“God, I knew I liked you the moment we first met. I’ve always wanted to just walk up to Vanessa and punch her right in the mouth,” Dani said while motioning with her hands like she was punching someone.
“Holy shit balls, Dani. What did the girl ever do to you?”
She rolled her eyes. “That little bitch cut off my Barbie’s hair and then said Ken would never love my Barbie like he did her Barbie ‘cause her bitch Barbie had hair. That … that … C-word!”
I forced myself not to start laughing. Holding up my hands I said, “Whoa, bring it back in, Rocky. Deep breath in and blow it out.”
Jennifer shook her head. “Do you remember when that little boy, Tommy, moved in across the street and every time we came into town he would come over to play. I had the biggest crush on him. He even tried to kiss me once. He told me I was the prettiest girl in the world. Problem was he said it in front of Vanessa. The next day she told him I was actually a boy and he stopped talking to me. Still to this day, if I run into him he will totally cross the street to avoid talking to me.”
Dani gasped. “Is that why he stopped coming over?”
“Yep. Sucks too, because he is drop dead handsome now. And single!”
With a giggle, I said, “Man she is a cu—”
“No!” Dani and Jennifer yelled out. I wasn’t sure how Lindsay slept through that outburst but she did.
Jennifer frantically shook her head. “Don’t use that word. I hate that word.”
My phone buzzed. Pulling it out of my purse, I saw Ryder’s name.
Ryder: Heading home, buttercup.
Ugh. I was feeling so many different emotions today. The pull to have a baby, the excitement of what I might find in the house that Kate left behind, the nervousness of meeting Jackson for dinner, guilt for not telling Jennifer and Dani about their sister Kate’s pregnancy, and to top it off, planning a wedding that was just a couple weeks away.
“Ryder is on his way back to the house. This was so much fun. Dani, thank you for driving in.”
I pulled enough money out of my purse to cover lunch. Standing, I walked over and kissed them both on the cheek and then kissed the baby on top of her head. I took in a long deep breath.
Oh lord … she smells so good.
“Tell Ryder we said hi,” Jennifer said.
With a smile, I nodded and replied, “I sure will. Bye, girls.”
As I walked off, Dani called out, “Don’t think I didn’t notice you smelling her! You’ve got the baby bug, admit it!”
Without turning around, I lifted my hand and waved.
I did have the damn baby bug, but I would never admit it. At least not right now.
WALKING INTO THE house, Ryder was sitting on the sofa in the front living room reading something. He looked completely focused on it.
Oh. My. God. He started looking and found something without me! I’m going to kill him!
“Hey, what are you reading?”
He looked up and frowned. “Did you threaten Vanessa today with bodily harm?”
Placing my hand on my hip, I narrowed my eyes as anger swept up to my face, heating my cheeks. “I knew it. I knew that little bitch would do something.” Walking up to him, I asked, “What is it? A restraining order or something?”
Ryder laughed. “What? Why would she do that? Jesus, Ava. What did you say to her?”
“Wait. How do you know?”
“She practically attacked me when I pulled up. She said she was innocently standing outside when you walked up to her and threatened to punch her if she ever talked to me again.”
My mouth dropped open. If he took her side I was taking this diamond and chucking it in his face.
“I can’t believe this. You’re actually going to sit there and tell me you believe I would ever do something like that?”
Ryder stood up and smiled. “No, I don’t believe her, but I do believe she got you so mad you probably did threaten her.”
“I did, but she started it. When she found out we were getting married, she said she couldn’t believe you would settle for someone like me.”
He pinched his eyebrows. “Damn, baby, please don’t let anything she says get to you. She doesn’t matter and what comes out of her mouth really doesn’t matter either.”
Grinning, I glanced down at the paper. “What were you reading?”
He quickly picked up the paper and folded it. “Nothing.”
Lifting my eyebrows, I lowered my head and looked at him. “Really? Cause you were very focused on that piece of paper when I walked in.”
The cutest damn smile spread over his face. Pulling me to him, he kissed me softly and then whispered, “They’re my vows.”
Plunk. That was my heart dropping. Just like that, I was swept off my feet. “Your vows?”
“Yeah, I wrote them last night when I couldn’t sleep. I need to polish it up a bit. Actually a lot. I can’t make heads or tails of the whole second half. I must have been dozing off.”
I melted right there on the spot. “If I didn’t want to search this house so badly, I’d totally push you down and rip your clothes off.”
His face lit up. “I like the sound of that.”
I slapped him on the chest. “Later! Let’s go exploring.”