Easy to Love You (8 page)

I saw the panicked look on her face, the same one I’d had when Lynn asked me that first time. “It’s ok, I’ll be right here with you.”

She nodded her head. I propped a pillow under her arm so she wouldn’t struggle so much with the broken wrist, then handed over Ryder and beamed as her face lit up when she held him close to her heart. “See, you’ve got the touch already.” I winked at her. “I’ll get the bottle and we’ll sit here and do it together.”

As CC and I fed our child, we talked about the upcoming holidays and how different they were going to be now. We talked about dressing the baby up for Halloween even though he was too small to take out; she really wanted to get pictures of him. Who was I to deny her anything after everything she’d been through? I’d give her the world if I could. We were going to keep our normal routine and spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together with our families.

“So, what about New Years? Think it will be too soon to leave Ryder with your mom?” I really wanted to plan something for us alone. I knew we wouldn’t get a lot of that time together anymore.

“Do you have plans?” she asked playfully. Now wasn’t the time or the place for this but my pants started shrinking.
Think of something else, anything else.

CC started laughing. I glared at her, “What’s so funny?”

She looked down at my jeans and before she could notice, I quickly adjusted myself. Cooper chose that moment to walk in.

“Damn dude, keep that shit in your pants. You’re going to scar my nephew.”

This time CC, Cooper and Jaylinn were laughing. I glared at all of them and walked over to the door, counting backwards.

“How’s Chaos doing?” Cooper asked; taking the seat I’d just vacated next to CC.

“Chaos, huh?” CC asked. I turned to look over at her, wondering if she was going to tell Cooper that we’d decided to keep the name.

Cooper smiled, “Yeah. You know he was born in complete chaos.”

CC winked at me before looking at Cooper, “Well Coop, meet Ryder Chaos, Ryder meet Uncle Coop but please, Mommy is begging you, don’t grow up to be like him.”

Jaylinn started laughing, “Yeah, please don’t.”

Cooper stood up and came to stand by me, glaring at the girls. The door hit me in the back and I stepped forward for Mason to stick his head in.

“Yo, I need to talk to you for a minute.” He said to me and then glanced over at CC. As soon as she felt his eyes on her, she looked up and I could tell she sensed something was about to happen.

I went over and kissed her head, “I’ll be right outside the door.”

Cooper held the door open for me and then followed me out, leaving the girls alone. “What’s going on Mase?”

Once the door closed behind Cooper, I glanced at Jaylinn, “Jay, what’s going on?”

She wouldn’t look at me; she wouldn’t want me to worry so she wasn’t going to say anything. I hated that everyone was always hiding shit from me; I’m not a God damn kid anymore. I’ve had a baby, I’m about to get married, and I think I can handle shit.

“Jay, if you aren’t going to answer me then leave.” She tensed before her eyes shot up to mine. I didn’t want to be a bitch to her but enough was enough.

“Kenzie, don’t worry about it right now. It’s not a big deal anyway.” She was desperately trying to make me believe that things weren’t about to blow up behind that door.

“Really? If it’s not a big deal then how come they wouldn’t talk in here?”

“I don’t know, I guess because of the baby and no one wants you to worry.” Her eyes were pleading with me to drop it.

I tried to shift myself and sit up more but with the baby resting on my arm and my wrist so injured, I just couldn’t move. This was so frustrating! I couldn’t do anything for myself and my damn headache was coming back. I wasn’t going to tell the nurse until I got some answers from someone though.

The guys walked back in as I was still trying to shift myself, Hunter noticed and came over to help me right away. “Can you just take him?”

“Are you in pain?” Hunter asked while taking the bottle from me and picking up the baby.

I winced as I tried to move again. “Just a little, I’ll be fine though.”

He turned to his sister, “You want to feed him the rest?” She grabbed Ryder, not needing to be asked twice, and sat in the chair beside Cooper.

“So what’s going on?” I looked directly at Mason. I could read him better than I could Cooper or Jackson.

“Nothing much, how are you feeling?” he said casually.

I glared at him and Cooper started laughing. Mason looked over at Hunter who was standing next to me and it was like they were reading each other’s mind.

“Hey assholes, I’m right here.” I wasn’t hooked up to the monitors anymore, but if I were they’d be going crazy.

Hunter shook his head and sat on the bed next to me, Mason sighed loudly before he finally answered me. “There was a detective here that wanted to talk to you about the accident. We asked him if he could give you a few days.”

Hunter reached over and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “He’s telling you the truth. I know we haven’t talked about the accident and I really didn’t want to bring it up until you did, but,” he shrugged his shoulders, “you’re too damn stubborn.”

I squeezed Hunter’s hand back and he looked at them, entwined on the white sheets. I glanced over at Mason who had moved to sit next to Cooper and Jaylinn. “Both of you, no all of you, please don’t keep things from me. I can handle shit! I’m not a little girl anymore. It’s time for me to start fighting my own battles.” I was still looking at Mason but I saw in the corner of my eye that the other two were nodding.

Hunter kissed the side of my head then let go of my hand to reach across and grab the paperwork on the table. “We need to get these filled out so the doctor can sign off on them.”

“Right.” This was going to be rough on me tonight; I didn’t want to be left alone. I would figure out a way to get the doctor to release me tomorrow.

