guys, what’s going on?” I asked.
“Can you get mom? Yeah, you get mom.” Jackson said.
“My water broke.” Chloe told me.
“Oh. Yeah. I’ll get mom.” I said and then bolted downstairs.
A few hours later, we waited at the hospital for Alex’s arrival. Shower officially cancelled.
Mason, Cooper, and Hunter were at Jackson’s house attempting to put up the crib, and Hailey was at home with her family. I decided to wander the gift shop downstairs.
I picked over the variety of little blue stuffed animals when Dominic’s mom called my name.
“MacKenzie.” She sputtered my name, like it left a bad taste in her mouth. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
“My brother and his wife are having their baby.” I didn’t get a smile in return. What the hell was her problem? I didn’t do anything to her son. I’m not the one pregnant.
“Tell them congratulations.” She picked up a Reese’s, one of Dominic’s favorites. “You should visit Dominic while you’re here. I’m sure he would be glad to see you.”
“Dominic’s here?”
“Yeah, after that boyfriend of yours damn near killed him.”
Boyfriend? Was she serious?
“I don’t have a boyfriend. My last one couldn’t seem to keep his dick in is pants.” I turned from her and went to pay for my toy for Alex.
Fortunately, the guys returned to the hospital by the time I made it back upstairs. I caught Hunter’s attention.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?”
I led him outside the waiting room before jabbing a finger into his chest.
“You put Dominic in the hospital?”
He didn’t meet my stare. Only nodded.
“And you didn’t think it was important enough to tell me?”
“No, he shouldn’t have been talking shit. None of this would have happened in the first place.”
“Well, I ran into his mom downstairs. She wasn’t too happy about seeing me. She told me I should stop by and see him. He’s been asking about me.”
“Yeah, like that’s going to happen.”
He was right. I was not going to see him at least not while Hunter was around. I needed to give Dominic some kind of closure so he could move on.
Jackson burst out about twenty minutes later with a huge smile. He shoved his camera at us and showed the pictures he had taken.
Alex was precious with chubby little cheeks and a head of dark hair just like his daddy. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my little nephew.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I peaked in on my nephew before I went home for the night. I was exhausted from everything going on. I knew Chloe and Jackson were too, and they needed some one on one time with Alex.
Everyone went back to our house where we decided to order some pizza and just hang out. Mason and Hailey disappeared after the pizza arrived, and Cooper and Jay were sitting in the living room watching Duck Dynasty. Mom and Dad headed upstairs to get some sleep.
Alone, and after a retelling of their bumbling crib-construction, Hunter pulled me into his lap.
“Come away with me for New Year’s?”
I stared at him trying to gauge where this was going. We always celebrated at my house with everyone, so why would he want to go away?
“Where?”
“I want to surprise you with something.” He placed a kiss on my lips to keep me from arguing.
“I hate surprises, Hunter; you know this.”
Smirking at me through his dark, thick eyelashes, he said, “I know but you’re not going to hate this.”
I smiled and kissed him. “And what are we going to tell everyone? We don’t need another argument like Thursday.”
“Let me take care of that. I know someone who can help us out.” He winked at me.
“All right, as long as everyone is ok with it.”
“Don’t worry. They’ll be fine with it.”
Hunter left a little after that with Jaylinn. He told me he we would come over tomorrow to pick me up because we had to head out around lunchtime to go back to school. I really was not looking forward to going back to school.
The next morning, my mom woke me up early. I wanted to sneak over to the hospital before anyone else since I was leaving the earliest.
“So, you and Hunter, huh?” She asked as we pulled up to the hospital. I was surprised she hadn’t asked before then.
I smiled and got out of the car. I couldn’t exactly answer her since Hunter and I actually have not made anything official. I didn’t want to jinx anything by talking about it too much before it actually became true.
“Well, are you