Promise Me

“I will,” she replied.

**

Our second class was taking care of your newborn. They handed me a baby doll that was pretty life like but I still held it awkwardly by one leg when the instructor glared at me.

“Mr. Moore are you going to hold your newborn by its leg?” She snapped at me.

I stuttered no while Skylar tried not to laugh. I cradled it in my arms like I once held Gracie Lou, James, Annie, Asia and Charlotte. “I do know how to hold a baby,” I grumbled.

“Then act like it and take this seriously.” What a way to start out the class. Especially after the morning we experienced.

I did learn things that didn’t know but I liked the other instructor who taught us about what to expect at the birth better. Skylar was holding my hand as we walked out to the parking lot. Two more classes. I didn’t know what they were. She told me where to be and I was there. We were at thirty-three weeks; seven more weeks seemed like such a long time but probably not to Skylar.

I tucked Skylar into the car and jogged around the front of the vehicle. When I was behind the wheel she asked about Dad. Had he said anything to me? She couldn’t tell from her vantage point. I chuckled, not happily. “Hell no.” I wasn’t sure this was a good idea to start going to Sunday dinner again when he wasn’t happy to see me.

“Ronan, he has to let this go,” she told me.

We talked on the way home. She wanted to name the baby after me. Luke Ronan Moore. We were trying to make decisions and soon, the seven weeks would fly by. Mom purchased the baby’s crib set. I knew that wouldn’t be all that she would buy. That was how she was with my brother’s kids too. We picked up paint early this week. If Skylar wasn’t too tired after dinner tonight we were painting one of the rooms at the cabin for a nursery and Skylar wanted to help. I didn’t understand why she didn’t just let me paint the room but she wanted to be a part of all of it.

I drove down the lane to the cabin, there was a car that I didn’t recognize. Skylar glanced over at me and I shrugged. We were looking forward to a quiet evening at home together. I parked to the side of the vehicle and stepped out. “Ronan, it’s Delilah,” Skylar shouted to me. She was already pulling open the door before I got to her side of the truck.

Skylar was at the door to her car and peering in. I took slower steps; afraid of what we would find. She stepped back so I could look at Delilah. “Ronan.” Delilah’s eyes rolled up in her head. Her next words slurred. “My kids like you better than me. You should just take them.”

“She’s all right,” I sighed. “Higher than shit but all right.”

I guided her out of the car. She staggered against me so I lifted her into my arms and carried her up the sidewalk. Sky ran ahead of me and when I say ran, I mean she literally did a waddle-jog that concerned me. “Sky, I would prefer you not do that.”

“Do what?”

“Attempt to run,” I told her.

Skylar scowled at me over her shoulder. Then she unlocked our front door and held the screen door open for me so I could carry Delilah through the door. I laid her on the couch. “Now what?”

“The kids will be expecting her,” Skylar told me. “Call Fionn or Aine and ask if they can pick them up and keep them.”

I did that very thing. My brother went to get the kids. They knew him well enough to be comfortable with him. Maddie would be ecstatic about spending time with Aine and the girls when he got her back to the farm. Gramps would keep Nickolas occupied. Dom, well he just always went with the flow it seemed to me.

I called Sam because I was too new at this thing to know what to do with Delilah. He offered to come over to the cabin and help us with her. While we waited on him, Fionn called to let me know that he had picked up Nickolas and Maddie but Dom was on his way to our cabin.

“Thanks for letting me know,” I told him then I hung up the cell phone.

The second surprise was my mother and father showing up with my grandfather right after Dominick arrived. Dom sat on the coffee table and stared at his mother, pretty much passed out on the sofa. My grandfather walked in when Skylar opened the door to him, Mom and Dad.

Dad stood back not speaking to me. Mom hovered near the sofa with Gramps, Dom and me. “What is going on?” She asked. Sky took a seat in the overstuffed chair to the left off the sofa. I parked my butt near her. She laid her hand on my thigh, reassuring me.

“Delilah is a drug addict. Dom has been keeping things together for them,” I explained to my parents. I heard my father’s grumble beneath his breath. I could imagine what his words were but chose to ignore them. He would always have his opinions but I couldn’t let him get to me.

“Mom had a guest over last night when Ronan and my brother Nick stopped by to leave a note for her and get some clothes for him and my sister Maddie.”

“I tried to push him behind me so he didn’t see anything but she was on the sofa with him. Half naked so Nickolas still got a glimpse of her. Then I shoved him through the door and shut it so I could explain to her that we were taking the kids home with us.” I scrubbed my hands across my face. “That is what prompted him to go off on her this morning at the diner.”

Mom laid her hand on Dom’s shoulder. “Have you eaten?” He had not eaten since the pizza I paid for that morning so Mom suggested that he go to the kitchen with her and my dad. “I bet Declan and I can find something to feed you in the kitchen if I know my son.”

He followed them. Mom was good with him but she was good with any kid because she had lots of practice with us, her five rowdy boys and her friends’ kids who were constantly at her house. I looked at Gramps. “Now what?” I asked. Skylar’s hand slipped into mine. I glanced down at her fingers interlaced with mine.

“You amaze me Ronan. You’re caring about someone other than yourself. You know what is next,” Gramps told me.

I took a deep breath. “She needs help.”