The Way That I Love You(Book 2)

Understanding

Colin

She clutches onto him tight as she stares at the people in the room. Of course she has no idea what is going on and the sight alone is freaking her out.

"Everything is okay. I promise." Everyone is staring at her expectantly but he's more or so concentrating on trying to keep her calm.

His mother is the first to step forward; not standing to close to make sure she's not any more terrified.

"Hi, I'm Teresa...I'm your mother in law." She grabs her hand from his shirt and holds them in both of hers. "You're safe. Nothing but family here, and we've all been waiting for you." She gives her a reassuring smile.

Brittney steps up and smirks at her; introducing herself as well before everyone sort of follows suit. It's a bit of a line and she hesitantly stares at all of them before there's no one left. No one but the two people that he feels deserve a separate and very serious introduction. So he let's go of her for a moment; reassuring that he'll be back before moving over to grab Darlene from Greg. He grabs Knox's hand as well.

He crosses the room to her again before giving her a small smile.

"This, is your daughter Darlene. She'll be one in February." She cocks her head to the side a bit before blinking a few times.

"Hi mommy." The baby smiled and her eyes widened.

"This, is your son Knox. He just turned three."

The look on her face is even more surprised. The resemblance is uncanny and he watches her every move to see how she takes it. A dozen emotions flit across her face the longer she stares.

Confusion.

Surprised.

Happy?

Conflicted.

Questioning.

"Eyes." Darlene reached forward to touch her face; small fingers brushing against her cheek. "Pretty." She gives a small smile.

Then her eyebrows furrow again and her eyes look from the kids to all of the people around her. They look over each person's face before they cast down.

Then she hurries to walk away.

Sort of turns and zooms out and down the hall. It's quite brunt and it throws him off a little; his body sort of frozen before he hears the door close.

He sighs and kisses both the kids cheeks before putting Knox down and settiling Darlene on the couch. He hurries down the hall and out the door after her; noticing her bright red ponytail right away. He sort of slows his pace as he approaches; as she's slightly pacing by the car.

When he steps toward her she turns her eyes to him; putting her hand up to stop him. Tears are streaming down her face and she's shaking as they stand there.

"I'm not going to come near you. I'll stay right here." He assures but she keeps the hand up for protection he guesses. "Why did you leave?"

She stared at him wide eyed before looking down.

"D-don't rem-ember any-thing." She rasped out and shook her head. He sighed.

"No one is expecting you to remember. I'm not expecting you to remember. At this point the only thing I want is for you to be okay. This is a lot,I know but I want you to understand that we still love you whether you remember or not."

She sniffles; her foot kicking a rock away. He slowly moves closer; reaching out to rub her shoulder. She sniffles again and buries her face in his chest.

He wraps his arms around her; rubbing her back slowly to calm her down. He didn't mean to upset her; he just wanted to try things out. Back to baby steps.

"What did I tell you hm? I told you it would be okay and I meant it. We'll work it out."