“Welcome to parenting,” Clarice said, smiling at Toby as he kissed Tana on the cheek. “No one ever knows what they’re doing when they become parents. It’s literally the best example of fake it ‘til you make it. Having someone there to support you and stop you falling makes it much easier, though, and me and Newt are so glad you found that.”
Leaning out the door and looking down the hallway, I frowned when I didn’t see her husband. “Where is Newt?”
“Oh, he and Dad took Hart out. He’s a growing boy and looked like he was starving,” Mom explained.
“He only just ate!” Tana said, sounding exasperated. “On the way back, he got Pawpaw to stop at the taco place because he said he was determined to conquer the spicy burrito.”
“Oh, that apparently went right through him. Now he’s getting a burger to take its place.” Clarice didn’t blush or look disgusted as she relayed the information, but she also had two sons, so she was no stranger to teenage boys.
Holding Tobe up in front of her, Tana told him seriously, “We need to lay down some rules for when you get to Uncle Hart’s age. Firstly, you’re wearing deodorant. Your daddy and uncles were a stinky boys, and we don’t want to be like that, do we? We also don’t tell people about pooping, it’s gross.”
“Everybody poops,” Mom called, shrugging when Tana looked at her. “It’s true. Bodily functions happen, there’s no point in pretending like they don’t.”
Then, sliding her eyes to me, she rolled her lips. “You really did stink, though. Sorry! I don’t know why you and Rett were so against deodorant until your dad bribed you to at least try it. I saved so much money not having to constantly buy air fresheners and those plug-in things after you both started wearing it.”
Tana snorted behind me as I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Oh, my two were like that, too,” Clarice agreed. “It was like being downwind of one of those carts with onions frying on them.”
“Yes,” Mom shouted, clicking her fingers. “That’s exactly it. Why do boys smell like that?”
Just then, there was a ding just down the hallway, indicating that the elevator had arrived.
I heard the noise as the doors opened, then Newt asked loudly, “Why can I smell onions frying in the sun everywhere? Is it a thing in Arlington?”
I guess they’d brought Hart up with them.
Sitting down next to the bed, I smiled at Croix, trying to gauge from his facial expression how he was holding up.
“I’m not going to break,” he said, his voice husky as he reached out for the glass of water on the table next to his bed. Taking a mouthful, he swallowed it and sighed. “That feels better. My damn throat feels like I’ve had a porcupine squatting in it.”
“Well, you were breathing with a tube in there for a week,” I pointed out, looking around the room he’d been put in this morning.
He’d gone through some tests, and the doctors were happy with his progress, so they’d moved him out of the ICU and into his own room. It was a relief to know that medically he wasn’t considered critical anymore, but we were all still worried about him. The doctors had warned us about setbacks, and I think we all watched him that bit more closely in case we were here when one happened.
“I swear you all look at me like I’m a rare disease,” he complained. “Cut it out.”
Tana was shopping with our moms and Clarice and Bub, looking for a brand of pre-made baby food she was happy with him having, considering she usually made it all for him. I’d just have picked up what I could find, but apparently, there was a special store she’d found online that sold healthy and additive-free stuff not far away from our hotel.
“You scared the shit out of all of us,” I told him honestly. “We’re going to be scared and worried for a while.”
Leaning back and staring up at the ceiling, he blew out a breath. “I don’t remember the accident or even getting into that vehicle to go to training. The last thing I can remember is planning what I was going to get Tana for her birthday.” Lifting his head, he stared at the end of the bed where his foot should have been. “Now I have this to deal with.”
“Jackson brought his wife and fathers-in-law here while you were in ICU. I’m not sure if you know what happened to one of them, Ryan, but he lost half of his arm after he was shot.”
With his attention on me now, I repeated the story from start to finish, ending with how he’d come and talked to the family to fill them in on how he’d felt when he’d gone through it at the beginning.