Chapter XXXV Planning the celebrations in Montecatini-Terme
Our men had arranged to take Olivia and the three children for a month's holiday in August in the Tuscan town of Montecatini-Terme to the house owned by Luke's parents, which they had arranged to rent for a small sum, for a series of family reunions to mark the tenth anniversary of their civil partnership, and Luke's grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. The house at M-T was large (it had previously been a small hotel) and hence a good venue for a lot of guests. A couple of years before, an outdoor pool had been constructed in the back garden. Costanza was coming in case Olivia was still suckling Caterina, although it was hoped that by then she would have been weaned.
David's parents were to stay for the whole month. David and Jonathan would stay for two weeks, Dorotea, Massimo and Bianca for the other two weeks. Luke's brother Sandro, his partner Dom and their two daughters were also invited, and so were Tommy, Luke's youngest adopted brother, and Cathy and her husband. Cathy, Luke's sister, to their total amazement, was expecting a baby. David's parents had long since given up expecting any great-grandchildren from her! Like many other twentyfirst-century women, she had left childbearing to well into her thirties. Of course Olivia's parents were also coming. They were to stay for a week, as were David's brother Jeroen and his family and Tom's sister Liz Satterthwaite and her husband Aidan and their two children. Tommy asked if he could bring his girlfriend along, and of course this was agreed. There was not enough room in the house to sleep more than eight persons, so some guests had to stay in an hotel across the road, and some of the children had to sleep on camp beds.
Breakfast and dinner for everyone was to be taken at the hotel, by special arrangement. A private room had been set aside for them. No way could Costanza be expected to manage meals for such a vast household! Organizing the accommodation was itself a logistic nightmare, and Tom who had volunteered to do it, was nearly tearing his hair out. For one thing, the house guests, except children, would have to make their own beds. They had considered asking Dom and Sandro to bring Mrs Harrison with them, to help Costanza, but then realized that as the two ladies could not speak each others' languages, it would have been a waste of time!
Tom arranged two adjacent rooms for himself, Luke, Olivia and the children. He and Luke would take turns to share a room with Olivia and Caterina, who by now had been weaned and only needed a bottle at night and in the morning, and the little boys would share a room with whichever of their fathers was not sleeping with their mother. They were not old enough to find anything strange in this arrangement. As it turned out, it was very far-seeing of Tom, because Olivia turned out to be quite demanding in her sexual needs, and whichever of the men was sleeping with her was required to fuck her quite frequently!
By now, she had got used to the men spending time in prayer before getting into bed. What she had never got used to was the way that both Tom and Luke, whenever they were alone with her, before doing anything else, would take all their clothes off and wander round bedroom and bathroom totally naked, their genitals hanging free and shaking as they moved about. Most men are shy about doing that, as it often accords great mirth to women! Only men who are self-confident about their virility can do it. Olivia's first boyfriend had been extremely modest about concealing his manhood. Even if they had not been gay, the uninhibited atmosphere of the communal changing room of the Camford Men's Fitness Centre would have freed Tom and Luke from excessive male modesty.
At first it came as a surprise to Olivia that they each knelt naked to say their prayers. When she asked Tom about this, he explained that nudity symbolized their approach to God, to show that they were laying themselves open in total humility before Him, with any spots, wounds or scars exposed to Him. "After all," he said. "This is how we came into the world!" This disappointed her. She had imagined that they were just being macho and showing off their manhood to her. She had not expected a theological explanation! Tom just grinned and said that he was sorry if she found his big arse and small cock disappointing.
This made Olivia blush, a thing that she rarely did. She said, "Tom, hai un bello cazzo. Non è troppo piccolo!" (You have a lovely cock. It's not too small) and she kissed him on the lips. Although it was undeniable that Luke's bigger cock fitted her multiparous
potta
better than Tom's, she would never have dreamed of risking hurting his feelings by telling him so.
Eventually, both the men asked her if they could have a few nights together, with the baby in her crib, leaving Olivia to share with the little boys. Caterina now slept through most nights, but the men were happy to get up and get her a bottle if she woke and started to cry. They felt that Olivia needed to relax, and enjoy herself in M-T, but they also needed to make love to one another!
During the month, there were to be two big parties, which it was hoped would enable every visitor to be present at at least one celebration. Otherwise, the visitors were left to do what they wanted. They were expected to entertain themselves, and were allowed to sign out of evening meals if they wished. The bill was of course immense and to offset some of the costs, guests were invited per family group to contribute €100 over and above their travelling costs. But otherwise Luke's parents and grandparents paid the bill. It was no more than a high performance automobile would have cost, and gave pleasure to a far larger number of people!
For the parties, in addition to the usual Prosecco, Luke arranged with the hotel for a special importation on a semi-wholesale scale of Belgian beer for all who wanted something different from their usual drink, or who did not like the beer usually offered by the hotel.
The event was much larger than the previous family festival of ten years previously, because of the arrival of five great-grandchildren to the Scarboroughs, with another on the way. Their grandchildren were all now either fully grown up or teenagers. The occasion would be notable for the presence of Olivia, who was meeting many of the Scarboroughs' extended family for the first time.
Luke had never sought the approval of either his parents or grandparents for his and Tom's relationship with Olivia. He had had no doubt that they would approve their guardianship of Giovanni, but had never considered that they might disapprove of him and Tom fathering two more of Olivia's children. However, he knew that his grandparents had taken a great liking to Olivia, and as they were all so happy together, he did not see that they could disapprove. And as for his mother and Massimo, they were both delighted to have grandchildren.
For our two men, it was important to ensure that not only was one of them available to keep Olivia and Caterina company, but to maximize the time that they could spend with their two sons, as well as letting all the children spent time together and ensuring that Costanza did not feel that she had been brought along as a household drudge. They made it clear to Costanza that she was free every afternoon to go out wherever she wanted. Sometimes she went out in the park with Olivia and the boys. One thing they did several times was for Luke and his brother to take the boys out, while Tom and Dom took the twins out. They also wanted to spend time with Luke's fathers. It would be the first time that Sandro and Dom had been to Italy since Dom had become Earl of Batley. Dom had changed his signature from Dominic Ovenden to Dominic Batley, but otherwise was modest to the point of reticence about using his courtesy title. He had not changed his passport.
Chapter XXXVI The celebrations in Montecatini-Terme 1
Eventually August arrived and after a fraught couple of days getting organized, the party from Trabizona arrived in M-T, shortly before the first visitors. One day, as Tom, Giovanni and Bernardo were walking in the spa park with David and Jon, Tom confessed to them that much as he loved his job and his life in Italy, he often wished that they all could live in Camford. "But it would be very difficult. Olivia is still not very confident about speaking English, and I'm frightened that if we were to move now, the boys would quickly forget their Italian background and nationality. Above all, Luke would have great difficulty in finding a job that suited him. I know that he doesn't need to work, but that would be against all that your family has taught him. So except in the unlikely event of me being headhunted by Camford University, I guess that we are fixtures here. And we men have a great social life. Hopefully as the children get older, Olivia will get out and do more. It isn't as if she had no help in the house. Costanza is a treasure.
