With my departure from Salt Lake City, what I would call "ski season" was over and "golf season" was getting into full swing (bad pun, I know). When I returned to RDU, I was the only person picking up skis in the large baggage area of baggage claim in the terminal. Golfing season was already in swing and golfers coming to North Carolina to play over the Memorial Day weekend at Pinehurst were there to pick up their golf bags with golf clubs. I noted that the golfers in Salt Lake City also seemed ready to be done with winter to be over. I don't play golf and so my attention turned to beach season."

Of course, I could and did go skiing in the summer as there were still areas to ski in Oregon (Mount Bachelor usually into early July before it closed for the season and Mount Hood, all summer). But those were more like daytrips than anything else and I was less likely to bring my skiing equipment and would usually rent what I needed.

I had skied 27 days over the course of my first ski full ski season and had made great strides in my skiing experience with so many "firsts." And in one year, I had gone from those first cautious wedge skiing positions and turns on 160 cm skis to owning two pairs of skis, my original skis (190 cm) and a pair of 203 cm skis best suited for the higher speeds and the (generally) more open terrain of the western mountain ski slopes. What was the most important first that I learned? The value of the "pole plant." On the ski slopes, to initiate a turn to go where I wanted/need to go. Après-ski, it was planting my "personal ski pole" inside a willing female companion and sharing as many orgasms as we both could generate during our time(s) together.

Upon returning home, I dumped my suitcase of all the cold weather clothing and ski wear and placed my skis on the indoor balcony where I was storing them at the time. Normally, I would have spent that weekend with my son, particularly after being away during the previous week. However, he had other plans with my ex-wife and her family. I, on the other hand, had reservations out on Ocracoke Island for the weekend and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore where I (and others) could go nude bathing. I wouldn't be needing many clothes for this trip, so a small duffel bag was all I needed. I left early the next morning to catch the ferry across to Ocracoke Island.

When I planned this trip, it was in the wake of Catie's death. At work, I was in the midst of a large project with significant time deadlines (and mounting changes to the project outcomes) that had a team of staff working (including me) around the clock at times, in order to get the project done. I had figured that I would need some "downtime" in the isolated solitude that I knew was available on Ocracoke Island. In retrospect, nothing about that spring after Catie's death looked anything like I would have guessed it would have been like. Still, the sense of recharging was welcome. I met some and spent time with some rather nice like-minded people who enjoyed nude sunbathing. In my quiet moments alone, I reflected upon the whirlwind my life had become and added to my journal entries the recounting of my experiences.

And if you've read this far through these Chapters recounting my experiences from this period in my life, you are waiting my next sexual encounter while at Ocracoke. None happened. During the three days I was there, I spent some time with a couple of nice women and a very nice couple. But no sexual hook-ups. In some ways, after the week I had spent with Sheryl and Megan, my balls needed a rest. In fact the most notable thing that occurred during the weekend was a coworker of mine was also in the area over the weekend and he was out sail-boating with other friends. They anchored the sailboat off the beach a little ways from where I was sunbathing and some members of the party came ashore. As they were strolling along the beach, he saw and recognized me, called out my name, I got up from my sand mat and towel, and we (and his friends) chatted for a bit. They were clothed, I wasn't.

He was surprised that I was there. I told him that I had come here the previous two years. I think the thing that was most interesting (to them) was how comfortable and natural I appeared standing there talking with them while I was naked like that. I certainly didn't feel any embarrassment standing there talking to my coworker like that and I guess my ease at that made the small group more comfortable over the next few minutes.

They did have to mindful of the tides even though there were people onboard tending to the sailboat while it was anchored a short distance offshore. But they were sailing south towards the town and the port in Ocracoke. I did make the offer that if some wanted to stay awhile and join me nude sunbathing, I had some extra towels, sand chairs, and mats in the truck (and plenty of sunscreen) and that I'd be willing to drive them down to the port where they could rejoin their friends. It was a tempting offer for some, but they ultimately opted to get back onboard the sailboat and continue their weekend sailings.

