Emmy discussed Grace staying with us for Thanksgiving break one evening while we had dinner that Angela had made. Evidently Grace and Emmy had talked earlier in the day. Grace wanted to bring her latest girlfriend to meet her ‘mom and mom’, and so of course Emmy had said yes. The condo had three bedrooms, so we had plenty of room for the two girls- that wasn’t a problem, and of course I wanted to catch up with Grace and hear about how college was going for her- I was just a bit less enthusiastic about having to pretend that her new girlfriend wasn’t just another in the long line going back to when she moved in with us in Palo Alto.

Grace had gone to Flagstaff before Emmy and I had moved to Los Angeles, so she hadn’t seen the condo yet, much less our new house in the Hollywood Hills. She was excited to explore LA while she was visiting, and that was fine with me, as long as she didn’t expect a tour guide.

Emmy had told Grace about Angela, explaining how we’d met her, and how she had become a very important part of our lives.

“Grace wants to meet you,” Emmy told Angela as we ate. “She is like a daughter to us, so it is important that you two get to know each other.”

A lengthy explanation of how we wound up raising Grace for almost four years followed, which soon turned into a discussion of parents who are unsympathetic to gay kids, and how they should love the children regardless.

I wasn’t sure if Emmy realized the thin ice we were skating on with the topic, but she was always far more perceptive about people than I was, so I thought that she probably was aware of Angela’s own family issues.

Angela seemed a bit quiet the rest of the evening, but I didn’t make a big deal about it, just let it be. I wasn’t going to apply any pressure- she had enough from her own self.

The next morning was a Thursday, so I didn’t have my fight gym workout with Jody. Usually I worked out with Angela at the condo building’s gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but that morning when it was time to get moving Angela wrapped her arm around me to keep me from leaving.

She pushed me back down onto the bed and climbed on top of me, straddling my hips. She leaned down and kissed me, then held herself up with her arms and looked down at me.

“I need you to make love to me, Leah,” she said. “I need for you to make so much love to me that…” she said, her voice trailing off. “I need for you to love me. Love me, and let me love you.”

“How could I say no to that?” I joked, but I could tell that Angela was serious.

“Leah, I need this,” Angela said.

“Need what?” Emmy said, her voice slow with sleep.

“I need you and Leah to make love to me, Em. Make love to me, tell me you love me, make me know it’s true,” Angela said.

“We do love you,” Emmy replied, sitting up and putting her hand on Angela’s thigh. “Do not ever doubt it. We love you very much.”

“Show me how much,” Angela pleaded. “Show me.”

Emmy leaned in and kissed Angela, long, slow and tender. “We can show you now, but we also show you every day, in so many ways. Leah shows you she loves you when she takes you in her arms while you’re cooking. I show you I love you when I wash your beautiful dark hair when we bathe. We both show you that we love you when we fall asleep, holding you tight. We do not demonstrate our love for you only when we have sex- we do it all through the day and night.”

“Ange,” I said, stroking her strong legs. “Having sex with you is fantastic, and I absolutely love doing that, but like Emmy said, that isn’t the only way we show you our love. I show I love you when I give you a little kiss when I come home. I show I love you when I put my hand on your leg when I’m driving. I show I love you when I walk into the club with you on my arm. I love you all of the time, not just when we’re having sex.”

“I know,” Angela said with a sigh. “But right now, I want you both to show me with your bodies, with your kisses, with your touch. Show me.”

Emmy quickly whipped off her camisole and straddled my legs, right behind Angela. She leaned in and nuzzled and kissed Angela’s neck, then along her jawline, finally finishing up under Angela’s ear, whispering, “Je t’aime, ma cherie.”

Emmy’s hands worked under the hem of the Cardinal T shirt Angela was wearing, lifting it up slowly. I marveled in the sight of what was revealed- first, Angela’s pretty little belly button, then her washboard abs, firm and sculpted. My hands seemed to move of their own volition, sliding up Angela’s thighs and up her hips, finally settling on that incredible belly. I could feel the muscles tense and relax under my hands as Emmy got Angela squirming with her kisses.

Emmy continued her slow removal of Angela’s shirt, never letting up with her kisses and her sweet words in Angela’s ear. Following the hem of the shirt on its way up, my hands found their way to Angela’s creamy white breasts. I cupped the two sensitive globes in my hands, using the pads of my thumbs to circle around her pale pink areoles, feeling them firm up with the attention.

