She yelped and swung around, recognizing his touch and grinning with delight as she erupted off the bench and wound herself around him.

“You’re early!”

“Want me to come back later?”

“Not a chance, Swiss. You’re here and I’m keeping you. I know I’m all sweaty but you’ve been home 15 seconds and I still haven’t had a real kiss.”

He laughed and lifted her up, her arms went around his neck and her legs vised about his waist as he worked his way across her salty cheeks to her laughing mouth and feasted.

“It’s been exactly one month and one day since I had you in my arms and tasted your sweet mouth. Kissing you was the first thing that sent me out of control and it still does….the IM’s and phone calls give me relief but it isn’t the same as tasting you and feeling you respond. And I want more…Niki?”

She slid her feet to the floor and smiled at him, nodding at the Baby Monitor on the nearby table with water bottles, her hands busy with his belt and the buttons on his jeans.

“Sleeping…I think we have about an hour before he wakes up…”

“Remind me to thank him for being so considerate, later…”

He was in a hurry now, helping with his jeans, ripping off his tee shirt, toeing off his boots, then laughing when she knelt to remove his socks, moaning when she returned up-right, making a trail of kisses up his long, hairy legs that she followed with her hands….with a side trip that left him shaking in need.

Her body was sticky with sweat, her workout clothing of tank top and shorts sticking a bit but she wiggled out of them, worked the stretched jersey of his shorts off of him and laughed when they fell onto the gym mat with a breath robbing thump.

“Let me…” she whispered against his chest and rolled them over, surprising him with her strength, then surprising him again with moves he didn’t remember teaching her, but wanted her to do again, and again….to never stop. He gave himself up to her, enjoying the best, most thorough welcome home he had ever experienced.

**

He felt tingley, lighter than air, boneless as he lay bathing in the after glow, spread out like a sacrificial offering with Maggie draped over top of him, still twitching from after shocks but unable to do much else.

“That was…incredible!!”

He wasn’t sure if he had spoken or someone else, the croaking voice that came from his mouth not at all like his.

His head was fortunately at the right place to kiss her brow tenderly, which was a good thing since he wasn’t sure it would ever be able to move again.

Her mouth twitched in a smile.

“I didn’t know it would make you sing.”

“I was singing? Ah, yes, I remember now…words weren’t enough….have you been reading?...or watching naughty movies?”

“Neither….I’ve had a month and one day to be creative…I had planned on being slightly more romantic about the lead in though…next time.”

He managed to get his arms pulled in from the sides so he could grasp her by the waist.

“Next time? Mein gott…I need to start taking vitamins, something strong to build up my stamina.”

Maggie laughed as he twined his legs with hers and managed to roll them over, still a bit weakened and neither wanting, nor able to get off the mat yet.

“Urs?”

“Yes, Liebe?”

“Whose idea was the white belt and those glaring white shoes?”

“WL…why… don’t you like them?”

“It’s an …unusual look when you’re trying for casual but elegant. She must have known that you could carry it off.”

“I try not to argue much with her…she’s always on my case about doing up my cuffs so the minute she’s out of sight I undo them again.”

He laughed as he thought of how they all tormented the poor woman.

She laughed.

“Button them at one of the concerts and I’ll bet it’s on the Forum that night. They notice everything about you.”

He smiled and got slowly out from under her, getting to his feet and helping her up.

“You’ll want a shower before you nurse Niki, so we should head upstairs…and I’m anxious to see him.”

She made a face as she pulled on the still wet tank top and shorts. They felt cold against her heated skin and now she was eager for a shower.

Urs case was where he left it, Kosta obviously thinking that discretion was more important than carting the luggage upstairs. He took it in one hand and followed behind Maggie with his free hand on her butt, making appreciative humming sounds as he felt her glutes working.

“You have anything important planned for the next couple of days?” he asked quietly as they entered the suite, then stopped dead in his tracks when he looked for the cradle and couldn’t find it.

“Nothing except to give you space to wind down…Niki is in the nursery now, Urs. He’s old enough and healthy and we have the Baby Monitor…it was time.”

He wondered if all parents felt this sense of loss mingled with pride as their child reached yet another plateau in their development. Was this what it would be like for each new step, using a sitter, sending Niki off to school, letting someone else coach him in sports, far down the road when he would go off to university? He laughed at himself, realizing that he was borrowing trouble that may not exist.

“While I’m home I’d really like to go out on the bike, with you if you like…maybe Heidi or Mami could give us a free day…What do you think?”

She whirled around to hug him.

“I think it sounds perfect….Mami has already offered to stay with Niki anytime and Heidi loves to have him to herself too. Oh, Urs, you do have the best ideas.”

She went off to shower and Urs stole into the nursery to watch Niki sleep. He looked so tiny in the big crib, so vulnerable. Urs felt his chest swell with the ache of wanting to protect him, to shelter him from the evil and pain in the world. Of course that was unrealistic and probably not healthy. Niki would need to be aware when he was older that evil existed and how to be wary of it. Until then he would be loved and protected, nurtured as he had been by his many layered family.

The baby started to stir and Urs watched him winding himself up to announce that he was awake and starving!!! He chuckled and picked up his son, rocking him as the little boy fully woke and calmed, temporarily. When Maggie came into the nursery from her shower they were sitting together in the rocking chair, holding a fascinating one-sided conversation, Urs rich voice mesmerizing his son as he told him of all the stuffed animals and toys that awaited in the playroom.

She smiled and joined the little tableau, imprinting the picture of father and son on her mind to keep as a treasure.

CHAPTER NINETY-NINE

They spent a couple of hours re-stocking the safe room, the bunker that by law, all large, new buildings had to include on the property or pay an extra tax to support the ones available in every town. Every few months all the supplies that hadn’t been cryovaced were replaced with fresh, the still usuable items sent into town and donated to a locally run Hostel.

Urs took Cosmo for a hike up to the waterfall, hoping to see some wildlife so he could reinforce Maggie’s training…they definitely wanted the pup to respect the denizens of their forest and now was the best time to teach him restraint. He need not have worried. Cosmo seemed to think that the otters swimming and splashing in the pond and stream was a wonderful game and dashed into the icy water to play with them, looking very disappointed when they vanished like smoke. Of course he shook the excess water out of his thick coat when he got near Urs and they both came home very wet….but happy.

The next day Inga and Nikolai arrived early in the morning to collect their grandson. Maggie had a good supply of expressed milk for them to take home so he wouldn’t need a supplemental formula and they packed up all his favorite things and told the nervous parents to ‘Go…enjoy yourselves and come back when you want’. It was the first time they had left him for any real length of time but after all he was with Mami. Privately she thought they would last two days, tops, before they needed to see the little boy.

Urs had planned a scenic route that would take them through the mountain passes to Interlaken, Thun, then Bern, Baden, up to Zurich, by Kussnacht am Riggi and home in a loop that bypassed Luzern on the way back.

They stopped often on the ride so Maggie could enjoy the view and Urs could refresh the love he had for this country of his birth. It was eye opening to see the wonders of the mountains again through new eyes, to share what he had taken for granted through habit and familiarity.


Dusk that first night found them in Brienz where they booked into a quaint inn on the Geisebah, the exterior painted in an ornate design that made it look like a gingerbread house. Dinner was homey and excellent and they walked along the waterfront after to stretch some of the rider’s cramp out of their legs, taking along bread to feed the swans at the suggestion of the innkeeper.

“You seem quiet…are you missing Niki?”

She laughed and admitted that she was.

“I’ts hard to share him…I know he’s fine and won’t likely even miss us but…..I want to be here, with you and I love riding behind you….I should remind you of a promise made though…that you would teach me how to ride and I could get my own bike.”

Urs raised his brows at the reminder and shook his head.

“Might be not such a good idea, Luv…remember how much of a disaster it was trying to teach you to drive?”

She looked at him out of the side of her eyes.

“Franz offered to teach me.”

“NO!!! Franz thinks rules are only guidelines and he tries to see how many he can break each time he goes out. Poor Shannon lives in fear every time he rides but nothing convinces him that he needs to be more careful. I give up. I’ll teach you…when the tour is over the roads should be good and we can go out everyday.”

They spent a few pleasant hours in the pub with a bunch of locals, interacting with them, singing some beer hall songs. It was refreshing for Urs to not have to worry about being recognized, though he was pretty sure the bar maid knew of his Il Divo work but she said nothing. Around 10 they went up to their room and spent a lovely hour in the dark on the small balcony, building anticipation for what would come, not in any hurry as they enjoyed a slow, langorous dance of love, using the Tantric methods they had seldom had time for recently.

Even the long strands of her hair felt alive when Urs lay her back on the duvet, touching her gently, letting his breath caress her tingling skin, his dark eyes the center of her universe as he leaned closer, closer still and engulfed her with his heated body and his consuming love.

**

It had been a wonderful couple of weeks but now it was over and Urs was packed for the trip to the World Cup. The guys had decided to go on straight to the U.S. after they finished at FIFA…it was very hot in the southern States and they would need some time to acclimatize.

The bike ride had been just what both of them needed to unwind and to bond again, the time after, when Urs was able to spend hours with his son, had been good for him as well, though it did make it a bit harder to leave. He smiled as he thought that it was likely that each and everytime he had to leave was going to be difficult, that he would never completely be blasé about it. Babies changed so quickly at this stage of their lives…already in the time he had been home he noticed the changes in Niki…he was able, with effort, to roll over now, surprising himself each time he did it and his smile was real when he recognized his Papa.

And Cosmo no longer watched Urs carefully when he was holding ‘HIS’ baby…he had learned to trust this tall flock member who took him for such fun runs.

Maggie came in the nursery where he had been watching Niki sleeping and slipped her arms around his waist.

“Kosta is ready to go, Luv.”

“I heard him pull up to the doors….it doesn’t get any easier each time. I thought it would but it’s so pleasant here, so peaceful….you have made our home into a haven for me, Liebeling.”

He turned and cupped her face with his strong hands, searching her eyes for strength. He found love, a tinge of sadness, courage and the strength he sought. He feathered butterfly kisses across her face, taking her mouth with reverence.

“I love you, my Maggie. Remember how much I love you.”

“And I love you, my Swiss…we will be here, waiting for you.”

He was gone with only the taste of his mouth lingering on hers and the scent of his aftershave faintly in the air.

**

Tristan says: I can not believe the humidity here…and we’re wearing the same suits we wore in Europe. It’s like performing in a sauna. There’s something wrong with the planning when we go to the northern States in the dead of winter and the South during a heat wave.

Ceol says: I noticed how the humidity is curling your hair…what a treat for the fans who like it that way. Are you feeling alright otherwise? I thought you looked a bit pale in Boca…

Tristan says: A bit of heat stroke, nothing serious….I don’t handle the heat all that well…Carlos loves it…LOL

Ceol says: What a sly fox he is…I got his e.mail about the surprise for Gerry…Mami says she will be happy to keep Niki so I’ll be there…it’s far more romantic than I had expected of Carlito.

Tristan says: Surprised all of us…I don’t think his feet will touch the floor until it’s over, he’s so excited. And what a treat for Dave, Seb and I, to have you girls here. I can hardly wait….will you go on Space Mountain and the Pirates ride with me?

Ceol says: Silly man…you know I’ll gladly go anywhere with you.

Tristan says: have to go…Gene just called us…Luv you…see you on the twenty-sixth. Oh and here’s something for you…

An enormous pair of red lips came on the screen with a smacking sound of a kiss and a laugh.

She retaliated with a purple hippo with BYE printed on the bottom it waved at him and signed off, laughing. Seb must have been helping him again.

**

June 26th the last single Divo succumbed to love as Carlos and Geraldine were married in Disneyland, a surprise for the bride when she arrived in the LA area to attend the concerts at the Greek Theatre. Carlos had arranged everything, including the gown, Cinderella’s carriage, flowers, family, reception. It was a magical time, especially so for the bride and groom, Carlos since he had planned it for months, Gerry because she had always wanted exactly what he had arranged and for both of them since it meant that they could now begin searching for a child, or two, to adopt.

The news leaked out, of course…weddings in Disneyland were not exactly private affairs and the fans were delighted. The Forum fairly buzzed with excitement and rumors until Carlos posted a message that confirmed the nuptials. Management was livid until they read the feedback and realized that the Divos had been right all along.

Seb, David and Urs decided not to announce their marriages at the moment. There would be time later to do it when the questions were asked, as they always were, during interviews….this was Carlos and Gerry’s time in the spotlight and they didn’t want to cast a shadow on the press he was getting. And there was something else to consider now.

Steve had come to them and informed them that Barbra Striesand had asked for a meeting with the possibility of Il Divo accompanying her on her tour in the fall as special guests. It was a great opportunity for them to perform with the legendary Diva, providing that they were not asked to be the Opening Act. They had come too far in a short span of time to merely be an opener now. They agreed to meet and discuss the arragements before making a decision, after the second LA concert.

It was actually a tough decision. They were tired, the tour had taken it’s toll on them and they had been looking forward to having the fall off before the World Tour that had been tentatively planned to start in January. Siempre was being released in November, Petra was due the first week of January and if they went on the Striesand tour it would last for 2 months, October and almost all of November.

