Page 14 of Freak Show

Annabelle and Titus looked up when we entered.

“Were you run off, too?” he complained.

“Yeah.” I nodded at Ari. “Ari was luckily there to help save the day or I might’ve lost my shit.”

“Ari?” Titus asked, looking confused.

I jerked my chin toward Caristonia. “Ari. She’s gonna have to go by a nickname when she’s around us. They think that we’re married.”

“What?” Titus asked with a laugh at the same time that Ari said, “I’m sorry, but what?”

I sighed and jerked my chin toward them. “We were headed your way when they stopped us. Assumed we were married. And now I’m fairly sure that it’ll be plastered all over the world by noon.”

“Why would that be the case?” Ari asked. “I’m no one.”

“You’re a beautiful woman that is suspected of marrying one of the most eligible bachelors of football,” Briley muttered. “Dad and Uncle Titus made it to the Sports Page Magazine. Apparently, they’re football’s most eligible bachelors because they’re hot.” Briley paused. “Though, I don’t see it.”

Titus pretended to stab himself in the chest. “Damn. Solid burn branch.”

Briley shrugged.

“I…” I paused in my next statement when Banner, the third to our high school best friend trio, walked in with his wife and baby.

Perry looked annoyed. “What did you do, Slone? It’s a madhouse out there.”

Banner walked up to me and planted his baby in my arms before saying, “Hold Jett. I have to go take a shit.”

Perry rolled her eyes as Banner walked away.

I looked down at Jett, who was stuffed into the cutest little pink swimsuit I’d ever seen.

“Hello, beautiful,” I said to her.

Jett, with her blue and green eyes that matched her grandfather and grandmother, looked at me with wonder.

“If you don’t want to hold her,” Perry said as she took a seat. “I’ll hold her.”

“I’m good,” I murmured quietly. “How’s motherhood treating you, Perry?”

Perry groaned and sat down. “It’d be treating me a lot better if Banner didn’t have to leave tomorrow.”

I grimaced.

A long time ago, Perry was wholly against the military, and her man being a part of it.

She’d hoped that Banner would go into professional football like Titus and I had.

Only, Banner’s dream had been becoming a Navy SEAL like his uncles.

It’d almost broken them up, but Perry had persevered, and had decided that her and Banner’s love meant more than her fear of him dying like her father almost had.

“How much longer do you think he plans on staying in?” Titus asked curiously.

“Until he’s physically incapable of staying in anymore,” Perry answered. “He loves it. And I love him. So I’ll be a big girl and miss him.”

I curled my finger around Jett’s tiny fist.

“She looks nothing like you, Perry.” I pointed out the obvious.

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