AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. All characters are over the age of 18.
*
"Why don't you just come move in with me?"
That something that Mike never expected to hear from his little sister. It wasn't that he didn't love his little sister, just that they hadn't been close in a long time. They had been inseparable growing up, that tends to happen in abusive households. Their estrangement though started back when they were in their early twenties. Sarah had come home early from work one day to find her soon to be ex-boyfriend in bed with her soon to be ex-best friend. Sarah then showed up at Mikes place in tears. Dinner and a bottle of rum later they wound up spending a night together that neither of them remembered that well.
When they awoke in Mike's bed the next morning naked and unable to deny what had just happened, they figured the worst had already happened and then it happened again. And again. And it kept happening every day, usually several times a day, for the next month. It had been an incredible time of exploring each other's bodies and needs, both of them doing things for the other that they had never considered doing for another person before. All good things had to come to an end though, and one day Sarah realized she had missed her period. A pregnancy test confirmed their worst fears.
Sarah had asked Mike what she thought she should do. Mike panicked and said she should get rid of it. He quickly realized that what she was actually asking was if he would help her take care of the child. It was too late though, the damage was done and Sarah walked out of his life for the next few years. She had tried to tell her ex that it was his, but he was infertile, so she had to fess up that she had had a one-night stand with someone after she found him cheating. Naturally their dad refused to let her stay at home, calling her "a good for nothing whore, just like your mother!". Thankfully their mom's sister out in California let her move in with her and helped Sarah find a job.
Mike's niece Emily was three before he finally met her when Sarah relented and came home for a visit. There was no doubt in Mike's mind that Emily was actually his daughter, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. When Mike had found time to talk with Sarah in private it became apparent that it was easier for Sarah to forget about what had happened between them and simply believe the lie she told everyone, including herself. It was then that he knew that he had to get his life together.
Mike went to school at a culinary institute a few hours away and eventually became head chef at the only decent restaurant in town. It was a good living, and he genuinely loved the work, it was just exhausting and didn't leave him much time for anything else. Mike was tall, blonde, good looking with a lean physique and a ton of tattoos, so he never had trouble finding a girlfriend when he wanted one but none of them lasted long. Sarah, for her part, had gotten her real estate agent's license and was doing well for herself and her daughter. Mike didn't see either of them again until their father died of a heart attack when Emily was seven. With dad out of the picture their mom softened a bit and Sarah started coming back to town a couple times a year. Sarah and Mike also started talking and texting again on a regular basis. Cancer took their mom a few years later and though they always said that they would spend more time together, the last time Mike had seen either Sarah or Emily was at their mom's funeral.
Ten years had gone by and though they kept in touch, Mike and Sarah lived separate lives 1000 miles away. And then Covid happened. Mike lost his job when he got in a fight with the owner who was refusing to take it seriously. It wasn't the first time Mike had gotten heated about things over the last few years, so when word got out that he wasn't going to be quiet about this he was blacklisted from the other restaurants in the area. Word travels quickly in small towns. As things dragged on, more restaurants closed down and very few were hiring. Unemployment benefits helped, but Mike couldn't really do anything but watch his savings slowly dwindle.
Sarah and Mike were catching up on a call when she suggested he move in. "Seriously, you can't find a decent job out there, mom and dad have been gone for a while, what do you have left keeping you there?"
Mike started to give a half-baked excuse but gave up. "You're right. You're usually right."
"Usually? Try always bro."
"Not always. If I remember correctly you tend to have awful taste in men."
"Yeah... Usually... But not always." There was a small smile in her voice. "So, you're going to move out here?"
Mike sighed. "Yeah. I've got to fix up a few things around here if I'm going to sell my house, but I've got nothing else going on so it shouldn't take long. You've got a spare bedroom for me, right?"
"Yep! I'll let Em know that you're coming to stay, I'm sure she'll love to spend time with you."
Things moved quickly from there. In just a few weeks Mike had gotten some advice from a real estate agent, done some landscaping and refinished the deck before packing what he needed to take, moving his stuff into a storage unit and throwing out the rest. A few days later he was knocking on the door of his sister's home in a small coastal city in California. The door swung open, and Mike got a shock when his niece jumped out, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. "HEY UNCLE MIKE!" She looked exactly how Sarah had looked back when she was her age. Exactly the way Sarah had looked when they fucked like mad for a month straight.
Mike pulled back from the hug, grinning from ear to ear. "Holy shit Em! Who let you get so big? Turn around let me get a look at you." Emily laughed and twirled around. Her hair was shoulder length, braided on the sides and was dyed shades of blue and green. It was a hot day out so she was dressed in a white tank top and jeans cut off so short that her tiny pockets poked out the front. Emily's small breasts and firm body made it apparent that she worked out daily. Emily's tiny frame suited her 5'2" height and her slender legs were topped by a taut, peach shaped ass. "You look JUST like your mother."
Emily rolled her eyes. "Everyone says that, but mom says I look just like you."
Mike chuckled. "Might be the eyes. But maybe you'll take after me some more if we get some ink on you."
Mike held his arms out, showing off his full sleeve tattoos. Emily's eyes lit up as she ran her fingers along the designs. Sarah rounded the corner, shaking her head and laughing. "Oh no she doesn't. Maybe you can be a degenerate, but she doesn't get any tattoos that she can't cover up. Emily hasn't finished college and I'm not going to let her ruin her career this early."
Mike saw his sister for the first time in over a decade and the sight made his heart skip a beat. She was a little heavier than Emily but it just made her curves even curvier. Sarah's breasts had grown a cup size when she was pregnant, up to a C and had never gone back down. At 5'2" like her daughter they looked enormous. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a low ponytail, and she was wearing a simple cotton sundress. There were a few more lines around her eyes than he remembered, but otherwise she looked just like how he had fantasized for all those years. Mike shrugged and picked up his bag. "Hey, there's plenty of jobs out there for weirdos. Good to know you think I'm a degenerate though."
Sarah came in and hugged her brother close. "I missed you Mike. And yes, you're a degenerate, deal with it. Now let's go put your stuff in your room."
Sarah gave Mike the tour of the house. There were five bedrooms across two floors, living room, two car garage and a large backyard with a patio and pool. Mike had heard a little about California real estate prices from Sarah and knew it had to be worth at least a couple million. "Jesus Christ, I can't believe Aunt Val left this place to you."
Sarah shrugged. "I think it was mostly just because she loved Em so much. Anyway, what do we have to do to get some cooking out of you?"
Mike rolled his eyes and chuckled. "I figured that was coming. Let's take a look at what kind of kitchen I'm working with here." The appliances were brand new, or at least were hardly used. As he rifled through the cupboards Mike quickly realized that the kitchen was almost entirely for show. "Do you two ever even cook here?"
Sarah and Emily looked at each other guiltily. "We make breakfast every now and then." Emily shrugged.
Mike shook his head and grabbed a notepad by the fridge. "Ok, well we'll have to get some actual equipment in here if I'm going to cook on a regular basis, but I've got enough to put something together for tonight." Mike scribbled down a quick shopping list. "Here Em, could you go out to the store and pick these up?" Emily nodded and hugged Mike, took the list and Sarah's credit card and headed off to the store.
Mike found an old bag of flour, some eggs and a bottle of olive oil and got to work making some pasta. Sarah poured them a couple glasses of wine as Mike formed a pile of flour on the counter, cracked a few eggs into a divot in the center and beat the eggs with a fork. As he gradually worked the dough into a firm ball Mike and Sarah made small talk and caught up. It was when he went to wash his hands that Sarah finally asked the question she had been wanting to ask for years. "So why haven't you ever gotten married?"