The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) (11 page)

Austin smiled as he heard more cries come through the line. “Yeah, that’s tiny, but I guess that’s the most they could grow with the small amount of room Arielle’s body probably left for them.”

Emma whispered something to someone in the room and then let out a hearty laugh. “Hold on, Austin. She wants to talk to you.”

He heard the phone shuffle as it was handed over, and then his sister’s tired, yet elated voice appeared on the line.

“Hey, Piglet,” he endearingly greeted.

“Please, don’t call me that after I just finished pushing out two babies,” she pleaded.

“Pushing? I thought you were having a C-section.”

Arielle eased onto her elbows. “I thought so too, but they came early and decided that they wanted to do it their own way. By the way, we gave the boy Grandpa’s name so sorry, no second Austin in the family.”

Austin laughed. “What about your third little princess? What’d you name her?”

“Arabella,” she answered. “Ma said she looks like you when you were a baby. You looked like a baby girl when you were born.”

“At least I had hair.”

“I eventually caught up.” She ran a hand down her long ponytail. “A couple days ago, Justin and I were visiting Mom when I thought I was going into labor. So, we decided on the name Arabella literally as I was walking into Stella’s office. Actually, I forgot to tell you, but I ran into
Sommer.”

Austin’s heart thudded in his chest. “You saw
Sommer?”

“Yeah, she was in Stella’s office. I was so surprised, I sat down and we talked a while. It made me realize how much I missed her.”

So did he.

Arielle suddenly went silent and with the way her voice was lowered when she came back to the phone, Austin knew that she was fishing for information.

“Austin, when you were staying with Ma, did you happen to run into Sommer at all?”

Run, plow, slide…

“A few times,” he answered, clearing his throat.

“Did she say anything about dating anybody or mention a name of a guy she might be seeing?”

Although Austin knew that there was a period of time where Sommer and his sister had gotten very close, there was no way Sommer had told Arielle about their affair. If she did, Arielle would have blabbed that she knew about it to him ages ago.

“No. Why?”

He heard her ask their mother to get her something to eat, no doubt trying to get her to leave the room. He assumed the coast was clear when she continued, “Well, I ran into Sommer at Stella’s office.”

She paused, waiting for him to piece the rest of the information together.

“And?” he urged.

“
Stella’s office
, Austin. Stella’s an ob/gyn.”

“Okay?”

“She was getting an ultrasound.”

“An ultrasound? Like women get when they’re—”

“Yes, Austin,” she interrupted. “Look, don’t tell anyone I told you, but Sommer’s pregnant.”

His heart slammed into his chest so hard, he was certain that he’d broken a rib.
Sommer was pregnant? Already? She’d gotten over him that quickly?

“I don’t know anything about her seeing anybody,” he robotically restated.

“Damn,” Arielle replied. “I don’t want to ask Ma because if I tell her Sommer’s pregnant, everyone will know. But, according to the monitor, that baby is around nine weeks along, which meant that the guy would have been there at the same time you were in town. You didn’t notice any new faces?”

For the second time, Austin’s heart slammed into his chest. He did a quick calculation in his head and then fell into the nearest chair that he could find. Nine weeks ago, he’d been unsheathed and waist deep inside of
Sommer’s lovely body. However, she’d been using a diaphragm since she didn’t like artificial hormones. He distinctly remembered her telling him that. But he didn’t have any recollection of her actually leaving to insert it. Actually, with the way things went that weekend, it was highly likely that she could’ve gotten pregnant.

His heart slammed again. If
Sommer was nine weeks along, then that was his baby. Sommer was pregnant with his baby.

“No, no new faces,” he finally answered, hiding the excitement from his voice. “Actually, Arielle, I have a bit of free time coming up. I think I’ll fly out to see Mom first, then stop by you and Justin’s to see the twins.”

“No need.” She was munching, which meant that their mother was back in the room. “I’m staying at Mom’s for the first six weeks. Justin will be there for a couple of weeks, then he’s heading back out to Charlotte with Aria and Isabela.”

Austin’s head was still reeling, but he realized that the feeling bubbling inside of his chest wasn’t anxiety. It wasn’t even fear. He was happy. Happy as hell and he couldn’t wait to see
Sommer for her to tell him herself what he already knew.

“Well Piglet, get some rest,” he told his sister. “I’ll see you in a couple of days. Congratulations, and I love you.”

She giggled. “Thank you and I love you too. You’d think that with newborn twins, Ma would be satisfied, but she’s over here rambling about how all she needs now is for you to give her some grandbabies.”

Austin smiled. Her wish was going to be granted even sooner than she thought.

Chapter Five

Austin lingered before walking up to the three-bedroom, Cape Cod house in which he’d spent the first eighteen years of his life. To pass time during his seven
-week stay, at least the time when he wasn’t with Sommer, he’d repainted the shuttered exterior and replaced the damaged wooden posts on the front porch. Then he updated the living room and entryway by laying down solid oak hardwood floors.

As he’d worked on the house, he couldn’t believe that he’d spent ten years away. At one point, he had even tried to convince his mother to move to Texas, enticing her with a promise to buy her a massive six-bedroom home in University Park. She’d firmly refused and back then, he couldn’t understand why since Arielle lived hours away in Charlotte, and her friends were all busy with their jobs, businesses, husbands, and grandchildren. But understanding had come to him when he’d taken the family’s old fishing boat out onto the lake behind the house. He’d realized that it was the memories that she’d wanted to hold onto, which just happened to be some of the same memories that he’d been trying to avoid. Even as he now stood there staring at the house, he could see his father sitting on the porch with his ankles crossed and a mason jar of peach lemonade in his hand. This time, however, the image hadn’t evoked the negative memories that it did from so long ago.

