Stone
I haven’t told Miranda yet, but not only is her car being delivered today, her friends are coming over to help her pack while I’m at work. The agent got back to us last night, and said we can move in whenever we’re ready. I’m paid up on the rent through the end of the month, and because I’ve been here for years, my lease is month to month. We decided we’ll move next week, and just make sure this place is clean before the end of the month.
“Baby, I’m home with the boxes.” I shut the door behind me, leaning the flattened boxes against the wall, and put the six rolls of packing tape on the counter.
“In here,” she shouts from the bedroom. I head to our room to find her grunting in the closet as she’s stuffing summer clothes into suitcases.
“Baby, what are you doing?”
“Packing.” She stands to face me and her cheeks are all red from bending over in the closet.
“I was trying to keep this a surprise, but clearly I can’t.” Her brows furrow and her hands go to her hips. She’s giving me a look that screams what secret? “Sky, Sadie, Katie, and Lila are all on their way over to help you pack tonight while I’m at work.”
A huge grin spreads across her face. “Really?”
“Yes.” I step closer to her, placing my hands on her belly. I love her belly because she’s got a little baby bump and I think it’s adorable. I lean over and press my lips to it.
“I can’t believe how big I’m getting. I’m glad the doctor says it’s normal and that everyone shows at different times because I’m really starting to get nervous. I’m only about fourteen weeks.”
“You’re fine, and I love that you’re showing already. Now come relax and wait for your friends.
“I’m sorry, but we have so much to do between the wedding, getting ready for the baby, and moving. I feel antsy.” She wraps her arms around me and hugs me tight.
“I know, and I promise you we will get it all done. Talk with the girls tonight about what you need for the wedding. They’ll help you figure it out.”
She presses her lips to my chest. “I know and I will. I need to decide where we’ll get married. Although at this point, I’m thinking we should just do it at the club.”
I pull away from her and look down into her eyes. “Baby, are you sure that’s what you want?”
She bites her lip. “I know I want to be married to you, and I know I want as little stress as possible. If that means getting married at the club, then that’s fine with me.”
“If that’s what you want, then talk to Sky tonight and let’s figure out how we make the wedding of your dreams happen there. I want you to be happy.” She gives me a warm smile and presses her cheek to mine. “Now, I ordered pizza and wings to be delivered. They’ll be here any minute, as will the girls. Once you’re settled with them, security is taking me to work, and then coming back here to keep an eye on you. They’ll be here all night until it’s time for me to get out of work. One of them will stay here and one will come get me. No opening the doors unless security announces themselves.”
“I won’t.” Her cheek is still pressed to my chest.
I kiss the top of her head. “Good girl.”
She finally pulls away to move to the living room and there’s a knock at the door. I look out the peephole and it’s Sky and Sadie. The girls instantly get giddy, like they haven’t seen each other in months, and they just saw each other at the beginning of the week. Sky hugs Katie. “What’s the plan for tonight?”
“Pack and talk both baby and wedding. I’m so overwhelmed with everything I have to accomplish.” I can see Miranda’s eyes welling with tears.
Sky instantly hugs her. “Girl, don’t you worry about a thing. We will take care of you every step of the way.” Sadie rubs her arm too.
“I told her you guys would look out for her and help her. Maybe after you pack for a bit, you can help her make a list of everything she needs to do for the wedding so she can cross things off her list.” I lean against the doorway with my arms across my chest. I want to wrap her in a hug and whisk her away from all of this, but I know I can’t do that, and right now her girls are trying to comfort her.
There’s another knock at the door and this time it’s Katie and the pizza. I’m signing the slip when Cole and Slade get to the door. “Hey man, you ready to go?”
“Yeah, they’re just waiting for Lila to get here.” I turn to Miranda. “Listen, baby, please make sure you check the peephole before opening the door. You have your friends here, and the doorman shouldn’t be letting anyone up besides them.” I kiss her on the lips. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Bye babe.” She shows me her gorgeous smile before I walk out the door.
“You guys are coming straight back here, right?” I give Cole and Slade a stern look.
“Of course. Don’t stress it. They’ll be fine.” Cole pushes the lobby door open to let us out.
“Easy for you to say. Your girl isn’t being run off the road and sent flowers by some jack ass.” I climb into the SUV.
***
Miranda
“We’ll give Lila a minute to get here before we start eating, but no more than that, because my prego ass is starving.” I burst into laughter, and just like that my mood is back to normal. I’ve discovered my mood swings are completely normal, and something I have to deal with. I’m just glad they’re not freaking Stone out.
