Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 01:51:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: ErastesTouch@aol.com
Subject: Different Points of View, chapter 30

Different Points of View - by Erastes
Copyright 2012 by Erastes
Chapter 30 – The Decision.

I contacted Bruno again, to find out what types of restrictions I was facing in
regard to Josh, but first I told him about everything that Sherry and I talked about
again.  Bruno advised me that I was not allowed to be around persons under the
age of 16, but when I pressed him on that fact and asked what would happen if I
visited someone with children or they visited me, he clarified that as long as there
was another adult around and I wasn't alone with the child, then it wouldn't
violate the restriction.  I thanked him for his advice and began to think about how
this information might change things.

Since I didn't feel I could go down to the diner to see Sherry, I merely called and
left a message.  It simply stated, 'See Bob on your way home tonight.'  Since she
had stopped by the previous two evenings, I didn't think she'd have a problem
doing this now.

When she stopped by later that evening, I explained to her the additional
information I had learned from Bruno and attempted to clarify how that would fit
in with my observations from the evening before.  I thought it would be unfair to
allow one down without the other, but that would also include any of their friends
that had joined us on previous occasions.  Besides, I didn't feel their friends'
parents would want their sons hanging around me anyway, so I guess that point
was moot.

"You know," Sherry added, "I've been trying to get Jared to agree to having a
birthday party similar to the one you arranged for him last year, but he refuses to
let me do that for him."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I observed, "but you can't let him keep refusing to live,
just because of me.  He's a kid and should be enjoying this part of his life."

"Trust me.  I agree with you and I've tried," she replied.  "He just feels that doing
it will create too many reminders that you're missing and he's partially to blame
for it."

"Don't let him continue to beat himself up over this," I urged.  "Tell him I
understand and don't blame him.  Let him know that I want him to enjoy his life
the way it is now and not continue to wish for things that can't be changed."

"I did get him to make a minor concession along that line," she informed me.
"He's at least agreed to let me hold a small family party to celebrate his birthday,
but only with the three of us.  He told me he didn't want me to invite anyone else,
not even his friends.  Jared wasn't originally going to allow me to do that much
for him either, but he finally relented when he saw how upset I got, so I know he
only agreed in order to placate me.  Even though we're going to have a party, it
still isn't going to be very much fun for him."

Sherry then asked me to reconsider my stance and continued to emphasize how
much Jared needed me in his life.  I told her I would do that, but I still couldn't
make any promises.  She said that was fine, as long as I didn't rule it out
completely, and then she left.

I was painfully aware of every day from that moment on, and even though I was
trying not to do it, I was making a mental countdown until Jared's birthday.  Even
that simple task became very painful for me, because I kept thinking about how I
went about planning the surprise for him the previous year and remembered the
great time I'd had with him and his friends.

I was slowly slipping into a deeper depression as the days passed by and my
mood became noticeable to Darren as well.  He tried his best to help me through
this painful time, but I just couldn't shake the morose feelings I was having.  No
matter how hard I tried, I couldn't even follow the same advice I had asked
Sherry to relay to Jared.  I could only think about what we once had and what
might have been, so Jared and I were probably sharing very similar feelings.

When his birthday arrived, Jared was almost dreading the fact, but he knew he
had to go along with it, if only for his mother's sake.  She even took the day off
from work, so she would have more time to spend with him and, hopefully, be
able to make this day at least somewhat enjoyable for him.  It was just after lunch
when they decided to have his cake and ice cream, seeing no one else would be
coming.  Sherry had baked the cake herself and had purchased three of Jared's
favorite ice cream flavors.  She had just lit the sixteen candles on his cake, when
she and Josh began to sing 'Happy Birthday' to him.

"Mom," Jared protested, "I'm not a little kid any more, so we don't need the
candles or the singing."

Sherry and Josh ignored his rant and continued until they had finished the song.
Then, she had him cut the cake, gave him the first slice and added one scoop of
each of the three flavors of ice cream to his plate.  Once he was set, she and
Josh joined him in savoring this little treat.  After they had each finished cleaning
off their plate, she brought out his presents for him to open.  There were two gifts
from her, two from Josh and then a final gift from both of them, but Jared didn't
seem very thrilled with any of them.  He did thank them for their presents, told
them each item was very nice and he liked it, but they could both tell he was just
being polite.  Sherry's heart was breaking, as she watched how her son was
moping through the day that should have been one of his happiest times.

