Bitsy put them both in her king-size bed. Leonard handed her a cup of tea when she sank into a chair in the kitchen, which had been an operating room a few minutes before. The sound of a car coming up the drive surprised them, so did the woman who was driving it. Sonata Rojinsky had arrived.
"They're asleep and too pooped to talk. You don't really want to know why."
"Of course I do, but that's because I'm curious as hell. I've gotten my nose poked often enough I listen to people who warn me to not stick it in, then decide if I'm going to ignore them. What have I got?"
"Oh, a living work of art worth several billion who people are going to think is naive and his child."
"Child?"
"I picked him for daddy for the right reason."
"You love him?"
"There isn't another right one, is there? I don't need his financial help, which is why I can accept it. I do need him to visit. I'm making him a hometown boy. You know what that means."
"My last court case was defending a seventy-nine-year-old man who took offense at something someone said about my grandmother. I didn't win it. He was not remorseful and the judge struggled not to laugh when he said it was the most satisfying two hundred dollars he'd ever spent. Find me a place to stay in town. I need to see the documents Brad told me about. I'll probably need an introduction to Walter Amunson and Judge Hernendez."
"Mrs. Horsch could use a roomer, Bitsy."
"Do you think I should warn Sonata she can put ten pounds on a person in a week?"
"Nah, she'll smell apple pie or cookies two blocks away and won't need it. Sonata, Mrs. Horsch loves to cook. Every great cook needs an audience. She has a big house with lots of empty rooms. Filling a couple of them gives her a nice budget to buy things to cook and an appreciative audience. Currently, she has only one boarder. He has three rooms, though. His computer lives in two of them. He's the math and science teacher at the elementary school. It's a small town, but it's a prosperous one. We're actually a rural community. Most of us have been 'surfing the net' since before they called it 'the net.' A computer has been a farm implement for thirty years in this area. Hog farms and vineyards both pay nicely, so do flowers and bulbs. They're dependent on everything that happens everywhere in the world. A hail storm in Amsterdam affects them nearly as much as one here and they know it. This was never a company town. It has always been a co-op. Look around. Farm co-ops are extremely successful in general."
"Get those people moving to cash in on what they suddenly have going for them. Plan a golf course and look for an investor. Plan a nice redo on the public swimming pool. The people will be able to pay their taxes. Push your tourism and get a couple of those old houses made into nice bed and breakfasts."
"I'm not worried about your kid. What do you want from my client?"
"Buy a farm at no interest and donate it to the community for Leonard's work. The payments would be what an elderly woman needs to live on and the college education her husband wanted to give their grandchildren. The work is a wildlife care center. He won't let us name it for him, so we haven't named it."
"I don't like memorials. Brad's my lawyer. In this town, you choose one of three attorneys or you choose one sixty miles away and probably not real familiar with your kind of legal work. You need to know about Hulk."
"Hulk?"
"Jim Waters, adopted child of one of the founding families. Alzheimer was something they would not allow to spread into the common gene pool of this community. I have no children and neither does my brother. Jim has two. It was quite deliberate and I told him today. He's Brad's client. The children are all our children. Kelly's will be. We have a rather realistic attitude for a little town with eleven churches. The ladies decided independently and individually, but we're all delighted we'll have their kids for our kids to marry. Bitsy's father owns the radio station and fifteen percent of six hundred acres of flowers."
"A hundred twelve of that is greenhouse. Daddy really hates hail. I'm Gizmo. I've got three patents. I'll get a couple for what I build for Kelly to use before he learns to ski."
"Ski?"
"Run, leap, jump, bungi jump if he wants, swim, surf and play football. It is a miracle. He's doing it, but Hulk is why he can. It takes both."
"Can that be explained?"
"Hulk's an alien telepath. We don't tell him."
"Leonard!"
"Gizmo builds focuses for his power. You'll know he can't actually be human as soon as you see him. Humans don't come that good-looking. Kelly's face was built by artists. He never felt it was his body, until Hulk touched it differently."
