Entwined-chapter 11
Chapter 11: Family
“C’mon baby, walk to Daddy,” Scott held out his hands and encouraged the wobbly-legged toddler holding on to her mother’s fingers. The little girl laughed and grinned at her father, bouncing up and down on her chubby legs in the sand.
“Go on sweetie, walk to Daddy. He won’t let you fall,” I said and pulled gently with my arms to move her toward Scott.
The little girl took two hesitant steps, let go of my fingers and reached for her father. She half-walked, half-stumbled into his arms and squealed with delight as he scooped her up, swung her around and hugged her.
“That’s my big girl!” He kissed the little girl on the cheek and smiled at me.
I walked over to them and slid my arms around Scott’s waist. “I didn’t think I could be any happier than I was, but it just keeps getting better.”
Scott smiled down at me. “Yeah, I never knew it could be like this.” Our little girl decided she wanted to be held by me, so I took her from Scott’s arms. He wrapped his arms around both of us and we stood watching the ocean. The breeze blew a piece of hair into my face and I tried to brush it away but it kept returning to tickle me. Scott leaned down and brushed a kiss on my neck…
I brushed my hand across my cheek, trying to remove the feeling of something on my skin. The feeling left for a short time and then returned. Something smooth brushed across my lips and down my neck. I turned onto my back and moved my head trying to avoid the annoying feeling.
“Songbird…Songbird…wake up sleepyhead,” Scott whispered in my ear and placed a kiss on my neck.
I sucked in a deep breath and opened my eyes. “Hi handsome,” I answered sleepily. I wrapped my arms around his neck and snuggled into his shoulder.
“Hey, you need to open up those eyes, lazybones. It’s time to get up.” Scott nudged me away from his shoulder.
“It’s my day off. I don’t want to get out of bed,” I grumbled.
“Okay, we can stay in bed, but you know the rest of the gang is gonna be here in about an hour or two, and if we’re still in bed, they will come in here and get into bed with us, just to be pests. And I really don’t want to have them all in bed with us.”
I sighed. “Okay, okay, I’m awake. This bed isn’t big enough for everybody to get in it.”
“No, it’s not, but they would try,” Scott chuckled and kissed me. He handed me a rose. “What were you dreaming about, beautiful? You were smiling and making happy noises. Was it about me?”
“Yeah, you were in it,” I smiled and smelled the rose.
“And just what were we doing?” Scott asked in his deep sexy voice.
“Not what you think,” I smiled and kissed him.
“Just what do you think I’m thinking?”
“I bet you were thinking we were making love.”
“No, I wasn’t. I was thinking we were cleaning house. Yeah, cleaning house.”
I laughed. “You are such a liar. Cleaning house. Us? I doubt that very much.”
“Okay, you got me. Of course I thought you were dreaming about us making love. So, since it wasn’t making love, what were we doing?”
“You really want to know?”
“Yes, I really want to know,” he smiled and kissed me.
“Promise not to freak out?”
“Yes. I promise not to freak out.”
I sat up against the headboard. “I was dreaming we were on the beach with our baby and we were trying to get her to walk.”
Scott looked at me, eyebrow raised. “Our baby? A little girl?”
“Yeah, a girl.”
“Did she walk?”
“Well, she kinda walked-stumbled into your arms.”
“That sounds like a wonderful dream to me. Maybe someday we’ll get to do that for real,” he said and pulled me over to him. “You know, we could start practicing that baby-making idea.”
I licked my lips. “You want to have babies?”
“Of course, I want to have babies, especially with you. I can’t think of anything more wonderful,” he answered and placed a smoldering kiss on my lips. “Wanna start practicing?”
I put my arms around his neck and pulled him down in the bed. “Practice makes perfect.”
***********
The front door flew open. “Where is she?!” he yelled. He ran across the living room and dropped to his knees, grabbed me around the waist and buried his face in my stomach. “Please come away with me,” he sobbed. “I love you. Please, come with me instead of him. I'm better than he is. He doesn't deserve you.”
I laughed and kissed his curly black hair. “I’m sorry, love. It’s too late. I’m in love with Scott.”
Scott walked over and smacked the back of his head. “Cripes Waltman! Get your hands off my woman before I put you back in one of those diapers.”
“Aww, Scotty, you’re no fun,” Sean pouted and stood up.
The rest of the group had walked in the door behind Sean, witnessed the entire scene and were laughing hysterically. “You better not touch anymore, Sean,” Paul laughed, his arm around Stephanie, “Scott’ll break you in half.”
