Every Glance (Every Life #3) (27 page)

“I know that.” She swipes a tear from her cheek. “I haven’t been there for him like I’ve needed to be lately. I’ve made the decisions that were easier on me but harder on Simon, even though I thought I was acting in his best interest to keep the peace. But all of that changes today. I went and had a long talk with my lawyer, and he encouraged me to go to the police and get a few things in order.”

She won’t look at me now. She’s just staring off across the yard, making me wonder if she has bad news for me.

“Like what?” I ask. “What are they going to do?”

“Well, I told my lawyer about all of Carter’s threats, especially those about me and you and using that to take Simon.”

I wish she would just get to the damn point if she’s about to tell me we still can’t see each other. “Aaaand…”

“And before the day is over, I should have an emergency custody order in my hands. I’ve had to go to the police before, so there’s already a record of problems with him, and he’s said to more than one person that he’d run off with Simon just to piss me off. So my lawyer called a friend of his, who happens to be a judge, and told him everything. He agreed that, for Simon’s well-being and safety, it would be best to grant custody to me and a restraining order against Carter. At least until a court date can be set for permanent custody.”

“That’s awesome, Devyn,” I say. “It’s sad, but it’s also exactly what both of you need to happen.”

“It is.” She smiles and finally looks at me. Her dark eyes are glistening with moisture. “I just don’t know why I’ve waited all this time to do it.”

“Because you wanted Simon’s dad to be in his life. No one would fault you for that. You gave him so many opportunities, and he chose not to take them. Now, you both have a chance to break free and live the life you want. Which reminds me…what about your job?”

She shrugs and leans back in her chair. “Oh, I’m guessing he’ll realize that I’ve quit once he’s served the papers and when I don’t show up tomorrow. I talked to my dad earlier, and he offered me a job doing marketing for his firm. It’s not what I want to do forever, but it’s a move in the right direction.”

Devyn really glows when she doesn’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders. It’s nice to see a real, honest-to-goodness smile on her face.

“You don’t need my approval, but I’m proud of you. I know it wasn’t an easy thing to do.”

“Actually,” she counters, straightening in her seat, “it was one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. When my son is scared enough to run away from school and I’m about to lose the man that I’m falling in love with, there isn’t any other option. It had to happen, and I would do it every single day, if that’s what it took to make it work.”

The man she’s…

She’s falling in love with me?

“Don’t overthink it, Dalton. Yes, you heard me right.” She leans forward and rests her elbows on the table and wrenches her hands together. “I know it’s probably much too soon for me to say that, and I’m sure you don’t feel the same way. But because today is a day of change, I had to tell you. I don’t want to lose you.”

Her eyes go wide when I stand, and her shocked expression tell me that she thinks I’m about to bolt. But there’s nothing that would make me run. I walk over behind her chair and pull it out before taking her hands and helping her to her feet. Pulling her close, I put a palm at either side of her head and look right into her eyes.

“I don’t care about the timing, Devyn, because I feel exactly the same way. I’m falling hard, and I don’t want to come back up, even though it scares me to death. I don’t care who you used to be. I don’t care about our pasts. All I care about is what we have right now. I can’t say for sure if it’ll work out, but I have a pretty good feeling that it will. Because I can promise you to give this everything I have. I’ve never ever considered having a family until you and Simon came along, and now it’s all I want. I hope you’ll give me a chance to prove that I’m worthy of it.”

Without giving her a chance to say another word, I cover her lips with my own, and she immediately melts into me, wrapping her arms around my waist and pressing her hips against mine. She’s warm and soft and tastes like salty tears and sweet candy. I love tangling my fingers in her hair and hearing her soft moans while I kiss her. I love the way her tongue teases mine and the way her lips mold to mine perfectly. Everything about her tells me that she was put on this earth just for me.

And I’m not afraid of anything anymore.

“Yesssss!” a voice yells out behind us.

We break apart and spin around to catch Simon watching us from the back door.

