai refused to close like his uncle's restaurant in Minneapolis that closes whenever it snows.

"Kin ah talk to Don off speaker a moment?" Karole asked. When he heard her, Don snatched the phone up off the coffee table and headed into the kitchen. Don had a guess what she wanted to talk about, he was worried that his hunch was right. "Hey," said the southern belle, "Did you visit Grandpa Noah recently?"

That's exactly what he was afraid of. Might as well let her know the whole story. "Yeah, it was weird, it was winter when I got there, and he was Grandma Noah but after I gave him his bánh mì order he became Grandpa Noah and when I stepped out it was summer and he was living next to a stream."

"Down here we call that a river, sounds like he was in the Okefenokee Swamp where he belongs."

"How did you know?" Don asked.

"I saw you there, I was rowing up to his dock and you were standing on the porch talking to him."

"I didn't see you... at least I think I didn't see you."

"You only get to see what Grandma Noah wants you to see, I guess she figured that you needed winter to identify with. She changed from Grandpa Noah back to Grandma Noah while I was there, she said because the time of change was settled." Karole sounded excited about Grandma Noah returning for her, then she asked, "What did Grandma Noah say to you?"

"She said that Sophie made the bánh mì and she was going to eat it as soon as she found her teeth," said Don

"That sounds right, if there's no school Sophie insists on making the bánh mì. Is that all she said?"

Don didn't want to continue because it sounded stupid. However, she insisted that she wanted to hear... ok. "She said she wanted to give me a tip, so when she became Grandpa Noah, he handed me a toy boat and he said that the only thing better than owning a boat is having a friend that owns a boat. Then he said to never turn down the offer of a boat ride. I thought that he was talking about your rowboat, but I woke up."

"Ahh, ok. That explains a lot," said Karole.

"What does it explain?" Don asked.

"Grandma told me to tell you "Bon voyage!"

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

When the storm had finally faded, Don went back to work on the farm. He and his dad spent the day in subzero weather with blinding sunshine, clearing snow drifts in the driveway and barn yard. The cows were happy the wind had dropped, and they could move apart and feed properly instead of huddling close together for warmth. Don was using a drag plow on the John Deere tractor and Ralph was digging away at the big drifts with the Bobcat frontend loader. There was a seven-foot-tall drift between the tractor shed and the barn that everybody had to pose in front of for photographs to impress future generations.

Don was refueling the John Deere with a handpump from a 55-gallon drum when Lanh and Kim-ly came up to him with Danh on Lanh's hip. He looked so cute in his little hunting parka thought Don, realizing that he's falling more and more in love with his child every day. "Hey lil' buddy," said Don, "I suppose you want to drive the tractor? I know momma Lanh does." Then to Lanh he asked, "what's up?"

"Lunch time! I made soup." Then to answer his unasked question, "tomato soup and grilled cheese."

"Is that why you bought all those tomatoes?" When the roads opened, Sandy, Lanh, and Danh made a dash to Elstad's Plen-T Good Grocery to re-stock all the staples and canned goods that were consumed during the storm and Lanh came back with a sack full of tomatoes.

Lanh just smiled and called, "Soup's on!" as she headed back to the house with Danh. Don checked the fuel level on the tractor, it was close enough, and followed Lanh into the house. Even Kim-ly emerged from her basement office where she's been hiding for the past few days. What a mess! Lanh's settlement started coming in, Karole just dumped a boat load of money on Don for the truck, money from the house sales coming in, Karole dumped a bunch on Don for all the work he did getting her house ready to sell and he tried to return it. Then there was the farm and the restaurant, Karole and Mai wanted to dump tons of money into that.

Kim-ly and Bao had to demand a stop to all of it. "You can't just swap money back and forth willy-nilly! Slow down! Go through us first!" Emerging from the basement Kim-ly plopped down at the table. "Ok, I just heard from that Tolbert guy..."

"Thorsen?"

"Yeah, him. The truck will be ready in a couple of weeks. He's having a hard time finding a radio."

"Just as long as it looks stock and works," said Don as Sandy placed a large bowl of soup in front of him.

"What happened to your truck?" asked Lanh as she set out sandwiches. She just realized that she didn't see that old "Three-On-The-Tree GMC" in the tractor shed where it gets parked when Don was not at the farm. Don reached for his sandwich and Lanh glared at him. "We're not all here yet."

Don sighed and looked at his grilled cheese sandwich. Perfectly toasted, and the hot, melty cheese was starting to ooze from the bread. "When we spent the night in Custer South Dakota and we discovered the money from my settlement I figured I needed a truck when we get home, so I called Gunnar Thorsen at Grant Valley Auto and asked him to tow my truck into the shop and go over it stem to stern, make it look brand new, and run like a modern truck."

Lanh was about to ask what work Gunnar was doing on the truck when Ralph and RJ finally came in from the mudroom and sat down, Ralph took his seat at the head of the table and Sandy and Lanh served them. "You haven't started eating yet?" asked Ralph.

"We were waiting for you," said Kim-ly.

Ralph looked at the family gathered around the table, wife, son, daughter (after all these years of living here he considered Kim-ly a daughter), daughter-in-law, grandson, reliable farmhand... it has taken decades to come about, but his family is finally complete. "Thank you," he whispered, too choked up to continue.

"Ohhh papa!" Kim-ly jumped up and started hugging Ralph with Lanh. "You're clearly not used to daughters."

"Not in the least," said Sandy with a wise smile.

The simple food was perfect, a great warm-up on a frigid winter day with a lot of work still to do. Ralph and RJ had a shipment of feed to stack, and Don had a long, slow, cold, tractor drive to the rendering plant in Alida to drop off the three unnamed frozen cows. Every drop of soup was eaten ravenously, no one in the group but Lanh and Kim-ly had ever eaten freshly made tomato soup, and it was incredible. Rich, creamy, bold, sweet, an incredible medley of flavors that cannot survive a can. "Wait until we make it fresh from the garden," said Lanh getting excited over her memories of her mom making it garden fresh.

"We need a green house," said Kim-ly.

"With a hot tub," grinned Don.

"YES!" said Lanh and Kim-ly at the same time.

"Before we get to satisfying our dreams, we have a ton of work to do," said Ralph. Somebody had to be the dad. With a chuckle he got up and he and RJ suited up in their brown one-piece cold weather suits and headed over to the barn. As Don helped clear the table Lanh's phone rang.

"Hello? Yes! Good to hear from you! Yes, he's right here, let me put you on speaker." Then Don heard a voice from the past that he sorely missed - his first pulmonologist, Dr. Adrianna Roberts.

"Don? How are you doing? It's Andi."

"Fine! I'm dealing with the Mayo now, we scheduled a pulmonary balloon angioplasty for May, but ever since I moved down from about 6,000 feet I feel great. What happened to you? You disappeared on us last year."

"Oh so much as happened! I can't wait to catch up," the doctor said. "I heard about everything, the baby, the accident, we're so sorry for you! My husband Paul and I was wondering if you guys would like to come down and unwind a little. We have a place in Jupiter Florida, and we have a boat we were planning to take out for a little ride. What do you say? It will just be us, another couple, and you guys. No babies, just you, Lanh, and Kim-ly."

"Wow, you really have heard everything." Don looked at Lanh and Kim-ly who anxiously anticipated his true Minnesota farm boy "well... I'm not sure," response. "Ma'am, a wise old gentleman once told me to never turn down a boat ride. When do you want us?"

As Don and Andi made plans, Lanh and Kim-ly hugged each other in excitement. "Maybe we can see Annie and Royce!" Lanh whispered and the plan was set, Andi would pick them up at the Beverly Beach Marina so they could reunite for a little while with their dear friends.

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

It was a sad meeting with Annie Brown at the marina in Beverly Beach, Florida. Annie Nguyen-Brown, a long distance relative of Lanh and Kim-ly was devastated and her daughter had to speak for her. They didn't know it, but while Annie spoke to Lanh every day cheering her up as she lay in the hospital from her Christmas Eve horror, Annie's husband, Don's mentor, Chief Master Sergeant Royce Brown, was dying of cancer. He died the day they brought Karole out of her medically induced coma. "Maybe they passed each other on the way," Annie said wistfully, which broke gales of tears from Don and Lanh.

Don was shattered, Royce was like a second dad to him. Royce and Annie were always there for them, they saved Don and Lanh's marriage when she went into a deep, dark depression, they were there for them when Lanh was diagnosed as baren, they settled their anger when Don got sent to Kunsan instead of Osan, they were there when Don got injured, and again when Lanh was run over. Don still was eternally grateful to Royce and Annie for coming up to Grant Valley for his retirement ceremony, and their visit with them after.

Royce and Annie had two beautiful daughters, the eldest, Tiên, was a fighter pilot, now a lieutenant colonel commanding a fighter squadron of F-35s in the FANG - the Florida Air National Guard. Her younger sister Donna (Duyen) is an active-duty captain in the USAF working in the Personnel Office at Moody AFB in south Georgia. They met Tiên and found a girl a lot like Kim-ly, funny, cheerful, pretty, but Annie said that the minute she puts on her uniform she turns into Royce.

"I do not!" exclaimed Tiên with a snarl and the forceful delivery of her dad. "Well, maybe a little." She then recognized Don and Lanh, "You're the guys that went scalloping with us. But there was only one chick." She pointed at Lanh, "I think it was you." Then she turned to Kim-ly and said, "What's with you?"

"I'm here for your protection," Kim-ly said as she wrapped her arms tightly around Don's right arm. "This guy has such a case of yellow fever we're all going to end up walking bow-legged."

"Oh jeez," laughed Don. "I'm going to go for a walk and let you guys talk."

Chuckling at Kim-ly's cry of "It's cool, we're safe now girls. We can uncross our legs," he walked along the Marina dock enjoying the hot, humid Florida sunrise.

Annie caught up with him and as they walked, he grew sad. She put an arm around Don's waist. "You ok?" she asked.

Don took a deep breath then said, "you didn't have to make up a story, you could have told me about Royce." Don truly loved Royce as a friend and mentor and he was trying not to be angry, but in truth he was in shock over losing his mentor.

"That wasn't my idea. Lanh, her mom, and your friend Karole getting run over on Christmas Eve... you're in the hospital with your friends baby trying not to freak out, Royce knew it was too much, he told me "that boy has enough on his plate, tell him I'm stuck in a tree, he'll understand." When Don started laughing, she was shocked, "What's so funny?"

"It's a joke he told me when I informed him that Lanh freaked out when I told her I was going on a 90-day TDY to Turkey. Chief said, "You have to break it to her easily." Then he told me this parable, there was a fellow who was assigned to Germany, and he called home and asked his brother how his cat was doing, his brother said, "Your cat died." The soldier got very angry and said "You don't give people bad news like that right away, you give it to them piece by piece; I ask you how's my cat doing you should say he's stuck in a tree, and we can't get him down. When I call again you should say we had the fire department try to get him down, but halfway down he freaked out and jumped. When I call again you say we took him to the animal hospital, and we tried to save him but after fifteen hours of surgery he quietly passed away.

"Gee, I'm sorry said the brother. Then the soldier asked, "How's mom?" After a long pause the brother said, "She's stuck in a tree, and we can't get her down."

Annie stared at Don for a moment then after a long snort she started laughing. She leaned against Don, her laughter mixing with tears of her sorrow. "That is so like him... God, I miss him."

"I'm sure that everyone who knew him does."

"An AC-130 did a flyover at his funeral, the boys were so wonderful to us." She was lost in the memory of the Gunner's Funeral that "the boys" in Special Ops held for Royce.

Don smiled; he's heard about gunners funerals. He never understood those weapons guys, they spent their careers working with bombs and missiles, conventional and nukes, and when there's an opening on a gunship, they trip over themselves for the chance to get shot at in the lowest, slowest target in the sky. He put an arm around his boss's widow, "Look, take your time, if you need help and your girls are busy call us. We have the resources to come down and help now."

"I'll be ok, Bitsy is moving in, we're close enough to base for her..."

"Bitsy?" Don asked.

"Tiên," smiled Annie. "It's what Royce called her. She was tiny like Lanh when she was born, Royce wouldn't put her down. I had to fight him just to hold my own child. Anyhow, she's a momma's girl, she's moving in from St. Augustine, we'll figure out what to do... eventually."

"Ok, but there's something we need you to do for us," said Don. His voice was serious.

"Anything, what is it?"