Angela’s hips were rocking, her need becoming something she had to obey. Emmy tossed Angela’s shirt aside (well, technically my shirt, but Angela had claimed it some time back), then put her hands on Angela’s waist. She slid one down, following a path past Angela’s belly button, slowly slipping down between Angela and me.

Angela moaned softly, the four hands touching her driving her crazy with desire. Tearing my eyes away from Emmy’s fingers sliding down out of view, I saw that Emmy had Angela’s earlobe between her teeth, those bright whites gently biting down. Angela’s eyes were tightly closed and her head was back as Emmy continued to mix kisses and little nibbles, driving Angela mad with pleasure.

Emmy’s hand had found its way down to the sensitive spot between Angela’s legs, and thanks to Angela’s position on top of me, my sensitive bits as well.

I habitually slept nude, so nothing separated Emmy’s knuckles from my lady parts, a fact that she took advantage of. To be fair, my hips were moving as well, so with just her left hand Emmy managed to Jill off both Angela and me at the same time.

With Angela’s first orgasm, she collapsed down on top of me, into my waiting arms. Emmy took the opportunity to ditch her own panties, then sat on her heels beside Angela and me, leaning down and draping herself over Angela’s back.

It was my turn to whisper my love. “Ange, baby, we love you so much,” I said between kisses. I held Angela’s head in my hands and kissed her hard, my tongue sliding past her teeth, meeting hers for a loving wrestling match as we breathed each others’ breath. When we separated, Angela laid her head down on my shoulder, moaning with pleasure as Emmy kissed and stroked her back and shoulders.

My own hands were also roaming Angela’s body. Lightly touching Angela’s smooth skin, I could feel the goosebumps from the sensation as my fingertips slid across her sides, her back, and her thighs.

I rolled us sideways, leaving Angela on her back between Emmy and me. The two of us continued to caress, kiss and savor every inch of Angela’s body, sending our dark-haired beauty into a series of shuddering climaxes.

Eventually it became too much and she begged for us to stop, but as I slowly slid my fingers from inside her, Angela grabbed my wrist to keep me in place. “No- don’t,” she implored, so I slid them back in. Truth be told, I loved the feeling of being inside her, too, so I was more than happy to oblige, feeling the last little quivering shakes as Angela recovered.

Emmy looked at my face, and finding confirmation of her thoughts, leaned down and kissed Angela tenderly.

Looking Angela straight in the eyes, she said, “Angela, ma cherie- notre cherie, we love you very, very much. We want you to stay with us. If there were a way for us to marry you, we would ask you to be our bride.”

Surprised, Angela looked from Emmy to me. “Angela, we would like you to commit to us. Be ours, and we’ll be yours,” I said, then placed a soft kiss on her belly. I looked back up and into her wide blue eyes. “Say that you are ours. You want to know how much we love you? This is how much. Let us put a ring on your finger.”

Angela let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, letting the tension go from her body. She reached up and pulled Emmy in for another kiss, then did the same to me.

“I want that more than anything,” Angela said, her voice quavering a bit. “More than anything in the world.”

Emmy stroked Angela’s cheek, wiping away the tear that had formed. “Angela… You are so beautiful, and so caring. Fortune smiled on Leah and me the day that you came to our apartment for help. You made our lives better that day, though we did not realize it until later. Today, you have made our lives even better still.”

I took Angela’s hand and laid it on my chest. “This heart,” I said. Moving Angela’s hand to Emmy’s chest, I said, “And this heart- they are yours. Give us your heart, Ange. We promise we’ll be gentle with it.”

This was about all Angela could take. Weeping with the strength of her emotions, she rested her head back on the pillow and squeezed our hands in her own. I started to slide the fingers of my other hand out of her, but Angela clamped her legs tight to prevent it.

She looked up at me, then Emmy. “I want you inside of me. I want- I need you to…” she said, but couldn’t find the right words. Finally, she said, “I love you two so much, I want you to touch me forever. I want…”

Running her hand down the side of Angela’s face, then her neck, down past the collarbone and finally resting between Angela’s breasts, Emmy said, “We will hold you for as long as we live.”

