I wanted to blatantly stare, I really did, but I only let myself take glances. He was ridiculously gorgeous. I felt like some sort of joke was being played on me. I took a deep breath, staring into the bowl of fruit as he finished putting on his shirt.
"Sorry about that," he said, stepping toward me.
I reached out, offering him the bowl.
"Is that for me?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"Thank you," he said.
I smiled and nodded. I found it difficult to meet his eyes, but I did it. I glanced at him. His cheeks were ruddy and his hair was damp with sweat. His t-shirt was thin and it hugged his trim but substantial form. He looked like a super hero.
And then I had to go and look into his hazel green eyes, making everything ten times worse.
"Do you want to sit down for a minute?" he asked. He gestured to a bench that lined a nearby wall. It was basically just a long, painted plank of wood that was resting on top of a couple of pipes and bolted to the floor. But it was sturdy, and it was close enough to the wall that you could lean back.
We walked over to the bench, which was five or six steps away. Billy and Tess were closer to the ring, and a few people walked over to them to get a glimpse of the baby as they ate their fruit. I sat on the bench, looking at Tess and Billy instead of Daniel, who had come to sit beside me.
He set the bowl between us and he began working on removing his boxing gear. He had taken his gloves off in the ring, but his hands were still wrapped with fabric. Daniel began unwrapping. I wasn't looking at him, but I could see him in my periphery.
"You must be finished," I observed.
"I am. I'm so finished. Billy killed me just now."
"You held up," Billy said, hearing Daniel from several feet away. "You surprised me." Billy was talking around a mouth full of fruit, and he continued chewing as he glanced at us from over his shoulder.
Daniel gave Billy a thankful nod. "He's being kind," Daniel said. "I thought I was in shape. I am in shape. I'm just in a different kind of shape than Billy. Cardio is one thing, but it takes a certain kind of energy to hit and to be hit. It's crazy. There's just nothing that will gas you out like boxing will."
Daniel used his toothpick and ate one, two, three bites of fruit in quick succession, popping them into his mouth and then chewing. Again, I was watching it all in my periphery.
"How long have you been up here?" I asked.
"Just a couple of hours," Daniel said. "Billy called me this morning and told me I should come by."
I glanced at him, nodding. I wanted to say something to respond about boxing, but all that came out of my mouth was, "Are you alone at the gym?"
He grinned. "Well, I'm with you now."
Chapter 7
I glanced at Daniel. He and I were sitting on a bench on the far side of the boxing ring at Marvin's gym. People were standing close by. We were not alone, yet no one was paying attention to us. I asked him if he was alone, and he answered me by saying he was with me since we were currently sitting on a bench together.
I made eye contact with him. As badly as I wanted to know where she was, I didn't want to press the subject of his missing girlfriend, so I dropped it.
"Did you do any boxing in the Army?"
"Do you mean in combat?" he asked.
I made a face as I thought about that. "No, I think I was imagining it happening like a brawl situation. You know, in movies, you always see military guys in bars, getting rowdy and getting in fights."
Daniel leaned back and laughed a little, eating more fruit. "A brawl?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I thought a lot about what you might have done over there. I made up all sorts of stuff in my mind."
"I can't say that I was a part of a bar room brawl," he said shaking his head a little. "I messed around, fighting with my friends and stuff, but never any serious fist fights. And definitely no full rounds of sparring like Billy and I did just now. That was hard. We have a few bags on the base, but nothing like this gym or these guys."
"I came up here and did a few classes with Marvin when I was living in Galveston," I said.
"Did you?" Daniel pulled back to stare at me curiously, and I glanced his way, meeting his eyes.
I smiled and nodded. "I didn't hit anyone or get hit. I just punched those pads while Dizzy held them for me."
Daniel ate another bite of fruit, smiling at me.
How was it that I now love the way he chewed?
"Did you like it?" he asked.
"Yes. Like what?"
"Boxing," he said.
"Oh, yeah. I did, actually. I probably would have stuck with it, you know, for exercise, if I didn't… move back home."
"Do you miss it?" he asked. "Galveston?"
"Yes," I replied without looking at him. "Very much. Especially now that little Tara's born. I wish I was close enough to see her more. This is only the third time I've seen her since she was born."
"That's still pretty good," he said. "At least you don't live in Georgia."
All sorts of thoughts got stuck in my head like a traffic jam as a result of his statement. One of them was that I wouldn’t mind living in Georgia if it was with him. But I didn't let that come out of my mouth, thank goodness.
"Yeah," I said, nodding. "But even still, at least you're closer than Saigon."
"Yep," he agreed. "I'm a lot closer now."
We sat there for a minute in companionable silence while Daniel finished his fruit. It didn't take long for the other fighters to do the same. The whole big bowl that took us a half-hour to cut and fill was devoured in a matter of seconds.
It went back to business as usual in the gym. Marvin and two other guys got into the ring and started going over combinations and drills. Billy and Tess continued talking with people. They took Tara and headed toward the front of the gym.
"I expected to see you in your Army uniform," was the next thing I said.
