As she rushed from the patio, Dani smirked, “And yet you’re at a party.”
The door slammed shut on her words and Dani was left alone, with a flamingo perched on her head.
“Hey.”
She wasn’t as alone as she thought and if that voice hadn’t sounded eerily like Jonah’s, Dani might’ve thought that her flamingo had become alive and spoken to her.
She turned around and saw Jonah perched, hesitatingly, on the steps that she’d climbed not long ago.
“Hey,” she breathed out.
“That seemed…refreshing, actually.” Jonah chuckled dryly as he moved up the stairs and slumped beside her. He hoisted himself up on the railing and he lifted Dani beside him.
Dani saw the exhaustion that screamed from his shoulders. She offered up her Corona wordlessly and Jonah took it, grateful.
“Something tells me that this night isn’t going to be a picnic,” Jonah remarked.
“How’d your thing go with your dad?”
She hit the target and Jonah’s lip curled upwards, amused at some irony that Dani was lost from.
“That’s why your fight with your sister was refreshing.” Jonah chuckled again. “Beats the fake shit of my family. Aiden just she lied right through her teeth when we dropped off our dad at Robbie’s. He loved the house; said that he’s going to come more often to visit.”
“You think he is?”
“No. I think we know our lies. Everyone knows them, but we’re just fake anyway. You and Julia, you guys don’t get what’s between you. It’s refreshing.”
Dani shifted to slide her hands underneath her legs. She offered up, hesitant, “Jonah, about…”
“Before?”
“Yeah. About before…”
“I’m sorry.” Jonah ended what she’d been about to offer.
“For what?” Dani asked.
“I pushed you. I’m sorry.”
“Oh.” And she laughed. “Everyone seems to be pushing someone today.”
“That’s what makes the world go round,” Jonah said lightly as he finished the beer.
“And speaking of how small the world is…”
Jonah glanced at her, “I never said that.”
“No.” Dani chuckled. “But that’s what I was thinking.”
“Guess it is, though.”
“What?”
“The world really is pretty small.” Jonah’s eyes looked at something faraway. Something that wasn’t visible.
“Guess it is,” Dani murmured.
“We should head in. Aiden will be out here pretty soon to make sure I don’t bolt from this party.” Jonah sighed and jumped off the railing. He moved to stand in front of Dani and took her hands. He entwined their fingers and asked, huskily, “After this is done, can you promise me that I’ll be deep inside?”
The rain started back as he asked his question.
Dani didn’t feel the first drops as they splashed onto them. She grinned and closed the gap as her lips found his. Against them, she whispered, “Damn straight.”
Jonah deepened the kiss as the sky opened abruptly above them and a downpour soaked the flamingo perched atop Dani.
Jonah held her hand and led her through the crowd that appeared from thin air. They were both soaked, caught in the downpour, and everyone had a smart comment to share.
Dani was quiet and watched.
Kelley Lynn was right. Kate was right. Jonah was adored by their community. The men slapped him on the back with a dirty remarks to share from the wetness that Jonah and Dani shared. And the women took note who held his hand and moved back a step as their eyes darkened in a predatory gleam.
New meat to talk about and ravage.
Dani knew any secrecy about their relationship would be gone within the first thirty minutes of sun-up.
As they ducked upstairs, Jonah led them to Aiden and Bubba’s room.
Inside, they were met with warmth and quilts strewn across the room, over tables, and even on the floor.
Dani crossed to the window and watched the rain pound onto the ground. She said dryly, “Something tells me that Robbie’s master bedroom doesn’t exactly compare to this room.”
Jonah chuckled and searched inside Bubba’s closet. “Probably not.” His voice was slightly muffled until he produced a t-shirt.
Frowning, he laid the shirt on the bed and remarked, “I’m going to have to wear my wet jeans. I don’t exactly measure up to Bubba’s size.”
Dani sighed and fell onto the bed. She stretched her arms above her head and sighed, not remorsefully, “I am very angry with my sister.”
“You don’t seem too torn up about that,” Jonah noted, distracted as he frowned and perused the rest of Bubba’s clothing. “God—can this guy be any bigger?”
“How’d it really go with your dad?”
Jonah stilled and turned to her, cautiously, “What’s up with you?”
