Delicate

Chapter 39

Damon's P.O.V

I didn't expect this.

When I was preparing to come home and face everything I left behind, I didn't expect my leaving to create even more issues. 

I thought I'd just have to face four people; Dad, Pops, Levi, and Amelia. I thought I'd see them and it would be hard but we'd work things out somehow because there wasn't any other option but to fix what was broken. And it'd be okay because Will would be by my side and everything would be okay.

But then Josey was yelling yesterday, blaming me for what happened when I left, blaming me for things I didn't want to happen. She was hurt and so was Hagen and Peter, they were in the crossfires of all this even if I didn't realize it.

"What do you want to talk about?" Josey says as she turns to face me with crossed arms to match the walls she was building around herself.

I look around the room that was supposed to be her bedroom.

"Dad spent months trying to get this right," I tell her as I look around the familiar space, a smile tugging on my lips as memories began to play out right before my eyes. "He was so damn scared of having a girl and messing up, it was the most frantic I've ever seen him."

I look to Josey, the hard-line to her eyes softening just a bit as she listened silently from her spot.

"Somewhere during Pops' pregnancy, he convinced himself that if he could get the bedroom just right then he could handle raising a girl." I continue with a small chuckle because the reasoning was just as dumb now as it sounded before. "He'd spend hours in here, decorating it and then redecorating it. Only to wake up the next day and start all over again."

"He's got a problem." Josey remarks with a smirk that could have only come from Pops.

"It was blue once, then yellow, he was happy with red for a while and I don't even know why he tried black." I list as the images of the room's varying appearances slip through my mind. "He went through every color in the fucking rainbow trying to get this shit right."

I run a hand along the white wardrobe top, not surprised to find a single spec of dust there.

"He chose lavender in the end," I say while running my eyes over the room. Lavender coated the walls on all sides, white and silver accent pieces sitting perfectly all around the match the large, white queen bed in the center. "He said it was 'graceful' like you would be, 'subtly elegant and refined' which would make you a great warrior. He said it represented 'beauty' and that you'd be the most beautiful thing in this world."

"I think I missed the mark on all those things," Josey comments as she glances around the room she sparsely used.

"I don't know, I think there's still time to see if you do," I reply as I lean against the wardrobe and face her. "Either way, he got it just right and now, now you use it as a second closet."

"I have a problem, you know I do." She replies defensively in reference to her shopping addiction that only seemed to worsen as time went on.

"I know," I admit as I focus my eyes on her dark ones. "But I also know that you'd find space if you had to. You share Hagen's room with him because you know the little shit doesn't like sleeping on his own."

Josey just shrugs, his eyes leaving mine as she looks out the window.

"Is that what you wanted to talk about?" She asks with feigned disinterest. "Dad's panic attacks over me and Hagen's sleeping habits?"

"You're like me," I tell her, drawing her eyes right back to me. "We got a chip on our shoulder for no fucking reason and we love this family more than anything, I wouldn't have left if I didn't have to... I wouldn't have hurt you guys like my leaving did If I didn't have to go."