But I had to give her credit for the rabbit she pulled out of the hat that day—it was something completely unexpected.
A bike with training wheels.
“Is that for me?” Alex exclaimed when my dad finally yanked the bike out of the truck bed.
“It’s all for you. And we brought Chris’ old bike, too.”
I craned my neck to look in the bed of the truck to make sure there weren’t any other surprises. “I see you brought yourselves each a bike, too. Did you bring one for Mark?”
They hadn’t. Mark shrugged and looked helpless. “I’ll just have to stay at camp and work on my tan,” he suggested.
“We brought your old mountain bike,” my mom explained. “Mark can take your dad’s and you boys can go have some fun. We’ll take the kids out for a boat ride.”
I’m not leaving Alex alone with you crazy people.
My father pulled out a green, turtle-inspired helmet from the back seat of his truck and stuck it on Alex’s head. “Let’s get you on this bike.”
“Yeah!”
Gabby and Caleb ran to their bikes and suddenly all three of them were doing circles on the pavement. Alex’s safety wheels made an ungodly racket and prevented him from making sharp turns, but otherwise he was a natural. He seemed to be enjoying himself.
“Say thank you to Mr. and Mrs. S,” I called as he roared past us, only going about two miles an hour.
“Thank you!” Alex shouted. He grinned at us wildly, then focused on the road and pumped his little legs.
“Where did you get the bike?”
“It was nothing. I picked it up at an outlet store.”
Outlet store my ass...
“Let’s get the boat ready and take her down to the ramp,” my dad said.
“Slow down,” I begged. “We just got him set up on a bike. We can’t—”
“We don’t have all day,” my dad argued.
“The fish won’t bite until the afternoon.”
“You don’t know nothin’.”
“Yeah,” Mark agreed. “You don’t know nothin’.” He grabbed me around the neck so that his arm hung over my chest like he was claiming me as his territory. “Let’s do the mountain bikes.” He kissed my neck. “Let Keeg take care of the beach stuff and your parents will give the kids a ride...”
I sighed. “But we just started with the bikes—”
“Who wants to go for a boat ride!” Mark yelled.
“Me!” Gabby and Caleb yelled back. They biked to us with effortless ease. Alex pumped his little legs until he reached us and declared that he also wanted to go for a boat ride.
“Who wants to catch a big fish?” my dad asked.
All three of the kids were excited by that prospect.
We unloaded the rest of my parents’ truck and set their cooler inside our car to make sure it didn’t attract animals. Then we set the kids up inside the truck. Alex saw me and Mark on the bikes and complained.
“Chris and I are going on an adult bike ride,” Mark explained. His choice of words made it sound like a sexual joke. “When you get done fishing, we’ll explore on your new bike.”
That satisfied him for the time being.
Keegan and Denise packed the beach stuff in their truck and followed my parents down to the ramp. By the time Mark and I caught up to them on our bikes, the kids were lined up on the pier with their life jackets and Keegan was helping my dad get the boat off the ramp.
My dad’s boat was yet another antique wooden project—this one was eighteen foot and never spent more than a weekend in the water at a time. This boat was his baby. The deck was dark teak and smooth as glass.
This was the only boat I didn’t help him restore. All the other projects required constant upkeep and I’d been volunteered to help during many, many winter nights. This smaller boat was the project he worked on after my sister died when he spent a lot of late nights out in the barn.
The outboard motor was also antique, though not original. Keegan and my dad spent some time playing with the motor while the kids sat patiently in the middle seats waiting to take off. Caleb moved to the driver's seat and pretended to be steering the boat.
“I’m hot,” Gabby complained. Alex didn’t look too comfortable either, packed into the boat next to Gabby.
“Let’s go, hun,” my mom said. “Have fun, boys. We’ll see you in a few hours.”
“We’ll meet you at the beach,” I told Alex. “Make sure your life jacket stays on all the time.”
The kid nodded, seriously.
