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Bianca stepped off the plane and smiled when she saw her family waiting for her. They were standing together talking happily and hadn’t noticed that people were emerging from the terminal, but it only took a second before they realized she was standing before them. Her mother threw her arms around her daughter, squeezing the breath out of her. Stepping back, Bianca looked at her mother and smiled before placing a warm kiss on her cheek. She laughed when her brother spun her around and lifted her from the ground in a big bear hug.

“Welcome home, brat!” he laughed and placed her back on the ground. His welcome didn’t end there as he placed her in a loose headlock and proceeded to give his little sister a noogie.

“Hunter! Don’t ever mess with a diva’s hair!” a familiar voice called from behind Bianca’s mother. Bianca turned and found Holly standing with her hands on her hips and a playful smirk plastered on her pretty face. “Cause you do know she’s a diva!"

“Hey!” Bianca cried and the two friends threw their arms around one another. Feeling a pang of guilt, Bianca gave Holly a squeeze and whispered “I’m sorry for being such a bitch.”

“No sweat, girl. I don’t take you seriously anyway.”

“So, tell us how things are going,” Shirley linked her arm through Bianca’s and smiled. “I want to know all about big city life out in California.”

“It’s busy, but I’m glad to be home, Mama.”

“And where is that husband of yours? Shouldn’t he be traveling with you? I mean, it’s not like he has a job anymore,” Hunter deadpanned as they made their way to baggage claim to round up Bianca’s luggage.

“You’re so sensitive, bro. Really. And you wonder why I never bring him home?” she rolled her eyes.

“Hey, I’m just being honest. Would you prefer me to lie instead?” he asked as he lifted her suitcase from the conveyer belt.

“No, Hunter, I’d just prefer it if you’d be nice to my husband.”

“Y’all stop fighting,” Shirley drawled sternly.

Obeying her mother, Bianca pulled her cell phone from her pocket and powered it on. The voicemail notification came up immediately and she felt a knot form in her stomach. Dialing in the number she listened to the robotic recording, following its prompts until she was in her mailbox. You have three new voicemail messages and four saved messages. To play your messages press one. Bianca pressed the button and listened.

“Hey baby. I know you’re not home yet, but I wanted to call and leave you a message just because. I miss you already and can’t wait till you come home. Call me tonight when you get in. I love you.”

Bianca felt a pang of guilt followed by a rush of longing. She didn’t realize she would be homesick if she was coming home. But then again, this wasn’t home anymore, was it? AJ was home, and right now, all she wanted was to be with him. She missed the smell of his cologne and the tickle of his facial hair when he kissed her neck. Most of all, she missed how she felt in his arms. Saving the message, she pressed the button to go to the next.

“Bianca, it’s Matt. Duh, you knew that, right? Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be getting to North Carolina until Saturday. I’ll meet you at the stadium at 2:00. Be good until I get there, okay? Call if you need anything.”

Bianca only laughed and deleted this message, going to the last.

“Bean…hey. I know you said to call after 7, but your message kinda got me worried. It’s a little after… 4 here. I hope everything’s okay. Call me as soon as you get this message, okay?" There was a long pause and Bianca thought Nick had ended the call. She was about to delete the message when she heard Nick take a deep breath. "I love you, Bianca."

She sucked in a deep breath and her finger lingered over the button to delete the message. She changed her mind at the last second and chose to save the message instead then flipped her phone shut. Looking at her family she smiled. “Okay, y’all I’m starving after that long ass flight. Let’s go get something to eat.”

They all agreed and she followed them out to her brother’s car. She sighed and climbed into the backseat next to Holly who broke the silence. “So, Mrs. Diva, where are we gonna eat? You know you need to use some of your celebrity status to get us free food tonight, right?”

“I second that,” Hunter called loudly as he started the car.

“You two should be ashamed,” Shirley said shaking her head. She tried to sound stern, but Bianca saw the smile on her mother’s face.

“Hey, I’m just the passenger tonight. You pick the place and I’ll work my magic,” she said with a wink.

