by Gail Sattler
“Hi, Cory.” Susie practically purred. “After this is over, how would you like to join me for a drink? Or maybe, if you don’t want to do that, we could go catch a movie sometime?”
“Uh…I…”
Daphne felt her teeth clench. She was more than aware that a number of the ladies were attracted to Cory. She’d thought she’d been obvious in showing that he wasn’t available. They’d always arrived together, and left together. Meaning, they were together.
Almost like a flashback, her own words echoed in her head. When she’d first introduced Cory to the group, she’d introduced him only as her brother’s friend.
Maybe at the time he was, but that was then. She’d come to know him differently now, and he was so much more. She’d never known anyone like him, and probably never would again. She didn’t want to lose him, or allow what had developed between them to change or be compromised.
She had to do something and she had to do it now.
Before Cory could say something coherent, Daphne stepped closer, standing right beside them. She stared down at Susie’s hand, still attached to Cory’s arm. Flashing Susie a smile that was overly sweet, she glared down at Susie’s fingers, then looked up to give Susie her best glare of death.
“Sorry, but Cory and I have plans.”
The second Susie made eye contact, she yanked her hand away then shuffled backward. “Oh,” she muttered and then turned around and walked away.
Cory’s eyes widened. “Did she just ask me out?”
Instead of looking up at Cory, Daphne looked around them. Most of the other ladies were watching them. She turned to him. “I think so. I hope you weren’t going to accept.”
He shook his head. “No.”
She lowered her voice. “Don’t look now, but most of them are watching you.”
“Really? Why? All I’m doing is getting a doughnut.”
Daphne almost wanted to smack some sense into him. Every week, all the ladies had been keeping a close eye on Cory, and an even closer eye on the interaction between the two of them. She hadn’t intended to do anything about it, but now that one of them had tried to make a move on him, she found herself feeling possessive of him.
“Because a few of them are probably hoping you are going to ask them out.”
“Out where? We don’t need to go out for coffee and doughnuts tonight. Allie has everything here.”
She looked up at him. “You don’t get it, do you? They’re trying to see if we’re really together or not, and if not, a few of them have hopes that you’ll ask them out on a date.”
“Oh.” As a silence hung between them; she could almost see the gears working in his head. “They seem to be nice ladies and all that, but I’m really not interested. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. What should I do?”
A million pictures zoomed through her head, especially one.
“I know. Come with me.”
Before he could question her, she twined her fingers with his and gave him a gentle tug. He picked up on her hint and started walking with her toward the hall leading to the washrooms.
“Where are we going?”
“Away from the crowd for a few minutes. If we hide around the corner they’ll make a bunch of assumptions on what we’re doing, and then they’ll leave you alone.”
While looking up, she felt the brush of Cory’s fingers on her shoulder. “If I get what you’re telling me, the assumption they’ll be making is that some hanky-panky is going on between us. If that was going to happen, we’d be standing closer together.”
As in a dream, Cory moved closer to her. Slowly, he extended one hand and brushed his fingers lightly against her cheek. His head tipped to one side. Standing so close, the height difference between them hit her as never before.
If they were kissing, to make the right contact, either he would be shorter or she would be taller, or both. Right now, for something to happen, the logistics weren’t right. He towered over her by more than a foot. A romantic embrace with a kiss, as done in the movies, wasn’t physically possible. The top of her head didn’t even reach his armpit.
Words failed her.
He raised one finger in the air. “I have an idea.” He dropped down so one knee touched the ground, and with his other foot flat on the ground, his other knee remained bent in front of him. “Sit on my knee. Let’s see what happens.”
“I don’t know,” she muttered, but did as he said anyway, trying to balance herself on his knee. It didn’t feel secure, until his hands surrounded her waist.
He sure had big hands.
First she looked down at his hands, then up at his face. Right into his eyes. Almost level.
“This would work,” she whispered, almost in shock to be so close, in a dimly lit hallway.
“I think so, too.”
At his words, her eyes fluttered shut. The warmth of his lips brushed hers, making her head spin and her heart pound. Without thinking, she raised her hands and cupped his cheeks, finding them rough with the day’s growth of his beard.
At her touch, he tilted his head slightly and the brush became a real kiss. Slow, warm…and the most romantic thing that had ever happened to her.
Behind her, someone gasped.
They separated and Daphne scrambled to her feet as though someone had dumped a pail of cold water over her head.
Cory’s eyes popped open and he pushed himself back up to a standing position.
Daphne spun around to see Susie standing in the hallway. Susie stiffened and strode into the ladies’ washroom, slamming the door behind her.
She wasn’t sure what had just happened, but something had. She wasn’t sure if she had kissed him, or if he had kissed her, but a kiss had definitely happened.
Behind her, Cory cleared his throat. “I think we should get back to the party.”
She didn’t know if she could face the crowd. Too much was running through her head right now.
In the back of her mind, something told her that she should have been afraid, but she wasn’t.
She should have wanted to run away, to escape, but she didn’t. She wanted to go to Cory, to wrap her arms around him and hold him tight, and to have him do the same to her.
