Baby, It's You & No One Else

My feet had barely made it out of Eric's truck before our family dog came bounding from his perch on the front steps. Goldy, as we had so efficiently called him, started licking at my hands and face when I crouched down next to him.

"Oh hi baby," I squealed at him, scrunching my face up as his wet tongue slopped against my face repeatedly. I giggled when Goldy noticed Eric, going into total freak out mode at his favorite playmate being back. Eric petted his head and I grabbed his arm before he could get Goldy any more riled up. He would be placed in his kennel in a little bit since we didn't plan on staying at the house that long.

Today was the annual, Kennedy family takes a trip to the apple orchard day. It was a yearly tradition and a way to get all of the kids back together again. All my siblings, their respective spouses, along with the lone grandkid, came together at the end of October in an attempt to catch up after the hectic two months following the summer. We would pick apples, go on hay rides, and stuff our faces with the delicious apple cinnamon donuts.

I looked up at the house where the oldest of my three brothers, Austin, stood with his two year old daughter, Zoe. He pointed towards me and the little girl's blonde head swung in my direction. I smiled back at her as she clapped her hands and reached out to me. I jogged up to the porch, immediately taking her from Austin's arms.

"Hows my favorite niece?" I asked her, tickling her stomach causing the little girl to giggle.

"She's your only niece." Austin pointed out, shaking Eric's hand as he joined us with Goldy on the porch.

"So, she's still my favorite," I reasoned, sticking my tongue out.

I studied my brother casually as the little girl, fiddled with my hair and Eric engaged in a conversation with Austin. He looked good when you counter in the fact that five months earlier, he lost his wife to a year long battle with breast cancer. I had always thought of my brother as invincible but when he lost the love of his life, it seemed like he would never recover.

But after a couple months of straight depression and binge drinking, my parents staged an intervention and told him he had bigger things to worry about than his own grief. He had a little girl that needed a dad. She couldn't lose both parents at the same time. It took him a little more time, but he has been looking better each time I see him, which I was thankful for.

"Baby sis," the second oldest in the family, Jake, screamed as he pushed through the screen door. I squeaked slightly as he squished Zoe and I into his body, hugging us with only a fraction of his might, but enough for me to temporarily lose the ability to breathe.

"Jake-a-lake," I grinned up at him, placing a kiss on his cheek. "How's my favorite brother?" I asked, causing David to groan as he too joined the party on the porch.

"How long are you going to keep lying about who your favorite is? Jake's old enough to handle the truth. I'm your favorite," David grinned at me as I shook my head at the irony. Zoe began to squirm in my arms so I set her down and smiled as she ran into the house.

It was ironic because David was the only one of my brother's that I had actually physically fought in my youth. He was the closest to my age, two and a half years older than me, but we never really got along until he was in college and I was a junior in high school. He was a total dick, playing the stereotypical jock in high school, until he played college football at the U, where he received a career ending hit his sophomore year. He had really turned his life around since then, going from a bad student, to being on the A honor roll and eventually graduating with a double major in business. The more he grew up, the better David and I got along. But out of all my brothers, I was closest to Jake.

He was the only one in my family who really seemed to understand me to a tee. He was always able to pull me out of my shell and get me to try new things. My whole family was a tight nit group, but we all had the people we were closer too. For some weird reason, David and Austin got along perfectly, despite the obvious reason that David was a little shit and the youngest brother. But Jake and I just seemed to compliment each other well. He had a lot of friends and always pulled me along with the group, desperate for me to engage in normal activities, despite my younger age. He was actually one of Eric's teammates for two years. Jake had been the one to get my brothers to accept our relationship so fast, telling them Eric was the prefect person for me. To be honest, Eric was basically Jake, without the whole related aspect.

"Why don't you come see me in Mankato?" Jake asked, pulling me in for another hug after David joined Austin and Eric's conversation.

"Because I have a boyfriend who needs more attention than Goldy," I giggled, resting my head against his shoulder.

"Damn it, Decks. Can you let her off the leash for a day or two?" Jake scolded jokingly.

