Weeks pass as Ethan and Ryan get settled into their new life with Vanessa and Luna.
Luna remained aloof and spent most of her time with her friends or locked in her room. She wasn't outright mean, but adjusting to this new life was difficult. Her dad, it turns out, had been cheating on Vanessa and into **** and some weird shit. Ryan overheard Vanessa and his dad talking one night that the thing that finally prompted Vanessa to divorce her previous husband was when he had tried to **** himself on Luna one night when he was drunk. Thankfully, Luna had escaped and told Vanessa. After hearing that, Ryan had avoided any active attempts to "catch" Luna in disrobed states or anything. However, the incidentals were enough to keep him supplied with jerk off images for life.
Vanessa is kind and loves to cook and be a housewife. There are times when she dresses up and she and Ethan go out on dates, but for the most part, she prefers to wear comfy - if tight or slightly revealing - clothes around the house. There are no more episodes of teasing or innuendo and Ryan finally relaxes into a routine.
Ethan and Ryan still spend quite a lot of time together, but they integrate Vanessa - and Luna when she can be bothered - into their plans. It is a time of bonding and Ryan comes to really like the two women. It is during this time that Ryan realizes a few things. Vanessa had been about to lose the house before she met Ethan. She had been working at a bar, but it wasn't paying the bills. Luna had come home from college, unable to afford it any more. She had moved back in with her mother and took a job at the local grocery store to help with the bills. When Ethan met her by chance (not at the bar), he had been smitten. A few months later, Ethan had paid off the mortgage with no strings attached. After that, marriage was pretty much inevitable. Luna was supposed to start back to college in the fall. Paid for by Ethan, of course.
Ryan's dad, an engineer, was a top design specialist for an aerospace firm. He brought in a high six figures, but was frugal. Ryan never wanted for anything, and now neither did the girls, but neither did they live extravagantly. Ryan knew that his dad had investments and other things that would eventually leave Ryan and now Luna never wanting in life, but never made a big deal of it.
So when tragedy struck and Ethan was killed the last week of June, Ryan found himself reassuring the girls that everything would be okay.
"Ethan left everything to you, Ryan," Vanessa said.
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