They talked about it in Carlos’ suite, going round and round in circles and coming up with no definite answers. Finally Pet took a large sheet of Kraft paper, used for wrapping parcels to ship home and made up Pro and Con lists.

There would be a solid two months off work….Pro
The exposure was priceless…..definitely Pro
David would still be off when the baby was due…a personal pro but Pro nevertheless
The pace wouldn’t be as difficult since Miss Striesand had requested 1 or 2 days off between concerts….another Pro

All the cons that they thought of seemed too petty to write down so the decision was made.

**

June slid iinto July with ease since the girls stayed with the tour, planning on returning to the UK with the guys after the last concert, in Vancouver on July 3rd.

It was a fun time, riding the buses some of the time between short jaunts, sharing laughs the nearer they got to the end of the tour, talking about plans.

Petra had found several houses for David to look at, one in particular that she had fallen in love with but wouldn’t tell him which one it was. They would spend the first few days home looking and deciding on one.

Carlos and Gerry were going back to the agencies they had spoken to before and see how their changed circumstances affected their chances.

Geena and Seb planned on a relaxing few days on the beach in Thailand, doing absolutely nothing, while Urs and Maggie just smiled and secretly planned to work on conceiving Baby #2.

Vancouver was a treat…They had an extra day so Urs rented a bike and they went for a ride up to Whistler and beyond. It was summer but the resort was thriving with all sorts of activities, one of which was Zorbing and they tried it out, laughing and screaming as they rolled down the mountain slope inside a double plastic bubble with water cushioning them…and getting them soaked. They stayed overnight, coming back to the city just before sound check, Urs dropping Maggie off at the Hotel before going on to the venue.

Early the next morning they were off home for some well deserved rest before the Summer Nights Tour throughout the UK.

**

Kedleston…the last concert of the tour. It was a beautiful venue, the seating was to be picnic style and the Divos had arrived with flair by helicopter. Trailers had been brought in for dressing rooms and as a surprise, all 4 of the girls were already here, waiting in the trailers.

The guys were picked up in the field by sleek black vehicles and sped into the enclosure while the fans already assembled waved and screamed at them.

Maggie was watching out the window of the trailer as Urs went to the fence and leaned his arms and chin on the top railing, grinning at the fans contained on the other side, peeking through the plastic liner, teasing, as if he was a monkey at the zoo. He posed for a few pictures then jogged over to his trailer to change, opening the door and jumping up the few steps, straight into Maggie’s arms.

“Mein Gott!! You’re here…I was thinking about you, wishing you could be here for the final concert.”

As usual his shirt sleeves were undone and she ran her hands up inside them to feel his strong arms, smiling as he grinned at her.

“You’ve already been into the champagne, I see. I watched you out there with the fans…you’re such a tease…and they love it. How far you’ve come from the staid, unsure man who was nervous about the noisy fans at the start.”

“It’s wonderful…I get so much energy from them….Baby I’m so happy to see you.” He pulled her tight against him and she laughed.

“I can tell….”

Further conversation was impossible as his mouth descended over hers and she melted against him. Each time they managed to be together was another first time, thrilling, mind-numbing passion with no boundaries…except the crew member pounding on the door telling Urs they needed him for sound check.

“Schiesse!! Well better now than in ten minutes when I would have had to kill him. Are you coming to watch sound check?”

Maggie straightened her shirt and looked up at him in surprise.

“Is it alright? They can see the trailers and might notice if we leave together.”

“I don’t care. It’s past time that the fans knew that I can sing about love the way I do because my life is filled with it. Come with me, Luv.”

They left the trailer together, a striking couple, both in jeans and boots, Maggie in a scoop necked tee shirt and with her hair loose and waving, Urs in boots and jeans, a long sleeved white dress shirt, open at the neck and with his hair pulled back in a ponytail, both smiling as he took her hand and they walked towards the stage.

**

It was a fun concert. The champers flowed on stage and off, the energy generated by the audience as they sang along, cheered, screamed and clapped was amazing and the four singers fed off it, rising to heights of music and playfulness never felt before. The banter was fresher, the jokes more in evidence as they teased each other, rocked out, Whoo Hooed to the delight of the audience and held the mikes for the audience to sing along.

The girls were seated on a blanket near the stage, surrounded by adoring fans who soon twigged to the fact that many of the smiles and blinky winks were directed at the four lovely women who each followed every movement of her favorite man. Someone noticed that Urs wore a ring tonight when he kissed it and sent the pretty blackhaired woman a blinky wink and soon the buzz had spread through the crowd.

One of the fans offered the girls a plastic glass each of champers…there were no questions asked but the spark of knowledge was there. Steve appeared with two more bottles, the same good stuff that the guys were sharing on stage and the group around the girls toasted the guys, then laughed when the singers did the same back at them.

It was almost sad when it was over, the introductions of the crew and orchestra done, the crowd thanked again and the final bows taken.

The girls sat for a few minutes longer…there was such a crowd of people behind them, all trying to leave, that there was really no hurry. Their new friends sat with them, trading names when asked. Maggie and Pet admitted to going on line regularly and they asked the online names, recognizing them immediately. One of the women was a moderator as well as an excellent photographer and Maggie told her that she had an album full of photos taken by her.

The only mention of a relationship came just as they were leaving the four women to join other fans in their exodus.

“You and Urs got together around the time of the Princes Ball….there was such a difference in him after that…he blossomed with happiness, something that was forced before but after he met you it was natural, as if he had so much happiness in his life that it overflowed. We all noticed it and now I know why…but I won’t say anything until he does. I just want to say Thank you.”

A few minutes later Steve popped up out of nowhere and led the girls through the remnants of the crowd, past security, to the trailers to meet up with their very giddy husbands.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED

“Why won’t you tell me which one you like the best?” David asked as they headed out to look at houses.

“I don’t want you to pick it just because I like it. You should look at them all and then we’ll talk about it.”

“I’ll bet I guess. I know what you like.”

She smiled and indicated that he should turn down the next street.

They pulled up in front of a tall building, very modern, in a design that wrapped around an enclosed private park complete with playground.

“This isn’t a house,” David said with a confused tone.

“Of course it isn’t. I knew that you really don’t want to be out of the city…and that if we have a place as a permanent haven, to get away from it all,that the only place you really want to be is Colorado…and I agree. I love it there, Stretch. I love the wide open spaces, the mountains in the distance, the peace…”

She couldn’t continue because he attacked her, hugging her against his body as he devoured her mouth.

He was laughing as he let her go.

“Well house hunting sure brings out the beast in you….I take it this means you agree with getting a nice condo here and looking for something in Colorado when we go home?”

“I love you my Pet…but it scares me to realize how well you read my mind. Yes, that’s exactly what I want….let’s go see this condo…I like the little play area for the kids.”

They spent the rest of the morning traipsing through one luxury condo after the other, ignoring the high pressure tactics of the sales agents and just inspecting the quarters, getting a feeling for the places. None of the others catered to families and they eventually settled on the first one to view, the one that Pet liked best actually…5 bedrooms with baths and a huge open space of sleek kitchen/Lounge/Dining area, a walk out roof top patio with a built in BBQ center, acres of tall windows, everything ultra modern, sleek and stylish but homey at the same time.

For a whole 2 hours they thought about it while they indulged in an excellent lunch at a neighbourhood bistro, then called their agent to make an offer. By dinner time it was a done deal, the move in date to be just before the guys would leave on the BS tour.

Paul was at his Nana’s for the night so they celebrated their new home by having dinner out and attending the opening night of a new group at one of the small clubs that specialized in Jazz, something that Maggie had mentioned they might catch if they felt in the mood. She had failed to mention that Andy, who had graduated from the school and was starting his career, was in the group. There were a few well known faces in the crowd, a good start for the fledgling musicians who appreciated the presence of such professionals and gave 150%, earning the applause and then some. The next morning the critic’s comments would be excellent and now, with this little boost from Urs and Maggie to get started, the rest was up to the performers.

“We won’t have to bump elbows in the bathroom in just a few more months,” David said as they jockeyed for position at the sink to brush teeth.

He captured Petra while she was still all foamy and kissed her neck, letting his hands splay over her tiny bump, making her laugh as he whispered his plans in her ear.

She rinsed and turned to him, giving him a minty kiss and a shove towards the bedroom.

“I’ll be right in, Superman…warm up my spot.”

He chortled and pretended to fly into the bedroom, landing on the big bed with a thud, leaving on his Superman jockeys and ready for some games.

Pet came in the room seconds later, naked and carrying a small silver box with writing on the front that he couldn’t read because her fingers covered most of it…he could see ‘YP’ and further over a ‘TE’ until she reached the side of the bed and flipped the top open, moving her fingers to display the word….KRYPTONITE.

“You are now powerless to resist me…you must do my every bidding, fulfill my every desire…resistance is futile,” she said softly in a compliation of lines from two of his favorite TV shows.

David drew in his breath in anticipation, eager to play along in this new and possibly exciting game as Pet set the box on the bedside table and leaned over him, gripping the waist band of his shorts in her teeth and tugging them down. He groaned and submitted…what else could he do?…after all it was KRYPTONITE!!!

**

Ricky was still bubbling with excitement from the summer Nights Tour that he had been official photographer for. Seb invited him to go to Thailand with them, at least for a week and after getting permission from Anna he was happy to go along. It would be his first trip outside of the UK and at first he tried to be very non chalant about it, like most teens hating to display zeal publicly except at concerts, but when they arrived and were installed in the beach house Seb had rented, he couldn’t help but be over come by the many things he saw and wanted to photograph.

They had gone over the ground rules on the flight: no wandering off alone, only drink bottled water that was sealed, ask permission before taking pictures of children or women, and stay with the guide that Seb had arranged to accompany him.

“A guide?” Ricky said with chagrin, thinking that he would be limited in his movements by some old geezer that didn’t even speak English.

“I’ve been here many times and one of my friends has a son about your age. Tino has agreed to show you around, take you to some of the spots that older tourists have no interest in….and he speaks pretty good English…though it wouldn’t hurt for you to learn how to be polite in Thai.”

They had spent a half hour learning some of the phrases and now Ricky was looking forward to the adventure.

This afternoon the boys had opted to join a group of other teens on the beach and Geena and Seb watched them now and then from the mats they lay on, reading and suntanning, occasionally running into the warm water to cool their heated bodies.

As they ran past the laughing teens once, one of the boys let out a wolf whistle at the sight of Geena racing to the water in her modest bikini and both she and Seb got a flush of joy out of the comment by Ricky.

“Hey, man…that’s my mother and step-father…get your tongue back in your mouth!”

“Cheri…he called me his stepfather…”
“Seb, he called me his mother…”

They had spoken together as soon as they were out of ear-shot and standing waist deep in the water, looked at each other with glistening eyes and laughed, dove into the next wave to hide any tears that escaped and swam a bit to cool off.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have worn the bikini,” she said as they tread water.

“Don’t be silly…you are a very beautiful woman…and that suit covers everything…you can not hide who you are, mon chou…I think it is wonderful that he feels protective of you.”

“I like him…I was prepared to love him no matter what he was like, merely because I gave birth to him and wondered about him for so long…but I really like him. He’s smart and funny, gentle and strong, has a good work ethic…”

“I like him too…I thought I would be jealous,, having to share you but the love you have for him is different…and I admire his talent…did you see how David and him had their heads together talking about cameras and videos? And his pictures are amazing…he should do well in his chosen career.”

“Anna has done an exellent job raising him….I wonder if I would have been so unselfish, so able to share him as she has been with us?”

Seb swam over to her and kissed her gently, trying not to submerge them as they bobbed in the small surf coming in.

“The important thing is that you have found each other and are friends. And even more important is, it has been four hours since the teenage garbage disposals have inhaled food….they must be starving…they will head for the house and there will be no crumbs of food left…come…I will race you to the house in defense of our supplies.”

They reached their mats and dried off, just in time since Tino and Ricky were standing and looking up the beach towards the cottage. Seb had the brilliant idea of using the beach vendors for sustenance and took money out of his hidden plastic vault, waving it at Ricky who laughed and jogged over.

“You know me so well…do you want anything?”

They asked for skewers of fish with lemon slices and a fruit plate to share, suggested that he buy an assortment of things to suit their friends and laughed as he ran off to the happy beach vendor. Of course there was no change but they waved happily as the teens called out their thanks and tucked into the goodies brought back for them.

Passion had been a tricky subject the first few days, neither wanting to indulge in the presence of the young man just inches away beyond the thin bamboo walls. That was solved nicely when Tino took Ricky to a teens’ only disco, giving them a few hours nightly of alone time or when the boys went with Alain, Tino’s French father, to a nearby plantation. So it was with real regret that they saw him off after the week was up.

Ricky didn’t look happy about leaving either, but was resigned. He had made commitments that he felt he had to keep and hugged both of them with real affection and regret when he was about to board the flight.

“Remember both you and Anna are coming with us to Switzerland for New Years Eve…and send us lot of e.mails…and copies of the pictures you took.”

