© 2024 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

Author's note: These stories are written in Literary Past Tense. Literary Past Tense describes how most of us use past tense in our stories. That is, most past-tense stories are written as though the events are happening now. Even though we're using the past tense forms of verbs, within the story itself, events are happening in the present, which explains present tense verbs in some descriptions.

All Aboard Andi's Dream

Chapter 6

Winter Fun

It started snowing when Paul and Andi pulled up to the cabin; the sky was slate gray, and the wind was picking up. The grove of pines that blocked the cabin from the wind made an eerie whistle as the wind off of Lake Erie brought damp chill and snow into the "Snow Belt". "Are we going to get any thunder snow?" asked Andi as Paul unlocked the cabin door and disengaged the alarm.

"I think that it's too cold for that," said Paul as Andi stepped into the cabin. "It's a pretty rare occurrence anyhow." But Andi wasn't listening, she crouched at the wood stove and added some newspaper and kindling, then remembering her last fire she made, she opened the flue before she lit the fire, then she turned to help Paul carry the luggage and food into the cabin.

When Paul and Andi finished hauling groceries in from the truck she stepped back, she knew better than to get in Paul's way when he puts the groceries up. He has a way to do it that makes 100% perfect sense, and any attempt to help just gets in the way. Instead, Andi went back to the main cabin and started looking around. Her eyes were flitting over the cabin, just a simple "Yard Barn" insulated and wired for electricity with a wood-burning stove for warmth. But it was the beginning of Andi's new life. She brushed her hands across the back of the couch where they snuggled and sat up all night talking and simply touching two nights in a row. It was where they made love for the first time on their wedding night. She turned around and there was the picture on the wall documenting when they met for the very first time at that boring conference in frigid Minneapolis, although neither really noticed each other back then. Her hand brushed the table, where on their wedding night she leaned over and gave him her last virginity.

She felt like her heart would burst with emotion when she walked past the shower where Paul showed her the magic in his hands and his lips, then the sauna where she showed Paul her own version of magic, then stepping out back Andi found herself in the little sheltered area where one goes to cool off after a sauna. It was where they unknowingly and simultaneously proposed marriage to each other. There, in the swirling snowflakes, she sank to her knees and said a prayer of thanks, filled with tears of joy, and asked for another miracle.

As Paul finished stowing the groceries, he heard a familiar rumbling and hissing. The rumbling was the small water heater in the shower heating its five-gallon water tank, and the hissing was the sauna warming up. He stepped around the corner and there was Andi, standing at the control panel of the sauna. Even though it was still so cold in the cabin that you could see your breath in the air, Andi was stripping down, getting ready to use the sauna. She already had her boots and socks off, her jeans were pooled on the floor around her ankles, her sweatshirt was just now coming over her head. Paul leaned casually against the wall and watched as his love stepped out of her jeans and unsnapped her bra, freeing her breasts. The cold air caused her nipples to harden instantly, and she kneaded her breasts, feeling them swell with desire in the cold. She turned and saw Paul leaning against the wall with what can best be described as a shit-eating grin on his face. "I wanted to surprise you," she said, her hands still cupping her heavy tits.

"And you did, I like surprises like this." He remained motionless and gazed at the woman he loves standing naked in the cold.

"An honorable man would be undressing right now," said Andi as she slid her panties excruciatingly slowly over her hips, "and he would be making plans to take me and ravish me before his children arrive and ruin everything."

"Far be it from me to disappoint the woman in my life," and Paul was completely undressed before her panties could hit the floor. Paul took her in his arms, and they kissed, and as they kissed, Andi's small hand found what she wanted most and that moment and stroked up and down the length of his hard cock. Paul grabbed Andi's round ass cheek and growled, "my baby! Come to daddy."

Andi's lips suddenly attached to Paul's nipple, and she began suckling. The sensations were intense and confusing. He wanted to hold her to his breast and push her away at the same time. She took his nipple in her teeth and grinned up at him. In response, Paul tickled her ribs, causing her to release his nipple. She giggled and dashed into the sauna, then held the door shut when Paul tried to enter the sauna. Paul was able to pull the door open easily. "No! I'll call the police!" squealed Andi. Then, laughing, she ducked into the corner of the sauna.

She sat demurely in the corner and asked, "Are you here for the interview for the opening in the clinic, doctor...?"

"Jarecki, ma'am. Doctor Paul Jarecki" Andi was quite playful, and this seemed like it was going to be fun.

"I'm looking for a doctor who can fill an opening right away," said Andi, as she spread her knees apart.

Paul pumped his hard cock several times, then said, "I've been told that I have what it takes to fill any opening that you have, ma'am."

"This is quite an important position, Doctor Jarecki. Not only will you have to be quick on your feet, but your linguistic skills. How would you instruct your patient to help his wife with her monthly breast exam?"

"May I show you ma'am," asked Paul.

"Please do," said Andi, and he pulled her on his lap and performed a monthly breast exam.

"I believe that patients should do this as a couple, because in my case I'm manipulating my wife's breasts more than she is." Paul was worried that Andi had found an interesting way to tell Paul that she found a lump, but her breasts felt healthy. "I would emphasize mammograms especially if there is a question."

Paul was completely clinical with his examination of her breasts, which would be a bummer for most women playing this game. But for Doctor Roberts, it was a turn-on to be in the hands of such a skilled doctor. Andi turned around on Paul's lap and kissed him. She wanted to play and tease longer, but she couldn't hold back. "Excellent exam doctor, now, about this opening..." she raised up and lined his cock with her pussy and she lowered down on his cock, skewering herself on his pole. Her eyes fluttered as his cock eased into her moist depths.

"I hope you find a good fill for your opening," said Paul as his tiny wife groaned. She wasn't able to continue the word play anymore, so Paul laid back on the bench and let her bounce up and down. She fucked herself senseless. Her breasts bounced and wobbled as she impaled herself on his cock over and over.

"Cum with me, cum with me," she said over and over. Her excitement was much a thrill as her moist, clasping pussy. Paul was worried that he may cum before she did, but she soon came with a shriek and collapsed on Paul's chest, shuddering and cooing, his cock driving into her from below and Paul drove himself to climax.

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"We're here!" Yi called out as she entered the main cabin. She found the cabin was toasty warm and the packs full of clothes were stacked up by the stairs. But Paul and Andi were nowhere to be seen. At her call, Wonka peered up from his spot in front of the wood stove. He rose and walked up to Yi, tail wagging with every step. Yi bound up the stairs and found the loft empty, so she went down and made her way over to the kitchen, that was empty too, so was the shower and the sauna and found Paul and Andi's clothing was in a pile by the sauna door. She was about to look elsewhere when she noticed movement through the rear door window. She saw that out back in the snow were Andi and Paul, naked and kissing, their bodies entwined, steam rising from their skin. Yi tapped gently on the door and Andi saw her peeking at them through the window. She grinned and waggled her eyebrows at her boss, and Andi held up 5 fingers asking for 5 more minutes, then went back to kissing her husband.

Yi replied with a thumbs up and headed back out to her truck. Stepping outside, she showed the girls the basket she had snatched off the table and called out, "Let's go get us some eggs!"

"OOOHHH KAYYY!" shouted the twins and they both deftly unlatched their child seats and hopped out of the back of the Ranger.

"When did you guys figure out how to get out of your seats?" Yi asked incredulously.

Sandy and Madeline looked at each other and muttered between themselves softly in their private language. Then they both looked at Yi and shrugged.

"Seriously? No other kid on earth knows how to get out of a car seat."

The twins looked at each other again, and after a quick conversation in TwinBabble™ they looked at Yi. Madeline said, "You're a silly!" and ran toward the barn.

"Come on, Wonka!" shouted Sandy. "Let's go get some eggs!" and she raced off to catch up with her sister. "EEEEEEEGGS!" they ran to the barn, yelling at the top of their lungs.

"How the hell does she keep up with them?" muttered Yi as she trudged after the twins.

Not long later, they entered the cabin with a basket full of eggs and the twins were filling Yi with stories of Poppa's "hamlets" and how good they were. As Yi placed the basket of eggs on the table, Paul and Andi stepped into the main cabin from the kitchen, Andi still drying her hair with a towel. "You guys got it nice and warm in here," grinned Yi with a saucy wink.

"You know what they say," said Paul, "rubbing sticks and stones together..."

Yi looked blank; she had never heard such an expression. "No. What do they say?"

"Oh no," gasped Sandy and Madeline as their parents broke into song.

Thinkin' of you's workin' up my appetite

Looking forward to a little afternoon delight

Rubbin' sticks and stones together makes the sparks ignite

And the thought of lovin' you is getting so exciting

Skyrockets in flight

Afternoon delight!

Despite their initial protest, the twins actually joined Andi and Paul in singing, then broke up the "harmonization" by hopping up and down "Can we do croaky? I wanna do croaky!"

"I'm sure Uncle John and Aunt Macy will want to do karaoke tonight," smiled Andi. "now take your back packs upstairs and show Miss Yi where you put your stuff."

"Yayyyyy!" and the twins dashed up the stairs, stopped halfway, ran down the stairs, grabbed their packs, and ran back up.

"Oh, lord, I hate disco," muttered Yi as she gathered up her pack and trudged up the stairs. Up in the loft, the twins were opening their backpacks. Once they got them open, their expressions changed from mischief to that of disappointment.

"Hey!" cried Madeline as she dumped her clothing out on to the bed.

"Who took all our snacks?" demanded a pouting Sandy as she glared at Yi, her little arms crossed, and her eyebrows lowered.

"Your mom mentioned that she repacked your bags," said Yi as she placed her clothes in the footlocker at the foot of her full-size bed. "She said that you can't wear pop-tarts, so she filled your back packs with things like shirts and pants and socks."

"No fair!" pouted Madeline. "I'm going to tell Poppa he'll fix it."

"Poppa said that if you want snacks, you have to come to me."

"Awwww, no fair!" they chimed in unison.

"Poppa is making stew for supper, so he doesn't want you filled up on junk," scolded Yi, trying her hardest not to sound like her own mother Sunny.

After a collective gasp, the twins shouted, "STOOOOO!" Sandy made a dash for the stairs, but Yi caught her.

"No one leaves until everyone puts their clothes in their footlockers!" Yi's voice had that Word of Mom's finality to it that caused the twins to stop in their tracks.

"Oh, kaaay," they moaned. Madeline tried to be meticulous about transferring her clothing from the pile on her cot to the footlocker. Sandy merely opened her footlocker, moved the tray out of the way, then dropped her entire backpack into her footlocker. Yi noticed that Madeline's footlocker had a sticker of a cartoon dog from Paw Patrol on the lid, while Sandy's footlocker had a sticker of a pink tyrannosaurus rex with angel wings. This was the first deviation between the twins that Yi had noticed, so she had to ask.

"How come you have a dinosaur and Madeline has a puppy on your footlockers?"

Sandy sighed sadly. "We ran out of Paw Patrol stickers." Then Madeline muttered something in their private language and they both shouted "STOOOOOO!" and ran down the stairs.

Yi caught up with them in the kitchen where Paul was preparing the stew. The counters were covered with vegetables of all kinds, and Paul was browning the meat in an 8-quart Dutch oven. Yi peered into the pot and sniffed the aroma of cooking meat. "Smells good. What's all in there?"

"Fruits of the local vicinity. There's beef from Gerry and Irma Hirsh's dairy herd, pork from Brad and Dianna Clemmons' herd, venison and turkey from the woods out back, there's even some chicken from one of our girls that stopped laying. Most of the veg is local as well."

"Is that ox tail in there?"

"Yep, it really gives the stock a boost. Here's seasoning; onion powder, pepper, paprika, celery seed, basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary, cayenne, and salt," he said as he proffered a glass bowl filled with the dry ingredients. "Are you ready to take over? Andi needs my help in the hayloft." He turned to see Yi tying on an apron.

"I'm ready to go, boss." She smiled and lifted Madeline on to the counter. "Thanks for getting some of the cutting done. I didn't bring my knives."

"No problemo," Paul opened a loose-leaf notebook. "Here's the recipe. This time around, stick to the recipe so you'll know what everyone is used to. After tonight you can experiment, but keep in mind that this is mostly my mom's recipe. It's what everyone is used to and is expecting."

"Aye aye sir." Yi knew how dangerous it was to experiment with favored family recipes.

Paul pulled off his apron and helped Yi tie hers on. He pointed to a door on the pantry. "The bread machine and instructions are here, the flour and anything else you'd need is in here or in the fridge. Goofus and Doofus," he said, tickling the twins, "like French bread and they'll whine if there isn't any, make at least one loaf of that, then make one more of anything else you'd like. Questions?"

