Charlie, however, looked like he hadn’t blinked since he saw Sophie. He looked confused for a second, and then he pursed his lips together, not looking happy, and stepped toward her. He put his hand out and said, “Sophia,” in greeting, although he didn’t smile.
Sophie shyly put her hand into his, saying, “It’s really just Sophie, actually.”
He didn’t respond; he seemed very intent at looking at her hand, which he hadn’t let go of. In fact, he used his other hand to grab her gently at the wrist so that he could press her palm against his own. Her whole hand fit into his palm. He was a behemoth.
He and Elizabeth exchanged a look that Sophie couldn’t read, but eventually he dropped her hand and talked right over Sophie’s head at Elizabeth. “All right, all right,” he said with a defeated sigh. “If you’re sure she’s eighteen? Because that would be bad…”
“Positive. I saw her ID at the station,” Elizabeth assured with a slight laugh. She patted Sophie on her back. “What do you want for breakfast? Eggs? Pancakes? Froot Loops?”
“Oh,” Sophie said, surprised at the list of options. “Froot…” She stopped there because, in the excitement about eating, she’d forgotten that chewing was painful. Her excitement suddenly died and she realized Froot Loops weren’t meant to be. She hadn’t eaten solid food since she was thrown out of the house. “Pancakes,” she said, disappointed.
“Are you sure?” Josh seemed to be extremely amused by her change of mind; he was even chuckling.
She nodded, closing her arms around herself for comfort.
“Well, we’ll give bunny whatever she wants.”
She shot Josh a look of confusion, and then realized he was calling her by her last name. “It’s Benny, not bunny.” Her face twisted. With her South Boston accent, those two words came out nearly identical. Her cheeks went red. “I mean…”
Charlie appeared to be strait-laced, but he was even snickering.
“She looks like a cute little bunny; it works,” Josh replied, saluting Sophie with his coffee. He waved his hand at her, got up from his stool, and moved over to sit down in the breakfast nook. “Come on and sit down here and we’ll have Charlie do all the work. That’s how we do things here,” he informed her with a wink, patting the seat next to him. He looked up at Liz. “And you too, woman.”
“Give me a moment,” Liz said, holding up a finger. “I think I forgot a bunch of work documents up in Sophie’s room when I got home. I should go get them before I forget to—”
Sophie bounced into attention. “I’ll go get them!” she said, grateful to get out of the room for a breather. Too much attention in too little time.
“Go sit down, young lady. I’ll get—” Liz began, but Sophie was already scurrying by. Liz sighed and gave her a good swat on her already tender bottom that, even though it wasn’t hard, had Sophie reaching protectively back before she scurried out of the room.
“And I want to see an ID!” she heard Charlie boom behind her. She blushed. He really didn’t think she was eighteen? Sheesh!
* * *
“And the future Mrs. Hobbes leaves the room,” Josh announced after they listened to Sophie marching up to the second floor, taking the steps two at a time.
Liz turned and smirked at him. “Why?” she asked. “Are you gonna marry her, Josh?”
“Either that or Charlie will,” Josh replied, picking up his orange juice, then gesturing to his very flustered brother with it. “You just served us our wet dream on a platter. Good hunting, Miss Button.” Josh winked at her.
Elizabeth did not return the wink. Instead, she grew serious. “Guys, I’m warning you,” she cautioned, “she’s inexperienced, she’s young, she comes from a rough background full of neglect and abuse. So, I don’t know if sharing her is a good idea, or if she’d ever even want to be shared.”
“Shotgun,” Josh reminded, turning to Charlie.
“There won’t be any shotguns called!” Elizabeth snapped at Josh, sweeping her hand declaratively in front of her. “So stop it.” She turned to Charlie and said, jerking her thumb in Josh’s direction, “Do me a favor and punch him in the head? And why are you so quiet?”
Charlie was mixing up pancakes with a look to kill on his face, like he wanted to punish the batter.
“I’m just thinking that you’re an evil witch who apparently doesn’t listen to me when I said I wanted to end the whole daddy thing. What I should be doing is taking off my belt and giving you a dose,” he growled.