They were just about to give up and call it quits, when they heard a knock on the
door.  Jared gave his mother a bone-chilling look when he heard this, because
he was afraid she had ignored his wishes.

"I hope you didn't invite anyone else after I told you not to.  You didn't do that, did
you?" he spat out.

"No, dear.  You told me not to, so I honored your request," she confirmed.

He looked at her like he wasn't sure if he believed her and then went on to
question her truthfulness.

"Then who's there?" he demanded.

"I don't know, but one of us should go check," she replied.  "The only thing I can
think of is that I ordered another present for you, which was going to be delivered
by the U.S. Postal Service, so maybe it's being delivered now."

He continued to eye her suspiciously.

"Do you want to go see if that's it or do you want Josh or me to do it?" she
followed.

"One of you can go," he spat back.  "I'm going to my room."

He started to walk away, but his mother spoke to him and stopped his progress.

"Honey, why don't you just wait a second and see if it's your present.  If it is, then
you can open it now too."

He wasn't happy about having to do this, but he stopped and walked into the
living room.

"Ok, I suppose I might as well get the door then," he said, as he began to walk
dejectedly over to see who was there.

When he opened it, he suddenly became very excited, began jumping up and
down and turned to smile at his mother and brother.  After that he jumped up,
wrapped his arms around my neck and his legs around my waist.

"Happy Birthday, sport," I told him, while giving him a wink.  "I hear you're legal
now."

He was still speechless, probably because he was so choked up, but he was
hugging me so tightly that I was actually having difficulty breathing.  I noticed
even Josh seemed excited, because he had also come over to stand beside me.
Finally, Jared found his tongue and began to speak.

"Oh, Bob, I've missed you so much!" he exclaimed, before giving me a huge kiss.

"Don't you think you should invite me in first, so we're not in the doorway for all
the world to see what we're doing?"

"I don't care who sees us, because I love you," he reasoned, "but come in,
please."

He stepped aside, after he'd unwrapped himself from my body, and let me enter.
Then, once the door was closed, he turned to me and spoke.

 "Bob, will you ever be able to forgive me for all the trouble I caused you?" he
pleaded.

"Jared, it wasn't you who did that to me and it wasn't Josh's fault either," I
assured him, as I placed an arm around Josh's shoulders and hugging him
against us.  "First of all, it was my mistake for giving in to you about engaging in
sexual activities, because I was the adult and ultimately responsible."

"But if it wasn't for us, then you wouldn't have gone to jail," he insisted.

"That might be true, but your mother explained everything that had been done to
force you into doing it," I confided.  "As far as I'm concerned, it's all in the past
and there are no hard feelings.  How about you boys?"

"What about us?" Josh asked.

"Well, can you forgive me for putting you in that situation?" I stated.

They both looked at me as if I had three heads.

"You never did anything to hurt us.  You were good to us and did all kinds of
special things to make us happy," Jared countered.  "Josh and I think the world of
you and we both love you a whole lot.  You're my dad now, but because of me
you went to jail."

He burst into tears and began to sob hysterically.

"Jared, I love both of you too and nothing that happened has changed that," I
insisted.

"Then why didn't you come see me or at least call after you got out of jail?" he
demanded.  "I saw you a few times, so I knew you were home, but you didn't let
me know because you hate me now.  Don't you?"

He began to cry even harder now, if there was humanly possible.

"That's not it at all," I assured him.  "I was also told that I had to avoid contact
with you or they would send me back to jail.  I was told that I couldn't be around
you until you reached legal age and then they couldn't stop me.  Since today you
became legal, at least in the eyes of the law, I was able to come here.  You do
turn 16 today, don't you?"

He looked at me and I could see the pieces starting to fall into place and then a
big grin began to split his face.

"Yeah, I'm 16 now," he confirmed, energetically.

