Intrigued By Danger (The Danger Family #3)

16. Elle

16

ELLE

A Week Later…

Today was the first day I didn’t wake up feeling like shit. I’d gotten out of bed, prepared to deep clean my house, when Mrs. Vivian called and asked me if I could squeeze her in for a wash and roller set. She hadn’t done anything to me personally, so I couldn’t tell her no, and plus I would never let my feelings come in between my money. Even though I’d been doing well and ignoring all things Danger for the last week, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to avoid one of them for long.

While I got ready, I thought of every ridiculous scenario from Declan possibly telling his mom to set the appointment for him to Vivian setting me up for Winter to run up on me and I didn’t know which one I would be prepared for the most since I’d been on autopilot for the last week, running off two hours a sleep every night, and two red bulls and a cup of coffee a day. It was either work myself to death or cry myself to death, and I chose the former. After I finished getting dressed, I grabbed my things and drug myself to my shop and waited outside until she showed up. Even though I thought I was overreacting, I still wasn’t going to be stupid.

In the rearview mirror, I saw Winter’s car pulling into the parking lot. When the car stopped in front of the door, I noticed it was Declan driving, prompting me to lay my seat all the way back just enough to peek out the window. He’d gotten out of the car to open the door for his mom and the sight of him made my heart skip a beat. He was in shorts and a tank like he’d just finished working out. His mom walked to the door while he stayed at the car door, closing it slowly, either waiting to see her inside or waiting to see me, or both. I cursed myself for not thinking through whatever plan I thought I had, because I was sure that Declan was going to wait until his mom got inside. Since I didn’t unlock the door, I had no choice but to get out, and I never been more embarrassed in my life. I took a deep breath and opened my truck door.

When I stepped out of my truck, I made sure to not look Declan’s way.

“Ah. Elle, dear, you scared me,” Mrs. Vivian said.

“Good morning. I was just finishing up a call. Sorry about that,” I apologized.

“Good morning, Elle,” Declan spoke at my back, while I struggled to open the door.

Just the sound of his voice had me flustered.

I flashed him a quick look. “What’s up, Declan?”

Once I got past how fine he was, I remembered Winter’s post on Instagram, from a few days ago talking about family over everything. It was a picture of all of them on Donovan’s first day of school. I rolled my eyes, but I kept scrolling because I knew why she was posting it. I didn’t block her, but I took the liberty of blocking her boyfriend from all my socials, not that he was very active on them anyway.

When I finally got the door open, I let Mrs. Vivian walk inside before I closed and locked the door behind me. Declan couldn’t see me through the glass, but he knew I was staring, because he was staring back. It was crazy how fast you could get addicted to something. It only took two months for him to come into my life and shake it up so bad that a week without him felt like I’d been dying a slow death. That’s why I had to leave him in the bed in San Francisco, for my own sanity. If we had of flown back together, I would have folded. I left the door before I got sad again.

I walked in my suite and Mrs. Vivian was already sitting in my chair.

“I was hoping that I didn’t call you to early,” she said.

“You know my schedule has been all over the place lately, so I was up, and getting ready to clean my house. How you been? I ain’t seen you in a while.” I wanted to take the spotlight off me.

“Child, drama with this board I’m part of. Meeting after meeting after meeting, so I decided to stay out there while we get everything situated. How are things with you? My son told me that you were on a tour, how was that?”

“Uh…” I was taken aback by her saying that her son told her, but I wasn’t going to acknowledge that. “It was really good, actually. I made a few new connections. Hopefully I can be back on the road soon.”

What I wanted to say was that I needed to be back on the road soon, so I could be as far away as possible from that man. I grabbed a cape and draped it around her neck, as I spun her around.

“And your clients don’t mind?”

“No, they don’t. They wait for me to come back, or they go to the one of the other ladies, but it seems like they were waiting for me to come back this time. As soon as I opened my book this week, every spot filled up, and I immediately closed today off, but you know I’ll do anything for you Mrs. Vivian,” I said, with a chuckle.

Before she could respond, her phone rung.

“Sorry about this,” she apologized as she pulled her phone out of her purse. “Oh, it’s Winter. Hello,” she answered.

I pulled the rubber band off her ponytail and started running my fingers through her hair to see how much detangling she needed done.

“Declan dropped me off and left. He should have been home by now. Maybe he stopped by somewhere else before coming home. Is everything okay?”

She listened for a moment. I was thanking God that I’d spun her around because there was no way that I’d be able to hide the wide-eyed expression on my face.

“Oh. He’s pulling up. Good. See you later,” she said and moved the phone away from her ear. “Child crying because Declan been gone for a long time. She ain’t never been so clingy to him like that. The last time…” She gasped. “Oh my goodness. The last time she was so clingy to him, she was pregnant.”

My stomach churned like I’d ate some rotten food.

“Oh, nice,” I muttered.

She grinned. “I’m so happy for him, if that’s true. He’s been wanting more kids since Don could barely complete a sentence. I wonder if that’s the reason my son has been walking around here, looking higher than he usually be.”

I chuckled, wishing I could tell her about my visit to their dispensary.

