Too tired from the pool and all the shopping, none of them had any interest in showing off the stuff they'd bought. In fact, all three of them started yawning not long after we put away the stuff we'd bought. I asked if anyone wanted to stay up, but none of them did; after a short discussion, we decided that Lucy and Sandra would sleep together, as would Robyn and I. That settled, all of us headed off to get ready for bed after kissing each other good night.
The next day, the three of them spent the day lazing around, watching movies on TV and so on while I got caught up on the work that I'd put off while helping Lucy. Every so often, one of them would come in to check on me; and if I wasn't too busy, would come over to give me a kiss or a hug. With that kind of encouragement, it actually didn't take me long to get caught up – again, laying the groundwork for the project in the first place saved me time and trouble in the long run.
As it got toward evening, I reached the point where I felt comfortable saving everything I'd done and putting the computer away.
From there, I went in to where Lucy and the girls were stretched out on the bed, watching a movie on the television. I joined them, and told Lucy that when the movie was over, she and I needed to talk. She nodded, and when the credits started rolling, the two of us got up to head into the girls' room. There, I told her that we probably needed to talk to her boss and their client the next day, Monday. She agreed, and we worked out the details of what all we needed to tell them, and in what order. Lucy got on the phone and left a message for her boss, telling him that we'd be giving him a call at four o'clock the next afternoon so he could make the necessary arrangements with the client.
With that out of the way, the next decision – according to Robyn and Sandra – was what to eat for supper. Not wanting to 'dress up', and feeling the desire to get out of the hotel for a little while, we settled on fast-food fried chicken. I called down to let the FBI people know, as well as to inform them that we'd be eating in whatever public park we could find. Hendricks told us there was a park with tables and a small pond not far away, and I readily agreed to his suggestion. We gave them some time to get set up, and then it was out for supper. Only a couple of cars tagged along with us as we hit the drive-though of the chicken place; most of them were already waiting for us when we got to the park. Lucy and the girls were delighted that there was a pond, and understood why I'd gotten an extra order of dinner rolls with the chicken. We found a table not far from the pond, and soon had a nice collection of ducks hitting us up for dinner rolls. A couple of squirrels showed up, too, but didn't find anything to their liking. A few crows hung out on the other side of us from the ducks, and decided that scraps of fried chicken were acceptable, though the mashed potatoes that got tossed their way found a couple of takers, as well.
When we'd finished eating there were still a few pieces of chicken left, along with some mashed potatoes and a few rolls. We decided to pack all of it up rather than throw it away, and took it with us as we headed around the pond on a little walk. Lucy and I walked along, hand in hand, as Robyn and Sandra rationed most of the remaining rolls to whatever ducks hadn't shown up for dinner call. About a third of the way around the pond, we came across an obviously homeless man. From the look of him, I figured he'd just had a run of bad luck – he didn't have the look of an alcoholic or drug user. I got Lucy to sit with me on a table for a little bit, then 'forgot' to pick up the package of leftovers up when we left. A couple minutes later, I looked behind us, and saw the homeless guy happily chowing down on it. Lucy looked back to see what I was watching, and saw him, too – then softly said 'I wondered why you didn't bring the chicken along.'
'If I'd offered it to him directly, he'd have refused, probably.
Leaving it there, he could take it without having whatever dignity he has left being offended.'
Lucy hugged me in response as we continued walking.
After we'd finished our tour of the pond, I think all of us felt refreshed – reasonably full bellies, some time out in the fresh air, a little exercise, and each other's company. We headed back for the hotel, and spent the evening in various pleasures: the girls found a movie they both liked, while Lucy and I spent the evening laying next to each other on the bed, reading and listening to a classical music radio station. All during the evening, one or the other of us would lean over to give the other a kiss – on the shoulder, on the back, on the cheek, or if the timing was right, on the lips. None of them were invitations; rather, they were just expressions of love and affection, freely given and freely accepted.
When it started to get late, Lucy got up to let the girls know when they should go to bed; both accepted their instructions with only a little good-natured complaining.
Shortly after the appointed time, both girls came in to give us a goodnight kiss; both were nude, and Lucy and I couldn't help copping a feel as we kissed each of them. That done, both went back into Lucy's room to go to bed, closing the door behind them. Lucy and I stayed up a bit longer, both of us to finish up the chapter in the books we'd been reading. Lucy finished first, and just lay there watching me until I'd put my book down, too.
She kissed me on the cheek and asked 'Today, at the park? Why was the guy you gave the chicken to the only one you tried to help? We saw a couple others, and you didn't even pay the slightest attention to them, other than to keep an eye on them.'
'He was reasonably clean, and his clothes were decent and in good shape. He was alert, and paying attention to what was going on around him. It didn't look like he was a drunk or a druggie, just that maybe he'd had one too man bad things happen recently. If I'd thought of it sooner, I'd have let a five or ten fall out of my pocket, too. The other ones, well, it was pretty obvious that all of them were hung up on some chemical or other – alcohol, crack, heroin, whatever.
Anything they got would only go into their arms, or up their noses, or wherever. The first guy, he'd figure out how to use whatever he got to last him as long as possible, and try to get the most out of it. As long as someone is trying to do for themselves, I'm more than happy to give them a break. It's the ones that find excuses to forfeit responsibility for themselves that I can't tolerate.'
Lucy kissed me on the cheek again, and said 'You're as soft on the inside as you are hard on the outside. I love you.'
I kissed her back, on the lips, and told her 'I love you, too. Don't tell anybody what a marshmallow I am, okay? If word got out, I'd have a dickens of a time trying to negotiate deals with my customers.'
She giggled, and answered 'Okay, I won't tell', before moving in to give me a hug.
With that, both of us got up and undressed for bed; Lucy decided that she wanted me to spoon against her back. I put my arm around her, and she promptly moved my hand up to hold her breast as she wiggled back far enough to feel my penis resting between her ass cheeks. Once satisfied, she turned her head so we could share a goodnight kiss.
The next morning, Lucy decided to stay at the hotel, telling me 'I've got my own report to write, remember?'. The girls decided that they just wanted to lay around and read magazines that morning, so I was the only one that headed in to the FBI office. There, I was quickly called into Clara's office, where she told me 'Dan, I am*not* amused by your little visit to Benny Falcone on Saturday. If I'd been aware of it, I would have forbidden it.'
I just looked at her a moment, then raised in eyebrow in question.
She realized what she'd just said, and amended herself to say 'Okay, I couldn't have forbidden it. But I damn well would have objected in the
'It wasn't any risk at all, actually. I rode right up to the front gate with a couple cars full of FBI people. Hell, I was IN one of their cars. They parked right across the street from the front gate.
Obviously, they knew I was in there – and just as obviously, would be expecting me to come back out. So there really wasn't any way for Benny Francone to actually DO anything to me. All he could do was talk, which he did. After a bit, his nephew Jules showed up, and talked some sense into the old man. Then I talked to him a little bit, and he finally calmed down. When he saw that trying to do anything to me or Lucy or Robyn or Sandra would be a bad move, he was willing to consider that he had better things to do with his time and money.'
'And how is it that you know Jules Francone, by the way?'
'Oh, that. Well, me and my crew kinda went in to pull him out of a jam when his helicopter decided it didn't want to fly any more. The thing was, it was in a place that Jules wasn't officially flying in, in the first place. Kinda awkward for the government, so they had us get him out before things got embarrassing. We did, though it got kinda interesting there, for a while.'
'I'll bet. Okay, so what made you think he was legit, and not part of the family operations.'
'As we were moving him out, he and I had a chance to talk a little.
