Chapter 23 #2
“Hey, hey, hey, breathe, it’s not your fault.
” Deacon rushed to reassure her. “Kids fall. They hurt themselves. It happens. You didn’t do anything wrong.
Look at her.” Deacon motioned behind them where Tabitha was talking a mile a minute to the nurse, explaining the royal lineage of herself and King Rocco.
“Tabby’s great. Accidents happen. You acted responsibly and got her help. I trust you with her more now.”
Blake’s bottom lip quivered, her eyes were wide, still filled with tears. “Really?”
“Absolutely. You did amazing. She’s fine. She’s better than fine.”
“It was Mom, not me.”
“Well, who called your mom?”
“I did.” Blake took in a shaky breath and wiped the tears from her cheek. He could see how much it had weighed on her, and he felt horrible.
“You were great. She’s fine. You can’t watch kids every second. Accidents happen.”
Blake nodded as her phone buzzed. She looked down at it, then up to her mom. “Noah’s back.”
Jenna nodded to her daughter, then looked up at Deacon. “I’m gonna go walk her out. I’ll be back.”
“Okay, thanks, and Blake, thank you, really. You were amazing today and are amazing with her.”
“Thanks Mr. St. Clai—”
He gave her the look.
“Deacon,” she self-corrected. “Thanks, Deacon.”
“And tell Noah thank you for the headwear, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.”
Blake smiled, clearly proud of her boyfriend and his invention. “Yeah, it’s pretty sick.” She walked over and grabbed her bag, then said goodbye to Tabby, promising to visit her tomorrow and telling her how brave she’d been.
The timing could not have worked out better.
Blake and Jenna left at the exact time that Dr. Jackson, the head of pediatrics at the hospital, came in to speak to Deacon.
Dr. Jackson explained that the break was clean, but they kept Tabby in the hospital for observation because her EKG came back abnormal.
It was expected due to her pain and stress, and he was hopeful that she would be able to be released in the next couple of hours and not have to be admitted, which was a relief.
She hated sleeping in the hospital. Speaking of sleeping, Dr. Jackson left, and within a minute or two Tabby was sound asleep.
Thankfully, the doctor had explained she should try and get as much rest as she could and that the pain medicine might make her sleepy, so Deacon wasn’t concerned. She was knocked out so hard she was even snoring lightly when a familiar face rounded the corner.
Poppy rushed into the room with balloons and a teddy bear but then stopped up short and tried to hold the mylars in place as they bounced loudly against the walls. “Sorry.”
“You’re fine. She’s out.”
Poppy tiptoed to the corner and wedged them gently in place before turning around. “I’m so sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I just got out of my class and heard.”
“I just got here myself,” he explained.
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
He nodded. “Traffic.”
She walked over to the side of the bed and touched Tabby’s cast, then brushed her knuckles lightly over the ninja mask before grazing the tiara. “How is she? How’s our girl?”
“Good, fine. She’s tough.”
Poppy nodded. “She really is.”
His sister turned to him and bit the inside of her lip, then took in a shaky breath.
“What?” he asked. It was clear she had news, bad news if his radar was right, that she had to break to him. “Is it the baby? Is it okay? Are you okay?”
“No, he’s fine.” She put her hand on her stomach. “I’m fine.”
“He?” Deacon smiled.
Poppy lifted her head and scrunched her face. “It’s a boy. We found out today. We weren’t going to say any—”
“I won’t say a word. I promise.”
Her face and shoulders relaxed as she rubbed her belly, but then she took another deep breath, a fortifying breath.
“Okay, so what’s all the dramatic pauses and deep breathing for?”
Her face split in a wide, apologetic smile. “Sorry, I just don’t know how to say this.”
He had zero patience right now. “Just say it.”
“Today, earlier this morning, while we were at the baby’s appointment, before my classes, AJ told me something he found out a while ago. He wasn’t sure if he should tell you or not. He doesn’t always know what to do with information, or if it was his place to tell you—”
“I know,” Deacon assured Poppy.
Before they moved into Poppy’s renovated house, AJ had rented the Airbnb his twin brother Niko was now staying in, so he’d been Deacon’s neighbor.
From their first interaction, Deacon knew AJ Costas was highly intelligent, like Mensa-level genius and autistic.
He masked it well, and to meet him you may not pick up on it, but Deacon had right away.
He rarely looked people in the eyes, and his social cues were off.
Some people read him as rude, but he was just very literal and direct. Deacon appreciated it.
Poppy walked around the bed and lowered herself into the seat beside her brother. “When AJ wasn’t sure who you were, he asked a friend, Maddox Cruz, to look into you.”
“Out of San Francisco, TTT Security Systems.”
“Um, I don’t know, maybe. I know he has a charity—”
“Fostering the Future,” Deacon cut in.
“Yes,” Poppy confirmed. “Do you know him?”
“By reputation, he’s a good guy.”
“Oh good, okay, well, this is what he discovered.” Poppy handed Deacon a manilla envelope. As Deacon opened it, she continued, “Your mom is alive. Her name is Selma Montez, and she lives in a small town on the Oregon coast called Valentine Bay.”
Deacon stared down at the report, reading the findings she’d just spoken aloud. How could that be possible? It couldn’t be. This had to be a mistake. Right?
“I’m so sorry, Deacon.” Poppy’s voice was quiet. So quiet he almost didn’t hear it.
“No, this is…” He was shaking his head back and forth slowly. “This is wrong. This can’t be right.”