He was beaming, as he realized what this meant for us.

"What about me?" Josh wanted to know.  "Do I have to wait until I'm legal too,
before I can spend time with you again?"

"I'm afraid you can't just come down with Jared like you used to do, sport, even
though we weren't, and won't, be doing anything sexual," I answered, and a sad
look swept over his face, as if a veil had suddenly been pulled over it.

"So there's no way I can come down to your house to go swimming and do other
stuff?" he persisted.

"I didn't say that," I corrected.  "You aren't allowed to come down with Jared, but
you can come down with your mother or if there is another adult present."

Gradually, his morose façade suddenly began to lighten.

"That's better than not being able to come down at all," he agreed.

"Who is that other guy I've seen down there?" Jared wondered.  "It looks like he's
living with you, so when I saw him, I thought maybe you had found someone else
to take my place."

"Absolutely not," I stated.  "The guy that you probably have seen me with is a
friend and his name is Darren."

"So you guys aren't doing stuff?" Jared pressed.

"No, Jared, we're not," I confirmed.  "He's straight and has a girlfriend.  I'm just
trying to give him a helping hand, until he gets back on his feet."

"So how did you meet him?" Jared pressed.

"I met him in jail," I admitted.  "He's a good kid who made a silly mistake, but he
was about the only person in jail who didn't treat me like some evil and vile
creature.  We became close, and since he'd lost his job and apartment while he
was locked up, I offered to let him live with me until he got back on his feet.
Since we've been released, he took a job at Walmart and is planning to go back
to college, but not until a year from this fall, so he'll probably be with me until
then."

"Does that mean I won't be able to stay with you sometimes?" Jared asked,
concerned.

"If it's ok with your mother, I'm sure we can work something out," I confessed,
"but we'll just have to make sure the door is shut and locked from now on, so
there are no further problems.  I wouldn't want to gross Darren or his girlfriend
out."

I gave Jared a wink, after I'd made that last statement.

"That's not a problem," Jared stated, enthusiastically.  "I'll take care of that
personally, as long as we can do sex stuff again."

Just then he happened to think about what he'd just said, so he looked back and
noticed the expression on his mother's face.

"Sorry, Mom.  I didn't mean to bring up the sex stuff in front of you," he
apologized.

She just made a flip of her hand and waved the matter away.  Once he saw her
do that, Jared turned back to me, wrapped his arms around my chest and
planted a big, wet kiss on my mouth.  Once we broke apart, I decided I needed to
say something.

"We're in front of the window, where everyone can see you kissing me, so aren't
you concerned?" I asked.

"I don't care any more," he stated, while hugging me hard.  "I'm legal now, so I
don't care who knows I love you and want to have sex with you."

After saying this, he turned around again and looked back in his mother's
direction.

"Sorry, Mom.  I just keep forgetting," he apologized, for the second time.

Once more she waved away his apology, but he realized he was beginning to
push his luck.

"Can we go down to your house now, so I won't get mom all hyper?" he
whispered in my ear.

"Well, you'll have to ask your mother if you may do that," I informed him.

At this point, he released me from his grasp and quickly walked over to his
mother.  He immediately wrapped his arms around her next, so he could give her
a big hug and kiss.

"Mom, thanks for talking to Bob and explaining things," he began.  "I'm glad he's
back, so would you mind if I go spend the night with him?"

She just smirked and hugged her son back.

"Oh, you only come and kiss me so I'll let you run off with your boyfriend?" she
teased, while giving me a nod of the head when Jared looked down at the floor.

"You know I love you and..." he began, but then came to an abrupt stop.  After a
few seconds, he spoke again.

"Did you just call Bob my boyfriend?" he nearly shouted, when what she had said
finally sank in.

"Well, he is, isn't he?" she followed, with a smile, as Jared turned back toward
me.

"Are you really my boyfriend now, Bob?" he wanted to know.

He was deadly serious with this question and looked at me eagerly.

"I don't think I can be both your boyfriend and your dad," I explained.  "I guess it
would be up to you to pick which one you'd prefer I'd be."

I studied his reaction for the next few seconds, as he thought about what I had
just told him.

