EPILOGUE
THREE MONTHS LATER
CROW
“You were right again. She’s got more in her hair than she did in her stomach,” Darcy announced as she rinsed out the rag she’d used to clean Rev’s face. “She does this every time you make spaghetti.”
I glanced out the back door and smiled when I saw Rev laughing as she rolled around in the grass with Dot while Wakko and Yakko attacked Griffin and made him laugh too. In the months since Rev had come to live with us she’d turned into a completely different little girl.
We found a good routine together with her spending all day with me and then the evenings with Darcy after I went to work. She’d finally started talking, with the help of her speech therapist, and it was the highlight of my morning when she yelled for me to come get her after she woke up.
What made it even better was that when she called for me she didn’t use my name, she called me Dad.
I wondered if that was what Rebecca had hoped for when she listed me as the father on Rev’s birth certificate. I’d like to think that was the case, but since Rebecca was gone I’d never have a chance to ask her.
When I got the call from the jail telling me that she was being rushed to the hospital, my first thought was to wonder why in the hell they were calling me, but my second thought was to wonder if this might be the fucked up answer to my prayers.
As fucked up as it was, considering that I’d known her since she was a child and had honestly hoped that someday she might be able to get the help she needed to put her life on track, when I found out that she’d overdosed inside the jail I knew that there really was no hope for her at all.
When I got to the hospital, I found out that Rebecca was gone and I wouldn’t have to worry about her taking Rev away again, and for the first time since the night she reappeared in my life I felt like I could take a full breath.
The next day was the first time Rev called Darcy ‘Mom’ and I knew she felt the same way even though neither of us had admitted it to each other.
Rev’s laughter brought me back to the present, and I smiled when I turned around and found Darcy standing in the middle of the kitchen watching Rev through the open door.
Once again, I found myself incredibly grateful to have her - not just in my life, but in Rev’s, Griff’s and everybody else's. Finding Darcy was like hitting the jackpot. My family and kids adored her, and above all else, we loved each other deeply.
Suddenly, Darcy’s eyes got wide, and she whispered, “What was that?”
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s something in my hair,” Darcy yelled as she put her hands up and touched the top of her head. “What is it? Is it . . . Oh, God!” She slapped at her head and then looked at her hand in horror before she screamed, “Shit!”
I was still confused when she sprinted past me toward the bathroom, but it only took me a second to catch up to her. I watched in shock as her entire body shook as if there was something crawling all over her.
As she turned on the shower, she screamed, “It’s guts are in my hair, Crow!”
“Darcy, babe, let me look,” I said calmly as I pulled her into my arms. She was short enough for me to see the top of her head, and I burst out laughing when I looked down at it. “It’s just a spaghetti noodle, sweetheart. It’s not a spider.”
“A noodle? But I felt something hit my head, and . . .”
“It came from the ceiling,” I explained.
“Why was there a spaghetti noodle on the ceiling, Crow?”
“Because that’s how you can tell if they’re done. You throw them up, and if they stick, then it’s time to take them off the heat.” Darcy blinked in silence, and I winced before I said, “Sorry it fell on your head, babe.”
“What in the hell is wrong with you, Crow Forrester?”
I was honest when I answered, “People have been asking me that my entire life.”
“Are you serious?” Darcy all but growled.
“It’s just a noodle.”
“I almost died!” she yelled dramatically.
“What’s wrong?” Hawk asked from the doorway. He was out of breath as if he’d sprinted up the stairs, and the look on his face told me he had heard Darcy’s terrified screams.
“There was a goddamn noodle on the fucking ceiling, and it fell in my hair but he thought it was funny because he’s a . . . a . . . I don’t even know. That’s a stupid way to cook, and it’s . . . Aaack!”
“You need a minute?” Hawk asked. When Darcy narrowed her eyes and glared at him, he said, “Brighten gets that same look. She’s in the yard with the kids.”
Darcy spun around and glared at me before she hissed, “Clean the noodles off the ceiling and please, for the love of God and all that’s holy on this earth, never let this happen again.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
Darcy shoved Hawk out of the way, and Hawk and I were quiet as we listened to her stomp down the stairs. The second we heard her yelling in the backyard, we knew she was safe with someone who would understand, so both of us breathed a sigh of relief.
After years of living with our mom and sisters, and now a few years living with Brighten, Darcy’s meltdown over what she thought was a spider didn’t phase him at all.
He and I both knew that it might take a minute for Brighten to talk her off the ledge while she got worked up about something stupid Hawk had done lately, but when they finally calmed down we could swoop in there and make everything better again.
Until then we’d just have to wait it out, and it was better to do with some distance between us.
“So, if you can’t throw them on the ceiling, how will you know if the noodles are done?”
“I guess I’ll have to taste one.”
“Sounds reasonable.”
“So, how’s things at your place?”
“Brighten threatened to gut me like a fish yesterday,” Hawk said as if that wasn’t unusual, and considering he was talking about Brighten, that was true.
“Sounds reasonable.”
“I still think I’m the luckiest man on the planet though.”
“Nah. You’re not. I am.”
THE END