16. Declan
Chapter 16
Declan
E arlier today when I saw my truck in the parking lot of Hibiscus Commons office complex, I was excited to see Riley. Watching her walk out of the building with the real estate agent made me feel anxious and excited. I’ve wanted Riley Ashford for over twenty-five years and here, now I have her – at least I thought I did until the real estate agent informed me of Riley’s decision to move out and buy a house.
Not only is it not safe for her to be moving out, but I don’t want her to leave. It’s only been three days, and I already crave to hear her voice, feel her touch, and smell her beautiful scent. Not to mention my buddy, Nicholas. No, I don’t want them to move and buy a place. She’s already home. With me. They both are.
It has taken every ounce of willpower that I have to not call or text her today. I want to ask her about what her plans are, why she wants to leave, but I resist… barely. When I told Jax about it all, he threatened to shoot my phone out of my hand if I touched it.
He mentioned that if I want her to stay in Hibiscus Harbor, then I need to give the girl some space. She’s been on her own, rocking this single mom thing, for years and having me scare the crap out of her with my need for her presence won’t help any. And he makes a good point. She’s already left once; I don’t want her to leave again.
I look at the time and realize it’s time to go get Nicholas from daycare. I’ve changed out of my uniform and locked up all my guns, except the one I carry with me everywhere, and grab my keys. “Be a good girl, Bella.”
She barely lifts her head off the couch and looks at me and then flops back down. She’s always a good girl and I’m so lucky to have her. I laugh at her less than stellar effort and lock the door behind me.
Riley’s car is tiny in comparison to my truck, and I miss it but at least if her stalker is looking for her, he’s not going to know how to find her in my truck. I dare the fucker to come looking for her wherever he sees her car. I fucking dare him.
There are a handful of parents ahead of me picking up their kids and I wait patiently in line as I look around the daycare. I don’t think I’ve been in a daycare since I was their age. All the primary colors and art on the walls is a bit overwhelming. All the chairs are at kid level height and barely come up to my knees. I feel like I’m in a dollhouse.
“Can I help you?” a girl, maybe twenty years old with bleach white hair asks me from behind the front desk. She doesn’t look good – maybe tired or worn out?
“Yes, I’m here to pick up Nicholas Ashford.”
She holds her hand out as if I’m supposed to pay her or something. I must look confused because she looks up at me with her raised bleach white eyebrows. “Driver’s license.” She says as if I’m the dumbest idiot on the planet.
“Yes, of course. Sorry.” I pull out my wallet from my back pocket. “Here you go.” I hand her my license when I hear my name being called.
"Declan!" Nicholas calls from the other side of a half door.
"Hey buddy. Ready to go on our guy’s night?” I ask him as the girl hands me back my license.
“Yes!” Nicholas says.
“Great. Go get your things.”
“Sign here,” the girl says as if she’s bored to tears.
I take the pen, which is sticky, and sign my name.
“He’s good,” she yells to someone on the other side of the half door and Nicholas comes running out with his lunchbox and some artwork.
“Look what I drew for you, Declan.” Nicholas hands the artwork to me and I take my time to evaluate it. Actually, I’m trying to figure out what it is, but I don’t tell him that.
“Wow. This is amazing, Nickels. Did you do all of this by yourself, or did you have help?”
Nicholas grabs my hand as we walk across the parking lot and my heart melts. His tiny hand is lost in mine, but I feel like I’ve won the lottery.
“I made it all by myself. Where are we going to eat? Is Bella coming? Do you think elephants know they could stomp on a building if they wanted to?”
I don’t know which question to answer first as he climbs into his seat and waits for me to buckle him in.
“Do you want hamburgers or tacos?” I decide to ask my own questions instead.
“Burgers.”
“Okay, then, Jack’s Place has the best burgers in town, and we can get some beer, too.”
“I can’t drink beer, silly. I’m only four.”
“Can you drink root beer?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll have root beer. How does that sound?”
“Yummy. Do you think giraffes can climb?”
Nicholas and I ordered burgers with fries and root beer and then for dessert, we ordered milkshakes. We’ve been chatting about everything under the sun and even some things about outer space. I had no idea kids had so many questions and I had no idea how stupid I am.
“So, are you and Mommy married now?” Nicholas catches me off guard and I have no idea what to say.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because you and Mommy slept in the same bed last night. Joey, at school, said that means you’re married. Are you?”
I’m not sure how to approach this subject, especially with how things ended earlier today with Riley, and we’ve not really talked about any of this. I don’t want to tell him something that she’s not ready for him to know. What the hell do I do?
