Easy to Love You (19 page)

I cleared my throat, I was getting answers. “What the hell’s going on? And don’t say ‘nothing’, I’m not stupid and I’m not a little girl anymore.”

No one moved. No one said a word. No one looked at me until Mom and Dad walked back in.

He took a deep breath, “Baby girl, we need to have a family meeting.”

What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?

“Well, I can tell this family meeting’s going to be bad, not a damn one of you will look at me.” I snapped.

Hunter reached under that table and placed his hand on my thigh. Normally, that would calm my nerves but not this time. I didn’t have a clue as to what the hell was going on; all I knew was that everyone had been acting strange all day. Even Chloe, who never let anything get to her, wasn’t herself.

Mom grabbed Dad’s hand on top of the table; he looked over and gave her a smile and then he quickly glanced around to each of us before he started, “Well you know that I work in New York?” I nodded, “Well I don’t actually work for the New York Stock Exchange. I’m actually an FBI Agent.”

Huh?
I’m confused.
Was this a joke? Why would he lie about that?

“You may not understand baby girl, but I didn’t want you to know. I deal with some pretty dangerous people and I never wanted my career to touch you in any way. That’s why the boys were so protective of you for all these years, I instilled it in them.”

Wasn’t this some shit? My family had hidden this from me all these years. “So you’d rather lie to me than tell me the truth?” I was getting more pissed off by the minute.

“I did it for you MacKenzie.
We
did it for you. I never wanted anything to happen to you.” Dad explained, his eyes begging me to understand why he’d done what he had.

“You could have told me and still had them protect me, Dad. Everyone knows but me?” I looked around the table and still no one was looking at me, not even Hunter.

I grabbed Hunter’s hand and threw it off my thigh; he looked up at me then. “You knew?”

He didn’t have to answer; his eyes told me everything I needed to know. “This is great. I’m damn near twenty years old; I have a child for Christ’s sake. I can handle shit. I mean, my God, I was damn near killed a few weeks ago in a car accident. I handled that, I’m
still
handling it.” I was livid, “I was in danger when I left the house that day and no one was there to protect me.” Hunter flinched, “What was the point in
lying
to me?”

“CC…” Hunter spoke up.

“Don’t CC me anything. You knew about this and you didn’t tell me?” I was now turning my wrath on him. “You got pissed off that I didn’t tell you about Dominic visiting me that one time. I’ve told you
everything
from that day forward. You didn’t think you should have told me about this?”

I dropped his hand, I was disgusted. He’s so hypocritical.

“Sweetheart, in his defense he didn’t know ‘til just recently.” Mom expressed.

“I don’t give a shit, he should have told me. You
all
should have told me.” I was ready to leave, I needed fresh air. “Hell the secret isn’t even the end of the world. But I think I had the right to know a lot sooner than now.”

I looked over at Hunter, about ready to ask him to take me home, when I saw the look between him and Mason. Was something else still going on? I chose to believe that if there was, it would have come out now. I’m already pissed off; they might as well pile it on.

“Take me home.” I told Hunter, his head jerked towards me.

He shook his head, “No. You need to eat, and then I’ll take you home.”

If my ankle wasn’t still sore, I would’ve gotten my ass up from that chair and walked out. Hell, I thought about doing it anyway. “I can’t even finish now.”

Ryder started wailing from behind me. Shit, I’d forgotten he was in the room. Aside from Hunter, Ryder was the only one who could read my moods. When I was pissed off, he was pissed off, when I was sad, he was sad.

“Get him for me.” I spoke to anyone who would pick him up. Hunter’s mom was the closest; she hopped up and handed him over to me. Once he was snuggled up against me he calmed down. I rocked him for a few minutes and he fell back to sleep. No one talked. Everyone’s eyes were darting all around.

Dad reached for a fork and started eating, everyone else followed his lead and the conversation was over for now. I was pissed off and hurting. Your family is always supposed to love, protect and cherish each other. Right now I wasn’t feeling any of that.

When Hunter finished his dinner we packed up all of Ryder’s stuff and went home. I left without a word to anyone except Jaylinn and Hunter’s mom. I was sitting on the bed, holding Ryder while he was finishing his bottle before I laid him down to sleep, thinking about all the lies I was fed. Do I even really know my family? While I was thinking Dad was on a business trip he was really out fighting bad guys. There could have been a chance my dad never made it home, then what would have they told me?

I tried to burp him a few times before I laid him down, but he just wasn’t having it. Hunter came over and took him from me. He tried a few times himself to get Ryder to burp but he still wasn’t cooperating. Giving up, he rolled the bassinet closer to the bed and then laid him in it. Ryder was snug as a bug in his comfy and cozy little bed and would hopefully be out for a couple of hours.

Hunter stripped down to his boxers, placed his hat on the bed post and then climbed into bed next to me. “When did shit get so complicated?” I asked Hunter.

He pulled me so my back was flush against his chest, his hand resting on my hip. I felt him shake his head, “If you figure it out let me know.”

I wanted to be mad at Hunter for not telling me, but I knew I couldn’t be. In the car he had explained that he hadn’t known about my dad until Mason had told him at the hospital. That was pretty shitty timing on Mason’s part. He informed me that he’d told Mason that he wouldn’t keep it a secret from me, but with everything that was going on he just hadn’t wanted the extra stress put on me. In a way I did understand, the doctor wanted me stress free until I was in better health. As much as I wanted to blame Hunter, I knew that I couldn’t. He was looking out for me.

