Chapter 18
Danielle
“Do you have your pads? Cleats?”
Danielle was on the hunt for her own stuff in the living room. She knew she’d left her tote bag in there somewhere after work the day before.
She finally found it on the floor beneath an end table.
“Mom, it’s not a game,” Lila called back from down the hallway. “It’s just me and Rylee. I don’t need all that stuff.”
It was one of those rare weekends when there wasn’t a soccer game or tournament, so Rylee and Lila had arranged to practice that Saturday at a little park near Rylee’s house. Rylee’s mom had offered to take the girls herself so Danielle could go to her first book club meeting in the afternoon.
It felt a little strange dropping Lila off while she went off to do something fun for herself and not just to fulfill an obligation with her limited free time. But she was leaning into the discomfort and doing the thing. Lila was certainly happy with the arrangement.
She opened her tote bag and put in a notebook in case she wanted to keep one for book notes.
Then she put in a small stack of research papers she needed to get a jump on grading.
It was such a nice day, she figured she could go to the other big park across town near their meeting place to get a little work done outside in the fresh air.
Fresh air would be good. She could clear her head. Maybe she could finally stop thinking about that kiss last weekend.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her. She shouldn’t still be thinking about it. Especially not when she’d been the one to break it off.
Still, she couldn’t stop thinking about Morgan’s mouth against her own. How the cold metal of her lip piercing contrasted the warmth of her mouth.
She should definitely stop thinking about all of it. She’d ended the kiss for good reason, and that reason hadn’t changed.
Part of the problem was that neither of them had mentioned it since then. Heck, they hadn’t even texted all week, except for Danielle sending another quick thank-you message on Monday. Since then, it had been nothing but silence between them.
As if the phone were a sentient thing that could read her thoughts, it dinged with a message from the kitchen counter near the spot where she kept her keys.
It was a text from Morgan.
Danielle’s stomach fluttered at the sight of her name, and her hands trembled slightly as she opened the app to read the message.
Do you have a sec? Quick call?
The stomach flutters turned into a full-on bag of bees in her chest.
This was it.
Morgan was going to uninvite her from the wedding. Things were too weird between them now. Danielle would never see her again.
Or maybe it was something less dramatic than that. Maybe Danielle was reading too much into their silence that week. They were both busy people. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal, whatever this was.
Only one way to find out.
Yeah, sure.
A few quick seconds later, her phone rang in her hand. Danielle stared at it for a moment, frozen with anticipation. After three rings, she answered the call.
“Hey, I thought this might be easier.”
Easier for what? This was sounding more like an uninvitation call, and Danielle wasn’t sure her heart could handle that on a stomach of just two cups of coffee.
“Yeah, no, that’s fine.”
“What are you doing this morning? Or in a little while? Or in whatever?”
Danielle smiled at the flurry of words that came out of Morgan’s mouth. She used to chalk it up to nerves, but she was learning it was mostly just how Morgan talked sometimes. In a hurried, staccato cadence.
“I’m bringing Lila to a friend’s house in a little bit, then I’ve got book club this afternoon.”
“Book club sounds nice,” Morgan said. There was a brief, awkward pause, then, “Do you have some time in between?”
“I was just going to sit outside at the park to grade some papers. Why?”
“Mind if I meet you there? I won’t stay long or bother you, I promise,” Morgan said in a flurry of speech. “I’ve gotta be at work in a little while, anyway. I just want to drop something off then you can go back to your work.”
Morgan was becoming a master of upending Danielle’s plans. In the best way. Between the wedding invitation, then the impromptu dress shopping, and now this mysterious meetup, Danielle was having to learn to roll with Morgan’s spontaneity.
Throwing in surprise plans made Danielle a little uneasy, but not as much as she would have expected. Maybe she really did need more surprise happenings in her life.
She wondered what Morgan could possibly be dropping off. She couldn’t think of any wedding-related possibilities, since she’d already bought that expensive but gorgeous dress for her to wear. And Danielle had insisted she had a pair of nude heels that would go perfectly with it.
“Sure,” she said. “I’m going to the big park over on Clauson Street. Does that work?”
“That’s perfect,” Morgan said. “Not far from my place. I’m just finishing up at the gym so I can run home for a quick shower then meet you there in a bit.”
“Okay. That sounds good to me. I’ll see you there in a little while.”
Danielle ended the call wondering even more what that was all about. And more than satisfying her curiosity, Danielle wanted to see Morgan again. To make things less awkward between them. To get things back to how they were that first night they met.
And this mysterious meetup would have to get that job done.