Chapter 78

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I was going to sit in the back seat with Lexine but they insisted on me sitting in the front passenger seat. Their chivalry never stopped! Jake drove while Preston and Wyatt sat in the backseat with Lexine. Soon we were on the road headed to Charleston. I felt excited because I hadn't been on an outing with more than one of those guys since the night that we went to Bob's Diner.

Jake took a glance over at me while he drove. "You look happy sweetie. Happy to get out of the house?"

"Just happy to be with you guys." I said smiling big. Jake returned a big smile to me and I felt two different hands patting my shoulders. I lifted both of my hands up and gave each hand a small squeeze. "Plus, I really like to look at Halloween costumes and decorations. It's fun!"

"You like decorating for the holidays?" Preston asked me.

"Yes," I replied turning my head to look at them, "But it's Christmas that I really get into. I love decorating the tree and putting up little things around the house in December."

"We'll have get some decorations then." noted Wyatt and Lexine nodded enthusiastically.

"You want to decorate the house too?" he asked her and she nodded again. "You'll have to show me the things that you like at the store."

Soon Jake pulled the car into a parking lot of a strip mall and came around the car to open my door for me. Preston and Wyatt got Lexine out of the car and held her hand on either side. Jake held mine and he led us to a costume shop. Not the kind with premade cheaply sewn together kits, but a genuine costume store with vintage, used and new actual costumes.

Letting go of Jake's hand, I wandered through the racks of costumes admiring the them. I even saw ballet tutus which brought back memories of being on stage. There was even a lovely costume from Swan Lake! I sighed and brushed my fingers across the black feathers.

I heard a voice behind me, "Did you ever wear that one?" I turned around to face Preston.

"No, I didn't. This is for the lead ballerina. I was only in the corps de ballet. My ankles were never going to be strong enough to be a professional dancer."

"Ah, well.." his voice trailed off as he searched for the right thing to say. He placed a hand at the back of my neck and said, "Everything happens for a reason and for my part, I'm glad that events led you here to me. That probably would not have happened if you had pursued a career in dance."

I smiled up at him. "I'm happy that things brought me here as well." I slipped my hand into his and we went to see what kind of costumes that Lexine was interested in. She was busy looking through racks of kid sized costumes with Wyatt and Jake who alternately held up different costumes to show her and she just kept shaking her head no. I decided to help them out by asking her what she had in mind. I leaned down to her and she whispered in my ear that she wanted to be a scary witch, not a cute one.

I relayed the information to the guys who looked surprised. "She doesn't want to be a fairy or a princess?" Jake asked surprised.

"Nope, she wants to be a scary witch, not a cute one so lets look for a costume in her size." I told them. We went through the racks but I was having a hard time finding a classic witch costume without sparkles, glitter and cuteness. Jake went to the counter to ask about one, the employee went to the back and came back with a the perfect costume for her. It even had a black hat to match and a broomstick. Lexine gave her approval and we were done!

Jake paid for the costume and we all piled into the car to head to our next stop. We went to an arts and crafts store that had a lot of decorations and things for Halloween. I picked out wooden carved words like Boo decorated in orange and black or purple and green. We even found some costume makeup so that she could have darkened eyes and a small plastic cauldron with a handle to collect her candy in. Lexine saw a display that had a haunted village sold in pieces. It was kind of like the Christmas ones except all Halloween with movement and music. She got the guys interested in the display also and before I knew it they had a couple of carts filled with boxes.

"You aren't going to buy the whole village are you?" I asked incredulously.

"Oh, yes we are!" Wyatt informed me. "This stuff is cool."

The rest of them looked at me seriously and nodded in agreement. I shrugged and laughed. If it made them happy, who was I to tell them no? They made sure to get everything they needed to build their own village including a base board for everything to stick to. I couldn't believe that they even got tiny bushes and trees. They were going to go all out! While we were in the checkout line, Lexine's little tummy growled and we all smiled.

"Are you hungry muffin?" Jake asked her and she nodded. "Ok, you get to decide what kind of food we should eat." I wondered how he was going to get an answer out of her. Apparently he had a system worked out. Jake named a few different ones, like American or Italian and she shook her head no at those, "Chinese?" he asked next and she smiled nodding yes. With that settled it was up to the guys on which Chinese place to go to. Preston and Wyatt suggested a couple of places that they knew but Jake looked hesitant for a minute.

He came closer and put his arm around my shoulders. "Hey Sweetie? The best place that I know is the one I took you to before on your lunch break when you were working....you know. Would it bother you to go back there? Since it's so close to that office?"

I thought about for a minute before making up my mind. "It won't bother me to go back there. I had a good time in that restaurant with you. I don't want to go back to the office but the Chinese place is fine. I really liked their food!"

