by Jillian Dodd
“And I was thinking things just got a whole less complicated.”
“I need to get back to work,” she says.
I thank the Callahans for their hospitality and tell them we have a done deal.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” I ask Ariela as we’re heading back out to the car. “Do you not want to be with me?”
“What?” She looks over at me in shock. “No, that’s not it at all. Riley, serious question.”
“Okay.”
“Tell me again how you felt about the baby.”
I put the car in drive and take off toward the vineyard. “Maybe, in a weird way, it was like a sign for me. Something I needed to prove to myself that I’m ready to settle down. To be a father. Since you left, I never thought it was in the cards for me, but the joy I felt was different. I just would have preferred that the person who was pregnant with my child was the person I loved.”
“Do you still want kids?”
“Yes, that hasn’t changed at all. In fact, I want them now more than ever. I just want them with you.”
“Oh, Riley,” she says, slumping against the seat. “I’m so relieved.”
“Why are you relieved?” I search her face, trying to figure out why this is such a shock to her. We used to always talk about having children.
I pull into the vineyard and then drive up to her guesthouse.
When she gets out of the car, she pulls me inside and then searches the house to make sure no one is there.
“You’re acting really odd, Ariela. Are you feeling okay?”
She doesn’t reply, just throws her arms around me, her mouth finding mine. “I’m sorry I’m acting crazy. It’s just that … well, Riley, I’m late.”
I glance at my watch. “For what? I thought we had a date?”
“Late, Riley. As in my period is late. And, if I’m pregnant, the baby is definitely yours.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yes. I’m actually a full week late, but I’ve been freaking out and too scared to take the test. I couldn’t imagine you having two babies a few months apart with two different women. And I didn’t know where we stood.”
“Do you have a test? Like, here?”
“Are you kidding? I have, like, five of them. I keep buying them, planning to take them.”
“Let’s do it together.”
“We already did that.” With a sexy sway of her hips, she goes into her room with me hot on her tail. I can’t wait to find out if she’s pregnant with my baby.
She gets the tests out of the cabinet and spreads them across the bathroom counter. “Which one should I take?” she asks.
I check out all the labels, choosing a digital version and opening it. I read the instructions and tell her what to do.
When she’s taken the test, she lays it on the counter.
We wait.
And wait.
“How much longer?” she asks.
“Two and a half more minutes. It’s only been thirty seconds.”
“Feels like way longer. What do you think, Riley? Is this something we should want? Or should we be praying it’s not positive?”
“I think, whatever the outcome, it will be fine. If you’re pregnant, we’ll be thrilled. If you’re not—”
“Is it bad that I kind of want to be?” she asks, staring at the stick.
I turn her around to face me. “Ariela, I love you.”
She buries her face in my shirt. “I love you, too.”
“If you’re not, it’s okay. It will happen for us when the time is right.”
She lifts her head and nods. “I hope so.”
Two and a half minutes later, we get the answer.
Not Pregnant.
Tears fall down her face the second she reads the results.
“I’m sorry I’m crying, Riley. I don’t think this is the right time for us to have a baby. We need to get to know each other first. To date and stuff. But there is a big part of me that wants to have your baby more than anything. And that part is really disappointed.”
“I would have been thrilled if you were, but it’s okay that you’re not. We need to take some time for us first. Really have some fun. What do you say?”
“I say that sounds good.”
I raise my eyebrows and give her a smirk. “Maybe we should start now?”
“What are you suggesting? You’ve got that grin,” she says, sliding her fingers across my lips. “The exact grin you used to give me to convince me to do something that could have gotten us expelled if we had been caught.”
“And you were always glad you did it. Admit it.”
She bites the edge of her lip, trying not to smile. “Maybe.”
“That means, you have to say yes to this. Knox and Katie rented a super yacht, and they’re off the coast of Italy. We got invited to join them.”