We need you to come to Minnesota, June 17, it's our wedding anniversary, we're going to renew our vows. Stay as long as you want, you can stay in the farmhouse with us or at the restaurant with Lanh and Kim-ly's folks, but we desperately want you there."

"I don't know..."

"We can pay if that's an issue," said Don but Annie looked unconvinced. "Come on," he begged. "It'll mean the world to Lanh... we'll take you ice skating."

"Ice skating in June?" asked Annie as she leaned on her friend's shoulder.

Don shrugged. "It's Minnesota."

They returned to the table where Lanh, Kim-ly and Tiên waited at the Beverly Beach Marina diner. This is where Andi's said she would pick them up. The menu looked delectable and even though their bank accounts said they could easily afford it, years of living paycheck to paycheck gave Don and Lanh a dose of sticker shock. Kim-ly on the other hand was gregarious and generous and convinced Annie and Tiên to get something "decadent" for breakfast with the admonition "If you don't order, I'll order for you and you're going to end up staring at a bowl of frog legs and grits." Annie and Tiên wisely chose the Belgian waffles.

"I wonder what frog legs taste like," said Lanh. Both she and Don made a vow years ago to try everything they can, just so they don't miss an epicurean delight because "it didn't sound good."

Annie sipped her coffee. "When you come back from your cruise, we'll head inland to Marshport, there's a great little restaurant there with incredible frog legs."

"You're not going to eat with us this morning?" asked Tiên.

"Doctor Andi said breakfast would be served on board," said Don.

"Who is Doctor Andi?" asked Anni as the largest waffle she has ever seen was placed in front of her.

"She's the shortest doctor on earth," said Kim-ly who has met Andi. Kim-ly accompanied Don and Lanh to an appointment or two before Andi disappeared.

"She's taller than I am," said Lanh.

"Yeah, but Andi is a doctor-doctor, you're a..."

"Don't start!" ordered Don. There was wrought iron in his words, he knew how playful banter between Lanh and Kim-ly can easily get out of hand. He doesn't want them to turn their backs on each other like they did in their childhood.

Trying to change the subject Anni said, "So Kim-ly said you've been asked to run for school board, are you going to run?" Don's answer to her question was drowned out by a loud, surprisingly well tuned five chime boat horn. They looked and saw a yacht that appeared to be a full-size cruise ship to the land locked trio from Minnesota. The Australian built Riviera 72 Sports Motor Yacht eased into the marina almost silently.

"Nice!" said Tiên, "seventy feet easy, wow, that's a party barge!"

Two huge fishing outrigger poles extended up and swept back from the gunnels, and Anni said, "Looks like those folks are planning on some serious fishing."

"Fishing!" Lanh gasped. Ever since Don taught her how to bait a hook in a toasty warm ice-hut out on his pond in January of their sophomore year, she's been hooked on fishing. Don still has the picture she sent him while he was in Basic Training. It was a picture of her in a tiny bikini proudly holding up a large bass that she caught soon after he left for training. He kept it secured in his locker and his friends would gather to glimpse a picture of the sexy little elf during their slack time and many of Don's friends in Basic Training were shocked to discover later that there was a fish in the picture.

The yacht stopped in front of the marina's dock, and with a young woman at the bow and a young man at the stern, both wearing white polo shirt and shorts with blue trim, the boat began to rotate on its axis. As its stern swung past their view the name of the boat, Andi's Dream, could be seen. "I think that's our ride," said Kim-ly in awe.

Don was in shock, this was the boat that Grandpa/Grandma Noah told him about, this was the toy boat he held in that dream. He looked up at the flying bridge, three stories up and saw Andi smiling down on them. She was clearly driving. When the boat completed its 180-degree rotation using its thrusters, it started moving sideways and eased gently into the dock, bumping into the fenders that the young couple set out. The young guy hopped to the dock and he and the girl tied off the boat fore and aft then opened a door on the aft, port side of the boat. Andi rushed down from the bridge, appeared on what looked like the second story, zipped down a small flight of stairs onto the deck and out on the dock. The little dishwater blond was definitely Don's former pulmonologist who became very good friends with them in Colorado.

Lanh and Andi dashed into each other's arms, and it seemed like their conversation picked up exactly where it left off so long ago. Lanh led Andi to their dockside table where Don and Kim-ly rose and greeted Andi. "It's so good to see you Doctor Roberts," said Don, "I hope I'm not the one that chased you out of practice."

"No, I had my own reasons," she laughed as she hugged Kim-ly. Don introduced Andi to Annie and Tiên

As he gave Annie a goodbye hug Don said, "We'll see you in a few days, don't eat up all the frog legs before we get back."

"I'll be ok," she whispered as she kissed Don's cheek. "We need you to be ok too."

With a sad wave goodbye Don stepped aboard Andi's Dream and from above a voice called out "Cast off all lines fore and aft." The young man unwrapped the fore lines from the dock cleats, then as the young woman coiled up the forward lines the young man ran to the stern, released the stern lines then hopped on board. Once the fenders were stowed the yacht moved sideways away from the dock and headed out of the marina. When Andi turned to Don, she found a very despondent man and a weeping wife while Kim-ly hugged them both.

"What's wrong?" Andi asked quietly as the yacht purred out of the Marina.

"They lost a friend," said Kim-ly quietly. "They just found out. The Viet on the dock was his widow."

"I'm sorry," said Don. "It's just... he didn't want to tell us he was sick..."

"Or stuck in a tree," muttered Lanh into Don's side.

"...not with all of our troubles," Don finished.

"Take your time," Andi said as she placed a hand on Don and Lanh's shoulders.

Finally, Lanh's tears began to dry, and she turned to Andi and said, "I'm sorry, you set up this nice vacation for us and we..."

"Hush! This is exactly why we set up this vacation for you. To let out the sad and get back to living." Andi smiled and said, "For the past four or five years you guys have lived a nightmare. It's time to unwind!" She turned to Kim-ly and said, "I want to see the baby!" Kim-ly grinned and pulled out her phone and began showing pictures as did Lanh. "He's so cute!" Andi practically squealed. "He's adorable!" then she saw a picture of Danh and Krissy snuggled up with Karole in her wheelchair. "Awww, they're beautiful, she really looks like her mom." She handed her phone back to Kim-ly and said, "he's precious... can I ask who his father is?"

"Yes," was all Kim-ly said.

"The last time I saw you, you were pregnant, and you wouldn't tell me then..." Then she realized that Kim-ly was being a smart-ass. "Ok, I'll play your silly little game, who is your baby's father?" Andi wasn't ready for the smiles and the rolling eyes and Lanh and Kim-ly's heads jerking in Don's direction. "Don?" she gasped.

"What I do?" said Don who wasn't paying attention, he was watching the sailboats in the Beverly Beach marina slip by.

"You knocked up your sister-in-law?" hissed the feisty little doctor.

"Huh? Oh, that. Yeah, I sure did," said Don. Don firmly believes that the best lie is the truth told unconvincingly.

Andi laughed and said, "Ok if you don't want to tell me, then fine. Let's look at my boat." She indicated the young couple behind Don and said "Giggles here is our chef and head engineer, Yi-jin Carlson, and chuckles is Kenny Johnson. He's our deckhand, assistant engineer, and Yi's gofer."

Yi-jin was a tall slim Asian girl, she wore her black hair down and it was streaked with blond. Lanh reached out to shake her hand and said, "Bạn là người Việt Nam hả?" (Are you Vietnamese?)

"Huh?" asked a startled Yi.

"Oh... um... hangug salam-ieyo?" (Are you Korean?)

"Oh, yes. On my mother's side. How many languages do you speak?" asked Yi.

"She can order drinks in eight different languages," said Kim-ly, obviously in awe of her sister's super-power.

"Just English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. I just exhausted my entire Korean vocabulary, and my Spanish isn't much better," said Lanh laughing.

Andi continued her introduction, "Yi-jin is a Culinary Institute trained chef and grew up working cruise yachts like this one until I hired her as our executive chef and governess." She then turned to Kenny. "Kensington here is an Army veteran and when he's not helping Yi wash dishes, he runs his dad's feed store in Springville, NY." She turned to her employees and said, "Yi, Kenny, this is Don and Lanh Campbell and Kim-ly Nguyen. We'll have a chance to catch up this evening, but they live on a dairy farm in Grant Valley Minnesota."

Immediately Don, Kenny, Lanh and Kim-ly fell into a conversation about feeding dairy cattle until Yi excused herself and ran up to the galley to finish breakfast. As Kenny was explaining a new cattle feed they had been selling, he stopped talking and looked surprised. "Yi needs my help, gotta go," and he headed up to the Galley.

"Something I said?" asked Don.

"No, he's been like that since he started dating Yi," said Andi. "Ok, this lower section at the stern, this is the cockpit, this is where we do the fishing and swimming." She opened the stern door and pointed down, "There's an extending swimming platform for when we want to swim." She smiled and said, "there's no need for a swimsuit if you don't want to wear one, we're all adults here."

"That's what I'm talking about!" cried Kim-ly and she started to peel off her t-shirt. Lanh was about to yell when she saw that Kim-ly was wearing a bikini top under her t-shirt.

Andi showed off the bait wells in the gunnels and the catch wells in the floor, the electric grill for cooking on one side of the stairs leading up to the mezzanine, a fish cleaning station on the other side of the stairs. She led them up to the mezzanine, a covered outdoor dining area just aft of the galley. The mezzanine was surrounded by couches and had two tables and a counter on the side adjacent to the galley. "This is where we spend most of our time and have most of our meals, a nice, shaded comfortable dining area with tap beer." She indicated a beer tap on the side counter.

Kim-ly gazed at the beer tap and said, "You guys go on without me, I'll catch up."

Lanh dragged her sister forward where they found the U-shaped galley where Yi and Kenny were working. They took great interest in the facilities there until Yi asked, "Can I help you?"

"My mom and dad own a restaurant; Lanh and I grew up working in the kitchen and I taught Don how to cook!" said Kim-ly.

"Her dad taught me," whispered Don. "He figured if I was going to graduate it would be with a D minus, so I was going to need some kind of skill."

"Stop it." Lanh gave Don a pointy little elbow in the ribs eliciting a yelp of pain. "Did I get the ones you broke?"

"Yes," wheezed Don.

"Good! You deserve it," and she stuck her tongue out at him.

Continuing with the tour, Andi showed them the saloon ahead of the Galley, a huge living room with couches and tables to easily seat a dozen people, windows all the way around. "This is where we have meals when the weather is bad, the coffee tables adjust height for comfortable dining, and if we can't get back to port to drop off guests, the couches and tables combine to beds where we can easily sleep over half a dozen folks here.

There was a door on the port side that opened to a side deck that led to the fore deck. From the saloon a small stairway led below deck to the cabins. "There's four cabins here," and Andi pointed them all out, "port, bow, and starboard cabins. Here's the main cabin. Kenny put all of your bags here, is... that... right?" Andi's tour guide skills faltered as she entered uncharted territory.

"Doctor Roberts, I suppose you ought to know..." Don put an arm around Kim-ly while he held Lanh tight. "Sixteen years ago, two high school rejects met, and we haven't let go since. I got busted up, then Lanh got busted up, but at the same time Kim-ly got busted up on the inside. She needs us and we need her. So, this is us, Lanh and I are married, and Kim-ly is part of our union now. If it's something you can't handle, we will understand, and you can let us out anywhere you want. This is your boat and we'll be ok with your decision."

"It's ok," said Andi, "that's why you're here. You saw me and the twins in Denver, we had nothing, we were barely scraping by, how do you raise a child when you're crying yourself to sleep every night? But Paul rescued us, and we rescued him just as you guys rescued each other. We have the same thing going."

"Thank you," said Lanh softly as Andi turned to leave.

"Oh, and breakfast is in ten minutes up on the bridge, we'll talk some more. Yi or Kenny can show you the way," and the smiling young doctor left them to explore their cabin.

Andi and Lanh started putting clothing away as Don changed into a swimming suit and a T-shirt. "You're getting ready to hit the water already?" Lanh asked. Don came up behind her and unbuttoned her blouse and unsnapped her front closure bra. As he nibbled on her highly sensitive ear lobes Don cupped her firm little breasts as she groaned, "What are you doing?" She leaned back against her husband and made no move to push his hands away.

Kim-ly hopped on the bed and leaned in and suckled on Lanh's nipples, first one then the other as Don held Lanh and untangled her blouse and bra from her arms then Kim-ly pulled a tube top on her as he nibbled on her neck. "What are you doing to me?" Lanh's voice shivered with excitement as Kim-ly and Don touched her gently in her most tender places over and over... now her slacks and panties were being pushed down, someone's fingers were gently sliding between her nether lips driving her out of her mind.

