Before we left New York, Louis and Preston came to the house to say hello to Lucinda and everyone else, including my father. They were still employed by my dad, after all, and they had a great working relationship.

We were standing in the kitchen, chatting with Lucinda, and Louis grabbed my hand out of habit. I didn't think anything of it until my father came strolling in. Lou dropped my hand quickly, but I felt almost certain that my dad had seen it. He didn't say anything, however; he just came over and shook Louis' hand and then gave me another hug, which he'd been doing several times a day since I'd been home.

He asked Louis if they could talk in his office, and I asked if I could tag along, since Louis was technically working in my house.

"So, how are things going in Boston?" He asked, once we'd all sat down in his office.

"Great!" I said. "We love it there, Daddy. We've seen so much of the city, but there's still so much more to see. We're trying to get it all in before we start school in January."

We. 

I just said we in front of my father. We, as in Louis and me.

Okay, he knew we were friends, but I wondered if he caught on that I meant we, as in the two of us, as in a couple. I must have been really ready to tell him to just let that slip out carelessly. But he still didn't flinch. It seemed he was a bit oblivious to us.

He spent some time asking about the house and utilities and the cars. Louis assured him that he and Preston were on top of everything, which I agreed they were. He gave Louis some instructions for getting the house ready for winter and taking care of the grounds.

For the most part, it seemed like a standard business meeting, which was fine by me. When Louis and I told my parents, I wanted us to have a plan, not just let it slip.

We talked a bit more about our adventures in Boston, and we both told him about Labor Day weekend with our friends. We laughed throughout the whole re-telling of our weekend with everyone, and I realized, once again, what a treasure I had in Louis and the others.

I left my father's office with a smile on my face, simply happy with my life and the way it was turning out.

Daddy called Preston into his office and spoke with him for a few minutes, and then we left to return to Boston.  

Soon after we returned from New York, Preston took a few days off to fly home to get some things in order for college.

Louis and I went out for dinner and a movie - a very "real world" date, as Louis put it. We enjoyed the time we had to be completely alone.

When we returned home, we went straight to my room. As soon as I had shut the door, I attacked Louis with kisses. I pushed him back towards the bed until his calves bumped up against it. Then I pushed him just a little more so that he sat down. Then I climbed onto his lap and kissed him deeply, coaxing my way into his mouth. I kissed him sensuously, hungrily and he made no effort to resist. I ran my hands firmly up and down his back, and then I lifted the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head.

He pulled back with a laugh. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Undressing you, what does it look like?" I asked, kissing his neck in between my words. I trailed my tongue to the sweet spot just under his ear and he groaned in pleasure.

I climbed off his lap and started to unbutton his jeans, but his hands grasped mine. "Let's not get carried away," he said with a smirk.

"Why not?" I asked. "I want you. I want you now, Lou. I don't want to wait anymore." I rubbed my hands firmly up and down over his chest, stopping to massage over his tattoos.

His body stiffened a little in response to my words. "No, Ash, I don't think you're ready yet."

I was tired of hearing that, so I made it my mission to convince him that I was ready. I leaned back in to kiss him heavily and I pushed against his body without breaking the kiss so that he was lying down and I was straddling his hips. I kept kissing deeper and deeper while I moved my hips over his. He was obviously becoming excited, and I found it extremely arousing.

"Ash," he panted when I pulled away from the kiss. "Not yet," he finally said.

I stopped everything and stood up, putting my hands on my hips. I was furious. "Stop saying that! You're deciding this for both of us and you don't even care what I think! I'm ready, and that's for me to decide, not you!"

He sat up and sighed deeply. "I know you're ready, but I'm...not."

I looked at him in absolute confusion. And frankly, I was quite hurt by this new revelation.

"So I've been practically throwing myself at you for months now, and you kept saying we should take it slow for my sake, when you're the one who still has issues. What is this about, Lou?" I demanded.

"I can't explain it right now. Just trust me, okay? It won't be long, I promise. I need a little more time to work through some things." 

His explanation seemed awfully weak. Why on earth would he need "time" when he's already been sexually active and when I knew he loved me?

"No, I'm tired of waiting, Lou. I love you and I want to give you everything. This is huge for me. I've never wanted anyone the way I want you, and I want to give all of myself to you. Can't you at least talk to me?!"

"You wouldn't understand!" He snapped. "Now drop it, okay?!"

His tone surprised me. I decided to drop it like he said and I went into the bathroom to get washed up. When I came back out, he was lying in bed, patting the space next to him.

"No, thank you. I'll sleep over here," I said, pointing to the couch in my sitting room.

