Invisible Strings

Chapter Fifteen

Delaney's POV:

Darkness had fallen on Jefferson by the time Brantley and I had wrangled the kids from all the playground equipment. While they had played, Brnatley and I had talked some more, getting to know things about the other. Amber was brought up from time to time but I didn't mind. In fact, I would find it odd if Brantley didn't talk about her given everything that he wanted to do in her honor. She had been such a big part of his life for so long, she was the mother of his children, and from what I;ve read in articles over the years, she had been his biggest champion, the one that encouraged him to be himself and not conform to whatever mold the music industry had wanted him to fit into.

But the most memorable part of the whole playdate was when Brantley would catch the kids not watching us and he would give me a quick kiss or when he would run his hand up my thigh almost indecently. I can't lie, the way his callused hands had felt on my thigh did things to me. And if I was the assertive woman that I wanted to be at times, I would have climbed in his lap, pressed my lips against his, and made out with him right there in the middle of the park. But since I wasnt that woman, since there were kids around, and since I didn't want to get slapped with an indecent exposure charge for basically riding him like a jock rides his horse, I'd behaved.

I'd even behaved when Brantley had walked me and the kids to my car and helped them inside. The memory of his kiss from earlier as he stood in the open driver's side door way came back to me, making me want to pull him to me and repeat the kiss but again... kids.

I was just passing the city limits of town when Chloe broke the silence in the SUV. "Mama, is Brantley going to be my new daddy?"

I looked at her little face in the rearview mirror before looking at Colton. They both had curious looks on their faces. "Why would you think that?" I asked.

"I saw you kiss him," said Chloe, her tone matter-of-factly.

"Just 'cause they kissed don't mean he's gonna be our daddy," said Colton.

"Colt's right, Bird." I said, using the nickname I'd had for her since she was little. When she was born, the chirping of birds was the only sound that could calm her when she was in that dreaded 'purple period of crying' that all kids went through.

"But in the movies, only mommies and daddies and people who are married kiss. 'Member? Erick and Ariel didn't kiss until they got married." argued Chloe, pulling on her argumentative ways. My only hope was that when she got older, she would use that skill and become a lawyer. "Plus, Hannah said when her mama and Mr. Daniel started kissing, they told her that they were getting married."

If you had asked me if I thought I would be having this conversation with my 7-year-old twins so soon after my divorce, I would have thought you were crazy. But here I was, getting ready to have to explain to them that two people didn't have to be married in order to kiss. The problem was, I would rather them believe that they had to be married in order to kiss because it would mean that I wouldn't have to worry about them doing other things when they got older.

"Bird, Bubba..." I sighed, "two people do not have to be married in order to kiss. You remember when Aunt Manda and Uncle Chase got together right? They were married and they kissed all the time."

"Is that how Aunt Manda got a baby in her belly?" This came from Chloe, making me wish that I could just abort this whole conversation. Because talking about kissing was one thing, telling my daughter how a baby was made was a whole other topic; one that I was nowhere near ready to even begin to explain –even if it was in kids terms that meant comparing Amanda's pregnancy to the Virgin Mary.

I couldn't help but laugh then, thinking about it had to be sacrilegious to compare Amanda and her sexual appetite with Chase to the Virgin Mary. I'm pretty sure that even though it was just a mental comparison, I was probably given a mark from the man upstairs that wouldn't come off without a whole hell of a lot of repenting.