Easy to Love You

by Megan Smith

  I sighed in relief. I was kind of expecting a screaming baby in the background but should’ve known better. Mom and Dad did raise me and look how I turned out. “Good, I was worried.”

  “I know you were, with it being nine in the morning and all. I take it Hunter did a good job of keeping you distracted?” Mom asked.

  I looked up to find Hunter gazing at me; I blushed, thinking of the shower this morning. “Yeah, he’s pretty good at distracting me.” Hunter smirked, smug jackass.

  “So what’re your plans today? Is everyone still there?” Mom asked. She must’ve been cooking because I could hear pots and pans hitting the stove.

  “Well, Hailey wants me to venture out with her today. I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not, you know how things can end with her sometimes.” I laughed.

  Hunter said, “You can say that again.”

  Mom was cracking up too, “Oh Kenzie, I think you’ll be just fine. You’ve been cooped up in that house for too long, you must be going crazy.”

  I was a little bit now that she’d said it. “Yeah, I think I’m going to go. Hunter said he would come and get Ryder, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

  “Oh honey, tell him to go out with the boys. Ryder’s just fine here with us. Why don’t you all go out, do your things and come here for Sunday dinner? We haven’t done that in a while.” I glanced up to Hunter who was at his dresser spraying on some cologne.

  “Mom, hang on.” I covered the phone. “Mom said not to worry about Ryder and go out with the boys and then we can do Sunday dinner there. Is that ok with you?” I missed having family dinners too.

  “Yeah, sounds good, I’ll call Mom and tell her about dinner.” Hunter said while reaching into his pocket for his cell phone.

  “Mom that sounds good, I’ll let everyone know since they’re all still here.” I told her. This would be good for Mason and Hailey too; I think they needed to spend more time together. Hailey was so busy with classes and Mason was so busy with baseball that they barely saw each other. Maybe that’s their problem.

  “I take it everyone had a good time if they’re still there?” Mom asked, pondering.

  I snickered, “Things were great, but I think everyone is still here because Mason cooked breakfast.”

  Mom didn’t respond for a few minutes, “Mom?”

  “I’m here; I think I’m in shock honey. Mason doesn’t cook, that child of mine can’t even boil water.” She’s right, he couldn’t. “I’m going to let you go. Please make sure to text me a picture of this because if not, I’m not going to believe you.”

  I cackled, “Will do. Give Ryder a kiss for us. Love you.”

  “Love you too baby girl.”

  I hung up the phone and heard the end of Hunter’s conversation with his mom, “I don’t give a shit. You’re coming.”

  I was a little blown away by his harshness. “Hunter?” He twisted and looked at me.

  He looked down to the floor and spoke, “Yeah, don’t worry about her. You ready to go downstairs?”

  His whole demeanor had changed from his conversation with his mom, and I wondered what the hell was going on with them. Now that I thought about it, I haven’t really seen her either. I’d question him about it later, right now I was starving. “Yeah, I need to see this shit.”

  He mustered up a little smile, “You and me both.”

  As soon as Hunter opened the bedroom door we were engulfed with the smell of bacon. “Damn,” my stomach growled, “at least it smells good.”

  He was still so far away, “Let’s hope it tastes as good too.”

  Walking into the dining room where Hunter could put me down, we were greeted by everyone sitting around the table. It was full of food; eggs, pancakes, French toast, sausage, ham, bacon, toast, orange, grape, apple juice and chocolate milk.

  My mouth fell open, “Close your mouth, Kenz.” Jackson said, sitting next to Chloe who hit him in the arm.

  “Damn Mase, what the hell got into you?” I asked as Hunter sat me down in the chair that Cooper had pulled out for me.

  He flicked his eyes over to Hailey who was sitting across from him and shrugged his shoulder. I peeped over at Hailey who had a smile on her face as she was digging into her food.

  “Don’t worry, it tastes pretty good. I think if he was going to try and off someone, it would be me.” Hailey said to everyone.

  That got Hunter to laugh; he took a seat next to me and started putting all my favorite foods on the plate without me even having to ask.

