Chapter 43
DARREN
I have to give my mom some props for not running outside like a feral animal the second she heard my car pull up. She opted for the watch-from-the-front-window approach instead. I glue my lips together to keep from laughing when the curtains move around the moment we step onto the porch.
“I’m nervous,” Delaney whispers, panic in her eyes.
I cup her face and drop my forehead to hers. “It’ll be fine. They adore you.”
“They used to adore me.”
“They still do. Mom’s made all of your favourite foods, and I’m not exaggerating. She’s never done this for me.”
Her nerves break enough for a glimmer of excitement to appear. “Really?”
“Really. She sent me a giant list of things for me to double-check before her grocery trip. I think you’ll be very, very happy when we get inside.”
“Thank you,” she says, voice low and soft.
I reply with a kiss to her crown before opening the door. My mom all but falls out onto the porch.
“Oh! You’re here!” she cheers, as if she had no idea. “Daryl, Delaney and Darren are here. Woah, that’s a mouthful. ”
“It’s cute that you’re pretending you weren’t standing with your nose against the door, Mom,” I tease.
Delaney curls her arm around my back and stays close while slipping her shoes off. They aren’t knee-high boots this time, thank fucking God. I couldn’t have handled seeing them tonight without risking a hard-on at my parents’ table.
“Leave me alone, Darren. I’m trying to take a look at Delaney,” Mom scolds.
Chuckling, I lift a hand and shut my mouth.
Delaney straightens and says, “Hi, Pauline.”
“Hi, my darling,” Mom rushes out, her voice shaking. “Hug?”
Delaney lets out a breath. “Hug.”
I step aside before they launch into one another’s open arms. Mom holds her with an unbreakable grip, keeping her locked in her embrace while Delaney sniffles and holds her just as tight. I swallow past the emotion in my throat and glance into the living room at where my dad stands, watching.
He meets my gaze and nods, saying nothing yet everything without needing words.
I look back at Delaney and reconfirm what I already know.
What’s been screaming at me during every silent night I spent alone at home and buzzing in my ears when I should have been focusing on a presentation or speech at work.
This is right. Everything here is the way it was supposed to be. And now, we’re finally back on the proper path.
“You’re even more beautiful than you were the last time I had a proper look at you,” Mom whispers, stroking a hand down Delaney’s hair. With a firm hold, she grabs her shoulders and pulls back to smile at her. “And Darren was right about the freckles. There are so, so many more now.”
“Darren was talking about my freckles?” Delaney asks, darting her eyes in my direction.
I wink, palming her back and guiding her to my side. “Don’t get a big head about it.”
“What else did you say about me? ”
“Where should we start?” Dad asks, joining us.
He’s more cautious than Mom was. While Poppy got her outgoing nature and bubbling personality from our mother, it was Dad who taught me about patience. To spend so much time with both women in one place, we both needed it.
“Welcome home, Delaney,” he adds.
There’s a fist sailing through my gut. I press my fingers harder into Delaney’s back, needing the touch for my suddenly failing balance.
“Thanks, Daryl,” she whispers, something heavy passing between them. It feels a lot like appreciation, but I don’t know what for.
Mom shakes herself and clears her throat. “Okay, come inside now. We have so much to catch up on. Do you still like chicken parm, love?”
“I haven’t had it in forever, but yes, I do.”
“I told you, Mom.”
Delaney shoots me a curious look. “And how did you know?”
“Good guess,” I tease, dropping a hand to swat at her ass when my parents turn away.
She squeals, jumping away from me. I blink innocently and steal a kiss, risking getting bitten in the face. Her blush makes it easy to see through her scowl.
“Have you both checked on the drive-in? I was at the last town council meeting, and it’s supposedly at the halfway mark,” Mom says, expertly ignoring us.
She’s had more than enough practice with that over the years. Poppy and Garrison have ruined her, I fear.
“No, we haven’t,” I answer.
“Well, you should. Make sure they aren’t ruining your place like they did the flowers at the entrance to town.”
“You’re comparing the drive-in to some flowers?” Dad asks.
“They’re not just some flowers, Daryl. They’re an outsider’s first impression of the town. What impression do two planters of droopy, brown flowers leave, hmm?”
“You could offer to help with the flowers,” I suggest as we step into the dining room.
The food is already spread along the table on serving platters, and shit, she’s even pulled out the good plates and stored the old, chipped ones she refuses to donate.
“I’m waiting for them to ask for my help, honey.”
Dad laughs under his breath and takes his usual seat at the table. Mom sits beside him, and I pull Delaney’s out across from her. The hiss dad spits falls over the table before Mom pats his shoulder.
“Pull out my chair next time.”
Delaney’s cheeks pinch with a subdued smile. She sits, and I join her, sitting a bit too close, probably. The warm press of our thighs is a good reminder that yeah, she’s actually here beside me right now.
“Anyway, like I was saying, it might be worth a trip out. I wouldn’t be able to stand it if they ruined that place,” Mom says.
