Invisible Strings

Chapter Forty-One

Brantley's POV:

After getting Chloe and Colton back into bed and sleeping as soundly as possible considering their little brains were most likely running a million miles an hour, Delaney and I relaxed in our bed, her naked body pressed against mine with her head resting directly over my heart. My body wanted me to act on her nakedness beside me, but the gentlemanly part of me knew that tonight wasn't the night for me to ravage her –even if my body craved it. So instead, my hand roamed up and down her naked back, soothing away the tension in her body, enjoying the feeling of her laying beside me.

Between the stress of Alex's passing, the funeral, the kids' pain, and the rumored pregnancy for Dillon, it's all taken a toll on my girl; it's taken a toll on all of us to be honest. Every day for the past week, I have watched Delaney go through all the emotions that grieving people deal with. I'm comfortable enough with myself and the depth of my feelings for her and the knowledge of her feelings for me to know that her grieving isn't because she wished things had ended differently between her and Alex. I knew that she was struggling with this simply because of her kids and the fact that they would have to live out the rest of their lives without their father.

I knew that pain all too well. Dealt with it myself with Barrett and Braylin after losing Amber. Hell, I was still dealing with it when Delaney showed up in Jefferson a short time ago. And there was no doubt in my mind that if Delaney hadn't showed up in my life, I would still be a shell of a man.

Knowing that she was responsible for me moving on with my life and learning to live with the pain of losing someone I thought I would spend the rest of my life with made me want to do the very same thing for her. I wanted to see her smile again –one that wasn't forced or simply for the sake of the children. I wanted to see her relaxed, not worrying about if the kids were having a good day or a bad day. And in order to do all that, it meant that we all needed an escape.

And I knew just where to take her and the kids.

"Hey, Baby. Look at me for a second" I said softly, tipping her head back so she was looking into my eyes. Her normally glowing green irises were puffy from crying and it only solidified my plan to take her and the kids away from it all for a little while. "What do you say to all of us getting out of town for a while? We can take the kids, make some new and happy memories, and try to take away some of the pain that we've all been dealing with lately."

"B, there is so much going on–"

"Baby, you need rest." I said, lowering my hand down to her stomach. I rested it over the spot where the baby was growing and let my thumb trail over it lightly. "I'm looking out for you, the kids, and for the baby."

"About that..." said Delaney, shifting on the bed. Her body was still pressed against mine but I noticed that the semi-relaxed state she had been in was no longer present. I watched as she worried her bottom lip, her teeth sinking into it plumpness, obviously worried about whatever it was she was about to say and how I was going to react.

"Babe, what is it?" I said, my mind already jumping to the worst case scenario.

In my head, I was already asking myself if I had waited too long to take her away, had I missed that the stress was too much. And with that came the fear that if the worst case scenario was what she was about to tell me turned out to be that she had been so stressed that she miscarried. And I knew that if that was the case, I would never forgive myself for doing something sooner.

Delaney must have gotten a glimpse at the thoughts running through my head because one minute she was lying beside me and the next, she was straddling my hip, looking down at me as I lay flat on my back. "No need for you to get that constipated look on your face. I'm fine and so is our little peanut."