  When everyone had their plates loaded, I leaned over to Hunter, “You want to tell them that we set a date? Or should we wait for dinner?”

  A smile that finally reached his eyes showed me he wanted to tell everyone now, “Up to you.”

  I ruffled his hair, “You tell them.” He kissed my forehead.

  Everyone’s eyes were on us, “I’m gonna lose my breakfast if you two don’t knock that shit off.” Cooper said. Then he bent over and kissed Jaylinn on the forehead to make a point to Hunter.

  “Shut the fuck up asshole,” Hunter threw a piece of his bread at him, of course Cooper caught it with ease. “CC and I set a date for the wedding.” All the girls got that dreamy look in their eyes, “January 22nd.”

  All the guys nodded and the girls squealed at the same time, “Shopping!”

  Looks like I was in for a day of shopping for the wedding. I was actually looking forward to this outing with the girls.

  After the girls finally settled down and finished their breakfast, the guys and I cleaned up the kitchen while they got ready to go out.

  “You’re really ready to hand your balls over to my sister?” Cooper asked. He was drying the pots and pans that Jackson was washing while I put them away. Mason had disappeared somewhere.

  “He already handed them over years ago bro, you just never saw it.” Jackson responded for me.

  “Shut up jerk off, you handed yours over to Chloe too.” I snapped back.

  He shook his head, “I know man, I know.”

  Cooper was amused by this. I saw Jackson reach for the sprayer on the sink, I backed up and he shot Cooper right in the side of the face. “Now that’s amusing.” Jackson said.

  Cooper dried his face with the towel in his hand, “Good one Jackson. Just remember payback’s a bitch.”

  Mason came around the corner pulling Hailey with him. Hailey’s hair was a little ruffled and her lips were red. “What the fuck’s going on?” Mason asked.

  I started laughing, “Hmm, well Coop, Hailey got her chocolate milk…” and Cooper finished my sentence, “and from the looks of it Mason’s dick too.” Hailey turned beet red, Mason was shooting daggers at us with his eyes while Cooper, Jackson and I, laughed our asses off.

  “Funny, assholes.” Mason shot back.

  CC yelled from the top of the stairs, “What the hell’s going on down there?”

  I walked over to the bottom of the stairs and yelled back up, “Oh you know? Hailey loves her chocolate milk…”

  CC cut me off, “Hunter don’t you dare finish that sentence.” I started cracking back up again. “Come get me.” She whined. I climbed the stairs and brought CC back down with Jaylinn and Chloe following behind.

  “How the hell am I going to go out like this? I can’t even walk or use the crutches and I’m scared shitless the girls will drop me.” CC voiced her concern to me.

  “Hunter, please tell her we can handle it.” Chloe piped up behind me.

  I kissed the side of CC’s head, “They can handle it, and you barely weigh a thing.”

  CC glared at me, “Are you kidding me? Have you seen my ass lately? The longer I sit on it, the bigger it’s getting.”

  I wanted to laugh at how cute she was but I knew she was self-conscious about her body now. I mumbled in her ear, “I love that ass. The things I want to do with it.”

  Her eyes widened, completely in shock, “Umm…”

  Exactly the reaction I wanted, speechless. “You’ll be f
ine, but if it makes you feel better we can follow you to the mall and put you in the wheelchair. The boys and I are going to watch the game at the bar not far from there.”

  CC looked at the girls and they all smiled, Jaylinn spoke up first, “It’s up to you.”

  She looked at me with those piercing blue eyes, “Please?”

  I actually kind of liked that she was leaning on me; she knew the girls would never let anything happen to her, but she wanted my security. “No problem.”

  After we dropped the girls off at the mall, the boys and I went over to the sports bar not too far away. I was glad we’d chosen to come here so we were close by if anything happened.

  We walked in and the place was packed, we found a table in the back corner and went to sit down. The waitress, a cute redhead with crazy curly hair came over, “My name’s Danielle, I’ll be your waitress today. What can I get ya?”