“I don’t know why they be pretending I don’t know they be smoking that devil’s lettuce. They even get their old father to dabble in it sometimes. Anyway, so you have a new man?”

“Huh? Who told you that?”

“Child, I’m old, not dumb. I know how to work Instagram. I follow your page. Date nights and lots of flowers.”

“Oh!” I laughed, genuinely from the bottom of my belly. “Well, it didn’t work out between us.”

“Oh, no. You looked so happy. I’m sorry. What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Umm…” I didn’t expect my bottom lip to quiver that fast. I cleared my throat. “It just didn’t work out. Let’s go to the bowl.”

We moved to the bowl, and she sat back, getting comfortable. Grabbing my materials from the cabinet gave me a chance to get myself together. When I turned and sat my products down, she was looking at me like a concerned mom.

“Is whatever it is, fixable? The reason it didn’t work out.”

I responded with a slight shrug, and half head shake. I didn’t know if there was anything Declan could do to fix it. If he did break up with Winter, would I just be a rebound to him? Would his son ever see me as anyone other than his Aunt Elle? How would the family react to us dating seriously? Our situation had several moving parts, and I didn’t want to deal with that.

“I know that look,” she grinned. “A look that my daughters give me whenever they know the answer to something, but don’t want to say it out loud. I will say this, and we can leave it alone. Life is too short to not be happy. Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot have it all because you can. You’re beautiful, smart, and any man would be lucky to have you.”

“Oh my God, Mrs. Vivian,” I sighed, fanning my eyes. “Thank you for saying that. I’ll be okay though.”

“Okay, you know you my child too. So, if you ever need to talk or anything, you can call or text me.”

“Thank you, so much. It really means a lot to me.”

“No problem at all, my dear.”

I turned the water on and let it warm up before I wet her hair.

“Are you excited about tonight?”

“Yes. My friend been had a teacher spirit for the longest. I call her the kid whisperer because they love her.”

All this week, Greysen had been studying for her teacher’s license, which was another excuse I used to not update her on my whirlwind romance with her brother-in-law. I knew I promised myself that I was going to tell her after I got back from San Francisco, but when she reminded me of her upcoming test, I’d decided that her full attention needed to be on that test. When Diesel sent out an email letting us know that she’d passed her test and he was flying in one of her favorites chefs and her team to celebrate, I immediately thought of the worst possible scenarios happening at her dinner and it scared me to death.

“They really do. She’s such a good mom and aunt to Don. She’s needed in these schools.”

“I agree. She’s been ready to get back into the classroom for a while. I don’t know if I’ve asked you this before, but what was your career path before you met Mr. Duncan.”

She chuckled. “A journalist. I was going to college for mass communication. Being somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be with my worldly cousin as my mother called her and ran into Duncan Danger. My life has not been the same since the night I met that man.”

I swooned as I listened to her talk about how Mr. Duncan swept her off her feet. Listening to her talk about him, I heard exactly where Declan got his charming ways from. I wasn’t lying when I told him from the beginning that he was more like his father than he realized. I could have listened to her talk about him all day because I could tell that after being with him for decades, she was still very much in love with him.

After I was done washing and conditioning her, I took her back to my chair, and started rolling her hair. Talking with her made time go by fast, but only made it closer to when I would have to see him, and her, because I knew Winter was going to put on a show. I wasn’t over thinking that because I found it very convenient that the perfect time to send Mrs. Vivian photos of their family day was when she was sitting in my chair, especially since she’d already posted those photos on Instagram. They were recent because I saw the healing rope marks that she’d tried to filter out. It didn’t help that every picture that came in, Mrs. Vivian had to show me. Luckily after I finally come clean to Greysen, I’ll able to skip these family dinners.

That Evening…

I’d been sitting in the parking lot of the Juke Box for the last five minutes, annoyed with myself that I was letting the thought of being in the same room with Declan rattle me. Diesel wanted everyone inside and seated by 6:55 P.M., which was less than fifteen minutes away, so I had no choice but to get out. I took a couple of deep breaths before I stepped out of my truck and adjusted my dress. On the invitation, Diesel said the dress code was casual, so I went with a green one shoulder midi dress with a tasteful split up the side and paired it with my nude ankle strapped heels.

I didn’t even have time to breathe because as soon as I stepped on the sidewalk, Declan, Dymon, and Kemba came out of the door, like they’d been waiting for me. As I walked up, Declan and I locked eyes for a second, but it seemed much longer. The matching olive-green pants and jacket and off-white shirt went perfect with his skin. His eyes did a quick scan over my body before he blinked slowly. They all stared at me as if I was the last thing they were talking about before they seen me.

“Hello,” I spoke.

Before I could walk by them, Declan grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him, causing me to yelp lowly. He pulled me into the corner, and instantly, Dymon and Kemba made a two-point circle, with their backs to us, covering us, even though we were mostly out of sight. When I tried to snatch away from him, he held on to my wrist tighter.

“You keep snatching and I am going to squeeze tighter. Be still and let me look at you,” he commanded.

Stiffening at his commanding tone, I still looked away, hoping it showed him that he was no longer in charge of me. Trying to act like his strong, yet subtle, wood and floral scent wasn’t inviting was so hard, because by now I’d be nose deep in his neck, sniffing him.

