by Natalie Dean
She stopped, her eyes going wide again. “Oh. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Benji’s mouth twisted a bit. Not because he was angry or hurt, but because he could see the logic behind it. Of course, she had to play a careful game of not pissing off the wrong people but also not being a doormat. The thought of having to live his own life that way made him nauseous. He had no idea that any of that was going on, but now that she pointed it out to him, it seemed obvious.
Was that what had been happening all through high school? There’d been intense power struggles and psychological chicanery going on while he’d been braiding hair, kissing girls, and eating way too much junk food for even a teenage boy? No wonder she’d disliked him so much when they had first met.
Well, first really met.
“No, it’s all right. Look, I know the situation between our families hasn’t been the greatest but helping your family has opened my eyes to a lot of stuff. Once your ranch is repaired, I don’t want things to go back to how they were.”
She smiled, just barely, at that. “I’d like that too.”
That made Benji’s heart pound. He had been worried that this whole date might have just been her way of making up for their first meeting and only a friendly gesture. Yeah, a friend date. But when she said things like that, it made him think that it might be more than that.
He would really, really like that.
“Well, glad we’re still on the same page.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Usually I’m not even in the same book. Or the same library, for that matter.”
“Huh, and here I thought we only had one of those in this town.”
“Nah, there’s actually a secret library under the town hall that only I know about. But now that I’ve told you, I’m afraid I’ll have to kill you.”
Benji laughed at that. When Dani wasn’t trying to verbally dress him down, she was pretty hilarious. He felt like he was finally getting to see the woman in the grocery store, and she was just as great as he had thought she’d be.
“And here I thought my inevitable demise would be over who’s picking up the check.”
She leaned forward at that, her eyes bright and attentive. “Um, as the person who asked you here, clearly I should pay.”
“You know, I can see that being a valid line of reasoning. But considering your family has been attacked by an arsonist twice, I think it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for me to cover it.”
“But you see, you’ve helped my family so much, the least I can do is cover a meal.”
“But having you try to pay me back ruins the point of all my service—” He was cut off as a waitress approached them, this one very much not Rachel.
“Opened face burger with extra mac and cheese and mashed potatoes with extra gravy?” she said cheerily.
“That’s me,” Benji said quickly, eager to get back to the conversation.
The waitress set the heaping plate in front of him, but then slid another, smaller bowl toward him. “We didn’t know how much you meant by extra, so I hope this is enough.”
Benji looked down at what had to be two servings of mac and cheese on its own then smiled. “It’s perfect, thank you.”
“Great. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Before he could ask where Dani’s dish was, a now-familiar voice chorused behind them. “One biscuits and gravy with extra gravy!”
It all happened so fast. In one moment, his gaze snapped to Rachel as she approached their table, both of her hands gripping Dani’s plate of food. The next second, she seemed to trip over nothing and let that same plate fly. Benji jumped to his feet, trying to warn Dani and push her out of the way at the same time, but he only managed to knock their glasses over.
“Benj—” Dani started to say in surprise, but she never got it out, because then the plate landed over her head, mashing the biscuits into her hair and sending what seemed like a torrent of hot—or at least warm—gravy all down her body.
A shocked, pained cry punched out of her mouth, and Benji strode over to her, trying to pull her shawl from her body. His mother had taught him about coffee burns once, and how they could melt clothes to the body, so he needed to get it off of her fast. That would also have the added bonus of removing a good bit of the gravy, which was quickly soaking into the artificial fibers.
“Oh goodness gracious, I’m so clumsy,” Rachel said, sounding entirely pleased with herself.
But Benji didn’t even have time to care. He could only see the fabric as he wrested it from Dani’s form, and the way the skin along her décolletage and tops of her chest was turning bright pink from the heat. For some reason, Dani was just standing there, panting hard like she couldn’t comprehend what was happening.
He just couldn’t move his fingers fast enough. People were standing up and walking toward them, and he thought he faintly heard someone ask if they needed help, but none of that mattered. Like a man possessed, he picked Dani right up and carried her to the bathroom. A sink. He needed to get the hot gravy off her. To cool her skin down.
He barely stopped when a hand rested on his chest. His vision clearing, he saw the waitress who had served him his burger standing in front of him, a horrified expression on her face.
“I’ll take her into the ladies’ room and help her out, okay? This is your first date, right? I’m sure she’d rather you didn’t see her like this.”
Benji thought of protesting, but then he also remembered that the best thing to do would be to get her out of her dress and her clothes and that was definitely not the job for him. Setting her down quickly, he allowed the waitress to guide her into the bathroom then sank down in the closest chair.
Dani really couldn’t catch a break, could she?
“Excuse me, sir?”
Benji looked up from where he’d been holding his head in his hands, trying to quell his rage now that everything was catching up to him, to see an older man dressed in a nice shirt and pants.
“Now’s not really the time.”
