Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2023 14:28:48 +0000 (UTC) From: Jeremy Reynolds Subject: A Heart Big Enough Chapters 1-3 A Heart Big Enough By Jeremy Reynolds (Copyright: all rights reserved. This story may be re-published with permission, in the current or in a proofed, edited form approved of by the author.) Hello! Disclaimer: I do *not* at all condone many of the behaviors depicted in this fantasy, seeing as they occur between adults and minors. In real life, someone who does what the adults in this story do are doing something very harmful. At times some of the adults may discuss the morality of adult-minor relationships. These are solely the views of the characters themselves and they only serve the purpose of furthering the story along. Any resemblances to real places or people, organizations etc, is entirely coincidental and is used fictionally. If interested, I have other stories, "A Mother's Infinite Love" in the lesbian incest category (https://www.nifty.org/nifty/lesbian/incest/a-mothers-infinite-love), "A Shared Heart" under the bisexual incest category (https://www.nifty.org/nifty/bisexual/incest/a-shared-heart), and another story under the gay incest category called "Caught under the sink." (I'm not as proud of my work on that last one, since I was such a beginner, but here it is, if interested: https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/incest/caught-under-the-sink.) I do not want to receive any emails with any illegal or morally wrong material. I also do not want anything like dick pics sent to me. Thank you, hope you enjoy! Please email other responses to: jeremyreynolds1234@myyahoo.com. Reminder that Nifty needs your donations to provide these wonderful stories. Please use this link to make a donation: https://donate.nifty.org/ This story features themes of gay incest, with depictions of parents and their teenage children engaging in sexual behavior together. There is also some "piss play" in it, especially toward the end. There are five main characters in this story: -Kyle and Daniel, adult brothers -Caleb (9 years old), Kyle's son -Jesse and Nathan ("Nate") (both 11 years old), Daniel's twin boys The various chapters are from their various points of view, as indicated in each subtitle. The chapters tend to grow longer as the story goes on. I'll post the shorter ones together sometimes. Chapter 1: Kyle I lay with my 9 year old son on the couch, spooning him, my front to his back, my arm wrapped around him with my hand on his chest. My lips rested against the side of his delicate neck, my cheek against his thick, wavy blonde hair. Beneath the covers, my penis was erect and was pressing on his little butt, pushed to the side of one of his cheeks. He and I were both clothed, me in my basketball shorts and T-shirt and he in his pajamas. I briefly imagined what it would be like to lay here like this without any clothes separating us, naked, skin to skin. I am deeply, madly in love with him, my only child, my little Caleb. I have felt this way about him for a long time, possibly since that day 9 years ago when I and my ex-wife, Courtney, brought him home from the hospital. Back then, of course, I didn't recognize it as romantic love. It took me a while before I was able to acknowledge those feelings. But I do believe that I have truly loved him, in this way, his entire life. "Daddy, can you scratch my back?" Caleb asked now, half-turning toward me, staring up at my dimly lit face. We were watching a movie together, Mary Poppins, which we had watched together before. It was one of our favorite movies. "Sure, sweetheart," I said. I began scratching him on the back, up and down, from his shoulders to his lower back, just above his cute little bum. I slid my fingers beneath his pajama shirt and scratched him directly on his skin, again up and down and all over. As I did so, I thought about him and about our lives together, remembering a moment here and a moment there. I started by remembering the moment Courtney and I had given him his first bath, when he was only a few days old. I had offered to undress him, unbuttoning his yellow onesie and pulling his arms through the holes of its sleeves. He had stared up at me, a big, bright smile on his small face, his blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight streaming in through the window nearby, his tiny hands grasping the air between us as if he were trying to reach me. I then pulled his diaper apart, lifted him off of it, and tossed it and its contents in the trash to my right. His miniature penis, hardly the size of my thumb, pointed up at me, its freshly circumcised tip looking slightly red. His two small balls hung tightly in their sack beneath. Acting on instinct, it seemed, I lowered my face over him and kissed him on his chest, over each of his little nipples, on his stomach, on the head of his penis, on his thigh ... Courtney had come over then and had asked if she could take him over to the yellow tub on the kitchen counter behind me. I had nodded and had watched her take him up into her arms. He looked back at me, still smiling that cute, happy smile. I hadn't noticed, until after Courtney took him away, that far, far down in my pants I had begun to grow longer and heavier. The next moment: Caleb and I at the swimming pool years later, when he was 4 or 5. Courtney and I had signed him up for swimming lessons and on this particular morning he and I were trying to see