“Hello?” I said sleepily into the phone.
“What are you doing still in bed? You need to get up,” I heard Rhonda laugh on the other end.
“Mmmm I'm not feeling so good today,” I said yawning. “AJ took Arrianna to the studio with him so I could get a little more sleep. This baby is wearing me out!”
“Are you alright?” Rhonda asked concerned.
“I'm fine. So what's so important that you interrupted my nap,” I joked.
“Howie stayed over last night.”
“What?” I was fully awake now. “You slept with him?”
“No we didn't have sex…he just held me. I didn't realize how much I missed that,” she said with a sigh. “It was almost perfect.”
“Almost?”
“Yeah almost. When I woke up this morning with the twins he was gone. He must have left real early.”
“I'm sorry honey,” I said in a comforting voice.
“Yeah…so…you want some company again today?”
“Of coarse I do, come on over.”
“Ok I'll be there in about an hour, I have to get my kids all packed up.”
“I'll see you then,” I said hanging up the phone. I rubbed a slight pain in my side and looked at the clock. “Hmmmm, an hour, I can sleep for a little bit more,” I thought as I laid my head back down on the pillow and closed my eyes.

Rhonda's View

“Hello? Anyone home?” I asked as I walked into the house. Jack and Vegas barked as I walked through the house. “Oh like I'm afraid of you guys! What are you going to do? Bite my toes?” I wandered back to the living room. Amber wasn't there. “I bet you that she fell back asleep. That's not fair!! Do you guys want to go wake up Aunt Amber?” I took the twins and headed upstairs. I found Amber asleep in bed so I took Nikki and Jacob into Arrianna's room and put them in her crib for their nap. I snuck into Amber's bedroom and tried to figure out the best way to wake up a pregnant lady. I went into the closet and found AJ's blue boa. I took it over and began to tickle Amber's nose with it. She flinched a few times, and I ducked next to the bed. I started to do it again when she finally woke up and realized what was happening.

“Why are you doing this to me?” she laughed.
“Because – you invited me over and when I get here, you're sleeping!”
“But I'm tired!” she whined.
“That's because you haven't gotten out of bed, Lazy!”
Amber sat up in bed. “Whoa – got up a little too quick.”
“Want to watch a movie or something?”
“Sure – why don't you go downstairs and pick one out? Just remember...stay out of AJ's cabinet.”
“Yeah I remember that I made that mistake once before!!” I laughed.
I went downstairs and grabbed some munchies and a couple of movies.
“So what did you get?” Amber asked as I walked in.
“I got some pretzels, Chex Mix, iced animal cookies, some pop...”
“I meant what movies,” Amber laughed.
“Oh – I got Goonies, Practical Magic and the Story of Us. Which do you want to watch?”
“How about Practical Magic?”
“Sounds good to me.” I popped the movie in and joined Amber in bed. “What do you want to eat?”
“Um...just open them all up. I'm sure that I'll have just about everything.”

Half way through the movie, I looked over and saw Amber asleep. I got up and cleaned up the room a bit, shut off the movie and went to check on the kids. They were up and looking around Arrianna's room. “Come on guys, let's go home.”

Amber View

I walked through the house looking at the mess. It usually didn't look like this, it was just that I hadn't been feeling too good lately, and AJ was never one for picking things up. I sighed and started straightening the house up. A sharp pain in my stomach caused me to buckle to my knees. I stayed on the floor waiting fearfully for another one to come. Fifteen minutes passed and nothing happened, I was about to get up when I heard AJ come home.

“Honey, we're home,” AJ called from the hallway. “Let's go find mommy Squeak,” he said as they walked towards where I was kneeling on the floor. As soon as he saw me he put Arrianna down and ran to my side. “Babe what happened? Did you fall? Are you alright?”
“I'm fine,” I said struggling to get back up to my feet. “I just had a bad indigestion pain or something, it's gone now,” I said trying to reassure myself as well as him.
AJ looked at me with deep concern in his eyes. “Are you sure, maybe you should go see a doctor or something.”
“I'm sure,” I said finally reaching my feet “Besides it's over now I haven't felt anything for awhile.”
“Then why were you still on the floor?” AJ asked.
I looked down at my huge stomach and laughed, ”It's the same philosophy as when I sit down in one of those damn leather chairs of yours…once I'm down it takes a long time to get back up. So are you two hungry?” I asked heading towards the kitchen.
“Don't worry about that,” he said closing the refrigerator door. “I'll make us dinner tonight, you just go rest.”
“I've been resting all day. I don't feel like sitting or lying anymore. Besides I know your cooking skills and I refuse to have my daughter eat any of it!” I said thinking back to the lasagna in the cabin. AJ eventually agreed, after some arguing, and let me prepare supper.
AJ kept staring at me all through dinner. “I think I'm going to give the kid here a bath before I put her to bed,” I said trying to get away from his constant worried looks. I grabbed Arrianna and headed upstairs.