by Vicki James
“About what?”
“Everything.”
Danny looked vulnerable, and even though the majority of me wanted to throw my left foot in between his legs, a tiny part of me found myself pushing forward and opening the door wider. My eyes rolled, and I took a step back, not looking at him as he carefully—as though he couldn’t quite believe it was happening—crossed the threshold from his world to mine.
“You have ten minutes,” I said coolly, letting the door slam shut behind him before I turned and walked into the kitchen, not caring if he was following. “Then you’re gone.” For good.
“Thank you,” he said, clearing his throat.
Once in the kitchen, I didn’t look up as I reached for two glasses from the cupboards. I didn’t look up when I grabbed the wine from the fridge, either. I just acted as though it was a normal night, and I made my way over to my little breakfast table pushed up against my little window in my little country home because everything about my life now was so damn little.
Taking a seat, I dropped the bottle and two glasses onto the table, and I waited for him to join me.
When he didn’t, I finally looked up to see him spinning in slow circles, taking everything in. My pale cream kitchen that was all my own. The country-chequered curtains, the fruit bowl that was only half full, and the small display of flowers in vases around the surfaces.
“Nice place you have here,” he said.
“Sure.”
His eyes dropped down to me, and we stared at each other for a few seconds before I looked away and brought my wine glass to my lips. If he was going to patronise my small existence, he could get out of the door right now.
“You going to take a seat? Or are you going to stand around making small talk for the eight minutes you have left.”
“I’ll sit.”
He slid into the chair opposite me, his knee accidentally knocking against mine before he straightened himself up, apologised, and cleared his throat.
“You can still pour your own drink, I assume?” I arched a brow. “Or do you have someone to do that for you now?”
“Depends where we go.”
“Well, you’re here now, so get it yourself.”
Danny’s smirk came to life, but he quickly tried to hide it as he poured himself a glass of my wine.
That’s it. Just waltz in here, take my peace, ruin my perfectly good mirror, disturb my routine, and drink my wine.
He really was an arsehole.
When he slumped back in his chair, and his finger and thumb circled the stem of his glass, I couldn’t help but notice how even the way he sat had changed. He looked so comfortable being here, and I wanted him to feel anything but that.
“Seven minutes…” I reminded him.
His ocean eyes shot up to mine. “I have a lot to say to you, Daisy, but I don’t know where to start.”
“Kinda hard to strut back into someone’s life and tell a five-year story, is it?”
“I don’t want to talk about me.”
“Then what do you want to talk about?”
“You. Only you.”
I swallowed, stunned by his answer. “There’s nothing to say. I’m thinner, you don’t approve, life goes on. There you go. Feel free to leave.”
“Daisy…” he whispered, and the familiarity of it slammed against my wounded heart. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“This is exactly how it has to be.” I brought my glass to my lips again, taking another big drink.
“I thought you weren’t a fan of wine,” he said, studying me until I dropped my drink back onto the table. I clung to the stem with both hands, twirling it between my fingers and thumbs while I eyed him.
“We’re not the same people we once were.”
“I see that.”
“And our tastes change as we get older.”
“Not mine.”
“No? Always been a smoker, have you?”
“That’s a bad habit, not a taste. I still want what I want.”
“And what is that, exactly?”
“To catch up. To…” He huffed out a flat laugh that held nothing but exasperation. “I don’t know… talk.” He leaned forward, bringing his toned forearms to rest on the table. The veins there throbbed as he played with his glass the same way I played with mine, and I wanted to lick my lips and take a moment to remember his strong fingers on me… but that was a betrayal to nobody but myself, and I’d done enough of that already in the last day since he’d returned.
“Fine. What do you want to know about me in the six minutes you have left?”
“Your minutes go by quickly.”
“I can make it four if you’d prefer?”
The curve of his lips rose higher. “How long have you lived in this place?”
“That’s it? That’s what you want to know.”
“You dictate the time, Daisy, not my curiosity.”
With an irritated shake of my head, I sighed. “I’ve lived here for two years.”
“Nice.” He nodded. “I’m surprised your mum and dad let you leave home so soon. Diane always said she’d keep you there until you were thirty.”
“Things changed. Time went on and the things they wanted for me… changed.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
That was all he was getting from me. I wasn’t about to sit here and admit how hollow and empty I’d become when he left. I didn’t need to feed his ego and let him know that Mum and Dad had forced me to become more independent because they’d seen how much relying on someone had destroyed me. Especially when they, too, had thought that Danny would never hurt their daughter that way.
“How did you find out where I lived?” I asked, trying to change direction.
“It’s Hope Cove. Even if people weren’t willing to tell me everything I needed to know, which they were, all I’d have to do is walk up and down the streets until I found you.”
“You’d have done that?” I scowled.
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“Since I got back, this place is… fuck, it’s its own planet, isn’t it? It’s like nowhere else. One foot on these familiar streets and suddenly I’d travelled back a decade. I was the young kid chasing a pretty girl around. Do you remember those times? Us… just two kids, goofing around…”
“Goofing around?” I raised a brow, insulted by the casual reference to what had been the love of my obviously boring life.
