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I wound up telling him about my father’s death and my mother’s change. He listened quietly, his only interruptions were kisses to my head and forehead.
“Somethings I think she didn’t love me.” I confided.
“I’m sure she loved you.” Storm told me. “We all deal with our losses differently.”
“But she wasn’t the only one who lost something and someone the day my father died in that accident.” I exhaled. “I was daddy’s little girl and all of a sudden, I didn’t have that anymore. And when I turned to the one person who should have consoled me—she wasn’t there, and never came back.”
I paused to press my face to his cheek to gather my strength before speaking again.
“And now that I’m older I see she was mourning too—but I was the child. I had never suffered a loss like that before and it was like I was drowning.”
“And that’s when you learned not to depend on anyone,” Storm pointed out.
“Mm.” I caressed a palm up his arm to his elbow and down again. “Because sooner or later they leave—they give you things you don’t need, and they leave.”
Stormed tipped my chin up to see my eyes.
“I’m not leaving.” He promised. “Only if you tell me to.”
“What if I don’t tell you to?”
“Come on, Taz. I’ve been yours since the day I met you. Where would I go? Hm?”
I blushed but kissed him.
When I felt better, I released him.
Storm kissed me then relegated me to a bath before facing the others.
We all crowded around the table to eat.
None of us talked about the issues we were facing.
It could have been because Storm asked them not to. I didn’t care what the reason was—I could have used the break from the madness, and I was pretty they could too.
I allowed them that momentary peace to decompress from the hell I’d brought them into because I trusted someone.
Each time I thought of what Darby had done, the rage stormed through me like a swirling vortex.
We’d known each other almost all our lives and he would do this?
Not only had he put my life in danger—I looked over at Storm who was laughing at something Lizard said. The large man smirked and shook his head.
Beam had juice spurting out his nose.
Laughing, I handed him a piece of napkin and he tapped the liquid away but couldn’t control his laughter.
This was the life I wanted—this was the life I’d given up on ever having.
I wanted the family dinners with laughter and stories of our day—it dawned on me then that I wanted all that with Storm.
“You okay?” Lizard asked.
Offering him a smile, I nodded.
“Just a little tired.” I told him.
“You can rest once you finish eating,” Storm pressed a palm to my forehead. “I’ll bring you a cold beer.”