He clasped his hands in front of him. “You really are something you know that? Leaving me in the bed, blocking me from your phone and your social media, and even the fucking emails. Giving me my money back. Tsk. Is that—look at me when I am speaking to you, young lady.” Ignoring the sudden throb in my pussy, I rolled my eyes up toward him, sighing hard. “Is that really how you think this is going to end?”

Oh, God.

Oh, God.

Please be strong.

Please be…

“That was a question.”

I shrugged my shoulders, like I was annoyed with him talking to me. The bird sounds in my ears were louder than any thought I had, and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of letting him know he was getting to me.

“You don’t know?” He started playing with the strands of coils on my forehead, twisting them out of my face. I suddenly hated that I’d taught him how to do it. “You look beautiful tonight, by the way. Why are you covering your face? I want to see you.”

I blinked, thankful that my senses were coming back to me.

“You have a girlfriend, Declan.”

“That is not new information.”

“And look.” I moved my head back. “You have to hide to talk to me.”

He looked past me. “They can move if they want.”

“Ugh,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

“You and I are going to have a conversation, and—"

“Declan, I spoke to you, just now, and I spoke to you earlier when you dropped your mother off. What more do you want from me?”

He rubbed his tongue across the top row of his teeth.

“What I want from you right now is to get everything out, so you won’t interrupt me again, while I’m speaking.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“What I want from you is to stop acting like we aren’t two people who are in love with each other and that you really thought leaving me in the bed with a Dear John letter was okay, after everything we’ve done for each other. You really thought that was the proper way to end things?”

I stared at him, trying to blink back my tears.

“Hey, don’t. Don’t cry, Ella. I just feel like we owed each other a little more than how you left things. That wasn’t fair.”

“Fair? To whom? You immediately go back to the bed you share with someone while I went home alone.”

“And who fault is that? I told you where I want to be.”

I shook my head. “And what steps are you taking to be where you want to be?”

“It’s a work—”

“Work in progress, of course.” I finished his sentence. “Talking about what’s fair. Family days don’t give work in progress to me. And now, look at me, standing here, and it almost seems as if I am begging you, and you know that I am not that type of bitch.”

He licked his lips. “What type of bitch are you?”

I started to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist.

“Come on, Lil’ Bit, you know why she’s doing that.”

“I don’t know shit,” I snapped.

His eyes dropped to my lips and then back into my eyes, biting his lip. That low chuckle he did had my girl’s engine starting to rev up again. He loved when I talked shit to him. If I didn’t get away from him, he was two more lip bites away from being able to ask me to go to the bathroom with him.

“Look, we don’t need to have a conversation about nothing. I am a big girl. I told you that. We had fun. We had our experiences. Let’s just go back to our lives and act like this never happened. Everybody will be happy, and two hens and a bird in a pear tree or however it goes.”

He stroked his chin, and chuckled. “Della, would you like to miss your friend’s entrance?”

I ignored that and how tight my pussy clenched.

“Can you take this thing off my neck? It’s irritating.”

“Yeah, because you keep trying to yank it off, but the answer is no.”

“What the fuck do you mean no,” I hissed.

“Do you think that’s the way a young lady should speak?”

I rolled my eyes, and rubbed my lips together, trying to hide me blushing.

“Exactly. It’s not coming off.”

“I no longer belong to you, Declan.”

“On the contrary, my dear…”

Dymon snapped his fingers lowly a few times.

“When you’re ready to have a conversation like my big girl, I might consider taking it off.”

“Consider?”

Dymon snapped his fingers again.

“Go to your seat, dear. Lil’ pretty self. And don’t bother your hair either.”

I scoffed before brushing between his brother and his friend and walking inside the building. Just as I walked by the hostess stand, I noticed Winter coming out. She and I locked eyes, but I looked away first because I didn’t want to give her a chance to make any weird facial expression at me and the dinner ends before it begins. I hated that Declan yanking me into a corner gave me a boost, because it shouldn’t have. He was a taken man, and judging from those photos, he had no intentions on leaving that girl. Eventually, I was going to have to have a conversation with him, because I needed this collar off. I felt like once that was gone, I’d really be able to start putting him behind me.

Entering the sitting area, it didn’t even look like the same juke joint. Whoever Diesel hired to decorate did what needed to be done. It was set up like a wedding reception with rectangle tables and flowers all over the room. Diesel had several pictures of her studying set up around the place, and it was the cutest thing. The live band in the corner had just finished setting up. The tables were had name cards on them, so I walked around speaking to everybody until I found my name in between Denim and Kemba’s names.

“Hey y’all,” I spoke to the table.

I took my seat next to Denim and I didn’t have to guess who the two empty seats across from me belonged to, seeing in how Donovan was on one side of the empty seats and Quinci was on the other side. I looked around the room to see if there was somewhere I could move to because I did not want to sit across from that man and his girlfriend. I tapped my card against my hand, trying to figure out what I wanted to do, when Vivian and Duncan approached the table. Moving now would look extremely weird, so I eased in the seat.

“Hello, everyone,” She spoke.

Duncan pulled her chair out for her, before she sat down.

“Hey, Grandma. I like your dress,” Donovan complimented her.