“You know what I mean. No worries. No expectations. No—”
“If you’re here to walk down memory lane, you may as well leave now. I’m not willing to be a part of that conversation.”
I picked up the glass again and threw more wine down my throat, gasping when I dropped it back to the table and carefully wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
“In fact,” I breathed, “maybe this is a really bad idea.”
Danny’s body stiffened, and he leaned forward, pushing his hand along the surface of the table until it stopped midway between us. “I still have minutes…” he said quietly.
“Then use them because once they’re over, they’re over. You’re not getting any more.”
His eyes searched mine. “I know you’re in there, Daisy, and I know this hard version of you is because of me. I’m so fucking sorry about that.”
“You’re… sorry?”
“More than you will ever know.”
I stared at him, trying to think of something to say in return.
Fuck you. Go to Hell. Screw yourself, Daniel Silver. I hate you.
All the things I’d dreamed of spitting at him were lost the moment laughter bubbled in my chest. The quiet kind at first until my body shook, and tears pooled in my eyes. Before long, my laughter was actual noise, and I sat there unable to control myself, while Danny looked up in confusion.
“He’s sorry,” I said to no one, and I lifted my wine glass to drain what was left of it. It was refilled a few seconds
later, and I took another sip, clinging onto alcohol as my sanity slipped.
“Why is that funny?” he eventually asked.
“Apologising for ruining my life is hilarious.” A noise I’d never made before bubbled from behind my glass when I pressed it against my lips and drank more…
And more…
And more…
Until my head felt as dizzy as my heart.
“Daisy, maybe you shouldn’t—”
“I swear, Danny,” I started, laughing as I slid my glass back between us and leaned closer to him, “if you tell me to slow down or stop drinking, I will tell you to get the fuck out of here right now. What I do and don’t do with my life, my body, and my time is no longer your concern.”
His face fell, and his eyes stared into mine with such an intensity, it hit me everywhere.
Especially the places he used to touch.
The tears of laughter turned into something else as the humour faded away, and the memories of what we once were and who we now were collided together.
“In fact, your minutes are up,” I whispered.
“I haven’t finished my drink yet. You’re going to kick me out before I’ve even touched it.”
“Yep.”
Draining my glass, I spun out of my chair and took it to the sink. It landed with a clatter, and for a moment I thought I’d broken even more things, but when I looked it had survived. A little shaken, sure, but it had endured the fall.
Just like me.
I twisted around on the balls of my feet and clung to the countertop as I looked at Danny sitting at my kitchen table like he’d sat there a thousand times before. Danny, with his wild, rock star hair, his unbuttoned white shirt, and his forearms out on display. Danny, who looked like my first love, but also looked like a love that was way out of my league. Too big for my small life.
“You know where the door is.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m going to use it,” he said with confidence, raising the glass of wine to his lips and leaning back against the window ledge to take me in.
“Fine.” I pushed away from the counter and began to turn the lights out as I went, cloaking him in darkness. “But I’m going to bed. I’ll phone Gina to come and get you out of here while I’m sleeping. She’s got a lot to say to you. A lot more than me… that’s for sure.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
“Christ, Daisy, okay, wait.”
I heard the chair scrape against the floor, a glass tinkle against the counter, and his feet marching towards me as I dropped a hand to the bannister and let my foot rest on the bottom step. Danny came towards me in the hallway that was now lit only by the moon streaming through the windows, and the lights from my bedroom upstairs. I turned my head his way when he came beside me, and I waited.
My mouth felt dry, and my eyes betrayed me by drifting down to his lips for just a second. But it was a second too long, and he saw it.
He saw it, and he used it against me.
Leaning closer, he rested a searing palm on top of my hand, his wine-soaked breaths washing over me, making me lightheaded.
“I’m not this bad guy your mind has turned me into, Zee.”
“You’re whoever I want you to be, and that’s the end of it.”
“It’s only the beginning. I know that isn’t easy for you to accept, though, so I’ll let you adjust to me being back for a while. I’ll give you some time.”
“Wait, what? You’re not leaving?” I asked, wide-eyed. He was meant to leave. Danny was always meant to leave.
He shook his head slowly, delighting in my obvious discomfort. “Last living member of the Silver family now means that I have some shit to take care of, so I’ll be around for the next week. A lot can happen in just a few days, Daisy. You take tonight to think about that. Take tonight and know that there are going to be plenty more chances for you to drink wine, open up, and tell me how much you hate me while I’m still around. But know that there are only so many occasions I’ll let you walk away. This is your third strike. Next time, I’ll chase you, and I’ll make you listen because, whether you want to hear it or not, I have a hell of a lot to say… and one way or another, you’re going to hear all of it.”
His eyes drifted over my face, and before I could stop him, Danny placed a soft, warm kiss to my forehead that winded me in places I didn’t know it was possible to be winded. My eyes closed, and by the time I’d regained enough composure to open them and tell him where to go…
He was gone.