"Does that butter churn work?" Yi asked, nodding toward an antique mason jar with a device on the lid that featured a hand crank.

"To be honest, I don't know," answered Paul. "Irma Hirsh gave that to me years ago, and I just thought it made a folksy looking decoration." Yi gave the crank a few turns, and the churning paddles spun freely in the jar. She looked in the fridge and found a large jar marked 'Heavy Cream' in grease pencil. "We get that from Irma also," Paul said.

Yi set the cream on the counter next to the churn. "Once that gets up to room temperature, I'll have my sous chefs turn this into yummy homemade butter, and we'll have plenty of homemade buttermilk for pancakes in the morning." Sandy and Madeline nodded their heads vigorously.

"All righty then, any more questions?"

"We got it, colonel," she said with a truly weak salute, "the general needs your help."

"Carry on," said Paul with an equally weak left-handed salute, and with that, he disappeared out the kitchen door.

Yi turned to her sous chefs who were sitting on the counter, swinging their legs. Somehow, they had already gotten flour on their faces. "Ok troops, let's cook!"

"Eyeyie sir!" the twins responded, and they helped Yi as only a pair of five-year-old's can, soon the counter (and all three girls) was covered with spilled flour, scattered vegetables, and seasoning that missed the Dutch oven when the twins were honing their seasoning skills (Yi was teaching them the "make it snow" method of sprinkling seasoning on to a dish).

Finally, the last ingredient went in; enough water to fill the Dutch oven. They took turns gently stirring the stew, and when it softly started bubbling, Yi announced, "It's time for the very last step!" Out of habit, she dipped a bit of the broth from the stew pot with a spoon and took a sip. "It's getting there," she said with a smile and reached for the lid, but then she noticed the twins. They were both leaning forward with their mouths open. Yi got another spoonful of the broth and gave both of the twins a taste. Their reactions were both negative.

"This ain't poppa's stooo," complained Sandy.

"It needs to cook," said Yi. "See? The last step is to cover the stew and set it on the wood stove and simmer the stew for five hours." She pointed to the last step on the recipe, which indeed said what Yi just told the girls. "That allows for all the meat and veggies to cook and make new flavors."

They studied the recipe as if they could read and nodded their approval. Just as Yi was setting the lid in place, Madeline said, "What are those pointy bits in its top?"

Yi looked at the Dutch oven lid and sure enough, the inside surface was covered with a series of half inch-long iron points of metal. It gave the lid the appearance of a torture device, like an Iron Maiden, which got Yi to wondering what the deal with this iron pot was. "Good eye, little one. Let's look it up and find out." Yi pulled out her phone and began searching for the meaning behind the little iron nubs. She quickly discovered that it was a self-basting Dutch oven. "When the food cooks, the steam rises up and condenses on the lid, like the humidity in the air condenses on a glass holding ice water. Get what I mean?"

Madeline and Sandy nodded as if they understood what she was talking about. Yi continued, "Without these spikes, all those great flavors in the steam would condense and they would pour down the inside sides of the Dutch oven. With this self-basting lid, the juices would come down these little points and drip on to the food!"

"And make it STOOOO!" shouted Sandy.

"Exactly!" said Yi as she put the lid on the Dutch oven and with a handling tool, she lifted the stew pot from the electric stove in the kitchen, carried it to the main cabin, trailed by her two blond shadows, and placed it on the wood stove to simmer.

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The snowflakes filled the air when John and Macy pulled up to the cabin. A light breeze was blowing the flakes toward the east as they fluttered down from the heavens. The sky was slate gray and threatening more snow while the air had a warmish dampness to it that promised that the snow would be heavy.

John got the backpacks out of the trunk of the car while Macy walked inside with a bag full of snacks and soda. "Toc toc! Bonjour! Is anybody here?" called Macy in a sing-song voice.

"Aunt Macy! We're in the kitchen!" called Sandy.

"Help! This is hard work!" called Madeline, her voice had a tinge of desperation.

Macy stepped through the little hall into the kitchen to find Madeline and Sandy sitting on the kitchen counter with their feet in the empty sink. Each one had a small mason jar half full of heavy cream and they were vigorously shaking the jars. Yi stood nearby with a large mason jar with an antique butter churn lid and she was furiously cranking the handle of the churn mechanism. All three were wearing aprons and all three were decorated with flour. "Good morning, pastor," said Yi as she checked her butter.

"I prefer you call me Macy," smiled the ebony beauty as she started putting the soda cans in the fridge.

"Guess what we're doing, Aunt Macy!" called Sandy.

"I know what you're doing, mon petit angels. I did it many times when I was little, too."

Madeline looked at her six-foot two-inch aunt in awe. "You were little?"

Yi whooped in laughter as Macy tried to compose her own laughter. "Oui, we all start out little. But I bet your uncle John does not know what you are doing."

Yi looked at her watch. "One-minute left. Come on, girls! Shake, shake, shake!" The twins, as tired as they were of shaking their little jars, put in a renewed effort and shook as hard as they could. Just as Yi said "Time!" John stepped into the kitchen. The twins relaxed with a smile and inspected the contents of their jars.

"Making homemade butter?" asked John, "That's awesome!"

"Awwww, he knew!" pouted Sandy.

Her reaction was not what John had expected. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"You're not supposed to know," pouted Madeline.

John glanced over at Macy for support. She sidled up to him and whispered softly in his ear, "I told them you wouldn't know what they were doing. I didn't know you knew about..."

John stepped back and looked at Macy in shock. "They're NOT making homemade butterscotch? I came in and saw them making homemade butterscotch, so I said, 'You're making homemade butterscotch? that's awesome,' isn't that what I said?"

"That's what I heard," said Yi.

"So, you're making homemade butterscotch, right?"

"Nooooo!" said Sandy, shaking her jar even harder.

"You are silly Uncle John!" said Madeline. "We're making butter for our bread!" she nodded to a large bowl with a towel over it where the bread dough was rising.

"Time's up, girls. Let's see what we have," called Yi, and the twins gratefully put their jars down on the counter while Yi unscrewed the churning mechanism from her jar. She poured the liquid from her jar into another mason jar and explained, "This is called buttermilk; it's going to make our pancakes extra yummy tomorrow."

Madeline examined her jar. "What's this white stuff?" she asked as Yi opened her jar for her.

"That's the butter you just made." Yi took a slice of bread, buttered it, then cut it up into several pieces and gave a piece to everyone present. John and Macy both agreed that it was the best butter they ever had, and only then did the twins reluctantly try their bread and agreed with Uncle John and Aunt Macy.

"But it's not yellow," complained Madeline.

"And it's not square," said Sandy as she poured her buttermilk into the buttermilk jar.

"No, we're going to make ours special." Yi produced a large cookie cutter that the twins used last month to make gingerbread boys for Christmas. "We're going to make a butter boy!"

Yi showed the twins how to rinse the remaining buttermilk from the butter that they spooned from their jars, then they combined their butter into one big ball of butter and with Yi guiding them, they pressed it into the cookie cutter Yi had placed on a plate. Then she eased the cutter up off the plate and there he was, their butter boy!

They placed their creation at the far end of the counter, away from the oven and other appliances, then covered it with a towel so it could cool and firm up, with the remaining butter, Yi made a stick of butter to John's great amusement. "Yi honey," said Macy as she tapped on Yi's shoulder. "Do you know how to set up the curtains upstairs?"

"I didn't notice curtains," said Yi as she broke up a giggling flour fight between the twins.

"When you're done here, let me know. I'll show you how to get some privacy. Your bed is a little difficult to curtain off."

"Thanks Pas... I mean Macy."

Yi and the twins got back to work on making bread and John and Macy returned to the main cabin. They kissed gently, then John said, "I'm going to put the car in the barn, then I'll be back to take the bags upstairs."

Macy's shoulders slumped, and she rolled her eyes. "I'm not a cripple. I can carry the bags upstairs." When John objected, Macy gently covered his mouth with her fingers. "Go! I'll be fine. Go see what your brother and my sister are doing. Dépêchez-vous, away with you!"

John pulled his car into the side garage door of the enormous barn and made sure that the other vehicles were not blocked before shutting it off. He then poked around the lower section of the barn, the former milking stall area where the vehicles are parked, the former silage storage area, where the Kubota was parked, the former workshop, where Paul stores his sports equipment and has his HAM radios set up, but he didn't find Paul or Andi. But he heard Andi giggling upstairs in the cavernous hayloft.

He climbed the stairs to the henhouse, which was only occupied by chickens, but the door into the hayloft had a new bright red sign on it that read "CAUTION: The firing range is HOT." What is going on? He opened the door slowly and peeked out and saw that several hay bales had been stacked up so that he had to walk around them, and when he stepped around them he saw that there were a stack of hay bales at one end of the barn with targets mounted on them, and several high-intensity work lamps illuminating the targets. At the other end of the barn, several shooting stations were set up. The stations were made of 2x4 and 2x8 lumber with a couple of hay bales to sit on.

Paul was shooting from station number two with his Daisy Powerline 901 Air Rifle, his favorite "plinking gun", but what surprised John was that Andi was at station one, shooting a compound bow. He looked down at target number one, and there were several arrows already fired, most inside the center ring!

As Andi prepared to shoot, Paul stepped up remarkably close behind his wife and said, "Let me help you with that big ol' bow, ma'am." He ground his hips into her behind.

Andi glanced at her husband, thrust her hips back at him, shoving him back a step, then straightened and released a shot that landed dead center. "My, my, my! You shorly did hep this lil' ol' girl suh!"

"Lucky shot," grinned Paul and he prepared to take his shot. Andi kept her distance. In fact, she stepped back from him. But just as he squeezed the trigger, Andi suddenly pulled up her sweatshirt, revealing her beautiful breasts encased in a sexy lace bra. Paul's shot went wild.

"It appears you're having a problem concentrating on your target," she grinned evilly.

"Depends on what target you're talking about," he growled with a smile and lunged, wrapping his arms around her.

"I can see why you said that the firing range is hot," said John from his perch atop a hay bale.

Andi and Paul didn't break their passionate kiss, but Paul raised a finger, requesting a moment with his wife. His other hand stroked Andi's naked back and Paul wondered if he was weird for loving her back so much. God, but he loves the rare doggy style sex with this beautiful woman! Her long ivory neck framed by her hair, shoulders and ribs narrowing down to her remarkable waist, then flaring out to her womanly hips and heart-shaped ass... so much like a cello, and so beautiful!

Andi pulled him tighter to her as their tongues entwined, small whimpers of love and passion escaping from her as they kissed until a long moment later, but far too soon. They broke their kiss and leaned back and took deep breaths.

As Paul and Andi whispered passionately "I love you" to each other, John pulled out his phone, plugged it into the aux jack of Paul's radio, selected a country song, and started playing it. "This is a waltz," said Paul and before Andi could realize it, she was in Paul's arms, dancing to the 1-2-3 rhythm she loves so much while Paul sang along with the music.

Oh, I never saw that look in your eyes,

And I never had you hold me that tight,

And I never saw you dance with your feet off the ground,

Oh, but I see it now.

Their eyes were locked on to each other as they danced in that drafty old barn to the beautiful, bittersweet love song. Their entire worlds were wrapped up in each other's eyes as they spun around in time with the country ballad. Finally, when the song ended, they drew together with another sweet, passionate kiss.

"Now that's how I like to see my married couples behave," smiled John from his perch on top of the hay bales.

"Did my kid brother say something?" Paul asked Andi between kisses.

"I think that was your pastor," said Andi, as she arched her neck up for another kiss.

As their lips parted, John started clapping and whistling, then said, "Get a room!"

Finally, Paul turned to face his brother and said with a grin, "This is our room. It's even been christened."

"Paul!" Andi gave him a swat on the butt and Paul returned with a barrage of tickles to her very ticklish ribs until she cried, "I give! I give!" When her giggling ended and her breathing resumed normal, she swatted Paul again. "You don't tell your pastor things like that!"

"I didn't. I was talking to my kid brother."

She sighed and looked around. The rafters were lost in the gloom and at the vast expanse of the space of the building. "We should have a barn dance in here," she said.

Paul shrugged and said, "we could do that."

John, laying back on his perch, nodded and said, "no problem. We've had entire campouts in here."

"Really?" Andi couldn't believe the idea of a campout inside a barn.

"Yes ma'am," nodded John, "the boys from the church youth group camped inside here."

