Page 80 of Choosing Forever
“No, I need to go. It was nice, though. Today. All of us here.”
“You won’t come with us, Delaney?” Abbie murmurs, immediately sending spikes through my chest.
The guilt from putting that disappointment on her face is sweltering beneath my skin. “I shouldn’t.”
“Why? You can say hi to my dad!”
“You should come, Della,” Poppy urges gently, cautiously.
Run, Delaney.Duck out before you agree to something you shouldn’t.
“Okay. Sure. I’ll come.”
Idiot.
“Yeah,I’ll be done in five. You can come inside,” Darren says.
His voice is just as strong and commanding when it’s coming through the speakers in Poppy’s car. It has the hairs on my arms sticking up in anticipation of seeing him and hearing that voiceface to face again after a week of being without it. Greedy is what it is.
I went all these years without hearing it, and now that I have again, I can’t seem to go on without it. Greedy,greedyheart.
“Okie dokie. See you in five,” Poppy says before hanging up and pulling into the station parking lot.
I notice Darren’s car first and give my head a shake. “Are you sure I shouldn’t head home now? It’s only a five-minute walk.”
She leans over the centre console and twists her mouth to hide an oncoming smile. “As if. What would you do with the bracelet in your hand if you went home before you could give it to him?”
I pull away and glare. Her responding laugh is fully expected.
“Can we just go in now? Dad isn’t even working,” Abbie grumbles.
Poppy glances over her shoulder into the back seat. “Yeah, let’s go in.”
Abbie moves frantically, excited to be free of the car after being subjected to the same time-killing drive around town that we suffered through for the last half hour. There are only so many times you can stand seeing the same few businesses on Main Street before you’re so bored you want to pull your hair out.
I step out of the car last and keep a step behind the both of them the entire way to the station doors. The engine bay door is open, and the fire engine is sparkling inside, unused once again.
Slipping my hands into my pockets, I loop a finger through the band of the bracelet. I doubt I’ll give it to him today. It’s not my ideal time or place. The odds of him even being alone here are slim, and with both his daughter and sister with me, I’m sure?—
Abbie dives inside the station after Poppy, and before I can lift my arms in time, the open door flies back and smacks me in the face. I cry out at the impact and the searing pain that spiderwebsfrom my nose outward to my ears and chin. Vision blurring with tears, I spin around and face the street while clutching my nose.
A breeze hits my back, and then shoes scuff the sidewalk. “Jesus Christ, Elle. Are you okay?”
I shake my head and sniff, only to make the liquid now dripping from my nose run faster. It slides down my hand and, without a doubt, onto my clothes as I try to make out the blurry man in front of me.
“You’re bleeding. Here.”
My vision might be thick with unshed tears, but there’s no mistaking the sight of Darren stripping in front of me. Throat drying up, I watch as he tugs his shirt over his head for the second time in only a few weeks and brings it toward my face. I hold my breath as he gently removes my bloodstained hand and eases his shirt to my nose, pressing firmly.
“This is wonderful,” I mutter, wincing at the fresh wave of pain.
“Take my hand and come inside.”
I don’t, but he does it for me. Our fingers glide before interlocking, palms flush and warm. The pain in my nose dulls to a low throb as I blink and blink and try to free my vision of the tears tracking down my cheeks. It doesn’t work, and my chest begins to ache.
It’s the first real physical contact we’ve had in years, and I’m completely, embarrassingly weak in the knees. Every step is wobbly and off-centre. I struggle to see where we’re going, but that doesn’t stop me from moving.
Not when he’s the one leading me.