Geena’s eyes looked suspiciously shiny as she gripped Seb’s arm and waved at her son when he passed through customs and headed for the plane. He put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed, turning her away as the door closed and the plane was pushed out onto the tarmac to taxi.

“Come with me, little Love…I will soothe your aching heart.”

It wasn’t long until she was smiling, then laughing, not forgetting the absence of her son but able to cope, her attention diverted to the man who seduced her with such skill that she surrendered completely to him, murmuring ‘Vive La France!!’ as he swept her away.

**

Carlos and Geraldine left the office of the Agency looking smug and satisfied. They had spoken to the same official who had turned them down before, showed their marriage certificate and invited them to tour the house in Marbella, to speak with their lawyer or financial advisor, what ever was necessary to qualify as adoptive parents. This time the attitude was entirely different, more subservient, much more willing to listen to their requests.

They decided to go shopping. Although the house had been stocked by the housekeeper and handyman they had hired, still there were a few special things that they wanted to purchase.

They browsed a book store and purchased several new releases, bought some large towels for the pool area, put the parcels in the little car which they had bought specifically for this area and went for coffee in a sidewalk café.

They were part way through their coffee and a discussion of the role Gerry had decided against auditioning for when Carlos looked over her shoulder and grinned.

“’Mija, what would you say if I told you that your idol is sitting at a table against the wall of the café?”

“I would say, don’t tease me…” she swiveled in her seat and gasped, then quickly turned to look at Carlos again.

“He’s old…he wasn’t supposed to get old,” she stammered.

Carlos’ laugh boomed out as he watched her pale face express shock, dismay, acceptance in turn.

“Did you think he would still be that 40 year old Bond from the movies? Querida, everyone gets old…he probably lives here for the same reason we do…the weather and because he can just be himself.”

“Well you never seem to get older…you still seem the same as when we first met, 16, no almost 17 years past.”

“Ah, but you are biased, my love. You love me for myself, not my image and we will grow old together, never noticing the way age creeps up on us.”

He watched her eyes as she looked at him, saw the change as her gaze softened, her lips parted, and her breathing became more rapid.

“Perhaps we should return to the house,” he said with a grin, dropping some notes on the table and offering his hand to her.

He grinned as they returned to the car…there was nothing like shooting down the competition….the benefits were astounding. She could hardly wait to get him alone to convince him that he was her only idol now.

**

Maggie smiled as she remember the cast and crew party after the concert, how Urs eyes had sought her out through the crowd of celebrants, how everytime they managed to get together and his hands had crept over her, discretely, someone had interrupted them and he had smiled politely, joining in the conversation though she could feel the tension in him through her hands as she pressed a palm against his stomach, trailed her fingers down his arm, reached her arm around his waist.

The party had gone on forever, long after darkness had fallen on the city, long after the rest of Sony BMG had shut down for the night, the large conference room they were in the only lights left on in the building.

Twice he had tried to make their excuses and take Maggie back to the suite in Chelsea and twice he had been intercepted by Steve, asking him to speak to one of the Management team.

When they finally left it had been time to leave for the airport for their various destinations. Petra and David had disappeared, lucky for them only to the apartment while Urs and Maggie had to catch a flight to Lucerne, one of the few per day, Seb and Geena were heading for Thailand and Carlos and Gerry were off to Madrid.

“Urs, are you alright?” she had asked with a small grin when they were sitting in the first Class Lounge, though she knew the answer just by looking at him. He sat leaning back in the chair with his jacket crumpled in his lap, eyes closed, trying for calm.

He raised his head and stared blankly at her.

“You are a wicked woman…it’s a good thing I love you….no more teasing, Okay?”

Her grin widened.

“Or…?”
He raised his head again and slitted his eyes open.

“Please! I’ve never hurt you but right now, I’m so tempted.”

She had started talking about Niki, watching him now and then, relieved to see that he was gradually relaxing a bit.

The flight hadn’t been too bad, was over quickly and they made their way out to the long term parking to the Volvo. As soon as they were in the vehicle he had pulled her over to him and tortured himself and her with long passionate kisses and roving hands that left them both gasping. He had lifted her back into her seat with a stern ‘Buckle up!’ and roared out of the parking lot, taking the bypass around Luzern and getting on the motorway quickly.

Now they were heading home, the barely contained passion almost palpable in the silent car as he concentrated on his driving. She reached over to lay her hand on his thigh and heard him groan, then the car swerved off the motorway onto a sideroad.

“Where are you going?”

Without answering he made another turn onto a road that was narrow, with heavy forest on either side, slammed the brakes on when they came to a stream and turned off the motor. He reached for her hand and dragged her out the driver’s door, walking quickly into the thick trees until he reached a small glade, then spun her into his arms, feasting on her mouth as his hands tugged at her clothing. His passion fueled hers and they loved wildly, without fear, without holding back, buttons flew as patience was strained, nails dug in, leaving trails in hot skin, teeth nibbled, tongues soothed and the forest echoed with the cries of passion sated.

Maggie lay on her back beside him in the new summer wild flowers, stunned speechless by what had just happened, catching her breath. Urs leaned up on one elbow and stroked his hand over her slick face, bending over to soothe the tiny split he saw in her lower lip.

“I hurt you…I’m sorry, Maggie. I wanted you so much…it just kind of built up…there’s always someone throwing themselves at me, making suggestions, sometimes offering, sometimes it’s just the looks and I can handle it because I love you so much, but it makes me think of you and then…. And there was no time or place after the concert and you kept teasing…I’m so sorry.”

She turned her head a bit to look straight at him and smile.

“Does your back sting? Or here, on your shoulder? Or if you touch your finger to your lip does it hurt? Maybe you were too busy to notice that you weren’t the only one wild with need. I think we should buy this little piece of land and put up a shrine to the gods of Lust.”

He laughed and kissed her gently.

“I still don’t like to hurt you…and yes, my back does sting…you have very sharp claws, little vixen. Did you bite my shoulder? I remember something pleasantly painful.” He tried to see it but couldn’t and she kissed it softly, hoping to soothe the bruising.

He collected their clothing from where they had scattered it and they dressed. Maggie had to tie her shirt in front since there were no buttons left and she teased him that he owed her a new one. The tracks of her nails on his back didn’t show marks since he was, fortunately, wearing a black tee shirt, which he had to leave out since the top button on his jeans was gone.

They went back to the car and Urs carefully manoevured it around to return to the highway, taking her hand in his and looking at her with that sultry smile that she knew so well. Their little side trip had taken the edge off but he wasn’t through with her yet, not by a long shot. The thought made her shiver with delight as she smiled back at him.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED-ONE

Cosmo raced on ahead of them as they strolled through the orchard behind the cottage, Pansy making little dashes to keep up, then hiding in the grass to leap out at them and bat at their feet. Urs had Niki in the carrier again, claiming that he liked the feeling of his son dangling from his chest and anyway it was his turn after Maggie had carried the little fellow for 9 months.

The fruit trees had flowered and set fruit, though not as well as they would next year after so many years of neglect. They had been properly pruned so the branches arced, like an open umbrella and the grass had been cut by Kosta with the ride-on lawnmower, very short around the trees, with the walks between rows left longer, just perfect for a half grown kitten to hide in.

“The gardener says these are plum, he thinks the yellow variety… and wait until you see what he found at the back of the orchard.”

“A cave full of Viking treasure,” Urs said with a laugh, not prepared to fret over anything today, he was so content with his life.

“Silly…though that would be fun. Grapevines…he thinks that he can coax the newest shoots to produce for us over the next couple of years and we can make our own wine or at the very least grape jelly. I can just picture you stomping around in a vat, singing and getting those long toes of yours stained purple.”

“Um…not me Baby…I volunteer to be the taster…you get to do the stomping. You watch, Niki, your Mami is going to try to coax me into stomping.”

“She is not…I don’t coax…or beg…I’ll just have to find myself a young Swiss Lover who loves to stomp grapes if you’re going to get old and boring on me already.”

He sighed.

“Do I have to sing in Italian?”

“Of course not,” she said with a grin. “It will be very special Swiss wine so you can sing in Swiss German. There, Nikolai, see how co-operative your Papa is?”

He smiled indulgently at her and took her hand, silently amazed at how well she had accepted, even relished, country life. For a woman raised most of her life in the city she was doing very well, had adjusted to small town living with a zeal that surprised and delighted him. It had been a concern of his at first when they moved to Willisau. Now he wasn’t sure why.

She had become a central part of his extended family effortlessly, just being herself, embracing each new experience, joining the choir, making friends, becoming fiercely loyal about supporting the local businesses, teaching part time in the Music Department at the Academy. Her cooking skills were remarkable now and she had branched out into making jams and conserves, pickles that he couldn’t get enough of…their larder was bursting at the seams and the growing season wasn’t even half over. When he mentioned this she just shrugged and said they would make good little gifts in the Christmas baskets they wanted to share this Holiday Season.

He listened to her humming as they walked along, enjoying the lovely day and thought of how she had turned this dream into a haven for him. She seemed to have a sixth sense of how he felt, what he needed and constantly created an atmosphere that soothed his nerves, inspired his creative juices, gave him the space he needed now and then to get his thoughts in order, alone, or to touch base with his friends, reconnecting. She didn’t cling, but when they were alone together she was totally there for him, ready to be quiet and snuggle, to just be present or to be wildly abandoned, whatever it was he needed.

And then of course there were the little surprises. The funny or endearing cards he had found tucked in his luggage when he traveled, the chocolate or cookies that always seemed to appear just when he needed a sugar boost, the birthday cake that had been special delivered to the Hotel on his birthday by Mami and Papa, their travel arranged by Maggie, the camping night out they had gone on the first night home, while Niki was still away…she had arranged everything up at the stream, just the way it had been for their wedding night, so they could celebrate, late but never the less, endearing and important to both of them.

Most important to his mental state were the IM’s, pictures and phone calls. She kept him up to date on Niki with a steady stream of photos and anecdotes on his progress, some that Heidi took with Maggie, some with other members of his family, Papa, Mami, Franz and Shannon, even the twins and Tante Sofia. Emmie came by and held her brand new engagement ring up to the camera for him to see, Yanni and Mina dropped by…it was like having a party, but online.

He would sign off after talking to Maggie and anyone else who happened to be visiting, feeling connected somehow, more at peace with the distance, still eager to be home but able to handle the separation better.

They had duly inspected the grape vines and the raspberry bushes that had, in spite of everything produced a good crop this year and were heading back to the house.

“What time is everyone coming tonight?”

“Shannon couldn’t get a sitter until 19h30 so they’ll swing by and pick up Marc and Sonja at 19h45…Yanni and Mina should arrive about then too.”

“Does this mean I have to shave?” he asked running a hand over the chin he hadn’t shaved in the four days he had been home.

“Absolutely not…this is your home, dinner with our friends…you know Franz will come in jeans and so will Marc. Relax, Swiss…every thing is under control.”

Urs pulled her to a stop and pointed to Cosmo who had gone on alert on the path in front of them, head up, hackles raised slightly, legs braced to attack if need be, nose pointing toward the nearby trees and working as he tested the scent coming to him. At only 7 months he hadn’t nearly reached his full growth but was still very impressive and very ready to defend his charges.

Niki had fallen asleep and Urs gently slid the carrier off, transferring it skillfully to Maggie as he watched the trees to see what the pup had sensed.

“What is it?” Maggie whispered, her only sign of fear the paling of her face as she too watched Cosmo.

“Don’t know….”

Urs urged her to move quietly behind the pup, past him and up the slight hill until they could see the cottage just below them. It wasn’t far now. He looked back and saw that Cosmo still hadn’t moved, which should mean that the danger hadn’t either.

“Maggie I want you to run to the cottage….if Kosta isn’t there, go on to the house and tell him where I am, to come and bring the .3006. Then lock the doors and wait for me.”

She nodded and gave him no argument, agreeing that it was imperative to get Niki to safety. Whether she could convince herself to remain at the house after the baby was safe would be another matter.

“Promise me…” He tore his eyes away from the treeline for a moment to stare into her eyes.

“Damn…I promise.”

She ran, her feet barely touching the ground, one arm wrapped firmly around the carrier and the sleeping child so he didn’t bounce around. As she neared the cottage she saw Kosta on the terrace of the main house, just going inside and fairly flew across the bridge over the stream, burst into the house moments behind him and delivered her message.

Kosta ran to the arms vault in the safe room, came back out with two weapons and shouted at Maggie and Heidi as he raced by and out the door.

“Stay here!”

Heidi put her hand on Maggie’s arm as if to force her to stay but she swore and shook her head.

“&%^$*#@*…he made me promise.”

She locked all the doors and windows with the automatic panel and climbed rapidly up the stairs to place Niki in his crib and go into the bedroom which faced in the direction of the orchard, hoping to see something. Heidi joined her and they watched as Kosta jogged over the grass, met up with Urs, both checked their weapons and then Urs urged Cosmo forward.

The only sound for the next 15 minutes was the breathing of the two women as they watched out the window, waiting for some sign of what was happening.

Finally Cosmo came racing out from the trees, happy, tongue lolling as he raced a bit then waited for his human companions. Kosta appeared to have both rifles over his shoulder now while Urs had taken off his shirt and was walking, bare-chested, carrying something in his arms…something with spindly legs that hung down to his thighs.

