Chapter 27
PRESENT
DARREN
Her hand is still as small as it was the last time I held it. Maybe even smaller.
I’ve dreamed of slipping my fingers through hers and feeling the smooth, warm skin during cold, lonely nights.
The memories of her never stopped running rampant through my mind, but it was her hands and the way they always held me with love and respect and this .
. . outright fucking ownership that screwed me up the most.
I never expected today to be the day I’d finally feel her touch again. Or that she’d be pressing my shirt to her nose while wearing a red-splattered one of her own. It’s been a weird day, but at least it’s the good kind of weird now.
“I need to go home,” she attempts to say, her voice nasally and muffled.
“Not until I’ve checked you out. Your nose could be broken.”
“You’re not a doctor.”
I pull open the door and avoid looking at where I know my sister’s standing watching.
The shock and worry that morphed into smug satisfaction when I took off running outside has burnt itself into my retinas.
At least she took my daughter into the engine bay to check on her chalk drawings before she burst into guilty tears.
“I’ve passed enough medical courses to know if your nose is broken,” I say, clutching her hand a bit tighter when I fear she’ll try to slip free of me.
“Where are your credentials?”
“Are you really going to give me a hard time about this? Your nose hasn’t clotted yet.”
“Maybe it’s the shirt I’m using as a wad of tissues. There could be something wrong with the material that’s making me bleed worse.”
“Yeah, cotton can be a real bitch when it comes to bleeding noses.”
“Your sarcasm isn’t welcome here.”
“Why? Does it make you wanna laugh?”
I can sense her rolling her eyes. “No. It’s impossible to laugh when I’m trying not to cry.”
“Okay, so it really could be broken, then.”
The door to the medical room is open, so I carefully lead her inside and hesitate to shut the door before deciding to go for it. If any of the guys come around and see her in here with me, there won’t be any living it down. It’s better to keep them trapped outside for as long as possible.
“Can you see the table here?” I ask softly.
“Yes, I can see the table.”
“Hop up on it for me.”
She blinks quickly, dislodging some of the water lingering in her eyes.
Tears soak into my shirt as she uses her free hand to try hoisting herself up.
I hover, knowing full well she’s probably scoffing internally at me for being so close.
It’s impossible not to keep a slim distance.
She’s hurt, and we’re alone. Again . Only this time, every instinct inside of me is screaming to take care of her and take the pain away that’s causing the wrinkle between her brows .
“Keep your claws to yourself for a minute,” I whisper.
Then, before she can ask what I’m talking about, I grip both sides of her waist and lift her onto the edge of the table.
The soft gasp that escapes her shoots straight down to my groin, and shit, that’s the worst place for it.
I roll my jaw and focus, ignoring everything but the green eyes piercing into mine.
Delaney rolls her lip between her teeth before saying, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, let me look at your nose. I’ll be gentle.”
“As opposed to?”
“I could give your nose a pinch and wiggle it around a bit if you want.”
She winces, her eyes focusing more now. “I really can’t have a broken nose right now.”
There’s a slight shake to my hand that I hope she can’t see when I guide hers away and pull the shirt back. While red and slightly swollen, her nose isn’t broken. The blood has slowed to a trickle, which is a good sign as well.
“You’ll be okay. Minimal damage,” I murmur, using a clean corner of my shirt to pat beneath her nose, wiping some of the blood away.
“Are you sure? I feel like I should still go see a doctor.”
I chuckle and tip her chin up with the edge of my knuckle, making a show of examining her nose. “They’ll tell you the same thing I am. You might have a bruise in the morning and be a bit sore, but that’s it.”
“What were your credentials again?”
Lowering the shirt once I know the bleeding’s stopped, I stroke my finger from her chin to the edge of her jaw, enamoured with the pink that rises to her cheeks. The silence in this room is harrowing, not awkward. I find the thrill in it and listen for the sound of her breathing, finding it uneven.
“I’m sorry about this,” I say, inching into the space she’s unknowingly made for me between her parted legs. “She’ll want to apologize to you properly.”
Her pupils expand as they fall to my chest. “Who?”
“Abbie.”
The jerk of her head is clunky, as if she didn’t mean to do it.
“It was their idea for me to come.”
“I know.”
There’s a pause before she asks, “Should I have insisted that I didn’t?”
“Absolutely not.”
Her gaze flashes up to snare mine, holding it as if she’s scared I’ll dare look away now.
The disbelief that I find so obviously gleaming in her eyes is a jerk to my system.
A blatant reminder that I’m the cause of her caution.
It’s all me. All the things I did and the words I never spoke.
Every single unmade call and deleted email I’d written and rewritten for hours hunched over my desk.
My stupid, arrogant decisions that have led us here, unable to get back to what we were and who we should have always been together.
Those reminders are why I’m here, though.
They’re why I’m pushing past the roadblocks Delaney has put up between us, as if they would ever stop me from getting to her.
