“Darlin’, you are in so much trouble when I get you all to myself, tomorrow.”

“Good, I’m counting on it. G’Night, Brooke. I love you.” Sam blew a kiss in the direction of the receiver.

“I love you Sweetheart, forever.”

“God, I love hearing that from you more and more,” Sam sighed. “Bye.”

Brooke hesitated, then ended her side of the call, “Good night Baby, sweet dreams.”

Sarah watched as Sam laid there, holding the phone and staring off into space.

“Sam, are you alright?” Brooke asked.

The woman smiled and began blushing at being caught daydreaming about her lover. “Yeah…I just realized what sweet dreams were all about.”

“Huh?” Brooke was confused.

“Bye, Brooke. I’ll show you tomorrow night.”

“Love you,” Brooke whispered, then ended the call.

The teenager wasn’t sure of what to think, seeing the serene look on her sister’s face. Finally, unable to contain herself, she spoke up. “Well…while you’re just lying there, tell me.” Sarah sat crossed legged on the bed, leaning in to listen. “Come on Sis, I’m ready for that marathon session now.”

Sam smiled, “Sis, you wouldn’t believe that she’s Loran in a million years.”

The Gordon family dinner had already started, shy one daughter and her roommate. When they heard the front door of the house opening and the loud stomping of feet coming from the hall, Mable glanced over to see Brooke’s eyes finally lift from staring down at her plate and saw the look of anticipation written all over her face.

“Well, finally we’re all together. C.C.,” Mable called out. “We’ve already started dinner without you. What took you so long?”

Thirty seconds later, C.C. entered the dining room, taking a deep breath as she did so. “Hey, Mom.” She waved, letting her gaze move down a chair to where Brooke sat. There, her sister was trying hard to see around the entering woman. “Hey, Brooke.” C.C. subtly shook her head and watched as her sister’s shoulders slumped slightly as she let her attention go to her plate of picked-at food. Trying to cover up, C.C. immediately flashed a dazzling smile and turned to the rest of the table as she made her way to her seat. “Dad, Randi, and Terri. I hope you saved some food for me.” C.C. pulled her chair out next to Brooke’s and sat down. “Hey Mom, got any more of those rolls?” The brunette eyed the one her sister held uneaten in her hand.

Mable motioned to the basket with a few rolls left in it. “Please pass you’re sister some food, girls.” She turned to C.C. and asked, “Did you have trouble, Dear? Is that why you’re so late?”

C.C. took the passed basket of rolls from Terri. “Thanks, Ter.” She put one on her plate, then sat the basket down, accepting the next serving container from Randi. “I had some… ah… connection problems… with the car. Thanks, Randi.” She nodded in her sister’s direction who was seated next to her mother, opposite Brooke. Turning to Brooke, C.C. nudged her sulking sister in the arm. “So Brooke…you going to eat that food or donate it to a time capsule?”

Brooke wasn’t paying too much attention to the activity going on around her. After hearing her name, she simply shrugged and continued to push her food from one side of her plate to another, taking small bits from time to time.

Terri watched as Brooke just sat quietly in her own world. Offering another dish to C.C., she held onto it when the youngest sibling tried to take it, getting C.C.’s attention. Motioning with her head toward Brooke, Terri asked, “What’s up with her?”

C.C. glanced to her right, then back again to Terri, “Ah…she’s just got a lot on her mind with work. She was telling me that last night.” C.C. gently kicked at Brooke under the table.

“A lot on her mind… looks like they’ve declared music to be dead by the expression on her face.” Terry hid her concern.

“Huh?” Brooke slowly looked across the table. “Did you say something?”

“Yeah, but you don’t seem to be listening. You missing something, or what?” Terri’s critical eye of a physician started to examine her sister’s behavior.

“Yeah, her hearing aid,” C.C. blurted out. Then turned to Brooke and spoke up for her to hear. “Time to get new batteries, huh?”

Brooke turned a cold gaze at C.C., and then stuck her tongue out, pulling it back in quickly to speak. “No, I’m just uhm… tired.” She offered to the rest of the table, “I got a lot of stuff on my mind.”

“Seriously, Brooke,” Terri leveled a gaze at her sister. “If there’s something we can help you with… I mean, I’m no musician but…”

“No, that’s okay Terri, I’ll be fine. I signed a new band so there’s just a lot of bullshit stuff to take care of.”

“You sure?” Terri’s face took on a concerned look. “You look like you’re coming down with a bug or something.”

C.C. brought the napkin up to her lips and mumbled, “Love bug.”

Mable’s eyes darted to her youngest child. “C.C. I wish you’d stop that mumbling. Now would you mind repeating that so we all can hear what you’re saying.”

Coughing, C.C. cleared her throat. “Yes, Mom. I…” Brown eyes glanced over to Brooke almost apologetically, “I…just said…”

“Hey, I’m fine…really,” Brooke looked over at her sister, taking her off the hook. “Besides Terri, I don’t really feel like letting you stick a thermometer up my butt anyway.”

“Well, think of how I’d feel having to do it,” The woman laughed. “I may be behind you in age but that’s where it stops.”

“What…just because you’d have to see my butt? It’s not like you’ve never seen it before.” Brooke looked off to the corner of the room, remembering Sam’s hands on her backside and the fire that it ignited inside her.

“Yeah?” Randi asked sarcastically. “Well, I keep trying to forget that, too.” She studied her sister for a moment, then continued, “So, Brooke…we know that we’ve all seen your butt a time or two…” Randi looked devilishly evil as she counted off the five family members seated at the table. “How many more can we add to that growing list?”

Brooke looked up at Randi, “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“I’m sorry, but this talk of Brooke’s butt is not my idea of food for thought. Hey, Mom, I hope we’re not having brownies for dessert, are we?” C.C. asked.

