Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Well, this was going swimmingly.
When they’d asked to get that last interview, Danny had practically leaped away from the table to get some space. Great. Just when I’d mentally decided to maybe give him another chance, everything between us had grown strained and weird. We could barely hold a conversation.
Maybe he regretted coming here. Maybe the idea of me was far more alluring than the reality.
When he returned to the table, he seemed even more restless and unfocused, like he had a million other things on his mind.
Now the date was wrapping up, and we’d hardly said four words to each other.
I could just see them editing this scene now.
They’d focus on each sip of water we took, letting the loud sound of our silverware clinking against the plates reverberate in the room.
They’d show us both clearing our throats before playing some uncomfortable background music over the whole thing.
The cameras hadn’t helped. They never did. The whole time I kept thinking, how am I supposed to say what I need to say to you with them just lingering there, capturing every word? Every expression?
Danny kept shooting me meaningful glances, like I was supposed to deduce something from them. Like he was worried I might bolt. As if I had the option.
Had it not been for the contracts and the show, I wouldn’t be giving Danny the time of day. I wouldn’t even be considering this. Or, at least, that’s what I was choosing to tell myself to feel better about it all. As things stood, though, I was considering it—considering him—quite a bit.
Now he stood across from me while the crew and Brady shouted directions. I searched for Emma’s eyes, finding concern there. She’d been the one who’d encouraged me to give this a shot, but how could I under these circumstances?
Our big date was over. That was it. I’d stayed up half the night stressing about today, and it had ended before it even got started. I’d have to go spend the day with Tripp tomorrow. My stomach soured at the thought. I’d have to break up with him, let him down. I was awful at letting people down.
“Alright, let’s get them to the cars.” Brady waved his hands as if he were directing an orchestra.
I turned to Danny, who stared intently at the door. My heart sank a little. Was he feeling the distance between us too? He had to be. It was like the guy who had shown up at my window the other night, begging for another chance, had disappeared. Maybe the pressure had finally caught up with him.
“That could have gone better,” I whispered.
His gaze locked on mine as soon as I spoke. “It’s hard to have a conversation when you’re cosplaying as the new fish exhibit at an aquarium.”
I smiled. At least he seemed just as frustrated as I was. “Too bad we can’t talk more.”
His jaw tensed, a light purple bruise now visible from his altercation with Austin the other day. Had I said the wrong thing?
“Do you wish we had more time tonight?” he asked.
The question caught me off guard. “I mean, sure. Preferably without the audience.” It was a joke, but Danny clearly liked my answer. His eyes lit up.
“Okay, let’s move,” someone said behind us. Then we were being shuffled toward the back door of the restaurant, one that led straight to a parking lot.
Danny kept his hand firmly on my lower back, and his head swiveled, scanning the back lot as soon as we stepped outside. His distraction was evident.
I wished he’d say something more reassuring, some indication that we could get back what we used to have. But as it stood, I just wasn’t prepared to trust him again. He spooked too easily. He was just too scared, and—
“Run, okay?” he whispered into my ear.
“What?” I looked at him in alarm as he jerked his head to an old black jeep in the back corner of the parking lot.
“On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”
Maybe it was pure instinct, but as soon as “three” came out of his mouth and he grabbed my hand, I tore off after him without any hesitation or argument.
I was vaguely aware of a scuffle and a few confused shouts behind us, but it only took us a few seconds to reach the car.
Danny pulled open the passenger door first. “After you,” he said.
I bit my lip and he could sense my reluctance. “Trust me, Trace. Please,” he pleaded.
So I did. I climbed into the car and he raced around, jumping into the driver’s seat in record time.
Brady and a few of the crew had started toward us, their voices rising in confused shouts as they tried to piece together what was happening, but Danny was too fast. He pulled the car into drive and tore out of the parking lot. If we were in a cartoon, I swear smoke would have rolled off the tires.
Danny’s bicep bulged as he rotated the steering wheel in his hands, glancing in the rearview mirror.
