by Vicki James
“But who is the Bruce guy?”
“Jack Bruce, Zee. Come on…” His hands fell, slapping down by his thighs in frustration as he looked at me, completely appalled. “Didn’t I teach you anything in our time together?”
“I learnt how to roll a condom down on you using only my mouth.”
“Damn. Point to you.”
I tipped my head and brought my mug back to my mouth, cradling it with both hands.
“I hope you never tried that trick with that Ben guy, though. I might get jealous.”
“Shit… Ben!” I gasped, dropping my mug back down and running a hand over my head. “I’d forgotten about him.”
“What about him?” When I looked up, Danny had turned away from me, and I thought I saw a little tension in his shoulders as he concentrated on the sizzling bacon and the eggs he was stirring.
“I have a lunch date with him today.”
Danny froze, and his shoulders definitely tensed. It took a second or two before he cleared his throat and began moving the eggs around again. “A date?”
“Not a date, date. It’s just lunch.”
He nodded once. “Awesome. What time is that happening?”
“I don’t know. Around one-ish, maybe.”
Danny’s song ended, sliding straight into another one I didn’t recognise, but the playfulness had gone from him now, and I didn’t know what to make of that or how to deal with it.
“It’s just to say thank you for…”
Danny turned and began spooning the eggs onto two plates. He looked up at me and offered me a weak smile. “You’ve got a life here. You don’t need to explain it to me. I have no rights anymore. I gave those away.”
“Then why do you look like it’s an issue?”
“It’s not.”
“Danny…?”
He dropped the empty pan back on the stove, turned the gas off, and he reached over for the tray of bacon before he began serving that onto the plates, too. “Just tell me something, and be honest about it,” he said, looking up at me through cautious eyes. “Does this guy stand a chance with you?”
A part of me wanted him to believe that Ben did stand a chance. Playing petty games had never been my thing but being a doormat for Danny’s desires wasn’t exactly appealing either.
“What does it matter to you if he does?” I asked, my voice too cautious and quiet.
Danny reached for the plates, grabbing them by the edges with a tea towel slung over his shoulder as he brought them over and slid them onto the table. He didn’t answer, and his lack of words created a tension in the room that was suffocating as he walked back for his mug of coffee before he eventually slipped into his seat opposite me. He dragged the tea towel from his shoulder, placed it on the table and dropped his elbows down, his chin resting on the fist he’d created. Then Danny stared right at me, holding my gaze intensely.
“Does he stand a chance, Daisy?”
I shook my head. “No.”
His lips twitched, and Danny’s eyes softened before he dropped his arms from the table and reached for his knife and fork. “Then have a great lunch date. Be back here and ready for five o’clock.”
“Ready for what?” I scowled.
“I told you… I’m taking you somewhere.”
“Am I allowed to know what’s going on?”
“No.” He shook his head, shoved a forkful of bacon into his mouth, and he smirked as he chewed.
“Goddamn you, Danny Silver. You’re such a pain in my arse. You know that, right?”
“As sure as eggs is eggs.” He winked, before taking a mouthful of those, too.
Twenty-Five
“I think this is the first occasion in all the time I’ve known you that you’ve ever done that,” Ben said, eyeing me over the glass of orange juice he was pressing to his mouth. “It’s also the first time I’ve seen you almost clear your plate before mine.”
My lobster ravioli sat in front of me, close to being finished. I’d eaten all of my breakfast, even asking for seconds, to which Danny had obliged before he kissed me and left for me to get ready for Ben. Now I’d eaten my lunch as though I hadn’t been around food for the last seven days. My appetite was roaring, and I couldn’t seem to fill that stomach of mine.
“First of all,” I began, trying hard not to blush with awkwardness, “no one is going to miss the shop that much for a day.”
“Don’t let Gina hear you say that.”
“She’s had to go to Plymouth today. Something to do with Jackson’s private tutor needing them to go over for a meeting. She’ll never know.”
“Are you kidding?” Ben laughed, dropping his juice back down. “This is Hope Cove. You wear a different brand of knickers, and someone will find out and put it in the local Herald. You can’t get away with a change in routine around here, and if you try, they’ll shoot you down for it.”
“Well, then I’ll tell them it’s an early birthday treat to myself. I turn twenty-six in a few weeks. Not that I need an excuse to shut my own shop for the day.”
“They’ll assume business is booming for you to go part-time.”
“I don’t answer to them.”
Ben raised a brow. “And what if they assume that this has something to do with the rock star?”
The mention of Danny made me falter, and I dipped my chin to look down at the napkin I was fiddling with and rearranging in my lap.
Ben laughed, making me look back up at him in warning. He held his hands in the air in surrender. “I’m just saying. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together and get four.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, come on. You’ve shut the shop. You’ve done nothing but yawn and tell me you’re exhausted. Yet, there’s that twinkle in your eye again. The one that’s been missing for, fuck… forever. Your cheeks are on fire, and you keep looking over my shoulder and drifting off into a daydream. Add in the fact that you can’t get enough food in your stomach, and sprinkle all these clues with you admitting to kissing Danny last night—”
“He kissed me,” I interjected, holding up a finger.
