“Mom’s calling me over, I’ll be right back,” Beth said, getting up and rushing off.

“So, Gabrielle, what do you think of the pool house?” Drew asked with a knowing smile. Braden and I both looked at him with surprise.

“What, are you stalking us?” he asked. “You need to get some more hobbies.”

“And you two need to learn how to sneak off better. You guys just casually strolled off with half the party watching. Here’s a hint big brother, nobody thought you were planning to go swimming.”

“Were you selling tickets for a place at the window?”

“No, but I should have thought of that!” Drew laughed.

“I thought I really did see somebody by one of the windows,” Cam slurred. “But I’ve been seeing a lot of weird shit since I had that last rum punch.”

“Are you okay, Cam?” I asked with a bit of concern. Cameron was looking a little green.

“Me? Oh, yes.” He sat up straighter. “I’ve just been having a few… dozen cocktails.”

“All of the mothers with unmarried socialite daughters have been stalking him.” Drew grinned. “Mrs. Mason has even decided that Cam might be a good alternative to Braden for Felicity’s hand in marriage.”

“Lucky you,” Braden teased.

“I talked to her before and she actually seems like a pretty nice person,” I said. “If you had those parents you would probably dress in black and look sullen too.”

“You’re so nice, Gabrielle,” Cam rambled with a slightly glassy look in his eyes. “You were always so nice to everybody. You knew all the homeless people’s names.”

“So, you guys planning to hook up anywhere else tonight?” Drew asked. “I think there’s some space on the dance floor.” Braden glared at him.

“Hey! If you were dating her you’d be hittin’ that shit every chance you had too and you know it. Gabrielle is very hot and she’s got an amazing…” Cameron said somewhat incoherently to Drew. Okay, time to get out of there!

“May I have this dance?” I interrupted quickly, turning to Braden. He smiled and stood up to escort me to the floor. Even though he had been feeling the need to claim his mate and mark his territory in the pool house he was being very sweet and gentle now. We laughed a little and smiled stupidly at each other a whole lot, dancing to Blue Moon and Dream a Little Dream of Me. Who knew that romance could be so great? Well, pretty much everybody but me until now I guess. Claire and Tyler looked completely in love, staring into one another’s eyes.

The evening had been a great success. (Luckily, Cam had ridden with relatives and so he wasn’t driving.) When things finally wound down we headed back up to the house. Braden’s family and I all had some tea in the kitchen and we traded stories about the evening for a while. Despite a rocky start, it had turned out to be one of the best Saturday nights I had spent in a very long time. Okay, it was one of the best ever, although there had been that trip to Disneyworld when I was six. It was nearly 3a.m. when we all finally headed up to bed and now that the adrenaline was gone I was starting to feel very tired. We wished everyone goodnight and went into Braden’s room.

“Now that I can finally get you out of that dress, I think I may be too tired to do anything about it,” he said, walking over to me and helping me with my zipper and my necklace.

“We already had a rendezvous, Iron Man. I’m tired too. How about if we just cuddle and see how we feel in the morning?”

“Sounds good.” We both set about getting undressed and ready for bed. It took me a while to wash off the make-up and brush out my hair and when I left the bathroom I saw that Braden was sitting in bed reading and waiting for me. I just stood there and stared for a minute.

“What?” he asked, looking up with a smile.

“I was just thinking what a nice sight it is to see you reading in bed.”

“It’s a nice sight to see you doing anything in bed.” He pulled back the covers invitingly and I came over and snuggled in. He put down his book and turned out the light, pulling me into his arms.

“I told your mom that I was quite smitten with you.”

“Well, I told my dad I was quite smitten with you. That’s what I was talking to him about after lunch.”

“I wondered what you were talking about.”

“I just had some relationship questions. I trust his judgment. My parents are very happy together.”

“My parents are too and they still flirt with each other even after all the years of marriage.”

“I’d really like to meet them.”

“How about next weekend?”

“You’re on.” I could tell even without being able to see him that he was smiling.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Everyone was late getting downstairs the next morning and we all met for brunch in the dining room. Afterward, we packed up our stuff and got ready to go. Even though we were only a half an hour away, everyone was hugging and promising to call and visit and e-mail. Beth and Claire made me promise to have lunch and go shopping with them too. I could see how happy that made Braden. In the car ride on the way home he had a contented smile on his face.

“Are you and Jessica just going to hang out tonight?”

“Yeah, she’ll be curious to hear about the weekend.” And personally, I wanted to gush about Braden and his family and talk to her about moronic Marla, creepy Cole and mean Mrs. Mason. As far as Cam went, I figured I would just mention the coincidence that an old college friend of mine was Braden’s cousin, and mention that he might be shadowing us sometime in the future.

“I’m going to do the usual Sunday night hang out thing with Mark and Adam.”

I wondered if he talked to Adam and Mark the way that I talked to Jess. Probably not. There would probably be a few suggestive jokes and then they would eat pizza, drink beer and watch sports. That seemed to be their pattern. Braden brought me back to my apartment and helped me with my bags, giving me a warm kiss goodbye and telling me he would call me later to say goodnight. As I walked in the front door Jess came hurtling at me like a human cannonball.

“Was it good?” she demanded in between bites of the Haagen-Dazs she was holding.

“The weekend? Yeah, it was fun,” I answered with a smile. She gave me a “don’t f**k around with me” look.

“And how was the sex?”

“That was amazing.” She followed me into my room and sat on my bed while I unpacked. She listened avidly while I gave her the basic run down as she made appreciative noises and comments. She actually blushed a little when I told her about the pool house. I don’t think she realized that Braden could be such a naughty boy. I also told her all about the rest of the weekend, from Drew’s funny comments to Cole’s obnoxious ones. We spent the better part of the evening giggling and laughing and between the two of us we polished off all of the Rocky Road.