Small Town Love

Chapter 23

In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, bridge to our future

Alex Haley

Sometimes Daphne wondered how it could be that her life had turned completely around in less than six months. She wondered how it was that she didn't need to worry about paying the electricity bill anymore...she wondered how it was that she didn't need to worry about keeping enough money stashed away that her mother could buy her whiskey of choice and whatever drugs she was on that week. Every day that she spent at school, coming home, doing homework, painting, was a small slice of wonder all on its own.

She couldn't help but look at it all, unable to believe that it was hers now. She had wanted this life, had yearned for it and now she finally had it.

She had a family that she adored, she had her own room that was decorated just how she liked it...and she had Luke .

He was the brightest part of her days and the more time she got to spend with him...the more Daphne realised that her feelings for him were anything but fleeting.

It startled her the first time when she allowed herself to think about what kind of future the two of them could build.

When she realised that she would happily mould her plans to his, just as he had carved out room for Daphne in his life.

They always tried to work it out with each other, and Daphne appreciated that more than she could say.

She came to Luke's football games and cheered, even when she still didn't understand the rules. She spent time with grace and Kiana and the rest of the wolf pack, learning the ins and outs of being a werewolf. There were hundreds of things that she didn't know about yet. Sometimes she would give everything to have a handbook for the newbie werewolf. Sadly that didn't exist yet.

She contemplated the idea of marriage, wondering if it would give them anything other than a ring and party, but realising that it was probably something that Luke would want.

She could go along with that if it made him happy. Daphne didn't have strong feelings about it either way.

She startled herself with her plans for the future, of the wishes she realised she had. She didn't tell Luke about all of them. There were some that she was still slowly dragging out from that locked boy in her heart where she had put everything she had always wanted during her childhood.

Sometimes it were ridiculous things. Like the one time she and Luke had gone to Augusta for an afternoon and he had indulged her wanting to eat candy floss for the first time in her life with a laugh and him ending up eating nearly all of it after Daphne had tasted it and declared it to be disgusting.

Sometimes it weren't ridiculous things. Sometimes it was her wanting to visit her mother's grave, just to put some flowers on it and nothing else. She knew that Luke couldn't understand why she wanted to do it. To be honest, Daphne herself couldn't understand it either.

Still, he drove her there, he walked her to the grave and held her hand when she laid down the flowers and then pressed a kiss to her forehead when she was done.

He didn't say a word about it and Daphne appreciated that more than she could possibly say.

She contemplated college plans, none of them really to her liking, but all near Dartmouth, which was Luke's plan.

She wasn't ready to have a long-distance relationship with him. Not when she could feel her skin crawling when they were only apart a few hours at a time.