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My heart started to pound.
Man whore Josh was in love with our Heather, and Heather had just
admitted she wanted to have sex with him.
Holy hell. This was good!

“And…what did you say?” I asked.

“Ari, I messed up so bad. I told him that I
didn’t feel the same way and that we would only ever be just
friends. I wasn’t exactly nice in the way I said it either. He told
me he was leaving, and that if I let him walk out the door, he
would never again ask me out or anything. We would just be
friends.”

“You let him leave, didn’t you?” Ellie said
as she looked at me. She had the saddest look on her face.

My heart was breaking for Heather and for
Josh.

Heather started to cry again, but this time,
she buried her face in her hands.

“Yes! Then, I got your message Ellie. I tried
to call Josh a few times, but I kept getting his voice mail. Then I
called again later that night and some girl answered his phone. She
said he was drunk, and he kept talking about me all night to her
and her friend. The girls were super sweet. Both are married, and
they were out for a girls’ night. They pretty much kept all the
skanks away from Josh.”

Heather finished telling Ellie and I the
whole story, describing how the two girls helped Heather get Josh
back to her apartment and then how Josh had left the next morning
before Heather had woken.

I called him as soon as I realized he’d left.
I told him that I wanted to talk to him, but he said he wasn’t in
the mood for any more rejection. I thought that maybe after a
couple of days out here together, he might let me try to explain,
but now…fuck…now that trampy little Lynda is here. I didn’t even
think about her being here for Emma and Garrett’s party.”

I stood up and walked over to the window. It
looked like everyone had come into the house, but I saw Josh
leaning up against his truck, talking to Lynda. He looked nervous
while he kept looking back at the house. I bet he was wondering if
Heather was watching him talk to Lynda. Lynda was so close to him
that she might as well have been straddling his ass.

Little tramp.

I turned to look at Heather and Ellie sitting
on the bed. I had the strangest feeling that this was going to be a
very long and painful twenty four-hours.

Turning back toward the window, and I saw
Jeff, Gunner, Drake, and someone else who must have been Jack
walking up from the barn. Lynda ran and jumped into Jack’s arms.
Then, she turned to hug Gunner. Jeff and Josh were talking off to
the side. They were both laughing like they didn’t have a care in
the world.

Fucking men.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

GUNNER

The moment my dad had stepped out of the car,
I had been a nervous wreck. Ellie had been amazing. She immediately
walked up to him and she introduced herself. My father had fallen
in love with her in mere seconds.

Last night had been a bit awkward, but today
was like a dream. Sitting in the barn with my dad, Gramps, and
Drake, I’d never laughed so hard in my life as we spent the day
shooting the shit. I saw a side of my father I’d never seen before.
He was relaxed and actually enjoying himself. He seemed…normal to
me.

He asked a lot of questions about Ellie and
our future. When I told him we wanted to start a family right away,
he smiled and gave me a wink. I had thought he would have given me
a lecture about how we needed to wait.

Gramps leaned over and whispered something in
my father’s ear. He started laughing and called Gramps a wise old
man.

Why couldn’t he have been
like this my whole life?
It sure would have
been nice to grow up with a normal father instead of a
prick.

As we started to walk back toward house,
Lynda came running toward us before she jumped into my dad’s arms.
He gave her spin as he told her how grown-up she she looked.

As Jeff and Josh stepped aside to talk about
something, I looked back at the house, wondering where my Ellie
was.

“Oh my gosh! I’m so excited about the party
tomorrow, Gramps!” Lynda said as she hugged Gramps.

“Yeah, well, after fifty years of Emma
putting up with me, the least I could do was throw her a damn
party,” Gramps said.

Everyone laughed as Dad, Uncle Jim and Gramps
started to walk back up to the house.

Lynda made a bee-line toward Josh,
practically throwing herself into his arms. He seemed a little
taken aback. Pushing her away slightly, he looked back at the
house.

“Hey, um Lynda. Um do you think I could talk
to Jeff and Gunner alone for a bit?” Josh said as he gave Lynda
that famous panty melting-smile of his.