"The kids usually camp back in the woods at the campsite where the girls want their castle," Paul explained, "but it was raining so hard that we couldn't get back there. We ended up pitching their tents in here and used propane grills." Paul picked up Andi's bow and fired a flu-flu at the distant target. It fell far short.

"I still say that was the best campout ever," smiled John as he basked in the memories.

"If you could do that, a barn dance should be easy," said Andi.

"Let's pick up our toys, tend to the chickens, and discuss this next to the fire. That storm is starting to hit," said Paul as a gust of wind slammed into the barn. He nocked another flu-flu then aiming upward at almost a 60-degree angle, he fired the practice arrow into the gloom. Andi thought his shot didn't have a chance as it disappeared into the darkness, flu-flu arrows are designed for short distances, they have a feathery "hula skirt" designed to slow it down, there's no way it could make that distance. But down at the far end of the hayloft, where the contractor's floodlights illuminate the targets, a flu-flu suddenly appeared in a downward trajectory, and it hit the target. It hit the outside of the outer ring at the seven o'clock position, but it hit the target.

Andi gaped in shock. There was no way he could have been able to hit that target with a flu-flu, but there it was, stuck solid in the bale of hay. Paul presented her compound bow to her with a low sweeping bow, then in a truly bad English accent said "As I previously hath said, mine own mistress, let's picketh up our toys, tend to the chickens, and break with this next to the fireth, yond st'rm is starting to hitteth."

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"Sandy, Madeline, would you like to say grace?" asked Macy. Everyone had gathered around the table, which was still abutted to the windows in the main cabin, the twins sat in their usual spot facing the windows, John and Macy sat with their backs toward the new cabin, Yi, Andi, and Paul sat with their backs to the wood-burning stove.

"Ok," started Sandy, "hold hands," she instructed the table. She and Madeline joined hands and held their free hands out to Andi and Macy. Soon everyone joined hands, but the twins paused.

"What do you say?" prompted Macy.

Slowly, the twins recited their line, "Will the circle be unbroken?"

Nobody said anything until John realized what they were implying (assisted with a nudge from Macy) and he half rose and reached out across the table to Paul. They joined hands, and the circle was unbroken. Satisfied, the twins closed their eyes, lowered their heads, and said the grace that their Aunt Macy, Professor of Theology, taught them:

Rub-a-dub-dub

Thanks for the grub

Yaaaaay GOD!

The twins threw their hands in the air with that last line, then started clapping as the adults started chuckling. "What kind of grace is that?" asked a startled Andi.

"Yeah, I never really went to church, but that doesn't sound quite..." Yi looked a bit confused, then said "religious."

"That's a perfect grace," said John, "you're giving thanks for the food, and giving the glory to God, and you're doing it cheerfully. And most importantly, you're not wasting time by repeating fancy words that aggrandize the speaker rather than the lord."

"It is a camp grace," said Macy, leaning across the table to pat Andi's hand. "The children say it at bible camp, which we hold here, back in the woods."

"Speaking of grub, where is it?" asked Yi. "The smell is driving me crazy!"

As John and Paul rose to feed their hungry family, Andi leaned over and patted Yi's hand. "You should have seen me weeks ago; the girls and I hadn't had anything to eat..."

"Cheesy Puffs!" yelled Madeline. "We had Cheesy Puffs!"

"I looooove Cheesy Puffs," said Sandy as she hugged herself.

"I know. Someone found my stash of Cheesy Puffs on the yacht on day one," Yi said, while glaring at the twins. Then she softened. "Let mommy finish her story."

"Sorry," the guilty-looking twins said in tiny voices.

"... I'm starving, lost, wet, cold, terrified. It's pitch black in here. Paul was in the barn, and the smells hit me! There were fresh pine boughs and dried herbs hanging from the rafters. The smell of the wood, but the stew! And the fresh bread! It was too much for a woman to bear!"

"I believe it," sighed Yi, "I know I wouldn't have lasted as long as you did." Yi leaned over and said softly "I would have been 'feed me or fuck me, I don't care which one you start with.'"

Andi was about to say that those were her sentiments exactly when Paul called out from behind her, "No secrets at the supper table," and he placed the Dutch oven on the table and removed the lid. The smell of the bubbling savory stew filled the cabin even more than it had before, and the twins shouted "STOOOOO!" John returned from the kitchen with two loaves of bread and set them on the table, and as Paul started filling bowls, John sliced the bread and handed it out.

"Didn't you guys make something for dinner?" Yi asked the twins.

"Oh, yeah!" cried Sandy as she slid off of her chair.

"I almost forget!" exclaimed Madeline, and she raced her sister into the kitchen.

Being the only persons who did not know what the twins had made, Paul and Andi were completely confused. Finally. Sandy appeared with a plate covered with a tea towel and she held it up to her mother with both hands. Andi reached for the tea towel and as she lifted it, both twins grinned and nodded their heads. She lifted the towel, and both twins shouted, "Ta DAAAA!"

"We made you butter, mommy!"

Andi looked at a small white square, slightly larger than a pat of butter you'd get at a truck stop, sandwiched between a piece of cardstock and a piece of wax paper. "That's wonderful honey. Will that be enough for everyone?" Andi said with a mother's diplomacy.

"Oh no," said Madeline, "That's for Uncle John for spoiling our surprise." Sandy stuck her tongue out at John, and Madeline continued, "This one is for everyone else," and she held up her tea towel covered plate. Andi removed the towel (with Ta DAAAAA accompaniment) and there was their butterboy, made from their oversized gingerbread boy cookie cutter.

"Oh my goodness, he's enormous!" Andi was truly startled at the size of the butterboy.

"Taste him mommy! Taste him!" The twins were practically hopping up and down with excitement.

With her butter knife, Andi took a sample of the butterboy's foot and tasted it. Her eyes opened up in amazement. "This is so good! It's the best butter I've ever had!" She pulled her girls in for a hug. "It's going to taste so good on the bread you made!"

"Miss Yi helped too, mommy," added Sandy.

Madeline agreed with a firm nod of the head, "She taught us to shake!" Both girls started hopping up and down chanting, "Shake, shake, shake! Shake your butter!"

"Ok, dat's enough nonsense, back in your chairs, youse guys, ya hear?" said Paul in his Guy 'n Dolls tough guy accent as he swooped the tiny laughing girls up and plunked them down in their chairs.

"Yes, daddy," said both girls. Their voices sounded remorseful, but their playful grins showed they were anything but remorseful. Paul grinned and ruffled their hair, making them giggle even more before he sat down between Andi and Yi.

Andi laughed at the interplay between Paul and her girls... no... they're his girls now, too. They've been his girls for nearly a month. She suddenly felt a great swelling in her heart, and without warning, she burst into tears. She covered her mouth with a paper towel, leaped up from the table and ran into the kitchen. Yi sprung up and followed Andi into the kitchen while the twins suddenly grew horribly concerned. Paul was sitting in his chair, his face a mask of shock. "What did I do?"

Macy, who was looking at Andi when she burst into tears, leaned over to John and whispered in his ear. He thought for a moment, then leaned over and whispered into her ear. She nodded, pushed away from the table, and walked back into the kitchen.

Yi found Andi had locked herself in the water closet and was trying to get Andi to open the door. Andi just kept saying, "I'm alright, I'm ok."

Finally, Macy arrived and tapped on the door and said softly, "Chère belle-sœur, please come out and talk to me."

"I'll be fine," came the faint reply.

"Chère belle-sœur, I know those were not tears of pain. Come out and share your joy."

"No, it's silly."

Macy sighed and stood up. She turned to Yi and said, "Regarde moi, (Watch me) you may need to know this, especially with les deux bambins." (The two children) Macy reached up to the molding above the water closet door and located a long slim nail that was placed up there. She took the nail and inserted it in a small hole in the center of the doorknob and pushed until a pop was heard when the door unlocked. She opened the door and crouched down. Andi was sitting on the toilet, looking completely embarrassed, a sopping wet paper towel in her hand.

"Chère belle-sœur," Macy began softly, "tell me why the tears?"

Andi looked in her beautiful sister-in-law's dark eyes and looked for a long time, then gasped, "You're going to have..."

Macy quickly covered Andi's mouth with her long slim fingers and said, "I know about moi. Tell me about you." And Andi spoke, and as she did her tears returned, and Macy and Yi joined her in tears. Then, without prompting, Yi left to get Paul.

Back in the main cabin, Paul was pacing the floor in worry, even though his brother told him several times to sit down and relax. The twins were worried too, but they were also hungry, so they started eating not long after Macy left the room.

"Look, Paul, relax. It's not anything you did, it's probably something you never noticed; a picture on the wall, or the shape of a potato in the stew." John waved around a potato skewered on his fork to illustrate his point. Something triggered an emotional response in Andi.

"You're a doctor, you know that emotions are completely different for women than they are for men. Imagine a big old helping of delicious mashed potatoes covered with the most perfect gravy. To a man, reality, or what we perceive as reality, is the mashed potatoes, while emotion is the gravy. To us, the gravy just enhances the flavor of the mashed potatoes. Many of us believe we can live without the gravy, and many times we work to avoid the gravy."

"For women, the potatoes and the gravy are both emotion, and together it makes their reality."

While Paul was trying to respond to John's bit of wisdom, Yi entered the room and said to Paul, "Andi's fine. She's just a little embarrassed right now. I think she needs you."

As Paul hurried into the kitchen, the twins looked at Yi. Madeline's mouth was full, and she struggled to speak, so Sandy said, "Is mommy ok?"

"Mommy is fine," said Yi as she wiped the stew gravy off of Madeline's face. "She just got really happy, a lot happy, and she took a time out, so she didn't go crazy." Yi sat down and grabbed her spoon. "I heard what you said about the potatoes and gravy," she said to John as she lifted a spoonful of stew to eat.

"Was I close?" he smiled.

Just then Macy entered the room and sat down. "Did he use that mashed potato comparison again?" Both twins nodded their heads like they had heard it a thousand times before. Macy leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial voice to Yi, "It's only intended for a male audience."

In the other cabin, Paul took Andi by the hand and led her gently out of the water closet. "Let's go in here where we both can sit." Wordlessly, she followed her man into the sauna. The door closed, and they were together, separated from the rest of the family. Paul sat next to her and held her close. "Better now?"

"Mmmmm... closer."

He pulled her up on his lap, facing him, their arms wrapped around each other, and their lips met. Their tongues slithered together for a short while, then he gently pushed her back. "Better?"

"Closer daddy."

He knew from experience what that mean. Smiling, he lifted her sweatshirt up. She raised her arms, and he slid it off, then unfastened her bra and revealed her magnificent breasts. She stood, and he unbuckled her "cowboy girl" belt and jeans, then slid them and her panties off of her legs. Next came his clothes, then dressed only in their socks. She sat back down on his lap, their sex pressing against each other's, his hardness throbbing against her, her moisture soaking his lap.

"Better sweetheart?"

"For now," and their lips met again.

"Are you ready to talk now?"

She nodded and leaned in for another kiss. The kiss was both fierce and sweet, and finally when they broke the kiss, he asked her, "What was it? What set you off? Talk to me, darling."

She leaned back a little so he could see, but his attention was drawn to her breasts. She held his face and tilted his head up to insure she had his complete attention and said, "Yes daddy," She said it in a remorseful tone of voice, but she had an expression full of mischief.

Rather than making him suffer and guess, she said, "It's what the twins did when you put them back in their chairs. I used to say the exact same thing to my dad." She sniffed and said "The memories came rushing back, then I remembered how much I miss my daddy, and how my girls grew up without a daddy... Then you came along and took us all in, and for the first time... right here tonight... I fully realized that they do have a daddy now, and now they're not just my girls, they're our girls," she started weeping again...

"and... I just felt so happy... so insanely happy... I thought my heart would explode and... and... I couldn't... I... I..." suddenly her eyes shot wide open and she cried "Ohhh daddy!" Paul had lifted her up, aligned his hardness, and slowly lowered her back down.

As she lowered down on him, she savored the invasion, the spreading, the stretching, the filling. She leaned her head back, her mouth agape and groaned in absolute pleasure as millimeter after millimeter of the man she loves entered her. Her eyelids fluttered when he finally kissed her cervix. "You always know just what I need," she said with a sigh. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she let her body take over. As she rose and fell on him, he thrust up at her, driving hard as he could into her core. Suddenly, she gasped, and he stopped and held her motionless.

"Baby, did I hurt you?"

"No, you can never hurt me." She looked concerned, but then she gave him a saucy grin. "But I think you found some virgin territory." With that, their mouths came together, and they celebrated their passionate love.