She smiled. “Thank you, Grandson.”

The moment I smelled Declan’s scent, I pulled my phone out of my clutch and pretended to be on it when him and his girlfriend took their seats across from me. Just like his son, he complimented his mother and that had me blushing like he’d told it to me. I loved how much he loved his mother, and she always talked about how good their relationship was. It was the perfect mom and son relationship, and not like one of those weird ones, where I’d end up having to smack her up. When Kemba dropped in the seat next to me, I looked at him and that stupid ass grin, and then back at my phone. Dymon came and took his seat next to Quinci.

I looked at Denim. “Did I miss Metri?”

“She was over there at the table with Quinci’s people. She must have gone to the bathroom or something.”

I looked around as a last-ditch effort to move again, but the band had started to play. Everyone looked toward the entrance to see Diesel shuffling a blind folded Greysen inside. As soon as he took her blindfold off, her mouth dropped opened and the waterworks immediately started. Seeing her overcome with emotions as she hugged and kissed her husband had me tearing up. I’d always scream from the mountaintop that Greysen deserved every single good thing that was happening to her. We all stood, clapping for her as Diesel led her around the room, letting her speak to everyone.

We both squealed as she approached me for a hug.

“I am so so so proud of you, Grey Grey,” I said, as we embraced tightly.

“I wouldn’t be here without you, Elle. I love you, so much.”

We looked at each other and shared a smile before we hugged again. I smiled, watching her make her way around the table to their seats at the end. Once they sat down, everybody else sat down. Glancing across the table, Declan was staring at me, forcing me to look away from him. The music lowered and the chef came out to introduce herself and her team, while her servers started walking around the room, filling the water glasses, and setting buckets of iced champagne on each end. I watched Declan grab a bottle and pop it opened, filling his glass, then mine, and then Denim’s before sitting the bottle back in the ice. Instinctively, my eyes darted to Winter who had an unreadable expression on her face.

“Dad,” Donovan called his name.

Declan looked at him. “Son, your sparkling water should be coming out soon.”

“Okay, but you didn’t pour mom any,” he responded.

Out the corner of my eye, I noticed the different facial expressions on Vivian and Duncan’s face that were both hard to read.

“I’m not drinking tonight, son,” Winter said.

When Vivian’s lips spread across her face, I suddenly remembered her telling me that Winter might have been pregnant because of how clingy she was being. Thinking about the dates, nothing Declan said about their relationship added up. Thinking about how happy Vivian was to show me those photos had me wondering if she knew and was showing me purposely to rattle me. If the servers hadn’t come around with the bread and oil, my thoughts would have run rampant, and fucked up my mood. If I wanted to drink my wine, I needed to put something on my stomach, so I went to reach for the tongs to the bread at the same time as Declan, prompting me to snatch my hand back.

“Ladies first.”

“You go ‘head.”

The slight squint of his right eye said so much without saying anything at all. When I went to reach for the tongs again, Winter had reached for them, and slightly snatched it.

“Son, would you like some bread?”

“Yes, please. Thank you, Mom,” he responded.

Out the corner of my eye, I noticed Quinci and Dymon’s lips twisted up, trying not to laugh. She’d placed two pieces of bread on Donovan’s plate, then hers, and then the last couple of pieces on Declan’s plate. He cut his eyes to her before looking at his parents and reaching for the other basket of bread.

“Thanks,” I mumbled and took a couple of pieces and placed them on my plate.

Diesel, Greysen and her dad seemed to be having a great conversation at their end of the table, not knowing how tense the other end was going. It didn’t help that nearly everyone at the table knew about me and Declan. I’d imagined the embarrassment that Winter felt knowing that everyone knew about us, but she’d won, technically. I wasn’t going to play side chick to him, and I meant that. Thankfully, the servers started serving the first dish, and the sounds of glass clinking drowned out some of the tension in the room.

In the middle of eating, the band started playing When I See U by Fantasia, prompting me and Kemba to look at each other slowly, and started shaking our heads. On cue, I looked at Quinci and she was giggling so hard.

“What? Oh. This song.” Greysen said, laughing. “Oh my God.”

“Y’all laughing to hard, what happened,” Dymon asked, looking at us.

I shook my head, not wanting to talk about it, but Greysen waved me off.

“Oh, don’t. It’s funny. In high school, all of us took drama class together, including Johnny and Quest Jr. I don’t know how all of us ended up in class together. One day, I don’t know which one of them woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but soon as class started, they were going in on each other. Straight Comedy Central. Whole class was crying laughing. Mrs. Hall ain’t say nothing, just let them keep going. Neither one of them was backing down from each other and y’all know they got a mouth on them. Twenty minutes into them going in on each other, Mrs. Hall finally stood up and was like Thomas, Evans, since y’all like entertaining so much, how about I let y’all entertain the whole school in the end of the semester play with your very own solo, and let’s make it eighty percent of your grade. Everybody got quiet. It’s funny because not only did she really make them do it, but she also carved out twenty minutes of every class afterwards for them to practice in front of everybody. And she’d be like…” Greysen burst out laughing, while I shook my head.