  We all ordered our beers and Danielle couldn’t take her eyes off Mason. It didn’t help that Mason was flirting with her either. I saw his hand fall from the table and the girl shifted her weight to her other foot. When she walked away, I glared at Mason, “What the fuck are you doing dude?”

  “Nothing.” He brushed me off, “Just making sure we get taken care of since it’s so fucking packed.”

  I shook my head in disgust. “Any word from your dad, dude?” Cooper asked.

  “Nope, not since the day we left the hospital. Jaylinn hear anything?” I hadn’t really talked to Jaylinn lately because all my time was being consumed with CC and Ryder, but I knew she was in good hands.

  It looked like he wanted to say something but he held back, “Just random calls and hang ups a lot more at your mom’s.”

  “Shit. Us too. I guess we need to change the numbers. I’ll pull Mom aside tonight and tell her I’m changing both of ours.”

  Cooper nodded. “Wonder what the hell he’s doing here. Do you think he’s been looking for you guys?” Jackson asked.

  I knew they were concerned about us. Hell, I was worried too. How the hell did he find us? I was debating asking Mason if their dad had said anything more to him, when none other than Dominic walked in with a few of the guys he hung out with.

  When he noticed us he tipped his head, said something to his friends, and then came in our direction.

  “Just fucking great!” Mason said sarcastically.

  He walked up cautiously, “Sorry to bother you but I just wanted to give you a heads up that Brittany’s back in town. Apparently she moved here with her dad.” He looked off into the distance, shook his head and then continued, “I don’t understand why she can’t get the fucking hint that I don’t want her here.”

  “Sounds like a personal problem Dom, keep it moving.” Mason told him at the exact same time that Cooper’s, Mason’s and my phone beeped with a text.

  We all looked at our phones and then to each other before looking at the text.

  My stomach was in a knot and I started sweating.

  Hailey 12:19 p.m.: Get your asses here now.

  It was a picture of the dickbag, Jason outside Victoria’s Secret. All of us stood up at the same time, reached in our wallets and threw some money on the table.

  “What the fuck’s going on?” Jackson asked, chasing behind us.

  We all piled into Mason’s car and peeled out of the parking lot, while Cooper explained to Jackson what was happening. I was pissed off and fuming, I wanted to punch something but I just needed to get to CC first. Everything else could wait until she was safe and tucked into my arms.

  The first place the girls wanted to go was Victoria’s Secret; I had a bad addiction to that place and only went once every six months because I spent entirely too much money. I allowed them to talk me into going because I hadn’t bought anything in almost a year. I wasn’t about to spend that kind of money on boobs that I knew wouldn’t be staying around.

  “Fine, I’ll go in there but I don’t like being bullied into this. It’s not right.” I whined to Chloe who was pushing me in the wheelchair. Jaylinn and Hailey were already in the store.

  “Stop being a brat and suck it up. Don’t you want to get something nice for Hunter? You know, spice it up for the first time after having a baby?” Chloe said.

  “Ugh…” I guess she had a point, “Fine.”

  She snickered, “See, I knew you’d see it my way.”

  When we walked in, my eyes were darting to all the things I wanted to purchase. I had a lot of the stuff already but I knew I would have to buy the new items. I silently groaned to myself, knowing I’d spend money I didn’t want to spend. Hunter had given me his credit card and told me to buy whatever I wanted, but I hated spending his money. I still had a little bit of cash saved up and I hadn’t purchased anything since I’d found out about Ryder, so I guess I could indulge a little bit.

  Since Jaylinn hadn’t ever purchased anything from here, she was in the dressing room with the sales associate, getting fitted. I grabbed a few things and Chloe put them in the bag they’d provided me, then I had her go over to the body sprays. I knew which one I was looking for; Hunter’s favorite, Coconut Passion. I don’t know what it is with that spray but he couldn’t keep his hands off me.

  “Does Hunter like that?” Chloe asked me, she sprayed a sample on the tester, then fanned it and smelled it.

  “Yup, it reminds me of the beach and he goes a little crazy when I wear it.” Oh how I couldn’t wait for that time to come.

