Chapter 42
“You left me,” Danny whispered hoarsely when he finally managed to open his eyes.
“You didn’t leave me with much of a choice,” Jodi said, trying not to cry or show him just how relieved she was that he was finally awake.
“Had to,” he said, glancing around the room as she poured him a small cup of water. “Where is everyone?”
“It’s three in the morning, so I’m guessing that they’re either sleeping or getting kicked out of a buffet,” she said, earning a weak smile from him.
“Take a sip,” Jodi ordered, holding the cup in front of him with her good hand.
“Yes, ma’am,” Danny said, obediently taking a sip.
After a minute, she pulled the cup away and placed it on the tray, wishing that his father was here to help with this, but around an hour ago, Mary had finally managed to browbeat her husband into going back to the hotel and getting some sleep.
Now, she was sitting here by herself, terrified that she was about to find out that Danny was paralyzed.
She should call a doctor, but instead, she found herself climbing into bed with him and curling up by his side. She needed this after everything they’d been through over the past two weeks, she needed a moment before their lives went to hell and stayed there.
“What happened?” Danny asked, pressing a kiss against the top of her head as he reached over and placed his hand carefully on her cast.
“I beat the shit out of your brothers,” she admitted with a sniffle.
He chuckled weakly as he pressed another kiss against the top of her head. “That’s not what I meant.”
“You beat the shit out of your father,” Jodi said, still regretting that she hadn’t been there to stop that.
“Your brothers had to pull you off, and in the process, your back was broken and the scar tissue from your old injury and surgeries tore, pulling free and caused some internal bleeding. They were able to stop the bleeding and remove the scar tissue, but your back-”
“I had weak spots in my vertebrae from the shrapnel,” Danny said as she struggled not to cry again. “I was supposed to take it easy.”
“They broke,” she said, her voice breaking.
He was quiet for a long time before he asked, “Was my spine compromised?”
“Can you move your toes?” Jodi asked, repeating the question that they’d been asking him every time he regained consciousness and was terrified of his answer.
“Yes,” Danny said, and just to prove it, he brought his leg up slowly, bending it before he slowly returning it back to the bed and just like that, she lost it.
“Shhhh, don’t cry, Tinkerbelle. I’m fine,” he said, soothingly.
“I’m sorry,” Jodi said, trying to stop, but God help her, but she couldn’t.
He’d scared the hell out of her!
“Did you really beat up my brothers?” Danny asked, kissing her head again and obviously trying to distract her.
“Yes,” she admitted with a sniffle.
“Why?”
“Because they hurt you.”
“It was an accident,” Danny said, but she didn’t miss the amusement lacing his tone.
“I don’t care,” she muttered, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her hand. She could take one of the painkillers the doctors prescribed for her, but she’d been out of it enough over the last two weeks to last her a lifetime.
“I shouldn’t have hit him,” Danny said, sighing heavily. “He started talking and I just lost it.”
“Your father’s not mad.”
“That’s great, but that’s not really what I meant. I want to know why you left me.”
“Because you lied to me. I just couldn’t go through that again. I’m sorry, Danny. I just…I couldn’t do that with you. It hurt so much when Jerry did it and I couldn’t stomach the idea of you pulling away from me like that,” Jodi said around a small sob, and wow, did she sound pathetic.
“I wasn’t pulling away,” he promised her.
“Yes, you were,” she said because she knew the signs. She’d seen it before with Jerry. When she’d felt Danny do it, she’d decided to leave before he could hurt her. She hadn’t been able to stomach the idea of going through that with Danny.
“I would never leave you, Tinkerbelle,” he said, gently cupping her chin and tipping her head so that she was looking up at him. “Never.”
“Then what were you doing?” Jodi demanded, wanting to know what kind of bullshit reason he could come up with for the way that he was acting. He said that he hadn’t been pulling away from her, but-
“I was planning your abduction,” Danny said, blinking innocently down at her.
She opened her mouth but couldn’t quite find the words to respond to that declaration.
“I had to make a few phone calls and call in some favors to get the ban temporarily lifted from Vegas just long enough for me to drag you off and marry you before you got a chance to run away,” Danny calmly explained as she continued to lay there, staring dumbly up at him.
“I’m sorry, what?” she finally managed to get out.
“We’re getting married,” Danny said, shrugging like what he’d just said was no big deal.
“I told you that I didn’t want to get married,” she reminded him.
Another shrug. “I chose to ignore that.”
“Okay…” Jodi said, because really, what else was she supposed to say to that?
