Page 104 of Only for Tonight
“I’m going to go and nurse him downstairs,” I tell him as I take him from his father.
“I’m going to jump into the shower.” He kisses me on the lips and his hand goes to my ass where he squeezes it and then groans. “Love you,” he mumbles to me and then kisses Jagger’s head. “You too, buddy.”
I walk down the steps with Jagger squirming in my arms. “It’s coming,” I tell him as he goes from zero to a hundred in three seconds. He also has his father’s temper and expects things to happen right away. I head over to the kitchen, filling my water bottle with ice and water. His voice is going higher and higher, as if we have been starving him for the past five days.
The front door opens and I hear two sets of footsteps. “Why is the baby howling like that?” I hear my father before I see him as I get comfy on the couch.
“Hey.” He walks in with Manning behind him, both of them dressed to go and play golf.
“We were going to play golf,” my father states, “and thought we would bring you guys some breakfast.” He holds up the brown bag. “Why is he crying?”
“Because my nipple isn’t in his mouth,” I tell my father, who comes over and kisses me on the head and then kisses Jagger, who is now moving his arms and legs.
“Do you want to eat and do that?” He points to the baby and then my chest.
“What did you get me?” I ask him and he opens the bag.
“A bagel with eggs, sausage, and cheese. Cup of fruit.”
“I’ll take the cup of fruit now,” I tell him, grabbing my nursing pillow, “and then eat the bagel when I hand him off.”
“He’s got a set of lungs on him, like his dad.” Manning smirks. “He was the worst, and he had zero patience.”
“He never grew out of it,” I mumble as I rub my hand up and down my son’s cheek. “It’s coming,” I tell him, placing his stomach toward my breast and pulling the top down before grabbing a blanket to cover myself. The room goes instantly quiet and he latches on and gulps down. “There you go.” I look under the blanket at him nursing with his hand in a fist lying on my breast. “You survived.”
“Here you go,” my father offers, handing me the fruit bowl and then sitting in front of me. “You doing okay?”
“I slept for three hours straight,” I tell him.
“Why don’t we come back later this afternoon and take him, so you can get some rest?”
“Dad”—I try not to laugh—“you don’t have to make excuses to come over. We told you guys this.”
“I told him this also,” Manning interjects from the kitchen, sitting on a stool eating his bagel. “Man has not listened to me at all in his whole life.” My father looks over and glares at him.
“You guys need alone time.”
“You’ll be gone in a week,” I remind him, “when you leave to go back home.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to leave him,” he admits and then corrects himself. “You. I don’t know how I’m going to leave you.”
“Mmm,” I say, grabbing a piece of strawberry and popping it into my mouth, “nice save.”
“What are you two doing here?” Jaxon asks, walking into the kitchen, wearing shorts and a white T-shirt. “I told you guys to come in the afternoon when I’m not here, so she has help.”
Manning looks up at him mid-bite. “Would you relax? We brought breakfast,” he tells his son. “We’ll be here when you go train.” Even though he is on summer break, he still has to keep his training up. He hates it and has now taken to doing his off-ice training at home in the gym he created in the pool house, but he can’t build ice in our backyard, so he has to go. “You look like shit,” Manning tells him. “The rule is you sleep when the baby sleeps.”
“I would if I would be able to spend time with my son when he was awake, but I can’t,” he retorts, walking over to the bag and grabbing a sandwich. “Baby, did you eat?”
“I’m having fruit,” I toss over my shoulder. “I’ll eat when you burp him.”
I look at my father in front of me. “You happy, baby girl?”
All I can do is smile at him and look down at my son in my arms. “More than I can put into words,” I assure him and then I look back over at Jaxon, who is now sitting beside his father. “I got really lucky,” I tell him and he shakes his head.
“No, he got really lucky,” my father counters.
“What’s that?” Jaxon asks.
