Chapter 24

                                    

                                          
My stomach was full of butterflies and his lips were warm. His hand moved from my shoulder to the back of my head to tangle into my hair. My hands slid up from his chest to the back of his neck. This kiss was so sweet, I didn't want it to end. A few moments later, we pulled apart and just looked at each other. A smile grew on his face and I smiled too. The ride ended and we got up from the bench and helped Lexine off of her horse.
"I think that our brave little princess deserves an ice cream cone!" Brady said to her. She nodded eagerly held my hand and Brady's with the other. As we walked over to the ice cream counter, it felt like we were a family just visiting the mall together. I liked that feeling but I did wish that the other guys were there too. 
There were many flavors to choose from but I quickly found one my favorites, Lemon Custard and after a little debate Lexine got Birthday Cake. Brady ordered Strawberry Cheesecake for himself and we found a bench nearby to sit and eat at. As we ate our ice cream, Lexine wanted give us tastes of hers and get tastes of ours as well. 
"She really likes to share doesn't she? I remember that she gave you one of the cherries off her sundae at Bob's Diner."
"Yes, she loves to share her treats and she knows that I do like Maraschino cherries." 
"You have done a great job with her. She really is a good girl."
"Thank You!" 
"Do I get a taste of your ice cream Delphine?" he asked with a glint in his eye.
"Of course! Here." I held out my spoon to him over Lexine's head. He ignored it and grabbed my chin and kissed me instead. The tip of his tongue touched my lips briefly and then he pulled away. 
"Tastes pretty good!" 
I heard a little giggle and I looked down at Lexine. She was grinning big and for some reason found that Brady kissing me was hilarious and just giggled away. 
"Oh, so you think that me kissing your mommy is funny huh?" Brady teased her and leaned down to give her a big smacking kiss on the cheek. "Is that funny too?" She giggled so much that she ended up with hiccups. We finished our ice cream and I pulled out some wet wipes from my purse to clean off Lexine's mouth and hands. Brady asked for one too and wiped his hands off. 
"These wipes really are handy! I really need to keep some on me too."
"Sure, are you going to keep them in your pocket or your purse?" I teased him.
"Huh, neither so I guess I'll just have to keep you around!"
                          