“Is that…is it a fawn?” Heidi said, totally confused now.

“I think so,….it should be safe to go see.”

They went downstairs and waited on the terrace while the men got closer, crossed the bridge and approached. Indeed it was a fawn, staring wild eyed at the creatures around her, bleating piteously now and then and feebly struggling against Urs’ strong arms.

“Poachers!” Urs fairly spat the word out as if it were bad tasting.

“Poachers on our land. They shot her mother and then left the fawn to starve. Cosmo smelled the blood, that’s what set him off. I couldn’t just leave her there, she’s so little and defenseless.”

“Oh Urs, of course you couldn’t. Could we make her a little bed for now and find out what to do with her? There must be some one in Wildlife that can give us advice.”

“She won’t exactly be housebroken, Luv…I don’t think she’s more than a week old at the most.”

“You weren’t housebroken at one week either, Urs Buhler…bring her in.”

Maggie made the litte deer a bed in a sheltered niche under the stairs, with a cushion off one of the lounge chairs and a blanket that she squished up. Urs placed the trembling fawn in the little nest and Cosmo flopped down in front of it with his velvety head and cold nose just touching the fawn’s tiny head. They were surprised to see that the contact with the pup seemed to calm her and when Pansy came to investigate, having missed all the fun for some reason, she curled up against the downy belly and all three slept peacefully.

Urs got on the phone, was shunted from one department to another, finally reached someone who seemed interested and told them what he thought had happened.

“We were going to bury the doe but thought you might want to see the arrow she was killed with, in case there have been other reports….so we’re bringing her back to the workshop, away from predators.”

He lisened for a while, motioned to Maggie to give him something to write on and made a list, then thanked the person for talking with him and hung up.

“Apparently there’s been a rash of animals hunted with a bow, in the past week, and all on posted property. Someone will be out in an hour or so to take the doe away…the baby may have to be here for a few days as there are no spots available at the rescue and rehab centres…he told me what to do, how to feed it…we’ll need to get some goat’s milk and bottles with large nipples…and lots of paper.”

And so Kitzi came to live with them, another member of Cosmo’s expanding flock.

**

“Rehkitz…that’s fawn in German,” Yanni said softly as he crouched and watched the resting red deer, absently stroking the fluffy canine head that Cosmo had raised at his approach.

“She’s a late birth, apparently,” Urs answered. “The Ranger who came out to take the doe away says that she’s about 5 days old, whereas most of the fawns would have been born in May or June. We moved her in here because it’s easier to clean up, we already have the means to hose the floor down for the plants and she seems to feel safe hidden away under the shrubbery. He showed us how to feed her and encourage her to piddle and…that ‘s what the litter pan is for.”

They shut the light off in the conservatory and closed the baby gate behind them as they went back to join the others.

“You won’t be able to keep her in the house when she gets older, will you?” Shannon asked as they settled around the fireplace.

“No, it wouldn’t be a good idea for Kitzi or for us once she gets inquisitive. Urs and Kosta are going to build a secure enclosure for her off the back of the workshop. During the day she can run free with Cosmo, foraging in the pasture and he can bring her in at night so she’s safe from predators.”

“I’m not sure I would be willing to invest so much time and energy into something you have to let go back to the wild eventually,” Sonja said with a frown. “I mean after a few months, you would be so attached to the animal, it would be hard to turn it free.”

“The Ranger says she will just drift away to join other hinds when she comes into season the first time, probably in her third year. Cosmo will likely be the biggest problem we face when she leaves, but it’s a natural cycle and we’ll deal wih it when the time comes,” Urs said as he refilled wine glasss, sneaking a smile to Maggie who had expressed the same concerns. “In a way it won’t be much different than letting your child grow up and move on with his own life.”

Shannon laughed. “Well at the moment the faster that happens the better. The boys are driving me wild…they’ve been playing games with me lately, trying to confuse me as to who is who. And apparently they’ve been driving the teachers at Kindergarten insane. We put them in two different classes to make them form friendships with other kids rather than keeping just to themselves and they keep switching places. I even put them in different color shirts everyday to give them more of a sense of individuality, but they keep resisting every move I make.”

The conversation drifted to anecdotes of the children and the bell on the oven timer announced that dinner was ready. Mina helped Maggie bring the food to the already laid table and they sat down to eat, sharing several bottles of wine and a great deal of laughter as the meal progressed, casual, noisy at times and enjoyable, sharing that most precious of gifts, Friendship.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED-TWO

Their days quickly established a routine. Kosta and Urs built a nice shelter, attached to the workshop with a little bower that was dark and secluded where Kitzi could rest during the night and feel secure. They dug holes for posts and strung fencing to enclose a huge area for her to play in, though they needn’t have worried since Cosmo took his work very seriously. Even Pansy got into the game, swatting at Kitzi’s sharp little hooves when she wandered too far from the workshop.

She thrived on the goat’s milk they fed her four times per day, supplementing her diet with grasses and flowers and the fruit treats that her human companions offered now and then. The vet visited and gave her vitamin shots of A,D and E, a bit of Selenium and something he called an 8 way vaccine. The second week she began eating special pellets that they bought from the vet and started drinking less milk, more water from the basin of fresh that was kept near the terrace for her and Cosmo. Pansy refused to drink from the basin, instead preferred to perch on a flat rock by the stream and get her liquids that way.

When he wasn’t working on his Triumph, playing with Niki, watching Kitzi or cuddling on one of the Lounges with his wife, Urs gardened.

They wanted an herb garden near the back door of the Kitchen and he decided to turn the soil now, while he was home. It would be ready in late September when the perennial herbs could be bought and put in. The day he finished it Maggie found him in front of the house, staring at the front fields.

“You have that ‘Super Gardener’ look on your handsome face…what are you planning now?” she asked, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his ribs.

He laughed and grasped her hands in his.

“Am I that predictable?”

“Only to me…are you thinking about all those bulbs that we ordered in Rotterdam?”

“Yes, and the wildflower seeds that I saw in the garden shop in Willisau. The seeds we can broadcast and I think we should naturalize the bulbs, putting clumps of them in a scattered non-pattern. I could dig the holes for you then you and Kosta or Heidi can put them in …I think early October should be about right.”

“Or you could let us dig our own holes and go for a ride. You haven’t been out on the bike for a while…aren’t you just itching to try it out?”

He turned to face her. He had given her several lessons on riding the Harley and she was doing well, perhaps not ready to go alone yet, but it was working out a lot better than when he had tried teaching her how to drive a car.

“How do you always seem to know? Would you be upset if I took off for a day, alone?”

“Of course not…I know what a careful rider you are and that you’ll come back to me. And it makes me tremble to think of how sexy you’ll be when you get back, all windblown and smelling of leather and blow back from the engine, with a major case of helmet head. My own Biker Dude!”

He grinned as he rolled his eyes and took her shoulders in his hands to hug her.

“I would like to take the Triumph for a spin, see how that refurbished carb holds up….”

“First thing tomorrow? I’ll fill the vacuum flask for you and fix a snack for your lunch.”

That settled they returned to the house to shower and have dinner, then Urs stayed with Niki and Maggie went to choir practice with Heidi.

By 20h Niki was sleeping soundly and he sat on the terrace with the Monitor close by, watching as Cosmo herded Kitzi into her night time shelter and pushed the door closed, the latch automatically engaging and locking her in and predators out. She rattled around inside the enclosure for a few minutes, having several long drinks of water and a few pellets, then disappeared into the dark nest.

Work done, Cosmo raced to the terrace to join him, settling beside his chair, seeming to watch the sunset along with his friend. Pansy suddenly appeared from somewhere, using Cosmo for a trampoline as she bounced off him and onto Urs’ lap, purring a greeting and curling into a contented ball of vibrating orange fluff and tiny kneading paws that didn’t quite pierce through his jeans.

There was a restlessness in him and he didn’t know why. It was almost like the feeling he got when on tour, the knowledge that he had no choice in what he would do the next day or the one after or the one after that… Perhaps going out on the bike was a good idea. It would be nice to feel free again, to not have things that needed to be done, or have his time regulated…He shook his head thinking how unfair that was. Maggie never worked out his day’s chores for him. She would occasionally ask for help with some minor thing but for the most part she asked him what he wanted to do and then planned her schedule around it.

He watched as the sun dipped behind the mountains in the distance and sent shafts of orange and mauve into the sky, saw a few dark images flitting across the darkening heavens as bats began their evening sorties for food and wondered if anywhere in the wide world there was a man as happy and content with his life at this moment as he was.

**

“Yvie, watch this…” Frank called out to her from the knee deep water of the pond on his father’s farm. He held Hans in his big strong hands while the little boy wiggled, eager to get back in the water again and when she looked up, let him dive in head first and swim to the top again, laughing and paddling away as if he had been swimming all his life.

At just over 2 years of age, Hans was still young enough for his body to remember swimming in the womb for 9 months so he had been a breeze to teach to swim in this world. Of course he was never allowed in unsupervised but Yvie thought he might be able to swim better than she could. She had always had a bit of timidity about deep water, wasn’t a good swimmer because of it and had hoped that it was an irrational fear that she wouldn’t pass on to her son. Thank goodness Frank was more like her brothers about swimming, very seal like and at home, though he didn’t torment her like Urs and Franz used to.

They had decided to come out to the farm for the weekend, to get out of the unbearable humidity in the city and to see if Frank’s mother would thaw out her disapproving attitude towards Yvie. Amanda wasn’t rude, in fact she was overly civil and that was almost worse.

Frank brought Hans back up to the blanket and made the boy laugh as he toweled him off, tickling his round tummy, then settling him on the blanket with a plastic glass of juice.

“Finished your book?” he asked as he dried his hair roughly with a towel.

“No…lost interest…it was much more entertaining to watch you two playing in the water. We should head back to the house soon though. I know she won’t let me help but I need to offer to help with dinner.”

“I’m sorry, Sweetie…I don’t understand what Mom’s problem is. She knows how much I love you and she can see what a good mother you are and how well we get along. Maybe I should try talking to her, though last time I tried she went in her room and turned the radio on loud.”

Yvie thought of how much alike, yet different his mother was from hers.

“Has she always been this way when you brought a girlfriend home?”

He shook his head.

“I’ve never been this serious about anyone so Mom and Dad have rarely met anyone I’ve dated.”

Yvie saw Amanda in the distance, heading out with a pail, towards the blackberry bushes that grew wild beyond the barn.

She stood, asked Frank to watch Hans for her and walked off at an angle that would take her on an intercept course. As she neared the unaware woman she could feel the tension rising in her body but flexed her shoulders and took some deep breaths to calm herself. It was time that she and Amanda had a heart to heart and cleared the air. She was a Buhler, the strength of her family was still in her though it had been subdued for so many years. What she could have with Frank was worth fighting for and today was to be the opening volley if necessary.

Amanda looked up, startled as Yvie called out cheerfully to her.

“Many hands make light work, thats what my Mami always says. Were you thinking of pie or for making jam?” She was determined to ignore the cold stare and smiled as she matched her stride to the older woman’s.

“Pie…Frank likes my blackberry pie.”

“I’ll have to pay close attention to how you make it then. My berry pies always tend to have mushy bottom crusts and of course Mami isn’t near for me to ask her what I’ve done wrong.”

Baking…a safe subject it seemed since Amanda kept the conversation going.

“Turn the heat up for the first 15 minutes to set the bottom…and cover the edge of the top crust so it doesn’t burn….I’ll show you.”

Wow!! A whole sentence, probably the longest that she had heard coming from the pinched lips.

“You aren’t a city girl then?”

They had reached the bushes and began picking, the bushes so heavily laden that it wasn’t necessary to move around much.

“Oh, no. Our place was outside of a small town, only around 7,000 people…I’m only in the city now for the courses at George Brown.”

The picking went on in silence for a few moments, the pail filling rapidly with two adding to the contents.

“He’s a nice little boy. Well behaved and smart….a pleasure to be around.”

“Frank is good with him…it’s hard to believe he’s never been around children much, he seems so natural.”

“I couldn’t have any more after Frank…something went wrong inside. I don’t want to lose my son.”

There, at last, the reason for her coldness.

“He loves you and his father very much, Amanda…that will never change, no matter what he does in his life or who he is with. The bonds of family are strong in my life too, something that time or distance can’t break.”

She put her hand full of berries in the pail and took Amanda’s hands in hers.

“I love your son, very much, Amanda, so much that I would never want him to have to make a choice between his parents and me. It would destroy him and destroy the love we have. I would leave him before I ever let it come to that, though it would break my heart.”

Amanda stared in the glistening eyes of this young woman she had tried so hard to dislike and freed one hand to reach a work roughened palm up and pat her cheek.

“Well we can’t have both of you wandering around with broken hearts, now can we? Let’s finish this and go do our baking…Yvie.”

Hearing Amanda speak her name for the first time and seeing the tentative smile on her lips was nearly Yvie’s undoing but she held it together and went back to picking berries. They filled the pail and shared the weight of it on the way back to the house, talking about cooking and the farm, the silly things their men had done, the courses that Yvie and Frank were taking…Talking at last.

