Her hand came out and curled around mine, the one that wasn’t holding her face and she whispered, “Thanks, Dusty. That means a lot to me.”
I smiled and slid my hand back down to her neck. “Thank you, honey,” I whispered back. Then I studied her beauty, her eyes soft on me, the tears she was holding back glistening in her eyes and I told her truthfully, “My brother Darrin would have loved you.”
“You think?” she asked, the words pitched slightly high but still said in her soft, sweet voice. The tone was a tone of hope. And it was beautiful.
“No,” I replied. “I know it.”
“Dad knew him,” she told me. “He was around. But I didn’t know him very well. Was he like Fin?”
“Absolutely.”
She held my eyes then said quietly, “Then I would have liked him too.”
I lost hold of the tears I was controlling and felt one slide down my cheek.
My voice thick, I told her, “Yeah, you would have, honey.”
“Can I say something Dusty?” she asked, still talking quietly.
“Anything, beautiful,” I whispered, my voice still thick.
I saw the tears gather in her eyes, the wetness increasing then she whispered back, “I wanna thank you too, for making Dad happy.”
Oh my God. Oh my God.
I loved this girl.
Then one second I was staring at a beautiful girl’s face and the next second I was in her arms.
I wrapped mine around her and held on. Her body bucked as a sob tore up and two seconds later, mine did the same. But we both held on. And we did it tight.
“What’s goin’ on?”
We jumped apart like guilty children and both of us looked to the door to see we were so in our moment neither of us heard Fin come back in.
Fin’s eyes narrowed on Rees then on me. “Why are you guys crying?”
I waved my hand in the air then dashed it on my face and explained, “We’re girls. Today was full of drama. After a day filled with drama we do three things. Eat until we feel sick. Throw a tantrum. Or collapse into tears. Sometimes it’s a combo of two, bad times it’s all three. Trust me, honey, we picked the best one.”
Fin scowled at me and I didn’t know if he was doing that because he was pissed about the possibility I made Rees cry or just pissed two girls he loved were crying and as a boy who was mostly a man he pretty much knew he had no power over that.
Then he asked, “Are you guys done crying then? ‘Cause I need to get Reesee home before Mr. Haines gets pissed at me for bringin’ her home late.”
I looked to the clock over the microwave and saw it was twenty-three minutes to nine. He totally had enough time. He just wanted to make sure he had the time to make sure his girl was okay and, probably, give her a goodnight kiss which would make certain she’d be okay.
I looked at Rees and she must have felt my eyes because hers came to me. “I’m okay if you’re okay.”
She nodded, dashed a hand on her cheek and her lips quirked into a little smile that was seriously cute.
“I’m okay, Dusty.”
“I think you both did so well in the kitchen, Thursday night is taco night every week,” I informed them, stepping back to indicate I was done with creating a girlie scene.
“Great,” Fin muttered and I bit back a smile.
“Sounds good to me!” Clarisse chirped.
I held her eyes. Then I lifted my hand and blew her a kiss.
She replied by giving me one of her big, beautiful smiles.
Then I turned away, calling, “’Night Rees. See you in a bit, Fin.”
“’Night Dusty,” I heard Rees return to my back.
“Later, Aunt Dusty.”
I walked upstairs to Kirby’s room, grabbed my cell, lay with my back on the bed and called Mike.
“Hey, Angel,” he answered.
“Had a breakdown in your daughter’s arms about Darrin,” I announced.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“Just so you know, when she’s home soon, if you see her eyes puffy, she cried with me.”
“Shit,” he repeated on a mutter.
“It’s all good,” I assured him.
“You wanna come over?” he offered.
“I come over any more, I’ll be living there.”
This was met with silence.