Easy to Love You (4 page)

“No! Stay the fuck away from my family! I think you’ve done enough!” This time when I walked away he didn’t follow.

I paid for my food and sat down at an empty table. I pulled out my cell and logged into Facebook, I had over fifty notifications. People were asking how CC and the baby were doing, asking if they could do anything, sending prayers and well wishes. I guess word spread pretty quickly. I tapped the search bar and typed in Brittany’s name. I was hoping she had updated her status recently and I could see if it said where she was. Just like I thought, she was stupid enough to do so. Yesterday she wrote “Karma’s a bitch” and it said she was in Cherry Hill, NJ.

I closed the app and called Mason. “Yo, what are you up to?”

“Um, Hailey is in the shower. She wants to come up and see Kenz. Are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m not leaving unless they’re both with me.” I finished off the rest of my food and got up to throw my trash away.

“Any changes?”

“Not with Kenzie but they are releasing the baby down to her room in a little while. You guys should be able to finally meet him.” I pushed the button for the elevator to go up to the NICU.

“That’s good, that’s good. Look, um, I want to tell you something but I need your word that you will not say anything until I can figure out what to do.” He was talking low into the phone.

I stopped walking, “Alright, what’s up?”

“The reason me and Hails have been fighting is because she found out about my dad last week and she wants to tell Kenzie.” He huffed, “This is all so fucked up. She wasn’t supposed to be at my house for another hour.”

I was confused, what about his dad? “Wait, your dad? What am I missing?”

“Well I guess I should tell you now too.”

Hell yeah you should.
“Yeah, I need to hear this. Kenzie kept asking me over and over again what was going on with you guys.”

“You know how my dad works for the New York Stock Exchange?” He asked.

“Yeah,”
Where was he going with this?

“He’s not a stockbroker. He’s an FBI agent based out of New York.”

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that.
“Are you serious?”

He grumbled, “Yeah, no one’s supposed to know. Dad says it’s safer this way. This is why we’re so protective over Kenzie. Dad never wanted her to find out, he gets into some bad situations sometimes and never wanted this to touch us. He still doesn’t. He only told Jackson, Cooper and I a few years ago when some bad shit was going down.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and looked up to the ceiling. “I can’t keep this from her. You can’t ask me to.”

He sighed again, “I know, but just keep it between us for now. I know she’s going to find out. Dad is working with the police department to see if there was a lead on the other car that left the scene. Hopefully Kenzie will wake up soon and can help too.”

I turned to look out the window and watched an old couple crossing the street. “Well I know for a fact, that bitch was in Jersey yesterday. I checked her Facebook status and she posted ‘Karma is a bitch’ and it said she was in Cherry Hill. Could you let your dad know for me?”

“Yeah sure,”

“Thanks bro, I’m going to go check on them now. I’ll see you soon.”

Later in the afternoon the baby was finally cleared and ready to be moved into the room with CC. We were lucky enough to keep Lynn as his nurse; he wasn’t adjusting too well after being removed from the heat lamps and it was comforting having someone familiar around to handle his ups and downs. When his body temperature dropped slightly, he wouldn’t eat or even take his binky. Lynn assured me that this could happen and it wasn’t anything uncommon, she made the suggestion that the baby might actually respond to skin to skin contact. She asked if I wanted to give it a shot. I wasn’t sure what she meant.

“This is something we normally have the mothers do, but since MacKenzie isn’t able to help us we’ll use the next best thing, that’s you. All you need to do is remove your shirt, and then we strip the baby down to his diaper, and have you snuggle with him.”

Okay, I could do this, it sounded simple enough. I grabbed the back of my collar and pulled my shirt over my head while Lynn went to work on taking the baby’s clothes off, he wasn’t happy about that at all. She turned to hand him over to me and her cheeks flushed pink. She smiled at me then quickly turned her head. I took a seat in the chair right next to CC and snuggled the little man close. Lynn threw a blanket over us and said she had to go make her rounds and that she would be back to check in on us soon.

As the baby finally started to settle we both sighed in relief; I pushed back on the chair and the recliner kicked out. I reached my right hand over and grabbed CC’s tight, just needing her touch to help calm me. I heard her heart monitor pick up and a small smile played across my face. At least she was responding to me.

When I woke up, my whole body hurt. It was almost unbearable, but something was pulling me from my sleep. I tried to open my eyes but they were just too heavy. I tried to concentrate and figure out what was going on, where I was. I felt like there was something gagging me; there was pain in my stomach, chest and right leg, lots of pain. I remember driving; it was really raining hard. There was a bad crash, my car flipping. Someone was there, they were looking into my car; and then there was darkness.

I felt something warm run down my face. I tried to reach up and wipe it away but my arms were too heavy. I heard humming and knew Hunter was here with me, wherever I was.

“Sweetheart, why don’t you go home for a few hours? You could shower, grab some food and try to get some sleep. I’ll stay here with MacKenzie and the baby. They both need you to be strong for them.” I knew that voice, it was my mom’s, but what was she talking about a baby for?

