Yours Truly, Austin Post - Post Malone

64

It takes Ava a good ten minutes to get Hope to stop crying, an old lady even hands her a bottle of water as she walks past in an attempt to soothe her. Then Hope flings her arm around Ava and hugs her tight.

"Oh, Ava, this is the best news. You are pregnant! I am so happy. The mothers are going to go ballistic!" Hope says and now Ava starts crying. She would have loved this moment to be with Austin but her need for not scaring him unessasarily makes her know that she had been right to be sure first and besides, having Hope with her is just as special. "I need to go home. I need to tell Austin," Ava says, excitement rising in her stomach.

"Wait...how are you going to tell him?"

"When I move my mouth it forms words, that's how I intend to tell him."

"Ooooh, she will be a bitchy preggy," Hope laughs, Ava frowns at her - she does not appreciate that. "Moody too," Hope adds with another laugh. Ava rolls her eyes and hides her grin. "I mean...pregnancy has always been a bit of a sore spot for Austin. First with Gracie...we all know how that played out and then with Grayson, we did what we had to do to bring that beautiful boy into the world - but Austin missed out on a lot of pregnancy things like midnight kicks or choosing a name for baby with someone - he did that all on his own. So while there are no regrets when it comes to Grayson - he came into this world not quite the way Austin had hoped. But, this baby...Ava this baby is special and this baby will soften all the hard memories of the other times."

"What should I do?"

"I think you should find a way to tell him that will have him looking back for years to come and smiling just at that memory. Smiling at the memory of the exact second he learned he was having another baby. Replace marred memories with good memories...like you did for me today."

"I did?"

"Yes, Ava. I was with Gracie when she excitedly told me she thought she was pregnant. I was the one who got her her first pregnancy...almost as if my actions started the chain of events that followed. I get nightmares about it sometimes still. But, not anymore...you are pregnant and everything is ok...everything is perfect."

Ava feels herself starting to cry again and so does Hope so they huddle together on the floor outside the public bathroom crying until someone drops a few coins in Hope's empty coffee cup and then they think it's best they get up and move along. She hates keeping secrets from Austin but this will be a good one. This is like buying a gift and keeping it wrapped till the perfect moment. She is pregnant and she feels like she is on top of the world.

A few days later Ava walks down from her bedroom to the kitchen, the house is quiet which is unusual because Austin and Grayson are usually loud bulls but, today is Gracie's birthday so they had gotten up early, just before sunrise, and made their way down to the orchard. They plant a new fruit tree in her orchard every year on her birthday and this year they are planting a Lychee tree. They always invite her to join, but some moments are just for Gracie and her boys. Just like she keeps a few moments just for Carter still. Birthdays are happy days now and are always celebrated - even Gracies and Carters.

So while Austin and Grayson are still in the orchard Ava gets busy with making Grayson's school lunch along with her own. She had baked cupcakes for him to take to school to celebrate his mom's birthday with his classmates so she places them in a container and secures the lid, smiling when she hears Austin and Grayson shouting as they race each other back to the house. Austin comes in first followed closely by Grayson.

"Dad!  You are supposed to let me win!"

"Why? Because you are a kid?"

"No, because I am cute."

Austin throws his head back and laughs then leans on the kitchen island and places a large peach on top of Ava's lunch box. "Morning, Peach," he smirks. "Morning," Ava giggles and plants a kiss on his cheek. "Ava, I want to do something big for Mom's birthday this year," Grayson says sitting down in a chair and accepting his breakfast from her. "Ok, what would you like to do? We can have a BBQ or a party if you like," Ava says passing a cup of coffee to Austin.

"Yes, a BBQ. But, I was also thinking we could do something that she never got a chance to do. I asked Dad and he can't think of anything, can you?"

Ava looks at Austin and he shrugs. Austin had made a point of taking Gracie to all the places she ever wanted to see before she got too sick and by the time Ava arrived all she really wanted was to be around Austin so she really has to think hard. "Stingray..." Austin says suddenly. Ava's lips split into a smile and she knows exactly what he means. "Stingray?" Grayson asks confused. Austin looks at Ava and nods. "Yes, stingray. Your mom had wanted to drain the pool and paint stingrays on it. She was going to invite everyone to a BBQ and get them to paint their own stingray so when people visit they can point them out and know who is in our family," Ava explains.

"Oh!  Can we do that?! We can do it this weekend!" Grayson says excitedly. "Yes, if we start draining the pool today it will be ready by Saturday," Ava says. "Come on now, we don't want to be late for school," she adds and helps Grayson carry the cupcakes to the car after kissing Austin goodbye. They listen to their joke in the car like always and then Grayson runs off to his friends forgetting the cupcakes in his excitement, but Ava leaves them in his classroom for him to hang out later.

"Weirdly, you do that," Ava hears Carry's whiny voice behind her. You would have thought she has given up on trying to hook her claws into Austin - but she has not. At every school function, Ava will see her slink up to Austin and throw herself at him.

"Weird that I do what?"

"Make out that you give a shit about the dead wife."

"I do give a shit about Gracie, not that it's any of your business."

"It's been years, you'd think that he would have moved on and let go already."

"Why? Why do people always say that? Why is that the right thing to do? Move on and let go...why can't he just move forward and not let go? Gracie brings happy memories...you however don't! You and your desperation make my skin crawl, stop trying to wrangle your way in. It's just embarrassing at this point," she says then turns on her heel and storms out getting a discreet high-five from Grayson's teacher.

Those pregnancy hormones are raging!