July, 2022:

      Ashley cast a puzzled look toward Bobby, unsure of the actual meaning of his statement, but when he looked back toward Aidan, and caught sight of the gold-flecked blue object in her hand, his heart dropped as he realized that the thing he had so carelessly thrown was the wall decoration that had been given to her by her late friend Shelby. 

      He quickly crossed the room to where she knelt next to the scattering of broken glass and wood fragments, and reached out to place his hand on her shoulder, saying, "Babe, I didn't mean to..." But his words were abruptly cut off as Aidan quickly dropped the kokopeli and gripped his wrist with one hand while using the other to grasp his index finger, forcing it backward toward his hand as she stood.

      Even Aerin, who was more familiar with her friends temper than the two men, gaped in shock when Aidan looked him in the eyes and declared, "Unless you want to have your ability to ever play a musical instrument again severely compromised, Mr. Purdy, I strongly suggest that you keep your fucking hands to yourself. Do I make myself clear?"

      "What the hell!?" he hissed, as his teeth clenched from the pain shooting up his arm. "I was just..."

      "I repeat: Do I make myself clear?"

      As she forced his finger back another fraction of an inch, he decided not to press his luck and replied, "Yes, you do. I get it, so may I please have my hand back?"

      Aidan released her grip and Ashley dropped back a couple of steps, carefully flexing his hand as he watched her warily. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, she lifted her hand in a silencing gesture and calmly informed him, "Before you say anything, I'd just like to say that I completely agree with you."

      This took everyone by surprise, and Bobby and Aerin's expressions became even more dumbfounded as Ashley opened and closed his mouth several times before he finally managed to blurt, "You do?"

      "Absolutely," she confirmed. "This is your house. And I think you've made it clear to everyone that it should continue to remain your house. So as soon as I can make arrangements to find a somewhere to crash until I can get another place, and hopefully get my job back, I'll head back to Missouri and get out of your way, since we were both obviously mistaken when we thought this might actually work out." Then, turning her attention to Aerin and Bobby, she inquired, "Do you think I can bunk with y'all for a few days, until I can get everything sorted out?"

      "You know you don't even need to ask, hon," Aerin replied, casting a look at her ex-roommate that actually prompted him to take several steps out of her reach as she added, "Do you honestly think we'd make you put up with this kinda fuckin' stupidity, even if it is only for a coupla days?"

      "It's perfectly fine with me," Bobby confirmed. "I'm sure Zach and Zoe won't mind too much helping to reload the truck, and if need be, I'm sure they've got a couple of friends somewhere who wouldn't mind earning a few extra bucks doin' a bit of heavy lifting."

      "Cool," Aidan responded. "Just let me grab some stuff to keep me goin' for the next few days, and we can book anytime you're ready."

      Ashley's head swung like it was on a swivel as he shifted his gaze repeatedly between his three companions, a look of mixed confusion and panic spreading across his features as the two women started moving through the dining area, heading for his bedroom. As it finally began to sink in that Aidan wasn't bluffing, that she was genuinely prepared to end their relationship and take herself and their daughter back to Missouri, his composure completely failed, and he snapped, "Uh-uh, darlin'. This is not happening. If you so much as think about going anywhere, I will file for full custody, and you'll be lucky if you get to see her on birthdays and Christmas!"

      This declaration was met with dead silence as everyone else turned to give him an incredulous stare, with Aidan going pale and her lips beginning to quiver. But it was quickly broken when Bobby made a shooing motion with one hand, and in an icy tone said, "You two keep doin' what you were doin'. I've got this."

      Aerin hesitated momentarily, but when her husband gave her a slight nod, she took hold of Aidan's arm and proceeded to tow her toward Ashley's room, while Bobby stepped forward until he was almost nose-to-nose with Ashley, who actually flinched back from the stony glare the older man turned on him.

      "Ash, I want you to listen to me very carefully, because your continued well-being may very well depend on your ability, or willingness, to do so," Bobby informed him. "Considering what happened a couple of minutes ago, I believe that it's in everyone's best interests for Aidan to go home with us for the time being. For one thing, would you honestly feel entirely safe in here with someone you've completely pissed off who not only has a penchant for breaking people's fingers, but who also has enough stabby things handy to equip a small regiment? And secondly, are you honestly willing to take a chance on what could happen if you insist on continuing to try to qualify for the Prick of the Year medal and keep stressing out the pregnant lady? Because I've got to tell you, if you keep this shit up, I wouldn't lift a finger to stop 'em if they decided to team up and beat you until you were curled up in a ball on the rug pissing yourself."