Ten
“I can’t believe you passed your driving test on the first go. You’re so lucky.”
“Luck? That has nothing to do with it.” Danny was standing at the end of my parents’ driveway twirling a set of car keys around his finger, while he held his test certificate up in his other hand. “You’ve either got it or you haven’t, Zee.”
I folded my arms over my chest and raised a brow at him, but my smirk betrayed me. “Is that a dig?”
I’d failed my test twice already. Danny and I had been in some kind of race to prove who could get their license first. Whoever won got to choose a night of debauchery the other couldn’t say no to. No night would be too sweet—no sex would be too rough.
Secretly, I was happy he’d got there first. His imagination in the bedroom happened to be so much more creative than my own. Those fingers of his created poetry out of my cries of ecstasy, and he loved every second of his craft.
“No dig but I am excited. You know what this means, right?” He wiggled his brows. “Now, come and lay some sugar on my lips and let me take you for a spin.”
Unable to help myself, I skipped down the driveway in my flat, white pumps, and I came to a stop in front of him, wearing my super tight denim shorts I knew he loved, and a black, off-the-shoulder gypsy top. My hair was in a high ponytail, and Danny gave it a tug after he ran his fingers over the sides, pulling me towards him. The keys in his hand dug into my skin, but I wasn’t complaining. I’d suffer any pain to have him hold me.
“I’m so proud of you.”
“I live to make my girl happy. Think of all the adventures we can go on together.”
“Maybe not too far. You know what my parents are like. We’re only seventeen.”
“For a few more months. Then we’ll be eighteen. After that, nineteen. Soon, we’ll be twenty.”
“I’m so glad my boyfriend can count.”
“Your boyfriend is going to be able to do a lot of things soon. Drive, earn good money, save for a better guitar… join a band… whisk you away to a better life.”
“Hey, I love my life.”
“Nothing wrong with trying to make something good great, though, right?”
“Whatever keeps my hero happy.”
He flashed his teeth, his grin pure and genuine, and that sparkle in Danny’s eyes when he got excited would always be my most favourite thing about him. Well, after… you know… the incredible sex.
Danny grabbed my hand and guided me around to the passenger door of his dad’s convertible Mazda MX-5. The sun shone off the bright red paintwork, and while I strapped myself in and watched Danny jog around to the driver’s side, I found it hard to believe that Timothy Silver had allowed his son to take this car for a spin not long after passing his test. It was his pride and joy, after all.
Danny slid behind the wheel, his face alight with excitement. After he’d turned the key in the ignition, and the engine roared to life, he turned to me with both eyebrows raised and a goofy smile that could make my heart melt in a second.
“How fucking amazing is this?” he cried. “The sun is shining. Summer is officially here. We’ve got nowhere to be and nothing to rush back for. Do you know what makes it even better, Zee?” He leaned over the gearstick and reached for my chin between his finger and thumb. “Having you here to share it all with.”
We kissed, and it was one of those kisses that made me burn for more. But Danny was desperate to show me his skills, and so w
e got going—cautiously, at first—before we hit the more open roads towards Plymouth. I should have felt more nervous, considering he was a new driver with a slightly reckless edge hidden behind his good-boy persona, but around Danny, I always felt safe.
The wind made my ponytail fly, and Danny’s overgrown hair was wild when he ramped up the speed.
“Careful,” I warned him with a serious side-eye.
He leaned back into the supple leather of his chair, one hand on the gearstick while his other rested at the top of the steering wheel. He already looked comfortable there—so natural. I envied his ability to adapt to any situation he was put in. There wasn’t anything Danny couldn’t do.
Give him a skateboard, and he’d learn how to flip it in a day.
Give him a surfboard, and he’d be riding those waves in no time.
Give him a brand-new guitar, and he’d master it like a pro within a year.
He was doing it again now… being too good at everything without even trying.
I must have been staring because he did a double take when he turned to me, and even though his smile was bright, a small scowl creased his brows.
“You okay, baby?” he asked, making my skin tingle.
“Perfect.”
“There’s a CD in the stereo there. It’s Dad’s, so it’ll have to be what it is, but you can try it.”
I did as he suggested, and as we hit the open country road, I turned the volume up to a song I didn’t recognise.
“Oh, shit. This is a tune.” Danny laughed, relaxing back on the headrest. He began to sing along, about how there was a will to set someone free in his heart, and all they had to be was true.
“Who is this?” I asked.
“Aztec Camera, Somewhere in My Heart. Dad loves this song. Sings it around the house all the damn time. Him and Mum go crazy for it.” Danny glanced at me. “You like it?”
“It’s catchy.”
“Yeah? You gonna dance for me?”
“I guess I’ll do whatever you ask. You won the bet, remember?”
I moved my shoulders in time with the beat, and it didn’t take me long to catch on to the lyrics of the verse. Before long, my head was swaying in time to the music, and I sang to the few words I knew, drawing Danny in.