by Mia Carson
“Danny, don’t you look beautiful today,” a voice said behind her.
Danny cringed. “Hi, Wendy. Nice of you to notice,” she replied and continued down the hall.
Wendy and her entourage followed close, giggling and whispering behind their hands, most likely about Danny, but she was used to it.
“I notice everything at this school. It’s my job,” she leered.
“Right, well, have fun with that,” Danny said, wanting her to go away. But, of course, she didn’t.
“I notice everything—like how Jack drove you to school this morning. How nice of him to cater to those less fortunate in our small town.” Wendy laughed quietly, a wicked sound. “He’s always been generous. You and your father are, what, barely above the poverty line?”
Danny froze. They were well above the poverty line, especially since her dad was hired at his new job. They were still in debt and struggling to pay it off, but besides that, they were doing just fine. Danny’s extra money helped, and she’d never felt ashamed of how they lived. Still didn’t.
But Danny wasn’t stupid. She knew exactly what Wendy was doing and turned on her heel to face the wretched girl with a grin. “Actually, we’re doing quite well, but thank you so much for caring. Oh, and Jack giving me a ride? It wasn’t out of charity, Wendy. We’re dating.”
Wendy’s grin fell, and her friends behind her instantly shut up. Danny smirked and turned to walk away again, but Wendy grabbed her tote and pulled her back. “You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not. We are dating,” she said smugly, dropping her a facetious wink.
“He would never date someone like you. Not after the shit your mom caused with the divorce,” Wendy snapped and took a threatening step towards her.
Danny fought the urge to punch Wendy. Yeah, her mom had caused an uproar in town when she left after a very public fight, leaving her dad in such a tight spot, but Danny had gotten over it. Why couldn’t everyone else let it go?
“Whatever.” She tried again to leave, but Wendy didn’t let go of her tote. “What do you want?”
“You stay away from Jack. He’s mine,” she growled through gritted teeth.
“Last I heard, he dumped you after you cheated on him with, like, five other guys,” Danny muttered. “I don’t think he wants you back.”
“He’s only dating you for sex,” Wendy said with a shrug, face relaxed after the revelation.
Danny’s face fell, though she tried to tell herself it wasn’t true. She and Jack had been friends long before he took on the rich boy persona and dated half the girls in their class. Last night had been about more than eventually getting into her pants, hadn’t it? She knew he was attracted to her and she was to him, but would he really do that to her?
“You’ll see soon enough,” Wendy continued in a snotty tone. “He’ll date you for a few weeks, maybe not even that long, and one night he’ll convince you to have sex with him. It’s great, don’t get me wrong, but after he uses you for a while, he’ll dump you and never look back.”
Danny’s heart sank in her chest as she tried to ignore Wendy’s hurtful words. Wendy let go of her bag, and she staggered backwards into the wall, watching the girls walk past, giggling about the confrontation. Her face burned hot with embarrassment, and tears sprang to her eyes. She wouldn’t cry, not in front of everyone. She wiped her hand over her eyes and disappeared into the nearest bathroom. Wendy was just trying to get to her, that’s all it was.
Jack would never try to get close to her just to sleep with her. He’d had their whole senior year to do it. Yeah, but then you came back looking hot. He even admitted it.
Danny gripped the sink in front of her and frowned. Was her mom right? She didn’t know how to date a guy and sure as hell didn’t know anything about what they would do. Was Jack manipulating her?
She didn’t want her mom to be right, ever, but definitely not about this. What did she do? She couldn’t talk to her dad about it… hell no. He’d get pissed and either deck Jack or forbid her to date until she moved out of the house. Maybe she should break it off and date again when she was in college. Then she’d be across the country where no one knew about her or her mom. About the messy divorce and every other little detail of her life.
She straightened, waited until her eyes weren’t so red, and left the bathroom. She made it to her next class a minute after the bell, but her teacher waved her in without saying a word. Danny might be a loner, but she was a good student. A bit of a nerd. She pulled out her notebook, and for the first time all day, managed to focus on class instead of Jack.
At the end of the day, she’d avoid him and head straight home. Last night had been great, but she didn’t know Jack, at least not as the man he was turning into. What if Wendy spoke the truth?
Danny hated Wendy and vice versa, but she had dated Jack for a long time. There was no telling what was true and what wasn’t.
***
Jack leaned against his truck at the end of the day, waiting for Danny. He knew where her last class was, but the second she came out, she turned and headed the other way. “Danny! Wait up!”
He ran after her and caught up to her, but she didn’t look happy to see him. “What?”
He frowned when he saw her face clearly, the red around her eyes and the way she wouldn’t look at him. “I was going to give you a ride home. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing; I’m fine,” she said tightly and tried to pull away, but he didn’t let her.
“No, you’re not. What’s wrong? Did I do something?” Hell, I haven’t even seen her all day, so what happened? He heard Wendy’s shrill laughter down the sidewalk, and Danny’s jaw clenched. “Wendy… She said something to you.” Danny turned her dark blue eyes to him but didn’t speak. “What did she say, Danny?”
