“So he was on a club run?” Hannah said, shaking her head. “I swear, I will never understand how you boys operate.”
“It’s all to help this little one grow up in a more peaceful town,” I said, kissing my son’s forehead again.
“We should get him to come see this kid,” Hannah said. “He is his nephew, after all.”
“I know, but—”
“Go get him, Garrett,” Hannah said.
“You’re gonna make me go away from little Chuckie here right after his birth?”
Hannah laughed.
“Little Chuckie, huh?” she said. “I kind of like it.”
“Just don’t give him the creepy murderer doll; that might be—”
“Oh my God, Garrett, go get my brother!”
We both laughed as she gently pushed me forward and out to get Mason. But even as I left the door, even as I was supposed to be going back to where Mason was, I couldn’t help but pause, smile, and consider my good fortune.
“I’m a fucking father!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
I didn’t care if the hospital was going to tell me to shut up and stay quiet for the other babies. It was a moment to celebrate.
It was the moment I never thought I’d welcome—in fact, it was a moment I had often joked about as being the worst-case scenario—but was now one I knew I would never stop cherishing.
* * *
When I got to Mason’s room, he was simply resting in his bed. He hadn’t taken off his club clothing; I suspected that when the doctors had tried to get him to do so, he had told them no in not-so-polite terms.
“Well?” he said, fully aware of why I had come.
“It’s a boy,” I said. “And he can’t wait to see you.”
“Well, in that case,” Mason said, taking off wires and IV’s out of him, grunting in pain and ignoring the beeping going on around him. A nurse ran in, but Mason’s glare got her to back off. “Get me to him, now.”
We walked as quickly as we could back to the maternity ward. Mason moved with a limp, but somehow almost seemed to go faster than me.
“Second door on the left.”
He beat me to it. And even from where I stood, a couple doors back, I could hear his reaction. In a single instant, Mason had turned from the hardened guy who had nearly killed me to an uncle who couldn’t wait to spoil his nephew. He and Hannah said a few things and laughed. I wanted to go in, but I felt it was important for the siblings to have their moment.
After all, for the first time in a decade, their family had gone from two to three. As Jetts, they had hope again.
And yeah, I had a little something to do with it,I thought with a smirk.
Mason spent about ten minutes in the room before a doctor came in and insisted that he get treatment. Mason only left when the doctor promised him that he could see the child at least twice a day while in the hospital. And as he did, I walked back with him to his room.
“You know,” I said as we got to the elevator. “I’m sorry for the path we took to get to this point.”
It was, as far as I could remember, the first time I’d actually apologized for something related to Hannah. I knew I’d told myself I didn’t need to apologize for anything, but what could I say? Seeing my son had quite the effect on me.
“But I can promise you that I vow, from now until the day I die, to care for Hannah and Charles like no other. I will be the best father and, Hannah willing, someday husband to her.”
Did I really just say that out loud?
Yes. And the only real question is why it took so long for you to admit that that is the end game for you.