Elizabeth had been threatened before, but after a lifetime with Charlie, he had never spanked her. “You don’t have to be her daddy, Charlie. I’m not even saying I’ve put the option for you on the table. She’s a baby; she doesn’t know about age-play or D & S or anything like that stuff.”
“Honey, you just brought a chicken into the fox house and you’re telling us not to at least have a taste,” Josh reminded her. “Besides, look at that little thing,” he said, pointing toward the stairs that Sophie had disappeared up into. “She needs a daddy. She’s cute as a ball of kittens and pocket-sized for our convenience! She’s young, impressionable, in need of protecting, guidance, surely some spankings…”
“Josh!” came the growl from both Charlie and Liz at once.
Josh gave an innocent shrug. “Fine; I’m just saying what we’re all thinking.” He quieted as they heard Sophie clamber downstairs, making a lot of noise on the steps like she was a herd of elephants and not a pipsqueak teenager.
She came into the room with a bunch of papers pressed to her chest and an ID closed into her fist. She pivoted a few times, as if unsure whether to deliver the papers or show Charlie her ID first.
Eventually she passed Elizabeth the stack of papers and walked up to Charlie, who was pouring pancake batter onto the hot skillet in front of him, and held out the ID.
As soon as he put the bowl of batter down, he grabbed her ID out of her hand and peered over it, then flipped it over and scanned the back. “What’s this?” he grumbled irritably. “Weirdest ID I ever saw. Where’s your driver’s license?”
“I don’t have a driver’s license,” Sophie replied tersely, as if he should have guessed that much. “I don’t have a car, and neither did anyone in my family. Getting a permit would have been stupid, so I just got my state-issued ID when I was looking for a job a couple of years ago.”
When he finally decided her identification wasn’t a fake, he passed it back to her. “How’d you get to work, then?” he asked grouchily.
“It’s called a bus, Mr. Hobbes. I know you’ve probably never actually ridden on one before, but they’re big cars that pick you up from one spot and drop you off in another.” The sarcasm was like syrup on her tongue. Liz watched as Charlie’s face reddened. Chances were that he’d never been treated like a snooty elitist before.
Josh snorted during his failed attempt to stifle his laughter and covered up his mouth with his hand so that there wouldn’t be evidence of his smile, either.
Charlie eyed his brother and then looked down at Sophie. “Any more sarcasm like that, young lady, and I’m not adding any chocolate chips to your pancakes,” he warned.
Her forehead smoothed as she narrowed her eyes with confusion. “Huh? Chocolate chips in pancakes?” she asked.
“Yeah, makes them like cookies,” Charlie said, and added some to one of her pancakes just to illustrate.
She got up on her tiptoes and watched what he was doing with large owl eyes. “Whoa.”
His annoyance over Sophie’s tone dissipated with the childlike fascination she was displaying, Charlie squinted over at Liz in an accusatory you-did-this-you-witch! look.
Liz merely returned his glare with a look of a cat that got the cream. She patted her lap. “Come here, baby,” she called to Sophie. “Get out of Charlie’s path if you don’t want a pancake to land on your head.”
Sophie chewed her lip slightly when she was called “baby,” but she eventually walked over to Liz and let her guide her onto her lap.
“And so is Charlie. Hence his paranoia,” Josh added with a wink.
She lifted an eyebrow and looked over at Charlie. “A celebrity of what?”
Charlie’s shoulders stiffened; Liz knew that he wished he was a little more well-known to the non-football crowd. “We’ll talk to you about everything, promise,” Liz said in her ear, giving her an adoring squeeze.
“Well, I wouldn’t tell anyone about everything. This house is like Vegas—what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” Sophie announced to the room, straightening.
Josh gave a small laugh and Liz rewarded Sophie with a kiss on the cheek, then a pat on the thigh when Sophie squirmed over to the seat next to her. The chair had padding on it, but Sophie didn’t seem too impressed with its ability to make her bottom feel any better.
“That’s very mature of you,” Josh said. “Thank you.”