Mark lightly touched my arm and pulled me away. He often claimed I worried too much and gave Alex too many repeated commands. How many times had I warned Alex to keep on his life jacket? Once at camp. Once when he got in the truck. Once when he was on the pier. And once in the boat.
There was no way to know which warning would be the one that saved his life. So they were all justified!
Finally, the boat backed out of the ramp and the kids waved to us. We waved back. Keegan and Denise took off for the beach. Mark and I suddenly had about an hour to ourselves.
“Buckle up,” Mark said while snapping on his helmet. “We’re doing this hard and fast.”
“You know I like it slow and sensual.”
He guffawed. “Just get ready. We’re gonna fly through this trail.”
And fly we did.
Mark was in the lead and he laughed at me the whole time. I’d be doing fine, going up and down through the hills and around trees and stuff, but then I’d see a narrow bridge. I couldn’t do the bridges.
Someone built these narrow, one-foot wide bridges over deep ravines where if you fell off, you’d plummet to your death.
“You don’t have to walk across them,” Mark accused as he waited for me to cross one.
“What if I lost my balance midway through?”
“That’s why you go fast! Don’t slow down. You’re making it harder on yourself.”
“I don’t want to fall. There isn’t enough room to plant your feet to get off your bike while riding this bridge.”
“Come on, pussy. Bet ya Caleb could do it.”
“I’m not taking that bet. Caleb would follow you anywhere... and plummet to his death.”
“It’s like five feet high.”
“It’s a ravine!”
“Five feet.”
“The bridge is, like, a few inches wide.”
“Two feet.”
“One foot. Well, it’s really long, which makes it look narrow.”
Mark frowned, then jumped back on his bike. “Come on, pussy. If one more dude passes us, I’m leaving you here.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Let’s find the next bridge. Maybe this one will be Cheese-proof.”
I managed to ride over the trail of half-buried branches and logs. I made it over one of the bridges going at a moderate pace, which earned an ironic single clap from Mark. Then we got to this tree that split into a Y at the base.
The path went straight through the tree!
I did not make it through that one at all. Mark hopped through like it was nothing and for a brief moment, my eyes got bigger than my courage and I maintained my momentum. At the last moment, I pressed the brakes and skipped to a stop so that my wheel bumped into the tree and my body shot forward uncomfortably.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. My balls hurt.”
“Pussy hurt?”
“Shut it. That was a hard one and I hesitated. How are you supposed to do this? Look... if I tried to go through, my pedals would have been squashed and I would’ve been lodged in there.”
“I made it through.”
“Shut it.”
We made it through the rest of the twists and turns. The path followed the edge of a swampish part of the Lake that formed inlet after inlet. We probably traveled less than a mile in straight distance, but over three miles in back-and-forth hairpin turns.
“That was fun!” Mark exclaimed when we made it back
to the park road. “We should do that again.”
“Yeah.”
We were covered in sweat and although I may have acted grumpy, the exertion felt refreshing.
“Can’t wait to get to the beach!” Mark stood on the pedals so that his ass squeezed with each twist of his hips. He looked like a scrub, but somehow he pulled it off. He must have known I was checking him out because he grinned at me, then removed his tee with one hand and without stopping the bike.
“That’s dangerous.”
He flexed for me. “Danger is my middle name.”
Get me to the beach already!
We parked the bikes at the bike rack and locked them. Mark dropped his helmet on the ground, but I chastised him.
“No one’s gonna take it,” he said.
“Just pick it up.” It wasn’t his helmet to lose, anyway. “My dad’s boat is already parked so everyone is here.”
We wandered the narrow beach until I spotted my dad wading out in the water with the kids. His boat was parked a quarter mile down the beach in the area marked as a no swim zone. He could have dropped the kids off in the deep water with my mom, but I doubted that’s what they did. If that was the case, then they’d probably been swimming for a while.