“Mrs. Hall would be like, okay class, now it’s time for the entertainment segment of the class,” Quinci added, laughing.

I looked around the table at everybody laughing except her.

“Anyway, this was the song that we danced to, so we heard it over and over and over again, and I have never listened to the song the same again. I don’t even know what he said to me to set me off. He always started with me, for no reason. Always in trouble because of him.”

“That’s the truth. Like that time all y’all went to jail,” Mr. Bobby said.

Kemba leaned forward, grinning. “Really, Mr. Bobby? That was my fault?”

I looked at Kemba, nodding. “Absolutely. You invited that girl to our prom knowing she had a boyfriend and we weren’t going to let them jump you, when they came to confront y’all.”

He waved me off, laughing. “Man, she knew she had a boyfriend, and I could have handled myself.”

“Oh, please. If I hadn’t swung on that one dude that was about to sneak you, we’d be having a different conversation, right now. Quinci would have to puree all your food,” I said, and looked at Quinci. “Am I lying?”

She raised her hands. “I ain’t in that.”

I waved her off. “Of course, you’ll take his side.”

“Thank you, Friend,” Kemba said with a nod.

“Ah. So, there is some bite behind all that bark?” Declan said, before taking a big sip of his drink.

I squinted at him. “And is,” I spat, playfully, wishing I could have added that his companion was very close to finding out.

“Elle, have you two ever dated or something? You guys fight like you have. This is not the first time I’ve heard you two fighting like an old married couple,” Mrs. Vivian asked.

Pulling my eyes away from Declan, I looked at Vivian, and shook my head quickly. “God, no.”

“And God, no is right. She’s like that annoying little stepsister that you don’t particularly like, but you’ll protect her because the people around you like her. That’s it.”

I cut my eyes to him. “Little? I’m older than you.”

“That matters none.”

I smacked the back of his head lightly, making him laugh.

By the time the third dish came around, everyone was full of wine, the food was delicious, as I expected it to be, and the conversation around the table was full of laughs. I’d managed to keep my conversation with Declan to below minimum, because Winter was up to her fourth eye roll, and I was one drink away from asking her if she had a problem. Once I’d relaxed, and stopped worrying about her staring at me, she amped the loving girlfriend routine up, rubbing Declan’s back, trying to act like they were the most loving couple in the world, taking a hundred selfies of her and him, and Donovan. She’d become so over the top, that I didn’t miss Vivian’s squint at her a couple of times.

Diesel got up and grabbed the mic and tapped it a couple times, getting everyone’s attention.

“What’s up y’all? I am Diesel Danger, husband to the beautiful Greysen McCree Danger. If you’re here, then you are some of the most important people to my wife, so I want to thank each of you for coming out and celebrating my wife’s new path and keeping it secret. God knows how hard it is to keep a secret in this town. The last dish is getting ready to come out, so I wanted to make a toast to my beautiful wife. Greysen, watching you study and work your behind off to get your degrees and now your teaching license, makes me so proud to be your husband. Your passion, drive, and dedication led you to this moment and I am so excited to see where you grow from here. I love you and I am one thousand percent in your corner. So, Grey D, here is to continued success…”

I picked up my glass and tapped Denim’s glass, and then when I went to tap Declan’s, Winter pushed her glass against his, making his arm move, and miss my glass. I stared at her, and I started seeing red. Several thoughts started running through my brain all at once and all of them ended with me punching her in her mouth. She was lucky that I didn’t want to embarrass Greysen or myself, so I smiled at her.

“Elle, here you go,” Diesel said approaching me holding the mic out.

I looked at him. “Ooh, Diesel, you said there wouldn’t be any…” I stood up, straightening my dress.

I took the mic from him and cleared my throat. Declan sat back in his seat, drinking all of me in, making me blush, and shake my head. If Winter hadn’t been being a bitch all night, I wouldn’t have given him a reaction.

“Hey, Grey. I didn’t prepare anything, so I’m going to go off the dome. We have been best friends since we were young girls and since then, like I was telling our new mom, Mrs. Vivian, earlier, you’ve always had a teacher spirit. Everything the Bible says love is: patient, kind, not arrogant or rude, is what kind of teacher you will be, and what kind of teacher these new types of kids need today. I’m so proud of you and I know that this is only the beginning of how you’re going to the change children’s lives. Everybody knows that you are the nice one out of us, so have me on speed dial for when one of the parents get crazy with you. I love you, cheers.” I held my glass up to her.

We blew each other kisses as I sat down, proud of myself for honoring my friend respectfully, and throwing a little shade at Winter at the same time. I passed the mic down to Greysen’s dad, so he could say his speech. His speech was equally as funny as it was emotional, claiming it was the speech he wanted to give at her wedding. When he was done the band started playing Tennessee Whiskey. The song made me think back to a night where Declan and I were listening to music while playing Connect Four. He sang the song so good that I wasn’t even mad that he’d beat me for the sixth time in a row. He said that it was him and Donovan’s favorite song they listened to on the way to drop him off at school, and even showed me a video of them singing it together.

