Easy to Love You (5 page)

Mom came over and put her head on my shoulder. “Are you hanging in there?”

I nodded, “Yeah, the best I can.”

Lynn walked back in the room with a small smile on her face. Mom lifted her head off my shoulder and grabbed my hand.

“MacKenzie’s going to be ok, at least for now. They are taking her down to get a CAT scan, just to see if they missed something.”

I sighed in relief. My mom squeezed my hand and I could feel her palms sweating. Mrs. Cahill walked over and patted my shoulder weakly.

“The doctors think she might have had a seizure, but they can’t be too sure without the scan.” Lynn looked at Mrs. Cahill and then glanced at Mom before making eye contact with me. “She was awake for a few minutes and she was saying your name.”

I closed my eyes and my head fell forward.

“That’s great news, Hunter.” Mom said.

I whispered, “I know.”

Later that day, Mr. Cahill stopped in and bought us all pizza, which I was immensely thankful for — I didn’t feel like eating shitty cafeteria food again. Everyone took turns going in and checking on CC. She was resting peacefully again now and the doctors had confirmed that she had suffered a seizure. They said there was a small chance of her having brain damage but they would not know until she woke up.

Mason, Cooper and Mr. Cahill excused themselves for a little while; I figured they were going to talk about what their father found out earlier. I didn’t have the energy to waste on worrying over that shit right now. I knew if it were something serious they would tell me.

Hailey was the last one to visit CC before everyone left for the night. She kissed the baby on his head and whispered, “Take care of your mama little one, and while you’re at it your dad could use a little care too.”

I smiled at her. She gave me a one armed hug, careful not to hit the baby in my arms. “I freshened her up for you. You can thank me later.” She kissed the side of my head and walked towards the door.

Mason gave me our signature handshake and then said, “Go take care of my sister.” He bent his head and kissed our little man before grabbing Hailey’s hand and leaving.

“Well it looks like it is just me and you little guy, you ready to go see your mom?”

He grunted, I guess that was my answer.

I placed him in the bassinet and then strolled down the hall to CC’s room.

When we walked in I cracked a little smile. Hailey had freshened up CC, just like she’d said. Her hair was piled into a very loose bun on top of her head, her face had just a touch of make-up and her lips shimmered slightly. She looked like Sleeping Beauty.

I took our little man back out of the bassinet and stood close to CC. I wanted nothing more than to hold both my babies in my arms at that moment.

I decided right then that I was going to press my luck. I placed the baby in the bassinet for just a second. I turned back to CC; put my arms behind her neck and under her knees and moved her over just a little bit. I reached for the collar of my shirt and pulled it over my head and threw it on the chair, then took the baby out of his onesie. I picked him and his blanket up and ever so gently climbed into bed with CC.

The three of us cuddled together. We needed to smell her. To feel her breathe. To hold her.

No matter what struggles lay before us, we would keep going, because we had the will and strength to overcome it all. No matter what was beyond our control, nothing could ever take away from the family bond we made right at that moment.

A week passed and CC still hadn’t regained consciousness. The doctors were saying they were leaving her to wake up naturally. She had the surgery to fix her crushed ankle, which was now in a cast, along with her wrist. The nurse removed the stitches from her forehead that morning. The bruises on her body were yellowing, but her skin was pasty white, not the normal milky white that I loved. I missed staring into her bright blue eyes. I missed the way she kissed me. I missed her voice.

The baby and I were adjusting. He was being released today. Jaylinn and Cooper were going to be staying with us to help me look after him while I ran up to the hospital for a few hours each day. If they had to work, Chloe, Mrs. Cahill or my mom would come over. Chloe offered to keep him overnight tonight, but I wasn’t ready for him to be out of my sight for too long.

I was standing in the kitchen, washing the baby’s bottles and getting ready for his homecoming when Cooper walked in behind me, still half asleep.

He mumbled something to me that sounded like “good morning” but I couldn’t be sure. It was only 5:35 a.m. and Cooper wasn’t a morning person.

“Did I wake you up?” I asked him through a yawn.

“No, your sister did. She’s fucking nuts to sleep with. She elbowed me in the eye.” He shook his head. “Last night she punched me in the nose.”

Good, serves him right; he shouldn’t be sleeping with her anyway. They were still claiming that nothing was going on between them. “Maybe you shouldn’t sleep with her; you know you do have your own fucking house.”

He grumbled. He knew I was fucking with him. I appreciated everything that everyone was doing for us, but I still didn’t like him being with my sister. He was the biggest player out of all of us.

“So did you name my nephew yet or what?” He asked, taking the OJ out of the fridge.

“No. I don’t want to name him without your sister.”

“Well it’s kinda weird when someone asks me what his name is. I don’t want to keep talking about Kenzie every time someone wants to know.” I nodded my head; I knew what he meant. People were asking me too. “You’re going to have to name him today before you can bring him home.”

“I know. It just doesn’t seem right to without her.”

“Well until you decide, I’m calling him Chaos.”

I looked over at him with my eyebrows pulled together.
Chaos.
Okay, I like that, and it does seem fitting.

“If you don’t like it, we can call him something else.” Cooper said.