“What?” Dani moved up and leaned on her elbows.
“You don’t usually ask. You’ll listen if I’ve got something to say, but you’ve never actually asked.”
“I can ask.”
“No, what’s up with you?”
Dani shrugged and sat up farther, “How’d it go with your dad?”
“Miserably, but it’s to be expected.” Jonah ripped off his wet shirt and his stomach rippled as he moved to pull Bubba’s baggy shirt over top.
“What do you mean?” Dani hadn’t moved from the bed. Her clothes were drenched, but she ceased to feel their anchored weight.
“That’s my dad for you. Pompous and stuffy and disapproving. He’s disapproves of everything.”
“My family doesn’t disapprove. They just cut off whatever is in bad taste with them,” Dani said faintly. She lay back down.
Jonah sat on the bed beside her and frowned to himself as he gazed at his pants. “I’m going to have to dry these.”
“Julia doesn’t care. I don’t even think she sees it. She just…”
“That means I’m going to have wait for them to dry.”
“Julia’s so screwed up and she doesn’t see it. Me? I see that I’m screwed up. I know what’s screwed me up.” Dani sat up.
“God, I wish Bubba was smaller. Why does he have to be freakishly large?”
“I’m screwed up because I lost my best friend to my spoiled little sister and when I come back, that sister’s dead. She deserved a good tongue-lashing. I wish I could’ve chewed her out. I would’ve chewed her out, now, maybe not before. I would’ve now, I’m different now.” Dani considered it and grinned with an affirming nod, “I showed Julia. I never would’ve done that before, but I did it now. I really…I shut her up.”
“Where’s their dryer?”
“What?” Dani caught his words.
“What?” Jonah glanced back at her.
They both looked at the other, on the bed.
“I’m talking about my sister.”
“I’m talking about my pants.”
Jonah frowned as he saw her still-wet clothing. “Are you going to change?”
“It’ll take me a while.” Dani lay back down.
“Okay.” Jonah stood up. “I’m going to go dry my pants. Come find me when you’re done.”
“Okay,” Dani said faintly as the door closed behind him.
“I’m talking to myself,” Dani said to herself, to the empty room around her. Lazily, she sat up and stood to study Aiden’s closet.
Dani stood taller than Aiden, but they were the same thin build. She’d make do with whatever caught her eye from the closet, which turned out to be a pair of comfortable trendy jeans and a simple white tank top with white flip-flops to round up the outfit.
Simple, but classy.
Dani was satisfied and she headed back out into the party with a drenched flamingo that hung loose from her fingers.
She found that it was easier to move through the crowd without Jonah linked to her hand and it didn’t take long before she located the washer and dryer.
/>
Jonah straightened from the wall that he’d been leaning against when he saw the door open.
“Hey?”
“You might think the Flamingo thing is dumb, but I kinda like it.” She held up her headband and explained, “I’d like to dry Mr. Flamingo and wear him around.”
Jonah grinned and tossed the headband into the dyer, “I think that’s a Miss Flamingo.”
“I should name her,” Dani joked.
“Don’t let Kate or Aiden name her. She’ll be named—”
Dani remembered, “Shelly.”
“Yeah. That sounds like something they’d name her.”
“No. Bubba already named her and I can’t believe we’re talking about an inanimate object as if it’s alive.”
Jonah smiled and said tiredly, “Yeah, well, my sister tends to make even inanimate objects come alive. It’s a gift she has.”
Dani quieted and heard the exhaustion. She remembered it from before and said now, “It must’ve been hard.”
“Hmm?”
“Your father,” Dani said simply. “You didn’t comment on Shelly before, we were having two different conversations upstairs, and I’m sorry I didn’t ask.”
“You did.” Jonah frowned.
“Yeah, but I didn’t push for you to talk about him.”
“Not really the place to hash out the dysfunctional functioning of my father.”
Dani leaned against the wall beside him and said softly, “Yeah, well, there’s a reason why it’s called dysfunctional—because it’s harmful and it’s wrong.”
“That flared up pretty quick, down there with your sister.”
“It’s been building.”
“I’m sorry?” Jonah laughed slightly.
“I’ve come to another realization today,” Dani announced.
Jonah waited.
