Paul and David Redux Chapter Five
Five blissful days followed by five moon-lit evenings gave the couple enough time and space to relax, recharge, and reconnect; headed north again on the inland route following the old federal highway 99 through Bakersfield, David had been fairly silent most of the trip over the Grapevine following the heavy truck traffic out of the LA basin.
"Any idea where we are going" Paul asked; David laughed.
"You, the organized, controlled guy, and you don't know where we are going? I'm shocked."
"Well just for the record, obviously we are heading north, and at some point we may reach Sacramento, but in the meantime do you have a more specific destination mind?"
"Fresno, the raisin capital of the world."
"Are we running out of raisins?"
"No, but I don't want to rush back home just yet, I think we still have some work to do."
"Work?"
"Sure, like `you and me' work, figuring out a few of the answers to the questions that were raised on the beach, and also working out a few of the kinks that may have become obvious in our sex life."
"I like the sound of that" Paul responded, shifting in his seat. David let his right hand drop from the steering wheel, and it landed in Paul's crotch, and he began to slowly but firmly rub the treasure beneath the linen beach shorts.
Soon Paul was hard, and moaning; David chuckled, "I love it when you do that."
"What?"
"Moan."
David himself was about to let out a moan, but he choked it back because it seemed a little too theatrical. In just a few minutes, the exit to Fresno was approaching, and David steered into the first opportunity, which led them in a few blocks to a cluster of hotels and restaurants; nothing seemed to be his style after years of traveling for the federal bank, so he merely chose a La Quinta, noting it had the requisite swimming pool.
It seemed like a lifetime before they had finished the check-in process and found their way to their third-floor room, but Paul was attempting to stifle his anticipation at having mid-day sex with his husband. His cock was still hard from the rubbing he had received from David in the car, and he did not want it to be wasted; he needed to get on the bed immediately and have whatever sex David wanted, hard and fast.
Paul was immeasurably surprised when David slowly undressed Paul, and then himself, and gently laid him on the queen-size bed, and took Paul's hard cock into his mouth. This was not a new experience for either of them, but it was relatively rare in the past year or so as David had been overly burdened with office responsibilities.
Paul gasped, and tried to relax, but in truth a hard cock is never relaxing, it is always demanding, always impatient. Paul began pushing himself upward into David's mouth, and soon his orgasm was beyond control; David sucked down all of it, wiping his lips with the back of his hand while laughing.
"Funny?"
"Well, no, yes, sort of, I guess surprising and new and wonderful and yes, funny. I'm not sure when we have ever done that."
"To be exact, it has been more than a year, but who is counting anyway, we are married and we get to do whatever we want, correct?"
"Yes, but it sounds like you know the score already."
"Maybe, but I am not saying anything until you get your beautiful ass over here and let me slide into it."
"You can do it again after cumming?"
"Sure, just watch me."
And with that over-confident nonchalance, Paul shoved his still-hard cock into David's beautiful ass, making sure it was all the way home before starting a rhythm; David was moaning loudly soon, and Paul was ready to make his husband start thrashing.
David had not cum yet, and Paul was determined to make him cum soon. Paul pulled out and turned David to lay on his back and re-entered the ass of his lover from the front, vigorously fucking David while staring into his blue eyes.
In minutes, if not seconds, Paul's gamble paid off, as David began thrashing beneath him, and shooting his normal volcanic missile-loads upward, some hitting Paul's chin, some hitting David's chest, and one hitting Paul in the left eye.
Satisfied with his experiment, Paul relaxed on David's chest, and muttered "Hungry?"
"Definitely."
They decided to order room-service; in Fresno room-service consists of one of the local eateries sending over a bag lunch by Door-Dash, usually no longer at restaurant temperature by the time of delivery. Nonetheless, David and Paul settled for subway sandwiches with the requisite large dill pickle slice.
Fresno to Sacramento is somewhere in the neighborhood of a six-hour drive, and it was nearly half of that before David had formulated his questions for Paul.
"So, was this vacation merely your elaborate ruse to get me alone for interrogating me concerning our sex life?"
"Partly; I have been mulling over the sex part of our life for a while, and seriously I was wondering if there was something wrong, if I had somehow done something to put you off, because for the past year or so, we have not been having an exciting sex life, it has been pretty mundane, please do not take that the wrong way, I always love being in bed with you, but I have been thinking that maybe your office demands or something else outside of the bedroom was causing us to have drifted apart slightly."
