Chapter 18 #2
As I closed the book, I realized Rev was already sleeping and smiled when she turned in my arms and threw her leg over my stomach.
At first, I had worried she didn’t like me as much as she adored my brotherPhoenix.
Even though she got wildly excited every time he came to visit, her happy squeals when I walked into her hospital room tonight told me my worries were for nothing. We were just crazy about each other.
Mom and Dad had enjoyed their time with her this afternoon, hosting several other visitors that had come by to check on Rev.
The nurses had joked that Rev had so many visitors that she needed her own entrance and exit, which was probably true.
But that’s what happened anytime a member of our family was hospitalized - an endless stream of people who loved them came and went for the duration of their stay.
The specialists that Amethyst had organized to work with Rev were all impressed by how invested in her progress everyone in my family seemed to be, and a few of them had mentioned that their jobs would be so much easier if all of their patients had a supportive family like Rev did.
And, yes, they were already her family, even though we’d only known about her for a week.
I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I was still worried that somehow Rebecca might stop that progress, if for no other reason than jealousy that her little girl had what she’d always wanted - a place in the middle of the Forrester family.
Sadly, Rebecca had been part of that for years, first through her friendship with Raven and then with her help from me, but for some reason it just wasn’t enough for her.
And, there was the added question of Rev’s father.
Somewhere out there was a man who had no idea an adorable little girl shared his DNA.
When she first got pregnant Rebecca told me that she had no idea who the father might be, which was hard for me to believe until I realized that she’d been a sex worker for months and months.
Knowing that, I felt that whoever her biological father might be, he didn’t deserve, and probably wouldn’t even want, a place in her life anyway.
Marcus had used his contacts at the prosecutors office to find out what Rebecca’s charges were, and the list she’d racked up since she’d come back was long enough to put her away for quite a long time.
When added to the warrants and charges she had in Kansas and Oklahoma, it seemed that she might not get out of prison until Rev was an adult, but that was not a guarantee.
Even though Rebecca had listed me as the father on Rev’s birth certificate, all it would take was a DNA test before the court recognized that I had no legal say in Rev’s life.
That terrified me. I had fallen hard for the little girl in my arms, just like the rest of my family, and the thought of having her ripped away from me had quickly become my biggest fear.
I believed in my heart that Rebecca loved her little girl, of that I had no doubt, but her mental illness and addiction made it impossible for her to put her health and safety first. Even if she did manage to get clean and stay that way, there would always be the worry that she’d go off her meds on a whim, something she’d done over and over again, and put Rev in danger.
I couldn’t let that happen but I had no idea how to stop it.
Marcus assured me that he had a plan, and I trusted him implicitly, but the worry would always be there.
The one thing I wasn’t worried about was my relationship with Darcy, as unconventional and backwards as it may be, I loved her with my whole being and knew I’d never survive without her in my life.
From the first minute I met her, even though she didn’t remember it, I knew there was something special about her.
Of course I wanted to protect her from that douchebag who was trying to take her away, but I would do that for any woman.
The fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about her during the month after that night, made me realize that even though I’d never officially met Darcy, my heart knew that she was the one for me.
Most people didn’t believe in shit like that, but most people weren’t surrounded by men and women who had felt that same spark for each other, and stoked it into a fire that warmed the hearts of the families that they’d created.
Mom and Dad both had said over and over again that the second their eyes met they knew there was something special between them, and I believed them.
Papa Smokey insisted that he’d fallen in love with Gamma the first time he met her, and even though Pop and Gigi had a rough start for a while, they had always known they were it for one another.
Darcy was my Summer, Martha, and Shannon all in one, and I loved her more than I ever imagined I’d be able to love any woman.
As if she knew I was thinking of her, the door opened and Darcy leaned around it to peek into the room. “Hi, handsome.”
“Hello, Sleeping Beauty.”
Darcy came inside and quietly shut the door behind her before she put the pizza box with my dinner on the table. She crawled up onto the bed beside me and settled in under my arm before she ran her fingers through Rev’s fine hair.
“How did she do tonight?”
“We followed the bedtime routine and it only took eight books to get her settled enough to go to sleep.”
“That’s not bad. The record was nineteen, right? That means she’s going down in half the time she was just a week ago. I should write that in my . . .”
When Darcy started to get up I squeezed her close to me and said, “You can document the progress later. Right now I want to relax with both of my girls in my arms.”
“She’s such a beautiful girl.”
“And you’re a beautiful woman who I am so lucky to have found.”
“You rescued me, and Rev too.”
“No, honey, I think the two of you have rescued me.”