“Nope. You already know that, cowboy. You sure you want to add another one into the mix so soon?”
He lets go of my hand and wraps his arm around my waist instead.
“One hundred fucking percent,” he growls and my insides flutter.
“Are you guys even listening to me?” Matthias says with a sigh, and I realize somewhere in his incessant chatter he must have asked us a question.
Jax winks at me before he turns his face toward our son. “Of course we are buddy.”
“So can we just get our own puppy instead, a Dallas dog?” Matthias asks with a cheeky grin.
“A Dallas dog?” I ask.
“Yeah, for when we’re here. A puppy just like Blue?”
“But won’t he miss us when we’re in LA?” Jax says. “And wouldn’t you miss him too?”
Matthias’s face falls. “Oh, yeah,” he whispers.
Jax tickles him, making him laugh again. “So, if we did get a puppy like Blue, he’d have to live with us in LA and Dallas, wouldn’t he?”
At this, Matthias squeals with delight. “Yes, he would. Can we get a puppy then? Please, Momma?”
I roll my eyes at my husband. “Did you just promise our son a puppy?”
“No,” he grins at me. “I said if we got a dog, is all.”
“We’ll see, munchkin,” I tell him.
“Okay,” he pouts and Jax whispers something in his ear that makes him giggle.
“You just promised him a puppy, didn’t you?” I nudge him in the ribs.
“I would never,” he says with a chuckle as he pulls me tighter.
“Is this how it’s going to be, cowboy? You teaming up with our kids against me?”
He gives me a kiss on the cheek. “I will always be on your team, angel. Promise.”
“Why is Harvey in here, Jax?” Matthias asks as he looks around at the strange surroundings. I realize he’s never been in a hospital before, not even when he was born. He arrived quickly and unexpectedly at my parent’s house back in LA.
“He got hurt, buddy. But he’s going to be just fine and he’ll be able to come home real soon.”
“How did he get hurt?” he asks, his eyes wide and innocent as he looks into his father’s face. God, I want so much to protect him from everything that is bad in this world.
“He was doing something nice for me and somebody didn’t like it so they hurt him.”
“But why?”
Jax looks to me and I nod for him to go on. I would love for our son to think that the world is only full of good and kind people, but the reality is that it’s not. In our family, he’s going to learn that sooner than other kids, but he needs to know that not everybody is a good person. “Sometimes people hurt other people. Because they’re scared, or greedy, or just plain mean. Or maybe because they hurt someone they care about.”
“Did Harvey hurt someone?”
I feel the tension in Jax at that question. Harvey hurt him and his mom so badly. “No, buddy,” he whispers. “And your mom and I would never let anyone hurt you. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” he rolls his eyes.
“Good,” Jax puts him on his feet as we reach Harvey’s room. “Now there’s gonna be a whole lot of machines in here and things that you’ve not seen before, but they’re all just making Harvey better, okay?”