**

Urs was ready to go early the next morning and went to bring the Triumph up to the house while Maggie finished packing him a lunch. He walked in the shed and laughed when he spotted the bike, now aware of why the bed had been empty this morning when he woke and why Maggie had joined him in the shower when he was almost done.

She had cleaned the bike, polishing the chrome and the lustrous blue paint until it positively gleamed, even had the dual chrome mufflers so shiny they looked new. There was a discrete sticker on the seat that he had to lean closer to read, one that made him chuckle when he read it since it would be directly under his butt when he was astride the saddle…. ‘Property of Maggie Buhler’.

He wheeled it up to the house and parked, went in and found her just closing the clasps on his saddle bags.

“As if I would forget,” he said as he wrapped her against him, placing her hands on his butt and bending down to capture her smile with his lips.

They went in the Lounge to peek at Niki were he had fallen asleep surrounded by toys in his playpen, guarded by their watch cat who had fallen asleep on the job.

Urs dropped a soft blanket over the little body, blew him a kiss and took Maggie’s hand to go back out to the bike, scooping up the saddle bags on the way.

“Have you decided where you’re going yet?” she asked as he attached the bags firmly.

“Not really…maybe south towards Ticino…there’s some good steep climbs in the passes that way.”

“Good, that should get any kinks out. Just be safe and come back all in one piece, my Swiss.”

He left her with one last kiss that rattled them both, left him thinking that maybe he wouldn’t go but she laughed and gave him a push.

“I’ll remember where we left off, trust me, I’ll remember. Ich Liebe sie.”

With a last ‘I love you’ he started the throaty roar of the motor and slowly pulled out onto the drive, waving once as he circled the corner of the house and was gone.

As he had said, he headed south, quickly covering the kilometers needed to bypass Luzern, listening to the motor for any tell-tale knocking or hesitation, anything out of place that could mean a problem. The familiar territory slipped past him, unnoticed until he finally began to relax. The bike was performing beautifully, just as he had hoped and he started to enjoy the usual feeling of freedom, of nearly flying, the wind creeping into his helmet, past the domes and zippers of his jacket, making the leather of his pants cold and almost brittle. He smiled as he remembered the first time he had taken Maggie out on the Harley, that day when they went to the coast and she released her grip on his waist, holding her arms to the sky and screaming with the sheer joy of riding.

He pulled into a lookout just before Andermatt to enjoy the view, maybe stretch his legs a bit, and, even though it wasn’t yet lunch time, opened the pannier and pulled out one of the sandwiches Maggie had made. It was perfect, just the way he liked it on the thick homemade bread that she was experimenting with, soft and light as a feather, the crust crunchy and not dusted with the cornstarch stuff that most bakers sprinkled on the top…she knew how he disliked that. It was rare, garlic roast beef with paper thin slices of sweet onion and emmenthal cheese, pepper, no salt. Perfect.

He walked over to the railing as he ate, the breeze ruffling his hair and kissing his slightly sweaty skin, even through the neatly trimmed beard that he had been growing since he came home. Niki loved it…it tickled when Urs kissed his little round tummy and he loved to grab a handful and yank, bouncing up and down in the carrier as if his Papa’s beard was a wonderful new toy to play with. What a little charmer he was, always with the ready smile, if you could see it since lately he always seemed to have either his hands or a foot at times stuck in between his rosy lips, chewing on it and drooling on everything in sight. The book said it was a precursor to teething…Maggie said it heralded weaning on to a bottle since there was no way she was nursing him once he had teeth.

He had laughed when she stated that in no uncertain terms and now he smiled at the memory and the look on her face when she added ‘Nursing one big boy with teeth is dangerous enough!’ and how she had blushed.

He finished his snack, found a handy tree for relief and mounted up again, this time taking to the winding roads that went past Andermatt to St. Gotthards Pass.

Mid afternoon found him high up in the pass, leaning on the back rest with his helmet behind him and his legs stretched out across the seat to the handle bars, thinking about how Maggie would love the view and wondering how old Niki had to be before he could take him on a real ride…did they even make helmets that small?

He was high enough that there was snow around, left over from the winter…at this elevation it never completely melted. The air was fresh and clean and still, only the occasional sounds of other vehicles as they worked there way over the curves that switched back and forth in endless chicanes to the crest, then reversed for the down hill side.

Another vehicle pulled in as he was half drowsing in the quiet and he opened his eyes to see a young woman step out of a sleek Audi, stretching her back muscles as she stood and looked at the view.

She was lovely…dark hair, a nice trim body, blue eyes he saw when she faced him and smiled his way.

“Lovely up here isn’t it?” Nice French accent to her Swiss German and a pleasant voice…all things that in the past had made his senses go on alert and today made him think of…his wife.

“Ja, I always have to stop here and just soak up the atmosphere.”

He smiled as he thought how different this chance meeting with a beautiful woman was. In the past he would have been intrigued, possibly tried to make conversation and if she seemed intelligent maybe get her phone number. Now he found himself comparing her to Maggie…and his lovely wife won, hands down.

He swung his feet to the ground and sat up, pulling his helmet on and donning his gloves, giving the woman a curt, cool nod as he started the bike and went back onto the Motorway.

Had he changed so much? Everything he did or saw reminded him of Maggie and Niki….he was eager to share the view with them, the feeling he had when he rode the bike, the freedom. Perhaps that was the difference…in the past he had needed to be out, away from everyone to feel free…and now he WAS free…free to chose to be with his family, with the woman he loved, the person he chose freely to share his life with….Riding the bike was his pleasure but his family…that was his life.

He laughed at the simple truth of it, overcome with the knowledge that had been right there but too close to see.

Maggie, Niki, his family and friends, the haven she had made of their home…that was the constant in his life, the harbor that he could count on to soothe, inspire, invigorate, when the pressures of the outside world and his crazy work load became too much.

He laughed aloud, the sound echoing off the majestic peaks and slowed the bike to take the next round about, searching for the correct exit.

The bike was working perfectly…and he was free to go where he wanted more than anything to be…Home!!!

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED-THREE

Of all the bad luck!! Just when he was impatient to get home the bike let him down. Well to be fair, it was a common failing, something that bike riders had to deal with since, unlike autos, they had no spare tire.

Urs hitched a ride with a passing truck, the driver kind enough to load the bike in the truck bed and take him into the nearest large town. Of course since the bike was old the tire he needed had to be couriered from Luzern so that added more waiting time and he spent it in a café, drowning his impatience in several lattes.

He thought about surprising Maggie but was impatient to hear her voice so pulled out his Mobile and called her.

“Urs…is everything alright?”

“It is now…I’m waiting in Beckenried for a new tire for the bike…they had to send one from Luzern so I asked them to courier it. Other than that the bike works great…but I miss you and Niki…I don’t want to tour around without you to share the sights with me. I’m sorry if I gave the impression I was stewing about something lately, Love… There have been so many changes in my life the last couple of years…I felt that I was kind of losing my Self, getting drawn into being someone different than I was before I met you, before Il Divo. It’s all sorted now…I WANT to be with you and Niki…I’ll explain when I get home…Keep Niki up for a while so I can kiss him good night, please Liebe. And Maggie…Thank you for letting me work this out…I love you so very much.”

He knew she was crying because of the pitch of her voice but she merely said she loved him and she would be waiting for him to come home.

There had still been no courier van arriving at the shop across the street so he went in the café and paid for another latte, this time adding a flaky croissant and fruit spread to the tray before returning out to the patio area.

His thoughts were still on his relationship with Maggie and as if a light had gone on, he realized that the changes in her life over the past two years had been even more dramatic than in his.

She had been blind and independent when they met and pure, untouched by any other man. Yet she had given herself to him with a passion that frightened her at first, had quickly learned the joys of physical love and adjusted her life to suit his, without any complaints or demands. Learning to be part of a huge family had been another change, one she accepted with delight, embracing that and all the other firsts in her new life with zeal because she loved him.

And the chameleon-like quality he had noticed with music had played a huge part in how well they related to each other….she became his friend, his wife, his mistress, his lover, nurse, quiet companion, mother of his child, confidant, inspiration, his calm center….everything to him except his jailer. All the years of his previous existence had been the rehearsals for what he had now…the ultimate performance of a life filled completely with love.

He shook his head, laughed at himself for being so analytical… not everything could be taken apart and inspected so closely for flaws. Sometimes a person had to merely trust to their gut instincts and his told him that he was a lucky man.

The courier pulled up across the street just as he finished his croissant. He picked up one last slice of peach and popped it in his mouth and hurried across the street to help put the new tire on so he could be on his way.

**

Maggie replaced the handset and sank into the nearest chair, shaking with relief. She had known that he was trying to work something out in that nimble brain of his and agonized over the fact that it was something she couldn’t help him with. All sorts of dark, unpleasant scenarios had tumbled around in her head during the time before he left this morning, even more so when he went down the drive, leaving her behind. She had wanted to run after him and beg him not to go but couldn’t … some instinct held her back, something that told her she mustn’t start being a clingy wife, a woman who made him feel trapped by all the resonsibilites of having a family, a home.

She looked over to the play area where Niki was happily chewing on a purple stuffed tiger.

Urs had to stay with her and with Niki because he wanted to, not because he felt it was his duty…he had to stay because he loved them. In fact he had to stay with her because he loved her more than anything or anyone else. Niki would always be a part of his life, he had no choice in that.

She shuddered to even think that perhaps he had tired of her, perhaps he had met someone else while on the tour. NO!! she would not think such thoughts. But what if…?

Niki looked up, startled, when she jumped to her feet and began tidying the Lounge.

Best to keep busy and not have such non-productive thoughts filling her head. He said he wanted to be here, that he loved her…what more did she need?

She finished folding the throw over the back of the sofa and looked around for something else to do. The team who came out to clean 3 times a week had just left a few hours before…everything was spotless. Heidi was puttering in the kitchen and had mentioned something about going home early since she and Kosta were going in to town for dinner with some of their new friends.

She gathered Niki from his play area and changed him, put a water bottle in the mesh pocket of the carrier and donned it with the laughing little boy dangling in front of her. A good brisk walk was what she needed to burn off some of the excess adrenaline that was making her head buzz. She waved at Heidi and took off over the field at a quick pace, joined by Kitzi and Cosmo for a while until the fence stopped Kitzi and she had to command Cosmo to stay behind.

**

Urs made better time than he had expected since the courier had delivered the tire so promptly. It was just about Niki’s dinner time when he came slowly up the driveway to the house, the sun still not quite touching the mountains and the lights of the house still dimmed.

It had never looked so welcoming to him, the wood glowing, the sheltering trees still lush and green. Just as he was about to lock the gate he saw the red Volvo coming down the drive and waited until Kosta and Heidi drew abreast of him.

“Short ride,” Kosta commented with a grin.

“Got homesick,” he replied, grinning as well.

“We’re going to visit friends…Maggie and Niki are in the Kitchen.”

He waved and shut the gate behind them, mounted and went up to park the bike in the shed.

Maggie looked up with a smile when he entered the house, just a hint of something apprehensive in her eyes.

‘You made good time, “ she said as she offered Niki a spoonful of something orange and mushy, something he was having none of as soon as he spotted his father.

Urs laughed at the little guy and gave her a quick hug, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

“I need a shower…can I give Niki his bath, after?”

She smiled again, looking up at him, searching his face for some hint of what they would talk about after Niki went to bed…she was sure there was be a discussion.

“I know he would like that…he’s almost done here.”

Urs sped up the stairs to their suite and shed his leathers, hanging them in the plastic bag in the end of the dressing room and dropping his tee shirt, socks and jockeys in the laundry hamper. Hi boots went in the boot rack after a quick swipe with cleaner to remove the oil and road dust and he started the shower running, adjusting it to very hot before stepping in.

He was surprised at the lukewarm reception he had received from Maggie. She was usually so perceptive of his moods…didn’t she realize that he was here because he wanted to be with her, that this was where he felt at peace?

‘Of course she doesn’t know, you fool,’ his little inner voice chided him. ‘You ask too much of the woman… she isn’t a mindreader…you have to tell her how you feel, what you have come to understand… right now she doesn’t know if you’re here because of Niki, or because this is where you park your bike.’

He scrubbed himself vigorously, shampooed twice, rinsed and dried off in record time, donning only a pair of black Calvin Kleins…bathing Niki was not a dry spectator sport and he had learned from experience to wear very little.

He heard Maggie’s laughter before he entered the nursery and paused in the doorway to watch his little family.

They were sitting on the carpet in front of the crib, Niki just in his diaper and Maggie in a soft blue cotton tank top and a flared cotton skirt that she had pulled up to expose her tanned legs. The boy was chortling happily as he batted at a plastic toy that had levers and doors that opened to reveal an animal picture if the levers were pushed. Each time one opened he laughed at the sounds it made and Maggie shut it so he could do it again.

She must have sensed that he was there for she turned and looked at him, her grin fading into a timid smile before she turned her head back to face their son.

“Bath time, little man…your Papa is ready.”

Urs scooped him up and took him in the bathroom for his nightly soak and splash.

