Shelly
“Hey Doc, I’m heading out for lunch with my sister. I’ll see you in a little bit.” I peek my head into Dr. Collins’s office. She has been really great to work with. She is really sweet and very understanding of my situation. Actually, most of them have been. Hopefully this situation will change soon and our lives can go back to normal.
“No problem, Shelly. Enjoy lunch and take your time. We don’t have another patient until one-thirty.” She gives me a warm smile.
“Thanks, see you soon.” I’m working with a family medicine doctor for the next couple of weeks, and I have to say this would be my next choice in practice. I would like to focus on kids, but if I get into a family practice, I would be happy to work here too. The people are incredibly nice and they treat everyone like family here. Before I step outside, I send a text to Slade. I want to be sure he remembered that I was leaving for lunch today. He instantly responds that he’s in the lot waiting for me. Knowing he has my back makes me feel so much better. I see his SUV pull up in front of mine as I climb in. I pull out and he follows me to the burger shop up the street.
When I pull up to LA Craft Burgers and Fries, I see my sister’s car is already here. She climbs out and greets me with a huge hug. “I’m so excited that we finally get to try this place. The burger joint has only been open for a short time, but it’s the talk of the town.
“Me too, but I’m telling you, I don’t think this will beat Mac’s burgers. Mikey and I will have to meet you and Eric there for dinner one night. I’m telling you the man can cook.”
She rolls her eyes. “Let’s just check it out before you dismiss it.”
I laugh. “Not dismissing it, I’m just letting you know that Mac’s burgers are pretty epic.”
The hostess at the door greets us. “Good afternoon. Three?” she asks, seeing Slade behind me.
“Two,” Slade announces. “And I’ll need a table close by.”
She looks at me, concerned. I give her a smile, letting her know that it’s okay. “Right this way.” When we get there she looks at me and whispers, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I chuckle. “Yeah, he’s my security guard.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” The poor girl turns fifty shades of red.
“It’s fine. I understand and I appreciate your concern. Can you please put his meal on my tab?”
“Absolutely. I’ll let your waitress know and she’ll be right over.”
She shows Slade to his table a short distance from us. I hear her asking him if the table she’s seating him at works. He tells her it’s fine and she walks off to do as I ask.
Brea chuckles. “I don’t blame her. He’s a big dude.”
“He is. To be honest, I was hoping to focus on something other than the predator I have lurking in the shadows.”
She nods. “Fair enough. How’s my nephew? I miss him.”
“He’s doing okay. Some days are better than others.” I shake my head. “I’m so lucky to have Mikey. He’s great with him. He’s been having him watch a movie in the morning so he can get some work done and then after lunch he does his Pre-K books with him for a little while. Then he sends him to his room to play while he finishes working.”
“It’s great he can work from home. That’s one of the things that’s nice about Eric’s job. He can bring his laptop home and work from there. It will come in handy if and when the time comes that we decide to have a baby.”
My brows shoot up. “Are you trying to tell me something?”
“No.” She rolls her eyes again. “I’m just saying. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we’ve talked about the next step in our relationship and such, but we’re in no rush.”
The waitress finally comes over and we place our food and beverage order. I again make sure she knows that I want to pay for Slade’s lunch. She tells me she’s been made aware and she will put our orders in together under my tab.
I turn back to my sister. “I’m glad. Eric is a great guy, and he’s been extremely supportive, but you guys are still young. You need to relax and enjoy living together alone for a while.”
She shrugs. “I guess. It’s different for us though. We miss Ryker, he’s been such a big part of my life it’s almost weird to not have him around.”
“You guys do what you want, but I think that’s all the more reason to relax a bit and enjoy. I appreciate all you did for me and I will always support your decisions and be there to help you but…” my words trail off. “I missed out on a lot and I would never change one minute of my past, Ryker is my life, but I want you to enjoy being a couple first.”
The waitress comes back with our food. “Bacon cheeseburger with caramelized onions?”
“Right here please,” I tell the waitress, who give me my plate and then places down some weird burger my sister ordered. This place is pretty cool. They have a ton of specialty burgers that they came up with or you can build your own burger. My sister cuts her burger in half and then takes a bite. She closes her eyes and moans like she’s in heaven. I shake my head and take the first bite of my burger. It’s good. I give them that, but it’s still not Mac’s. This burger is a little greasy and that’s one thing I love about Mac’s burgers. They are juicy without making a drippy mess.
“Come on. That’s a good burger.”
