Page 20 of Crazy In Love (Love & War #2)

CHRIS

Ten little fingers, and ten little toes.

I count every single one of them ten times over in the hours after we arrive at the hospital, and when I’m done with those, I move on to her chubby cheeks, the dark tint to the wispy curls stuck to the top of her head, bow-lips straight from the Page family tree, and a pert little nose.

She’s perfect.

“She hasn’t woken up yet.” I don’t bother looking at the clock on the wall, and I haven’t taken my phone out of my pocket since we arrived.

I merely slide my thumb into Hazel’s little fist and take a guess, factoring in the sun high in the sky outside the hospital windows. “It’s been hours. Is that normal?”

Fox crosses to my chair and drops into a crouch, resting her arms on the armrest and her chin on her hands.

Smiling— fuck, she’s kinda pretty today —she studies us with dancing eyes.

“I admit, my baby knowledge extends only as far as that one, itty bitty baby that came screaming into the world ten years ago, but Franky slept for, like…” Questioning, she peeks over her shoulder at the duo perched on her bed, crisscrossed legs and a mini magnetized chessboard set up between them.

“It was almost twenty hours, right, Alana?”

She shifts and grits her teeth, hiding her pain from the other two who’ve made a habit of jumping anytime she so much as breathes funny.

Glancing across, she considers and nods.

“I was getting pretty worried by the end. Babies are supposed to cry and eat and stuff. But Franky was totally chill for almost the entire first day.”

Smug, Fox brings her eyes back around. “He was fine. Hazel’s only half a day old, so she might be out for a little while yet.”

“You wanna hold her yet?” I don’t want to give her up.

Fuckkkk, I don’t want to hand her off and risk not getting her back.

But this woman, this person I was convinced would take over, has been insanely patient all morning.

More patient than I could ever be. “You could have my seat and hold her for a bit.”

“It’s okay.” She lays her arm over mine and strokes Hazel’s little chin with the tip of her finger.

“I don’t mind. I got Franky’s first ten years, so you can probably have her whole first day and it still wouldn’t be a fair exchange.

Besides,” she pushes up straight, arching her back and groaning in response to the loud pops that become audible.

Then she turns to Franky but backs up and leans against my chair.

She’s tired.

“We missed breakfast, and the lunch ladies came around a whole hour ago. We made sure Mom ate but forgot about us. You wanna come with me to get something to eat, buddy?”

“No, thanks.” He concentrates on the board, nudging his glasses higher and selecting a pawn to charge forward. “I ate some of Mom’s sandwich, so I’m not hungry anymore.”

True, I’m sure. But what he actually means is he missed the shit out of his mother, and he’s not letting her out of his sight until he has to.

“Thanks, though.”

“Why don’t you go back to the apartment and chill?” Tommy offers. “You’re still wearing yesterday’s clothes, so a shower and a meal will set you up for another night at the house. We’re good here for a while.”

“I suppose.” Thoughtful, she rolls the sleeves of my hoodie up her arms and reaches back to fix her messy ponytail. “Franky, you wanna come to the apartment and?—”

“No, thanks.”

“Leave him here with us,” Alana murmurs, meeting his worried eyes with a playful wink. “Tommy can get us snacks, then we’ll settle in for a quiet afternoon. Ollie said he’ll check on us in a little bit, and I kinda want a nap before then.”

“Family time.” Tommy presses a kiss to Alana’s knuckles. “Sounds perfect.”

“Yeah. Family time.” Fox takes out her phone and stares at the screen like it holds the world’s secrets.

But fuck if I don’t see the flicker of hurt passing through her eyes.

The ache she won’t verbalize. Family time .

Without her . “Heading back to the apartment sounds like a great idea, actually.” She puts her phone back and pats her pockets.

“I guess I’ll give credit where credit’s due—” She rearranges her expression, pasting on a fake smile, then she spins and beams for her best friend, “Plainview being so small means I can walk anywhere in a matter of two blocks and five minutes. If I was in New York and forgot my car at home, I’d need two trains and a sacrificial goat. ”

“I’ll drive you.” Hugging Hazel to my chest, I stand and earn Fox’s surprised gaze as she swings back around. Then I brush past her and cross the room. “They want family time, and I drove us here in my truck.”

She wrings her hands together and tracks my every step. “Family means you too, Uncle Chris.”

I kiss Hazel’s forehead and gently lay her bundled body in Tommy’s waiting arms. Then, I meet Fox’s eyes and feel a little bad for her.

For the first time ever.

