During all those years of kids and work, ups and downs, I begged Wes to look up his long-lost family in Bakersfield and attempt a reunion of sorts.
It was the biggest source of contention in our relationship during all that time. I’d ask him to look them up, he’d grunt for me to mind my own business, I’d remind him he was my business, and he’d distract me with a blowjob.
And so it went for almost twenty more years. Until a Marian showed up in Hobie out of the blue.
Chapter 34
Weston “Major” Marian
I was terrified of doing anything that would jeopardize my incredible life and the loving family I’d been welcomed into. Even after the internet became a thing and we discovered Clayton and Mrs. Burns had survived the attempted home invasion all those years before, I was too scared to go crawling back to Bakersfield and open up a nasty can of worms with my father.
My sister, Tilly, was the only person in my family I still cared about, and there was no way I could ask her forgiveness for disappearing all those years ago.
So anytime Doc brought it up, I did my best to change the subject. Once Doc started calling them Tilly blowjobs, it was all over. Clearly, his purpose was to deflate my cock with heinous and horrific association. My poor little prim sister would surely keel over dead if she only knew.
One day when our oldest grandchild started falling in love, we stumbled upon a woman named Rebecca Marian. Doc immediately blurted out that his husband’s birth name was Marian, and we quickly discovered she was married to Walter’s son, Thomas Marian. Through Rebecca, we learned that everyone was gone except Tilly. My sister was not only still alive, but apparently thriving in San Francisco.
“We have to go see her!” Doc said excitedly. I looked at him in panic.
Rebecca must have sensed my unease. She reached out a hand to clasp mine where we sat at Nico’s little kitchen table. “I don’t have to tell anyone in my family who you are, Weston. You can decide this on your own time. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years as a mom, especially a foster and adoptive mom, it’s that family issues are deeply personal. It’s up to you how you want to proceed. I’m fairly confident Tilly would hug you, chew you up, spit you out, and then hug you again. She’s pretty damned sassy.”
I laughed through my tears. “Sounds like you definitely have the right Matilda Marian.”
“She’s everyone’s favorite, Weston. She’s funny and fun. Rich as hell and determined. Stubborn, and inquisitive. The best part about her is that she refuses to get old. If a frat house invited her over for strip poker, she’d not only go but she’d bring all her lesbian friends.”
“She’s gay?” Doc and I asked at the same time.
Rebecca laughed so hard at our synchronized routine, she almost doubled over. “Oh my god, you two. No. She’s not. She’s never been married, but she’s dating a nice man right now. Her two besties are gay though, and one of them is even crazier than she is. I really hope you’ll decide to come meet them all someday soon.”
We agreed we would.
And then we didn’t.
The Tilly blowjobs started again and lasted two full years. Until a stranger named Miller Hobbs showed up at our door. The young man claimed to have done an ancestry DNA test that gave him results pointing to me which made no sense since I’d never done anything like that before.
After the young man had left, I turned to my beautiful husband, who radiated guilt and had particular knowledge of how to collect DNA without telling a person.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said. Guiltily.
“I never did a DNA kit.”
“Well, yeah, maybe you did.” He’d looked over my shoulder back toward the kitchen. “Is your chili burning, because I think—”
“Doctor Wilde. Explain how someone got my DNA without my knowledge.”
“Um, you know what I’d like to do right now?” Even at seventy-five years old, Doc’s voice still got higher-pitched when he was nervous. He tried to give me a sexy look. Little did he know, he always looked sexy to me. “I’d like to suck that big fat cock of yours. Let’s go to the bedroom.”
“You sound like a porn star. It’s not as sexy when I know your knee is acting up,” I muttered, sliding my arm around his waist and kissing his cheek. “But I’m still going to take you up on it. Later. We’ll put some pillows down.”
Instead of going to the bedroom, we went to the big farmhouse kitchen that had been renovated several years before into our absolute favorite space. Waiting for us there was a collection of many of our grown grandchildren, Brenda, Gina and her wife, Carmen.