“No. No, I like it. It fits. He was born into the chaos.” I grabbed a burp rag off the counter and smiled all the way back to the bedroom. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

I was sitting on the couch with my feet kicked up on the ottoman, watching the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Eagles’ ass in the fourth quarter of the game from Sunday night, when Mrs. Cahill walked in with a bag full of stuff.

After setting it down on the table, she looked over at me and smiled. “I don’t know if I tell you enough Hunter, but I’m so proud of you.” She got teary eyed. She looked down at her hands and said, “If it was anyone else, I’m not sure if they would have stuck around.”

I got up from the couch, walked over to her and hugged her. She started crying, this was hard on her. It was hard on all of us. I think Chaos was really keeping us all from losing it.

I let go of her when she finally calmed down. “I’m sorry I’m such a mess.” She laughed and grabbed a tissue off the table to wipe under her eyes.

I shoved my hands in my pockets, “It’s ok.”

“Well I’m just going to unpack this, why don’t you head on up to the hospital? I was up there this morning and the nurse said that she had a good night.” She started unpacking the food and other stuff from the bag.

“Alright, I’ve got some stuff to do before I head up there. I’ll be bringing Chaos home in the early afternoon though.” I picked up my helmet and keys from the table.

“Chaos?” she asked.

“Coop named him.” I smiled a real smile, something that I haven’t done enough lately. “I like it.”

She smiled back, “I do too.” She put the milk in the fridge then frowned when she saw my helmet. “Please be careful.”

Shaking my head I said, “I will. I have two things that mean the world to me.”

I jumped on my bike and headed about thirty minutes north of my house to the Honda dealer. CC’s car was totaled and even if it wasn’t, there was no way in hell I was allowing her to drive it again. I knew she was going to be pissed off at me when she found out what I did without talking to her first, but I didn’t give a shit. Their safety was my number one priority. Plus, having an SUV would be a lot easier with the baby; my truck wasn’t exactly ideal. For starters CC had to hop to get in since she was so short, there was no way she would be able to lift the car seat into the back.

I pulled into the parking lot and cut the bike off. I had seen the Honda Pilot SUV a month ago and I was trying to talk CC into letting me buy it but she’d refused, saying her car was just fine. Well, now that it wasn’t I was going for it.

The salesman came out and greeted me; I told him exactly what I was looking for. He showed me a few different ones, the base model, the 2-wheel drive model, and the 4-wheel drive model. I figured since I was getting my way, I was going to get what I felt was best for them. I went with the 4-wheel drive.

I really wanted the white, but they didn’t have it in the model I wanted. I didn’t want to wait for them to order one so I went with the black one instead. I had to admit I was kind of jealous. The Pilot was hot. It had all black leather upholstery, all power features, and a rear DVD entertainment system. It also had a sun roof — which I knew CC would love — a navigation system with back-up camera, and a
Bluetooth
Hands Free device so she wouldn’t be distracted by her phone. There would be plenty of cargo space for all the baby’s things too.

I took it out for a test drive and before I even hit 30 MPH I knew this was the car. We went back to the dealership and got started on the paperwork. An hour and a half later we were proud owners of a 2011 Honda Pilot.

Since I had my bike with me, I called Mason to come and ride it while I drove the Pilot home.

“Yo, you busy?” I asked when he answered.

“Not really. Just on my way home from the hospital.” He sounded a lot happier today than he had been. Mason was taking all this almost as bad as I was. “What’s up?”

“Well, I just bought us a Pilot. Can you come ride my bike home?”

“You’re fucking nuts you know that?” he said, laughing.

“Yeah I know. She can beat my ass when she wakes up. Are you coming or not?”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

While I waited for Mason to show up, I played around with the stereo system, making sure to set all of CC’s favorite stations. God, I missed her.

Mason pulled up next to me with Hailey in the passenger side seat. She came bouncing around the side of her Jeep all smiles.

“Think she’ll like it?” I asked her.

“Well if she doesn’t, you can always give it to me.” Don’t get me wrong, I was glad she seemed back to her normal, spunky self but what the fuck was she so happy about? She knew CC was going to give me shit about it.

“What’s with you two?” I asked them suspiciously.

Hailey started cracking up and Mason just shook his head. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”

I threw my bike keys at him, but of course the asshole couldn’t catch anything that wasn’t a baseball. I shook my head and hopped into the Pilot to drive home.

I pulled into the driveway carefully. Leaving the car running, I grabbed the car seat, which I’d left right by the front door. I tried to figure the damn thing out, but Christ it was confusing. I remembered the nurse telling me someone would check it before they released the baby. Thank God for that.

Mason pulled in with my bike, followed by Hailey in her Jeep. She jumped out and ran into my house like she did every time she came over. I was going to have to replace the locks soon — I couldn’t have her walking in on me and CC again. I chuckled, thinking of the time she caught us having sex on the kitchen counter. We were still working on christening the whole house. You would have thought she’d have learnt her lesson but she caught us again a few days later on the back deck.

“Why does she do that?” I asked Mason.

“Why does she do half the shit she does?” He made a valid point.

She came out with a diaper bag in her hand and thrust it at me. “You’re going to need this, big guy.”

Yeah I guess I was. I was so damn nervous about taking Chaos home I didn’t even think about it. “I packed a few outfits in there for you; I wasn’t sure what you wanted to bring him home in.”