"Mom, do you think you could teach me some self-defense?" Bella asked me as we sat on the beach in front of our almost-house a week later. The beach was busy, sunny days in New England are to be enjoyed whenever possible, but less so in front of our house since the visitors stayed further down and mostly the neighborhood residents were in this section.

It was our almost-house because Petra, sorry, Susan, had already bought it for us. The owners had already moved out so that Talia and her workers could renovate, but now we were going to work with Talia to make the house tailored to us. We had a meeting later on to go over the choices we had, and hopefully we could move in soon. Did Susan pay Talia a little extra for more workers? I think that might have happened, yeah.

But in any case, the first thing that happened was me gasping and looking at Bella in shock, because that was the first time that she'd called me mom. The paperwork had come in this morning, and so I guess she was trying out how it sounded. The second thing was me having to sniffle away a few tears that threatened to escape, because I really loved that. She was a great kid, and I was happy that we'd done the adoption. "Do you not feel safe here?"

She shook her head a little. "No, I do. But that doesn't mean bad things won't happen. I thought I was pretty safe back in Florida too, even if my stepmom was a bitch, but look what happened. I don't ever want to feel helpless again, you know?"

I nodded, understanding exactly what she meant. "I'll teach you. We can work out together, put some more muscle on you, and I'll teach you a few things. I never really learned a fighting style, but I know a lot from different places. Mostly though, I'm just really good at dirty fighting, and knowing where to hit someone to make them hurt. If anyone ever comes after you on the streets, that is exactly what to want. Now, if you want to get into a ring with someone, that is a whole other deal."

"Nope, I don't need to get into a ring. I just want to be able to protect myself or anyone I'm with. Like, if I ever went on a date, I would want to make sure nobody messes with us," she explained.

"A date huh? Frida maybe?" I wondered about all the time they'd been spending together, but I wasn't sure that she was looking for something like that.

"No, not Frida. She's great, but I think she likes someone in school already. Besides, she's still finishing middle school this year, and wouldn't even be a freshman till next year. If I go to school, I'd be a junior this year. She might feel a little uncomfortable dating older people right now. Besides, maybe friends are what we are, I don't want to mess that up. But I could always meet someone else and ask them out."

I sat back in the little beach chair, digging my toes into the sand as I thought about it. I would have asked Willow and Lexie to help, but they were at an interview at a medical center in nearby Cohasset, and damnit I was her mom, so I needed to come up with good stuff for her! "I'm sure you'll find someone. I got lucky with Lessa, and I got lucky with Willow and Lexie. Hell, I got lucky meeting you too, in a different way. When you're ready to date, you can always talk to me or your other moms, and we'll help."

Bella's voice dropped to almost a whisper, and I had to lean closer to hear her over the gentle waves that were hitting the sand at the water's edge. "I know, and I'm glad I have you all to talk to. I guess I'm still getting used to things. I have a new family, survived a kidnapping, a new home in a new state and then in under two months I have to deal with a new school too. It's just a lot, you know?"

I reached out, threading my fingers through her hair, then gently rubbing the back of her head. "You've done remarkably well, and I know a lot of that was out of your control. Would it make you feel better to do some online classes this year until you get used to the area? I'll probably be around a lot until I figure out what I'm doing, and you could probably talk to Elise whenever you need to if you wanted the advice of an actual teacher."

"Would that really be okay with everyone?" She looked back at me with her eyes wide.

"Of course! Every one of us has gone through a lot. Hell, I kept trying to tell Willow and Lexie that they didn't need to rush back to work with the money that Susan paid me, but they wanted to try to work a little bit before they got pregnant."