“As soon as they release me, we’re getting married,” Danny announced and yeah, now she was wondering if they’d missed a head injury when they’d examined him.
“And why exactly are you so determined to marry me all of a sudden?”
“Because I love you,” Danny said with another shrug as he nodded towards the cup of water. “Can I have another drink?”
“D-Did you just tell me that you love me?” Jodi asked, staring at him because now she was pretty sure that he was suffering from a brain injury. It was either that, or the drugs in his system were making him say this.
“Yes,” Danny said, closing his eyes. “Figured it out the day at the reptile zoo. It pissed me off that you didn’t love me back, but I figured in ten years or so, with enough mind-blowing sex, you’ll end up falling head over heels in love with me, so it’s okay.”
She chuckled, she couldn’t help it. “You’re planning on using sex to make me fall in love with you?”
“Mmmhmmm,” he mumbled sleepily. “I’m willing to make that sacrifice.”
“Wow, you’re a giver,” Jodi said, smiling down at the man that she loved.
“That, I am,” Danny said, smiling that sexy grin that drove her crazy. “And you’re marrying me. Soon,” he said, firmly even as he started to nod off.
“I am,” she said, nodding her head solemnly in agreement, sniffling as tears started to roll down her face, “because I love you.”
He stilled for a minute, that sexy grin of his turning into a frown. “What about all the mind-blowing sex?”
Smiling, she leaned down and kissed him. “I’m still willing to have all the mind-blowing sex.”
“That’s very big of you,” he said, grinning against her lips.
“It really is.”
“She finally fell asleep, huh?” his father asked softly as he glanced down at Tinkerbelle, who was snuggled up by his side.
“Yes,” Danny said, smiling down at the woman who loved him.
Not that he was surprised, he was a fucking catch, after all.
“Looks like we finally found the right combination of pills,” his father said, picking up a blanket off the other bed and carefully placed it over both of them.
Frowning, Danny looked down at the woman softly snoring in his arms. “You drugged her?”
“Put it in her apple juice,” his father said with a shrug. “She was in pain and refused to take anything for it, so I drugged her.”
“I see,” Danny mumbled and just like that, the silence became awkward.
That is until his father decided to pick up where they’d left off.
“I’d raised you to face your mistakes, Danny.”
“Don’t start this shit again,” Danny said, grinding his jaw as he looked up to face his father.
“You ran off, Danny,” his father said, rubbing the back of his neck as he shook his head, looking a little lost. “You just ran.”
“You didn’t give me much of a choice,” Danny said evenly.
His father met his gaze as he said, “No, I didn’t. I kept pushing you when I should have just accepted the fact that you weren’t perfect, Danny.”
“I never said that I was.”
“No,” his father said softly, “you didn’t, but in my eyes, you were.
You were a smart kid, a great brother, a wonderful son, a cocky little bastard, but to me you were perfect.
When you proved me wrong, I lost it. I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was that morning, Danny.
I thought I was going to lose you and when you pulled through and I thought about just how easily I could have lost you over something so stupid,” he paused, shaking his head, “I just lost it.”
“Things worked out,” Danny said, surprised by just how much it hurt him to hear his father admit that he’d fucked up.
For years, he’d imagined this moment, imagined his father taking the blame, but right now, for the first time since he’d come out of that coma, he wished that his father would stop talking.
His father nodded. “For the most part, they did. The Marines did for you what I never could but at a cost.”
“Why did you stop talking to me?” Danny forced himself to ask.
“Because I didn’t know what to say to you without pushing you away again, Danny. I just…” he shook his head, looking away, “I just didn’t know what to say that would make what I did to you okay.”
“You didn’t do anything to me,” Danny said, sighing because his father wasn’t to blame for how his life turned out.
“You were right. I was cocky and when I fucked up. I acted like a spoiled brat and ran off, thinking that I was taking the easy way out with the Marines. They taught me a great deal and helped me grow up.”
“I still pushed you away,” his father said, looking tormented. “I never should have done that.
“Yes, you did, but so did I. We both fucked this up.”
His father raised his hand and laid it over his where it rested on Jodi’s hip. “I won’t make that mistake again,” his father promised, giving his hand a squeeze.
He opened his mouth to promise his father the same when the small woman in his arms cut him off.
“If you girls are done talking, I could really use a double chocolate donut.”
He looked up at his father just in time to catch the panicked expression on his face. “Oh, shit…” his father mumbled, swallowing nervously as he released his hand and stumbled back away from the bed as Danny sighed, resigning himself to the next twelve hours of hell with the woman that he loved.