Larkin sniffed and looked up at him. “Really?”
He used his thumb to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Really. I want you to meet a good friend of mine. His name is Gage.”
She peeked at him from the corner of her eyes. “He looks mean,” she whispered in Darian’s ear.
“He can be, but he would never hurt you.”
Larkin nodded and then her eyes widened. He tightened his grip on her when she tried to scramble off his lap. “You’ve got to come. Brylee fell and skinned her knees, and she’s bleeding, and it’s awful, and it hurts her, and she needs us,” she said in a rush.
Darian lifted Larkin off his lap and frowned in concern. “All right, take me to her.” He turned to Gage. “You might want to come with us.”
Gage stood. “I don’t mind if I do.”
The three found Brylee sitting and hugging her knees, hiding her injuries, on the concrete around the pool.
Darian squatted beside her. “Let me see, honey.”
Brylee shook her head as the tears fell from her eyes.
“Why, Brylee? Darian won’t hurt you. He’s going to make it better,” Larkin told her friend.
“It will hurt when he touches the scrapes.”
“I promise I’ll be very gentle,” Darian told her.
Gage squatted down on the other side of her to get her attention. “Hi, sweetheart.”
Brylee wiped her wide, shocked eyes and stared at him. “Who are you?”
“I’m a friend of Darian’s.”
“Darian said he was nice,” Larkin explained to her friend.
“Are you a prince?” Brylee asked as she continued to stare. “You look like the one in a book I just read.”
Larkin snorted and then giggled.
Gage grinned. “No. Sorry.” Gage saw Darian examine the scraps on the girl’s knees and continued to distract her. “Are you a princess?”
Brylee giggled and shook her head. “No, I’m a ragamuffin.”
“What’s that?” Gage asked.
“It’s what Mrs. Paulson called us.”
“Who’s Mrs. Paulson?” Gage asked.
“She was one of the foster moms Larkin and I had.”
“She was really mean to us,” Larkin told Gage.
“I definitely want to hear more about it, but tell me why she called you that.”
“Because we were dirty inside and out because we didn’t know our fathers, and no one wanted us.”
Darian glanced up at Larkin. His heart lurched in his chest at the sadness on her face.
“She was wrong,” Gage said.