Chapter 4
"Kiddo!" he yelled and kissed her nose.
"You're silly Daddy!" Sydney said and kissed his cheek. Alex silently watched the display between father and daughter.
"Mommy!" Sydney cried, squirming out of Chris's arms and bounding into Alex's.
"Thanks Jen," said Alex to her sister.
"No problem," said Jen, eyeing Chris.
"Jen this is Chris," said Alex, overemphasizing his name.
"Chris? Oh! Chris!" she said staring at him, slack jawed. "Well that is interesting," said Jen. "No wonder you were in such a hurry to drop Sydney off last night!"
"We're getting married," Alex said.
"Conmgratulations!" Jen said. She began to babble about bride's maids, flowers, themes, and honeymoons. Chris and Alex had horrified expressions on their faces.
"We have to go now," said Chris backing up. He quickly put Sydney in the car and they left.
"Rushing a bit wasn't she?" Chris laughed.
"I better call Randy when we get home," said Alex quietly.
"Yeah," said Chris. They drove the rest of the way home in silence.
*****
Explain to me again what's going on," demanded an irrate Randy Carp. Alex sighed.
"I've hooked up with Sydney's natural father, I'm sorry," she said, with no sympathy in her voice.
"But I thought that we had a thing going!" yelled Randy.
"We went out twice!" said Alex, beginning to loose her temper.
"Still. . . ." Randy began harshly. His voice softened, "I care about you Alex, please think about this carefully, think about us," he pleaded.
"I will," she responded, "Good-bye, Randy." She hung up the phone against his sputtered protests. Alex laughed at the ludicrisity of it. She had no interest in Randy, but he obviously had some interest in her.
"everything go OK?" asked Chris, who was sitting on the floor with Sydney, playing with Barbie dolls.
"Yeah," she lied easily, she didn't need to bother him with her problems. "I guess I'll go start dinner," she said walking into the kitchen.
"Need some help?" he asked following her.
"No play with Sydney, she's been deprived of a father for almost five years, go make it up to her," said Alex, hugging Chris tightly.
"She hasn't been deprived of a father. She has a good home and a perfect mother. I'm the one who's been deprived of a daughter." he kissed Alex lightly. "I think we should set a date," he whispered, as he began to kiss her ear.
"A date?' asked Alex. It was hard for her to concentrate with Chris gently kissing the side of her face and neck.
"For the wedding," he mumbled into the hollow of her throat.
"Thursday is good," she said.
"Daddy!" yelled Sydney from the living room. "Barbie is waiting!"
"I'm coming Kiddo!" he said, slowly backing away from Alex. He sat down and began to make tiny braids in Barbie's hair. He stuck some butterfly clips in it as a final touch. He used the really big butterfly clips, the kind with glitter and the flapping wings.
He was engrossed in a game of "Barbie goes on a date," with Sydney, when his cell phone rang.
"Hello?" he asked.
"Yo Chris, where've you been?" asked Justin.
"Oh yeah, I got your message," Chris replied.
"Well, we're leaving tomorrow, so you better say good bye to your lady friend and get over to the hotel!" yelled Justin.
"Oh Dammit!" said Chris softly, so that Sydney wouldn't hear.
"Ummm, sweety?" he asked, calling for Alex and running into the kitchen.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Did you and your father ever make up?" he asked.
"Yeah, we see him every Christmas," said Alex suspiciously, "why?"
"Wouldn't you love to go and visit him?" asked Chris enthusiastically.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm going back to Orlando for a few weeks, and I gotta go to Pennsylvania too and visit my family, come with me?"
"Chris, I have a life here."
"Can you have a life in Florida with me?" he asked her. "I have an apartment, it's great."
"I'll just quit my job, I never liked it anyway, and pack up our stuff and move with you to Florida," she smiled brightly. "So when are we leaving?"
"Tomorrow," Chris mumbled.
"Tomorrow?! I have to pack!" she screeched, running from the room.
"Justin?" asked Chris, remembering that he was still on the phone.
"What?" snapped Justin.
"We'll be there tomorrow morning," said Chris happily.
"We? What the hell is going on?" Justin demanded.
"I never told you this but a few weeks before we started the group I had no money so I sold my ummm. . . . I sold my ummm. . . .little soldiers." He waited for Justin to make some kind of remark. All Justin did was laugh, but he somehow managed to gasp out, "Go on."
"And I met the woman who had my daughter, we're in love, and we're getting married," he finished simply.
"Oh," said Justin, who was obviously in shock. "Wow, congratulations man," he said sincerely.
"Thanks, so you think you can arrange to get two more seats?" asked Chris.
"Sure, I'll do what I can. I'll let you tell the guys the good news tomorrow. Bye." They each hung up their phones. Chris walked into the bedroom only to find Alex, hurredly stuffing clothes into a suitcase.
"I'll have someone pack your stuff and send it down, so just pack the essentials," he told her.