Twenty minutes later both father and son were in need of the towels Maggie had ready and she cleaned up the spillage while Urs got him ready for the night.

Maggie joined them as Urs lay his son in the crib and turned on the mobile with the CD that played soft lullabies. They watched for a few minutes as the honey colored eyes became heavy and finally closed.

Urs turned to leave the room and found that Maggie had quietly preceded him. He lengthened his stride and caught her arm as she went down the hall, pulling her back against him.

“Maggie…Liebeling, don’t shut me out…I need you…”

He felt her breath catch as she stifled a sob. Her body was tense against him as if braced for a blow.

“Come in our room, Luv. We need to talk.”

He dropped his hands off her and she followed him into the room, sitting stiffly in one of the chairs in front of the fireplace.

“That won’t do, come here.”

He sat in the other chair and held his hands out to her. She went to him obediently and sat on his lap but he could feel the tension in her and sighed.

“Maggie you know I love you, I will always love you. I went out on the bike today because I was confused by all the changes in my life over the past few years. I didn’t understand that what you have given me, what we have created is something I’ve longed for all my life and it was bound to make changes in me as a man. I don’t need to get away to find peace anymore…it’s here, with you, with Niki. You have given me such a gift…of your love, of understanding, of freedom to choose to be the man I was always meant to be and to live my life willingly enveloped in the love you offer me so freely. Yes, I have changed…I’ve grown up, grown into who I was always destined to be and I choose to be here with you, with our children….you have given me so much and all I’ve done in return is hurt you.”

He felt her relaxing against him, felt her tears dripping from her cheeks onto his neck as she rested her head on his shoulder.

“Don’t cry, Beloved. Please, don’t cry.”

She sniffed and wiped at her tears with a shaky hand.

“I kept waiting for the BUT… ‘I love you, but’ …I thought you were going to leave me, that you were bored with me, with our life, that maybe you had met someone….all these nasty thoughts creep in when you don’t know what’s going on.”

“Bored!!!?? Not likely…I’m never quite sure who I’m going to bed with… my gentle little wife, my mistress, my lover, a trembling ingénue, a lusty woman from Amsterdam, a biker Babe…you constantly surprise me and I am NEVER bored. And when we aren’t experimenting in mindblowing loving you are so many women to me, playmate, performer, sounding board, companion, nurse, muse, helpmate…. All the things a real wife and soulmate can possibly be. Maggie, I’ve met lots of women while I toured but none of them attracted me…none of them are people I want in my life now and forever.”

She raised her head to look in his eyes, surprised to find them glistening with tears as he tried so hard to explain what he felt and why. His voice could coax meaning and feeling out of music seemingly without effort but verbalizing the same emotions was so difficult for him. She leaned forward to kiss his eyelids gently, cupping his face with her hands.

“Urs, if you don’t stop talking and love me, I may have to add another persona to my repertoire…Dominatrix.”

He laughed and hugged her pliant body against him.

“Perhaps we can save that persona for another night…I was rather looking forward to bedding my lover tonight.”

“Your lover came prepared, just in case,” she said and placed his hand on her leg, encouraging him to explore higher.

His eyes lit up and darkened as he encountered…nothing …under her skirt.

“Urs, don’t you want dinner?” she asked as her breathing became ragged.

“Dessert first,” he murmured from deep in his throat as he lifted her onto the carpet in front of the fireplace and began a thorough inspection of her skirt.

Speech was impossible, fears forgotten and time stood still.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED-FOUR….HOUSES & HAIRCUTS

It was nearly midnight when they crept downstairs like naughty children and raided the refrigerator for food. The tension was gone, no more doubts or uncertainties.

Urs made a gigantic sandwich that he called ‘the Matterhorn’ and indeed it rivaled that famed peak in height. Maggie sat at the counter with her plate of fruit, elbows braced and her hands under her chin, waiting for him to try to take the first bite.

“Don’t stare…you’re making me nervous,” he said with a laugh.

“I just don’t see how you’re going to eat it except with a knife and fork.”

“I’ll have you know my mouth is used to stretching around very big things,” he said with a leer and raised eyebrows as his eyes dropped to her chest.

As he had guessed, she blushed.

“I still can’t believe you did that…. twice.”

He laughed.

“I had to see if one was chocolate…I like my son to have the finer things in life, even at this early age.” He picked the Matterhorn up and took a hearty bite, chewing for a long time and washing it down finally with a drink of milk.

“Seriously, Luv, you should know by now that nothing is Taboo between us. I didn’t just marry you for your superior intellect you know.”

She laughed at him as he tried a second bite and part of the Matterhorn slid in an avalanche onto the counter.

“Okay, I give up,” he said and reluctantly reached in the drawer for a knife and fork.

“Do you still want me to trim your hair before you leave for London? I’m willing but you have a groomer going with you that would do it for you.”

“And I’d have to wear a hat on stage. You know what those people are like….cut, cut, cut…I don’t want it short, Luv and I know you like it long and curly so I trust you.”

“We’ll do it next week, then it will have 2 weeks to recover if I mess it up.”

She picked at her fruit while he finished the ‘sandwich’ and shook her head at his offer of a slice of lingonberry pie.

“Are you still planning on talking to Yanni about a bunkhouse type of building so we can have students here for advanced courses, like a summer or winter camp?”

“Yes, I like the idea. We have to talk it over with Kosta and Heidi though. They have enough work to do and we should consider hiring someone to do the scut work in the kitchen when the camp is operating, laundry and so forth…and we have to consider teaching staff since we can’t always be here to do it.”

She rested her head on her hands again and smiled at him.

“Is this a lead in to trying to talk me into a nanny again? I don’t see the need, Urs. Heidi and I managed quiet nicely…Lord, some women don’t have any help and they have children like stepping stones.”
He waved his fork at her as he began clearing the little bit of clutter they had made.

“You aren’t some women, Maggie Buhler…you are MY woman and this is a crazy lifestyle we have to live for the next few years. If we ever hope to have time to be together, you have to join me sometimes on the tours… I don’t want to be thousands of miles away from you and hear you’ve become so lonely you ran off with the milk delivery man.”

She grinned at him and then tried to look wistful.

“I can see your point…there’s something so sensual about poor old, one-eyed Herr Tochner…and he told me just the other day that he’s on this rigid diet…he wants to be under 300 pounds by Christmas.”

He came around the counter and slid his hands inside the short white robe that was all she had on.

“I can see I’m not going to win this one…how about a compromise?”

He was kneading her back with his long, clever fingers and leaned over to nuzzle her neck with an equally clever mouth.

“How about…mmm, you do taste good…hiring someone to help with Niki… ah, you like that do you?...when you join me on the BS tour…in November?….”

“You don’t play fair, my Swiss…. OHHHHHH!...do that again and I’m your slave for life!”


He laughed and picked her up in a Fireman’s carry, scooping up the Monitor and then taking the stairs at a dead run while she giggled and took advantage of his occupied hands by letting hers wander, causing him to almost stumble before he reached their door.

“Woman, you are so going to pay for that,” he growled as he threw her on their bed and divested himself of his shorts, then fell on her, silencing her laughter with his mouth.

“So who are you tonight, my little playmate?”

“Who do you want me to be?” she asked with a seductive smile.

“Mine, only mine,” he answered as his larger, stronger body engulfed her and she hummed with delight.

**

As soon as Petra’s replacement was able to take over her work load she took a leave of absence and they left for Denver to house hunt, intending to join the other Divos a few days before the start of the BS Tour.

The Miller clan was happy to have them back and had aleady done some of the ground work for them, culling the local estate agents for suitable homes for sale and after one day of catching up, they left Paul with a delighted Grandma and Grandad and started the rounds.

It was lovely in the area this time of year, the quivering Aspens glistening as they trembled in the ever present breeze, a first dusting of fresh snow on the higher altitudes of the distant peaks, children everywhere as they rushed about, cramming every summer experience they could into the long daylight hours of their last few days of freedom before school started again.

Every place they looked at had gardens blazing with the late flush of summer flowers, roses bursting one last time, Asters and Chrysanthemums just starting their fall display, Japanese Maples full and deepening in color as if the whole botanical world was saying a colorful farewell until the spring.

They pulled into the packed grey brick circular drive of the last house on their list for the day, following Charlotte, the agent who had arrived just ahead of them.

This one looked promising. The yard was beautifully landscaped, surrounding a well established and maintained older home of mixed wood and stone. A coverd portico came out all the way to the drive, glassed in so it was unobtrusive, ivy crept over the surface but not too much, not enough to hide the deep multifaceted windows and the fresh creamy white trim. There was what looked to be a three car garage attched to the house with a two level apartment over top, a lovely rounded room that they could see tall plants in {the conservatory that David wanted} and, according to the printed brochure, 3 floors containing 5 bedrooms plus a master suite, 6 bathrooms {one off the family room}, an office/library, eat in kitchen,, dining room, utility room…in short all the usual amenities of a large home plus a few more.

They spent nearly an hour going over the unoccupied house, visiting some of the areas twice, then sitting out on the stone terrace at the back talking quietly.

David had fallen for the place instantly, said he felt like he had come home when he pulled in the drive. Petra thought it looked like it had been transplanted from the UK and given an American twist that made it fit the area beautifully.

“One of the major pluses is that it comes partly furnished…those lovely wardrobes, the appliances, the terrace furnishings, even the bedroom furnishings in three of the suites and the apartment over the garage….and all that maintenance equipment. Why would the owners leave all that behind?”

“According to Charlotte, they retired to Barbados and it was just too prohibitive as well as unnecessary to take everything with them…. they’re probably in a smaller place, too. So what do you think, Pet…could you be happy living here?”

“You know I love it, Stretch, and I know that you do…I could just see your mind working in that family room in the basement, putting in shelving and bean bag chairs in front of a Plasma screen for your games and filling that little closet with your costumes…and it’s just far enough out of town and so close to that bluff that there isn’t much danger of someone building around us…and of course it’s only a 10 minute drive to your parents. The inspectors reports have given it an A+ with only a few cosmetic repairs needing done. But it does seem like a lot of money to me, even though it’s well within the budget you set.”

He hugged her against his chest and laughed.

“It seems like a lot to me too. I’ve never been in this particular income bracket before, Pet, but I’m getting used to it. And it isn’t as if we were spending it on something frivolous. We work hard and deserve a nice place to live in, somewhere we can enjoy our family and hobbies, where we can work if we want to and be sheltered from the public. I think we should make an offer on it.”

They agreed and talked for a while with their agent, settling on the amount they would offer, of course lower than what was being asked since the owners wanted a quick sale. They made one more swing through the place, Petra acting as guide while David video taped her antics, both succumbing to the thrill of possibly having this place as their own and acting giddy, silly with excitement.

They stopped at the supermarket on the way home with the shopping list that Susan had given Pet when they left the house earlier in the day…tonight everyone had voted for Mexican food and since it was a frequent choice in the Miller household they were always running out of something.

Pet laughed as David showed her the proper way to treat Serrano peppers with respect…plastic bag over your hand to select a handful then invert the bag, your flesh never touching the fiery little vegetable. They bought fresh corn tortillas from the in-store Tortilleria, still warm and wrapped in a brown paper bundle, tied with string in the traditional manner, sorted through the bins of tomatoes for a large bag full, half over-ripe and half firm and bought a large bag of pre-shredded Jack cheese, not exactly authentic but what was commonly used here. David was an expert at choosing Avocados, pushing quickly on the little bud where the stem had been to test for ripeness. He put the lemons that she had bagged, back and selected limes even though she claimed they were the same….and called her a ‘Gringa!’, shaking his head with a grin and an exaggerated eye roll.

They were waiting at the deli for the clerk to fill an extra large bucket with Refritos, the lard fried beans that were mushed and accompanied most Mexican meals, when David’s mobile rang. It was Charlotte, passing on a counter offer from the owners.

“Hang on a second Charlotte while I talk this over with Petra….Baby, they came back with a counter $35, 000 above ours…she doesn’t think it will get better than this and it’s still nearly $100,00.00 under our budget….what do you think?”

He knew her answer…it was written on her face and in her sparkling eyes as she nodded and put her hands over her mouth, trying to contain her delight.

“Charlotte, tell them we accept…and call me, let me know when and where we have to sign the papers.”

The little boy that was never hidden far under the surface of the lanky body that housed David Miller, bubbled over when they reached his parents home and he rushed inside, whooping with laughter, with the bags of groceries and his video camera, Petra following closely, laughing with and at him, accustomed now to his wacky sense of humor.

He dumped the bags in the kitchen, kissed Susan on the cheek, scooped Paul up and raced to the computer to insert the card from the camera and sit cross legged on the floor to show Paul and anyone else who wanted to watch, their new home.

**

Urs leaned back in his seat and got comfortable. He had made the connection for the flight to New York, just in time by sprinting the last few gates down the concourse. The attendant came by once they were airborne and offered him a nightcap but he refused, indicating the large water bottle he had already put in the net holder. He ignored the bit of fluster that she showed when he smiled at her and accepted the small blanket, placing his own squishy pillow against the window, removed the tie from his ponytail and rested his head, thinking of Maggie, as always.

