It had only been a few days into Ariel and Braxton's grounding and they still didn't like it but they had sucked it up. Ariel had just finished her chores which she had got right to doing after she had finished her homework. She couldn't wait for school to be done with and for her grounding to be over with.
"Can we uh talk?" She asked her parents, joining them in the living room.
"What's going on?" Zoe asked, looking at her oldest daughter from the floor where she was playing with Eliza.
"If you're here to ask us if you can be let off easy, it's not going to happen," Wade informed her, looking up from the work he had brought home for the Rammer Jammer. He had kept putting them off and it was last minute for him and he didn't want to be stuck in his office instead he opted for sitting in his living room where he could spend time with his family. It was taking him longer that way, but he was quite okay with that. "You messed up and did something that you shouldn't have done, if you would've asked you wouldn't be in trouble to begin with. Letting you off isn't going to help teach you anything." He really didn't know if they would've allowed their kids to go to a party but it would've went over better if they would've asked and not broke any rules.
"I'm not here for that," Ariel told them shaking her head. "It's about something else," she said with a small sigh. It had been bugging her for a few days now; she really had to work on the whole feeling better about not telling her parents every last detail about her life especially if it was going to get her into more trouble.
"This sounds like it's going to be serious, do we need to be worrying about getting a phone call from school or elsewhere?" Wade asked, dropping the pencil in his hand. He was more than happy to be given a reason to stop what he was doing. The numbers were starting to give him a headache.
"No phone call, not that I know of anyway," she responded. She took a deep breath. "Remember the movie?" She asked her parents, chewing on her lip. Zoe and Wade shared a look having an idea on where this was going to go. "I thought I would be okay with keeping it from you but I can't do that, our friends bailed on us and it was only the four of us at the movie, but nothing happened," she quickly added on, not wanting to give them another reason on why they couldn't trust her.
"You lasted days longer than Braxton did," Zoe informed her. Ariel looked at her parents shocked. Braxton hadn't said anything about telling their parents about their friends not showing up; it would've been nice if he had done such a thing so she wouldn't have had to feel guilty about anything. "I'm happy that you did come to us with this bit of information."
"Even if you should've told us that night," Wade tacked on to what his wife had said. He wasn't even going to say anything about a few different concerned Bluebellian's that said something to them wanting to know what was going on with Ariel and Braxton. "But we can't exactly punish you for your friends bailing on you, unless you have more to tell us that Braxton had left out," Wade stated looking at Ariel waiting to see if she had something more to add.
"Nothing happened," she repeated again. "But um," she sighed debating on if she wanted to tell her parents that Ryker had asked her to be his girlfriend and the movie was their first date. Deciding it was better to be honest with her parents she went ahead and told them.
"I'm disappointed that you thought you couldn't tell us that sooner," Zoe said, before Wade could say anything about the matter. "Having your first boyfriend is such an exciting time and it can be scary."
"I wanted to tell you I did, but Dad goes completely nuts everything time I talk about a boy that isn't family," she responded with.
"I'm happy for you," Wade spoke up even if he didn't like the turn of events, but it was something that was going to happen sooner rather than later. And ever since her party when he had watched the two of them flirting with each other he had been preparing himself for this moment. "Even though you're grounded I think we need to have him over for dinner tomorrow night so we can get to him not as your brother's best friend but as your boyfriend," Wade informed her. There was no way he was going to be able to hold off for over a week to do this dinner with his daughter's newly made boyfriend.
"Okay, I'll tell him tomorrow at school," Ariel announced getting up, going straight to her room to find a book to read, everything else had been taken away from her. She was nervous about the following night, she didn't want Ryker to second guess himself on what he was getting into by being her boyfriend but there was no way she could make everything go as smoothly as she would like it go, she could only hope for the best.
"What's with you?" Braxton asked seeing his sister pass his room with a pale look on her face.
