Record of Wrongs

Chapter 14.

Jax

"After you," I said to Arielle as I walked in after her with Olivia's car seat. I picked them up early this morning from Cara Cara because I was afraid that Ari would change her mind about coming back home. Opie's words were ringing in my head all night about what I should change and do to win Arielle back, and I had taken his words seriously.

I packed up everything that belonged to Tara and dropped them off at her dad's house this morning. Then I had Ratboy change the locks so that the risk of Tara walking into the house was minimal. I wanted to make sure that Tara and Ari would not be placed in the same room, especially while I was trying to win Ari back. I wanted Ari to take me seriously and see me as someone who was moving forward not backward. And if cutting Tara out of our lives was the answer, then I'm willing to make that adjustment.

"Do you live here alone?" Ari asked as she inspected the house. She probably was expecting Tara's things to be here, and the fact that she didn't find them filled me up with satisfaction.

"Yeah, but it's no big deal," I said trying to come off nonchalant. Though, I couldn't help the smile that was spreading over my face.

Ari looked genuinely surprised as she continued down the hall and saw the kids' rooms. She walked into Olivia's room first and shook the crib a bit to see how sturdy it was, and when she was satisfied she placed the baby inside and turned on the spinning stuffed animals.

Liv was wide awake so all she did was stare wide-eyed at the various stuffed animals spinning above her. I enjoyed watching her even though she was doing regular "baby" things because she was a complete surprise to me. One minute, it was just me and Abel and now here she is taking the whole world by storm.

"She's active isn't she," I said gesturing over to Olivia. Ari looked over at our daughter and smiled, "You should have seen her inside of the womb. You would have thought that she was practicing to be a boxer."

I laughed at Ari's comment but then found myself feeling low. I wasn't there for Ari's pregnancy, not one bit of it, and it was all my fault. Ari noticed the look on my face and cleared her throat before examining the rest of the house.

When she made it to my room, I could see her looking around, completely at a loss while staring at the bed. "I could get you a new bed!" I blurted out before I had a chance to catch it. Arielle whipped around and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Is there something wrong with this one?" Her attention went to the bed, and at that moment I turned bright red with embarrassment.

"Um, no...I just thought that you'd want something new."

"New?" she questioned.

"Like something without all the memories."

"Oh," Ari nodded her head in understanding. "I don't think a bed will make a difference in how I feel. I think I'd need a new--"

"House?" I jumped in before she had the chance to finish.

Ari chuckled at my interruption, "No, more like a new life."

"Oh, right," I did my best to sound upbeat, but her answer kind of brought me down. However, I knew that I had to power through my bruised ego to get to the bigger picture, "You can sleep in here if you want or I could rearrange one of the other rooms if you'd be more comfortable. Or I can even conjoin Abel and Olivia's rooms so that you can have your own."

Ari raised her hand in the air to stop me, "this is fine. Everything looks good, Jax relax." She gave me a small smile, and I let out the breath I was holding in since she came here.

I had become obsessed with wanting everything to be perfect, so her approval felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

In my mind, I felt like she was going to nitpick and judge everything around her, which was ironic since she hadn't nitpicked or judged a single thing in this house before. I was just filled with anxiety, while she was just taking everything in stride.