Page 89 of See You Soon
"Does your mom know Danny's back yet? How does she feel about being alone in the house tonight?"
"Yes, she knows. I sent her a text. She wants to talk to Danny about the pregnancy. She's ready to go full mama bear on him but yeah. She's fine. We set up a security system now, so she feels more comfortable when I'm not home with her."
Meredith nods. "Who's that guy with slicked black hair? He's yummy." Meredith whispers into my ear looking behind me. I turn around squinting in their direction and my eyes land on Kane. He’s in mid-conversation with Danny. Danny takes a hit of his cigarette before blowing it into the air.
"His name is Kane. Kane Slaughter. He works with Danny." I reply nonchalantly, fixing the bottom of my dress.
"Well hot damn. They're all so tall. Is that a requirement or something?"
I shrug, giggling. “You make a fair point.”
"I need a big boy in my life." She jiggles her brows and I laugh. "Look, I'm sorry again for being so rude. It's my own insecurities coming through. Between Emilia's marriage and your pregnancy, I guess I'm just low-key jealous that your love lives are exploding and mine is non-existent. It's drier than the Sahara's desert down here." Meredith sighs, crossing her arms.
I shake my head, rolling my eyes.
"Just watch, when you least expe—"
I'm cut off by a hard grip on my shoulder, but the touch sends a sensation in between my thighs with familiarity.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I think we should go." Danny's voice is deep and husky.
I look behind me, my eyes upwards to see Danny's hand. My vision trails from his hand to his face. His expression sends me into a whirlwind. He looks different from earlier. His eyes are glossy, and I just know he’s drunk.
The way he watches for my obedience has me thrilled. He looks emotionless but his blue eyes say otherwise. When I investigate them, they seem impatient, lustrous with need, like a beast ready to devour. It sends a fire down my body and my nipples harden through the blue dress. I swallow as he reaches for my hand. I smile and take it. He pulls my body up so easily off the sand and I'm internally trembling with excitement. We're finally going to be alone.
We get to the parking lot, and Danny holds my hand, guiding me toward his all-black F250 truck.
"Keys?" I ask.
"Let me drive us home. I'm okay."
"No, you are not, Danny. I saw you drink shot after shot, whiskey after whiskey."
He stills and I know he's upset but I don’t think it’s at me. Something changed when I caught him staring at the fire.
"Danny… what happened to you when I left? You're different. Something changed when…"
He doesn't let me finish.
"When, what?" He argues.
"Talk to me."
"Ari." He groans, frustrated.
"Danny."
"I can't talk about it. You know this. This is a part of my job. I can't say shit. I'm fine." He shoots me down with the iciest coldest expression, I'd ever seen. He didn't need to say any more words, his face says it all and it's terrifying.
In this moment, I hate his job.
The entire drive back to his house is complete silence. It took him a while for him to give in to driving us home. His stubbornness gets the best of him sometimes as I’ve come to realize. I made sure he knew this wasn’t an argument he wasn’t going to win.
The air was full of tension, and I didn't know where it was coming from. He was so happy when he found me on the beach and now... I couldn’t recognize him. I was afraid to speak, that one word would set him off.
Cody Jinks plays softly as we travel back to his place in darkness. There are hardly any towns on the way back to his ranch home. I'm following the GPS and it says we're less than an hour away.
The whole time I kept thinking… maybe, I don’t know Danny at all.
