I watched Rock’s face as Daisy called him Daddy, and the emotion in his eyes had me blinking back tears.
“The first time she called him Daddy he went into our room and cried for about thirty minutes. I’d honestly never seen him cry, and we’ve been together since we were teenagers,” Trisha said as she took a seat beside me. I hadn’t meant for anyone to notice me getting emotional.
“Y’all look so happy,” I said, wiping the one tear that had threatened to get loose.
Trisha glanced over at the boys as they now both had Preston in some form of a wrestling hold. “We are. I’m beyond blessed. Brent hasn’t called us mom and dad yet, but the other two have. I think he’s coming around though.”
“Manda! Manda! Come see! I’m curling Preston’s hair,” Daisy called out, and Amanda moved from her seat beside her mother, who she had been talking to and over to Daisy.
“She’s learned to say her r’s very well.”
Trisha nodded. “It was cute, but she’s so proud of herself now. I try not to miss it.”
“Oh, snap,” Trisha muttered, looking over at the door.
I turned to see what she was staring at.
“What does she think she’s doing?” Trisha said as she stood up to go intervene. I was glad because someone needed to. Low’s sister had just walked into the waiting room with her daughter on her hip. Normally this would be an expected thing. However, considering that Low’s sister, Tawny, was the woman who had broken up Marcus’s parents marriage, this was bad. Marcus’s mom had been invited. His father hadn’t been. I glanced over at his mother, and Amanda had taken a protective stance in front of their mother.
It still amazed me that Low and Marcus had found a way to get over this.
“Oh, hell,” Preston said loud enough for everyone to hear him. The entire waiting room turned to look at her.
No one had expected to see her today.
“Y’all can stop with your staring at me. She’s my sister. I can come see her kid if I want to,” Tawny said with an annoyed tone.
Cage walked back up behind her. Larissa, Low’s niece, threw her hands up and squealed, “Cay!” Cage had been a big part of Larissa’s life once. He’d been the only man in her life who never went away. Because he was taking care of Low, he was also helping Low take care of her niece while her sister ignored her.
Cage winked at Larissa and reached out to take her in his one free hand. “Hey, gorgeous,” he said to the little girl, then lifted his eyes to meet Low’s sister. “Tawny,” he acknowledged her. But you could tell by the way his jaw tensed that he didn’t like her. “Probably not the best place for you to wait on the baby. If Larissa wants to stay with me, I’ll watch her and I’m sure Manda will too. But you need to go wait elsewhere. Today isn’t about you.”
The redhead looked like she’d been slapped. If I didn’t know how evil she was, I’d think she was breathtakingly beautiful. To a stranger she probably was. “So you’re willing to keep Larissa, but you’re kicking me out, Cage York? You’re just white trash pretending too. With your pretty little”—she paused when she looked at me, and I watched as she took in my stomach—“pregnant girlfriend,” she finished. Then she let out a hard laugh. “You knocked her up. Perfect. I bet her family is real proud of her now.”
Amanda and I jumped up at the same time. Amanda went and took Larissa from Cage’s hands. Once the little girl was free, Cage took another step toward Tawny until he was towering over her. I reached between them and pushed him back before he could explode.
Once I positioned myself between them, I got in her face. “Listen, bitch, the only white trash in this room is the one who slept with a married man. An old married man at that. You call my man one more name and I will knock those ridiculously high heels out from under you. So back the hell off before you end up on your ass.”
I heard someone smother a laugh from behind me and I didn’t have to look to know it was Preston. Then someone started to clap. I glanced over to see Dewayne stand up from where he’d been reclining with his feet propped up. He was clapping with a pleased grin on his face. Then someone else started clapping. Rock had stood up to join him. Slowly, one by one, everyone in the waiting room was on their feet and clapping.
Tawny’s face was redder than her hair. She snarled then spun around and stormed out of the room, leaving her daughter behind with Amanda, who had taken her to the restroom to get her away from the scene she’d been afraid Tawny was about to cause.
Once she was gone, Cage wrapped his arm around me and handed me my bottle of water. “Here you go, mama bear. You need to rehydrate yourself after that performance,” he informed me.
“Damn, I was hoping she would stay. I wanted to see Eva take her down. That’d have been hilarious,” Preston said, reaching over to give me a high five. I slapped his hand and laughed.
Amanda slowly walked back into the room holding Larissa. “Is everything okay? I heard clapping.”
Instead of answering her, everyone started laughing.
CAGE
After Low was in labor for ten hours, Marcus came to announce that she had given birth to a healthy, five-pound-seven-ounce boy. His name was Eli Cooper Hardy and, according to his father, he looked just like Low.
Marcus’s eyes were red like he’d been crying, and I wondered if he had. The grin on his face was huge as he answered questions about Low and the baby. I watched Eva as she listened to everything he said. She was soaking it all up.
“You gonna let your baby be born without your last name?” Preston asked me in a low whisper as we stood at the window of the nursery, waiting for Marcus to bring the baby so we could all see him. I glanced over at Eva, who was talking to Trisha. Her hand was protectively on her stomach as her eyes kept looking over at the other babies in their bassinets in the nursery. I wondered what she was thinking.
“No. I’m working on that,” I replied.