Promise Me

I shut the door behind them and locked it. Skylar was getting tired so she was going to head off to bed herself. I wanted to sleep out here in case Delilah woke and decided to leave. I took her keys out of her purse and hid them. I also found more drugs. My hands trembled as I held them in my hand and I understood what Sam was trying to tell me. It hadn’t been that long. The need for them still strong enough that I was tempted.

Gramps looking over my shoulder snatched the drugs from me and left the room. When he returned his hands were empty. He had flushed them. You weren’t supposed to do that but he was old school so I didn’t correct him.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Want the chair or the sofa?” He asked.

“You take the sofa. I’ll take the chair.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I am old and get stiff. I wouldn’t be walking if I slept in that chair all night but I would have slept in it for you.”

I hugged the old guy hard. I couldn’t explain to him how much I felt loved by him. How much his support meant to me. Support he gave me from day one. “I hope she listens Gramps.”

“Me too.”

“I don’t know what we’ll do if she doesn’t. Those kids can’t stay with her anymore.”

He sighed a heavy sigh. “I totally agree. They can’t stay with her.”

Chapter 18

“Ronan,” Delilah said my name. When I couldn’t seem to wake she laid her hand on my shoulder which startled me. Arms and legs flailing I came up out of the chair. She stifled a giggle. “Ronan, I’

m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No problem.” I reached over and shook my grandfather’s shoulder. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He had taken his hair down before he went to sleep. His longer-than-shoulder-length, silver hair was hanging around his face. I just shook my head. My rebel grandfather.

He turned and sat up fully shaking the cobwebs out of his head. “Gramps, this is Delilah,” I introduced them. He also saw her at the diner but had never been formally introduced.

“Sit down little girl,” he told her.

She complied. My grandfather had that commanding exterior that made you want to do what he asked without question. Eventually you discovered his secret. He was a big softie.

I leaned forward on my knees, “Want to tell me why you came here to use in my driveway?” I asked.

She drew her knees up to her chest. Her work shirt was pulled out of her pants now and her hair was starting to come out of her ponytail. I could see that Gramps was studying her. I wondered why. She ran her hand over her face, I noticed the tremble. “My kids respect you and Skylar, Ronan.” I waited. There had to be more.

“So that doesn’t explain why you were in my drive using,” I tried to control the tone of my voice so it wasn’t so harsh but her kids were suffering. I couldn’t excuse that.

Gramps got up and I watched him. He looked down at me as he passed my chair. “Nature calls son,” he explained. I nodded.

I decided with him out of the room to be brutally honest. “Delilah, don’t you know what you are doing to them?”

She nodded, barely but she nodded, acknowledging what I said. I was getting exasperated with her. “I was you at one time with Skylar. The kids’ dad adored me.” She trained her eyes on me. They were wide-set and huge in her thin face. So sad. “He has a new family now.”

I dropped my head. “Dominick told me that. He hurt him too.”

“He should have taken them with him. It would have been better for them,” she said to me.

I shook my head. “You know you can make it better for them,” I told her.

“How?” Her voice trembled as hard as her hands did.

I clasped my hands together between my legs and leaned my elbows on my knees. I never took my eyes off her. She squirmed beneath my gaze. “You need to get clean.”

“I can’t.” Her tone was insistent that getting clean was not an option.

“You can,” I insisted. “What makes you think you are any different than any other addict?”