     Ashley stared blankly at Bobby for several seconds as the meaning of his words finally clicked, and once they had, he merely nodded and agreed, "Yeah, it's probably better to give everybody some time to cool off. I've got to go check out the new flip with Jer tomorrow, and I'll likely be out until at least three or four, so just tell her to let me know if she's coming home, or if she wants me to swing over there when I get done."

      "No need, we both heard you," Aerin announced, as she and Aidan came back into the room, with Aerin carrying an overstuffed duffel bag, while Aidan pulled a roller bag with one hand and held the cat carrier in the other. Bobby reached out and took the carrier, and all three marched out the front door without another word for Ashley, leaving him staring blankly at the debris still scattered on the floor until he felt Sparrow twining around his legs.

      "Well, shit," he muttered, reaching down to pick up the feline. "I can't leave this out where you can get into it, so I guess I've got some cleaning up to do."

                    ******************************************************************* 

      When he returned home from his renovation project the next afternoon, Ashley was both surprised and alarmed to see Zach, along with a couple of guys he didn't recognize, loading boxes back into Aidan's U-Haul. Practically leaping from the truck, he dashed inside to see Bobby and Zoe shoving still more boxes toward the entryway, while Aidan and Aerin carried clothes and personal items toward the guestroom that Aidan had used during her earliest visits.

      "What the hell is going on?" he queried. "I thought we had this straightened out last night!"

      "Zoe, hon, what say you take those clothes to the bedroom for the girls here, and then go tell the boys to take a little break," Bobby said. "And you go ahead and join 'em, too. We've got some stuff to sort out before we finish loading up the truck."

      "Sure thing, Daddy," she replied, completely ignoring Ashley as she moved to take the items from her stepmother and Aidan, leaving them free to join the men in the living room. 

      "So, is anybody gonna answer my question?" Ashley demanded, prompting Aidan to extend her hand, offering him what appeared to be a small slip of paper, but which actually turned out to be a business card printed with the words, "Louise Crandall, Family Law, Divorce, and Estate Planning. Twenty-seven years experience."

      "You can't be fucking serious!" he blurted. "You don't have a job right now, and you said yourself that you've spent most of your savings on moving expenses and settling up your bills. There's no way can afford to hire one of the priciest lawyers in town!"

      "No, but I most definitely can," Bobby interjected. "So I did. Now, I'm hopin' you two can figure out some way to work things out, because you seem to bring out the best in each other. At least until yesterday, that is. And if that isn't happening, then I'd like to think that you can both act like grown-ups and be civil for the munchkin's sake. But since you seem to have in mind to try to do the same thing to Aidan that Michy tried to do to me, I decided to level out the playing field just a scoche."

      "And she's already promised both of us that she isn't gonna cut you out of havin' a relationship with the lil' peanut, or try to bleed you dry money-wise," Aerin chimed in. "But as you pointed out a minute ago, her finances are a bit limited since she gave up her job to come here and be with you, so it'd hardly be fair for us to sit around and not do anything while you had that kind of advantage."

      "I thought you two were supposed to be my friends!" Ashley shouted. "So why...?"

      His words were abruptly cut off as Aerin put her entire weight into an open-handed slap that rocked his head to the side, instantly leaving a brilliant red outline of her hand across his cheek.

      "Don't you even think about going there, ya fuckin' idjit!" she spat. "If I wasn't your friend, your body would already be in gym bags in half a dozen different dumpsters right now, after the way you showed your ass yesterday! But Aidan is my friend, too, and has been for even longer than you have, which means that she gets the same amount of loyalty as you do. So here's the deal: Like he said, we'd both like it if y'all can figure out how to fix this mess you're in now and get things back to the way they've been for the last eight and a half months. Or, barring that, at least manage to be civil to each other so you don't have the little one in therapy before she's two. But, if either of you decides that it'd be fun to pull any sneaky backstabbing shit on the other, like making bogus police reports or trash-talkin' the other one to their friends, then it's game over, and we will come down completely on the side of the one who's getting screwed. Take it or leave it, both of ya."

      "Sounds fair to me," Aidan agreed. "I told him right from the get-go that I had no intention of denying him a relationship with his kid, whether we were a thing or not. And I don't plan on changing that, unless he does something that forces me to."

      Still rubbing his cheek where Aerin had hit him, Ashley scowled at the others and replied, "Doesn't sound like I have a whole lot of options, do I? So as long as you're not planning on trying to take off with my kid, I'm willing to be reasonable."

      "Sounds like our definitions of 'reasonable' aren't even in the same county, let alone the same neighborhood," Aidan snorted. "But since you've all been kind enough to point out my own lack of options at this particular moment, you get your way for now. I have nowhere else to go without being a major inconvenience to someone, no job, and very little possibility of getting one as long as I look like an animated beer keg. So I'll stay here until after the sprout arrives, and I'm able to look for a job. Then I'll find a place of my own, and the lawyers can sort out all of the time-share shit and whatever financial crap goes with."

