Saved (22 page)

“Of all the stupid-ass things you could do,
Ari, why would you break the restraining order? What in the hell
were you thinking by threatening Rebecca? Then, you laugh about it
like it’s some joke. What if you caused her to go into labor early?
What if something happened to the baby? What the fuck, Ari?”

Everyone stood there and looked at me,
stunned.

Mark stepped between Ari and me. Giving me a
dirty look, he asked in a calm voice.

“Where did you get your information from,
Jeff?”

“Well, Josh at first, since Ari felt the need
to call him to come get them out of jail. Then, Rebecca called and
left me a message, saying she wasn’t feeling well and was turning
her phone off. I called her back and she said Ari threatened her
today. She couldn’t even talk.”

I looked at Ari, who had her hands balled in
fists. She looked really pissed.

“Fuck you, Jeff, and your baby mama, too!
Daddy, can I please come home with you?” Ari said as the tears
started to roll down her face.

“Jeff, you’re a prick! Why don’t you at least
let us explain before you go off attacking Ari? You don’t even have
the facts straight,” Ellie said as she poked her finger in my
chest.

“Okay, everyone just calm down. Ellie, honey,
just back off your brother for a second, sweetheart. Why don’t one
of y’all explain to us what happened.” Gunner said.

I looked at Ari and she was still crying and
in her father’s arms. Gunner pulled Ellie back away from me and
whispered something in her ear. Josh was…well shit…Josh was trying
to look at everyone but Heather.

“Fine, I’ll explain what happened.” Heather
said as she also gave me a dirty look.

“We were at Dr. Wyatt’s office, waiting for
Ari to finish up with her appointment. Rebecca walked in, and the
moment she saw us there, she started asking why we were there and
if we were following her. Ellie tried to explain to her that Ari
had been seeing Dr. Wyatt for years and that she had an
appointment. Well, crazy Rebecca started raising her voice to
Ellie, and that’s when Ari came out. Rebecca was egging Ari on,
Jeff. I mean, she was really going after her. She mentioned how you
had your hands on her stomach the other day and how happy y’all
both were with each other. It actually was Ellie who got in
Rebecca’s face and started to threaten her.”

Heather looked over at Ellie, who was smiling
like the Cheshire cat at me.

“Wait a minute. Y’all didn’t know that
Rebecca would be there?” I asked.

“How the fuck would we know that, dickwad? I
had this appointment already set up. Her appointment was supposed
to be next week. She said she had tried to call you to tell you
that she had to change it to today. Funny though, huh? I bet you
never got a phone call from her, did you? Oh, but wait. I’m sure
she’ll have an excuse. Her call must not have gone through since
you were in Mason,” Ari said.

My heart started to beat
faster.
Shit, I just fucked up big
time.

Ari turned to her dad and
said something to him. I didn’t even hear what she had said my mind
was spinning so fast.
Rebecca changed the
appointment day? Why?
She’d told me she was
going to drop the restraining order against Ari first thing this
morning, but she didn’t. I looked back at Ari. She was just glaring
at me.

“Ari, I’m so sorry, baby. I guess I didn’t
realize where you saw Rebecca at and.”

“Just stop. I can’t do this anymore with you.
You need to make a decision, Jeff, and you need to make it soon.
I’m not really sure how much more of this I can take,”

Ari turned and walked off with her
father.

I just stood there. I didn’t
even know what to think.
What does she
mean I need to make a decision?

“Are you just going to let her walk away,
Jeff or are you going to go after her?” Ellie asked me with a
confused look on her face.

I started to jog over to Ari and Mark. “Ari,
please wait a second. Please!”

Mark stopped walking which forced Ari to
stop. She turned and looked at me. The look on her face about
gutted me. She looked so unhappy, and it was my fault.

“Ari, baby, please just ride back to Mason
with me. I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions. I really am. Please
don’t walk away from me.” I could hear the pleading in my
voice.

Mark looked at Ari. Sweetheart, what do you
want to do?”

“Fine, but don’t expect me to talk to you for
awhile you ass-wipe.”