"I am shocked to hear that, not because I am insulted or anything, but shocked that I have not been paying better attention to you and our needs in bed, and I really want to do better. Maybe this vacation was exactly what we needed."
"I hope it helps, because here is the plain unvarnished truth, Elder Branson, I have been in love with you since the first moment I laid eyes on you, standing in the rain in the dismal little country-side train station in the mountains of Japan; when I saw you I knew there was the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with."
"Gosh, that's amazing Paul. My reaction was the opposite, you scared me to death, not because of anything you said or did, but because of your reputation among the other missionaries whom I had told about my transfer to be your companion, you were known as the most demanding and ferocious missionary, and I needed to watch myself at all times."
Paul laughed; "That is truly ridiculous, I may have been demanding of the one or two green-bean new missionaries I trained, but let's face it, life in Japan, and learning the Japanese language, is not easy, and takes a lot of energy and concentration. But, by the time you and I became companions, you were already a very seasoned missionary, and one that I had already admired from afar."
"...And still do" Paul continued.
Their companionable silence continued for a few more minutes, when approaching the outskirts of the capital city, Paul's cell phone buzzed; it was Clark Adams, the broker who had been handling the potential sale of the farm.
"Let me put the phone on speaker so that David can participate" Paul instructed Clark.
"Hi David, hope y'all are having a nice time away from the city, I have two new offers for you to review. The first is almost a duplicate of the other three you have already seen, someone who wants to buy little bits and pieces of the operation. Don't reject it out of hand, but the second offer that came in today may be a lot more attractive.
There is a large multi-national agricultural corporation that is willing to consider taking the entire operation in one piece, and is willing to consider an all-cash offer. These terms are pending the appraisals, of course, and after the appraisal you will have thirty days to counter-offer. By the way, their agent is Sumitomo Bank in San Francisco."
"I know them well" David said. "We have done a lot of work together."
"Thanks, Clark, please email the details to my office address; we will be home tonight and we will need to have time to review the offer, and to meet with our shareholders, but I think we can respond by Monday of next week."
David could tell by Paul's tone of voice that he was excited about the second offer; immediately after he finished the call with Clark, he called his brother Scott, and gave him the few details that he knew about the offer. Scott agreed to inform their sister Emily, and meet at the farmhouse with David and Paul on Sunday evening.
A typical Paul-and-David supper at the farmhouse of grilled chicken thighs in peach sauce, fresh-baked croissant rolls, potato salad, fruit salad, and steamed broccoli with cheese-and-bacon sauce, greeted Scott and Emily on Sunday evening. It was always a Campbell family tradition that when the family was together, they broke bread before any business was discussed.
After a leisurely supper, relaxing together on the broad front porch, Paul asked David to lay out the details of the offer. That process took less than thirty minutes, with plenty of questions from Scott and Emily interrupting his presentation; this was not one of his federal bank presentations complete with Power Point, but he was able to fill in all of the most important points.
Paul pointed out "As we are all aware, this level of major event for the farm we have always agreed requires a unanimous vote. Not that it is binding at the moment, because we have not seen the full final offer, but how does everyone feel?" he asked.
Scott said "Of course; let's do it. Emily and I have been wondering how you were planning to go forward, once David retired from the bank, so this is an amazing opportunity."
Emily agreed, and in her usual `Emily' fashion said "Paul darling just do it."
"Well," David interjected, "none of you have said anything about the price, which as we have learned from the buyer's agent at Sumitomo Bank, is right square on the local average of farm acreage pricing, so in other words, about two B for the entire package."
There was stunned silence for a long moment; Paul already had that information, but to see it register on the faces of his two siblings was a new and exciting experience.
"B?" Emily muttered. "What's a B?"
"One billion dollars." David was very matter-of-fact, having dealt with such large numbers for many years at the Federal Reserve. But this was not just business, this was family, and a billion dollars dropped into the laps of these humble Mormon farm kids was a whole new kettle of fish.
The silence continued for another long moment; finally Scott stood and paced the entire length of the porch, and returning to his seat, said "One supposes that this number is negotiable, but if it is right on the Sacramento valley average acreage price, we should take it."
Emily silently agreed, shaking her head in the affirmative.
Paul said "There is one little tiny detail I want to pass by you two, and have your permission before we proceed. This home, this old farmhouse, has been our home for most of our lives, for David and myself, and we would be honored if you would allow us to stay here for the rest of our lives. We are willing to negotiate a reasonable price for the house and a couple of acres. That price will come out of our share, and will not affect your shares."