He made a sharp right turn, and I had to grab onto the handle by the door to keep from sliding around in the seat.
After a left, a second left, then a right again, we were on a main road, heading south.
His gaze snapped between the road and the rearview mirror. “I don’t think they’re following us,” he said.
I let out a laugh of disbelief. “Are you kidding? Brady looked so shocked he probably just got around to putting the key in the ignition.” I watched the road zip by. You could hardly make out anything in the sea of blackness.
Then, panic and realization set in. “Did you steal this car?” I asked, suddenly horrified.
He turned to me and dipped his chin, giving me a look like I should know better. “Of course not. It’s a friend’s.”
“A friend’s,” I repeated, lifting my eyebrows in a look that made it clear he was going to need to explain himself.
Danny looked from me back to the road and huffed out a laugh. Was his heart hammering with as much excitement as mine?
“I ran into him at the front of the restaurant. He agreed to help us get away for a little,” he said.
My mind swirled. “Oh,” I finally said. The adrenaline I’d been feeling seconds ago faded away. The more I thought about our current predicament, the faster disappointment poured in. “We have to go back. I could get in trouble.”
“Do you really want me to take you back?” he asked softly, reaching across the center console and loosely threading his fingers in mine.
It was the easiest touch I’d felt in months. Just like that, all the awkwardness from dinner washed away.
“No,” I said.
I was so sick of following the rules. Of doing everything everyone told me to. Of being the good girl. I needed to breathe.
The road was dark, with the ocean to our left. I rolled down the window, letting the thick, warm air hit me in a way that felt strangely freeing, something I hadn’t felt since arriving in Florida. My hair tangled behind me, and I took a huge breath in through my nose.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
He kept looking from the road to me. He wasn’t quite smiling, but his features had relaxed. “I haven’t figured that out yet. I only had about five minutes to secure the getaway car, and that’s about as far as I got.”
We rode in a silence that felt anything but uncomfortable now. Instead, it was replaced with a weight that both comforted and crushed me.
“Okay, let’s do this,” I said. My feet found their way onto the dash, and I rested my elbow in the open window, keeping my eyes fixed on him.
His forehead creased. “Uh. Do what?” he asked, shooting me a glance before returning his eyes to the road.
“Get it all out there. Lay it bare, whatever you want to call it.” I waved my hand. “Isn’t that why you stole this car, just to get a moment alone with me?”
“I didn’t steal it.’
“Whatever.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “I had to get you away. We barely got to talk.”
“Then talk,” I said bluntly. “You say you’re dead set on getting me back—”
“I am.”
“Then let’s air it all out.”
“Where would you like to start?”
“Why did you come here?” I finally asked, leaning my head against my bent arm, elbow still resting in the open window.
He let out a soft laugh. “You know why I came.”
“Sure, because you thought I was getting married, blah blah blah. But you didn’t, really.
You said yourself you knew Brady was manipulating you.
And even after you crashed the wedding, you could have waited until filming was over.
You didn’t have to join the cast. We could have just talked after the show. ”
He shook his head. “There was no waiting. I was done waiting. I would have been here sooner if I knew how to get to you. I never would have let you walk away from me in LA if I had actually thought you’d agree to do this show.”
“Let me walk away from you.” I repeated his words back so he could hear the irony in them.
He winced, my jab hitting its intended target. He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “I stood out in that parking garage for hours before I called Jaylon to pick me up. It was like if I took even one step, I knew I’d run after you.”
“You should have run after me.”
“Yes. I should have.” He brought my left hand to his mouth, and I let his lips brush my fingertips for a second. “Which is why, this time, I ran after you without question. And I will again, every time after.”
I sighed. “See, I’m trying to be open here. Trusting and all. But you can understand how that’s hard for me to believe, right? Seeing as how you’ve tried to get rid of me twice now. Is this some weird game for you? Because I’m so tired of playing.”
He kept his gaze trained on the road, but his brow furrowed. Without saying anything, he pulled into the next parking lot.
He threw the car into park and turned so that he faced me completely.