Page 8 of Blue Lines and Lullabies

“Mackenzie. The staff said that’s what her mom wanted to name her, so I’m sticking with that.”

“Mackenzie Dawson. Sounds pretty dope.”

Damn. It really does.

“Listen. Call Coach. He needs to hear this first. Then, get the group chat going. We’ll get you hooked up. You staying at the hospital all night?”

“They said I can only stay until visiting hours are over.”

Grant guffaws. “Please. You and I both know you just have to look at whatever nurse tries to kick you out and give her those puppy dog eyes of yours. They’ll let you stay.”

I quietly chuckle. “You’re probably right.”

“Does your front door still have the same code to get in?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I’ve got an idea. You want a crib in your room, or in one of your spare rooms?”

“My room, I guess. I don’t know. Is there protocol for this?” I ask exasperatedly.

“Not sure. Ask your mom, then text me the answer. I’ll handle the rest. Gotta go!”

“Wait, what the hell do you mean? Grant? Grant!” I pull the phone away from my ear to see he’s already ended the call, and I’m not sure if I should be happy, or scared, about whatever he may do to my house while I’m not there.

Gabe

“What the hell happened here?” I ask incredulously. After zero sleep at the hospital, I’m horribly exhausted. Grant was right, though. One pitiful look, and the nurses turned a blind eye to my refusal to leave the NICU. I’m not sure if I would have slept anyway. I spent an hour on the phone with my parents. My mom sobbed incoherently more than once, forcing my incredibly ill-equipped father to deal with herandkeep the conversation moving with me. I know my dad loves his kids, but he’s not the most verbal man out there. It was like pulling teeth while my mom attempted to get herself together.

With a massive bag of hospital donations strapped to my back, I’ve got Mackenzie still strapped in her car seat as I attempt to lumber into my house. At least, I think this is my house. It looks like the baby section of Target just blew up in here.

“I had nothing to do with this,” I hear from my right, and I turn to see my teammate Luca Santo. Luca and I got off on the wrong foot, but we’ve established a ceasefire.

“If you didn’t do this, why are you here?” I ask before hearing a disturbance coming from the living room.

Luca sighs. “They made me come.”

I’m about to ask who ‘they’ is, but the disturbance comes into view. Grant, Levi, and Jax move into the kitchen as I carefully set the car seat on the island. I’m already exhausted, and the only thing I did was drive her home.

“You wash the sheets before you put them on the mattress, ass face,” Levi shouts.

“What does it fucking matter? It’s a baby. She won’t know the difference,” Jax argues. I see the sheet they’re both holding, with Grant evidently playing referee in the middle of this unneeded tug-of-war in my house.

“Guys, lower your voices before you wake her —” I don’t get to finish my thought before a loud cry fills the air. “Dammit.”

“Fuck, man. Sorry,” Jax says sheepishly, scratching his curly light brown hair.

“Why is she crying? Does she need a bottle? Or to be changed?” Levi asks. When I cock an eyebrow at him, he shrugs, and his brown locks fall haphazardly over his forehead. “I’ve got four little sisters, man. I was changing diapers before I hit double digits.”

Grant shakes his head and chuckles. The move seems oddly familiar, making me pause to study him. I’ve seen that move before. And not on him.

It means a lot to me that these three guys are here — well, and I guess Luca, too — because I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m doing. As I painstakingly unhook the car seat straps, and gently pick up Mackenzie, I hear an “aw” from at least one of the guys.

“Damn, dude. You’re a dad,” Grant says quietly.

Mackenzie stops crying as soon as I pick her up and settle her into the crook of my arm, choosing instead to look around at her new surroundings. “I am a dad. Now, can one of you numb nuts explain what the hell happened here?”

Grant chuckles. “Well, when you didn’t activate the amazing phone tree, I did it. All the guys started asking me questions to which I had no answers, so I had my sister help me set up a registry for you at Target. The whole team bought it out in a few hours, and boxes started arriving early this morning. We were trying to get everything set up before you got home, but these two decided to argue about the fucking crib sheets, so here we are.”

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