Chapter Three Taryn
“You have some nerve, Danny Chambers.” I rounded on him. “You’ve been back in town for all of five minutes after being away for four years , and you think you have a right to tell me off for not coming home for two months?” I stood and stomped to the end of the deck. “Not that it’s any of your business, but the truth is—”
A loud diesel truck drove past the house, forcing me to pause and think about my response. My experiences with Aaron Jones, my ex-boyfriend, were humiliating enough without me having to explain them to the one person on the planet who would never in a million years be able to relate.
“The truth is none of your business. I didn’t lie at dinner. I’ve been putting in as many hours at the coffee shop as I can.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I said, “Plus, I’m taking a class this summer—something Mom conveniently forgets when she’s badgering me about being here every weekend.” I raspberried out a breath. “She doesn’t bother Tally about not being home all the time, and Tally lives here in town, not two hours away.”
He ran a hand over his head, messing up his hair. From the length, it was obvious he’d pushed military limits, probably because he knew he was discharging and thought he’d get away with it—which he had. He stood and wandered over to lean against the railing beside me. “Sorry.” Blowing out a breath, he said, “You’re right. It’s none of my business. But it’s not like you to stay away from home for three months running.”
“I’m not back together with Aaron,” I said quietly. “In fact, he started dating someone else the week after he walked out on me.”
A muscle in Danny’s jaw ticked, but all he said was, “Told you he was a douche canoe.”
Closing my eyes, I blew out a sigh. “Trust me. I was the problem, not him.”
The reminder of what happened between Aaron and me heated my cheeks. Not wanting Danny to see—or to ask about it—I returned to my chair and hid behind a sip of iced tea. Having witnessed his delight in dating all the girls yet settling with none, no doubt he’d consider me a total freak if he knew the truth about me.
“So you’re serious about playing for the Wildcats, huh?”
A weird expression crossed his features as he returned to the chair on the other side of the table from mine. Yet all he said was, “Yeah.” For a long second, he stared at me, and then he picked up his own glass, sipped, and put it down. “I don’t know how I’m going to transition into civilian life since I’ve never really lived it. But I think playing football, being part of the team, will help me figure it out.”
“Have the camaraderie of the military without the restrictions, huh?”
“Exactly.” A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Funny how even after all our time apart you still have an uncanny ability to figure me out.”
I waved a hand in his direction. “You’re kinda easy to read.”
It helped that I knew how much Danny despised his military upbringing: how much he resented his dad for dragging him all around the country, chasing promotions that had stopped coming years before he retired: how much he wanted to earn a football scholarship and keep playing the game he loved more than anything else. But he’d had to opt for enlisting in the military because all that moving around meant he didn’t have the grades or the stats for that scholarship and no money to pay for tuition otherwise.
That hot August day four years ago when he’d left to start his military tour was the second worst day of my life. The worst, of course, came the day Aaron walked out on me after exposing me for the freakshow I was. Probably the nicest thing Danny ever did for me—even though it hurt like hell at the time (and still did if I was being totally honest) was to friend-zone me. After what happened with Aaron, I realized that if Danny and I had ever dated, especially with what I knew about his experiences with girls, we would have never been friends when it was over. As much as it hurt to admit it every time I saw him, being Danny’s best friend was a blessing. It meant I could have him in my life. Though I had to smile and pretend to be happy about every girl he dated even while a little part of me died.
“Easy to read, my ass.” He scowled, and I cracked up.
A smile tugged at my lips. “You so are.”
Settling his ankle on his knee, he kicked back and said, “You’re heading back to campus tomorrow?”
I nodded.
“How early?”
Shrugging, I said, “A little after breakfast. Can’t miss Mom’s Sunday pancakes.”
“Funny how I’ve only ever heard about those pancakes.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’ve never been invited over to experience them.”
“Only my girlfriends who spend the night enjoy Mom’s Sunday pancakes. Male friends don’t spend the night, so they don’t get breakfast.” I shrugged again and added a smirk for good measure.
“You’re evil.”
“Stating facts.” I drank more tea to cool off hot thoughts of spending the night with a certain male friend... Why my mind refused to stop going there even after five years in the friend zone and the whole Aaron Jones debacle was a mystery only an oracle could explain.
A weird expression flitted over Danny’s face before he schooled it back to a scowl. “It’s only a two-hour drive back to campus. Why do you have to leave so early?”
“I have an afternoon shift at the coffee shop tomorrow. Plus, I have a quiz on Monday I still need to study for.”
Shaking his head, he eyed me through narrowed slits. “Why do you need to take a class this summer?”
Blowing out a sigh, I said, “I told you about adding a business administration minor, remember?” I paused. “Wait. When I told you, you were headed to a base in Germany for a year. Understandable you’d forget.”
He shot me a dark look. “I didn’t forget. But that doesn’t answer the question.”
Caught up in trying to decipher his new combative attitude, I tucked my foot beneath my thigh and eyed him back. From the moment he arrived, I’d detected something was off with him. No doubt it had to do with his dad, who apparently hadn’t held back on sharing his low opinion of Danny’s plans to go to college.
