Page 58 of Intertwined Hearts

When the nurse brought our little guy back over to us, she placed him in Jackie’s arms.

“Do you guys have a name, yet?” The nurse asked us. I drew a complete blank. Jackie had tossed around a few names, but none of them really appealed to me. I didn’t like the name Elton, which was what she seemed to like the most. Plus, the thought of having two children whose names started with E was too weird for me. Jeff and Nikki did it with the letter A, Gary and his wife had done it with the letter B, but I had no desire to do that to my children.

“Any ideas, Hunter?” Jackie asked.

“I need a little more time, I think.”

“Just let us know what you two decide. For now, we’ll just call him baby boy,” the nurse said.

Epilogue

A year and a half later …

Hunter

“E. E.” Maverick, my little boy, held his arms out toward Elisa. She spoiled him.

“What, baby? What do you want?” she asked him.

He grunted and pointed to the table.

“You want water?”

He shook his head.

“You want juice?”

He shook his head.

“Make him talk to you, Elisa. Don’t let him just point,” I said.

Maverick was nearly two years old and barely spoke. He pointed, grunted, and threw a fit to get what he wanted most of the time.

“The baby doesn’t want to talk.”

“He has to learn. We can’t have him acting like this for much longer. We need him to be a big boy.”

“Okay, Daddy,” she said. She turned to Maverick and spoke with a stern tone. “Talk to me, baby.”

I sat back on the couch and tried like hell to stifle my laugh.

“Baby wants a cupcake, Daddy.”

“You can share one with him, just hurry up so your mother doesn’t see you both eating it.” I walked over and set two paper towels at their child-sized table and chairs set. After Maverick was seated, I set a small piece of cupcake on his napkin, then gave a little bigger piece with frosting on it to Elisa. I knew who really wanted the cupcake, and it wasn’t Maverick.

Jackie came downstairs and took one look at me bent over the table with the evidence in my hand, glanced at Elisa, and then shot her disappointed stare back at me while she shook her head.

“Really, Hunter? I told you they were for the party.”

“Elisa said Maverick wanted one,” I said. I fluttered my eyes at her. “You look beautiful, by the way.”

“Yeah, Mommy,” Elisa said sputtering crumbs across the table. “Beautiful.”

“Thank you both. No more cupcakes, though.”

“Ma-Ma,” Maverick said.

“Yes, Mav? What can Mommy get you?”

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