Page 41 of Adoring Delaney

“I don’t think I want to know about it,” she whispered.

“No, baby, you don’t. But if you need it so we can move ahead, I’ll give it you. Then when I’m done, I’ll cushion it the best I can.”

The food runner came out with our dinner and the waiter wasn’t far behind him. After ascertaining everything was perfect both men left the table and Delaney didn’t pick up her fork.

“Did you need something else?” I asked.

“No. I’m just thinking.”

“What about?”

“Did the family ever go up to Virginia to visit you?”

“Visit me?”

“Yeah, like my brother, or Nick, or Ethan, or the uncles?”

Ah. I understood where she was going. She’d thought she was the only one I never allowed to come up.

“The only person who’s ever been to Virginia to see me, was my dad. Not even my mom went up there. Baby, I didn’t want anyone to visit.”

“I wish I could’ve seen where you lived,” she whispered.

My gut clenched at the hurt in her voice and I made a split second decision.

“If you want, we’ll drive up. My lease isn’t up until the end of the month.”

Her eyes lit and I felt like a bigger asshole than I had before. And I felt like a pretty big dick before we’d had this conversation.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I work the rest of this week. But we’ll go this weekend.”

She smiled a big bright smile and I wondered if she realized she’d just walked herself into a weekend alone with me in Virginia.

“Eat up, Laney baby, you don’t want the best steak in Georgia to get cold.”

Delaney tucked into her food but I waited. Her eyes closed and she moaned as she chewed her first bite. The steak may’ve been the best around, but the sounds she was making were better.

Way fucking better.

14

Ihad to admit, after a rocky start dinner was good.

And that rocky start was due to me wanting to hold on to my irritation and fear. Carter was right, I couldn’t keep throwing our past in his face. It served no purpose to harp on an unalterable situation. There was no changing the past and besides, he’d apologized about a hundred times, and had repeatedly told me he’d been wrong. And in some ways we both had been.

We were in his truck on our way back to my house and I’d decided I was going to set my bad attitude aside. I couldn’t sabotage our evening if I truly wanted to see if we could move forward like Carter had said we could. Like deep in my heart, I wanted to.

“Were you serious about taking me to Virginia Beach?” I asked as he turned on to my street.

“Yeah. I wish we could leave sooner but tomorrow I have meetings all day with Brady. And the next day is a dog and pony show introducing me to our LEO contacts. I have a feeling the guys want to start stepping back a little.”

“Retire?”

I’d never thought about my dad or any of my uncles wanting to retire. They weren’t spring chickens anymore, but none of them were old.

“Not retire, but slow down. I heard Uncle Levi talking about wanting to take Aunt Blake to Hawaii but there’d never been time. With me there they can take off.”

---