Ari turned and gave her dad a kiss goodbye.
“Thank you for your help, Daddy.”

“You’re lucky that I was able to get this
taken care of, Ari. You really need to try and avoid this girl,
especially if she’s going to go out of her way to get you in
trouble.” Mark said. Then, he looked at me and gave me a look that
should have killed me on the spot.

“I know, but I really didn’t expect her to be
there, Dad.” Ari hugged her dad one more time before she headed
over to where everyone else was still standing.

I needed to take care of something, and I
needed to do it right away.

As I walked back over, I heard Heather
jumping all over Josh.

“I swear, Josh, if you look at my breasts one
more time, I’m going to haul off and punch your ass.”

Josh started laughing. “Wow, a little time in
the slammer and you’re all bad ass Heather.”

“Push off, Josh.” Heather said.

Josh walked up to Heather and leaned in to
ask her something. Heather took a step back and walked a few feet
away from everyone. Josh followed.

Jesus, this group of friends, I swear.

“I’m starving from my time in the slammer.
Can we grab something to eat before we head back?” Ellie asked.

“As long as it’s quick, sweetheart. My mom
called this morning and said that she and Dad would be in around
six tonight.”

Ellie clapped her hands and jumped up in the
air. “Oh my gosh! They’re coming in a day early. Let’s just head
back to Mason then. I know Heather wants to go home. She plans on
coming back out tomorrow and staying until Thursday morning. We can
just drop her off on the way home.”

Just then, Heather walked up and kissed Ellie
on the cheek. “Thanks, Ells, but I’m just going to have Josh drop
me off.” Heather said.

She walked up to Ari and hugged her
good-bye.

“Thanks for the interesting
day, Ari. If you need
anything,
you know you can give me a call anytime,
right?”

“
Thank you Heather. I love
you, girl. I think it’ll be okay,” Ari said.

We said our good-byes, and I watched as Josh
and Heather walked away. Ari and I stood there, not saying a
word.

“You ready to go, Sweetheart?” Gunner asked
Ellie.

Ellie nodded and took Ari’s hand. They
started to walk on ahead.

We had to stop three times
so Ari could use the restroom.
What the
hell was wrong with her?
Ellie kept saying
it was her nerves.

I took the opportunity to step outside the
truck to call Rebecca.

“Jeff! Hey! I tried calling you this morning,
but couldn’t get through.”

“Is that right? What were you calling
about?”

“Well, I’m sure you already know the answer
to that. I’m guessing you’ve already been to the police station to
bail your crazy girlfriend out of jail.”

I instantly got pissed. I didn’t want to get
Rebecca upset, so I pulled the phone away from me and took a deep
breath.

“I just want to know why you didn’t drop the
restraining order like you said you would. In fact, you did a
one-eighty Rebecca. Why were you at the doctor’s office today? I
thought your appointment was next week.”

There was nothing but silence.

“Rebecca? Are you still there?”

“I um… I had to change the appointment
because I was having more Braxton Hicks contractions, and I got
worried. But Dr. Wyatt said everything was going to be okay. I just
need to take it easy. I’m so sorry you couldn’t go. I wish I had a
better way of trying to get a hold of you besides your cell.”

I saw Ari coming out of the
store. She was drinking down a bottle of water like she was dying
of thirst.
Fuck, I hope she’s not getting
sick.

“Listen…I can’t talk right now. Yeah, I, for
sure, need to be at that next appointment. The next few days are
going to be busy for me. Unless you have an emergency, maybe you
can lay off the phone calls for a few days okay?”

“Oh yeah, sure. No problem, sweetheart. I’ll
talk to you in a few days.”

“Yep, and Rebecca, let’s just stick with
Jeff, okay?”

I hung up with Rebecca and opened the door
for Ari to get into Gunner’s truck. She quickly fell asleep and
slept the rest of the way home. I never took my eyes off of her.
Something wasn’t right, and I needed to find out what the hell was
going on. I had the strangest feeling that she was hiding something
from me.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE

JOSH

I just needed to get Heather back to her
apartment and out of that shirt, so I didn’t have the urge to keep
looking at her damn chest.

