Introduction

Chapter 12

Mack's P.O.V.

We landed in Nashville shortly after 6 a.m. Caroline and Luke wake me up by whispering,"Wake up darling." "Sorry about your shoulder Luke," I say with an apologetic tone seeing that I had a nosebleed and drooled on his shoulder. "It's alright. We should probably get off the plane though." We walk off and soon get to the parking lot. Instantly I know where Luke's parked because it's a big, black, jacked up truck. We get into the truck and a half hour later I'm at the place I get to call home.

"We should, uh, sit down and talk. Get to know ya, how's that sound?" Caroline asks. "Sure," I respond. I follow my parents into the kitchen. Wow, this is like a kitchen off Food Network. I go sit down at the table across from Caroline and Luke sitting at the head of it. "So do you just want me to talk or, like, you can ask me questions if you want." "Whatever you want but I'd like to ask you something first," Luke says. I look over at him. "Cole Swindell has to take two months off from the That's My Kinda Night tour so I was wondering if you wanted to fill his spot for June and July?" Luke asks. "Oh my gosh, really?!? Yes!!!!," I say running up to him and hugging him. "Great," Luke responds with that smile. "Um, I have a question if you don't mind, Mack?" Caroline asks. "Not at all," Mack politley responds. "Your ITP. What is it exactly? Oh and I got all you stuff transfered from your doctor in New York to our doctor and a doctor at Vanderbilt," Caroline says. "Thank you. Uh well ITP stands for Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura which makes you sound real smart when you say it. So basically what it is is my platelet levels which clot your blood are low. Normal levels are 200 thousand to 450 thousand. mine range from 1 thousand to 100 thousand. I bruise real easy and when I bleed it's hard to stop," I say. "OK, so what your saying is we need to wrap you in bubble wrap," Luke says. "No please," I beg.

We talked for about 3 hours about anything and everything. I help Caroline make lunch and after Luke asks if I want to run a few errands with him. I say sure so we head out to his truck and into town. "Why do we have to do all these errands?" I ask Luke. "Uh, because we're having a barbeque tomorrow," he responds. "Oh ok, that's cool," I respond excitedley. "Yea, so like Lee and his family, Tim and his family, Cole, Carter, Monaco, my mama, my neices and nephew, my brother in law, a couple of my buddies from Georgia, and yea that's it," he says. "A lot of people," "Yea"

We finished all the errands in 2 hours and we get home and there are two other cars in the driveway. We walk in the house and I walk into the kitchen and I'm swarmed. "Oh my gosh she's beautiful. You can call me mamaw or mama claire or whatever," Luke's mom says as she holds me in a lung crushing hug. "OK," I respond gasping. "Mama, don't overwehlm her," Luke says, " you gotta be careful, she bleeds and bruises easy." "Oh right, Caroline was saying," mamaw says. I like that,I think. "This is awesome finally its even," a girl says behind me, "oh sorry I'm Jordan, I'm 13." "Oh hi," I say, " what do you mean even?" "3 girls, 3 boys," another girl says, "I'm Kris, I'm 15." "Speaking of boys, BO,TATE,TIL!!!" Caroline yelled up the stairs. It sounded like a herd of elephants coming down the stairs. They come into the kitchen and I hear, "Is that her? Our sister?" I smile at that. "Yes, now go introduce yourself," Caroline says. "Yes'm," the two eldest boys say. So polite, I think. "I'm Thomas Boyer Bryan but you can call me Bo. I just turned 4," he says holding up 5 fingers. "Bo-Bo put your thumb down. That's 5," the eldest boy says, "Oh I'm Tilden but please call me Til. I'm 10," he says giving the little boy he was holding to Caroline. "Guess we're cousins," Til says. "Yea," I respond,"who's that?" I ask my mom. "This is Tatum Christopher but we call him," she says pausing. "Taye," Tate says. Everyone's just as surprised as me. We're all cheering and clapping and Luke puts him on his shoulders as he says, "Oh yea he's 18 months."

After dinner, which was quite the experience because we prayed and said what we were thankful for which I said that I was thankful for my new life, we just relaxed and talked. At about 9 I started dozing off on Caroline's shoulder. "Mack, honey," she says soothingly shaking my shoulder, "Luke and I can show you your room. Everyone's already upstairs." "Mhm," I reply sleepily getting up to go upstairs.

Everyone is already in their rooms when Luke, Caroline, and I get upstairs."So those are the boys rooms," Luke says pointing to the first and third door on the right side of the hall. "The door in the middle is the bathroom. "This is the guest room," Caroline says pointing to the first door on the left side of the hall. I just assumed that was my room so I go to walk in there. I hear Luke clear his throat so I turn around to face him and Caroline. "That's the guest room," Luke says. "I know," I respond stifling a yawn. "That's for guests. Last I remeber you're my daughter. That means you're family. This is your house as much as mine, Carol's, Bo's, Tate's, and anyone else who's family," he says then starts to slowly walk down the hall. He stops about 2 feet away from me, "Coming?" he asks. "C'mon," Caroline says putting her arm around my shoulders. I flinch at this sight of affection. 3 years of it and I'm still not used to it. We join Luke at the end of the hardwood floor hall. "Oh and that's our room," Caroline says as I notice the open double doors at the end of the hall for the first time. "And here," Luke says pushing open the second door on the left side,"is your room." It was huge. There was a twin bed under the three large windows. A dresser that definetley would be very empty. A desk on the door wall. I walk in, pure gratitude on my face, when I see another door. My own bathroom. I run up and hug both Luke and Caroline. I repeatedly say thank you while tears of joy strea down my face. "It's no problem," they say. "Oh and we're gonna go shopping for paint and decorations and clothes on Saturday," Caroline says. They say goodnight and tell me to come get them if I have a nosebleed during the night. They both kiss my head and then I crawl into bed and instantly pass out with a smile on my face.