Valentine Vengeance

"I don't know man, but I'm getting a serious sense of deja vu." Jack said. "Get in. I'm buying."

___Epilogue___

I went back to Mighty Aphrodite's Hidey Hole, or tried to. There was nothing there except an empty building. I decided not to ask too many fucking questions.

Bianca enrolled in college in the Fall on a full academic scholarship. Amber and I both insisted. The little bitch didn't even miss class, but delivered a squalling but healthy baby girl on Saturday, November 6th and was right by Amber's side as she delivered a baby girl on Sunday, November 7th.

Old Doc Gregory just shook his head as Bianca and I signed both birth certificates. Amber had twisted her father's arm into twisting his lawyer's arm into filing so that Bianca and I became, legally, the parents of the child born from her womb.

I wish I could say that everything went without a hitch, but why start making shit up now? If I were going to do that, I wouldn't have admitted that the whole damn thing started with me wanting revenge for an accident, now would I?

Fact is, while Bianca is a natural when it comes to squalling infants and I can more or less hold my own as long as I take frequent walks, Amber was... well, she was pretty fucking terrible at it, to tell the truth.

With Bianca gone back to school in January and me being busy with planting come March, Amber ran away for the first time in April. When we saw her again in June, she dropped a load of cash on the table and told us she had become an exotic dancer after all.

That cash, she was very clear, was to be used to build a house, "a real fucking house, with more than one room and electricity and everything, damn it." Bianca tried to offer up the idea of one room for the adults, one room for the girl children and one room for the boys. But, Amber was adamant that each person, even the three of us, would have their own private space when it was done.

Amber was gone again in July.

Bianca planned her class schedule so that she would be home in the morning and late afternoon while I worked and then I could rest during the heat of the day, if you could call playing step and fetch it for two beautiful babies with squalling mouths at one end and dirty diapers at the other resting.

For me, though, it was. Those darling little bundles were the result of the greatest night of my life and I cherished every moment I could get with them.

Bianca... not so much.

For a few days every month, I started finding things that had to be done at the far side of our acreage. I knew it was safe again when she would greet me wearing that stupid collar and apologize.

Not that I was always easy to get along with either, or so I'm told. Probably my most annoying habit was wanting to "get frisky" with my wife and getting my feelings hurt because she was worried because the babies were in the room.

We held on though. All of us. Together.

Although, I have to admit that it got easier when we got the house built, using our "love shack" as a base and a storm cellar. We began seeing Amber more often then too, sometimes even once every two months for a long weekend.

But, she was always with us for Valentine's Day, without fail.

Over the years, we had to add to the house as Bianca and then Amber and then Bianca four more times added to our brood. Even though Amber put her name on her second baby's certificate, they all called Bianca Mama and me Pappy. Amber was the fun aunt that came for a visit and got them into trouble they never would have dreamed of without her influence.

I can't complain, though. Between us, we raised some damn fine people if I do say so myself with Bianca's careful planning and just enough of Amber's risk taking to take the big gambles at the right time. And their employers and families seem to think so too. All of them got college degrees and went off to work somewhere else and we don't get to see them as much as we'd like, but that's natural, I suppose.

All but the oldest two. Angie, Bianca's first, and Betty, Amber's first, still live upstairs in their rooms. Betty teaches at the school with Bianca and Angie helps me out around the farm. Aw, hell. She basically runs the damn thing now with a pair of hired hands since I've gotten too damn old to work that hard anymore.

I used to worry that they needed to find them a man too, but the girls just laughed when I brought it up and told me not to worry about it. So, I don't any more than I worry about Tony, Bianca's third, who brought his boyfriend home to meet us a couple years ago.

Amber came home to stay a couple of years ago. She said there just wasn't any more reason for her to leave. Bianca is talking about retiring this year from the school. It will be nice if she does. Give us some more time together.

It's February again. The thirteenth. Amber is standing in the door as I try to finish this. Sure, her red hair is threaded with white and she has a bit of a pot belly under that green dress, but damn if she doesn't still make me sit up and notice. Especially when she wears that damn collar like she is tonight.

"Let's go wait for Bitch on the back porch." She says. "They say it's going to snow tonight."

Damn weather people couldn't predict what was in a brown paper bag around here. But, what the hell.

"Looks like a special occassion." I say. "Should I put my teeth in?"

"Up to you, Amante." Amber gives me a wicked grin. "A little bitch told me it's going to be a night to remember down under the peacock feather in the love shack. If you don't mind though, we'll skip the mud wrestling. I don't want either of us to break a hip."