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It’s been three days since I was released from the hospital, and Rage has been hovering over me like a mother hen. It’s annoying. He didn’t tell me what took him so long to get back to me after taking the kids home, but I’m assuming it has to do with ending Jordan’s life.
Something he hasn’t confirmed or denied. And that’s okay, the less I know the better in case the cops ever come questioning me about it. We’re on our way to the hospital to see the twins and I finally have their names picked out.
Maddox Noah and Winter Paige. Names I would have named my own children. In fact, those four names were the names of the children I lost, it only seemed fitting to bestow them on these babies.
“Doctor says the twins are strong, doing well, should be able to take them home in about week,” Rage says as he helps me out of the truck. We should have taken my car, because it doesn’t have a lift on it.
“Good, I can’t wait to have them home to give them all the cuddles and love they deserve.” Rage gives me a gentle smile and kisses my forehead.
“You have names picked out for them? If so, we can finish the paperwork today.”
I beam up at him and nod.
He chuckles and takes my hand, as we walk into the hospital. We are spotted the minute we walk into the unit and a nurse comes over with a smile on her face. “You’re just in time, it’s feeding time for the babies if you’d like to do it.”
Both Rage and I perk up at that news, we’ve yet to feed the babies ourselves, so of course, we want to do it.
The nurse leads us to the room where our babies are kept and I can’t help the smile that takes over my face, I might have just seen the babies last night, but I’ve missed them so much.
Rage leads me over to a chair and helps me sit down. I understand I was shot, still I’m not invalid. Yes, my chest hurts but that’s it.
A baby gets placed in my arms, and all I want to do is squeeze her tight, but I resist, because it would probably startle her and hurt me. Rage has our boy and he takes the seat next to me. Next up is bottles. I take it from the nurse and place it in the baby’s mouth. She suckles good.
“This is good, best suckling she’s done since she’s been here, babies are strong,” the nurse tells us. “They keep this up they’ll be good to go home by the weekend.” That news makes me overjoyed.
“Do you have names yet?”
“Yes, Winter Paige and Maddox Noah,” I tell her and she fills out the forms for the babies. Rage grins at me and compliments the names.
“Any special reason for those names?”
“They were the names I named my children I lost,” I tell him sadly, and he goes rigid. “If you don’t like them.” I start but he stops me.
“They are perfect names for our children.”
“Okay, dad, you need to sign off on these forms and we’ll get them submitted.”
“What about Jennifer, should she sign, too?” Rage asks, and I feel my heart drop.
“The adoption takes time, you have to go to court to finalize it, so until then, only you can sign these forms,” she tells us, looking a little put off. I don’t blame her, when Rage gets pissed, he even scares me.
“It’s okay, Rage, we’ll just wait for the courts,” I tell him gently and he shakes off his anger as he hands over Maddox to the nurse so he can sign the forms.
This is just a stepping stone, soon these babies will be home and they will be mine.
**
AFTER LEAVING THE HOSPITAL, I decide to drive over to Penny’s house. It’s one of Hangman’s properties. I haven’t seen Penny since she visited me in the hospital, to check on me. Before that it had been months since I last saw her and I miss my friend. She may not be an Old Lady but that doesn’t mean shit to me.
She opens the door and my jaw drops. “How far along?” I ask her in shock.
“Six months.” I count back, she wasn’t a club whore at the time, so who’s the baby daddy. “It’s Gunner’s if you were wondering,” she says, letting me inside.
“Holy fuck, does he know?”
“Yeah, but he’s denying it’s his. Since I left the club, he’s been to see me a few times, always ends up in hate fucking. And now look at me. All those years in the club I never once got knocked up or even a scare. It’s been what, a year now since I left the club, and boom, pregnant.”
“Well, damn. What are you gonna do?” I ask her, taking a seat on her couch.
“Raise this baby as best I can, of course. Hope that Gunner comes around. The kicker of this whole thing is Gunner has admitted he’s in love with me, but also someone else.”
I frown in confusion. “Huh?”
“Some ex-Amish woman he met last year, they’d been dating for a few months, and then she took off on him. He was with both of us at the same time. Said he couldn’t choose. And now I’m pregnant with his kid and he still can’t decide who he wants. Said he wants to get Esther back. What kind of name is that?” she rambles on, getting angry.
I don’t even know what to think about this, no wonder Gunner has been a mess lately. He’s all sorts of fucked up.
“Having something of him, though, must at least ease the pain of not having him at all?”
She snorts. “Doesn’t matter, he doesn’t want this baby if Esther won’t take him back. He fucked that up, not sure how, but she took off on him for a year. She just came back to town, and now, he’s tripping over himself to get her back. He says he wants to be with both of us, but how the fuck would that work?”
“Well, there is a name for it. Sister wives.” I try to joke, and she doesn’t look happy at my outburst.
“I don’t know, having part of him is better than nothing. Guess we’ll just have to see how things turn out.”
After an hour, I leave. I needed that visit even though most of it was her trash-talking Gunner, but for me, things now make more sense. Gunner didn’t lose just one woman, he lost two. No wonder he’s been drinking like a fish for the last few months.
I head home, to my family, needing them. I smile the whole way home.