In the main cabin, John was entertaining Yi and the twins with a story from his youth. "...so, I said to Paul," said John as he came to the climax of his story, "don't worry about the cow, she'll find her own way home."

Yi and Macy were laughing uproariously, as well as were the twins, when Paul and Andi strolled into the room. "Not the cow story again," groaned Paul. Andi clung to his arm, her face glowing with an angelic look of pure bliss, while Paul's face resembled a happy papa bear basking in the joy of providing for and protecting his mate and cubs.

"Mama!" the twins cried. "We saved you some stooooo!" cried Sandy.

"And butterboy!" added Madeline, "but Uncle John ate all the bread!"

"Yeah!" cried Sandy, her arms crossed, and her eyebrows lowered in fury.

"Hang on you two, there's another loaf of bread." He moved a tea towel to the side, revealing the second loaf that Yi and the twins baked.

Andy eased into her chair, her smile still intact, and Paul took his place between her and Yi. "Are you good chère belle-sœur?" said Macy with a knowing smile.

"I'm ok," said Andi, but then she muttered, "I think he punctured a lung." Then she noticed the conversation at the table had stopped and everyone was staring at her. "Did I say that out loud?"

John threw his head back in laughter, Macy was laughing so hard she had to lower her head to her crossed arms on the table, and Yi broke into a huge grin, reached around Paul, and held up a fist for a fist bump with Andi. "Lucky girl!"

<><><><><> ֎ <><><><><>

Dinner finished, dishes washed, dried, and put away, the few remaining leftovers stored in the fridge, and a new loaf of bread in the bread machine for the morning, the family retired to sit around the fire. The couch was moved back, and chairs were pulled in place, and the whole arrangement was made without disturbing Wonka from his place in front of the fire. John and Macy came out of the kitchen with wine bottles and wine glasses.

"What is a chère belle-sœur?" asked Yi. "you and Andi call each other that."

Macy handed Yi a wine glass. "It simply means 'dear sister-in-law'. Belle-sœur is a much nicer sounding term for sisters by marriage than 'sister-in-law' don't you think?". She then handed Sandy and Madeline a pair of Disney Princess sippy cups. "And these would be petits chéris, little darlings."

"Much nicer. What would you call me?"

Macy smiled, "Nae chingu."

Yi looked defeated. Nae chingu is Korean for "my friend." Yi sighed and said "Peulangseueoleul baeugo sip-eoss-eoyo." (I was hoping to learn French)

"In French I would say 'mon ami.'"

Yi smiled and sighed. "Mon ami sounds so much nicer than nae chingu."

As John filled glasses with wine (for Paul, Andi, and Yi) and bubbling cider (for Sandy, Madeline, Macy, and himself) Paul asked, "What are we toasting?"

John stood behind Macy and placed his free hand on her shoulder. They looked at each other in the eye and finally John lifted his glass and said, "Macy and I are expecting."

"Hear-Hear!" called Paul above the stifled gasp of "I knew it!" from Andi.

While Andi and Yi hugged Macy, Paul put his arm around his brother's shoulders, and they stepped aside. "Think this time it will happen?"

"I don't know," sighed a visibly nervous John. "We've already lost 3," he took a deep shuddering breath, "We shouldn't have waited so long," he groaned. "Macy is almost 40," and he let it trail off from there.

"I've seen you guys at christenings, how you handle the babies, how you handle the youth groups, how you handle the teen church, how you have so much love for them all. You guys are going to be fantastic."

"It's not raising the kids," said John, "it's getting them. The emotional toll of losing these babies is too much..."

Paul looked over at Macy. She had the biggest smile he had ever seen on the woman. "She doesn't look worried," he said, "or maybe the worry isn't on her side of the court."

John looked at his big brother, who, as usual, saw right to the core of the issue. "No, she does so much better than I do with these losses. She cries it out, then she's fine. Me? it is eating my soul. I keep thinking maybe God doesn't want us to have children..."

"Maybe God wants you to relax, trust in Him, and let what happens happen. Or maybe he wants you to talk with Josh."

"Josh?" asked John. Josh was their friend. He had a big plot of land across the street from them. The land used to be a scout camp of some sort, and there were several cabins on the land.

"Yeah, Josh's boss and his bosses wife run an adoption advocacy group. Maybe that's the direction you should take. Either way, you need to trust in Him."

"That's what I'm supposed to say, and I do say it," fumed John, "to other people." His shoulders visibly sagged.

"No, little brother, He doesn't want you to say it, He wants you to Know It, Learn It, Live It." That was a mantra of their fathers, and John said it along with Paul. "Maybe it's testosterone related," Paul said after a long pause.

John considered these words, then he looked Paul in the eye and said, "What are you talking about?"

Paul just shrugged. "I was a flight surgeon for many years. I dealt with bomber and fighter jocks, the most testosterone driven individuals on earth. Even the women were more macho than most men that you'll ever meet. ANY failure on their part, for any reason, was always a slight on their manhood. I've had a few pilots whose wives couldn't conceive, and I had to talk them down off the ledge and let them know that it wasn't a lack of manhood on their part. Once they relaxed and just let life happen, life happened."

"I'll give it a try; you make it sound so easy," sighed John.

The men just noticed that Sandy and Madeline were standing next to them, looking up at them while drinking from their sippy cups. "Are you talking about Aunt Macy's thanksgiving baby?" asked Sandy.

John smiled and crouched down so he could speak on the same physical level with the girls. "Honey, this baby is going to be born in August, in the summer."

Madeline shook her head insistently, her blond tresses flowing, "Un-uh. Thanksgiving. Same as Danny." And with that, the two girls turned and walked away, heading over to the table where coloring projects awaited them, still slurping on their sippy cups.

John and Paul looked at each other in surprise, then joined the women. Andi and Yi were excited for Macy, but Macy was trying to calm them down. "Please relax. I rarely get far past this point. We've lost several already."

"Hush you!" said Andi, "It'll happen!"

"On thanksgiving," said Madeline from across the room, but only John and Paul heard her.

Excusing himself, Paul led the twins upstairs and changed them into their pajamas, and told them about all the fun they were going to have in the snow the next day. He also tried to get them to talk more about their cousin "the Thanksgiving Baby" but they wouldn't elaborate, and eventually they acted like they didn't know what Paul was talking about. He finally got them dressed in what to him appeared to be nearly identical night gowns, despite the giggling and wrestling.

Finally, the twins got up off the bed and looked at each other, burst into tears, and then they raced down the stairs. Paul found them huddled on Andi's lap, crying like their lives were over. Andi looked up and Paul and in a theatrical tone of voice said, "How could you do this to these innocent young girls?" and gave him a wink that the twins didn't see.

"Forgive me, milady, but I sought to clothe them in their nightclothes."

"No!" the girls howled. "It's all wrong!"

Andi mouthed the words "Just tired," to Paul, who nodded, and prepared to sit down.

"You said he loved us!" cried Sandy to Andi.

"I want a new daddy," Madeline whimpered.

Paul planned to go along with whatever was brewing, but that hurt. Andi saw the look of horror on Paul's face. His mouth opened, but he remained silent, then his features softened, like the life had drained out of him. He looked gray, his complexion suddenly matched the salt in his salt and pepper beard. He looked broken and utterly defeated. Without a word, he turned on his heel and left.

"Madeline! How could you say such a mean thing to your poppa?" Andi was aghast. She has never heard either of her girls speak like that.

Sandy came to her sister's defense. "He put the wrong nighties on us! He should know!" She pulled down on her nightie so Andi could clearly see the small Disney princess printed on her nightie. "See?"

"Poppa is brand new at this," scolded Andi. "if he got it wrong, you should have told him, and you should have told him why."

"But he should know!" whined Madeline. "I love unicorns!" she said, pointing to the colorful unicorn on her nightie. "He should know!"

"And I like Ella!" whined Sandy, whose nightie featured Ella.

"He doesn't know. Poppa is new at being a poppa, and he's new with little girls. He never had any sisters."

"No sisters?" squealed Madeline, who couldn't imagine a life without her sister.

"No, just his brother John. And boys don't wear nighties and they don't care about unicorns," Andi added with a little poke at the unicorn on Madeline's nightie. "Now you go and apologize to your father and tell him why you like to wear the nighties you wear so he will understand. Now go!"

Madeline started, "But..."

"No buts." Andi looked angry. "What you said to Poppa was just the meanest thing a little girl could ever say."

Sandy tried to stand up for her sister, "But..."

"No! If you want a new daddy, then poppa goes away, and it's no more cabin, no more nice house, and no more mommy, because I'm going with him!" Andi glared at the twins, but they still didn't look phased. "And no more Wonka!" That did it. The twins looked utterly shocked as the magnitude of their crime set in. They turned and looked at Wonka, who was snoozing by the fire, then back at their mother, tears filling their eyes.

"I'm sorry mommy," they said in perfect unison.

"Don't apologize to me, I'm not the person you hurt." Andi pointed to the kitchen. "Poppa is in there, go!"

As if heading for their execution by firing squad, Sandy and Madeline slowly made their way to the kitchen in the new cabin while Andi, John, Macy, and Yi watched their slow, agonized progress. Finally, John had to ask Andi, "What was that all about?"

"Something that could only happen in my life," Andi sighed. As she explained the issue with the nighties, the twins walked slowly into the kitchen. Paul was pouring hot milk into something they couldn't see. The twins walked quietly up to Paul and stopped, but he continued doing whatever it was on the counter. Sandy elbowed Madeline, who cleared her throat, but Paul ignored the throat clearing.

"Poppa?" she said in a tiny voice.

Paul stopped what he was doing and looked down. "Yes?"

The twins were shocked to see that he was wearing glasses. When mommy wears glasses, she's all business, and very stern. They learned that fact a long time ago (a long time, at least for a 5-year-old). Could this be the same for poppa? Finally, Madeline sputtered, "Poppa, I'm sorry I was mean, it's just... uhh, you put..."

Sandy burst out, "You put the wrong jammies on us!"

"I put the wrong jammies on you? Madeline, you like unicorns, so I put the unicorn jammies on you, Sandy, you like Frozen, so I put the Ella nightie on you." Paul was confused.

"Yeah, but I can't see the unicorn," said Madeline, holding her nightie straight to show off the unicorn.

"And I can't see Ella!" demanded Sandy with a stomp of her little foot.

That made no sense to Paul. When he and John were young, he was everything cowboy, and John loved Star Wars, and they dressed to match their passions. These girls dress to match each other's passions? It made no sense, but if that's what they want... Now comes the hard part. He crouched down, so he was at eye level with the girls and took off his reading glasses. "If that's what you want, I wish you had told me. I'm very, very sorry."

Sandy nodded her head once. "Don't let it happen again!"

"It won't," he rose and put his glasses back on. "I've got to pack and get out of here so you can find a new daddy."

Both girls looked shocked. "No! You just..."

"Madeline said she doesn't want me anymore, so Wonka and I have to go."

"Poppa no!" shrieked Madeline. She threw herself at Paul and wrapped herself around his legs. "I'm sorry," she wept, "I didn't mean it. I was mad."

Sandy joined in too, "Don't go Poppa, she won't say it anymore!"

"Please don't go Poppa!" Their wails were breaking his heart, and Andi's heart too as she listened just outside the door.

Paul crouched down and said, "Ok, tell you what, if I do something you don't like again, you tell me and we will fix it, but only if you promise not to say something mean like that again."

"We promise," said the twins as Paul wiped their tears with a dish towel.

"Well, then, done deal! Let's seal the deal," and they sealed their promise with a three-way high five. "I was making a snack for Wonka and myself for the trip, but we're not going now. Would you like a snack?" he said as he opened up the microwave.

Andi scrambled back to her spot on the couch, amazed at the way Paul could handle the girls. For someone who has never had a child in his life, he's doing an amazing job, she thought. Shortly, the girls came out of the kitchen with a mug of hot chocolate in one hand and a huge chocolate chip cookie in the other. As they headed back to the table to continue their coloring, Andi waved them over. "Did you apologize to Poppa?"

"Uh huh," they nodded, their mouths full of warm cookie.

"What did Poppa say?"

Sandy swallowed her bite of cookie and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. "He was confused, but we straightened him out."

"Oh, you did, did you?"

"Yeah, he is silly," said Madeline. "he thought that since I like unicorns, I should wear the unicorn jammies. But I can't see the unicorn if I'm wearing the unicorn jammies!" Her tone of voice carried the fact that this is a known truism throughout the unicorn loving world.

