Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
WADE
To put it bluntly, the weather sucked. Icy rain fell from the sky, striking my cheeks with stinging cold. It was about a five-minute walk from the lodge restaurant along the path through the trees to Dani’s cabin, but even I was shivering by the time we got there.
The holiday lights strung through the trees were blurred by the rain. Dani stumbled as she climbed up the two steps onto her porch. I caught her by the hip and shoulder. “Easy,” I said, my voice nearly drowned out in the rain.
I could feel the tremors running through her body. “God, it’s cold. I can’t believe Jade walked all the way down the main drive in this rain,” she replied.
“She needed a ride, so she was motivated,” I said as I turned the knob and pushed her door open, holding it open while she stepped inside.
Following her in and not certain if I was welcome, I breathed a sigh of relief when I closed the door behind us, shutting out the wet cold.
“Damn, I didn’t know the rain was going to roll in so fast,” I commented as I tossed the hood back on my rain jacket and shook it lightly.
Dani glanced up from toeing off her wet tennis shoes, her big green eyes bright with her spiky wet eyelashes framing them. “Me neither. When Shay came to get me after the restaurant closed, I could still see the moon over the mountains on the other side of the valley.”
She hung her jacket on the hook by the door, not saying anything else. Meanwhile, I could practically hear the gears shifting in her brain. I was a patient man. I could wait her out. I certainly wasn’t going to be pushy tonight, not after her comment earlier.
When I saw her shiver slightly, it tested my restraint and patience, because I wanted to lift her into my arms and carry her into the shower where we could both warm up.
When she turned back to me, I saw the hesitation in her eyes.
Much as I wanted to hold her tonight—because it had been too many days now—I called upon my discipline and pushed away from the door where I’d rested my shoulder.
“I’ll go now. Make sure you get something warm to drink.” I started to turn away, steeling myself to walk into the rain and leave Dani behind.
“Wade.” The sound of my name in her frayed voice drew me back instantly, like a puppet on a string.
“Look,” she began, pausing as she took a shaky breath. She caught one of her curls in her finger, spinning it in a circle and betraying her nervousness. “I guess maybe I kind of dumped that on you back there …” Her words trailed off again as she gestured vaguely in the direction of the lodge.
“Dani,” I said, shaking my head slightly. “You’re freezing, I’m wet, and we’re both tired. We can talk later.”
While I didn’t quite know why Dani felt the need to let me know she faced more risky odds than most women when it came to having children, it wasn’t something I worried about.
Having lost my own mother when I was too young to remember her, I understood far too well how life could deal an unfair hand.
Although I’d had no choice but to accept that loss, I also knew how lucky I was.
My father remarried a few years after my mother died and before I even started kindergarten.
The woman who became my stepmother went on to adopt me.
She loved me fiercely and, to me, she was my mother in every way that mattered.
It didn’t matter to me, not one iota, whether or not she had carried me into this world.
Dani shivered again, wrapping her arms around her waist. “I know—” She gave her head a little shake this time, biting off whatever she was about to say. “Do you want some hot cocoa?” she asked abruptly.
I would take whatever Dani would give me so, of course, I said yes. A look of relief crossed her face. “Okay. Perfect. Get your shoes off and get out of that wet coat,” she ordered.
If there was one thing that righted the ship of Dani, it was having something to do. Making sure someone had something hot to drink on a cold winter night was right up her alley. She also felt best when ordering people around.
Turning, I leaned over to unlace my boots. I kicked them off as I shrugged out of my wet jacket, more droplets of cold water falling to the floor as I hung it up.
“Want me to clean this up?” I asked, gesturing to the damp tile in the small entryway.
Dani rolled her eyes when I looked at her where she stood in the small kitchen area just across the room. “Isn’t that why it’s tiled?”
I chuckled and shrugged as I padded into her bathroom to fetch a towel. I quickly snagged a clean one off the shelf and scrubbed it over my damp hair.
“Need a towel?” I called through the doorway.
“No thanks. Unlike you, I actually zipped up my jacket.”
Smiling to myself, I hung the towel on one of the hooks on the back of the door and returned to the main room. Dani had milk heating on the stove and was shaving a chunk of dark chocolate with a knife.
“Oh, you’re going old-school,” I said as I slipped into a chair at the small round table.
She smiled, her gaze slightly bashful as she looked over at me. “Always. It’s best this way.”
The room fell quiet as she puttered at the stove. The day’s tension unspooled inside while I let the feel of being in Dani’s presence wash over me.
A few minutes later, she handed me a mug and set a bottle of my new favorite marshmallow vodka in the middle of the table. “This way, you can make it as strong as you like,” she explained.
Although I had told her our conversation could wait, I could practically feel the words wanting to press out of her. When Dani had something on her mind, she wasn’t much for waiting to get it out.
After a few sips and adding a liberal dash of vodka, I cocked my head to the side. “Baby, if you wanna talk, lay it on me.”
She caught one of her curls again and started spinning it around her finger. Reaching over, I clasped her hand in mine. “I don’t know what’s got you so worked up, but just relax.”
“I’m pretty sure there has never been a time in history when someone relaxed just because someone else told them to,” she muttered, irritation flashing in her eyes.
Keeping a hold of her hand—because she didn’t yank it away—I gave it a gentle squeeze. “I know, baby. I guess I should’ve said something along the lines of ‘I hate seeing you worry, and I wish you wouldn’t.’”
Her lips kicked up on one side. “I guess I already said everything I needed to say. I just thought it was something you should know.”
“Because you had one ectopic pregnancy, you might have another?” I asked before pausing to take a healthy sip of my cocoa.
She nodded. “Yeah. That’s it.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “I can’t really tell if you’re upset about that, or not.”
She shrugged and took a gulp of her cocoa.
I could feel her knee bouncing up and down under the table.
She was anxious as all hell about this, but she wasn’t giving me much to go on.
Knowing there was no sense in me interpreting something until she was ready to explain, I gave her hand another squeeze.
“I’ll say it again. I’m sorry you basically had to go through that alone. It must’ve been scary as hell.”
She bit her lip, pulling her hand out from under mine. “I’m okay. It was a long time ago.”
I was a man, but I was no idiot. I sensed there were all kinds of undercurrents rippling under the surface here, including cross currents and crazy shit like that. Without knowing what was going on inside her busy brain, all I wanted was to somehow ease her anxiety.
“Darlin’, you’re a thinker. You always have been.
You’re smart as hell, so that’s a good thing.
But stop thinking so hard right now. You’re worrying, and you’re not telling me what you’re worrying about, so I don’t know how to help.
I’m sorry to tell you, but my mind-reading abilities were always on the weak side. ”
Dani cracked a smile as she laughed softly. “Fair enough. I certainly don’t expect you to read my mind. You’re right, I tend to worry.”
“Can we hit the pause button on it for now?”
She nodded, leaning forward to lift her mug again.
After we talked about nothing but the mundane and sipped her delectable cocoa for a bit, her head began drooping to her shoulder.
I knew she would be getting up truly before the crack of dawn.
Much as my body had an opinion—it always did when it came to Dani—I nudged her into bed and tugged the down comforter around us.
I was beyond content, given how tired I was, to fall asleep with her warm in my arms. It had never been just about sex when it came to Dani.