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He started to kiss my neck and continued up
until I could feel him breathing in my ear. “I’m going to make love
to you now, Ari.”

Oh. My. God.

I’d never felt such pleasure like when I felt
him enter my body. He made such slow and passionate love to me that
I totally forgot about everything, except for him and our future
together.

CHAPTER TWELVE

JEFF

As I lay in bed, I listened to Ari breathing
as she slept. She kept moaning in her sleep, and it seemed like she
was having another bad dream. She had been having them the last
three nights. I would do anything to take away all her worry.

Just then, I felt her jerk awake.

“Bad dream again, baby?”

She lifted her head from
chest and looked at me. The smile she gave me just about stole my
breath away.
God, I love her.

“Actually, no. For once, I was dreaming about
something nice. Very nice!”

I let out a laugh and pulled her closer to
me. I felt her stiffen in my arms, so I slowly started to move my
fingers up and down her back.

“Mmm that feels so good,” she said.

We lay there for another few minutes in
silence before Ari took a deep breath.

“Jeff, we need to talk about it.”

“I know we do.”

“When’s her due date?”

“She told me August seventeenth. She also
said that she’s having a boy.”

Ari snapped up her head, and I saw the tears
welling up in her eyes.

“How do you feel about all of this, Jeff? I
saw you smiling when you were touching her stomach. If this is
going to work out, you need to be honest with me right now.

Holy shit. What am I
supposed to say?
A small part of me felt
something when I’d felt the baby move. Oh Ari. There was no fucking
way was I going to hurt Ari that way. I only wanted kids with her.
There was no one else for me.

“Ari, it’s hard not to smile when you feel a
baby moving around in anyone’s stomach. Something weird did happen
though. She seemed shocked when I told her I’d asked you to marry
me last Saturday. She couldn’t believe that I asked even after I’d
found out about the baby, but it wasn’t just that. When I said that
Gunner got married, she was really surprised. I think she thought
it was us getting married.”

Ari quickly sat up. She pulled the covers
over her as she tucked her legs up to her chest.

“Don’t get mad.”

“Oh shit, Ari. What did you do?”

“Well, I had a feeling that her calling you
right before the wedding was all too coincidental. I just had a
feeling. So, Amanda and I went to Halcyon this morning, and Crysti
happened to be working. She also seemed surprised that we hadn’t
gotten married. Turns out she overheard someone talking about a
wedding. When she heard your name and mine, she thought it was us
getting married. My guess is that she called Rebecca to fill her in
with what she’d found out. I think Rebecca came up with this whole
baby thing to keep us from getting married.”

Wow. When Ari puts her damn mind to
something, she goes one hundred percent at it.

“Well, what are you thinking?”

“It’s possible. If she was lying though, why
would she offer to let me go to her next doctor’s appointment?”

Ari’s face turned white as a ghost.

“She did? Did she offer or did say that you
wanted to go?”

“Does it matter Ari?”

“Yes, Jeff, it matters a lot! Did you ask to
go or did she offer?”

I had to really think about it.

“I think that she offered. No, wait…I told
her that I wanted to go since I’d not been a part of the pregnancy
for the first seven months.”

Ari turned her head and took
a deep breath.
What is she
thinking?

“Okay. Did she give you the appointment date,
time, and doctor? What information did she give you?”

“Um, well, right before I came over, she sent
me a text with her appointment time and directions to the doctor’s
office.”

Ari jumped up, reached for my phone, and then
handed it to me.

“Can I see it?”

I nodded my head. “Of course, you can see
it.”

I opened up the message and showed it to Ari.
She made a face and then handed the phone back to me.

“Is she going to drop the stupid-ass
restraining order against me?”

Oh hell, here we go.

“No, I asked twice. She feels like it would
be…safer for her to keep it up until the baby is born.”

“Okay, she’s a weirdo. Does she think I would
actually hurt her? Holy hell! What else did y’all talk about?”

I lay there for a moment, thinking about if
there was anything else I left out. I really just wanted to put the
whole thing as far out of my mind as I could.