“That sounds really fun, but I—”
“Nope,” I say, holding one finger to her mouth to shush her. “No excuses. Maggie packed for you, and Kyle is going to take care of all your appointments. Those you can’t miss, you can video conference from the boat. Come on, kitty. It’s our anniversary. ’Bout time we do it up big.”
She stands on her tiptoes and gives me a kiss. “Yeah, it is about time. Let’s do it.”
Wednesday, November 5th
Yacht — Undisclosed location
ARIELA
“If you look off to your left, you can see the Holy Grail,” the helicopter pilot announces.
We left the States yesterday around two, flew all night in the luxury of Riley’s private jet, and arrived in Italy this morning. If all goes well, we’ll be having lunch with our friends shortly.
“Holy hell,” Riley says. “Now, that is a yacht. How big is it?”
“One hundred sixty-eight meters,” the pilot tells us.
“And is this all you do?”
“Yes, sir. I am on call twenty-four/seven. Would you like to hear more about this great boat?”
“Yes,” I say. “It’s obvious that it is a yacht, but all that stuff on the top almost reminds me of a Navy vessel.”
“Privacy and security were of utmost importance when this yacht was designed. The foyer was set into the heart of the boat in order to divide owners, guests, and crew. While the decks are open air and allow for plenty of sunshine, the pool is built under cover for privacy. There are also below-the-waterline lights that can detect swimmers or divers in the area with motion detectors. The portholes are armored, and she is even equipped with flash light sensors and electronic countermeasures against digital photography. Although not yet installed, it is prepped for the installation of a missile warning system, and there is a small submarine on board that can dive, unnoticed, from the outside.”
“Considering the tabloids are going crazy, wanting photos of Knox’s and Keatyn’s respective honeymoons, those features all sound awesome,” Riley says.
As we move closer to the massive boat, I notice the H with a circle around it, indicating where the helicopter is supposed to land on the bow of the ship.
I clutch my stomach. “Are we really going to land this helicopter on that boat?”
“Yep! Isn’t it exciting?” the pilot says. “I get the chills every time we approach.”
He gets on his radio and calls the yacht’s captain, letting him know that we will be landing soon.
“But the boat is moving—like, in the waves,” I argue. “How does that work?”
“Wait and see,” the pilot says confidently.
Riley looks over at me, a wide smile on his face. He grabs my hand and squeezes it.
I try to watch, but it makes me too nervous, so I close my eyes until we’re on the ground—er, well, on the boat.
We’re greeted by the captain, a steward takes our luggage, and we are escorted to the pool deck.
“You made it!” Keatyn says, giving me a hug in greeting. “Wasn’t the helicopter landing on the boat a trip?”
“I’m not
sure. I may have had my eyes closed,” I admit.
“I did, too!” RiAnne says. “I had visions of a fiery crash.”
“At least if you crash into the ocean there is plenty of water to douse the flames!” Dallas says with a lazy laugh.
I can tell he’s a little buzzed already.
After we exchange hugs, Knox says, “Do you want the tour, or are you ready for lunch?”
Riley walks out onto the deck, drink already in hand, and says, “I think we’re good here. How about lunch?”
“This yacht is amazing, Knox,” I say. “How did you rent it?”
“With a whole lot of money.” He chuckles. “Seriously, I’ve met the owner. We needed a place to hide out for the last week of our honeymoon, and a hotel wasn’t going to work. I had Missy call him and see if it was available, and as luck had it, it was docked in Portofino. A quick trip, and we were here.”
He pulls Katie onto his lap. I wasn’t sure about the two of them together, but as she melts into his arms, their happiness is apparent.
Me, I’m still sort of in shock. First, because I’m not pregnant, and I’m upset about it. And, second, despite my best efforts on the flight here, Riley has upheld his celibacy pledge.
Thank goodness I didn’t give up drinking. When the bartender offers to make me a cocktail, I definitely take him up on it.
