Chapter 7
Daniel’s mind was spinning and he didn’t know what to do. Sitting down on the bed in his grandparent’s home, he ghosted in a bottle of his father’s favorite Tequila and pulled the top off. He took a long drink of it. The burn of it hit his empty stomach, making him choke a bit. How could the old man drink this shit, he thought to himself.
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he set the bottle on the night stand. He had been holding in how he felt. Edge didn’t wanna listen to him when he told him to go back and help his father. And now Jared was gone. He didn’t blame Serra one bit for how she felt. Her mate was gone and in her shoes he’d do more than that what she had done.
He had spent most of his life hating Jared. Never giving his father a chance to show him the truth or the man he was really was. And now he was gone. Knock it off his mind yelled at him. Jared had been through hell and still stood strong.
“You are so much like your dad.” Brian’s words echoed in his head. His uncle had told him that so many times and normally that pissed him off or use to, but now it was a complement. If he could grow into half the man his father was he’d be happy.
Tears started to come. “You can’t do this shit to me. If you’re punishing me for, for my hatred of him. I’m sorry,” he said into the air, not sure who he was talking to. God, Salvation. Hell, anyone that would listen and bring his father back. Hot tears ran down his cheeks. “I’ll take his place. I don’t have anything to lose. He has a mate and small children with more on the way. He deserves better,” he said in a growl.
His father’s face came to him. ‘All I want for you is to be happy Daniel. And if that means not being part of your life. I’ll do it son.’ Jared had offered to keep out of his life for good when he got out of prison. For a few months Daniel took him up on that. Only dealing with him at work, until Brian had talked some sense into him.
“All that time I wasted, being stubborn and now I may never get to tell him how I feel.” What would Jared do right now if he was here? Would he sit here and get wasted? Daniel wasn’t totally sure, but he didn’t think his father would let himself go down that road. He’d suck it up and do what needed to be done.
His brother and sister needed him and so did Serra, even if she didn’t admit it. Jared would want him to stand with her. Scrubbing his face with his hands, he decided to take Serra up on her offer to stay with her. He opened the nightstand and pulled out an old menu from a pizza place in the area. Turning the menu over, the back was blank. Fishing out a pen from the drawer, he left a note for his grandparents and ghosted out to Serra, or where he thought she might be.
Serra ghosted back to her room and found Damion catnapping with the twins. She watched them for a few minutes, but didn't have the heart to wake them from their reprieve from reality. She hoped their dreams were happy ones. Quietly, she let herself out of the room and mindlessly walked, stopping when she found herself in front of the linen closet, when she'd meant to go to the kitchen. She closed her eyes and dropped her head for a second, realizing that the floor plan wasn't that of the home she was used to. She blinked back the frustrated tears. There was too much to mourn. Not Jared, she told herself with a growl. You will not mourn him until there's no other choice.
She had to engage her mind to remember where the kitchen was, Her eyes swept over the broken sofa and a small smile lifted her lips as the memory of how that had happened played through her mind. She didn't realize that she'd stopped to stare until she noticed that she was. Shaking her head, she took the left at the bottom of the stairs into the open concept kitchen and her heart stopped. Someone was leaning into the refrigerator, the hair was a little longer, the shoulders were not quite as wide and the tattoos were wrong, but for a split second she thought it might be Jared. After staring for a few seconds, she cleared her throat and blinked back the tears. "Hey, Daniel."
Pulling his head from the fridge he looked up at her. "Hi! I was just looking to see what we needed. I was going to go to the store and get the cubs, and you some dinner." He stood up all the way and closed the door. "If you're okay with that?" He asked, pushing his hair out of his face.
Serra wasn't sure what to say. This was the last thing she'd expected. When leaving Ireland, she'd been positive that she was on her own in this. She opened her mouth, but it felt like there was a spiky ball filling the space, choking off her voice and aching. Instead, she nodded as the waterworks started again. She didn't know if it was the situation, hormones, or seeing the kid that had made it clear hated her, offering to help. Whatever it was, she couldn't stop it. "That would be great. Thank you," she managed to choke out.