“While we wait for her, grab a notebook and let’s make some lists for you. Stone is totally right. It will make you feel so much better.” Sadie takes a seat at our snack bar, ready to write. I open a junk drawer we have in the kitchen and pull out both a notepad and a pen. Sadie grabs them from me and removes the cap from the pen. “Okay, we’ll start with the wedding, because you have quite a while before the baby comes, and Sky and I can easily help you make a list of everything you will need once you find out the sex of the baby.”
“Are you going to find out the sex or be surprised?” Sky grabs the tape from the counter and starts making boxes up while we talk.
“We’ll find out. I’m too OCD to not know the sex. I have to plan every little detail out.” I take a deep breath and slip into the seat next to Sadie.
“I’d want to know too.” Katie is pulling plates from the cabinet for us to eat dinner on.
“This is what I have so far.” Sadie shows me her list.
Miranda’s Wedding
Location
Justice of the peace
Bride’s dress
Bridal party dress
Flowers
DJ
Food
“Okay, location. We’re thinking about using the club.” I look at Sky with questioning eyes.
“Of course you can use the club. Let’s pick an exact date so I can have Logan close it off and we can plan.” She puts the tape on the coffee table now that she has four boxes ready to go.
“We can do a Sunday afternoon wedding. That way the club will be closed. Then we’ll hire caterers for everything so all of our friends can attend.” I get up and flip through the calendar. “February 12th is the Sunday before Valentine’s Day.” I drop the pages of the calendar and turn to Sky.
“Not a problem. I’m sending Logan a text right now.” Sky pulls her phone out from the back pocket of her jeans. She looks at the list over my shoulder. “Do you have a JP in mind? If not, ours was awesome. We can see if she’s available.”
“I’m fine with using yours. I don’t know anyone. I was going to call around.”
“Her JP was awesome.” Sadie writes the name of the woman on the paper next to justice of the peace. I’ll call her this week.
“And Sky’s club already has a caterer.” Katie peeks her head out from the fridge, where she’s pulling drinks for our dinner. “Plus you’ve had their food already, so you know it’s good.”
“That’s true, and it’s not like we have a ton of people coming.” I sigh. “Where the hell is Lila? I’m starving.” Katie grabs a plate, placing some pizza and wings on it, and puts it in front of me.
“Feed you and that baby, will ya?” There’s a knock at the door and finally Lila is here.
I open it and gasp when I realize it’s a delivery guy, not her. It was second nature to just open the door. I hadn’t even looked. “Can I help you?”
“I have a delivery for Miranda Stevens.” The girls are all behind me now. He hands me the box and leaves. I’m about the shut the door when we hear Lila.
“Hold on.” She comes running to the door.
“Sorry I’m late.” She hurries in and we shut the door, locking it behind us.
I take a seat on the couch, holding the box in my hand. “I don’t think I should open this. There’s no address on it. This doesn’t look like a typical delivery.”
Katie pulls her cell phone out from her back pocket. “Daddy, can you come to Miranda’s house? She got a package and there’s no address on it. She’s afraid to open it.” She pauses for a minute. “Thanks, Daddy.” She cuts the call. “He said to leave it aside. He’ll be here in thirty minutes.” I put the package down on the coffee table and stare at it, wondering what’s inside.
“Come on, let’s eat.” Sky rubs my arm, bringing me back to the now. The other girls are already making plates. I take a deep breath and take my seat at the snack bar to finish eating the plate Katie made me.
The room is quiet and the silence is killing me. “I started packing my summer clothes today. I’ve been putting them into a suitcase.”
“That’s very smart. I’m going to show you another trick. Where are your pillowcases, sheets, and towels?” Sky gets up to put her plate in the sink.
“In that hall closet right there…why?” Sky walks over to the closet, pulling out all my extra stuff. Then she comes into the kitchen and starts wrapping all of our extra cups, dishes, and bowls into the towels, sheets, and pillowcases.
“This way you’re protecting your dishes and packing your sheets all at once.” Sky smiles proudly as she fills a box with stuff.
“I’m going to do the same thing with some of the knick-knacks from the living room.” Katie grabs a box and moves into there. We don’t have a ton of things to wrap up in there, but we do have some picture frames and a clock.
There’s a loud bang at the door and I jump up. Katie runs over with me and screams, “Who is it?”
“Cooper, open the door.” Katie looks through the hole and then opens the door. Slade and Cole are standing there, pissed off.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Slade growls.
“I didn’t know you were back, and I’m not going to call Stone at work unless we need to.” I storm off to the couch, pissed off.
Cooper comes to sit next to me. “Let’s everyone just calm down. We’re not calling anyone until it’s necessary.” He picks up the box and lifts it to his ear, listening to see if it’s making any noise. “Can I have a knife?” He looks at Katie, who runs into the kitchen to get a sharp knife.