"Yeah, me too!" said Sandy. "If I want to see Ella, I have to walk around like this." She started walking around with her head bent down. To emphasize her point, she bumped into the couch. "See? It doesn't work!"

"Boys!" huffed Andi, while at the other end of the couch Macy almost suffocated herself, trying to suppress her laughter.

"Yeah, Boys!" huffed Sandy.

"Boys don't know nothing!" agreed Madeline.

"So poppa is not going to leave us?" asked Andi.

"No," replied Sandy, "we talked him out of it." And with that, the two retired to their coloring.

Paul emerged from the kitchen smiling. He gave a wink to Andi, then reached behind the hanging coats and turned on the outside floodlights while he turned down the interior lights except for the lamp hanging over the table so the girls could continue coloring. The floodlights illuminated a kaleidoscope of falling snow, huge flakes spiraling down from the sky. Sandy walked over and rummaged under the hanging jackets, and with a click, the Christmas lights inside and outside the cabin came on.

"I'm going to top off the woodbox," said Paul as he reached for his coat.

Andi sprung up. "I'm going with." The twins clamored, saying they wanted to go along also, but Andi said, "No, it's cold and snowy and you're in your jammies. It's time to wind down and get ready for bed."

"Awwww..." whined the girls in unison. "You're just going to get all kissy," said Sandy with a stomp of her foot to emphasize her dissatisfaction.

Andi crouched down and gathered the girls to her. "You want a little brother or sister, right?" The twins nodded and Andi continued, "Momma and poppa getting kissy is a very important part of that process."

With a tiny "Ewww" Sandy's shoulders sagged, but Madeline started pushing her mother toward the door. "Go be kissy!"

Once outside, Andi was struck by the silence of the snowfall. It was wet heavy snow, so the soft, nearly silent, background hiss was there, but other than that, there was nothing. It was like being in a recording studio where all background sounds were eliminated by "Sound Soak". A person doesn't realize how much of what they hear is an echo until the echo is gone. It was late, long after sunset, but the sky wasn't black, it was a medium shade of gray, and it was almost glowing. "Daddy?"

"Right over here, sweetie."

Andi found him around the back of the cabin, opening his fly, getting ready to urinate. She came up behind him and put her arms around him. "I want to help," she whispered.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, growing up a girl, you hear stories of boys writing their name in the snow and you get jealous," she said as she reached around and grasped his penis.

"Holy crap, your hands are cold!" he gasped.

"Where did it all go? What did you do to it?" she teased Paul. She knew a man's penis shriveled in the cold, but she didn't realize how much. Earlier, this appendage was pressing against her cervix. Now she could barely get it out past his zipper.

"It's smarter than we are. It doesn't come out to play in the snow."

"I thought you had to go."

"I do. Hang on a second, just a little stage fright. I've never had audience participation before."

"Stage fright? Oh! There you go... this is so cool! There's the P... does that look like an A? Oh wow! I wish I could do this!"

"I like your plumbing just like it is."

"Awww... You need some beer so we can finish your name. We couldn't do the whole L. Now, what do we do? We're going to have to change your name to Paui."

"I suggest we put your toys away and try again in the morning. I should be fully reloaded."

"So, what do I do now?"

"The closing ceremony requires one to shake off the last few... Hey!"

"Sorry, I got carried away."

"Let me get the rest. Getting bitten by the zipper is the worst kind of pain a guy could imagine." Paul zipped himself up and turned around to find Andi admiring her "artwork" in the snow. "What's on your mind?" Paul asked, but Andi just shook her head no. Paul led her over to the woodbox, sat down on it, then pulled her onto his lap. "Out with-it girly girl. What is on your mind?"

And now she spoke. The Paul that stood next to her a moment ago was her lover, and she wasn't comfortable sharing with him at the moment, but this Paul was the Paul she called "Daddy" and she could no more disobey him than she could disobey her real daddy. When he was in the "Daddy Mode" his words were velvet covered steel and his authority was benevolent but absolute.

"A couple of things," she started. She was looking at the woodshed and watching the snow accumulate, but his finger pressing on her cheek forced her gently to turn and look at him. "I need to get back to work. For the past month, I've been a tourist, a giggling bride, and a fairy-tale princess, but I'm a doctor, and I need to get back to work."

"The paperwork for your license is in, your records are being reviewed, we'll have an appointment with the state accreditation board next week..."

"I know, I just miss my patients, I miss my nurses, I miss my workstation, I just miss the whole thing."

"Tell you what, next Friday we'll go meet some of your new patients, OK?"

"Ok," she said with a sniff.

"Is there something else?

She mumbled in reply. Her gaze fell to the ground, where she noticed their footsteps were filling with snow.

Paul's voice was now stern. "I didn't hear you. What did you say?"

"I'm afraid to say it." she was near tears. The emotional rollercoaster of this evening was taking a toll on her. "You'll think I'm weird."

"We're a pretty weird couple," he said as he pulled her face back to his, their noses touching. "Tell me."

"I said that I'm not fragile."

"Tell me what you mean by that," his voice was stern and cold. He knew what she meant; he wanted her to say it.

"I mean, I think, I... uh..." she paused, swallowed, and then it all came out in a gush, "I mean, you can take a firmer hand in our relationship, physical and sexual." She cringed and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Of course I can, I'm much larger than you. But why? Why do you want me to dominate our relationship?" She shook her head and didn't say a word. "Why do you want this?" demanded Paul in a stern voice.

"I... my..." she closed her eyes tightly and said, "My sex life has been a disaster, in premed I was a whore..."

"Slut," corrected Paul, "unless they paid for it."

"In premed I was a slut until med school took over. Then I married FuckingFrank, and he whored me out to the damn Russians and I did nothing about it... I need you to protect me from me. I know you can do it. Master."

"You know what this means, right?" he whispered in her ear.

"Yes, master." She gasped, realizing that she said it out loud.

Hearing her slip, he whispered in her ear, "I accept your offer of fealty. You are mine now, body and spirit. From this moment forward, you shall want for nothing but to please me, and I will move heaven and earth to make sure that it is your favorite thing to do. From now on, when we refer to each other, Daddy means Master, and Baby means Slave, do you understand what I'm saying?"

She fully understood. She's been calling him "Daddy" since they met. Now it has a new meaning, a sexy sinister meaning. She can call him Master in front of the entire world, and he can call her his slave, and no one would be the wiser. Her nipples hardened at the concept. "Yes master," she said, her voice trembling with fear, excitement, and cold.

"You will never refer to yourself as whore or slut ever again," said Paul with a mean snarl. "You are my wife and the mother of my children, nobody calls my wife names, including you. Do you understand baby?"

"Yes master." Andi suddenly realized that revealing these desires to Paul was the best idea she's ever had.

"I have one more word for you. It is your safe word. You remember what it is, don't you?" Andi nodded; it seemed like ages ago that he gave the word 'Teddy Bear,' to her. Paul continued. "If our little games get too much to handle, then you say that word and it stops. All of it. No harm, no foul. We can restart at any point or continue on doing otherwise. All good? Anything more?"

"No, master." She loved how the word made her feel.

"Good, then stand up. Now pull down your pants and your panties."

She looked at her husband in shock, it's freezing out, but she said, "Yes master," and she pulled them down.

"Now put your hands on the woodbox."

"Yes master," and she did, and found herself bent over, the snowflakes landing on her cute, round ass. He couldn't be thinking of fucking me out here, could he?

"I had to ask you three times to tell me what was on your mind. That did not make me happy, so we both need a reminder."

"Yes master," her voice trembled. It didn't sound like an orgasm was in the future for her.

"Pick a number between ten and twenty." His voice was cold and stern, and she knew what was next. She was so tempted to say "eleven", but his voice was compelling her to say "nineteen". In the end, the scientist in her took over, and she picked the number between ten and twenty.

"Fifteen, master."

"That was perfect! You didn't have to be reminded to call me master. You get one off for good behavior. Now count..." and suddenly SMACK! The flat of his hand smacked into her right butt cheek hard. The strike was a stinging shock to a woman who had never received a spanking after the age of five.

"One, master."

SMACK! This time the left cheek.

"Two, master."

SMACK! By the time she was at eight, she was ready to scream that damn safe word at the top of her lungs and drag the twins to the airport and hop the first red eye to Denver. Why, oh why, did she tell him she's not fragile? "Well, I'm not! Damn it!" she screamed to herself in her mind.

SMACK!

"Thirteen, master."

SMACK!

"Fourteen, Master." She was weak and near tears, but then she felt him rubbing snow on her burning bottom, which soothed the burning, then she felt his lips as he kissed her reddened ass cheeks and with each kiss, he whispered an endearment, "I love you" and "You did so good!" which soothed a burning in her heart.

"Rise, my love." His voice was so soft she almost didn't hear it. She stood, and HE pulled her panties up and tugged them into place, then HE pulled her jeans up and buttoned and belted them as if he were the slave dressing his mistress. He stood ramrod straight and pulled her close and she threw her arms around him and squeezed tight, wanting to laugh and cheer at the same time. She felt like she did after acing an extremely hard examination in Med School. "Is there something you'd like to say, baby?" he asked.

"I've never wanted to suck a cock so much in my entire life," she gasped. She was trembling with desire, her pussy was flowing with her juices, her clit was tingling, begging for a gentle touch.

Paul unzipped his trousers and pulled his cock out. "Assume the position." With a whimper, Andi dropped to her knees. Paul eased his cock out of his pants. "Ok, baby. Go."

With a sigh, Andi practically inhaled his cock. Her tongue slithered over the sensitive underside of his cock and she began plunging her head up and down on it. Andi's small hand traveled up and down his saliva slick cock, maximizing the pleasure he was receiving. Her other hand crept down her waistline, and her fingertips reached for her clit. She began driving herself to orgasm as she tried desperately to suck Paul to climax.

Paul never came so fast in his life. He wasn't wild about giving her a spanking, but her reaction to it was so hot, so sexy. He could learn to enjoy giving a spanking occasionally. And then her tongue slithering over his cock... Paul could not hold back against the onslaught of sensations. They both came in the swirling snow, Paul spurting his cum into her mouth and Andi trembling on her dancing fingers.

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Yi woke up at 5:30 AM in the small cot that Sandy had staked out. As predicted, the twins had first climbed in bed with her claiming they were lonely, then they invited Wonka to join them, then during the night, they kicked Yi out of the bed. It was also predicted that they would go downstairs and crawl into bed with their parents, but that hadn't happened yet.

What woke her was the cold. She couldn't see her breath, but she told herself that was because it was so dark. Yi got out of bed and wrapped up in a sweater and a heavy, ugly bathrobe that Andi insisted she bring, and she was glad for it. She crept down the stairs and saw that the fire was incredibly low. She crept over to the wood stove and opened the door to the woodbox. The wood box was packed so full of wood that she had a tough time pulling some out, but she soon did and built up the fire in the wood stove. She adjusted the air vents as Paul showed her and soon the red embers started glowing bright orange and shoot sparks, then the flames appeared and grew and devoured the new wood.

It wasn't long before the stove started radiating some heat and the light from the flames caused shadows to dance in the cabin. Yi felt rather than heard a movement and she looked and saw Andi sitting up on the couch. Her hair was a mess, and her flannel shirt was unbuttoned, exposing her full, round breasts. She blearily looked at Yi, then smiled and whispered, "Thanks, sorry." And then laid down and was asleep in moments.

Yi smiled and turned back to tending the fire. When it was burning well enough to cut back the oxygen, she adjusted the intakes until the flames did their slow dance, then she got up. Yi couldn't believe it. Hours ago, she was tanning in the tiniest bikini she owned, laying out on the foredeck of an eight million dollar yacht in an exclusive yacht club, attracting stares from men and women. Now she's sitting in front of an iron wood-burning stove with her well fucked employer and friend sleeping on a futon behind her and they're all waiting for a blizzard. At least she's not bored.

She wandered into the other cabin, used the water closet, and while seated there, she opened the notebook Paul supplied and studied up on how to operate the sauna. As she read the detailed notes, she wondered for the umpteenth time why he didn't go in for engineering. If he learns more about the Andi's Dream, she's out of a job in the engine room!

After rising from the toilet, she stepped over to the sauna and entered the code from the instructions. The code's four digit number 8207 was spelled out in plain English in the instructions as "eight thousand two hundred seven" because the twins were wizzes with numbers, but they don't like reading words, so the hope is that they'll skip that part of the instruction. So far, it has worked. The twins knew about to entering a code to start the sauna, and they have tried some number combinations they found in the manual, but those ended up being a zip code and a telephone number. The twins just loved the sauna that much.

