“I’m Mr. Priest. This is Ms. Swallow,” Deacon answered, his head tilting to indicate me, his resuming the name Priest throwing me for a second that I didn’t have a chance to process before he kept going. “Now, can we help you?”
“You were both there last night,” the father stated.
I swallowed and looked to Peyton and Annabelle.
Both had red eyes like they’d been crying but they didn’t look scared.
I glanced at the mom.
She looked like her world had ended.
I turned my attention to the young man.
He looked ravaged.
No one looked angry. The dad didn’t seem happy, but he wasn’t pissed.
What was going on?
“We were,” Deacon confirmed.
The father turned to what I was guessing was his son. “Duck,” he began. “Now.”
The kid stepped forward, his gaze going to Deacon’s.
“It was me. I was supposed to look after my sister and Peyton. We met some kids. Mom and Dad said we could hang with them. I let the girls drink. Then I met someone and I didn’t look after my sister. She made her decisions but I promised I’d take care of her. I didn’t.” He stopped abruptly, his throat convulsing, and his voice was thick when he went on, “I’m sorry what happened to them. And I’m sorry you had to do what you had to do last night. But I’m glad you were around to do it.”
Whoa.
That wasn’t what I expected.
It was a whole lot better.
“It’s our fault, Jayden,” Annabelle called out meekly. “We shouldn’t have gone with them and not told you where we were going.”
The boy turned to her. “Was supposed to look out for you, Belly.”
I sucked in my lips because that was sweet.
“We’re here on vacation,” the dad stated and I looked to him. “The kids have their own unit, we have ours. My son is in college and has demonstrated a certain level of maturity so we trusted them to that and their own vehicle so they could do their thing. We thought they were old enough to have some fun without their mom and dad hanging around. We also trusted Jayden to look after his sister. He didn’t. My suspicion is, if he gets the chance again, he will. But we wanted you to know Annabelle shared with her mother what happened last night. We’ve talked with Annabelle and Peyton. We’ve talked with Jayden. And now we wanted to come to apologize for you having to get involved and to express our gratitude that you did.”
I opened my mouth to say something, ask them in for a coffee, but Deacon got there before me.
“Don’t ever do that again.” At his firm tone, a tone so firm it was granite, my eyes shot to him to see his gaze locked on Jayden. “Your sister, her friends, your mother, the woman you’re gonna claim, nothin’s more important. Not one thing. You know that now. Don’t ever forget it.”
My heart was beating funny as I tore my gaze from Deacon and watched the boy shake his head and swallow before saying, “I won’t.”
I looked back at Deacon to see him jerk his chin to the kid.
That was when I jumped in.
“Do you all wanna come in for a drink or something?”
“I think we’ve had our share of your kindness, Ms. Swallow,” the mother replied.
“If there’s any damage done, we’re willing to pay,” the father put in.
I shook my head. “Not necessary. The renters have been charged for the damage.”