When we arrived at the diner, we got out of the car and Brady rushed ahead of me to open the door to the restuarant. I smiled at him and tiptoed up for a kiss. "Right where we first met." I murmured to him. Brady grinned and agreed. Walking in to the place, I turned to see the rest of our family coming in. The same blond teenage boy was there and he looked up at us and grinned.

"Hey guys! How's it going?" he asked us.

"Luke, it's going good. We'll need a table for seven please." Preston said to him.

"Looks like it going better than good!" Luke said with a wink at me while he grabbed menus for us.

Brady laughed and said, "Well, I do have to thank you for getting Delphine to agree to sharing a table with me."

Luke nodded and said, "You owe me one! Wait here for a minute while I get a table set up." He walked off and disappeared into the restuarant.

Preston leaned down and whispered in my ear, "The guy who owns this place is Luke's uncle. They are Academy as well. His two nephews are part of the Blackbourne team and a lot of Academy members like to eat here."

"Oh," I said to him. "So it makes it easier if you had to leave really fast for a job then huh? They would understand here."

His smile was blindingly bright. "You are a clever girl." he said with his accent coming out strong again.

Luke came back and showed us to our table which was two tables shoved together. There was enough room for all of us. Jake pulled out my chair for me while Chase helped Lexine into hers. Picking up my menu, I noticed that the special of the day was handwritten on a blackboard hung on the wall nearby. Beef and Spinach Ravioli with a red mushroom sauce. That sounded great to me so I didn't even bother opening my menu and just set it back down. Brady leaned down to me and asked me if everything was ok.

"Yes, everything is fine," I said to him. "I saw the special of the day on the board there and I want that."

Brady looked up at it and smiled. "Whatever you want Buttercup!" he said and kissed my cheek. I looked across the table at Lexine who was busy pointing to something on the kids menu to Wyatt. It looked like he was figuring out what she wanted to eat. The way that Lexine has taken to the guys was wonderful. I didn't realize until now that they had taken some of the pressure off of me. Instead of having to take care of all of her needs by myself which I have always done, they helped out without me having to ask.

There were so many benefits to having more than one man! I smiled as I thought this to myself. Jake on my other side asked me what I was thinking about. "All of you." I answered him. He smiled and rubbed my back.

"What do you want to drink baby?"

"I think that I want Dr. Pepper," I said to Jake. "It's my weakness."

He laughed at me. "So that's your vice?"

"Yeah, soda is one of my big weaknesses. Along with chocolate truffles."

Looking up I saw that the rest of the guys were listening and smiling. I smiled back at all of them. Reaching into my purse I pulled out Lexine's play pack and handed it across the table to Wyatt who opened it for her. The same teenage boy with glasses (who's name I couldn't remember) came to take our order.

"Hey guys, I see the whole family is out for dinner tonight." he said to us with a smile.

"Hi Kota," Chase greeted him. "As you can see, our family has expanded."

"A bigger family is always great!" Kota said with a smile. "I remember how happy we were when we expanded our family. Even North smiled."

Preston laughed, "North smiling? That must have been a sight to see."

"It was. Sang really brings out the best in all of us." Kota replied.

"I know what you mean." Preston said with a tender look in my direction.

Wyatt ordered Cheese Pizza for Lexine and then ordered for himself. When it was my turn to order, I opened my mouth but Brady beat me to it. When I again opened my mouth to say what I wanted to drink, Jake ordered for me. Preston caught my eye and gave me a sympathetic look and started to say something to the two guys but I gave him a tiny shake of my head and a wink. He understood that I would handle them in my own way.

When he had everyone's order, Kota took it to the kitchen. I sat back in my chair and glanced at Jake and Brady to either side of me. I kept an innocent look on my face and put my hands out onto their thighs. I could see the looks of surprise on their faces out of the corner of my eyes. I slid my hands up dangerously close to their packages. Both of them tensed up. Preston took one look at me and knew what I was up to. I smiled sweetly at him and gave him a small nod.

He cleared his throat and said, "Jake, Brady, I do believe that our lovely lady can order for herself next time," I gave their upper thighs a little squeeze and then let go and put my hands back on my own lap. "There is no telling what kind of punishment she may think up for next time." Wyatt and Chase looked like they were trying not to laugh. The two culprits gave me a kiss on the cheek with a muttered sorry.