On cue, he’d started singing the lyrics, low enough for just those of us closest to him could hear. Out the corner of my eye, I saw Duncan slightly tapping Vivian and nodding toward Declan. Dymon nudged Quinci, and slightly pointed at Declan. Her eyes widened as she grabbed the mic, slowly sliding it down past Dymon, so he could be heard by everybody. It wasn’t like he was the best singer in the world, and he didn’t need to be to sing that song, he needed to sound hurt, and that’s how he sounded. As I listened to the lyrics, the lump in my throat started to grow, so much so that it seemed like his collar was starting to choke me. Thank God, his son joining in with him on the second verse relaxed me just a little. It didn’t help that his family looked so happy to see him breaking out of his shell. The thought of ruining that dynamic had my stomach twisting in knots that neither the water nor the wine could untwist. Sipping down the water didn’t help, as it seemed as if it was sitting right at the bottom of my lungs ready to come back up. Trying to hold it down made my eyes water. Donovan hit the high note as best as he could, making everybody stand and clap. I used that opportunity to escape to the bathroom, and barely made it to the first stall before I started puking up water and wine, and the food I’d ate. I hovered over the toilet for a few more minutes just in case there was more, but there wasn’t.

I walked out of the stall and over to the sink. Grabbing a few paper towels, I folded and wet them, so I could dab my face. My eyes were blood shot red from trying to hold my vomit down. I pressed the towel gently against my eyes, hoping that would help just a little. When the coolness went away, I looked in the mirror to make sure I was good before blotting myself dry. Gathering some water in my hand, I sipped a little of it so I could rinse my mouth out. I could hear that Declan and Donovan had everyone singing the chorus now, so no one would be paying attention to me sneaking back inside. After taking a few more minutes to gather myself, I left the bathroom and went back out to the table, joining the last rounds of applause for them, and ignoring the look that Declan was giving me.

“Baby, that was so good,” Winter complimented Declan as soon as they sat down. She wrapped her arms around him and planted several kisses on his cheek. “Do you know how good you were?”

When he nodded slowly and closed his eyes, my heart nearly exploded, knowing how much Declan loved praise. Sure, it was what I wanted for him, but I didn’t want it to be done in front of me. Knowing what she knew about me, I was sure she was doing it on purpose, and it didn’t take long for her to smirk to prove me right. When Winter turned to Donovan and kissed all over him, Declan’s eyes popped open, looking directly at me. A part of me didn’t even know I could be jealous as I was, and the other part of me wanted to curse his ass out. Thankfully, the server broke our eye contact when my dessert plate was set in front of me.

“Whipped cream?”

“Yes, please.”

After spraying some whipped cream on my cake, I leaned over to Denim, and loudly whispered, “Everything reminds me of him.”

Denim gasped and nudged me playfully before laughing. Quinci heard me and was chuckling. I looked at Winter and I could see her chest rising and falling rapidly. I’d been letting her slide all night with her picking with me, when she had no reason to. I’d already told her boyfriend that I wasn’t going to play second to her. All I needed him to do was take his collar off me and we’d be done for good.

“So, everyone…” She said, pausing, looking around, making sure to skip me. “I wanted you guys to be the first to know that Declan and I are finally tying the knot before we…” she loosely slipped her hand in his, ignoring him staring upside her head. “Before we welcome our new one into the family.”

If the table was any quieter, they would have heard my stomach expand like someone was blowing air into it. Donovan was the first to jump up and hug his mom, while everyone else started to congratulate him. My heart started pumping rapidly like I was about to have a panic attack.

Elle, you can dart away from this table in tears letting her know her big Joker worked, or you could sit here and act like the bitch you know you are. You knew what the fuck was up from the beginning.

It took me less than seven seconds to recover and congratulate them both, with the biggest and most sincere smile on my face. When Declan looked at me, he scanned my face desperately, looking for what, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

“Is it a girl, mommy? I want a sister,” Donovan said, trying to touch her stomach.

“I don’t know yet. I’m just now moving into my second trimester.”

Now, that was a punch in the gut. I really had to laugh to myself to keep from losing it. It felt like Déjà vu with Johnny and his pregnant girlfriend, but worse, because I only liked Johnny a lot, but Declan; I’d allowed myself to fall in love with him. Hearing that he was about to get married and have a baby when we were just in San Francisco a week ago, and he was wanting me to let him figure something out. Hell, he was just begging me right before the dinner started. Recovering from open heart surgery was probably less painful than what I was feeling. When I looked at him again, he was looking down at his dessert. The longer I stared at him, the bigger my throat swelled.

“Elle, have you opened your books for this week?”

I blinked a couple times before looking at Quinci, who was wearing a very sympathetic look on her face.

I cleared my throat. “No, I haven’t.” It came out a bit snippier than I expected, so I cleared my throat again. “I meant that I’m not. Because I’m moving. To Texas.”

Everybody’s head at the table snapped toward me. They were giving me more emotion than they gave the newly engaged and pregnant couple.

“Excuse me?” Greysen hissed at the end of the table.

“Elle, you didn’t say anything about that this morning when I came to see you,” Vivian said. “Selfishly, I am hurt. You can’t just spring something like that on me.” She said, jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

I wondered if she’d caught on by now and knew that her favorite son had been juggling two women, lying to one, maybe both of us, who knew at this point.

