Page 76 of Only for Tonight
“Well,” my father replies, “there is no one better than Ariella, so it’s a win for us.” He shrugs and puts his hand on his chest. “There is nothing to say.”
She glares at him and folds her arms over her chest. “Manning,” she says his name.
“I have something,” I offer, pulling my phone out of my pocket. “It was taken a couple of weeks ago.” I’m trying to get the showdown between my parents over. The last thing I want to do is for Ari’s parents to find out my father kept the secret from them, and for them to turn on him. “It’s the baby.” I press play on the video and the sound of the heartbeat fills the room. Our mothers come over to look at it as Ariella goes to her father.
“Sorry, Dad,” she says, and I hand my phone to my mother in case I have to take her out of here.
“I—” He shakes his head. “I just want to protect you.” He holds her face in his hand. “It’s my job to protect you.”
“It’s time for me to make my own mistakes.” She shrugs and I hear her voice quiver, my heart sinks at that word, knowing that it’s not a fucking mistake. Unintended sure, but mistake, this is not a fucking mistake.
“A baby is not a mistake, it’s a blessing,” he states and takes her in his arms and I relax.
“Manning,” my mother says, “do you not want to see this video?”
“Yeah. Of course.” He nods his head, stepping forward. “I can’t wait. What is it?”
“Oh, shut up,” my mother hisses. “You knew our son was having a baby and you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t know exactly that,” he rebuts.
“What did you know exactly?” She looks at him.
“I knew they were dating,” he lies out of his mouth and she gives him a “sure” look. “Listen.” He holds up his hands. “Ariella was dehydrated,” he starts the story and everyone looks at her. “She was in and out of it, and he was freaking the fuck out.” He looks over at me. “So he called me to calm him down.”
“I wasn’t freaking the fuck out,” I counter and he looks at me. “Okay, fine, I was freaking the fuck out. She threw up for twenty-four hours.” I shake my head.
“Why didn’t you call us?” Candace looks at Ariella, then back at me, her voice is filled with hurt. “You should have called us.”
“I’m sorry,” I say to Candace, who now has Ralph beside her. “We were only going to tell you guys after she got past the twelve-week mark because of her maybe miscarrying. When I was in the hospital, I didn’t know who else to call. The last thing I wanted was to let you guys down,” I say honestly. “Not only was she pregnant with my child, but I wasn’t even taking care of her properly.”
“Hey,” Ariella says to me, “it’s no one’s fault that I ended up in the hospital. It was just the way it goes.”
“But she’s fine now?” Candace asks and Ariella goes over to her.
“I’m fine.” She smiles at her. “It’s all good. The baby is fine and my jeans don’t fit anymore.” She glares over her shoulder at me. “But it will be fine.” She hugs her mother. “No more secrets and no more hiding. If anything happens, Jaxon is going to call you or I’m going to call you.”
“You have my word,” I tell them both. “Listen, I would love to stay and have lunch with you guys”—I walk to Ariella—“but I haven’t seen her in four days. She’s going back to New York tomorrow, and I’m headed back home tonight. I won’t see her for, I don’t know how long.” I look at Ralph. “So, I’m going to go and spend time with her and my child.” I hold out my hand to her.
“Our child,” she corrects me before kissing Ralph’s cheek and then coming over to me.
“Dad,” I call his name, “keys.” I hold up my hand and he tosses me his keys. “Ralph, Candace, I look forward to you guys coming to visit us in LA soon.”
“You can count on it,” Ralph says to me, and I don’t know if he’s warning me or not. “You better take care of her.”
“You know I will,” I assure him with my head high and my shoulders back.
“And not that anyone cares,” she adds, “but I’ll take care of him also.” She slips her hand into mine and we walk out the door. “We’re not going to your parents’ house to have sex,” she quickly states. “They all think we are going to have sex.”
“I don’t care. Literally could not give a fuck what they think we are going to do.” I push her against the car. “I have a room ready at the hotel five minutes away from here because I knew you wouldn’t come back to my house.”
“Wow, you really think I’m that easy.” I reach down and grab her ass in my hand, pulling her to my cock. “My father has cameras all over this house, Jaxon.” She pushes me away from her. “Now, it’s been a while and I’m getting needy.”
“Then get in the car,” I hiss between my teeth and rush around the front of the car. “I have four hours and I plan to spend most of it inside you.” I wink at her.
Four hours later, we’re pulling up to the private plane lot with her beside me, holding my hand. We spent the whole afternoon in each other’s arms. I hate that I’m going back home without her. Hate it. When I pull up beside the plane, I kiss her hand as I turn off the car and get out, watching her do the same. “Are you sure we can’t just hire someone to pack up your stuff for you?” I ask her as she stops in front of the car and I take her in my arms. “Then you can come back with me.”
“Jaxon, I need to go back to New York and organize things.” She puts her hands on my chest. “You’ll survive.”
