She hadn’t been talking about the tsunami. She’d been talking about herself. She was the storm. People died when she was around. “No one knows about where I was.”
“And they won’t tomorrow either, tomorrow or the year after.”
“Thank you.” Dani looked up and found herself mesmerized. Erica was right. She’d once said that Jonah Bannon’s eyes could spin a rock into a frenzy. Dani saw what swirled Erica’s heart, but she saw a refuge in them too.
“I left someone behind.”
“He let you go.”
“No. I never told him I was leaving, but I did. It’s what I do. I leave.”
“Who’s left you?”
Everyone. “He wouldn’t have left me.”
“You never let him prove otherwise.”
“Why are you here?” Dani needed to know. She’d already told him secrets that she’d never spoken before. Boone had been there. He’d waited beside her in the hospital and he’d held her hand, day after day, but…she’d never talked about it. He asked, but she never answered. She just walked away every time he mentioned the experience, how she should talk to someone and get some help.
“Because I want that ride.”
“Why are you here?”
Jonah sobered. “Because I saw you in some news coverage of that storm. I protect the waterfront here and we got training material that was founded because of the tsunami. Aid and rescue was poorly executed and most of it was because of the nation’s poor economy, but the Red Cross put together a lot of strategies that could now prevent a lot of the deaths that could’ve been prevented back then. I saw you on one of those tapes.”
She hadn’t even known there had been cameras.
Jonah added, “There was a dedication to you. It was covered on one of the tapes. They said that you took care of thirty children.”
She had watched as the souls fled from the bodies. The eyes showed it. “Twenty of those kids died, but ten of them survived.”
They’d awarded her some medal and they gave her recognition. She’d been given some award money, to help her along or to continue her passion for caring for the world. She didn’t know why they gave her the money, but they did. There had been a lot of speculation and Dani had been turned into a hero. More checks rained in. The hospital staff loved caring for a celebrity. Boone raked up the attention, the loving boyfriend. He cared for her and accepted her silence. And when he had proposed, Dani gave him a weak smile, but that was all she could muster. He never got a no or a yes, but he pushed a ring on her finger. The nurse went into a tailspin the next morning when she saw it.
“You never cared about the Mustang, did you?”
He shrugged. “I’d still like to take it for a ride, but no. The car was an excuse.”
“I’m not some victim that needs my hand held.” Boone had tried that.
“You’re no more a victim than you are living.” The words hung between them for a moment. Then Jonah went back to eating. “The fair’s tomorrow. You going?”
She’d been let off the hook.
“I think you should go.” He moved his fork around his plate and sunk it into his last piece of meat. “You can go with Aiden if you want.”
“Your sister?” Dani asked in surprise.
“Yeah. Her and Kate are going together. They’re great friends, I guess.” He rolled his eyes. “Kate usually shows up Friday nights and the two of them gossip about every girl I’ve ever dated. That’s what females do, right?”
“Gossip?”
“Yeah.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“You should get some.” Jonah placed his cup on the table. “You’re right, you know. Everyone thinks you’re after Jake and Julia. It’d be good if you were friends with my sister.”
“And how’s that?”
“Because Aiden is not friends with Julia.” He cleared his throat. “And that’s all I’m going to say. I’m not getting involved anymore.”
“What? Too good for the gossip scene?”
“Exactly.”
Enough was enough. “You’re not responsible for me. Just because you know this information that means nothing, absolutely nothing, doesn’t make you responsible for me.” It was important for him to know. Important for her to say and important for both of them to know. “It means nothing.”
The laughter died. “What means nothing?”
Dani held her breath.
He continued, “The fact that I already knew what happened to you?”
She bit her lip.
Jonah added, “The fact that you told me?”
She had, hadn’t she?
He finished, “Or the fact that it’s crap that what happened to you means nothing? Because all of those things mean a whole hell of a lot.” He stood up and shook his head. “Look, to tell the truth, I don’t really know what I’m doing out here. Do I feel some sense of responsibility for you? No. You’re a grown woman and you can make your own choices. So I guess you’re right. I’m not responsible for you. And judging from what you just told me, you make sure everyone else knows that too.”
