I glanced back to look at Gunner. His jaw was set, and I knew how he felt. My heart was breaking for Amanda. She was four months pregnant, and her husband had told her she had to hide it and then give up the baby for adoption. Yeah, none of it makes a lick of sense.
Just then, my cell phone rang.
Holy fuck, speak of the devil. I looked at Gunner. “It’s Brad.”
“Hello?” I answered.
“Jeff, I need to talk to you and Gunner right away!” Brad said in a panicked voice.
“Okay…well, dude, we’re almost back to Mason.”
“I just dropped Amanda off at home. I’m coming back out there. Can I meet y’all in a few hours?”
I glanced over at Gunner, and he must have been able to hear Brad because he nodded.
“Sure, dude, just, um…come to Gunner’s house or mine—”
“No. I could tell Ari and Ellie were pissed at me today. I’ll meet you at the main barn. Just give me a couple hours to get there,” Brad said before he hung up.
I looked over toward Gunner. “What the fuck is going on?”
“He must really need to talk if he’s going to drive all the way back out here again,” Gunner said as he shook his head.
“Yeah, he must.”
When I walked into the house, I could smell lasagna. Damn, Ari makes the best lasagna ever.
It was dead quiet in the house. I walked into the kitchen to see my beautiful bride sitting at the kitchen island with her head resting on her arms. The baby monitor was next to her, so Luke had to be sleeping. As I stepped closer, I could tell she was fast asleep.
I smiled as I leaned down and scooped her up into my arms. Snuggling her head into my chest, she let out a small moan.
“Don’t forget the monitor,” she whispered.
I smiled as I went to grab it before heading to our bedroom.
Once in our room, I gently laid her down on the bed. She still had her eyes closed, but a small smile was playing across her face.
“How is Josh? Heather sent me a text saying you were her knight in shining armor today. How long is he going to be in the hospital?”
She just kept asking question after question. Instead of answering her, I leaned down and took her lips with mine.
The next thing I knew, I was taking off my clothes as I watched her strip out of hers.
“I missed you so damn much today. I love you so much, baby,” I said as I crawled on top of her.
“Hmm…I love you, too. Oh god,” she said as I slowly entered her body.
Fuck, she feels like pure heaven.
“Jeff…you feel so good. Please go slow. I need you so bad,” Ari said as she pulled my body closer to hers.
I started covering her with kisses. I stopped moving as I paid attention to only her nipples. When she kept bucking her hips into mine, I smiled.
“Move, Jeff. For Christ’s sake, move!”
“Baby, you told me to go slow…so I’m going slow,” I said as I looked at her and smiled.
The next thing I knew, she was on top of me, and my world was completely and utterly rocked by her. We called out each other’s names at the same time as we both came together.
Life is so perfect when I’m with Ari. Fuck, I love this girl so damn much.
We were lying there, holding each other, for what seemed like forever.
“How long has Luke been asleep?” I asked.
Ari let out a sigh. “I put him down right before you came home. He was being a stinker. He loves Alex, and I think he was wondering why she wasn’t on the floor, playing with him. Amanda played with him so much that I think she wore his little ass out. Brad even played with him…a lot. That surprised me since the fucker doesn’t want kids.”
“Yeah, about Brad…I’m gonna have to go meet him here in a little bit. He called and said he dropped off Amanda and was heading back out to talk to Gunner and me,” I said as I stroked Ari’s hair.
She pushed up and looked at me. “What? They just left a few hours ago. Now, he’s coming back out? What the hell for?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Said he needed to talk to Gunner and me, and he sounded desperate.”
Ari sat up straight and pulled the sheet around her. “You know, they were both acting so weird. They weren’t even talking to each other. At one point…well…oh shit, never mind.”
“What? Tell me, Ari,” I said.
“Okay, but you’re gonna think I’m crazy. At one point, I swear Brad was high. He went outside to take a call. When he came back in…I don’t know…he was different. I swear, Jeff, he was high on something.”
Running my hand through my hair, I shook my head. “Impossible, Ari. Brad would never do drugs. No way.”
Ari frowned and just looked at me. “I don’t know, Jeff. I would stake a million dollars on it. Even Ells thought he was acting strange.”
Just then, we heard Luke over the baby monitor. Ari got up and started getting dressed. Lying there, I thought about everything Ari had just said.
Brad’s doing drugs? No fucking way.
Chapter Twelve
Sitting on the porch with Ellie, I was holding Alex in my arms while she was asleep. Jeff had called a few minutes ago to tell me he was on his way to pick me up to meet Brad. I had the worst feeling in my stomach.
“Ells, how did Brad act when he was here with Amanda?”
Ellie looked at me with concern in her eyes. “Well, um…honestly, Ari and I both thought something was wrong. Ari swears he went outside and got high, but Amanda told her that she was crazy. He was acting differently though after he came back in from taking a phone call.”
“How did Amanda and Brad act toward each other?”
