When He Returns

by Kimberly Rae Jordan

  After the meal was done, Sierra helped clear off the table and load the dishwasher. While she did that, Dalton and Danica worked together putting out the ingredients for their dessert.

  Once everyone had built their ice cream sundaes, they migrated to the living room. JD and Danica took the couch while Elliot settled back in the chair he’d been sitting in earlier. That left the loveseat for her and Dalton. Sierra sat down on one end, careful to leave plenty of room for Dalton if he chose to sit beside her.

  Without any hesitation, Dalton sank onto the other end of the loveseat. He laughed as Danica moaned her appreciation of the brownies he’d made to go with the sundaes.

  “I’ve tried to make brownies, but they never turn out like yours,” Danica said. “What’s your secret?”

  Dalton shrugged. “No secret. It’s a recipe I got out of some magazine back in the day. I made it often enough that I don’t even need the physical recipe anymore.”

  “Did you make it lots in Toronto?” Sierra asked.

  “Nah.” Dalton took a bite of his ice cream, casting her a quick glance. “I didn’t do much cooking or baking, to be honest. Management hired someone to do all that kind of stuff for us.”

  “So you’re way out of practice and still cook and bake better than I do,” Sierra said with a wry grin. “It truly must be genetic. You got that lovely cooking gene from your mom, while who knows what I got from mine. I don’t remember her doing much cooking when I was with her.”

  “And then you got stuck with Makayla.” Dalton laughed. “She didn’t get that cooking gene from Mom.”

  “Don’t let her hear you say that,” Sierra warned him. “She’s a bit sensitive about that. I swear most the arguments I heard between her and Ethan were when he made the mistake of commenting on her cooking.”

  “Oh, I can believe that,” Danica said with a laugh.

  “She is much better now,” Sierra said, not wanting to throw Makayla completely under the bus. “And Ethan has learned not to make any unsolicited observations.”

  “I still think we should name you the cook of the apartment block,” Danica said, pointing her spoon in Dalton’s direction. “You’re probably the best out of all of us.”

  “I don’t think any of us know if Marc could do better,” JD said. “Have you met him yet?”

  Dalton shook his head. “No, not yet.”

  “He seems like a decent enough guy now that he’s not going after Danica,” JD said with a grin.

  “Was he competition for you?” Dalton asked.

  “I’d like to say no, but who knows what would have happened if Danica and I hadn’t worked things out.”

  “He wasn’t competition for you,” Danica interjected. “I had no interest in him at all. Like JD said, he’s a nice enough guy, but I just wasn’t in a place to date.”

  Dalton looked at Sierra. “And he didn’t ask you out?”

  “No, but I would have said no anyway.” Sierra cut off a piece of brownie and scooped it up with her spoon.

  “Why’s that?” Dalton asked.

  “First of all, if he was interested in Danica then turned his attention to me simply because she was unavailable? No thanks.”

  “Second of all?” he prompted.

  Sierra frowned at him for a moment before saying, “Just not interested in dating right now.”

  “Are you dating anyone, Elliot?” Danica asked, taking the attention off Sierra.

  She didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but either way, she was thankful.

  “Nah. Not at the moment. I’ve got a lot going on right now and don’t need the distraction.”

  Danica gestured between Elliot and Sierra with her spoon. “You two have been reading the same book.”

  “I doubt it,” Elliot said with a laugh.

  The conversation moved on to current events, and Sierra found herself struggling to stay awake. When she finished the last of her ice cream, she sat with the bowl in her lap, trying to focus on the conversation. When Dalton leaned in her direction, she glanced over at him, a little surprised to find him so close to her. So close she could see the dark blue flecks in the lighter blue of his irises.

  His gaze met hers, and a wrinkled appeared between his brows as they drew together. “If you need to leave, feel free to. You know we’ll be doing this again sometime soon.”

  “I hate to go, but I probably should. Two more shifts, and then I’m off for a couple of days.”