A violent stab of pain hit my head. I was trying desperately not to give back in to the darkness. The humming stopped and Hunter’s voice spoke, “I’m not leaving them, I can’t.”

I heard a little whimper of a cry, and then he went back to humming. I felt so confused. I tried opening my eyes again but they were still too heavy.

I felt someone grab my hand. I tried to squeeze it but didn’t have the strength.

“Oh baby girl.” Mom said, rubbing circles on the back of my hand with her thumb. “You have to wake up, your boys need you.”

My boys, does she mean my brothers? Another flashback came to me. I was on my way to meet Hunter somewhere. Why was I meeting him?

The pain was increasing and the pull into the darkness was becoming too much to fight.

The noises in the room started phasing out, all except for the beeping. The constant beeping.

“Baby girl, if you can hear me squeeze my hand.” Mom said.

Beep.

I tried to squeeze but I just couldn’t.

Beep.

I felt warm fingers touch my face and gently rub from my temple to my jaw and back again. “CC, please open your bright blue eyes for me, baby.”

Beep.

“I need you; I can’t do this on my own.” I heard him sniffle. “He looks just like you. Same little nose, head full of dark curly hair.” He sniffled again. “I love you baby.”

Then there was a long beep and the blackness finally took over.

As I was holding CC’s hand I swear I felt a little squeeze, but a second later all the alarms on the machines started going off. I looked over at Mrs. Cahill with panic in my eyes, what the hell was going on? She had been fine for almost twenty-four hours.

The nurses came running into the room, heads down; avoiding our eyes. Mrs. Cahill and I stood up against the wall so we were out of the way. Little man was flailing his tiny arms and legs; I was trying to do everything I could to keep him calm. I knew exactly how he was feeling though. Lynn came into the room and searched until her eyes found mine, she marched quickly over to us and put her hand on my back, ushering me out of the room. I didn’t want to leave CC by herself but I wasn’t letting the baby go either.

“Lynn, what’s going on? She was doing fine.” I asked, just as Mrs. Cahill came out crying.

“Come on, let’s get you guys into the private waiting room and I’ll fill you in.” She was being way too calm.

Lynn flipped the light switch as we walked in. “Hunter, when did he eat last?”

I looked down at him, still flailing and crying, “Um, a little over two hours ago. I was just about ready to feed him again.”

Lynn went over to the door and called over her shoulder, “I’ll be right back.”

She walked out of the room and Mrs. Cahill came over to me with her hands out. I hesitated for a minute before handing him over to her. She laid his head on her shoulder and started rubbing his back while shushing him, then Lynn returned with a bottle, diaper and wipes. She shook the bottle and put the nipple on, then handed it over to Mrs. Cahill.

“So what happened?” I asked.

“Have a seat.” She pulled out a seat and I sat down. “Hunter,” she sat down next to me with a pained expression. “It seems as though MacKenzie’s heart stopped.”

My whole world stopped dead in its tracks. My heart sank into my stomach and tears pooled in my eyes.

“When I walked by just a second ago they were shocking her heart to get it to start again. From what I heard, they managed to get it going. I think she’s ok. Let them do what they need to do to stabilize her and then I will find out exactly what’s going on. Right now I need you to concentrate on that little man right there.” She pointed over to Mrs. Cahill and the baby in the corner.

I pushed back from the table and hung my head in my hands as the tears flowed down my face. I heard Mrs. Cahill sniffling behind me. I knew I needed to be strong; I took a few deep breaths, wiped my faced and stood up. I looked over at Lynn, nodded and walked over to sit next to my son and his grandmother.

The nurse winked at me, then stood up and made her way out of the room.

Mrs. Cahill wiped under her eyes with the back of her hand. “Hunter, I’m so sorry this is happening. She’s going to be ok. She’s our little fiery, stubborn girl. She has too much in her to just give up without a fight.”

I nodded; I didn’t trust my voice to speak.

Ten minutes later, Mason, Hailey, Jaylinn, Cooper and my mom came into the room. All the girls had tears in their eyes. Mason and Cooper had their heads hung down.

Hailey practically ran over to me and threw her arms around my neck. I hugged her back tightly. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. Once she calmed down a little she let go, making way for Jaylinn and my mom to do the same thing.

I looked over at Mason who had my son wrapped up in his arms. Cooper had Jaylinn wrapped in his, both looking over Mason’s shoulder.

I looked up at Mason, “Where’s your dad?”

“He stopped at the police station; they found a lead on the car that took off.” He looked over at his mom and then back to me.

“Mom, Dad doesn’t know what’s going on with Kenzie. Do you think we should call him?” Cooper asked.

Mrs. Cahill looked at me and shook her head. “No not yet. Let’s wait a little while longer to see if Lynn comes back in with more information.”

There was a silent conversation going on with the Cahills. You didn’t have to be a genius to figure it out. What exactly that conversation was about, I didn’t know. But I intended to find out. I wouldn’t say anything about what Mason and I had talked about earlier, but there was more to it than that.