Chapter 2:
Annie walked into Trace’s house with Scott behind her. Two little girls soon greeted her.
"Annie!" one shouted as both girls tackled her to the ground in the foyer.
"It’s some of my favorite little people!" Annie smiled.
"Hi Annie," the littlest one said.
"Hi Bella."
"Uncle Justy is here Annie," the oldest one said as she at on Annie’s stomach.
"Really Emmy?" Annie asked, sounding surprised as Emmy nodded ‘yes’ wildly in response.
"Emmy! Bella! Get off of Annie!," their mom, Samantha, yelled as she walked into the foyer.
The two little girls giggled as they crawled off of Annie, and ran away.
"Thanks Sammie!" Annie said, as she continued to lie on the floor. "I’m getting too old for this- I need help up and of course Scott has already left me behind."
Samantha laughed at Annie as she helped her up from the ground. "Yeah, he’s in the kitchen grabbing a beer. You want one?"
"Yes, please," Annie said as she followed Samantha into the kitchen.
As Samantha grabbed a beer from the fridge, Annie took a seat at the kitchen island. She noticed that Scott was chatting with Trace, and took a sigh of relief when she didn’t see Justin around.
Samantha was watching Annie and smiled, but decided not to bring the subject up.
"So how’s work?" Samantha asked, taking a seat next to Annie.
"Fine, one deadline down, and another on the way. So same old, same old," Annie smiled taking a sip of her beer.
"And what about things with Scott?"
"Good," Annie smirked as Bella climbed into her lap just as she looked over and saw Scott laughing at whatever Trace had said.
"Trace mentioned that you saw Brad last night."
Annie rolled her eyes, just as Bella was wiggling to get down, so Annie placed her on the ground.
"Uncle Justy!" she shouted running towards the living room.
Annie thanked the heavens for sending Justin in at that moment so she didn’t have to talk about seeing Brad the night before, but also cursed the heavens because Justin was there.
Scott came over and put his arms around Annie from behind. "You going to be okay?"
She nodded ‘yes’ in response while chugging the rest of her beer down as quickly as she possible. "Can you get me another one?"
Scott smiled and kissed her on the top of her head, "Sure."
Scott was grabbing a few more beers from the fridge for Annie and him, just as Justin walked into the kitchen with Bella and Emmy on his legs.
"Alright ladies, your ride has come to an end, so please exit to the living room," Justin said as the little girls got off his legs and ran into the living room. "Hey Annie- didn’t know you were coming."
"Funny- Trace didn’t mention you coming either," Annie smirked taking the beer from Scott’s hand. "Thanks babe. Oh Justin, you remember Scott Wyatt right?"
Justin just looked at the man trying to rack his brain trying to remember where he should know Scott from.
Annie rolled her eyes. "He’s Jamie’s best friend," she said.
"Oh okay, yeah!" Justin nodded with Annie shaking her head.
"Nice to see you again," Justin said trying to break up the awkwardness in the room.
"You too," Scott said, as he wrapped an arm around Annie.
While Samantha was getting the girls settled down with a movie in the living room. Trace joined Justin, Annie, and Scott in the kitchen, and noticed the weird vibe happening in the room.
"J- come help me with the BBQ," Trace said trying to ease the tension going on.
"Yeah okay," Justin replied taking a sip of his beer and headed out to the deck.
Annie mouthed, "Thank You," to Trace, as he just smiled closing the sliding glass door behind him.
When Justin knew the door was shut, he slammed his beer down on the patio table.
"Really? Scott Wyatt?" Justin asked Trace. "Of all the people, Scott Wyatt?"
"Ah ha! So you do remember Scott!" Trace laughed as he started the BBQ.
"Of course! Jamie and him were non-stop trouble when we were kids," Justin said sitting in one of the patio chairs. "Why didn’t you tell me?"
"Because it’s not my place! Just like I didn’t tell you about her divorce. Plus, why do you even care? You’ve got Jessica, who happens to be flying in tomorrow."
"But really Scott Wyatt?" Justin questioned making a disgusted face.
Trace started laughing at his friend. "That was the same kind of reaction you had when you met Brad for the first time."
"Exactly and apparently look how well that worked out," Justin smirked as Trace shook his head, just as Scott came out to join them.
"Sammie, I don’t know what I’m going to do," Annie sighed.
"What are you talking about?"
"This whole ‘That Girl’ article, he even says that Jess knows about it."
"I don’t think you should worry about it, and as for Jessica, well that’s a whole nother story between you two, but she’s known about you and J, when she first got involved with him, so she’ll have to deal with it. Like I do," Samantha said smiling at Annie.
Annie returned the smile. "Thanks Sammie. But, I can probably guarantee you if we could get away with murder, I’m the first one on her list," she said as Samantha started laughing while pouring herself a glass of wine. "It’s true Sammie! Stop laughing!"
"I’m sorry Annie, but that’s the dumbest thing ever!"
"Oh just watch! Tomorrow at J’s show- the dirty looks are going to fly. I’ll bet you $50 on it."
"Alright, deal," said Samantha as she shook Annie’s hand.
"So Scott how’s the world of little people academia?" asked Trace.
"Little people academia?" Justin questioned.
"I teach second grade. It’s going," Scott replied.
Justin decided to stop beating around the bush, and asked Scott the question he’s wanted to ask since Annie and Scott arrived.
"Scott, how did you and Annie get together?"
"Just reconnected at Jamie’s birthday get together this last year," Scott said.
"She was going through the finalization of her divorce and I just got out of a long term relationship, so we had that in common and just talked for the rest of the night, and that’s really it."
Justin took another long drag of his beer as he listened to Scott, and then just looked at him trying to figure out what Annie saw in the guy.