"He's got a gizmo in him right now. It's a very complex piece of technology that does absolutely nothing, and it took me fifteen hours to assure it did nothing after I designed it. He knows it and that he can use it to help him gain control over his body. Hulk absolutely believes he will and no one else can doubt it. See why the girls went after him? Besides that, I had kept him close for six years and they'd have had to be nuts to pass up the opportunity. I hated his guts, but I thoroughly agreed we wanted his kids."
"Mersia and Heather both complain it only took one try. Mersia will be after an encore. Most women in the town would like to know exactly why. All the single women under forty will actively try to learn for themselves. He won't have any more children here, though."
"Yep, small town. I liked going to Grandma's a whole lot. I'm moving here. That means Mrs. Horsch has a full-time boarder who shows up now and then. I hope she's got room to store a lot of stuff. I hate my condo and it's been broken into twice while I was traveling. You have a nice private airport and I love arguing politics with Brad. We don't agree on anything that isn't pure ethics. He's about to get a handball partner."
"Handball?! Brad?"
"He'll be glad I'm not around much and he'll learn to play a real good game of tennis, to offer instead of being slaughtered in handball."
"Um, perhaps golf?"
"This whole handball thing is designed to get him to pay the greens fees, Gizmo. Brad needs to be established as my connection to Kelly. This is Jim's hometown in the real sense of the term. I need this town as a filter for me. Brad needs me as a backup. We work well together. I hate my condo in the suburbs. I like old houses and good home cooking and I travel a lot. I also like elementary teachers and computer nerds who live close. We had servants when I was a kid. I had a cook and a nanny who spoiled me rotten. They were wonderful friends. I have them lots of places. My mommy owns twenty-two travel agencies. I have clients in fourteen countries who I represent in this one. Most of my job is explain my job to their attorneys in that one. That's why I'm the right attorney. I'm not personally wealthy, though quite well off. I don't pay for hotels. I stay with my clients, who are all family friends. They can't afford to pay for hotel rooms either, even if they own a hotel. Most of them have big houses and I can afford to rent a car. Three months in a villa in Spain, while a small company 'expands onto the world market,' is worth just charging for the work I do here and they're all glad to see me when I just show up for a visit. I'm invited to bring friends. You may wind up on the front page."
"I've made the front page here regularly since I was nine. This is the only paper I clip articles from for my scrapbook. If they get nosy, I'll tell them Kelly is the third man I've made love to. Everybody in town knows the other two are Hulk and Leonard. If you don't want it known here, you don't do it. I'll also tell them I like being first, and always have been."
"You'll do. Oh, I like high school football games, but I'm disappointed if there's no cotton candy."
"The machine gets full maintenance after the county fair every year."
"This area is dotted with small towns. They're primarily built around a farm co-op. Even if they were started long before there was officially a co-op. Get her the papers, Gizmo. I'll lead her to Mrs. Harsco's. From the way she came up the drive, I'm not real worried about losing her. I need to go by my place for a change of clothes."
"Bring some
back, Leonard. Kelly's excited. Hulk and I will be working hard to get the van ready so they can get on the road and start their adventures. We need you here about four days."
"That's what I figured. Nice ideas, but I didn't see anything really new."
"There isn't until they're all put together. I'm going to build more things like the van and your scoot and chair. It feels good."
"The best reason for doing anything."
Bitsy went to her room as soon as they left. She smiled and knelt beside the bed. Kelly's eyes were closed, but she was sure he was awake. She touched him and he looked right at her.
"Your lawyer decided to move into town and Brad's evidently going to have a partner, no matter what he says. This is the best time for me, Kelly. According to everything I've read, about the next three days. If we wait for your back to heal, it's more likely I'll ask you to come back in a month. Jim doesn't have any say on this one, as far as coming back so we can try again if we need to. He does have a say about your back. This won't happen until we're both sure it won't hurt you. He'll know the difference between discomfort you're not noticing and damage, won't you, Hulk?"