if he could swim without the buoys now. We had just removed them and I was holding him up beneath his armpits in front of me with his face inches away from my own. He wore an expression of fear, but he showed something else as well: trust, in me, his daddy. I asked him if he was ready for me to let him go and he had nodded, yes, so I had slowly lowered him into the water. He began paddling, his arms and hands hard at work, and then he had started to kick with his feet and a second later I was standing aside watching him as he swam his way across this part of the pool. I had cheered him on, and he had come swimming back into my arms for a happy embrace. I had held him against me for a little while, at first just caressing his back, but then I had found myself touching his butt, my thumb sliding up and down between his round bulbs. He had pulled his head back so that we could look at each other, and we did so, just smiling into each other's faces. I had then leaned in and very slowly kissed him on first one cheek and then the other. I had felt something then, in my stomach: I would later recognize it as the fabled "butterflies" that came with love. One more moment: just last year, when my son was 8: he and I were sitting on this very couch together, my arm wrapped around his back, my hand on his thigh. I had looked down at him, into his swollen, teary eyes, feeling something of the raw anguish he was experiencing, some tears flowing down my own cheeks. I was telling him that everything was going to be fine, that sometimes Mommies and Daddies weren't meant to be together and that it wasn't anyone's fault. Courtney and I had decided to go ahead with the divorce just days before, agreeing that I would gain full, legal custody of Caleb though she and I would try to remain friends. We had determined that our marriage could not continue. The main reason we were splitting up: I had come to realize that I was gay, not bi, as we had both previously thought. She didn't know, however, that I had also begun to finally acknowledge to myself that I was emotionally, sexually and romantically interested in Caleb and had been for some time. I did not plan to act on it, on my feelings, but I knew that I could not continue to pretend to love Caleb's mother in the same way that I so intensely loved him. "That feels so good, Daddy," Caleb said now, again half-turning in my direction. My hand was still beneath his shirt and my fingernails continued to scratch lightly against his skin. "I'm glad, cutie," I said. I leaned forward a little and kissed him on his neck. I raised my lips to his ear and whispered, "I love you." "I love you too," he said, so softly and sweetly. I was reminded then of a couple other times I had exchanged those words with someone other than Courtney. I thought first of my father, Caleb's grandfather, John. At the time he had been about my age now and I my son's, and we had been laying in the bath together, my back to his front, his arms around me and his hands resting on my hips, his thumbs on my butt. I had been sitting on his hard penis, its length squeezed up beneath my crack. He had kissed me on the neck as I had just kissed my son, and had said those same words, "I love you," and I had repeated them back. The other time was much later, and this time those words had been uttered in my bedroom one night when I was about 12. I had been laying there in my bed next to my older brother, Daniel, both of us naked beneath the sheets. He had been propped up on his elbow above my face and we had just stopped kissing each other on the lips. A few minutes earlier we had shared an orgasm, both of us cumming at the same time, our teenage cocks pushed one against the other. "I love you, Kyle," Daniel had said, gazing into my eyes. "I love you too," I had said back. Yes, I had had a number of sexual and perhaps romantic encounters with my father and my brother growing up. With neither of them had I "gone all the way," meaning that I had never had anal sex with them, but with both I had participated in oral and other forms of sex (including frottage, with my brother). The sexual element of my relationship with Dad ended after he and Mom divorced when I was 10. My brother and I had continued to be sexual together for a couple more years until I was 14 and he was 15, before he had gone away to live with Dad and I had stayed with Mom and we were able to only see each other once every few months given the long distance between us. He had met a girl and she had become his girlfriend, not long after the move, and we had gone our separate ways in many respects. That girl would later become his wife, Angie, who Daniel would also end up divorcing around the same time as I divorced Courtney. Angie gave my brother twin sons, Jesse and Nathan (Nate for short), who were 11 years old. Unlike with me and Courtney, however, she had taken custody of their boys. My brother and I and our families had spent time together, over all those years, but we had never been very close overall. It felt like we were all far too preoccupied with our own lives to share them with each other. I sometimes lamented that fact, missing at least aspects of the closeness I had shared with my brother, though I buried most of my memories of our sexual experiences together very deep down in my psyche to a point where I hardly remembered them at all. I did the same with my memories of Dad and I together, burying them even more deeply