Love Hurts (16 page)

Sam nodded, squeezing his mother’s hand. “You don’t know how great it feels to hear this.” She didn’t think of him as a demon, she simply thought that he was a human living with an inner damnation, one that he had the ability to move past.

Greta smiled, pleased she could help. “You have to find a balance, a way to keep a level head at all times. This way you can be with the woman you want to be with without hurting her.”

Sam scratched his head. “I think I know how to do that.”

Greta took a bite of her sandwich. “You also need to tell her the truth about you. If she is the one she will accept you for what you are. And understand that you are the loving caring man she fell in love with. Not a monster.” She raised her eyebrows. “You also have to
show
her you’re not.”

Sam believed he could do that—the showing part. The confession to the truth was another story. Telling Delaney he was the spawn of a demon was one thing. But telling her about Rose was another. And he wasn’t ready to come clean. He couldn’t.

***

Delaney walked down the foyer of her parent’s home, radiant hardwood beneath her feet, with the loveliest crystal chandelier above her. Her parents were wealthy. Very prominent in Arizona, and they expected a lot from her.

She stopped in front of a large wood framed family photo, a portrait from a few years ago. Back when she was in school dreaming of college. Not of getting married. That was the furthest thing on her mind at the time.

“
What are you doing out here?” Her father’s voice boomed, his footsteps thudding the floor as he approached her. He wrapped his arm around his daughter, taking in the family portrait along with her. “That was a nice one, one of your mother’s favorites.”

Delaney smiled.

“
Why didn’t Vance pay us a visit?” Her father questioned like so many times before. The only time he had laid eyes on Vance was at the engagement party.

“
Oh you know, Daddy. Vance is just busy with things.” She kissed his cheek, letting him lead her into the large dining room where her entire family sat surrounded by expensive dishes and soft candlelight. Her father took the seat at the head of the table. Delaney sat down beside her brother and his girlfriend, her sister across the way.

“
Now that we are all here,” her mother started, she flashed Delaney a small smile pleased to see her daughter for once.

Delaney swirled her spoon through her soup not that hungry for what sat before her. She listened to the clinks of the silverware against the dishes.

“
So, six more months,” Anna, Delaney’s mother said, “Six more months before your married.”

Delaney brought her gaze to her mother’s scheming smile, one that she knew all too well. She wasn’t being sweet and concerned about her choice. She was trying to pick apart the situation once again, “Yeah, six months.”

Anna lifted her wine glass to her lips. Delaney’s brother and sister passed side dishes. Delaney watched the trail of steam waft through the air, trying her best to disregard her mother.

Darcy, Delaney’s older sister by two years, gave her a compassionate smile. Knowing their mother could be rude and insensitive. She had learned to grow a thick skin. She also learned to keep her private business far away from her family.

“
He didn’t think it was polite to pay us a visit? He was just fine letting his fiancé come home without him?” Anna pushed. She rested her empty wine glass beside her plate, picking up the knife now, sawing into her steak as she did her children’s lives.

Delaney pushed her hair behind her ears. Her eyes full of concern. Concern for what she was about to say next. “Could we just talk about something else?”

Everyone besides her mother seemed to go about their business, but not her mother. She kept her dark eyes glued to Delaney’s frown, offended that her daughter would tell her to shut up, even if she hadn’t used those exact words.

“
He doesn’t seem to be making much of an effort to be a part of this family. I find that a bit concerning.” Anna opened her mouth and took a bite of her steak.

Delaney’s dad sighed, dropping his napkin on his plate. “Let’s leave it alone, Anna.”

Anna shot daggers at him. Darcy cleared her throat. “How about we talk about something else besides Delaney’s fiancé for once, you do have two other kids sitting right here willing to share with you, Mom.”

Delaney without a sound thanked Darcy for helping her out. But sadly it wasn’t enough. Anna was enraged. She stood, shoving her chair behind her with enough force to knock it over. She took her plate and lifted it with both hands before she decided she wasn’t going to clear the table and slammed it with all the muscle she had in her back down on the table.

Delany jumped at the noise, refusing to look at her mother’s temper tantrum.

“
Oh, come on. Do we have to go through this every time she comes around?” Dorian asked. Dorian was the oldest of the siblings and the most boisterous when it came to adjusting his mother’s attitude. “Give it a rest. So the guy didn’t come eat your outlandish soup and overcooked steak. I don’t blame him.”

This was enough to send Anna out of the room, squawking like a riled bird that had just lost her worm. Her footsteps echoed the hallway until they were nothing but a faint memory.