Ben dropped his hands and smirked over at me. “He came over, didn’t he?”
“Jesus, Ben.” I sighed, flopping forward and pushing my face into my hands. A groan soon followed, and I stared at my friend with concern. “If you can see it, how the hell am I going to hide it from Gina?”
“Don’t. Why would you want to?”
“Because she’ll think I’m weak and foolish and stupid and an idiot and—”
“God, Dais, you’re a drain when you get like this.” I frowned at him, letting him know I didn’t appreciate that particular point in his argument. “Stop caring what every Tom, Dick, or Harry thinks. So you let the guy back into your bed. Unless he forced himself on you—”
“What? No! Danny would never do that,” I hissed, sitting back, my spine ramrod straight in his defence.
Ben shrugged. “Then you wanted it. So… no big deal.”
I stared at him, wishing I could untangle my thoughts sometimes to let them lay out in simple flat, uncomplicated lines, the way Danny and Ben seemed to do so easily.
“What’s it like being a man and just not giving a damn what people think?”
“We care what people think. We just care about what we think more. Anyway, stop deflecting. All judgement aside, do you think you’re going to get hurt when this thing with him is over?”
“You and your things.”
“Daisy…”
I sighed heavily. “Yeah. Probably. I don’t know.”
“Be careful with that. It’s nice seeing you looking more awake now. If he’s the guy to make that happen, you should perhaps… I don’t know… think about that. Or at least think about letting another guy in to do the same thing once the guitar git is gone.”
“The guitar git?” I smirked.
Ben brought a fry to his mouth, and he leaned back in his chair, making it rock on two legs. “Just because he ma
kes you happy, it doesn’t mean I need to like the guy.”
“Right.” I chuckled before I pressed my hands to my head and squeezed, scrunching my cheeks and forehead together. “Ugh, why does life have to be so complicated, Ben?”
“Because it would be boring as hell if it weren’t. Now, eat your lobster ravioli and clear your plate before I do. Something tells me you’ll need your energy for tonight.”
“I’m that transparent?”
“Oh, yeah. I can see right through to your overworked brain. If I squint hard enough, I can see some flashbacks of us in there, too.”
Reaching for the spare napkin on the table, I scrunched it up and launched it at him. “Stop it, you idiot.” He caught it and laughed with me.
“So, you are seeing him again tonight then?”
“Yeah. He’s… taking me somewhere.”
“I bet he is, the flashy bastard.” Ben reached over for a slice of garlic bread and ripped it in half. “Ask him a question for me while you’re with him, will you?”
“What’s that?”
“Ask him how much he’s worth. I’ve always wondered how much money these pretty little band boys make in today’s world of music.”
“I can’t ask him that!”
He bit down on his garlic bread, mumbling around it, “What’s the point in spending time with him if you’re not going to get all the juicy details for boring old boatmen like me?”
Danny picked me up in his Scirocco, looking as handsome as ever. He wore a pair of light, tight jeans with a dark, acid wash T-shirt that hugged every muscle in his chest and arms. Our journey, however, had been short, leading us straight back to Florence’s house, where he parked his car outside the garage before rushing around to open my door for me. I stepped out in skinny black jeans, a pair of heeled boots I rarely wore, and a cropped white shirt that floated just an inch above the tan belt I was wearing.
His eyes kept drifting over my body, but I tried not to let my smile rise or look too smug about it.
“We’re staying here tonight?” I asked, looking up at the house that was lit inside with a soft, warm glow coming from the living room.
“No.” Danny turned to the driveway just as a long, black car came crawling slowly towards us. “But we are taking a different kind of ride than you’re used to.”
I blinked at him, a million questions racing through my mind, but Danny just looked at me and offered a reassuring smile. When he held his hand out, I took it. I took it a little too easily, my fight slipping away like there’d never been a fight to begin with.
Danny saluted the driver when the limo came to a stop, and he made his way to the back before he opened a door with a blacked-out window. Spinning me around him with ease, he waved his arm and gestured for me to step inside.
“This huge thing is for us?” I looked over the length of the car that could have fit ten people or more inside. “Seems a little excessive.”
Danny huffed out a sexy as hell laugh. “This doesn’t touch the surface of excessive. Trust me.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, but I ducked down and stepped into the limo anyway. Inside was lit up with subtle lighting, and to the left was a minibar with two wine coolers full of ice and two bottles of bubbly inside each one. It hit me that tonight wasn’t going to be what I thought it was—a quiet night of us talking things through and speaking over old wounds. Tonight, by the looks of things, was going to be about Danny showing me his world.
Slipping into the leather seat at the back, I watched as he closed the door behind him and took his place beside me. His thigh was pressed against mine as he rested a hand on top of it.
“Don’t look so scared, Zee. I’ll take care of you.”
“I’m not doubting that. I’m just… curious.”
“Are you worried I’m about to whisk you on a private jet to another country?”