I grab the bottle of white wine that I know Delaney likes from our dinner date at my house and offer it to her. When she nods, I take her glass and fill it while saying, “I’ll ask Bryce tonight and let you know, Mom.”
“I’d appreciate that. I’ll worry myself sick unless I know.”
Handing the full glass back to Elle, I set the bottle down, grab the juice pitcher, and fill my glass. Luckily, it’s not the same one Mom drank out of. At least, I hope she only did that once.
Delaney crosses her legs beneath the table, and I stifle a groan, imagining what she’s wearing beneath the skirt now pulled taut at her knees.
It’s a curse being so consumed with these thoughts recently.
I’m suddenly a horny teenager again around her, and I still don’t know how to shake myself out of it.
She’s too goddamn beautiful. Her and those soft legs and perfectly sloped knees that her skirt has been flirting with all night are going to drive me to insanity. I’ve never given a shit about knees before, yet here I am, fantasizing about their slope and how full they’ll fill my palms.
Then, there’s her hair. I’ve become so accustomed to her wearing it back or up, but not tonight.
Nope, she has it free and wavy and teasing my hands every time I touch her back.
I’ve caught myself starting to wrap it around my knuckles so many times in the past hour alone that I’m not allowing myself to touch her there anymore.
Fuck, I smacked her ass a foot away from my mother.
“Darren?”
The pinch in my thigh has me jerking in my seat. I look to Delaney and see her staring at me, both of her eyebrows raised.
“Pass your mom the juice,” she murmurs, face bright red.
I stare for a moment longer, confused as to why she looks embarrassed. It’s not until she pinches my thigh again and draws my gaze to my lap that I rush into motion.
“Here, Mom.”
The juice nearly flies into her waiting hand. I gulp and grab a plate of food to try and take my mind off the raging erection I’m hiding beneath the table. The same one Delaney saw and went beet red over.
“Thank you. Is there any update on the Abbie decision?” Mom asks, not mentioning my behaviour.
I fill Delaney’s plate on instinct, my dad doing the same with Mom’s. “What decision?”
“Are you going to tell her about your relationship?”
Delaney sucks in a breath, and I exchange the plate I’m holding for another. She doesn’t answer, so I do.
“Not yet.”
“From what I saw the other day, I don’t think she’ll have an issue with it.”
“I know. That’s not why we’re not telling her.”
“Alright, I’ll leave it alone.”
“Thank you,” I mutter, freeing my hands so I can drop one to Delaney’s leg .
She lets go of a breath that I know she’s been holding.
“You didn’t have to make so much food, Pauline. Really, this is incredible. Between you and Darren, I’ve been very well fed this last week,” she says.
Mom glows at the praise. “It’s my pleasure. We used to do weekly breakfasts with Darren, Abbie, Poppy, and Garrison, but with Abbie in school full-time now, we’ve switched to dinner. You’re more than welcome to join us from now on.”
“Oh, that’s really sweet,” Delaney starts. Her eyes flash up at me, and I wink, more than okay with that idea. “I’d like that.”
Mom claps once. “I can’t wait to tell Poppy!”
I lean to the side and drop my head, bringing my mouth close to Elle’s ear. “Expect a thousand texts and a call when she does.”
Her eye roll explains just how little that scares her.
“What do you usually do when you have the house to yourself like this? I assume that it feels even more empty than it is after you’ve had Abbie here for a week.”
I hum and flick the lights on in the hallway.
My bedroom is at the end of the hall, separated from Abbie’s and the guest room.
Delaney follows me, keeping a pace behind me as she takes in the photos on the wall and the pink sheets I forgot to shove in the laundry room before leaving for my parents’ house.
“I’m usually working every night that she’s not here. It keeps me busy.”
“Ah, so that’s why you used to walk around town looking like a zombie.”
“That and a few other things that I haven’t worried about in about a month now.”
I shrug out of my sweatshirt and toss it into the hamper before sitting on the edge of my bed. Waiting for Delaney to finally step into my room, I take my belt off.
“Are you planning on giving me a striptease?” she asks, eyebrows waggling suggestively when she joins me.
Her steps stop once she crosses into the room. Intrigue fills her expression as her eyes flit around, staring at my desk and the clutter across it before darting to my plain nightstands and then the open closet. I lean back on my hands and watch, waiting for her to come closer.
“Would you like a striptease?”
“It could be fun.”
“Say the word, Elle.”
Gradually, her eyes make their way to me. She sighs and finally crosses the room.
“Are you sure you didn’t want to bring me home?”
I reach for her, filling my hands with her hips. She crawls onto my lap on her own.
“You are home,” I murmur, kissing her.
Her lips press firmly against mine, meeting me with the same slow urgency. Her fingers run through my hair, brushing through it as I glide my tongue between her lips.
“Home is with you.” A shiver runs down the length of her spine.
I break away long enough to rasp, “Yeah, baby. It is.”
“Is it too soon?” she whispers between kisses.
“Is what too soon?”
She bumps my nose with hers and opens her eyes. “To want to . . .”
“Want to what, Elle?”
“To want to have sex . . . to go back to the way things were.”