"Ok," whispered Don, "up we go!" and he cupped her pussy with one hand, wrapped the other arm around her chest and lifted her up allowing Kim-ly to slip a tiny pair of shorts over her feet and slide them up her legs.

"Annnnnd, we're dressed!" cried Kim-ly. "Let's go eat."

"Wait... what! I'm not wearing anything!" cried Lanh. The shorts and top fit perfectly but were so lightweight they were nearly see-through. Her nipples pressed against the fabric of her top and Don's fingertips tracing over them softly only made them harder sending jolts of pleasure through her. "I've never done this before," she whispered.

Don held her close, her back against his chest as they looked into the full-length mirror. "You look so sexy," he whispered, "so hot."

"Come on," said Kim-ly, as she ran her hands down Lanh's sides, "you look awesome," but the terrified look on Lanh's face said it all. "Here," and Kim-ly handed Lanh a gossamer white zip-up hoodie. It was as insubstantial as her tank top, but it was an added layer and it made Lanh happy so as Lanh put on her light hoodie they stepped out of the main cabin and realized they were lost.

"Now where do we go?" asked Lanh.

"Up," said Kim-ly and she led them up the stairs to the Mezzanine where Yi and Kenny were just stepping out of the galley with trays covered with baked goods and coffee pots and cups. Acting like she knew exactly where she was going, Kim-ly spotted a staircase behind the galley heading upstairs. She led Don and Lanh up the stairs where they found themselves on the beautiful flying bridge.

"There you are!" cried Andi and she greeted her three guests to the bridge. The bridge was a fully enclosed lounge with a couch along the starboard side, on the port side was the pilot station. There were two large, comfortable, captain's chairs facing a dashboard that was covered with displays. There was a large steering wheel, dual throttles, and a joystick for controlling the thrusters. The bridge was surrounded by windows giving the captain an amazing view. The rear of the bridge featured an open dining area above the mezzanine.

"Welcome!" said a tall man as he rose from the captain's chair. He was easily six foot five inches tall, and he towered over Andi. He had black hair and a distinct hawk shaped nose, narrow set gray eyes and a gentle smile.

"Don, Lanh, Kim-ly, this is Paul Jarecki, my husband and father of Daniel Robert Jarecki."

"Who's that?" asked Lanh while she shook Paul's hand. Andi showed Lanh a picture of herself holding a newborn baby. "He's beautiful!" she cried.

"Wait!" cried Kim-ly as she grabbed the photo away from Lanh. "All this time that we're worried you got kidnapped by aliens or crashed in the mountains in Ecuador, you were busy getting knocked up on a yacht?"

"Ummm... yeah," said Andi in a tiny voice. "Actually, in the main cabin."

Don chuckled as he hugged Andi then turned to Paul and shook his hand. "So, what do you do besides drive yachts and knock up tiny pulmonologists?"

Paul choked down a laugh, he hasn't been questioned like that in a long time. "To start, the yacht is all Andi's. Her ex was..." he searched for a word and finally settled on abusive. "Yeah, abusive is the best word to use, I guess. He wanted this yacht and used Andi to get it, then dumped her, I figured out a way to transfer ownership to Andi. As for me, I'm a cardiologist, semi-retired from medicine."

"Nice," grinned Don, "I'd be spending my semi-retirement on this floating palace."

"Oh, I'm not retired," said Paul. "I cut back on medicine so I could concentrate on Jarecki Motors." He led Don out to the open-air dining area directly above the mezzanine and they sat watching the shore fade into the distance. "My dad left me and my brother a couple of Ford dealerships in Western New York. I took some business courses at the local college and tried my hand in business when he died."

"How did that work out?" asked Don, as the girls joined them.

"They're up to fourteen dealerships in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and New Hampshire," said Andi as she hugged Paul. "He had nine dealerships and was working at the VA hospital when we met. I asked him to slow down so he cut his time at the hospital and bought five more dealerships." Her eyerolling expression clearly said, "Just like a man."

"I can't help it," said Paul. "My brother and his wife are pastors, so people tend to think that I'm honest too and the deals just fall into place."

Don chuckled then asked, "how did you steal my doctor?"

"I found her stuck in a snow drift," said Paul.

"He did!" agreed Andi as Yi and Kenny set out breakfast which consisted of fresh fruit, several kinds of baked goods, coffee and juice, then Yi and Kenny sat down and joined them. "I flew into Buffalo to meet up with a friend, we were going to spend Christmas in Toronto but before we could meet a snowstorm struck..."

"In Buffalo?" asked Kim-ly, "who woulda guessed... ow!"

"Did I bump you? I'm sorry," said Don whose elbow connected with Kim-ly. "Could you pass the butter?"

"You don't get snowstorms in Minnesota?" asked Yi.

"We were in the middle of a three day long subzero blizzard when Andi called," said Don.

Lanh's eyes were wide open in shock at the memory. "I have never seen anything like it from Don, he was like "Cruise a yacht in Florida? Give me some time to think about itYES!" He never decides anything that quickly!"

"We, we lost three cows," muttered Don.

"Three cows? Uff da!" said Kenny.

"You know uff da?" said a shocked Kim-ly.

"My Aunt Lacy and Uncle Torvold Johnson live in Becida," said Kenny. "I'd spend my summers with them, and we would go camping at Lake Itaska."

"That's near us!" said Lanh. "Do you know why it's called Becida?" Before Kenny could respond, Lanh, Kim-ly, and Don all recited, "Because it's beside-a Alida!" Their high school cheer was met with stunned silence.

"It's actually funny if you know where Alida is," said Don.

Kenny chuckled and said, "You're right, it is."

A few moments later Yi said, "Is it really about 20 miles east of Alida?"

"Yeah, you've been there?" Lanh asked.

Yi looked at Kenny nervously then said, "No," in a quiet voice.

"I've told her about the area," said Kenny. "I've spent summers on their farm." He smiled as he reveled in his mind the summers they spent there. "The fishing was incredible." Yi smiled and nodded.

"Speaking of fishing, we have guide licenses," said Paul as he got up to man the aft helm there on the port side of the flying bridge rear deck, "Kenny, you could teach Doctor Campbell a few ocean fishing skills before we head out to Nisi Arcadia? We'll be holding station in three hours."

"Aye-aye sir" said Kenny as he started clearing the table.

"What is the plan, Cap'n?" asked Kim-ly as she watched Paul advance the throttles.

Lanh leaned over to Don and said, "ten bucks says she is going to beg Paul to drive before this cruise is over."

"No way," replied Don, "that's a sucker bet." As Kim-ly got up to get a close look at the helm station that Paul was standing at, Don pulled her down in his lap. Giggling and fighting Kim-ly tried to get up but Don held her tight and as they fought one breast became exposed. She whooped and laughed as Don held her tight and Lanh tickled her sister.

When their tussling ended Andi said, "Ok, after breakfast cleanup, Yi and Kenny are going to stay up here with Paul and I, and you three get the run of the cockpit, mezzanine, and cabins as we head to Cape Canaveral. All we ask is that you stay out of the engine room."

"I never asked," said Don. "What's the itinerary for this trip?"

Paul made a few settings on the helm then stepped over to their table. "We're going to pause for a while at Cape Canaveral, do a little fishing, then a nice easy cruise down the inland waterway to Jupiter Florida where we will tie up for dinner, then we will head out to Nisi Arcadia, an island owned by some friends of ours."

"And then?" asked Don.

"That's up to you," grinned Paul as he headed toward the main helm controls.

The trio helped Yi and Kenny clean up from breakfast and as they washed up the breakfast plates Kenny said, "you don't have to help, you guys are guests."

Don just smiled and dried a dish, put it away and said, "Andi said that this is your vacation too, so you are guests also. We're restauranteurs, this is what we do."

"Thank you for the help," said Kenny as they finished up. Then quietly he said, "is it true that your son is a test-tube baby?"

"Yes, but... how would you know that? I know Lanh and I haven't told anyone and Kim-ly only told Yi a few minutes ago while we straightened up the saloon and she's been upstairs ever since."

Kenny looked like he was fighting an internal battle then he tugged on a chain that was around his neck and pulled it out from under his t-shirt to show the gem on the chain, a perfect black pearl. Both Kim-ly and Lanh gathered close to look at it, Lanh even reached out to touch it but Kim-ly asked, "is that from a dragon?" and Kenny said, "Yes," Lanh withdrew her hand quickly, as if the pearl was radioactive.

As if called for, Yi came back down from the flybridge and grabbed several wine glasses but without a word she stepped up to Kim-ly and Lanh, swept her hair back and showed Kim-ly and Lanh her black pearl earrings. "Did you get them from a dragon?" Lanh asked.

"Don't be silly, I got them from Kenny. He got them from a dragon." Then she gave a smile that said, "If you don't believe the legend then I'm kidding." She put down the glasses and told them, "We're far from shore and there's no kids aboard..." Yi reached behind her and unclipped her bikini top, and it slid down her arms exposing her small, perfect breasts and permanently erect nipples. Lanh noticed that her dark pink nipples were pierced, and she was wearing studs in her nipples, each end of both studs had a tiny black pearl. Lanh reached out to touch one of the studs but Kim-ly pulled her hand back with a wordless reprimand.

Kenny too was as startled as Don was by Lanh and Kim-ly's reaction to the black pearls, especially when the sisters asked if the pearls were from a dragon. They were from the great golden dragon Guoxin and Yi's reply that they were from a dragon appears to mean something to all three girls even though they come from different cultures. Yi silently told him that their cultures have shared beliefs about the dragons and the black pearls. Both cultures know that touching a black pearl that was a gift of a dragon to somebody else was incredibly bad luck, the worst kind. Kenny decided that he was going to have to mention this the next time he spoke with Guoxin.

Yi stepped behind Lanh and Kim-ly and said, "loosen up and enjoy the ride." She took off Kim-ly's bikini top and said, "You have three hours to get your freak on, have some fun!" She handed Kim-ly's bikini top to Lanh then, as promised, Yi and Kenny grabbed a couple bottles of wine and four glasses and headed upstairs.

Don took his T-shirt and swimsuit off then stepped down to the cockpit, opened a folding lounger and laid out in the sun. "Come on, let's join him," said Kim-ly and she pulled off Lanh's hoodie and top. Lanh was no stranger to sunning in the nude, in the past she had been the instigator of several skinny-dipping sessions with her sisters and with Don, but that was at their pond on familiar ground when she knew there was no one else around. Here were friends and acquaintances just a few feet above them! Her hands moved to stop Kim-ly but Lanh found that as she was making up excuses, her sister had completely stripped her and was leading her down the five steps to the cockpit.

Don lay in the sun, enjoying the warm rays on his skin completely ignoring a bottle of sun block that was in a gunnel pocket near him. "Lover, you need to start putting this on," said Lanh as she slathered lotion on Don's skin. "Second degree sunburn can happen quickly down here."

"Stand up!" ordered Kim-ly and reluctantly Don rose from the lounger and the girls spread lotion over him, front and back paying a lot of attention to his cock and balls. In return he helped coat Lanh then Kim-ly with sunblock. The warm, humid breeze felt so good on their exposed skin. As their hands traveled over each other's bodies the sensations evolved from playful to tender, loving caresses. Don found his hands filled with Kim-ly and Lanh's breasts, while their sunblock coated hands slipped and slithered over his cock and balls. By silent agreement Don and his lovers walked naked back up to the mezzanine and forward to their cabin.

His cock was so hard it ached. It had been a while since he had properly made love to Lanh and he was too tenderhearted to try with her injuries, a single wince in pain on her part was a mood killer on his part. Lanh was leading Don by the cock, which was not unusual, it was something she would do when they were alone, but now with Kim-ly here, everything was new.

They lay down on the big queen size bed, Lanh and Kim-ly's hands and lips explored every inch of Don's body. Don pulled his tiny wife on top of him, her delectable pussy pressing against his mouth. He began strumming his tongue over her clit and labia, his nose rubbing against her wet pussy, and he was cheered on by her sighs of pleasure. His hands caressed her tiny ass while she licked and stroked his cock. Lanh was terrified to properly blow Don during a 69, early in their courtship, at the peak of excitement, she bit down on him and caused considerable pain but no damage.

Now Lanh's familiar little gasps of pleasure that signal an approaching orgasm, she arched her hips downward, pressing her pussy against his mouth. He squeezed her cute little ass cheeks in time with her cries and suddenly she cried out, her entire body shuddering as she gasped and squeaked her cries of pleasure until it became too much, and she rolled off of Don.

