Chapter 12 #2
She hadn’t mentioned that name before. She wouldn’t call her mom by her first name, and she didn’t have a sister. “Joelle?”
“I told you about my Dad’s girlfriend.” She laughed at herself.
“I guess I never actually said her name.” Now she sighed, and her smile was much more sad than joyful.
“I ended up asking her to go dress shopping with me. That’s not—my Mom doesn’t do stuff like that, and Aunt Rachel’s still in London, and I…
I wanted somebody with me. So I swallowed my pride and I asked her.
She was thrilled and Dad—oh, my God, Daniel.
He almost cried, he was so happy I was being nice to his girlfriend. ”
It made Daniel want to cry, too. It sucked that Nora couldn’t ask her mother for something as simple as taking her shopping for a dress.
As much as things could sometimes be strained with his father, he knew he could go to Dad for anything he really needed help with.
It must feel so awful to know you couldn’t trust your parents, or rely on them.
He couldn’t do anything to change Nora’s circumstances. All he could do was make sure she knew she could rely on him.
Nora , a little later
Nora looked over at Daniel as they walked into the Whitman building.
There was so much emotion showing on his face.
She could see his pride shining out—he would never say the words, not in a million years, but she could read him perfectly.
She knew he felt like the king of the world right now, just for having her on his arm.
Well, he would say that last part, but only at the end of the night when they were alone.
That was for later; right now she wanted to enjoy this dance.
It was already fairly crowded, and it was weird to see her classmates all dressed up.
She’d felt the same way at her senior prom, except here nobody needed to spike the punch or rent a hotel room using their parents’ credit card for afterwards.
No, that was the past. No hotel rooms, no getting drunk to forget about all the crappy things she didn’t want to remember.
Tonight was about dancing in the arms of her boyfriend, laughing at his silly jokes, feeling like a queen for a little while—not just in Daniel’s eyes, but everybody else’s too. And even more importantly, her own.
Why not? Didn’t she deserve to feel that way just as much as anybody else?
Daniel’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Do you want to dance?” She wasn’t sure why he was even asking; he had one hand on her waist and the other in the middle of her back and he was leading her onto the dance floor.
“I think we already are,” she said. And as they danced, her boyfriend holding her close and his eyes fixed on hers, she did feel like a queen.
Maybe even the queen of the world
Daniel , a bit later
The last formal dance he’d gone to—the only one he’d ever gone to—was Peggy’s prom, almost three years ago. It had been nice when he’d been dancing with her, but awkward otherwise. He hadn’t known anyone there but her.
This was different. He didn’t know everyone—Albion wasn’t that small of a school—but everywhere he looked, he saw someone he recognized. And every one of them saw him with the most beautiful girl in the room.
He couldn’t deny that it felt good to be seen that way. But it was all because of Nora. The only reason anyone else could see this more confident, more together version of himself was because she’d seen it first, and made him see it too.
“You clean up pretty good, Daniel.” He turned to see Phil passing behind him on the dance floor.
Phil was wearing—good God, a tuxedo? He’d never seen Phil in anything but a T-shirt or sweatpants in the year and a half he’d known him.
And he was dancing with Jeannette Morgan; Daniel thought they’d broken up before Christmas.
Well, that wasn’t for him to worry about.
Jeannette spoke up. “Nora, right? You look lovely. You guys make a great couple.”
Nora nodded her thanks, but before either she or Daniel could say anything, Phil spoke again. “You two are never apart anymore. When’s the wedding?”
Daniel tripped over his feet and nearly fell into Nora. She caught him, held him up, but she had a deer-in-the-headlights look in her eyes. The same look he knew was in his own. Because what if it wasn’t a joke?
Of course it was a joke. A wedding? That was ridiculous! That was absurd! That was… not even as bad as his wild thought about having a baby, back before Christmas.
He heard Phil yelp, and cry out, “What did I say?”