Daniel let out a chuckle. "You thought I'd be boxing in my fatigues?"
"No, not today. I'm talking about Thanksgiving. When you came into the house. I, I, I didn't know you were coming, but once I did find out, I instantly pictured you coming in wearing a green outfit—all decked-out."
"Wow, with the helmet and everything?"
"Yeah, boots too," I said. I smiled. "I guess I just thought you wore that every day now—like you're just an Army guy from now on."
Daniel let out a little laugh, leaning against the wall and sprawling his legs out comfortably in front of him. "Nope. I wear that stuff to work, but mostly I'm just a t-shirt kind of guy."
"How's the weather at Fort Benning?"
"About the same as here. It's cooler right now, but the summer is hot."
"Is it near the coast?" I asked, even though I had already looked at a map.
"Four hours to the Florida Gulf coast. I've only been there once, but it's really pretty. It's different than it is here. The water is really blue over there."
"It's because of the Mississippi," I said. "It empties into the gulf, and the current comes this way, so everything to the east of it is blue, and everything to the west of it is brown."
I made an arching motion in mid-air with my hand, representing the gulf flowing in one direction.
Daniel nodded, looking at me like he was impressed I knew such a thing.
"Galveston's even bluer than a lot of the beaches in Louisiana," I continued. "Because it's further from the mouth of the Mississippi, and by the time the current gets here, a lot of that brown from the river has already dissipated."
Daniel nodded and thought silently for a few seconds. "I knew all that," he said, finally.
I leaned to the side and pushed at him with my shoulder. "Why'd you let me say it to you?" I asked.
"Because it was cute. You changed into a teacher. I felt like I was in your classroom for a second."
I laughed. "If you were in my real classroom, I'd teach you how to tie your shoe and say your ABC's. I have one boy, Ricky, in my
class this year who can say it backwards."
"The ABC's?" Daniel asked, sounding disbelieving.
I nodded. "Yeah. It's something he practiced to impress everyone, but his brain just takes to backwards things. He has other stuff he does backwards, too."
I had told Daniel some about my job when we talked on the phone a few months ago, but Ricky wasn't in my class back then.
"I didn't know six-year-olds practiced stuff," Daniel said. "I feel like I might have been an underachiever back then. When I was six, I was trying to catch lizards and throw rocks at barges."
I laughed. "I think his dad is into it," I said. "He told me about the backwards thing the first time we met."
"Who, the dad?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"I'll have to remember that," Daniel said. "I'll have to teach my son some kind of cool trick before he goes to school so he can impress his teacher."
"Where's your girlfriend?" I asked.
The comment about Daniel with a son sent me over the edge, and the question just came out of my mouth before I could stop it.
"Kelly left to go back to Georgia yesterday."
"Why so soon?" I asked. My heart buzzed and I hoped against hope that he would say they had a big falling out and broke up.
"That was the plan all along," he said. "She just came for Thanksgiving. Her dad's a pilot, and he came to pick her up on Friday. It's a short trip in a plane."
"How long was she here?"
"We drove in Wednesday. She stayed two nights, but really just one full day."
"I'm surprised Ms. Nancy let her stay the night at your house."
"She didn't," Daniel said. "Kelly stayed at Aunt Alma's next door."
"Oh," I said. I nodded, feeling some relief. "When are you going back?"
"Tomorrow. I'll leave early because I have to be back for work Monday morning."
"Bye-bye to the beard," I said, glancing at him.
This caused him to rub his face, which was a heavenly sight. I could not look away. I just stared, taking in his face and wondering how he had managed to become the most handsome man in the whole world. I ached to get back to those moments when he wanted me. It was a physical feeling of desperate yearning, and I was barely able to suppress it, barely able to refrain from leaning into Daniel, forcing him to catch me, hold me in his arms.
"It's not much of a beard, anyway," he said. "I've only been growing it a week or so."
"Well, I like it," I said. "But I bet I would like it both ways."
"Thank you," he replied.
I sighed and turned a little, propping my knee on the wooden bench. "Can you tell me one thing?"
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Can you please share one thing with me about the war? I feel like you had to go through hard things, and I wasn't there for you, to know about any of it."
Daniel hesitated as he thought for a moment. "There's a song," he said. "It's an American song, a pop hit that everybody likes. They were playing it on American radio. It was coming over the loudspeakers when we made it back to the base. I was injured and had seen too much battle that day, people dying, and people in a lot of pain—most of them, I couldn't help. Some of them I could, but most of them I couldn't. It was by far the hardest day of my life. But anyway, this song was playing at just the wrong time in my delirious state, and it stuck in my head like a rusty nail. Now I can't hear it at all. I can't even listen to it for a few seconds. If it comes on the radio, I have to leave the room. If somebody even starts humming it, I feel sick to my stomach. It makes me physically ill."
"What song is it?" I asked.
He shook his head with a little humorless smile. "I don't even want to say the name."
"Okay," I said, nodding. I sat quietly, not knowing quite what to say. I wanted to reach out and touch him, comfort him, care for him. I wanted to start a petition to have that song, whatever it was, stripped from the radio and banned for eternity.
