“Holy hells bells . . . Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! I asked you to keep an eye on her, Amanda!”

“Don’t yell at me, Ari. She slipped out when I wasn’t looking!”

“Fuck! That little shit is trying to make her way to Gunner! Everyone, spread out, and look for her.”

“Um, Ari, who the hell are you telling to spread out? It is just you, Amanda, and me,” Heather said with a laugh.

I started to laugh as I opened the bathroom door. “Um, ladies, I just went to the bathroom.”

“Jesus, Ellie, stop doing that. I know you are just trying to throw us off you and your fucking horny little self is trying to get to Gunner. Once Amanda here slipped and said he was two miles down the road, it has been your mission to leave. Do. Not. Lie. To. Me!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Ari.”

“For Christ’s sake, if she wants to go see Gunner, I say we just take her. We can make a quick trip up there, say hi to the guys, and then come back here,” Heather said as she downed another beer.

All three of us turned and stared at Heather. What was going on with her?

“Ahhh, are you drunk?” Ari asked as she walked over and took the empty beer out of Heather’s hand.

“No, I’m not drunk! I was just saying if Ellie wanted to see her fiancé that bad, who are we to stop her, that’s all. Sheesh . . .”

“Oh, holy hell.”

Why was Ari smiling at Heather that way?

“Why are you looking at me like that, Ari?”

“Motherfucker, you want to see Josh, don’t you!” Ari practically yelled out.

Amanda jumped up and down and was clapping her hands. “I knew you liked him! I knew it when I saw y’all dancing at the wedding.”

“Wait . . . what? You like Josh, Heather? Since when? I thought you couldn’t stand him. Oh my God, where have I been that I didn’t know this?” I couldn’t believe Heather was falling for Josh. Playboy Josh!

Heather just blushed and shrugged her shoulders. “He has a certain something that I might find attractive. I don’t know.”

“Well, you know, Brad told me that ever since the wedding, Josh has pretty much given up his playboy ways. The guys keep teasing him about losing his touch with the ladies.”

We all looked at one another. Ari raised her eyebrow at me, and I looked over at Amanda and then Heather.

“Hey, that lake house has six fucking bedrooms. That is more than enough for all four of us to get laid,” Ari said as she walked over and grabbed her purse. “Come on, bitches, let’s go get some. Jeff sent me a text, and I’ve decided to forgive him and let him make it up to me with sex.”

“Oh my God! I am not sleeping with Josh!” Heather yelled out.

“Don’t then. All I know is my ass is wanting me some Jefferson . . .”

“Ewww! Ohmygod! That’s my brother, for fuck’s sake! Gross.”

“Come on, girls, since I’m the only one who has not been drinking my ass off, I’ll drive,” Amanda said as she grabbed her keys and we made our way over to crash the boys’ party.

Josh opened the door and looked shocked to see the four of us standing there. Once he saw Heather, he smiled.

“What the hell are y’all doing here? This is a private party.”

“Get the fuck out of the way, dickwad,” Ari said as she pushed past Josh.

“Hey, Heather, how’ve you been?” Josh asked Heather in the sweetest way I’d ever heard him talk.

“I um, I’ve been good. Feeling a little tipsy, but good.”

I thought I heard Josh mutter fuck. The way he was looking at Heather made me smile. If I had to guess, I would say he was very interested in our little Heather.

“Where is Jeff?”

“He is sitting out on the deck with Brad and Gunner.”

Ari started making a run for the deck. Jesus, if I didn’t know any better, I would think she was the one getting married. As we walked up, I could see Jefferson running his hands through his hair, and Gunner and Brad looked like they both wanted to throw up. What was going on? Gunner looked up at Ari and at first frowned. Huh? But then he saw me and smiled that beautiful melt-my-panties smile of his.

Ari slid the door open and walked up to the back of Jeff. I noticed Gunner kick Jeff in the leg. Almost like he was trying to get him to stop talking. Ari put her hands around Jefferson’s eyes and whispered, “Guess who was feeling a little lonely?” Jefferson flew up out of his chair and looked stunned. What was going on here? Amanda walked over and sat on Brad’s lap as they started to kiss. I looked at each guy. First Brad, then Gunner, and then Jefferson. Something was wrong. Really wrong. I could see it in Jefferson’s face. He shook his head at me as if to tell me to leave it alone. Gunner reached up and grabbed my hand.

“Hey, sweetheart, what are y’all doing here?” I sat down on his lap, and I could instantly feel his erection growing. Hmm, this is why I’m here. I wiggled a little and smiled. I reached down and gave my second-favorite guy a scratch behind the ears. Gus just wagged his tail and went back to sleep.