"You could've given me a heads up on telling Mom and Dad about our friends bailing on us at the movie," she retorted, standing his doorway. Braxton shrugged, the thought hadn't crossed his mind, he just knew that he was already in trouble and he didn't want to keep anything from them that would put him at risk of being grounded even longer. "But I told them about Ryker and now they want him to come over tomorrow night for dinner."
"Good luck with that," Braxton laughed. "Dad's one thing when Ryker was just my friend, I can't even imagine the questions he's going to ask Ryker now that he's dating you," Braxton told her through a few chuckles. "You best hope that Ryker doesn't change his mind on being with you after Dad's done with him."
"Yeah thanks for that, Braxton," she barked at him. "It was bad enough when they were thoughts in my head," she hissed stalking into her room, shutting the door behind her. She picked a book up hoping that would do the trick in keeping her mind from any thoughts of Ryker breaking it off with her.
"I'm really proud of you," Zoe said looking up at her husband with a proud smile on her face. "I was thinking that you would make her end things with Ryker," she confessed.
"The thought has crossed my mind, but you saw that little happy grin she was wearing when she told us and I would feel like the worst dad in the world if I made my daughter sad that she had to break up with a boy. It's something that I need to get use to," he told his wife.
"Just promise me that you won't try to make him break it off with her tomorrow night," Zoe said shooting him a look. "Because if you do, you're going to be in the dog house," she informed him.
"We don't have a dog," he smirked. Zoe didn't find it very amusing. "I promise I won't. The last thing I need is a wife pissed at me and a daughter crying her eyes out and swearing to whomever that she hates the father she's stuck with," he promised his wife.
"Maybe we should get a dog so that way when you mess up you can sleep in the dog house and the dog can sleep in your spot," she teased him, turning back to her daughter, who was babbling away when she wasn't chewing on a toy.
"You're really funny," Wade deadpanned, going back to his work. "You really mean that?" Wade asked a heartbeat later. "You'd let us get a dog?"
"I was never opposed of a dog to begin with," she informed her husband. "But everyone would have to agree upon the dog that we rescue, that is if the kids want a dog."
"All kids want a dog," he replied.
"No, not all kids want a dog, maybe some sort of an animal, but not always a dog or even an animal," she informed him.
"Didn't Ariel want a pet when you were living in New York?" He asked his wife. "Braxton would never shut up about wanting a dog; we just didn't have the room for a dog." Zoe shook her head, Ariel had never asked for any kind of pet when she was little.
With that being said Wade got back to finishing off the work that was in front of him as his wife sat on the floor and played with their little girl. He smiled as he listened to the two of them talking on the floor having their own little conversation on just about everything. He loved his family and a dog or no dog wasn't going to change how perfect he thought his family was.
The following night saw Ryker over at their house, a nervous wreck. Not that Braxton had been helping him keep his calm. Ariel was trying to assure him that everything was going to be okay but she was having a hard time trying to believe it as well.
"Dude would you just shut up," Ryker hissed at his best friend. "I do hope that when your parents have Wren come over as your girlfriend that I get to be here to see how well you are holding up," Ryker told his friend with a smirk. "This is a big deal and I'm freaking out as it is."
"Dude you really do need to relax, my dad likes you already," Braxton told him with shrug, not even wanting to think about that happening, because he was in no hurry to be making Wren his girlfriend, he liked what they had going on between them and he didn't even know if she wanted to be his girlfriend.
"Yeah as your friend but not as my boyfriend," Ariel hissed at Braxton. She really wished that Braxton didn't have to be there he was making matters worse than they needed to be. Meeting any parents had to be nerve wrecking and Ariel was happy that she had yet to met Ryker's parents as his girlfriend, her parents were bad enough and she didn't know if she was going to survive the night and she couldn't even imagine how Ryker was holding up.
"She has a point," Ryker said not sure if he should hold her hand or just keep his hands to himself. He was feeling awkward and out of his element.
"Whatever," Braxton mumbled walking out of the room.
"I am sorry about this, I really didn't think they'd want you to come over the second they found out," she told her boyfriend.