It’s amazing to me how, after more than ten years of no contact with these people, I feel more comfortable with them than I ever felt with the couples Collin and I hung out with. Maybe it’s the fact that, although the setting is completely opulent and over the top, Knox didn’t get this yacht to impress—which is the exact opposite of living with Collin. Knox simply needed somewhere private to finish his honeymoon.
“You’re kind of a lucky bitch,” I say to Katie.
“I’d say, we all are,” Keatyn adds.
Riley slides his arm around my neck as he settles in next to me, and I can’t help but think that Keatyn is right.
Yacht — Undisclosed location
RILEY
After lunch, Knox and Katie disappear to their stateroom for a nap. I’m sitting on a couch near the pool, watching Ariela flit around in a barely-there bikini.
Dallas plops down next to me.
“You look stressed. What’s up?”
“It’s Ariela’s damn bikini. How am I supposed to stay celibate when she’s acting like a porn star?”
“What are you talking about? She’s lying down sunbathing and not even moving.”
“Oh, trust me, she’s been moving. First, she prances out in that thing, leans over the couch, and gives me a sweet kiss. Which was fine, but then she walks out to the pool deck shaking her thong-clad ass. Then she does this slow-motion-stretch thing when the attendant handed her a towel. And I know she’s trying to tempt me, because she cast me this sexy little smirk. Like I know you’re drooling over my ass.”
“Were you?”
“Fuck yeah. So then she leans over the back of the chaise and purposefully points her naked ass straight in my direction while she’s staring at the ocean, letting the wind blow her hair all over the place. And if that’s not bad enough, she did that thing—where she, like, fluffed her hair and made it look like sex hair.”
“Sex hair?” Aiden asks, sitting down next to us.
“Where have you been?” I ask.
“Uh, Keatyn and I were, uh—”
“It’s your honeymoon, dude,” Dallas says with a smirk. “No explanation necessary. But it’s cute how you came back out by yourself, so we wouldn’t think you were off fucking. Where’s Keatyn?”
“She’s putting on her swimsuit. Where’s RiAnne?”
“Down with the new rug rat. Riley and I were just discussing how Ariela has purposely allowed sweat to form on her upper lip in an attempt to seduce him out of celibacy.”
Aiden laughs, but it catches in his breath when Keatyn walks out in her bikini. And she looks good in it. And I mean that in a purely platonic way. But any man, particularly one who is currently horny as fuck, looks twice whenever Keatyn walks into a room. This number is of the string variety, one that Keatyn always favors. Even though she hasn’t been on a board since Brooklyn died, she’s still a surfer girl at heart.
As Keatyn walks by, Dallas says, “Damn. Speaking of sex hair.”
“Keatyn still doesn’t look pregnant,” I say, changing the subject because I already know Aiden will never kiss and tell. “Other than she looks like she had a boob job.”
“Nah, I can tell,” Aiden replies, studying his wife’s body with a predatory grin. “Her hips are softer, but her stomach feels hard.”
“I’m getting hard.” Dallas lies back, laughing.
Keatyn takes a chaise next to Ariela. Ariela whispers something to Keatyn, causing them both to laugh, then she picks up her drink and takes a sip.
I nudge Dallas. “Look now. See how that drop of water dripped onto her chest. Notice how she hasn’t wiped it off. She’s just letting it sit there to torture me.” I feel myself start to harden as I imagine my tongue in that exact spot. I shake my head, urging my dick to stop acting like a teenager.
“I think I need a drink,” I say.
“I have something better,” Dallas replies, pulling out a joint.
“Hell yeah,” Aiden says with a grin. “Just don’t let the smoke go in Keatyn’s direction.”
He lights the joint, and we puff and pass. I lean back, feeling relaxed.
Dallas requests a couple of bottles of champagne and whispers something to the waiter.
“Don’t laugh,” he says, “but I heard you were coming, so I baked a cake.”
“I don’t even know what that means. Are you referring to my birthday or to the fact that we’re a little baked?”