In the shower, Angela said, “I declare today a ‘nobody goes anywhere’ day. I want us all to stay here at home. No working on the music for you,” she said, poking Emmy in the chest. “And no school tonight for you,” she said, repeating the gesture on my sternum. “Just the three of us, here, together. No distractions.” Then, thinking about it for a moment, she added, “Oh, and no clothes.”

I laughed at that, then swept Angela into my arms. “Sounds good to me,” I agreed. “Em?”

“I think that sounds wonderful,” she said and joined the hug.

True to the edict, the three of us spent the day lounging around the condo, listening to music, dancing, cuddling on the couch, making meals together… all completely naked. Somehow, and maybe it was because of how emotional our lovemaking had been that morning, the nudity didn’t feel sexual. It felt more like a way for the three of us to be close, emotionally speaking. The lack of physical barriers between us meant that we had no metaphorical barriers, either. A light touch as one of us walked past another, a gentle kiss on a bare shoulder, a hand on the butt… These were gestures of love and affection.

That night it wasn’t me in the middle of our California King-sized bed, for once. Angela had Emmy on one side and me on the other. She fell asleep almost immediately, the emotions of the day leaving her exhausted.

Seeing that I was still awake, Emmy asked in a quiet voice so as to not disturb our sleeping beauty, “Would you join me in the living room? I would like to talk.”

We slipped out of bed, not waking Angela. I followed Emmy to the couch, where she indicated I should sit. Taking her own seat on my lap, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and leaned in to me to talk quietly.

“Are we doing the right thing?” she asked, surprising me. I’d had the impression that Emmy was the one really pushing for Angela to join our household, and now all of a sudden she was expressing doubts.

“Do you love her?” I asked.

“I do,” Emmy confirmed. “I do love her. That is my concern. I am afraid that we will be taking her away from her family, if she chooses to make a life with us.”

Sighing, I said, “I think that was what today was about. She’s been wrestling with how to tell her parents, and how they’ll react when she does. This morning, when she wanted us to convince her we love her, I’m pretty sure it was to help make her own decision.”

“That is what I understood, too,” Emmy agreed.

“I think all we can do is tell her we’ll stick with whatever she chooses, you know? She has to make her own life decision. We’ve laid out our position. Now it’s up to her to accept or not. I hope she does- I’ve really come to love her,” I said.

“I would like to design a ring for her, if she says that she will commit to us,” Emmy said, her voice thoughtful. “And perhaps we can add something to our wedding bands, too.”

We sat there for a little while, lost in our own thoughts. After a while, Angela came into the dark living room.

“Em? Leah? What are you two doing out of bed?” she asked, her voice sleepy.

Emmy slid off my lap and indicated that Angela should join us on the couch.

“We were discussing you, Ange,” I said when Angela took Emmy’s recently vacated seat on my lap. “And how worried you are about telling your parents about us.”

“I decided today,” Angela said. “I’m going to tell them this weekend. I texted my mamí and told her I had big news and I wanted to do a Skype call on Sunday.”

“Are you ready for this?” I asked, stroking Angela’s cheek while Emmy kissed her shoulder and rubbed her bare back.

“No,” Angela answered honestly. “I don’t think I’ll ever be ready. But I need to do this. I want to spend the rest of my life with you two, and I don’t want to lie to them.” Then, after looking at Emmy and me in the dim light coming in through the glass doors, Angela asked, “Can we go back to bed now? It was lonely in bed without you two.”

Selling back down to sleep, we did a double-spoon, with Angela in the middle. I kissed the back of her neck and said, “Good night, my love.”

Angela wanted Emmy and me around when she made her Skype call, so we sat outside the view of her laptop’s camera, waiting for her to introduce us at the right moment. We’d done everything we could the previous few days to let Angela know that we did love her and that regardless of whatever happened with her parents, she was an important part of our lives now.

Angela’s conversation with her parents was in rapid-fire Spanish, so I only caught the occasional word here and there. I heard Antonio’s name and almost laughed at the hand gesture she made- sort of a sideways fanning of her hand held flat in front of her neck. I would have understood even if I didn’t know already that he was out of the picture for good.

My ears perked up when I heard Angela say the name of Emmy Lascaux and the words ‘musica rock’. From what I could gather, Angela was confirming that her parents knew who Emmy was, and they did seem to know the name and a bit about Emmy. Angela’s mom asked something something “lesbiana?”, to which Angela agreed, and said I was “su esposa”.