"I try, but she just doesn't want to go," Eric mused, reaching out and patting my head.

"Ha. Ha. You guys are so funny," I rolled my eyes at their boyish behavior. "Where's Holly?" I asked Jake, referring to his now fiance, but significant other of five years.

"In the kitchen with mom, talking about the upcoming wedding," He told me, nodding his head towards the door.

"Oh," I murmured.

"Gimme," David gestured with his hands to Jake, telling him he wanted his turn. I rolled my eyes as Jake let me go, surrendering me to David. He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me against him tightly. He placed a kiss on top of my head before letting me go, exposing my body to the frigged fall air.

I turned on my heels, immediately taking the two steps to Eric, who happily wrapped his arms around me, with no intention of letting go of me. I smiled, happily, surrounded by so much love and contentment. I loved college but there was no place like home.

"Riley!" My mom exclaimed as she walked out of the house with both Holly and Zoe. I waved at the black haired beauty that trailed behind my mom, holding Zoe in her arms. She waved back, giving me a huge grin as Jake pulled her to him, placing a soft kiss on her temple.

"Hi mommy," I smiled, wrapping my arms around her as Eric let me go begrudgingly.

"How are you? You never call anymore, not even when you are in the hospital" She so bluntly scolded me. "No time for your parents with that boyfriend of yours always around?" She raised her eyebrow at Eric as everyone laughed because of his guilty look. We had been attached at the hip since we had been dating and everyone in our families loved to give us shit about it.

"Sorry, blame it on the alcohol," I grinned.

"That better not be the case young lady," my mom scolded, sending me a wink before yelling for my dad. He came striding from the garage, not surprisingly, covered in random smudges of grease. Cars was an obsession for him and he loved to take old ones and fix them up as good as new. It had been an expensive hobby at first, but when he started selling them, he cashed in enough to live lavishly, while sending four kids to college.

"Daddy!" I smiled at him, wrapping my arms around his neck, giving him a tight squeeze. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Ry," My dad laughed, pulling away to shake Eric's hand. "You had a hell of a game last weekend, Eric. I'm proud of you." My dad slapped his arm as Eric blushed slightly from the compliment. I gave him a goofy grin, enjoying his modesty with my dad. I kissed his cheek as everyone filed from the porch, not even having to announce that we were all leaving.

We decided to take my dad's truck and Austin's SUV. The SUV packed 5 which left David and Zoe to ride with my parents in their truck. We all laughed as David sulked behind my parents, upset that he wasn't able to ride with the rest of us. He grumbled about how since I was the youngest I needed the attention from my parents more, but I quickly pointed out that he had no girlfriend to sit next to. Needless to say, he shut his mouth.

The car ride to the apple orchard was filled with loud laughter and countless stories as we tried to catch up on all of our lives. Everyone had their own story to share about the past two months and every single one had us all laughing until tears formed in our eyes. Holly and I both groaned though, when Austin and Jake turned to talking about football.

"Ew. No. We are not talking about football." I wrinkled my nose in distaste.

"How do you not understand that your boyfriend is the shit?" Jake asked, turning in his seat to look at me.

"I do understand that and am reminded of it everyday. Today is Sunday, the official no talking about football day." I informed him.

"Yeah, in your world. But in the real world, football dominates on Sundays." Jake pointed out, turning back to face forward. The boys continued to discuss Gopher football, talking about the offense, defense, Eric's record breaking season, and of course, the new stadium.

"It's incredible to play in it. I'm kind of bummed though that I can only play there for one year. But I guess one is better than none." Eric shrugged, dropping a random kiss on my head. I snuggled into his side more, as Holly awed slightly under her breath. I looked at her and she gave me a small smile which I returned with a content one of my own.

I clapped my hands together excitedly as Austin pulled into the apple orchard's makeshift parking lot on the grass. He pulled into a spot right next to my parents and I wasted no time, literally, climbing over Eric to get out of the car.

"Settle down, honey. It's not going anywhere." Eric teased, as I pulled him towards the apple orchard.

"I'm so excited! I basically live for this," I smiled at him, "well, and you of course."