This woman is my person. She’s the one I was always meant to be with, even with the decade of distance that’s grown between us. It doesn’t matter and never has.
I’ll earn back her trust and, eventually, her love because I won’t give up until she’s mine again. My family, best friend, soulmate. I want it all, no matter what it takes.
“I want to take you out, Elle. On a real date,” I declare.
She doesn’t pull away from me like I’m half expecting her to. Instead, she lowers her eyes to where our legs have begun to touch. Knee to knee with me, she says, “It’s Delaney.”
“Fine, Delaney. Let me take you on a date.”
“I thought we were supposed to be healing a friendship,” she argues, but it’s weak, almost like she doesn’t have the energy to keep fighting but feels like she needs to.
“We can do both, can’t we?”
“I haven’t forgiven you.”
“And you don’t need to have. I’m not done earning that yet.”
I suck in a ragged breath when she brings her fingers to my side, the pressure almost too light to feel but still searing. Electricity pounds through me, frying my nervous system as I hold completely still.
The round edges of her nails run across my flesh before the pads of her fingers press down.
A shiver rocks me hard enough that I lose my balance and fall forward against her.
She leans into my body, whether by accident or intentionally, and I shut my eyes while my fingers curl into a fist on the table.
Her forehead meets my chest, holding there as soft puffs of air blow across my goosebumped skin.
“What are you doing, Delaney?” I ask roughly, my body more alive than it’s been since the day she left me.
“I don’t know.”
“Look at me.”
She rolls her head side to side, not removing her forehead from my sternum.
“Please,” I croak.
“If I look at you right now, I’ll do something I shouldn’t.”
“Do it anyway.”
“I can’t?—”
Her words die at the first brush of my palms against her cheeks. No others follow as I cup her face and tip her head back until our eyes clash. I stroke my thumbs across the dried tear streaks on her skin and gulp in a breath when the desire to kiss her throttles me.
“It’s still here. You feel it. I know you do. Friendship will never be enough. It only works as the foundation beneath something more.”
“It has to be enough,” she argues weakly .
“Why? Tell me right now that you don’t think we can fall in love again.”
If we ever fell out of it at all.
Pain ripples through the green in her eyes. “I can’t.”
“Kiss me.”
“I can’t.”
“Then let me kiss you.”
It hangs there between us as both a dare and a plea. I wait, standing frozen with her face in my hands and my heart flopping like a fish out of water on her lap. She hesitates, a million emotions flickering across her face at a pace that terrifies me the longer it takes for her to speak.
“No, Darren. You’re not kissing me.”
My hands fall to rest at my sides once she pushes free of my hold. I take an off-balanced step back to make room for her to hop off the table and walk straight past me. The silence is suddenly torturous.
“Thank you for making sure my nose was okay,” she says, sounding so unlike herself I flinch.
“Don’t thank me for taking care of you.”
A heavy pause. “I’ll see you at the drive-in this week.”
“Yeah, you will.”
Hesitating with her hand on the door, she taps her foot. I wait for her to say something else, but she leaves without another word. There isn’t a damn thing I could say to make her stay, so I keep my mouth shut and groan into the empty room instead.
The chill in the air is obvious to me now that I’m alone. I expect to find my bloodied shirt on the table or even the floor, but it’s nowhere to be found. A spark of hope appears in the dark of my mind when I realize Delaney took it with her.
“What happened?” Poppy asks from the doorway.
“I moved too quickly.”
“Helpless, lovesick fool.”
I can’t deny it. “She still cares about me. ”
“Don’t push her, Darren. Even if you don’t mean to. You need to be careful if you want a second chance.”
“I think I need your help.”
Her brows fly up before her mouth splits in a grin. “It’s about time you came to me. You should have known better than to rely on Bryce for romance advice.”
“She got the go-ahead for the drive-in rebuild.”
“And now? Just admit you should have come to me first.”
“Only if you agree to help.”
She scoffs, coming further into the room. The pointed look she gives my naked chest was to be expected.
“Well, first, I’d suggest not trying to win her over by flashing her your dad bod. You can do that as much as you want after you’ve got the girl.”
“I was helping her with her nose.”
“Either way, you need to win her heart first, Darren.”
I scrub an antsy hand down my jaw. “I know. I know I pushed too hard and spooked her. She hasn’t forgiven me yet.”
“No she hasn’t, and it will take more than taking care of her bloody nose for you to earn that.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes. It’s always been Delaney for me, Poppy. Always,” I rush out.
My sister reaches for me and palms my arm. “I know. And she does too. You just have to help her remember why she fell in love with you in the first place all those years ago. She needs to feel safe with you again because right now, you scare her.”
I deflate, collapsing against the table. “She was right here. So close. We were . . .”
“Don’t give up yet.”
“I couldn’t if I tried. I’m not myself anymore. I haven’t been in a long time. But when she’s with me, I am.”
“Hug me, big brother.”
I let loose a weak exhale and do exactly that because I know I’ll need the borrowed strength for what’s coming next.