|| CHAPTER TEN||

Here..
we've come to the end of our winding road
no one knows..
the reasons my eyes had til now been closed..
still you constantly, openly, stripped of me my deepest love
built on promises you never kept.. so just stay gone
There you are.. broken.. fake it

- For The Taking, Blackout

"What is it with you and this kinda stuff anyway?" Jacob asked Aria as he snuggled her against him on the couch in her father's den and the opening credits for American Horror Story came on. Aria shrugged and said "It's interesting, I don't know.. I just like dark and scary things, okay?" as she felt a shiver run down her spine when his lips grazed her ear. She rolled over on the couch to face him and smiled a little, stretched lazily as she admitted, "Apparently, the little one is going to turn me into a lazy blob of nothing."

"You need to rest. You're supposed to rest, woman, do you not get this concept? It's bad enough you have all this stress.." Jacob said as Aria nodded, he smooshed her against him and added quietly, "But the second that jerk makes a mistake and shows up here, Ari, you won't have to worry about him anymore. I'm serious, I'll kill him. And I don't think I'll be the only one because your dad was talking about killing him also, when he heard the voicemail that the guy left last night." while trailing his finger slowly across her lower lip. He leaned in a little, kissed her forehead as he asked in curiousity, "Did you ever find out why Bella called earlier?"

"She just said she needed to talk to you or to dad. We really don't talk much, you know that. Did she call you? She said she was going to try to. Kind of pissed me off, but hey.. No sense in saying something, she'll only pitch a fit like the spoiled brat she is. Passively agressively, of course." Aria said as she looked at Jacob, bit her lower lip.. Bella calling earlier only made her wonder if she weren't actually a replacement for her sister, who was married and living on some island or something with her husband, their kid and his family.

If Bella came back now, she'd probably stab her. She'd been through this crap before, she had no intention of being in the middle of their bizarre triangle yet again, and as a mother, she was not going to put her unborn child through it, either. If Jacob chose Bella, she'd just have to let him go.. At least with her giving him a chance now, she couldn't look back later in life and regret not trying to win his heart when she had the chance, she figured.. Because she wasn't too sure whether it was smart to be hopeful that he'd ever have Bella fully purged from his system. Not when she'd been a wedge and an addiction of his for so long now.

"She called.. I didn't answer." Jacob said as he chuckled and fluffed Aria's hair then said "You looked upset just now.."

"Not really, just thinking.." Aria started as she shook her head and said quietly, "It's nothing, just worried about my jackass ex showing up here.. Or Bella coming back.. I mean you know how I feel, I know how you say you feel but. If she came back, Jacob..."

"If she came back, I wouldn't give a damn, okay? Look at me." he said as he tilted her chin up to stare into her eyes as he said firmly, "I meant everything I told you. And I'm not gonna change my mind. Like it or not, you're stuck with me."

"I like it." Aria said as she kissed him cautiously, though it was less cautiously than it had been a week or two ago when they'd had that long talk about everything in the past, about how they both felt. "Good." he mumbled as he rested his chin on the top of her head, wrapped his arms around her, his left hand resting on her stomach. He heard her stomach growling and chuckled, teased her to say "Hungry?"

"Not me, the little one.. I don't want food.. Everything makes me sick.. Literally." Aria said with a laugh as Jacob raised to a sitting position then slid out from behind her, made his way into the kitchen.. He emerged a few minutes later with sandwiches, a big bag of cheetos and two glasses of tea. As he sat back down, he pulled her legs across his lap and then said quietly, "She called because she said she needs my help with something.. But I told her I could give a shit less what she needs. So she got upset and hung up on me."

"Did she say what?"

"Just that it had something to do with her kid. I don't know, I was tuning most of what she said out. Kinda happens when I'm thinking about you." he admitted as she laughed, shook her head and said "You look so grumpy when you say that."

"I'm not."

"Why are you grumpy then?" she asked jokingly, he nodded at the tv and said "Because this show, damn it. I don't get why you watch this crap." before taking a bite of his sandwich. She looked at him and said "And I don't get why you watch that one car rebuild show.. I mean you work in a garage, don't you get enough of it at work?" she asked as she took a bite of a cheeto, poked her tongue out. He chuckled and nodded then trailed his thumb across the bridge of her nose as he said "You had cheeto dust."

"Figures."

"You never learned how to eat and not make a mess did you?" he asked as he took a big bite of the sandwich, gave a low and sort of sexy growl at her as he said "I kinda think it's hot though.. I mean you actually eat and enjoy your food. It's annoying when a girl won't eat."

"You do, huh..." she said as he nodded and then settled her against him and said quietly "Don't let this thing with Bella worry you. I told you, I'm done.. If she shows up here, I'll tell her that too, gladly."

But deep down, Aria was worried that maybe the hold wasn't broken.. She knew how deep in Bella had gotten with Jacob.. because it'd killed her when she had to witness it. Was he really done with her?

She had to hope so, for her sake, because whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was head over heels in love with him all over again.