Chapter Fourteen #3
Even under the moonlight, Dani could see Theo’s face turn white as a sheet. How was he not laughing? This was fucking hilarious.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Dani asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.
He blinked a few times, seemingly unaware he’d been looking at her in any particular way. “Looking at you like what?”
“Like I told you Beau is an alien.”
“Not an alien. Just confused. Your dad…he said he was your beau.”
Dani rolled her eyes.
“My dad is the one who’s confused. It’s like he’s never heard the name before. Every time I mention Beau, he thinks I’m referring to him as my beau instead of that being his name.”
“Has your dad ever met him?”
“Yes, which makes it even more baffling. He came over for dinner one time when Eddie was in town, and it was very obvious Beau was much more into Eddie than he was me.”
Theo put his hands on his hips, tossed his head back, and then started laughing. “Wow…I…I don’t even know what to say right now.” He ran his hands over his face and then through his silky dark brown hair, shimmering under the moonlight.
“Well, now that we’ve clarified that I’m not some Jezebel—”
“A fake kiss with your fake fiancé hardly makes you a Jezebel,” Theo said.
Fake. Right.
Dani…I…I can’t.
The last thing she needed was to languish over a fake kiss with the man who’d rejected her. Maybe this was her sign that it was finally time to get over him.
“Yeah, okay, well, since that’s out of the way, can we please pretend that tonight never happened?” she pleaded. “Like we forget about it forever and never breathe a word about it ever again, assuming we get out of this mess?”
“Forget tonight?”
“The kiss,” she clarified.
“Oh. That.” His confusion was back. Like her request caught him off guard.
“I seriously don’t know what got into me. It must be the situation. Tension is high. My emotions are all over the place. It obviously didn’t mean anything.”
“Yeah…obviously. It’s just the situation.”
“I don’t want things getting weird between us again.”
“Yeah, no. I get what you mean,” he said, tugging on the back of his neck. “We’re just two friends who kissed one time. Yeah. It happens.”
“Totally!” she said, excitedly slapping him on the arm. “And we had to make it look convincing.”
“Yeah. Had to.”
“I mean, I almost convinced myself for a second,” she said, nervously laughing. But Theo wasn’t laughing back. Instead, he stared at her almost like it pained him watching her be so pathetic. She needed to make things less awkward. She didn’t want him thinking she was over there pining for him.
“Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t like into it, into it,” she continued as his gaze steadfastly focused. “Sure, it was a good kiss. But, like, I’ve kissed lots of guys where it meant nothing. This was like a silly dare. And you know I can’t say no to a dare. Like, oh! Remember that one time when—”
“Juicy, please stop.”
His strained words shut her up instantaneously.
“I’m sorry,” she said, biting her lip. “I’m making it weird, aren’t I?”
“Yes, but it’s fine. We’re in a weird situation. But seriously, we don’t ever need to mention it again. It never happened.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Not another word about it. Promise.” He crossed his heart and put up his hand.
Yet for some reason, disappointment rippled through her instead of relief. She quickly shook the thought away.
They stood silently for a few moments, not looking at each other.
“I suppose now’s the time to tell you, I’m not leaving tomorrow,” Theo said, like a needle scratching a record.
“What?!”
“Don’t worry, Andreas can still arrange for you to get to the embassy. You’ll be safe. But I’m going to stay and help him search for the eye.”
Anger boiled over inside her.
“The hell you are! Theo, we’re getting the fuck out of here. End of discussion.”
“I can’t leave. Not without seeing the pages from Demetrios’s journal. I’ll regret it if I leave before then,” he said with a genuineness in his eye.
“You’ve got to be joking,” Dani said, folding her arms. “Do you not remember being held hostage for a year?”
“And now I’m free.”
She laughed. Unbelievable. “You’re not free, Theo. You won’t be free until you are back home.”
He placed his hands on her shoulders. “I have to do this. I have to know why my grandfather told me those stories. Why me? Why tell me at all? I need to know, Juicy. Can’t you understand that?”
“Then I’m staying with you.”
He frowned and dropped his arms. “No, absolutely not.”
“Oh, so what, you can put yourself in danger, but I can’t do the same? Well, I’m not asking for your permission, Theo. If you’re staying, then so am I. Don’t try to talk me out of it.”
As always, Theo put everything on his shoulders. His responsibility. His duty. The weight of everyone else’s expectations weighing him down.
She needed him to understand that he wasn’t alone in this. He never was.
“We’ll find it together,” she said, taking his hand and squeezing.
He then pulled her in for a hug, wrapping his long arms around her body. Her mind floated back to that kiss, but she quickly pushed it to the back of her brain.
“Don’t tell Eddie,” he said, his voice reverberating through his chest, “but I think you might actually be my best friend.”
Dani smiled and pressed her cheek into his pecs. Even if she couldn’t have Theo in the way she wanted, at least she still had this.
“You’re right. Eddie would have jumped ship back at the museum,” she joked.
“Eddie wouldn’t have been in a museum in the first place,” Theo retorted, and they both started laughing.
Dani looked up at Theo, still with his arms wrapped around her, as he looked down. Her heart pounded. She wished things were different. That he was feeling what she was feeling because, damn, she wanted to kiss him again.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he whispered.
“I can’t say I’m glad I’m here,” she said, and they both chuckled again, “but I’m glad I’m with you.”
He scanned her face, his eyes jumping from her gaze to her lips. For a moment, she thought maybe…just maybe…he might kiss her again. But instead, he rested his chin on the top of her head, and the silence returned.
Sigh. This would have to do.