“Cheers! Ha ware ya? Ya muss be Matty's mam."

"Good morning, Mrs. O'Brien. Yes, I'm Matthew's mother. Pleased to meet both of you."

Not expecting a parent to actually come out to the van, Mother had been seated in the front passenger seat. But as Naimh's parents came down the sidewalk, Mother did the polite thing by opening her door and stepping onto the sidewalk so she could shake hands and properly introduce herself.

As for me, I was rummaging around the trunk, playing a game of suitcase

Tetris to make sure everything fit. I'd already packed the space beneath the middle row. The gap between the two front bucket seats was piled as high as my elbow. Belle Lost her legroom when I had to stick a bag into that spot as well. And we even had to forego the usual seating arrangements by having Sam and Mari sit in the middle row together because they had the widest hips. I wondered for the umpteenth time if we would have just driven two cars had Alice been still with the BTC, because I couldn't see ANY way we would have fit both another girl and another suitcase in here.

Finally, I got the trunk shut without crushing anyone's luggage, circled around to the front of the car where Naimh's parents were chatting quite happily with Mother, and announced, “ALL set. Ready to go."

“Well again, it was nice to meet you both," Mother wrapped up, shaking hands with Naimh's mom. Naimh herself was now blushing pink in the third row with Belle and Zofi, a little embarrassed that her parents had actually come down to the van, although they weren't the only parents we'd seen this morning. Mari's mom and dad had waved to us from their front porch, and Zofi's dad had waved goodbye from inside his living room window. In truth, I figured all of the parents had wanted to confirm with their own eyes that their daughters were NOT driving off for a three-night ski vacation with a lone male and NO chaperone, and Mother's presence in the front seat had apparently mollified them.

Sam's dad thought I was gay, so... whatever.

Naimh was our last pickup, and we soon hit the road for the four-hour drive up to the "cabin" Mom had rented in North Lake Tahoe. It wasn't actually a cabin, that's just what all the rental houses up here in the mountains were called. We didn't have some four-thousand square foot luxury mansion right on the Lake, but we had a decent-sized house on a relatively Large lot only a couple of blocks away from the beach, and it would be perfectly adequate as a base of operations for us to enjoy ourselves until returning the girls back home to their families well before Christmas.

I actually shaved fifteen minutes off the drive, with Mother dozing in her seat so I didn't feel bad about going 8@mph the whole way, at least until we got into the mountains. Everyone was more than happy to get out of the cramped van, and Sam helped me get everyone organized to start ferrying in all our stuff, except for Mother of course. The one paying for the place shouldn't have to do any work. She had gone in first to make a phone call, promptly found a bottle of wine, and was half a glass down by the time I came inside with the last of the

Luggage.

Sam came to me.

“There are only two bedrooms, plus the loft, so somebody's gonna have to sleep out here in the living room. Assuming your mum gets the master, the rest of us were gonna pair up and ro-sham-bo for the other bedroom first, then the loft, and whoever is left gets stuck out here.”

“Makes sense."

“The girls figured it wouldn't be appropriate for any of us to share a bed with you with your mum around," Sam began, giving me a look that suggested SHE would've taken the chance before glancing over to where

Mother sat at the dining table reading a book. Mother wasn't quite out of earshot if she was paying attention, and from her posture I figured she might be listening.

“So, rather than have you take up one of the queen beds in the bedroom or the Loft, you're gonna have to be one of those stuck out here.”

I didn't reply right away. Instead, I looked over at Mother and found her Looking at me with an expression that told me she already knew what was on my mind. She had been listening after all, and she shrugged and gestured for me to go ahead.

“That won't be necessary," I said to Sam before raising my voice and announcing, "Can I have everyone's attention, please?"

The other four girls, clearly preoccupied with scoping out their sleeping options for the next three nights, had to come back to the living room from the bedroom and the Loft. But once they were all in earshot, I explained, "My apologies for bring you all here under false pretenses, but I genuinely don't think any of you will mind. Your parents would most Likely not have let you come had they known, and rather than ask any of you to keep the secret, it was easier to just not tell any of you until we'd arrived."

“What secret? What false pretenses?" Sam folded her arms across her chest, so used to being in control and NOT happy to be left out of the

Loop.

I grinned and glanced back at Mother, arching an eyebrow. She glanced over at the clock, raised her hand with her fingers spread apart, and stated, "Five minutes."

I nodded and turned back to face the girls. "My mother will not be staying with us tonight... or tomorrow night... or the night after

Actually, we probably won't see her again until Tuesday when it's time to go home. So Sam, you don't need to worry about playing musical beds or whatever. Nobody's going to have to sleep out in the Living room."