Perpetual Devotion (Book 4 in the Original BOC Series) ✔

Chapter Twenty-Five

The mayor had been funding the repairing to the part of the city that had been under the bomb attack a month and a half before, with one of the more well-known construction workers in the down town. Since they were so close to the area of the bombing, the mayor felt it would be easier---and cheaper---to higher this particular site.

Over the months' work, almost all the businesses had been successfully refurbished. Including Mrs. Barrington's Art shop.

After having told her father of the older woman who had been so kind and comforting to her during the attack, Darla had gone into the city every evening to visit the shop owner. Nathan himself drove his daughter. He had been secretly watching out the flow shop's window for any sign of Wes and his team as Darla ran around Edie's Floral World beaming at the exquisite colored flowers on display.

She'd run in one direction of the shop, hugging multiple stemmed flowers in her arms then ran to the opposite side to pick out more. After finding a suitable arrangement, Darla's opal eyes peered over the bushel at her father and they crinkled with the hidden smile when Nathan leaned his head back to laugh at the sight before him.

"Sweetheart, that's almost a whole garden you have there!" he smiled widely, crinkles appearing beside his lime hued eyes.

He raised his brows in amusement at Darla's chin trying to lift up above the bouquet in her arms and batted her eyes, beaming about wanting to show her appreciation to Mrs. Barrington who almost died because of her.

Darla wrinkled her nose as she tilted the bouquet into one arm to pull the other into view. Her fingers gently separated a family of daisies from strangling a lily, patting them once they were freed then lifted her eyes back up to her father.

"She's a wonderful lady, daddy. Without her, I wouldn't have been able to realize the truth about true love."

Nathan lowered a brow, tilting his head and curiously asked what she meant.

His daughter blushed, raising her shoulders and dropped her gaze to the top of the bouquet in her arms. Her teeth pulled in her bottom lip, nervously biting down on it. When she glanced up at Nathan he squinted at her with that look she recognized since she was a child warning her that it was too late; that she said too much.

Darla swallowed, coyly raising a shoulder while mumbling a repeat of what she said after Nathan asked her again. His jaw tightened, scrunching his face in disapproval before sighing and looking upward.

Nathan smirked, explaining she was a bit too young to know what love really was.

"You're only eighteen, Darla." He shook his head, walking over to take the large arrangement out of her arms. "You won't know about that kind of love until you're way older."

His left brow rose, squinting at her, "Like fifty."

Darla scrunched her nose, giggling. She pursed her mouth to the side, shrugging, "You're so silly, daddy."

The Sergeant feigned a frown, straightening his posture and firmly nodded, "Course. Because...?"

He turned his head slightly, glancing at her from the side and waited for the expected response.

His daughter sighed, smiling as she peered up at him, "You have a silly little girl."

Nathan nodded with pride, "That's right, my darling."

She followed him to the counter, quietly mumbling that she wasn't so little anymore, but her father hadn't heard her.

Nathan walked in the direction where a lanky old man stood waiting with a full, tan apron in front of the light blue long sleeve he wore. The spectacles he wore on the bridge of his nose had the old man peering over the top of them and smiled warmly at the father and daughter approaching.