“How’s it going?” Mark asked as we walked up to his brother and sister-in-law. Denise was reading again and our camp was set up away from the water in the semi-shade under the trees that leaned over the beach.
“Good. Your parents are great with the kids.”
As we watched the five of them walk out in the water, my dad lifted Alex and threw him so that he splashed like a cannonball. Alex emerged after his plunge laughing and asking to do it again.
“He’s gonna break his back,” I said. “Doesn’t he know he’s an old man with back problems?”
“He threw Caleb once,” Keegan informed me. “That was the one and only time.”
Dummy.
Mark and I sat on the beach blanket and tried to cool down. We were both plastered with sweat from our ride.
“Let’s swim,” he suggested.
“No bathing suits.”
“Kinky,” Mark said, approvingly. “This isn’t even a nude beach.”
I shoved his arm. “Do you want to get our bathing suits or not?”
“What’s so wrong about using our biking shorts?”
We weren’t wearing true biking shorts since we hadn’t expected to go on a mountain bike trail. These were compression shorts for the gym. I had a small pair of shorts to cover my crotch, but Mark had it all hanging out there.
“I’m not letting you get wet with those shorts.”
“What?” he breathed. “What would be so wrong with that?” He moved his butt so his cock shifted and created a more prominent outline.
“Modesty,” I said. “We need to change. Then we can drive the car back.”
Mark and I relaxed on the beach and ate some grapes and sourdough pretzels. Alex didn’t leave us on our own for long. He waded through the waves until his tippy toes could finally touch the bottom while wearing his life jacket. Then he moved a little faster until his thighs popped out of the water and he moved even faster still.
My dad raced the kids to shore and all three of them passed Alex. My mom brought up the rear.
The kids were a tornado of activity. Gabby was hungry. Caleb wanted to brag about the big fish he caught, but then my mom had to explain that they didn’t get it into the boat, so it didn’t count.
“He saw it,” my dad said. “We had it on the surface.”
Caleb was excited to have fresh blood to hear his tall tale. “Uncle Mark, and then the boat turned on the side because the fish was so big.”
“Mmmhmm.”
“Uncle Mark! And me and Mr. S saw it come up to the top of the water and it was huuuge.”
“Mmmhmmm.”
“Uncle Mark?” Caleb turned away from Mark, who was busy getting Alex out of the wet life jacket and feeding him grapes. “Uncle Chris! And I was so close I could touch it and I thought the water was going to come straight in the boat because we were tipped so much.”
“Were there too many people on one side of the boat?”
“Yeah! And Mr. S yelled at Mrs. S to get back and then things evened out.”
He kept chatting to me, even as Alex jumped at me for a hug. “How’s it going, buddy? Were you good for Mrs. S?”
He nodded while chewing on his grapes. “We’re gonna build a sandcastle,” he said.
“Are you? With Mrs. S?”
Alex nodded again.
“She taught me everything I know. And my dad loves building sand sculptures—like sea turtles and gummy bears.” I kissed him on the cheek. “I think you’re in good hands. Did you miss me?”
He grinned and kissed me on the cheek while promising that he had indeed missed me, even though he didn’t seem distraught in the least.
“Mark and I are going to bike back to camp and get our swim trunks. Then when we get back we can go swimming... maybe swimming without your life jacket.”
Alex’s eyes got big. “But I need my life jacket.”
I smiled. “We’ll teach you how to swim without it. Mark and I will be holding on to you at all times.”
He didn’t react enthusiastically and instead dove for the pretzel bag.
Mark had been trapped by Caleb’s enthusiastic retelling of his heroic attempt to catch a fish.
“You wanna change?” I asked.
Mark nodded, then got up and brushed the crumbs off his abs.
“We’ll be right back,” I said as we left.
The kids followed us—Caleb first, followed by Gabby, then a grinning Alex.
“Guys, we’ll be right back.” I gave Alex a hug and kiss. “You’re having a good time with Mrs. S?”
