Page 172 of Eternally Yours
“Oh, that’s bull and you know it.” Morgan points her finger at Aubrey from the chicken she’s stuffing. “Don’t think I didn’t see you two snuggling up at the hospital.”
“We weren’t snuggling! He was comforting me!” she whisper shouts in a very defensive way.
Morg and I instantly break out in a laugh once more.
The baby monitor on the kitchen island lights up and Dante’s cute little cry comes through, letting us know he’s done with his nap. I drop what I’m doing, wipe my hands on the cloth beside me, and head up to get my boy.
Dante’s bedroom is phenomenal. The work Morgan put into it is amazing and truly takes my breath away every time. It’s one hundred percent a hockey room. Every wall is painted blue, with two horizontal white lines and a red one in the middle running through each wall.
Jerseys from Clay, Greyson, Gabriel, and Noah are spaced out on one wall. And above his crib that looks like a miniature ice rink, is his father’s jersey. There’s a little reading bench in one corner that actually looks like the benches in the Griffins’ locker room.
On one wall, Morgan had someone she knew paint the Griffins’ logo on it. It’s huge, almost taking up the whole space. There are also two nightstands on either side of his crib that are made with hockey sticks. And the lamps above them arepucks stacked together in an intricate way. Everything was handmade and one of a kind. Silas was truly jealous of the room when he saw it for the first time and refused to leave it.
I walk up to the crib where my little man stands with his arms stretched out toward me, waiting to get picked up, while Milo looks up from the floor right next to the crib. I bend to scratch his head, then straighten and reach in to grab Dante.
“Hey, baby. Did you have a good nap?”
“Mama.”
He started saying Mama and Dada last month, and of course, he said‘Dada’first. Silas was ecstatic, and I didn’t hear the end of it for a whole week.
Our boy now weighs twenty-five pounds and is thirty-four inches tall. He’s definitely going to be tall like his dad. And with the way he always goes for the pucks and hockey sticks out of all his toys, I think it’s safe to say that hockey is in his future as well.
“Come on, baby. Let’s get you downstairs. Your aunts and uncles are waiting to see you.” I bring him over to the changing station to change his diaper and jammies, then take him down to say hello to everyone.
I don’t even make it down the last step before my son is ripped out of my arms, everyone rushing over to take him. Of course, Silas is the first.
“There’s my little man!” He throws him up in the air, nearly giving me a heart attack every time, then catches him and peppers him with thousands of kisses.
A few hours later, we’re just finishing off dessert when Greyson’s phone starts ringing. He looks at the number, then frowns but doesn’t pick it up.
“Who is it?” Aubrey asks from beside him while looking at the number on the screen.
“No idea, they’ll leave a message if it’s important,” he says with a shrug, letting it ring.
The call dies down but starts up again a second later with the same number. Aubrey takes her phone out, most likely searching up the number.
“Umm, Grey... I think you need to take that call,” she says with a horrified look in her eyes.
“Why?”
She turns to look at him, and instantly, worry fills his expression when he notices the look she carries. “Because that’s the number for Child Protective Services...”
The room goes deathly still, except for Dante’s babbling. Greyson turns white as a sheet, grabs his phone, and leaves the table, exiting the room with everyone staring at his retreating back.
“Why would they be calling him?” Silas asks no one in particular while he looks at the seat Greyson just vacated with a frown.
“I have no idea,” I tell him, then go back to wiping Dante’s face from the remnants of his brownie.
Silas’s hand comes out, tucking a loose strand of my hair behind my ear, then caresses my cheek with his thumb. When I look up into his breathtaking emerald eyes that shine brightly, all I see is love. Beautiful, pure, eternal love.
“You and me,” he whispers.
I bring my own hand up to his cheek, imitating his movement as I lean into his.
“You and me.”