“Nothing I shouldn’t have already known, but I don’t have much experience dealing with men and manipulation, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Where is this coming from?”
“It’s fine Jack, really. I get it. You’re a guy and you like to have what’s pretty, but I’m not ready for that at all.”
Jack ran a hand through his hair. “Are you saying I’m only dating you so we can have sex?” Her glare told him that was a yes, and he fought the urge to laugh. “Danny, can we go somewhere and talk about this, please?”
“Why? I already know everything about what you want, so just leave me alone.” She tried to step around him, but he blocked her, anger filling him by the second. Not at Danny, but at his damn ex for continuing to be a pain even after he broke up with her. “Jack, come on.”
“No, not until we talk.”
She shifted but nodded and let him lead her back to his truck. She climbed in, and he pulled away from the school, driving her home as he said he would. When they made it, he parked the truck and turned to look at her.
“What did Wendy say to you?”
Danny looked away from him. “That you were only dating me to have sex with me. She said you used her up and dropped her and that’s what you’ll do to me.”
“And you believed her?” He wasn’t sure what pissed him off more, Wendy running her mouth or thinking she could turn every girl in the school against him so easily.
“I don’t know, Jack. She dated you the longest.”
He couldn’t help it. He laughed, and Danny’s eyes narrowed at him. “I’m sorry, but Wendy lied about a lot of things to everyone in that whole school.”
“Meaning what?”
“We had sex once because she wanted to. Right before I learned she was sleeping with two other guys. That’s why I dumped her the day after,” he explained, laying out the facts as they were.
Danny fidgeted with her bag, looking from him then out the window and back again. “So you don’t want sex?” Her face flushed three shades of red, so Jack reached for her hand.
“I don’t know what I want, Danny. We just started seeing each other yesterday. Can’t we take it one day at a time?”
“But everything they say about you… You have the reputation…” she trailed off worriedly.
“People say things about me all the time. I just found it easier not to argue.”
“So you let them think you sleep with everyone?” she challenged, looking at him like he was crazier than she remembered.
Jack shrugged. “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me, and a long time ago you didn’t, either.”
She bit her lip and glanced at their hands on the console. “Yeah.”
“So why do you care now?” he demanded. “What changed?”
“I don’t. I just… I’ve never dated anyone before,” she said quietly, and Jack’s eyes widened.
“Never?”
“Nope,” she said with a grimace. “Loner, remember?”
He kissed the back of her hand and grinned. “Loner no longer—if you still want to date me, that is. And I promise we will not do anything unless you want to. Believe me?”
“Yeah, I do,” she replied sincerely. “Sorry I freaked out.”
“Wendy’s a bitch. That’s what she does. I’ll see you tonight?”
She nodded, and the smile returned to her face. “Hope you’re ready for a classic movie night. I think my dad has a few other horror movies from way back that you’ll find amusing.” She hopped out of the truck, and Jack waited until she was inside to pull away.
He’d have to corner Wendy at some point the next day and tell her to leave Danny alone. They barely had two months left of their high school careers, and that girl was going to make it as miserable as possible for him. If he could just get through school, he could enjoy the summer with Danny until he left for college. He’d have to ask Danny where she planned on going. He hoped somewhere close to him, but if not, the idea of visiting her wherever she went didn’t bother him in the least.
CHAPTER 3
Before Danny knew it, they were three weeks away from the end of the school year. She and Jack had grown closer than ever. They spent nearly every day together between school and her job. She even managed to get through a few dinners at his house, and Jack’s mom had refrained from asking too many questions—something she had a feeling was thanks to him.
Her biggest concern was waiting for her college acceptance letters. She hadn’t received any yet and was worried they might not come at all. Her grades weren’t top notch, but they should’ve been enough to get her into NYU, which had a great photography program. She desperately wanted to be a part of it. Get a career started, see what she could really do.
“Did you check the mail yet?” Jack asked when he arrived on a Saturday afternoon. They were going out for dinner at some point, but he was early, as always. Not that Danny minded, except today she was scared to check the mail.
“I’m going to take that as a no,” he observed when her hands twisted in front of her and she bounced on her feet. “Where’s your dad?”
“Overtime again. I can’t do it,” she mumbled, dancing from foot to foot in the kitchen now. “What if it’s there?”
“Then you should go get it and open it,” he said with a laugh. “No, you know what, I’ll do it for you.” He marched out of the house to the mailbox before she could stop him. Danny wrung her hands. If she didn’t get into this college, she’d be stuck in town at the community college for two years. Not terrible, but not what she wanted.
NYU wasn’t even close to where Jack was going to school in Texas, but he told her over and over again they’d make it work. She wanted to believe him, but deep down, she was scared. Could they make it work? They’d only been dating for a month, but it felt like longer.
“There’s a letter from NYU,” Jack said as he stomped back inside and set the rest of the mail on the coffee table. “Here, open it.”
