Page 44 of Ghost Note

Fourteen

My legs were squished up to the side of the seat in order to create as much distance between Danny and me as I could, but not even the space between us could stop my mind from drifting over the memories we’d created in this car together.

The sex we’d had, the kisses we’d drowned in, and the laughs we’d shared.

After agreeing to give him one final hour, the last thing I’d expected us to drive off in was his old, white Volkswagen Scirocco. I took every inch of it in, and I bathed in the memorable vanilla scent that had always somehow been woven into the fabric of the interior. The lights on the dashboard were as familiar to me as the colour of Danny’s eyes, and I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t the same person as I’d been back then.

We weren’t Danny and Daisy anymore.

He was Danny Silver of Front Row Frogs, and I was Daisy of Daisy’s Devon. One shone on stage while the other hid behind a seashell curtain or a cash register.

“Gran kept this in her garage for me,” Danny said with one arm on the steering wheel and his other hanging loosely over the gear stick. He was relaxed in his seat, his head occasionally turning to catch sight of me before he’d focus back on the road. “She said you should never get rid of your firsts.”

Oh, the jokes and snarky comments I could have made. Instead, I glanced out of my passenger door window, and I watched as familiar streets haunted me with old memories, just like this.

“Cars, I mean,” Danny added after realising what he’d just said.

“Yeah, I got that.”

“What do you drive now? I didn’t see a car outside your house.”

“It’s in the garage around the back, but the garage door is kinda rickety and a struggle to open, so I only get the car out when I really need it.” My voice was flat, like talking to him was a physical struggle.

Which, it was.

“What have you got?”

“Nothing you’d be interested in, I’m sure.”

“Daisy…”

The tone he used was so familiar, it irritated me, and I rolled my head his way and looked up through heavy brows. “Don’tDaisyme, Danny. You asked me to come on this drive with you, sure, but I never agreed to fall back into old ways just to give your ego a stroke.”

“My ego?” He laughed softly, his brows rising. “I only asked what car you had. What does this have to do with my ego?”

“Because you want to know if I got a Scirocco, just like yours, the way we always planned we would. Yours white, mine blue, right? Well, no, I didn’t get a stupid Scirocco. I didn’t get anything you’d approve of, so just leave it at that.” I turned to look away again, finding his smile and his eyes too irritatingly perfect. “My boring, small life will never live up to your full, exciting, wild one.”

“Wow. I always thought your voice was my favourite thing about you. Your newfound sass may have just taken the number one spot.”

I closed my eyes, as though that simple action would somehow close my ears off too, but my body and mind were constant betrayers, currently clinging onto his compliment and waving it around so I couldn’t avoid or ignore it. “If you want me to survive this hour without physically hurting you, can you please not talk to me like that.” I turned to him, eyes pleading. “Please.”

Danny’s smile faded, and though his eyes only lingered for a second, I saw the struggle behind them before he offered me a nod. “Sorry.”

“You should be.”

His lips twitched before he cleared his throat. A few minutes passed, and I didn’t care to ask where we were going. Danny’s answer would no doubt be cryptic, and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of having any kind of control over me, even though I had a million and one questions, starting with…

“So, Ben seems… nice,” Danny said, as though he somehow knew his meeting with Ben had been gnawing away at me.

“He’s one of the best men I know,” I answered honestly, because Ben was one of the best men I knew, and he deserved that kind of loyalty.

“How many mendoyou know?” Danny’s eyes flitted to mine only briefly before he focused on the road again.

“Are you asking me how many men I’ve slept with since you left?”

“No.” Danny laughed again, his head falling back against the seat. “Jesus, Zee, I’m not that much of an arsehole. I just meant how many men are you measuring him up against? Because it’s easy to be the best man someone knows in a small place like Hope Cove. But out there in the big, wide world, Ben might pale in comparison to some.”

“You and yourbig, wide world,” I mocked. “I can’t focus on what the rest of the world knows, Danny. I can only focus on what I know, and Ben is one of the best.”

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