"I'm sure you're talking about what I think you're talking about because 'Uh, oh,' was the thought that woke me up."
"I need to be carrying our child before people realize it might be our child. Born would be wonderful, but I'm not expecting it. Kelly, I want to make love to you because I love you, which is, of course, also why I want your child. I'm not in love with you. I did that once. Everyone should. I may fall in love again someday, but not with either of you. You're stuck in the friend category. I think I'm much safer with you firmly planted there to start with. Hulk, his answer's pretty obvious."
"Yeah, hung like a horse. You can't see I've got a hard on if I'm laying on it. I can hold him so his back isn't stressed or rubbed and he's sure he's not too tired."
"We have about two hours before Leonard gets back, then I'll need him and not you for about one. After that, I'll need you about three, then I'm going to sleep four."
"I'm obviously going to lose track of days and nights. My body really doesn't like it, you know."
"This time you won't be trying to get it back on a schedule around school in a few days, Hulk. You two will never be attached to a clock again, unless you choose to be. Kelly's probably very tired of being on a strict schedule. Mm, so warm and alive. This pillow is for you, Kelly. It goes right under here. I'll lift his hips, Hulk. Can you hold him and still push it under?"
"Let me get ready. OK, lift."
He was very surprised when she bent down and took his penis in her mouth. The feeling was incredible. Jim got 'under' him a bit more and lifted him so he could see what she was doing. It hurt a bit, but very little, and he did not mind at all.
"You'll probably come fast the first time, Kelly. Bitsy knows it."
"I know you're a mouthful. Nice and wet. Kelly, if Hulk doesn't get excited, he's working too hard at ignoring us. I don't expect him to participate, but it ought to really turn him on and we'll worry about him if it doesn't. Frankly, I'd love to end up in bed with you between us, but I know he's not ready for that. Yet. No, we won't make love to each other. We both know it. Oh, I told your lawyer you're the third man I've made love to and who else. Leonard looked very smug. Her name fits. You could find her in an airport just looking for the woman it does. She may end up being Leonard's lady. They grin in the same language and he's never met anyone else who did. Yes, I really like the idea too. She's just who we need to get that wildlife center done. Your job is help her give him a raspberry and name it for him for us. Oh, you are so big! Long lovemaking sessions with you need to be well-spaced. A girl could get tender and just say the hell with it and get lots more tender. Don't try to help this time. Let me and Jim do it for you. Running for the spa is not part of the plan. Stick with it."
"Oh, no problem. He likes it real well so far. I like it real well. She turns every man on, Kelly."
"That may be why we ended up with each other. He turns every woman on. The kids at school got along better after we started going together. I was fourteen and he was sixteen. He's two years older than I am two months of the year. The truth is, I rushed you because Sonata is going to want to play with you too and I'm first."
"Uh... "
"Oh, I'm sure that was a duet I heard. You're cute, Kelly, and the cute is all you. Beautiful is all they could do for you, or so they thought. They did good. Your face and body are almost as beautiful as you are. Hulk's are almost as beautiful as he is too. Leonard would be too beautiful to be mortal, even if they were just almost. You've been adopted. I decided. Your lawyer is moving in. You are now a hometown boy. Hulk needs help. Half of the girls chasing you is a lot of help. You can probably both get away most of the time if you don't visit extremely often. Do visit though. I plan to keep you occupied while you're here for awhile. He deserves to run hard. He won't always get away. Sometimes one should work at not noticing the foot stuck out to trip one. You and I are going to have him nicely warmed up for Mersia."
"Uh... "
Kelly giggled. He was having a lot of fun. The dialog was a lot more interesting than 'Ooh, ooh, yeah, Baby, like that.' So was everything else.
"You're rich and this little town is going to take advantage of it. We do every time one of our children brings someone home. We make sure it's a very nice home so none of them mind. Do go home to the place Terry said ached for you to live in it once in awhile. Put a balcony and French doors you can leave open in that room you were in and really change it. You don't need it as a momento of how you two met. He's your love, Kelly. Everyone in this town will understand why because we know him so very well. He picked you and we all know anyone who didn't whoop and shout yes would be too crazy for him to pick. Ooh, I'm not sure I'm paying enough attention to what I'm saying to keep talking."