Alex nodded and smiled shyly.
“Go start on a sandcastle. We’ll be back before you’re done with the moat.”
The older kids ran back to the beach camp. Alex followed them with his stutter steps and Gabby waited for him to make sure he didn’t get lost.
“She’s good with him,” Mark said.
“You aren’t wearing a shirt and your dick is practically bouncing out of your shorts. You don’t get to talk about anything right now.”
“Uh-oh. I’m in timeout?”
“Yes, you’re in timeout!”
He rolled his eyes. “No one bothered our bikes. I ain’t wearing this stupid helmet on the way back. For some reason we’re on our way to get cleaned up so we can go back to the beach and get dirty.”
“You’ll thank me later.”
We rode the ten minutes to our campsite. We parked the bikes, then wandered into our tent. I found our bathing suits. Mark’s was white with little blue cacti on them. Mine was a simple red with white piping.
Mark often pressured me to be more adventurous with my clothes, but I’ve always preferred solid colors... and never wore anything with a logo on it.
Mark was naked and his cock was half-hard. He whipped it from side-to-side and then leered at me.
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” I said.
“Babe. We’ve got a few minutes to ourselves. You know how much we’ve had sex since the kid moved in with us?”
“Same as usual.”
“Okay... same amount of penetrative sex, but what about blowjobs and handies? We only do that stuff in the shower now.”
“Shhh.”
He grabbed me and dragged me to the mattress. “We’ve gotta sneak around if we want to do anything. So let’s sneak in a few minutes while we—”
“I hate fast and hard. Slow and sensual feels better.”
He kissed me passionately. We lay on the mattress. He stroked me until my cock sparked to life.
“There we go,” he murmured.
“No sex,” I begged. “I don’t want to fuck in this tent. It feels weird.”
“Everything feels weird to you,” he grumbled. “Wanna fuck in the shower?”
That
made my back spasm. Mark chuckled.
“Kidding, babe. Even I think those stalls are disgusting.”
“That’s why you should shower at night right after they clean them.”
“Whatever. I’m still showering in the morning.”
We lay side by side, naked. My energy had been sapped by the bike ride and all the time spent in the sun chasing after the kid when he was wound up. My eyes closed.
Then Mark moved and rotated his body. “Let’s sixty-nine,” he offered. Then his hard cock bounced in my face and his lips kissed their way around my thigh and onto my balls, which he sucked.
I hate when you swallow my balls. It doesn’t feel natural.
I sucked on his cock, though not very enthusiastically and I didn’t lift myself off the mattress to reach it. He tried to wake mine up, but it was dead.
After a few minutes, I spit his out and said, “I’m just not feeling it today.”
He flopped onto his back and gave me some breathing room. “I’d say. Can’t even get a spark out of you.”
“I’m tired. You wore me out.”
He rotated again so that his body lay next to mine. “I wore my old man out?” We kissed.
“I can give you a handy.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“We should get moving then. Alex is probably wondering where the hell we are.”
“Keegan will take care of him.”
Mark’s fingers traced my chest and biceps. I closed my eyes again. The sheets on my back were already hot. The tent was steamy even though it was in the shade. Mark’s body was a furnace.
“Get your shorts on and let’s go. We’ll take the car, cause I don’t want to bike anymore. My ass hurts so bad.”
“I’ll make your ass hurt,” he promised.
“Chill, loverboy.”
He put his mouth against my hair and snorted. “I know how to get a rise out of you,” he taunted. “All I gotta do is bring out a little hypnoooosis.”
My cock twitched.
“Don’t try any funny business,” I threatened.
He snorted again. “Why not? Is it making my man horny? Does he like letting me have control and becoming a little sexy slut?”
I pawed at his chest and shoved. He sat up, then stood over me. “Look at my cock, dude. Watch it go back and forth... back and foooorth. You’re getting sleeepy. Relaxed and sleeepy.”
The Foster Dad Page 10