Page 43 of Pierced Pages
The stomach flutters turned into a full-on bag of bees in her chest.
This was it.
Morgan was going to uninvite her from the wedding. Things were too weird between them now. Danielle would never see her again.
Or maybe it was something less dramatic than that. Maybe Danielle was reading too much into their silence that week. They were both busy people. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal, whatever this was.
Only one way to find out.
Yeah, sure.
A few quick seconds later, her phone rang in her hand. Danielle stared at it for a moment, frozen with anticipation. After three rings, she answered the call.
“Hey, I thought this might be easier.”
Easier for what? This was sounding more like an uninvitation call, and Danielle wasn’t sure her heart could handle that on a stomach of just two cups of coffee.
“Yeah, no, that’s fine.”
“What are you doing this morning? Or in a little while? Or in whatever?”
Danielle smiled at the flurry of words that came out of Morgan’s mouth. She used to chalk it up to nerves, but she was learning it was mostly just how Morgan talked sometimes. In a hurried, staccato cadence.
“I’m bringing Lila to a friend’s house in a little bit, then I’ve got book club this afternoon.”
“Book club sounds nice,” Morgan said. There was a brief, awkward pause, then, “Do you have some time in between?”
“I was just going to sit outside at the park to grade some papers. Why?”
“Mind if I meet you there? I won’t stay long or bother you, I promise,” Morgan said in a flurry of speech. “I’ve gotta be at work in a little while, anyway. I just want to drop something off then you can go back to your work.”
Morgan was becoming a master of upending Danielle’s plans. In the best way. Between the wedding invitation, then the impromptu dress shopping, and now this mysterious meetup, Danielle was having to learn to roll with Morgan’s spontaneity.
Throwing in surprise plans made Danielle a little uneasy, but not as much as she would have expected. Maybe she really did need more surprise happenings in her life.
She wondered what Morgan could possibly be dropping off. She couldn’t think of any wedding-related possibilities, since she’d already bought that expensive but gorgeous dress for her to wear. And Danielle had insisted she had a pair of nude heels that would go perfectly with it.
“Sure,” she said. “I’m going to the big park over on Clauson Street. Does that work?”
“That’s perfect,” Morgan said. “Not far from my place. I’m just finishing up at the gym so I can run home for a quick shower then meet you there in a bit.”
“Okay. That sounds good to me. I’ll see you there in a little while.”
Danielle ended the call wondering even more what that was all about. And more than satisfying her curiosity, Danielle wanted to see Morgan again. To make things less awkward between them. To get things back to how they were that first night they met.
And this mysterious meetup would have to get that job done.
Chapter 19
Morgan
Morgan patted her jean pocket to make sure the box was still in there as she scanned the crowded park. It was even busier than a typical Saturday morning with everyone out enjoying the perfect spring day of warm weather with a cool mid-March breeze and lots of sunshine after a rainy winter.
As she scanned the area, she took in the sight of the town’s main park. There was a little pod of food trucks and sculpted bushes dotted the walkways lined with bright fuchsia azalea bushes. The sculpted bushes always brought a smile to her face as they were well-maintained greenery shaped into alligators and egrets to the delight of every child and adult alike.
She spotted Danielle on a bench away from the playgrounds, near the little lake on one side of the park. An anticipatory rush flowed through her core as her steps carried her hastily down the path until she reached her.
As she approached, she noticed Danielle had a pen perched above a stack of papers, and Morgan remembered she said she’d be grading. Danielle’s long blonde hair trailed in loose waves over the shoulders of her pink long-sleeved T-shirt as herhead was tilted downward, her expression set in one of deep concentration.