“It was a last a minute thing. I’d been wanting to push the button for a while, and I finally did.”

“You have family out there?”

“No. An ex,” I blurted out, and Duncan’s eyebrow went up.

“I said, excuse me,” Greysen snapped, getting the attention of the table next to us.

I turned and looked at her, and the expression on her face was one I hadn’t seen in a very long time, sadness.

“Can I see you for a moment?” She asked, standing from her chair.

I nodded. Standing, I avoided Declan’s menacing glare and grabbed my clutch and keys and followed Greysen toward the bathroom. She pushed the door to the bathroom opened, and I walked in behind her. She pushed the stall doors open to see if we were alone. When she got to the last stall, she stared at the wall before turning and looking at me with tears running down her face.

She took a deep breath. “Did I… Did I do something wrong?”

I looked at the floor, shaking my head. Looking at her coming apart had me breaking at the seams.

“Then why am I just now hearing about you moving to Texas, and with Johnny? Is that what I heard you say?”

I couldn’t respond.

“For the last few weeks, I have been racking my brain trying to figure out if I’d done or said something, and…”

“I fell in love with Declan,” I mumbled lowly in the middle of her tirade.

“I couldn’t believe…what did you just say?”

“I fell in love with Declan.”

She closed her eyes tightly as if she was trying to understand what she’s just heard. I fiddled my thumbs, growing anxious, waiting on her to say something.

“It just—”

Her eyes popped opened, making me press my lips together.

“That’s the big secret? You’re not hiding some big health diagnoses or any of that. You switched up on me over a man?”

“Greysen, I didn’t switch up. I just…” I shrugged, trying to hold back the tears, but I couldn’t. “I wanted to prevent this.”

“Prevent what?”

I shook my head.

“Yes, you do know. You just said how long we been friends. What on Earth could you want to possibly prevent by telling me that you fell in love with Declan…” She paused and her face suddenly fell. “You said Declan! Declan Danger! That’s the Declan you’re talking about, Elle!”

I nodded.

I was wondering why she was so calm when I’d said his name the first couple of times. She was so mad that she hadn’t really heard what I’d said.

“Okay… okay… okay…” She rubbed her forehead. Um… wow, wow, wow, I… okay, okay. It’s all making sense now. I am…” She paused, shaking her head. “Thank you for coming tonight.”

“Greysen. Let me explain.”

“I will, but not now. I need to process what just happened that was supposed to be a celebration for me. I need to calm down and I need to think.”

We stared at each for a few moments before she looked away from me, basically dismissing me, hurting my feelings even more. I had no choice, but to leave the bathroom with my tail tucked between my legs. Instead of going back through the dining area, I found the nearest exit and hightailed it out of there. Once I was safe behind the tint of my truck, I started sobbing. Everything that just happened was exactly what I was afraid of happening.

After getting myself together enough, I drove to my dad’s house. When I pulled in the yard, he was sitting him on the porch puffing on his pipe. I was hoping that he’d be gone to bed, and I could avoid him and a pending lecture, once he heard how stuffy I sounded. I took my shoes off, buying time, hoping to have gathered myself enough to not raise any questions from him. I grabbed my things and got out the truck.

“Aw, shucky, now. You looking good, Della,” he complimented me as I walked up on the porch.

“Thanks, Dad.” I choked out, trying not to burst into sobs.

“Come here, Della,” he ordered.

“I’m okay.”

“What did I say?”

I sighed and walked over and dropped down on the other side of the swing. I took one deep breath, and instantly fell apart. He handed me the towel from his pocket and waited until I’d halfway gotten myself together to start talking.

“Now, tell me what happened?”

When I tried to talk, I started to sob again.

“You don’ gon’ and fell in love with that boy, let him knock you up, and now what, he decided to choose his family over you? Do I have that right?”

“It’s much more complicated than—no! I am not pregnant, Dad? What?”

He looked at me, blowing smoke out the corner of his mouth.

“Ya grandma and I went fishing last night in my dream.”

“Okay? Y’all loved fishing. I saw all the photos of y’all down at the creek fishing.”

“Just because you saw pictures, doesn’t mean she loved it. She went fishing with me because it was something I loved to do. Last night, she was very happy to be there. Talkative, scaring the damn fish away.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Yes, you do. She was happy to fish which means you knocked up,” he said, and lifted his arm. “Come on.”

Ignoring that, I scooted over and laid my head on his shoulder. Just when I thought I was all cried out, tears welled up in my eyes again.

He sighed, deeply. “Della, you know… I want you to know that I am not mad at you, nor am I disappointed in you, because I know you. I know the young woman I raised. Anything you do, you do it with great intention, or it wouldn’t get done. Just know that I am one hundred percent by your side, and everything will work itself out.”

I sniffed. “Thank you, Dad.”

“Of course, my child. However, I am going to have a conversation with him though, because I will not allow him to treat my grandchild like a second-class citizen all because he wanted to step outside his relationship.”

“Oh my God, Dad. I’m not with child.”

“Okay, I know what my dream told me. Sherry just changed the sheets down in the den if you were staying here tonight. I’m going to go get ready for bed.”