“I can’t,” she muttered. “I can’t do it!”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah, just open it, but if it’s bad, don’t tell me,” she sputtered.
Jack grinned, sat down on the couch, and ripped open the envelope. She watched his eyes move across the letter. His face fell, and her heart sank. Then Jack turned it around and leapt up to hug her.
“You got in!”
“What?” She couldn’t believe it. She took the letter from his hand as he hugged her and spun them around the living room. “Holy crap, I got in!”
“That’s great, Danny, really.” He set her on her feet. He stared into her eyes, and she yanked him to her for a kiss, filled with the happiness she’d found over the last month of them being together. “We need to celebrate,” he said when they broke apart. “Anything you want to do tonight, let’s do it.”
All Danny wanted was to spend time with him and wonder about what they were going to do when the summer finally ended. “Picnic under the stars?”
He nodded, his lip curling up in the typical smirk that was his smile. “Done. Get your jacket. It’s supposed to be chilly tonight.”
She darted upstairs, grabbed her jacket and purse, texted her dad and left him a note just in case. His phone wasn’t working right, but he couldn’t afford a new one and wouldn’t let Danny but him one. Going to NYU would be hard on both of them, and for a second, she felt a pang of regret that she had been accepted. How was she going to support herself? And what about her dad?
“Danny? You all right?”
“Yeah… yeah, I’m good. Let’s go.”
They swung by the local market, owned by Jack’s family, and picked up some sandwiches, soda pop, and chips, and Jack picked out a large bouquet of roses for her before they left. When they left the store, he handed them to her, wearing that damn smirk again.
“You excited?”
“Yeah, and scared, and… I have no idea,” she said once they were back in the truck and driving to one of their favorite lookout spots outside of town.
“It’ll be a good chance for you to get out of town,” he said.
“I guess so. What about you? Ready for Texas?” she asked, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.
“I don’t know,” he murmured, and she saw the way his eyes darted to her and back to the road.
His hand tightened on hers as it always did when he was thinking too hard, and Danny’s mind raced. He had been acting weird since he’d read her acceptance letter. He hadn’t worried about it before when she talked about it, but now he looked uncertain, fidgety.
“Jack? You okay?” she asked slowly.
“Perfect,” he said and put a smile back on his face. “Just dreading the heat down there.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive,” she smiled. He changed the subject, she noted.
They came to a large empty field that stretched for acres, which was owned by Jack’s family as well. They usually hung out there if they wanted to be alone. Sometimes they tossed a football around. Jack was a righty, but he caught and threw with his left, holding the ball in a way she had never seen anyone else do.
The truck pulled off the road and into the field with trees dotting the landscape here and there. The sunset was a few hours away, but the setting was romantic to Danny. He parked the truck and turned the radio up loud so they could hear it as they walked hand in hand to their usual spot beneath a large, limber pine.
Danny spent the evening worrying about Jack’s reaction to her going so far away. He told her flying to see her regularly wouldn’t be a problem. He was rich, after all, but she had a feeling, as his hand found hers on the blanket, that that was the least of his concerns.
When the sun sank below the horizon and it was too dark to see under the trees, they trudged back to the truck, but Danny didn’t get in. Instead, she took the blanket, laid it out in the bed, and hopped up.
“I don’t want to go home yet,” she told him with a grin and lay back to look at the stars. “They’re so bright out here. I’m going to miss that, being in the city.”
“Is that the only thing you’re going to miss?”
He lay down beside her, their shoulders touching, and stared up at the stars. She stu
died his face in the light of the full moon, the curve of his jaw and his cheekbones, the stubble on his face, and the piercing in his right ear. He talked about getting a tattoo as soon as he went away, something his parents didn’t approve of. Her fingers slid between his on the blanket again, and she rolled onto her side.
“I’m going to miss this,” she whispered. “I’m going to miss our nights together.”
He rolled onto his side to face her, but he didn’t smile. “Me, too,” he said. His hand moved from hers to her side, squeezing her hip as he pulled her close.
Their lips met, and it was like an electric wave passed through her body. His kiss was languid and slow, and Danny sighed against him. His hand pressed against her back, and she moved closer to him, feeling the bulge in his jeans as they lay together. His kiss grew hungrier against her mouth, his tongue exploring more than he had before, but Danny wanted it. Wanted him. This might be one of their last nights together, and she was not going to waste a second of it.
And neither was he.
As if reading her mind, he rolled until he was on top of her, his lips moving faster as his hands slid under her shirt. Danny reached up, wanting to feel the warmth of his muscled back against her palms. She traced the grooves as they tensed at her touch, and his hands reached up to cup her breasts. They had gone this far before, but no further. Tonight, she wanted all of him, no matter what anyone said about him at school. Danny didn’t care. This was their night together. She slid his shirt up and pulled it over his head, tossing it aside as he stared down at her, his brow furrowed and eyes dilated with a need she knew was reflected in her own.
“Danny?” he asked, his voice unsure as his hands tightened around her body.
“I want this,” she whispered. “I want you.”