He sets the box down and gently cuts through the tape. He pulls back the box to reveal a huge dildo. My jaw drops. “It’s a rubber cock.” I’m totally shocked. There’s a note in it. Cooper hands me some gloves so we can read the note.
My Love,
I’ve missed you so much and I wanted you to know what you do to me. This is a rubber cast of my cock, fully erect and waiting for you. This is how hard you make me. I’m sorry, but I have to let you know how I feel about you because I dream about you constantly and I’m tired of jerking off to the pictures I have of you. You may not have realized it until now, but yes, I have many pictures of you, and I treasure them, as I hope you will treasure my rubber cock. Use it to pleasure yourself until I can be there to do it for you.
xoxo
“Fucking sick bastard made an impression of his cock and sent it to me.” I continue staring at the disgusting piece of rubber.
“When we question him, he keeps saying we have nothing to link him to any of this, and he’s right. He is very careful about what he sends you and how he words things.” Cooper takes the note and packs it up along with the rubber cock. “We’ll see if we can find his prints on any of this, but I have a feeling it’ll be clean. I should have an update on the two cars sometime tomorrow. I’ll call you as soon as I’ve heard.”
“What will happen if you can’t find anything on the box to prove this was him?” My voice is low.
Sky sits beside me. “Cooper won’t stop looking until they catch them, sweetie.”
Cooper nods. “That’s right.” He stands, collecting the box. “Do you want me to call Stone?”
“No, it’s fine. I’m here with the girls. I’ll be okay.” I give him a tight smile.
Cooper walks out the door and Cole follows. “I’ll be outside if you need anything.” Slade walks out behind them.
“Do you want to do some more packing?” Lila breaks the silence in the room and I’m grateful.
“Yes, I need to get this done.” I collect the remainder of the small decorations we have around the apartment and place them in the living room for Katie to wrap while Sadie, Lila, and Sky are packing up my kitchen. They’re leaving us only what we need to make it through the next week. I’m really happy to be getting this done. The majority of our belongings are electronics and clothes. Stone said he and the guys will take care of the electronics right before we move.
I sit back on the couch, tired from the long day, but happy that we now have six boxes of stuff packed up in a corner of the room. “Do you have suitcases left that we can pack clothes in?”
“Yes.” I lead the girls to my bedroom.
“You sit on the bed with the suitcase. Tell us where the summer clothes are and we’ll deliver them for you to pack in the case.” Katie stands outside my closet door waiting for direction.
“You ladies are awesome. I can’t believe how easy you guys are making this.”
“That’s what friends are for,” Sadie sings.
Sky joins in and starts to sing the song “That’s What Friends Are For” by Dionne Warwick. Her voice is beautiful, but we all begin to laugh as she sways from side to side singing. When she makes it to the chorus, we all join in and sing really loud, swaying from side to side with her. We finish and burst into laughter one more time.
An hour later all of our summer clothes are packed into suitcases. I’m exhausted and can’t stop yawning. The girls are all getting ready to call it a night when Stone comes bursting through the door. “Baby, are you okay?” He’s in a total panic.
Slade is behind him. I narrow my eyes at him before looking to Stone. “I’m fine. Why did you come rushing home from work?”
“I called Slade to check in and he told me what happened.” Stone places his hands on my arms and pulls me into a hug. I see Cole appear at the door.
I push Stone away and turn to Slade. “I said I didn’t want to call Stone home from work over this. He’s just getting back from me having my accident. Why did you tell him?” I’m so pissed I’m pacing the living room when I bang my casted arm on the corner of the entertainment center. “Ow, shit.”
“Baby, you need to calm down.” Stone grabs me again. “I asked him if everything was going okay, and he told me what happened. He also told me that you wanted to let me finish my night at work. I tried to stay there, but I couldn’t get my mind off of you. I was worried about you, so I called Cole to come get me. I just wanted to be here for you.”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to have some normalcy in our lives. You haven’t been working because you’ve been too busy taking care of me, and then you set up this girls’ night and all was perfect until he tried to ruin it yet again.”
“He didn’t ruin it. We had a great time and we got a ton packed.” Katie wraps her arm around me and hugs me.
“Yeah, we’ll all come over next week and help you finish up.” Sky hugs me.
“And when you move, we’ll be there to help you unpack it.”
“Because that’s what friend are for,” Sky sings again. We all begin to giggle and I start to cry.
“Thanks, guys.” Tears are running down my face for the second time today.
Stone’s eyes go wide as he tries to figure out what the heck just happened. The girls all hug me goodbye and Stone asks the guys to walk them out and tells them they can head home for the night. As soon as they’re gone, Stone locks up and takes me to bed, where I tell him about our night until I can no longer keep my eyes open.