Could Tell a Love 3

"Geez, long enough talk?" Miranda said, walking up to me and giving me a welcome kiss.

I scoffed, pulling her into a hug. "Hello to you, too."

She smiled and laughed. "Was waking them up successful?"

"Most definitely. We’re going back there in an hour to see if they have all their stuff packed, and if they don’t, then Skylar gets to attack them." Jared said, picking Skylar up and putting him on his shoulders.

"But I don’t wanna hurt them, Daddy."

Jared laughed and I giggled. "Don’t worry, you won’t hurt them. They’re tough guys. They can take you on."

Skylar laughed and covered Jared’s eyes so he couldn’t see.

"Ah! Skylar, don’t do that! I need to see!"

"I can be your eyes!" Skylar said, laughing.

Jared started losing his balance, and Beau practically sprinted over there to hold both Jared and Skylar steady. He wrapped one arm around Jared’s waist and held the other to hold Skylar up.

"Sky, please let Jared see." Beau said in all seriousness.

Skylar immediately lifted his hands so Jared could see again, and Beau took Skylar off Jared’s shoulders, hugging him close. "Don’t ever do that again, okay? You could’ve hurt yourself really bad." He said, sniffling a little.

Skylar looked at him with a saddened expression. "Daddy, don’t cry." He wiped Beau’s tears from his cheeks, and Beau smiled.

"You just scared me." He said quietly. "And you probably scared Jared, too, he could’ve gotten hurt really bad as well."

"I’m sorry." Skylar apologized softly, looking at the floor.

"Just don’t do anything like that again, okay?" Jared said. "Pinky promise."

"Promise." Skylar said as they linked pinkies and Beau put Skylar down again. Jared and Beau hugged tightly, saying some things that were too quiet for me to hear.

Beau rested his head on Jared’s shoulder and looked at me. He smiled and I returned the favor.

"Alright, so do you wanna take Skylar now?" Beau asked Miranda.

"Sure. Let me just call Sarah so she knows I’m coming to get her. And I gotta say bye to everyone, of course." Miranda said, pulling out her phone, calling Sarah.

"Should we call Matt and Mike to see if they’re ready?" Jared asked.

"Nah, we’ll just go over there. Lets go now, they should be ready by now, they don’t need an hour." Beau said. "Actually, lets wait til Sarah gets here. Then we can take everyone to their apartment."

"Okay, whatever you wanna do." Jared said, kissing Beau before they get go of each other.

"Alright, she should be ready in like ten minutes. I had to remind her about this whole thing."

"But you called her yesterday..." Beau and I said in unison.

"It’s Sarah. Don’t question her."Miranda said laughing.

"This is very true." I said, kissing Miranda. "I’m gonna miss you so much. Both of you." I looked down at her stomach and smiled, rubbing it lightly.

She sniffled and looked at me, putting her hand over mine. "We’re gonna miss you, too." Miranda gained her composure again and looked at the clock. "Well I guess it’s time to go get Sarah. I’ll be back in a little bit." She let her hand drop and walked out of the house.

Once Miranda was gone, I sat on one of the kitchen chairs.

"Are you sure you’re gonna be alright, Eric?" Jared asked, sounding a little worried.

I sighed. "I really hope so. I’m not ditching you guys for this, I hope you know. No matter how many times you tell me to. I would only leave if something drastic or tragic happened and she needed me. Like if...if the baby...were to..." I covered my mouth with my hand, not even able to think of all the things that could go wrong.

"It’s okay, Eric. Miranda’s a strong girl, she’ll get through this, and so will the baby. You will be a dad, don’t ever think otherwise." Beau said, sitting next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him slightly. Not like we were while waiting for Miranda and Jared outside the house, of course, but it still felt wrong.

I looked at him, my cheeks tear-streaked, and smiled. "I won’t. I’m gonna be the dad of a beautiful daughter.." I reminded myself.

"That’s not possible. You can’t know the gender two weeks in." Jared protested.