I worked on filling out the paperwork with Hunter while everyone else just hung out and spent some time with us. I missed this; I wish I wasn’t stuck in this damn bed though. I just wanted to be in our home.

As we were finishing up, Chloe and Jackson showed up with flowers and balloons. “Hey, sis!” Jackson said, coming over to place the flowers on the bedside table.

Hunter got up off the bed, “I’m going to find Lynn and get these to the doctor so we can get things moving.”

Chloe replaced him on the bed while Jackson sat beside her, facing the others.

“Hey Mase, where’s Hailey?” Jackson asked.

Mason scratched his head and looked down towards the floor, “She umm,” he reached up and put his hands behind his head. “She’s home. She said she would come up later.”

Cooper chuckled, “Yeah I’m sure she is.”

I looked at Chloe and she shrugged her shoulders, I reached over and picked up Hunter’s phone. As I brought the screen to life with my finger, an image of Ryder popped up as his screensaver. I smiled. I hit the text messages so I could text Hailey to get the real story since Mason didn’t want to share.

Hunter 1:46 p.m.: Where r u @

I started flipping through Hunter’s phone, looking for more pictures of Ryder, when I landed on a picture of an SUV.
Weird, whose is that?
I found a few from the last few days and even one of Ryder and me – It looked like it was taken earlier today when we were snuggled together; I hadn’t even noticed.

Hunter’s phone chimed.

Hailey 1:52 p.m.: Home

Hunter 1:53 p.m.: Why? I miss your face

Hailey 1:55 p.m.: Hey biffy! How r u feeling?

Hunter 1:56 p.m.: Get up here

I gazed up at Mason who was watching me. I smiled.
How does it feel Mase? Not being told anything?

Hailey 2:01 p.m.: Text me when asshole leaves

I turned off Hunter’s phone just as he walked back in. He looked shocked that I was on it.

I puckered my brows, “Everything ok?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled his keys out, setting them on the table.
A Honda key. Hmm.
I was starting to put the pieces together as I surveyed Hunter. “You bought a new car, didn’t you?”

Jackson’s head shot up in Cooper’s direction, who then stood up. “Well guys,” he rubbed his stomach, “I’m getting hungry. Twinkle Toes you ready to go?”

Jaylinn rose gently out of the chair with Ryder and handed him back to Hunter. “Yes let’s go.”

Mason stood up next, “I’ll go with you guys. Love ya Kenz.”

Well played guys, well played.

Hunter was trying to busy himself with changing Ryder’s diaper.

Chloe giggled and got up as well, followed by Jackson, “Well I guess that’s our cue to leave.” Jackson said, trying hard not to laugh.

I was amused, everyone knew what was about to happen and no one wanted to hear it.

Everyone was gathered by the door. “Thanks for stopping in. Love you guys.” I said, still eyeing Hunter.

Each one mumbled their goodbyes and quickly left. I kept my eyes on Hunter who was tensed; he knew I’d figured it out. Now I was going to make him play my game. I’ll make him sweat it out. We’ve had dozens of talks about money. He knew how I felt about him paying for anything extra that we didn’t need, at least until I was able to help with the bills. I’m sure there was a good reason.

Damn, I hadn’t wanted her to find out until we were leaving; this was one more thing that she didn’t need to worry about. Thankfully, I knew the detective that had shown up today and I was able to put him off talking to CC until we were home. I’d met him a couple of times and he knew I would make good on my word about having him stop over at the house once she was settled in.

They weren’t able to make a positive ID on the car that I knew belonged to Brittany, and they wanted to ask CC if she remembered anything at all that could confirm it was her.

I got Ryder all changed and wrapped back up, but left him in the bassinet since he was barely awake.

Better to get this over with now I suppose. I walked over to the chair and sat down, “Look, I had to buy it—” before I could finish she cut me off.

“Bullshit!” she deadpanned.

“I did! Your car is totaled and I need you and Ryder in something safe. My truck isn’t the ideal vehicle to have him riding around in anyway. Plus, what are you going to do when you need to go out for something and I’m at work?”

“We could’ve worked it out; you know how I feel about you wasting money, Hunter.” she said, still pouting.

Now she was frustrating me, “It’s not wasting money, I need you and Ryder safe. I can’t worry about you guys,” I reached up and pulled my hat off and threw it on the other chair. “I’ve done enough of that shit to last me the rest of my life.”

I looked over at her expecting to see her glaring eyes, but she was holding back a smile.

“You’re a brat, you know that? I thought you were really pissed off.”

“Come here,” she said and raised her hands to wrap me in her arms. I settled into the crook of her neck and placed a kiss there. I could feel her pulse pick up when I did it again. I’m glad that after all of this I could still affect her.

There was a knock, I sat up and Dr. Clearly walked in with Lynn behind him. He took his penlight from his pocket and came to examine CC, so I stepped back to give him room. Lynn knocked her elbow into mine and I looked over at her. She smiled the same smile she had been giving me since we came here, but now it felt awkward.
Had she been like this the whole time, or was I just noticing it now because CC had mentioned it?

“MacKenzie, how is your pain level?” Dr. Clearly asked as he shined the light in her eyes.

“Umm, I guess about a 6. Besides being sore I still have a really bad headache.” CC answered while peeping over at me, and then glared when she realized how close Lynn was standing.

She just shook her head, “I’d like something to get some sleep tonight though.”

“Sure. Lynn, make sure she gets a dose on the next round.”