He could smell her tears that where starting in her eyes. Daniel wasn't sure if he should hug her or not. "You're welcome. Is there anything specific you want or need?" he asked, taking out his phone and opening an app on it so he could make a list of what she asked for. He quickly typed milk, bread, and juice in before turning his attention back to her.
"Um," she leaned against the island counter top and tried to think. "If you could pick up a couple sippy cups for the twins? Oh, and a bag of those red and white peppermint candies," she looked down at the floor. "They help when I get sick." She wiped at her eyes and tried to get her shit together. "Whatever else you want. The twins have a thing for the rainbow-colored goldfish crackers lately. They like to name the colors." She smiled softly and glanced up at him. "I'm glad you came, Daniel."
He looked down at his phone and put all that on the list. When he was done he saved the list and turned the screen off on the phone an put it back in his pocket. Looking at her again he returned her smile. "I know this is where I should be. Or where I think he'd want me to be. With my family." Daniel said honestly as he could feel the tequila start working. It was glad of it. It was helping numb the emotion that was trying to choke him. "Since everything got toasted I was going to stop back at The Pit and grab some clothes out of my old room." He had a thought ghosting an old leather jacket of Jared into his hands he held it out to her. "He left this in my room one night after work. I hadn't returned it. I put in my closet. It still stinks like him." He said trying to make a joke. "I hope when I get to be his age my scent isn't that damn strong. I don't think febreeze or tide can get that out."
She laughed and reached for the jacket, closing her eyes as Jared's scent drifted off it and for the first time in days, she felt like she could breathe. "Thank you. Bring anything you need. Change stuff if you want. We need to make this a home for the twins now," she sighed and raked a hand through her hair. "The only thing off limits is the sofa. It stays, broken or not." She could say more, but the kid didn't need to be traumatized. "I know the twins will love having their big brother around."
His brow arched when she mentioned the sofa. "I'm not much of a decorator, but I will help as I can with it all. That reminds me I need to get his bike back from the shop. I borrowed it from work the other night, and the brakes were a little weak on it. I took it in to be looked at. That is something I know he'd want to be taking care of." Daniel knew how much that thing meant to Jared. "I didn't check the pocket of the jacket." He said remembering that there might be some of Jared's stuff in the pockets. Since she'd gotten pregnant Daniel knew she'd been sick and when his father found the mints helped he always seem to have them on hand. Jared pants pockets always had them in there. So why not his jacket.
"There's room for it in the garage. Could you help me with replacing the xbox and the games? I'm clueless when it comes to his mistress, but I want them all waiting for him when he comes home." She reached into one of the pockets and smiled when she found a handful of mints hiding in there. "Damn that panther," she sighed, staring at them and growling as a tear rolled down her cheek. "Sorry. I cry all the damn time now. Please don't take it personally. Just don't let me near the Lifetime channel," she tried to joke and rolled her eyes.
He chuckled and nodded. "No lifetime and I'll be glad to help with the Xbox and all the games. It's probably a good thing I don't have a girlfriend, because not everyone is as understanding as you are with him playing video games. Most chicks get in a knot about playing on it all the time. You know I can teach you how to play some of the games so when he comes back you can give him a run for his money." He offered.
She shrugged. "It's his way to work off stress, how can I take that away from him? And learning to kick his ass at even one game, that would be awesome," she grinned. "He'll never see it coming." Serra unwrapped one of the mints and popped it into her mouth, before putting the rest back in Jared's jacket pocket. "I appreciate all of this Daniel, more than you can know."
"Anything to take the old man down a peg or two when to comes to gaming I'm all for it." He grinned. "Well that's what family does. If you need anything let me know while I'm out." He said before ghosting out to bike shop to pick up Jared's bike.
Serra blinked at the space Daniel had just occupied and replayed those words in her head. Yep, she was going to cry again, because the kid had just referred to her as family, something she expected to happen the day after hell froze over. "Damn kid," she muttered under her breath and wiped at her eyes.