***

Bianca sighed to herself and flopped across the full sized bed she slept in all through high school and looked around the room. It still looked the same as it did before she moved out. Hunter had just dropped Bianca and her mother off at home. She was happily stuffed from a wonderful dinner and ready to sleep, but first she wanted to call AJ and check on him. Flipping open her cell phone, she hit the speed dial for home and listened as the phone began to ring. She checked the time; it would only be 7:30 in L.A. She was startled by AJ’s soft voice.

“Hey baby.”

“Hey handsome,” she said savoring his voice. “I miss you.”

“Ditto. This house is huge without you. I’d been wandering around all day trying to figure out what to do, so I finally decided to go grocery shopping, and boy was that an experience. You shoulda seen me!”

Bianca laughed at the image he created in her mind and again felt the twinge homesickness. “I bet you were a sight, huh? Did you even know what to do without me there?”

He feigned offense. “I’ll have you know, it only took me twenty minutes to figure out how to work the U-Scan.”

“Well, babe, you’ve got one up on me then, cause I never use that damn thing.”

AJ laughed out loud, but then grew quiet. “I love you, you know? I can’t wait for you to come home. Or...” he paused for a moment, “I could always catch a flight out there.”

“Aww, Aje I love you, too. And you don’t have to do that because it’s only a few more days… I’m flying back to L.A. on Sunday afternoon. And then we’ll be able to hole up in the house for days and days… just the two of us. I can’t wait.”

“And neither can I,” he growled. After a quiet moment, he sighed reluctantly, “Well, sexy, I know you must be exhausted so go get some sleep. Rub your belly and tell Lil Bit I love him, okay?”

Bianca felt her eyes begin to burn when he said this and smiled despite herself. “You’re gonna be such a great Daddy. I love you so much.”

“Back at ya, Bean,” his voice broke with emotion. “I’ll call you tomorrow. Night sweetheart.”

“G’night.”

Bianca listened as AJ ended the call and swallowed the lump in her throat. She took a deep breath and bit her lip as she dialed Nick’s number. She brought the phone back to her ear and waited for him to answer. After four rings she heard his answering machine pick up and she contemplated leaving a message, but decided she would call his cell phone first. If he didn’t answer, she’d call back and leave a message on his home answering machine.

After dialing the number, it started clicking and she thought it was going to go straight to voicemail, but suddenly it began to ring. Two rings in, she heard his familiar voice.

“I didn’t think you were gonna call back,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Hello to you, too, Nick.”

“Sorry, I’ve just been really worried. Your message really did make me think something was wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong, Nick. I didn’t have a chance to call before now because I was with my family. Call me crazy, but I just don’t think they would understand why I would be calling my ex.”

“Did you call me just to fight? Because if you did, then I think we need to go ahead and end the call now, Bean. You don’t need to be stressed out because it’s not good for the baby.”

Tears once again sprang to her blue eyes and she took a shaky breath. Reaching up, she pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. “I didn’t call just to fight. I had a purpose. I wanted to talk to you about… about the baby. I’m not proud to say this, but we both know that I don’t know for sure if the baby is AJ’s or if the baby is yours so I was wondering if you would mind having a paternity test. It’s not like I can ask AJ to do it, you know? I was thinking maybe I could fly to Florida and we could go to a doctor there. I don’t really want to use my doctor because of AJ. I just don’t know when we could schedule a time to do this, but it should be soon. I’m two months now, and according to what I’ve read this is a good time.”

“Yeah, well you could do that. Or…” he trailed off.

“Or what? Do you have a better idea?” Bianca snapped before she could stop herself. Closing her eyes again she frowned. “Sorry, Nick. I’m just really worried.”

“What I was gonna say is we can figure this out in the morning when I get there.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re… wait! What? When you get where?!”

“North Carolina.”

“North Carolina? Are you insane, Nick? You can’t come here!”

“Well, too bad Bean cause I’m about halfway there. As soon as I got your message today, I packed a bag and jumped in the car and I’ve been driving ever since. So, I’ll be there in about five or six hours I would guess.”

“Nick! I’m serious, how are we going to explain this?”

“We’ll figure it out,” he said quietly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Bianca was about to protest just when he ended the call. Fighting the urge to scream, she quickly dialed his number again, but this time it did go straight to voicemail. “Ugh, the bastard turned off his phone!” Angrily, she turned hers off and tossed it to the chair on the other side of the room and fell limply to the mattress. “Oh God, what am I gonna do?”