"I pick lover," he announced proudly, before correcting himself.  "I mean
boyfriend."

By now his mother was laughing hysterically.

"What's so funny?" he asked her.

"Jared, Bob and I had this all planned out," she confessed.  "I had already told
him the best present he could give you was if he would spend the night with only
you, so he could love you.  Now I didn't say 'make love to you,' just love you."

After hearing her clarification, it was Jared who turned a lovely shade of red.

"Mom!" he shouted.

All of this time Josh stood there looking happy for his brother, but I could tell he
was still a bit dejected.

"Josh, as much as I'd love to have you stay over from time to time, that just won't
be possible until you get older," I pointed out.  "Even if Darren or your mother
were there, it could always be claimed that I got you alone during the night or
whatever, so I just can't take that chance."

"I know and I understand," he agreed.  "I do feel sad about that, but it sure is nice
to have my brother back again.  We were both sad about everything that
happened, but he was a lot worse off, so I'm just glad he's happy again."

"That's very mature of you and we both appreciate it," I replied, while speaking
for both Jared and myself.  "How about this?  Darren and I swim every evening,
around 8:00, and then we workout for a while after that.  How would you like to
come down and swim with us tomorrow at that time?  You don't have to work out
with us and can just stay in the pool if you want, but with Darren there, you'll be
able to at least do that much.  Would you like that?"

 "Hell, yes!" he shouted out, and then he realized what he'd said.  "Sorry, Mom.  I
know you don't like it when I swear."

"I'll let it slide this time," she responded, with a smile.  "Jared, why don't you go
get your things and then you can take off with Bob."

"I won't need any clothes down there," he stated, and then he realized how that
probably sounded, so he clarified his comment.  "Remember, I have things at
Bob's house already."

His mother was giggling at his comment, but more so with the fact that he felt he
needed to clarify it.

"Ok, you two run along," she urged.  "I'm sure you have a lot of catching up to
do."

Jared hugged and kissed his mother again and I gave Josh a hug, before I
walked over to hug Sherry too.

"Thanks, Mom," I teased.

"Oh, go on and get out of here," she answered playfully, pushing me away.

"Hey, she's not your mother," Josh corrected.

"Maybe not, but she may end up being my mother-in-law," I teased some more.

It took both boys a few seconds to get the drift of what I meant.

"Are you asking me to marry you?" Jared suddenly wanted to know.

"Well, not yet, but who knows what might happen in the future?" I stated.

After I'd said this, Jared began to dance around, thinking this meant he finally
had his commitment from me.  I suspected that he felt he was getting a lover,
companion, father and friend all rolled into one.  I had all I could do to calm him
down and get him into the Tahoe, and then his mother and brother waved at us
as we drove off.

As we made our way to my place, Jared turned in his seat and spoke.

"Bob, I love you so much and I'm so glad we're back together," he admitted.  "I
don't ever want to be separated from you like that again."

"I feel the same way, sport, but there's a few things you probably should know," I
stated.  "I told you Darren is staying with me, but what I didn't tell you is that he's
been calling me 'Dad.'  He thinks of me like a second father, but he knows about
you too and he's cool about us.  Does any of that bother you?"

For a moment, Jared looked slightly confused, but then after the last part of my
statement sank in, he began to brighten again.  Since he seemed to be ok with
this, I went on to tell him a little more about Darren, gave him some more details
about how we'd met, why he came to live with me and what was going to happen
with him in the future.  I told him how Darren knew a little of the story about us,
that he accepted it and even mentioned how it would make the two of them
brothers.  I think Jared liked that idea as well, so everything seemed to be going
just fine.

I knew Darren would be sleeping when we got home, so I told Jared we'd have to
be quiet, so we wouldn't wake him up.  I told him we could go into the living room
and watch TV or a movie in the meantime, if he wanted.

"I'll do anything, as long as I can do it with you," he responded.

Getting his agreement, we went into the living room and I turned on the
television.  We found a movie we thought would be acceptable and then I sat on
the sofa beside him.  Jared got up and moved onto my lap instead, and then he
began to kiss me, passionately.  His tongue immediately attempted to gain entry
into my mouth, but at the same time his hands were all over me, feeling me up.  I
broke from his kiss for a second and he immediately looked hurt.