“Well, we talked about her having a high-risk
pregnancy. She can’t get upset and that kind of shit. She talked
about painting the baby’s room and putting up a crib. Ah shit, I
don’t know Ari. I wasn’t even listening to her through half the
conversation.”

Lying back down under the
covers, Ari moved slightly away from me.
Shit! Not again.
After we’d just
spent probably the best night of our lives together, she was
pulling away from me again. I couldn’t believe how much I’d wanted
her earlier. She’d looked so unbelievable beautiful, her skin
glowing, as her eyes filled with love.

“Ari, please don’t pull away from me again,
baby.”

She rolled over to her side to look at me.
“You can’t let her pull us apart, Jeff. Promise me that you won’t
let that happen.”

I pulled her closer to me,
and she put her head on my chest. I started to run my fingers
through her hair. She smelled so good. Something was making my
heart pound hard in my chest. Maybe it was just this whole bullshit
with Rebecca. I was so afraid that I was going to lose Ari over
this.
I can’t let that happen. I won’t let
that happen.

“I promise, baby. She won’t pull us apart. I
promise.”

Ari reached up, putting her hand on my check,
and then she kissed me gently on the lips. I wanted her so badly
again. I deepened the kiss as I rolled her over, climgin on top of
her.

“Jeff.” She moaned.

“I love you so much, Ari.”

I started to make love to her, my cell phone
started to ring.

“Ignore it,” Ari said as she pushed her hips
up into me.

No problem.

My voice mail notification went off.

“God, Ari, you feel like heaven. baby.”

Ari smiled at me, and my
heart melted. I would never get tired of seeing that smile. She
rolled us over, so she was sitting on top of me.
Pure fucking heaven.

“So, what are our plans today, cowboy?” she
asked as she moved her hips.

I started to laugh, thinking about all the
packing that we had to do.

“You really want to talk about our plans for
the day…now?” I groaned.

She slowly lowered her lips to mine and
whispered, “No.”

She took my lower lip between her teeth and
let out a moan.

Then, my cell phone went off
again. We both ignored it. When it went off a fourth time, I
started to get worried.
What if something
happened to Gramps or Grams?

“I have to see who it is, Ari. What if
something happened to Gunner’s grandparents?”

Ari moved off of me as I
reached for my cell phone on the night-stand.
Holy fucking shit!….
The four missed
calls were from Rebecca. Not good.

“Who was it?”Ari asked.

“Um…it was Rebecca.”

“Are you kidding me?” Ari let out a laugh.
“Nice. It didn’t even take her twenty-four fucking hours.” She
jumped out of bed, grabbed her robe, and walked out of the
bedroom.

Son of a bitch! I can’t
believe this.
I listened to Rebecca’s
message.
What the hell?
She was just trying to give me the information for
the doctor’s appointment. I sent her a text message, telling her to
text it to me, and to only call me from now on if she had an
emergency.
Bitch.

I got up and headed into the kitchen where
Ari was making coffee. I walked up behind her and pulled her into
my arms.

“You don’t want to finish what we started?” I
whispered into her ear.

Turning, she looked at me and gave me the
weakest smile. I knew she was trying, and I loved her for it.

“I’m sorry. The mood is kind of…gone.” She
turned back around and pulled out to coffee mugs. “Do you want
anything for breatfast?”

“How about we go out for breakfast?”

She glanced at me, surprised. “What about
your run? You never miss your morning run.”

I smiled at her. Reaching down, I scooped her
up in my arms and carried her back to the bedroom. There was no way
that I was going to let Rebecca win.

“I have something more important to take care
of, like making love to my future wife.”

Ari let out a laugh and started to kiss me as
I brought her back into the bedroom.

“Well, if you insist on giving up your run
for sex, who am I to complain?”

The passion between us was
unbelievable. It was like we couldn’t get deep enough into each
other.
I can never…ever…lose
Ari.