down. All this began to change that night as Caleb and I lay on the couch at home, watching that favorite movie of ours again while we spooned and while I scratched his back. I noticed a little light suddenly turning on over the side of the couch. It was my smart phone, lighting up as it sent me a notification that I had received a text message. I removed my hand from under Caleb's shirt and reached over to pick up the phone and to bring it up to where I could see it. I opened the lock screen and went to the message, seeing that it was from Daniel. He had texted: "Dad died this afternoon. Funeral here on Saturday." My heart sank, and I gave an audible gasp. Caleb turned toward me, his hand lying on my side, and he asked, "What is it, Daddy?" "Grandpa died," I said immediately. "Your uncle just texted me." "Oh no!" Caleb exclaimed. Then he asked, "When did he die?" "This afternoon," I replied. "I don't know how though ... Daniel says the funeral is on Saturday ..." "At San Michelle?" he asked. "Where Uncle Daniel lives?" "Yes ... So we'll be going." Caleb came in close for a hug, something I appreciated so much in that moment. I know that part of what I felt then was shock, part of it was sadness, and part of it was yearning ... for Dad? Or maybe for him and for my brother, for the two of them? I felt something like regret too, regret that I hadn't truly reconnected with either of them since so many years ago ... Could I somehow fix things, from here? I didn't know ... I did know, in any case, that in this moment I was so glad I was not alone. I was also glad that I was with my love, my little Caleb. Chapter 2: Daniel Dad had left detailed instructions about how the funeral was to be held, and we followed that to a "T." He would be buried at San Michelle Cemetery, a couple plots down from where Meredith, our mother, had been buried 5 years before. She had tragically died of breast cancer, an event that definitely left its marks on our family and on me personally. However, finding out that Dad--my dad, my father--had just died ... this rocked me to the very core of my being. Dad wasn't just Dad to me, you see ... For a long time over the course of my teenage years and my early twenties, he had also been John to me. He had been John, my secret lover. "Are you ready?" I asked Jesse, one of my two 11 year old sons. "Yeah, I am," he answered, walking toward me across the dining room. He wore a blue button-down shirt with chinos beneath. He looked up at me, his cheeks looking a little red, and remarked, "You look good, Dad." After he said it he averted his eyes. He seemed a bit awkward these days for some reason or other. "Thanks," I responded. I wore a button-down of my own, mine forest green, and I wore khaki's. A moment later and Jesse's twin, Nate, came in, looking as dapper as his brother. He wore a maroon polo shirt with dark pants. He came in and asked, "So where are we going again?" "We're going to Caspar's, to meet with Uncle Kyle and your cousin, Caleb," I explained. "We just thought it'd be nice to meet there for dinner and to catch up a bit before the funeral tomorrow. When was the last time you guys saw them, again?" "It's been at least a year," Jesse answered. "Maybe more." "Yeah, it has been a while," I commented. "Anyway, let's get going so we're not late!" We all made our way out to the Forester, my car, and I drove us to the restaurant. This was one of my and my boys' favorite places to eat at, it containing both "high" and "low" brow options across the entire spectrum of New American fare. The kids liked their burgers, while I enjoyed their pork belly casserole. I hoped that Kyle and Caleb would find something there they liked, too. When we got there, I parked and we headed into the restaurant, finding out from the hostess that my brother and nephew had already been seated at a table in the back. She led us between other tables where other guests were dining happily, from which groups we caught whiffs of conversation. Finally we were in back, and seated there at the table, one of them next to the other, was my younger brother, Kyle, and his son, Caleb. The two were practically mirror images of each other, except that one was older and one was younger. They resembled us, my son's and me, as well, of course, seeing as we all shared blue eyes and blonde hair, which we had also shared with Dad, but these two were eerily similar. In Caleb I saw a 9 year old image of my brother, almost as if the latter had time traveled somehow. They both wore matching Navy dress shirts, Kyle with a blue and white stripped tie and his son with the top button unbuttoned. "Kyle," I said simply, coming up to the table. He stood and came around to give me a hug. That was the first we had shared in what felt like such a long, long time. He pulled back, still holding me on my sides, and we stared deep into each other's eyes. He nodded, and released me. "Hey, brother," he said. "It's good to see you, to be here, despite the circumstances." "Agreed," I replied. "Hi Uncle Kyle!" Caleb said, coming over to hug me. He turned to say hello to his cousins who greeted him and Kyle in return. All shared little hugs before we sat down and began to look over the menu and submit our orders. "So, how was the drive?" I asked, sipping from a beer I had just ordered. "Not bad," Kyle answered. "It only took us about three hours on the interstate. We listened to Harry Potter on audiobook." "Sounds fun," I said. I turned