"Mhm," Eric nodded at me, giving me a smug smile.

Our hands stayed interlocked as we met up with my parents and David who was still sulking about being stuck with our parents. Eventually Jake told him to stop winning or he would punch him. David shut up knowing that the only person Jake ever showed mercy towards was me.

"So what should we do first?" My mom asked, "hayrides, picking apples, eating?"

"Eat!" My brothers and I screamed at her which caused my parents and the outlaws to laugh.

"You kids and eating," my dad laughed as we headed towards the food building which was a barn filled with all sorts of apple flavored products.

Surprisingly, the apple orchard wasn't too busy today. It was a relatively warm fall day and I had expected to see loads of people. But there was only a medium sized crowd, only enough people to have to watch out for. Eric walked behind me dutifuly as I maneuvered around the food area, looking for the caramel apples that I so desperately wanted. I stopped in the middle of the walk way, standing on my tippy toes to try and see over the heads of people. Eric chuckled lightly behind me before resting his chin on my shoulder.

"Whatchya looking for?" He asked me, kissing my cheek softly.

"Caramel apples," I told him, trying to push his head off my shoulder because he was holding me down.

"Oh, they're right there," He pointed directly to our left. I blushed slightly, shrugging my shoulders as he flat out laughed at me. I just ignored him and pulled him over to the booth.

I bought a caramel apple for myself, telling Eric he was going to share mine with me. He agreed, not that he even had a choice, and we set out for the picnic tables where the rest of my family sat with their various treats. Eric sat down, his legs facing away from the top of the table so I could sit on his lap.

"Here, you bite into it first," I told him, handing him the treat.

He grabbed it, biting into it and grinning with the apple still in his mouth.

"Hey piggy," I giggled at his scrunched up face and then grabbed the apple from him taking a much smaller bite. I noticed some caramel on the corner of his mouth and I slowly licked it off, smirking as Eric's eyes fluttered closed.

"Now, now, none of that," Jake scolded me, tugging lightly on my pony tail. I gave him an exasperated eye roll and pulled away from Eric's face.

"Let's do something," David groaned, the ADD already kicking in.

"Can you do anything besides whine?" I asked him, "you do realize I'm the youngest, right? Therefore you don't get to whine as much as you do."

"Riley, shut up." David rolled his eyes at me, slapping me upside the head playfully.

"Ew, don't touch me," I crinkled my nose at him, swatting at his hat and knocking it off his head.

"Children, play nice," My mother scolded, "why don't you kids play a game with Zoe or something?"

"Oh! Good idea! Let's play hide and seek!" I exclaimed, suddenly not very interested in the caramel apple in my hand. I handed it to Eric who started eating it immediately.

"Ry, we're way too old for that," Austin groaned at me, helping Zoe drink some of her apple juice.

"No way. You're never too old to play hide and seek," I argued, tugging on Eric's hand and pouting at him.

"I'll go wherever you go," he told me in between bites.

"See, Decks will play," I told them, using his nickname for emphasis, "and he's a bigger deal than any of you freaks." I put my best pout on, knowing none of the men at the table could handle it. Plus, I was the baby and always got what it wanted from said males.

"Fine," they all groaned in unison.

"Let's do teams!" I suggested. My intentions to play hide and seek were because I wanted to play, but I also wouldn't mind being stuck with Eric, who's competitiveness was crazy. He wouldn't leave the spot with me until we were caught, not even if they called for us to come out, which left us with a lot of time to, um, do other things.

"I'm game," Jake responded, wrapping his arms around Holly.

"Decks?" David asked.

"Get your own boyfriend," I scoffed at him, shoving past him and telling Jake and Holly to start counting. I pulled Eric along, despite the fact that he was a football star and ran much faster than me.

"Where should we hide?" I asked, the giddiness heard in my voice.

"Where is there to hide?" he questioned, gesturing to all the open space.

"Mmmm," I looked about the apple orchard, trying to find a source of cover we could hide behind. I found it in the small cluster of trees that sat on the edge of the property. I pointed to it and Eric and I jogged over there, looking over our shoulders, satisfied when we saw the couple still counting.

