I was sitting on the couch with my feet kicked up on the ottoman, watching the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Eagles’ ass in the fourth quarter of the game from Sunday night, when Mrs. Cahill walked in with a bag full of stuff.
After setting it down on the table, she looked over at me and smiled. “I don’t know if I tell you enough Hunter, but I’m so proud of you.” She got teary eyed. She looked down at her hands and said, “If it was anyone else, I’m not sure if they would have stuck around.”
I got up from the couch, walked over to her and hugged her. She started crying, this was hard on her. It was hard on all of us. I think Chaos was really keeping us all from losing it.
I let go of her when she finally calmed down. “I’m sorry I’m such a mess.” She laughed and grabbed a tissue off the table to wipe under her eyes.
I shoved my hands in my pockets, “It’s ok.”
“Well I’m just going to unpack this, why don’t you head on up to the hospital? I was up there this morning and the nurse said that she had a good night.” She started unpacking the food and other stuff from the bag.
“Alright, I’ve got some stuff to do before I head up there. I’ll be bringing Chaos home in the early afternoon though.” I picked up my helmet and keys from the table.
“Chaos?” she asked.
“Coop named him.” I smiled a real smile, something that I haven’t done enough lately. “I like it.”
She smiled back, “I do too.” She put the milk in the fridge then frowned when she saw my helmet. “Please be careful.”
Shaking my head I said, “I will. I have two things that mean the world to me.”
I jumped on my bike and headed about thirty minutes north of my house to the Honda dealer. CC’s car was totaled and even if it wasn’t, there was no way in hell I was allowing her to drive it again. I knew she was going to be pissed off at me when she found out what I did without talking to her first, but I didn’t give a shit. Their safety was my number one priority. Plus, having an SUV would be a lot easier with the baby; my truck wasn’t exactly ideal. For starters CC had to hop to get in since she was so short, there was no way she would be able to lift the car seat into the back.
I pulled into the parking lot and cut the bike off. I had seen the Honda Pilot SUV a month ago and I was trying to talk CC into letting me buy it but she’d refused, saying her car was just fine. Well, now that it wasn’t I was going for it.
The salesman came out and greeted me; I told him exactly what I was looking for. He showed me a few different ones, the base model, the 2-wheel drive model, and the 4-wheel drive model. I figured since I was getting my way, I was going to get what I felt was best for them. I went with the 4-wheel drive.
I really wanted the white, but they didn’t have it in the model I wanted. I didn’t want to wait for them to order one so I went with the black one instead. I had to admit I was kind of jealous. The Pilot was hot. It had all black leather upholstery, all power features, and a rear DVD entertainment system. It also had a sun roof — which I knew CC would love — a navigation system with back-up camera, and a Bluetooth Hands Free device so she wouldn’t be distracted by her phone. There would be plenty of cargo space for all the baby’s things too.
I took it out for a test drive and before I even hit 30 MPH I knew this was the car. We went back to the dealership and got started on the paperwork. An hour and a half later we were proud owners of a 2011 Honda Pilot.
Since I had my bike with me, I called Mason to come and ride it while I drove the Pilot home.
“Yo, you busy?” I asked when he answered.
“Not really. Just on my way home from the hospital.” He sounded a lot happier today than he had been. Mason was taking all this almost as bad as I was. “What’s up?”
“Well, I just bought us a Pilot. Can you come ride my bike home?”
“You’re f**king nuts you know that?” he said, laughing.
“Yeah I know. She can beat my ass when she wakes up. Are you coming or not?”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
While I waited for Mason to show up, I played around with the stereo system, making sure to set all of CC’s favorite stations. God, I missed her.
Mason pulled up next to me with Hailey in the passenger side seat. She came bouncing around the side of her Jeep all smiles.
“Think she’ll like it?” I asked her.
“Well if she doesn’t, you can always give it to me.” Don’t get me wrong, I was glad she seemed back to her normal, spunky self but what the f**k was she so happy about? She knew CC was going to give me shit about it.
“What’s with you two?” I asked them suspiciously.
Hailey started cracking up and Mason just shook his head. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”
I threw my bike keys at him, but of course the ass**le couldn’t catch anything that wasn’t a baseball. I shook my head and hopped into the Pilot to drive home.
I pulled into the driveway carefully. Leaving the car running, I grabbed the car seat, which I’d left right by the front door. I tried to figure the damn thing out, but Christ it was confusing. I remembered the nurse telling me someone would check it before they released the baby. Thank God for that.
Mason pulled in with my bike, followed by Hailey in her Jeep. She jumped out and ran into my house like she did every time she came over. I was going to have to replace the locks soon — I couldn’t have her walking in on me and CC again. I chuckled, thinking of the time she caught us ha**ng s*x on the kitchen counter. We were still working on christening the whole house. You would have thought she’d have learnt her lesson but she caught us again a few days later on the back deck.
“Why does she do that?” I asked Mason.
“Why does she do half the shit she does?” He made a valid point.
She came out with a diaper bag in her hand and thrust it at me. “You’re going to need this, big guy.”
Yeah I guess I was. I was so damn nervous about taking Chaos home I didn’t even think about it. “I packed a few outfits in there for you; I wasn’t sure what you wanted to bring him home in.”
I leaned down and kissed the top of her head, earning me a glare from Mason. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now go bring my nephew home,” She reached her tiny little arms up around my neck and whispered in my ear. “And my best friend.”