Chapter 13

Sunday Morning

Lee woke first with Amanda snuggled close, her left hand on his chest. He glanced down at her, still peacefully sleeping, when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He smiled brightly when he realized what it was. There on his muscular bare chest was Amanda's hand with the engagement ring proudly displayed. He beamed while thinking about what the ring meant. His smile soon turned to worry. He started softly talking out loud like he was talking to the devil and angel on his shoulders. "Stetson, what did you get yourself into? What were you thinking? I was thinking I couldn't live another day without her in my life. But this is a lifetime with the same woman—no more wild nights with a different woman every night. Yes, but my nights with Amanda have been very wild, and the most erotic I've ever had. She makes me happy. I love her so much. But that's not who you are? You're the Scarecrow. No, I'm not. Not with Amanda. I am Lee Stetson, and I am very satisfied with that. No more! I don't know how I got so damn lucky to have this woman love me unconditionally, but I know one thing for sure. You better not do anything to screw this up."

"I second that." Amanda raised her head as she agreed with him.

"Don't you know it's not nice to eavesdrop on a man when they're arguing with themselves?"

"But that's the best time to. You learn so much from it." Buzz, buzz, buzz. Lee reached over and shut off the alarm. "When did you set the alarm?"

Lee smirked and responded, "I set it before we left to eat. I kind of hoped we'd be too busy to remember to do it when we got back."

"Well, that was very thoughtful of you, sweetheart. A little presumptuous but thoughtful." Lee kissed her softly on her temple. "We should get up and get ready. We don't want the boys to find us like this."

"We could shower together and save time," Lee suggested as he pulled her closer, letting his hands explore her body.

Amanda carefully grabbed his roaming hands and clearly stated, "Lee, when have we ever saved time by showering together?"

"Good point. You can go first. I, um, need to just lay here for a moment."

"Okay." Amanda climbed out of bed, grabbed her robe, and headed to the bathroom. Ten minutes later, she stood in front of the bathroom mirror, brushing her hair, when Lee walked in and wrapped his arms around her from behind. He softly kissed her exposed neck and slid one of his hands inside her robe, and began to massage her breast. "Lee, what are you doing?"

He watched her in the mirror with a devilish grin, "Well, if you have to ask, I'm obviously not doing it correctly." She smiled back at him as he stuck out his bottom lip. "Come on, Amanda, just a little. You got me all worked up, and I can't stop thinking about making love to you."

Amanda's eyes widened in shock. "I got you all worked up? Lee, I didn't do anything to you!"

"Sure, you did. You were lying next to me, rubbing your naked body up against me." He replied, trying to convince himself at the same time.

Amanda just shook her head. "Just take your shower. You can relieve yourself there." It was now Lee's turn to stare at her in awe. "Don't tell me you've never done that before."

"Of course I have, but I didn't think you would be telling me to do it." Lee removed his hand from her robe and began to undress slowly, so Amanda could see what she was missing. Once Lee was in the shower, Amanda leaned against the counter to get herself under control. It took everything she had to resist him. She needed to get out of the bathroom as Lee started to moan in the shower. A few minutes later, while Amanda was tying her shoes, she heard a primal scream from the bathroom, "Oh god, Manda!" She wickedly grinned and continued to get ready.

Lee walked out of the bathroom with his towel tied low on his hips, still damp from the shower. He noticed Amanda had picked up their clothes and straightened up the bed. She didn't actually make it, but it would look like they just slept in it, at least to the boys. He chuckled and went to get his clothes for the day. He spied Amanda sitting on the couch thumbing through a magazine. Without looking up, she spoke, "Feel better, sweetheart?"

"Oh, aren't you the comedian this morning," Lee sarcastically responded as he rolled his eyes.

Amanda couldn't help but giggle. "I promise I'll make it up to you the next time we're alone."

Lee pointed his finger at her and, with his teasing smile, warned her, "I'm going to hold you to that."

She slyly smiled and attended to her magazine again. The next thing she knew, a towel landed in her lap. As her head popped up, she gasped when she saw Lee's very muscular, very bare ass, sexily sauntering back into the bathroom with a little more wiggle than was necessary. He peeked over his shoulder with a devilish smirk on his face as he shut the door behind him. As she regained her composure quickly, she hollered, "The boys should be here any minute. You might want to think about actually putting on some clothes." As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Amanda set her magazine down and went to the door. She opened it to welcome her boys along with Coach Harris. She placed her left hand in her pocket, so she didn't ruin the surprise for the boys. "Good morning, fellas." She made eye contact with their coach and stated, "I hope they weren't much trouble for you."