“Oh, sure, Josh. Yeah no problem, I’ll just
see y’all inside,” Lynda turned to head back into the house.

“What the hell is going on, Josh? I didn’t
hear from you again last night or this morning. What happened
between you and Heather?”

Jeff asked confused as hell as he looked back
at Josh and then me.

Josh threw his hands into his hair and let
out a sigh.

“I kissed Heather.”

“About fucking time, dude. Jesus, it took
your ass long enough,” Jeff said as he slapped Josh on the
back.

I knew there was more though.

“Yeah… well, I didn’t get
the reaction I was hoping for. I mean, at first, she was
really
into it. Then, all
I did was tell her that I would never push her to do anything she
wasn’t ready for, and she pretty much did a one-eighty on
me.”

“What do you mean? What did she say?” I asked
as I watched Josh kick the dirt with his boot.

“She basically told me to stop touching her.
I tried to tell her that I had feelings for her…strong feelings.”
Josh cut off his sentence as he leaned over, putting his hands on
his knees.

In the four years I’d known him, I’d never
seen him this affected by a girl.

“Dude, are you okay? What the hell did she
say to you?” Jeff asked.

Josh stood up, leaning against the truck.

“Jesus Christ, y’all. I’ve never felt like
this before. This is why I never wanted to get involved with
anyone. I just wanted to avoid the same shit my dad went
through.”

Josh took a deep breath and
then looked up at me.
Motherfucker
. I could see the hurt in
his eyes.

“She pretty much told me that she didn’t feel
the same way I did and that we would only ever be friends. I’d
never felt so gutted in my life. I was almost one-hundred percent
positive that she felt something for me. At least, her kiss sure
said she did.”

“What happened after that?” I asked.

“I told her that if I walked out the door, I
would never again ask her out again or bother her about wanting
anything more than just friendship. Then, she just let me walk
out.”

“Damn, Josh. That really sucks, dude,” I
said.

“Yeah, the worst part was I got trashed
later. I ended up spilling my guts to two girls who were out on a
girls’ night out. I guess Heather called, and one of the girls told
her I was drunk. Long story short, I woke up this morning in
Heather’s bed. She was on the sofa sleeping. She had left a
voice-mail the night before, saying she wanted to talk. I wasn’t
really in the mood for more rejection, so I just left without
waking her up.”

“Oh hell, Josh, that was a stupid-ass move.
Maybe she wanted to explain why she freaked out. I mean, I’ve known
Heather a long time, and I can honestly say that I’ve only seen her
date a few guys at most. Maybe the idea of getting closer to you
scared her.” Jeff said.

Josh started kicking the dirt again. He
looked up at the house when Ellie, Ari and Heather all come out.
Heather looked directly at Josh with slight smile. Just then, Lynda
walked out the door and walked up in between Heather and Ari. She
said something that caused Heather to frown, and then she turned
around and headed to the other side of the porch.

“Josh, go talk to Heather,” Jeff said, giving
him a slight nudge.

“Dude, she doesn’t want anything more than
friendship.”

I was watching Lynda closely. She obviously
had a thing for Josh, and if I knew Lynda, she would do whatever it
took to get what she wanted.

“I agree with Jeff. Dude, you need to go talk
to her.”

Looking back to the porch, I smiled at Ellie
as she gave me that beautiful smile of hers. I’d never get used to
how this girl made me feel.

“Okay, I’ll go talk to her, but if she turns
me down again, this will be it. I’ve never in my life begged or
chased a girl, and I sure as shit am not about to start now.”

Josh started to walk toward where Heather was
sitting at the side of the house. Lynda came running down and
stopped him. He must have told her that he needed to talk to
Heather because her whole body sagged as she turned to head back up
to the porch.

Ellie and Ari started to walk toward us,
Ellie gave me a strange look. I knew what she was trying to tell
me, but I’d already figured out that Ari hadn’t told Jeff about the
baby yet. He would have said something to me by now.

“So, standing out here guy-talking huh?”
Ellie said reaching up on her toes to give me a kiss.