Kim-ly and Don cuddled with Lanh as she returned from heaven, her gasps and pants slowed and her eyes opened and finally she gasped, "wow!"

"It was that good?" asked Kim-ly. Lanh could only nod her head and smile weakly. "I want some!" Kim-ly grinned and she dove for Don and pinned him down on the mattress. She lowered her mouth to his, it started out playful, but their kiss became passionate. As their tongues entwined, Kim-ly held on to Don tight and rolled him over and now he was on top and she held him tight, terrified that he would pull away.

As their kiss ended Don and Kim-ly studied each other's eyes, both saw a mixture of passion and confusion. He started to rise up to get away when a hand grabbed his cock. "It's ok," whispered Lanh as her saliva slickened hand reached around Don's cock and covered his length with a layer of saliva. Lanh lined his cock up with Kim-ly's pussy then whispered, "love my Kim-ly."

Don once promised Lanh years ago that he would never say no to her in bed, even if she asked him to stop at the most inopportune time (which happens), or if she asked him to be kinky (which happens also), or if she asked him to fuck her sister (which he thought would never happen, so it was easy to agree to.) For the first time in his life Don's cock began to enter a pussy that was not his wife's.

He shuddered as Kim-ly's pussy spread open for his cock, and Lanh's hand stayed on his cock all the way in. Kim-ly was very hot, very wet, and very different than Lanh. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and held on tight, so tight that Don could barely move. "You're in me," she gasped, "you're really in me!" then she started kissing him. Her tongue slid into his mouth and swirled around, wrapping itself around his tongue. So different, so foreign, yet too, very similar to his love, Lanh. Kim-ly broke the kiss and turned to face Lanh whose lips were touching her cheeks gently.

"We're here for you now," said Lanh as she kissed Kim-ly's tears away.

Kim-ly loosened her grip and gave Don more freedom to move. His ass began to rise and lower, his cock slid deeply in her delicious cunt, and he began fucking more enthusiastically with Lanh's encouragement. As he fucked his willing sister-in-law, Lanh and Kim-ly were kissing and Kim-ly loosened her grip on Don. "Now baby, now!" gasped Lanh as Don fucked Kim-ly faster eliciting a smile and a happy groan from Kim-ly.

"Oh god, give it to me," Kim-ly sighed as his thick cock pummeled her willing pussy.

Lanh's hand cupped Don's balls and she hissed, "do it like you do me." Don gave Kim-ly a stronger stroke but Kim-ly pushed him up.

"No... too much..." gasped Kim-ly, but it set off an orgasm that she couldn't hold back. Her fingers clawed Don's back, her heels dug into his ass. Her gasps and cries started to set Don off and before they knew it, he was climbing to an orgasm too. He desperately tried to hold back and that made his climb to release assured and before he knew it, he was cumming in Kim-ly. They both cried out as wave after wave of pleasure washed over them, Don hugged Lanh and Kim-ly close.

As Don's orgasm retreated and his cock softened and slipped out of Kim-ly he realized that Kim-ly was frowning. "Baby, it's ok... Kim?" Suddenly Kim-ly burst into torrents of tears, howling in soul wrenching pain. "I'm sorry baby, I didn't realize..." Lanh stopped him as Kim-ly wailed and cried, holding Lanh and Don close and tight.

Finally, Kim-ly started to articulate her agony and with heartbreaking sorrow she wailed, "I was so lonely!"

Kim-ly spent years alone in the apartment that Don built for Lanh. Years spent alone, waiting for them to come back, hoping, and praying they'd be back soon and every time she'd get her hopes up that they would return, Don would reenlist, and they would go somewhere else leaving Kim-ly horribly alone, laying in the dark. Her family was gone, her twin brother Bao in a happy, feisty marriage with that joyful nutcase Rosa, Tam was finally smiling again, and she was happy teaching at the university and caring for her blind husband and her three boys, Huy and Ahnjong were in very lucrative law practices with an adorable pair of twins and Trung was gone with his big busty blond. Even her folks had no time for her. Kim-ly's world revolved around Don and Lanh's cows on Don and Lanh's farm and managing Don and Lanh's finances all without Don and Lanh.

"I'm so sorry!" whispered Don, "I didn't know." Kim-ly's wailing was even louder, her sorrow was breaking his heart. "We would have come right home if we knew you needed us."

"We're here for you now Kim-ly, and we're not going anywhere," said Lanh as she tried to kiss Kim-ly's tears away.

"Not without you, never again," said Don softly in her ear. They huddled together for a long time until Kim-ly's weeping subsided. "We're family now, you, Lanh, Danh, and me, and we're never going to leave you alone."

"Never?" Kim-ly asked in a tiny, choked voice.

"Never," said Lanh. "We need you..." she gave Kim-ly a kiss then a smile and said, "You're ours now."

Not long later, Andi, Yi, and Kenny came downstairs to start preparing lunch and they found Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly in the cockpit area relaxing on loungers pushed close together. Don, in the center, was facing aft, Kim-ly and Lanh on either side of him were facing forward. The early afternoon sun was warm, and the ocean breeze was delightful. Kim-ly groaned in happy agony, it's been ages since her pussy was stretched out like that, even though Lanh said that Don went easy on her. She was looking forward to later in the trip when they planned on giving Kim-ly a proper welcome to the "Campbell Family."

Andi and Yi were wearing sarongs, and both were topless. "Sexeeee!" said Kim-ly when she looked up from her book. Yi was slim and athletic with small, firm breasts that rode high on her chest and had tiny areola that were barely bigger around than her nipples, and a waist and hips that were roughly the same size. Andi on the other hand was short with a beautiful hourglass figure, large, round breasts with large pink areola and nipples that are barely noticeable until she is excited, a tiny waist, and wide, round hips with a beautiful round ass.

"You like?" asked Andi as she swayed her hips, then she quickly added, "I mean the sarong, you like?"

"I love it," said Lanh. She really did love it, but it wasn't practical.

"Good, we're going shopping as soon as we get to Jupiter. Now come on, I want to show you something." Andi and Yi led the Campbells along the narrow side decks outside the mezzanine and saloon to the foredeck which earlier was carrying a small zodiac inflatable boat. The Davic crane had lifted the zodiac and it was now hanging over the edge of the port bow and the foredeck had several comfortable couches that previously were holding the zodiac. Paul and Kenny met them on the foredeck, and they all sat down with some very nice wines. Paul asked, "What wines do you prefer?"

"Lanh and Kim-ly are the big wine drinkers here, but we prefer any Mosel wine only because we were stationed in the Mosel region and drank that exclusively," said Don.

"That is if Kim-ly left us some," said Lanh which earned her an elbow from her sister.

Andi asked Don what he referred to, and Don said, "Kim-ly came to visit us several times when we were stationed at Spangdahlem, and she developed a taste for Mosel wines."

"Anything in a blue bottle," said Kim-ly indicating the blue bottle that vintners in the Mosel region of Germany use for their Reisling wines.

Kenny was studying a tablet and he showed it to Yi who said, "you're right! Everybody, look west, straight off our bow."

"He's right? He didn't say anything," muttered Kim-ly as she looked west with everyone else. Far off in the distance there was a possibility of land and soon a large white cloud started growing from the land, a bright light pierced that cloud then started lifting up through the cloud and soon it could be seen, a bright flame was now heading upwards, and it was creating that cloud. It was miles away, and according to Yi it was a SpaceX Falcon 9 SuperHeavy rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral. As the tongue of flame lifted into the sky it was high up and accelerating before the roar of the dozens of Raptor engines finally reached their ears from miles away. They could feel the roar of those engines as the air around them vibrated with the fury of those rockets.

They watched, amazed, as far above they could see the side boosters separate from the main stage then a misty umbrella appeared above them as they started their return burn. Don lost sight of them as the boosters fell from the sky, but as they neared their landing back at the cape their engines fired up one more time, slowing the huge boosters down for landing. From miles away it was hard to discern exactly what was happening, but apparently the boosters landed successfully.

"That was totally cool!" said Don. "Does that happen a lot?"

"It's getting to be more and more regular," said Paul. "About every five days there's a launch and that's just here. SpaceX launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base, they have their own facility in Texas, and there's another spaceport that opened up just across the Georgia border, Camden Spaceport. They're planning on doing about 12 launches a year up there."

As they secured the zodiac back on the foredeck, Kim-ly asked, "Where to now?"

Andi grinned, "after lunch, we're going to Jupiter, of course."

Lunch was Ruben sandwiches, something the Campbells had never tried. They've heard of them, they know what goes into a Ruben, but they have never had one. Andi was shocked, and Don said, "when we traveled, we tended to eat local cuisine so we could get a taste for the area. We've never been to New York and Ruben sandwiches don't appear on many rural Minnesota menus."

"New York is just one possible origin of the Rubin," said Yi. "I subscribe to the rumor that it was invented in Omaha, Nebraska." She served the sandwiches, and they were huge, thick grilled Jewish rye bread piled high with thin sliced corned beef covered with melted Swiss cheese, tart sauerkraut, and creamy Russian dressing.

Kim-ly looked at the mountain in front of her and said, "I would be happy with half a sandwich."

"That is half of a sandwich," said Yi, "Your sister got the other half." Kim-ly looked at her tiny sister who was joyfully eyeing up her sandwich half with a look of unbridled voraciousness. For being such a tiny woman, when she's hungry Lanh can pack away a good-sized meal, and Lanh tore into that sandwich like a lioness on a wounded gazelle.

"Honey, relax," chuckled Don. "There's plenty to go around."

"Can't help it," said Lanh around a mouthful of Ruben, "it's so good!" The salty, almost ham-like quality of the corned beef, the zesty rye bread, the tangy sauerkraut, the smooth Swiss cheese, and the creamy dressing all combined to a mouthful of flavor that transported Lanh to a crowded deli in Times Square. She ended up finishing her meal and she had portions from Kim-ly and Don's lunch also and made a note to herself to talk to Rosa about a Ruben bánh mì at her parent's restaurant.

As they ate, the girls passed around baby pictures of their children, there were many pictures of Danh and Krissy, and Grandma Nguyen sends dozens of pictures of Danh "helping" at the restaurant every day. In return Andi shows pictures of her twin girls Sandy and Madoline and her son Danny, who is four months older than Danh.

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The dash to Jupiter started the moment dishes from lunch were washed and put away and all passengers were safely seated up on the flying bridge. Don took a seat next to Andi who was in the captain's chair. She explained the different screens and controls and she described the settings she planned to keep her eyes on. When she had her course laid into the navigation system and she was confident that the radar was clear she slowly eased the throttles forward.

The twin MAN diesel engines gradually came to life as Andi's Dream clove smoothly through the calm sea. The gyro stabilizer was barely utilized, and Lanh's feared sea sickness never even raised its ugly head. As Andi piloted the big, beautiful boat south she turned to Don and asked, "You look like you have something on your mind, what is it?" When Don deferred, she tried again, "I can put on my doctor hat and promise no judgement."

"If you had said that two years ago..."

"I DID say that. I say it during my initial evaluation with every patient," insisted Andi.

"No, it's not the same."

"How? Tell me, how is it not the same?"

Don took a deep breath; how do you say this to the Doctor that probably saved your life? He tried straight up. "I used to think that you had the most awesome breasts I could possibly imagine... now I know I was right."

Andi turned sideways in her seat and took a deep breath to show off her magnificent breasts, wide based, beautifully rounded, dark pink areola, and erect nipples. She started chuckling and said, "Kim-ly was right, you are a dick."

Don pointed toward the bow and said, "Keep your eye on the sea when you're driving."

Andi put her hand on Don's arm and used her concerned voice, it wasn't her concerned doctor voice, it was her concerned mom voice. "What is bothering you? Tell me, what is in your heart that hurts so bad?"

Don looked back to where Lanh and Kim-ly were sitting, back in the open-air area of the flybridge where they talked with Yi, Kenny, and Paul. With the rushing wind and the thrum of the powerful MAN engines they were out of earshot. "I almost ruined Kim-ly. I could have killed her... I didn't know she was so lost and alone. When we re-enlisted it got worse, when we went to Korea she went into a deep depression. When I got injured in Saudi Arabia, she was inconsolable. I think Danh exists to keep his mom alive, she would have a little piece of me, he appeared when we moved to Colorado, and she was emotionally shattered. We were home, she was happy, and then we left again." Don was actually near tears.

