plenty of credits saved up. With three of us to do the farm chores, there’s always been time for us to earn extra credits helping out other families when they’ve needed us.”
“Well, a lot of that is thanks to you, Sam. You’re the one with the golden touch with stocks and shares,” said Paul.
“Just a matter of reading the right financial blogs and acting fast.” Sam shrugged off the compliment.
“So for now we’ll leave all our clothes and things in our old rooms and move all Chevaunne’s things into here?” said Paul.
Jim nodded.
“Sounds like a plan,” said Sam.
Paul softly touched her hair again. “I can hardly believe she’s here, in our bed, our own perfect wife. I don’t know how you managed to stay sane so long, Jim, waiting for first Sam, and then me, to grow old enough to make a sensible choice of our life partner. I had the shortest wait and it still seemed like forever. There were times I despaired we’d ever find the right woman for us all.”
Jim cleared his throat and then patted Paul. “Oh yeah, I did, too. I really thought we’d end up having to choose one of the available women or never marry at all. And then Sam saw her, and she’s just so absolutely right for us. So beautiful, so precious…” He cleared his throat again, and this time it was Sam who patted him, offering support and comfort.
Paul leaned over Chevaunne and breathed in deeply. “I can still smell the rose ointment on her even through that sexy musk of hers and the scent of us on her, too. I’d love to leave our scents on her forever, but I guess we need to bathe her.”
“Let her rest a little longer. We’ll soon learn her recovery times and how much we can do. We’ll always need to be careful not to exhaust her though, never to forget we are three and all bigger and stronger than her,” warned Jim.
Paul nodded and drew his hand back. He wanted to keep touching Chevaunne, who was so precious, so wonderful, but he knew she needed to sleep. He’d never come so hard in his life as the two times he’d fucked her, but this marriage wasn’t about him. It was about all of them. “All equal” as in the wedding vows they’d just spoken.
Besides, how could one man alone care for such a cherished entity as a wife? It was no surprise so many marriages broke up in the outside world. No one man could ever be all things to a woman. How could he be by her side helping her each day yet still out on the farm caring for the animals, tending the crops, or in an office earning credits. It simply wasn’t possible.
As the youngest, Paul had no memories of his two fathers changing diapers or bathing him, but he had clear pictures of when he was very small and Father would hold Jim and Sam by the hand while Dad carried him on his shoulders as they walked to the shopping center or the temple. Even with only three children, his parents had been fully occupied watching them all.
As the eldest, Jim had spent the most time on the land, caring for the crops and herds. Since their ancestors were original settlers and the farm was above ground, they kept cattle and grew rice and had a vegetable garden and fruit trees. There were chickens and a fish pond and even a flower garden. At the time Paul had been born, they’d still had horses, but they were very old and no longer used to work the farm. They were kept as pets for the boys until they’d died of old age.
Sam had concentrated on earning credits. He helped on the farm and was an excellent cook, but most days, he spent a few hours in the administrative building in the community center earning credits for the family.
Paul had helped on the farm and in the house. As his parents grew older, he’d taken on more and more of their chores, and when they’d gone to join the ancestors, he’d taken over complete running of the home and the business aspects of the farm, freeing Jim for the outside work.
What would Chevaunne want to do? he wondered. Would she be a nurse at