“Dessert…” Brooke mumbled conjuring the image of her favorite blonde to mind as she picked up her glass, bringing it to her mouth to drink.

“Well,” the matriarch looked a little surprised. “Actually I made a Strawberry Pie just for Sam. She kind of hinted at having a craving for it when I told her about the dinner.”

The sound of muffled coughing could be heard and Mable looked to her right. “Brooke are you all right?”

“Ah…” Brooke wiped her mouth, “I’m fine Mom. It just went down the wrong way.”

“If you want Mom,” C.C. offered, “I could take some of that dessert back to the dorm for her.”

Blue eyes flashed in C.C.’s direction to see the young woman digging her way through her plate of food. Then Brooke looked to her mother.

“By the way, Brooke, you really outdid yourself bringing A-Z to life again.”

“Yeah, but just for that one night,” Brooke stated.

Randi brought her coffee cup to her lips, “That was…impressive, Brooke. I hope it was appreciated.” She took a sip and watched her musician sister.

“Hey, I thought it was great to hear those old songs again,” Terri spoke up. “And the new ones, too. They were really something Brooke.”

“Thanks,” Brooke addressed Terri first. “I’m glad that you liked them.” She turned to look directly at Randi. “And yes, Randi. Sam was ecstatic over it.”

C.C. could feel the tension in the air and spoke up. “Ah…yeah, really something Brooke. I’m glad that I could give you the idea. Ah…she enjoyed it so much that you wore her out. I didn’t even hear her snoring that night at the dorm.” The brunette smiled, pleased that she had come up with a story to help her favorite sister out of a jam.

“I must commend you Brooke,” Randi said slightly changing the subject. “You seem to always be ready with the most appropriate toasts lately. What inspired you for that one?”

Brooke just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. You know those twenty-first birthday toasts… I just make them up as I go along.”

“Don’t be so modest, Sis. You put a lot of thought into that one.” C.C. realized that she wasn’t thinking when she heard the words coming out and slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from saying any more. She watched, as Brooke’s eyes grew large with each second that they held her attention.

Amused and intrigued by the scene that she was witnessing, Randi started her lazy cross-examination. “So, if you’re so busy at work, how’d you find all that time to plan the party for Sam?”

Caught off guard, Brooke stuttered, “I…uhm…I didn’t. C.C. and Mom helped.” She finally regained some composure, then leaned forward, looking her older sister right in the eye. “Randi, you should know…that’s what secretaries are for.” Brooke let a leering smile grace her lips, thinking of how her sister used her staff.

“Hey, I’m the one who kept it a secret. Don’t I get some of the credit?” C.C. interjected.

“You? Keep a secret? That will be the day,” Terri laughed at C.C.

Brooke looked out of the corner of her eye at the brunette in question and they both grinned, knowing that keeping secrets were fast becoming C.C.’s forte. Nudging her baby sister with her shoulder, Brooke started off slowly, “Yeah…C.C. really deserves the credit for keeping her mouth shut.”

Terri just shook her head, “I don’t know…stranger things have happened.”

Sitting up with her arms crossed and leaning on the table, Randi challenged the young woman. “I bet you couldn’t tell me one thing that you kept a secret about that I didn’t already know.”

The young woman knew that she could win the bet easily but refused to compromise her roommate or her sister. Thinking hard, C.C. finally came up with something that couldn’t harm anyone. “I never told you that I kissed Tommy Montgomery in the fifth grade.” C.C. nodded, proud of the choice she’d made.

“No, but you told us when you did kiss him in the fourth grade.” Randi tilted her head and flicked her wrist, shooing off the concept. “Doesn’t count, C.C.”

“Yeah, doesn’t count,” Terri chimed in. “It’s got to be something new. Something for the first time.”

While all eyes looked directly at C.C., the young woman’s eyes darted to Brooke, catching the subtle look in her blue eyes as she mouthed, “Not Sam,” as discreetly as she could.

C.C. started to sweat. She knew she could easily win but wanted to be loyal to both Brooke and Sam. “Okay…I…I knew when Brooke…”

Brooke’s deep voice overrode her sister’s words. “I can tell you a secret that C.C. never told.” Brooke looked around the table, hoping that they would bite. “She knows the exact number of women that I’ve slept with.” Blue eyes glanced quickly to C.C., then back again to her other sisters.

“C.C., you impress me.” Randi sat back in her chair. “I didn’t know that you could count that high.” She leveled a glare at Brooke. “What is that now, Loran…are we into the millions or the trillions now?” Randi smirked, “We all know what that big, bad girl did on the road with the groupies.”

Brooke politely put her napkin down on the table, then slowly looked up to Randi. “No, actually, you know what the publicists say that Loran did. I never slept with any of those women.

“Well, not in detail, thank the gods.” Randi rolled her eyes.

“It was nothing more than a gimmick to sell more albums and it worked. I never slept with them or had any torrid affairs.” Brooke pushed back from the table. “I never had any type of relations with any of those groupies. In fact, you can count my sexual partners on one hand.

Mable watched her verbal daughter as she defended her sex life.

“And that would be who’s hand…” Randi looked over to Terri and the idea was born. “A circus freak?” The two siblings joined forces and put all four of their hands together as one, with the fingers splayed out and wiggling like some kind of sea creature.

Brooke leaned forward forcefully. “Just because I was hot does not mean that I got more ass than a toilet seat.”

“Now, that is an interesting concept.” Terri took her hands from the out of the air and smiled.

“So, that still means you didn’t get around, huh?” Randi wasn’t letting up one bit.

“Not at all.” Brooke stated for the record, then crossed her arms in front of her chest, “Never.”

C.C. smiled, thankful that the pressure was off of her and finished the last bit on her plate.