"Ok, enough," said Andi in her stern mom voice. "It's not your fault, you were living your life. If you had come home, you would have avoided a lot of injury, but you also would have avoided your education. You need to get her help, and if that breaks up what you have now... at least she'll be healthy." Don and Andi spoke for a long time on Kim-ly's mental health, and Andi convinced Don to speak to Kim-ly about seeing a psychologist.

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Dinner at the Jupiter Yacht Club was incredible. While Andi's Dream was docked yards away, Paul and Andi took everyone to dinner at the Yacht Club restaurant. At first glance it looked like a place that would require tuxedo and gown just to be seated but Paul told them, "This is Florida, a shirt with a collar would be considered high fashion after traveling from the First Coast to the Treasure Coast. Polo shirts, shorts, and deck shoes will be fine. The only polo shirt that Don brought had his ham radio call sign embroidered above the pocket. "Nice!" said Paul and shook Don's hand, "I'm KX2OBJ. We'll have something to talk about at dinner."

"Lanh and Kim-ly have their ticket also," said Don. "We insisted that everyone try while Karole was healing, I wanted everyone on the air before we traveled back to Minnesota, and they did it."

"Good for you, Andi doesn't have an interest in the hobby, but she doesn't mind that I spend a lot of time on the air."

Don and Paul sat at their table trying to convince Kenny to get his ham license while they wait for the girls to arrive. First on their agenda after docking Andi's dream was to go shopping. Eventually they swept into the yacht club dining room, all four women were wearing Hawaiian print sarongs with matching bikini tops. Lanh looked nervous, she would never wear something this daring in public, but she and Kim-ly wore almost identical sarongs, the hibiscus print was identical, the primary color on each was different.

The maître d' recognized Andi and Yi, but he clearly didn't think much of the Nguyen girls even though they were dressed similarly to Andi. Paul, Don, and Kenny rose as the girls approached and Paul said, "Doctor Campbell, would you like to introduce your guests to Rene?"

Don grinned, he wanted this. "Most assuredly, Doctor Jarecki. Rene, let me introduce our guests, this is Doctor Nguyen Hong Lanh, and this is Nguyen Minh Kim-ly, she is Doctor Nguyen's accountant."

The maître d' looked a little surprised and said, "you travel with your accountant?"

"Hãy để anh ấy yên," (leave him alone) begged Lanh.

"Anh ấy yêu cầu nó" (he asked for it) said Don and he kissed Lanh and Kim-ly then said in a snotty, faux surprised voice and said, "You don't?" The maître d' slunk back to his station as Andi and Paul laughed in approval. After settling in and ordering Don asked, "Where is this little cruise heading?"

"Nisi Arcadia," said Paul as he poured the wine. He made sure that tonight the wines were from the Mosel region of Germany.

"Isn't Arcadia the homeland of Pan, the Greek god of debauchery?" asked Kim-ly. Leave it to Kim-ly to know about everything to do with debauchery.

"Well... he's the Greek god of nymphs, satyrs, proto jazz music... and debauchery," said Andi. "A friend of ours owns the island and we're going to dock there and spend a few days being beach bums before sending you back to the Minnesota winter."

"And operation Sue Lin!" said Lanh happily.

"I still don't know about that," Don said softly. It's been ten years since that bastard, Captain Ismail, callously informed Lanh that a case of endometriosis had left her sterile. It was horrible the way that bastard told them on Christmas Eve so he could go on vacation. "Sorry kids, all your hopes and dreams are gone, the child you had been praying for and dreaming of for the past six years will never happen. Merry Christmas now get out of here."

It gave Don no pleasure in knowing that he played a part in getting that man's military career ended, he was sure that the heartless bastard was doing just fine in his civilian career with an education paid for by the young airmen he treated so callously. Right now, Don was just worried that Operation Sue Lin, as the girls called it, would raise bad memories, and leave him with an emotionally shattered wife again.

"Operation Sue Lin is how we will get our baby," said Lanh cheerily. She sipped her wine and smiled, "This is good!"

"It's a delicious kabinette," said Yi.

"Not this wine," said Kim-ly. "It's definitely prädikatswein, I think it's a spätlese if anything." An impressed Paul showed Yi and Kim-ly the label, it was definitely a spätlese. "I drank enough, I should know," said Kim-ly.

"Yes, you did," said Don and Lanh in unison.

"What is operation Sue Lin?" asked Andi.

"Because Lanh's endometriosis affected her ovum," said Kim-ly, "we're going to take one of mine, mix it with Don's contribution, and plant it in Lanh."

"If it's a girl we're going to name her after Sue Lin," said Lanh.

"Who is Sue Lin?" asked Kenny.

"It's the name of the baby we lost..." said Don and his throat tightened up. He couldn't believe how much it still hurt. Before anyone asked, Don finished it for them. "After Lanh was diagnosed with endometriosis, we tried to adopt a baby, it took years and almost every free dime we had. We were finally approved for a darling little Thai girl, her name was Sue Lin. We were going to get her on Christmas eve, it would have been four years ago this past Christmas..." He looked around the table and everybody was hanging on his next words. "I got injured and because of that we couldn't get Sue Lin."

Seeing the distress in Don's eyes Lanh called a halt to it. "No more, not right now. Let's be happy tonight."

Andi was sure this was the story of how he got the pulmonary emboli that is causing him so many vascular difficulties. She wanted to hear more about it and Operation Sue Lin, but Don is really suffering from emotional distress right now. "I agree. Let's eat, drink, and be merry. We have a busy morning ahead of us!"

Andi, Paul, Kenny, and Yi raised their wine glasses and said, "Hear hear!"

Dinner was delightful, the Minnesota trio had as much seafood as they could endure, Kim-ly had huge shrimp stuffed with crab meat and covered with lobster sauce, Don had the lobster pie, huge chunks of lobster topped with a cracker crumb stuffing drenched in sherry and melted butter, and Lanh had shrimp scampi with linguini and lobster meat. The three wordlessly picked off each other's dishes, in fact they passed each other's dishes back and forth as they mixed their main courses.

After dinner they walked out to the marina and stepped aboard Andi's Dream. As Yi and Kenny cast off Paul explained that he and his brother John owned a house here in Jupiter along with several others scattered around Naples and Sarasota that they rent out, but the Jupiter house they keep for their own use and as a short-term rental. They were going to tie up at their Jupiter house for the night, then early in the morning their other couple was going to arrive, and they planned to shove off for Nisi Arcadia around sunrise and arrive there late in the afternoon, or early in the evening, maybe later depending on how often they stop for fishing and swimming. "All I ask," said Paul, "is in Jupiter wear clothing up on deck, regardless of what you may see on shore. Tomorrow once we get out past the break water you can wear what you want, ok?"

"Aye aye sir!" said Kim-ly with a salute and Paul headed up to the flybridge as Andi eased Andi's Dream out into the channel and through the canals of Jupiter. It looked like Party Central to Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly, folks were outside relaxing on their lawns and docks and raising drinks to them as they drifted past, many were happily naked. Tiki torches lit the way and folks in all state of dress waved as they passed until they reached a large dock where Yi, Paul, and Kenny hopped out and tied up the boat securely, then connected water, sanitary, and electrical lines to the boat. Soon the big diesels shut down as did the onboard power generator.

"Yi and Kenny will be staying onboard up in the flybridge," said Andi as she came down from the bridge. "You can come into the house or stay here onboard, your choice,"

"I think we'll stay out here," said Don as Lanh grinned and a happy looking Kim-ly headed toward the main cabin.

Paul chuckled and handed Don a bottle of Auslese, a sweet German wine, and said, "Have a good evening," and went off to grab a nap before their other guests arrive. Don choked back a laugh as Lanh dashed off to the main cabin. He opened the wine carefully, reset the cork, grabbed three wine glasses, and headed forward.

Below deck he heard the occasional soft gasp that sounded like Lanh, accompanied by a low sexy groan which sounded like Kim-ly. He found the door to the main cabin open; he entered and was greeted by a sight he burned into memory and hoped he remembered accurately until the day he dies. Lanh was laying on her back, her legs wide open and Kim-ly was kneeling over her, Kim-ly was sliding two fingers in and out of Lanh's pussy and occasionally she would lean down and kiss Lanh's clit. At the same time Lanh was sliding her favorite dildo, "Stanley Jr." in and out of Kim-ly's cunt.

He walked over to the vanity and sat down on the swing-out stool and watched the girls edge each other closer and closer to orgasm. He knew from Lanh's shuddering breathing that she was close, Kim-ly's reactions are still new to him, so he wasn't sure where she was in her climb to orgasm.

"Yessss!" Kim-ly hissed as she rested her forehead on the bed between Lanh's legs. Her little sister brought her to a delightful orgasm with the dildo that she helped Lanh buy years ago. Lanh was sliding Stanley Jr. in and out of Kim-ly's pussy with quick, rapid little strokes that always gave Lanh wonderful orgasms. Kim-ly crouched panting over Lanh as her orgasm washed over her, as she slowly raised her head and saw Don sitting there watching, a huge smile on his lips and a glass of wine in his hand. "Get over here and help your wife cum, I can't get her off," Kim-ly snarled.

"Let me show you how it's done," said Don with an air of bravado. Mostly false bravado because sometimes Lanh gets in a mood where her orgasm just won't happen, but they both are getting better at avoiding such circumstances. Don lay down on his back and said, "Come on baby, get on top."

Lanh slowly climbed on him, but she kept her eyes closed, she didn't want to see judgement in Don's eyes for her sex play with her sister, Don was sweet to her in all things regarding sex, but she felt guilty about her enjoyment of sex play with Kim-ly. Don knew that she and Kim-ly were occasional lovers when he was injured in the Air Force and in rehab in Grand Forks. It was a celebration of their new affection for each other, the pains of the past forgiven and forgotten. Don even encouraged it because it helped Lanh deal with being separated from Don, but Lanh still hid her feelings. "I'm sorry," she whispered in his ear. And then she said it, "With Kim-ly it feels good knowing that I won't get pregnant, but with you I should, and I can't..." She didn't cry but she was close, "It used to feel good when I thought we could have a baby, then we found out I'm..." She looked around in agony trying to find the right words. "Some of the magic has gone out... all of our dreams are gone because of me..."

"Stop!" said Don hoping he said it in a caring way. "You can't believe that I think any less of you because you can't have a baby, I won't let you feel that way because it's not true. In a way it makes you more precious to me, you're someone who is wounded and it's up to me to comfort you and care for you."

"Really? You're not mad at me?"

"No, I'm not, it's not your fault, our path lies in a different direction." Then he gestured to Kim-ly and added, "it's ok if you like it more with her, just save some for me."

Shocked, Lanh drew up and opened her eyes, "I never said that." She held Kim-ly's hand and said, "This is us getting ready for you! But... you're right," she added sadly, "I don't feel like a failure with her."

"I understand," he pulled her close, Annie once told him that Lanh feels freer to have sex with Kim-ly because she's not expected to have babies, and now she just admitted it. "I don't hold it against you for not having babies, I just hope you don't hold it against me that we can't adopt."

Lanh gasped and stared at Don through her tear-filled eyes. "I don't hold that against you," she said shaking her head no to emphasize her words. "It's not your fault, you didn't do anything wrong..."

"I know, but I feel that way. So much pain would have been avoided if I got out instead of re-enlisting."

Lanh gasped softly in sorrow at his words and Kim-ly paused, she heard every word they said, and she realized that an important moment had just occurred. They had just admitted their deep-seated regrets to each other, something they've needed to do for the past four years.

"Love me," whispered Lanh as she sat up and felt Don's cock pressing against her pussy.

"I will always love you," he whispered, and he arched his hips up, his cock easing into her. The sensation overwhelmed her as it always did and she leaned forward, their lips meeting, their tongues entwining. And now that subtle self-loathing that each felt for themselves wasn't there, a milestone was reached, and an obstacle had been conquered.

"You guys," wept Kim-ly as she leaned in. Don's hand slid up her smooth perfect back, under her long, thick hair, his hand cupped the back of her head and drew her into the kiss. He was strong and forceful but loving and all three kissed... then she was kissing Lanh. Lanh sat straight up drawing Kim-ly closer, and Kim-ly found herself straddling Don's head, his trimmed beard brushing against her inner thighs.

As their lips pressed against each other and their tongues entwined, the sisters moaned from the sheer erotic delight of their kiss, their breasts now pressing against each other, their man beneath them satisfying them. Don's cock was spearing Lanh's pussy, his tongue was lashing Kim-ly's clit, the girls' hips were twisting as they rode his face and his cock.