The words of her counselor echoed through her head. When the time was right for her to move on and put what Alex had done behind her, she would know. It would just happen.
Something had happened, but she wasn’t sure what.
But before she did anything rash, there was someone she needed to talk to.
She needed to go home and pray about this.
Daphne shuffled backward and cleared her throat. “I think I need to go home.”
For the first time, today Cory had been tied up with some paperwork when it had been time to get ready for the session. To let him finish his work, instead of him going to her place to pick her up, they’d come in separate cars. He didn’t need to drive her home.
She cleared her throat. “I don’t think you need to follow me home today. It’s not that late. I’ll be fine.”
He rammed his hands into his pockets. “I don’t like it, but if that’s what you want, I’ll respect it. Will I see you tomorrow?”
Tomorrow was Saturday, and she could and probably would spend the whole day with him.
If she was going to follow this through, she had to do the bravest thing possible. “Yes. Tomorrow Rick is having some friends over. Instead of coming over to my house, how about if I pick up something for lunch, and go to your place? So we can talk. Would noon work?”
His brows raised and his eyes widened. “Sure. That would be good.”
That was what Daphne was hoping for—that it would indeed be good. She cleared her throat. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
* * *
Right on time, at noon the buzzer for the front door sounded.
The time from when he hit the button to open the main entrance to the time he heard her knock on his apartment door was the longest two minutes and twenty-seve
n seconds of his life.
When he opened the door, she smiled up at him.
She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Since Brad and Kayla’s wedding, she’d put on about ten to fifteen pounds, and with all the exercise they’d done, it was all muscle—and in all the right places. She looked great. Really great.
She held up a bag. “I brought lunch. Are you hungry?” She giggled. “Silly question. Of course you’re hungry. Where’s the kitchen?”
He jerked one thumb over his shoulder, pointing down the hall. “That way.”
Without hesitation, she walked past him and straight to the kitchen, where the coffeepot was just finishing the last drips.
“Great timing. I’m dying for a coffee right now. I never drink coffee when I’m driving. Even though it’s not as distracting as talking on the cell phone, I don’t do it. I don’t talk on the phone, either.” Her voice lowered. “My brother’s a cop, you know.” She grinned at him, then lowered her head to the bag.
It was a good thing she wasn’t looking at him. He couldn’t grin back.
While she pulled everything out of the bag, Cory poured two cups of coffee, put in the right amount of cream and sugar, and set the mugs on the table.
After a quick prayer, they dug into the food.
“Nice place you’ve got.”
“Thanks.” He’d been cleaning for hours. He’d started last night, and the place had never been so tidy.
“You probably have a good view from up here.”
“It’s okay.” He’d picked this side of the building, even though the rent was a bit more, because he loved the view.
“Does that big truck of yours fit in the underground parking here, or do you have a spot outside?”
“Outside.” Not trusting the height restriction on the sign posted at the entrance to the underground parking, he’d used a tape measure, just to be sure. Even if he’d taken the antenna off, his truck still wouldn’t have fit.
For every question she asked him, all he could come up with was one- or two-word answers. He was so lame, but his brain just wouldn’t work.
When they finished eating, she stuffed the wrappers into the bag, then walked to the kitchen sink and opened the cupboard door to stuff it into the garbage, with no question as to where it would be.
“Let’s go into the living room. I want to see the view.” Without waiting for him, she refilled her coffee mug then walked straight to the patio door. Instead of stopping, she opened the door and walked out onto the balcony. “Wow. This is spectacular. Are you coming?”
Without speaking, he joined her on the balcony.
She sank down into one of the chairs, turning her head toward the city skyline, so he did the same.
With a big sigh, she sipped her coffee. “I thought I was going to be nervous coming here, but I’m not.” She turned to him. “I’m good. Really. I was going to say that you look more nervous than I do, but I don’t think I look nervous, because I’m not. I feel good. Like this is really right. It’s okay. Relax.”
The weight of a downed cedar lifted off his shoulders. “That’s good to hear. I really don’t know what to say.”
“Then let’s just talk.”
He doubted she wanted to hear about the last Seahawks game. “About what?”
She set her coffee cup on the table, folded her hands in front of her and leaned forward. “Us. Let’s talk about us.”
It was almost as if Cory’s life flashed before his eyes. The past few months had seemed like forever, yet today was moving at light speed.
He gulped. This was it. The moment he’d been both dreaming about and dreading. “Us?”
She looked down at her hands, which made him even more nervous. “I was thinking about it last night and… I hope this isn’t being too forward, but I really like you.” Her face turned a bit pink, and he hoped it was because she was thinking about the same thing that flashed through his mind—the short kiss they’d shared before they were so rudely interrupted. “I hope you feel the same way, so I want to ask you where you want to go with our relationship.” She looked up at him. “We do have a relationship, don’t we?”
Relationship. That was what he wanted more than anything else in the world. A permanent relationship with Daphne. One where they could be together most of the time, all the time. They would see each other at their best, and their worst, and still want to be together anyway. To share their joys and sorrows, and face the world together. He wanted the whole thing. The wedding, the mortgage, the kids, the dog and maybe a cat. A real relationship.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah. We do.”