“He means, he sent the crew out to get snacks,” Aiden clarifies. “Remember what was always on hand at Stockton’s?”
“I certainly do,” I say. The nights we spent at our high school party place seep into my memory. There was alcohol, weed, dancing, and—“Spicy Doritos, Chex Mix, sour cream and onion potato chips, Twizzlers, Atomic Fireballs, Reese’s Pieces, Oreos, cheese and caramel popcorn, and pork rinds.”
Aiden and Dallas both look at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“I can’t believe you forgot the one you loved best,” Aiden says, squinting his eyes at me.
“I swear,” Dallas goes on, “every weekend, you sprayed it on her chest in pretty much the same spot that drop of water is on. I figured it would be the first thing to pop into your horny little mind.”
“Oh God,” I groan as the waiter sets out the junk food on the table in front of us. Then the sadistic bastard—probably on purpose—sets it down directly in front of me. “Cans of whipped cream.”
Aiden takes off his shirt, grabs the bowl of chips that have always been Keatyn’s favorite, and joins her in the sun at the same time RiAnne and baby Farryn make an appearance.
“Were you just propositioning my husband?” she asks. “’Cause, if so,” she says, letting her eyes run down my chest, “Mama wants in on that.”
“What the fuck?” Dallas says.
“Give me a break,” she replies. “I’m just teasing. I can’t drink, can’t smoke. I have to have a little fun.”
“How’s my girl?” he asks sweetly, sliding his arm around RiAnne as she sits down.
I assume he’s referring to the baby wrapped in her arms, but I realize that he's not when she says, “I’m good. Little Miss, here is fussy though. Thought I’d bring her up for some fresh air.”
Aiden makes a beeline toward RiAnne. “Can I hold her?”
“Please,” she says, handing the baby off. “God, those snacks look horribly disgusting. Those your choices?” she asks me.
I unscrew an Oreo and scrape the filling off with my teeth. “Uh, no. This was all your husband’s doing.”
“Look at Aiden,” RiAnne says with a starry-eyed gaze. “He’s such a natural with babies.”
Aiden has t
he baby on his shoulder, gently patting her back, while he paces across the deck.
“Things sure have changed,” I mutter.
“Not really,” Dallas says. “We just have another mouth to feed.”
“I meant, since high school.”
“Well, I would hope so,” RiAnne says. “We finally got smart and settled down.”
“Now, now,” I say, “I’m not sure settled down is the right phrase for it.”
“Men,” she says, shaking her head.
Aiden brings back a now screaming baby. RiAnne takes it out of his hands and proceeds to nurse the baby in front of me. I mean, she’s got the baby, and her chest is discreetly covered, but I still know what’s going on under there. And, for the first time, it doesn’t freak me out.
“You act like settling down is a bad thing, Riley. What you haven’t realized until recently is what you’ve been missing out on.” She turns toward Aiden, who is sitting down across from us. “Right, Aiden?”
“Hey, don’t drag me into this. I still don’t feel like Keatyn and I have settled down yet.”
“Yet, here you are, on your honeymoon. What’s Keatyn’s schedule looking like?” RiAnne asks. “I would think, with triplets, she’d be on bed rest at some point.”
“She and Knox will wrap the Trinity film before the holidays then she’s off until the babies are born.”
“Off? As in not working at all?” RiAnne asks. “That doesn’t sound like Keatyn.”
“I mean, not under contract. Obviously, she has some projects she’s working on at Captive.”
“And I had a crazy dream the other night that I’m thinking of turning into a movie,” Keatyn says from the sun deck.
“I didn’t know that they could hear us,” I whisper. “Shit, Dallas. I was just talking about how hot Ariela makes me.”
“Women can hear everything,” RiAnne says, giving me a smirk. “I think the baby’s asleep. I’m going to take her back to the nanny.”
When RiAnne gets up, so does Ariela. She stalks toward me, all bronzed legs and firm breasts. I prepare to pull her onto my lap and kiss her, but she goes into the pool instead.