Parting had been easier this time, since it would only be a month and a few days until she joined him on the tour, with Niki and the young Nanny that they were trying out. He grinned as he thought of how he had won that ‘discussion’…had the turning point really been his promise of future ‘deviant sexual favors’ or was she just humoring him, keeping his promise in reserve for another day to see what he would come up with?

He tucked his hair back behind his ear, easier to do now that it was shorter and that too brought to mind another memory that made him smile.

They had brought a stool in the lav and put paper on the floor to keep the mess down, draped a towel around his shoulders and she stood behind him with a set of barber scissors in hand, meeting his eyes in the mirror and biting her lip.

“It’s just hair, Luv…hack away.”

“I’ve never understood why some mothers cry the first time their son gets a hair cut…until now. I feel like I’m cutting off a part of you that’s alive.”

He chuckled.

“Hair is dead, Liebeling…only the root is alive… Maggie if you don’t do it soon it will be dry and I’ll have to get in the shower again.”

She ran the comb through his hair once more and followed the shape of his head with her hand, stroking softly to the end which now was just below his shoulders.

“Look…that curl wrapped itself around my finger…it doesn’t want to leave you…I know, I’m being silly.”

Snip…the curl law on her palm and she placed it on the counter gently, smiling as a thought came to her.

“Don’t disturb this one…I’m going to keep it. Now lets see…all pretty well the same length I think, enough for a ponytail and just touching where the collar of your suitjacket will lay.”

The rest of the cut went without problems, except for the snipping sound once and her gasp and ‘OOOPS!’ It had been a tease he found when he grabbed the mirror and looked at the back, checked her eyes and saw that she was trying not to laugh.

After the cut and clean up she placed the first cut curl in the secret compartment of the Guardian angel he had given her, a locket of Rainbow Moonstone and Amethyst with a small compartment in the back. She claimed that the healing power of the Amethyst and the protection of the Moonstone would protect both of them now and he claimed that she still had a bit of the Irish Faery about her.

For some reason he thought about how lenient CASPAR had been with Team Ceol over the past year. There had been assignments but nothing overtly dangerous…some planning, an escort of a diplomat to a safe house, a few long distance instructions for panic rooms and explosive devices…was it because of Maggie’s pregnancy and now Petra’s or was Simon not willing to risk his cash cows unless absolutely necessary? He didn’t know, but it had been a relief. Even the thoughts of Laurenz still enjoying his freedom had seldom crossed his mind, except for times like when Cosmo scented the wounded deer or the infrequent times when he spotted the body guards at his parents or on Maggie when he first came home.

He drifted off to sleep, breathing in the scent of her from his squishy pillow, thinking of Niki surrounded by his stuffed animal zoo and laughing, the first of his tiny teeth peeking through. He was such a delight…his last thought before sleep was that Maggie would know in a week if she was pregnant again, if her cycle was late. He was smiling as sleep folded gentle arms about him.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED-FIVE ….THE NANNY

From the opening in Philadelphia to where they were now, just arriving in Atlanta, Georgia, the Barbra Striesand/Il Divo tour had been amazing. Working with such a legenday performer as the inimitable Barbra had been an experience that none of the guys regretted, except for a minor set to with the queen of bitches, Rosie O’Donnell in NY. Even the uproar from her comments about their suits had worked out well, the fans and in fact, Ms. Striesand coming to their defense avidly and they had been advised to consider the source of the comments and ignore them…it was after all the only draw R. O’D had going for her and she did nasty so well that most people assumed she had been born that way.

For Urs the trip to Atlanta seemed never ending because of the treat waiting for him at the hotel…Maggie and Niki were already ensconced in their 2 bedroom suite, Nanny Ilsa in tow and ready to run interference in the evening so Niki’s parents could enjoy some alone time.

He smiled as he thought that the news they shared via the Internet hadn’t been what they wanted but the disappointment, shared, had been halved and they would continue to practice creating another baby until they succeeded. He wiggled a bit in his seat, trying not to think about their reunion and actually loving each other…IM’s were a stop gap only, not nearly as much fun or relief as the real thing and it had been a long 5 weeks of stop gaps.

The small personal photo album that he carried in his rolling bag peeped out from the half closed zipper pocket and he grew misty as he thought about the pictures he would soon be sharing with Maggie.

They had done two dates in Toronto, one on the 17th, the next on the 20th. Immediately after the first one he had been whisked in a catering truck out of the underground parking of the Air Canada Centre and driven to some warehouse district where he donned a uniform, scooped his hair up under a cap and accompanied 5 agents from CASPAR in a windowless van as they made what seemed like a run to drop off employees in various parts of the city. Once the all clear was given they drove through the gates of a large estate and into a garage, activated security once more and he was shepherded into the attached house.

Yvie and Frank had been waiting for him though it was by now close to one in the morning.

She looked radiant, even weeping with delight to be able to see him, hold him, to be wrapped in his arms and breathe in the unique Urs’ scent that she loved.

“So, OOs…Il Divo isn’t working out and you’ve changed careers I see…” she giggled indicating his catering company uniform.

“The worst is they want me to get a buzz cut…you look happy… Frank are you responsible for this glow I see in her eyes?”

He held his hand out to the grinning man and they exchanged looks, neither speaking of it but both recognizing the love they held for this tiny woman.

“Come in, Urs…don’t worry about your drivers…they know their way around here and are probably already tucking into a meal above the garage. We thought you might be hungry after your concert and have something ready in the Kitchen.”

The next 2 hours before weariness forced him to seek a bed had been filled with laughter as he consumed a quantity of specially made Swiss food, Gerstensuppe, Papet Vaudois and Zuger Kirschentorte, sipped some excellent wine that Frank proudly claimed came from the Niagara region of Ontario and listened to them talking about school and the farm that they would soon be ready to move to.

In return he showed them pictures of Irgendwo and Niki, the animals, candid shots of Maggie {Yvie especially like the shot from the back as Maggie bent over their son, wearing short shorts that left a great deal of her firm butt cheeks exposed}. There had been photos of Mami and Papa, Franz and his family, one of Schtute taken just a few days before she lay down to sleep one night and never woke again. It had been expected but hurt never-the-less and her human family mourned silently, comforting Heinz and Maxine as best they could while both animals howled and searched endlessly for their lost friend.

“These are for you to keep…I made duplicates,” he had told her when she wiped the tears from her face and made to hand the album back. That earned him a special Yvie bear hug that surprised him…she was so much stronger than he remembered, physically as well as emotionally.

He had spent a wonderful day and a half with them on the estate, marveling at the beauty of the place even though the weather was fast slipping from fall into winter, getting to know Frank better, feeling much more content now about the new man in his little sister’s life and taking photos to show the family when he returned home.

Just after midnight on the 19th/20th he was returned to the hotel in the downtown core to sleep peacefully in his own suite until morning. No questions were asked by the guys at breakfast, but they could tell his time away had been pleasant by his relaxed attitude and upbeat mood.

Arrival was the usual controlled chaos of lineups, security, wading through the crowds, findng the transport and they all did it on automatic, tired but not as bad as when they were touring with back to back dates. Tonight was Halloween and they were looking forward to the next day, an off day to enjoy themselves and recharge batteries before the concerts on the 2nd and 4th of November.

Seb and Geena planned on spending most of their time at the Hotel pool and shopping…how that Frenchman loved to shop!! Carlos and Gerry had no plans other than to sleep in and eat too much, maybe catch a club in the evening, while David and Petra were just going to enjoy being together, maybe do some browsing through the furniture stores to get ideas for the new house they were so over the moon about.

And Urs really hadn’t planned much beyond playing with his son and loving his wife until she begged for mercy…not that she would, he thought, as they sped along the surface streets toward the Hotel. They were well suited that way, neither ever able to get quite enough of the other once they started, but also content to just share a closeness that melded their separate souls into one.

David nudged him with his hard elbow.

“You’re thinking about Maggie…you always get this sappy look on your face and your eyes get dark when you think about her.”

He grinned at his American friend.

“I’m Swiss…we don’t do ‘sappy’.”

“Alright…what were you thinking about then?...Aha!!...I’m right, aren’t I…? Look Pet…Sappy, Right?”

“Don’t try to drag me into this, David Miller…but Urs…you should put your shades down before you think about, what your thinking about….your eyes are so expressive…..it’s very… stimulating.”

Ur grinned and lowered his shades from where they rested on the top of his head, ignoring David’s victorious chortle, then laughing when he heard David’s delayed reaction to his wife’s words.

“Really? Stimulating?....Did you pack the Kryptonite?”

They were all still laughing and trying to find out the signifigance of that question when they pulled up to the entrance of the Hotel.

There was a message waiting for Urs when he checked in, from Maggie of course… ‘at the pool’. He hurried to his suite to drop off his luggage and find his trunks, then nearly jogged from the elevator to the steamy doors of the indoor pool.

He spotted them immediately, Maggie sitting on the edge of the shallow end while Ilse was in the water with Niki who splashed and laughed a few feet away. Shoes and tee shirt came off quickly and he dove in the deep end, swimming underwater until he saw the chubby little body above him, then surfaced, taking Niki up in his hands and cradling him as the little guy laughed and reached up for his face.

Urs lifted the boy up and held him snugged against his chest, wincing a bit when the clutching hands tugged on his hair but returning the wet kiss that was the newest trick that his son had learned, just before he had left home in September.

“You’ve been taking excellent care of your Mami, I see. She looks amazing, Son,” he said, looking over Niki’s head at his wife.

Her hair was wet but braided in a long plait that she almost sat on, her body toned and slender, except for her chest that still retained some of the fullness from nursing, the whole package encased in a simple black Lycra Bikini, accessorized merely by the sparkle of her eyes as she smiled at him with a mix of emotions…love, welcome, lust, pride.

He took two steps to the edge and leaned in to kiss her gently, making Niki laugh as he was trapped between them.

“Gruezi,” he whispered against her mouth, his eyes open and feasting on hers.

“We missed you.”

“I know…me too.”

He sighed and stepped back…now was not the time or place, though his body stirred after just that brief touch of her warm mouth. He let the water calm him and lay back with Niki on his chest, using his feet to propel them as he gave the squealing child a ride. The little fellow showed no fear of the water at all, the time they had spent in the pool in Willisau’s sports complex had taught him that there was nothing to fear.

After a few minutes they returned to find both Ilse and Maggie drying off and he handed Niki up, vaulting to the concrete edge and collecting his towel, shirt and shoes.

He smiled at Ilse as she gathered up Niki’s things and frowned silently as she blushed and became flustered. Perhaps hiring a young Nanny had been a mistake. If one smile from him had her awkward and strained, what would happen when she encountered the full Il Divo effect with all four of them?

She was a plain little thing, mousy brown hair and a sallow complexion, slightly taller than Maggie but a little on the plump side…20, if he remembered right, and from a large family in Luzern. Maggie had found her through an agency and in her IM’s said she was very good with Niki, very attentive and diligent, no boyfriend to be demanding of her time, willing to travel and agreeable to being the caregiver nightly while on the road.

“We never had a chance to meet…I’m Urs… are you looking forward to joining the tour?”

“OH, Yes,” she said, answering him in heavily accented English and flushing again.

“I’ve never been out of Europe before…and Niki is a wonderful little boy, so smart and fun to be around.”

They returned to the suite, Urs taking the opportunity to give Niki his bath to get rid of the pool water, then he fed his son some lunch while Maggie chatted, resting her head on her hands as she caught Urs up on what had been happening at home, then asked how the tour was going.

“Miss Striesand is such a consummate professional…it’s been a great learning experience so far. She’s demanding but fair, quite like all of us in a way since she’s very much the perfectionist. And the pace of this tour is so much easier to handle.”

Ilse came for Niki, to put him down for his nap. Urs kissed his son gently on the brow and handed him over, watching as she carried the boy into the second bedroom.

“Urs I have to leave you for a few minutes…somehow I’ve lost the converter for my laptop and need to replace it…I noticed a shop near the Hotel so while you shower I’ll just whip on down and get a new one…I shouldn’t be more than half an hour.”

He wrapped his arms around her, tempted to kiss her until she couldn’t stand but thought better of it and kissed her tenderly, patting her bottom with resignation.

“I guess I can shower alone one more time,” he said with a leering smile that made her laugh.

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise….I’ve thought up some new moves that you might like…a lot.”

She escaped before he could capture her again and grabbed her shoulder bag and key card as she grinned back at him and left the suite.

Mein gott, how he loved that woman! She was so complex, so much fun, so inventive, such a tease but worth the wait. Just the mention of new moves had his temperature shooting through the roof, yet he knew they had to wait. It was imperative that they be able to be reached at all times…duty came first, but sometimes it wasn’t easy to remember.

He stripped off while the huge shower warmed up. It was a luxurious bathroom, one entire end comprising a shower area that was open, no doors or curtain, just a glass half wall and grating of fine mesh near the open entrance to catch any spray or to drip on when leaving the confines. He set his supplies on the built in shelving on the back wall and stepped under the spray, enjoying the hot water cascading over his body and running off to empty down the drain. He moved directly under the nozzle and placed his hands on the wall, leaning on them as his thoughts wandered and the cascade of water loosened his muscles, finally reaching for the shampoo and taking a generous dollop to rub it into his scalp. He rinsed and did it again, rinsed once more, thinking of the long lovely showers they had enjoyed together, probably not a good idea since he was alone and his body reacted, not caring that no relief was in sight.

