by Cat Mann
Chapter 25
Hunted
“Morning!”
I cracked open one blurry eye with a moan to find Ava perky and smiling brightly down at me. The very early morning sunshine filtered in behind her through our bedroom window making her look even more like the goddess she is. Her soft waves of dark hair cascaded downward and tickled my bare chest. “You had better wake up, Ari. Your alarm didn’t go off this morning. You're late for work.” She gave me a shake with her hips.
“Mmmm. You’re up early.” My voice was throaty and thick. I blinked my eyes a few times in an attempt to focus my hazy vision. Ava slipped my glasses onto my face with a pretty smile. “Ah, that’s better. No work today, Baby. I took the day off.”
“Oh!” She smiled again. “Why?” And then she frowned with a confused crinkle in her nose and brow.
“We had a bad weekend, I worked a lot and we fought. I miss you. I really miss you and Max.”
“We miss you, too.”
I palmed both sides of her belly. “I thought we could take the day and hang out and get all of the things we're going to need for this baby. Cal will be here before you know it and we've hardly started getting ready for him.”
“He's just a tiny baby. What more do we need? I mean, all he'll do is sleep and eat and poop. Right?”
“You. Are. So. Cute.” I poked the end of her nose. “Have you read the pregnancy books I bought you yet? And the baby books?”
“Some of them…have you read them?”
“Yes, I have. All of them.”
“Oh.” She had been expecting a different answer.
“We have a lot to do. And since you refused to allow my mother to throw you a baby shower, we have to do it all on our own.”
“Okay then, sounds like we have a busy day ahead of us.” Ava moved her knee to climb off my lap.
“Whoa, whoa. Not so fast.” I eased Ava back down onto my lap. “We still have a little time.” I said and adjusted my hips below her. “We can still fool around…”
Ava bent down and placed a small kiss on to my lips. “Max is awake.”
“How do you know?”
She didn’t need to answer me, the sound of Max opening his bedroom door carried through the monitor, he tore through the hallway with lightning speed and Ava crawled off my lap just in time for him to come crashing through our bedroom doorway.
“Hiya, Max!”
“Hey, Buddy.”
He flopped down into our blankets with a poof and a giggle.
“I’ll throw him in the tub, Ava, and you get ready to go. We'll meet you downstairs in a half hour.”
“K!” Ava kissed Max’s forehead and then disappeared into the closet.
I wrestled Max in and then out of the tub, dressed him and myself and then sat down for breakfast all while Ava deliberated in the closet. She appeared in the kitchen twenty-five minutes later with a long pony tail pulled through her baseball hat, jeans and a band tee-shirt that just covered her belly button. She looked cute and I planted a kiss on her glossy lips.
“You ready?” She asked, holding a to-go cup of coffee in one hand.
“You need to eat first.”
Ava shook a granola bar and banana in the air at me with the other hand. “I’ll eat in the car.”
“Sit and eat, Ava. I have to feed that cat anyway.”
Fluff stood at the glass door and looked in at us with a meow. He was cute and had almost grown on me. If it weren’t for constant sneezing and raw eyes, I would have been almost receptive to having an animal in the house, especially since the kitten made Max so happy. Popping the top off a tin can, I slid through the backdoor, plopped the food in his dish and refilled the water bowl. He rubbed against my leg with a thank you nudge and I shooed him off softly with my foot. Removing the spare key from under the cactus pot, I shoved it in my pocket and then locked the doors behind me.
“Ava, I changed the alarm code last night. You need to make sure the alarm is set all the time, even when you are home. Ok?”
“Ok.” Ava nodded.
“I know it sucks.”
“It really does.”
I had grown up with an open-door policy. Everyone was free to come and go. People popped into our house all the time to say hello or sit for a morning cup of coffee or sip a glass of wine in the evening. Our pool always seemed to have someone lounging by it and our kitchen welcomed everyone. Ava and I had adopted that easy routine as our own way of living. Dinner was rarely just the three of us; Rory and August especially were near-constant dinner guests. We loved the drop-in way of life. Now our doors are always locked and the alarm is always set, even in the afternoon. Going out and coming in had become an inconvenient hassle.
“No more spare keys, so don’t get locked out of the house. The code is 0804. Don’t tell anyone.”
“0804. Our anniversary. I can remember that.”
“Good. Our secret?”
“Our secret.”
I set the alarm and made a quick glance down at my cell phone before we drove away from the house – no call from Julia. On the ride into town, I broke the news of Julia leaving Rory to Ava. She was upset. She was also worried.