"Yeah. Thanks. Of course. Tell Janie how happy I am for her," she said, ending the call and pushing it into her back pocket.
And her first instinct right then?
It was to wrap her arms around me and squeeze me tight.
She didn't really even know Wolf, couldn't have shared more than a few words with him ever, so her gesture was entirely for me, not herself.
That, well, it was fucking telling.
She was thawing.
And my theory on her was right. She was every bit as warm as I suspected.
"How is he doing?" I asked, only loosening my arms enough to let her pull back to look up at me.
"Lo said he's pissed and wants out of the bed and doesn't want to hear shit about needing more time to heal, that he has spent 'enough fucking time healing' and that he wants to sign out and come back here."
"Of course he does," I said, smiling at the image.
While Reign, Cash, and Repo were known to drop in and visit, try to console Janie, I hadn't been able to get to the hospital much. The last time I had seen him had been two weeks before and he had lost a lot of weight and, to me, just seemed like he was fading.
I had almost resigned myself to the seeming inevitable.
I was never more happy to be wrong in my life.
"He's not leaving yet, obviously," Mina added. "Janie won't hear of it until the stitches are all out and they are sure the swelling in the brain is better. So he has at least a week or two more there unless he gets stubborn and signs himself out when Janie isn't paying attention. Which, well, sounds like him."
"Yeah it does," I agreed, giving her a squeeze. "Does Janie want to tell Malc herself or one of us to do it?"
"Tell Malc what?" Maze asked, walking in, purple hair tied in a careless knot on top of her head, her belly hinting that she wasn't too far from delivery.
"Wolf woke up," Mina told her, making Maze stop halfway inside the kitchen, frozen in shock for a long second before letting out a sob loud enough to startle both Laz and Reeve who looked over at her like they were terrified she had gone into labor and they might have to assist in delivery.
"Get over here, Violet," I said, tucking Mina to one side and holding the other arm open for her.
And Maze, hardass, badass, ex-probate she was, was a complete emotional mess when she was pregnant. And, given that she and I had prospected together, we had a bond and she didn't even pause before she flew at me, burying her face in my neck, and started crying almost uncontrollably.
When I chanced a look over at Mina, she quickly jerked her head away, but not before I saw the unmistakable glimmer in her eyes.
Oh yeah, big warm, softy alright.
"Lo said to tell him, that he has been as worried as she has and that she doesn't want him to have to wait another minute."
"Think you should do it, sweetheart," I told her, making her jerk back, brows drawing together.
"I think I'm the last person who should tell him."
"It's gotta be one of you women. He's been raised in an MC. He does the stiff-upper lip thing really well and if I tell him, he's going to hold it all in which isn't good. He's gotta cry it out and..."
"I can..." Maze started to offer, but stopped immediately when I gave her a hard squeeze. "Yeah, you know what," she said, sniffling once and wiping her eyes, "Renny is right. You should tell him."
"I know him the least," she objected. "I work with Janie and I see Malc all the time around Hailstorm, but I haven't really bonded with him."
"Well, nothing like telling him the dad he's been worried is going to die...isn't, to bond you guys. Come on, you got this."
She opened her mouth to object again, but must have picked up on the united front of me and Maze and known that Summer would easily jump on our side and that Penny wouldn't pick a side because she was too new, too unsure of her place still. "Alright," she said, nodding and pulling away from me. "I'll go tell him," she added as she turned and went out of the room.
"Is this some kind of test?" Maze asked once she was gone.
"Test?"
"Yeah, a test. You know... you being an asshole and poking at people. What are you trying to prove here?"
"I'm not..." I started to object, but Maze maybe knew me a little better than that. "She avoids the kids as much as possible," I said with a shrug.
"You know how they say that a maternal instinct is ingrained?" Maze asked. "Well, it's not. Some women have to work at it and some women won't show any signs of it until they have a kid of their own. We don't all want to pick up a crying baby or make funny faces at them for hours. And many of us don't have a ticking clock or that uterus-squeeze thing when we see a cute kid. We have shit to do and a life to live. Until one bursts its way into that life, sometimes they just aren't something we are drawn to."