to my boys, and pointed out, "Jesse and Nate are also into Harry Potter." "Which one are you on?" Nate asked, turning to Caleb with a little smile. "The fourth one," Caleb replied. "It's really good so far!" We talked about other random things for a bit, before the conversation turned to Dad: "So he had a heart attack," Kyle said, in what seemed a half-statement, half-question. The table grew silent, and all eyes fell on me. "Yes, he did," I answered. "As far as I or anyone else seemed to know he had never had any heart problems, until this happened. They say he died pretty much immediately ... I never got to say goodbye." I wondered briefly about how that would have gone, sitting at his side as he lay in a hospital bed, his life slipping away. I might have held his hand and bent over to give him a kiss on the lips, and told him how much I still loved him and how much I missed what we had together, our romantic relationship, before we mutually chose to end things after the twins were born. I may have told him I'm sorry that it went that way, that we had to end it at all. A pang of regret stabbed me then, at that table at Caspar's. It wouldn't be the last of those I'd experience in coming days and weeks. "I'm sorry," Kyle said. "I know you and he were close. I mean, closer than I was to him those last years ... I wish I could have spoken to him one more time." "I do too." I thought then about the first time Dad and I had made love, when I was 16. We had gone out on a "date" to the mall where I had chosen and he had bought a new outfit to wear on the first day of school that was fast approaching. We had eaten pizza in the food court and then had come home and made-out for a while on the couch before proceeding into the bedroom. Afterward, as we lay there in bed next to each other, he had said, "There is so much love in my heart for you, Daniel." I had said, in response, "I don't know what I'd do without you, Dad. I'd be lost." "How's Angie?" Kyle asked, pulling me from my memories. "Is she coming?" "No, she has a very important case she's involved in at the moment," I explained. My ex-wife is a lawyer and probably the busiest person I've ever known. "She dropped the kids off yesterday morning. She offered her condolences. Is Courtney coming?" "No," Kyle said. "She actually had her husband's dad just die too. Weird coincidence, I know. That funeral is the day after Dad's but she had to fly up to Seattle." I knew that his ex-wife, Courtney, wouldn't have missed this for anything else, if it weren't that she had to support someone else, her new husband, Miles. We talked about other things then, as we finished off our meal and as the kids shared a couple pieces of chocolate cake for dessert afterward. We all went out to the parking lot, our boys chatting behind their dads all the while. "Hey, Kyle," I said, turning to face him when we got to their car. "Would you and Caleb like to stay here for a few days, or longer if you can manage it? I know you probably have a busy work schedule right now, but whenever you can swing it, you're invited." "I'd like that," he said. "Caleb would too. Would the boys be here too?" "Of course! Truth be told, Angie and I have started talking about me taking over custody. She's just so busy these days with her career and all that and she's starting to wonder if she's able to care for the boys anymore," I explained. "We're set to finalize our plans in a couple weeks, in fact. Could you come out then, maybe the week after that? Caleb will be out of school, right?" "Yes, he will be," Kyle confirmed. "He's so excited this time. We were planning on taking lots of trips together this summer anyway, so coming here to spend time with you all would make for a great start." "Awesome. It will be nice to catch up." We hugged again, Kyle and me, and we followed it up with nephew-uncle hugs on each side and cousin-cousin hugs after that. "Ok, see you tomorrow morning," I said, waving to them as Kyle closed his door. They were heading over to their Airbnb tonight, and would be going back home immediately after the funeral tomorrow since Kyle apparently had some very important work stuff to do that evening. The twins and I went to our car and got in. As I drove us home, we talked about how fun it was to spend time with their uncle and cousin, and how excited they were to hang out with them again. After we pulled into the drive way and I parked, I looked down at my phone and saw a message had come in from Kyle. I paused to open it as the boys got out of the car. It read: "I've missed you so much, Daniel." A surge of memories came up then, in my mind. I saw the two of us, he and I, making out on the couch downstairs, me fiddling with his pants zipper, he having already freed my hard cock of its shorts and boxers. Another memory: the two of us the night before I went to go live with Dad. We lay there on his bed, wrapped in each other's arms, both of us crying and saying how much we'd miss each other and how we wanted to somehow maintain our romantic relationship, despite the distance. I hadn't thought about that for so long. I found myself wondering if we could somehow reconnect now, as brothers, yes, and primarily so, but was there a possibility that ... ? No, I couldn't think about that right now. I got out of the car with the boys and we headed into the house. Chapter 3: Jesse A few weeks had passed since Grandpa's funeral, before Mom officially gave custody of us, Nate and