"What's wrong?" he wanted to know.

"I didn't know you'd changed so much while we were apart," I told him.

He looked confused.

"What do you mean?" he insisted.

"Well, when I left you were a young boy, but now you're an octopus, with eight
arms roaming all over my body, but you also have a suction cup fastened to my
lips."

He now began to realize that I was teasing him, so he started to laugh.

"I have a lot of catching up to do, so I hope you're rested up," he explained.

"That's about all I've done," I shot back.

After hearing my response, I think Jared took it as permission to rape me,
because he began to try to undress me at that point.

"Jared, I think we should still be a little careful and wait until after I've taken
Darren to work," I advised him.

"What time does he usually get up?"

"Usually between 8:00 and 9:00," I informed him.

"Well, it's only 3:00 now, so we still have plenty of time," he pointed out.  "Come
on, I think we need to check and see if that lock on our bedroom door still works."

"Our bedroom door?" I repeated.

"Yeah, seeing we're going to be lovers, it's our bedroom now," he stated, very
forcefully.

He gave me a huge smile and began to drag me toward the stairs.  We quietly
tiptoed our way down the hall, locked the door behind us and then Jared began
to remove my clothing.

"I don't think we need to rush," I told him.

"Maybe you don't," he responded, "but I do.  I've been praying for this day for a
very long time, so if we don't get to it soon, I'm going to start shooting all over the
place, without you even touching me."

I nodded my understanding and quickly got out of my things, while he took off his
clothing.  Once we were both undressed, we got in his favorite position, a sixty-
nine.

He was as hard as tempered steel and his body shivered as my lips touched his
dick.  I hadn't even slid halfway down his shaft before I felt the first blast of his
hot seed and heard him begin to groan.  Before I knew it, I was drowning in a sea
of his hot cum, which made me wonder if he had ejaculated at all since we'd last
been together.  Once the tidal wave was over, he looked back at me and spoke.

"I'm sorry about that, but I was all hot and excited being with you again," he
explained.

His face was slightly red as he told me this.

"Don't worry about it, champ," I told him.  "You're young and will be able to do it
again soon, but this time I know you will last."

He thanked me for understanding and then went back to work on me.  Seeing he
had just spewed his load, I decided another approach was required, so I slid my
head further between his legs and started to lick around his bunghole.  I don't
think he was expecting this, so he initially began to stiffen and then squirm, but I
think he must have liked the sensation he was getting from it, because he started
to push his butt back into my face.  I continued to rim him, but this time in
earnest, as I let my tongue attempt penetration.  I felt a little hesitation on his part
at first, but he gradually began to open up to my probing and was soon giving me
complete access to his most private area.  Eagerly, I tongued him for a while
longer, before I turned my attention to trying something different.

At this point, I began to lick the back of his scrotum, before taking that fleshy
sack into my mouth and tonguing the watery orbs hidden within.  He was
beginning to squirm again, so I knew he was becoming aroused once more.  Ah,
the joys of being young and resilient.  After playing with his testicles for a little
while longer, I latched on to his serpent of love and began to suck on it as if I
were a starving, suckling calf.

Jared was thrusting his hips into me at this point, while still working on me, but
now I knew I was getting close and doubted I could bring us off together.  Try as I
might, I was soon feeding him my creamy load, even though I had futilely
attempted to stay focused on what I was doing to him, so he would cum soon as
well.  Purely out of impulse, I slid one of my fingers up his chute, so I could
massage his prostate a bit, and wham, he unloaded once again.  After I had
drained him for the second time, I swung him around and hugged him to my
chest.

"Do you think that will last you for a while?" I teased.

"Yeah, at least until after you take Darren to work," he replied with a shit-eating
grin on his face.

It was at that moment when I realized that I might be in for a long night.