Charlie came over, delivering a plate of pancakes in front of her with a tall glass of orange juice. Sophie stared at the orange juice like it was an uninvited pest. “Do you want milk instead?” Charlie asked after shaking his head at Sophie’s apparent pickiness.
“Do you have any orange soda?” Sophie asked hopefully.
“For breakfast? Or in the fridge?” Charlie replied crisply.
“Uh… either? Er… both, I guess,” she answered hesitantly.
“No,” he told her firmly, as if requesting such a thing was a ridiculous thing to do. “Soda’s bad for you, young lady; there is absolutely nothing good about it, especially before noon.” He tapped her plate. “Now eat before it gets cold.”
She turned her head to glare at Charlie as he poured coffee into a couple of mugs, grabbed the syrup bottle by her hand, and then literally drowned her pancakes with it. When he turned back toward the table and seemed shocked by the pool of sugar, she looked up at him with newfound bravery as if to say, “Take that, Health Nazi!”
Josh came over and sat down next to her before Charlie could respond to it. Josh nabbed the syrup bottle out of Sophie’s hand like it was a loaded gun and set it out of her reach, saying, “Whoa! Would you like some pancakes to eat with all that syrup? Sheesh, bunny! We’re gonna have to peel you off the walls in another half hour!”
Charlie put the coffee in front of Liz and grumbled as he sat down at the table.
“So… You gonna ask any questions, or can I start?” Josh asked as he leaned on the table, crossing his arms in front of him.
Sophie was slicing into her pancakes, but stopped to raise an eyebrow. For a second, she looked confused, but then she turned to Charlie. “You’re a celebrity? Like, you can’t be very famous though, right?”
Charlie frowned, looking taken aback. “I’m a commentator for ESPN,” he replied defensively.
“Charlie used to be this big football hotshot before he blew out his shoulder,” Josh explained casually. “Or rather, blew out his shoulder about five times. How his arm’s still attached to his body, I don’t quite understand. If I were his shoulder, I would have gotten up and left by now.” He stole a grape from the fruit bowl in the middle of the table. “He used to be a quarterback in the big leagues for nine years, but now he just quarterbacks on Monday mornings. He got this big TV deal going on. They pay him just for yammering on like an idiot while drawing all over other coaches’ plays like he knows any better.”
“Thanks, Josh,” Charlie said tersely.
“I’m just explaining why you act crazy and all secretive anytime someone new walks through the front door. I can probably claim plausible deniability because I just reside in the pool house.” He pointed to the back yard.
Sophie followed his finger. “Why do you live in the pool house?”
“So chicks don’t know about the steady girlfriend I share with my brother when I bring them over,” he answered easily.
“Josh has sex with everything that moves,” Elizabeth added with a grin in Josh’s direction.
“So, like, all of us can go and have sex with anyone whenever we want?” Sophie asked, looking unsure.
“No,” the men immediately answered before Liz could even open her mouth.
“Well,” Liz hedged, “you can have sex with someone other than me, honey, but not just anyone.” She gave Charlie and Josh a chiding glance before she continued. “It’s just that we have a circle of trust. I’m only having sex with Josh and Charlie. Charlie’s girlfriend recently left us, but Charlie and I used to share her,” she admitted. “But Charlie only has sex with his steady girlfriend or with me. And Josh… Well, Josh makes sure he uses protection and gets tested very regularly. You see; if one of us gets a problem, we all get a problem, so we have to be careful. Right, Josh?” She turned toward Josh, eyeing him for support.
Josh snorted defensively. “Oh, come on. I’m still getting crap about that? It was eight years ago, okay? It was Vegas, I was young, and it was only crabs. Let it go.”
Sophie shuddered with disgust.
“Never feel pressured to have sex with any of us,” Liz said, reaching over and entwining her fingers through Sophie’s. “If it happens, fine. If not, that’s fine, too. I plan to get much more out of this relationship than just sex, sweetie. I can use Charlie or Josh if I’m in the mood.”
“And I love being used in her moods,” Josh assured. “Liz is my lobster dinner when it comes to sex. Nobody’s better than Liz, nobody. Not possible. That being said,” he added, “even though she’s my fine dining, I like to have a cheeseburger every now and then.”
