Page 47 of Ghost Note

He guided me down a pebble pathway where the stones crunched beneath our feet, before we emerged into a clearing where the circular folly sat, tall and proud. I stepped forward, that awe of mine taking over everything and pushing me past Danny. I was aware of myself enough to know I probably looked like a child at Disneyland, unable to believe the magic before me, but that’s the thing about true magic. When it’s there, you can’t help but sparkle with it.

“It’s beautiful,” I whispered.

“Stunning,” he said with a sigh.

I spun around to see him studying me, and that blush rose again. He held the key to my weak heart, and it was dangerous to allow his words to ruin me again. Once all of this was over, Danny would be gone, and I couldn’t survive the sting of false hope a second time.

“Why am I here?” I asked again.

Danny walked towards me. His dark sunglasses hid any emotions he may have been feeling, but the tension in his jaw was obvious. Reaching up, he ran a single finger down my cheek until he trailed it down my neck like he already had my permission to roam wherever he wanted.

“I told you not to touch me ever again.”

“No, you said the next time I did, you’d break my fingers. You’re free to stop me any time you want, Zee.”

I sucked in a breath, unable to look away from him. We both knew I wasn’t about to break anything, not even the awkward silence that followed.

“What’s the worst thought you’ve had about me since I left?” he asked quietly.

“You don’t want to know.”

“I do. It’s why I’m asking.”

I searched for eyes I couldn’t see before I set my truth free. “That everything I thought I knew about you had been a lie.”

“Why did you think that?”

“Because you left. You left so easily, and you never looked back. Not even…”

“Not even?” he asked, taking a final step closer. “Say it, Daisy,” he whispered. “Finish that sentence. Let’s acknowledge that elephant in the room that you really hate me for. You don’t hate me because I left, do you? You hate me for the other stuff. The stuff you can’t believe Ididn’tdo.”

Tears filled my eyes again, but those tears weren’t for me. They were for Tim and Amie Silver.

“I thought everything about you had been a lie because you left… and because you never looked back. Not even for your own parents’ funeral.”

“And there it is,” he whispered softly, his shoulders sagging. Danny dropped his finger from my shoulder, and he pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans as two small tears ran down my cheeks. I waited for him to say something else, but instead, he walked around me and headed towards the folly, his pace slower than before.

“How could you do it?” I said, my voice too strained. “How could you stay away from the two people who needed you the most?”

“They didn’t need me anymore, Daisy, they were dead.”

My breath hitched in my throat, and I stared at him, dumbfounded. “Danny…”

He reached a dark, wooden bench that was propped up against the outer wall of the circular folly. He ran his hand over the arm of the bench, as though he was standing there petting a dog before he angled his head up to mine. “Only the living need the living, right? What did it matter to everyone else whether I showed my face or not?”

“You were their son.”

“Were? What? I’m not anymore because they’re not around to hold my hand and tell me when my decisions are right or wrong?”

“I don’t know this version of you.”

“Yes, you do. You know me better than anyone else alive.”

“No.” I shook my head. “The Danny I knew would have been back here to bury his parents. He wouldn’t stand in front of me, talking about them as though they were some puzzle he’d solved, got bored of, and done away with. The Danny I knew would have mourned with his friends and with his grandmother. He would have held the hands of those who were hurting. He would have been there for,”—me—“everyone, because that’s who the Danny I knew was. You didn’t even show up to say your goodbyes,” I pushed out, my voice breaking with emotion. “That’s when I realised everything I thought I knew about you was a lie, Danny. Right then, on that day, when I watched your parents being lowered into the ground and you weren’t there.You weren’t there!”

Danny dropped his chin to his chest and looked down at his feet.

“You were too busy off chasing some stupid dream that will never compare to the reality of your parents. You thought being a stupid rock star mattered more than respecting your mum and dad. You were too lost in your own self-importance to give a crap about the two people who had given upeverythingfor you to go out there and—”

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