“She was horny, you asswipe, and kept trying to escape the wonderful spa party we had going on for her. So instead of trying to keep her away, we hand-delivered her ass to you,” Ari said as she was rubbing her ass into my brother’s crotch . . . Blech, I was going to throw up. Jefferson spun her around and whispered something into her ear. I saw her nod her head yes. Jefferson leaned down and asked Brad something, to which he replied, “Third one on the left.” Jefferson took Ari’s hand and led her back into the house.

Holy shit, they were going to go have sex! Amanda asked Brad something and he laughed. They both stood up and started to go into the house. He leaned down and whispered to Gunner. “Take the master, dude.”

Gunner just nodded and then looked at me.

“Jesus, are they all really leaving to go have sex?” I asked as I watched Brad and Amanda walk in and say something to Heather and Josh, who were standing at the kitchen bar talking.

“Looks like it, sweetheart. Now, what’s this about you being horny?”

I started to laugh. I leaned down and whispered into Gunner’s ear.

“I really want you, Mr. Mathews. Now.”

Gunner had me off his lap and walking into the house faster than I even knew what hit me. Josh and Heather were so deep in conversation they didn’t even notice us walking by.

Gunner and I made our way down to the master bedroom. Would I always feel so nervous with him? Just the thought of making love to him had my stomach doing flips.

***

“Oh my God, does it just keep getting better, Gunner?” I said as I lay across his chest trying to catch my breath.

He let out a laugh as he stroked my back with his hand . . . Up and down. God, it felt so good.

“I have a feeling it is going to be even better when we’re married.”

I pushed myself up and looked down at him. He smiled at me, but I could tell something was wrong.

“Gunner, what’s going on with Jefferson?”

He let out a sigh. “Fuck, Ellie, I can’t be the one to tell you. I don’t want to be the one to tell you.”

Oh no . . . it was bad. Did something happen with the property? One of his horses, or, oh God, Ari’s horse?

“Gunner, I saw the look on his face. It’s big. Tell me what’s going on.”

Gunner moved me off him and sat up.

“Ellie, you cannot tell Ari a word of what I’m about to tell you. Promise me, baby, you won’t say anything.”

Oh, holy shit. Maybe I didn’t want to know.

“Um, okay. I promise you, Gunner. I won’t say a word.”

“Jeff needs to find out some shit before he talks to Ari about this.”

“Okay . . .”

“I mean it all could turn out to not even be true.”

“Gunner! Just tell me!”

He ran his hands through his hair. Oh, God, how I wanted to do that . . . Oh gosh, focus, Ellie . . . focus . . .

“Jeff got a call about forty-five minutes ago from Rebecca, the girl he slept with that night at your graduation party.”

“Okay, what did she want?”

“I guess Jeff hooked up with her the weekend before Thanksgiving. Ran into her at Rebels and ended up fucking her in his truck that night.”

Nice. Not the image I wanted in my head right now.

I just nodded and he kept talking.

“Well, anyway, she just called him and told him she was seven months pregnant and the baby was his.”

Motherfucking son of a bitch. No . . .

“Oh no! No, Gunner, no. This is going to destroy Ari! Why didn’t he use protection?”

“He swears he did. He told her it was impossible, but she said something about finding a piece of condom in her underwear later that night. But Jeff said he wasn’t drunk, and when he took the condom off it was not broke.”

“Then she’s lying, Gunner. She has to be lying!”

“Jeff thinks she is, but the only way to find out for sure is to wait until the baby is born and take a paternity test.”

“Why did she wait until she was seven months pregnant before she said anything?”

“She said something about hearing from a friend he was about to get married. She must think he’s getting married this weekend, and she wanted to drop the bomb on him before he got married.”

“Oh my God, what a bitch! Ari is going to kill her, Gunner.”

“Yeah, I know. But hey, don’t let this ruin our day, okay? Jeff will take care of it. You have to trust him, Ells, to take care of it all, okay, baby?”

I nodded my head. Oh God. He was going to ask Ari to marry him Saturday night after the wedding. Was he going to tell her?

“Is he going to tell Ari?”

“Yeah, he just needs to talk to Rebecca first, and then he’s going to tell Ari.”

“Is he still planning on asking her to marry him this weekend?”

“Yes! Of course, he is, sweetheart. He loves her more than anything.”

“He needs to tell her right away, Gunner. I don’t think he should wait.”

Gunner nodded, but I knew he was just as lost as I was.

I started thinking about the conversation I had with Ari just yesterday. We were wrapping up party favors that Jenny had sent us to do, and Ari was talking about wanting to start a family right away. How she couldn’t wait to see Jefferson’s face when she told him for the first time she was pregnant. Oh God, my chest was hurting.

Poor Ari.