AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It didn’t take too long to get to the park where they were meeting. He slowed his speed as he drove, looking for the spot where Cole had said they were waiting. The park was quite large, with lots of beautiful green spaces, flower gardens, playgrounds, plenty of walking paths, and a huge man-made lake at the center of it.
Once he reached the area where Cole had said they were, he pulled in behind his brother’s car. After they got out of the car, Jay retrieved both bags, then handed Peyton his. When Jay held his free hand to Peyton, the boy hesitated for a moment before taking it.
Jay gave him a smile. They crossed the road and headed for the picnic shelter where Cole and the others waited.
Cole jogged toward them and greeted them with a grin. Well, the grin was directed more at Peyton than Jay. Cole held out his hand to Peyton, who let go of Jay’s in order to fist bump Cole’s.
“What’ve you got there, bud?” Cole said, gesturing to the bag Peyton held.
“It’s a ball, Frisbee, and a kite.”
“Cool!”
It had taken a bit for Cole to warm up to Peyton, and like Janessa, he’d been angry at Jay. The teen had given him the silent treatment for awhile. That had been hard for Jay because it told him that he’d lost the respect of his little brother.
When he’d finally started talking to Jay again, Cole had had a lot of questions for him, challenging Jay on the things he’d lectured the guys on the team about over the years. Especiallywhere they pertained to respecting girls and not rushing into sex.
There was nothing Jay could say to defend himself, so he’d taken the verbal punches Cole had sent his way. Things were still a little tense between them, but at least Cole wasn’t carrying his anger into his interactions with Peyton. Jay was thankful for that.
Jay had had to accept that he’d fallen off the pedestal Cole had put him on. But he hoped that maybe seeing what had happened to him might still work as a cautionary tale for any decisions the teens might make in the future.
When they reached the shelter, Jay spotted Aiden and Skylar sitting close together on one of the picnic benches facing the lake. Cole no doubt felt like a third wheel with the pair these days.
“Let’s throw the Frisbee, Pey,” Cole said.
Peyton set his bag down and fished out the Frisbee, then glanced over at Jay.
“Have fun,” Jay told him.
The smile Peyton gave Jay was small and fleeting, but at least it was something.
Jay stood with his arms crossed, watching as Cole tossed the Frisbee gently to Peyton, clearly curbing his natural athletic abilities and competitive tendencies. A few minutes later, he spotted Charli’s car pulling in behind his.
“Cole, I’m going to see if Charli needs help,” Jay called out. “Please keep an eye on Peyton for me.”
“Will do,” Cole yelled back.
As Jay jogged toward the road, he noticed Misha’s car pull up as well. Smiling, he waited for a couple of cars to clear the road before heading across it to open Misha’s door. She smiled up at him as she undid her seatbelt.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said.
“Hey, handsome.”
As she got out of the car, Jay leaned forward to give her a hug and brush a kiss on her cheek. “I’m glad you could make it.”
“It’s far too nice a day to stay inside,” Misha said, clinging to him for a moment before stepping back. The feel of her in his arms never failed to fill him with warmth.
He knew there would be moments of temptation with Misha, given his history of seeking physical intimacy with the women he’d been with previously. But it was his hope that his desire to live a God-honoring life would override his desire to feel a physical closeness with Misha that went beyond hugging and kissing.
It was a conversation they needed to have so that he could reinforce with her his commitment to strengthening their relationship by focusing on the emotion and spiritual bonds they shared and not the physical. That physical bond had seemed so important in his relationship with Casey, and now he realized that it was because the emotional bond they shared wasn’t strong enough to sustain a relationship without something else to draw them together.
Plus, it had been easier to just fall back on the physical aspect of their relationship without working to build stronger emotional and spiritual bonds. If this relationship was going to go the distance, it needed to be different from how he’d done things in the past.
And Jay definitely wanted it to go the distance, so he wasn’t going to make that same mistake with Misha.
“Yep. Outdoors is the place to be today. To go for a hike or hang out at the park.” He went to the back of the car with her, then lifted out the stroller for Misha. “Do you want Ciara in it?”
“Actually, maybe we can carry her and put our cooler in the stroller instead.”