  Dalton shook his head. “I don’t know how you do it.”

  Sierra smiled at him. “It helps that I enjoy what I do. The shifts don’t drag on even though they’re long.”

  Dalton held out his hand. “Here, let me take that for you.”

  As she handed him the bowl, she said, “Thank you for another great meal. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to not have to cook something when I get home from work.”

  Sierra stood up and stretched as Dalton headed into the kitchen with all their bowls. When the other three got to their feet, she frowned.

  “You don’t all have to leave just because I’m going.”

  “I need to go too,” Elliot said. “I have to head into work early tomorrow.”

  “We’re not working, but we’re newlyweds, so we’re going to go spend some time together,” Danica said, looping her arm through JD’s as she rested her head on his shoulder.

  They all walked out onto the landing then said their goodnights as they headed for their different apartments. Once inside hers, Sierra took the time to fold the load of laundry she’d done the night before but hadn’t put away. She tried to take care of stuff like that on her days off, but sometimes she didn’t get it all done.

  As she thought about her next day off, Sierra wondered if maybe she should call up Makayla, Grace, and Sammi and offer to take the older girls out to get their nails done. It was something she’d done in the past, and they always had so much fun together. With it being summer break, she figured the girls might enjoy going out with her for a bit.

  Once she was in bed, she took a minute to tap out a message to the moms with her proposal. As she expected, she got quick responses from all three, agreeing that it was a good idea.

  After settling on a day and time, Sierra sent a message to Danica to see if she wanted to join them. She wasn’t always in the mood to get her nails done, so Sierra wasn’t too surprised when she declined the invitation. Sierra had initially planned to take the girls to get their nails done before the wedding, but they’d run out of time. She and Danica had barely had time to get their own nails done.

  So though she didn’t need another manicure, Sierra never turned down the chance to pamper herself.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Do you have any plans for your day off?” Dalton asked as they cleared away another meal. He’d cooked for their small group once again, though he hadn’t done so the night before.

  He didn’t want to lock himself into cooking every night, but he did like to at least cook on the nights Sierra worked. It only seemed fair to help her out when she worked such a worthy job, and he was basically not doing much each day.

  “Yep. Taking a trio of pre-teens to get their nails done.”

  “That sounds like fun,” Dalton said.

  “Seriously?” The tone of Danica’s voice made it clear she didn’t necessarily feel the same way.

  “Well, sure. I’ve always enjoyed getting my nails done. I mean, I normally get black polish on my fingernails, but I wouldn’t do that now. It’s just easier than trying to do my own.” Dalton checked to see if the coffee had finished, having made a full pot instead of the single cups he usually did. “Aren’t you going along?”

  “Nah.” Danica lifted her hand to look at her nails. “I just had mine done before the wedding. I don’t need to go again so soon.”

  “You’re welcome to come with us, Dalton, if you were serious,” Sierra said as she took the cups of coffee he slid across the counter. “I’m sure the girls would think it was cool for the
ir uncle to join them.”

  “I just might do that. I don’t have anything else on the schedule tomorrow afternoon. In the morning, Danica has agreed to risk life and limb to give me a driver’s lesson.”

  “Good luck,” Sierra said with a laugh. “To both of you.”

  “I’m sure he’ll do just fine,” Danica said. “Now that he’s actually motivated to learn. I was more scared to be in the car with him when he was a teen. He seriously did not want to learn then.”

  “I didn’t need to learn with both you and JD willing to drive me around. It’s not like I went places that the two of you or someone else from the family weren’t also going.”

  “So why do you want to learn now?” Sierra asked. “You could probably still hire someone to drive you.”

  “True, but I don’t have enough things to do to warrant a full-time driver, and I’d really like to be able to just get up and go whenever I want without having to arrange it with someone. Plus, it’s just time.”

  “Are you going to buy yourself a car?” JD asked from where he was stretched out on the couch, Danica curled up against him.