He walked out and it wasn’t long before she heard his car leave. Dani sat there for the longest time. She’d been off-balance before he showed up and she was even more now.
Aunt Mae came the next day for a visit. It wasn’t long after she left when a car horn honked outside her door.
“Good god fricking Grand Central Station. I swear.” She sighed and moved to the front door.
“Hey, Dani!”
Kate Daily looked overly bright with her police uniform as she headed for the house. Jake was scowling as he stayed in the passenger seat.
Dani lifted her cup in greeting. “Morning, Kate.”
“Smells good. Got enough for one more cup?”
“Sure. Come on inside.”
“I have to tell you,” Kate began as the door slammed shut behind her. “I am done with putting up with Jake since you got to town. He’s been crabby and generally a pain in the rear. I swear that Julia is just a greyhound. It’s like she can just sniff out whiffs of you on his uniform or something. Whatever she said last night must’ve been a doozy because he’s been crabbier than normal today.”
Extending a cup, Dani remarked, “If I had known the power of my presence I would’ve not come.”
Kate laughed. “This is the most fun our town has had in a year.”
“Really?”
“Oh, hell yeah!” Taking a sip, she continued, “Even though I have to put up with crabby cat outside, I had to come out to fill you in on what’s really going on in this town.”
Dani resigned herself.
Kate exclaimed, “Politics. That’s what this town is about. Small. Town. Politics. And you, my dear, just threw yourself smack in the middle of it. You see, most of this town worshiped your little sister, blessed be her name, but your other sister—she’s been walking around this town like she’s got a crown on that head of hers. Most of us are tired of it. That’s where you come in.”
“Really?”
“Yep, because you are going to take Jake back from her. We all know he was rightfully yours in the first place.” She leaned forward. “And when you do—”
“Julia will be a puddle.”
“Exactly.” Kate lifted her cup in a salute. “And her group has just been knocked out of power. People are going to go where Jake is. He is absolutely loved by all and he can do no wrong. Julia, she’s…she needs to be taken down a notch.”
“And I’m supposed to be the one to do it.”
Kate missed the mirth in Dani’s voice. “Yes.” Kate grinned widely, finishing her coffee. “Another cup?”
As Dani refilled it, she murmured, “Except that I have no intention of getting back together with Jake.”
“You don’t?”
“I don’t.”
“Are you sure? I thought I saw a flirt going on yesterday.”
“No flirt.”
“No?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Can I ask why not?”
“I didn’t come home with an agenda for small town politics or to knock my sister off her crown. I came home…just to come home.”
“Well, I’m disappointed.” Kate sighed. “I was so hoping. You stole my entire thunder I had going all day yesterday.”
“Why don’t you steal Jake from Julia?” Dani would’ve laughed if she hadn’t been taking a sip of coffee as she saw the horror come to Kate’s eyes. “Or not,” she murmured as she pulled the cup away from her lips.
“No, this just means that Julia has him for good now. Jakey’s never dated outside the O’Hara genepool. He’s doomed forever.” Kate dropped into a chair by the table.
“Or maybe he’s actually happy with her.”
“No. That can’t be.” Kate groaned. “She’s got everyone just dancing to her tune. It drives the rest of us crazy. I was so hoping to get you onboard. It’s her, Kelley Lynn, Heather, and Katrina. Those four and all their god-like hubbies. They make me sick.”
“You said the rest of you are tired of her. Who’s the rest of you?”
“Me. Aiden and Bubba. Robbie Gray—he’s a lawyer, you know. And it’s perfect because Kelley Lynn is his secretary. Sometimes we ask him to find out what they’re all planning.”
“Robbie Gray? Wasn’t he—?”
“Tall, skinny, and nerdy? Yep. A social misfit just like the rest of us, except that he’s tall, dark, gorgeous, and rich now. He’s not a social misfit anymore, but he remembers his roots. He’s a good friend.”
Catching onto a note in her voice, Dani grinned. Kate had a thing for the rich attorney. That was interesting and she could handle interesting for someone else, just not her own issues. She needed to be uninteresting.
