5 Reasons To Love Again

Chapter 4

Another unexpected update! I managed to find a little time today. I do hope that everyone is having a good day...

"You can follow me there. You won't even have to use your GPS." Jake teased me.

"Really?", I asked. "Is it close by?"

I figured that it would be nice not to have to search around for a reputable place to stay at. Glancing at Brady who gave me a nod, I accepted. Kota came back to the table and placed the slices of pie in front of the guys and a kid sized hot fudge sundae in front of Lexine. It had two cherries on top. Lexine grabbed one of them and held it up to my mouth. She knew that I loved maraschino cherries. I opened my mouth and let her place it in there. As I chewed it I looked up to see Brady and Jake smiling at us.

"She's a sweet girl." Brady told me. "If I had a little girl, I would want her to be like yours."

"Thank You." I said with a soft smile.

I looked over at my daughter and saw that she was attacking the sundae like there was no tomorrow. Half of it was gone already.

"There is no way I'm going to let a tiny little girl out-eat me!" Jake said before shoving a forkful of apple pie into his mouth.

I laughed and Jake froze with the fork in his mouth. Brady also paused in the middle of forking off a piece of pie. I stopped laughing when I realized they were both staring at me.

"You have a beautiful laugh." said Jake after he swallowed his bite. I felt myself blushing a little. I never got a lot of compliments and it made me uncomfortable and I never knew what to say, so I said nothing. They went back to eating their pie. Lexine had them beat though. That little girl loves her sundaes!

"Aw, man!" exclaimed Jake. "I just got beat by a little girl!"

Lexine's eyes widened.

"We were having a dessert eating contest, sweetie. And you won." Brady explained in a that quiet gentle tone he used with her. She got a self satisfied look on her face and I grabbed a wet wipe out of plastic baggie in my purse to clean her face and hands with.

"Wow, you are one prepared woman!" Jake told me.

"I think that all moms learn this the hard way." I replied. "You can never have too many baby wipes with you and they are very useful for cleaning sticky hands."

"Hmmm... I need to keep some wipes in my car. My hands are always getting dirty." Brady said.

Jake looked at Brady and they seemed to agree to something. Jake then excused himself to the men's room and left the table. I leaned back and waited for the check. Lexine snuggled up close to me and yawned.

Brady started talking to me. "She's tired huh?"

"Yeah, it's been a long day and all this driving has been hard on her. She gets carsick."

"Oh, that's awful for her."

"I know, she gets it from me."

"How on earth did you handle both of you getting sick?"

"Pulling over to rest areas and parks a lot. And peppermints. Bags of peppermints. It seemed to help."

Jake came back and said, "OK, we can go! The check has been taken care of."

Brady started sliding out of the booth and stopped when I didn't move.

"I'm still waiting for my check." I explained.

"Oh, but I took care of yours too! I guess I wasn't clear on that." said Jake a little sheepishly.

"What? You didn't have to do that!"

"It's the least we could do for sharing your table with us. We were starving. Especially me!" Brady said.

"At least let me take care of the tip."

"Nope!" They both said at the same time.

I sighed and said, "Thank you."

I gathered Lexine's activity packet together and stuck it in my purse. I slid out of the booth and Lexine followed me. Jake led the way and Brady waited for us to go in front of him towards the diner's front door. When we got there Luke was hugging a petite girl with dirty blonde hair. I couldn't see her face but I could hear her giggling.

"Get a room!" Jake teased as we headed out.

"Shut it Jake!" Luke called back.

"You have the blue CRV right?" asked Brady.

"Yes." I said and pulled out my keys with one hand while holding Lexine's with the other. They walked me to my car and stood guard while I buckled my little girl in her car seat. Jake pointed out the white car next to me.

"That's my car. So follow me and Brady will be in the black truck behind you. It's about 15 to 20 minutes away from here."

"Alright."

I got into my car and waited for Jake get into his car and back it up before following. As we drove off, I got a fluttery feeling in my stomach and hoped that I was trusting the right person.