A discussion about ‘lesbianas’ ensued, and I could tell that Angela was trying to convince her parents that lesbians are just like anybody else.

As that part of the conversation wound down, Angela said, “Mamí, Papí, quiero presentarles a Emmy y Leah.” She waved us to enter the camera’s field of view, which we did, waving at the images of her parents on the laptop’s screen.

“This is Emmy De Lascaux,” Angela said in English, “And this is her wife, Leah Farmer. Leah, Emmy, these are my parents, Sandra and Carlos Castro.”

Emmy smiled and said, “Y ya entiendo de donde viene la belleza de Angela, señora Castro. Usted es una flor rara. Y señor Castro- Angela muestra la dignidad que debía haber recibido de usted. Es un placer de conocerles.”

Of course, this set the bar too high for me to follow, so I merely said, “Buenas tardes. Mucho gusto,” with a wave at the camera.

Angela’s parents both started speaking at once, then stopped and looked to each other to start. I was glad to see there was none of that famous Latin machismo in their relationship, as far as I could tell.

“It is very nice to meet you,” said Angela’s mom in accented, but clear English. “Angela says that when Antonio was arrested, she asked you two for help, and even though you hardly knew her, you opened your home to her.”

“This is true,” I said, when Emmy gave me a look to say that I should field this one. “Angela and I had talked a few times in the gym, and we had made plans to get together for dinner with her and Antonio, but he got arrested before that happened. When she knocked on our door and asked for advice, of course we helped. It’s what anybody would do.”

“No, I don’ think most people would help like that,” Mr Castro said. “That was very good of you, to help our Angela like that.”

Angela resumed talking in Spanish to her parents, and from what I could tell it was a recap of events leading up to and including our trip to Chicago, and that’s when she dropped the bombshell on her mom and dad. “Me enamoré a las dos,” she said. “Con cada dia, me enamoré mas y mas. Las amo, Mamí, Papí. Quiero vivir mi vida con ellas, y tambien, ellas aman a mi.”

I was surprised that she’d just come right out and said it, but there it was. She said she loved us and wanted to spend her life with us, just like that.

I rested my hand on Angela’s shoulder in support, and Emmy lowered herself to the same level as Angela and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Señores Castro,” Emmy said. “Su hija es una estrella en nuestra noche. Angela,” she said, pronouncing it the way her parents did, “ha vuelto un parte importante de nuestras vidas. La amamos. La queremos. Estamos super fortunadas a tener Angela. Dios nos dió su bendición cuando ella vino a nuestra puerta.”

Still stunned, Angela’s parents looked back and forth between the three of us. Angela, not knowing what more to say, took my hand from her shoulder and kissed it.

“Mamí, Papí, estoy feliz con ellas. Mas feliz que nunca. Espero que entienden. Eso es mi vida, ya y siempre.”

Eventually Angela’s mom recovered enough to speak. “You two- you are taking my Angela as your lover? Your… mistress? Both of you?”

“She is not our mistress, Señora Castro,” I said. “We don’t think of her that way. We asked her to be our equal, our other wife. We can’t legally marry her, but we would if we could. Perhaps, some day in the future, we may be able to make our marriage legal, but for now, the three of us know we are married to each other.”

“I don’ think that is how it works,” objected Angela’s dad. Angela replied in Spanish, and I quickly lost the thread of the conversation as Angela and her father argued. I was pleased to notice that neither of them seemed to get too heated, but there was clearly a disagreement. Angela’s mom stayed quiet for the most part only speaking up every now and then. Eventually matters got as settled as they were going to be at the time and everybody said goodbye. To me, it seemed as if the issue hadn’t been completely resolved, but at least it hadn’t ended in tears.

The three of us pulled each other into a hug, where we simply held each other without speaking for quite a while. Angela had chosen us, chosen a life with Emmy and me, and left it up to her parents to accept it or not. This was a true turning point in her life, equal to any she’d gone through before and the gravity of the choice had to be recognized.

“I love you two so much,” Angela finally said, her voice muffled against my chest.

“We love you, Ange,” I replied, kissing the top of her head. “If there’s one thing I want you to know, it’s that. We are a family of three, and we will make it work.”