The Ordeal

Bringing the heat to Aspen

{ I just wanna thank everyone for reading The Ordeal, I just want to reiterate that this book is the foundation of the next books to come. The characters to pay the most attention to are the teenagers. This story is set YEARS ( 15+) before the timeline of the next few books. Enjoy the last few bulk chapters ❤️ again, thank you so much for reading! }

The annual trip to Aspen brings together every family with a name, money, or status to enjoy some high-end fun in the show. The women can enjoy the slopes, the spa, and the fashion strip of their dreams while the men can go enjoy smoking cigars, hitting the sports bar, or playing snow sports. It's a huge family-friendly resort built on the WIDEST area of the mountains. The perfect spot as years tend to show. Everyone arrives coming together again since the Paisli fashion show so the tension is already thick. The adults mingled more than the teenagers the cliques stuck together.
Amber deep sighs asking the bartender for a ginger ale on ice. Not being able to drink is killing her. Now 3 months off bedrest and her belly making an appearance slightly she's been trying to adjust to her body changes. Madi joined her to drink water not making her feel left out.
"Collin motherfucking Stokes." Zane happily greets him. Collin is Zane's cousin who's been one of his best friends since they were born. They hugged and from the tightness, he knew Collin needed it.
"You good?" "Yeah just really needed this weekend man." Collin is a now retired star football player with rings, in the hall of fame, his sports aftershow, and owns the majority of the NY Giants. Standup father and husband. His oldest is Caleb (Rose's boyfriend) in jail and his twin daughters Cassie and Stassie.
"Where's Gina?" "She will be here in a few days. I'm not feeling her right now." "We gone talk man. You gotta catch up with Jax" "He's about to have a baby right? Finally." Jade and Nina took shots at the bar agreeing to not stress the wedding planning on this trip. Jordan and Silas stand with their respected peers deep down praying for no hiccups.
Cane kissed Bella's lips with light pecks making everyone around them gag. "You two can never read a room. Yall going to be sucking face the entire trip?" Carmen says sitting next to the guy Cane set her up with a month ago. To the T her type, she's been enjoying her time with him. He's helped her stop crying in the shower and not throw up when couples kiss in her face. Julius stands across the meeting area with Jade who's fixing his jacket. His eyes glued on Carmen, whose PDA with a mystery man with dreads made his blood boil. Cane still not speaking to Julius but is finally okay with Jade he made it as if Julius didn't exist. Liam and Autumn across the way loving on each other the neutral corners between everyone is how it always starts.
The owners of the resort come onto the mic doing their normal introduction as their employees pass out the room keys, day-to-day planners, and activity logs. With everyone on their agenda, only a handful is going to follow the day-to-day. For certain people? Romance is in order.
• Amber and Jax suite •
Amber rubs her belly resting her legs. The fire felt amazing on her skin and she felt her baby moving. Jax came out of the bathroom, leaning down and kissing her.
"The baby is moving." "Oh yeah?" He sits next to her putting his hands on her belly and talking to his little one. Every time the baby heard Jax's voice it jumped up and down all around. "Gone be a daddy's girl or boy." " The paper is in my purse, we can find out now that we're here." Jax gets up grabbing the envelope out of her birkin. "What do you think we having J?"
"I think it's a girl." "Why do you think that?" "When my mom was pregnant with Jade? She radiated like a ceiling light off a marble floor. That's you. You are glowing, your hair is shiny, and your eyes are intense. You're hormonal like you're packing on girl hormones times 20. You cried because we hit a speed bump"
"No, I cried because my gloves felt weird on my hands, get it right." He opens the envelope, she sits anticipating the response. All she wants is a healthy baby. He reads the paper with a smile forming across his face. "It's a girl?" Amber asks "It's my girl." Jax gets down kissing her belly "She's going to be a daddy's girl fasure." "Yeah well Daddy, your girls are hungry." "Let's get ready for dinner"