A nurse walked to the baby in the bed closest to the window and looked up to offer me a kind smile.
I didn’t know how long I stood there just watching the babies before I grabbed my phone and tried to call Mad once more.
“I am so sorry.” She sounded out of breath. “The surgery ran longer than planned. There was a complication, and I had no way to let you know.”
“Slow down. Take a deep breath.” I heard her do as I directed. “It’s all good, babe. I’ve been checking out the babies.”
“You’ve been what?”
I laughed at the way her voice went from completely panicked to surprised.
“I started wandering around, and somehow I found the babies.”
“So you’ve been watching newborns for close to two hours?” If I wasn’t mistaken, there was a little admiration in her voice.
“Not the entire time.” I was already on my way back downstairs to meet her. “But once I got there, I couldn’t walk away. I thought about Rhett and about Blake. Then I thought about us.”
“What about us?”
“Well—”
“I’ll meet you downstairs.” She cut me off, and then the line went dead. I paused in the hallway, staring down at my phone, wondering what in the hell had just taken place.
I took the stairs two at a time, going down one level, and then rounded the corner. As the front doors came into view, I slowed, taking in the scene before me. Just inside the front doors, off to the left, Maddison stood facing Tom the Douche, and in my opinion, he was standing too fucking close.
I was still too far away to hear what they were saying, but Mad shook her head, and Tom reached out for her. I squeezed my hand at my side, knowing that if I hit this fuck in the hospital, it would be me going down.
Maddison said something and tried to sidestep him, and he did it too, blocking her path. My feet were moving, closing the distance between us, weighing out what was taking place, and telling myself to keep my calm.
Maddison noticed me first, and I saw it clearly: relief. That only made my blood boil, because it meant this asshole was, in fact, making her uncomfortable.
I didn’t even say excuse me. Fuck him. I butted in and in the process shoulder-checked the doctor that thought he had the right to trap my woman. “What do we have here?” I asked, placing my arm over Mad’s shoulders, and pulling her in to press a kiss to her forehead.
“I was just telling Tom that I was seeing someone.”
I was a little thrown by her description of what we were doing. “Seeing someone” just sounded so generic.
“Is that what we’re doing?” I stared at her, sounding a little harsher than I intended to. “Because to me, it feels like a whole lot more than that.”
She blushed, and I felt my own round of relief knowing that she didn’t take my tone to heart.
“You two.” Tom interrupted our moment, and I looked up at him, not replying. “Aren’t you two cousins?” I felt Maddison flinch.
“Not that we owe you an explanation, Tom.” I sneered when I said his name. “But Maddison and I are of no blood relation. Our mothers are best friends, as are our fathers. We grew up together so we have a bond that no one will ever be able to reach.” He watched us, going between us over and over.
“Was this ongoing when we were dating?”
“I’m not a cheater,” Mad growled, and I tried not to laugh.
“You were just a past time.” He took in a deep breath, like he was reining in his anger. Bring it, motherfucker. “I think we done here, so you’ll have to excuse us. We have a conversation to finish on our way back to our place.”
I ignored the questioning look from Maddison as I tugged her along.
“Have a great night, Tom.” I chuckled when Maddison poked me in the side and called me a troublemaker.
When we were safely inside her Jeep, with me behind the wheel, I paused with my finger on the key hanging from the ignition.
“What was all that back there about?”
“We rode the same elevator down from surgery. It’s honestly been a while since we’ve said more than a few words together. I called you once I exited and talked while I walked the long corridor. Then when I felt him place his hand on my back, I turned around and—”
“Ended our call.”
“Yeah,” she said, looking down at her lap.
“Why?”
“I didn’t want you to freak out.” I arched my brow, and she looked up at me only to laugh. “I know, what was I thinking? But honest, I thought I could get rid of him and then you and I wouldn’t even have to talk about him.”
“The guy’s a douche.” She didn’t challenge me. I was thankful because now was not the time to defend the ass.
“He said that he wanted to give us another shot.” I felt my irritation growing.
“And?”
“You came barreling in like a raging bull, and you know the rest.” The two of us remained in the quiet Jeep, just staring at one another. The comfortableness of the last couple of months were slowly being shadowed by that tension that I hated. I could feel my chest growing tight, making it feel difficult to take in even breaths.
“Earlier you said that you were thinking of us,” Maddison spoke up, finally