Kim-ly came first, her passionate cries and groans filled the cabin, in her excitement she almost smothered Don, she pressed her pussy down on his face cutting off his oxygen. His face covered by Kim-ly's pussy, his cock swallowed by Lanh's cunt and these sensations were beyond anything he had ever experienced. He was smothered in love and sex, and he came hard, his hips raised up lifting Lanh up off the bed. The head of his cock pressed against her cervix causing her to yelp in surprise which kicked off a little orgasm of her own.

The three twisted and gasped as their nearly simultaneous climaxes shook their bodies and their minds. Kim-ly's juices filled his mouth as Lanh's moisture covered his waist. He didn't know how but Don soon realized he was holding Lanh's hand with his right hand and Kim-ly's hand with his left. He gave the girls a tug which brought them down next to him where they gasped, giggled and kissed.

Don barely remembered getting under the covers, but he remembers kissing Lanh goodnight. He woke up some time later to find Lanh and Kim-ly watching TV, eating popcorn, and finishing the bottle of Auslese. Without a word he went back to sleep, a deep, peaceful slumber.

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The soft purring of the diesel engines woke Don soon after dawn. Crawling out from between the two women he loved more than ever before, he pulled on a pair of swim trunks and a T-shirt, gave Lanh and Kim-ly a kiss (neither one responded) and went up on deck. As he stepped into the Galley area Yi handed him a cup of coffee with a cheery "Good morning!"

"Morning Yi, did Andi's friends make it?"

"Yep, she's giving them the big tour right now, they'll be down from the bridge soon."

"Need help with anything?" he asked.

"Nope, I'm whipping up breakfast this morning, shrimp and grits." She had several fresh caught shrimp on the counter in front of her, which looked like lobsters to Don.

"Oh that sounds good," grinned Don, "I haven't had that in ages."

Yi put some water on to boil and said, "I didn't know they served shrimp and grits in Minnesota," she said as she tossed the shrimp heads in the pot of water.

"I serve it," said Don with a grin and a waggle of his eyebrows and he sat down at a table on the mezzanine and watched the palatial homes of the Jupiter waterfront slide by. The boat made a turn and Don saw a huge red brick light house glide past; he took pictures of that for Danh along with several other pictures he had taken on the journey. Danh wouldn't understand the pictures but taking the pictures for his son made Don feel good.

Suddenly Andi's voice came over the boat intercom, "Prepare for rough seas."

Before Don could get up to see if Yi needed help, Yi called up the stairs to the bridge, "Galley is ready!" Moments later the yacht began to pitch up and down, it wasn't violent, but it was very noticeable compared to the ultra-smooth tracking the boat did all day yesterday.

"What's going on?" asked Don.

"It's the Jupiter inlet," said Yi as she rolled with the boat. "We're heading out to sea and the tide is heading in. Happens every morning about this time."

Eventually the boat stopped its pitching and rocking, and Don was watching the beach recede as they headed out into the open ocean. Whoever was driving opened the throttles and the big sporting yacht leapt forward; Yi went back to cooking and shortly Lanh emerged from below decks looking a little confused. Don's heart leapt when he saw her like it hadn't leapt in ten years. Their exchange last night, their admission of their fears did so much to bring them and Kim-ly closer together and now this little vacation now feels like a honeymoon.

"Are you ok darling?" asked Don as he led a shaken Lanh back to the mezzanine.

"Yeah, the boat was shaking so bad, it scared me. Kim-ly slept through the whole thing." Don and Lanh sat side by side holding hands and sipping their coffee, their heads touching as they spoke softly. "I got an idea," said Lanh, "when we get home, let's get married."

"Let's do it, we'll find us a minister and a priest and when we're done, we'll go skinny dipping in the pond." Don's eyes never moved from Lanh's eyes, "let's go home and stop trying to be important, let's just live."

Lanh gave him that smile that won his heart almost 18 years ago and she said, "I have cows to milk!" As they sat discussing their future, Andi came down the stairs with a couple that appeared to be Don and Lanh's age - early to mid-30's, maybe a little older than them. The guy was a solidly built fellow with dark hair and a deep southern accent. The woman with him was tall and slender with large breasts and chestnut colored hair, and she was breath takingly beautiful.

"Don and Lanh Campbell, this is Josh and Veronica Gravely. Josh and Veronica are my neighbors and they got married a few months ago,"

"We got married on Halloween," said Veronica as she extended her hand to shake.

"Don and Lanh have been married a bit longer," said Andi.

"We got married three days after we graduated high school," said Lanh as she shook hands with the statuesque brunette. "This ride is like our second honeymoon."

"This is our first chance to get away," said Veronica, "so this makes it our honeymoon."

"Don is an Air Force veteran like you Josh," said Andi.

"What was your AFSC?" asked Josh.

"Two Alpha Three, fighter comm/nav," said Don, "but I tended to do a lot of off the wall things."

"Same here," said Josh. "Two whiskey one, aircraft weapons, but I spent a lot of time on gunships."

Don suddenly looked sad, and he muttered, "Royce was a gunner." Lanh heard him and she put her arms around her man who looked like he needed somebody to lean on.

"Royce..." said Josh who searched his memory. "Do you mean Royce Brown?"

"Yeah, Chief Brown, did you know him?" asked Don. "He was my maintenance supervisor at Spangdahlem."

"Only by reputation," said Josh, "much of what we did on gunships was developed by Royce. He's a legend."

"He passed away a few weeks ago," muttered Don sadly. "He was my mentor when I was an ay-one-see." Then he looked at Josh and said, "You look familiar, were you ever at Spangdahlem?"

"No, were you at Minot?" asked Josh.

"Nope, I was at El Forko Grande."

Josh laughed at the disparaging nickname for Grand Forks. "Egland?" he asked but he knew the answer was probably no, Egland was special forces, not a lot of people went there.

"No," said Don. "Cannon?"

"No..." Then both men looked at each other and a look of recognition came over them and they both said, "The Kun."

"Yes! You were Juvat!" said Don, the Juvats were the 80th Fighter Squadron. "You're the weapons guy, master sergeant that got the brutal washdown!"

"Yeah, that was me," grinned Josh.

"What happened?" asked a grinning Lanh. Being an Air Force wife, she knew all about washdowns. On an airman's last day before heading off to a new duty assignment or retirement, the airman is "washed down" with whatever water source is available. It's a tradition that goes back to the Vietnam War.

"My man here pissed off some needle dick looie on his last day, he had the entire weapons flight laughing at this guy, in formation. Leftennant Loser turned around and stomped off and Josh got washed down just massively!"

"That sounds like my southern gentleman," said Veronica as she gave Josh a sweet kiss.

"You were expediting the electricians, right?" asked Josh.

"Yeah, I was there about a month or two when they turned the fire hose on you. I remember thinking, "if this is how they treat you when they love you, I need to piss these guys off," laughed Don. Then he said quietly, "I also worked at the MARS station, I remember patching your call home before you left... sorry man."

"What happened?" asked Veronica, but Don just looked down at his coffee cup.

"He's not going to say," said Lanh, "MARS operators don't discuss details of their calls."

Veronica looked surprised but Josh shook Don's shoulder with a quiet, "Thanks man." Josh then told Veronica, "It was to my sister, and she was..." he looked at Veronica and said, "you know my sister."

"Yes, I do," sighed Veronica. Josh's sister is an alcoholic crack addict who passionately hates her younger brother and blamed him for their parents alcohol related deaths.

"Is she anything like me?" asked Kim-ly as she eased into the seat next to Don and gave him a kiss.

Veronica and Josh tried to hide their shocked looks as two Asian beauties snuggled up to Don, and that didn't go unnoticed. "Speaking of sisters, this is my sister Kim-ly, and we have a unique relationship."

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It was a cold yet sunny late winter morning, five minutes to eleven and Nguyen Pho was getting ready to open for the day, but no one was in the kitchen making preparations, the entire staff was in the dining room for a team meeting as they did every Tuesday morning, the first day of their business week. Lately it's been the only time for employees to see their business owners Duong and Mai who were semi-retired and spent most of their time with their grandsons Arlo and Danh and also Karole's daughter Krissy.

"One last thing, Daren Hovde is retiring. As you may or may not know, he slipped and fell on the ice and hit his head last month and he recently decided that this was a sign from God to get out of the business." Daren was a cantankerous old man who owned a diner next door named Your Host. Duong continued, "the new owner has decided to keep the place open for breakfast and lunch and no longer serve dinner."

After the murmuring died down, Mai took over. "So yes, we are no longer in competition with Your Host for the evening meal, but that means people who do not like or are afraid to try our cuisine no longer have a place to sit down and eat supper. Therefore, we will be adding more American dishes to our menu."

Rosa handed fliers to her daughters who distributed them through the staff advertising their expanded menu. The reaction of the employees was mixed, many were Asians who work at Nguyen Pho because of the Asian food and Asian staff, now some felt that their culture was being diluted or chipped away. Others were glad for more hours and more customers. "As you can see, many of these dishes are only on the evening menu, and there are more changes coming up, if any of you have friends or relatives that are looking for work, full or part time, let them know that we will be adding staff."

After the meeting was over, people went to their positions. Karole was already in her position at the cash register by the door seated in her wheelchair. "Are you ready?" smiled Rosa. "You said that this would be the day that you do it."

"Ah'm ready, juss get that door open first," said Karole, a look of nervousness on her face.

"Ok, but I want to watch," said Rosa as she unlocked the front door and flipped around the sign from closed to open and turned on the neon Open light on the front window.

"Yer juss evil," grinned Karole. A couple of women stepped through the door and Karole asked as usual, "How many... two?" When she got an affirmative response, Karole then asked, "Table or booth?" and she pulled two menus from the stack of plastic bound menus.

"Booth please."

"If ya'll would follow me," and she stood and walked slowly to a booth not too far from the register. Her steps were slow, she leaned heavily on her four-footed cane, and she limped horribly, but she was walking. After seating her customers and taking their drink order she turned to return to the register and found that Binna, an older Korean/American woman was at the register and Rosa was standing, arms crossed, a smile on her lips. "What's this?" asked Karole.

"I'm waiting..."

"I just seated the first customers of the day," said Karole with a whine to her voice that caused Binna to laugh.

"I've seen that trick before," said Rosa. "Come on, you promised."

"Ok," sighed Karole in defeat and slowly hobbled her way to the kitchen with Rosa following. In the kitchen the staff were getting their stations ready for the afternoon rush. Trung and Bao were in the corner discussing a document that Bao was holding, probably taxes, that's all Bao is going to be doing and talking about for the next couple of months, and with his partner Kim-ly on a short vacation, he's going to be swamped. Mai was also there with Danh and Krissy orbiting around their grandma.

Karole took a deep breath and walked up to Trung. She took the document from his hand, handed it to Bao, then stepped up to Trung and wrapped her arms around him. Trung looked very surprised and started to ask, "Wha..." but Karole's lips found his and they were kissing long and passionately, their tongues entwined. The entire kitchen staff watched and "cheered them on" with a long loud "Wooooo!"

"My goodness!" said Trung as their lips parted. He smiled broadly and asked, "what was that?"

"I think I'm ready to move to the next level," sighed Karole as she leaned in for another kiss.

As they kissed, Bao turned to his wife and said, "It's about time."

Rosa smiled and gave Bao a quick kiss. As she headed back out to the restaurant she said, "it sure is."

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

The little Zodiac "dinghy" purred along silently behind Andi's Dream, Kim-ly was at the tiller of the electric motor that was propelling the inflatable landing craft, keeping an eye on Don as he swam alongside the Zodiac. In the middle of the little boat knelt Lanh and as she kept her eyes on Don while he swam, she shouted "Nhanh lên! Nhanh lên!" Vietnamese for "Hurry up!"

Don wasn't hurrying, he was swimming at an easy pace, breathing on every stroke, a gentle flutter kick accompanying his strokes. He was concentrating on form and breathing and occasionally Lanh would make him stop and she would clip a pulse oximeter on his finger and check the reading. He's been hovering at 89 to 90%, when he hits 88% it's over, Lanh will make him stop, so he's taking it easy. It's been so long since he's been in the water, stretching it out, enjoying the buoyancy... he forgot how peaceful it was, and how much he loved Lanh's encouragement.

