Chapter 21
danielle
I washed my hands and then touched up my lipstick, which had been desecrated by my drink and Noah’s kisses. Not that I was complaining. Despite a few very unpleasant individuals, I was enjoying myself.
“Danielle?” a soft voice called behind me.
I’d know that voice anywhere. I whipped around to find Elaine Greene standing there. “Oh my gosh, hi, Dr. Greene!”
“I thought that was you. Good heavens, I didn’t expect to see you here. I heard what happened with your leg. It’s all over the music school. I’m so very sorry, love.” She reached out and gently touched my arm. “So I hear you’ll be staying on an extra semester.”
I sighed. “Yes, I can’t finish my performance requirement with no performance—and my whole thesis was going to be based on the performance too.” I had to laugh at this point—what other choice was there?
“I’ve been sidelined too,” she said, her smile falling. “I was supposed to sing tonight. I’ve been a longtime supporter of the leukemia foundation, and I was really looking forward to performing for this crowd.” She made a tsk-tsk sound. “Damn sinus infection. I’m liable to break into a coughing fit at any moment, so be warned.”
“Oh no! That must be going around. I’m getting over a sinus infection too!”
“Well, I hope you’re healing up faster than I did. I saw my wonderful ENT, Dr. Evans, a couple days ago.”
A jolt raced through me. She was Noah’s patient? Oh no! I couldn’t very well act like I didn’t know him, and I couldn’t admit to seeing him as a patient because it would blow our cover. I’d have to tell her?—
“Oh my gosh! Noah is my fiancée,” I gushed. “We just got engaged a few weeks ago.”
“Is that so? Oh, my sweet girl! I am so very happy for you both. I had no idea you were seeing the good doctor, and he is fine, isn’t he?!” Her eyes gleamed when she said this, followed by a brief spurt of laughter that morphed into one of the coughing fits she warned me about.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay? Can I get you anything?” I handed her a tissue from the dispenser by the sink.
She held it over her mouth as the last coughs shook her body. “No, no, I’m just going to skedaddle on home I think. I really thought maybe I would be able to power through, but I was doing some vocal warmups backstage, and it just wasn’t happening. The Schlodermans are so disappointed.”
“I’m disappointed too!” I admitted. “I love hearing you sing. Would have been the highlight of my night for sure!”
A slow smile crept across her face. “Oh, I have an absolutely brilliant idea!”
As soon as she said it, I had a feeling what she was going to suggest. And I probably would have said no, but…
I was looking for a way to call more attention to myself and Noah, wasn’t I?
Aris: Well, how’s it going?
Me: Danielle went to the ladies’ room and…she has not come back.
Aris: What?! How long has it been?
Me: A while. Do you think she’s in trouble?
Aris: Is she in her wheelchair?
Me: No, I have her chair. She hobbled in there. We should have brought her crutches too.
Aris: Go get a woman to check on her. FFS, Noah. You had one job!
Just when I was about to go find a lady to look for Danielle, she hobbled out with the woman she’d pointed out earlier helping her navigate the door.
“Dr. Evans!” the lady exclaimed.
Oh, shit. She’s my patient. I didn’t recognize her in formalwear, apparently, and Danielle didn’t give her name earlier.
“Well, hello there, Elaine. I didn’t expect to see you here. How are you feeling?” I knew she was a vocalist from seeing her in my office, but I didn’t know she was a professor! I thought she meant like at church or something. I wanted to facepalm myself so bad right now.
“I’m still feeling a little under the weather,” she said, “but I wanted to come out and support the cause tonight. I better go find my wife. She probably thinks I fell in!” She laughed a high-pitched twinkling laugh.
“I was starting to wonder the same about my fiancée,” I said, taking Danielle’s hand.
“Oh, you two are just too adorable for words!” Elaine said. “Have fun tonight!”
She headed off toward the bar, and I turned to Danielle. “So that’s what was taking so long.”
“Yes, I got waylaid, much like you did earlier.” She cocked her head and smirked.
“Only she didn’t threaten your job, I assume?” I called her smirk and raised her an eye roll.
Danielle’s nostrils flared. “So that’s what that was about…”
I helped her back into her wheelchair. “Let’s go get a drink. I’m sure the main courses have arrived by now.”
Her eyes darted over to the wall opposite the entrance to the ballroom. “I’ve got a better idea. Wheel me over there.”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it!” She looked at me expectantly. “What did I tell you about the first rule of improv, Noah?”
“Always say yes,” I repeated her earlier instructions.
“That’s right. Now get to it.” She laughed.
When we arrived at the door, she said, “Oh, good, it’s unlocked! Open it and wheel me inside.”
“What?! Why would I do that?”
“Say yes, Noah,” she admonished me, and, as there were a few people lingering in the hall and a long line of folks waiting to be served at the bar, I opened the door and slipped us both inside as fast as I could.
It was a closet where they stored chairs and tables, apparently, though most of them were in use in the ballroom, if I had to guess. And it was a little stuffy in here.
“Ever play Seven Minutes in Heaven?” she asked.
“Seven what?”
She sighed. “Really?”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“By the time I explain it to you, seven minutes will be up!” She giggled.
“Give me the executive summary.” I grabbed a chair from the short stack in the corner and pulled it up alongside her wheelchair.
“You set a timer for seven minutes, then you have to go make out with another person till the timer goes off. Usually in a closet or something. Big hit at middle school parties.” She looked at me like she expected her explanation to trigger my memory.
Nope. I admitted, “I didn’t go to parties as a kid.”
“Never?”