Grabbing a towel, she headed over to the shower, fired up the water heater and waited for both the sauna and the shower water heater to warm up. The shower was hot first, so she stripped down and took a warm shower. Ever have one of those showers where the spray pressure was just right, and the temperature was exactly what you wanted? Forgetting that the hot water was limited, Yi left the shower running while she shampooed her rich black mane and darn near froze herself when the hot water ran out without warning. Stifling a blood-curdling scream, Yi situated herself where the spray was aimed at her head and not the more sensitive portions of her body and finished washing her hair.

Once she had the soap rinsed out of her hair and the ice-cold water stripped from her tresses, she wrapped herself in a towel and entered the now toasty warm sauna, and almost screamed again when she found another person in there. "Ferme la bouche s'il vous plaît!" hissed Macy.

"Huh?" said Yi, who only spoke Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, English, Spanish, and a smattering of Italian.

"It means shush, please," whispered Macy, holding a finger up to her lips.

"What are you doing up at this hour?" whispered Yi.

"I cannot sleep," sighed Macy, allowing her shoulders to slump. "I think I am going to lose this one, too." She placed her long, slim fingers low on her stomach and frowned.

"How do you know? You haven't carried a baby to term yet."

"I know, but this is not right. It feels like it will soon pass back to our Father and wait for John and me there." Macy's lips tightened.

"Ohhh!" Yi pulled Macy in tight for a hug, and she held her friend for a long time, until she felt Macy shuddering with the sorrow. Then she held Macy tighter and soon was weeping with her friend.

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Andi roused herself blearily from slumber, feeling pain in places she rarely felt pain before. Not a stabbing, nauseating pain, but a pain that reminded her she earned every ache. She remembered going to bed wearing one of Paul's flannel shirts and a pair of panties, and she woke up with the shirt open, her breasts exposed and her panties around one ankle. She rolled over to see Paul up on his left elbow, smiling down at her. His boyish grin reminded her of the events of last night, how she convinced her man that he needed to stop treating her like she was made of porcelain, and how he realized that her unspoken request went so much deeper.

"Good morning sleepyhead," he whispered and sweetly kissed her.

"Good morning Daddy," she hoped the inflection in the way she said "Daddy" conveyed the fact that she fully remembered her promises of last night. "Am I in trouble?"

"Like sayyyyy... for not stoking the fire when I asked?"

There were some very intimate activities happening at that time. "But I was... you were..." No woman would have stopped then! Then Andi realized it was part of the game that started when she asked him to treat her more firmly. "Yes daddy," she finally whispered.

Paul smiled and leaned in, nibbling her long, beautiful neck at just the right spot, whispered, "actions have consequences."

"Yes, Daddy," she whispered, tingling in anticipation of consequences.

"What is a consa-kense?" muttered Sandy from under the blankets.

Paul pulled his t-shirt on over his head. "Con-se-quence," Paul sounded out slowly, "it means if you do something good, you get a reward, and if you do something bad..." he looked at Andi to continue the sentence.

"You get a different kind of reward," she grinned as she buttoned her shirt under the blanket.

"You get a prize for being bad?" asked Madeline appearing from under the covers at the foot of the bed.

"Not exactly," said Andi, "you may think Poppa, or I are being mean to you when you do something wrong, but later you will realize that we were reinforcing our words with actions that helped you remember not to do that wrong thing again."

"What wrong thing? I didn't do something wrong," announced Sandy, still under the covers.

"We don't want you playing in the street because you could get hit by a car. If you do play in the street, the consequence is that you would get a paddling." The mound of blankets that was Sandy shuddered.

"Now, if you finish all of your reading assignment after breakfast, the consequence is that you get a ride on the snowmobile."

Suddenly, the blankets flew back, and Sandy's beaming face was visible. "Can we go fast?"

"A little fast," said Andi, holding thumb and forefinger two inches apart.

"Can we go faster?"

"Can you read more?"

"Hell yeah!" cried Sandy as she jumped out of the bed,

"What was that?" demanded Andi in her mom-voice.

"She said Heck Yeah," improvised Madeline, as she raced after her sister to the toilet.

"I'm surprised how well they cover for each other," sighed Andi, as they disappeared into the kitchen area. She then thought for a moment and leaned back against her man. "How severe will my punishment be?" she asked quietly as her fingers gently traced their way up his leg.

"Quite severe," he whispered as he wrapped his arms around his little darling and kissed her head.

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Yi huffed and puffed as she struggled across the white wilderness. Everything was white; the ground was white; the trees were white; the sky was white, even the air was white from the falling and drifting snow. The only thing not white was Yi's neon green snow pants and her hot pink jacket. She was struggling to master her snowshoes. Having to walk with her legs spread apart was really hard to get used to, so she amused herself by thinking of better reasons to spread her legs.

After breakfast and after Paul helped Yi clean up (as always), Andi and Paul took off on cross-country skis. Being a Colorado snow bunny wannabe in her teens and knowing how to alpine ski and snowboard, Andi wanted to learn how to Nordic ski. That left John, Macy, the twins, and Yi behind in the cabin. John was intent on pampering Macy, Macy was intent on letting him, and the twins were intent on coloring and drawing. They put off their snowmobile ride until tomorrow or the day after, when it gets warmer.

Yi suddenly realized for the first time in her life what boredom was really like. She was about ready to clean the entire upstairs when John said, "Why don't you catch up with Paul and Andi and learn how to shoot?"

"Shoot?"

"Yeah, Paul took his air rifle, Andi took her bow, and they headed back toward the shooting range."

"Range?"

"It is just south of the pond," said Macy as she gestured to the south, the side of the cabin where the wood stove was located.

"Pond?"

"Just walk past the barn and keep going downhill," explained John as Macy leaned back against her husband in boneless pleasure. John's hands caressed his slim wife's tummy, caressing the growing life within. "But don't walk across the pond. We don't know how thick the ice is."

She was about to say "Ice?" but she caught herself. In her youth, she was visiting friends up north in Callahan Florida, up on the Florida - Georgia border. She had never seen snow in her life, and on that January visit, the temperatures dropped to the upper twenties. She was only nine, and in the morning she and her brother Dave were outdoors exploring the farm owned by their parent's friend. Nine-year-old Yi discovered something unsettling about the birdbath. The water was covered with something hard and transparent. She tapped on it and found it to be quite cold. Maybe their friends had a glass cover for the birdbath? Dave was able to get his fingers under a side of the 'cover' and he lifted what looked like a circular piece of glass. He suddenly brought it up to his head and broke it in half with his forehead and handed a half to Yi, who was shocked to discover that it was ice. Being born and raised in southern Florida, she had never seen ice that was outside of a freezer or a cool drink. Yes, she knew that ice exists in nature, but she had never seen it in the wild before.

She looked at John and Macy and nodded her head saying "Hai!" which is Japanese for yes, but no one got the joke, so she sprinted upstairs where she pulled on her hat, snow pants, parka, scarf, mittens, and boots. Feeling like an astronaut preparing to step onto the lunar surface she waved goodbye and stepped outdoors as the twins called out "Don't walk on the pond!" Sitting on the snow covered picnic table under the patio roof she found that putting the snowshoes on wasn't so hard, not as hard as learning to walk in them.

Her snowshoes didn't look like what she originally expected. She was expecting something that looks like a tennis racket. These reminded her of stubby water skis. Luckily, they were easy to put on. They had the same bindings that cross-country skis have, so they popped on to her Nordic boots. She took a few steps away from the picnic table and she kept banging her ankles with the edges of the snowshoes. Her Kenny (My Kenny!) explained that they were like this to float over the snow, but these weren't floating, they were sinking into the snow a couple of inches. Using ski polls to steady herself and because she thought they looked cool, she climbed an enormous pile of snow that was built by plowing the driveway and she followed Paul and Andi.

Finally, she got a rhythm going and soon she was heading south, past the barn and traveling on a gentle downhill slope. She figured she would follow Andi and Paul's tracks, but they filled in with snow quickly, and soon it started snowing again, covering everything that was showing through the snow with an additional layer of white. It was bright and sunny morning; the snowflakes glimmered like diamonds on the ground and in the air as they gently sailed down from the clouds. But as she continued, the sun disappeared, and the shadows were gone. The sky was the same color as the ground, so it was hard to tell where the illumination was coming from.

Once she was used to the strange gait, it became almost pleasant to walk in the winter weather. It wasn't too cold, and the wind was gentle. Off to her left and her right were rows of evergreen trees flocked white, and she thought to herself how pleasant it would be to walk here, hand in hand with Kenny. The traditional song "Walking In A Winter Wonderland" played over and over in her head.

Soon she heard muffled voices and the occasional sound of a pop from Paul's air rifle, and suddenly Yi found she was almost standing next to Andi and Paul. The range was built in a section of the forest where the pine trees were planted in perfect rows, the branches on the lowest ten feet of their trunks had given way as happens in all pine forests. The upper branches were heavy with snow and were doing an excellent job of keeping the storm at bay, but there was still an accumulation of snow on the ground. Every now and then, an enormous mass of snow would fall from the upper branches and a pile of snow would land near them with a "whoomf!"

The shooting range was several lanes wide, marked off with rope. Paul and John had built leaning shelves at one end of every other shooting lane, and the targets were set up at the other end of the lanes. There were a couple of hay bales to catch Andi's arrows at the end of two lanes, one at 25 yards, another at 77 yards. On another lane, Paul had rigged up boards between trees to hold his rifle paper targets at 30 yards.

"Yi!" cried Andi as she noticed the pretty Asian appear out of the swirling white and step under the trees.

"It's so nice back here!" gasped Yi as she looked around. "We have tree farms like this in NoFlo, (North Florida) but not as neat as this, and it smells so..." she took a deep breath and said in a tiny voice, "coffee?"

Paul chuckled and walked over to a large wooden box half buried in the snow. There were asphalt roofing shingles nailed to the lid of the box. On it sat a small coffee maker with a half full pot. He poured a Styrofoam cup and handed the cup to Yi, who savored the warmth. "This is a spot for RV camping. There are electrical hookups inside this box," Paul pointed out.

Andi pointed to a small plastic sled loaded with a gun case, a bow case, and a small cooler filled with water bottles. "I thought he was crazy when he said we should bring a coffeemaker." She stepped over to the firing line and nocked an arrow, then after aiming for a long moment, she let the arrow fly. The bolt flew swiftly between the rows of trees and lodged in her target but well outside of the "Ten Ring".

Paul, who was standing behind her watching the arrow travel with a pair of binoculars, said, "You did good, but it ran out of gas at the end. At least the wind didn't take this one."

"I don't know if I can aim any higher. I'm already aiming way over the top of the target," Andi pouted. Yi squinted down at the target and saw that there was a silhouette of a turkey inside the ten ring, and a series of arrows at the bottom of the hay bale and sticking up through the snow.

Paul shrugged. "If you're not going to adjust your sights, then aim higher above the target."

A simple fix. But Andi had always shot competition and was a by the book kind of person at everything she did. Not aiming at the target was an alien concept, but she's never shot at varying distances. She's always shot with targets set at 50 yards. Here they had set one lane to 25 yards and another lane to 77 yards, the distance for Olympic archery. When you're hunting, you can't change the sights as your target moves. She could see the wager with Paul slipping away. First one to bring in a spring turkey won a 24-hour sexual fantasy. Rules were simple, he with his .22 caliber air rifle, she with her compound bow, first turkey won. There would be observers to verify the time that the turkeys were shot, and the second prize would be for the largest turkey, so someone could win both prizes. Andi even had her fantasy mapped out. She had two more months to practice before the season opened, and much of that time would be spent setting up her new clinic, getting adjusted to life in Western New York, and planning her fantasy.

"Can I try?" asked Yi. With the pullies and cams, bow and bowstring, Andi's compound bow looked like something she was familiar with, fishing tackle.

"Step up to the line," grinned Andi, as she offered Yi the bow. She showed Yi how to knock the arrow and sight in on the target. As soon as she pulled back the bow, Yi discovered the reason behind the cams and pullies. There was incredible tension on the bowstring, but just as she got the string back to the shooting position, the cams rolled over and suddenly the pull needed to hold back the arrow and string was half of what was needed moments ago. She could hold the arrow back easily and, having heard the conversation between Andi and Paul, she aimed over the top of the target. "Loose!" cried Andi, and Yi let the arrow fly.