 I quickly let them know that they were forgiven. Our drinks arrived and Preston proposed a toast. "To our newly expanded family. May we grow in happiness and numbers." "Cheers." The rest of us said. Our food soon arrived and the special that I had ordered was fantastic. I saw that Preston had ordered the same thing that I did. I was full before my plate was empty so Brady and Jake both speared some ravioli and polished off the rest.

"Hey Buttercup, how about some dessert?" Brady asked me. I shook my head. "I'm full!"

"You can take one bite of mine without exploding." Jake said teasing me. I giggled and Jake turned his attention to Lexine. "I bet I know what you want!"

She looked at him and smiled nodding her head.

Brady said, "Is it carrots with strawberry sauce?"

Lexine made a face and shook her head no.

"Does vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sound better?"

She nodded yes and waved her spoon at him. All of us laughed at that. Preston signaled Kota over to order desserts.

"Ok, I'll get someone to clear the table and I'll turn in your dessert order." Kota said to us with a smile and took off. A minute later another teenage boy with reddish hair and lots of muscles came over with a boy who had brown hair with two locks dyed blond on either side of his head.

"Hey, Nathan. Gabriel." Jake greeted them. They smiled and said hi. "Gabriel, I'm going to need your services in decorating a room." Preston said to the brown haired boy.

"Oy, are you finally going to get that British stick out of your..." Gabriel got cut off by Nathan's hand across his mouth. Nathan pointed at Lexine and told Gabriel to clean up his language.

Preston nodded his thanks to Nathan and continued talking. "This young lady is Lexine and she is going to get her own room. We need it decorated to be as pretty as she is."

"Sure. Call me to set it up. We'll get together with Lexine and she can show me what she likes." Gabriel said to him and then smiled at Lexine. "This is going to be fun! I haven't had a chance to decorate a girls room for a while now. Not since Trouble got her own room."

Nathan started clearing plates and Gabriel helped him. I felt the need to visit the ladies room and whispered in Brady's ear. He whispered back the directions to it and I got up from my chair. The others looked at me and I said quietly, "I'll be back in a minute." They understood right away and I walked over to where it was. After I had washed my hands, I headed back to the table. On the way there I had to wait for a second because a blond guy close to my age was in my way.

He turned around and saw me and smiled. "Well, hello." he said to me. I gave him a small smile and shifted on my feet. "I don't think that I've seen you here before. Is it your first time?" I shook my head and said, "No." I didn't get any bad vibes from him but he seemed to be more interested in me than I was in him. He stuck his hand out to me. "I'm Craig. What's your name?" I hesitated and then shook his hand quickly and withdrew mine. "I'm Delphine."I said quietly. I was wondering how to get back to the table with my guys without being rude when a tall teenage boy with dressed all in black with a bandana around his head and a scowl on his face came out of the kitchen and walked toward us.

"Hi North. Just getting to know one of your customers here." Craig said to him and turned his gaze back to me.

North shook his head and put a hand on Craig's shoulder. "I would have thought that you were trained to be more observant Craig."

He looked confused. North tilted his head in the direction of my table where my guys were glaring at Craig. "Looks like the Kingsley team is ready to kick your ass for getting too close to their bird." Craig looked surprised then sheepish. "Sorry Delphine," he said to me. "I didn't realize that you were with them." He looked at North, "I got my attention distracted by a little beauty."

North seemed to relax and his frown softened. "It happens. I just know how pissed I get when other guys look at my Sang baby. Didn't think that you wanted your ass handed to you for taking interest in the wrong bird."

With a grateful smile at North I moved around Craig and went back to my family. I slid back into my chair with sigh of relief. "You ok Delphine?" Jake asked me. "I'm fine," I said to the whole table. "He was just introducing himself to me when North came out and warned him off."

The desserts arrived then and all the guys insisted that I take one bite of theirs to try it. I had a bite of a few different cakes and pies by the time all of them offered. Lexine on the other hand didn't seem to need any encouragement to finish her sundae. I fished the wet wipes out of my purse and handed them across the table for Chase to clean her up with.

Preston took care of the check at the front counter where an adorable blond girl was in charge of the cash register. North walked by her and kissed her on the forehead and Nathan called her Peanut and kissed her cheek. She blushed and smiled at them lovingly. I realized that they must be part of the Blackbourne team and were in a relationship like the one I was in with my guys. I smiled and nodded at her as I left with my guys. She nodded back with a shy smile and seemed to know that we were in similar situations.

We had nice trip back home filled with conversation and some teasing about my almost suitor Craig. I was glad that the guys could laugh about it even though they were very annoyed at the time. I was filled with contentment as we walked back into the house. This was a life that I could get used to!