"How's that going? You haven't knocked them up yet? And how much money did you get? I know she gave me a lot more than I expected!" Bella giggled as she asked, and I could only groan in response. The truth was, my ass had been too sore, and I knew I wouldn't be able to thrust without hurting myself. Likewise, they wouldn't be able to ride my cock without hurting me too. On the good side, we'd had several more sessions where we did other things, because my tongue was feeling much better! Perhaps tonight was finally the night! And there was no way I was telling Bella that Susan had given us $25 million either, plus what she got for the girls. I was still stunned by that, and even better she had it in account earning interest for us so I didn't have to worry about investments unless we wanted to, we could take our time with it.

"Hey, no talking about your moms like that!" I said sharply, getting a scoff in return.

"Please, you know half the street can hear you guys going at it. It isn't my fault! Hell, I think you guys get everyone that hears you going at it all worked up, and they have to run home to take care of themselves!"

I knew she was right, because Hanna and Mira had both teased me about it, and Talia had made a comment about adding extra insulation in the new house, so it was quieter. But hey, I wasn't going to get embarrassed about pleasing my wives. Well, not wives yet. We still needed to get that taken care of! Hell, even after the ceremony I knew we wouldn't be legally married, but we'd make sure we'd get everything set up as though we were.

"If you must know, I think we'll try for the baby soon. Very soon. I'm getting better every day, so as soon as I'm able to, we'll go for it."

"And I'll have to sleep over at Frida's house?" Bella flashed a little smirk.

"Oh, you love it. Her mom cooks better than we do anyway!"

"I'm not denying that. Your uncles are great, but they're pretty helpless without a grill. You can't cook to save your life. Willow and Lexie are okay but can only cook like 5 things. Mrs. Pareja can cook like nobody's business. Elise is really good too. Maybe you should get lessons!"

I opened my mouth to say something snarky, but then I realized that she was right. I should! "That's not a bad idea. I can work out with you and learn to cook from them. Then in the fall I can be a substitute teacher in some of the schools around here. And we'll see if I want to teach more self-defense classes on top of that." Lexie and Willow were both going to be working, and then be pregnant. I needed to pamper my girls and make it easier on them. Cooking would help a lot with that! "Come on! I'm giving you a quick lesson, and then we're going to go see if we can find a place that does cooking classes around here."

"I get to have a lesson today?" she asked excitedly as we folded up our beach chairs and headed back towards my uncle's place.

"Yeah, and it is a quick and easy one that you can use almost anywhere."

When we got to my uncle's place, Tom was cooking, and I had to poke Bella from giggling at how much of a mess he was making. In the family room, they had a couple of travel magazines, I guess they'd caught the bug from Hana and Mira, and I grabbed one before taking Bella out back.

"Are you showing me honeymoon spots?" Bella asked with a snicker while pointing at the magazine.

I snorted as I lifted up the little magazine. "Nope. But a magazine is a great weapon. In a pinch, it can be very versatile. You can do the same thing with a newspaper, but the thicker magazine paper is better." I rolled the magazine up until it was like a little baton, then held it about a quarter of the way up. "It doesn't seem like much, and just smacking someone isn't going to do a lot. But you can hit a guy in the balls with it, and drop them like a sack, or jab anyone in the solar plexus with the end and knock the wind out of them." I poked her there just so she knew what I was talking about. "I hit a guy there once who was drunk and belligerent, and he was puking on the floor for a long time. Ended a fight before it ever began."

"Seriously?" She looked skeptical, so I handed it over. "Huh, it does feel pretty solid." She mimed jabbing it at me, so I showed her the best way to do it, and she finally got the hang of it. "Thanks! Any other tips?"

"Well, I'll show you more when we start doing lessons, but the quick answer is to go for their joints and soft spots. If you want to run away, go for the knees, ankles, groin, or throat. All of those will slow them down and give you a chance to get away. Elbows and shoulders are harder, but good if you want to subdue them. We'll need to work on getting you stronger to take advantage of that. We're going to have some early mornings to get us both into shape!"

"Okay! I can do that!"

"Good, and you're sleeping at Frida's tonight!"

"Ugh, horny bitches."