"Ash, don't be a baby about this."

I turned to him in anger. "Don't call me a baby! Richard called me a baby because I wouldn't have sex with him, and now you're calling me a baby because I want you to make love to me?! I'm not a baby! I'm a woman who happens to be desperately in love with a man who is holding something back. I don't get you, Louis! But until you have your issues solved, I'll just keep my distance. I think I need some space, too."

"I'm sorry, Ash. Please just come to bed."

"No, I told you I'm sleeping here," I said. I shut off the lights and flopped onto the couch, dragging a blanket over me.

The next few days were tense. We hardly said a word to each other and I hated it.

I'm sure that Preston noticed the uncomfortable air between us when he came home, but he didn't say anything about it. At least not to me.

Neither of us approached the subject, but we eventually warmed up to each other again, I think just because we missed each other so much. I guess we both realized that sex was a hot topic, and we'd have to approach it a little at a time.

We saw Carly and her kids at the playground a few more times during our evening walks. Mimi and Izzy acted like we were a long-lost aunt and uncle, screeching with glee whenever they saw us.

I got a huge kick out of Izzy when he said Louis' name, "Woo-wee!" They sure were cute kids, but whenever we met up with them at the park, they wore me out. How did little kids store up so much energy?

After we'd gotten to know Carly better, Louis told her, "Ashten and I have been talking, and we'd love to babysit Mimi and Izzy some time, if you would like a break."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "I would love a break! Thank you so much! It's so hard to find babysitters, and even then I don't know who I could trust!"

And then she hardly even hesitated before asking, "Could you watch them this weekend? I have this work thing on Saturday night and I really need to be there."

Louis looked at me and I shrugged. "Sure, we don't have anything else going on."

Saturday came and Mimi and Izzy barreled into our house at around 5:00 in the evening. I had to admit I was a little excited, but I was also very nervous. What if one of them cried or got hurt? I had no idea what to do. And heavens, I couldn't even imagine diaper duty, although they seemed a little old for diapers.

Louis kept reassuring me that we'd do fine. Preston would be there, too, so between the three of us, we should be able to handle two small children, right?

You would have thought so, but they were a handful. As soon as she walked in, Mimi said, "Do you have dollies? I want to play dollies!"

Carly came in right behind her, carrying Izzy. "Mimi, you have dollies in your backpack, remember?"

Mimi smacked her head and said, "Oh, right!" Which got a huge laugh out of Louis.

When Carly set Izzy down, he started to cry. She looked at us and said, "He has a little separation anxiety, but he should be fine in just a little while."

She left us her cell number and a few other emergency numbers. And then she exited quickly so that it wouldn't be a long, drawn-out good-bye. Izzy screamed twice as loud as the door closed behind her.

Louis had already picked up Izzy and he was trying to comfort the poor child. "Sshh, it's all right, man. We're going to have some fun together. Do you like trains? Or cars?" Izzy kept shaking his head and screaming.

I stood there like a deer in the headlights, with not a single clue as to how I could help. Louis said, "Just play with Mimi, I'll get him settled down." So I walked over to Mimi and awkwardly asked, "Do you want to play?"

"Yes! We're the mommies and these are our babies," she said, yanking two rag dolls out of her backpack. "Sit!" She demanded.

I sat on the couch, but she pulled me onto the floor. She thrust a doll into my hands and said, "Now feed the baby."

I looked at her and asked, "Does she have a bottle?"

"Nooo," she said. "You feed her with your boobies. Like this." She stuffed the baby under her shirt like she was nursing it.

I looked at Louis in alarm and mouthed out, "I'm not doing that!"

He and Preston were laughing like crazy as Izzy continued to cry louder than an ambulance siren.

"I don't think my baby is hungry right now," I said, trying to suggest some other activity.

"Nonsense," Mimi said, making me laugh at her precociousness. "Babies are always hungry."

So I turned about seven shades of red as I held the baby doll close to my chest, but not touching it and certainly not underneath my shirt. Mimi didn't seem to notice.

When I was done "nursing" the baby, Mimi instructed me on how to burp her. "Like this," she said, putting her baby over her shoulder and patting its back lightly. Then she made a burping sound. I patted my baby, too, and then I tried to put her down, but Mimi said, "No, your baby didn't burp yet."

"Sure she did," I said. "You just didn't hear her."

"I didn't hear her because she didn't burp," Mimi insisted. When I put the doll back on my shoulder, Mimi said, "Now you burp for her."

I was fairly certain that Louis was going to wet his pants with how hard he was laughing at me. I gave him a dirty look, saying, "I'll get you for this." I made a tiny burping noise and Mimi said, "Very good." She was a funny little thing with quite an attitude!