me, to our dad. We were sad about having to be away from Mom, though we weren't too far from where she (and we previously, with her) lived, so we would be seeing her often. We were also, both Nate and I, very excited to spend a lot more time with Dad, and we would be kicking our summer breaks off soon with a long visit from Uncle Kyle and our cousin, Caleb. There really was so much to look forward to ... However, I was excited for another reason, a reason that I could acknowledge these days though probably not yet fully accept: I had a big crush on Dad, and had had it for at least 2-3 years now. No one, not even my twin, was aware of how I felt, and perhaps no one ever would. It was true though. Whenever I saw him, especially lately, I'd get nervous butterflies and I'd end up stumbling over my words. I think he was beginning to notice though he didn't seem to want to draw a lot of attention to it. Maybe he thought I was just going through an "awkward pre-teenager phase" or something. Though why Nate was also not going through that, that may have been a mystery to him. I had first fully acknowledged my feelings toward Dad about a year ago. Nate and I had been visiting him, our first of several stays at San Michelle that summer, and he had taken us to the gym he frequented where he would be lifting weights and we would be spending time in the big Olympic-sized pool, where he would go to swim laps after finishing up with the weights. Dad was a big fitness buff, so he was always in the gym and/or doing something active. He is so ripped, all over, his pecs so hard, his shoulders and arms so big and strong, his stomach rippled, his thighs, lower legs and of course his butt so tight and well-toned ... It was something I personally aspired to, trying to work on my own body as well as best I could. Nate did the same. This trip to the gym, however, we had chosen to stay in the pool the whole time, just playing games ("Marco Polo" for instance) and splashing each other. Dad had come into the pool area after he had completed his weightlifting routine. I found myself gazing up at him in his bathing suit, semi-consciously admiring his body. He also had a very handsome face that resembled mine and Nate's in many respects but which appeared more chiseled. We all shared big blue eyes, lush lips and thick blonde hair, all of us wearing it kind of longer and in a wavy style. Nate and I had continued to play around in the pool together until Dad had announced he was done with his laps and that we could go to the locker room to shower up and change if we were also ready. I had said I was but Nate asked if he could run to the front desk first where he could request a free Gatorade. Dad had told him to meet us back in the locker room, since we'd get started without him. I had followed him in that room and we had stood there, just the two of us, alone among all the lockers, and I had watched, fascinated, as Dad half-turned away from me and lowered his swimsuit. It was the first and only time I had seen a grown man's butt, let alone one so beautifully shaped and tightly toned as was his. Those cheeks were large and white, though darker than my own, surely. Like mine, however, they were also hairless. I stared at them and into the deep, dark crack between them, feeling lost in a magical moment ... "You okay, kiddo?" Dad had asked then, turning toward me a little more as he did so. "Uh, yeah, I am," I had said, quickly averting my eyes away from his bottom. He had turned, then, more fully toward his locker so that I was able to see him in profile most of the way. I caught a glimpse, just for a few seconds, of his enormous, semi-hard dick, just the "top" half of it, with its head and tip. He turned again away from me, giving me another full-on view of his butt, but he half-turned his neck and asked, "See you in a few!" I watched as he made his way down the row of lockers with a white towel in one hand and a bar of soap in the other. After he had left to go take his shower, I had looked down at my swimsuit and had noticed that it was severely tented, that my as yet young, undeveloped penis had grown hard and long. A feeling of embarrassment had overcome me then, and I had quickly slipped out of my bathing suit, had grabbed a towel of my own, and had made my way to the shower stalls. I heard Dad in the one next to mine, the sound of the falling water shifting as he cleaned himself. I had just begun taking mine when I heard a 3rd shower turning on, no doubt that belonging to my brother. As I took my shower, I found myself holding onto my still erect penis, feeling strongly like stroking it. I did so, and as I did so, I imagined what it would be like to shower with Dad, and what it'd feel like to hold onto his big, hard dick ... I had felt a strange sensation in my penis then, a kind of "pumping" feeling, and pleasure had filled my body. That had been the first time I ever masturbated. Later that night I had laid in bed, awake, staring up at the bottom of the top bunk where my brother was sleeping. I had felt myself growing hard again under the covers as I thought again about Dad and what I had seen of him earlier. I had told myself, then, in my head, that what this was was what people called a "crush." Yes, I knew then that I had a major crush on him now, that I "liked" him, that a part of me wouldn't stop thinking about him almost all the time and wouldn't stop wanting to see him naked, or to touch or even kiss