I shook my head. “I was a nerd. Big nerd. And I was a foster kid, so I moved around a lot. Never really made friends.”
“Oh, Noah.” She shook her head and took my hand into hers. “Every single thing I learn about you is more incredible than the last.”
I shrugged. “If you say so.”
“When you said you lost your parents when you were young, I figured that meant your grandparents raised you, or maybe an aunt.”
“No, I didn’t have any family who wanted to take me,” I clarified. “Or who were in a position to take me”
“Really?” There was heartbreak in her eyes.
“Well, my dad was an only child, and my mom had a brother but he was younger and not in a position to do it. And my grandparents…well… There just wasn’t a good situation for me. So foster care it was.”
Danielle was quiet for a moment. I knew my baggage was a lot; that was why I didn’t readily share that information. It made people uncomfortable to know I had to overcome so much. I didn’t want anyone’s pity, and to be honest, the fact that I was smart and picked things up easily was what saved me. I loved learning.
“So did you say something about making out?” I broke the silence. “In this seven-minutes game you were talking about?”
She gave the slightest giggle. “Well, yes…but I was more meaning that when we come out, it will appear that we’ve been doing naughty things in here, and it will further affirm that Alexandra was lying when she said you’re gay.”
I stroked my finger down her cheek. “I don’t really care what they think, you know. Gay, straight, bi…really don’t fucking care.”
“I know that. But this is about discrediting Alexandra. That’s going to be important if you take this to court,” she reminded me.
“True.” I leaned closer to her. “So, um…about that game. How many minutes do we have left?”
“Shit, I forgot to check my watch when we came in here.” She laughed and scrubbed her hands down her face. “It’s probably been seven by now.”
“But what if I want to make out with you first? You know, for strictly accuracy reasons.”
She raised an eyebrow. “That’s the only reason?”
I chuckled. “Well, no…”
Her voice was so soft and silky, “Then what else?”
I cupped her face in my hands. “When I kissed you earlier…”
“What about it?”
“It just made me want to do it again.” I pressed my lips to hers, feeling the zing ignite down my spine. “And again.” Another kiss—this time, she emitted a soft moan. “And another.”
“Well, it is a rather nice sensation,” she agreed.
“And I find that’s not all I want to do,” I admitted.
She pulled back and looked deep into my eyes. “What else do you want to do to me?”
I bit my lip before confessing, “I want to see what’s under that dress, for one thing.”
“You gave Aris the impression you weren’t interested in me,” she said, her brows drawing together.
“I hardly ever admit to being wrong…” I kissed her again, this time nibbling on her lower lip. “But in this case, I was definitely wrong.”
Before I could kiss her again, my phone began buzzing in my pocket.
“Speaking of Aris…”
* * *
An appropriate number of people saw us emerge from the storage closet looking a bit rumpled with kiss-swollen lips. Beaming, Danielle suggested I text Aris back while we waited for drinks. After those were procured, we headed back to our table, where our entrees were waiting for us.
Kurt elbowed me after the server took away his empty plate. “Guess you two didn’t care about dinner being cold.”
Danielle flashed him a wink that was so perfectly executed, I wanted to kiss her all over again. We both finished dinner, accompanied by a nice glass of wine. Then I leaned down to whisper in her ear, “I’m going to go outside and call Aris back. He’s climbing the walls at home worried about what’s going on.”’
“Are you going to tell him about us?” she whispered back.
I tilted my head. “Which part?”
“I think we should surprise him…” was all she said.
* * *
When I returned about fifteen minutes later, Danielle was gone, and so was her wheelchair. My eyes darted around the table, but I tried not to show my panic. “Where’d my fiancée go?”
“A lady came over and wheeled her away,” David said nonchalantly, giving a shrug to emphasize how little he cared. Poor fragile man that he was.
Knowing Danielle, she was perfectly fine and had made a new friend, so I didn’t think much about it. The Schlodermans returned to the podium on stage at that moment, so conversation in the ballroom gradually faded.
Mr. Schloderman took the microphone. “Most of you know that my wife and I, besides being the chairman and chairwoman of the Leukemia Warriors Foundation, we are huge supporters of the arts. The new music practice facility at the university is soon to be named Schloderman Hall in recognition of our donation. One of our foundation’s biggest supporters through the years has been Dr. Elaine Greene, esteemed professor of music. She came tonight to support our cause, but also to give a special thank you for our work with the music school.”
He handed the microphone to his wife. “Dr. Greene was prepared to sing ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ for us tonight, but she’s feeling under the weather.”
The audience groaned in disappointment.
“But we are very lucky because one of her students is in attendance tonight, and she has agreed to perform in Dr. Greene’s stead. So may I welcome to the stage tonight, a master’s student in the musical theater program, Danielle Delacroix.”
Oh. My. God.
I nearly fell out of my chair when Danielle’s wheelchair was pushed front and center by a young man with a beaming smile and a suit that was just a tiny bit too small for him. He helped her stand at a microphone by the piano. Then the young man sat down on the bench, and the familiar intro to “Wind Beneath My Wings” began to play.
Danielle stood like a vision in red, perfectly backlit to give her an ethereal glow. With one hand on the microphone stand, she drew in a big breath, closed her eyes and hummed a few notes before beginning the first verse of the song.
The sound that flowed out was the voice of an angel. It pierced my heart like an arrow. I’d always thought this song was so cheesy and overdone, but not this performance. Not the power of Danielle’s voice and the raw emotion on her face.
I was absolutely stunned.
Speechless.
And I don’t think I moved a muscle when she finished until Kurt slapped me on the back and said, “That girl right there is a keeper.”