"Certainly" Emily clapped her hands, and jumped up to hug Paul and then David.
In something near ninety days from their meeting as shareholders, Paul, David, Scott and Emily were seated at the gorgeous carved rosewood conference table with their brokers, Clark Adams and his partner Blake Young, in the headquarters building of Sumitomo Bank. The banks' representative, Yoshio Sato, stood in for the buyer, who was participating by video feed.
Sato-san distributed copies of the closing documents to the three shareholders, and allowing them a few minutes to review them, then proceeded to suggest that if there were any questions he and the buyer could answer them prior to executing the signatures.
By four PM, Paul, Scott, and Emily had signed the documents, and the cash had been transferred to their individual checking accounts; Sumitomo had held the cash in an escrow account for the past ten days, and made arrangements for the wire transfers to the three shareholders as well as the broker's fees to Blake and Clark.
Clark mentioned to Paul "We did not see the need to charge you a brokerage fee for the sale of the house, since we had already been given a fee for the sale of the larger property."
That fee, for the sale of the farm land, would give Clark and Blake over 30 million each; they could buy Guatemala if they so chose.
Paul and David, not coincidentally, were going to share nearly 700 million, after deducting the price of the house. Scott asked "So what's next for you two?"
"Well, in about a half hour, we are attending a small gathering to commemorate my retirement from the Federal Reserve Bank, and then on Friday we are hosting a dinner for you and your kids and our kids as well as Clark and Blake, at Alexander's, supposedly the best steakhouse in the city. At that time, we might have more news for you."
As promised, on Friday, Bethany and her husband Mark, together with Stephen and his wife Rene and their two kids, Spencer and Camille, were seated at Alexander's and had already ordered hors-d-oeuvres from the much-too-long menu. At promptly half an hour late, Scott and his wife arrived with Emily and her husband, followed by a gaggle of six children, three in each family.
Scott was surprised to see Bethany, and asked when her due date was for the expected baby; "In about another half hour" Bethany giggled, with Mark exhibiting a serious frown.
David stood and addressed the large family: "We have a small announcement for all of you, please enjoy your meals, and thank you for joining us.
Paul and I are going to begin doing some volunteer work for the Habitat project here in Sacramento, so we do not plan on leaving our home or going to a foreign country. I am going to be working part time at the community college teaching undergraduate economics courses, and Paul is going to continue his work with the state legislature as a consultant for agriculture and water issues. We have also donated some cash to the San Francisco and Sacramento chapters of the Trevor Project, so we expect them to probably be contacting us for volunteer hours as well."
"In addition, we want to invite everyone to our home for the Thanksgiving weekend, so that you will have time free and available for the Christmas holiday season to spend with your families. We are planning on going to Malibu to attend the big spread with Paul's cousin Peter and his husband Mario for Christmas."
As a small moan escaped from Bethany, all eyes turned toward her; Mark said "Well everybody, I don't' think this needs any announcement, but it looks like it's time!"
By noon the following day, grandbaby Morgan was breathing on his own and sleeping peacefully next to Bethany; it has always been a rather tawdry misnomer that newborn babies are beautiful, when in fact they look like a rather nasty red wrung-out towel.
Morgan exhibited a huge yawn just as the two grandfathers entered the room, with Mark standing next to the bed and smiling like a fool. His contribution to the moment was long over; Bethany deserved the greatest applause for her performance.
David asked "May I hold him?"
Bethany gently handed the day-old baby to her father, who rocked back and forth gently for a moment, and then handed Morgan to Paul, who did the same. They stayed only a few moments, and made sure that there was help arranged at home in San Luis Obispo for Bethany and her baby; she assured them that Mark's mother and grandmother were already on their way. She also assured her two fathers that she had been approved for a six-month maternity leave from the University and had no intention of getting any further from the bedroom than either the bathroom or the swimming pool. David and Paul promised to come and visit within the month, and kissed their daughter and grandson goodbye.
Paul could not stop smiling as they drove away from the hospital; David merely asked "What?"
"Just really glad to see another generation spring into this old world; just when you think that life is complicated, sometimes horrifying, sometimes sad and lonely, then along comes a brand new baby to remind us that there is a Universe that loves us and sees the path we are on, and shines on us daily."
David smiled at his husband's poetic sense of the life they enjoyed; he would not have it any other way.