There was a loud snap, and the bow jerked in her hands as the cams rolled and the arrow was gone. Yi squinted at the target, but the neon green fletching (feathers) and the bright yellow shaft of her arrow were not visible down range. All she could see was the hunter safety orange arrows that Andi had fired. "Where did it go?" Yi asked aloud.

"You killed my tree," said Paul as he leaned against another tree and blew the steam off of a hot cup of coffee.

Yi looked a little closer and saw that a tree marking the lane had sprouted a yellow and neon green branch. Her arrow had traveled 15 feet. She started toward the tree when Andi called out to her, "Hold up!" Yi spun around with a startled look on her cute Asian features. "Range safety," Andi explained, "always let your fellow shooters know what you are up to. You can see that my bow isn't loaded, but what if I was intending to do some rapid drawing and firing, or what if I had a gun?"

"What do I do?" asked Yi. As a sailor, chef, and engineer, safety was always an enormous concern.

"Just say 'Heading down range' and wait for everyone to let you know that their weapons are safe." As Andi said that, Paul beamed with pride. He had been drilling Andi non-stop on range safety since she showed him her new bow.

"Heading down range," said Yi, who then crouched, ready to leap into action.

Andi put the bow in its case and said, "We're all clear. I have some arrows to pick up too."

And with that they headed down range for Yi's single arrow and Andi's two dozen or so attempts at a turkey. After that, they went through another hour and at least a pot of coffee, shooting and chuckling at Yi's attempts to keep warm. None of them got Andi's 10 ring turkey target on the 77 meter lane, but Andi got one right through the bird's heart on their 25 yard lane. Paul shot constantly good on his 30 yard lane.

They shot and had a good time until Paul noticed that Andi and Yi both had red noses. It was only then that he noticed how cold it became. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the weather and found that the temperature had dropped to 0⁰ (-18⁰ C) and there were several weather warnings that the storm had gained intensity and shifted, the jet stream was now coming down out of the Canadian arctic over Western New York and expected to get arctic cold, potentially -30⁰ (-34⁰ C) or colder.

Paul began packing up. The coffee machine was developing a layer of ice on the top of the neglected remaining quarter pot of remaining coffee. He rinsed it out with a slushy bottle of water, boxed it up, and put it on the sled as Andi and Yi finished their remaining quiver of arrows. He pulled out his cell phone again and called his brother. "Wass Aaaap?" answered John, imitating an old beer commercial.

"Have you been watching the weather?" puffed Paul as he wrestled on the backpack frame he had strapped his rifle to.

"Let me check," there was a pause as John checked his weather app, then "Holy smokes! You guys heading back in?

"Roger dat. You guys good?"

"Yeah," said John as he pulled on his boots, "I'm going to go plug in the Ford and fill the kerosene heater."

"Thanks bro," Paul said as he made sure that the covers on the power outlets were closed. "Let's go girls," he called out, "it's getting cold. We gotta head back."

"GETTING Cold?" asked Yi. "I thought we were already there."

"No, but it's going to get really cold," said Paul as Andi clipped on her skis. Then she got all tangled up in them when she tried to turn around. She had to take them off, point them in the right direction and try again. Soon they were headed back to the cabin, and Yi was surprised to find that she could move faster than Andi. Paul was pulling the sled and was moving along at a good pace.

"I'm going to have Lucy teach me when she gets here," moaned Andi as she struggled to keep up.

"How deep is the snow here?" asked Yi.

"I'm not quite sure," said Paul. "Maybe three feet."

"It gets pretty deep," said Andi. "I jumped off the snowmobile last month and Paul had to pull me out." The tiny blond puffed along, working her ski poles hard, and said, "Where's your friend Josh to pull us along on his snowmobile?" Andi had met Josh a few times. He owned the property with the big cabin across the road. This winter, with the trees bare of leaves, she saw several other cabins on the land. According to John and Macy, Paul spends a lot of time with Josh, and Andi was feeling guilty for keeping her husband from spending time with his friend.

Paul chuckled. "Josh screwed himself into a job. He suggested to his boss that when there's a big storm like this in the forecast to have one manager from the hardware side of the business stay at the building and keep the servers running. His boss loved the idea and gave him the honor of being the first person to do that."

"Serves him right for thinking," said Yi... "That would be fun, though. Could we do that with your snow mobile?"

"That would be awesome!" gushed Andi. "Paul could pull the twins in the snow coach and John could ride with him, then you, me and Macy could be behind the snow coach on skis holding ropes!"

"What if Lucy and Gus show up?" asked Paul.

"We could pull the toboggan and Gus could ride on that," said Andi. "Lucy is an athlete. She wouldn't want to be pulled along."

Their chatting and speculation helped the time pass and before they knew it, they were at the big barn. It just appeared out of the blowing snow ahead of them. There was an enormous pile of snow they had to climb over. These were piles of snow built up from the driveways being plowed. Paul kicked off his skis, then climbed down and helped Andi and Yi down. Then he pulled the sled down the hill and started putting things away.

"Lucy is here," said Andi, spotting Lucy's car in the driveway.

Paul and Andi set the skis on the rack on the porch and entered the cabin. When they entered, there was an air of something wrong. John had the girls coloring pictures and trying to remain quiet while he was standing over at the base of the stairs that go to the loft. "What's going on?" asked Paul as they entered.

"Aunty Lucy is trying to fix Aunt Macy," said Sandy as she worked on her newest piece of art. The girls have been drawing an entire fleet of boats lately.

"Fix Macy?" asked Andi. She dropped to the floor and unlaced her boots, then pulling them off, she headed over to the stairs, but John stopped her.

"Macy doesn't want family, this is..." he looked agonized, and he couldn't complete the statement.

Yi knew exactly what was going on and she saw the pain in John's eyes. She had something that will help. "Come on, you two, we're going to make some soup bowls."

"Make bowls?" asked Sandy.

"What are we going to make bowls with?" asked Madeline.

"Bread. Come on, I need help with these little yeasty guys."

"K!" and the twins put aside their fleet and joined Yi in the kitchen, even though she was crazy. Make soup bowls out of bread? Clearly insane! Both twins had pictured in their mind pressing slices of white bread together to form a bowl. Sandy broke out the Wonder Bread and each girl took a slice and tried to make their bowls when Yi stepped out of the pantry with the flour.

"What are you silly things doing?"

"Making bread into bowls," said Sandy.

Yi stood with her hands on her hips. "Seriously?"

"But you said..." Both girls were utterly confused.

"We're going to bake balls of bread and hollow them out like a pumpkin."

"Then what?" asked Madeline.

"Then fill them with yummy soup."

"But they'll get all soggy!" explained Sandy. Wasn't Yi paying attention to what happened to their bread when they dipped it in the stoo?

"Trust me, it will be awesome." Yi put the stand mixer on the small table in the kitchen and collected the ingredients. "We need flour, salt, olive oil, water, yeasty guys and some sugar for the yeasty guys to eat..." The twins watched fascinated as Yi mixed all the ingredients together in the stand mixer. They were used to Paul using a bread-making machine where you put in the ingredients, pushed the button and took out bread.

"First, we need to wake up the yeasty guys," and Yi mixed the yeast with some sugar and water in a small bowl and covered it with a tea towel. "While they're getting up and having breakfast, we get the rest ready for them." She measured the flour, salt, butter, and some sugar and put it in the mixing stand bowl. Then she took off the towel. She showed the twins that there was foam on top of the yeast mixture. "That's the yeasty guys working."

"They burp!" said Madeline.

"That's right," said Yi.

"Those are bubbles from their burps?"

"Uhhhh, yeah. Burps." Yi added the yeast to the mixing bowl, put a dough hook on the mixer, and combined the ingredients. "See? Our stuff is still runny, we have to turn it into dough." As the blender churned, she had each of the twins pour in a half cup of flour. They did that several times until the dough was at the consistency she wanted. Then she transferred the dough to another large bowl and covered it. "Ok, the yeasty guys are working now. You guys go back to your pictures while I wash up. Why don't you draw me a picture of what you think the yeasty guys look like if you could see them?"

By now John had gone upstairs with Lucy and Macy, leaving Paul and Andi alone downstairs. Andi wandered over to the dining table and the girls were drawing burping monsters. "What's that?" asked Andi.

Without looking up from her work, Madeline said, "yeast."

"Yeast?"

"Miss Yi asked us to draw yeast," explained Sandy, so Andi went into the kitchen as Yi was finishing up the clean-up.

"How is it going out there?" asked Yi.

"We still don't know anything... but you know, don't you." It wasn't a question.

"Macy asked me not to say anything, so I have to stay quiet about it," said Yi. "Please don't ask, I promised her... I'm sure she'll tell you, eventually."

"Is she ok?"

Yi thought about it, then said, "I don't know, maybe Dr. Lucy can figure it out." Then she turned to the twins and said, "I need you guys to punch our bread!" The twins abandoned their drawing and soon they were on the table and kneeling on either side of a bowl of dough, punching it like they were mad at the dough. "Punch all those yeast burps out!"

"Why did we do this?" Sandy was confused.

"Oh, the yeast guys aren't done burping. We just want the last ones they do. Those are the good ones," said Sandy. It was close enough to the truth.

Yi then divided the dough into twelve portions. She tried to teach the twins how to fold the dough into a ball, but their little hands couldn't grasp the dough quite right. Yi made ten balls and helped the twins with theirs, which came out close to round. Yi cut an X in the top of each ball, then the twins painted the top of the balls with egg wash. After the balls rose for another 45 minutes, they went in the oven.

By this time, Lucy, Macy, and John came down from upstairs and Macy let Lucy explain what was going on. "Macy thought she lost a baby. I did as thorough an examination as I could, and it appears that she missed a period and had a false pregnancy. She needs vitamins, iron, calcium, and our support."

"Oh baby," said Andi as she hugged Macy. It was odd to see a woman hug another woman who was a foot and a half taller than her and nearly 10 years older and call her baby. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I did not want to tell you because you would want to help medically, and we both know you can't work on family."

Andi hugged Macy and said, "Mom always said you were the smart one."

"I would trade some brains for some of zees boobs," kidded Macy as she poked Andi.

"I suppose Yi and I should find an OB/GYN now that we're here," said Andi. That caused Yi to roll her eyes and sigh. She hates going to the gynecologist.

"Did you bring Uncle Gus?" asked Sandy. She and Madeline were not sure what all the commotion was about, but seeing Lucy without Gus was something to be concerned about.

"No, he has to work. He also plows snow, so he's going to be busy," said Lucy.

Shrugging, the twins went back to their art. His loss, they figured.

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The twins were suddenly attacked with Cabin Fever. They were fully dressed in their cold weather gear (without hats or mittens) and heading for the door when Andi and Yi caught them. "Where are you going?" Andi demanded.

"We want to build a snowman."

"Not in this weather, you're not," said Andi. "It's way too cold."

"No, it's not," the twins said in unison.

Yi opened the door and said, "Fine, go." It was dark and gloomy outside. The wind was blowing past, and the temperature was painfully cold. The arctic winds felt like a knife trying to carve off all exposed skin. Sandy and Madeline were shocked to see how cold it was outside, and they were back in the warm cabin quickly.

"This is an Alberta Clipper," said Andi. "It's very, very dangerous. This is what Great Grandpa Ole always talks about." Sandy and Madeline took another step outside, then without a word, they turned around and trooped back upstairs to put their nighties on.

"Great Grandpa Ole?" asked Yi.

"My mom's father," answered Andi. "They live in Bismark."

As the twins stomped their way upstairs, Paul and John both came in the back door, each carrying an armload of firewood. They stacked the wood up under the stairs and went back outside for another armload. "What's this for?" asked Andi.

"Just in case," shuddered John. When they were done with that, John filled several 5 gallon containers full of water while Paul went out to the barn and set up a kerosene heater in the henhouse. To Yi it felt like cold was radiating off of the wood that John and Paul stacked up.

"Do you think it's wise to gather everyone in a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere in a horrible storm?" asked Yi.

"I don't see why not," said John. "If the power goes out, we can't heat our houses in town, unless you have a fireplace. This cabin is completely self-sustainable if the power goes out. It's small, so it's easy to heat. We have wood to heat us until spring and all the eggs you could want. If the power goes out, we just light a kerosene lamp and continue on. You will be warmer in here than in a big house in town."

"So, we just sit and wait?"

"It's like a hurricane party," said Lucy.

"Without the flying debris," added Macy as Paul brought in a small kerosene heater for the second cabin.

