Chapter 57
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Iris
Seated at Kali’s kitchen island, eating a late dinner in my favorite purple sundress, with my favorite man beside me, Kali sets a butcher knife next to my empty plate.
“I’m gonna need you to stab him.” She nods to Dark.
His sigh is long and suffering, with a hint of humor. “Kaliii.” He drones her name.
“Don’t you Kali me. We’ve had our meal. We’ve been cordial. But I’m done being nice to either of you.” She points the tip of an even bigger knife at her husband, then at mine. Well, my future one.
Squeezing my thigh, Dark snorts, and for a moment, I fear for his life when Kali’s eyes round in murderous rage. “Oh. You think this is funny,” she seethes.
Ignoring her, Dark leans in to look past me at his father. “You didn’t fuck the anger outta her, huh? Maybe you should’ve thought about what would happen when we got home. I told you not communicating with them was a bad idea.”
Sunshine huffs like he’s ready for the day to be done with. “It was for the best. I already told Kali this.”
“I’m gonna stab you now,” she screeches and attacks her husband with the knife.
Sure, it doesn’t go anywhere. He bats the steel out of her hand.
It falls to the floor somewhere, and before she can gouge his eyes out with her fingers, he’s got her up and over his shoulder, carrying her from the room as she kicks and screams in feminist rage.
“They’re gonna fuck.” Dark chuckles as Kali’s bedroom door slams shut. He takes my hand and pulls me to stand. “Ready to meet the newest member of our family?”
Outside, in a van that looks similar to one that was parked down the street from my shop this week, Dark opens the back door. The hiss that greets us is feral as a ball of fluff crouches, ready to pounce.
I laugh at the spitfire.
So, this is the newest member of the family, huh?
“Dad?!” a little girl cries out of nowhere.
We turn just in time to catch Lily racing down the steps of her house and across the yard to tackle her father.
Still using his cane for support, he braces for the impact, which doesn’t do much when his “Oh. Fuck,” echoes through the neighborhood as they collapse in the driveway.
Holding her to his chest, Dark breaks their fall.
“Dad,” the miniature version of him sobs, clinging to his neck.
Looking up at me from the ground, like he doesn’t know what to do, Dark pats Lily’s back. “Hey. Hey. It’s okay. I’m here,” he soothes.
A woman with blonde hair stands on Lily’s porch. It must be Abby, her mother. I lift a hand in greeting, but she ignores me. Which is fine. This can’t be easy for her either. Seeing him alive after so long. Watching her daughter reunite with him. I try not to take it personally.
Giving them space to do their thing, I lean against the closed van door to watch the kitten so it doesn’t make a break for it. Dark whispers to his daughter, and she nods a bunch of times before she scoots off him onto the ground, and Dark sits up with a pained groan.
A set of identical gray eyes peeks up at me, rimmed in red. “You’re Iris.”
“I am.”
Dark looks between the two of us. “Wait. You haven’t met?”
I shake my head. “No. Kali and I didn’t want to make things any more confusing for Lily while you were gone.” It was the right thing to do.
“Well. Shit.”
“She told me all about you,” Lily confesses.
“Same. Ya know, you look just like your dad.”
She grins. “I know. Everyone says that.”
“Do you like cats?”
“I love them.”
I gesture to the open van door. “It looks like there’s a stowaway in here. If you wanna see.”
Those adorable eyes widen. “Really?”
“Seems so.”
Lily scrambles to her feet, dusts off her legs, and approaches me with caution, which I get. I’m a stranger. Maybe not completely, but enough to be leery, given the circumstances.
Stepping back to give her space, I nod toward the inside of the vehicle, where the ball of fur is no longer hissing, just sitting with big yellow eyes, trying to figure out what’s going on.
Lily tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, steels her shoulders, and climbs into the back. I don’t try to stop her or help. She’s a girl with her own mind, and sure enough, that kitten must recognize something in her when it climbs right into Lily’s lap and rubs its head against her chest.
I help Dark up from the ground and hand him his discarded cane for stability. He wraps an arm around my waist and kisses my temple. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
“Anytime.” I smile, still in shock. I guess that’d be the right word. Between him being alive, meeting his daughter, and a kitten, it’s been a lot to take in. “So, a cat, huh?”
“What’s her name?” Lily asks as the loudest purr I’ve ever heard has us all tickled pink.
“Sal.”
His daughter’s nose scrunches as if she doesn’t like it. “Sal?”
“Short for Salvation,” her dad explains.
“What’s that mean?”
“I didn’t die, and neither did she. Because we were saved.”
Cupping the kitten’s face gently, Lily looks at Sal and hums her approval. Like, the name isn’t so bad after all. “You got her from the place you were?”