Before they left, there were pictures taken of me and them posed next to me on the beach with the sailboat in the background. One of the other nude sunbathers offered to take a picture of the whole group and me. We said goodbye and they walked back up the beach to the sailboat (it was a pretty good sized sailboat). I later found out that my coworker had shown a couple of those pictures with a former coworker (I realized afterward that she many of the same bisexual tendencies as Catie). Her name was Beth, and she had an interest in me after my wife and I separated. But, I was still trying to and had hopes to work things out in my marriage and she respected that. She left the company I worked with in April,1985 and moved north about six months after my wife and I separated. He told me that when she saw the pictures, she told him that if she knew that I was going there nude sunbathing, looking like that, she would have found a way to get back to North Carolina and "fuck me silly" to forget about my ex-wife. Of course, she knew nothing about Catie or anything else that had transpired in my life since she had left the company. I found that amusing and did nothing with that information.

As I mentioned in a previous chapter (Chapter 12 - Abby), Abby had invited to me to her high school graduation. In so many ways, the conversations we had in the months after Catie's death helped her heal and I was still an important part of her life and her senior year. The announcement and invitation Abby sent me to attend her high school graduation arrived at my house while I was on my ski trip in Colorado. She had asked me if I was willing to attend before she sent it. It just so happened that I was going to be in Portland on a work assignment during the week of her graduation and I planned to attend. The nature of our relationship was such that I would have attended even if my job hadn't taken me there. The fact that I had a work assignment there during the week gave me plenty of time to be in Portland both before and after her graduation.

As I noted in that previous chapter, Abby, her dad, and I had come to an understanding about the nature of the relationships I had with his daughters. And mine was particularly strange because his oldest daughter had become pregnant from our sexual interactions. To then find out how that the relationship between Catie and I was interwoven with Abby was quite a challenge for him. But he had been married to a strong woman who helped raise two strong-willed daughters. Although that conversation with him and Abby cleared the air in many ways, it could be one of those situations where two opposing things could be true at once: I could be welcome and unwelcome at the same time. One thing was certain; I had no plans to stay in the house with any of the family during Abby's graduation.

After I had committed to being at her graduation and once she know how long I would be around, she brought up something from Thanksgiving. It was in this timeframe that Abby and Stephanie were working on being roommates in Corvallis in the fall semester. She told me that she and Stephanie had been talking and they had been watching those videotapes (again)....

"Stephanie wants to know if we can plan to party with you while you're here?" she asked during one of our phone calls in late April. Now, that was almost as "out of the blue" as when Catie and I went over to pick Abby up at Thanksgiving and Abby and her friends had setup a lingerie party scenario without asking. I hadn't thought about that "party" at Thanksgiving since Catie's death. It was so far off my radar that it caught me completely by surprise. At least someone had learned a lesson about planning and asking permission prior to rather than during such an event. Did I say I was very surprised by this?

"You and Stephanie?" I asked. "Or you and all of your friends?" referring to Stephanie, Ann, and Delaney.

"Definitely Stephanie! I don't know about the others," she said.

"How do you feel about it?" I asked Abby. She was uncertain about whether she wanted to try to do anything like what they had planned at Thanksgiving. I told her that, in the end, it was really what she felt comfortable about doing (or not). While the prospect was naturally exciting (to me), I didn't want Abby to feel like she had to do this for me (or for Stephanie, for that matter). We left that choice out there to be determined later.

---

There were other activities and events to experience at the end of Abby's senior year in high school. One of those was The Prom.

Abby was invited to her prom by a classmate who was in several of her classes. It was interesting because she asked if I minded if he took her to the prom (I didn't mind). I told her it was absolutely appropriate for her to be asked and taken to her prom by a classmate. I told her to enjoy it.