“It’s about time!” he exclaims, pumping his fist into the air over and over.

If he only knew.

Devyn laughs and walks over to him, squatting down to his level. “Well, this isn’t exactly how I meant for you to find out about us, but you’re okay with it? With me and Dalton seeing each other?”

He screws up his face and rolls his eyes. “Are you kidding, Mom? This is the best news I’ve ever heard. All that I ask is that, if you’re going to be kissing, you give a code word or something so I can get as far away as possible. Like ‘puffin’ or something.”

“Puffin? Why puffin?” Devyn asks through her laughter.

“Because puffins kiss each other. I thought everyone knew that.”

I shake my head. This kid never ceases to amaze me. “Hey, Simon,” I say, approaching him and Devyn. I hold a hand out to her to help her up.

“Huh?” he asks, but stutters when Devyn arches an eyebrow at him. “Oh, sorry. I meant to say ‘sir.’”

“That’s okay, buddy. I just have something important to tell you.”

His face lights up. “What is it?”

I look over at Devyn and wink at her. “Puffin.”

“WHAT KIND OF man are you?” Callie gripes, putting a little extra force into whipping the mashed potatoes. “You invited a girl to our dinner, and you don’t even go pick her up?”

Makenna’s jaw drops. “Girl? Don’t tell me it’s
the
girl. Damn, Sawyer doesn’t tell me anything.”

“Yes, Devyn is coming tonight. And I’ll have you know that she insisted on driving herself, no matter how much I begged to pick her up. She had to go out to her sister’s for a while this afternoon, and she wasn’t sure how long it would take, so I finally caved and gave her the address.”

“Which sister?” Sawyer asks, popping an olive into his mouth from the antipasti platter Makenna just put together. “The good witch or the bad witch?”

I shake my head at him and smile. Wes and I were just ribbing him because Mak made him watch the Wizard of Oz with her last night. “Don’t you dare make that comment when Devyn gets here, but it’s the bad witch, I guess—Kyler. Apparently, she called Dev last night and wanted to apologize and all that.”

“Dev?” All four of them say simultaneously.

“Shut the hell up.”

“Aww…he gave her a nickname,” Callie coos. “He
never
does that.”

“He’s never with anyone long enough to nickname them. He barely learns their names before he cuts them loose.”

I roll my eyes at Sawyer. “Funny. Seriously…don’t you guys have anything better to do than to pick on me?”

“Just getting it out of our systems before she gets here. You never bring girls over.” Callie giggles and stares down at the mashed potatoes dripped down her round belly. “I can’t wait until I can cook one meal without covering my stomach in food. Now I have to go change shirts.”

Wes tosses a towel at her, draping it perfectly across her stomach like some expectant father’s version of basketball. “Just wipe it off. You’ve already changed once.”

Both Makenna and Callie glare at him as if he’s lost his mind before retreating to her bedroom, and the three of us guys just look at one another and shrug before going back to picking at the appetizers.

I’ve been nervous about this all day, even though I know my friends will love Devyn. But Callie’s right. I haven’t really brought my girlfriends around them. Not because I don’t think my friends are good enough for them, but because they haven’t been good enough for my friends. I didn’t want to bring someone into our circle that they would all hate.

While Devyn and Simon were at my house last night, I decided to ask if she’d like to join us tonight, but I still haven’t asked her about being my date for the wedding. I know…I know. You can’t give a woman only a few days to prepare for a wedding, but I thought it would be wise to make sure tonight goes well first.

“I promise I’ll keep my opinions to myself and give her a chance,” Sawyer says, crunching on a slender carrot stick. “So stop your damn fidgeting already. We’ll all behave.”

“I’m not too worried about you guys. It’s Cal and Mak that I’m unsure about. You know how territorial they can be.”

Makenna huffs, reappearing in the door frame. “The word is ‘protective,’ Dalton.”