  “I would like to, but honestly, I don’t really know what I want.”

  “Well, I’m sure that if you asked for input from some family members, you’d get a bunch of advice.”

  Dalton chuckled. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  He shifted on the couch, his arm bumping Sierra’s leg. She was tucked into the corner of the loveseat with her legs drawn up. Somehow they’d all fallen into their same seats over the course of the last few evenings. It was almost like they were part of a sitcom. A cross between Friends and Big Bang Theory without the brainiacs and the inappropriate humor.

  “So are we going to go see a movie this weekend?” Danica asked. “I saw there was a new action movie out. Sorry, Sie, I think you’ll be outnumbered if you want to go to a romcom.”

  “An action movie?” Dalton wrinkled his nose. “Depending on who’s starring in it, I might prefer the romcom.”

  “No,” Danica said with a wave of her hand. “We’re not doing a romcom. Those are for when Sierra needs cheering up. Otherwise, it’s gotta be action or sci-fi.”

  “That would be my vote,” Elliot said, and JD nodded.

  “Fine,” Dalton said with a sigh. “But if it’s two hours straight of no plot and exploding buildings, I get to choose the next movie, and you can’t complain.”

  Danica rolled her eyes. “Alright. If it’s a lousy movie, you get to pick the next one, but you have to be fair.”

  Dalton grinned. “I’m always fair.”

  She reached behind her and pulled out the small throw pillow and winged it at him. “We’ll see.”

  When they finally called it a night, Dalton had arranged to go with Danica at ten and with Sierra at two. He was sure his bandmates would laugh at him, but he actually found he was looking forward to both things. It brought a little bit of normalcy to his life, and he found that was something he needed.

  The next morning, that normalcy took a bit of a hit.

  “That is the last time I go driving with you,” Danica exclaimed as she shoved open her door and climbed out of the car. “You are nuts.”

  “It was one red light,” Dalton said with a sigh as he followed her. “It turned red more quickly than I thought it would.”

  “It was already yellow when you pulled into the intersection to turn. Cars were still coming!” Danica’s voice climbed with each word. “You could have gotten us killed, and, as a newlywed, I’m not about that.”

  “Stop being a drama queen, Dani,” Dalton said, well aware that those words were probably going to pour gasoline on the fire of her temper.

  Sure enough, she stopped halfway up the first flight of stairs and spun around to face him. “I am sorry if you don’t care about dying in a fiery crash, but I do. So you can get someone else to teach you how to drive.”

  She turned around and stormed up the stairs.

  “At least they probably wouldn’t freak out over a simple mistake,” Dalton muttered under his breath as he followed her.

  Unfortunately, his words must have been loud enough for Danica to hear because she momentarily paused. Dalton waited to see what she’d do, and was a bit surprised when she continued up the stairs to the third floor without saying anything more to him, though each pound of her feet on the steps spoke loudly enough.

  That had definitely not gone as well as he had hoped it would. Clearly, he had underestimated how challenging learning to drive was and overestimated how much patience Danica would have with him. Maybe he’d have to hire someone to teach him and hope that they didn’t have a clue who he was.

  At least he still had the afternoon to look forward to.

  “So how did the first driving lesson go?” Sierra asked as she guided her car out of the parking lot behind the apartment building that afternoon.

  “Oh, it went,” Dalton said with a sigh, still not completely over the events of the morning. “But I have a feeling it was my first and last lesson with Danica.”

  Sierra shot him a look. “What happened?”

  “I accidentally ran a red light, and Danica was convinced that we were going to die in a fiery crash. She made me pull over and let her drive us home.”

  “That’s too bad,” Sierra said. “It’s a challenge to learn to drive, but you can do it.”

  “I think I’m going to have to pay someone to teach me. I just have visions of my name being splashed all over the tabloid sites with pictures of me learning how to drive.”