“Yep.”
“And we get to keep her?” Lily asks, sounding hopeful.
Dark looks to me for direction. “If that’s okay with Iris.”
“Me?” I squeak in surprise. Why me? I have nothing to do with this.
“Yeah. I thought…” He squeezes my side. “Maybe. You.”
Maybe… I…
A light bulb goes off. “Oh. Ohhh… She’s our cat.”
When he said family, he meant us.
Ummm. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to feel, but there’s a rollercoaster going wild in my gut.
Dark’s lopsided, half-working smile is downright sexy. “Yes.”
“I’ve never had a real pet before.” Sure, Dee had her opossums and other wild animals, but I’ve only ever had my plants and Spike, my squirrel. Never a cat. I wonder what Spike will think?
“Me neither,” Lily adds as she kisses the top of the kitten’s head.
“Do you want one?” Dark asks, jostling my side.
Not wanting to make this about me, I address the person who matters the most in this decision. “What do ya think, Lil?”
“I think yes.”
I clap my hands together. “The girl has spoken.”
A cat it is. A cat named Sal. Our family cat.
I have a family.
We stand in the driveway, watching Lily with Sal, when Dark squeezes my hip.
“I need to go talk to Abby,” he says, notching his chin at her house.
I don’t pry. Even if this nagging in my gut makes me wish he didn’t have to do that today, I still understand.
Not that I know what it’s like to be a parent or deal with an ex.
I don’t have any real exes, and beyond taking care of Dee, I’ve never had to consider anyone else’s feelings. Now I have lots.
Dark kisses me soundly on the lips before ambling over to his ex’s house with his cane.
Not knowing what to do with myself, I open the other van door and slip into the back with Lily.
“Here.” She sets Sal in my lap, and I expect the kitten to lose it on me, but she doesn’t. Her head is soft beneath my fingers, and her purr sounds like a car engine.
“Thanks,” I whisper to Lily, in awe of her openness, given we don’t know each other.
“I think she likes you,” she comments.
“I… Yeah.” I laugh quietly. “I think maybe she does.”
“She can be ours.”
“Ours?”
“Yeah. Yours and mine.”
Gah! This kid. She’s something. Kali said she was special. I mean, she’s Dark’s, so of course I’d think that. But this moment, I’m gonna remember forever.
Swallowing thickly, I smile at Lily. “I’d like that.”
“Me too. Do you think we could maybe go for ice cream? Mom’s boyfriend is coming over tonight, and I…” Lily scrunches up her nose.
“You what?”
“I don’t like him. But I’m not supposed to say that. Mom doesn’t like it when I say that.”
“How about we talk to Dad and see what he thinks about ice cream?” I suggest, not wanting to overstep.
“Do you like ice cream?”
“Yes.”
“What’s your favorite flavor?”
“I don’t think I have one. What’s yours?”
“Superman.”
“Oh. I don’t think I’ve heard of that one before.”
Lily and I sit in the back of the van, petting a kitty, talking about everything that’s on her mind.
Turns out, it’s a lot. A girl at the pool was rude to her again.
Kali’s been teaching her how to make tea blends.
The kid’s friendly. So, I listen and add tidbits whenever needed.
But I learn a lot in the process. I’ve never been around kids much, and while I never wanted any of my own, Lily and I are gonna get along just fine.
Eventually, Kali and Sunshine join us, and he climbs into the back beside his granddaughter and pulls her into his lap. They carry on about her new kitten and whatever else Lil needs to tell him. I set Sal on their lap and get out so Kali and I can talk without little ears eavesdropping.
Side by side, we walk around her quiet neighborhood.
It’s silent for a bit until I can’t take it anymore.
“You good?” I ask, hoping to take some of the weight from Kali’s shoulders. I know she isn’t taking things well.
Kali grips her crystal necklaces like a lifeline. “Honestly? I am pissed, and I don’t know how to not be so damn pissed. I want to gut them both.”
“I get it.” And I do. I understand why she feels as she does.
She side-eyes me. “How come you seem so calm? Don’t you wanna kill Dark?”
“No. Not really.” I shrug. “He’s alive. He told me everything.
How sick he was. How he wanted to die. But Sunshine wouldn’t let him.
It was a tough recovery, and from what he said, his dad didn’t want to bother us…
in case…” He died. I leave that part out, given he’s not dead, and I already spent almost a year thinking he was.
I don’t wanna relive that again. Perhaps I’m too forgiving.
But listening to Dark tell his side after we reconnected, I just can’t hold a grudge.
He’s here. Sunshine’s here. They’re okay.
I’m in a good place with my business and my friendships.
Now my heart can mend. If I look at it any other way, what does it solve besides more pain for everyone involved?