"Uh-huh, OK, good," she said. She juumped into his arms and kissed him passionately. "I'm so happy, thank you so much for everything, Chris," she said kissing him again.
"It's the least I can do for the woman I love and am going to marry," he said jokingly.
Chris helped Alex and Sydney pack the things they could and called Jenny. Jenny promised to pack up the rest of their stuff and ship it to them. Alex called her boss, who, luckily, was understanding, and wished the young couple well.
*****
The next morning at the airport, the guys were surprised to see Chris with his arm around a pretty, young, blonde woman and a little girl holding tightly to his hand. Only Justin knew what was happening. JC thought that she looked salightly familiar but he didn't realize that she was the girl Chris had been with the other night.
"Hey guys," said Chris, cheerfully. "This is Alex, and our daughter, Sydney. We're getting married." Shock would not be the correct word to describe the looks on their faces.
"Don't look so shocked guys!" Chris responded,calmly.
"Congratulations, Go Chris," and "Wow," were the mingled replies.
"I'll explain everything later, come on, let's go," he said and herded them toward the terminal.
*****
"So explain to me again what happened," said Joey.
"Joey, if you don't get it now than you never will!" said Justin.
"I get it," insisted Joey, "but I'm not sure I really get it."
"I met this girl, we fell in love, we have a kid, we're getting married. It's not very hard to understand!" said Chris.
Joey scratched his head. They all groaned in frustration. They were interrupted by Johnny Wright, who walked into the studio where they were working on their third album.
"Hey guys," he said. "Chris can I talk to you?"
"Sure," said Chris. "I'll be right back." They went out into the hallway to have some privacy. "What's up?" asked Chris.
"When I heard that you were. . . .settling down, I thought it was a joke. I'm not gonna lie to you Chris, I think it's a bad idea. You will lose fans and money."
"Wait, Johnny!" said Chris, angrily.
"I think that I should at least meet her. Dinner, tonight, my place," said Johnny.
"How can you say I'm doing the wrong thing, when my heart is telling me I'm doing everything right?" demanded Chris.
"I didn't say that you were doing the wrong thing, Chris" said Johnny. "I'm just telling you the truth, you are going to lose fans and money."
"What you mean is that you are going to lose money," said Chris angrily.
"Yes, I will lose money," admitted Johnny. "But I don't care, I want to see you boys happy, and if this makes you happy, I wish you the best of luck."
"You aren't making any sense!" said Chris sitting in a chair. "One minute you're saying that it's a bad idea and the next you're saying that you want us to be happy."
"It is a bad idea, financially, but I talked to Alex, she seems wonderful Chris," explained Johnny. "I just wanted to let you know about the money issue."
"Oh," Chris said, "thanks."
"I expect to see you two at dinner tonight." said Johnny in mock severity. "I'm happy for you Chris." Johnny patted the younger man on the shoulder and walked out of the room. Chris turned around to walk back into the soundproof studio. He laughed hysterically. Four faces were pressed against the glass in varried horrified expressions. Chris laughed again and headed back into the studio.
*****
Chris put his key in the lock and opened the door.
"Honey I'm home!" he yelled with a fake spanish accent.
"Hey," said Alex, giving him a quick kiss.
"My manager wants us to go to his house for dinner tonight," he said in between her kisses. She continued to kiss him. "Alex, if we don't stop. . . .Sydney might. . . ." he tried to get his point across.
"You're right," Alex panted, pressing her lips to his throat.
"I'll call JC and Lance and ask them to watch Sydney," said Chris reluctantly leaving the warm haven of Alex's arms.Chris glanced around. "Where is the little devil anyway?" he asked after finding, upon inspection that Sydney was not there.
"She's taking a nap," said Alex giving Chris a sly look from beneath her long eyelashes.
"She is?" said Chris becoming interested.
"She is," said Alex, taking his hand and leading him toward the bedroom. They fell onto the bed and tore each others clothes off in a blaze of passion. They began to make mad, passionate, love on the rumpled bed, like two monkeys performing acrobatics. Chris let out a strangled cry and collapsed on top of Alex. He carefully rolled off of her and pulled her into his arms. Everytime he looked at her, his manhood stood at full attention. Despite the fact that they had both worn each other out, he wanted her again.
"Alex, you sleeping?" he asked. She was breathing softly and steadily against his chest. He knew that if he started, she'd wake up eventually. He leaned down and tenderly spread her legs. His tongue played over the engorged, dripping flesh of her womanhood.
Alex was soon moaning and thrashing under the skillfull flick of his tongue. Apparently his plan had worked. Alex writhed in one last convulsion of pleasurable agony, gave a deep throated moan, and lay still.
"What a way to wake up," said Ales softly.
"What a way to wake you up," he said. His voice was muffled against the pale cream of her inner thigh.
"Chris?" said Alex giggling slightly. "Your beard is scratching me." Chris moved so that he wouldn't give her whisker burn. They held each other close until they both drifted off to sleep.
