Chapter 16
Danielle
The car slowed to a halt behind Melanie’s little black Nissan with the Louisiana state sticker in pride colors. Danielle stared at the sticker, trying to figure out how she could exit this car without having to say anything.
Because there was nothing else to say.
And everything to say.
But she couldn’t say any of it.
“Thanks so much for the dress.”
It wasn’t what she wanted to say, but it would have to do.
Telling Morgan how she really felt about her was off the table.
Even if her own feelings about a relationship were shifting ever so slightly, Morgan gave no indication that her own feelings on the matter had changed.
The woman wasn’t interested in anything but casual.
And Danielle couldn’t do casual. Not with Lila in the mix. Not to mention her own heart.
“It’s my pleasure.” Morgan squirmed in the driver’s seat as she twisted her hands around the steering wheel. “Listen, can we forget I did that? For real? I don’t want things to be awkward.”
Her low voice clipped along at lightning speed, giving the impression that things were the pure definition of awkward.
“It’s fine,” Danielle lied. “Really.”
“I’ll understand if you don’t want to go to the wedding now.”
Her stomach clenched. She hadn’t realized just how much she wanted this until something threatened to take it away.
“No, it’s fine. I still want to go.” Everything inside her twisted like a towel being wrung out with the realization of what that statement might actually mean. “Unless you don’t want to now.”
A soft smile appeared on Morgan’s face. To anyone else, that softness might seem out of place on Morgan’s hard edges. Against the canvas of her piercings and black hair and shaved sides of her head. But even knowing her for just this bit of time, Danielle knew that softness lived there.
“I’m still in if you are.”
Danielle returned the smile and gave a curt nod. “Then it’s settled. Wedding in two weeks.”
Morgan bit her lip, tugging at the hoop on the right side, and Danielle wanted more than anything to pick up where they’d left off outside that boutique.
No, not an option.
“Great,” Morgan said. “I’ll get with you later about details.”
“Sounds good. Thanks again for the dress.”
Morgan’s attention was pulled to something past Danielle. She let out a small chuckle and waved.
Danielle turned to see a trio of heads peeking out the window. Two adult-sized and one child-sized.
“That’s my cue.” Danielle exited the car then removed the dress bag from the backseat hanger with the passenger door still open. She stuck her head back in the car's front and said, “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Tell them I said, ‘Hi.’”
“Will do.”
Danielle closed the car door and walked to Melanie and Kim’s side door, realizing that Morgan was still in the driveway waiting for her to get inside safely.
“I see you’re all bored here by the look of your faces in the window.”
“Not bored,” Kim said from her side of the loveseat she and Melanie shared.
Melanie shrugged beside her. “You’re just way more interesting.”
“She’s pretty,” Lila said, still staring out the window and watching as Morgan drove off. “At least from what I can see through the car window.”
Danielle had a talk with Lila about her bisexuality the year before, when they went to the local pride celebration together. She was beginning to regret that conversation at the moment.
“Oh, she’s very pretty,” Melanie said. “And not just through a car window.”
“She’s my cousin, so I’m going to let you two have that one,” Kim said as she tapped the arm of the sofa beside her. “So, how’d it go?”
Danielle draped the dress bag over the other arm of the couch and sat on the opposite end near Kim. “It went.”
“That’s a terrible answer,” Kim said. “Tell us the real one.”
“Fine. I got a dress.” She made a flourishing motion at the bag. “A gorgeous one.”
“Oh, good!” Melanie leaned forward and dropped her voice to a whisper. “But that’s not what we’re asking.”
Danielle knew exactly what they were asking and what she didn’t want to tell them.
“Yeah, Mom.” Lila plopped herself on the center cushion right beside Danielle. “Tell us how it went. You like her, right?”
Danielle felt her cheeks flush with heat as she scrambled for a way to answer that. She couldn’t outright lie and say no. Her brain wouldn’t let her do that. But she couldn’t very well tell her daughter how she felt about Morgan.
“I don’t think we should have this discussion right now.”
Lila rolled her eyes and grunted. “Mom, I’m thirteen. I know what a crush looks like, and you’ve got one. So spill it. How’d it go?”
The heat in her cheeks flared as Danielle looked to Kim and Melanie for help. She found none.
She looked sideways at her little girl, who wasn’t so little anymore.
Her blonde hair was pulled back in a high ponytail with a few loose strands framing her face.
The slight reddening of her cheeks showed she’d spent a lot of this sunny afternoon out in the yard with Prince.
She loved that dog so much, and Danielle often wished she could get a dog for her.
But she just didn’t have the time or energy for a dog.
Lila still looked exactly like the little girl Danielle had raised and set her eyes upon nearly every day of her life. But it was Lila’s eyes that gave her age away. There was a knowing there. Just enough to hint at the new clarity through which she was seeing the world.
“It went well. On all accounts.”
Danielle decided she could share at least that much with her daughter. The other two in the room would surely have more questions.
“How well?” Melanie asked. “Is there another date on the horizon?”
“This wasn’t a date, and no, there isn’t a date planned.”
“But you want one, right?”
Lila was relentless. That didn’t bode well for the rest of her teenage years.
“What I want is a friend, and I think that’s what I have.”
That much was the truth. Danielle wasn’t lacking in the number of friends she had, but she wanted to be this woman’s friend.
The question was whether she wanted something besides friendship from Morgan. And she was afraid she already knew the answer to that. So the even bigger question was why she’d pulled back from that kiss. Would it have been so bad to let it go on a little longer? Maybe do it again?
That would require a very serious and very honest conversation with Morgan. One she wasn’t sure either of them were ready to have.
Kim narrowed her eyes from across the room. She had always been the more observant of the couple.
Before she could observe more, Danielle stood. She crossed over Lila’s feet and grabbed her dress. “We should get going. Thank you so much for letting Lila hang out here.”
Lila stood, her body conveying her annoyance that the conversation was over.
“Never a problem,” Kim said. “Lila is welcome here anytime. Date or not.”
Danielle opened her mouth to argue the point again but decided against it. That might just pick up the conversation where she’d left it.
“Oh, the book club!” Melanie clapped her hands together.
Danielle paused from herding Lila toward the door. “Do we have more members?”
“No,” Melanie said, then quickly changed to, “Yes! Maybe.”
“The person at my work is interested. We just need to set up some details for her. Date, time, first book to read. That stuff.”
“That sounds exciting.” And it did. It felt like a real thing that was going to happen now. “You know my schedule. Just let me know what you decide, and I’ll check with Rylee’s mom about Lila.”
“Mom, I told you. I can stay by myself.”
Danielle ignored her. “And the book?”
“I can text you the ones we’re looking at,” Melanie said. “You can help us narrow it down.”
“Sounds great,” Danielle said. “I’m really looking forward to this, actually.”
Kim and Melanie simultaneously leaned sideways so their arms pressed against each other.
“We’re thrilled to hear that,” Kim said. “It’s why we want to do this. Bring a little joy to people through books.”
“Just let me know the date you pick. Thanks again for today.”
As Danielle opened the door, Lila twisted her head and looked up at her. “Did you hear me? I said I can stay home by myself.”
Danielle let out a heavy sigh as she shut the door behind her, grateful for the book club and the end to that conversation about Morgan, but less grateful for the discussion she was about to have on the car ride home.