Page 31 of Due At The Same Time
Ambrose went to grab them and Finn stepped directly on the scattered papers, his boot leaving muddy footprints all over.
“Indi, this fucking fool’s still in love with you,” Finn howled, pointing and laughing at Ambrose.
My blood seemed to run cold, my stomach doing flip-flops in horrified disbelief.
Almost automatically, I glanced over to my ex, assuming Finn was just taunting him.
But Ambrose had fallen to his knees to try to collect the papers. He looked white to the gills as he nodded.
One short, sharp confirmation.
The hell?
Just then my horrible ex kicked at Finn’s kneecap and the other man went down like a sack of rocks, his big hands reaching out to grab Ambrose by the collar and then they were both rolling across the lawn again punching each other. I heard a crunch as Ambrose hit Finn’s nose, then a crack as Finn’s elbow connected with Ambrose’s ribs.
“Fucking give it up!” Finn ordered. “You lost Indi and she’s mine now!”
“She needs to know how I feel!” Ambrose gritted out.
I realized sitting here and yelping “stop!” was not going to do anything, so I grabbed the garden hose and turned it on full blast at both of them.
My commitment to a peaceful existence with all living things had never been tested more.
They didn't want to stop punching each other, but were forced to when I aimed the powerful jet of water directly between them, Ambrose rolling away and grabbing for his glasses and Finn on his hands and knees heaving.
I directed the water lower, filling in a pool of water between them and the two men got to their feet, eyeing each other warily.
“Can you go get me an ice cream cone, Finn?” I asked quickly. “And a jalapeño? I’m getting these wild cravings and I feel quite faint.”
Finn looked resentfully over at Ambrose.
“All right,” he said. “Don’ttouchIndi,” he added, pointing a big tattooed finger at Ambrose. “Don’t touch her, don’t look at her, don’t talk to her.”
“And can you maybe get one for Astrid, too?” I asked, hoping desperately to lower the temperature between all of us so Astrid wouldn’t go into early labor or something.
“Baby, hell no,” Finn said. “That’s notmybaby in her. I don’t have to do fuck-all for her. She can get her own damn ice-cream cone.”
He got in his car and drove off as Ambrose dropped heavily down to the curb.
I eyed my ex.
Hemightbe the father of Astrid’s baby. According to the test, he had sperm. His count was just so low that presumably it would have taken a long time to get her pregnant. And it had only been a few months after they got together.
I didn’t want to talk to him, but I knew if I had any hope of a peaceful last few weeks of my pregnancy and a nice relaxing baby shower, I was going to have to try to break the constant tension between the two men.
So I pulled out a lawn chair and sat down in it, Ambrose beside me on the curb, arms propped on his thighs, his head hanging between his legs.
I felt absolutely furious at him.
“What thefuckis wrong with you?” I asked through gritted teeth. “Why are you doing this? Why are you getting into fights with Finn?”
Looking over at him, I saw that there were rips and tears all in his collared shirt, and a big bruise was blooming on his cheek.
“I’m trying to figure out how I fucked my life up to this extent,” Ambrose said bitterly.
I noticed one of his hands was shaking as he ran it through his hair.
This was surprising. Ambrose was usually so assured in everything.Usually, Ambrose’s philosophy was that life was perfect and he was a king among men.