And she said firmly, “I am messed up, but it’s not my fault. It’s my family’s fault. We’re all messed up and dysfunctional produces more dysfunction. It’s a cycle that doesn’t stop—ever.”
“No.”
“What?”
“No,” Jonah breathed out, his eyes downcast. “It stops when someone stops it. When that someone realizes what’s wrong and decides to stop it.”
Dani knew he wasn’t talking about her life. The person he talked about was in the room, but it wasn’t her.
“So stop it,” she challenged, softly.
Jonah looked and caught her eyes.
He stopped short and Dani added, “It’s painful, but it’ll be worth it. I hope.”
“Yeah.” He sighed again and caught her hands to pull her close. He ducked his head into her neck and murmured, muffled, “If I hadn’t promised Aiden that I wouldn’t steal you from this place, you and me would be very far far away right now.”
“Call me a simpleton, but I really like having friends who wear koalas on their arms, call themselves Chimp One and Two, and sew together orange hunting pads for a baboon who hasn’t arrived yet.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” And Dani silenced him with a kiss.
Jonah groaned in protest as the dryer beeped its end and a knock sounded at the door.
Dani opened the door as Jonah opened the dryer.
Robbie greeted her, frazzled, and pushed inside the room.
“Hey guys,” he said rushed and stripped to his boxers, which clung—Dani looked at the door instead.
“Hi Robbie,” Jonah murmured and offered Shelly to Dani as he asked, “Soaked, huh?”
“Yes,” Robbie grumbled as he took a deep breath and complained, “and Bubba’s not exactly a normal size—for a guy. The guy’s a giant.”
Jonah’s husky chuckle warmed Dani’s ear as she braved it and turned back around. Robbie had covered himself in a coat and lifted an eyebrow, “Sorry, Dani.” He frowned, “Why are you holding a flamingo headband thingy?”
“Oh—just wait to see what they have for you.”
“Great. Probably donkey ears or something. I’m an ass. Aiden told me that today when she stopped in and guilt-tripped me into letting her use my house. I haven’t called Kate and asked her out yet and I was supposed to three weeks ago. Hell, three months ago.”
“Don’t let my sis railroad you.”
Robbie grimaced and asked sarcastically, “Is there any other way to handle Aid when she turns those puppy eyes on you? I swear, I felt so bad that I would’ve offered up my home for an entire week. I was just glad to get out the office with my dignity intact.”
“Hate to tell you, but Aiden worked you.” Jonah laughed and reached around Dani to open the door. “I’m going to get some drinks.”
And he was gone as Dani stayed put, with the excuse to keep Robbie company in mind. It was what any decent human being would’ve done in her situation.
She wasn’t running and she wasn’t hiding. She was just being nice to a friend.
And that was not a justification, not at all.
“What did he mean? Aiden worked me? Aiden didn’t ‘work’ me.” Robbie thought for a moment and conceded, “Yeah, she did.”
The door opened again and Dani’s fate was sealed.
Boone stood frozen in the doorway, soaked, and his eyes become chilled as they skimmed over her shoulder to Robbie, nearly naked.
“Oh, sorry.”
“Oh my god,” Dani muttered and shot a hand out to stop the door. “It’s not…it’s nothing…Robbie’s a friend.”
Boone didn’t say a word, but looked at his clothes.
“Oh!” Dani scampered. “Okay—I’ll go. I have to…I’ll leave.”
They switched places and the door closed on Robbie’s comment, “This is awkward.”
And Dani was left, still breathing, on the other side.
“Hi!” Lari had popped out of thin air and she frowned past Dani’s shoulder. “I’m looking for Daniel, but I can’t find him. Do you know where he’s at?”
“Uh…”
“He went out to get my purse. I forgot it in the car, but he was absolutely drenched when he came back in. I told him to dry his clothes before he caught pneumonia.” Lari laughed a sickening sound of delight. “Heaven’s sake, I wouldn’t want pneumonia; I don’t want to get even a cold while I’m on vacation.”
“He’s…” Dani wouldn’t wish Lari’s presence on an enemy, much less a friend like Robbie. So she lied. “He’s gone downstairs. There’s a clothes dryer down there.”
“Okay! Thanks!”