More importantly, I told her to involve her dad with the planning for the prom. I had family friends who lost their mother to liver cancer. The oldest daughter was the same age as I am and went to another high school in Northern Virginia. Her dad had to be her "mom" in helping her get her prom dress, making sure that she got to her appointments for hair, nails, and everything else that entailed. He realized that had his wife (and their mom) not died, he wouldn't have gotten to experience those prom related activities with his daughters. Abby's dad got to experience Abby's Prom in a way he wouldn't have gotten to under ordinary circumstances either.

Abby sent me the pictures of her and her date. They were stunning pictures of her and them. Her gown was a deep turquoise blue with a satin finish. Of course, her dad was beaming (as were her date's parents). Abby called me on Sunday night after the prom. Since I was in Salt Lake City skiing that day, she left me a message to call her back (which I did on Sunday night).

"Did you have a good time?" I asked. She told me she did as she described the dinner they had with other friends going to the prom, the fun of being with other friends and classmates dressed up in ways that were so different from school days or weekends. She told me about the band that played, how much fun it was to have that experience, and how fast it went by.

"I wish you were here," she said.

"I would have just been in the way," I told her.

"Can I tell you something?" she asked.

"Sure. Always!" I told her. "You know you can tell me anything," I said.

"I feel a little strange telling you this." There was a pause. "I slept with him," referring to her date.

"You did? That's wonderful! How was it?" I asked. That was NOT the response that Abby expected from me (she told me that later). There was a long pause on her end of the line.

"Abby?"

"He came too fast the first time," she said.

"So, tell me what happened," I said. She went on to tell me that after they left the hotel ballroom where the prom was held, they went back to a friends house to change out of their formalwear into more casual dress for other after prom activities. She told me that the two of them ended up in a bedroom together to undress and they ended up undressing each other. Once they were completely naked she laid down on the bed.

"He had a really nice looking cock," she said.

She told me that he climbed on top of her, tried to get himself to line up to slide his cock inside her (she helped him with that) and he pushed into her.

"He got in me, pumped me about 5 times and came inside me," she said.

"No foreplay or anything?"

"No!"

"So, what happened? What did you do?"

"He got all panicky and apologetic for cumming so fast. I stayed calm and told him that it was okay and that it just meant that he really liked what he saw and thought I was really, really hot babe," she said.

"You are! Go on. What happened next" I said.

"I held him and told him to stay there and stay in me, to feel all that cum he had pumped into me being held in me by his wonderful cock. That seemed to calm him down and I held him close to me. Then I used that trick you taught me where I moved a little bit and squeeze his cock with my pussy and as he got hard again inside me, I moved more."

"Good girl! Did he get hard again inside you?"

"He did and it didn't take long. And then he started to stroke me again. I let him do that for a few minutes before I rolled both of us over so he was on his back. I slipped off him and took his cum covered cock in my mouth and gave him a nice blow job. Not enough to make him cum again, though. I'm surprised nobody came to see what was going on. Did he ever moan!" Abby said.

"You didn't sit on his face to make him be quiet, did you?"

"I'd do that for you. I didn't think he could handle it. No, I climbed back up on top of him, rode him and gave him a show. He told me he liked the way my breasts moved when I was on top of him like that," she said.

"I know the way that show looks. Good enough to fondle and suck," I said.

"I think he was just mesmerized by seeing them up close. He did much better the second time before cumming again. It gave me enough time to cum a few times, too," she said.

"I bet he was relieved that he did better the second time," I said.

"I think so," Abby said. "I told him I liked it that way...to feel him cumming inside me. And then I held him inside me."

I could tell Abby's breathing had changed and that it was likely her fingers were sliding over and inside her pussy. I didn't say anything to interrupt her. I just listened to her breathing and the quiet moaning before she started cumming. There was a lot of "Mmmmm" before she started chuckling / laughing.

"Talking about it made me wet and hot and I was remembering what that felt like with you the first time," she said. I thanked her the compliment. At least I wasn't old and decrepit yet compared to her latest suitor.

I asked if she knew or thought he was a virgin. She told me that she wasn't sure, but with his reactions it was certainly likely that he had been up to then.

