He was staring again, and not even hiding it. Ruby’s hand was clutched in his, the guys caught up in some rowdy conversation or other, but his eyes were right on me.
Tonya poked me in the arm. “Go,” she said. “Before I drag you over there. I’ll powder my nose and I’ll join you.”
I sighed, finished the rest of my wine. “Alright,” I said. “I’ll go.”
I was so ridiculously nervous as I crossed the field, weaving my way through groups of people as he watched me. I was smiling, just a few metres away from him, and he was smiling back, ready to make conversation when a godawful shriek cut out across the crowd.
“Dadddd! Dadddd! Help me!”
Mia.
My eyes widened and so did his. My heart thumped so hard I felt it right through me, terror reaching up and grabbing me by the throat.
I scanned the crowd, desperate for sight of her, wondering where the hell she was.
“Darren…” I said, but he was already moving, his direction hidden from me by moving bodies.
“Stay!” he called to Ruby. “Stay right where you are!”
I followed him with my heart in my throat, caring little for the people I shoved from my path as I fought my way towards our baby.
Buck was alongside me, Jimmy O, too, all of us pounding after Darren as he barged through the crowd.
And then I saw it, in the shadows at the edge of the park – the group of lads around our girl. The guy with his hand on Mia’s arm, holding her tight as she tried to pull away.
“Daddd!” she shrieked, and he was there.
I saw him up ahead, saw him reach her and tug her free, and my stomach lurched as he pushed her behind him, lurched again as he grabbed Daisy from the crowd, too.
I didn’t stop running, not even when Darren’s fist landed on the guy’s jaw. Not even when the other guy reeled and stumbled, not even when the crowd of lads squared up to Darren and he squared up to them right back.
I didn’t stop running until my girl was in my arms, until Daisy was there, too.
“They wouldn’t let us go!” Mia cried. “They wouldn’t! They wouldn’t let us go!”
I looked at Darren and he was wired, red-misting with an anger I’d never seen before. The kind of anger that sent electric through my spine, adrenaline coursing right through me.
His fist landed again, connected with one of the lads facing up to him, and I felt it, I felt all of it.
The scene unfolded in slow motion, him standing strong and fierce even though he was vastly outnumbered. I saw the way he didn’t even care.
I felt it in my stomach, in some strange part of me I never knew existed, something deep and primal and raw.
Buck and Jimmy O appeared at his shoulders, and he barely even noticed. He didn’t care about that, either, didn’t care if he had backup or not, didn’t care if he was up against an insurmountable force.
The only thing he cared about was protecting our little girl, whatever the cost.
A couple of shoves and a whole load of expletives, and I told the girls to cover their ears, that it would be alright and not to worry.
A crack as Darren took another swing, and shunting bodies.
And then silence.
The lads backed away, and the crowd came closer, jostling in around the aftermath.
Darren looked at me and his eyes were so dark, so fierce. He shook out his knuckles, and headed over. My heart was like a train.
I didn’t realise I was gripping the girls so tight until he crouched down and pulled Mia from me. He checked her over, his eyes searching hers.
“She’s ok,” I said, and my voice was shaky and weak. “She’s ok, Darren. They’re both ok.”
But I wasn’t, I wasn’t ok at all. My legs were jelly, my skin crawling, every part of me cranked up to fight or flee.
I’ve never been so relieved as the moment I felt his arm around my shoulders, ushering us back through the crowd and back towards our tent. I held on to the girls and he held on to me, flanked by Jimmy and Buck right the way back to Tonya and Ruby, who’d taken a seat at her side.
Darren sat himself down by our tent, and pulled our girls down alongside him, Daisy, too.
And that’s where he stayed, all evening long, glued to those kids like he’d never let them out of his sight again.
And I knew.
I knew he was it. I knew he was everything.
I knew that there was nobody on earth who’d love my girls the way he did, who’d give everything for my girls the way he did, who’d do whatever it took to keep them safe, no matter what the cost, no matter what they needed.