Page 44 of Defending A Promise
“Okay, then Nickels. Mommy will find us a house to live in and maybe we’ll even get a dog, too. How does that sound?”
His face scrunches up in confusion. “But why can’t we just stay here with Declan and Bella? I like it here.”
“Well, honey, it’s not our house.”
I watch as my little boy fights to keep his eyes open and starts to lose the battle. “That’s not what Uncle River told me.” He whispers as sleep takes him and all the breath in my lungs escapes me.
God, I miss my brother.
After taking a shower to get all the sweat and orange clay off me, I go in search of Declan and find him on the back patio nursing his beer. There’s one sitting on the table with a bright pink koozie keeping it cold.
I open the slider but only close it slightly behind me so that I can hear Nicholas if he needs me. “Hi,” I say shyly as I sit in the patio chair across the table from him.
“Hi. How was your day?” He’s barely even looked at me and I can tell that he’s more hurt than I realized. Even though I had no intention of house hunting today whatsoever, the thought of having my very own home is intriguing and I’d never be so disrespectful as to not mention it to the man that I love. The man that basically pulled me and my son away from uncertain danger and has protected us ever since. Doesn’t he know that?
But then I think that of course he doesn’t know that – I’ve not told him. This thing between us is so very new; hell, we may have known each other forever, but we barely know each other.
“Riley?”
I look over at him in the ambient light filtering through the sliding glass door from the kitchen. His dark brown hair and square jaw remind me of the little boy I fell in love with all those years ago and never thought that I would be sitting here garnering all his attention.
“Oh, sorry. My day was good. How about yours? How was guys night?”
He smirks, “I had no idea little kids could ask so many questions.”
I smile and nod, “Yep. Nonstop. It’s exhausting.”
“Plus, I had no idea how much I didn’t know about the world.”
I look over at him quizzically, “What do you mean?”
He turns to face me, “Do elephants know that they can crush a building if they want to? I don’t know. Can giraffes climb? I don’t know. Are aliens green because they eat broccoli? Again, I don’t know. I thought I was an educated man, but I’ve been stumped by a four-year-old multiple times in one afternoon, and I’m not too sure how I feel about that.”
We’re both laughing and it feels good and light between us. “Wait until he wants to talk about all the different kinds of poop there is. That one’s fun. Or my favorite has been talking endlessly about where babies come from.”
“Oh shit. What did you tell him?” He looks horrified.
“Diversion is my friend. Fortunately, we were driving by a construction zone and there were big earth movers there and so I diverted his attention to the trucks. I’m not sure if that will work again, but I was thankful that day.”
I watch Declan sit back in his chair and finish off his beer. “I don’t know how you’ve done it all alone, Riley.”
“He can be a lot; I warned you,” I snicker at him.
We sit in silence listening to the cicadas screeching off in the distance and I can feel the air between us start to become thick again and I hate it. I want the light, airy feeling back but I don’t know how to get it again, so instead I just sit there waiting for him to make the next move. Stupid girl.
After about a half hour of this, I’m just about to say something when Declan stands up and grabs both empty beer bottles. “It’s getting late, and I have an early shift in the morning. I’m going to head off to bed. Good night, Riley.” I turn and watch him retreat to the house and I want to say something, but what do I say?
“Wait,” I blurt out.
He stops and turns towards me with a raised eyebrow. “What is it, Riley?”
God, this is hard, and I suck at it. “I didn’t go see the house with the real estate agent. Actually, she had only just mentioned it when you drove up.”
He nods as he stands across the patio, but I can tell he’s thinking about what I just said. “What are your plans, Riley? What doyouwant?”
I want to go back twelve hours and start the day over again. I want to tell Roxanne that I’m not interested in seeing a house and to keep her talons off my man. I want to stay here, with him. I want to be in Declan’s arms again. But instead, I say none of that. “Nicholas and I want to stay in Hibiscus Harbor. This is home to us now. It always has been.”
“That’s not what I meant, Riley. You know what I’m asking you. What doyouwant?” He stands there waiting for an answer, but I wait too long to answer so he nods and turns away. “Good night, Riley.”
