“Where? I’m not allowed at the bar.” There was the pizza joint, but I wasn’t sure there was a good place to go ‘out’ with Danny and not have it all over town. He probably wouldn’t want to be in public anyway.
“Did Adam ban you?”
“I’m assuming.”
“Maybe try it. You never know. He might only be mad at Aiden for talking to you. That kid is weird.”
“Because he’s the mailman’s baby,” I said, figuring I’d get her back for all her snark.
“It would make a lot of sense,” she said, thoughtful which was confusing, and then went on, “I bet your father was sleeping with the mailman and not even letting me watch.”
I opened my mouth and closed it again.
My mom smirked and went back to her puzzle.
“Yup, that decides it. I’m leaving.” I opened my phone as I walked toward the door.
Avery: What are you doing?
Danny: I’m at work.
Avery: I’m on my way.
Danny: Now?!
Avery: Don’t act like you’re working. You’ve been stalking me for days, what's one more day?
Danny: I have to give you that one.
I pulled into the parking lot of his place with a much different feel this time. It felt right to be here. I couldn’t explain it. I waved to the guys on the way to Danny’s office, not feeling bad about it either. A guy could go see his former best friend.
I knocked on the doorframe and Danny looked up. “Hey.”
“Come in.” The smile spreading over his face made all of this worth it. “And close the door.”
A shiver ran down my spine as I did what he asked. “I thought you never closed it.”
“That was my dad.” He was out from behind the desk and in my space as it clicked closed.
“And you run the company a little different?”
“Some things.” He pressed me into the door and kissed me like I never knew I could be kissed, leaving me wanting more.
How could I go back to Cali after being kissed like this?
“I’m liking the changes already,” I whispered into his lips.
“I’d fuck you over my desk, but I’m guessing you didn’t bring condoms.”
I shook my head, cock throbbing at the comment. “I came straight here. I hadn’t thought about it.”
“You hadn’t thought about fucking me at all?” he asked pressing his hip into my hard-on.
“No, that I’ve thought about a lot this afternoon, the condoms I forgot.”
“Mmm, much better answer.” He stepped back inspecting me. “So you escaped?”
“The family are watching Trolls and digging in the attic for some of the old figurines we had as kids.”
“You mean those long-haired things Adam used to have all over his room,” Danny asked.
I was glad he remembered them in Adam’s room and not mine. “Yes, and I didn’t want nightmares so here I am.”
“Wise choice.” He backed up to sit on the edge of his desk. “Do you want to come over for a couple of hours?”
“Very much.”
He walked around his desk. I expected him to sit down and tell me he had to finish a couple of things first, but he grabbed his keys. “Let’s go. You can leave your car here so it’s not talked about in my driveway, if you want.”
“I’d… um… rather bring it so I can drive home later.” I waited for an answer. This would be a big deciding factor on whether I could do any of this or not. I wasn’t going to force him out of the closet, but if my car couldn’t even be at Danny’s place, then I’d have major reservations.
“Okay, you know where I live?”
“No, unless it’s your dad’s house.”
He shook his head. “I sold that place as soon as he kicked off. Wasn’t about to subject myself to those memories.”
It made sense. I wouldn’t want to be back there. Not with the stories he’d shared.
“Lead the way?”
He agreed with a quick nod.
We were at a newish little ranch within five minutes. It had a big wrap around porch, big white pillars, and forest green paint. He could have had a ‘white picket fence’ life there, but hadn’t. The place was charming, like Danny. Not at all the intimidating place his father’s had been.
A pang of guilt punched me right in the chest. Had I kept him from a wife and kids? I’d gone and found that for myself expecting he would’ve too. Walking up the porch stairs with him, Danny smiled as he unlocked the door and held it open for me. I stepped around him, taking in the dark stained hardwood, and the light colored cabinets. An open concept, with a big hearth as the room’s main focus. His tree off to one side, and garland still decorating surfaces.
Danny even had his mother’s old Christmas village still set up. We’d put it together sometime in the last two years of high school after his mother passed away. Apparently his father scoffed and said it was ‘girly’ to put such things on display in a house with no women in it, but Danny had done it anyway, defying his father and showing up with the bruises the next day for it. Worn proudly, the memory still turned my stomach.
I grabbed his hand in the middle of the kitchen. His brows rose questioningly. I tugged him to me and kissed him.
“What was that for?”
“The Christmas village.”
He nodded and touched his eye. It had been black for a week. “I missed you. You were the only one who understood.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand, but I loved you anyway.”
“Loved?” he asked, rubbing his hands down my back.
“I think I could easily fall right back into it and it terrifies me.”
Another nod. “I’ve never left there.”
“I was mad at you for a long time.”
“I’ve been mad at me since that day,” he whispered.
I’d left him all alone to deal with his father by himself for years. I’d abandoned my best friend because he’d broken up with me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Me too,” he said between the soft meeting of our mouths. “Let me make it up to you.”
“Shouldn’t I be making it up to you?” I asked.
He tugged me towards the bedroom. “Let’s make it up to each other.”
Eight
AVERY
“How would you like to make it up?” I asked, knowing full well what he had in mind.
“Do you have to ask?” He shoved me back a step and pulled off his shirt.
Danny had always been big, but now he presented with the true makeup of a bear. A light dusting of dark hair across his chest, well earned muscle, not from hours at the gym, but the physical labor all day in the garage.
What would have been different had I stayed in town? Could we’ve hated each other still? Would we have ended up back in bed? Things could’ve fallen apart worse, or maybe we’d be married, or Danny might’ve been dead at his father’s hand once it all came out. Secrets like that, like this, don’t stay secrets in close knit towns like ours.