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Chapter Five
After a yoga workout out on the beautiful balcony, I spent the morning by the hotel pool. However by ten o’clock the sun was already becoming too hot to sit out in it much longer. I replayed Colby’s parting shot last night more times than I cared to admit and kept coming back to him acknowledging for the first time there might be something more to how he was feeling. Now, what was a girl to do about it?
Later that afternoon as I was finishing up lunch in the room, Colby came in looking frazzled. His arrival was earlier than I’d expected as I thought he’d be in meetings most of the day.
“Oh, good, you’re here. We’ve gotta go. Josh called, and Haylee is in labor.”
My mouth turned up into a smile. Colby’s older brother and his wife were expecting a girl, and judging from the soon-to-be-uncle’s reaction, he was more than excited. “I packed this morning, but I can help you.”
He grinned, and I followed him into his bedroom to throw his clothes into the suitcase. When I glanced over at him, I realized he was undressing in front of me.
“What do you want me to keep out for you to wear?”
“Jeans and T-shirt are fine, thanks.” He crossed over in only boxers and an unbuttoned shirt.
I knew my face was turning red. “Right. Here you go.”
He took the garments from my hand, donning his jeans only inches from me. I let my gaze linger, cuz who wouldn’t? Obviously he was distracted, chatting on oblivious to what he was doing.
“Josh was excited and nervous all at the same time. My mom is on her way up, too. We won’t get there until late, but maybe we can go to the hospital in the morning or tonight if they’ll let us. Sometimes women are in labor for a while, so it might be that she doesn’t have the baby for hours, right?”
I laughed at his rambling. “You never know, I suppose. Are they in New York?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Your brother is there, too, by the way.”
That wasn’t a surprise considering Sasha lived there. “I’ll look at flights to LA if you don’t mind dropping me at the airport.”
He turned toward me. “What do you mean? You can come to New York with me to see the baby.”
We grabbed our stuff and headed downstairs towards the waiting car. Once in the back seat, I voiced my hesitation. “I’d definitely love to see the baby, but Brian is probably staying with Sasha. At least, I hope so, and since I suspect that there’s something that may be going on with them, I don’t want to be a third wheel. Plus, I should probably get back.” Aside from my summer internship starting in a week, I didn’t have anything going on; however I didn’t want to be a tag-a-long, either.
He frowned. “You can stay with me. I’ll probably use Josh’s place or the guest apartment, depending on where my mom is going to be.”
“I don’t want to intrude on family time—”
“You’re like family. Text your brother and maybe we can all meet up tonight.”
Considering he didn’t seem in any hurry to end our time together, I wondered what this trip would hold.
* * *
Once we landedin New York, we made our way directly to the hospital since Haylee had given birth while we were in the air. Thankfully, they didn’t have set visiting hours in the maternity ward because it was late by the time we arrived.
“Do you think Haylee will mind that I’m with you?” I asked Colby. Josh’s wife was extremely nice and I was fond of her, but I didn’t know her very well.
“Of course not. You’re like a sister to Josh, plus Haylee is awesome. She’ll be thrilled you’ve come to see them.”
I noticed this time around I was the sister to his older brother instead of to the both of them. Perhaps we were making progress? He took my arm as we came off the elevator, leading me down the hall, full of excitement. Something told me little baby Abigail was going to be the apple of her uncle’s eye.
We spotted Josh outside of the sign-in desk, and the brothers immediately embraced. It was a touching moment, and one I was so focused on that I didn’t immediately see Haylee’s friend Will, who’d been standing there to the side, looking at me with a smile.
Ah, Will: how could one not notice the guy? I’d first met him at Josh and Haylee’s wedding a few months ago. He was in his mid-twenties, gorgeous, sweet, and had the yummy Australian accent to boot.
“Hiya, Kenzie.”
“Hi, Will. Nice to see you again.”
Mark, who was my brother and Josh’s long-time friend from college, walked up with coffee in hand. He greeted me with a hug. “Hey, kiddo.”