"Remember, we all start out as virgins until we aren't anymore. But it can take some time to learn our way around what feels good. Maybe you can be his teacher. Anything else?" I asked.

"Yes, then we got caught while I was laying there on top of him after we had cum," she said. One of her friends had walked in on them. I asked if there was any problem with that. She told me no, not really. Her friend told them to finish up and get dressed so they could go to the prom after-party. She told me that she thought she had a very happy date for the rest of the evening and early morning as she described the other activities.

She got home after sunrise. Her dad was waiting for her when she arrived in the limousine carrying her and her date. I told Abby that they really did things "right" with the whole limousine aspect (I couldn't afford that for my prom. That's a different story unto itself). After walking her into the house and greeting her dad, she told him she had a really good time, kissed him, and thanked him. Abby told her dad about the prom and everything except the sex with her date. She thanked her dad for being a part of it and everything he did to make it happen.

Then she went to bed and dreamed sweet dreams about the night.

---

My prom night hadn't gone like this in any way. I was happy that Abby had such a good experience.

Abby asked me how the skiing was in Utah. I told her how scared I was when I first started skiing at Snowbird and that by Friday evening, I felt like I had experienced a breakthrough both in my fear and my skiing ability. And then the powder skiing on Saturday and the spring skiing conditions on Sunday.

"You didn't seduce another couple, did you?" Abby asked, referring to my experiences in Colorado.

"No," I said. Then, after a pause I said, "I was the one seduced this time."

"Gary!!" Abby exclaimed. "What are we going to do with you!" I told her that they approached me, a mother and her grad-student daughter.

"I was eating lunch by myself when they asked if they could sit with me to have their lunch. I was being the perfect gentleman," I said. "They were the ones who propositioned me."

I told her that I was waiting for one of them (Sheryl) to come back to my hotel room and I'd tell her all about it later in the week.

---

Graduation Week

I was staying at a local hotel during that week for my work assignment. I was working in the Lake Oswego area during the first couple of days and over on the Washington side of the Columbia River a couple of the days. But I had the end of the week and the weekend to play. What I remember was that the weather was unusually warm for that part of June. I gave Abby a key to my room so that she could come and go as she wished during that week.

Abby graduated mid-week and I went to her graduation. My sexual interactions with Abby were known only to the immediate family (and to some of Abby's friends). Outside of that small circle of people, others associated me with being Catie's boyfriend/lover and knew that Catie and I had been together. For those people unaware, their questions were more about how I was doing since Catie's death. Within the immediate family, there were a few uncomfortable moments. Those moments were not with their dad, however. The work that he and Abby had done together really helped in that regard. But there were a few challenging moments with the oldest brother and the shitstorm he had started. It wasn't physical or threatening, per se. I'm going to leave it at that.

The first couple of nights I was at the hotel I was alone at night. Abby did come to see me at the hotel a couple of times early in the week. She would join me in the afternoon, knowing that I would be returning from my day of work. I particularly liked it on Tuesday when I was in the shower washing the days work off of me and she showed up and joined me in the shower. We ended up in bed together for a short and intense lovemaking session before she'd get up and head off to home or wherever she needed to go. Abby had other things to attend to in the evenings prior to graduation, some family related.

She didn't spend the night with me until the night after her graduation. I took her to dinner and then back to the hotel with me.

"He was a virgin," referring to her prom date as we got ready to get into bed together.

"How did you find out?" I asked.

"He told me. Actually he asked me if he was the first lover I'd had because I was his first."

"What did you tell him?" I asked.

"I told him no, that he was my second. He asked me who my first was but I told him that he didn't know him (referring to me)," she said. "But now..." she said while maneuvering onto the bed, "it's time for my first lover to fill me again." And she slipped me inside her pussy. One big advantage of being in the hotel was that we didn't have to be quiet to avoid drawing attention to what we were doing in her house when others were around or worrying about someone showing up and discovering us. She had also become more assertive than she was the last time we were together.

