The next day, after making the cakes, which both turned out perfect, she dressed her kids in jeans and long sleeved shirts, then herself. She pulled on her skinny jeans, then brown suede mid-calf height boots, and a body-hugging cream sweater, that had a cowel neck big enough to expose a shoulder, with three quarter sleeves. With her hair up in a pony tail, she sprayed herself with her favorite perfume before going downstairs to her waiting husband.
"We're just going to the park." He told her.
"I know, but there's going to be a lot of people there, some I don't know." He rolled his eyes at her. With all the kids ready to go, Kira grabbed the cakes while Anthony carried the sodas and the carseat. They made their way down the block and a half to the park. It was obvious where everyone was gathering. The grills were going, puffing out smoke, with guys gathered around them. Probably analizing and discussing the meats about to be cooked were what Kira thought they'd be talking about.
"Mom, can we go play?" Kendra asked.
"Yeah. Can we?!" Kelsey chimed in. Kira saw the rest of the kids climbing on andrunning around the play equipment. She spotted Penny, and gave her girls permission. As they ran off, she scanned the moms setting up the pic nic tables. She spotted Natalie, surrounded by Nikki and Kate. Her stomach flipped. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Natalie had to be super close to them, and with her being an outsider...
"Come on Kira," Anthony said. "Catch up." She realized that as she'd been thinking, she'd fallen a good four steps behind her husband. Picking up her pace, she scanned the crowd of guys. If Nikki and Kate were here...She spotted Isaac first. Shortest hair of all the guys over there. Then Zac, with the longest hair of all the guys over there. Then she spotted Taylor. He was already looking at her. When he smiled, she knew it wasn't because someone had said something funny, even though Zac was hilarious. She took her eyes from Taylor when her name was called by Natalie. Anthony walked over to the tables, dropped the sodas onto the table, then went to go join the guys.
"Hey Kira! What'd you bring?" Kira felt slightly stupid when all the girls looked at her expectantly.
"I brought caramel fudge cake/"
"Oooh." All the girls said together.
"So lets do introductions." Natalie said, then began her list.
After a while, Kira didn't feel so awkward, and felt more at ease. She was looking forward to the group activities- games and food. They spent the first hour talking, then debating on if they should play sit down games or active games.
"Lets play the active games after dinner. I don't want to smell while we eat." Kate said smiling.
"Good point. I agree with Kate!" Kira chimed in.
"Then lets tell the guys we want to play something. What do we want to play?" Natalie asked.
After they'd decided, they rounded up the guys for a guys against girls game of Outburst. After the girls won both rounds, the guys decided the girls cheated, and wanted to start grilling and talk trash about how stupid the game was. For dinner, Kira sat next to her kids with Anthony next to Kendra, but she got to sit opposite of Zac, with Taylor right next to him. She tried to participate in the conversation, but it was difficult when she constantly felt Taylor's eyes on her. Giving in, she gave him a wicked smile. When he returned it, she got goosebumps on her arms. While she was talking to Nikki, she saw out of the corner of her eye, Taylor looking down at something under the table. When Kira felt her hip vibrate, she knew what he'd been doing. Sitting right next to his brother and wife. Wow he was ballsy. Kira giggled to herself, then waited another two minutes to check the message.
I want to
Was all it said. What the hell? She put her phone between her legs and waited. After a good conversation with Zac about him teaching his son the drums when he got older, her phone vibrated again. Following the same routine as the last message, she read it.
meet you
These messages were strange. Then another.
behind those trees and
Kira's chin would have dropped, if she'd been alone. She finally figured out to put the messages together. After reading them again in order, she put her phone back in her pocket to wait for the next message. And what? Her mind wandered as she ate, and mechanically performed the tasks asked of her from her kids. When the shock began to wear off, only then could she steal a glance at Taylor. He was talking to Zac as if nothing had happened. Okay, two can play that game. She jumped back into a conversation with Kate while everyone finished eating. Then the debate started on what game to play. Volleyball seemed to be in the lead. Before the teams were picked, clean up began. In the chaos, she didn't notice anyone was behind her as she was reaching for plastic plates and forks until someone bumped into her. No mistaking. He was pressed against her as she was bent over. She looked over her shoulder and saw Taylor smiling. She wiggled her hips against him, feeling him go hard. He bumped against her twice, then turned away. Kira grabbed the plates and looked around to see if anyone had seen. And to her relief, it seemed no one had. She wondered if that was the last message or not.
With the tables cleared, volleyball was decided on, and teams were picked. Kira and Anthony wern't on Natalie and Taylor's team, but Zac and Kate were on hers, and she knew how strong Zac's arms were, so she wasn't worried. The game went on until the sun started going down, and the lights in the park began to come on. Rounding up the kids, everyone packed up their belongings and made their way home.

Chapter Six