“That’s great.” She smiled at him. A real smile. From her heart. Like the kind of smile the woman in a movie did before the big kiss that ended the movie with the happily-ever-after ending scene that women loved so much and made men groan.
This was it. It hadn’t happened the conventional way he thought a permanent relationship usually started, but it was there. If he wanted it. And he did.
This was the time he should have jumped up and grabbed her and kissed her, and she would kiss him back, this time without someone interrupting.
But he couldn’t.
He folded his hands on the table in front of him and stiffened his back. “Before we go any further, there’s something about me you need to know.”
Chapter 11
Daphne gulped. The good lunch she’d just eaten turned to a rock in her stomach. In the movies, this was the lead-in for the speaker to say he or she had a life-threatening disease, and the other would pledge their unending love and support. Then, somehow, by the end of the movie, after a lot of hard work and sacrifice, together they would overcome the battle. The closing of the movie promised they would live happily ever after, and life went on.
But this wasn’t a movie. This was real life. Maybe this was something that couldn’t be fixed. But even if it couldn’t, whatever he said, she hoped it was something they could battle together. “Go ahead.”
“I’ve never told you about how I became a forest ranger.” He paused, letting the silence hang.
“I thought people became rangers because they loved nature and the great outdoors.”
He turned away, not making eye contact, which she didn’t think was a good sign.
“While I do like getting away into the wilderness, that wasn’t what started me being a ranger.”
“Then how did you decide to be a forest ranger?” She couldn’t see it being the kind of job a person fell into. She also couldn’t see why the reason he became a forest ranger was so important right now.
“I got into it through community service.”
“Community service?” A million pictures swam through her head. Community service was usually done as a means to reduce a sentence or to avoid jail time after being found guilty of a crime. “I don’t understand.”
He finally looked at her, the eye contact so intense it almost burned. She wanted to look away, but couldn’t. “Just before I became legal age, I was arrested for assault and battery. The assault and battery charges were dropped, but I did get charged with a misdemeanor for property damage. Instead of going to juvvie, I did community service, which ended up being planting trees. While I was doing the tree planting thing, I grew up and became an adult. That led to the ranger in charge taking me aside and prompting me to become a forest ranger.”
All she could do was stare at him. “Assault and battery? Property damage?” She shuffled backward, as far as the chair would allow. The picture of Cory beating a man to a pulp while smashing things around him swam through her head almost like a movie in slow motion. Considering his size and strength, he could probably kill someone with his bare hands. But he didn’t say murder or manslaughter. It was just assault and battery. Just.
“Who did you assault?” She gulped. “How bad was he hurt?” She gulped again. “And why?”
He continued to speak with his head still lowered, staring intently at his hands. “I broke a few bones
, but he made a full recovery. It could have been worse. In the thick of it, I had him up off the ground, ready to give him a good one to the face. In the right place, a hit like that would have broken his neck. But something stopped me, almost like God telling me that was enough, to stop. Instead of that last punch I threw him into the wall and walked away.” He raised his head, but didn’t look at her. He turned toward the horizon, his eyes unfocused. “I walked around the block a few times to clear my head. That was when I asked God to come into my life, the actual moment I became a Christian. When I got home the police and an ambulance were there, and I was arrested.”
Daphne couldn’t speak. All she could do was watch Cory as he stared blankly into the skyline.
“You asked who he was and why I did it. In front of me, my mother called him her boyfriend, but he wasn’t. Hank was her drug dealer. I’d just found out we’d been evicted for not paying the rent. She’d spent the rent money, which I’d earned at my part-time job, specifically for the rent, on drugs. How it started was that I had just got home, and as I walked inside I heard Hank telling my mother that if she smuggled some cocaine into the country he’d give her the fix she needed and enough money to pay the rent.”
Daphne’s mind swam as she tried to process the details. “Is that when you hit him?”
“No. I was pretty mad, but I did try to reason with him. At first Hank told me to butt out, but I wouldn’t. I told him to leave my mother alone and to get out of our place and never come back. At that point the situation deteriorated pretty fast. I never saw it coming. He swung out and hit me, and everything went downhill. When he woke up in the hospital the next day he said he wasn’t going to press charges, and I was released. He should have pressed charges, but I’m sure you can understand why a drug dealer with a record wouldn’t want to be in the court system, even as a plaintiff instead of a defendant.”
She couldn’t imagine Cory in such a fight, but it obviously had happened. “I guess your mother called the police while the fight was going on because she couldn’t stop it?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Actually, she didn’t. After all, I was fighting with a known drug dealer. Her drug dealer. The last thing she wanted was the police coming in at that moment. When the fight was over and I left, I found out later that she’d flushed the drugs he’d had on him down the toilet, and then called the ambulance. I’m guessing the police came later when the medics discovered who the victim was. You know, when you read in the paper about an incident when someone is ‘known to the police’? Well, he was really known to the police, so the ambulance guys called the police. But with no drugs found in the house, the only one who got arrested that day was me.”