"When are you heading back?" he asked.
"I don't know exactly. I have to work Monday morning, but I was thinking about staying here tomorrow and going to church with Tess and Billy. I haven't been in a while."
"To church at all, or are you talking about the one in Galveston?"
"The one in Galveston," I said. "If I miss more than two weeks back home, my mom hosts a prayer meeting for me."
Daniel laughed.
"Do you go?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said. "My mom stays on me about it, too. That was one of the first things she did when I told her I was going to stay in Georgia. She looked up churches and sent me a list."
"Did you stay there because of your girlfriend?" I asked.
"No," he said. "I was already planning on staying before we met."
It was the oddest thing. I hated talking about her, but at the same time, I wanted to.
"Does she go to church?" I asked.
"Yes."
"What does she do?" I asked.
"For a job?" he asked.
I nodded.
"She grew up taking dance—tap and ballet and all that. She teaches a couple of classes at a dancing school."
I glanced at Daniel and found that he was looking at the boxing ring, absentmindedly watching the guys work as we talked.
"Does she live right there in Fort Benning?" I asked.
"Yeah, but it's big. It's like its own town."
"How does she get to live there if she's not in the military?"
"Her dad," Daniel said. "He's one of the main guys over there."
Of course he was. He was probably the head of the whole US Army. He was probably the President of the United States. He probably flew the presidential plane over here to pick up his daughter.
"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing," I said.
"What do you mean?"
"Having your girlfriend's dad be your boss. On one hand, he could help you out, and on the other hand, you're kind of stuck."
"I'm not stuck in anything," he said. "I'm my own man."
I glanced at him. "She's pretty good, anyway. It's probably not such a bad thing to be stuck with her."
"Nobody's stuck," he said.
"I'm just saying… she's nice. She's obviously pretty. She got along with everybody at Thanksgiving. She seems good for you."
I was trying to be nice. I was trying to be logical and not let my feelings factor into it.
"Do you think she's good for me?" he asked.
I glanced at him when he said it. We had both been looking at the action in the ring, but I shifted to stare at him, taking in the shapes of his profile.
"Don't you?" I said. "You must think so if you're bringing her to family dinners and stuff—holidays and everything." I tried to speak in a calm, measured tone, but I was nervous and I was almost certain it came across in my voice.
"I guess you're right," he said, resolutely. He looked my way. Our eyes met. "She's a good person," he said, holding the stare.
"Yeah. She's good for you."
"Yeah."
More staring.
"But if you ever figure out that she's not… that you're not… if you're ever not dating her anymore, I'm sure there's tons of girls who would love..." I was so comically nervous about saying these things that I was relatively sure my last sentence didn't make much sense at all. I just sort of lost my breath and cut it off.
"Tons of girls who would love what?" he asked, smiling a little.
"Who, you know, would want to… marry you."
"Marry me?" he said.
"Yeah."
"Not just date me, or go to Thanksgiving dinner with me."
"I mean, that too, but marry you, too. Not that she's a bad choice, but you could obviously have any woman you would ever want."
Daniel stared at me. My heart pounded like it might jump out of my chest. I could actually feel the veins in my neck pumping blood as he regarded me. I tried to peel my eyes off of him, but I couldn't. I just stared back, shaking, feeling like a t
icking time bomb.
"Nobody said I was marrying her," Daniel said with an easy sort of confidence that made me want to lean into him—collapse into his arms. I wholeheartedly wished it was okay for me to do that.
Chapter 8
Daniel
A month later
Almost Christmas (December 23rd)
Galveston Island, TX
By the time he made quick stops to gas up, eat, and use the restroom, it took Daniel fourteen hours to drive from Fort Benning back home to Galveston. He had left early that morning. It was 7pm on a Saturday night when he rolled into town. It was a misty, balmy winter evening. The sun had set over an hour before, and Daniel drove off of the ferry into the foggy night air of the island. He had grown up on this island, and the winter mist felt like home.
His parents were expecting him, but he drove down Bank Street before going to their house. There were some people in Carson's diner on the corner, but the rest of the block was quiet. Most of the businesses, including the hardware store and Marvin's gym were closed for the evening.
Daniel kept going down Bank Street until he reached Billy's house on the corner of Bank and 17th. He wasn't sure why he stopped there, but he did. He noticed that their lights were on, and he went with his instinct and parked and walked up to their door.
Billy answered the door not long after Daniel knocked. He looked surprised, but he instantly reached out and took Daniel into his arms. "What are you doing in Galveston, my brother?"
"I came for Christmas," Daniel said.
"I thought you were staying in Georgia."
"I thought I was, too. I was supposed to work, but a couple of others ended up staying, so I got to leave."
Billy had invited Daniel inside as they were talking.
"It smells good in here," Daniel said.
"We just ate, and I've been baking a few things to take to Louisiana tomorrow. I made some cornbread, for the dressing. Then cookies, and now a cake."
The Trouble with Crushes: A Romance (Bank Street Stories Book 2) Page 5