Love by Love – 41
Sitting in Kyra's room, Reba helped her pack for the trip to England. She was so proud of her daughter for earning an invitation to study in England for the summer from her social studies. Her fourteen year-old little birdie was about to temporally fly to a foreign land. She got all emotional.
"Mom, you're crying again," commented Kyra seeing her mom wipe away her tears. "And that's my sock, not a handkerchief."
"Are you sure you want to go? If I learn to speak with an English accent and serve afternoon tea with you every day, would you change your mind and stay?"
"You? Speak with English accent? Some how I think that could be amusing." Kyra giggled.
"Oh, bloody 'ell." Reba tried and mocked an English accent. "See? I can."
She hugged her mom lovingly, trying to butter her up. "I'll only be gone for four months. I promise I'll send post cards."
"You'll e-mail me every day, and call me whenever you can." Letting out a sigh, Reba demanded.
"Dad will complain about the cost of the collect-calls."
"I'll deal with him."
"All right, I'll call whenever I can." Kyra promised, closing her luggage. Still with her eyes misty, Reba helped her daughter carry it down the stairs. Brock drove them to the airport. They said a long good bye until Kyra's flight was ready to leave. She turned around and waved for one last time before disappearing into the airplane with the flight attendant.
"There, there." Brock hugged Reba and tried to comfort her. "She'll only be gone for four months."
"Four long months." Reba whined. "And she's far far away." Kyra was away before when she went on her trip to music camp, but never this long and never this far. Brock pet her back consoling her. Reba wiped her tears on his shoulder. The next morning, Kyra called to tell her that she arrived safely and told Reba not to worry about her. Reba was a little down, especially since the next day Jake would go to a summer camp too.
"Jake are you ready?" Called Brock from the bottom of the stairs.
"Yes dad! I'm coming!" Jake answered running down the stairs, following with Reba. "Sorry dad, mom won't let me leave."
"The school bus is here. You better hurry up."
Jake then turned around and gave his mom a huge goodbye. "Bye mom, I'll be home before you know it."
"Bye Jake, behave okay?" She gave her son a kiss on his cheek and watched him run to the bus to join his friend. Henry waved at her; he was going too. "The next thing I know, Elizabeth will be going to summer camp too."
"Well, she's going to preschool in two years." Brock commented.
"Oh no, she won't! She's too young, she's just two years old!"
"Soon she'll be three and next year she'll be four." Brock corrected his wife. "Old enough to go to preschool."
"So unfair. Everybody's leaving." Reba buried her face at the crook of Brock's neck.
"I'm here. I won't leave, never." Brock lifted her chin up and kissed her lovingly, soon the kiss became passionate. He broke the kiss when he saw his daughter coming down the stairs. "Cheyenne's also still here." Darn! He was hoping for some sweet moments with his wife.
"Actually, not this summer," stated Cheyenne. "Van just called and asked me if I want to go to Mexico with him and some of our high school friends."
"Mexico?" Reba perked up.
"No!" Brock refused. He almost shouted.
"Why not?"
"College students that go to Mexico are up to no good!" Brock stated firmly.
"Like what, dad?"
"Yeah Brock, like what? I recall you asked me if I wanted to go to Mexico with you and a handful of friends too when we were in college." Reba crossed her arms and eyed Brock suspiciously. It was their last summer together in college. He asked both, Reba and Lori-Ann, since they were together all the time. Lori-Ann said yes but Reba said no. Although his then 'girlfriend who was on the verge of breaking up with him' was going, but he was a little disappointed that Reba didn't want to go.
"They were..." Brock stumbled when he met with Reba's 'go on' facial expression. "I saw, er, other people... being mischievous." Brock said nervously.
"You mean like getting drunk and knocking up their girlfriends?" Reba asked
"Er, yeah... that sort of thing" replied Brock uncomfortably.
Cheyenne rolled her eyes. "Look dad, I'm an adult now. I can take care of myself."
Leaning over to Brock, Reba whispered, "Yeah, that's what Lori-Ann said too, when I told her she shouldn't go."
"Come on, mom, dad. You trust me don't you? I was good at prom." Cheyenne pleaded. Reba had a very long talk with her before she graduated, making sure Cheyenne understood that woman could get pregnant anytime, not just one day in a month. She was asked to the prom by the football star: Van Montgomery. They were an item not long after Jimmy broke up with Cheyenne. They became high school sweethearts. They were now at the same college. Cheyenne was complaining that they didn't get to hang out together as much as when they were in high school.
"All right fine, you can go. But you better behave!" Brock finally approved. Cheyenne giddily went and packed.
It was a Friday; Cheyenne was just leaving with her friends. Reba put Elizabeth down for a nap. The house was dead silent.
"Boy, when was the last time our house was this quiet?" Brock commented coming back home from work to a silent home. Usually Cheyenne would be on the phone, taking to her friends. Kyra practiced her guitar. Jake played with his Game Cube. Elizabeth would be chitchatting to her 'invisible friend'. But today, he saw just Reba lying on the sofa.
Giggling, she sat up. "I don't even remember." Brock put his suitcase down and joined her on the sofa. "Let's just sit and treasure the sound of silence." She suggested laughingly. Brock wrapped his arm around the back of her shoulder. Reba rested her head at the crook of his neck, leaning against him. They snickered when they both sighed in unison. "You're back early." Reba just noticed the time.