“Well,” I begin, “protective or not, you can be downright scary, so try not to freak her out, okay? I know I made her out to be a terrible person, but I swear she’s not like that now. Just wipe the slate clean and form your own judgment about her. You’ll love her…I know it.”

Makenna nods. “I promise we’ll behave. Don’t worry about it.”

A knock at the front door echoes into the kitchen, and every head in the room whips around to me.

“Go let her in, and I’ll get Callie in here,” Wes orders with a grin, shuffling out of the kitchen and down the hall. It must be really obvious that my heart just leapt up into my throat. Even as I head into the living room, I can hear Sawyer and Makenna snickering.

It’s going to be a long night.

I know for sure it’s her before I get to the door. Through the sheer curtains, I can see a hint of curl in her chestnut hair and her fidgeting hands wrenching together at her stomach. At that very moment, my heart kicks into action, pounding so hard that I can hear it pulsing into my ears. Even my hands are beginning to shake as the adrenaline pours into my bloodstream.

This isn’t nerves anymore. I think I’m just that excited to see her.

Turning the knob, I pull the door open slowly, causing it to creak in protest. Devyn’s eyes dart up to mine, and she lets out a long breath.

“Oh, thank God, it’s you. I hadn’t decided how to introduce myself if it had been someone else other than you or Sawyer, and he doesn’t really like me so…”

I step out onto the porch, closing the door behind me, and snaking my hands around her waist to pull her close. “You’d introduce yourself as mine.”

“No truer words have ever been spoken,” she says, leaning in to plant a soft kiss at the curve of my jaw. “Mmm…you smell good.”

The velvety softness of her voice makes my stomach flop. I’d love nothing more than to forget about our plans tonight, take her to my house, and not reemerge until next week. Damn Sawyer and his wedding.

“And you look absolutely amazing.” Then again, she always does. Tonight, she has on a pair of dark, slim jeans tucked into a pair of chocolate suede knee boots. And her soft coral sweater has such a wide neck that it barely sits at the curve of each shoulder, exposing her slender neck and sexy tattoo.

“Are you sure? I had no idea what to wear. I thought about calling you to ask, but then I realized you’d probably say ‘whatever you want’ and wouldn’t be any help. So I opted for casual.”

I drop my hands from her waist and grab her hand. “Devyn, nothing about you is casual. Come on. Everyone is dying to meet you.”

“Oh, hell. You make it sound like there are fifty people in there.”

“No, just four.” I give her hand a slight squeeze and peck a kiss on her forehead. “But Callie and Makenna should count for fifty, for sure.”

Devyn’s eyes widen, and I just chuckle, dragging her inside.

I can hear the hint of whispers in the kitchen, so I make sure my footsteps are loud enough that they can hear us coming. The closer we get to the kitchen, the tighter Devyn’s hand grips mind, so I look back to give her a last-minute smile to reassure her that everything will be fine.

As soon as I step through the kitchen door, all the whispers cease. I can’t even hear a breath. I tug Devyn around me and rest my hand at the small of her back.

I start at the left and point at each of them as I call out their names. “Devyn, this is Wes, Callie, Makenna, and you already know Sawyer. Everybody, this is Devyn Rion.”

There’s only a moment of hesitation before both Callie and Makenna spring forward, welcoming her and hugging her and complimenting her on her hair and clothes. Wes and Sawyer wait for the girls to calm down a little before stepping in to shake her hand and thanking her for coming. Neither Devyn nor I expected this kind of reaction, but I’m glad my friends are trying so hard to make her feel welcome.

“Sorry, we’re a little excited to meet you,” Makenna pats Devyn’s shoulder. “I apologize in advance if we drive you crazy tonight.”

“Yeah,” Callie interjects, “Dalton hasn’t ever brought a…
friend
over before, so this is new territory for us. We’re used to choking on all the testosterone in here, but now it’s an even playing field.” She turns to look at the three of us guys standing together. “Beware, boys.”

“
Girl
friend, you mean.” I waggle my eyebrows at Callie. “And I’m not scared of you.”