Chapter 18

General POV

Mariana walked over toward the dinner table with a bottle of red wine. "Who wants wine?" She smiled as she began to remove the cork with a cork screw.

"Me," Brandon said quickly, a little to quickly, but he needed something to ease his nerves. "Fill her up," he answered as he handed Mariana his glass.

Lena smiled. She could sense how nervous he was about this dinner. Stef squinted her eyes at her son suspiciously. "I never pegged you for a wine-guy, B, " she said honestly. "You know there's beer in the fridge."

"No," he answered. "Wine is fine," he replied as Mariana handed the glass to him half full. He stared at it in confusion and passed it back to her. She furrowed her eyebrows and filled it up a little more.

He grabbed it and stared at it blankly. "What is this ? A kid's tea party?"

Callie chuckled.

"It's wine, Brandon. You're not supposed to fill the entire class. Geez, can you at least pretend to have a little class," she complained.

He took a large sip of the glass bringing it down to a quarter full. "How about now?"

The latin girl pursed her lips and poured some more wine into his cup with a look of discontentment on her face.

Stef glanced over to Lena as if to say that this just proves he did have something to hide. Was this when Brandon thought he was going to tell everyone about the pregnancy? Stef smiled inside while Lena pleaded to Stef with her eyes to let it go.

"What's the matter, B? You seem nervous about something?" Stef finally voiced, while keeping her eyes on him. She loved messing with her kids. She knew that it was cruel but it still gave her a sense of satisfaction.

"What? No, I don't," Brandon defended. "What would I have to be nervous about?" he said casually.

"Well, I don't know. You tell me?" Stef suggested.

Mariana ignored them both. "Callie, give me your glass," Mariana asked as she looked to her sister so that she could fill her wine glass.

"No," Lena quickly said before anyone else could get a chance to. The blonde looked at her wife suspiciously and she couldn't help but be just a little suspicious about her now too.

"Sorry," the woman added when she saw the look Stef gave her. "Callie, you don't want wine, do you?" She tried to ask casually as if it were actually up to her to make the decision. "I mean, Brandon mentioned you hated the taste of it," she lied.

"Yeah," Mariana agreed, when she remembered that it wasn't a good idea. Callie was barely showing so she would forget about the pregnancy from time to time.

"No," Callie said as she eyed Lena suspiciously too. "Water is fine," she finished right before she turned her head to get a look at Brandon. He had this guilty expression on his face that said everything Callie needed to know. "You told her, didn't you?" She whispered so low so that only her husband could hear.

Brandon scrunched his eyebrows as he stared at Callie and glanced toward the end of the table, where Stef was also staring at him with obvious suspicion.

My kids and wife are all liars, Stef thought to herself. Something funny is going on.

"No," he said with a smile and a small laugh. It was his nervous laugh, Callie knew.

She rolled her eyes.

"Ooookaaayyy," Mariana mumbled. "So guess who won her case today?" she smiled brightly.

Lena spoke first, "For the trial that you've been talking about for the past two months?" Lena asked.

"Yes," Mariana smiled. "Teresa Johnson was acquitted on all charges. They couldn't find enough evidence to charge her. There were too many holes in the son's story."

"Who do you think did it?" Callie asked out of curiosity.

"Probably some mistress he had. And after combing through his emails and texts, he had a lot of them."

"Maybe it was the son?" Jude answered.

"You may be right, Jude," Mariana answered. "I mean he had plenty of motive. Access to his trust fund before his 18th birthday, for one. And Mr. Johnson had contacted his lawyer to change the terms of his will but he was killed just before that. You know… I would make a great prosecutor, right?"

"Yeah," Brandon answered as he took another big gulp of his wine.

"Isn't that dangerous though?" Callie questioned. "I mean, you would make a lot of enemies. Don't prosecutors get death threats often?"

"It's not as dangerous as being a cop," Mariana retorted. "I mean, Mom got shot and you got kidnapped. How much more dangerous can a career be than that?"

"Kidnapped!" Both moms yelled at the same time as they stared at Callie.

Callie gave Mariana a dirty look before turning around to face the women. "I wouldn't really say 'kidnapped.' I mean, I was on the job so…"

"So?" Stef asked as if they deserved more information than that.

Callie rolled her eyes. Stef was already undermining her at work. "It wasn't a big deal. Nothing happened to me. It was just something that happened on the job. So you know now. Happy? Just another thing you can hold against me," she mumbled.

Lena chimed in, "Callie, getting kidnapped is a big deal."

"It was only for a couple of hours. Seriously, it was nothing. I promise I'm okay. Nothing bad happened to me," Callie assured them. "It's really not worth bringing up."

"GUESS WHO'S HOME?" Jesus yelled loudly as everyone turned to face in his direction.

Everyone stood up abruptly and rushed towards him, engulfing him in a big hug. "My baby's home!" Lena cried with enjoyment.

Stef gave him kisses on his forehead. "We missed you!"

"No one missed you more than me," Mariana informed him.

Brandon smiled and gave him a big hug. "Hey!" he said. "How was Thailand?"

"It was great," Jesus answered. "Not as great as being around my family."

"Good answer, my favorite son," Stef said.

"Hey!" Jude and Brandon both whined.

"Where's Emma?" Lena questioned casually.

"Oh," Jesus paused. "Uh, we broke up."

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry," Lena told him.

"No," Jesus answered. "Don't be. Because... I'm pretty sure I met the girl of my dreams on my flight back home,"

he smiled.

"Of course," Mariana mumbled.

"Hi!" Callie smiled as she hugged her brother. They weren't overly excited since Callie and Brandon had kept in touch with their siblings. "When are we going to meet this girl?" she asked him.

"Soon," he answered as he got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around Callie's upper waist. "And when am I going to meet my nephew, little Jesus Jr?" he asked as he kissed her stomach. Callie quickly pushed his face away and tried to lift him up but it was too late by then. Everyone's eyes were on Callie, Jesus, and Brandon.

To be continued…