“Heather, can I ask you one question?”

She let out a long drawn-out sigh. “Yes.”

“Why the hell are you dressed like that? It’s
so not you!” I said with a laugh.

“Why are you laughing? You don’t think I have
the body to dress a little sexy? Well Bruce certainly thought I had
a nice body. He couldn’t keep his eyes off my chest even though I’m
pretty sure he’s gay.”

I looked over at her as I
laughed my ass off.
God, I love this
girl.

Whoa…what the hell?

“I’m glad to see I can amuse you, Josh.
Really, I am. It’s a long story that I would rather not get into if
you don’t mind. I just want to get home and get my boobs off
display.”

I glanced at Heather as she looked at me.

“Josh, are you okay? You’re white as a ghost.
Listen, I’m not mad at you or anything. Ari wanted me to get
information on Rebecca’s due date. She said this guy was a breast
guy and that I had the best breasts out of all of us. I mean, it
was such a stupid idea. The only reason why I went along with it is
because Ari’s pregnant, and I feel bad for her.”

Wait…what?

I pulled into a gas station and threw the
truck in park. I needed air.

Heather jumped out of truck and came around
to where I was standing with my head ducked down and my hands on my
knees. I felt like I couldn’t get any air in.

“Oh my gosh, Josh. Are you okay?”

The moment her hand rested
my back, I felt it the electric shock every time this girl touched
me.
Oh my god, what the fuck is going on
with me? And did she just say Ari is pregnant?!

It took me a few minutes to
get my breathing under control.
Jesus.
This had never happened to me
before. I looked up at her, and her eyes caught mine.

I love her.

Holy shit, I love her.

Heather bent down to look at my face. “Josh,
you’re really starting to scare me. Please tell me what’s
wrong.”

I did everything I possibly
could to
not
look
at her damn chest.

“I need just a second, Princess. Just give me
a second.”

Heather stood up and took a few steps back.
Then, she threw her hand over her mouth.

“Holy hell. Oh my god…I just told you about
Ari. Is that why you’re freaking out?”

Umm…no…. “Yeah, I guess it just took me by
surprise.”

“Josh, you can’t tell Jeff! Ari made us
promise not to tell anyone.”

“Heather, don’t you think Jeff has the right
to know that Ari is pregnant with his baby? I mean, did Ari not
learn anything with Rebecca?”

“Of course, he has the right to know. I don’t
disagree with you on that one. Ari just doesn’t want to stress him
out. She’s trying to hold off until Rebecca has the baby, so they
can find out for sure if it’s Jeff’s.”

I stood up, leaning against the truck. “Holy
hell, this is so messed up. I mean, I know that Jeff wants to have
kids with Ari so much, and he would be over the moon if he knew she
was pregnant, Heather. I don’t understand why Ari is waiting to
tell him. So what if Rebecca is having a baby and it turns out to
be Jeff’s? He’s a good guy. He’ll do right by both of them.”

I shook my head. I silently thanked God that
I’d never found myself in this situation. I looked back at Heather,
and she was just staring at me.

She tilted her head to the side, smiling.

“Okay, spill it. What really happened just
now? There’s no way you’d have that type of reaction just because
you learned that Ari is pregnant. Plus, you were acting funny
before I even said she ewas pregnant.”

“To be honest, I’m not really sure what
happened, Heather.” That was the truth.

“Okay. Well, are you better now? I really
want to get home and change out of this shirt and skirt.”

I let out a laugh as I got back in the
truck.

Heather just rattled on and on the whole way
to her apartment. I didn’t think I’d ever heard her talk as much as
she was talking right now.

I pulled up to her building and parked the
truck.

She sat there for a minute, like she was
thinking something over.

“Do you want to come in for a glass of sweet
tea or something?”

Fuck yeah, I do.
“
Sure, I’m not in a hurry to get
anywhere.”

***

We sat together in her apartment for almost
two hours, talking about everything and anything. I told Heather
about my desire to take over my father’s furniture-making business,
and she told me about her dreams of becoming an elementary school
teacher.