Sunday morning I cooked my usual big breakfast for all my mates. This morning we had a few extra. Marlene had spent the night in Crash’s room at his invitation. They had both howled at the rafters at least once while we were in the basement last night. I knocked on the door to tell them breakfast would be ready in 45 minutes.

Roseanne, Courtney and both boyfriends had spent the night in 2 of the basement bedrooms. It had been so late when everyone finished that I was afraid that they would fall asleep driving home.

I went down with an armful of clean sheets and pillow cases then knocked on the doors. “Breakfast will be ready in 40 minutes, make the beds with these, put the dirty ones in the hamper along with the towels from last night and bring it up when you come. If you want clean tee shirts and gym shorts there are some in the cabinet by the shower. Coffee and juice are already made if you need something to get you started,” I said.

Fresh coffee and breakfast was buffet style when they all came into the kitchen. There was very little left over and I ended up making another half dozen pancakes.

Heavy duty paper and plastic kitchenware eliminated anyone doing dishes this morning, with the exception of the griddle and frying pans. They were no-stick so cleanup was a breeze.

Our guests left, with the exception of Marlene who went back up to the room with Crash. They said they were going to Annapolis shopping in a little while and would be back in several hours.

We finished making preparations for tomorrow’s festivities, getting all the things that needed simmering and seasoning for a few hours back into crock pots. We went over to the gym first to review the security data for the colleges and then to work out.

I have to admit I always felt better after a good workout and always slept better.

Monday morning – Labor Day – I fixed breakfast again, this time for a smaller crowd. It was just the six of us plus Crash. He had become accustomed to us being barely clothed or nude by now.

I asked where his girl friend was and if he had told Roger he had one, with a little chuckle.

“I think she called us friends with benefits. It’s been a long time since I was with anyone. We sure enjoyed ourselves,” he said. Then he added, “So that is what you girls do to keep your sanity, blow off steam in the basement every now and then?”

“For us it is much more than that and the addition of others is a visual turn-on to make our experience better,” I answered.

“I have noticed from the beginning you were more than just friends and business partners,” he replied.

Then he laughed and said, “Marlene carried me to the mall in Annapolis yesterday. She had me help her pick out all sexy under things for her to wear when she comes to be friendly. I was never so embarrassed. You should have seen all the looks we were getting when she kept calling me Daddy. She says she is excited to model them soon.”

There was light rain off and on and the highway was full of people going back from the beach to the western shore early. We could hear the backup standing in the garage door. Our picnic cookout was going to start at two.

Jason and Dad were going to come at one to start the grills. The crabs were to be picked up at quarter of two. Jason was going to the private dock and marina at the end of Summers Road and use the judge’s boat to run over to the Crab Deck to pick up the crabs we had ordered.

It was a 15 minute boat ride round trip from there. With the traffic backup today the trip in the pickup would have taken an hour or more. The Judge and Lilly were coming back with Jason to join our family in the cookout.

We kept one of the big garage doors down, the other one up and the awning extension out to put the grills under. Then we put the paper goods out on a table and put two more tables up to put the prepared food on.

We filled one cooler with several brands of beer and wine coolers. You just cannot have steamed crabs without cold beer. The other two coolers were soda, juices, bottled water and sweet tea and covered everything with several buckets of ice from the commercial icemaker.

We had bought a new big one for the gym and had the smaller one moved over to the house for us to use. They were not going to allow us anything on it for a trade and it was in too good a shape to throw away.

By One people started arriving. The North six and their families came in a convoy. They had brought the unmarked cars they had been using back. Their parents came in separate cars to keep the secret, even though they knew we were going to give them the keys to those cars today. The girls were told to clean them out so they could turn them in today.

Marlene was wearing some of the clothes she had purchased with Crash. I was expecting them to disappear at some point.

Mischief and Mayhem and both boyfriends – who looked very subdued – arrived with some other people from the office. They were also walking very gently.

At two the burgers were already on the grill, Dad’s old pickup was backed up to the door with the crabs and the prepared foods were on two tables. Lisa said the blessing.

There were still several agents and policemen hanging around a as result of the death threat. I told them to swap off and come fix a plate that I would turn on all the outside cameras so they could still see everything and enjoy some food.

We asked everyone to stay, but that we needed to go make a video call to my brother Jake. After that we had several announcements to make to everyone.

Edit by Alfmeister