“I hope not. I haven’t packed my passport.”
With a smile, his eyes searched mine, testing me. “If you had your passport, would you come with me?”
I swallowed, trying to ignore the fluttering of nerves that awoke in my stomach. “Where to?”
“Anywhere.”
The thought of destination unknown being halfway across the world proved too much for my mind to comprehend, and my face must have shown it.
Danny squeezed my thigh, his smile still in place. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to spook you.”
“You always did try to run before you could walk. Now… where are you really taking me?”
“When Julia agreed to me staying down here to sort out Gran’s things, there was a condition attached to it. I had to meet them tonight for a gig.”
“A gig? As in…”
“You’re going to see me play tonight,” he said softly, his focus falling to my lips. “Is that okay?”
“I… ah… you mean… Oh. Sure.” I nodded.
His smile lit up his face, making it hard to believe he was the same guy he’d been that first night I’d seen him on the beach, who was so angry, dark, and rough around the edges. His fingers squeezed my thigh, and he shuffled his shoulders and stretched his neck out before he sank back into his seat.
“Are you nervous?” I asked quietly.
“Not about the gig.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but I couldn’t take my eyes off his face.
That sharp jawline had always been impressive, but that look of satisfaction, and that spark I’d always known him for shone brightly tonight. Danny looked… happy.
When I’d been staring too long, he turned to me. “What?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “Just… thanks for finally wanting me there to see you play.”
“How did it go?” I asked on the drive home from his very first public performance with the band he’d recently joined. “Were the other frogs as nervous as you.”
Danny was sitting in the passenger seat, his body clearly tired. His elbow rested on the window ledge, and he was gnawing on his knuckle in thought. He’d been quiet since he came out of the music event, and I couldn’t work out if that was a good or bad thing.
“Danny?” I prompted, casting him a glance as I drove us down a fairly straight road.
“Sorry, what?”
“I asked how it went. You’ve barely said two words to me since you got in the car. I thought you’d be bouncing all over the place.”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Good. Yeah. It was… decent.”
I smirked, frowned, and looked back at the road. “That doesn’t sound so convincing.”
“We had some issues, obviously. It was our first proper gig. It can’t go smoothly from the off, Daisy.”
“I never said it should. I was only asking.”
“It is what it is.”
“What went wrong?”
“Nothing major. Few of the songs on the setlist were out of order, and we got confused. Started a couple of tracks wrong. A couple of awkward pauses, not a lot of smooth transitioning from one track to the next. It didn’t help that half the amps were shite. It’ll be better next time.”
“I’m proud of you. I hope you know that.”
He met my declaration with silence, and when I looked at him again, he was staring out of the passenger window in thought.
He was rarely like this, but when he was, I often kept myself busy or found a distraction I knew would bring him back to life again the way I always needed him to be. Reaching over, I turned the CD player on and waited for Ocean Colour Scene to do their thing. This album was one of Danny’s favourites, and he played it on repeat whenever we drove anywhere, always giving me a fun fact about the band along the way.
They were formed in Birmingham.
Ocean Colour Scene chose their name by randomly picking words they liked from the dictionary.
An anagram of their name was Ace Cure Clone Soon.
Okay, so that was all I could really remember, but at least I knew some lyrics, too, and when The Downstream began to pla
y, I sang.
My fingers curled around the wheel, and I joined in with the lead singer whose name I didn’t know, asking where Danny went when it wasn’t where he was going.
I asked how he saw when the light wasn’t shining.
I asked where he could be if he worked out the timing.
And I asked him in song how on earth he did the things he did…
My voice floated along, leading us around the curves in the road, guiding us back to home.
Danny’s hand on my thigh brought my attention his way, and when I saw him leaning towards me looking a lot like the boyfriend I knew, I smiled softly and continued to sing because my song brought him a form of peace I didn’t understand.
“Thank you,” he whispered as we hit a country road.
I shifted gears and flashed him a bright smile. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to see you play to an audience so you don’t have to answer all my questions when you get in the car.”
His face fell, the contentment slipping off him too easily. “Yeah. Maybe.”
When he slumped back in his seat, Danny released a sigh that sounded like it held a thousand problems within it, and it didn’t take long for him to close his eyes and shut out the universe for a few moments.
“Or not. I know you want to do this alone,” I offered, wanting to appease him.
“It isn’t about wanting to do it alone, Daisy. It’s—”
“I don’t mind. Honestly. This is your thing. I get that. We’ll take this at your pace.”
“Of course we will,” he muttered. “God forbid we should do anything different.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“Shall I open one of those bottles?”
Danny’s voice brought me back to the present, and I swallowed down the sadness I felt for the girl I’d been right there and then at that moment—the pathetic one, so desperate to please and put her own worries aside, with no clue about how her life was going to be tipped upside down.
“Yeah,” I croaked, clearing my throat and pushing the sadness away to offer him a soft smile. “Yes, please.”
I could tell that he thought about asking me if I was okay, but something stopped Danny and made him reach for the drinks instead.