Sophie poked at her mushy pancake before asking something else. “So do you guys… you know…” She blushed slightly. “… at the same time?”
Liz rolled her eyes. “No,” she declared firmly. After a second, she added, “Well, once…”
Josh put up three fingers and mouthed to Sophie, “Three times,” with a proud and mischievous air about him.
Liz sighed at Josh. “It doesn’t really work for me to get taken by two men at once.”
Josh leaned toward Sophie. “Our girl’s pretty dominant, in case you haven’t noticed,” Josh reminded Sophie, and she immediately perked up when Josh included her, like dating Liz made her part of a special club. Josh went on, “I guess it’s apparently a challenge to be in control when you’ve got two cocks to please at once. So, really, it only happened when we were all crazy-ass drunk, which you won’t see often. There’s not a single beer in this house, as you’ll learn, because Charlie’s a big wet blanket.”
Sophie smirked at that.
Charlie gave Josh a short-lived glare before he added, “Liz prefers one of us and one of— well, you—in her threesomes,” he clarified.
“Oh,” Sophie said, sounding small. She wasn’t pink this time; her cheeks were beginning to flush white. She sunk slowly down into her seat, staring distantly into her syrup puddle.
“Sophie, you don’t have to do anything,” Charlie added. “I want you to think of Josh and me like family. We’re here to protect you from doing anything you don’t want to do, and we’ll do nothing but defend your every wish. So don’t worry yourself. We don’t expect anything from you.” Charlie might have soothed her with that monologue, but then he continued, “Except that you behave yourself, keep your room clean, follow rules, and that you make good, healthy, responsible choices—and it goes without saying that a healthy and good choice is to always speak to us respectfully and do what we tell you to.”
Sophie gave Charlie a rueful look. Apparently, she wasn’t as interested in doing everything that Charlie wanted as she was when Liz had asked it of her.
Charlie caught her look and furrowed his eyebrows. “What? You’re eighteen; we’re not just going to let you run amuck around here. That’s nothing personal, it’
s just that I remember myself at eighteen and I needed a good kick in the ass. So did everyone I know, especially Josh. So, we’ll watch you like a hawk to make sure you keep your nose clean. Just be a good girl in return and we’ll get along great.”
“Well, aren’t I relieved?” Sophie wasn’t teasing, her cheeks were flushed, and it brought a tense air to what everyone thought was a light conversation. She pushed her plate away and stood up.
“Sweetheart,” Liz protested. “You should eat some—”
“No,” Sophie decreed. “These pancakes are gross, and it’s definitely not because of the syrup!” With that, she spun on her heel and marched upstairs without another word.
There was now silence at the breakfast nook. Like always, Josh broke the awkward silence. “Remember when Dad used to take us fishing when we were kids, and then he’d let you reel the fish onto the boat right at the end? And then somehow you’d lose it?” he asked Charlie, pulling over Sophie’s nearly full plate and picking up her fork. “Well, that’s what happened here. We were getting close, we were expanding that little sexual part of her mind, getting her curious and asking questions, and you just had to impose your dominance. Next time, just bite her on the back of her neck when she comes into the kitchen and then take her in the ass. It’d be just as obvious, only then she might have a better opinion of you.” He took a bite of her pancakes. “She’s wrong, though. It’s definitely the syrup that’s making them soggy and gross.”
Charlie sat back in his chair and sighed, drumming his fingers on the table. Liz could feel his frustration radiating out of him; she gave him a kiss on his cheek and snuggled up to him supportively.
“It’s easier getting a girlfriend from the Internet,” Charlie said. “You can tell them everything up front, and if they don’t like it, they don’t respond to your ad.”
“Wow, bro. You should write love sonnets,” Josh said with a laugh.
* * *
When Sophie woke up from her nap, she didn’t really feel like the sleep had done her much good. A knot of worry still clenched in her tummy, making it hard to breathe or swallow. Coupled with actual hunger, she was actually beginning to feel a little sick.
Being Their Baby Page 6