"It's fine really, I knew it was going to happen and for the most part I do know what to expect so it's not that bad, I'm just making it a bigger deal than it really is," he told her. "Can I hold your hand?" He asked shyly.
Ariel smiled, slipping her hand into his. "I think it would be okay," she told him.
"They are cute together," Zoe said, watching from afar, Wade standing behind her.
"Maybe," he said with a sigh. Ryker was being on his best behavior and from what he was seeing so far, he couldn't argue with his wife. Maybe he didn't have anything to worry about. He quickly shook that thought from his head; he had a lot to worry about when it came to Ariel and dating. "We should really get in there and break that up," he stated, determined to do just that, when Zoe was pulling him back into the kitchen.
"We're going to leave them alone," she told her husband, giving him a look that meant business. "Dinner is about done with and then you can ask as many questions as you want, but you're not going to go overboard and ask him questions about his future and what he's going to be doing with his life because at that age not everyone has their mind made up on what they're going to be doing in life, we clear?" She asked him, using a cooking spoon to point at him.
"Yeah I got it," he replied with a smirk. "But if I don't, that mean you're going to use that spoon on me?" He asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
"I can't deal with you," she told him laughing, going back to stirring the sauce.
Everyone sat around the table, Eliza sitting in her high chair between Wade and Zoe both of them taking turns in feeding their little one, Ryker was seated between Ariel and Braxton. So far conversation was spent talking about what they had done at school; laughs were easily going around the table as stories were shared. Ariel and Ryker were feeling comfortable by the time dinner was coming to a close.
"I have to ask when we're going to be doing this with you Braxton?" Wade asked, watching his son's face fall for a second, before he started to act like he didn't know what his dad was going on about. "We see how you act around Wren," he pointed out. The idea of his kids being in relationships still scared him, but he was coming around to it all and with Ariel being with Ryker it was only going to be a matter of time before Braxton got the courage to ask out Wren because everyone could see just how big of a crush he had on her.
"We would you just leave him be?" Zoe asked, wiping the food from Eliza's messy face. "Put your dishes in the sink and you can go," she told Braxton. He didn't waste any time in making sure it was okay, before he was out of his chair his dirty dishes in the sink and he was up the stairs in his room.
"I have two very important questions for you Ryker," Wade informed the boy that he had always liked until he started to date his little girl. Ryker swallowed hard, nodding his head. "What are your intentions with my little girl?" He asked, leaning on the table.
"My intentions?" Ryker asked him. Wade nodded his head. "I don't know what you want me to say or what you think my intentions are, but I like Ariel, she's a cool girl and I really like spending time with her. Other than holding her hand and being there for her like a good boyfriend should be I don't have any intentions," he explained.
Wade nodded his head excepting that answer. "You really want to date her? You're not using her for any reason?"
"Dad that was three questions," Ariel pointed out with a smirk on her face. So far it wasn't as bad as she had thought it was going to be. She didn't know what to expect but she had actually enjoyed the night and hearing what Ryker was telling her parents made her feel all giddy.
"I'd be nuts not wanting to be with her," he responded to the first question, his hand seeking hers out under the table in a bold move. "I really like your daughter, I have no reason to use her, I don't have anyone to make jealous or even hurt. I'm with Ariel because it's what I want and I don't have any intentions of hurting her either," he told them being completely honest.
"Why don't you two go hang out in the living room until it's time for Ryker to leave," Zoe suggested, letting them off the hook.
"Okay," Ariel said, getting up and taking her dirty dishes to the sink, Ryker doing the same thing following behind Ariel. Both of them happy that it had actually gone a lot better than they had thought it would have went.
"I don't know how long I can trust him for, but for now, I think I'm okay with him being with her," Wade informed his wife, taking his and her dirty dishes to the sink. Zoe smiled, getting up to wrap her arms around her husband's waist.
"I can deal with that," she smiled, standing on her toes to press her lips against his. Before they could get lost in their kiss, their youngest one was calling for them, not liking that she was left by herself.