“You think it’s going to fly away?” Emma asked as she emerged from the side of the house holding a miniature shovel between two soiled gardening gloves. She was wearing her usual straw sunhat that had seen better days, and had garnished it with a pink ribbon tied into a bow.

Climbing the steps, she lovingly wrapped her arms around her son and he opened the door to follow her inside. Another wave of nostalgia hit him when the aroma of sausage and peppers filled his nostrils, and he spotted a cooling loaf of zucchini bread on the kitchen countertop. In the living room just off of the kitchen, Justin and Arielle were sitting in the sofa each holding a twin, and their two older daughters were sprawled on their stomachs hovering over a large picture book. The minute the girls saw Austin enter the room, they sprang up and crashed into his legs.

“I’m glad to see you too,” Austin responded, kneeling so that he could wrap them both up in a hug. “Izzie, what’s that on your head?”

Isabela, his two-year old niece, reached up and touched the soft ladybug-spotted decoration that was attached to the end of her headband.

“Bug,” she replied, patting her head.

“It’s a lady
bug. It’s her favorite,” six-year old Aria explained. “We got it from the store. She has the dress to go with it, but Daddy forgot to pack it.”

Austin shook Justin’s hand.

“Daddy gets the blame for everything,” Justin replied.

“But you did forget the most important thing,” Arielle jokingly added. “Can you imagine how much easier our trip out here would have been if you’d brought the dress? It probably wouldn’t have even rained. I might not have gone into labor.”

She smiled as she received a kiss on the cheek from Austin.

“Next time,” Justin resigned. “I didn’t realize it before, but that dress was everything.”

He made a funny face at Aria which sent her into a fit of giggles, and Arielle glanced down at their sleeping son. “Yes, babe, it apparently was.”

Austin eased down into the loveseat and as Isabela reached her arms towards him, he pulled her onto his lap while Aria sank into his side. With the love that he felt for his nieces, he couldn’t imagine how he would feel about his own son or daughter.

“We didn’t expect you back so soon,” Arielle explained. “We knew you’d come see the babies because you did the same thing with Ari and Izzie, but not in the middle of training camp.”

Austin pretended that Isabela was on a motorcycle by bouncing her on his knee, and she giggled in sheer delight. “I didn’t want to wait too long to see them. Plus, you finally had your boy. I figured you’d be throwing a party to celebrate.”

Justin looked to his wife. “You’d think it would be me hell-bent on having a son, but this one just wanted to keep on trying.”

Arielle took a moment to stare at her brother as he played with his nieces. Something about him was different.

“I liked the little brother thing,” she went on.

“You didn’t always.” Emma appeared with a pitcher of lemonade and plate of pumpkin muffins which she sat atop the coffee table. “There were years where Austin made you want to pull your hair out.”

“There were years when he did pull my hair out, Ma,” she continued. “But I liked how close we were. I’m not saying that sisters couldn’t have been just as close, but the dynamic between me and Austin, it was unique. At least to me. I wanted the girls to have that.”

Emma sat and Isabela scrambled from Austin’s lap over to her grandmother.

“What’s it like?” Austin found himself asking. “Being a parent? I was just thinking about how I feel about Ari and Izzie and I can’t imagine anything greater than that.”

Arielle and Emma exchanged looks.

“You can’t explain it,” Emma answered. “It’s love, protection, pride—a mix of emotions wrapped into a ball to make one feeling that they don’t have a word for yet.”

Arielle nodded. “Then take that feeling and magnify it by about a hundred percent.” She took another glance at her son. “You’ll know the feeling one day.”

Austin did his best to suppress his grin. “Maybe.”

“You will,” she insisted. “But until then
…,” she rose and walked over to where he was sitting, “…hold your nephew.”

Even more cautiously than usual, Austin held the nearly weightless baby in his arms. Silky, black curls poked from underneath his blue cotton cap, and Austin ran a finger down the boy’s small, soft cheek. As if responding to his touch, a corner of his mouth turned up in a smile that revealed a crater of a dimple.

“Did something happen?” Arielle suddenly asked. Austin had always been a good uncle and Aria and Isabela adored him, but with the way he studied his nephew, she saw something different. She saw a man that wished that he was holding a child of his own.

“What?”

“Did you and Jessica get back together?”

He looked up. “No, we didn’t. Why?”

“Is your biological clock ticking again?” She teased.

“No,
Sommer,” he answered and as the room fell silent, he immediately realized his tongue slip and searched for a way to explain himself out of it. Although he desperately wanted to tell his family the truth, he didn’t want to say anything without talking to Sommer first.

“I meant, Arielle,” he corrected, turning towards his mother. “And I was going to ask you, Ma, if
Sommer worked early at the bakery today.”

Emma paused, her suspicion piqued. “No. She told me today that she’d be closing.”

The clock on the wall was pushing towards six-thirty, which meant he only had a half hour to drive out to the café and try to catch Sommer there alone. Rising, he gently handed his nephew back to Arielle.

“I’ll be right back then. I have to go ask her about something.”

Arielle’s curiosity was doing everything except spurting from her face. The move to a more densely populated city like Charlotte had done nothing to curb her small-town nosiness.

“Ma, can you hold—”

“I’ve got him,” Emma was already saying as she scooped her grandson from Arielle’s arms. Austin knew that protesting was futile, so he let Arielle follow him out the door, stopping only when he got to the car and felt the weight of her stare on his back.

“You’re going to ask
Sommer about her baby, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Maybe. But it’s not like you don’t want to know about it.”

Arielle rubbed her arms as a cool breeze off the lake brushed by. “You two must have gotten pretty close when you were here.”