“He can hug me all he wants,” I mock glared at Scott. “I never turn down hugs from my guys.”
“Humph,” Scott snorted. He pointed his finger at Sean. “Just don’t get any funny ideas,” he stated and tried to keep a straight face. He lost his composure and started laughing. “Good to see ya, Kid.” He grabbed Sean and pounded him on the back.
“Good to see you too man. Glad to see you finally got smart,” Sean replied and gestured at me. “You better take care of her though. You’ve got four other guys that will beat the crap out of you if you don’t.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Scott said and pulled me to his side. He looked down at me and kissed me gently. “Songbird is the most precious person in my life.”
“My God, he’s turned into a poet,” Shawn commented, his eyes growing wide with the ‘horror’ of the thought. “What happened to our ‘Bad Guy’?”
“Oh, he’s still here,” I answered. “I just get to play with him now.”
“Oooo, you better not wear him out too much. He’s still gotta wrestle, you know,” Kevin reminded me.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. He’ll be fine.” I turned to Steph. “How have you been, Steph?”
“Just fine,” she replied and hugged me. “I’m so happy for both of you.”
“Thanks honey. So, is Pauly treating you right?”
“Yeah, he does okay,” she said with an ornery glimmer in her eyes.
Paul’s jaw dropped open. “Just ‘okay’?! I’ll show you just ‘okay’,” he growled, threw Steph over his shoulder and carried her off to the bedroom.
“Paul! Put me down!” Steph squealed and pounded on his back. “You big overgrown…oh, stop it! That tickles!” Steph yelled.
“Show him who’s boss, Steph,” I hollered. “You’re the woman, you’re in charge!”
Scott’s eyebrow rose at that statement. “Oh really. Are you the one in charge in our relationship?” he challenged.
I turned around to face him and smiled sweetly. “Of course, darling. You just didn’t know it.”
“Uh-oh,” Shawn, Kevin and Sean said in unison.
“This is gonna be good,” Kevin added, leaned his arms on the counter and watched intently.
Scott began to stalk me around the living room. “You’re in charge, are you?”
I kept a piece of furniture between us. “Yes dear. The woman is always in charge,” I baited.
“I’m afraid you are very wrong, my love. And you leave me no choice but to prove it to you,” Scott stated matter-of-factly. He made a grab for me and I dodged his hands.
“Too slow, old man,” I teased.
“Old man? Who are you callin’ old?”
“You,” I giggled and dodged his grab again. My eyes darted to our bedroom door and I tried to measure the distance between myself, Scott and the door.
He followed my eyes and nodded with a smug smile on his face. “You’ll never make it. Don’t even try babycakes. I will catch you.”
“Well, aren’t we just sure of ourselves?”
“I am. I predict you will be soaking wet when I’m done.”
“Scott Oliver Hall!”
Shawn, Kevin and Sean burst into hysterical laughter. “My God, we’re in the middle of a porno!” Shawn exclaimed. “It’s a dream come true!” The noise brought Steph and Paul out of their room.
Scott rolled his eyes. “Oh, get your minds out of the gutter, all of you.”
I used the distraction to try and get around Scott to the bedroom. Scott caught my movement out of the corner his eye and grabbed me around the waist. He hoisted me over his shoulder, went out on to the deck and down onto the sand.
“Scott, put me down! Right now! What are you doing?”
“You’ll find out soon enough, sweetheart. Just be patient.”
I looked up to see the rest of the gang on the deck laughing. Kevin was lighting the grill like nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Somehow I don’t think I’m gonna get help from them. Okay, time to try and sweet talk my way out of this. “Scott honey.”
“Yes dear?”
“Will you please put me down?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Now,” Scott replied and dropped me into the ocean.
“Oh!” I scrambled back to my feet, pushed my soaked hair out of my eyes and glared at Scott.
“Now who’s in charge? I told you would be soaking wet when I was done,” he laughed.
“C’mere honey, I want to give you a great big hug!” I said and lunged at him. He dodged away from me.
“Now who’s too slow?” he gloated.
I threw my hands up. “Okay, you made your point.”
“Good. Come on, let’s go put some dry clothes on.” He put out his hand for me to take. I took his hand and stepped toward him.
“Oh! Ouch! Oh, Scott!” I screamed and grabbed for my ankle.
“What happened? Did you step on something?”
“I don’t know. It really hurts,” I cried.
Scott bent over to look at my ankle while I leaned on his shoulders. I suddenly planted my foot on the ground and shoved with all my weight against Scott’s shoulders. He flailed and went down into the surf. I ran a few steps onto the beach and laughed.