Izzy was still crying, squirming to get out of Louis' arms. 

Finally Mimi said, "Izzy likes pretzels."

It would have been nice if she'd told us that half an hour earlier. 

But then Louis said, "We don't have pretzels. Does Izzy like anything else?"

"Nope," said Mimi. "Just pretzels."

So, Louis and Preston decided to take Izzy for a walk down the street to a little store on the corner. I had to say that, although Mimi was still a chatterbox, I was thankful for the break from Izzy's constant crying.

While they were gone, I tried to remember what kinds of games I used to play with dolls when I was younger.

I put on a fake British accent and said, "Mimi, dahling, would you like to go shopping? The boutiques in Beverly Hills have the most marvelous fall fashions."

I was surprised when she jumped right into the game, accent and all. "I'd love to, dahling!" Together, we walked to my bedroom, pretending we were going shopping. I opened my closet and her eyes became as round as the moon. "Whoa. You have a lot of sparkly clothes!" She gasped.

"Yes, I guess I do," I laughed.

I pulled out some scarves for us to dress up the dollies since they were far too small to wear my real clothes. That entertained Mimi for a few minutes, but then she asked, "Can I wear some of your clothes?"

I hesitated, mainly because I thought it might be weird to have this kid undress in my room. But then I agreed. "Only if you put them on over your clothes."

She happily agreed as I pulled out some of my silky blouses and sequined sweaters. She looked through my shoes and found a pair of stilettos that she insisted on wearing, even though I was afraid she was going to break her ankles.

I heard Louis and Preston come back into the house, but I didn't hear any crying from Izzy, thank goodness. I yelled out to them, "Have a seat! Mimi's going to give you a fashion show!"

Soon she was decked out in sparkly jewelry, the stilettos and some over-sized sunglasses. She went parading into the living room and the guys all clapped and cheered. Even Izzy, who was happily munching on pretzels.

"This time, you dress up, Ashten!" She demanded.

Louis chanted, "Ashten! Ashten! Ashten!"

And then little Izzy said, "I wanna pway!"

So I told Louis, "You dress him up in your clothes!"

I went back to my room with Mimi. She put on a different shirt, and then she chose a floor-length ball gown that she wanted me to wear.

"No, Mimi, I don't think so. That's a very special dress. I only wear it for special occasions."

"Like a wedding?" She gasped.

"Something like that. Why don't you choose a dress that's not quite as long?"

She pulled out the one I'd worn to the wedding in Michigan. I happily obliged, although I went in to the bathroom to change in privacy.

I came out and slipped on my heels and the hat that I'd worn with the dress. I gave Mimi a sparkly clutch purse to carry and we went out to the living room. The guys were out there as well. Izzy was decked in one of Louis' soccer jerseys and a baseball cap, propped sideways on his head. Louis was wearing a huge hockey jersey with another ball cap on his head and a flowery lei that I'd never seen before. But Preston's get-up was the most ridiculous. He had on a gaudy pair of golf shorts, black dress shoes with white athletic socks, and a faded old t-shirt that said ¡Yo Quiero Taco Bell ! On his head, he wore a gigantic Mexican sombrero.

He looked at me and said, "Louis told Izzy to pick out my outfit!"

I laughed so hard that I thought I might actually hyperventilate. Oh, my goodness, my friends and I were a bunch of freaks. 

We asked Izzy and Mimi if they wanted pizza for dinner and of course, they both gave a resounding YES! We ordered the pizza and then we decided to stay in costume until it arrived. Then we all answered the door in our finery and the pizza delivery guy gave us a very strange look.

After pizza, we had the kids get into their pajamas as Carly had instructed. They brushed their teeth and then we watched "Lilo and Stitch," since it was the only kids' movie in the house. While we sat and watched, Izzy climbed onto Louis' lap and my heart just about melted as Louis wrapped his arms around the tiny boy. Then Mimi snuggled in next to me on my chair. Soon, both kids were sleeping soundly and they stayed that way until their mom returned.

Carly was exceedingly grateful that we watched her kids. Louis helped load the sleeping babes into her car while I went to get ready for bed.

He walked into my room, saying, "Wasn't that fun?"

I laughed and said, "That depends on your definition of fun!"

"You didn't like doing that?" He asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"I didn't say that. It was actually a lot of fun, but man, kids are a lot of work!" I said while Louis fell onto the bed next to me.

"You got that right!" He said. "Remind me not to specialize in pediatrics!"

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Fasten your seatbelts, folks! There's a little turbulence up ahead!