Up on the flying bridge of Andi's dream, Paul was driving from the aft helm out on the aft sundeck of the flybridge. From up there he was able to keep an eye on the Campbells making sure the yacht didn't get too far ahead of Don's practice and at the same time they purred along close enough in case of an emergency. On the swimming deck that extended from the stern Josh and Veronica swam and dove with Andi. The women were all topless and this was the first time that Veronica ever showed off her breasts. Years of photographers begging her to pose nude when she was a model were ignored. She knew that it cost her many modeling jobs, but she didn't care, her dad would have been heartbroken if he opened a fashion magazine to see his daughter's tits.

The sun felt so good on her breasts and Josh made sure that they were well covered with sunblock as ardently as Don applied protectant to Lanh and Kim-ly. Veronica wondered if this drove her to her current exhibitionist feelings, she loved the chance to be seen making love with her husband in motel and hotel rooms through open curtains. While giggling over wine last night, she let this slip to Kim-ly who responded with a smiling whisper, "We're in luck, I love to watch."

Two loud blasts on Andi's Dream's air horns signaled that it was time to bring in the dinghy. Paul cut the throttles and allowed Andi's Dream to coast with only the wind and the waves to stop it. Lanh's chant changed to a spirited cry of "Đi đi mau! Đi đi mau!" which very roughly translates to "Go! Go!" This was Don's cue to give it everything he had. He poured it on, swimming as hard as he could. He quickly ran out of air, but they were close to the swim platform he reached it in under 2 minutes and he didn't have anything left when Lanh called "TIME!" his cue to stop. All Don could do was cling on to one of the stern swim platform rails and pant, his oxygen level was below 85, but it was coming up fast. "No more sprints until after your operation," said Lanh.

"Si," gasped Don, too winded to get the full word "yes" out.

"Come on you guys, out of the water," said Yi. "We're going to secure the zodiac to the swim platform."

Using the hydraulics, they lowered the platform into the water which made it easier for a winded Don to get back on the boat, then they tugged the zodiac onto the submerged platform then lifted the platform raising the zodiac out of the water.

Lanh and Don joined Veronica, Josh, and Kim-ly on the bow as they watched the island slowly swimming toward them. As they saw the pier come close there was a soft rumbling from the belly of Andi's Dream and the big boat slowly turned 180 degrees as Paul gently spun the boat around with the thrusters. Andi's Dream gently drifted backwards into the bay propelled only by momentum. Yi and Kenny set out the fenders as Paul used a little forward thrust on the screws to bring the yacht to a stop, then with a couple of prods from the thrusters the boat eased sideways to the pier where Kenny and Yi tied it off quickly. As Paul, Yi, and Kenny tied up the boat more securely, Andi came forward to the bow and showed the folks how to put up a large sunshade over the bow's seating area. "What if we want to lay out in the sun?" asked Kim-ly.

"There is a huge island right here made out of beaches for you to enjoy," said Andi.

"Aww, I don't want to get dressed," said Kim-ly and her sentiments were echoed by a nod from Veronica. They were enjoying the feel of the sun and the breeze on their parts that spent years covered up. Just then Andi stepped onto the bow from the port side deck followed by a woman clearly in her later years. She had long silver hair combed out straight like Lanh's ebony locks and like Andi she was wearing only a sarong, her C cup breasts were either superbly modified or timeless in their glory.

"Folks, this is our hostess, Justice Nicoletta Atherton, she and her husband Donald own this island and are happy to have us come visit."

"Justice Atherton? From the New York State Supreme Court?" asked Veronica.

"That's me," said the silver haired beauty, "and am I correct in assuming that you are Veronica von Köster from the Miss America pageant a few years ago?"

"Quite a few years ago," chuckled Veronica as she rose to shake hands. One by one Justice Atherton walked around the bow patio shaking hands and welcoming her guests, and when she got to Kim-ly, the Asian hottie introduced herself as Kim-ly Campbell. Nicoletta sat down between Lanh and Kim-ly and said, "I've been told that there is quite a story here. Tell it to me."

"Not much to tell," said Don, "Lanh and I were high school sweethearts. I proposed to her in front of her parents on Christmas Eve, we got married after we graduated, and I went to basic training. I re-enlisted a couple of times then got out early because..."

"Woah, woah, woah! Slow down there hoss!" cried Kim-ly. "You left out like... the ENTIRE STORY."

"Jeez, we'll be here all night," whined Don.

"I've got plenty of wine," said Nicoletta. "Andi told me that it is quite a story."

"Yeah!" grinned Veronica, "tell us."

"Aw, you done opened a bigass can a worms!" said Josh with a laugh. "We ain't gittin' outta here until she hears every word, and don't skimp on the spicy parts."

Don started again with, "If any of you want to wander off, I highly encourage it," and started again at the high school dance where he and Lanh first met. He couldn't skip any of the details, not with Kim-ly fact-checking his recitation. Every beating he took in high school, every call he made and embarrassed himself when researching their book until Tam, Bao, and Kim-ly helped him with translating what their relatives said. Nicoletta laughed until she cried at the story of Beached Whale and her embarrassment in front of all her students, then swooned like a teenage girl at their engagement on Christmas eve, and actually broke down in tears of joy when Lanh and Kim-ly told her about the apartment that Don made Lanh out of the old storage room that used to be a bunkhouse half a century before.

"He asked your father for your hand in marriage at a family dinner?" Nicoletta asked Lanh.

"Sort of," started Lanh.

"No, he asked for dad's blessing," said Kim-ly. "And later ba asked, "what would you have done if I didn't give you my blessing?" and Don said, "So what? You ain't the pope."

"Really?" Nicoletta whooped in laughter.

"In front of the whole damn family," grinned Lanh.

"Don't blame me, the whole thing was a Vietnamese custom," said Don.

They eventually moved onto the island and had a luau dinner on the large patio in front of Nicoletta and Donalds "cabin," and the story continued. When they reached the last four years, Don's jet blast injury drew a roar of rage from Josh. "That was you? Holy crap, I was out in the civilian world working in Buffalo when I heard about that!"

When Don looked confused Veronica pointed to Josh and said, "Gunner Network. They're always on the phone with each other."

Lanh pointed to Don and said, "Comm/Nav folks, same thing."

"The only one I talked to was Chief Brown," said Don. "The past two years... what a horror story." And with that he fell silent until Lanh and Nicoletta goaded him into continuing the story, his rehab, his surprise retirement ceremony which hurt even more realizing that it was the last time he saw Royce alive. Their decision to move to Colorado and how everything just fell apart. "It was so weird and confusing. I started having nightmares that Lanh was going to die, that I would end up married to Karole or Kim-ly." He turned to Lanh and said, "Remember that huge chunk of rose quartz that we brought home from Colorado?" When she nodded her head he said, "In my dreams that ended up marking your grave. When you were in Albuquerque at a conference, I had a bad nightmare and I woke up in the garden in the pouring rain hitting that thing with a hammer screaming for you."

"Oh my god!" gasped Andi, "why didn't you talk to somebody?"

"I was afraid they'd lock me up! The only sleep I was getting was with Lanh or Kim-ly. I didn't want to think what would happen if they put me in a hospital." And Don continued with the story, their horrific Christmas, and their 'Escape to Minnesota,' and how the only thing that saved his sanity was when Kim-ly brough Danh and put the nine-month-old in Don's lap when Karole was in a coma and Lanh was in surgery. "Honest to God, I thought I was going to die, my brain was pounding, I hadn't slept or eaten in days... I do remember thinking that I was glad Danh wasn't there, because if anything happened to Lanh, I could end it all very quickly and he'd never know."

"End it all... you don't mean..." Nicoletta looked horrified at Don, but he nodded affirming her fears that he meant suicide.

"Don and I love each other," said Kim-ly, "we really do but Lanh is his người thương, his beloved, and he is hers. I couldn't have taken her place if she had died, he would have stayed for Danh, but he would have been so miserable."

"Who is Danh?" asked Veronica, "you've mentioned him a couple of times."

Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly looked at each other a few times, finally Don said, "He's our son."

"I thought you said you couldn't have a baby," Nicoletta said to Lanh. Then she noticed the look on Kim-ly's face and said, Danh's your baby!" She turned to Lanh and said, "Did you know about this?"

"I knew about it, Don didn't. He was clueless," said Lanh.

"I didn't knock up Kim-ly," said Don, "I knocked up a test tube."

"WHAA?" Veronica was completely confused, and then Lanh explained how she and Kim-ly conspired to have Kim-ly carry Don's baby.

"I can't believe you had his baby!" cried Nicoletta as she hugged Kim-ly. "That is so beautiful!"

"Wait until you hear about Operation Sue Lin," said Don.

Without being asked Lanh said, "Dr Schaeffer, the doctor who made Danh a reality is going to take an ova from Kim-ly, fertilize it, then plant it in me!"

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

Nisi Arcadia was a beautiful little island covered in palm trees and ringed by beaches that were divided by cypress swamps and palmetto brush. One beautiful beach on the far end of the island was for women only and the girls spent a lot of time there chatting and making plans for a longer vacation next winter. Meanwhile Donald taught Paul, Don and Josh to sail on a small sailboat and they sailed around the island several times.

"I'm definitely getting one of these for my pond!" gushed Josh as he and Don glided past the girls' beach. Once again, they were frustrated, the girls saw the boat approaching and dashed into the water.

"I'm tempted myself," said Don. "There's quite a few big lakes near me."

They spent four days on Nisi Arcadia, the days were spent sailing and swimming, evenings were spent gathering together around a bonfire telling stories and singing songs, Donald and Josh often played guitar, everything from blues, to country, to rock and roll. Sometimes Justice Nicoletta would tell of courtroom antics she had run into in the past while Paul accompanied her on the guitar, playing background music to her story like an old-time organist in a silent movie.

"Did you ever think of renting this island out for couples n' stuff like that?" asked Don.

"You mean for couples on vacation or maybe their honeymoons?" asked Donald. When Don nodded, Donald said, "Yeah, we do it all the time, we're a fancy bed and beach and breakfast. Just reach out to us. Is there someone you have in mind?"

"You mean besides ourselves?" asked a laughing Veronica.

"Well, I think we know a couple that could use a proper honeymoon," said Don.

Later, after everyone had retreated to their rooms in the palatial mansion that the Atherton's called their "cabin," Lanh led Don off on the myriad of paths that crisscrossed the island to a narrow path that disappeared between palmetto bushes. "Justice Nicoletta showed me this earlier today," said Lanh as they worked their way through the bushes. Once they traveled through the dense undergrowth for about 3 feet the path opened up to a well-maintained path that couldn't be seen from the main path. After a curve that hid the objective of the path, it opened up to a small beach about ten yards wide and ten yards deep. "This is Miss Nicoletta's favorite beach," said Lanh. "She calls it "Honeymoon Beach." Lanh gave Don that smile, the one he can read like an open book.

"Second honeymoon? No, I didn't think so, but I had to ask." Then Kim-ly stepped out of the shadows with a nervous smile. Don heaved a sad sigh, "Ok girls, we need to talk."

"About what?" demanded Lanh.

"About us, you and me, about you and me and Kim-ly." The sisters looked at him confused. "Ok, what if something happens, what if Kim-ly and I get super pissed at each other, but you two are closer than ever, what happens then? Do I spend the rest of my life on the couch?"

"I would never do that," said Lanh.

"Look, if you don't want me around I will just back off," said Kim-ly. She looked nervous and started to edge back toward the shadows.

"No! I'm not saying any of that, I' just saying..." Don realized that he was on dangerously thin ice. He reached out to Kim-ly and gently tugged her into the embrace. He took a breath and nervously said, "the three of us have been through sadness, maybe too much sadness, I just don't want more if it can be avoided."

"Em yêu," said Lanh softly as she stroked his cheek with her tiny hand, "we can't avoid sadness. Into each life some rain must fall."

"True, but I want to minimize its impact."

Don kissed Kim-ly's cheek and asked, "What do you want darling?"

Kim-ly's head spun when Don said that no one has ever called her sweetheart or darling, ever. She's always been a "fuck buddy" at best, and the man she secretly loved just called her darling in the most romantic place she's ever seen, and the woman she finally learned to love dearly was right here holding her. Kim-ly's heart swelled with joy as they bathed in the silvery light of the full moon. "I want you to call me that forever."

As Don was about to reply, Lanh put her finger on his lips and whispered, "Let's not waste this evening talking. Let's love each other and talk about it when we get back to Minnesota." And with that, she and Kim-ly pulled off their sarongs and ran hand-in-hand into the surf. Don smiled, stripped off his swimming trunks and followed them into the warm ocean.