“Game, set and match to me,” I giggled and ran for the house.
“You come back here you little faker!” Scott yelled and tried not to laugh as he charged after me.
I ran onto the deck and hid behind Kevin. “Don’t hide behind me, little girl. I’ll let him get ya,” Kevin said.
My jaw dropped. “What happened to always protecting me?”
“I won’t get between Scott and his girl. Besides, he won’t hurt you,” he stated and stepped away to reveal Scott standing behind him.
“Ah-ha! Gotcha!” Scott snatched me up into his arms and carried me off to our bedroom. He unceremoniously dropped me on the bed and came down on top of me.
“Scott, get off! We’re gonna get the blankets wet.”
“They’ll dry. You scared the hell out of me. Do you know that?”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“You should be. I thought you were really hurt and it would have been my fault because I dropped you in the ocean.”
“I’m okay. Everything’s all right. I wasn’t really hurt. Can we change and go eat? I’m hungry.” I reached up, touched his cheek and laid a kiss on his lips.
“Mmmm…I think I could eat right here,” Scott replied, nuzzling my neck.
“Oh no,” I said, pushing him away. “I want to go eat. Now love, get off me so I can change my clothes.”
“Oh, all right,” he sighed and rolled off me. “You owe me later though.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll pay up. With interest.”
************
“Hey, what’s with the guy on the beach with the binoculars?” Shawn gestured. “He’s been there since we came out on the deck.”
“Where?” Paul asked, shading his eyes to look down the beach.
“Up there by that bench. He’s got a white hat and blue trunks.”
“Oh, he’s probably been looking for whales or something,” Steph theorized.
“I could have sworn he was watching Scott and Songbird when they were messing around in the surf.”
“Why would he watch them?” Sean asked.
“Watch who?” Kevin asked, putting the steaks on the grill.
“That guy over there with the binoculars. I could have sworn he was watching Scott and Songbird. And that he followed them when they ran up here,” Shawn explained.
“Where’s he at?” Kevin questioned.
“Up by the bench,” Shawn said.
Kevin stepped over to look up the beach. The man suddenly dropped his binoculars, turned and walked back up the beach. “Well, I think you’re right, Shawn. He just turned tail and went back up the beach.”
“What the hell was he watching?”
“Maybe he’s just a wrestling fan. He probably noticed Scott and then saw us up here. An asshole, but probably just a fan.”
The doorbell rang. “I got it,” Sean said and went to front door.
“Steaks almost done?” I asked as I walked out the door, Scott right behind me.
“Yep. Hungry are we?” Kevin asked.
“Yes. I’m always hungry after I swim,” I laughed, sat down on Scott’s lap and laid my head on his shoulder.
“Awww, ain’t you two cute,” Kevin teased.
“Hey Songbird,” Sean sing-songed as he came back on the deck. “You have a delivery.” He placed a huge bouquet of roses on the table.
“Oooo, aren’t they beautiful,” I breathed. “Oh honey! Thank you!” I exclaimed and kissed Scott on the cheek.
“Well, I’d love to take credit, but I didn’t do it.”
“What do you mean ‘you didn’t do it’?”
“I mean I didn’t get you flowers, sweetheart.”
“Then who are they from?”
“Look at the card,” Steph put in.
I reached into the bouquet, pulled out the card and read it.
“So, who are they from?” Scott prodded. “Am I gonna have to hurt someone?”
“It says ‘To the most beautiful woman I know.’ There’s no signature,” I said and handed Scott the card.
“That’s strange,” Steph said. “You must have picked up a secret admirer, Songbird.”
“None of you did this?” I asked all of them. All of them shook their heads.
“It’s Scott’s job to spoil you, not ours,” Kevin added.
“Humph. Someone’s tryin’ to move in on my woman,” Scott snorted with mock jealousy.
“You better keep hold of her. Maybe someone is trying to snatch her away,” Kevin teased.
“They can try, but I won’t go,” I declared and wrapped my arms back around Scott’s neck.
“Well since that’s settled,” Kevin said, taking the steaks off the grill, “who’s ready to eat?”
*****************
Craig lowered his binoculars as Catherine slid off Hall’s lap and they started to eat. He smiled. “I hope you liked the flowers, beautiful,” he whispered to himself. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his new job ID card. He snorted when he thought of how easy it was to get hired at the arena as security. “I’ll be seeing you soon, Catherine. Very, very soon.”