The Downside of Fatherhood at the Cabin

The black SUV slowed down as it approached the final stretch of the trip. Anxious over the latest revelations, Fred tapped his foot repeatedly, annoying Harvey.

"Would you stop that?" the driver asked for the second time.

"You know I get fidgety when I'm busy thinking," Fred reminded his childhood friend.

"I know that, oh, how I know that," Harvey said, shaking his head while Jeff chuckled. "And I said to stop throwing out screwball ideas revolving Austin."

"But we need to figure out what Orrin's scam is," Fred nearly whined.

"Look, we know someone is financing that website and likely Rusk's campaign. So let's focus on that tonight. The Vandermeers are among the few families that can afford to do it and aren't already backers of Dewey. If they're backing Orrin for mayor, we'll have an opportunity tonight to find out. That's why I accepted Giles' offer for us," Harvey explained. "That sound good?"

"Hey, I'm cool with playing poker just to play poker," Fred admitted. "I just hope Eddie isn't one of the players."

"Ahh, I forgot that possibility," Jeff chimed in.

"What?" Harvey questioned, making the turn into the driveway.

"Now who's the dumb one," Fred chuckled. "Laffont's visiting his sister, Alexis, who married Cyril Olesky, the guy that hates your family."

"I do know this, you know," Harvey said, noting that the wind already knocked down a few small branches that were scattered around the driveway. They would need to be cleaned up before any snowfall.

"And despite being a cheerleader back in the day, Alexis only hangs out with old Sugarbees. And remember that Giles' sister, Cordelia was part of that Sugarbee squad."

"That's a fair guess, but likely wrong," Harvey replied. "Cordelia doesn't socialize very much with her old dance mates. Or at least the same ones that Alexis does."

"I hope not. I'll probably punch Eddie if I have to sit at a table with him," Fred remarked.

"Good, it looks like Finn and the girls arrived," Harvey announced, happy they showed up before the weather turned any worse. High winds often knocked down large branches, even small trees, that could block the roads around Wasp Lake. And with most cabins having only a single road able to reach them, occupants were effectively trapped until it was cleared.

In the backseat, Fred only grunted to acknowledge his son's arrival. On the other hand, Jeff gave out a heavy sigh when he saw the other item that Harvey noticed. Jared sat on the porch, out in the cold weather, looking despondent.

"I really hope that it wasn't Whitney he pissed off. Or this is going to be a long stay," Harvey said with a shake of his head.

"Don't worry, it wasn't," Jeff informed him. As the SUV pulled up right next to the porch, Jeff added, "Let me take care of him first, and then I'll help carry in the groceries."

"Sure," Harvey replied as Jeff got out of the car. Harvey waited to get out himself in order to give the father and son a moment to talk.

Fred leaned forward from the backseat. "Uh, Harv, I'm sorry I brought up Bev's name before. I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories."

Harvey turned his head and gave Fred a serious look. "It's fine. I can hear the name and not get upset. It's you I'm worried about. I know this is going to be a rough week for you, but you can't get upset whenever Cassandra's name is mentioned. This whole week and the charity ball is for her."

Grimacing, Fred glanced down before looking back at his longtime friend. "I know. I swear I'm trying, but..."

"Trying is all I ask, and I'm sure all Finn wants too," Harvey stated softly. He could tell that just hearing his dead wife's name depressed his usually jovial friend. Luckily, Whitney doesn't need much parenting these days since it looks like I'm going to have to play dad for Fred.

Outside the SUV, Jeff handed over two different bags to his son. "I hope this one works," Jeff nodded to an item covered by a bag. "Because I don't want to know what you have planned for those things." He said with a shake of his head at the second plastic bag with an odd assortment of items in it.

"Thanks, Dad. I hope so too," Jared said, but he noticed his father had a similar item to the first one he handed over. "You got two? I don't need that many."

"This one isn't for you; it's for your mother. I need something to distract her from whatever you have planned," Jeff informed his son, who looked down sheepishly. "Now, get inside and don't let your mother see that stuff just yet."

The three men grabbed several of the bags out of the vehicle and headed inside. Inside, they found the older women and the newest arrivals surrounding Sean, who had a bag of ice on his forehead.

