Chapter Eight

Kay tugged Miguel's hand from her mouth. She moved to talk to Philip. "I can't believe you did that. How stupid are you? My God are you a complete idiot don't you have any sense? Philip, how could you say something like that to her?" As she continued to reel into him, Miguel decided that he needed to say something.

"Kay, I agree that he shouldn't have said what he did. But, I thought we were going to stay out of this," as soon as he said the words he knew that he had made a mistake.

"Stay out of it! How am I supposed to stay out of it. Chloe's my cousin... well sorta ... kinda. In any case she's pregnant. She doesn't need that anymore stress that he," she looked pointedly at Philip. "Added onto her. But, now that I think about this, I don't know why I'm blaming it on him, it 's really all your fault anyway." Kay said as she rounded on her husband.

"Wait a minute, how is this my fault? Kay, I think that you need to come down a bit." Miguel suggested carefully, stopping his wife from walking away from him.

"Well, if you would have kept your mouth shut and not said anything about the baby. Then, Chloe would have told Philip today. And none of what happened would have just happened. Everything would be just fine." Kay said.

"How did you know that Miguel told me about the baby?" Philip asked to an already irate Kay.

"It was a simple process of elimination because Michael and Max can keep a secret. Miguel can't! Wait a minute why am I talking to you? You don't have any sense. You're just another idiot man." She said before she almost passed out but luckily her husband caught her.

"Kay, honey are you okay?" Maria asked.

"See, look at yourself, you're already getting all worked up and practically about to fall down. This isn't good for you or the baby."

"I'll worry about my baby thank you very much. Because, I don't need you to do that for me. I am perfectly capable of keeping a secret, too."

"Look, I'm not trying to get into this with you now but, if you would have told me that Philip didn't know that Chloe was pregnant, I wouldn't have said anything to him. But, you didn't do any of those things. So you can't put the blame on me. This is not my fault." Miguel said still holding his wife. However, he instantly regretted his words when he saw the tears in Kay's eyes.

"You're right, it's my fault. I'm just a big screw-up. I'm sorry Miguel, I am really sorry. I shouldn't blame you for anything because it's all my fault." Kay said tears coming out of her eyes. "Will you forgive me?" Miguel looked at her and answered.

"No, I won't forgive you. And just for the record, I can't believe that you would try this on me. I just can't believe it. Man, can you believe this?" Miguel allowed Kay to move away from him as he turned towards Philip and Michael, who was still standing by the doorway. Philip put his head in his hands and groaned. While, Michael just gave Miguel a look of absolute stupidity.

"Well, if you can't forgive me, I'm not going to beg you to do so. But, I am going to go outside and comfort Chloe and her baby. Oh yeah, I hope you and Philip have a good time tonight." Kay said as she walked to the back door.

"What do you mean 'you hope that I have a good time with Philip, tonight'?" He asked her before she walked out the door.

"Chloe and I aren't going to be sleeping in this house tonight. Because, obviously, us pregnant women are nothing but lairs' and deceivers' and we wouldn't want you or Philip to be sullied by us so it's better for you to stay here tonight." Kay said as she continued to walk out the door. Leaving Maria, Liz, Michael, Philip and a dazed and confused Miguel in the kitchen.

"Man, you are stupider than I am!" Philip exclaimed as he looked towards Miguel.

"What are you talking about? She was trying to pull that tactic on me." Miguel answered.

"No, she wasn't. Your wife was totally sincere. She opened her heart complete to you and you just stomped allover it. You smashed it into pieces." He looked towards the other man with a look somewhere between utter disgust and astonishment. "You my friend are an utter idiot. Just think for a minute about what you just did."

Miguel took a few minutes and thought about what had happened in the last few moments. And after a couple of moments he realized what he had done. "But, I thought that she was using the maneuver on me. That's the only reason I said what I did." He began to pace in the kitchen moving from one side to the next.

"I'd hate to interrupt this Moment of Realization for you Twiddle Dee. But, I think I will check on your wives. Because, I have a feeling that they will be wanting to leave here. And I want to make sure that they are all right. But, before I go, I'd like to know what possessed either of you two morons to act the way you did. Your wives ARE pregnant; they don't need all of the stress that you have just added on to them. Tell me, what motivated you two guys to come in here and act like complete jackasses?" Maria asked pushing a strand of her long blonde hair out of her face.

