The next day, Maddie woke up to her stomach doing somersaults. The last few days she had felt queasy when she woken up, but nothing like this, this, was definitely morning sickness. She slowly got out of bed after glancing at the clock and noticing it was past ten thirty.

She ran to the bathroom and emptied the contents of her stomach and it did not feel good. After about ten minutes of the, she brushed her teeth and got directly into the shower, the hot steamy water relaxing her and helping her feel better. She scrubbed her body with her favorite lavender body wash, then washed her hair with the raspberry scented shampoo and conditioner.

She spent a minute just relaxing under the stream of hot water before stepping out and drying off, ready to go downstairs.

She got dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, and a cropped, long sleeve black and white striped shirt. She walked downstairs and was immediately assaulted by the smell of eggs cooking. She turned the corner, covering her nose.

She was just starting to feel better from the morning sickness this morning, but it wasn't like she could tell Katie that she couldn't eat eggs that would be rude.

"I'm going to walk down to the café and get a bagel and a coffee." She said before waving to her friend and grabbing her purse.

After the café, she walked down to the bookstore and picked out a few romance novels, they were her favorite, so romantic, but there was always a villain in there somewhere, and the guy would have to save the day, and make the girl fall for him, she loved to read about those things, but she never expected that she happen in real life, things like that just didn't happen, ever.

She sat in the back of the book store, reading one of the books she had bought, when she looked at the time and saw it was Two thirty, almost time for her and Katie to go to the barbecue at Jude's clubhouse.

By the time she got home, it was two forty five. She ran a hand through her hair. "Katie, are you ready to go?" She asked, running up the stairs.

"Yeah, I was just waiting for you to get here." She said rolling her eyes, with a smile. "You stopped by the book store didn't you? Romance novels?" She asked.

Maddie smirked. "No, well, yes... But I also got a parenting book, and a name book, I know it's really early, but the baby will live with this name his or her whole life, it can't be a last minute decision." She said, obviously nervous about picking a name.

"You are going to pick a beautiful name, and you don't need to look for it for eight months." Kate said, laughing.

She picked up her keys. "Let's go." She said, and they walked out of the door.

By the time they showed up, the barbecue was in full swing, music was blaring, the floor was cooking, girls were dancing, while guys were talking to each other or working on motorcycles, it honestly looked like a family get together, there were little kids running around.

They walked through the open gates, cupcakes that they had stopped and bought at a little cupcake shop on the way there. It was Maddie's favorite place and he was really craving their peanut butter and chocolate cupcake right then.

She spotted Jude, leaving against one of the many picnic tables st up outside, a cold bottle of beer in his hand, talking to a scantily dressed woman, if you could even call her that, she looked more like a hooker, around twenty five, with long blonde hair.

Jude glanced over and saw them, smiling, he said something to the girl before heading their way. "Hey, I wasn't expecting you to show up." He said. When he reached them, he gently wrapped an arm around Maddie, leaning down and kissing her cheek. "Thanks for coming." He said, before looking over at Katie and giving her a smile.

"No problem... I brought cupcakes." She said, holding up the two pink pastry boxes she held, then nodding to the one that Katie held. "Lots of cupcakes." She said softly, suddenly nervous. All eyes were on them.

"Great, I love cupcakes." Jude said, taking the boxes from her. "Come meet everyone." He said, nodding over to the table where he was standing when she arrived. They walked over to the table and he put the cupcakes down.

"Guys, this is Maddie, and her friend Katie. Girls, this is everyone. Kyle, Alex, Jason, Max, Charlie, Dylan." He said, all of the guys nodded to her as their name was said. "And Alissa, Kandy, and Rayne." He said, nodding to the girl he was talking to when he said the last name. So her name was Rayne. Well, Rayne had a staring problem.

"And everyone else you will meet later." Jude said.

"Do you want anything? Water or soda?" He asked. "Uhm, water please." Maddie answered, the heat was starting to get to her, and it was 105 outside today. "Sure, and Katie? Beer?" he asked. She nodded, clapping her hands excitedly. Katie loved a good party.

Jude disappeared to go get the drinks, and Rayne stepped up to them with a smile as fake as her hair, nails, and tan.

"Ooh, what did you bring?" She asked, opening one of the boxes of cupcakes.

"Store bought cupcakes? Nice. It's not like Alissa and I spent two hours baking this morning, we'll just throughout stuff away so everyone can eat the cupcakes you so kindly bought." She said, in a voice that sounded sweet, but she could tell it was meant to be anything but sweet.

"Excuse me? Well I'm sorry I don't have hours to stand, making cakes and cupcakes, I have better things to do, but I wasn't going to show up empty handed." Maddie said, not getting intimidated by the plastic Barbie doll standing in front of her.

"You little-" The woman hissed before another deeper voice cut her off.

"Kandy, that's enough. Back off, now." Jude said from beside her suddenly.

Kandy looked at Jude, like she hadn't seen him standing there, shocked, she took a step back.

"Everyone, I have an announcement to make." He said, and immediately everyone was silent and the music was turned off.

At least forty pairs of eyes turned to him as he cleared his throat.

"For those of you who haven't met her yet, this is Maddie, she is going to be around here more lately, and I expect that everyone treat her with respect, she's with me." He said.

Around more often? With him? What just happened? She must have heard wrong, because it sounded like he just announced them as a couple.