5 Reasons To Love Again

Chapter 39

We pulled up to the golf cart place to return it. Jake remembered to get my gift out of the trunk and we walked back to our car. There Jake pulled out his own pair of sport sandals and Lexine and I exchanged our foot wear for the flip flops. We got our tote and Jake grabbed an umbrella and a small cooler.
"Looks like I'm not the only prepared one!" I said teasing him.
"Yup! Looks like you are a bad influence on me!" he said teasing me back.
"Bad influence huh? I kinda like that!"
"Uh oh, I'm creating a monster!"
That comment made Lexine giggle really hard. I giggled too.
We reached the beach and Jake found us a nice spot on the sand, not far from the water. It really was a nice day for being October. I spread out the towels and Jake set up the large umbrella to give us shade.
"You brought a towel for me too? Aww...now I can't share yours with you!" Jake complained.
"You can still share mine if it means that much to you." I told him.
"Yeah!" he fist pumped in the air.
"You are three years old!" I said to him laughingly.
"Maybe. I'm just a little boy on the inside, but I'm all man on the outside baby!" he said with a wink. I pulled the sunblock out and put some on Lexine. I put some on my face, neck and arms as well and handed the bottle to Jake. He put it on too and when he was done there was a little streak of white on his cheek. I reached over to rub it away and he took that opportunity of having me that close to kiss me again. He really was going to use any excuse to kiss me! I decided that it was a good thing. We took our slippers off and headed to the water. Lexine gave a little shriek when the cold water washed over her little toes. Jake and I laughed and held her hands. As I predicted she soon found a shell that she liked. I found some beach glass and soon found myself with a handfull.
"Admit it Delphine! That Ziplock bag was for you too!" Jake said laughing.
I sheepishly shrugged and smiled at him. "Yeah, I'm just as bad as Lexine when it comes to the beach!"
"That's so cute." he said and hugged me. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the bag.
"Ok girls, put your treasures in here." We dumped our handfuls into the bag and then started to look for more.
Finally we decided that we had enough and went back to our spot. Opening the cooler, Jake handed out bottles of water to us. We sat on the towels and just relaxed while drinking our water. Lexine took the bag with the shells and beach glass and dumped it out on her towel to play with. She lay on her stomach and started sorting her shells. Closing the lid on his water, Jake moved behind me and put a leg on each side with his knees up and pulled me back to his chest to wrap his arms around me. I leaned back against him with my knees up too and rested my arms on his.
"Mmmmm... this is nice." I said quietly.
"Yes, it is. Have I told you today how cute you look?"
"No, you haven't."
"Well, I'm telling you now." he said with his lips brushing my ear. "Remember earlier today, when we were talking about meeting at Bob's Diner? I was very interested in you from the moment I sat down at the booth. And when I heard you laugh for the first time, I was a goner. I would have done anything to keep the two of you safe, so I lied about the hotel. I was worried that you would be mad when you realized that it was our house instead. I even thought that you might want to leave after meeting Preston the way you did. But you stayed and that made us so happy. I hope that you and Lexine will always stay with us. Our family needs the both of you."
I felt myself tear up a little. Nobody but these men has ever said such wonderful things to me. Blinking rapidly to make the tears go away, I put a shaky smile on my face and turned myself sideways to look at Jake, grabbed his face and kissed him. The feeling of crying disappeared and a feeling of need came over me instead. When the kiss was done, I pulled back a little to look in his eyes and say, "We need you guys too. I don't want to leave. Ever." Jake looked so happy then. There was no denying it. Deep in my heart I knew that I was in love with them.