Jared and I cuddled, kissed, groped and hugged for another hour or so, and then
we went back downstairs.  Eventually, I began to take out the food so I could fix
dinner, but I was preparing enough so we could all eat together.  I knew that after
Darren woke up, he'd want us to do our exercise routine next, before he took his
shower and we sat down to eat.  I had explained this to Jared as well and he
decided that he wanted to join us when we did our workout, if we didn't mind, so I
assured him that would be fine.

When Darren came downstairs, I gave him some time to shake the fogginess of
sleep from his brain, before I introduced him to Jared.  He smiled and looked him
over.

"So you're the little hottie that Dad talks about all of the time," he offered, with a
grin.

"He does?" Jared asked, gawking at me.

"Yes, he does," Darren emphasized.  "I don't think you can appreciate how much
he has missed you these past few months."

"I think I can," Jared shot back, "because I've missed him that much or maybe
even more."

This time when I looked at him, he was beaming.

Darren then asked if we were going to work out tonight, since Jared was here, so
I told him Jared wanted to join us when we did our exercise program, at least
whenever he could.

"Great," Darren enthusiastically agreed,  "The more the merrier."

Once that had been agreed to, we all went upstairs to put on our swimsuits and I
think Darren was a little surprised when he learned that Jared kept a stash of
clothes at my house.  After we were ready, we took our swim, dried off and then
we changed into our running clothes.  I drove us over to the college and we
started our walk, which was like a slow jog with the two of them leading, but it
wasn't as bad for me now, since I've done this a few times already.  When we
finished I drove us all back to my place and then Darren went up to shower, while
I finished getting the meal ready.

When Darren came back downstairs, we all ate together and then I drove him to
work.  Jared offered to let Darren sit in the front, and he rode in the seat behind
us, but when Darren got out to go into Walmart, Jared moved up front with me,
before I drove home.  When we got back, Jared wanted us to take a shower
together, so we did, and we washed each other thoroughly before we got ready
for bed.  Neither of us put anything on tonight, since we assumed that would be
foolish, because it would all be coming off soon anyway.  Jared told me in the
shower that he wanted us to do each other separately tonight, instead of doing a
sixty-nine, so I told him that was more than fine with me.

Jared wanted to do me first and I wasn't about to argue with him, so I silently
consented to let him have his way with me.  He was moving slowly and gently
this time, and it seemed as if he was trying to reacquaint himself with every part
of my body, as he let his eyes, fingers and mouth wander all over my frame.
When he finally decided it was time to do the deed, he lovingly took me into his
mouth and began to nod up and down on my organ.  Brilliantly, he began to play
the first several measures of his lovemaking sonata and gradually began to build
toward the crescendo, as I exploded in an aura of melodic splendor.

I was left breathless for a few moments, as I slowly recovered, and then we
changed places.  Lovingly, I returned the favor and ran not only my eyes and
fingers over his soft, smooth body, but my tongue as well.  I licked his nipples, his
navel, his stomach, his scrotum and his inner thighs, before moving on to his
splendid pole.  By the time I reached his helmet, I knew he was nearly ready to
explode.

Our session reminded me of an old time whaler, out on a hunt, and once the
target was spotted, I could even hear the shout, "Thar' she blows."  Even though
I had barely taken more than a few bobs on his rigid shaft, I could feel him tense
up and knew he was about to blow too.  When he released his milky load, I took
it all, not wanting to waste a single drop, and once I had drained him, I slid up
and cuddled with him until we both fell asleep.

We stayed that way all night long, and every once in a while I would feel Jared
leaning in to me and planting a kiss on my lips.  I'm not sure how much sleep
either of us got that night, because I think we both slept very lightly and kept
waking up every so often, yet it was the most restful and relaxing night either of
us had enjoyed in quite some time.  When the alarm went off, Jared looked at
me, because he didn't know I had set it, so I explained we had to go pick Darren
up from work and then we'd be doing our morning exercise routine.  He seemed
excited about this, which sort of surprised me.

I'm not sure if Jared understood how much harder we worked out during our
morning session, but he didn't complain, kept up with us and participated in
everything we did, including all of the calisthenics we went through after our
invigorating walk.  When we got back home, we did some work with the weights
and Jared was surprised to see all of the different things I had in the house now.
After that, we took another shower, with Jared staying in with me, so Darren
could have the other shower to himself.  Once we had all finished and got
changed, I called Sherry to make plans for the rest of the day, seeing it was the
Fourth of July.