He knew what he was reading was impossible, but he was staring at the DNA findings. His entire life was flashing in his mind. Every conversation he’d had with his parents. Different scenes started making highlight reels. His dad’s controlling ways. His mom’s instability.
He felt like the walls were closing in on him. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. He felt like his chest was going to explode or maybe implode.
“Heyyy Popp—” Jenna was whispering cheerfully when she entered but then must have sensed the energy in the room, because she immediately apologized. “Sorry. I just…um, I just need to grab my purse and I’ll be out of here.”
Poppy ejected from her seat like a Jack-in-the-Box.
“No, don’t go on my account. I am actually exhausted, and AJ is in the car waiting.
He wanted me to go straight home, for the baby, but I insisted I come here.
I promised him I wouldn’t be more than ten minutes because I had to.
..” She motioned to the paperwork she’d just handed Deacon.
“Oh.” Jenna glanced between Poppy and Deacon as if she were intruding.
“Please don’t go,” Deacon pleaded, he never pleaded. “Please.”
He did not want to be alone.
Jenna gave him a quick nod.
Once Poppy saw she’d agreed, she turned to her brother and bent down and gave him a hug. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
As she exited the room, she smiled at Jenna and squeezed her arm. When she did, a panicked expression came over Jenna’s face, and she looked at the sleeping beauty in the hospital bed.
“What happened? Did something happen? Is Tabitha okay?” Jenna clasped one hand on her chest and one hand over her stomach as all the color drained from her face.
“No, I mean yes,” Deacon stood. “She’s fine, it’s not Tabby, she’s just resting.”
“Oh my god,” Jenna exhaled, and Deacon could see the visible relief in her. She cared about his daughter. Really cared.
That meant something to him. It meant a lot. More than he wanted to think about right at the moment.
She reached out and touched Tabby’s foot, as if she just needed to feel for herself that she was okay, then looked up at Deacon, and he saw she had tears in her eyes. “Sorry, that just… it scared me. So um, what is it? What’s wrong?”
He lowered back down onto the seat, suddenly feeling all of his energy just leave his body. Jenna followed his lead, taking the seat that Poppy had just occupied. She brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear and crossed her leg as she waited to hear what he had to say.
“Is Blake okay?” he asked. He hated that she blamed herself.
Jenna grinned in reassurance. “She’ll be fine. It just shook her up. She’s a very…emotional girl. Thank you, by the way, for how you handled that. You were very kind.”
“No, I wasn’t. Thank you. Both of you. There’s no one else I’d have wanted Tabby to be with today, you don’t know what it meant to me that she was with you, with both of you. It was the only thing that kept me from going insane, or more insane than I did.”
He saw that his words affected Jenna. Her eyes began to water again, but she sniffed back the emotion. “It’s the least we could have done, and she was amazing. Such a trooper. So brave. So easily distracted. She could not have been a bigger angel, honestly, she is such a doll.”
Deacon knew it wasn’t the time or place, but if it was up to him, he’d get down on one knee, declare his undying love for the woman in front of him, and ask her to marry him.
Today had been hell, and she’d been his angel.
This was his nightmare, and she was his peace.
If that wasn’t love, if that wasn’t what he wanted forever, what the fuck was?
But since she was barely returning his texts, he doubted that his proposal would go over well.
“So now that we’ve established both our daughters are amazing, what’s this?” Jenna motioned to the paper he forgot he was still holding. “What was the deal with Poppy?”
Oh, right. How the fuck had he forgotten that, even for a second?
“AJ hired someone to look into me a while back, and this is the report.”
Jenna’s eyes widened. “Ohhh.”
He wasn’t even sure he could say the words. If he said the words, then they might be true. Did he want them to be true? If they were true, what did that mean about his entire life? What did that mean about his parents?
“Do you remember I told you my parents said my mom died a few days after giving birth to me?”
Jenna nodded, and he could see that she could see where this was going.
“Well, according to this, that is not the case. Her name is Selma Montez, she is alive and well and living in a small town on the Oregon coast called Valentine Bay.”
Her jaw dropped, literally, then it closed, then it dropped again, then it closed. Then she shook her head for several seconds before finally saying, “I don’t…I don’t…I can’t…I don’t…”
“Yeah,” he chuckled, “that was pretty much my reaction.”
Before he knew what was happening, she was up and out of her chair, and her arms were wrapped around him, she held him in the kind of embrace that said, I know.
I know this is scary.
I know this would change everything.
I know you have no idea what this means.
I know every part of you feels alone right now, but you’re not alone.
He didn’t know how she knew it was exactly what he needed, not words, just to be held.
In that embrace she communicated, somehow, everything he needed to hear, to feel.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her back so tight, he worried he might bruise her.
He buried his face in her neck, wanting to inhale her essence, to breathe her in so deep she became part of his DNA.
Holding her anchored him in a way nothing else in his life ever had. The closest thing that had come was having Tabby, but he knew that Tabby was going to move away and have her own life, as she should. His role was to prepare her to do that.
This was different. Holding Jenna in his arms, being held in Jenna’s arms, was a feeling of grounding, of safety, of healing, of home.
When she let go and sat back down, she asked, “What are you going to do?”
“Go and see her, I guess. If I want answers, I have to.”
She nodded.
“Will you come with me?” Deacon never asked people for anything. Ever. Asking Jenna to do something so personal was a big risk for him, and then he remembered what Ava had said. “Just as a friend. I’m not asking for—”
“Yes,” she agreed. “I can be your messed-up-mom-issues support friend.”
If that’s what she wanted to call herself, fine. But she was more than that. She was the love of his life, whether she liked it or he wanted to admit it or not.