Coach Harris shook his head and began to speak, but was interrupted by Lee coming out of the bathroom. "Hey, guys, when did you get here?" Lee exclaimed.

"We just did," Jamie answered as he walked over to Lee. Jamie winked at him and shrugged his shoulders as if he was trying to ask the unspoken question. Lee just gawked back at him like he didn't understand what he wanted.

Lee put his arm around Jamie's shoulder and peered at everyone else. "So, Coach, what time do you want the boys at the field?"

Coach Harris cleared his throat and explained, "We don't play until this afternoon, but I would like them there by eleven-thirty."

Lee grinned and responded, "Great, we'll see you then." He headed to the door and opened it. Coach nodded politely to Amanda and walked out the door without a word. Lee smiled smugly as he closed the door behind him. Lee came back into the room to find Amanda and the boys sitting on the sofa talking about their evening.

He heard Jamie ask as he sat down in the chair across from them. "So what did you guys do last night?"

Amanda beamed over at Lee. He nodded slightly as she answered, "Well, let's see. First, we stayed here and cleaned up from the day at the field. Then we went to supper. Next, we went for a walk down by the canal and just talked. It was a lovely night, and the lights and the water were beautiful. Then we came back here and went to bed." She focused on Lee and, with her left hand, gestured grandly to him. "Can you think of anything else we did last night?"

Lee shook his head slightly and added, "No, I think you covered everything. Oh, you know what, there was that-"

"Mom!" Jamie interrupted. "Let me see your hand!" Amanda raised her right hand and turned it back and forth for him to see. Jamie rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. "Not that one, Mom. Your left hand."

Amanda raised her left hand just like she had with her right one and questioned, "What? Is there something wrong with my hand? Did I get makeup on it somewhere?" She turned it back and forth like she was looking for an invisible smudge while Lee grinned like a Cheshire cat at the way she was playing with the boys.

"Lee, you did it! You asked her!" Jamie shouted enthusiastically. Both boys got up and hugged their mom as well as Lee.

"Thank you, fellas. But why do you sound like you already knew about this?"

The boys looked nervously towards Lee as he cleared his throat to answer her question. "Well, Amanda. I couldn't ask you to marry me without permission, now could I? And with your dad gone, I went to the next best thing."

She smiled at Lee, "Oh, Lee. That was so thoughtful of you. Thank you for making sure the boys were okay with this first." She placed her hands on the boys' shoulders and talked directly to them. "Are you fellas sure you're okay with this? I mean, I know you just met Lee. I just want to make sure you don't think we are rushing into anything."

Philip quickly answered for both of them, "Mom, we are more than okay with this. Lee makes you happy. If you're happy, we're happy. It's just an added bonus. Lee is a really cool guy. I like spending time with him, and it's been kind of..." His sentence trailed off as he nervously stared down at the carpet.

"Honey, tell me what it is. You sounded like you wanted to say something else."

Philip brought his head up, and his eyes went from Lee to his mom, and lastly at Jamie as he gave him an encouraging smile. "Well, for a long time now, it's just been you and Grandma. We love you both very much. It's just...well...it's kinda nice to have a dad figure in the house. It's been such a long time since you and Dad divorced, and when we stay at our friend's houses, we see their parents playing with us, and we kind of miss that."

"Oh, you guys, come here. I know it must be tough on you guys at times, and I completely understand. I'm sorry things didn't work out with your dad and me, but it wouldn't have been a happy home if we would've stayed together. I hope you realize that. We did what was best for everyone."

"We know that, Mom. It's just going to be nice to have Lee there now," Jamie piped in with.

Lee kneeled in front of the trio on the sofa and shifted his attention to his future stepsons. "Hey, I want you both to know I want to do all kinds of things with you. I want to be at your sporting events. I want to go to your teacher conferences. I want to take you on weekend trips, just us guys. I want to be there for everything you do. I will do my very best to make all of those things. I want you to remember my job is unpredictable, but I will move heaven and earth to make everything I can. Our boss knows you guys are part of my life now, and that will help. Okay?"

The boys both nodded as they hugged Lee. Amanda happily sat there watching her three menfolk while her eyes held some unshed tears. She knew she was the luckiest woman in the world. Once Amanda was able to reign in her emotions a bit, she announced, "Now that we have that settled, you boys need to take a shower and get ready for your game. We need to get an early lunch, so we can get to the field on time. Philip, why don't you go first, but remember to save your brother some hot water."

"Okay, Mom. Congratulations, you two!" Philip said as he grabbed his uniform and headed into the bathroom.