Fireflies at the lake

Karmen sticks her hand out to shake Jackson's introducing herself "hello my name is Karmen". Jackson politely takes her hand bringing it to his lips placing a soft kiss on top of it .

Raising his head he smiled and introduced himself. "nice to meet you karmen ,my name is Jackson, since the love birds went to explore their love nest, shell we go explore the rest of the house.

With a shy smile she gladly accepted his invention "Lead the way" she said ,slightly bending at the waist as she waved her hand in front of her.

They wondered through the house checking out all the different rooms, finding two bedrooms on the main floor both with a huge king size bed and it's own bathroom.

Karmen turned looking behind her, she couldn't figure it out, why he never seemed to be able to keep up with her. No matter how slow she walked ,if she wanted to ask him anything she had to wait a few seconds for him to catch up .

She taped her foot on the floor slightly aggravated waiting for him as usual, just to ask him a simple question"which one of these bedrooms would you like?"

He lazily answered her with a devilish smile on his handsome face, " I really don't see a difference in them, they are both spacious and have a nice bathroom. Do you have a preference?"

She didn't want to be a scaredy-cat, but she was a little apprehensive to sleep close to a door. She knew it was a little paranoid on her part . But she was still afraid her ex boyfriend would find her, even up here on this beautiful mountain lake.

She hesitated a moment, before she answered him .Leaning towards him she peeked down the hallway to make sure there wasn't a back door at the end or even a window someone might be able to crawl through. "Uh, well yes, can I have the one at the end of the hallway."

He didn't see any difference in the two bedrooms so he agreed to take the one closer to the great room. " Sure after we look at the rest of the house. I will bring all of our bags inside."

They continued with their tour of the lake house and found another bathroom with a bathtub shower combination , and next to it there was a spacious laundry room with lots of cabinets and storage space stocked with extra towels and sheets for all the bedrooms.

Down in the basement they found a large family room with a stocked bar and a pool table. Jackson walked behind the bar and made himself a drink, glanced up asking Karmen , "would you like a drink?"

She had been stressed out about her ex stalking her and needed to relax. She climbed onto the barstool, happily accepting his hospitable jester "yes, that would be great ." She smiled ,"how well are you at mixed drinks."

With a cocky little grin he smugly replied to her question. "I can hold my own "

"I'll take a tequila sunrise." She chirped smiling with her dimpled cheeks.

He promptly went to work making her a tequila sunrise .He grabbed the tequila and orange juice turning around to get a high ball glass .

"Can I get a shot on the side." She ask politely .

He chuckled , glancing back over his shoulder at the tiny debutant "are you trying to get hammered." He ask ,sounding slightly amused.

Flirting just a little she gave him a slight smile and winked , shooting his line back at him " I can hold my own ."

He Chuckled ,"are you even old enough to drink ?"

" I'm in my second year of Med School. What do you think?" She spouted sounding a touch irritated .

He Chuckled, "I think your a smart little cookie, already in Med School at such a young age."

She Giggled "Just how old do you think I am, twelve?"

Reaching across the bar he pinching her dimpled cheek, for some reason he just couldn't help himself from doing that those little cheeks of her's were just to damm cute. ."Something like that." He teased.

In true debutant style she straightened her back and squaring her shoulders, putting both hands on her hips she

proudly stated , "I'm nineteen, well almost, the day after Lexi gets married is my birthday."

Being his natural Princess Charming self he smiled . "Well then , If you don't need to leave right after the wedding. I will take you out for a birthday dinner."

" Thank you , that's awfully nice of you. But I'll take that shot of tequila for now ,please."

Just as Jackson was pouring the shot of tequila for her. Alex and Lexi strolled into the room together .

" Careful there brother, these little human girls can't hold their liquor. I found out that the hard way." He shouted from across the room.

Lexi turned red teasingly slapping his arm.

Jackson laughed pointing over at Karmen he grinned " this one said she could hold her own, but I'm curious to know what happened to you."

karmen chimed in giggling "Lexi's told me she got wasted and got sick, but just how the hell did that happen ? Lexi don't even drink."

"Yeah, I wish she would have told me that, the night of her birthday. Before she got her little ass drunk and threw up all over me." Alex grumbled

With her face red as a fire hydrant ,she goes into defense mode "I'm not the one who ordered all the champagne and wine."

Jackson couldn't imagine how anyone could get that drunk on wine and champagne,

"Lexi just how much champagne and wine did you drink?" He ask curiously.

"I don't remember, but I must have been plastered. Alex took me to the hotel and cleaned me up , I never woke up until the next morning.. That was the morning someone took that awful picture of us .

Jackson glanced over at Alex, laughing like a hyena "Damm Alex, I thought you were having a good time with your girl on her birthday, and just got busted by someone with a camera coming out of the hotel."

"I promise it wasn't a good time." Alex griped

Lexi pulled one of the bar stools out setting down beside Kamen and continued to tell Karmen and Jackson what happened.

" Anyway the reason it looked like Alex kidnapped me is because I was hungover. He had to hold onto my arm to keep me from falling down. Lord ,I never want to get drunk again ." She paused a few minutes

becoming thoughtful "But I'm hungry does this house have any food?" She mumbled

Alex chuckled "Sweetheart I had the whole house stocked with every thing we need. I know its getting late but we are going to eat soon . We have some nice steaks and chef Rosa made a salad it's in the refrigerator. Can you cook baked potatoes?"

Karmen chuckled ,"don't worry Lexi I got you covered. Alex if you light your grill, I will get your steaks ready."

" How did a teenage debutant learn how to cook?" Jackson asked in disbelief

Rolling her whole head not just her eyes at him she huffed "At culinary school ,where else. I live by myself in an apartment next to the university. The first year I almost starved to death . Take out gets old after about three months."

Grabbing Lexi's hand, she pulled her back up the stairs to the kitchen .Alex and Jackson walked upstairs behind them headed towards the huge deck right off the kitchen.

As they passed through the kitchen , the girls already had the steaks on a tray. And the potatoes ready to put in the microwave.

Alex stopped to grab a couple of beers out of the refrigerator and to still a kiss.

Then he stepped out onto the deck and

lights the grill. He takes a seat at the patio table admiring the view of the lake.

Jackson cracked open a beer and hands one to Alex .

"I wonder why we haven't already built a house up here on the lake a long time ago?" He half smiled with a touch of sadness in his voice.

Jackson was Looking out at the lake his voice came out calm and mellow "I don't know why mom and dad didn't, But I do know why we never did. I never came back up here anymore after dad was killed, did you?"

Alex took a drink of his beer his eyes become somewhat empty. He didn't turn to look at Jackson and white a touch of melancholy in his voice he took-a deep breath "No I can't say that I did. The only reason I came back up here is because Lexi told me she liked going fishing. I brought her up here the first day we got back to the Castle."

". Alex , you could have brought Lexi fishing and went back home on that same day. What made you want to build a house up here?"

"Well ,honestly I don't know if it was for Lexi or me , maybe a little of both. Lexi told me she liked going to her families cabin on the lake and I want her to be happy here. But then the day we came up here on the horses. I remembered the good times we had up here, when we were kids. Maybe I built it for all of us, I want our kids to have fun in the outdoors like we did ,when we were kids."

"Alex we sure had a blast up here. That's some of my best memories ,catching fireflies at the lake with my big brother."