Page 97 of About Last Knight

Twenty-Five Years Ago

Scott

Darian’s been in Reagan’s room for over two hours. Harley and Skylar are asleep.

I decide to look in to make sure Darian and Reagan are okay. I see Reagan is fast asleep. Darian’s sitting at her bedside, stroking her hair in the loving, maternal way she often does. She’s just staring at Reagan.

I quietly walk in. Darian looks up at me. Hours of crying still stinging her eyes. I motion my head for her to follow me out, but she shakes hers back.

I walk over and take her hand in mine. I kiss it and then whisper, “It’s time to go, baby. She’s asleep. She’s fine.”

She sighs and reluctantly stands. I close Reagan’s door behind us while Darian and I silently walk into our bedroom hand in hand.

As soon as I close our bedroom door, she buries her head in my chest and starts sobbing. I hold her and let her sob for a few minutes.

I kiss the top of her head whispering words of reassurance. “She’s fine. She’s going to be okay. She doesn’t even know what happened.”

She looks up at me with her tear-filled, big green eyes. “I was so scared, Scott. Those were the worst two hours of my life.”

I rub her back. “I know, baby. Me too.”

I lead her over to our bed. I lay on top of the blankets while she tucks herself into me, laying her head on my chest. I pull her close, taking in her delicious orange scent. It comforts me. It always has.

I swallow at what I’m about to say. “I don’t want Declan around you or the kids anymore.”

She lifts her head to look at me. “What? We can’t do that. He fell asleep, Scott. It could have happened to any of us. You know how Reagan is. She’s always curious and wanders off. She never sits still for a minute.”

Darian only sees the good in people, especially Declan. She adores him. “He didn’t just fall asleep. He passed out because he was high. There’s a difference. He’s completely out of control. He can’t be around any of us until he gets his act together.Ifhe gets his act together.”

She shakes her head. “He loves the girls. We can’t do that to him. We need to find another way.”

“We love our girls too, and we need to keep them safe. I need to keep you safe. I’ll talk to him. If he wants to be around our family, he needs to get clean. It’s us or the drugs. He can no longer have both. It’s time to dig in and really draw the line in the sand on this. We can only hope that he’ll make the right choice.”

She pinches her eyebrows in concern. “We’ll pay for the best rehab facility, right?”

I smile at her. “Of course. We’ll get him whatever support he needs, but he has to want it for himself, or it won’t work.”

She sighs. She knows I’m right. “Okay. Maybe you’re right. He was beside himself. Maybe this will be the thing that scares him straight.”

“He should be scared. He messed up and he knows it. We all know this day could have ended very differently.”

She nods as she lays her head back down on me.

We lay in comfortable silence for a while. Her head is pressed to my chest as she aimlessly rubs her fingers across it. “I love listening to your heart beat.”

“It beats for you and the girls.”

I don’t voice my concerns to her about that heart. I’m only a few years younger than my father was when he passed. My biggest fear is leaving my girls too early. I want to be here for them always. I want to see them grow up. I want to grow old with Darian.

I know the reality is that I probably won’t. My father and grandfather died so young.

What if I don’t get to say all the things I want to say to them? What if I’m not there to guide them through life? What if they don’t realize how I feel for them?

I vow in that moment to never hold anything back and make the most of every second I get with them. I tilt Darian’s chin up so our eyes meet. “I love you so much. You’re my everything.”

She smiles and crawls up my body to join her lips to mine. I think we intend it to be a sweet, loving kiss, but as is often the case for us when we’re alone, it gets heated.

Without breaking our kiss, she moves to straddle my body. At some point, she pulls away and breathes into my mouth, “I need you. Make me forget today, Scott.”

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