“Taryn.” My name on two long syllables dragged me back to the conversation.
“Certain classes aren’t as rigorous if you take them in the summer,” I explained. “Business Management is one of those classes. It’s rarely offered during summer semester, so when I saw it was on the schedule, I jumped on it.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Come again? It’s the same class as the one offered during the regular school year, but it’s easier?”
“When you put it like that, it sounds kinda sketchy.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Everyone on campus is super laid-back in the summer, especially the professors. They cover all the same material as they do in the fall and spring classes, but maybe don’t ask for as many assignments. Plus, there are fewer students, so those of us who are in class get more one-on-one time.” I tugged at a stray thread on my shorts, worrying it with my finger. “I’ve been putting off taking this class because the prof has a reputation as a hard-ass and I need to keep my grades up to get into grad school. I guess the dean of the business college wanted to teach something over the summer, so she chose this class, and I jumped on it.”
“I always thought school was easy for you.”
“Which is why you had to help me with physics.” I smirked.
“Mutually beneficial. Between us we rocked the shit out of that class.” He smirked back.
“Yeah, well, unfortunately, you’re not taking senior-level Business Management, so we can’t help each other with this one.”
“I had this idea we’d have some time together before I started football camp.”
The pouty expression on his face made me laugh.
“Don’t worry. Once word gets out that you’re back in town, I doubt you’ll be bored.” A certain former cheer-squad captain’s face flashed in my head, and the drink of yummy tea in my mouth turned to piss. I had no idea if Kaitlyn Frost was in town for the summer or not, But if she was, her Danny Chambers radar had likely already picked up, and she’d be waiting at his place after he left my parents’ house. The thought made me want to gag.
“What’s that face for?”
Deliberately, I smoothed my features into a bland mask.
He chuckled. “Uh-huh. You just figured out you’re going to miss the fun while I’m home.” Leaning forward, he whispered conspiratorially, “There’s an easy way to fix that.”
“Skip class? Lose my job?” I batted my lashes and bared my teeth at him.
“Nah. Just take a little time off tomorrow?”
That grin was criminal. Truly. There should be a law.
“I’d have to find someone to cover my shift.”
He raised an expectant brow.
“Not likely to happen on such short notice. But like I said, it won’t take long for word to spread that you’re back. You’ll have plenty of people reaching out to entertain you.”
As though I’d conjured some of those people, an obnoxiously loud diesel pickup slowed down in front of the house where Danny had parked his car. Such a noisy ride should have signaled who was behind the wheel, but it was new, and I didn’t recognize it. Then the driver tucked it in front of Danny’s Mustang and Derek Watson stepped out onto the curb.
“Shoulda known where you’d end up the second you got back to town,” Derek said with a sneer.
Even after being away from him for four years, hearing that voice and seeing the cruelty his handsome features could never quite hide made my skin crawl. At least he had the decency to stay on the sidewalk in front of the house rather than invite himself up onto the deck.
Aiming a barely-there shake of his head at me, Danny stood and walked down the steps. As he reached the bottom step, the passenger door of Derek’s truck popped open, and Mike Ryan, Derek’s ever-present sidekick, stepped out.
“Long time no see,” Danny said. “How have you been, man?”
“Never better. You see that?” Derek gestured over his shoulder to the forest-green behemoth idling loudly in front of the house. “Just picked it up two days ago. It’s got all the bells and whistles.”
“I bet.” Tipping his chin up in Mike’s direction, Danny said, “You’re still this loser’s number-one man, huh?”
Mike huffed out a self-deprecating chuckle. “He keeps me entertained.”
“We should grab a beer this week. Tell each other some lies—if you can tear yourself away from your little prick-tease.”
The cold expression in Derek’s dark eyes brought back so many bad memories. It was all I could do to remain seated as his words dragged me back to when he did his damnedest to turn me into a fifteen-year-old pariah. All because I had the good sense to see past his good looks and turn him down for the Homecoming dance freshman year. Ancient history, yet he never could seem to let it go.
Danny dragged Derek’s attention away from me. “Unfortunately, hanging out with you is my third or fourth choice, what with Taryn leaving town tomorrow and Ronnie not coming home until the Fourth.” He soothed his insult with a grin. “But I’m sure we can bullshit our way through enough beer to have a good time.”
That was the thing about Danny. He had this way of drawing people to him—even people like Derek Watson, who thought he was the big man on campus because his dad was a bank president and he could throw a football. At this point, though, their relationship looked more like a “keep your enemies closer” kind of thing than a true desire to be friends.
When Danny first moved to town, Derek had actively courted him to join his entourage of jocks and bullies. As quarterback of a state champion-caliber football team, every guy in school showed him deference, whether they liked him or not. Derek had a natural leadership charisma that drew people to him, and if they didn’t succumb to it, he harbored zero compunction about bullying them into hanging with him—or dating him. Somehow Danny managed to remain his own man while keeping Derek placated. It was a tightrope I’d never seen anyone else walk.
