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“Go home.”
My eyes popped open, and Susan was standing over me.
“What?” I croaked.
“You need to get some sleep, Jay. Go home and come back in the morning.”
“But Delaney.” I looked at the bed and saw it was empty.
“She’s in the shower.”
Hell, I had slept through her getting out of bed.
“Don’t look so upset. She didn’t wake me either.”
I scrubbed my hand down my face. “I would have helped her.” I leaned forward, rested my elbows on my knees, and held my head in my hands. “I just want to help her, Susan.”
Susan sat down on the bed. “I do too, honey, but I don’t think you know Delaney as well as I do. While she’s smart as a whip and straight to the point with most things in her life, her feelings are something she struggles with. Don’t get me wrong, she figures things out eventually, but there’s always a time where she flounders around unsure of what she wants and feels.”
“She doesn’t need to wonder what I feel about her. Nothing has changed. I wanted to be with her when she was pregnant, and even now when we aren't going to have a baby, I still want her. It may have just been two weeks, but I know, Susan. I know what I want, and Delaney is it.”
“Then go home, get some rest, and come back in the morning.”
“I don’t need to leave. I can sleep on the couch,” I insisted.
Susan shook her head. “You need to give her a little room, Jay. You need to let her be alone for a little bit. Even I’m going to let her be when she gets out of the shower.” She looked around the room and sighed. “When I lost her father, the only thing that truly helped was time. Time to heal and time to move on.”
“I’m not moving on from Delaney,” I insisted. If I left, Delaney was going to think I didn't care. She was going to think I didn’t want to be there anymore.
Susan laughed. “You know, I never talked to you before this, but I heard many stories from Frankie and Brooks about you. The man you are right now is not what I expected at all.”
“I was an idiot in all of those stories you heard about me.” I shook my head. “I didn’t have anything worth living for besides drinking and partying.”
“And now my daughter is your reason for living?”
I nodded. “Yes. I fell in love with your daughter these past two weeks, and even though we lost the baby, that doesn’t change my love for her. I wasn’t in love with her because she was having my baby, I was in love with her for her.”
“Does Delaney know you love her?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I thought I had time to tell her. I didn’t want to scare her away.”
Susan patted my knee. “I think the last two days prove to you that time is fleeting. Delaney is going to push you away until you tell her how you feel. Right now, she thinks she’s a burden on you.”
“She’s not,” I thundered,
Susan stood up and looked down at me. “I understand that, Jay.” She hitched her thumb over her shoulder toward the bathroom. “Now you need to convince her of that.”
*