“Why don’t you ask him out?”
“What?” Kate exclaimed. “Are you serious?!”
“Did I get it wrong?”
Kate dissolved as she mumbled, the fight gone from her voice, “No. You got it right, but Brooke Richter and Lori Hayden are duking it out over him.”
The quintessential blonde bombshells from high school. “Are they still…?”
“They’re still.”
Kate didn’t have an exotic look to her. She, after her high school transformation, now looked almost average. The brown hair fell to her shoulders and she was no longer the skinny skeleton she’d been back then. She’d filled out and while some guys loved the wholesome healthy look—most guys either went for the exotic slender look or the big boobs and platinum blonde look. Brooke Richter and Lori Hayden both were the latter.
“What about Jonah Bannon?” Kate slapped a hand on the table, excited again.
“What about him?”
“I was joking yesterday, but is there something going on between you? That’d be great. Jonah’s above everyone and he’d be better than Jake. I’d love watching Jake squirm. I didn’t know he had it in him to snipe as much as he did yesterday. Bannon this and Bannon that. All I heard yesterday.” Kate continued, “And I always thought Jake worshiped the ground Jonah walked on. He has since we’ve been partners.”
“Kate.”
“Huh?”
“I’m really here just to do my own thing. Nothing else.”
“So no Jonah?”
“No Jonah.”
“I just want Julia to be knocked off her rocker. At least for a little bit.”
“Anyway,” Kate sighed dramatically and placed her hands on her hips. “You have to come to the fair tonight with us. I even made Robbie promise not to bring Brooke or Lori. It’s a date-free night, except for Bubba. He doesn’t count anyway and Julia’s going to be gone for the weekend. She won’t even be there.”
“Who’s going to be there?”
“Me, Robbie, Aiden, and Bubba, and I think Stilts is coming too.”
“Stilts?”
“He migrated from Northway, but he’s fun. Just the group.”
“No Jonah?” That was the clincher for her.
“Nah. Jonah will probably be off and running with his crew, you know Hawk, Gee, Cory Lyles, those guys. Plus, they’ll be at the beer gardens and it’s a little disgusting to watch the young and old, too old, women fall over themselves for Jonah. Although Aiden just rates them all and follows Jonah around the kitchen when we’re scarfing down our late-night snacks. If you want entertainment—that’s funny!”
It would work. It would have to do because she wasn’t going to get a better offer unless she went alone…she’d rather not to do that if the town really would riot over her homewrecker powers. “When and where?”
“Seriously?” Kate broke into a wide smile. “We’re going around eight thirty to check all the barns and we’ll end up at the beer gardens later that night. This is great, Dani. Do you have a cell?”
Mae gave her a phone, so Dani wrote that number down. She sighed, standing in the doorway as Kate later waved and moved to the car. Jake had tried to catch some sleep, judging from the looks of him. His head had dropped back and he kicked up one leg on the dashboard.
Dani grinned—he always could fall asleep wherever he wanted. She hated that ability he’d been gifted with. She could only sleep, well, now she could sleep wherever and whenever, mostly. Just until the nightmares came.
It was pushing nine when Dani got there. Kate had called and said everyone was running late. She was supposed to look around the beer gardens first. That’s where everyone congregated before doing a quick sprint through the animal barns. She had hoped to avoid walking into the beer gardens alone.
“Hey.”
Turning her head, Dani saw the little boy who always shuffled behind her, slumped slightly over with his hands stuffed in his front pockets.
“Jake.” “You going in there?” He jerked his head towards the corner.
“Thinking about it.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
“I was just yanking you yesterday, you know.”
He shrugged, but murmured, “I know. You and Jonah—you two are so opposite. It just kinda spun me, you know. The thought of you with someone else. It’s like, the week after we broke up. I haven’t had time to…”
“Adjust.”
“Yeah.”
“A lot of folks around here have the thought I’m going to take you away from my sister. I didn’t come back for that.”
“I know.”
Hearing an outburst of laughter, she gestured behind her, “I think…”
“Okay.” Jake nodded as he stayed put.