Page 39 of Crazy In Love
“Alternatively,” she grumbles. “I think I’ll walk home and leave you to find a TV and food somewhere else.Alone.”
“You get cranky when you’ve spent the day trapped in a small room, and you haven’t had a chance to run your mouth. Alana being there kept you on your best behavior.”
“No shit! I have all this negative energy just sitting here in my chest, loaded and ready to go.” She stomps out of the hospital just two steps ahead of me, but when I expect her to take off and charge toward the street, she stops instead and lifts her face to the sky. It’s what she did yesterday morning, too, when she thought she was alone. It’s a compulsion, maybe. As natural as drawing air into her lungs and accepting the sun’s hit of vitamin D.
Her bad mood makes way for serenity, and her scowl transforms into a smile.
Damn her for being cute.
“Why do you do that?” I stride around and stand over her, blocking her from the sun until her eyes snap open. “It’s like you’re saying good morning to the world.”
“Why not?” She sidesteps me and struts away, cutting through the hospital driveway and angling toward the road. But the woman I thought was wild and unpredictable is, it turns out, the complete opposite. And it only took minutes for me to figure her out.
I snag her sleeve and drag her the otherway.
“Chris!”
“You’re riding with me. We’re not negotiating this, and I’m not gonna stand here and let you choose otherwise.” I sling her forward, release her sleeve, and watch her sail toward my truck. “You’ve spent all this time picking at me, because you knew it bothered me. But it looks like I’ve figured you out, too. You don’t like controlling your sassy bullshit for twelve hours, and you sure as shit don’t like being woken up before the sun. It makes you cranky.”
“And even knowing that, you insist on driving me around.” She trudges to the passenger side door and yanks it open. “If you let me walk my mood off, you could drive a different way, still get your TV and quiet time, eat whatever you want, andnotget chewed out for any of it.”
“Or maybe you’re not upset about being locked up at all.” I slide into the driver’s side and slip the key into the ignition. “Maybe it’s because Alana said she wanted family time, and for a moment there, you felt like that meant everyone except you.” I turn the engine over and set my foot on the gas, revving the old motor. “That rejection stung. And even if you know that wasn’t her intention, it still hit a nerve.”
“Well shit, Dr. Phil.” She tears the seatbelt across her body and stabs the metal into the catch. “You’re probably right. You’re a genius.”
“Hurt your feelings.” I turn the radio up, just loud enough to cover the noise of my engine, and driving away from our parking slip, I angle for the exit and hit one or two—dozen—potholes in the blacktop. “You went out of your way to let me hold the baby all day ‘cos you didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Thenfamilywas mentioned, and it felt like a bit of a slap to the face.”
“Uh-huh. And my niceness was for naught, because you’re still here, badgering me when I could be wandering in the middle-of-the-day sun.”
“You can go for a walk later.” I amble onto the road and settle in for our thirty-second journey. “There are some really pretty trails that cut through mine and Tommy’s yards. They wind around the lake and lead into a few hidden spots we didn’t even know existed until we bought the land. Alana will be in the hospital for another day or two, which means you’re sleeping at Tommy’s until she’s back. Save your walk for later.”
“You almost sound genuine, but my spidey-senses predict a hike where, eventually, I die from exposure and a mass-mosquito buffet. You’d stay inside with Franky, so when I’m gone and out of the way, you can be his savior and never have to deal with me again. I’m not stupid.”
“Right. ‘Cos killing Alana’s best friend and Hazel’s namesake would go completely unnoticed.”
“Oh my gosh!” Like the flip of a switch, she transforms fromnight to day, slapping her hands to her mouth and twisting to place her knee on the bench seat. “I’m her namesake! Isn’t that amazing?”
“It’s pretty amazing.”
“I get to betheFox from Hazel Fox. Like, what?”
I tap along to a Kane Brown song and smile. Dammit, I don’t want to smile. “It’s very cool.”
“And sure,youget to claim the Watkins thing, since you all have that name now, and eventually, Alana and Franky will, too. And Hazel is Hazel because of your eyes. ButI’mFox. I’mtheFox!”
“You’retheFox.”
“I’m gonna have a couple of kids someday and call them Alana and Tommy, just so they can understand howamazingthis feels. There’s a whole new human in the world, Chris, and she was named after me!”
I peek at her from the corner of my eyes and shake my head because she’s no longer cranky and mean. She’s jittery and beaming. Wriggling with excitement and clenching her fists.
“I never knew that was something I wanted. I didn’t even know it was something I’d care about. But she’s named after me! So for the rest of her life, when people meet her and ask about her name, she can point at me like, ‘yeah, that cool chick over there. She’s the OG Fox.’ I don’t have to be Uncle Chris, sharing DNA and a surname when I can be Aunty Fox.Fox!”
“You’re kinda excited, huh?” I pull into a parking spot outside the bookstore, recently namedHappily Ever After, and dragging the key from the ignition, I glance across and study her giddy grin. “Did you have suspicions they were gonna do that? Did Alana give you any hints?”
“No! Did she tell you?”
I shake my head. “They were firm on keeping it under wraps till she was here. Though I reckon Alana probably worried about my feelings. I’m hearing rumors that I’m kinda protected and whiny when it comes to them.”