Maybe it was because when he stepped out on the field, Danny was the best wide receiver anyone had ever seen, utterly unselfish and unstoppable. Their senior year, the combination of Derek’s cannon arm and Danny’s route running and sure hands had resulted in a record-breaking season and a coveted state championship. Danny made Derek look like a hero and had given him the highlights that landed him a football scholarship to a D-I school. That must have been what had kept their friendship going. Honestly, it made no sense to me. Then again, I’d never asked about it, not wanting to discover that Danny had some deeply hidden dark side to complement Derek’s.
I’d heard the rumors about Derek not taking no for an answer, and that, coupled with the aggressive way he’d come on to me during my freshman year, made saying no to him easy. I think I was the only person—male or female—who’d ever said no to him. He’d made me pay for that throughout high school—even my senior year when he was no longer at Central Valley after graduating with Danny the previous spring. The only date I’d had in high school was when, out of pity, Danny took me to prom. We’d danced one slow dance and shaken hands when he dropped me off at the end of the night.
And yet, that night was magical. I still had fantasies about it sometimes.
Have I mentioned how pathetic I am?
“Not sticking around, Hamilton?” Derek asked. “That’s too bad.”
Giving him zero expression, I shot back, “I’m not missing anything.”
“Ouch, man!” Mike smirked.
If he had superpowers, Derek would have lasered his friend into cinders with his narrow-eyed stare alone. “Guess you can’t help yourself. Once a bitch, always a bitch.”
Danny took a step toward him, and the hot summer air dropped about twenty degrees. “On second thoughts, I don’t need a beer bad enough to drink with you.”
Derek snorted. “You’re an idiot, man. She’s never going to give it up for you either.”
With his back to me, I couldn’t see Danny’s expression, but whatever was on his face had Mike putting a hand on Derek’s shoulder to urge him to move toward his truck.
Pure loathing flashed over Derek’s features before he said, “Doubt you’ll find anyone who wants to drink with you while you’re home.”
“We aren’t in high school anymore, Watson.” Danny took two steps toward the sidewalk. “Your threats are as empty as you are.”
In horror, I watched Derek’s fists flex. That was all Danny would need, to mess up his precious hands in a fight on his first night back right before he was set to walk on to the Wildcats team.
Mike must have decided he didn’t want to deal with a mess because he wrapped a hand around Derek’s bicep and tugged him toward the still-idling truck parked at the curb. I couldn’t hear what he said, but whatever it was had Derek nodding and taking a step in the right direction.
“Fuck you, Chambers.”
On that super-original parting shot, Derek spun on his heel and stomped around the front of his pickup. After he climbed inside, he slammed the door hard enough to shatter glass. Good thing for him the window was rolled down. He jammed the vehicle into gear and slammed on the gas. A noxious cloud of black smoke cloaked Danny’s car and made us cough as it wafted across the porch and over the house.
Tina stepped out the front door and wrinkled her nose at the choking odor of diesel smoke. “What the heck was that all about?”
“Derek Watson,” I said as Danny shuffled up the steps and back to his chair.
She rolled her eyes. “That asshole will never grow up.” Fanning the wisps of smoke from her face, a conspiratorial grin tipped up the corner of her mouth. “You heard he lost his scholarship, didn’t you?”
Danny and I exchanged a look.
“I did not hear that. Do tell,” I said.
“Some scandal involving an accusation of sexual assault.” She leaned against the deck railing, facing us. “I don’t know all the particulars, just that he wasn’t getting much playing time, so he wasn’t a big enough asset to Wyoming to keep him around with the accusation hanging over him.”
“Can’t say I’m surprised.”
Danny shook his head. “All that talent wasted on a spoiled, entitled attitude.” Giving me a long look, he added, “I hope the girl is okay.”
I breathed a tiny sigh of relief. Danny’s “friendship” with Derek was based on a love of football, not some shared dark side. Unlike the other players on the team, he’d never defended Derek when that jerk made my life hard in high school, but he’d defended me when Derek turned his ugly loose the second he saw me sitting on my parents’ deck. I shouldn’t have entertained thoughts of Danny having a dark side, even for a second. From the moment we met, he’d treated me with respect and friendship. I doubted Derek knew the meaning of either word.
“After he graduated, I heard rumors about what he did to girls at parties. A couple of girls in my class really hated football players after going to those parties,” Tina said, eyeing me.
Being two years younger, my sister was a freshman when Derek was a senior.
“It’s an old story, sis. Senior boys chasing freshmen girls who want the social status of dating an older guy. I don’t think any of them truly know the price they have to pay for it or that it’s only going to last for a minute.”
Tina slid Danny a sly look. “You didn’t try to date any of the girls in my class—even the ones who threw themselves at you.”
Answering her with an indulgent grin, he said, “I couldn’t take all the giggling.” He clasped his hands between his thighs. “Plus, I had more in common with girls my age.”
Something shifted in his tone, and I dragged my eyes from his big beautiful hands to his handsome face. The intensity of his silver-gray gaze threw me. Why was he looking at me like that?