I would rather die than not have her in my
life.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

ARI

This had probably been the longest week of my
life. Rebecca had managed to text Jeff every day at least three
times a day. I’d been trying to let it go, but today, I was on my
last nerve.

Then, his phone went off
again.
What the hell is it this
time?

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Really, Jeff?” I
yelled.

Jeff pushed his hand through his hair while
looked at his cell phone.

Josh was standing there with a pissed-off
look on his face.

“Holy shit, dude, is she fucking watching us?
Every damn time we’re trying to move something heavy, your fucking
phone goes off!”

I had to let out a giggle as
I looked around. It wouldn’t surprise me if she were watching
us.
Crazy bitch.

Heather walked out of the house, carrying a
box, and she seemed to be struggling. I’d never seen Josh move so
fast in my life as he took the box from her. Even on the football
field, the bastard had never run that fast. Heather and I were
planning on going out to dinner tonight in Mason, and I couldn’t
wait to drill Heather about her trip with Josh from Mason to
Austin. She’d been avoiding me like the plague all week. Something
must have happened, and I was going to get to the bottom of it.

I watched as Heather thanked
Josh.
Holy hell.
She was blushing as she looked away from him. He said
something to her that made her laugh. She looked over at me, and I
smiled at her. Her smile faded as she walked back into the
house.

Damn it. Why is she fighting this thing with
Josh so much? What the fuck is wrong with this group of
friends?

I looked back over at Jeff,
who was now pacing back and forth on the phone. My heart stopped
for a moment.
Oh shit. What if something
happened to the baby
? I mean, I couldn’t
care less about that bitch, but I would never want something to
happen to that innocent child. Poor thing was going to have a
nut-case for a mother.

Just then, my cell phone
started ringing. I pulled it out and looked at it.
Ellie?

“Hey! What the hell are you doing, calling me
on your honeymoon?”

“Hey, sweets. Um…Gunner is talking to
Jefferson right now. We’re in Miami, waiting for our next
flight.”

“What? I thought y’all weren’t coming back
until next week.”

“Yeah… well, Gunner got a call late last
night. His dad had a heart attack.”

“Oh my god, Ellie! Oh no. Is he okay?”

“I guess. His mom, Grace, called last night
and said she was at the hospital. His dad was stable. The doctors
told him that he needed a serious amount of rest and relaxation.
Somehow Grace was able to talk him into going to the ranch to visit
his mom and dad.”

“No shit. Wow. Well, you know when something
life-changing like that happens, you tend to think of things
differently. You know what I mean?”

Ellie let out a small sigh. “Yeah,” she
paused for a moment.

“Ari, how are you?”

I sucked in a breath of air. She knows.

“When did you find out?”

“A couple of days before the wedding, I knew
something was wrong, and made Gunner tell me. I’m sorry that I
didn’t say anything to you. I felt like it wasn’t my place.”

I felt the tears coming
again.
Shit!
“S’okay, Ellie. I know it had to have been hard for you to
keep that from me. You won’t believe how I found out
though.”

“Will it make me hate my own brother?”

I let out a laugh. “No, but you’ll hate
Rebecca even more!”

“Yeah, like that’s possible. I’m ready to
choke her until she spills the truth.”

“Glad to hear that! I’m glad you’re coming
back. I actually need to talk to you about a few things.”

“Okay…well, we should be in around four. Are
y’all heading out to the ranch?”

“Yeah, Josh and Jeff have the whole house
almost cleared out. We’re making a trip out there now. I think Josh
and Heather were planning on staying the night. We can all catch
up, that is, if y’all aren’t too tired by the time you get in.
Heather and I were going to go into Mason for dinner. Do you want
us to wait?”

“Hell no, I won’t be too tired! I can’t wait
to see you. It feels like I’ve been gone forever. Why don’t y’all
go ahead and eat? There is a bar on Main Street I think. I’m sure
Jefferson knows about it. Maybe we could all just meet up there?
Damn it, they’re calling our flight. I’ll see ya in a few. Love you
sweets. Kiss and hug Jefferson for me. Hang in there. I’m almost
home.”