Without the pressure of time limits we could sexually connect in a way that we really hadn't been able to when we were in her home. I'll admit that it was good to be inside her and gradually building up to and riding the edge of cumming. She finally took me over the edge and I pumped her full of my cum.

One of the most interesting questions / conversations occurred when we were laying in bed together after a lovemaking session.

She had told me that although she didn't have nightmares about the accident, she drove differently and was much more defensive.

"I can't get the memory of watching the truck hit Mom's car out of my mind," she had said to me more than once.

She really didn't drive through any intersection without being certain that nothing was driving towards her that couldn't or wouldn't stop. I knew what she meant. I still find myself doing the same thing all these years later.

"What would have happened if Sis had survived? Would we be doing this?" she asked. I asked if she meant that if the traffic accident had never happened or if her sister had survived.

"Both," she said.

"I imagine if the traffic accident had never happened, your sister and I would be married and she would be pretty big by now (about seven months pregnant and probably with twins). We probably would have driven here to see you graduate because we probably couldn't have flown here. But given your sister's fascination with shared sex, I imagine that we'd be in bed together. I don't know how your sister would have felt about sex in her late term pregnancy, but pregnant sex can be pretty hot and intense," I said.

"Where would you have gotten married?" she asked. I knew that Catie and Abby's parents had thoughts for a big wedding for each of their daughters (probably in Portland). Catie and I never got to that point. My sense of it was that Catie would have been happy to have us get married at the courthouse to make it official and if her parents wanted to go through the show of a large wedding, we could do that, too.

"As for survival, I really don't know. I haven't given that a lot of thought because we know her injuries were bad enough that she didn't survive. But we don't know what 'survival' would have looked like if she had survived. She probably would have lost the ability to carry our babies to term. And we don't know how badly her injuries would have left her as she recovered or how long that would take. I'd like to say that my love for her would have me be here for her, though I just don't know."

"Do you love me?" Abby asked.

"Of course I do," I said.

This led to an extended conversation about how we felt about each other. It also pointed out the differences between someone who was nearly 33 years old (me) and someone approaching 19 years of age (Abby). Of course, I had just had a week long experience and reminder about age differences with Sheryl. The differences in life experiences and perspective weren't new to Abby and I, as this was information that we had discussed before on the phone. It felt different to be laying in bed with her talking about it. In the moment, it felt good being with her even though there was that reminder of her deceased sister. At a more practical level, I think we both knew that we'd always have a special place in our hearts for each other even though life's experiences would overtake and overcome where we were in that moment.

That Thursday night with Abby was really the first time we had an unhurried and unworried night of sexual exploration. We did everything that we had done before but there was no one else to focus on or worry about in that moment except her. I thought that I had given her my undivided attention before but this felt different. We finally fell asleep in each others arms around 4:00 AM feeling very, very satiated. I had completed my work for the week and I didn't have to be to the next location until the following week. Since Abby and I had no place to be in particular, we slept quite late. And when we did finally awake (to the knocking on the door and announcement by housekeeping which we dismissed until later), we resumed our lovemaking where we left off earlier that morning.

Friday was a gloriously warm day and in the afternoon I took Abby with me to the nude beach at Rooster Rock State Park. The lot was pretty full because it was such a nice warm Friday afternoon. We gathered our stuff and walked down the trail to make the crossing to the sandbar that was the nude beach area. During much of the summer there was a fairly dry mud flat to navigate but this early in the season one might need to navigate through some water. The water was a little high and a bit muddy to cross onto the sandbar. Since I had spent so much of the previous summer here on my days off and weekends, I knew exactly where to go. There was a sizeable crowd on this Friday afternoon.

We had plenty of sunscreen for the two of us. For me, it was great seeing people from the previous year, though I did receive some sad news about a couple I had met the previous year. They had died in an accident in a cross country trip where someone had crossed the center line and struck them head-on. That explained why I didn't get an answer when I called their phone number or why I didn't get a mail response (I received my letters stamped RTS, return to sender, undeliverable). I had even stopped by their house earlier in the trip and it was unoccupied. I didn't go ask the neighbors whether they had moved.