"What happened now?" asked Harvey, while Finn, Lana, and Peyton received hugs and handshakes from the men.

"Sean slipped upstairs in the shower and banged his head. He's a little bruised but fine," Bridget informed the cabin owner.

Gabriela moved the bag of ice she held to show the men the bruise. Jeff whistled at the black and blue mark. Harvey studied the injury, the teen's face, and his demeanor and doubted that Sean really did hurt himself in the shower.

Rachel, helpful as always, moved to unpack the grocery bags and put away the items, but Bridget cut her off.

"I think you've done enough for the morning. We'll take care of this, and you get yourself upstairs and see if there's any hot water left for the chef." Rachel's face turned horrified at the thought of a cold shower, which garnered laughs from her friends.

"Don't worry, Rachel. The cabin has two oversized hot water heaters, so you should be fine," explained Harvey.

"Good to know. I'll make sure to take an extra long shower tomorrow," Gabby teased.

"Jeff, can you take the seafood to the downstairs fridge? Thanks, I'm going to put the car in the garage and clean up the driveway of those twigs and branches," Harvey told the big man.

Walking out of the kitchen, Harvey noticed his daughter climbing up the stairs from the walk-out level. Whitney's face looked a little flushed and sweaty, leading her father to wonder if Owen would be following her upstairs shortly.

"Hey, Dad! Did you get everything on the list I added?" Whitney inquired, but she didn't move in for her usual hug for her father.

"Yes, pumpkin. Although I'm not sure if we needed all those snacks," responded her father.

"I'm making sure we're prepared in case we get stranded all the way out here in a blizzard. You'll be thanking me when we don't run out of food and turn into the Donner Party," Whitney replied with a smirk.

Shaking his head at his daughter's cannibalism joke, Harvey left Whitney and went back outside. Looking up at the sky, he noted the gray clouds moving in from the northwest. Hmm, those clouds look a little ominous. I wonder if we're going to get more snow than the forecast predicted. Well, at least everyone is here. I wouldn't want to be driving these tree-lined roads with the winds and snow that are expected. Good thing that the Vandermeer lakehouse is only down the road.

After parking the SUV in the garage, Harvey patrolled the driveway and nearby yard for any branches. With a decent armful, he then walked to the east side of the cabin. There, a series of narrow, brick stairs on the cabin's side led down the sloped hill. Descending the stairs, Harvey saw Lacey and JoJo walking back from the lake on the pathway.

"Hi, girls. A little cold down by the lake?" he asked the two teenagers.

"Oh, yeah, it's a little cold. We, uh, wanted some fresh air before it got too nasty out," Lacey hesitated at coming up with a reason for why they were out in the cold.

"Do you need a hand, Mr. Diamond?" JoJo asked, motioning to the branches he held in front of his body with both arms.

"Thanks, but I got it. If one of you could open up those doors over there, that would be great." Harvey nodded to the small woodshed that stood against the north side of the cabin, under the deck, at the brick patio's edge.

Wanting to be helpful, JoJo moved quickly over to do as he asked. Lacey stood back and watched as JoJo helped take some of the branches and placed them in a basket for small pieces of wood to be used as kindling. Harvey grabbed a couple of logs from the woodshed to bring inside with him.

Finished, Harvey thanked the brunette for her help and then turned to Lacey. "Not sure if you know this already, but your sister's here."

"I already had to deal with her," Lacey groaned.

Harvey, with the two teens following, climbed the deck stairs and into the sunroom. As the two girls walked over to the cabin interior's door, he moved over to the small alcove in the sunroom wall, where firewood was stored. Turning around after he finished his chore, Harvey noticed the two teenagers stood in the open doorway, not moving an inch. He also noticed how eerily quiet the kitchen area sounded. Coming up behind Lacey and JoJo, Harvey stopped dead in his tracks as well.

Whitney and Lana were locked in a passionate kiss. The two buxom beauties stood under the mistletoe at the edge of the kitchen. Whitney's hands slowly moved up from cupping Lana's cheeks and into the older girl's lustrous, red hair. Lana's hands were already tightly gripping the younger blonde's incredibly toned ass.