Jake looked pleased and told the guys where we were going to be eating. With everything payed for, with my head turned away so that I wouldn't see the total and have a heart attack, we piled into the car with our packages in the back and Jake drove us to the restuarant. Luckily it didn't take that long to get there and we parked right out front. The owner was happy to see me and Jake again.

"This time we brought more of our family with us!" Jake told him and requested a table for five. We ordered way too much food but didn't care because who doesn't love Chinese leftovers? The food starting showing up on our table a couple dishes at a time and Lexine attacked the chow mein like there was no tomorrow and impressed the guys with her chopstick skills.

"How did you teach her to use them?" Preston asked me.

"I didn't teach her. I wasn't taught either. You just stick a pair in their hand and let them go at it." I said with a smile.

"Interesting method. It obviously works well." he commented with a thoughtful look on his face.

I ate well, especially since they made sure to order a few shrimp dishes for me. The owner kept coming by the table to refill drinks and make sure we had enough sweet and sour sauce for the egg rolls. I completely forgot that the last time I was there, I was lovey dovey with Jake. We were sitting at a round table and I had Preston and Wyatt on either side of me, we were doing our regular touching each other and I even gave a Wyatt a quick peck on the mouth. I realized that right after we kissed and the owner had come up to the table. I snuck a quick glance at him, sure that I would see a look of confusion or one of judgment, but there was nothing but smiles. Finally we were all stuffed and couldn't possibly eat any more.

We were given fortune cookies with our bill, which Wyatt grabbed and put his card on top of. It was fun going around reading our fortunes out loud. Lexine got one about having artistic talent and the guys had the standard fortunes like good things are coming their way. Mine however touched me and I knew that I would keep this one. "There is always room in the heart for more love." There was a momentary silence after I read it aloud.

"I like that! It's the perfect quote for our family." Jake said and everyone agreed. Of course we had bags of leftovers to take home but I was sure that Brady and Chase would appreciate it. On our way home I had them stop at a grocery store so that we could pick up some things that we were out of and I also got stuff for a barbeque dinner.

There were so many things to unload by the time that we got home, but with all of us helping it only took a few trips. Lexine was totally thrilled by her costume and we of course had to hang it up in the closet with the rest of her clothes. I dragged her away from it and downstairs telling her that she needed to put up the Halloween decorations around the house. Preston helped her while I went into the kitchen to marinate some meat.

Jake had some work to catch up on so he headed to his office after giving me a kiss but Wyatt stayed with me in the kitchen to help any way he could. While I was showing Wyatt how to use the garlic zoomer, Brady showed up looking tired and hungry. I made him sit down and fussed over him stroking his hair and kissing his face, while Wyatt fixed a plate of Chinese leftovers and heated it up.

Wyatt smirked at Brady and set the plate in front of him. Brady started eating and I got up to get him a soda. He ate and drank while I put all the marinating on hold until he was done so that we could sit and talk to him. After he was done, I banished him to his room to take a nap before dinner. Feeling spunky today, I even spanked his butt lightly to get him going. He grinned at me before heading upstairs and Wyatt laughed. We finished making the marinades and put the meats to soak in them before sticking them in the fridge.

"Anything else that needs to be done?" Wyatt asked me.

"There is a new potato thing that I wanted to try. I saw it on the internet." I answered. "Let's scrub some up."

There were giant potatoes that we scrubbed clean and then I sliced them almost all the way through and then put them in foil. I had Wyatt put some butter mixed with different herbs and spices in between each slice and then we wrapped the foil shut on each potato.

"There that's done! We just stick them on the grill first and keep them cooking while we cook the meats." I told Wyatt.

He grinned at me and said that it all looked good. He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder while I laughed and giggled. Stretching out my arm, I could reach his butt, so I slid my hand into his back pocket and squeezed. That made him laugh and say, "What is it with you and our butts today? Can't keep your hands off them?"

Still giggling, I replied, "It's all your faults since you guys have really nice butts!"

"Yours isn't so bad either!" Wyatt said and spanked mine.

I yelped slightly and wiggled until he set me down on my feet. Lexine and Preston materialized in the kitchen doorway to see what we were up to. My face was flushed from laughing and hanging upside down. Preston smiled at me and held out his hand. Lexine did the same to Wyatt. They wanted to show us the decorations that they put up around the house.

We walked around and admired everything. Preston had even moved an  armchair to a different spot in the living room so that they could set up a table to display their haunted village. Since we still had time to kill before the grill needed to be fired up, we opted to go out to the backyard to hang out while Lexine played on her playground. Spreading a blanket out on the ground, I sat in between Wyatt and Preston feeling happy and contented.  





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