“I need to ask one favor. It’s the least you could do after everything you’ve ever put us through.” I glanced over at Lynn, “Make sure he tells you about Jaylinn being na**d in the crib with tape over her mouth. It’s a funny story that Dad should tell you.”

Lynn gave Jason a questioning look, but he ignored her, “What do you want?”

“Don’t ever come near us. Don’t try and talk to us. Just disappear like we did on you. If you try to contact any of us, we’ll go to the police and confess to Brittany leaving the scene of the accident.”

They both shared a look, then Jason regarded me for a few minutes before he spoke, “Fine.”

“Make sure you warn Brittany too.” I gave them one last look, then turned on my heel and left them standing there.

Now that this situation was handled I needed my family back and I would stop at nothing to get them.

Hailey was on her way over and I hadn’t even packed yet, she was going to kill me. Maybe she’d leave me at home. Ha, I could dream right? I figured it’d be easier to pack everything for Ryder first, since he had so much shit that I needed to take.

I was downstairs cleaning out a few bottles when Hailey walked into the kitchen with Mason behind her. “Kenz, are you serious? You’re not even packed are you?”

“Almost,” I lied. I was only about half way done.

Mason came over and hip checked me, “Go get ready, Hailey’s looking forward to this.” He reached for the bottle brush.

I sighed, I knew she was. I just really didn’t want to go anywhere. “Fine, make sure you scrub them good and put them in the bag on the counter.”

I left Mason to clean the rest of the bottles and took off up the stairs with Hailey following close behind me.

“Holy shit! You need all that for three nights?” she asked when she saw all the stuff packed on my bed.

“Yeah and that’s only Ryder’s stuff. My things are going in that bag.” I said as I pointed to my small duffle that sat on my vanity chair.

Hailey grabbed a few things and started lugging them downstairs while I started packing clothes and stuffing them in my bag.

Forty-five minutes later, we were on our way to pick up Jaylinn and Chloe then start our ten hour drive to Tennessee.

Since the house only had two bedrooms, Hailey and I were going to share while Jaylinn and Chloe took the other one. I read most of the way there, not really feeling like participating in the girls’ conversation. I daydreamed about spending time here with Hunter on our honeymoon. He had wanted to go to the islands, somewhere warm, while I was happy staying at the house. We’d planned on taking Ryder with us - neither of us wanted to be that far away from him and I was still feeling guilty about having missed his birth.

“Hey.” Hailey said, bringing me back to reality.

I looked around and noticed that we’d arrived. “Wow, look at this place.”

Everything was snow covered. The branches from the pine trees were hanging low due to the weight of it all. Everything was sparkling; it looked like someone had dumped glitter everywhere.

“I love the winters here.” Jaylinn said, coming up behind me with Ryder snuggled in his little snow suit.

I took him from her and walked over to the banister. I freed his little hand, held his little fist to the snow, and as soon as it touched, he clenched his fist a little tighter. “This is snow, Monkey.”

Jaylinn walked up behind me, followed by Chloe and Hailey, to unlock door. Ryder and I followed them inside.

“I’m going to get a fire started. Kenz, do you remember where the thermostat is?” Jaylinn asked me.

“Yeah,” I walked off to the kitchen to crank the heat and get the chill out of the house.

Chloe and Hailey went back out to Chloe’s SUV to grab our stuff. They brought in Ryder’s bouncer so I sat him down, covered him up and then went to go help the girls. I needed something to distract me anyway. I was slowly becoming a wreck just looking around the house.

After everything was unloaded and unpacked we sat down to watch movies. After the second film it was nearing midnight, Ryder would need to get his three a.m. feeding so I told the girls I was calling it a night.

It just so happens that I was put in the room where Hunter and I had slept. I knew I wouldn’t be getting much sleep, but I at least was going to try and have an hour or so.

I woke up with that damn nightmare again. I was dripping sweat and panting.

“You ok?” Hailey asked from beside me.

Deep breaths Kenz, deep breaths.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

I laid back down after looking over at Ryder sleeping peacefully in his Pack-N-Play. I took a deep breath in and let it out, slowly, “I keep having a stupid nightmare that someone takes Ryder.”

It’s the first time I’ve told anyone about having this God awful nightmare.

“Oh Kenz, don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen to him.” Hailey said as she started rubbing circles on my back.

“I’m just worried that something like what happened to Jaylinn will happen to Ryder. I know it’s stupid but it just keeps replaying.” I said as the tears started coming again.

Hailey was shushing me while continuing to rub circles on my back, “Don’t worry, nothing will happen to him.” After a few minutes she spoke again, “I think you need to talk to Hunter, Kenz.”

I let out a shuddering breath, “I know and I will. Maybe once we get back.”

I didn’t need to turn around to know she was smiling. Hailey continued to rub circles on my back until I eventually fell back asleep.

The next morning the girls declared it was makeover day. They’d packed all their nail polish, curling irons, flat irons, sprays, scrubs… You name it they had it packed. Jaylinn had even brought her stuff to chalk your hair.

Hailey was working on painting my toes, Jaylinn was chalking my hair and I was painting my nails while Chloe fed Ryder for me. We were all gossiping and carrying on. I pushed Hunter and everything else to the back of mind, needing this time for myself.

Hours later, after everyone was all dolled up with nowhere to go; we were bored out of our minds. Hailey was antsy because Mason wasn’t answering his phone.

“Ok Kenz, I have a game. Jaylinn, I think I saw Battleship. Can you grab that for me?”

What the hell is she up to with that? We haven’t played that in years.

“Chloe, would you keep an eye on Ryder for a little bit while Kenz and I play?” Hailey asked her.