Page 32 of The Art of Loving Lacy
“Drive me to Treat’s?” Hugh asked.
“Absolutely.”
They stopped at the Catch of the Day on the way and picked up crab cake sandwiches, then climbed back in the car and drove toward Treat’s bungalow on the bay.
“Wanna talk about it?” Hugh asked.
Dane looked at his brother, surprised again that he was reaching out. He saw genuine concern in Hugh’s eyes, then brought his own back to the road. “Not really,” he said.
“Suit yourself, but I’m a good listener,” Hugh said. “And I know women.”
Dane laughed.
“Okay, so maybe I’m not a great listener, but I do know women.”
“Listen, little brother, so do I, okay? I know women; that’s the problem,” Dane said.
Hugh furrowed his brow. “So…she’s upset because you sleep with too many women?”
Dane shot him a stern look. “I don’t have a clue.”
“Then you don’t know women,” Hugh said. He reclined his seat and sighed. “If you were me, you’d know exactly what was wrong. Could it have anything to do with her panic attack?”
“Hugh, I don’t freaking know.” Dane did not want to talk about Lacy. At best, it would make him angry. At the least, it would irritate him. There was no answer. He’d spent all those months living in denial about why he wasn’t hightailing it to Massachusetts to see her, and by the time he realized why, it was too late.
“What? I’m trying to help. You’re a big-time shark tagger, but you can’t talk about some hot babe?” Hugh asked.
Dane veered over to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. “Listen, she’s not just some hot babe, and I don’t know what’s going on, okay? All I know is that when I was with her, I didn’t want to let her go. And that’s the first time I’ve ever felt that.” His nostrils flared. He breathed in fast, hard bursts. “Darn it, Hugh. She wasn’t just some roll in the hay.”
Hugh brought his seat upright. “Chill, dude. That’s not what I meant at all.”
“Know why I didn’t see her for all that time? I was stupid and afraid, okay? I never spend ten minutes getting to know a woman. Never. I hook up with women, pretend to listen to them for a few minutes, and the whole time all I’m thinking about is what their breasts will feel like, or how I just wanna get them in bed. But with Lacy, I spent every second I wasn’t with her just thinking about her. I wondered what she was doing, who she was with.” Dane slammed his back against the seat and let out a groan. “I cared about herbeforeI ever touched her. And then we come here and she’s more than I ever dreamed of.”
“Dane,” Hugh said.
“And then she has that stupid panic attack, which sends her into some weird I-can’t-be-with-you state,” Dane yelled. His chest constricted as he explained how far he’d gone trying to reach her. “I’ve spoken to Danica and Kaylie. I even asked Blake to try to convince Danica to convince Lacy to talk to me. She won’t answer my texts or my calls.” Tears of anger burned at the back of his eyes, and he turned away so Hugh wouldn’t see them.
“Dane,” Hugh said again.
“And then she ends it. Just ends it. She says while I was out sleeping with every girl that walks, she was waiting at home for me to show up on her doorstep. I killed it before we ever got started.”
“Dane!” Hugh held his hands up in the air to get Dane’s attention.
Dane shook the fury from his head. “What?”
“Do you want to be with her?”
“What kind of stupid question is that?” Dane asked.
“Do you?”
“Yes. I do, yes. More than you could know,” Dane said. He scrubbed his face with his hand and groaned again.
“If she were a shark, what would you do?” Hugh asked.
“Whatever it took. I’d reel it in for days, weeks. Then I’d wrestle the thing to the ground.”
“You really are messed up,” Hugh said.
