Page 62 of Devil Inside: Green

“He’s at the hotel right now, but he’s been in several times to sit with you. I guess you aren’t supposed to have more than one visitor in the ICU at a time, but Green explained our story and they bent the rules a little. I’ve been allowed to be in here with you. My dad sat in here with you when he’d force me to go back to the hotel to shower or stretch my legs. He told me he has mad respect for Green for refusing to leave your side.”

Green kisses my hand again. “He was waiting to get an update on your progress before he has to head back home. He’s got to get back to work—but he said Misty could stay a little longer.”

“I have my laptop and my teachers have put my assignments online for me since they all know our situation.”

“He said he loved your mom—” Green takes a breath. “He wanted to marry her and adopt you.”

“Really?” I ask. I’d never been told this before.

He nods. “Said that she’d suffered some major trauma in her younger years and just couldn’t give up the control. She had a good job and a safe place for you girls to live.”

“I remember it being sort of abrupt when they broke up. He’d bring me along too when he picked up my sister for his visitations. Then that stopped and he only came for Misty.”

My sister calls Carlos to tell him I’m awake and maybe twenty minutes pass before he walks into my room. I’d say he looks good or tired or whatever, but it’s hard to see clearly with the tears clouding my eyes.

“Sweet Danni,” he says, giving me a hug and a kiss on the top of my head. I remember wanting him to be my dad so badly when I was a girl because I had no idea about my own and Carlos was so good to me. It broke my heart when he stopped coming for me, too.

“You came,” I say, holding back more tears.

“Of course, I came. I should’ve come to you a lot sooner. You were my first girl and I didn’t—”

“You’re here now,” Green cuts in.

“You’re here now,” I repeat. My life wasn’t bad without him in it. My mother was the best mother a girl could ask for. But I’d loved Carlos. We were a family, even if for a short time.

We continue to visit, although my sister calls four times, antsy to come back up.

“I’m sorry for not being there more for you,” he says, and I can’t help but think whose life am I living? “I know you don’t need a dad now. But if you want one, I want to be him.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll let me walk you down the aisle when you marry this guy.” He tips his head at Green. “And then say you’ll let your babies call me abuelo when you bring them over to the house.”

Okay, so he’s taking a few liberties with my future. Green and I haven’t discussed marriage or babies. Does he even want that? But that’s not the point. He wants to be a grandfather to my kids.

“They’ll definitely call you abuelo,” I tell him and the smile that man puts on for me might possibly reach the gulf coast.

He kisses my head one last time before leaving. Misty is on her way up so I have to get this over with now. “I wasn’t assuming you want to have kids, I just… I was speaking in hypotheticals.”

Green shakes his head. “You don’t want kids?”

“Well, we just haven’t been together long and I don’t—”

“Not what I asked, babe.”

“I think I’d like a couple. I’m not Greer, popping out a kid a year, but maybe one or two.”

“We have one, we got to have two. Being an only child sucks.”

I squeeze my eyes closed, take a breath, and then look at him. “So you want a family someday?”

“Building a life with you, aren’t I? This thing wouldn’t really work out if only one of us wanted kids.”

“But you didn’t know—”

“Saw how you reacted to little Freya. I read it in your eyes. This leads to the other thing Carlos said. We bring a kid into the world—unless you are vehemently opposed to marriage, I want a ring on your finger first.”

“I’m not opposed,” I say. “But it’s not a requirement for children.”

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