He stood and kissed the top of my head before going inside. His short but loving conversation had me smiling. Ever since I was a little girl, he couldn’t stand to see my tears, and he would never let me see him cry, or be sad.

Later That Night…

I woke up to a few taps on my forehead. Seeing a hooded figure standing over me had me blinking rapidly. I gasped when I realized I wasn’t going crazy.

“I’m ready to talk now.”

“Grey?”

“Who else?”

I sat up and turned on the lamp. She was swallowed in what had to be her husband’s black hoodie. I looked at the time to see that it was almost three in the morning. I didn’t even remember falling asleep.

I pulled the covers back and scooted over. “You’re getting in?”

“No.” She reached into the pocket and pulled out a sack of weed. “I been in his stash. Come on.”

“Okay. Big Daddy is going to kill you,” I said as I climbed out of the bed and slipped in my house shoes.

“I got enough milk pumped and frozen for at least a month. I’m good.”

I went to my bottom drawer and pulled out my rolling tray.

“I got some papers,” Greysen said.

“Okay, good. Let me use the bathroom.”

After using the bathroom, I washed my hands, and threw some water on my face. The swollen bags around my eyes were evident that I’d cried myself to sleep. When I walked out the bathroom, Greysen was staring at her phone.

“You’re being summoned back home already,” I asked as I threw my robe on.

“Girl, he doesn’t know I’m gone. I put the monitors by his side of the bed and left.”

“Bitch, please. If you think for one—wait, how did you get in here?”

“I caught Ms. Sherry as she was going back to work.”

“Oh, and how long were you standing over me, weirdo?”

She chuckled. “Long enough.”

“Uh-huh. Come on.”

After grabbing my phone and the rolling tray, we walked outside, and sat on the swing. I sat the rolling tray in between us, and she dumped the weed on the tray. The first few moments of us breaking down the weed was quiet and slightly tensed for me.

I cleared my throat.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she finally said.

“I’m sorr—”

“I didn’t know if I felt betrayed or…” she picked up the blunt and licked it closed, spitting the crumbs away from her lips. “Or just left out, or what. What reason should I be mad that my best friend got some new dick? I shouldn’t be mad about that. Should I be mad that I was the last to know? Or because it’s my brother-in-law? Or that my best friend didn’t trust me enough to tell me? I tossed and turned to all those thoughts. I’m sitting here thinking like, do I have to know every one of my best friend’s secrets? So, I really couldn’t rationalize with myself why I was mad when you first told me. However, I would like to know why you didn’t tell me?”

She lit her blunt and pulled on it, while I licked mine closed.

“It was so complicated.”

“Complicated. You and I have been through a lot of complications.”

“Yeah, but this was so different. Would you be weirded out by me fucking someone who looked exactly like your husband. Or if you would think that I was attracted to Diesel. I feel weird saying it out loud now.”

“As you should. Because I would have never thought that about you.”

“And on top of him having a girlfriend, and you being married, and all. Like marriage changes people and their thoughts.”

“What have I said that have given you any indication that my thoughts had somehow changed since I’ve gotten married?”

Embarrassed, I shook my head, before lighting my blunt, and pulling on it.

“Exactly, so it’s like…” she shook her head, and pulled on her blunt. “I really don’t know what to say, really. I’m very disappointed in you, that you didn’t trust me, one, and two, you had all these preconceived notions about what you thought I would think about you. All you had to do was say, x, y, z, me and Declan are fucking. I wouldn’t have done or said anything, but gon’ head girl, or tell me what it’s like. Our regular girl chat shit. Because what you don’t realize is, I know you. You are a very meticulous person. I’m not going to even lie; my first thought would have been that Winter may have paid you turn him out. That’s all. That’s at the top of the list. Way down, on a non-existent list, in an envelope, to never be opened, is me thinking that you fucked Declan because you’re attracted to Diesel.”

I snickered.

“I guess it’s because I see you differently, now. You’re a wife and a mom now, and I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just like when we were at the school—”

“Oh God. Did you feel left out? I told Diesel that is what I thought caused a shift and if I should mention it, and he said, not until you do, and it turns out, you were never going to mention it. You were just going to let yourself stew until we had a blow up that would take a long time for us to come back from.

“It’s not that. The thing is… I didn’t say anything because you hadn’t done anything differently than what you would have normally done; lead a presentation and speak in front of groups of people. I didn’t want to feel nitpicky or make you feel like you can only have me as a friend. That was it. Just me in my head.”

“Elle, this really should go without saying, you don’t have to ever worry about me leaving you behind. I would not have this life, if it wasn’t for you, pushing me to try different things. You are my best friend in the whole wide world, and no man, or anyone else could ever make me switch up on you.”

“Ugh.” I fanned my eyes. “Don’t make me cry. I’m sorry, Grey.”

“Me too.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I was being stupid.”

“Well, not really, yeah, you were, but I can apologize too. Friendships need check-ins too. Just to make sure we not stewing over bullshit.”

“You’re right.”

“Now, that, that is out of the way. How the hell did you fall in love with Declan Danger?”

“We’re going to need another round of blunts.”

“God said let there be weed…” She pulled another sack out of her pocket. “And here is weed.”

“Bitch!” I snickered. “Now, where do I begin…”