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He steps outside with the phone, but as he does, waves at me to come out. “I just need air, it’s okay if you listen.”
I wave. “Go ahead. Fill me in when you’re done.”
I’m in shock. I’m relieved and sad in equal measure. I’m relieved that this is over for Austin, but sad about Sienna’s mental health issues. It’s been a little hard to see Austin act cold about it when I’ve lived with people acting cold about my brother’s mental illness almost all my life, but he really just thinks she’s a manipulative spoiled person rather than having real problems. And I’m no expert, but I suspect she does have mental illness. It seems like a woman scaling a fence with a knife and planning to stab a bunch of people seems to me like a person with serious mental health problems.
I understand Austin’s anger. But I still feel bad for her.
He tells me it’s because I’m a good person. He’s a good person, too. He’s just angry right now.
He comes back in a few minutes later, blowing out a long breath.
He takes me into his arms and I hold on tight.
“Marry me,” he says.
I lean back and look at him.
“Huh?”
“I’m not joking. You’re a fucking angel and I’m insane if I don’t lock you down immediately.”
“I think you can do better than that as a proposal, Carmichael,” I scoff, pulling away.
He jerks me back against him and laughs into my hair. “I’ll do better than that. I’ll ask again when I’m inside you later when you’re bein’ my good girl, and you won’t be able to say no.”
“You’re right about that,” I whisper. “And maybe I’ll say yes. Maybe…”
He smiles wide.
“So?” I ask. “Are you gonna tell me what that was about?”
He breathes deep and takes a big sip of water before he spills the details.
“So, as far as we can guess, she thought being pregnant was her get out of jail free card. When that went away, she lost it I guess. The cheese slipped off her cracker.”
“Don’t be insensitive,” I chide.
“She tried to knife you and Carly and wound up knifing my mother. Forgive my insensitivity, Cooties.”
I sigh.
He shakes his head. “The thing is from my conversation with Rog, he told me the medical records show she was way less pregnant than she should’ve been and so Rog talked to her about that.”
“Huh?”
“It wasn’t mine. She was almost a month less pregnant than she would’ve been if she got pregnant on Aiden’s wedding night.”
I jolt in surprise.
He blows out another breath. “Yeah. She was tryin’ to use this, I guess. It’s fucked. She’s semi-lucid, really weepy and remorseful. She stormed over to Adele’s, ready to demand my address but saw her father’s car in the driveway with everyone else’s cars and sounds like she snapped.”
“Ho boy.”
“You might wanna sit down for this next part,” he says and sits down on a chair and pulls me onto his lap.
I wait.
He shakes his head. He’s obviously trying to process something but I jiggle his shoulders. “Suspense, Groucho, suspense!”
“Just thinkin’ that doesn’t hold water if she had a knife. That’s premediated.”
“Hm. Good Point.”
“Anyway, she admitted to Rog she had sex with a security guard she met in New York to try to get pregnant.”
I gasp.
He nods. “Said she borrowed a friend’s pregnancy test to give it to me, knowing she was ovulating. She was hoping to get with me that night she showed up. Rog said when she couldn’t, got herself knocked up anyway figuring she’d try to fix the paternity test somehow. Throw money at people to tamper with it. Delusional.”
My eyes bulge.
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah. But it’s over.”
“Yeah,” I breathe.
“And that means I get the opportunity to make all my babies with one person only.”
I smile wide.
“We’re babysitting tomorrow night for Adele and Dirk to have a date night.”
“Are we?” he asks.
I nod. “I love kids.”
“Good,” he says with a big smile.
***
A Week Later
I’m yawning at the sink, looking out the window, waiting for the toast to pop while I daydream.
It’s a Saturday morning and I have a mild hangover after a night out with Carly, her friend (I guess mine now, too) Ally, Adele, and two girls that Carly works with, Stacy and Sonia.
It was a fun night. Ally is a hoot. Even if the night did end with her hunky beau carrying her out of the nightclub over his shoulder as a nod to reenact a time at that same club where Aiden did that with Carly.
Ally says Jude is way more an enemies-with-benefits than a boyfriend, though Carly told me after that Jude totally sees himself as her boyfriend.
All I know is that it was fun to watch. And extremely hot.
I smile, looking at my little avocado tree on the counter in the pretty orange pot. Austin bought it for me yesterday for the back yard, calling it my guacamole tree. I need to read up on how to care for it and get it to grow fruit.