I shrug. “You can’t dismiss Mac until you taste his, then you can decide.”
“Okay fine. Sunday night, the five of us. I’ll take Ryker Saturday night, and we’ll meet you there on Sunday for dinner.”
I laugh. “Fine with me.” I know when she gets to Mac’s she’s going to say it’s better. We are two peas in a pod and always agree when it comes to food. Not to mention the fries here aren’t very good, and there’s no place around that will make a milkshake like Mac. I’ve only had a few sips of Ryker’s, but they are delicious.
The waitress comes over and asks if we’re all set. I tell her we are and that we’ll take the bill when she’s ready. She pulls one of those black folders from her pouch and places it down on the table. I scoop it up and slip my credit card into the appropriate holder handing it back to her. “I’ll be right back with your slip.” I thank her and she walks off with our plates.
A few minutes later she delivers my slip and then walks over to Slade’s table to take his plate. I can hear her telling him that I took care of his bill. He glances in my direction with a look that screams really. I try to fight the smile playing at my lips but fail. “Ready, sis? I have to get back to the office.”
“Sure am. I have to get going too.” We both get up from our table and Slade follows behind us. We walk my sister to her car and then Slade walks me to mine.
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I wanted to. You’re taking time out of your day to follow me around and keep me safe, it’s the least I can do. Besides, Mikey told me to.” I giggle.
“Thank you, but that wasn’t necessary.”
“Oh, but it was.” I climb into my car and when I turn back, he’s shaking his head with an amused look on his face. He shuts the door for me and jumps into his black SUV to follow me back to the office.
***
I’m pulling up to the house after a busy afternoon. We were supposed to be slow, but apparently there’s a bug going around and we ended up treating three sick kids on top of the scheduled patients we were supposed to see. When I get to our apartment, Slade tells me he’ll see me at the hospital. He and Miranda are headed there tonight as well. They haven’t had the chance to visit with Katie since they let her sister and parents visit yesterday.
I walk through the door and shout, “Mikey, Ryker, I’m home.” Ryker comes running into the living room.
“Mommy!” He wraps me in the biggest hug. I swear this is the best part of my day. My son has always been a bit of a mamma’s boy, and I pray to God every day that doesn’t change.
“Hey, baby.” Mikey comes over and gives me a kiss while Ryker is still wrapped around my legs.
“Ewww.” Ryker screams and runs off when he realizes Mikey is kissing me.
“Well, that worked out in our favor.” He deepens the kiss. “I missed you today.” He stares into my eyes.
“I missed you too, but I should warn you before we get to the hospital, Slade wasn’t too thrilled with me paying for his lunch today, so you may get some crap for it,” I inform him with a silly grin.
He shrugs. “Fuck it. What’s he going to do? The guy works hard for us and this entire family—he’s entitled to lunch.”
“I agree. Like I said, just giving you a heads up.”
“Go change and we’ll get going.” He pats me on the ass. “I told Shane and Katie we would bring them dinner.”
“Sounds good.” I hurry off to change, and as soon as I’m done, we hurry out the door to pick up the pizza Mikey ordered. The shop is right down the street from the hospital, which is perfect, because it’ll still be hot when we get there.
We pull up to the hospital and Mikey grabs the pizza while I take Ryker’s hand. Of course he ordered enough to feed a freaking army, but that’s how Mikey rolls. He said he wanted to make sure there was plenty in case the entire crew was there. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Logan pulled strings to get her a single room like he did for everyone else.”
Mikey laughs. “Me neither, hence all the pizza. Everyone was at our place last night, which means everyone will be here tonight.”
When we get into the room, as Mikey suspected, everyone is here. The guys are all standing on the far side of the room and the ladies are all crowding around Katie. “Hey everyone,” Mikey says holding the pizza. “I brought dinner.”
The guys all start to cheer and Katie scolds them. “Shhh, the nurse has already threatened to throw you out if you’re loud.” Mikey shrugs and shuts the door to mute the noise from so many people being in the room.
“Awwww, Katie, she’s beautiful,” I gush at her little bundle of joy.
“I just fed her, would you like to hold her?”
I can’t help the huge smile that spreads across my face. “I would love to.” I scoop her from Katie’s arms and sit in the chair so Ryker can see too.
Mikey comes over with a piece of cheese pizza for him and he chooses that moment to say, “Mommy, I want a baby brodder or sister.” I bite my lips, trying to fight my laughter.
