Chapter 33 #4
Drake gave me a wink before walking outside with his tray of food. I examined the cupcakes and noticed that we had forgotten chocolate shavings on one of the cupcakes. I stopped to fix the “naked” cupcake.
“Are those homemade?” Jemmy looked longingly at the sweet treats. “Or did Drake get them from the restaurant?”
She decided, recently, that she was going to monitor her sweet intake. Admittedly, she was worse than the kids when it came to sugar. Sugar was one of her major food groups; of that, I was confident.
Drake was the executive chef, once more, at We 7. He just didn’t spend as many hours there as he once had. He wanted to be an active father and made sure that his right hand woman was capable of running the kitchen in his absence.
I had to hide the satisfied smile from her. “Drake and I made them this morning.”
“That icing looks amazing.” She pouted. “I’m going to have one, just one.”
I wasn’t going to tell her that some of the icing had been on me before Drake licked it off.
At least not today. Today was a special day for both of us, and I wasn’t going to ruin it.
She hated hearing about my sex life, although she was only too happy to divulge unsolicited details of her sex life with Gavin.
“I don’t think one cupcake will hurt.” I reassured her.
“Do I look okay?” Jemmy asked nervously.
Jemmy had her hair down and curled at the ends. She no longer rocked colors in her hair but she still had an edgy beautiful look as she matured. For the occasion she had put on a white sundress with brown cowboy boots. In short, she was stunning as always.
“You look beautiful.” Jaxson reassured her as he came in the back door with a football tucked in his arm. “But what’s that stain on the front of it?”
Jemmy looked down and squealed out in horror. The stain took up the majority of her beautiful white dress. It took me a moment to realize what had happened.
“Jaxson James.” I scolded him immediately.
I knew for a fact that the large deep purple stain hadn’t been their moments ago, but my overgrown man-child still hadn’t grown out of his prank-loving ways.
I swear at times he wasn’t content unless he was causing mischief.
Or when he was on the field. Or when he was with the children.
Or when he was in me. Okay, he was easy to please as always.
Jemmy growled as the stain disappeared. “Wait for payback”
“Bring it on.” He challenged her with a wicked smirk before he kissed my nose. “I’m going to run upstairs and grab that jersey for Jacob. They’re auctioning it off for that children's charity event we’re attending next week.”
In the last few years Jacob, the man we met in the future, and the guy that helped Lincoln and I catch the serial killer had grown closer to us.
Life had proven how small our world really was when we discovered he shared a connection with Bentley.
Unlike most of us they slid into their roles as a family unit with ease.
“I’m going to get him back and last I heard he pranked Lincoln yesterday. I’m sure he would love to help me in my mission.” Jemmy huffed.
I would intervene, but I stopped that losing battle long ago. Jemmy and Jaxson had a long-running prank war going on. Admittedly we all got in on the action sometimes, but we knew when to step back and let them one-up each other.
“Can’t wait.” I truthfully stated. “Just wait until Monday. We’re heading out tomorrow morning to visit that Airbnb that Anna and Herman was telling us about.”
We learned date nights/ days were a must with the children and our busy schedules.
We had to carve out time for each other.
No matter how amazing it was to be surrounded by the men I loved, they needed that one on one time with me.
I cherished those moments as much as I prized our family bonding times.
Jaxson came back down carrying a jersey with his name and number on it.
Jaxson achieved his dreams of becoming a quarterback for the NFL.
It wasn’t always the easiest to balance out all our schedules, but we made it work.
We worked hard to get to the point where we were able to make time for each other as a family.
He stopped to give me a kiss and grab a tray of food. “Want me to come back for anything else?”
“I think that should do it.” I thanked him, knowing some of the others would be in shortly to help us bring out the remaining food.
I carried the cupcakes out to the already overflowing table and smiled as I saw Jemmy walk over to Gavin.
He was throwing a baseball with a few of the kids but stopped when he saw Jemmy.
He told the kids to join their other friends and promptly embraced her and dipped her back for a deep kiss.
I giggled and was so happy to see how happy they were.
