Sweet Lantern

Chapter 40

Darry

We all pull into the restaurant together and park. We walk up to the sidewalk and find a bench for the girls to sit on while we wait for Kevin to get here. The smells wafting out of the doors every time someone goes in or comes out are making my stomach growl. It smells incredible.

The girls are all talking and laughing at God knows what, while Matt and Joel talk about practice this afternoon. We're getting ready to play the same team that killed us at the end of last season, Morrow High School, so they want to make sure we cream them this time.

Kevin pulls in and the girls stand up, eager to get inside. "I hope y'all weren't waiting long", he says as he walks up to us. "Nah man, we got here maybe five minutes ago", I tell him, taking his hand and bumping shoulders with him. It's kind of our special handshake thing we've done since we were kids, I guess.

"Let's eat!" Matt and Joel call out, turning to open the door to let the girls go in first. Inside we're greeted by the hostess, a short older woman with black hair. She seems friendly enough as she asks us how many and if any of us want to hear the specials of the day. We follow her to the front right corner of the place and sit down at a rounded booth, sliding in couple by couple until Kev is sitting at the end of the booth.

"Good thing you're stag, Kev or we wouldn't fit in here", Joel says, playfully, leaning in to bump against Kevin.

Kevin looks uncomfortable for a split second, fast enough that no one else catches it, but I see the sadness in his eyes long enough to know he doesn't prefer being alone in this group of couples. I feel bad for him, but he plays it off quickly, "If I wanted to bring a date, I'd have called your mom", he tells Joel, and everyone laughs.... well, everyone but Joel.

The waitress takes our orders and brings us our drinks, as conversation flows easily around the table. Everyone's just happy to be together, able to spend some time away from everything, all responsibilities and expectations, just here to laugh and cut up, laughing together. Something we don't get to do as much lately.

When everyone is done, Alice promises to host a dinner party at our house the following weekend, after the game and we say our goodbyes.

"That was fun. We need to do this more often, babe. I feel like I just really became part of y'all's little group, I like it, I want to spend more time with them while we still have the energy to do it", Alice says to me on the way home as she rubs her belly.

I love how well she's taken to them and they to her. It's like they were all always this close and it feels great. Even Jess is semi-nice to Alley, which I am very grateful for, especially now that she's dating Joel. It would have been horribly awkward had they started dating and Jess was still being ugly to Alice.

"Yeah, I agree. I think the dinner party was a great idea. We need to do more with them and seeing as we are the ones with our own place, we should probably be the ones to host."

She agrees as we pull up to the house. All the lights were off at her parent's house, except for the blue light from the livingroom tv. "I guess mom and daddy are still up watching tv", she says, climbing our three front steps. I open the door for her, and she steps through, reaching back to pull me in. Before I know what's happening, she's kissing me, passionately and leading me by my shirt to our bedroom. I'm not one to argue with a woman or get in the way of a woman who knows what she wants, so I follow her, doing as I'm told. And it doesn't hurt that this just so happens to work in my favor here.

In the bedroom, she turns us around, putting me in front of the bed. Playfully and still a bit seductively, she pushes me down onto the bed and closes the door. She can be very in control when she gets in moods like this, and they often come out of nowhere, just like this. I don't mind one bit though; she's very cute when she gets feisty. This tiny little pixie girl, pushing me around in the bedroom, telling me what to do... it's adorable, and a little sexy if I'm being honest.

She walks over and stands in front of me, sitting on my lap, she straddles me and continues to kiss me, hard then a little lighter. I bring my hands up her back and wrap her hair around my fist, pulling her head back a little to kiss her neck. She smiles at me and leans into my touch.

"You sure are one sexy mom", I tell her, teasing her.

"The sexiest mom you'll ever know", she comes back at me.

And she's absolutely right. No one tops her, not by a mile.

I grab her by her hips and lift her up, turning to put her back against the mattress and she squeals, squirming under me. "Hey! I was leading this here assault, thank you!" she cries out, trying to get out from under my body.

"I'll take it from here ma'am, if you don't mind", I tell her, grinning at her continued defiance. I grab her wrists and pull them over her head, leaning down to kiss her and begin my journey downward, enjoying the feel of her soft skin under my lips.

She is always amazing me. When she takes the lead like tonight, it catches me off guard, surprises me, but in a good way. I like to see her all sassy and in charge. But I can't stop myself from taking back the reigns, it's just instinctual. She doesn't really mind though, and it shows by the blush that's now across her bare flesh. Then in the way she kisses me back, pulling me closer to her, like she can't get enough of me either. We fit one another perfectly, in every way.

We lay next to each other, our chests rising and falling quickly, trying to catch our breath. Alice scoots in next to me, throwing her arm over me, laying her head on my chest. "I love you", she whispers. I lean in and kiss the top of her hair, "I love you too, Alley." And we both drift off to sleep, holding each other, exhausted from the day.