“Yes, sir, I apologize deeply. I’m the owner of this diner. One of my girls called me and said something had happened?”
Well, it looked like some of that anger was getting its chance to rush out.
“What happened is one of your girls disapproved of who I was with and was jealous, so she assaulted my date.” Burned her.
Dear Lord and all his good grace, of all the things that could have happened to Dani, why did it have to be burning. She already had so much trauma linked with fire. She didn’t need anymore. Benji was briefly reminded of the story of Job from the Bible, and all of his suffering, but he prayed that Dani wasn’t about to have to go down a road like that.
“I’m sure it wasn’t—”
“She insulted my date’s weight, teased her, and when I asked for a new waitress, she specifically served Dani and dropped her plate right on her head.”
The color of the owner’s face drained, and Benji had to remind himself that this man had no idea what the circumstances were.
“I am so, so sorry sir. And your date, where is she now?”
“In the bathroom. One of the servers is helping her clean up. The gravy was hot, so she needed to get it off before it could melt her clothes to her skin or cause any damage to deeper layers of skin.”
“Melt to her—Gott in Hiemmel. All right, sir. I apologize sincerely. Of course, we will take care of this mess and anything you need. Please, did you happen to catch the name of the server who did this?”
For a brief moment Benji thought about withholding it. About potentially damaging Dani’s standing with their small town if he blabbed. But his anger was too hot and his sense of what was right and wrong was demanding justice.
“Rachel,” he said with authority. “Her name is Rachel.”
“Of course. I will make sure she is dealt with. Please, if there is anything you need, please tell us.”
“I will. For starters, you can reimburse the lady for her o
utfit, which I’m sure is ruined.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll do that immediately.” The owner quickly walked away, returning shortly, handing Benji an envelope filled with cash. “For the lady,” he said. The owner walked away again, heading for the kitchen.
The next thing he knew, Benji thought he heard sounds of yelling from the kitchen, but he didn’t care. He kept his eyes locked on the bathroom door for what seemed like forever.
It was at least ten minutes later before the waitress came out, looking thoroughly exhausted.
“Hey there,” she said, blowing some errant strands out of her face. “She said she needed a few minutes. Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to have any burns. But there is skin irritation for sure. Did the owner come by?”
Benji nodded, not trusting his voice at the moment. Where had it all gone wrong? They’d been having such a good time and then…
Chaos.
“If you wanna wait here, I’m sure she’ll be out in a bit. Do you want something to drink?”
Benji’s first instinct was to say no, but he realized that his mouth felt like sandpaper. “Yeah. A glass of water would be great.”
She nodded and headed off, disappearing from his view. He kept his gaze on the door, trying to think of how he was going to make up for this. The whole situation seemed like much more than something a good ice cream or other dessert would fix.
He bristled as his mind turned everything over and over again. Was this what Dani had to deal with her entire high school life? How awful. How she ended up as a functional human being and not entirely fearful of people was beyond him. He hadn’t even been the one who had been spilled on and he felt like breaking something.
Huh. For being considered the most “chill” of all the brothers, he sure was wound up. But he couldn’t help it. He wanted to protect Dani, not put her into situations where petty people purposefully dumped hot liquids onto her.
He should have been smarter. She had been plenty open about how she didn’t have a good relationship with the people of their town, and he hadn’t gotten it. And now she had suffered because of it. But he’d wanted everybody to see what he saw. Because if they did, how could they think of her as anything other than the strong, fearless warrior she was.
More minutes ticked by and the waitress returned with a glass of water that he sipped when his stomach wasn’t churning. He knew he should ask her name and thank her, then maybe tell the owner how she was one of the good ones, but he couldn’t wrench enough of his mind away from the bathroom entrance to do so.
Eventually, at least a half hour had passed, and he was starting to grow concerned. What if she had slipped? Somehow lost consciousness? What if she was in there all alone and he was sitting outside like a buffoon?
He waited a few more moments before finally going to the door, knocking gently as he did. “Hey, Dani, you okay in there?”
There was no response, not even a groan, and alarm shot up inside of him.
“Dani? Can you just make a sound, let me know you’re all right?”
Nothing.
He couldn’t stand there doing nothing. He couldn’t. It went against everything in his nature, so he put his hand against the door.
“Dani, I’m gonna come in, okay? I want to warn you, in case you don’t want me in, but I’m just making sure you’re all right.”
Still no response.
That was it. He pushed the door open, half expecting to see her sprawled across the ground or something equally horrific, but instead he was greeted by empty stalls.
“Dani?” he asked, confusion churning through him at the silent room.
She wasn’t in there.
She was gone.
But how? He’d been sitting there the whole time! And she didn’t even have a car—
A cool breeze drifted across his increasingly hot face, and that was when he noticed the window was open, frosted glass pushed up far enough for someone to definitely go through.
Oh.