      "Yeah, I guess I can live with that, at least for now," Ashley grudgingly acknowledged. "And I'll pay for your doctors appointments and stuff like that, of course."

      "That's fine, but as far as anything else goes, you can think of me strictly as a tenant, which is why I'm moving my clothes and stuff into the guest room. I'll do basic housework and laundry, and cook dinner for you after work, but that's the extent of it. I'm perfectly willing to earn my keep, but if you think I'm gonna do it on my back, you've got another think coming."

      "So, if you weren't planning on moving out, why are they out there loading the truck?" Ashley questioned, giving her a rather puzzled look.

      "Because I don't have a lot of stuff left after I sold or gave away most of it so I wouldn't have to haul it out here," she stated flatly. "And I'd rather not have to worry about what little I still have winding up in a landfill, or in somebody's firepit, just because it doesn't meet your exacting standards of class and sophistication. So I'm just hanging on to the bare basics, and moving the rest elsewhere."

      "So I'm assuming that you've rented a storage locker somewhere, then?" he asked, only to receive another unwelcome surprise when Aerin provided the answer to his inquiry.

      "No, we're storing it in the poolhouse for her, since I've decided to cancel the remodel," she informed him. "I mean it just seems kinda pointless to blow money setting up a space that's no longer needed, don't you agree?"

      This told Ashley everything he needed to know about exactly how angry Aerin actually was with him, as the remodel she mentioned  had been intended to turn the Dall's poolhouse into something resembling a dungeon, to provide them with a private space for their "scenes", so that Bobby or Aidan wouldn't be forced to see or hear the activities, and to minimize the chances that one of the little ones might accidentally walk in on something one day that would likely traumatize them. So Aerin's announcement that she had decided to abandon the project, combined with Aidan's remark about not "earning her keep" on her back, made it very clear to him that he had lost both of his outlets for stress relief for the forseeable future. This meant that he would have to exercise every shred of self-control that he had to avoid slipping back into substance use and excessive drinking as a means of unwinding, since it would be detrimental not only to his physical and mental well-being, but to any hopes he had of gaining even joint custody of his daughter, as he knew that Aidan would fight tooth and nail to keep him away if he gave her any reason to suspect that he'd been anywhere near illegal drugs.

      It wasn't long before Zach and his friends resumed the task of loading boxes into the truck, as well as bringing something extra into the house when they wheeled an apartment-sized refrigerator around the house to place it in the downstairs mudroom with Aidan's chest freezer. He recognized it as one that the Dall's normally kept in their own laundry room to store soft drinks or extra food for large gatherings, and Aerin informed him that they had equipped it with a lock, which only she and Aidan had the keys to, in order to prevent him from throwing out her food again, and that if he did anything like pick the lock, or cut it off, she would hogtie him and shave him completely bald. Since she was well aware that this was one of his biggest fears, he knew that she meant exactly what she said, and readily agreed to her conditions, even though he was still concerned about how Aidan's eating habits would affect the baby. But when Aerin reminded him that some of the things he considered unhealthy were actually beneficial to, if not absolutely necessary for, pregnant women, and that Aidan wasn't stupid enough to take unnecessary chances with the baby's health, he stopped protesting and actually helped finish loading the last of Aidan's books onto the truck, so Zach and his friends could drive it back to the Dall residence to reverse the process.

      When this was done, and everyone had gone, Aidan excused herself to the guestroom, leaving Ashley with only the cats for company. And when he went give them their dinner, he discovered that Charlie had apparently picked up on the tension between the two humans, because when Ashley attempted to give Charlie the ear scratches that he usually adored, the normally placid animal let out a hiss and left Ashley with a pair of long, painful gashes along the side of his left hand, stopping just short of the heart tattoo near his wrist. 

      Using his other hand to scoop Sparrow up from the floor, he sighed as he inspected the injuries, which were beginning to bleed freely, then looked down at Charlie and acknowledged, "Guess I can't blame you for that one, bud. You're just being loyal to your person. It's too bad, though, since we were getting along so well."  

      Then he glanced down at Sparrow, who had curled herself into a ball against his chest, and said, "C'mon, girl, you can keep me company while I clean this up, then we'll go to bed and find something to watch on TV." She let out a soft mew, then lifted her head to nuzzle his chin, and he chuckled softly and murmured into her ear, "Well, at least you still like me. Too bad you can't talk, maybe you could help me get those two mule-headed females to see reason. But I guess I'm just gonna have to figure that one out on my own."