For some, I'm sure that seeing this "sweet young thing" with me was quite a shock after not seeing me with anyone the previous summer. Was she just some high school girl that I was hanging out with? Was she my niece? None of them knew about Catie because I had met Catie on the train after I left Portland at the end of the last summer. I certainly wasn't embarrassed at having Abby with me (maybe I should have been) and so I wasn't going to lie about who she was even though I also wasn't going to give them all the details. For the few people who asked, I told them that she was the sister of a very intimate friend of mine who had grown up in Portland and who lived in Chicago. The conversation would turn quickly away from that to other topics.

Abby was quite impressed by how at ease the people here were with nudity as men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes were out there sharing a good time. I told Abby that it was sensuous; not necessarily sexual. Not everyone had Abby's physique, or mine, and we all shared something in common: the appreciation of a naked human body. She asked me about getting hard with all these naked women around (it was a more general question than it was directed at me specifically).

"It happens from time to time. Guys just turn over until the erection subsides."

"And what if you want to have sex on the beach?" Abby asked.

"It's considered *bad manners* to have sex out here in the open among the nude sunbathers. You'd be asked to stop and to go someplace more private" and I pointed down the shoreline towards some of the trees.

"That wouldn't stop the gawkers from watching," pointing across the water to the area below the parking lot where we could see people standing with binoculars. I told her that more often than not, the gawkers would stay on the other side and wouldn't venture across to the sandbar

"I have a funny thought," Abby said. "Imagine if sis was here with us with her pregnant body and you being here with the two of us," she said. "We could go down there and put on a show for them," talking about the area with the trees.

"True! But the rangers would likely have a word or two with us."

It was quite a nice day and since we were approaching the summer solstice, the sunset was quite late. But people began to leave between 6:00 and 7:00 PM for their Friday evening activities. Saturday and Sunday were not promising days (weatherwise) so it was uncertain how many of these people would be here through the weekend (though the weather could be much sunnier and warmer at this end of the Columbia River Gorge compared to downtown Portland or Vancouver). Abby and I had our own Friday evening activities to attend to and we packed up our stuff and left.

As I noted previously, Stephanie had inquired whether I wanted to spend time with her and Abby's other friends. I told Abby that I was fine with any choice she made. If she wanted me to herself, I was hers. If she wanted to share me with Stephanie, I was willing to do that. If she wanted the whole squad involved, that was okay, too. Immediately after Abby's graduation, Abby let me know that she was leaning towards the whole group partying together starting Friday night. But it wasn't until we got to the nude beach that Abby let me know what she had arranged "our party" starting after 8 PM on that Friday night.

"I hope I didn't wear you out," she said to me. I joked that I would employ my solar charger during the day to get my strength back.

We walked back down the sandbar, we put our swimsuits back on to cross back from the clothes optional area to area of clothing required, and we walked back up the trail to the parking lot. I noted how good Abby looked in her bikini. Abby noted that I didn't look so bad myself as she pointed out that my white Speedo style swimsuit emphasized the bulge behind the front panel. It was funny the way that skimpy clothing could do that after sitting there naked all day.

The drive back to Portland on I-84 was full of anticipation. I remember stopping to pickup some dinner. I just don't remember where.

"God, I want to fuck you so bad," Abby said as we approached Portland and the hotel.

"You'll get plenty of chances this weekend, my dear," I said to her. We gathered our food and our gear from my car and hustled inside the hotel. I remember we sat down on our towels while we ate, chatting about the day and other things. Finally, we got up and went into the shower to wash of the sand and the sunscreen from the day at the beach. Just being in the shower with her to wash off was such a pleasing experience.

Shortly after emerging from the shower and drying (each other) with the bath towels, there was a knock at the door. I looked out the peephole and saw that it was Stephanie. I opened the door and let her in. Neither Abby or I had any clothes on (yet) and when Stephanie stepped into the hotel room she said "I see you guys are ready."