I let it slide just this one time.

It’d been three weeks since CC refused to talk to anyone but me and Hailey. She didn’t really have a choice but to talk to me. I mean I knew she was upset with me, but she understood that I hadn’t wanted to add any more stress. Hailey on the other hand never confessed to knowing about her dad. I think in a way CC knew that she was aware, but it was a family thing and, although Hailey is practically family, it wasn’t her right to say anything.

CC was scheduled for both doctors today, which sent me into a little bit of a panic. One appointment with her OB-GYN to have her final checkup and clearance for sex and another appointment with the Orthopedic doctor to have her casts removed. This meant that she’d have her freedom back and a bigger chance of running into Jason and Brittany without any of us around.

I hadn’t had a chance to talk to my mom about Jason and I really needed to do it soon. Maybe there’s a chance that I could figure out a way of getting them both to move, and never come back to bother us again. I’d gotten an extension on my leave from work for at least another two weeks which meant that I had two weeks to get my life back in order so I could concentrate when I returned.

Fucking Brittany, I still couldn’t believe she was my half-sister. I talked to Jaylinn a few times on the phone and every time I brought her up she’d cut me off and dismissed the conversation.

CC was upstairs feeding Ryder so that we could get out of here, while I was in the kitchen fixing his bottles. This boy could eat; he was about to be two months old and already drinking eight ounces.

Now that CC was going to be free of her cast, I wanted some alone time with her, the only problem was, she wasn’t talking to anyone who could watch Ryder for us except my mom.

I figured it was worth a shot, so I picked up the phone and dialed, “Hello?” Mom said when she answered.

“Hey Ma. How you doing?”

She let out a long sigh, “I’m hanging in there. I miss you guys though, I wish there was a way to fix this mess.”

“Well I was going to ask if you could babysit Ryder for a little while. I want to take Kenz out for dinner and maybe a movie. She’s getting her cast off today.”

“Oh Hunter, that’s wonderful. And yes, of course I’ll watch him.”

“Great, thanks Ma. We’ll be over in a few hours.”

After I got the diaper bag packed, I went upstairs to collect the two of them. I heard CC talking and stopped for a second before I pushed the door open.

“Look how cute you look in your little outfit. Handsome just like your daddy.” Then I heard her kissing him.

I pushed the door open, “I want in on that action.”

Her cheeks flushed, “Then come get it.”

I did, I walked over and kissed her, hard. She reached up with one hand and grabbed the back of my neck kissing me even harder. Damn, I can’t wait for tonight.

She let her hand slowly slide down to my shoulder, and then my arm, when Ryder started cooing. We broke apart, laughing.

“He’s too cute.” CC said, running her hand over his head. He was getting big fast. His hands were like mittens, perfect for a baseball player or even a football player. For right now he had blue eyes, they were dark but they were blue. Strong little man too, already pulling his head up.

I looked down at my watch, “It’s time to get out of here, you ready?” I asked CC.

“Hell yeah! Just help me with my coat when you’re done putting Ryder in his seat.” She reached for the brush that was lying next to her and started brushing her hair. She’d tried talking me through braiding her hair once, but fuck that shit was complicated. I did give her help with a pony tail a time or two, it wasn’t perfect but it did the job. Now, when we went out, she used one of those band things that kept her hair out of her face.

Ryder was all buckled in; I ran him down to the bottom of the stairs and set him by the door. I went back upstairs, picked CC up and then walked us out to the car. She took the keys and started it up and got the heat turned on while I went in for Ryder. Finally we were on our way to get CC’s freedom back.

A few hours later, she was cast free, cleared to have sex and ecstatic. Ryder was at Mom’s, and we were pulling in to have dinner at the Italian restaurant that we both loved.

We were sat at a table for two in the back corner, perfect for us.

CC and I ordered our drinks; water for her a beer for me. I hadn’t seen her this happy in a long time. “I can’t believe they’re finally fucking off! My arm and foot look nasty, but they’re off.” Both were all flaky and really dry.

“I see.” I chuckled at her. “So what movie do you want to go and see?”

CC gave me the look, the one that said
‘You can’t be serious’,
“You really want to go to the movies?”

I shook my head, “No, but you know.” I felt her foot slide up and down my ankle “I wasn’t sure if you were ready for all that.”

She was inching her leg up to just above my knee and then back down. I was watching her intently. If she didn’t stop this teasing we weren’t going to make it home.

She licked her lips, she had that gloss stuff on and they were extra shiny. I sat up in my chair a little more so I could lean over the table and kiss her, but her foot shot up between my legs. She smirked at me, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m gonna kiss my fiancé. Why? You got a problem with that?” She wanted to play games and I was all for it.

“Actually,” She pointed her toes in the direction of my dick. “I do.”

I was a goner, I’m sure she knew this by now. How could she not? Her feet were pressing against it. She started moving her toes over my dick; I sucked in a quick breath. “What’s the matter, Hunter?”

Before I could show her what was wrong, the waitress walked over with our food. She placed it down in front of us, “Is there anything I can get you?”

I looked over at CC and she shook her head no, she still had her feet pressed against me. I didn’t trust my voice so I just shook my head and went to grab my beer off the table to take a swig.