Harvey realized he had been wrong. The kitchen and dining room weren't completely silent. Piercing the room's silence were the sounds of smacking and hissing as the girls sucked in air to continue their extended embrace. A sprinkling of moans showcased the pleasure they felt if the sight of their roaming hands wasn't evidence enough.

Whitney broke off the kiss, leaning away from Lana's tongue that followed in an effort to keep kissing. The blue-eyed blonde shot her busty ginger counterpart a scorching look of sultriness before she moved back in to resume their sapphic dance of tongues. Lana helped speed up their resumption by almost lifting Whitney up from her butt and pulling her back toward her. Although on this journey into bliss, Whitney's right hand left Lana's hair, slowly trailing down the coed's face, neck, and shoulder, until reaching its destination. There it began to gently cup and squeeze one of the most desirable breasts in all of Honey Hollow.

Harvey knew he should put an end to this over-the-top display of affection. Clearly, the two gorgeous young women had become lost in the moment, forgetting friends and family surrounded them. Yet, Harvey couldn't even close his mouth that had dropped open on his initial surprise at the mesmerizing pairing. The initial twitch he felt down in his groin now had transformed into a growing erection. He tried to focus on the girl who wasn't his daughter, but that proved difficult as Lana's caressing of Whitney's perfect ass kept drawing his eyes.

Showing no shame if she remembered others around her, Whitney quickly moved her hand from groping Lana's tits over her shirt to sliding it under the redhead's top. A few gasps and sighs sounded around the room from the spectators at this escalation. Unfortunately, the performance they were witnessing came to an end with the arrival of another father.

Unlike Harvey, Clive didn't stop to watch his daughter locked in a passionate embrace; it wasn't a new sight for him. The new aspect came from Lana putting on a show in front of many of his friends.

"What the...Lana! Stop that right this minute!" Clive bellowed out to his vexing offspring. "Lana!"

Clive's outburst snapped Harvey out of his daze, and he did what he should have done minutes earlier. "Whitney, knock it off. I think you've had enough fun."

Reluctantly, the two kissers moved apart. Panting, they stared into each other's eyes. A tiny smirk formed at the corners of Whitney's mouth before she spoke.

"See, Peyton, there's nothing wrong with a little kiss between friends."

---

As her name was said out loud, several people turned to look at Peyton. The blonde-haired coed didn't see their attention on her as her face already rested in the palm of her hand. It had moved there fairly early into the embarrassing display Lana put on. Peyton narrowly missed being **** to kiss her best friend thanks to her little brother's sharp command not to move another step and walk under the mistletoe.

Eager to either prove a point or to just kiss the busty redhead, Whitney had walked right over to Lana under the mistletoe and initiated their provocative kiss. Yesterday, the teenager had been envious of the steamy performance put on by Gabriela and Skye in this exact spot. Now scanning the room, Whitney could see multiple looks of envy and jealousy.

Gabriela gave the young blonde a nod of approval as their eyes met. Bridget's face only showed a little smirk. Kimberly looked angry over the attention the two kissers had garnered. Sean appeared to be trying to cover an impressive erection from the stool he sat on; after the close-up view, he experienced a few feet away from the kiss.

"God damn! Now that's what I call a kiss," Fred called out joyfully.

"Dad! Can you try and not act like a pervert for once?" Finn admonished his father.

With that father-son moment breaking the ice, the room seemed to start back up as everyone went back to whatever it was they had been doing minutes earlier.

Lana leaned back over to whisper into Whitney's ear. "Looks like someone had fun not too long ago." Moving back so that Whitney could see her face again, the ginger moved her tongue around in her mouth in an exaggerated manner before licking her lips. Noticing another beautiful young woman standing back near the stairs with a sweaty, flushed look, Lana moved toward her.

"Hi, I'm Lana Stratton."

"Skye, Skye Willows. Nice to meet you."

Slowly walking past Skye, Lana leaned over to whisper, "You taste delicious." Then turning back, the redhead called out loudly, "Come on, Pey. Let's go unpack our stuff."