“
Well, that was quite over-the-top,” There dad said, staring off at the place his wife should have been sitting enjoying the company of their children. He watched as Delaney poured a glass of water and headed in the direction of her mother’s tantrum. She was the only one of their kids that hated to see her upset.

Delaney hurried up the long staircase of plush maroon carpet and dark oak woodwork. She cautiously steadied her movement as to not spill the glass of water. She wrapped on the door before she let herself into the dark bedroom, walking past the familiar bookcase that went from floor to ceiling and the drawn curtains that plunged the room into utter darkness.

“
I brought you some water,” she said, the darkness making it hard to see, her other senses kicked into gear and she followed the thick smell of cigarette smoke to the bed, until she was inches away from the orange ember of her mother’s cigarette, taking a seat on the edge of it.

“
I always thought you could do anything.”

Delaney pursed her lips. She had heard this speech over and over again.

“
And now you’re simply falling into love. Making a mess out of your life before it even had its chance to start. I want you to learn from my mistakes.”

“
I have. That’s part of the reason I
am
in love. Dad loves you.” Delaney smiled. Her father was the epitome of a loving man. He would do anything for her mother, even if her mother wouldn’t do the same for him.

“
Dad
loves
me. But I didn’t
love
him. I married because I was pregnant. I never got to experience true love. I’m stuck in this boring life, a boring unfulfilled existence. And I’m watching it happen all over again. It’s really upsetting,” Anna said with a light sigh. She exhaled, blowing smoke out into the darkness.

Delaney hated to hear her mother talk so badly about her life. Her regrets. Why hadn’t she just lived it the way that she wanted to? “I’m not you. I’m not pregnant. I love him. It wasn’t anything I planned, but I love him.”

Anna chuckled. “You don’t know a thing about love. You never have been in it to have anything to compare it to. First loves don’t last because we soon understand that it wasn’t love at all.”

Delaney stood up. It pained her to hear her mother’s lack of faith in her relationship. One that was making her lose sleep at the moment. She wished she could talk to her and confide all her fears in her. But she knew her mother would only tell her that she was right. And maybe she was. Delaney was losing faith that love was anything more then what her mother said it was.

***

Frankie took a back booth at his favorite bar.
Lone Bar
. Usually he was front and center. But tonight he was happy to take a booth and let all the pigheaded macho types do their best to pick up the college girls. And the old bar flies that put on their best attire to pick up a useless young man to sleep with for the night. They were all desperate.

He sucked down beer after beer, enjoying the collection of beer bottles on the table in front of him, and the old classic rock music permeating from the surround sound.

“
Excuse me,” he said to the passing waitress. She arched an eyebrow, stepping closer, pulling her notepad from her black apron. “I want something stronger.”

The waitress bit her lip, studying Frankie. Trying to figure out what species of drinker he was. Judging by his dozen beer bottles she wasn’t so sure. “What about gin? We have many kinds.”

Frankie leaned back in the booth. “What kinds do you have?” he asked, expecting a clumsy response.

“
Hendricks. It’s an Irish gin, infused with cucumbers and rose petals.” She smiled, pleased with her choice. “Do you care to try it?”

Frankie nodded, “whatever you say, sweetheart.” He didn’t care. He only wanted something to shock his nerves and erase any ounce of compassion he had for mankind.

The waitress appeared with a small glass. And a napkin that she neatly rested his drink on. “Enjoy.”

Frankie downed the gin in one swallow, letting out a satisfied grunt, as he sat it back down. He twitched two fingers in the air calling her back. “Two more, you have first-class taste.” He swallowed, enjoying the warm sensation nipping at his chest.

“
Someone looks like they need to be here,” The bartender said, setting down the entire bottle next to his glass. She took a seat across from him, admiring his cool blue eyes, his dark hair. But she didn’t admire the sadness that exuded from him.

She secured her pencil in her hair and rested her hands on the table, her green eyes studying Frankie.

“
That’s what bars are for.” He tipped the gin bottle, watching carefully. “Tell me about yourself. Why are you a waitress in a bar?”

“
I’m going to school. This pays my way.” She smiled at Frankie as he licked his lips. She liked the way he did that and the way he smiled without knowing he even was. Frankie pushed the glass to her offering her a drink. “Oh, I better not. I have to drive home later.”

Frankie gripped the glass. “You’ll sober up before closing time. Have a drink with me. Save this poor pathetic man from doing something completely stupid.”

She sniffed the gin, staring at Frankie. “Like what?”

“
Like, going home and jumping off my fire escape, or driving my car off the bridge.” He cleared his throat, enjoying the small reaction in her features as she let the gin slide down her gullet.

“
Happy?”

“
I’d be happier if you told me your name,” Frankie said, the corners of his mouth turning up in an intoxicated smirk.