“No. Your mommy and me are not married, but I love your mommy very much.” There, that should be safe, right?
“Are you going to ask her to marry you?”
Fuck, how do I answer that ? “I don’t know, Nickels. If I did, would you be okay with that?”
I watch him think about my question while taking a sip of his chocolate milkshake and then he nods his head. “Yes.”
“You would? Why?” I keep repeating in my head that curiosity killed the cat.
“Because Mommy used to be sad a lot of the time and now you make her happy.”
Curiosity killed the cat. Curiosity killed the cat. Curiosity… “You think I make her happy?”
He nods. “Yeah. She smiles a lot more when you’re around.”
“I think so, too.” I agree with him. “You ready to hit some playgrounds?”
“Why are we going to hit them?” He asks as we climb out of the booth, and I lay some money on the table.
“It’s just a figure of speech.”
“What’s a figure of speech?” he asks as he takes my hand on our way to the car.
Here we go with the questions again.
Once he’s buckled into his car seat, I find a playground that has the biggest swing set in Hibiscus Harbor. For at least an hour, I watch him run around climbing on everything and playing with the other kids.
Other parents are sitting on benches chatting with each other, but I stick close to Nicholas. His mother has a stalker who wants Nicholas. I’m not losing him on my watch.
As I’m pushing him on the swings, Gladys, Joan, Betty, and Florence walk by on the walking trail.
“Hi, Declan,” Joan says as they approach.
“Hello ladies. How’s the walking going?” I ask as I push Nicholas a little higher.
“Who’s this fine young man?” Gladys walks around in front of Nicolas’ swing, so I hold onto the chains to prevent him from kicking her in the face.
“Hi. I’m Nickels,” he says to her with a little wave.
“Well, my name is Gladys. Are you new in town?”
He nods, “Yep. Me and my mommy just moved here.”
“Riley Ashford is his mother,” I tell the ladies.
“What about his father?” Betty questions.
“I heard he died with River in that explosion.” Gladys whispers, a bit too loudly, to her and I just stand there like a fool listening to them go back and forth.
“That poor family. They’ve been through the ringer, haven’t they?” Florence says.
They all nod as Nicholas jumps off the swing. “Can I go play with those kids over there?” He asks me.
“Sure, buddy. Just don’t go too far, okay?”
“Okay.” We all watch as he runs over to another contraption to climb on.
“Now that he’s gone, is it me or does he look just like little River did at that age?” Betty asks the other women.
“A spitting image,” Gladys says.
“So, Declan. Are you now his father?” Joan asks me point blank, and I start coughing.
“Um, no. I’m just watching him while Riley is at kickball practice. We’re having a boys night out.” They all smile at me but don’t say a word. “What?” I’m confused.
Joan tilts her head and raises her eyebrows, “Oh, I don’t know… it’s just that it looks good on you.”
“What does?” I look down at my clothes. Jeans and a T–shirt – my normal wear.
All four ladies get back on the walking trail, but Joan calls over to me, “Fatherhood.”
“Bye Declan. See you around,” they announce as they walk away, leaving me with thoughts I’ve been too afraid to have myself.
Instead, I keep my eyes on anyone that is in the area that looks out of place, but I don’t see anyone. A part of me wants this fucker to show up and try something so I can put him down and end this nightmare for Riley, but no such luck. Just normal looking families hanging out in a park on a Tuesday evening.
As the sun is going down behind the trees, other families are packing it up to leave. I look at my watch and realize that it’s getting late for a four-year-old to be out playing. “Hey Nickels. Time to get going. Mommy’s going to be looking for you soon.” I call out to him as he’s playing on some contraption that has all kinds of activities on it like a slide and a rock-climbing wall.
“Okay.” He answers me and then turns to his new friends. “I’ve got to go. Bye.” He waves at them and then comes over to me.
“Did you have fun?” I ask as he takes my hand again. This feeling will never get old.
“Yeah. Can we come here again tomorrow?”
I laugh at his question. “We’ll see. Let’s go home and play with Bella. She’s probably lonely.”
“Maybe Bella can come to the park tomorrow with us.”
“Maybe. We’ll see.”
He climbs into his car seat and lets me buckle him in as the questions start flying. “Do you think space aliens eat vegetables?”
“If they want to grow to be big and strong aliens they do.”
“Do they eat broccoli?”
I shake my head as we maneuver through the traffic on the way back to my house. “I don’t know.”
“I think they do.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because they’re green, silly.”
Well, obviously that’s why. How did I not know that? There’s got to be something in his car seat that sets off the questions. Maybe that’s it.