Page 35 of Choosing Forever
My voice sounds weird when I say, “You don’t want to go see the group you’ll be working with first?”
“Not yet. I want to say hi to my teacher.”
Bryce breaks eye contact and glances over my shoulder. “Hey, Delaney.”
It’s habit to reach up and touch the brim of my hat. The tear in the corner of it reminds me of which one it is. My stomach becomes so tense it’s painful.Of course.
“Hi, Bryce. And hello, Abbie. I love your shorts.”
Her voice is a punch to the gut. Drawing air into my lungs is stressful.
“Darren,” she adds, my name weighed down like it’s strenuous for her to speak it.
I suck back a pained hiss when Bryce steps close to me and kicks the back of my ankle. With a wince, I shift and turn around. The toe of a cowboy boot runs back and forth in the dirt, creating a deep groove as I keep my eyes lowered.
Bryce kicks me again. I look up and immediately wish I’d just let her do it for a third time instead.
“Delaney,” I breathe out.
Nobody should look this fucking beautiful just to volunteer cleaning up a mess of burnt wood on scorched land. Her eyes are cool despite her attempt at a smile as she stares at my hat. They’ve always been the one part of her that she could never control. Angry, sad, happy, her eyes always gave her away. And right now, it’s killing me that she so obviously wants to be anywhere but here.
“Thank you. I put the gems on by myself,” Abbie announces, pride thick in her words.
“That’s incredible. I used to bedazzle my clothes when I was your age too, but my mom always found them loose in the dryer after the first wash or stuck inside my brother’s T-shirts.”
Abbie giggles. “They get stuck to my dad’s clothes.”
“Sometimes a bit of sparkle makes an outfit.”
I struggle to swallow. “Haven’t found any in our dryer, though.”
“When’s the last time you checked, D?” Bryce asks, watching me a bit too closely.
“Never!” Abbie erupts, laughing harder now.
It’s impossible not to stare at Delaney. Not because I want to see her reaction to my daughter’s laughter, but because I simply can’t help but steal another glance. In the late-morning sun, her hair is brighter, almost a shade too light that it’s white. It drapes her shoulders in loose waves that rustle in the wind but never fly into her face.
Her short frame is hugged by a plain, blush-pink long-sleeve she’s tucked into the band of a pair of high-waisted blue jeans. There’s a plaid shirt tied around her waist that hangs behind her thighs, and with the addition of the cowboy boots that remind me a bit too much of the same pair I used to hide under my bed when we were too young to be seeing each other . . . Fuck.
I’m transported back in time too easily, and it’s damn hard to keep fighting off the memories that follow any amount of time near her. My first instinct is to forget about all the mess and pain between us and take her in my arms. It’s been almost a decade since I’ve had her there, and I crave it more than anything else.
“Thank you for organizing this, Bryce. I should go find out where I’m supposed to go, I suppose,” she says, avoiding looking at me now.
I take that on the chin. “You could stick around until the mayor starts speaking.”
A long pause, and then the full weight of her stare rocks me back onto my heels. Delaney keeps a neutral expression, but fuck, I see through it.
“I want to say hi to a few other people before then.”
“Like who?”
The question’s out before I can stop it, and now there’s no stopping the reaction to it. I wait for Bryce to kick me again, but instead, she blows out a long breath that’s fucking worse.
Delaney narrows her stare and tightens the tie at her middle. Then, in the blink of an eye, she’s focused on my daughter with astrained yet warm smile, making it obvious that I’ve been dismissed.
“Enjoy the weekend, Abbie. I’ll see you Monday morning.”
My daughter holds her hands against her middle the way she does when she’s stopping herself from hugging someone. “Okay. See you, Ms. Delaney.”