"Could one of you please tell us what this 'maneuver' is that you guys keep referring to? What are you specifically talking about?" Liz asked the two men, a little confused about it.

Miguel and Philip looked at each other, and then their gazes landed on Michael's face. Michael winced when he saw all eyes land on him. He waited for someone to say something. Because, sooner or later, he knew that his wife was going to blame this on him. "Okay, so technically, Max and I told them to talk to their wives. But, we did not tell him," he pointed to Philip. "To accuse his wife of being an adulteress. Nor did we for that matter tell him," he pointed to Miguel this time. "To rip out Kay's heart and stomp on it."

"I did not rip out her heart and stomp on it. I wish you would stop saying that." Miguel said.

"Well, if you didn't, you did a pretty good impression of what it would be like Miguel. What would Aunt Pilar say, with you acting in this disrespectful manner? At this moment right now, I am completely ashamed to be related to you." Liz said to him as she cut off all of the food cooking on the stove.

"Anyways, back to the topic at hand. You didn't rip out her heart, you just hurt her feelings more than you'll ever know." Maria said before turning to her husband across the counter and going in a questioning look. "And that's all you told Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum over there?"

He shot a look at both of the men and automatically knew that they could say anything and completely get him in trouble with Maria, he hoped that they wouldn't say anything else. "Yes, that's all I told them; nothing else." Michael suspected that Maria didn't believe him completely. But, he knew from experience that she wouldn't say something until she had proof.

"Well, since you two idiots acted completely on your own, I suppose that it explains how you two could be so stupid. Especially, you Miguel," he started to interrupt her. "Don't you dare try to interrupt me! You know I told your wife that you wouldn't get angry with her for not telling you the whole truth and that everything would be okay. But, I guess, I was wrong because, as far as I'm concerned you just totally made her feel like crap. And being that she's pregnant, that's a lot for her to take. So you want me to even say one good thing about you to your wife than I suggest you come up with a really good apology, right now." Maria said walking over to where he was to stand in front of him.

"Well before you do that, I think that you should know that even though, your husband didn't tell us what to do, he did advise us on how to handle certain situations delicately with our wives." Miguel said to her not realizing the can of worms that he just opened.

"He what?" She asked staring to walk toward Michael, who immediately knew that he was in trouble.

"It's not bad or anything. He just told what we should expect from our wives since their pregnant. Max offered us some advice, too. Since they both of them have some prior experience." Philip said as Liz's head snapped to attention.

"You mean they told what not to say or do in certain situations when your wives are acting differently or something." Liz watched both guys nod their heads yes. "That is very interesting." She was completely pissed and knew that she was going to have to have a talk with her husband later. However, Maria on the other hand, was perfectly happy to deal with the situation now.

Maria was standing in front of her husband. "Michael, how many times have I told you not to tell other men about your limited experience with pregnancy. What do you think... that you are some sort of expert? You've only been through this once. That hardly qualifies you to be some sort of expert. And besides that how dare you tell anyone how to handle a pregnant woman and her moods. You can barely handle me, even when I'm not pregnant. ..." Maria continued to go on her long tirade as he silently contacted Max.

Max, Max, man where the hell are you? You better get in here now and bring reinforcements because the rookies screwed everything up.

Max received Michael's message loud and clear. "Oh boy, I wonder what kind of mess I'm about to get into. Gabriel, Azarian, Devon, I need you guys to do me a favor." Max said as the three small children came over to him. "I need all of you to go into the kitchen and tell your mother that you're ready to eat. Okay?" He said as he looked from the Guerin twins to his own son.

"Momma's mad at you isn't she?" Gabriel asked his father.

"I honestly don't know Gabe. But, don't worry about anything thing. I'll be fine. Will you do this for me?"

"We will do this for you Unca Max. But, I don't think that Mommy or Auntie Liz is very happy with you." Little Devon said with her silent brother nodding his head in agreement with her.

"Thank you munchkins, now you guys go on in the kitchen. I'll be there right behind you." As the three children walked towards the kitchen door, Max stood up and followed their pathway out of the room. The reinforcements are on their way in the room. I'll be right behind them. Max said to Michael in his head as he continued his trek into the kitchen door. But before he entered the room he took a deep breath as he prepared to enter a war.