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Ari walked over and gave Josh a hug. It
somewhat surprised me, but I think it shocked the hell out of
Josh.

“Let me talk to her, Josh. I really think the
issue is more than just your man-whoring ways sweets.” Ari let out
a laugh before she, turned to walk into the kitchen.

I started to laugh as I slapped Josh on the
back. “Don’t worry, dude. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, Gunner needs help
feeding the cows and repairing the fence in the south pasture. You
in?”

“Sounds good. Just give me a few minutes, and
I’ll meet y’all at Garrett’s place.”

I watched as Josh drove off
in his pussy truck.
Damn, why did that boy
get a Dodge gas truck
? I turned to walk
back in as Ari was heading out.

“Wait. You don’t want to finish what we
started, baby?” I said.

I grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss. She
pulled back and laughed.

“As much as I would love to do that, babe, I
really have to go. Ellie and Heather are waiting for me at Emma and
Garrett’s place.”

“Let me grab my hat, and I’ll ride with you.
I have to meet Gunner and Josh at the house anyway.”

***

One the way over to the ranch house, Ari
barely spoke two words to me. When she did talk, she was a nervous
wreck. I really hated that she wouldn’t let me go with her.

I watched as Ari drove off with Ellie and
Heather. The moment she saw Ellie, I could see her relax. Emma
hugged her and whispered something into her ear while Gunner just
stood there and stared at me. I felt like the fucking black sheep
of the herd. I was part of it, yet I was also an outcast because I
was trying to do the right thing by Rebecca.

The rest of the morning, all I could do was
think about Ari. I kept checking my phone to see if I might have
missed a call. I silently said a prayer for her tests results that
she wasn’t a carrier of the Fragile X gene. Ari was so stressed
over it. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t love any child we had together
because I would. I adored Matthew with all my heart.

I walked over to the Jeep and pulled out a
bottle water from of the ice cooler. I took a long drink, pulled
out my cell again and hit dial.

It was time for me to make plans with my
little buddy to go fishing. The moment Susan put Matt on the phone,
my heart swelled up with love.

Yeah, it really didn’t matter. I just wanted
kids with Ari, I just wanted our home to filled with laughter.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE

ARI

Sitting on the table in Dr. Wyatt’s office, I
just stared at all the pictures of pregnant women, babies, and big
tummies. The whole bulletin board was covered in pictures. I smiled
when I saw a picture of my mother holding Matt from nine years ago.
I was standing in the picture next to them, holding up rabbit ears
behind my mother.

Dr. Wyatt came and sat down on the stool. He
smiled at me, and I smiled back, but I felt like I wanted to throw
up.

“Well, Ari, we drew all the blood we needed,
and I should get the genetic tests back in two weeks. Your urine
test came back positive for pregnancy. The next thing I would like
to do is a transvaginal sonogram, so that way we can take a look
and maybe see how far along you are. From our earlier conversation
and the date of your last period, I’m guessing that you’re about
nine weeks. That would put us at a due date of January
thirtieth.”

My head was spinning.
Nine weeks! Oh. My. God. I have a little baby in
me…growing inside of me...holy hell.

“Um, when do you think I’ll start showing?” I
asked as I pulled at the gown I was wearing.

Dr. Wyatt reached up, taking my hands in
his.

“Ari, I know you’re scared for a number of
reasons. Let’s just take this one step at a time, okay? There’s
nothing we can do about Fragile X until we get the results back.
Don’t stress yourself out. Now, to answer your question, you’ll
probably start showing around the first week of October. Keep in
mind though that everyone is different though.”

I shook my head. Dr. Wyatt asked me to lie
back on the table. He stuck his head out and called for a
nurse.

As a nurse joined us, Dr. Wyatt said,

“I need you to relax now, Ari.”

I kept my eyes on the monitor while I started
to take deep breaths. Then, I saw it. It looked like a little
peanut. I could hear it’s heart beating like crazy. My eyes started
to tear up, and I looked away.