Mikey squats down in front of him. “What do you say we let Mommy finish school first and then we can talk about it?” My eyes go wide. I can’t believe he just said that to him. I mean, I love Mikey with all my heart, but this wasn’t something we had really discussed. I had no idea how he felt about having a kid of his own. Ryker nods and takes the pizza sitting on the floor to eat. He looks down at me, kisses me on the head, and then winks as he walks away.
“Shelly, look over here.” I look at Miranda. “Smile,” she announces, snapping a picture of me and Taylor with her phone. “Sorry, Katie made me promise to take a bunch of pictures tonight.”
“No need to be sorry. She’s so precious.”
“Mommy, can I hold the baby?” I look at Katie, concerned, but she nods her head.
“Ryker, come sit with me,” Katie instructs him. He jumps up and climbs onto the bed, sitting between Katie’s legs.
I walk Taylor around the bed and stand behind him. “Now, listen, buddy. You have to sit very still. Babies are very fragile.”
“Okay, Mommy.” He looks up at me as I lower Taylor onto his lap and his face lights up. He really is excited to hold her.
“Ryker, look at Auntie Miranda,” I tell him as I squat down so she can get a picture of the three of us.
She snaps the picture and then calls Mikey. “Mikey, get in here with your family.” What an awesome thought. Our family.
Mikey comes over and squats on the other side of him. We all smile and she takes another picture. I take Taylor back from Ryker and ask him to sit and finish his dinner, that word family running wild in my head. I believe in my heart that Mikey looks at us as a family, but the scary part is that Eli wants to break us up. He wants to be a part of this family and that scares me. Not to mention I’d be afraid to bring another child into this world, not knowing what he would do if he found out I was pregnant with another man’s baby.
I need to focus on the positive. I have tons of amazing people around us and they will keep us safe. Tonight is about this beautiful baby and her family. “You look deep in thought, are you okay?” Mikey squats in front of my chair.
I give him a tight smile. “Yeah, I’m all right.”
He rubs my leg. “That didn’t sound very convincing. Was it what I said to Ryker?”
I shake my head. “Actually, it was what Miranda said about us being a family and the thought of Eli trying to wedge his way into our happiness.”
“Aww, baby, he can never do that. Even if he somehow manages to get supervised visitation, he’ll never be a part of what we have, and I promise if you want to have a baby with me someday, that’s our business. I promise I will forever keep all four of us safe.”
My smile grows. “I love that you always make me feel better. I love you so much.”
He kisses me. “I love you too.”
“Everything good over there?” Slade asks.
“Mommy and Mikey keep kissing today.” Ryker has a look of disgust on his face.
The entire room erupts into laughter. “That’s what adults do when they love each other.” Mikey ruffles his fingers through his curls. “Finish up, little man. We have to get you home and into bed soon.”
“Okay, Mikey.” Ryker shoves his second slice of pizza into his mouth.
“Let me take her. You go eat.” Mikey scoops the baby out of my hands.
“Someone has baby fever,” I mumble with laughter as I walk away to get some pizza. The guys are all hovering around the boxes like they haven’t eaten in days.
“What kind would you like?” Slade asks, grabbing me a plate.
“Barbecue chicken, please.”
“One slice or two?”
“One is fine for now. Thank you.” He nods and hands me my plate.
“How’s school coming?” Logan asks.
“Good, today was a crazy day though. It started out really slow and then all of sudden we had this burst of patients come in.” I turn to Katie. “I wore a mask all afternoon and kept my hands extremely clean so I could come see you.”
Katie laughs. “Thanks, but you didn’t have to do that. This is a hospital, it’s loaded with germs. I know they try to keep it clean, but there are sick people everywhere.”
I shrug. “I wasn’t taking chances.” I turn back to Logan. “Anyway, there’s a bug going around, so watch yourselves, especially the little ones. It’s brutal.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Sky comments from across the room.
“Mommy, I’m done.” Ryker hands me his plate. I put it beneath mine and tell him to sit and we’ll get going when I’m done.
We spend about another thirty minutes with everyone and then the nurse comes in to check on Katie and the baby. She sees how many of us are in here and her eyes go wide. It’s funny how big this family is and her parents aren’t even here. To help ease her panic, I announce it’s time for us to get going. That will be three less people in the room. We’re saying our goodbyes when I hear her tell Katie that everyone is going to have to go shortly. “Congrats,” I say to Shane, giving him a hug.
“Thanks, and thanks for dinner.” He shakes Mikey’s hand while I hug Katie goodbye.
It’s been a long day and I still need to clean Ryker up for bed.