74. Chapter 74
Chapter 74
Because they’d met on David’s birthday, it had always been special to Paige. However, since Ashley had sort of co-opted it, Paige wanted to make sure this birthday was returned to its rightful owner: her.
To start things off, she asked if she could take Jacob shopping for David’s birthday, and he blinked at her. “Really?”
“Yeah. Is that weird? You’re looking at me like it’s weird.”
“No, I just …” he trailed off. “It’s nice. I’m sure he’d love to go with you.”
“Okay, great. I’ll pick him up at eleven so he and I can go grab lunch, first.”
When she arrived, he held out his Jeep keys. “Here. You can take my car.”
“Thanks, but I’d rather take mine.”
“Seriously, take mine. That way I don’t have to transfer his car seat. That’s a huge pain in the ass.”
“I actually got one for my car and already put it in.”
He stared at her in surprise. “Are you serious?”
She nodded. “I got the same kind you have.”
“No shit?”
“Yeah, no shit. It seemed like the easiest thing to do. You know, in case of any future car rides.”
He put his hands on her face and kissed her. “God, I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she returned, slightly flustered at his intensity. “But it’s just a car seat.”
Without any real gift ideas in mind, Paige decided to take Jacob to one of the smaller shopping malls. After grabbing lunch in the food court, they started walking around, hand in hand, not seeing anything interesting until they came to a shop that specialized in custom-made T-shirts.
“I have an idea,” she said, taking Jacob inside.
After Paige shared her idea with the woman behind the counter, Paige turned to Jacob. “What do you think?”
He bobbed his head. “Yeah.”
Twenty minutes later, Paige was paying for a pair of matching blue shirts—one small and one large. The small one had ‘JACOB’ silk-screened across the chest in white letters and the larger one had ‘JACOB’S DAD’ silk-screened on it.
As the woman was putting the shirts in a bag, she nodded toward Jacob, who was looking at a display of keychains and whispered, “Your little boy is adorable.”
Paige didn’t correct her. “I think so, too.”
“He must look like his dad,” the woman said. Then, realizing she might’ve sounded insulting, she quickly clarified, “I just meant he doesn’t look like you.”
“I knew what you meant.” Paige smiled at her. “And he looks exactly like his dad.”
Deciding it was time to call it quits, Paige led Jacob toward the mall exit, only to stop when she spotted one of those photo booths with a curtain and ‘4 photos for $1.00’ plastered on the side. “Why don’t we take some pictures for your dad?” she immediately suggested.
“Okay.”
They popped into the booth and shut the curtain. Once she determined she had enough dollar bills to do five strips of four pictures, Paige sat down and motioned for Jacob to sit on her lap. She explained how it would work, and that he should just make whatever faces he wanted to. At first, he seemed a little hesitant, so she started doing things like tickling him or sticking a finger in his ear to get him to let go.
The last two strips she suggested they go solo on, so she got out of the way as Jacob went first, then he did the same for her.
When they were done, Paige retrieved the picture strips from the collection tray. They looked at all the photos together, cracking up at all of them—especially the ones in which Jacob’s eyes and top of his buzzed head were the only things in the picture, and Paige was picking her nose.
Jacob wanted to hold onto them until they got home, and during the drive, Paige could see him in the rearview mirror looking at the pictures with a smile on his face. At the loft, after telling David to hide for a few minutes, Paige wrapped David’s shirt with Jacob’s help. Then, once his card was done and he handed her the picture strips to put inside, she noticed there were only four strips, with one of the two of them was missing.
She could tell by Jacob’s expression he knew one was missing, and was troubled by it. She assumed he’d lost it somewhere between the photo booth and home, and hadn’t wanted to say anything, for fear of getting in trouble. Not wanting to make a deal out of what was an accident, she simply ignored the missing pictures because in terms of things that needed to be worried about, it registered a zero. When the card was sealed and Jacob’s expression turned to one of relief, she knew she’d made the right decision to not say anything.
Rubbing her hands together, she said with enthusiasm, “Now that’s out of the way, why don’t you wash your hands and help me get your dad’s birthday dinner started?”
“Okay,” he agreed eagerly.
Valerie came over and the four of them spent the afternoon together, finishing with dinner and David opening his presents, which he loved. Afterwards, while Valerie stayed with Jacob, Paige took David to Three Amigos, so they could have a few drinks and hang out with Evan while he was at work. Jules was also there, as was Nate, the only friend from college still living in-state, since Alex and Miles had moved away several years ago.
There was the requisite birthday wish with a shot, which gave Paige a strange jolt of nostalgia; this time, however, David refused to reveal what he’d wished for, even to Paige.
After that, there were numerous rounds of drinks, with much laughter and catching up. If Nate thought it odd Ashley was out of the picture and David and Paige were back together, he gave no indication of it. However, it was clear that Paige’s sexier appearance and outgoing personality was a bit of a surprise to him.
Under Evan’s watchful eye, Nate flirted with Jules and danced with her several times. During one of these dances, Paige decided to take advantage of them being gone and pulled David by his shirt to whisper in his ear, “I’ve decided it’s time to reclaim your birthday.”
“You’ve always owned my birthday.”
She shook her head. “It got hijacked for a while. But from here on out, it’s mine.”
“Really? And how do you propose to do that?”
She pursed her lips, as if thinking. “A blow job in the bathroom?”
“Uh … yeah.”
David practically dragged her off to the bathrooms, barely hesitating before knocking on the door marked ‘Ladies’. When there was no answer, he opened the door, poked his head in, then pulled Paige inside, saying, “It’s probably cleaner.”
Since it was a single occupancy room, he was able to lock the door while she attacked his belt. Once that was dealt with, she sank to her knees and looked up at him while easing his pants and underwear down to his thighs.
“Brace yourself,” she warned.
He leaned slightly forward and placed both hands flat against the wall behind her, his head resting against his left biceps, watching as she gripped his cock in her hand, making him release a harsh breath. She wasted no time taking as much as she could into her mouth, then establishing a grueling rhythm, her lips following her hand up and down, sucking hard.
David was groaning against his arm—as quietly as possible—when someone knocked on the bathroom door.
Paige released him long enough to call out, “It’s occupied,” then went back to working him over like a Hoover.
It didn’t take long for him to near the finish line. “Oh, Christ, get ready,” he muttered.
She gripped the base of his cock tightly, locking her lips around the plump head to create a tight seal seconds before he flooded her mouth with salty, warm fluid. She quickly swallowed, just in time for another warm rush, as David pushed forward into her mouth with another stifled groan. This time, there wasn’t as much, and when she thought he was done, she started to release him from her mouth, only to be stopped by one of his hands at the back of her head, holding her in place, and the other one covering hers where it was wrapped around his cock.
Paige felt one last, short burst of fluid hit the back of her throat, followed by his somewhat shaky declaration, “Now I’m done.”
The look of utter pleasure on his face had her smiling as he helped her to her feet. David’s expression became both tender and possessive when he reached out to cup the sides of her face. “God damn,” he whispered, right before gently kissing, his tongue dipping into her mouth.
“Happy birthday,” she teased, after they separated.
“Yes, it is,” he agreed.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
For a moment, the urge to ask her to marry him struck him so hard, he almost said the words out loud. However, they were in a public bathroom and she’d just gone down on him, so this probably wouldn’t be an engagement story she’d want to tell anyone, so he backed off.
When he proposed, it needed to be perfect.