Jan

then.'

'Jan, it's special to me, anyway, regardless of what does or doesn't happen between us. You've honored me by picking me to be the first you make love with; you've honored me by trusting me to help you learn what you do and don't like about making love. You've shown me love and affection far beyond your years; more than I believe I really deserve.

BUT!' – in response to the feeling of her preparing to say something -

'you believe that I deserve it, and I'll accept that. To get back to what I was saying, though, our relationship already is special – as is our time together, to me. Even when you kissed me goodnight at your dad's house, it was special to me – because it was a kiss from you.'

She snuggled again, and I could again all but feel her smile, as I continued 'What I'm getting at is that you don't have to feel like there's any kind of 'score' involved, or that you need or have to do anything in particular to make this time special to me; or at least, more special than it already is. Do what you like, do what feels good, try things you wonder about, don't be afraid to say that you do or don't like or want this thing or that. Enjoy what you experience, and be in the experience. Savor it. For an experience like this, if you feel like it's some kind of contest, then you've already lost.'

At that, she looked up at me, and smiled, saying 'I understand, Uncle Dan. Believe me, I am 'being' in the experience; that's what makes this all so special to me. Not just you, not just what we've done, or what I hope we'll do, but ALL of it – together. What I meant was that what we just did was a special thing inside a special time.'

I smiled back, and said 'In that case, then I apologize for misunderstanding.'

She responded by saying 'That's okay. One of the things you've taught me is that people have to talk – and listen! – if they really want to understand each other.'

A couple minutes later, she yawned, and I suggested a shower before heading to bed. She quickly agreed, but when she went to get up, we found that we'd gotten somewhat 'glued' together – causing her to go into a fit of giggles as we carefully (!!) got ourselves pried apart.

Once settled into bed, Jan asked me if it was okay if Kelly and Robyn and Kim came over, adding 'I know that's more than 'a couple''.

I answered by telling her'Sure, that's fine. All things considered, I don't see why Kelly should count as part of the 'couple'.'

Jan laughed a bit, and said 'Uh, is it okay if we're alone?'

I laughed, too, and said'Sure, Trouble. Do you want me gone completely, or just out of the way? I've got some work I can take care of that will take up maybe four or five hours, and I can do it either at the office or here, with the door closed.'

She quickly replied 'Oh, here is fine; I don't want to make it inconvenient.'

'Okay, here it is, then. Do you want me to disappear when they show up, or pretend not to be here at all?', I asked, with a smile.

She thought for a minute, and answered 'Either one is fine. I'm just thinking, Robyn and Kim have never seen this place, and they'll probably have about a million questions about Mabel and all that.'

'Well, I expect that between you and Kelly, you can answer most of them; at least answer enough of them. Besides, if you get stuck, I'll still be here, and you can use Mabel as an intercom to kind of show off if you want to.'

She hugged me as she said 'Thanks, Uncle Dan.'

After a few moments, I couldn't help but ask 'Jan, I understand – I think! – why you want to have Kelly over. But why Robyn and Kim?'

She sat up, and looked at me as she said 'Uh, it's kind of embarrassing to explain.'

THAT got my attention, and I asked 'Embarrassing how?'

'Well, they kind of figured out that it was you that got me started on learning about sex education and stuff. Actually, Robyn and Mary Alice figured it out, too. When they started asking me about it and everything, I tried to avoid it, but they just wouldn't let it *alone*; they'd just suddenly ask me something about it, and I finally made a mistake and they got me to tell them about almost all of it. I mean, I didn't tell them about us, you know, what we were doing, but they did find out what we were talking about and everything. But before I told them anything, I made them promise that they'd never, EVER tell anybody about it.', she explained, with a look of apprehension on her face.

'I guess it's okay, Jan. I suppose some of them were going to figure it out sooner or later. What else is there?'

Surprised, she asked 'How did you know there was more?'

'Simple. That little bit wouldn't have bothered you too much, and I figure you would have said something about it before.'

Chastised, she looked down and said'Well, yeah, there's more. They didn't actually say anything to me until a couple of weeks ago. Once they got to me, it didn't take them long to figure out that you might be the one that Kelly was so happy about, too.'

'And?'

She sighed, and said 'And Kelly finally had to fess up, too. She's not mad or anything, just disappointed; she kind of feels like she betrayed your trust or something. We've talked about it, and I tried to make her feel better, but she's still kind of down about it.'

'Okay, I guess that explains why I haven't heard from Kelly much the last couple of weeks. Usually, she likes to stop by for a little while every few days, just to listen to music or spend some time with me, but lately, she'd been 'too busy'. I pretty much knew something was up, but figured she'd let me know what was going on soon enough.'

'Yeah, that's what it was. It wasn't you or anything, she was just too embarrassed to say anything to you about it.'

'Okay. Well, when she gets here tomorrow, I'll talk to her – without bringing you into it.'

Jan looked up at me, relief plain on her face, as she said 'Thanks, Uncle Dan. Um, you're not upset? Really?'

'No, not upset. Not even disappointed, really – I guess I should have known that they're clever enough to figure it out, eventually. I'm just glad that they're keeping their word about not talking about it.'

'Oh, they'll keep their promise! For as long as I've known them, they've*never* gone back on a promise, about anything.'

'Okay, Trouble. If you trust them, I expect that I can, too. Is there anything else I need to know?'

'Well, since then, they've been asking me and Kelly a lot of questions, and they kind of know that I wanted you to be my first, you know, but there hasn't been any kind of trouble or anything.'

'Okay. Well, I guess we'll just see how it goes. I don't expect there are going to be any real problems; about the worst that I can expect would be that things might get 'interesting' for a while, if worst comes to worst.'

'What do you mean?'

'The only ones I've actually 'done' anything with have been you and Kelly. With you, it's been with your dad's permission and acceptance, so if anyone gets upset, they'll just have to live with it. As for Kelly, HER parents don't know about us, and they might decide to get the law on me. Remember, strictly speaking, what you and I, and Kelly and I, have done is technically 'rape', in the eyes of the law. I'm 44 years old, and you're both under the 'legal' age of eighteen. Because you're young, the law doesn't think that either of you is old or mature enough to understand what we were doing. It's kind of like they figure you aren't old enough to fully comprehend the choice you make, and aren't responsible enough to make it.'

'That's stupid!'

'So? Stupid, or not, it's still the law, and I could conceivable wind up going to jail about it. But like I said, with you and me, it was with your dad's permission. With Kelly, the argument could be made that her parents have ignored her for so long that they all but gave up their roles as her 'guardians'. It might get nasty if it goes to court, but I don't think I'd actually wind up going to jail or prison or anything.'

At the mention of the possibility of my going to jail, Jan's eyes got large as saucers. When I finished, she said 'I didn't know! Honest to God, I didn't know! Oh, Uncle Dan, I'm SO sorry!', and started to cry.

Pulling her down against me, I caressed her hair and stroked her back as I said 'It's okay, Jan. Really, it's okay.