“It means the four of them. Not four and a hanger-on-er.”

“You could stay if you want to,” Alana counters. Explains. Over-explains . “I didn’t mean to push you out. That’s not what I meant?—”

“I don’t feel pushed out.” I cross to her and drop a kiss on her cheek, then I ruffle Franky’s hair and murmur, “Castle to D5. Take his queen and destroy his attack.”

“Chris!” He slaps my hand away. “Don’t tell her how to win! That’s cheating.”

Snickering, Alana moves her castle and decimates her son’s defense.

“Come on.” I turn again and hate how annoyingly pretty Fox is when she’s not the loudest, cockiest rooster in the room.

Confidence is sexy, and the fact she’s no pushover is delicious—beneath the irritation, anyway—but when she’s not quite sure where she belongs, hasn’t slept as much as she’d like, and she’s not as perfectly presented as her corporate Barbie preference, she’s vulnerable and cute and bordering on sheepish.

Jesus save me. I don’t want to think of her as anything except untouchable and a little bitchy. Life is safer that way.

I stroll across the room, and grab the hem of her hoodie—my hoodie—and give it a gentle tug. “I’m starving, my body’s eating itself, I haven’t stretched my legs yet today, and you’re looking a little—” adorable “—messy.”

Predictably, her eyes narrow to slits, and her hands fly up to flatten her hair. “I’m not messy. I look fine.”

“You look like you’re doing a walk of shame. Everyone’s thinking it.”

“I’m not doing a walk of shame! You know exactly where I was last night, jackass.

” She follows me out of the hospital room, dogging my steps and crashing into my back when I stop and wait for the security doors to let us out.

“You poke at me because you want us to fight, Christian. You want me to be mean to you.”

“Do I?” I slip my hands into my pockets and spy her bulldog nose scrunched with viciousness. “I guess I picked that habit up from you. Fighting with you is easy. It might even be fun sometimes.”

“I can walk to the apartment.” Two deep lines cut between her brows, furrowing and frustrated. “I don’t trust myself to be kind when I’m tired, and your feelings are too easily hurt.”

“I think I’m gonna be okay.” I cut left and snag her hoodie, pulling her along with me. “You can have a shower, and I’ll relax in front of the television while I wait. Twenty minutes of quiet would be nice, then we can grab something to eat before I die of starvation.”

“Alternatively,” she grumbles. “I think I’ll walk home and leave you to find a TV and food somewhere else. Alone .”

“You get cranky when you’ve spent the day trapped in a small room, and you haven’t had a chance to run your mouth. Alana being there kept you on your best behavior.”

“No shit! I have all this negative energy just sitting here in my chest, loaded and ready to go.” She stomps out of the hospital just two steps ahead of me, but when I expect her to take off and charge toward the street, she stops instead and lifts her face to the sky.

It’s what she did yesterday morning, too, when she thought she was alone.

It’s a compulsion, maybe. As natural as drawing air into her lungs and accepting the sun’s hit of vitamin D.

Her bad mood makes way for serenity, and her scowl transforms into a smile.

Damn her for being cute.

“Why do you do that?” I stride around and stand over her, blocking her from the sun until her eyes snap open. “It’s like you’re saying good morning to the world.”

“Why not?” She sidesteps me and struts away, cutting through the hospital driveway and angling toward the road. But the woman I thought was wild and unpredictable is, it turns out, the complete opposite. And it only took minutes for me to figure her out.

I snag her sleeve and drag her the other way.

“Chris!”

“You’re riding with me. We’re not negotiating this, and I’m not gonna stand here and let you choose otherwise.

” I sling her forward, release her sleeve, and watch her sail toward my truck.

“You’ve spent all this time picking at me, because you knew it bothered me.

But it looks like I’ve figured you out, too.

You don’t like controlling your sassy bullshit for twelve hours, and you sure as shit don’t like being woken up before the sun. It makes you cranky.”

“And even knowing that, you insist on driving me around.” She trudges to the passenger side door and yanks it open. “If you let me walk my mood off, you could drive a different way, still get your TV and quiet time, eat whatever you want, and not get chewed out for any of it.”

“Or maybe you’re not upset about being locked up at all.

” I slide into the driver’s side and slip the key into the ignition.

“Maybe it’s because Alana said she wanted family time, and for a moment there, you felt like that meant everyone except you.

” I turn the engine over and set my foot on the gas, revving the old motor.

“That rejection stung. And even if you know that wasn’t her intention, it still hit a nerve. ”