It took a while for past hurts to heal and a lot of work but they had made it work.
If you were first meeting Gavin, Mercedes, Sierra, and Jemmy you would assume that they always had a loving and communicative relationship.
You would have never seen how they struggled for a couple of years until they found a balance that worked for them all.
I made my way to the back yard to see if the stage was complete and to get an eye on the kids.
I barely made it five feet before Jace was snagging me down onto his lap.
He was in the middle of a conversation with Pops, Greg, and Terrance.
Yes, Terrance had returned to us after nearly three of his healing journey.
Terrance had kept in touch the entire time and he had still played online games with Marcel and Rachel.
So when he returned it felt like time had barely passed.
He took the position Lincoln had offered him and began hanging out with Rachel more.
To everyones surprise they started dating a year later, a year after that they were married.
Their honeymoon baby was born nine months later.
Ariel, their nearly one year old daughter was cradled on his chest, where she had given up her battle against her nap.
“I can’t wait to see what you have planned today.” Jace murmured before placing a kiss on my bare shoulder blade.
I took special care in my outfit today, courtesy of Anna. I was wearing one of her whimsical creations that said sexy mom? according to her, that is. The plum purple dress was strapless and molded to my torso with a plunging neckline. The skirt was flirty, flowy, and falling down to my ankles.
Generally, unless it was an event or I was on stage, I wore little to no makeup. I made an exception today, and Victoria was eager to do my makeup. Even though she had no clue what the real purpose of the barbeque was.
“Mmm-hmm,” I hid my grin behind my hands. “Why do you think I’m planning anything special? It’s been a while since we had our friends and family for a get-together. Everyone always seems to be running in opposite directions. It seemed like a perfect reason to plan this.”
Usually, I would be worried that he figured out my secret, but there was no way? not this time. There was very little I was able to conceal from Jace very long. I was able to hold onto this one for the past week, and I was a bit smug about it.
His long thin finger traced lazy circles legs.
I slapped his wandering hands but laughed.
He had the perfect musician’s fingers. They were long, deft, and sure no matter what instrument he picked up.
He was Pop's right-hand man more or less, but he still took the time to teach music classes three times a week.
He realized after our son, Andy, showed interest in music that there were probably thousands of kids that had an interest in learning but weren’t able to afford it.
He reached out to the local public schools and after school clubs for at-risk and low-income families and had teachers, counselors, and mentors sending children his way all the time.
His program got so big a few other teachers began to volunteer to teach these children in their free time.
“I don’t know what you're up to, but I’ll figure it out.” He paused and closed his eyes. “Please tell me you didn’t get another animal.”
I laughed and covered my face. After we moved into the house it didn’t take long for us to add addition projects.
Jaxson built his greenhouse to keep him busy during the off season.
Remy had built a barn. It hadn’t taken us long to realize his love of animals until he requested the outbuilding.
He was the first person to bring Gato, a kitten, home for the kids.
I brought home our goat, George. Then George got lonely, so Remy brought home, Georgette.
Now, we had two dogs, six barn cats, four goats, a dozen chickens, a couple of geese, an alpaca, a miniature donkey, and a squirrel, don’t ask.
Admittedly, I brought home a majority of the animals.
“Remy, Jaxson, and I take care of our farm,” I protested.
“What did you get?” He sighed, but I saw his lips twitch.
He tried to pretend our miniature farm annoyed him, but I saw how taken Mozart, one of the cats, was to him and vice versa. He also made his rounds once a day to visit the other menagerie of animals with the children and Mozart trailing behind them.
“You’re potbelly pig is so cute!” Sierra came running onto the patio with Addison and Rory in tow. “Tell me there’s more where he came from!”
Of course, Addy was walking Porky. I popped up and shot Jace a guilty look. “I’ll give you the number.” I told Sierra then turned to my stubborn daughter. “Addison Grace, I thought we decided that Porky was to stay in the barn until I got to tell your Dads.”
“Porky wanted a walk.” She mutinously tilted her chin up.
She was still the firecracker she was in my womb. Where Andy was laid back and calm, his twin kept us on our toes.