Page 19 of Until Delilah

It seems a little strange she’s telling me that. It’s perfectly normal to tell family when another member’s been hurt.

“They’re going to freak out and want to come right away.” She lets out a small puff of air making the window fog up. “I don’t want to cut their trip short.”

I can understand that, but family is more important than a vacation.

Carefully, I take her bandaged hand in mine. She has scrapes all along her arms from tree branches, but it’s the bite mark on her wrist I’m trying to avoid hurting. How had we not noticed she was bit as well? “They’ll be thankful you told them. Think about when Beckham is older. Do you want him to not call you when something big happens like today?”

“Oh, god, I don’t want to think of him as an adult and not living with me.”

“Eventually it will happen and when it does, you’ll want him to call you if or when he gets hurt.”

“You’re right, but I don’t want to think about it right now. It’s not only telling them about him getting hurt, but that we’re no longer in Mississippi and why. My dad is going to want to kill Bradley.”

“I don’t blame him. If I had the chance, I’d do bodily harm to him without blinking an eye,” I confess. I’ve thought about it more than once, and even thought about hiring a private detective to look into it, but thought better of it, at least for the time being.

Her hand under mine relaxes as she turns to look at me. “Please don’t do that. He’s not worth it.”

“He may not be worth it, but you are. I know you said he controlled you for years and through that, I believe he’s diminished your self-worth. You deserve to be cared for and loved, Delilah.”

Taking her hand from mine, she covers her face and lets out a few sniffles, but otherwise stays quiet until we reach my house. Pulling up my driveway, I notice a few trucks so they must not have found the dog yet. Once I pull the truck into my garage, I hop out to help Delilah and Beck out. I know she’d rather carry him, but I don’t want her to tear her stitches out when I can do the heavy lifting.

Only, once I get Beckham out of the back, Delilah still hasn’t moved from her spot in the truck. She continues to stare straight ahead until I open the door for her. The problem is, I don’t think she’s waiting for me to open it for her. She’s so deep in thought she hasn’t realized we’re here yet. If she wasn’t pregnant, I’d offer her a drink to help relax her, but unfortunately, I can’t.

We walk silently inside the house to the stairs. I notice some blood on the floor that I make a note to clean up before she has a chance to spot it. I stop at the top of the landing and wait for Delilah to catch up.

“After I put him in bed, I’m going to go out back and talk to my dad. He and a few of December’s cousins are here trying to find the dog. Will you be okay?”

She nods slowly, as if in a daze. I know they said they gave her some type of pain medicine that’s safe for the baby, but I’m not sure if it’s the meds, the situation, or what.

I lay Beckham down and he doesn’t move a muscle, too exhausted from the night. Turning, I expect to find Delilah hot on my heels, wanting to tuck her boy in, but she’s standing at the door staring at me.

Moving to her, I carefully take her hands in mine. “I’ll only be gone for a few minutes, but if you need anything you can call me.”

“I don’t know where my phone is,” she says, almost robotically. Her gaze trained on her hands in mine.

“I’ll find it and bring it up to you. Why don’t you take a nice hot bath while I’m gone?” I suggest.

She finally looks at Beckham, and her eyes start to glisten in the moonlight. “Yeah,” she starts shakily. “Maybe I’ll do that.”

“Just make sure to keep your stitches out of the water.” I give a little shake to her hand.

“We’ve never had stitches before.” Her tone is without life until she looks at me. “Will he be able to play on Saturday? It will break his heart to miss a game.”

I’m not sure since it’s my first-time coaching. It’s not like we have a doctor on the team to give the okay like in the major leagues. “I think we’ll just have to wait and see. The helmet might hurt on his—”

She nods and looks back at her son. “That makes sense. He’s always loved dogs, but now… do you think he’ll be scared of them?”

I want to tell her no, but who knows how he’ll respond to the trauma from today. “I don’t know, beauty, but we’ll do our best to make sure he’s not.” Her eyes flick up to mine at the endearment that slipped effortlessly off my lips, but that’s her only acknowledgment.

“Now, go tuck your boy in, take a nice hot bath, and when you’re done, I’ll be downstairs waiting for you.” I want to be here for her, but I need to see if there’s been any sign of the dog.

I leave Delilah tending to her sleeping boy and head out back.

It takes me longer than I thought it would to find my dad and Asher.

My dad claps me on the back and looks out to the forest. “You just missed Nico and Talon. We found the dog and they’re taking it to get looked at now by July.”

“Now, I’m no vet, but it looked like the dog was shot,” Asher says while looking out into the woods like my dad did.

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