Page 109 of Ghost Note

“I asked you to be real, too, Zee. Don’t fake your compliance for me. I don’t want you docile in all of this.”

“Docile?” I scowled, that particular word making my heart pinch.

“It used to drive me crazy when you’d always put your feelings aside to protect mine. If something bothers you, I want you to say it.”

“Fine. Okay. It bothers me.”

Danny exhaled slowly. “There. That didn’t hurt, did it?”

“A little. Danny, it’s sweet that you want to make my feelings heard, but it’s time you stopped treating me like that co-dependent girl you left behind. I’m a strong woman now—or at least stronger—and if I didn’t want to know about something, I wouldn’t ask, so please let me ask the questions I need to ask when I’m with your friends. Please let me piece together the bits of your life I missed because it makes me feel involved, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.”

He swayed me in his arms, his movements barely noticeable to anyone but us. “You’re definitely stronger. I love your fire. You’re unbreakable now.”

“I’m pretty sure I can still break if you press hard enough.”

“That makes two of us.”

Thirty-Seven

After the initial buzz of the band’s appearance, people backed off a little, though it was impossible to miss the constant glances from across the bar. Call me paranoid, but it felt like a lot of those glances were aimed at me. I could practically smell the judgement rolling off of some of the locals who were eyeing Danny and me together.

Stupid Daisy Piper. Got her heart broken then rode on back for more.

Who does she think she is standing there with them like she belongs?

Didn’t take her long to lose her morals.

She’s not even that pretty.

At least that’s what I imagined them saying. One glance Danny’s way, though, and I somehow forgot to care as much. If he was a mistake, he was my mistake to make. I’d handled the consequences once before, and I’d do it again.

Danny kept flitting between his friends and me, and sometimes I thought he looked a little lost and confused. Like he couldn’t quite decide which direction to be pulled in. In the end, Halo demanded his attention, leaving me to chat to Saffron.

She was a pleasant surprise. A soft heart and kind mouth wrapped up in a slightly intimidating exterior. Our conversation flowed effortlessly, even when that conversation was nothing more than her mocking the guys—together and individually—while I laughed along, feeling strangely at home among a group of people I hadn’t even known three nights ago.

I was occupied watching Fletch and Theo battle it off in a drunken arm wrestle when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning around, I saw Ben smiling down at me.

“Hey, Dais.”

“Ben!” I threw the arm that wasn’t holding a drink around his neck and pulled him in for a hug. He smelt so familiar and warm, yet it dawned on me then that it also felt like a lifetime since I’d clung to him this way, and even though his body was welcoming, I hadn’t ever really melted into it.

Had so little time really passed since I’d been with him?It felt like a lifetime.

“Who are you here with?” I asked when I pulled away.

“Just a few lads from the cricket club.” His gaze drifted over my head to take in the wildness of the band behind me before he looked back down at my face. “Are you doing okay?”

“I’m good.” I squeezed his arm. “I promise.”

Ben’s eyes searched mine, and I knew that he wasn’t too convinced that I wasn’t strapping myself to the front of a train and sacrificing my future here. “Good.” He eventually smiled.

I opened my mouth to speak when a pair of arms slid around my waist, and a chin propped on my shoulder.

Danny.

A small grunt rose in my throat when he squeezed me tight—a hold that felt protective, and dare I say it, a little territorial.

Ben’s attention drifted to him, and he chucked his chin. “Hey.”

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