“Who is Jory?”
“Used to be my friend, but now he’s getting married and he can’t be my friend because I’m a bad influence.”
“Are you now.”
“Yes. I can’t be around decent people, or good people. That’s why I should be a delivery driver. D2G doesn’t care if I’m a good people.”
She’s slurring her words, and mixing some up, but her meaning is clear. She’s a sad girl and she doesn’t think she’s capable of being good. I wish she had any comprehension of how incredible she really is. Now is not the time to tell her, though, mostly because I don’t think she’s going to remember any of it.
Once we’re upstairs, I help her get her clothes off and put her into bed.
“You’re tucking me in,” she mumbles.
“Yes, I am,” I say as I settle the comforter where it needs to be.
“I’ve never been tucked in before. Maybe once, when I slept at Jory’s house years and years ago. His mom tucked us both in. That was the one time. She’s dead now.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“She was a nice lady. You’re a nice…” She peers up at me. “You’re growing a beard.”
“Mhm. And you’re going to sleep. I’ll see you when you wake up.” I drop a kiss on her forehead and go turn the light out.
“Wait, Einar.”
“Yes?”
I turn back to see what else she has to say, but she’s already asleep.
Rafe gives me a surprised look as he enters the room. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at school?” He slings himself into an armchair nearby and gives me an inquisitive smile.
“I had to bring Darcy home because she was injured in a motorcycle accident that nobody told me about.”
Just as I say that, Kirin walks into the room. He hears the words ‘motorcycle accident,’ shakes his head no, and spins on his heel to leave.
“You should stay, Kirin,” I say. “There’s a lot we all need to talk about.”
He gives me a look, folds his arms over his chest, and leans against the door frame. Good place to be if you plan to make a quick escape.
“We drilled pretty hard today,” I say. “A lot of sparring. Darcy was slower than usual. Turns out, she was in an accident last night. An accident nobody reported to me, or got her medical care for.”
“I knew her bike was down the road,” Rafe says. “I assumed Kirin had chased her down and taken her home from there.”
“So you decided not to tell either of us that our mate was injured.” I look at Kirin, and I try very hard not to lose my temper with him. I know that going off on him will not help.
“She seemed fine,” he shrugs. “She was talking, she was walking. If I’d told you, you’d probably have whipped her ass again.”
“If you’d told me, I would have gotten her checked before I whipped her ass, and I wouldn’t have made her run ten miles today and get that same ass kicked by every kid in the damn class.”
Kirin looks at me impassively. “She has words. She could have told you. Says something that she didn’t.”
“Yes. It does.”
Rafe is listening quietly. He tried to tell me I was going too far with Darcy and I told him he was wrong. Now I am starting to wonder if he was at least a little bit right.
“You can say I told you so,” I tell him.
“I don’t think so. I thought about what you said, and I think you were right. If Darcy got herself into trouble, hurt herself, then didn’t tell anyone… Darcy has to learn to talk.”