  “Do you think Jackson would like it?” She picked up another body spray and did the same thing.

  “Yeah he loves coconuts. What do you normally wear?” I knew she wore something but I’d never really asked.

  “Juicy Couture, I’m getting kind of sick of it and want a change.” Chloe picked up a bottle of Heavenly from the Dream Angels Collection and added it to the bag and also grabbed a bottle of Coconut Passion.

  “Good choice!” I eyed Hailey from across the store; she looked like she was in a state of shock. “Hey Chloe, can you push me over to Hailey?”

  “Um…” she must have glanced around looking for her, “yeah.”

  We passed a couple of racks with pajamas and I made a mental note to look at those before we left the store. As soon as we were within five feet of Hailey she snapped out of it. “Hails? Everything ok?”

  Her eyes were still wide and a mile away, “Have you seen Jay? We need to find her.” She brushed Chloe off and went straight to the back of the store.

  “Jay?” Hailey shouted.

  “I’m in here.” Jaylinn shouted back. The sales associate was eyeing us like we were a little bit crazy. We were acting a little crazy so she wasn’t wrong.

  “Decent?” Hailey tried the knob but it was locked.

  What the hell? “Hails, what’s going on?”

  She shook her head, “Nothing.”

  Not gonna fly with me, something’s wrong. “Damn it Hailey,” the store grew quiet; “Something’s going on, what is it?”

  “Really, nothing’s wrong. I just want to find Jay. Macy’s is having a sale and I want to get over there before all the good shit’s taken.”

  I eyed her skeptically but before I could say anything Hunter was by my side.

  He was out of breath, which considering he works out every day, hardly ever happens, “Hey.” He kissed the top of my head.

  “What the hell’s going on? I thought you were at the bar.” I snapped. Hunter hated coming in here with me, he said it made him uncomfortable.

  Jaylinn peeked her head out, “What the hell, Hunter? Get out of here.”

  A lady in the dressing room next to Jaylinn walked out, Hunter caught the door before it closed. The sales associate gave Hunter a ‘What the hell are you doing?’ look, he shrugged his shoulders and winked. Damn! That panty dropping wink and smirk worked like a charm, the sales associate walked away with her head down.

  He nodded his head in the direction of the door, I looked up and saw Chloe smiling at him, and she gave me a little push in
his direction. Hunter pulled me into the dressing room, still smirking. He lifted me flush against his body and kissed me, long and hard. I completely forgot everything that had happened on the other side of the door, he was consuming me.

  On the way over here, Cooper had filled Jackson in on my dad showing up at the mall where the girls where. He was already aware of everything that had happened and understood our panic to get there quickly. When Mason pulled into the mall parking lot a few minutes later, he dropped Cooper and me off at the nearest entrance to Victoria’s Secret and we hauled ass all the way to the store. When we turned the corner, Jason was sitting on a bench just between Hollister and Victoria’s Secret. He was by himself looking down at his phone. I’m not sure if he’d seen CC, Jaylinn and the girls or not. If he hadn’t I didn’t want to draw attention to them.

  Why the fuck does he keep showing up? Was he following us? Does he want something? I had to get to the bottom of this shit.

  I stopped Cooper and backed up around the corner again, “I don’t think he knows they’re in there.” I took a deep breath, trying to slow my heart rate, “We have to distract him.”

  “I got it.” He replied. A group of girls were walking past us; Cooper tapped my shoulder and moved in their direction, he was off.

  I waited for what seemed like a lifetime when really it was only a couple of minutes, before I peeked around the corner. Cooper had the girls blocking Jason’s view of the store and the corner I was standing behind.

  I quickly rushed into the store and looked around frantically, trying to find the girls. I saw Hailey’s blonde ponytail in the back and made my way towards her.

  “…I want to get over there before all the good shit’s taken.” Hailey was telling CC.

  “Hey.” I said, slightly out of breath from all the adrenaline pumping through me. Then I kissed the top of her head, so thankful that Dickbag hadn’t gone near her.

  “What the hell’s going on? I thought you were at the bar.” CC snapped at me.