He laughed and applied conditioner, turning under the spray after a long 2 minutes to rinse it all out, feeling the silkiness when the creamy substance was gone and opened his eyes now that it was safe.

For just a second he thought that Maggie had returned and started to grin, stepped forward away from the lightly steamed glass wall and stared in horror at Ilse who stood in the shower entrance, naked,her face flushed, breathing rapid, one hand reaching out to touch him.

“You are so beautiful,” she squeaked out between wet lips.

He found his voice and roared at her, grabbing her grasping hand off his body in an iron grip and shoving her away.

“GET OUT!!”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED-SIX

Maggie was humming as she hustled down the hall to their suite, duty done, just a question of hooking up the converter and plugging the Puter in to keep it charged, the only thing that stood between her and the gorgeous man she hungered for. There was something so appealing about him when he looked at her from under his half lowered lashes, something that made her body actually feel a ZING!! Sometimes she watched him when he wasn’t aware of her study, the animal like, graceful way he moved, the quick smile, the intense gaze when he was listening to what someone had to say. He was innately gracious, reminding her sometimes of a combination of Inga and Nikolai, which of course was to be expected…though Franz didn’t really have ‘IT’…Franz was a big lumbering, friendly ox…Urs was a panther.

She laughed at herself…such a fanciful train of thought…there was no doubt about it…she had been without the attention of her loving ‘panther’ for too long.

It was the complete absence of sound that reached her first when she entered the suite, and the foreign feeling of it. They had never tiptoed around when Niki slept…on the advice of Mami they had accustomed the little boy to normal household sounds and now he slept through nearly anything.

She walked into the Lounge area and glanced around, spotting Urs standing with one hand braced against the door frame to the second bedroom, his body rigid with anger.

Just inside the door a security guard she recognized from the traveling crew stood with his arms folded watching Ilse who was jamming her belongings into an open suitcase, weeping quietly.

“Urs?”

He whirled around, his face still a mask of loathing that made her gasp before he realized who it was and shook his head at the question he could see in her eyes.

“Ilse is leaving. We will talk about it later.”

The statement was final, no discussion allowed, but she had to ask.

“Niki?”

“Fine, Luv…he’s sleeping.”

She crossed to one of the dining area chairs, pulled it out and sat, stiffly watching the silent tableau.

Urs had donned his clothing of jeans and tee shirt without drying after his shower and now both the jeans and the shirt were streaked with soaked up water from his wet skin and dripping hair. He held something in his free hand, what looked like a cheque and the hand against the door frame was clenched, white knuckled to match the rigid stance of his body, his back muscles rippling with the effort to keep his barely controlled anger in check.

Ilse had been crying for a while, her eyes were streaked with red, her nose and cheeks flaming and tears had dripped onto the front of her cotton shirt. She appeared to have dressed, in the same jeans and shirt as in the morning, but hastily, the buttons slightly skewed, no bra, but then she didn’t really need one. Her hands shook as she tried to do the zipper up on her luggage, struggling, but neither man offered to help her, merely waited in silence until she managed and extended the handle, put on her jacket, slung her large carryall over her shoulder and looked at the floor in front of Urs’ feet.

“I’m ready,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

Urs pushed himself off the door frame and spoke to Howie, the security guard, handing him the cheque and some American money.

“Stay with her…Steve got her on a flight…she can pick up the E ticket in the terminal…since you’re official security they’ll clear you through to the gate. Just as she gets on the plane give her this paycheque and wait by the gate to be sure she actually takes off. The cash is for the cab there and back. I appreciate this, Howie.”

“No problem, man…glad to help.”

The big man took Ilse by the upper arm and nodded at Maggie as they left the suite. Urs checked on Niki again, then exited the bedroom with the Monitor in his hand, closing it softly and flexing his knotted shoulder muscles.

“Can you tell me know?”

“You aren’t going to like it…we should maybe wait until you can’t chase after her and hurt her.”

She just stared at him and he came over to move her off the chair and sit her on his lap, not a very dry perch but she wasn’t prepared to complain at the moment.

As thoroughly and succinctly as possible he explained, tightening his grip on her waist when she stiffened with outrage at his cold description of seeing the Nanny naked in the shower door. She swore through clenched teeth, just loud enough to hear and seemed about to leap to her feet, but he held her in place.

“I paid her to the end of the month and got her a ticket home to Luzern and that’s the end of it. Next time we get someone a bit more mature or maybe gay…”

“Wouldn’t work…all of you guys have a fairly large contingent of gay fans. Being gay doesn’t mean they have lousy taste in music you know.” Her words were clipped, angry and he was glad that her anger was not at him.

He leaned his head against hers and smiled a bit, his anger beginning to dissipate.

“I’m sorry, Liebe…I was so insistent that I rushed you into this.”

“And I wanted some alone time with you so much that I ignored the warning signs. Ilse talked about you constantly, I think even had your picture in her wallet…she closed it too fast for me to be sure. I doubt that she would have worked out.”

She was handling it well, he thought, as she rose and hooked up her computer but he knew her fertile mind was working overtime. At last the question he had dreaded came, just as he walked up behind her. She turned and looked up at him.

“Did she actually touch you?”

He sighed.

“Yes, for about 10 seconds, until I could pry her loose.”

“Where?”

He told her and watched the anger infuse those lovely green eyes, saw her fists clench, her shoulders stiffen, could have sworn that her teeth grew longer, sharper, more lethal.

Risking bodily injury, he folded her into his arms and soothed her in the only way he was sure would work.

**

“So what are you going to do without a Nanny?” Seb asked when they met up later for dinner.

Urs had Niki on his lap, happily playing with his keys, though in Papa Buhler’s opinion, it was sacrilegious to chew on the Harley Davidson key chain even if you were teething.

“Do without…lots of people don’t have Nannies and we’ll just have to cope for now. There’s a hotel service if we need to go out in the evening for a while, like for that event in Chicago, but for the most part we aren’t really into the club scene anyway.”

They hadn’t gone into any great detail about the incident with their friends, just told them that Ilse didn’t work out and had gone home. David gave Urs a funny look, sure that there was more to it than that but shelved the questions he had until a better time.

“Let’s not waste any more time talking about this,” Maggie said. “I need to see some pictures of that house I’ve heard so much about. You do have some, don’t you?”

Petra laughed and nodded.

“Don’t get him started. He’s been carting around a whole album of pics and 3 videos ever since the deal was finalized. We do need to have you and Urs come visit after we move in and give us some advice on the conservatory, though. The old owners kind of lost interest and everything is either dying or over grown…we don’t know much about plant life.”

“I want a hammock chair, like the one you have in the school,” David said with a grin.

“Then it’s Urs you really need…he can probably tell you the Latin name of everything, the genus and sub species, all that stuff that I don’t understand…I only know pretty, edible and poisonous, and only because my own Botany Professor taught me,” Maggie said with a proud pat on Urs arm.

“Actually we’re thinking of taking in the Botanical Gardens tomorrow…they even have a children’s play area,” Urs said as he tucked into his salad. “Tonight, we just thought we would make an early night of it,” he continued, hoping that was enough of a hint to forestall any company dropping by.

Niki seemed fascinated, watching Urs eating his dinner and finally Maggie had to rescue him when the little boy kept trying to snag food off his father’s plate. She pulled a bib, small spoon and jar of some kind of mushy food out of her voluminous bag and calmly set the little fellow in the chair the waiter had brought to the table, spooning what she said was strained squash into the cavern known as Niki’s mouth in a never ending stream. Next came raspberries in an equally unrecognizable format, then a cookie shaped like a hippo and the boy was content to soak it in drool and grin at his audience, wearing a great deal of it in the process.

“He’s not tidy but he does know how to play to an audience,” Urs commented as he finished his meal in peace and sat back to watch Niki giggle and mash the gooey hippo on to the table.

With the superior skill of a two year old, Paul watched the performance with giggles, conveniently forgetting that only a few months before he had been at the same stage of development. He wielded his spork to feed himself mashed potatoes, finely chopped beef and baby carrots that he thought tasted better if held in chubby fingers to nibble, just like the small slices of ripe Georgia peaches that comprised his dessert. His only concession to youth was the plastic drinking glass that Pet poured his milk in to end the meal.

Back in the room Maggie looked up from changing Niki into bed clothes when she heard Urs laughing.

“I was just thinking about how things change. Two years ago none of us would have so blithely accepted watching the kids destroying that elegant table setting. We would have looked at others with families and snickered, complacent with our unattached lives. And yet the faces around the table tonight were happier than I’ve ever seen any of us. I know I don’t regret the choice to grow up and have a family but it didn’t really register that the other guys feel the same. Carlito says that he and Gerry have leapt to the top of the list at the adoption agency and even Seb had a kind of goofy look when he was watching the kids. Sometimes change is a good thing, even when it kind of creeps up on you.”

He came over to take Niki, all clean and dried, smelling fresh and new as his eyes got heavy and he snuggled against his Papa. Urs leaned down to Maggie and kissed her rosy lips gently.

“I’m so happy that I found you, Luv.”

“Me too,” she said and wrapped her arm around his waist as they took their son in to bed.

**

They compromised on what to do about Niki when the concert date came up on the second. They had gone to the Botanical Gardens on the first and had a wonderful time wandering through the displays, letting Niki down from the carrier to play in the Children’s area, then joining David, Petra and Paul in their suite for a video night after the boys both fell asleep.

Urs was anxious for Maggie to see the BS/IlDivo concert for the first time and knew she wanted to so he arranged for one of the ILDivo crew to sit with the sleeping boy, in his Papa’s dressing room. Brian was happy to do it, since he had irritated his rotator cuff and wasn’t operating at full strength…this would give him something useful to do and allow him to finish the last 40 pages in the book he was reading.

The tour was a bit dressier than the usual Il Divo tours and the girls all looked like debutantes, all dressed in gowns or sparkly pant suits.

Maggie, looking elegant in a shimmering white silk gown, was standing talking to Urs when Ms. Striesand came by with her entourage. She stopped and smiled her famous lopsided twitch of the lips, appraising the young woman with the handsome tenor.

“So you’re the one …I can see why our Swiss tenor can put such passion in the love songs.”

Urs had warned Maggie that Barbra didn’t tolerate ass kissers and assumed her most gracious but pleasant attitude, holding her hand out for a firm handshake.

“Ms. Striesand, this is Maggie, Lady Margaret-Rose Buhler,” Urs said quietly but with evident pride.

“Well I figured that…you never look at the Bimbos around here the way you look at her…where’s the boy?”

“Sleeping in Urs’ dressing room…he’s not disturbed by noise or music…we made sure of that right from the start,” Maggie said with a smile.

“I’ve heard some good things about that school you sponsor in London…I’m going to be touring there in the near future…I’d like to drop by, if that’s all right.”

Maggie felt her heart do a flip-flop but showed nothing on the surface. To have someone of Ms. Striesand’s stature show an interest in the school was an unbelievable honor.

“Thank you…I’m sure that if you have time, the kids would love to have you come by…it would mean a great deal to them…and to me.”

Someone called out for the Diva, needing her onstage and she grimaced.

“Yeah, Yeah…You should keep this one, Swiss boy…she doesn’t fluster easily…I like that. Nice to meetcha, Maggie. Enjoy the show.”

With that and a swirl of voluminous dark gown, she was gone, the epitome of the Barbra whose reputation was known around the world, still showing her rough roots but a class act that none could equal.

“Wow!!...she’s like a force of nature,” Maggie said, relaxing now and watching the diva disappear.

Soon after, she joined Pet, Geena and Gerry out front to enjoy the concert.

**

This tour was a pleasure, affording the divos and their wives plenty of time to explore the places they visited. They spent nearly 3 days in Atlantic City, David and Urs taking turns babysitting so the other could try their luck in the Casinos. As usual the house was the big winner, though none of the couples had a gambling problem and for the most merely enjoyed watching the pain of the other players who were consistently losing.

Maggie’s cycle came right on time again, not a surprise since they had been separated for a month, so the four days of free time in Atlantic City and the first Chicago concert were snuggle only days.

The second Chicago concert was time for romance again and Herr Romantic pulled out all the stops with flowers, a candlelight dinner, music, actual dancing on the glassed in balcony and a rose petal strewn bed. Maggie came to him in the dim light of candles in the bedroom, fresh from the shower, her scent just a hint on the still air of the room, dressed for seduction in a filmy white negligee over black stockings and pure white lace lingerie that brought out her tan and made her black hair nearly luminous.

He undressed her slowly, treasuring each newly exposed area of warm, smooth flesh with his hooded eyes, wet lips and trembling hands, their minds and bodies attuned, needing no words except those which could not be held back.

The give and take was smooth, seamless, choreographed by emotion rather than intellect, by need and understanding, each giving and taking, demanding and accepting, in a slow worship of love that at last consumed them in flames.