They insisted I stay up late with them playing cards. We started with Pinochle, but Kiersten wasn't that good, so we found another deck and played Blackjack. Hearts was next, followed by Texas Hold 'Em. After an hour of that, Melody said, “Let's play for money. Everyone seems pretty well-matched.”
“If we're betting, let's play something like Three-Card Draw, and nothing more than penny an
te,” I suggested.
The girls agreed, with each of us putting an imaginary dollar in the kitty, since we didn't have nearly enough pennies. Score was kept on a piece of paper, and we agreed that we would only play until we lost our dollar.
Jamie dealt. For a while, things were pretty even, all of us winning and losing hands. Melody won a few in a row but got reckless, betting too high on hands she should have thrown in early. She was down to only a few cents in no time.
I dealt, won a small amount from each girl, and dealt again. When it was Melody's turn to bet, she said, “I think I'm broke. Does that mean it's strip poker now?” She started to pull up her top.
I threw in the three aces I had been dealt and stood up. “Bed time for me. Try to keep it to a dull roar.”
The next morning, after breakfast, Caitlin called. “Bill, could I talk to Melody? She's not answering her cell.”
“She's right here.” I handed Melody the phone.
“Mom, I'm sorry. I left my charger at home.... No.... No.... NO!... Yes, I'm fine.... Yes, I was going to call you after breakfast.... Okay, bye.” She handed the phone back to me. “Mom and Dad are taking me to Grandma's for a birthday luncheon. It's a traditional thing. Cake and ice cream, the whole nine yards.”
Melody left with her parents soon after that, and my daughter took Kiersten home after a lunch of salads and homemade bread on the deck. When she got back, Jamie said, “Melody's upset, you know.”
“About what?”
“She thinks she's not sexy, because you left the poker game last night.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“This is out of control. I groped her yesterday, but when she was going to take her top off for me, I bolted. But what was I supposed to do? Sit there and play strip poker with my daughter, another teenager I'm fucking, and still another girl who has pretty much said to my face that she wants me to screw her?”
“Don't forget Caitlin. We all saw where her hand was in the pool when we were ducking you, and I saw it again in the spa.”
“Melody knows her mom played with me?”
“She won't say anything to her dad, but she told us she really feels like a little girl now, when the guy she likes gets turned on by her mother,” Jamie scolded.
“So now what?”
“I don't know. Let's talk about it in bed, Dad. I think I can turn you on, too.”
In the shower later, Jamie kissed my tired face. “Now I feel better. I can't believe you filled me all three places in one session.”
When I left for work she was still asleep, nude in my bed. That evening, we had a quick dinner together before she had to leave for her first night at her job at the burger place. She posed in the doorway, smiling in her uniform, and then drove away. Less than a minute later, a knock came at the door. I opened it.
Caitlin walked past me into the living room, sitting on the couch. “Close the door and come here.”
I didn't know where this was going when I sat down next to her.
“Do you know what Melody got from the girls for a birthday present?”
“Um....”
“How do you know? Did you help pick it out? Were you there when she opened it? Did you watch her use it?”
“All right, look. Here's what happened.” I told Caitlin the entire story of the events of that night, except for the part about me having a wicked boner.
“Do you think the girls played with each other?”