"Come here, Yi, I want to show you something," said Paul, and he led Yi (followed by the twins) to the loft area in the second cabin. Up there was a large open area, but a quarter was taken up by a large plastic tank. "This is our drinking and flushing water. If the power goes out, we use this sparingly, because the tank is filled with an electric pump. This rarely freezes because we have electric heaters preventing that, and I'm not worried if the power goes out for a couple of days, but when we're done here, we'll drain the water lines and I'll show you how that's done."

"Can we play up here?" said Sandy, looking at all the wide open area.

"Yes, but if you leave toys scattered all over, then I'll lock the door."

"We won't," said the twins in unison. Yi and Paul gave each other doubting side eyes, then Paul continued.

"During the summer, make sure this vent is open," and he showed her a vent at the peak of the wall. "These cabins can become ovens..." He looked and pondered it for a bit and said, "It really should be connected to a thermostat..."

"I have a few ideas," said Yi. "Let me put something together for you."

"You're hired."

The roaring of a motor let them know that someone had arrived on a snowmobile. When they got down to the living area, they found a tall slim figure in a helmet, gloves, and one-piece cold weather suit. He pulled off his helmet, and it was Kenny and Yi felt excitement rush through her. "You're late. We needed you to tow us on our cross-country skis."

"Sorry, I almost didn't find the place until I saw the floodlights on the barn."

The twins were of a different opinion. "Oh, it's you," said Sandy.

"That wasn't nice," said Yi. "Why would you say something like that to Mister Kenny?"

"It's supposed to be Uncle Gus!" insisted Madeline.

"Aunty Lucy needs kissing!" Sandy informed everyone, which caused Aunty Lucy to blush.

"I suppose that if somebody needs kissing, I can give it a go," started Kenny, but Yi grabbed his scarf and glared at him. "...or not."

"Take that gear off, you're not going anywhere," said Paul.

"I didn't intend to crash your party," said Kenny, "but I just had to say hi to Yi."

"Well, you're here. Take that gear off because you're stuck until the wind drops and the temperature rises a bit," said John.

"We have plenty for dinner," said Yi.

"We're having yeast for dinner," said Sandy.

"Yeast? I haven't had a fried yeast in ages," said Kenny.

"Baked yeast," said Yi. "You can help set up the tables."

As Kenny and Paul set up folding chairs, Sandy and Madeline headed upstairs. "Come on Wonka! Nap time is over!" Wonka slowly rose from his place in front of the wood stove and followed the girls into the kitchen. Disappointed that there was no snack being offered, he followed them upstairs. "Come on, boy!" they chimed.

Yi started the broccoli cheese soup quickly, hoping that no one would see that she was using an instant mix. "I thought you were a scratch cook," said Kenny.

She lifted a tea towel to show off a couple of the bread balls that were cooling. "I'm a scratch baker. For cooking, I will do whatever it takes to get a quality meal on the table. I can make broccoli cheese soup from scratch, but this mix is incredible and affordable. We'll just tweak it a little bit." She handed Kenny a box grater and a large chunk of cheddar. "Now we add a bit of ourselves..." As Kenny grated the cheese, Yi took some broccoli fleurettes out of the fridge and cut those up as they stood side by side. As they worked there came the squealing and laughter of the twins and barking of Wonka from upstairs as they played.

There was a flash and Yi looked up and saw Paul, Andi, Lucy, John, and Macy crowding at the door. They were watching her and Kenny and Macy was showing off the picture she took. "Bonheur domestique," she said.

"Domestic bliss," John translated.

"Ok, enough, get out!" roared Yi.

"It's really the sound of the kids and the dog that sells the scene," said Lucy. Kenny put his arm around Yi, more to keep her from killing the lot of them than anything else.

Yi and Kenny worked together to prepare the soup. The mix was real dehydrated cheese and dehydrated broccoli and the additional cheese, milk, and fresh broccoli fleurettes, along with just a dash of chili pepper powder, made their soup incredibly delicious. "Sandy? Madeline? Do you want to make the bread bowls?" Immediately, the sound of running above their heads stopped, and the twins dashed down the stairs from the loft.

"YES!"

Yi placed each bread ball in a large, low sided bowl and placed them on the table. "Ok, watch this. I'll cut the circle, you pull out the cap and pluck out the bread and put it all in the bowl." Soon the twins were gutting the bread bowls.

"This is such a great idea!" said Kenny. "And you made the bread bowls all by yourself."

Now Yi was getting self-conscious. "The girls helped; they like to work with yeast."

"Yeasty Guys!" cried Sandy accompanied by a burp from Madeline, which caused them to giggle.

"I've got about a dozen drawings of Yeasty Guys now," said Yi, desperately wishing she couldn't blush.

"It's amazing. I've never met anyone so creative like you. You could probably take a plate full of leftovers and turn them into a four-star meal."

"Not really," muttered Yi. "I came in second on Chopped." She turned and found that the twins put their own little twist on the meal. They put the bread ball in a large soup bowl, pulled the bread out of the bread ball, and piled it up around the bread ball like Yi showed them, but they carefully put the cap back in the hole like a Halloween pumpkin.

"We're gonna fool 'em!" giggled Madeline.

"I bet you do. You guys put your bread bowls at your chairs." The twins carried their misshapen bread bowls into the dining area while Yi and Kenny brought out the rest and set the table.

"Who wants to say grace?" said Pastor John as he looked at the twins.

Sandy thought about it for a moment, then said, "Oh, yeah. I do! I do!"

"Ok, let's hear it," said Macy.

Then in unison the twins recited, "Rub a dub dub. Thanks for the grub. Yay God!"

"Is that the grace Aunt Macy taught you?" said Andi, as they sat down.

Madeline shrugged, but Sandy said, "I think Uncle Gus taught us."

"Once," said Paul. "Gus mentioned it once when he talked about going to camp as a kid."

The dinner was fantastic, and the twins beamed with pride when anyone mentioned the bread. They were surprised that the bread ball held the soup and delighted that you eat it, but Sandy started pulling it apart before she ate all the soup inside, causing minor soup flooding downstream.

After dinner, Paul helped Yi clean dishes while Kenny helped John put the extra tables away. The twins put their feet jammies on because it was going to be a frigid night and Kenny picked up a guitar that had been sitting in the corner and tuned it up. "Can you play Baby Shark?" asked Madeline and Sandy.

"Baby park? Like a park you take babies to?" asked Kenny.

"NO! Baby SHARK!" they squealed.

"Oh! Maybe Shark... maybe goldfish, right?"

"NOOO!" they shrieked. "BABY SHARK!"

"Crazy Ark? Like Noah and the..."

"NOOOOOOOO!" they squealed. "BABY SHARK!!!"

"Why don't you sing some of it for me and see if I know it," said Kenny. Soon the girls were singing and making the hand gestures that go along with the song, and Kenny rolled his eyes. "Oh! Baby Shark. Why didn't you say so?" The twins squealed with anxiety but Kenny played Baby Shark so they could sing along.

As he played, Yi sat next to him and smiled. "You know the song I take it?" she asked.

"I have five nieces and nephews their age. Of course I know it."

"And you tease them like that every time they ask you to play it?"

"Every time."

"That's evil!"

"That's right," he said with a grin. "But they enjoy the game."

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During the night, the snowfall lightened up, and the temperatures plummeted. Upstairs in the loft, the cots were separated by curtains like hospital beds. John and Macy got the big full size bed, which meant that everyone else got a single cot. Yi and Kenny put two cots side by side and opened a sleeping bag and put it over them to share their warmth. That didn't matter because the heat from the wood stove kept the upstairs much warmer than downstairs.

It was a frigid night but up in the loft in their little curtained off rooms John and Macy snuggled on the full size bed and slept relieved that they didn't lose a baby, Lucy lay warm in her cot, wishing she was warmer with Gus, and Yi and Kenny lay awake all night searching each other's eyes and whispering softly. Downstairs, Andi and Paul desperately wanted to make love. But the twins were sleeping at the foot of the bed and would say, "Are you being kissy?" with every kiss. They wouldn't go to sleep, so they took a warm family sauna around midnight, which helped settle down the twins.

The next day, as Yi made a large breakfast casserole, Paul and Andi fired up both tractors and started plowing the driveway. John broke out the snow blower and cleared out around the cabins and barn while Kenny used a shovel to help around doorways and behind the cabin.

Temperatures rose above zero, and after a delicious breakfast, folks got out to enjoy the winter. Lucy taught Andi and Yi how to use cross-country skis, and John and Macy clipped on their snowshoes and went for a walk hand in hand in the winter woods. Even though Springville is far away from being a big, bustling city, it still felt good to go outdoors and enjoy life.

Hearing a snowmobile, the twins stopped throwing snowballs for Wonka to catch and ran to the barn to see Poppa exit, pulling the little snow coach trailer. "Want to join us Yi?" asked Paul as he placed the bouncing twins into the trailer and put a bike helmet on their heads.

"I'm going to ride with Kenny," said Yi, as she took off her skis and pulled on a helmet. Soon they were off. They headed west through the small forest behind the cabin and Paul led them up a steep hill that separated his property from the neighbors, then dashed across the neighbors' lot onto Hirsh's property. Paul was going faster than he would if Andi were with them, but not a lot more. Kenny and Yi rode alongside on Kenny's Polaris 550 Voyageur Adventure. It was almost as big as Paul's sled, with wide placed front skis for better handling. Occasionally, Kenny would zip ahead and circle around and end up next to the little trailer with the twins.

They pulled up to Hirsh's farm and swapped out empty bottles for full bottles of fresh milk before returning to the cabins. Of course, Gerry and Irma Hirsh recognized Kenny from the feed store, and teased him about finally putting a pretty girl on that pretty sled of his.

Andi and Lucy skied back to the shooting range, where Lucy got her first shots out of her new rifle. "Oh man! This is sweet!"

Andi had Paul's air rifle, and she was so winded from the ski from the cabin that she couldn't hit anything. "How do you do it?" gasped Andi, as she saw another limb drop from a tree because of her erratic shooting.

"Practice, practice, practice... at high altitudes," said Lucy. She did a lot of training in Colorado. It increased her lung functions tremendously.

That afternoon the county plowed out Trevette road and Lucy, John and Macy went back to town. Lucy had a shift to pull and Pastor John had a sermon to prepare.

"Can you stay? Or do you have to go back?" Yi asked Kenny at dinner that night.

"If it's ok with Paul and Andi."

"It's not a problem," said Andi as Yi served up smothered pork chops they got from Clemmons' farm earlier. "What do you have planned for tomorrow?"

"More snow 'biling!" cried Sandy, who was addicted to riding behind Paul's snowmobile.

"We have to clean up and head back in, tomorrow is Friday, and your momma and I are going to go back to work on Monday," said Paul.

"Aww," huffed the twins. Work ruins a lot of fun.

The next afternoon, they were going on one more sled ride before heading home and doing laundry and stuff. They were trekking cross their property paralleling the road, Andi was behind Paul and Yi was driving Kenny's new sled, with Kenny holding on behind her. Soon another sled pulled up alongside them, a blue and silver Yamaha Sidewinder. It, too, had two passengers. Paul gestured, and the three turned and headed to the cabin. There they stopped and shut off their motors. The Driver of the Yamaha pulled off his helmet. And it was Josh Gravely, the fellow that owns the cabin across the street. "Y'all finally got off that rowboat of yours."

"We've been back for over a week, we've been up here playing in the snow."

"I been stuck at work the whole time. But I guess you were right, you told me a month ago that there was someone out there for me." When he said that, Josh's passenger pulled her helmet off.

"Veronica?" gasped Andi as she hopped off Paul's sled and hugged her neighbor. Veronica only lives a couple of blocks away.

"Well, when he started I gave him the HR in-briefing and we've been chatting and having lunch together ever since."

"That was a year ago," said Paul.

Josh shrugged. "I'm shy."

"We got snowed in together at the office and that kind of forced us to face our feelings," said Veronica.

"Well... come inside, we'll make coffee," gushed Andi. "I'm sure we have a lot to talk about."

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Thank you for hanging with us. I originally wrote this back in 2018 when I became disabled and then forgot about it and wandered off working on other stories, which is why the timeline is so flaky. I'm working to correct that. Check out Amorous Goods: Black Pearls, which is Yi and Kenny's story. The timeline has been corrected in that story; I need to work on StormWatch next.

If there's any conflict you see in the timeline, please keep in mind that Andi's Dream, and We're a Wonderful Wife, are canon. If you find a problem, let me know and I'll put it in my big stack of corrections to make.

But this is far from the end. Andi and Yi's first Western New York summer is coming up! I think we'll start with one last blizzard for the year, then head to Niagara Falls in Chapter 7