“Ari, honey, are you okay?” The nurse asked
me.

I looked back at her and smiled.

“He should be here. I should have told him,”
I said while tears poured down my cheeks.

The nurse took a hold of my hand and gave it
a little squeeze.

“Honey, there are tons of women who come in
here and get the first sonogram alone. You’re not always
one-hundred percent sure that you’re pregnant. Some women like to
wait until they know for sure before they tell the fathers.”

I tried to smile at her. When I looked back
at my peanut, my smile grew bigger as I saw her little arms moving
back and forth.

“She’s waving to you,” Dr. Wyatt said with a
laugh.

“She?” I asked as I looked at him. There’s no
way they can tell this early.

“Well, I usually call them
all
she
until we
find out for sure. It’s an old habit I picked up years ago,” He
said with a laugh.

***

After Dr. Wyatt and the nurse left the room,
I sat there for a few seconds, looking at the picture I held in my
hand of my peanut. I placed my hands on my stomach, I closed my
eyes.

“We just need to hold off another month,
baby. Once Daddy finds out that the evil witch is not carrying his
child, we can tell him about you. There’s no fucking way- oh god!
Oh. My. God! I just swore at you. Oh, holy shit, I’m gonna make a
piss-ass mother. OH! My! GOD! I did it again!”

I jumped down off the table and quickly got
dressed.

I wondered how Heather doing with the
use-your-boobs-on-Bruce- to
“find-out-any-information-about-Rebecca. I couldn’t believe how
much she belly ached about wearing a low cut-shirt. I’d simply
asked her to flirt with him and then ask her friend, Rebecca.
Somehow I was counting on tit-loving Bruce to spill the beans.

The moment I walked out into
the waiting room, I heard Ellie raising her voice.
Who the hell is she talking to that
loud?

“Listen, you don’t own this doctor’s office,
lady. Ari has been coming here for years, so you need to back the
fuck off!”

Holy hell.
I stopped dead in my tracks.

Rebecca.

Ellie looked up when she saw me. She
immediately came over and stood next to me.

“What are you doing here? Your appointment
isn’t until next week,” I said in a stunned voice.

Rebecca just smiled at me and tilted her
head.

“So, Jeff shares that information with you,
does he? He really is excited about this baby. I wish you could
have seen the way he smiled at me when he had his hands on my
stomach Saturday. Oh wait…you can’t because you’re not supposed to
be anywhere near me.”

“Listen here, bitch,” Ellie started to get in
Rebecca’s face.

As I pulled her back, I said,

“I had a doctor’s appointment, Rebecca. How
was I supposed to know that you would be here? Wait, where is Jeff?
Does he know your appointment is today?”

Rebecca’s face fell for just one brief
moment. “I tried to call him a few times today to let him know I
had to move it.”

I looked down at her
stomach.
No way. This bitch was about to
pop.

Smiling , I walked up to her.

“I’m on to you, Rebecca. Whatever game you
think you’re gonna win, you won’t. You see, I don’t play very nice
on the play-ground with other kids I don’t like. I win when I
choose to, sweetheart, and I don’t like to lose. If you think for
one minute that I’m to just gonna sit back and let you take Jeff
away from me, you have another thing coming. Pregnant or not,
bitch, I will take your ass down.”

Rebecca’s smile faded. She
looked over my shoulder at Ellie and then over at Heather who was
still standing by Bruce.
Heather really
does look like a slut dressed the way she is
.

“Bruce, can you please call the police? She
just threatened me, and I actually have a restraining order out
against her.” Rebecca said.

I looked at Bruce, who looked totally
confused. The new girl sitting next to Bruce immediately picked up
the phone and started to talk to someone.

I turned back to see Rebecca smiling at
me.

“I hope you have fun sitting in jail,
Ari.”

The next thing I knew, Ellie was pulling me
out of the way as she got all up in Rebecca’s face.