Grumbling, Peyton walked over behind the stool Sean sat on, put her arm around his shoulder in a partial hug. "Thanks for the warning, little brother."

Sean mumbled a reply while hunched forward to hide his hard-on.

"Wait, what room are we in?" Lana yelled from the other side of the great room.

"I'll show you," Whitney told Peyton.

As the room started to clear out, Finn walked over to Skye. "Hey, Skye. I didn't know you knew the Diamonds," he commented to the young woman he had met many times at Goforth's and had admired for both her beauty and how she carried herself.

"Uh, I'm here with your father. We're dating." Skye's eyes widened as Finn's head swung over to look at Fred when she realized her boyfriend of three months had never informed his son of their relationship.

"Figured you could officially find out on this trip, Finny," Fred remarked like it wasn't a big deal.

Annoyed at his father, Finn turned back to look at Skye, and his mood softened as he saw the upset look on her face. He tried to make her feel better by lying. "I knew my dad was dating someone he liked, but I didn't know the name. It's great to see you. I hope you'll have a nice time."

Only Lacey had caught the awkward exchange, and she fumed in a fury. How could he not tell his own son that he was dating a woman barely older than him? You think maybe Fred could have mentioned her on Christmas Eve when he stopped at our house to drop off presents for our family and Finn. And poor Skye. I was so wrong about her. Oh, if my dad weren't here right now, I would slap the shit out of Mr. Singer!

The compassionate redhead wanted to go to her surrogate big brother, but Finn had already moved over to Mrs. Tarver. Looking around the room, Lacey considered asking Sean if he heard the exchange, but they had a lot of other topics to discuss. Somebody needs to hear about this bullshit. Deciding it should be her sister and Peyton, Lacey marched out of the room and down the hall to the master suite.

"--so I told him that his apology was nice and all, but actions speak louder than words. That's when I sat down on the bed and informed him I wouldn't accept his apology until he made me cum with his tongue. And I would not be returning the favor," Whitney narrated to the two older girls.

"Damn, I taught you well, padawan," said Lana proudly. Peyton rolled her eyes as she seriously doubted Lana knew what the last word meant. "And here after I tasted pussy on your lips, I thought you weren't getting any dick."

"What?" Lacey and Peyton both exclaimed.

"So what's the lucky guy's name?" Lana ignored the other two girls' inquisitive looks and asked a question that she already knew the answer to.

"Oh, I thought Lacey had told you, as you and Peyton both know him. It's Owen Nevin. He was a year older than you two," Whitney revealed.

Lana and Peyton looked at each other and did that non-verbal conversation thing they were known to drive people mad with. So what we heard last night is true.

"We know him," Peyton remarked, biting back a comment.

"That we do," Lana added. "So, are you two serious?"

"When am I ever serious with a guy?" Whitney laughed at her own joke. "We're still in that getting to know each other phase. Owen seems a little jealous. I mean, he got all pissy thinking something was going on between Sean and me."

"Sean?" Lana asked in surprise.

"My little brother?" Peyton questioned, even more in surprise at what her brother had been getting up to these last couple of days.

"Yeah, I know. That's absurd. He's not even my type," Whitney added with another chuckle.

Lacey knew it was coming and it did. Lana and Peyton turned to look at her, and she quickly spoke to avoid them bringing up their destiny crap in front of her close friend.

"Did you know that Fred never told Finn that he was dating Skye? He just found out right now? He didn't look too happy, nor did Skye. What the hell, right?"

"That's pretty low even for Mr. Singer," remarked Peyton.

"Especially with it being the anniversary of Aunt Cassie," Lana pointed out.

"Oh, I'm sure Uncle Fred had his reasons. He probably felt awkward over the age gap." Whitney made an excuse for one of her father's oldest friends.

The other three girls all looked at each other, waiting to see who wanted to try and finally set Whitney right on her how she saw Fred through rose-colored glasses. Before any of them could step up, the doorbell ring sounded through the bedroom door that Lacey left open.

"Were we expecting any more guests?" asked Peyton.

"I don't think so," replied Lacey.

The three girls turned to look at Whitney, who wore a smirk on her face.