“Something really rude and stupid,” Jeannette said. “Ignore him, Daniel. You already know Phil has the manners of a rabid squirrel.”
“It’s fine,” Daniel said, looking into Nora’s eyes, willing her to think it was fine, too.
“Yeah,” she said, after a moment, the fear in her face shifting to a mischievous expression. “And if we ever do get married, I’ll ask you to be a bridesmaid, Phil, since you’re the first one to suggest it. You’d look great in pink taffeta.”
If he hadn’t already loved Nora, that remark by itself would have been enough to capture his heart.
Nora , three hours later
They were back in her room. It felt a little strange.
Daniel had been in her room before, of course, but he’d never been in her room.
It wasn’t intentional; they’d only come here instead of his dorm because it was a shorter walk from the Whitman building, and she really should have worn a coat tonight.
He was sitting on her bed, bouncing up and down.
“I forgot how thin the mattresses were in Morris Hall. I can’t believe I slept on one of these for a whole year.
” She glared at him, and it took him a moment to realize why.
“Oh. Sorry.” Then he grinned. “Please tell me you’re not just dating me to get access to my mattress. ”
She grabbed her pillow and hit him with it.
“Very funny, Keller.” It was kind of funny, though.
She teased him enough, she could take a joke now and then.
She sat next to him, and felt the mattress sag noticeably.
It really wasn’t meant for two people. “I wonder if they purposely bought crummy mattresses so freshmen wouldn’t try to sleep together. ”
Daniel turned to her, kissed her. “It’s not working.” And then his hands were on her, all over her. Exactly what she wanted. It only took a moment of his touch, everywhere she needed it, and all conscious thought was gone—there was only feeling. Only him. Only right now.
Daniel , the next morning
“I just remembered,” Nora said. “I had clothes in the dryer yesterday, and I never got them. You mind waiting up here for a minute?” Of course Daniel didn’t mind.
There was nowhere else he’d rather be. “And if the phone rings, pick it up. Tammy was going to call this morning to pick a time to study later.”
It rang about fifteen seconds after she left. He answered it, and it wasn’t Tammy on the line.
“Good morning, Pumpkin!”
It was Nora’s father. He took a deep breath. He could do this. Nora had put up with being interrogated by his whole family for hours. The least he could do was to talk to her father for five minutes.
“Uh—this is Daniel, Mr. Langley.”
Oh, God.
He wasn’t just talking to Nora’s father. He was in Nora’s dorm room, before eight o’clock on a Saturday morning, talking to her father. He might as well have said “I slept with your daughter last night, how are you this morning?”
But luck—or something—was with him, because there was a little chuckle on the line. “ The Daniel? The one my daughter is in love with?”
He didn’t know Nora had told her father that. “Yes, sir.” What else was there to say?
Another chuckle. “You can skip the sir, and the Mr. Langley. Call me Richard. And where is Nora, by the way?”
“Down in the laundry room. She left her clothes in the dryer yesterday.” Well, it was true.
“That sounds like her. She probably gets that from me.” There was a pause. “She got a lot from me, Daniel. Good and bad.”
“Sir? Uh—I mean, Richard? I don’t understand.”
Another pause. “That’s a good sign. Maybe she doesn’t take after me as much as I thought. Maybe she learned what not to do.”
Daniel had no idea what the man was trying to say, and he wasn’t at all sure he really wanted to know. “Uh… okay?”
“It’s fine, Daniel. Forget everything I just said. Just—take good care of her. She deserves—she needs love. More than she even knows, I think. She needs somebody she can believe in, no matter what. If it’s you, I can’t ask more than that.”
“I love her. And all I want to do is take care of her,” he said, and Nora picked that moment to come back, so—thank God—he didn’t need to say anything more. He took the laundry basket out of her arms with one hand, and gave her the phone with the other. “It’s your father,” he told her.
She looked like she couldn’t decide whether to laugh, cry or scream. He didn’t blame her one bit.