“You will get what is coming
to you. You will
not
get away with this. You’re not only messing with my best
friend, you whore, you’re messing with my brother. Have you ever
heard of karma? That bitch is going to come back around and bite
you in the fucking ass, you douche-twat whore!”

“Ellie!” Heather said as she tried to pull
her away from Rebecca.

“Um, miss I’m going to have to ask you to
leave. I can’t have you…um, yelling at our patients.” Bruce
said.

“What?” Ellie yelled at Bruce.

“Can’t you see that she’s the one who egged
it on? She’s taunting Ari. She’s trying to get an excuse to put her
in jail!”

Just then, the door opened and two APD
officers walked in.

Fuck me
. This wasn’t going to turn out good.

***

“I cannot believe they arrested all three of
us. I’ve never even been in detention before for fuck’s sake!”
Heather said as she paced back and forth.

Ellie and I both glanced at each other and
smiled.

“Wow, being in the slammer really has given
you a mouth, sweets!” I said with a laugh.

Heather spun around and glared at me. I
quickly stopped laughing as I looked down at the floor.

“Heather, it’s going to be okay. Ari called
her father, and he’ll get the charges dropped. Don’t worry. You’re
not going to have a record.” Ellie.

She started to laugh and then I lost it.

“Oh yeah, the two of you
just keep laughing. I want to be an elementary school teacher you
bitches. What am I going to put on my application?
Oh…well, you see, this one time my crazy-ass
friend talked me into dressing like a slut. She told me to flash my
tits around at a male reception guy…who by the way…is gay as all
get out! Oh, and I was supposed to somehow magically get him to
tell me how far along my friend is
. Even
though if she was really my friend, I would already fucking know
that information!
Then, my other friend
went crazy and started threatening a pregnant woman by poking a
finger in her chest and calling her a whore.
The best part of all is that, we all got arrested, and now,
I’m in jail looking like a goddamn hooker! How in the hell is this
not that bad, Ellie?”

Ellie sat there with a stunned look on her
face as she stared at Heather. I, on the other hand, lost it again
and just about died from laughing so hard.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph…you swore like seven
times just now, Heather!”

When I looked over at Ellie,
she glanced at me and let out a giggle. I had tears running down my
face. I peeked up at Heather, who was now smiling. She started to
laugh, too.
Oh my god, I so needed
this.

I laughed so hard that I was pretty sure I
might have pissed in my pants.

Just then, I heard voices. One sounded like
my father. I looked up to see my dad standing there with Jeff,
Gunner, and Josh.

“I’m glad to see you find the humor in this,
Ari,” Jeff said with a dead-ass straight face.

I immediately stopped
laughing and tried to get Ellie and Heather’s attention. I stood up
and looked at my father. He didn’t look very happy either.
Oh shit.

After Ellie and Heather got themselves
composed, Heather leaned over in my ear and whispered, “Holy hell,
your dad called Josh?”

I let a small smile play across my lips. I
turned and shook my head.

“I bribed the officer to let me have two
phone calls, I called Josh. There was no way in hell that I was
going to pass this up. I had to let him see you dressed like that!
I just didn’t realize that he’d bring Jeff and Gunner with him,” I
said as I turned back to look at Jeff.

This is going to be one long-ass ride back
to Mason.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO

JEFF

The moment Josh got the
phone call from Ari, I was pissed. I wasn’t sure if I was more
pissed that she called Josh and not me or that she was in jail for
breaking the restraining order against Rebecca.
What the fuck was she thinking?

During the whole drive into Austin, I never
said a word. Gunner was on the phone with his mother. They were
coming in a day early and would be in Mason around six tonight. I
could tell Gunner was beside himself. Now, he had to deal with
getting my damn sister out of jail.

What in the hell were they doing?

Mark called to say he’d just pulled up to the
police department and would meet us inside. I could tell from his
voice that he was pissed. Then we heard the three of them laughing.
I had never felt so damn angry in my entire life.

After the girls got processed and their items
were returned to them, we all walked outside.

Before Mark could even say anything, I turned
and started in on Ari.