Initially, I was thinking about taking all of us to the park, so we could have a
picnic lunch and then stay to watch the fireworks, but I decided that might not be
such a good idea.  Our being together might raise some eyebrows, if we were
spotted, and that could get some tongues wagging, so I thought it would best for
Sherry and the boys if they didn't have to go through that again.  Hell, someone
might even decide to claim that I was now having inappropriate sexual relations
with Josh, since Jared was old enough to consent.  Since Josh wasn't, but was
with us and in close proximity to me, I didn't want any part of something like that
happening.

Instead, I decided to have a cookout at my place, so Jared and I ran back down
to Walmart to pick up meats and other things we needed.  Of course, I wore my
hat and sunglasses, hoping that would help to keep people from recognizing me,
and it seemed to work.  When we got back home, we merely waited for Sherry
and Josh to come down to join us, but I would wait until it was closer to lunchtime
before I fired up the barbeque.

Without me realizing it, Sherry had managed to whip up a couple of salads during
the interim.  She had hurriedly put together a potato and macaroni salad to be
precise, after I'd told her about my idea.  When she joined us later, she and Josh
carried them inside, so we put them in the fridge to keep cold until we were ready
to eat.  Since Darren had decided to stay up and join us, I introduced everyone to
each other, and then Darren suggested he would help me grill the steaks,
hamburgers and hot dogs, so I'd have more time to spend with our company.

I quickly told him I'd appreciate the help, so we all sat down for a brief time first,
before Darren got up, lit the grill and began to slave away preparing the meat.
Since everyone wanted to swim first, I sent Josh up to change, while I stayed
downstairs with his mother, and when he came back, Jared and I went up to
change next.  I had warned Sherry to bring her bathing suit with her, so she wore
it under her clothes and merely took off her outer garments to get ready.  Once
the four of us were appropriately dressed, we spent a brief time in the pool,
before Darren announced that the meat was ready.

We had a wonderful meal and horsed around together until Darren went up to his
room to get some sleep.  The rest of us spent more time in the pool, played
cards, tossed around a Frisbee and played with Boo-Boo, because of course
Sherry had brought him along too.  I was very pleased to learn that they had kept
him while I was gone, but I was totally shocked when I first saw him again,
because he was no longer a puppy, but a full-grown dog now.  I told Sherry and
Josh they could leave him with me again, if it would make things easier for them,
and Sherry began to nod her head vigorously.  I guess she felt badly about
having to keep Boo-Boo tied outside while they were gone each day, because
the one time they had left him alone in the house, I guess he got into quite a bit
of mischief.

Sherry and Josh both got along well with Darren too, so he insisted that I wake
him up later, so he could go with us when we went to watch the fireworks, so I
did.  Just before it began to get dark, we all loaded into the Tahoe and I drove to
a place where we could watch the firework display, yet maintain a limited amount
of privacy.  It was a wonderful show, and not only did it celebrate the birth and
independence of our great country, but it also helped to announce this new stage
in Jared's and my relationship.

I was pleased to see that both boys liked the idea of having Darren as a big
brother and several times I caught Sherry wiping tears from her cheek during the
day, when she saw how well they were getting along.  I knew these were
definitely tears of joy and were shed because she could see how happy her sons
were again, especially Jared.  It turned out to be a most glorious day for all of us.

That night Jared stayed with me again, but I felt badly that Josh couldn't join us,
because I could tell that he really wanted to.  No matter how badly I felt or how
much I wanted to appease him, I knew I couldn't do it, because the potential cost
would be far too great.  I'd already found myself in trouble because I failed to
heed the inner voice of my conscience when it came to Jared, so I wasn't about
to make that same mistake again.  No matter how badly I felt for Josh, this time I
would have to put my own welfare first and foremost.  I certainly didn't want to
end up going to jail again, especially when I remembered the reception I got the
last time, but if the inmates thought I was a repeat offender, I'm convinced my
treatment would be even worse.  No thank you.


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