him ... Fast forward to now, the day that he took over custody. Mom had not stayed long, after dropping Nate and I off with almost all of our things. We didn't have too much, all things considered, and over the years we had increasingly left more and more of our stuff at Dad's anyway. Dad helped us settle a bit into the room Nate and I shared, the room with the bunk bed, and then he sat down in an office chair in front of a little desk in the corner and asked, "So, what do you want to do?" "Caspar's again?" Nate suggested. He and I sat on his bed, the bottom bed in the set. "If you want," Dad said, chuckling. "Or what if we go to Main Event? They have a new rock climbing area that I think you'd both like. Their food isn't too bad either." "I haven't, uh, ever been rock climbing," I said. I felt a little afraid of trying it too, to be honest. "Same, but we'll learn, bro," Nate said, punching me lightly in the shoulder. "Yeah, I'll show you a few things," Dad added. "We'll start small." So we all piled into the Forester and went over to Main Event, just north of downtown San Michelle. Dad bought us our tickets and we started to play on some of the games, starting with bowling. Dad was really good at it, as he was at most things like this that he tried, and Nate was pretty good also. I was bad at it myself, but I think I started to get better toward the end of the round and I had a decent time doing that overall. Next we went over to the laser-tag area where we donned the vests and head pieces, and of course the guns, and we ran around for a bit in the darkened rooms shooting each other and other kids and adults. I was a bit better at this game than I had been at the bowling. I even got Dad a few times! He and Nate, however, were also good and they both "killed" me once or twice each in return. Finally, we made our way to the rock climbing area, having to wait a bit first since another family was using it at the time. While we waited we looked at the menu on Dad's smart phone. We decided to go with chicken fingers and waffle fry combos, whenever we were done climbing. The family finished using the wall, so Dad and a staff member helped us get ready to make our initial climbs. Dad had gone first, showing and telling us how to do it as he went. I was a little distracted, however, by the sight of that butt of Dad's again, watching it move from below as he climbed up above us. I was also feeling very anxious, afraid of trying to do as he had done when it was my turn. Nate went next, and he seemed to struggle a bit, but eventually got it for the most part. He didn't go nearly as far up as Dad had, but fairly far up nonetheless. He turned toward me and said, "Good luck, Jesse," when he got back down onto solid ground again. I started up the wall, doing as I had seen both of them do moments before, and at first I thought I was doing well. But then I felt myself slipping from a foothold and I panicked, my feet scrambling to find another hold. My vigorous movements caused my grasp on the handholds to loosen and pretty soon I felt myself falling backward. Of course, the rope stopped me from falling all the way, and I was able to get myself back against the wall a few moments later, but I was definitely shaken. "Try it again," Dad said behind me. "You were doing great!" "Yeah, you got this!" Nate chimed in, from where he stood next to Dad. "No, I'm done," I said. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. I also felt paralyzed, almost, not even capable of stepping down off the wall. I asked, "Can someone help me get down?" I then felt two big, strong hands, Dad's, holding me around my waist. He had his thumbs resting against the tops of my butt cheeks. I suddenly felt so much safer, knowing he was holding me. I slowly let go of the handholds and allowed myself to fall back a little into Dad, feeling his hands guiding me down the rest of the way until I was on the ground again. He held me in front of him for a few extra moments, his hands still down at my hips. I turned around and gave him a big, full hug, and enjoyed feeling his body pressed up against mine. I pulled away a little, still in his arms, and looked up into his face. I saw such kindness there, in his eyes and in the cute little smile he was giving me. I wanted him to bend down to kiss me ... "You're alright, son," he said, caressing my back. "Everyone falls sometimes. I know it's scary." "Thanks, Dad," I replied, coming in again for another hug. "Well, what do you kids think about us having dinner right now, and then playing a round of mini golf?" Dad asked. He then added, "We'll be able to do lots of things like this when your cousin and Uncle Kyle get here!" Dad let go of me and we all started to take off our climbing gear. "When is that?" Nate asked, a few minutes later. For a second I didn't know what he was talking about, since it had been a while since any of us had said anything. He clarified, "I mean, when are they coming?" "Next week," Dad answered. "They'll be staying for a long time, about a month. Your uncle was able to get a lot of work off. He said he might have a few meetings over Zoom, but he's going to be free besides that." "Cool," Nate remarked. "I'm excited." He was looking a little bashful at the moment, as he said it. Normally he was so cool and collected. "Same," I said, finding myself wondering about how to interpret my brother's sudden change of attitude. I guess he was just looking forward to it?