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

Don was awakened by Danh crawling next to him on the bed. The little guy sat next to his daddy and started patting him on the nose. "Wake up your daddy!" Lanh encouraged the toddler.

"He's got nothing left," chuckled Kim-ly, and she should know. She and Lanh have been fucking Don practically nonstop since that warm beautiful night on Nisi Arcadia.

Don surprised the girls by opening an eye and smiling at the tot. "Happy Birthday!" he called. It's been a full year since he held his son for the very first time. A year filled with horror and sorrow and finally capped off with bliss and love. "What do you want for your birthday? Would you like some cake?"

Danh broke into a huge grin and brought his tiny hands down on his daddy. He got ebony hair and beautiful almond shaped coal black eyes from his mother, but Grandpa Ralph said he got his smile and his laugh from his daddy. "Attack me in my own bed will ya! Take that!" and Don started tickling the one-year-old who giggled, squealed, and tried to roll out of the way.

"If you keep that up, you're going to have to change him!" warned Kim-ly.

"He's already wet," said Don. "Come here you, let me get those wet pants off of you." But Danh squealed with delight and slid off the bed, landed feet first on the floor then sped off in a high-speed crawl out of the bedroom. "When did you learn that ya little varmint!" Lanh soon returned with Danh and Kim-ly threw a dry pair of pants on the bed with Don.

"Geez, even Jake is quicker than that, and he can't see. What's your excuse?"

Don looked up and there was Tam, an arm around each of her younger sisters. Don wisely chose not to make a disparaging remark about his blind brother-in-law, not with his lovely wife glaring down on him from the lofty realms that those with a black belt inhabit. "I suspect his aunt helped him with his reflexes and speed."

"You keep believing that" said Tam with a grin, "now hurry up and get the birthday boy dressed, his date is on her way." Don made a mistake and took his eyes off an impatient one year old and Danh pushed back Don's covers showing the Nguyen sisters that he was naked. "You may want to dress that other little guy too," said Tam as she turned and headed away, happy to have crushed Don's ego.

Don and Danh emerged from Lanh's Apartment as the guests arrived for the birthday party celebrating Danh Campbell's successful completion of one entire year. His grandpa Ralph was moved to tears to see all the young cousins gathering around the little guy, running through the big old farmhouse, playing, roughhousing the way it was when he was young but hasn't been since. A side table was covered with presents for the little guy, and for Krissy, her first birthday was missed because of the accident that almost claimed her mother's life. The two also were deprived of their first Christmas, but they're going to have to wait for December when they will get a do-over.

There was also a small pile of presents growing off to the side that Ralph didn't pay attention to. But as soon as everyone was ready, Karole and Kim-ly handed Danh and Krissy a present and said, "Take that to Grandpa Ralph!" Still not that accustomed to walking, the two made their way to Ralph and handed Papa his presents then went back to mommy. They ended up making the trip three times, laughing, and giggling the whole time and Ralph ended up with six gifts, and it didn't take x-ray vision to tell that they all were T-shirts. "Open them!" Lanh encouraged and Ralph finally opened a package, it was a t-shirt that said, "My Favorite People Call Me Grandpa!"

Ralph choked up and he turned to Sandy and said, "I thought I never would have seen this happen." Sandy almost said, "I've given you lots of t-shirts," but she realized how much this moment meant to him. First Ralph's wife came down with cancer after having one child, then they discovered that Lanh was infertile, then Don and Lanh lost their chance to adopt, the chance to have a grandchild evaporated for Ralph. But out of the blue, out of Kim-ly's love for Don and Lanh, and even Ralph, a little angel, was born and he became as real as any grandchild could be, and Ralph was tearful with gratitude.

With a kiss Sandy encouraged him to open the rest of the packages that the babies brought him, each one was a humorous t-shirt that celebrated being a grandpa and each brought laughter.

Next came the cake, Krissy and Danh were placed in highchairs side by side and after a spirited but off-key recitation of "Happy Birthday to You" both were given oversized devils food cupcakes with whipped cream frosting. It took a long time of tentative poking and inspecting, but eventually each child stuck a finger in the frosting and tasted it. The realization of how delicious the food was coming as a revelation that spread over their faces and soon both were painted with whipped cream and cake crumbs. Krissy began digging out pieces of cake and eating them with her hands, every bite causing her older cousins to break out in laughter. Him-Chan turned to his dad Huy and said, "I was never messy like that!" His parents, Huy and Ahnjong, had a difficult time trying to stifle their laughter, Him-chan and his twin sister Anh had cake strewn over a large portion of their kitchen and many of the guests.

Danh tasted the chocolate cake and decided that picking up the cake and eating was taking too long. He chose to cut out the middleman and bent over and stuck his face in the cake and took a big bite causing riotous laughter among his cousins.

Kim-ly watched on, her heart swelling with love as she watched her little boy feed himself for the very first time, and he made a beautiful mess of it. She joined in the laughter and she and Lanh stood leaning back on Don who held them tight, a three-way hug that said it all about their union, and the three proud parents watched their baby grow up. Screw what anyone else might say, this is their family.

"Chi (older sister)," whispered Lanh to Kim-ly, "look beyond Rosa and Bao, what do you see?"

Look beyond Rosa and Bao? Their brother and his wife were behind the crush of cousins that were laughing at Krissy and Danh, practically leaning against the wall behind them, was Lanh talking about a crack in the old plastered wall? Kim-ly almost demanded that Lanh explain herself when she saw a faint body, no two faint bodies, tall and sexy, it's like she was looking at a double exposure of two Karoles, but Karole is sitting in a chair next to Krissy.

Kim-ly looked and studied these visions, they were so faint, but one had her hair cut in a she-mullet and the tips were dyed purple, the other had her hair cut and permed, what is that? They were watching the kids, beaming with pride, then one saw Lanh and Kim-ly staring at them and they faded from sight. "Did you see?" whispered Lanh, "did you see my angels?"

Kim-ly was almost in shock, she did see something, and all this time she thought Lanh was either having an emotional meltdown or she was pulling everyone's leg.

Several times throughout the party Don's cell phone rang but he ignored the calls, today was their day, except for when he disappeared to set up Lanh's present Don centered this day on Danh, his son that was conceived through the love that Lanh and Kim-ly had for him. He loves Danh with all his heart, but he feels a little left out, his only part of that love was a handjob. As Don battled to hold back that feeling that always brings on a bout of depression, Kim-ly came to him and handed Don her phone. "It's Stuart Haugen, he's been calling for you."

"We're busy, tell him to call back tomorrow, I can talk all day tomorrow."

"He says it's important, he has to speak to you now."

"Ok, bring it here," groaned Don. This wasn't a way to get on his good side. Kim-ly handed him her phone and he held it to his ear. "Doctor Campbell," he said sternly, "how can I help you?"

"Doctor Campbell, it's Stu Haugen, I hope you remember our conversation a year ago?" He sounded anxious to Don.

"Yes, exactly fifty weeks ago," said Don.

"We really, really need you, our current president of the school board is retiring and the only other people that will stand for election want twice what we can pay. The deadline to register for the election is coming up fast and our only candidate wants a quarter million a year.""

"Are you sure you want me?" Don asked, "I'll work a lot cheaper but everything I stand for is based on the three Rs above all."

"That is something that Grant Valley parents want to see stressed in today's school."

"Hang on a second," Don had to pause to help Arlo with a piñata. When he returned to the call he said, "Excuse me, pressing family business. Tell you what, I'll run ONLY if you give Dr. Trung Nguyen fair consideration and an interview for the open position in the athletics department at the high school."

"And if he doesn't get the job?"

"If you were open and fair about it, then it's no skin off my nose. Let's think of this as a test. Put my hat in the ring, but if something doesn't pass the smell test with Dr. Nguyen, whether he gets the job or not, I'm out, and I don't care if it's election night, or a month after."

"I don't know if we can pay a doctor to fill this position," said Stuart.

"See? You haven't even interviewed him to find out what he wants for a salary."

"Ok," said Stuart, "I'll be by on Friday to go over the election process."

When Don was finished with the call, Trung came up and asked, "What was that all about? I heard my name come up a few times."

"Brush up your resume," said Don. "Prioritize your athletics." With that he turned back to the party, "Where's that birthday boy?"

As the party wound down and their friends and family went home, Danh soon came down from his sugar rush and collapsed in a long overdue nap. "Where did you go during the party?" Lanh demanded. "You're not going to disappear like that at Sue Lin's party!"

"I was wrapping presents for my wives."

"All is forgiven," said Kim-ly when she heard the word presents. As they returned to their apartment a cheery blaze crackled in the little fireplace and two large presents sat wrapped at the far end of the room. A large gift for Kim-ly sat on the coffee table, the gift for Lanh was on a stand over by the bookshelf. Kim-ly opened her gift first and it turned out to be a new laptop, one with all the features and functions that she could only dream about. "I love you, I love you, I love you!" cried Kim-ly as she kissed Don. "What brought this on?"

"Well, you are our accountant and it's your job to keep us out of prison. I figure you are going to need the very best tools to do your job."

"Can I open mine?" called Lanh from over by her present.

"Of course," said Don as he stood behind her. She peeled the paper from the gift without moving it because it was too heavy. As the wrapping paper came off Lanh stood face to face with a new 5-gallon aquarium and looking back at her was a black and white goldfish. It looked like a swimming snowball, but it had black fins and black protruding eyes.

"A panda moor goldfish! She's so cute!" Lanh looked in amazement at the goldfish she had wanted since the day she heard about them. "Can I call her Marissa?"

"That's perfect, it's been a long time since we had a Marissa around here, don't you think?"

"She's beautiful! And she won't walk on your truck," said Lanh as she kissed Don. Her goat named Marissa loved to climb on things and she scarred the hood and roof of Don's GMC pickup with her tiny hooves.

"I think with motherhood and me and Kim-ly here constantly, you may need a Marissa."

Lanh watched her little fish swim around in the tank and said, "She looks lonely, it's an awful big tank for a little fish."

"I thought the same thing," said Don and he produced a plastic bag containing two more panda moor goldfishes.

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Time both dragged incredibly slowly but at the same time it raced ahead as the official kick-off of Operation Sue Lin drew near. It was tough for Kim-ly because she needed to be off of birth control and Don hates condoms. She was loving the fact that she could have a sex life only to have restrictions slammed down on it. She loves the way that Don goes down on her and the way that Lanh fucks her with Stanley Jr. but there's something to be said about having a hard, throbbing cock in your vagina, and she wasn't getting any of that. Not until Operation Sue Lin enters phase 2, when the embryo is successfully implanted in Lanh and growing will Kim-ly get any dick. Her last decent fuck was on Honeymoon Beach, since then it's been lots and lots of tongue.

Dr. Carla Schaeffer, the genius that made Danh's birth possible, set April third as the official kick-off date and everybody was excited. When the big day arrived the three nervously arrived at Dr. Schaeffer's practice and there Lanh and Kim-ly were subject to an interminable barrage of tests and examinations, then after an agonizing wait the three of them were escorted to Dr. Schaeffer's office.

She came in and smiled and shook their hands, "How's my favorite menage á troi doing?"

"It's been a difficult winter," said Lanh.

"But we got to lay in the sun and play on a private island in the tropics," sighed Kim-ly.

"I'm sure daddy liked that," said Carla as she poured over the test results on her computer. Don never remarked on that statement and Carla never noticed, she became deeply concerned with what she saw in the test results. "Excuse me," she said, and she stepped out of the office.

"What the fuck?" said a shocked Kim-ly.

Lanh turned to Don, there was terror in her eyes. "Something is wrong," she said in a tiny, shaking voice. Don put an arm around her and held her hand with his free hand and gave her a kiss on her temple. He was searching for something to say that would soothe her nerves, but he had a hollow feeling in his gut that she was right.

Carla soon returned to the office with several sheets of paper. "Sorry, I had to step out to the printer," she said to no one in particular. She sat down at her desk, took a highlighter and on each page, she highlighted something in neon yellow, then she handed them each a page, giving two pages to Don. "I'm sorry, but we can't proceed with our plans."

_____________________________________

Regular readers of this saga know that I don't end a chapter on a cliff hanger, but I had to do it, just once, just to see how it feels. Chapter 14 is planned to be the Final Chapter in the We're a Wonderful Wife saga, but the series is ongoing, there are several side stories similar to Valentine's Dance and Serendipitous Liaison in the works and to be honest, plans do change... I truly fell in love with these characters, and I intend to continue on with them. All I will say about chapter 14 is that all dangling threads will be addressed.