“Wait.I’m coming with you.”
“You don’t have to.”
Still, he waited as Darcy grabbed some fresh sweatpants and a sweatshirt from his drawer, then grabbed the baseball bat that lived propped up next to the dresser.
“What’s that for?”Charma asked.
“In case it isn’t someone we know.”
“Ooooh.Good idea.”
They went out together, and Charma checked the peephole before unlocking the door.He rolled his eyes.“You can put the bat down, it’s Mom.”
He flung the door open.“What the hell are you doing?”he demanded.If she wanted him in a good mood, she should have waited until she’d been invited.
“I was worried sick about the two of you!”
“Didn’t Nik tell you I was turning my phone off?”
“Which you never should have done!What if they’d come back and tried again?What if they’d decided to kill you both instead of just kidnapping Darcy this time?What if?—”
Charma cut off her list of potential what-ifs.“Mom.Stop it.Clearly we are both fine, aside from the part where we were woken up by a crazy lady banging on our door!”
“It took you long enough to answer,” she shot back.
“We were in the bedroom.With the door closed.Asleep.”
Darcy had put the bat down on the coffee table and was standing by the couch, arms cross, slightly hunched.His lover was not handling stress all that well just now and frankly, he couldn’t blame Darcy one bit.
“Now that you know we’re okay, if I ask you to leave, will you go?”he asked his mother.
She looked so affronted that he almost laughed.Almost.
“Darcy needs more sleep, and frankly I could use some too,” he said gently.It has been a stressful and sleepless twenty-four hours and he knew she’d been stressed out, too.
“The least you could do is offer me some tea.I need to assess for myself and know in my bones that you’re both okay.”
“I’ll make it.”Darcy headed to the kitchenette.
“I really wish you hadn’t come,” Charma told her.“It took Darcy ages to fall asleep.”
“If you hadn’t turned your phone off…”
“I would still have had to been awake to either answer it or text you back, you know.In fact, you probably would have been even more worried if I hadn’t replied within a few minutes than you were knowing I’d turned my phone off.”
“It’s been all day.”
“And we were asleep all day.”Charma sighed and pushed his hair off his face.
Darcy came out with three mugs of tea and set them on the coffee table.“I know you’re worried about us, but we really just need some time to be together with nothing else going on.I’ve spent over ten years on my own, no one to count on.I’ve learned to be self-sufficient.”
“But you don’t have to be anymore.Charma’s family is your family now,” Mom insisted.
“And I really appreciate that, but you have to accept that I’m an independent adult.I’m not used to spending a lot of time hanging out with other people.And all this craziness aside, I am probably never going to want to spend all my time with other people.Charma excluded.”
He touched Darcy’s hand, glad his lover had made that exception.
“This was special circumstances.And I was worried when I couldn’t get in touch with you.I’m sorry I overstepped.”