  “I can understand your concern.” She paused then said, “If you want, I could give it a whirl. I’m probably a little less dramatic than Danica.”

  “Just a little,” Dalton said with a chuckle. “I love her to death, but she’s always been a bit of a drama queen.”

  “But that’s what makes Danica…Danica. Her and Makayla wear their crowns proudly.”

  Dalton snorted. “Maybe a little too proudly.”

  “Well, just let me know if you want to go driving on one of my days off.”

  “I have to decide if I want to risk our friendship,” Dalton said, only half kidding.

  “No worries there,” Sierra said. “You’d have to do a lot worse than running a red light for anything like that to happen.”

  “Really?” Dalton asked, a bit surprised at her response. She’d been nothing but friendly since he’d gotten back, but he hadn’t really known how she viewed him.

  She shrugged and glanced over at him. “I don’t have so many friends that I can shove them off at the drop of a hat.”

  Dalton huffed. “Well, running a red light didn’t seem like the drop of a hat to Danica. I have a feeling she’s going to abandon me as her brother.”

  Sierra laughed, and Dalton found himself smiling. Whenever she laughed, smiling just seemed like the best and most natural response.

  “Give her some time to cool off. JD will settle her down.”

  Dalton thought of his new brother-in-law. “He’s good for her.”

  “He is,” Sierra agreed. “And she’s good for him too.”

  “I guess that’s the best kind of relationship or even friendship. One where each of the people are good for the other.” Dalton thought back to his friendship with Angel. “Sometimes I wonder why Jesse has stuck with me. He’s good for me, but I haven’t been good for him. And Angel… Well, we just weren’t good for each other no matter how much we enjoyed spending time together.”

  “Sometimes people need to be able to take care of others, even in a friendship. It could be that Jesse is one of those people.”

  “So once he doesn’t have to take care of me anymore, he’ll ditch me?” That didn’t sit well with Dalton at all, but he couldn’t remain a person that everyone else had to take care of.

  “I don’t think so. My guess is your friendship will evolve. Maybe into something more equal.”

  Dalton hoped she was right. “How do you know this?”

&nbs
p; “I’m kind of facing a changing friendship myself.”

  “You are?” Dalton asked then said, “Oh. You and Danica?”

  There was a moment’s hesitation before Sierra nodded. “It’s interesting because even when she was with Les, I never felt that our friendship changed much. We still hung out a lot of the time, and wrong as it sounds, I was pretty certain if push came to shove, she’d choose me over Les. Not that I ever planned to push for that. I don’t feel that way about JD. He comes first to her now, and that’s as it should be.” Sierra let out a long sigh. “But that leaves things between her and me changing a bit.”

  “Have you talked to her about it?” Dalton asked.

  “No, not yet. I don’t think she’s as aware of it, being how she and JD are newlyweds. It’s been a crazy few months between the engagement and the wedding.”

  “Still, I’m sure it’s hard to deal with a changing friendship, especially one that’s been as close as your and Danica’s has been.”

  Sierra tossed him a smile that wasn’t anywhere near as brilliant as her usual one. “It will be fine.”

  “Who are your other friends?” Dalton asked, realizing he hadn’t ever heard her talk about anyone else.

  “I have a couple of friends from the Bible study group and a couple from work, but none of them are as close to me as Danica is.”

  “And me and Elliot?”

  This time, the smile she gave him held a bit more shine to it. “Yes. Definitely you two as well.”

  A feeling of warmth filled Dalton with her acknowledgment of their friendship. “So, all of that to say, yes, I’ll take you up on your offer to help me learn to drive as long as it won’t negatively affect our friendship.”

  “Let me know when you want to go out. I have the day off tomorrow, but then I’m back to work for three days.”

  “Maybe we can try for tomorrow afternoon, just to see how it goes,” Dalton suggested.

  “Sounds like a plan.” Sierra turned the car onto the road leading toward the cul de sac where his siblings had built their homes.