Page 15 of Chasing I Do
Gage looked at Darcy, watched a broad wave of emotions tear through her dark brown pools and his gut knotted. From fear to relief, even some of that sadness Tiny was hinting at, it was all there, right beneath that heart-wrenching plea she was sending his way.
Please don’t hurt her. You can hurt me, but not her.
And wasn’t that a sad state of affairs. That her first thought, with regards to him, was that he’d hurt her. Hurt them.
He hadn’t meant to back then. And sure as hell hadn’t meant to now. But it was clear that she wasn’t happy he was back. Well, he wasn’t exactly happy about his reasons for coming either, or his five-year delay, but he was there now. And he intended to make it count.
“I never meant to make you sad, Darcy.”
???
Darcy’s heart lumbered painfully at the words she’d waited so long to hear. She’d waited five years for a moment like this, to hash out the past and finally move on. But out of the countless scenarios she’d mentally played out, never once in all that time had she imagined that her reunion with Gage would take place in front of the one person it could hurt the most.
“Honey,” she said, giving her daughter’s shoulders a gentle squeeze. “Why don’t you go grab your dance bag so we’re not late for class.”
Kylie turned those big blue eyes Darcy’s way. “But I want to meet your friend.”
Gage swallowed so hard at the innocent comment that Darcy heard it. Felt his emotion swell and expand, until all she could process was the anxious thump of his heart. She was startled to realize it wasn’t anger or blame Gage was radiating.
But anguish and heartache.
“Maybe next time,” she said, and then sent Kylie off with a gentle pat to the bum.
“Bye, Mister.”
“Until next time, Tiny,” he said, standing, as Kylie skipped up the step, her tutu bouncing. She grabbed the handle and gave it a twist, then bumped it with her hip.
“Hey, I thought you said it was locked.”
“Nope, I said we were closed. You got to jiggle it just right.” Kylie gave one of her playful grins that, God bless her, had Gage smiling back.
Kylie ran into the house, slamming the front door behind her, the sound echoing in its finality. Gage and Darcy stood silent, each second more painful than the last, and despite the warm temperature, a cold chill swept through her body.
When she was certain they were completely alone, she said, “If you came to talk about the wedding—”
“Fuck the wedding.” He turned those intense blue eyes her direction and she felt the full force of his anger. “I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about policies and family feuds right now.”
“I never meant for it to happen like this.”
Gage didn’t move, just stood there in that still way he had, keeping his emotions in check. Even when he was angry, he considered the effect his actions could have. That’s where he differed from his twin. “That implies you had some kind of plan that didn’t include hiding her from us forever.”
“I didn’t hide her,” Darcy defended, and it was the truth. “You all shutmeout. I called you, I texted.”
“You called me once,” he said harshly. “Once, Darcy. A few hours after you left Kyle standing at the altar, and I was too busy dealing with three hundred confused guests to answer. And maybe if you’d started the text with, ‘Hey, I’m sorry. By the way, I’m pregnant and it’s Kyle’s,’ I might have called you back, but again, by that point I was too deep in funeral shit and my family’s grief to see straight.”
“A funeral your mom had me escorted out of,” she said, becausewow, that still had the power to hurt. She’d long ago accepted that she wasn’t part of the Eastons anymore, but hearing it solidified things. “Escorted out like I didn’t have the right to grieve the man who I’d loved enough to want to marry.”
“But you didn’t marry him.”
“No, I didn’t, and I’m not sorry about that,” she said, and Gage stepped back as if she’d slapped him. “I’m not sorry that I walked away from a marriage that was doomed, and I’m not sorry that I chose to put Kylie’s happiness first. Someone had to. But I am sorry that I didn’t try harder to tell you about Kylie.”
At her admission, his eyes flickered to the ground, but not before she saw a flash of relief. Shoving his hands in his pockets, like he used to when he’d get nervous, he asked, “Why didn’t you? Tell me about her. I mean, after she was born.”
“I didn’t know how,” she admitted. “At first I was so busy dealing with Kyle’s death and trying to figure out how to be a single mom, and before I knew it a year had passed.”
“But it’s been four years, Pink,” he said, the sound of her nickname on his lips making her heart do a slow roll in her chest. “Four years of memories and moments, four years of Kylie not knowing that she had more family out there who wanted to love her.”
“Kylie knows she has uncles,” Darcy said. “We talk about her dad, his brothers, how we met in college, and how he always managed to turn a bad situation into a party. Her favorite story is the New Year we all got snowed in and we had cake for breakfast lunch and dinner, because it was the only thing Kyle bought at the store.”