"Miranda swears it’s motherly instinct." I said, laughing a little.

"She would say something like that."

Beau’s phone started vibrating in the pocket of his sweatshirt, and I jumped a little bit. He laughed at me and answered it.

"Hey, you guys ready yet?"

Must’ve been either Matt or Mike.

"Alright, we’ll be here in a few. Bye." He hung up and stuck it in the opposite pocket. "They’re ready whenever we are."

"Sweet, lets go." Jared said, heading towards the door.

"Shouldn’t someone stay in case we’re not back before Miranda and Sarah?" Beau asked.

"Well I don’t have a vehicle, so I could–" I started.

"I’ll stay back. Depending on how hyper Sarah is, I kinda don’t trust her and Miranda and Eric alone on our house."

"Alright, we’ll be back in a little while." Beau said, giving Jared a goodbye kiss before we headed out the door.

"Wait...did he just say that he didn’t trust me in his house?" I asked, sounding slightly offended.

"Only if Sarah’s there. She’s a strong influence on people. She has that infectious energy." He explained, getting in the car. I got in the passenger seat as he started his car up. It barely started.

"You know, you should probably get this thing either fixed up or traded in. It’s in really bad shape."

"But this car is my baby. It’s been through everything with me. I’m attached."

"To it more so than Jared?" I asked, smirking.

He laughed. "I think being attached to a person is a stronger bond than being attached to an inanimate object. People respond, objects don’t."

"You raise a good point." I agreed, looking at him, smiling.

"I thought so, too. Now, an example of this," He started, but paused, pulling into the apartment parking lot. He turned off his car and continued. "An example of this. If I kiss my car, it doesn’t do anything. It just kinda sits here like it always does, but if I do this.." His lips suddenly pressed against mine, and that same amazing feeling came back to me that was there behind the bushes. I put my hand behind his head so he couldn’t pull away. I pulled away when I realized what I was doing, but I made it smooth so Beau wouldn’t notice the panic in my mind.

"Then you kiss right back, you react." Beau said quietly, smirking, looking totally sexy.

"That was an elaborate story just so you could kiss me." I said, suddenly feeling short of breath.

He smiled. "I wasn’t planning on it, it just kinda happened that way."

"What, kissing me or making an elaborate story to kiss me?"

"Both." He said, getting out of the car.

"Do you regret it?" I asked quietly, also getting out of the car.

"Not necessarily, no. I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong. I told Jared the situation, so he knows. And you would tell Miranda, if she wasn’t pregnant, right?" He asked, opening up the door to go up the stairs.

"Yeah, of course." I agreed, not knowing if that’s 100% true or not.

"You don’t sound so sure." Beau said, stopping in the middle of the flight of stairs.

Sometimes I think he knows me better than Miranda. I sighed. "I’m not 100% sure, because of how she acted when she found out about you, and then Daniel..." I shuddered at his name. He was the source of so much unnecessary drama between Miranda and I.

"That’s because she found out through other people! Eric, she knows you were with me at one time, and it’s not like those feelings are just going to dwindle. I know I’m completely contradicting myself from what I said before, that everyone moves on and everyone gets over it. I tried channeling my emotions towards you into a sort of fatherly love instead of romantic love, ya know? Just because of everything that’s happened in the past and all. But recently, it’s been really hard, and I don’t know why." Beau said, looking at the floor.

I stepped up to the stair that Beau was on. "Beau. I am still attracted to you, I’m not gonna lie about that. But I have higher priorities than having to deal with a second romance. Miranda’s pregnant. That’s stressful. Really, really stressful. I don’t need the stress of keeping this whole thing secret. It’s too much. I’m sorry." I walked past him, not wanting to say anything more. I didn’t want to get too frustrated with Beau right before we went on tour. That would create some definite tension.

"You guys are together?" I heard Matt’s voice sound from the next floor, right outside their apartment door.

I sighed, feeling like I needed to punch something. "No, we’re not. Just forget everything you heard, okay?"