Chapter 15 #2
“Of course she is,” Crow answered quickly. “But she’s taken care of right now, so I’m going to take you on our first official date.”
“You do realize that the two of you have been dating for about a month now, right?” Bird asked Crow.
“That we have, but she’s a stubborn one. Hopefully, since this is an official date, I’ll get a kiss at the end.”
Bird looked from me to Crow and back again before he said, “We don’t have a curfew, and I’m more than happy to nap with Buttercup if you’d like to take a little time to . . . get the house in order.”
Amethyst cackled as she walked out into the hall, and Summer groaned before she said, “That was really subtle, Bird.”
“I wasn’t trying to be subtle,” Bird said with a shrug. “Was I supposed to be?”
“Come on, Darcy. Let’s go before my father embarrasses me any more.”
I gave Rev a quick kiss and then took Crow’s hand and let him pull me out of the room before I asked, “Are you sure it’s a good idea to leave her now? I mean, we’ll have plenty of time for this . . .”
Crow stopped walking and pulled me into his chest. Before I could ask what was going on, his mouth was on mine. I forgot my question. Hell, I had serious doubts that I’d even be able to spell my own name right now. It was that amazing.
Spectacular.
Mind-blowing.
“Ditto,” Crow murmured against my lips.
“Huh?”
“That was spectacular. I’ve been waiting for years to do that, although I guess we’re following our trend of firsts in odd places.”
“Huh?” Our kiss had clearly melted my brain because I couldn’t follow what he was saying.
“You told me you loved me in the middle of my kitchen with the cops swarming all over my house, and we had our first real kiss in the middle of a hospital hallway. Obviously, our love story has a first responder theme, although I hope it never involves paramedics or the fire department.”
I was finally able to string words together and laughed before I said, “At some point, Griffin and the other kids are going to need one or both, I’m afraid.”
“Let’s get out of here before we lose our chance,” Crow said as he let me go so I could walk beside him. “Unless you’re down for finding a storage closet and . . . Nope! I’m gonna figure out how to do at least one first in our relationship the right way even if it kills me.”
“Who would have sex in a storage closet?” I asked.
Crow grimaced before he answered, “More people than you can imagine.”
◆◆◆
CROW
Once the server had taken our order, I reached across the table and took Darcy’s hand to catch her attention.
“I need you to be honest with me, Darcy.”
“Okay,” she answered uncertainly.
“The last few days - shit, it’s been almost a week - have been full of . . . well . . . ”
“Crazy pivotal experiences?” Darcy added helpfully.
“Exactly. From the second Rebecca walked into my house, it’s been a whirlwind, and I need to know where your head is right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“We haven’t known each other that long, and you’ve got a full life planned out that didn’t include helping me raise a child.”
“Oh! I’m so glad you’re here to tell me what my life plan does and doesn’t include,” Darcy said sarcastically.
I laughed as I said, “Well, up until a few days ago, mine certainly didn’t include this, so I assumed it wasn’t on your bingo card either.”
“Not this year, at least. I always planned to have children; I just wasn’t planning for that to happen last week.”
“We haven’t done this relationship in the right order at all, have we?” I asked.
“Technically, this is our first date.” When I frowned, she said, “And you didn’t even actually ask me out. You just said we were going to dinner. I didn’t even get the opportunity to have the ‘what the hell am I going to wear’ meltdown.”
“Do you want to have that meltdown?”
“Fuck no.”
“Before we go any further, I have to ask you something very important.”
The server appeared and set our plates down, and I took the time to figure out how to word my question while Darcy got settled and took a bite of her dinner.
When she realized I wasn’t going to continue without prompting, she asked, “What’s the important question?”
“It’s important for every kid to have stable influences in their life, and I think that’s doubly important for Rev because she’s had so much turmoil already, and the one person she had is gone now.”
“Right.”
“If I had Rev when you and I first met, I probably wouldn’t have even introduced you to her until we were at least at this point in our relationship.
After a while, you could have met her and been known as Dad’s friend, but that was it.
That way if you and I didn’t work out, she wouldn’t really miss you. ”
“That sounds very reasonable.”
“But here we are on our first date, after knowing each other for a while, and you’ve spent every minute when you weren’t working with us at the hospital for the last week.
“I have to know if you’re in this for the long haul .
. . if I’m someone you can see yourself with years in the future because . . .”
I let my voice trail off when Darcy wiped her mouth and then put her napkin on the table beside her plate and abruptly stood up. She stared at me for a few seconds, during which I assumed she had realized I was asking for a commitment that most people would balk at so early in a relationship.
I was confused when Darcy grabbed her napkin and then even more confused when she carefully put it on the floor next to my chair.
“Turn around here and look at me,” Darcy ordered.
I did, assuming this was goodbye. I was floored when she positioned herself right over the napkin and then got down one knee and reached for my hand. “Crow Forrester, will you promise to cherish me forever, in sickness, health, and a little girl who needs us both, forever and a day?”
“Are you —”
“Try and keep up, sweetheart,” Darcy chided with a smile.
It suddenly registered that the restaurant had gone quiet.
Too quiet. I looked around to find that every eye in the place was on us.
Diners were sitting with their forks in the air as if they’d stopped mid-bite, servers were standing still with trays in their hand or their pen hovering above their notepad.
Even the toddler in a high chair across the room was watching with rapt attention.
Darcy cleared her throat before she said, “Will you marry me?”
“Uh . . .”
Darcy let go of my hand long enough to pull the chunky silver ring off her pointer finger before she took my hand and slipped it on my finger. “That’s how serious I am about us.”
When she stood up, I stood up with her and swept her into my arms for a kiss, which caused the restaurant to go wild with cheers and applause.
When I pulled away to look into her eyes, I said, “Are we ever going to do anything like normal people?”
“I hope not. Being weird is half your charm.”
“Only half?”
“I’m hoping to discover the other half sooner rather than later.”
“I sure do love you, Darcy, but there’s no way in hell I’m taking your last name.”
“God, I hope not. I don’t even want my last name.”
“Good because if there was ever a woman who was meant to be a Forrester, it was you.”
“Is that a yes?” Darcy asked.
“It’s a definite yes.”
Darcy kissed me again before she threw her arms around my neck and whispered, “You don’t have a single hair on your balls if you don’t take one a picture of your hand and post it to social media with the caption, ‘She put a ring on it!.’”
I burst out laughing as I picked her up and spun us in a circle. “You are definitely a Forrester.”