We made our way to one of the children stores and Brady seemed to really have fun picking out clothes for Lexine. He even insisted on going to another one to get more things. Lexine found a pair of light blue glittery Mary Janes that she fell in love with. Brady let her put them on as soon as they were paid for. We decided that we were done with the mall for the day and headed home. Lexine admired her new shoes the whole way. 
It took a couple of trips from the car to the house to get everything inside. My poor girl was yawning by then. She had a big afternoon! We put her down for a nap on the love seat and we sat on the bigger couch to watch some tv and unwind. Scrolling through the guide, Brady discovered that I liked Sci fi movies such as Star Trek and Star Wars.
"Oh, thank God! A woman who appreciates the good stuff! You really do belong here with us you know." he said while giving me a big hug.
"You think that the rest of the guys feel the same way?" I asked him playfully. 
"Oh, I know that they do." he answered and pulled me into his lap. "Let's get comfortable and just relax for a little."
"OK." I said and snuggled into him. I felt safe and really comfortable with Brady. He was so big and muscular physically but also was so very sweet. I rested my head on his shoulder and he had his arms around me. I didn't mean to but I dozed off. 
I slowly woke up to a light kiss on the lips. My eyes fluttered open to see Brady's warm brown ones looking into mine. I smiled at him and gave him a kiss back. I heard the front door bang shut and it startled me. I started to get off of Brady's lap but he held me there.
"It's fine Delphine. I promise that whoever it is will be ok with you sitting in my lap." 
Wyatt came into the room and grinned when he saw me. 
"I see by all the bags by the stairs that the shopping trip was a successful one!" 
"Yes, it was. Very successful." Brady told him. They had one of those silent conversations with their eyes. Wyatt had a big smile on his face. 
"Delphine, want to go to the grocery store with me? I think that we need more stuff in the house to cook with."
I glanced at Brady who smiled encouragingly at me and said,"Go ahead. I'll take care of Lexine." He kissed my forehead and helped me stand up.  I told Wyatt that I needed to freshen up and would be ready to go in a few minutes. The guys were talking quietly about something and stopped when I came back in the room.
Wyatt came over and grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the house and over to the garage. He opened one of the doors and walked me over to the passenger side of a dark blue BMW and opened it for me. He got into the other side and started the car.
"This is a nice car Wyatt!"
"Thank you Delphine. You can borrow it whenever you want."
"Oh, I can't do that!"
"Yes, you can. I insist!"
"No, really Wyatt, I can't because I can't drive a stick."
"Then I will have to teach you!"
"No. It's too confusing. I prefer the much simpler just gas and brake pedals."
We debated the whole way to the store about the stick versus automatic. We pulled into the parking lot of a different grocery store than Jake had taken me to. I was a little glad because I didn't want to have to explain a totally different guy with me to the cashier. Wyatt was piling all sorts of things into the cart like bread, eggs and milk. He told me to start grabbing whatever I thought that I would need to cook with for the next few days. The cart was piled high when we were done. 
"Five guys eat a lot of food don't they?" I asked Wyatt as we waited in line. 
"We sure do. I didn't realize it until I saw how much we put into the cart. But before we ate out a lot so we never had to buy this much stuff. Thank God you came along because I was getting sick off all the restaurants around here! Don't worry that we will keep you chained to the kitchen. Once in a while, we will take you out to eat at a nice place." He smiled and tugged a lock of my hair. 
Of course he paid for all the food and we headed home. At one of the stoplights, he reached out and he poked me in the side. I yelped and pushed his hand away laughing. 
"Ticklish are we?" He grinned at me.
"Yes, very! I won't be held responsible for my actions if you tickle me." I threatened him with a playful glare. 
"I'm going to hold you to that sometime."
When we got home and started to unload the grocery bags, Preston pulled into the driveway and parked his Porche. These guys really had some nice cars! He came over and helped with the bags. I smiled shyly at him still remembering this morning. The heat in his eyes told me that he did too. 
Once we got into the house, the guys helped put everything away and I started to cook. I decided to make a tangerine cake for dessert so I made the batter and put it in the oven to bake. Then I made the tangerine sauce and set it aside for topping the cake later. For dinner I had decided to make a chicken stir fry over rice. It was fairly easy to make and I was finished with it by the time the cake was done baking. 
Chase popped into the kitchen sniffing the air. 
"Something smells too good to be true! My noses is telling me that I've stepped into a gourmet Chinese restaurant but my eyes say it's just our kitchen." 
"It's ready to be served, so go get the guys."
"No, I don't want to share this with them!"
I grabbed a wooden spoon and waved it at him. 
"Go tell them dinner is ready or else!"
"OK, ok I'm going. No need to get violent." 
I smiled at him and he laughed as he left the kitchen. 
After everyone was served, we started eating. Chase was in heaven and raving about the stir fry. 
"Where did you find this sauce?" he asked me.
"I make it myself."
"I didn't want to share any of this with you guys but she threatened me with a weapon!" he told everyone. 
Preston looked at me questioningly.
"It wasn't a weapon! It was just a wooden spoon." I said to everyone.
"Yeah, she has a little temper all right." Brady said. 
Jake looked interested. "What make you say that?"
"Oh there was this very aggressive woman in Victoria's Secret who wouldn't leave me alone. And this was while I was holding Lexine! Buttercup here got mad and basically told her that her boob job had been botched and that she needed a good plastic surgeon to fix it. You should have seen the look on that lady's face! It was priceless."
The guys all burst into laughter and I felt my cheeks get pink.
"Aww... I would have given anything to have seen that!" Wyatt said still laughing. 
"She was making my daughter uncomfortable!" I protested. 
Preston looked at me with pride. "It's good that you can stand up for yourself."
"So Victoria's Secret huh? Are you going to model anything from there?" Jake teased me.
To their surprise, Lexine raised her hand and shook her finger no at him. I smiled and said, "I've taught her that girls do not show their underwear to boys!"