“Look, let’s be real here. The girl shamed herself trying to make it up to you and you fucked it up beyond repair. The only thing you’ve got going for your miserable arse now is your kid so I say use the fact that hun won’t keep Immie away from you to your advantage.”
Naturally I’ve considered using my fatherly rights as an excuse to force imp into closer proximity-I told you I am too ruthless to let an opportunity pass me by-but I’d been holding off because even I’m smart enough to see how mercenary that approach is.
But if Day’s suggesting it…
“You think she’ll give me another chance?”
“Dude. She’s coming up on her six weeks check-up, her hormones, according to that book I read, are still all over the place and she’s too tired to put up much resistance. At the very least you can use your tiny wanger to seduce her. Use what you’ve got and don’t stop till you’ve crumbled her resistance. Really, don’t stop because if you don’t bring hun back soon Ryan will kill you in your sleep and I really don’t have the time to provide a false alibi. I just met a bird I think might be more than a quick fuck and duck.”
The thought of Davy reading one of those books and looking for information about what happens to a woman’s body after giving birth and all that makes me crack up so much I’m grateful that we’re pulling into the driveway and that I don’t have to drive while roaring with laughter.
“You read about all that?” I gasp, laughing harder when he grimaces and shudders.
“Yeah man. I feel so sorry for women. All that pain and then bleeding half to death afterward while they’re expected to care for a baby…not cool. I almost offered to stay over just so poor hun could get some sleep and so that I could make sure she didn’t bleed to death.”
“What changed your mind?” I ask, laughing because I already know the answer.
“You smell what comes out of Immie? Bleeding unsavoury. Plus, I’m really tired lately and I doubt a train could wake me when I crash.”
“You do look a little worse for wear.” I murmur looking closer and noting the deep lines of fatigue bracketing his eyes.
This is so not like him and I make up my mind to call the doctor and make an appointment today. Just because I have Immie now and the lads are grown does not mean I’m any less focused on them. They will always be my lads.
“Come on then son, let’s go feed you.”
“Hey Dev, do you think hun will forgive me and Ry for taking your side?” he asks suddenly, making me pause halfway out of the car. “I mean we’ll always have your back but I think we made her feel alone by making it so…lonely for her.”
“I don’t think you even need to ask Davy, the woman is practically in love with you buggers.” I joke hoping to make him smile.
“Yeah.” He breathes and I see his lips curve tiredly. “She’s something huh.”
“She’s my everything.”
Chapter Thirty Six
“It’s best that we get him into the operating room as soon as possible Mr Baxter. We can go in and repair the Mitral valve and he should be just fine. We caught this early thanks to your insistence that he get a thorough exam so there isn’t any visible weakening in the heart’s walls, but this is serious. You should urge any other family to get tests as well as we find that these cases are sometimes congenital.”
I nod my head and shake the man’s hand as if I’ve heard anything of what he’s said. All I’m focused on now is making sure my lad gets the surgery he needs and that the rest of my family get checked out thoroughly.
The news has thrown me and as I leave the doctor in the corridor and make my way to Davy’s room all I can think is that I’ve failed somewhere. I should have known this from the start and gotten it seen to.
I should have paid more attention to David and Ryan and I bloody well should have listened to imp when she’d asked me to check on the lad when he spent all weekend knocked out in bed.
I’d assumed that football and his partying ways had been to blame and written it off as the usual teenage dross that comes along with raising a pair of rowdy lads.
And now this.
I’m dragging by the time I reach his floor and dreading going in there and telling him that his football career may be over before it’s even begun when a soft hand thwacks me on the back of the head.
“You idiot! How could you not call me for this?”
Turning with a groan and a flinch as I look down to see my little ray of violent sunshine glaring up at me, her face so stormy her eyes are a dark brown instead of the glowing amber it always is.