Page 27 of Bruise Me Tenderly
“Support his head,” she says.
“I know how to hold a baby.” Still, when I pick him up, he feels so breakable that I want to put him down immediately in case I hurt him by accident.
“Oh my god, he’s so little,” McKenzie breathes once he’s safely in her arms. “Look at his tiny nose.”
“I know. It’s a good thing he got the donor’s nose instead of yours.”
She throws me a half-hearted glare. “I just had a huge surgery, and you’re already here with the insults?”
“I’ve been holding it in ever since I first saw him. Besides, I want him to know early on how to insult a sibling.”
She rolls her eyes, but there’s a fondness in her expression she’s only ever had when she’s looking at me.
“It’s nice that you named him after Dad,” I say, reaching out to touch my nephew’s head. “He would’ve liked that.”
“Yeah.” She stares down at Bryce for a long second before glancing up at me. “His full name is Bryce Judson Clark.”
My heart squeezes inside my chest. “You named him after me too?”
“Yeah, but that was before I knew you were going to insult me first thing.”
“If I’d known you were going to name him after me, I would’ve saved the insult for a little later.”
She smiles and reaches out to touch my cheek. “I love you. I’m so glad you were here for this.”
“I would never have missed it.”
She pulls her hand back to her son but keeps her gaze on me. “Were you waiting alone out there?”
“No.” My hand warms at the memory of River sitting there with me, keeping our fingers laced together for hours. “River was there. One of his friends here texted him.”
She studies my face for a long minute. “What happened between you two? You were spending so much time together, and then nothing.”
“We don’t need to talk about that. We should be focusing on you.”
“Trust me, you’re going to be focusing on me for the next several weeks. We can talk about you for a minute.”
I keep my gaze on Bryce as I start talking, marveling at how something so innocent can exist in the same world as people like Ian.
“We had an argument because he doesn’t think I’m coping well enough about our time at Ian’s place.”
“Is he wrong?”
I don’t know why she bothers asking when she already knows the answer. “No.”
“Then why aren’t you two speaking to each other?”
“It’s…it’s not like I’m the one not speaking to him.” When she cuts me a look, I sigh. “I can’t force myself to think differently, Kenz. I’m really glad that River’s doing well with therapy, but I don’t see how it’ll work for me.”
She doesn’t look convinced, so I tell her about meeting Ian at the party, but not what he said about ruining River. There are things she doesn’t need to know. It’s easier telling her than it was to tell River, but she’s not as calm about it as he was.
“I’m so glad he’s dead,” she seethes. “If he were still alive, you’d be raising Bryce because I’d be doing twenty-five to life somewhere.”
“McKenzie—”
“And you need to let it go.”
Irritation prickles under my skin. “It’s not that easy.”