We cuddled together like that for a while. Finally Jake pulled out his phone to look at the time and groaned.
"We should get going soon."
Lexine and I looked at each other and then at him with a pout on our faces.
"Oh no! Not the pouty lips!" he groaned even louder and put his hands over his heart. "I can't take it! It's too much for me!" and with that he dramatically fell over backwards. We both giggled and gave him a kiss on both cheeks simultaneously which made him pop back up and grab Lexine. Getting to his feet he tossed her high in the air and caught her as she let out a screech of delight. I got up as well to brush sand off myself when I was taken by surprise. Jake picked me up off the ground and whirled me in a circle.
"Jake! I'm getting dizzy!" I protested halfheartedly while laughing.
"That's ok baby, I'll always be here to catch you!" he said smiling at me.
He set me down and my heart skipped a beat while I admired how cute he looked with a happy grin and his hair tussled by the breeze. All of a sudden I felt a warning prickle on the back of my neck and a feeling that someone's eyes were on me was too strong to ignore.
Jake looked concerned and asked, "What's wrong Delphine?"
"It feels like someone is watching me..." I told him with my voice trailing off as I looked around casually.
He frowned and started looking around as well. I didn't see anyone in particular looking my way but it was hard to tell with more than a few people walking around with cameras and cell phones out to snap pictures.
"Let's pack up and go girls." Jake said firmly. We picked up our things quickly and went back to our car. Once we were on our way back home, Jake seemed to relax a little.
"I don't see anyone following us so I think that we are fine." Jake told me. "It could have been some guy staring at me wondering how I got so lucky to have two beauties with me!"
I laughed loving how he put me at ease. "Or it could have been some lady checking you out!" I replied. He scoffed and said, "Naw, you two are definitely cuter than me!" We pretended to bicker and all too soon we were home.
We brought everything inside with Jake making a second trip by himself since he carried a yawning Lexine into the house. I took her to the living room and found a brand new baby monitor with a camera. The camera was already set up and pointed to the couch where Lexine usually took her nap. I got her settled down on the couch and she was out like a light. There was a note attached to the handheld receiver that had a little screen to watch her and speakers to hear.
Dear Delphine,
I heard that you needed one of these. If you need something better, let me know!
Wyatt
That was so sweet of him! I was going to have to thank him. I pulled out my phone and sent him a text thanking him for his thoughtfulness and letting him know that it was perfect. He responded with text saying that I can thank him tomorrow. I smiled. He probably wanted a kiss too. He was the only one I hadn't kissed yet.
Jake came in with the last of our stuff. I grabbed the handheld monitor and took the tote out of his hand.
"Can you help me carry the jackets and mosaic upstairs to my room?" I asked Jake. "I have a new monitor so I don't have to worry about staying in the room with Lexine."
"Sure, no problem." We went upstairs and walked to my room. I was glad that I wasn't a slob and everything was put away and the bed was made. I set the tote in the closet and took the jackets from him and hung them up. The mosaic I put on top of the dresser for now along with the baby monitor.
Jake sat on the end of the bed and looked around. "You know we really need to do something about this room. The decor doesn't suit you."
"Oh, we don't need to go to the trouble. It's fine the way it is." I assured him.
"No it's not! Besides, the guys and I have been talking about making some changes in the house. Making it less of a bachelor pad and more like a family home."
"Well, let's see. Things like that cost money!"
"Baby, between all of us, there is plenty of money."
I looked at him skeptically. He smiled at me and changed the subject.
"Have you thought about Lexine having her own room?"
"Yes, I have but I didn't want to ask."
"Why not?"
"Because all of you have done so much for us. I can't keep asking for things."
"Come here."
I walked over to him and he pulled me onto his lap. He tilted my face up to his.
"Look, the way that this family works is that we don't keep count of how much each one has done for the others. We just help each other out with no questions. Maybe you think that the only thing that you have done for us is cook. It's much more than that. You brought happiness and joy into our lives. Let's face it. Your cooking is fantastic! We love it. Your daughter is adorable. We are crazy about her too. So let us do things for you two and please don't hesitate to ask for anything that you need."
I bit my lip and nodded. He used a finger to pull my lip out from between my teeth.
"Your lips are too pretty to bite." Jake said gently and kissed me. I kissed him back and somehow without realizing it we ended up laying down on the bed while we kissed. I ran my hands through his hair and down his neck to his shoulders. I could feel his lean muscles. He was caressing my back and hips. I touched his chest and he moved his kisses from my mouth to my neck. I really like that! I sighed and enjoyed the feeling of his lips on my neck.
"You really like your neck kissed don't you?" Jake mumbled and he kept kissing me there. "I can feel your pulse racing."
"Mmmm hmmm...." I moaned out, not feeling able to say words. I tugged his shirt out from where it was tucked in and slid my hands up his stomach to his chest. I loved feeling the masculine chest hair under my hands. One of his hands wandered down my hip to under my dress. His hand was soon touching my bare skin above the leggings. He tried to get his hand higher but the dress was fitted and didn't give room. I couldn't help it and started to giggle because his hand was now on my side and it tickled as he tried to move his hand up.
He took his hand away and sat me up and looked at the back of my dress.
"How on earth did you get this on? There is no zipper in the back!" he said looking confused.
I laughed and raised an arm and pulled on the hidden zipper.
"See? It unzips here."
"I would never have figured that one out!" he exclaimed. Then he ran his hand over his face. "Did you want to stop now?"
"No! I don't."
"In that case..." he got up from the bed and went to shut the door and locked it. "I told you that I wouldn't forget to shut the door." he said with a wicked grin.
I stood up and pulled the zipper down and took off my dress. Jake froze staring at me. I was standing there only covered in my bra and leggings. I was glad that I had put on a pale pink push up bra. But when he still didn't move, I started to feel self conscious and wished I had kept my dress on. I reached for it and he moved forward.
"Don't!" he said swallowing. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't get over how beautiful you are." Jake wrapped his arms around my waist and started to kiss me again. I tugged on his shirt in the back where it was still tucked in. He let go of me long enough so that he could take his shirt off. I forgot to breath for a few seconds as I saw his fit torso. His chest hair was a few shades darker than on his head and he had a trail leading down into his pants. I reached out with my hands again to touch his chest. He pulled me to him and we started to kiss again. He gently moved me to lay on the bed again and his kisses drifted down to my neck and down my chest to the upper slopes of my breasts. Lifting his head up, he asked, "Should I draw the line here? No further?" I nodded yes and he smiled touching my face. Right then I heard a man's voice saying hello. I sat up quickly and turned my head toward the sound. It was coming from the baby monitor. There on the screen was Preston waving at the camera.

Jake chuckled and said, "I guess it's only fair that he interrupt us since I did that yesterday." I laughed and handed him his shirt and I put my dress back on. He grabbed the monitor and we headed downstairs holding hands.