Eric sat down first, not at all concerned about the dirt that was under his butt. I sat down next on his lap, glad that he was such a gentleman and knew I would not want to get my jeans dirty. He was still chewing on the apple and I grabbed the rest of it from him, all the caramel gone, and chucked it a couple feet from us.

"Um, I wasn't do-" My lips caught him off in a hasty kiss, needing to feel his pressing against my own.

Eric was completely caught off guard but it didn't take him long before he started to kiss back with as much urgency as I kissed him. I moaned into his mouth as his hand pulled on the binder holding my hair in a ponytail. My brown locks cascaded down my shoulders, ending at mid-back. He ran his hands through my hair softly, pulling it back from my face and then tugging lightly, making my scalp tingle.

His other hand started to roam to the hem of my sweatshirt, where he slipped his hand under the white material, his fingers spreading out across the warm skin of my abdomen. Goosebumps formed on any part of the skin that his calloused fingers ran over. The rough skin causing an exotic sensation as it moved over my soft skin. Our tongues met in a heated battle, fighting for dominance and I smirked into the kiss when I won. I shifted around so that I was facing towards him again, my knees on either side of his thighs.

I let my hands wander over his body, moving from his shoulders, down his sides to the front pockets of his jeans. I stuffed my hands in them, causing Eric to tense slightly. My hands barely stayed their long, feeling his jeans tighten considerable from the short time my hands were touching his thighs through the pockets. I let my hand slid over the front of his jeans innocently and pulled away when his hips jerked up at the simple motion. I was teasing the hell out of him and love every minute of it.

Eric broke the kiss first, resting his forehead against my shoulder, keeping his hand on my stomach while he fought to even his breathing. My lips waisted no time connecting with his exposed skin, passing over the love mark I had left last weekend when he had come home from his road trip. I smiled at the memory of the delicious sex and the feeling of my legs wrapped around his waist as he lavished me with pleasure over and over again. Lust started to burn through my body as Eric's teeth lightly clamped down on my ear lob, tugging slightly. The hand on his stomach started to move north, where he fingered the silk of my bra suggestively. My head fell back as I looked up at the blue sky, groaning when his hand slipped under it. I closed my eyes in ecstasy as he fodled them roughly.

"Holy shit!" Jake screamed.

I snapped my head up and my eyes opened, taking in the sight of my brother covering his eyes like they were burning. Holly stood in front of him, her hand clasped over her mouth as she laughed her ass off at both Jake's expression and Eric and I basically rounding second in the woods. "There are some things a brother does NOT need to see." He yelled before he turned around and stalked away. "Game over!"

Eric's hands had long since slipped from my chest and he sat under me with a raging hard on and the cutest, embarrassed look I had ever seen. I giggled at his expression before looking at Holly again.

"Do I look like I basically just had sex?" I asked her to which she laughed and nodded her head.

"You might want to fix your hair a bit before you come back to the table," Holly responded before following Jake out of the woods.

I took that time to look down at Eric who had a huge grin on his face along with a blush that swept across his cheek bones.

"That was embarrassing. I'm pretty sure Jake is going to kick my ass," He laughed nervously.

"Oh please Eric. You could more than take him," I told him, squeezing the muscles of his right bicep. I gathered all my hair up, replacing the pony tail that Eric had taken out. I fluffed my bangs a bit and then looked at Eric who gave his nod of approval. I pushed myself back onto my feet and Eric immediately covered himself with his hands as I looked down, ready to "help" him up.

"What?" I giggled at his pointed expression.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" He asked me.

"Um, I don't know. But absolutely no jacking off in the woods, there are children around," I murmured to him to which he scoffed. "Stand up," I told him. He did as I asked and I tugged at his jacket until it covered the obvious tent of his jeans. I snorted under my breath but Eric noticed.

"See what you do to me?" He asked, kissing my temple.

"Oh trust me honey, there's no way I could miss it," I giggled as we walked out of the woods and back to where my amused family waited for our shameless return.