Ready or not,I don’t give her a chance to back out and change her mind. Legs and Midas help pack. Well, Midas helps. Legs supervises after getting annoyed when Midas yelled at her for picking up a pillow.
I call Con, who brings my truck before we load the girls in and head back to the rental. Delphi is quiet, but she doesn’t look like she’s going to bolt, so I’ll take it. Midas orders us burgers, much to Legs’s delight, and all the while I watch Delphi hover ever so slightly in the background, looking in. She seems curiously happy watching Legs interact with Midas, the big bastard fawning all over her, but there is an air of melancholy surrounding Delphi. By the time they leave, she looks exhausted.
“You should go lie down.”
“I hate being tired all the time.” She sighs, running her hands up and down her arms as if she’s chilled. “Kruger?”
I turn back to her.
“I’m sorry about before. Hitting you is never okay. That won’t happen again.”
“I figure if I hadn’t restrained you, you wouldn’t have lashed out, so I’m not going to hold it against you.”
“Still, it won’t happen again. Sometimes, I hate the person I’ve become.”
“I don’t. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the old Delphi, and I’d have given anything for the old you to be here again, but only because that would mean nothing had stolen your smile. Life is shit. We have to figure out how much of it we’re willing to shovel.”
I step closer, but I don’t touch her. “The woman you are now suits the man I am. I’d have been too much for the old Delphi.”
She looks up at me thoughtfully, but she doesn’t argue with me.
“You need some space?”
She nods, biting her lip. “It’s hard to think when I’m around you. My guard is always up, and it’s?—”
“Exhausting. I get it. I hate it, but I understand.”
She offers me a grateful smile before turning away.
“You won’t leave?” I say to her, retreating. It was intended to be a statement, but it sounds more like a threat. I can’t help it. She has to know by now that she can run, but I won’t let her go easily.
“I won’t leave,” she whispers before she picks up her pace and heads upstairs.
I lean on the back of the chair and take a deep breath. There are a million things I want to say. I want to yell at her for running, demand answers about why she would fucking do that when anything could have happened. Hell, her migraines alone mean she needs someone around while she figures out her new norm.
The other part of me wants to hold onto her and never let her go. I want to pick up where we left off and spend forever exploring her body until I know it inside and out. Every time Ipush, she retreats. But when I pull back, she builds her wall a little higher, leaving me with a no-win scenario.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, I head to the room I’m using as an office and start work tasks to pass the time. When that’s done, I look online at shit that Delphi might need while she’s here. Before I know it, I’ve thrown a bunch of random crap into the cart and paid for it. I stretch and head to the kitchen for some coffee, hoping I might catch a glimpse of Del. I pause at the thought when I realize how fucking pathetic I’ve become.
“Fuck this bullshit.”
I make myself a coffee, then move over to the TV where I have the Xbox hooked up. I lose myself in a game for a while, blowing shit up and taking just enough headshots to keep my inner psycho happy, when I sense movement. I pause the game and turn, finding Delphi watching from behind the couch.
“Hey.”
“Hi.”
“You wanna play?”
“Sure.”
She walks around to sit beside me and takes the controller when I hand it to her.
“You played before?”
“Once or twice.”
“Alright. Go ahead. I’ll grab us a couple of drinks.”