“Like strangers. She told me she was going to call me later. She’d talked to Brad this morning, and she said things were not good. Maybe that’s why he wants to talk to y’all?”
Jeff was pulling up, so I handed little bear to Ellie before I leaned down and kissed her good-bye.
“I’ll see you in a bit, sweetheart.” I gave her a sad smile. I hated leaving her again.
When I looked up, I saw my mother standing in the doorway. She smiled and nodded as if she knew it was killing me to leave my girls. I was so grateful my parents also lived on the ranch.
“I love you, Gunner. Just don’t beat the shit out of him, okay?” Ellie said with a wink.
I laughed as I turned to walk to the truck. The feeling in my stomach was telling me something was very wrong with this whole picture.
Jeff parked in front of Grams and Gramps’s place. I jumped out and glanced over at Brad’s BMW. I waved to Grams and Gramps as I walked up to the porch.
“Brad inside or down at the barn?” I leaned down and kissed Grams on the cheek.
“He’s down at the barn, but he did come up and say hello. He looks tired. That boy needs to slow down,” Grams said with a smile.
I glanced over at Gramps. The look he was giving me told me he thought it was something different.
As Jeff and I walked to the barn, I could see Brad pacing back and forth in front of it. He was wringing his hands together, and—
What the fuck? Is he talking to himself?
“Hey, dude!” Jeff called out.
Brad jumped. “What the fucking hell, asshole? You scared the shit out of me!” he yelled as he threw his hands in his hair.
He looked like shit, and Grams had been right. He did look tired.
“You want to tell us what the fuck is going on? You told Amanda you didn’t want kids? What kind of game are you playing?” Jeff asked, not even giving Brad a moment to think.
“Oh, fucking son of a bitch. She told the girls?”
“Of course she told them, you douche bag. Why the fuck would you tell your wife that? Let alone, tell her to hide it,” I said.
Bending down, Brad put his hands on his knees.
“Dude, are you going to get sick?” Jeff asked right before Brad started throwing up.
I ran to Dewey’s office where he kept a small cooler of waters and grabbed one. By the time I got back over to them, Brad was crying.
Brad’s crying?
“Oh god, oh god. I fucked up so bad in so many ways. I don’t even know what to do!” Brad called out as he fell to the ground.
Jeff and I looked at each other. We walked over, picked up Brad, and helped him into the barn. Jeff grabbed three chairs, and Brad practically slumped onto one of them.
“Brad, what the hell is going on?” I asked.
As soon as he lifted his face, our eyes met…and I knew. I’d seen that look before when we were in college.
“You didn’t, Brad. You didn’t cheat on Amanda, did you?” I asked.
Jeff snapped his head from me to Brad.
“What? Wait. Why would you even think that, Gunner?” Jeff asked, confused.
“Because I’ve seen this look before. Remember when he was dating Stacy Malloney? He cheated on her, and this was the exact same look he had when he told me,” I said, glaring at Brad.
Sitting down, Jeff stared at him. “Brad?”
Brad sat back and took in a deep breath. “I was at a business meeting in Dallas, and we all went out to this nightclub. I never go out with the guys, but Amanda and I had gotten into a huge fight right before I left. She was bitching yet again because my mother had kept pushing her to work full-time at the office. Then, she started complaining about how my mother keeps giving her a hard time about having kids. The fight wasn’t even about having kids. It was about my fucking mother constantly pushing Amanda. She told me she was sick of my mother. When she said how she’d given up her dreams for me, I just lost it. I told her to stop acting like a bitch, and then one thing led to another, and words were said that shouldn’t have been said. It was the worst fight we’d ever had. When I left for Dallas, I was mad as hell at her.”
“Okay, so you went out because you were pissed at Amanda. Keep talking,” Jeff said.
“So, I ran into a girl I knew from college—Michele Walker.”
“Ah shit, Brad. Your fuck buddy from college?” Jeff shook his head.
“Yeah, Jeff, my fuck buddy from college,” Brad said, glaring at him.
“Go on,” I said. The terrible feeling in my stomach was growing bigger.
“Long story short, she flirted, I flirted, and then she asked if I wanted to go back to her hotel room to get high. I was shocked that she’d even asked, and I told her no. Then, Amanda sent me a text message. Said my bitch mother wanted me to call her. It pissed me off, so I went back to Michele’s hotel room.”
When Brad looked down at the ground, I saw a tear rolling down his face.
Motherfucker. This does not sound good at all.
“You know I’ve never touched drugs before in my life. Y’all know that. But, fuck, we got back to her room, and she started taking off her clothes. She was just walking around in her bra and panties. I wanted so badly to just forget about everything—Amanda, the fight, my controlling parents…my fucking job I hate. So, I took a hit of coke, and it felt fucking great. I was happy, I had a ton of energy, and I didn’t give a fuck about anything.”
“Or anyone,” Jeff said.