I picked her up and deepened
the kiss. It took everything out of me not to let out a
moan.
Shit.
The
things this girl did to me drove me crazy. I just wanted to load
her up in my truck and take her home.

Ellie slightly pulled away from my lips and
smiled. “I love you, Drew.”

“I love you more, Ells.”

“Yep, the whole newlywed thing is starting to
get a little sickening, y’all. Take it back to your house if you’re
going to hang all over each other,” Ari said as she gave us a
smirk.

“Don’t be jealous, baby. That’ll be us soon,”
Jeff said as he put his arms around Ari.

He placed his hand on her stomach, Ari jumped
and stiffened. She tried to relax before Jeff noticed, but it was
too late. He turned her around, giving her a funny look.

“Ari what’s wrong? Are you still feeling
sick?”

Just then, Mom called us all to come in so we
could talk about the party tomorrow. Ellie told Jeff that Ari was
fine, and then she took Ari’s arm in hers as they walked up to the
house together. Jeff grabbed my arm, holding me back.

Motherfucker
.
Please don’t ask me…please don’t ask me.

“Gunner, has Ellie mentioned anything about
Ari’s appointment yesterday? She won’t talk to me about it. I know
she had the genetic testing done. She’s a nervous wreck. I think
she’s worried about the results. I just wish she would talk to me,”
Jeff said as he ran his hand through his hair and down the back of
his neck.

“I know Ari was upset about a few things
yesterday, the test, the whole Rebecca throwing them all in jail,
and then you sticking up for Rebecca. Did you ever find out if she
really tried to call you?”

“She said she tried to call. I don’t know
what to think anymore. She seems to be telling me the truth, but
Ari is so damn sure that Rebecca is lying. I just don’t know
anymore, Gunner. I want to believe Ari, but...fuck I’m so damn
confused. I just want to do the right thing for both Ari and this
baby. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

I just stared at him. “You need to believe
the woman you love and who loves you, not some crazy bitch who
never thought to call you until after she was seven months
pregnant.” I turned and walked away from him.

Stupid fucker.
Even I thought Rebecca was lying. A part of me
wondered if Jeff was hoping this baby was his.

***

We spent the next few hours
talking about the party tomorrow. I kept looking from my
grandparents to my parents. My mother looked scared. She kept
asking my dad if he was okay, and I could tell he was trying to be
patient. My dad had changed. I wasn’t sure if it was from the heart
attack, from being home again, or from maybe realizing what he had
lost out on. I mean, it had only been a week since he’d refused to
come to my wedding.
What
changed?

After dinner, we sat on the porch for a
while. Josh and Heather’s talk must not have been a good one
because they pretty much avoided each other all afternoon and
evening. Lynda took full on advantage and never left Josh’s
side.

“So, I have the guest rooms all made up.
Grace and Jack, you take the room with the queen bed in it. Lynda,
you can have the room next to the bathroom. Jim and Michelle, you
can take the other bedroom.” Grams said. Turning to Heather she
asked, “Heather would you like to bunk with Lynda?”

“Actually, Emma, Heather’s going to stay with
us.” Ari said.

I took a quick peek at Lynda. She looked like
she was about to have a heart attack herself.

Josh snapped his head over toward Heather.
Lynda leaned over and whispered something to Josh. He just smiled
at her. Then he glanced back at Heather, and she didn’t even try to
hide her reaction. She just rolled her eyes as she stood up.

“Thank you, everyone, for a lovely evening.
Ari and Jeff, if y’all don’t mind, I think I’m going to turn in. I
had a late night.”

Everyone said good night to Heather as she
made her way to her car. Josh never took his eyes off of her for a
second.

Everyone went up inside, and I was left
sitting on the porch by myself, waiting on my mom, Grams and Ellie
to finish up plans for tomorrow. I heard the screen door shut, and
I looked up to see my dad walking toward me.

I sat up a little
straighter, force of habit I guess.
Shit,
something’s never change.

“Drew, I um, I’d really like to talk to you
for a few minutes if you’ll let me.”