"Don't lift! Bitsy, this could end in the spa fast. That was a big step."
"Oh, that's not a compliment I want right now, Kelly. I'm going to rush you, Baby. Hulk, stroke his nipples. Come on, Jim. It takes all three of us to do this. You're not a prop. You're his loved friend. He deserves to come, especially if it's going to tie him in knots anyway."
"You're absolutely right. I'll do what you tell me, to a point."
"We know exactly the 'point.' He's made it too clear, hasn't he, Kelly? It's just the way he is. He has to be seduced the first several times. Your touch is the one he will always love most, Hulk, and it will always be exciting. Let's finish here and take him to the spa before we're running for it. Let's see if we can reduce or divert the sequence this time."
"Huh?"
"How nice, another duet."
He was so relaxed he was sure he couldn't have a muscle spasm. His back burned a bit, but it actually felt better. Jim had told him feeling smug was appropriate. Bitsy had told him she would always remember he had made love to her too. He felt a sharp twinge, but the spasm that had followed it, been part of it, every time did not come. The twinge was in his head, not his back. He decided Bitsy had it all figured out. He smiled up at Jim.
"Bitsy, it worked. I'm sure of it. Kelly's sure of it."
"Then I'm going back to work. Stay in the water a little longer, then hold him on your lap awhile, Hulk. It's the most relaxing place there is. I know you can sleep holding him in the big brown lounge chair."
"I might hurt his back if I move."
"A cramp would hurt it more, wouldn't it, Kelly? It's a plot, Hulk. Women enjoy sharing their wisdom and experience with younger men. I'm going to use mine to help Kelly seduce you. He's an absolute teddy bear in that chair, Kelly. He's big and warm and snuggly. It's a great place for a two-hour nap. I'll light a fire for you. It's starting to get cool and Leonard will keep a fire going without thinking about the fact the house is warmer than I usually keep it. He'd definitely notice if I raised the thermostat."
"The chair you built him is going to make it fun for him to cook in your kitchen."
"I b
uilt it so he could reach things from it better than with a step ladder. I started working on that part of the idea the day he borrowed a torch to add rungs to three of them. See you later, Cutie. I plan on lots more fun."
Kelly smiled at Jim and he laughed. He told him he might have seen a more smug smile sometime, but he couldn't remember one. Kelly thought Bitsy's had been rather smug too. He was sure hers was appropriate.
Jim fell asleep with Kelly in his lap in the big brown chair. Leonard checked on them when he arrived. He walked back into the workshop grinning.
"My scooter didn't even wake them."
"I knew he wasn't resting well and had a suspicion he would if he had both arms around Kelly."
"Mrs. Horsch is a very happy woman. Brad may looked pained for days."
"You like Sonata."
"I certainly do. She stopped by the bookstore and the market. She handed Mrs. Horsch three cookbooks by a friend of hers, four bags of groceries and the phone number of a spice company that will ship all the 'un-ordinary' spices called for, in some of the recipes her friend picked up all over the world. She hunted a place for her samovar in the dining room first, then decided she wanted the two connecting bedrooms in the back and started rearranging furniture. When I left, Carter was happily disassembling a bed to be stored. Sonata was explaining he was just who she needed to keep in touch with home and that she'd pay the bill for him to contact her on the international internet at least weekly and bring home interesting things for his classes in return for the favor. Mrs. Horsch was making a 'hole' in the basement for her to store things. The Graham boys were helping. Sonata yelled across the alley she needed their 'gorgeous muscles.' She knows small towns and is going to make sure we're real pleased she picked this one. Brad did need her, Bitsy."
"He's a patent attorney because that's what we needed, but now we need that and everything else most attorneys don't do, along with everything most usually do, and the job of doing all those things he was already doing got bigger."
Hometown Kelly and the Gizmo Team Page 7