"My last appointment was cancelled. Where's Elizabeth?" Brock questioned nothing seeing his youngest daughter running to him.
"She's taking a nap. We went to the mall today and she was tired from walking around. So I gave her a bath and let her nap." Reba explained playing with the collar of his shirt. "I miss this."
"Miss what?" Brock lowed his gaze, but Reba didn't look up to meet with his eyes. Brock just noticed 'the view' and he was enjoying it. Reba was entering into her 40s now and she still looked as gorgeous as she was when he first met her. She still had ability to take his breath away even when she wasn't trying to do so.
"Just you and me, cuddling." She sighed. "I mean when's the last time we had some type of a romantic moment."
"Last night doesn't count?" Brock remarked with a soft chuckled.
"I mean, the last time we were truly alone was when we went to Galveston, before Elizabeth was born."
"Well, technically, she was with us, plus you had a full stream of hormones." Reba looked up and noticed where he was staring. She closed the gap of her shirt. "Hey! I was admiring them."
"Be serious for a minute will you?"
Grinning, Brock kissed her sensually, starting from her temple, her cheek, her jaw line and her lips. "Honey, it's just you and me now. And didn't you just say you miss us expressing our intimacy?" Brock said planting another sweet kiss on her lips. Reba wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss lustfully. Brock lowered her gently on the couch and snuck his hand between the gaps of her shirt, sensationally caressing her soft curves.
"Shouldn't we take this to the bedroom?" Reba asked nonchalantly with a husky and trembling voice melting beneath him. She gasped for air when Brock nibbled her earlobe and kissed just below her ear. His hand roamed her soft skin under her top, making her moan uncontrollably.
"Why? No one is here but us." Brock said trailing his small kisses down her throat and collarbone. The warmth of his breath made her shiver with desire.
"Hey... Whoa!" Barbra Jean barged in to their house, but didn't quite expect to see her friends 'preoccupied'. Reba tilted her head back looking at the intruder. Brock also looked up from burying his face in her cleavage. They both groaned in frustration and sat up straight adjusting their clothes. "Your kids live here too you know, they could have walked in on you." Barbra Jean commented.
"Cheyenne went to Mexico, Kyra is in England, and Jake went camping with his school. Elizabeth is napping. We were hoping we could have sometime alone. You know, just the two of us." Brock hinted.
"Well, it's the three of us now, what are we doing?"
"Barbra Jean, what we were about to do, we didn't plan for you to be a part of it so, get lost." Reba chased her friend out.
"Hmm..." Brock seemed to be in a deep thought, Reba's eyes widen and her mouth dropped ajar. She pounded Brock's shoulder for having such a dirty thought. "Oow, oww! I was just teasing!" He cried.
"But I don't want to go back to an empty house. Big ol' empty house with a bottle of Jack calling my name." Barbra Jean wept flopping down on the chair.
Reba rolled her eyes; there goes her and Brock's romantic moment. "It's Friday, don't you have a date with Eric?"
"Not today. His late wife mom's coming to visit her grand daughter." Barbra Jean sighed "Oh, but I'm gonna borrow Elizabeth tomorrow."
Reba turned her head sharply to her friend. "Why?"
"So Elizabeth could play with Jen and she'd leave Eric and I alone for a few minutes. Or she'll interrupt us with 'daddy look!' every two minutes."
"She's a three years old. All of them are like that. Elizabeth also likes to get all attention. She wants me to see every thing she does." Just like every mother, Reba was going on and on about how cute Elizabeth was. She forgot about Barbra Jean's request.
"Yes Barbra Jean you can take Elizabeth out to a play date tomorrow." Brock answered for his wife. Despite the fact that Brock kept hinting that he wanted a few moments with Reba, Barbra Jean didn't seem to get the hint.
"I better wake Elizabeth up. If she naps too long she'll stay awake all night." Reba mumbled going to her daughter's room. She came back few minutes later with the sleepy toddler in her arms.
"Daddy!" Elizabeth saw her daddy. She leaned over to him. Brock took her from Reba and sat her down on his lap. "Where were you?" The girl asked cupping his face to make sure he looked at her.
"I went to work, baby." Brock answered pecking the little girl lightly on her lips. Elizabeth told Brock about her day and how much she missed him. She was a little chatterbox. Reba smiled watching the father and daughter play. She glanced at the clock and it was about time to prepare dinner.
"So I assume you want to stay for dinner too?" Questioned Reba to Barbra Jean.
"I was afraid you'd never ask!" She replied following Reba to the kitchen. "You're not mad at me for being here, are you?"
"Nha, that's fine." Reba replied taking chicken out of the fridge.
"Tell you what, I'll take Elizabeth tomorrow and I'll bring her back Sunday evening so you and Brock could have whole Saturday all by yourself." Barbra Jean offered. "It'd be nice to have some one to spend time with at night. Henry's gone to the summer camp. And since I decided to take your advice about taking things slow with Eric, I sleep alone. So you owe me some company!" Reba narrowed her eyes thinking, how did she owe that to her friend. Nevertheless, she thought about letting Elizabeth spend a weekend with Barbra Jean and decided to take her up on it so she'd have some romantic moments with Brock to express their feelings. Sometimes, love just needs a holiday.