THE BILLIONAIRE'S DANCE(Billionaire Bachelors #2)(30)

“Hey, speak for yourself. I chase around an almost two year old daily. Let me tell you it’s a workout that rivals rustling up cows.” Lucas immediately looked around until he spotted his daughter. She was, of course, being coddled by her grandfather.

“Notice how Dad’s always telling us we need to give Mom grandkids but he’s the one who’s hogging them,” Lucas said.

“I know. Dad’s all bark and no bite. We all know he wants those grandkids for himself but man, have you noticed how good he looks. I’m really glad he has those two babies in his life. It’s brought a whole new youthfulness to his entire appearance,” Alex said.

Mark stood beside his brothers feeling a bit left out. He hadn’t felt that way since they were all young kids and they would sometimes run off ahead of him. He’d been too young to keep up but they’d eventually always come back for him.

“Well I think I’ll just enjoy being a favorite uncle,” he finally spoke up. As if Jasmine had heard him, she looked up from where she was with her grandpa and spotted her dad and uncles. She started toddling over towards them as fast as her chubby little legs would carry her.

“Unca Mar, unca Mar,” she demanded as she held out her arms towards him. Her words were getting so much better but Mark wished she would keep the sweet baby talk forever.

“How’s my beautiful princess,” he asked, while he swung her up into his arms and blew raspberries on her tummy.

“Hungy,” she said and pointed to the steaks. “That’s Uncle’s good girl. Let’s get you some dinner.

You can be my beautiful date. I will most definitely have the prettiest one here,” he said with total adoration in his eyes and voice.

“Yeah,” Jasmine replied as she clapped her hands together, then grabbed Mark’s face and gave him a sloppy kiss, which he loved.

“Looks like this is ready,” Alex said. He motioned for the staff to come and gather up everything and stepped down with his brothers to be with the rest of their family.

They all had an amazing dinner. Everyone was enjoying themselves. It was hard to get two words in with all the laughter and stories being passed around the large picnic tables set up on the massive lawn.

Jessica finally allowed herself to relax and found she having a great time. She loved to watch Alex interact with his brothers. They all acted like little boys, as they were trying to best each other and telling many embarrassing stories about one another.

“…Seriously, you should’ve seen him standing there with his pants around his ankles…” Jessica heard Mark saying as she tuned back into the conversation. She’d have to ask Alex about that later. It sounded like she’d missed out on a great story.

“Okay everyone ignore my brother. I think he’s had one too many if you know what I mean,” Alex said, as he motioned in the air like he was tipping a bottle up to his mouth.

“You’re just upset because you’re usually the one who ends up at the losing end of all these childhood stories,” Mark said as he lightly punched his brother in the arm.

Alex shrugged at the good natured teasing. He turned towards Jessica and gave her a smile. “I like the stories,” she said somewhat shyly.

Alex couldn’t help himself. He leaned down towards his wife and brushed his lips against hers in a soft kiss. It brought tears to her eyes and she quickly looked away and forced a bite of food down.

“Are you okay?” he asked her quietly.

“Yes, of course.”

He continued to stare at her for a moment, making her want to squirm in her chair. Then someone else asked him a question, which gave her some time to compose herself. She was praying no one had noticed. She missed the knowing look on Joseph’s face. He was feeling pretty smug as he watched the love growing between his son and daughter-in-law.

Jacob gave a little giggle from his high chair, sitting right next to his grandpa.

“They are pretty silly, aren’t they?” Joseph said to his grandson, which made everyone laugh.

Suddenly there was a commotion at the other end of the table. Lucas was jumping up and looking around in all directions, like danger was approaching and he was going to take on an entire army.

“What are you jumping all around for boy?” Joseph asked with concern.

Lucas looked at his father with panic in his eyes. “It’s time Dad. Amy’s water just broke,” he said like he was a lost little boy.

“Well, why didn’t you say so,” Joseph stated with some panic in his own voice.

“Boys, would you please calm down. Child birth is natural and nothing to panic about,” Katherine said to her husband and son. “How far apart are your contractions?” she asked Amy.

“About two minutes,” Amy said, a little bit short of breath.

“Well then, we’d better get you to the hospital.”

“Let’s go,” Lucas almost shouted.

“I’ll drive her Lucas. You’re far too freaked out to be driving anybody,” Katherine told him.

“Okay Mom.” He would never argue with his mother. He’d been raised too well to do something that foolish.

“Thank you to everyone who came out and spent this evening with us. You’re all so special to us,” Katherine stated to the large group consisting of family and friends. “We’ll keep you all updated on this beautiful new addition to our family and please keep Amy, Lucas and Jasmine in your prayers as they bring this new baby into the world,” she finished.