The realization hit him with surprising force, clearing the air from his body and stunning him for a moment. It seemed surreal, but he knew as clear as day what had happened.
She had left.
Dani was gone.
15
Danielle
Dani stormed up to the front of her house, still in a state of shock from everything that had happened.
The date had been going so well. Little shocks of excitement had been going up her spine, and she had been thoroughly enjoying the conversation. Who had known that Benji could be so funny? Sure, he wasn’t as snarky as her, but he rolled with her tangents really well.
People rarely did that. They always found her asides either too distracting or didn’t understand. Or they thought she was being preachy. She couldn’t help it that she had opinions. She’d had to form them growing up or she would have never survived.
But Benji seemed to think about them. To give them credence or pick up the joke and take it further. It was easy to talk to him. Easy to forget the minutes and just experience things.
Her feet picked up as she almost reached the door. She had used what little extra spending money she had to get the only ride-sharing service in their entire town, but she had them drop her off all the way at the very edge of the drive.
The cool night air helped refresh her. Helped her feel less mortified and soothed the still irritated patches of skin. That gravy had been so hot.
She remembered the moment it had first touched her scalp. She’d been staring in surprise at Benji, who had jumped up to his feet and pointed in horror behind her. Then it felt like hot water from the shower was hitting her scalp. Time had picked up after that, dozens of things happening in rapid succession, but all she could do was stand there.
And then he’d picked her up.
No one had picked her up since she was eight years old. In any other moment, she would have loved it. Maybe even felt a little flutter of attraction. But all she could feel was the hot, syrupy gravy dripping down her.
She couldn’t believe it.
She knew that Rachel was a stone-cold bully, but she’d never expected that. Sure, Dani had wanted to haul off and slug her multiple times. She hadn’t though. Because she knew that physical violence was a line that she should never cross no matter how hurtful the verbal barbs got.
“Oh hey, honey. We didn’t even hear the car in the drive. How was your date?” her mom asked from the living room.
“Fine,” she answered quickly, running up to her room. She didn’t want to answer any questions. She just needed to get away from everything.
She had ruined it.
All of it.
If she had just reacted like a normal human, maybe she could have salvaged the situation. After all, she wasn’t the one who had dumped a plate of hot food on someone to get back at them.
But she had frozen like a moron, so badly that Benji had to pick her up and carry her off. And then he’d had to haul a waitress into the bathroom to make sure she didn’t let the gravy cook into her own skin.
After the waitress had left, Dani stood there, staring in the mirror. Her skin was bright pink everywhere the gravy had settled, her shrug somewhere else in the restaurant. Her hair still had clumps of meat and biscuits in it.
Ugh. She was such a mess. And that was what he would always see her as. A mess. Because it was when she was staring into the mirror that she realized how stupid she was being. Guys like Benji didn’t ever have interest in girls like her. He was rich, successful, handsome and had a great personality. What did she have? Nothing like that. Just a bunch of hang-ups and past trauma.
It was all too much. She felt stupid and alone and entirely like she was smack dab in high school again. Powerless and outmatched by a bunch of girls who had decided that she wasn’t worthy of kindness because of her size.
Dani jumped into the shower, trying not to think. She could feel her mind starting to build up into a frenzy again, and she was trying to tramp that down. It wasn’t like she’d e
ver really been interested in Benji.
Except she had.
As much as she tried to deny it, as much as she tried to pretend, she wasn’t better and smarter than the girls who’d been drooling over him ever since he had hit puberty, she was just the same. All caught up in the charm of him.
Pathetic.
That harsh thought startled her. She thought she’d been better about handling that mean, insidious voice inside of her over the past couple of weeks, but it was suddenly so overpowering. Her breath hitched, and the next thing she knew her eyes were beginning to water.
No.
No.
She wouldn’t cry over a boy. Her pride was too great for that.
Finishing washing herself off, she stepped out of the shower and dried herself off before snatching up the first bit of clothing she saw. Running right back down the stairs, she grabbed her keys from the rack by the door.
“Honey, where are you going?”
“I need to see my brothers.”
“It’s nine o’clock at night!”
But she was already out the door, running over to the old truck her family shared.
She cranked the radio all the way up as she whipped down the drive, as if the music could drown out all of the thoughts churning in her head. Why was she being so childish, so weak, letting her emotions control her so easily? She liked to think she was above it all, but it was so, so easy to tear her down.
She pressed the pedal to the metal, speeding along way faster than she normally ever would. But she needed to get to her brothers. Her confidants. Together, the three of them were a unit. Without them, she felt like a firecracker with a lit fuse but no direction to go. She was the passion of the group. The heart. Not the reason.
She arrived in record time, parking in the free lot that was a bit of a walk because she knew that she was going to barely be able to afford the gas back home. But the walk gave her more time to force herself to breathe so that when she showed up at the front desk, she didn’t look like she herself needed to be admitted.