by Hill, Teresa
“Don’t you start lying to me now.”
“I’m not deploying, and I won’t be doing anything dangerous.”
“That could mean anything coming from someone like you. Are you going to jump out of a plane?”
“Not planning on it.”
“See … That? What does that mean? You’ll be on a plane, and you might have to jump out?”
“It doesn’t mean a thing. I don’t have a jump planned. It’s not the kind of thing that comes up out of the blue, you know? You plan training ops like that. Or you might end up doing something like that on a deployment. This is a training op, with no jumps planned.”
“That’s all?”
He shrugged. “I might tack a few days’ leave onto the end. I’m not sure yet. But if I do, it still won’t be anything dangerous. Just a conversation or two.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“And you’re really having some work done on your condo?”
“I am.”
Dani was ashamed of arguing with him about it, and she would love some time away from Randy, but the idea of living in Mace’s condo was unnerving. She could imagine herself sneaking into his closet and sniffing his clothes, hoping they smelled like him, maybe sleeping in his bed.
He was a good guy. A really good guy.
That’s exactly what she’d thought about Aaron.
And Mace’s job was even more dangerous than Aaron’s.
She could not care about a guy like that again. She wouldn’t survive losing someone like that again.
“Come on, Dani. I’ll feel so much better about leaving if I know you’re safe, and my building is full of friends of mine in the teams. You couldn’t be in a safer place.”
She shrugged. “I’d hate to leave Leah alone there with Randy and Karen.”
“Fine. Bring her with you. I don’t want Randy alone with any woman, ever.”
“She’d probably like that. Jill will freak out when she finds out. She’ll want to move in, too.”
“Invite her to come hang out at the pool or the beach with you. She can flirt with all the guys there.”
She would, but Dani couldn’t imagine any of them being as appealing as Mace.
“What?” he asked.
“I think she still wants you.” Jill wouldn’t mind Dani saying that. She was straightforward about the guys she wanted. Even when she was mad at him for upsetting Dani, she still talked about how hot he was.
“She’ll like my friends,” Mace said.
Dani shook her head. She wanted to ask so many questions. Who could not want Jill? She was happy, funny, flirty. Mace should want the easy, uncomplicated thing he could have with Jill.
He shouldn’t pay any attention to someone like Dani, who was a mess and pushed him away at every turn and was still hung up on another man.
But still, she felt things for Mace that she didn’t want to feel, didn’t want to acknowledge.
She was not ready for this. She could not handle Mace, here in front of her, refusing to leave her alone, pushing her to do things she didn’t want to do. He was the most exasperating man.
“I have to get back to my closing work,” Dani said. “You should go home. Nico will walk me out.”
“Call me by tomorrow night about the condo.”
Her heart gave a little lurch of fear. “You’re leaving that soon?”
He nodded.
“Okay. I’ll call.”
* * *
Dani
“What do you mean, you’re not sure if we should do it?” Leah was nearly yelling.
“I’m not sure if it’s a good idea.”
“Let’s see. A chance to sleep at night without locking my bedroom door, without a baseball bat by my side, in case the lock isn’t enough to keep Randy out. Not worrying about making a quick trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night in my pajamas and finding him watching me with that creepy look on his face. Waking up and looking out at the ocean. Walking on the beach. Hanging out at the pool with hunky Navy SEALS. Gosh, yeah, call me crazy, but let’s do it anyway.”
“I’m not sure what I’m doing … with Mace.”
“That’s a whole different question, but you can just as easily consider that at his place as you can here. He won’t be there.”
“He seems to think he has to take care of me. Am I really that pathetic?”
“No. Everybody’s life turns to shit sometimes.”
“Mine’s been that way for a while.”
“But he’s only known you for a few weeks, so it’s okay. He can think you’re just in one of the shit times.”
“No, he knows better. He seems to be one of those guys who has to take care of every woman around him.”
“Gosh, what a terrible trait in a man.”
“You know what I mean — ”
“No, I don’t. I don’t think I’ve ever dated a guy who wanted to take care of me. I’ve dated ones who didn’t have a place to stay, and were fine staying with me. Guys who didn’t have a car and liked having me haul them around. Guys who got jealous of every other guy I spoke to, but didn’t think I should be jealous of other women they might screw around with here and there. If one showed up who wanted to take care of me for a change, I’d … Well, first I’d be shocked. But I’m pretty sure I’d get over it and let him.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Yeah, it is,” Leah said. “You’re due to have something good happen to you for a change. Maybe he’s your something good. Maybe the universe thought … gee, I’ve fucked with Dani enough lately. I’m going to send her a nice guy. Here’s one. I’ll send him. Never expecting you’d be too nuts to accept him like the little present he is.”
“He’s not a present. He’s a guy, and you know guys. You can’t count on them. The minute you start, they show you why you shouldn’t. Or they move away or cheat on you or die.”
“Die? Even you don’t have the kind of lousy luck it would take to have two guys die on you.”
“He’s a Navy SEAL. He nearly died on the train with Aaron. He talks about jumping out of planes like it’s nothing. Like it’s fun. He’s been deployed six times in the last four years, and you know what the world is like right now.”
“I didn’t tell you to fall for him. I said to let him take care of you for a while. See what happens. Don’t automatically expect the worst.”
“I did that with Aaron, and look how that worked out.”
“Dani, he’s not Aaron. You can’t think every guy for the rest of your life is going to be Aaron.”
“I know.” She’d told herself that so many times, but it was an automatic response that popped into her head.
Trust Aaron.
Love Aaron.
Lose Aaron.
She knew Mace’s job was much more dangerous than Aaron’s. If she was ever going to let herself fall for another guy, Mace should be the last one. She was already scared of losing him as her friend. Life wasn’t nearly as bleak since he came along. She even liked arguing with him. She was horrified to admit she liked him barging in and taking over, trying to take care of her, whether she wanted him to or not.
It was terrifying.
If she came to depend on him, to really care about him, and he turned out to be like every other person in her life, she’d lose him eventually. One way or another. He’d either leave or die.
Then what would she do?
A woman had to look out for herself. She had to be smart. It was the only way to survive. She wouldn’t be one of those stupid women who kept making the same decisions over and over again, like she was begging some guy to knock her flat so she could get up and wait for him to do it again.
Mace was too good to be true.
And even if he wasn’t, he was trying to look after her because he felt guilty he survived and Aaron didn’t. Feelings like that didn’t make for a good, long-term relationship, which she didn’t want anyway.
“Dani, I love you, but you think w
ay too much. You’ve been offered a few days of vacation from Randy. We’re going to take it. If we don’t, I’ll eat all of your chocolate chunk cookies and not replace them. I’ll use the last of the tampons and you won’t find out until you’re having one of those gusher days. I’ll stop cleaning up after myself and doing my share of Randy and Karen’s messes, and our place will look disgusting.”
“It’ll look disgusting when we get back from Mace’s.”
“I’ll take the risk. Don’t make me hate you. Pack a bag, and let’s go,” Leah said. “Are there two bedrooms?”
“I think so.”
“I’ll sleep in his bed, ” she offered, then laughed and shook her head. “You should see your face right now. You don’t want any other woman in his bed, even me when he’s not there.”
“No, it’s not — ”
“Girl, don’t even try it with me. I’ll take the spare room. You can curl up in his bed for a few days and think about what it would be like if he was there to share it with you.”
* * *
Chapter Fourteen
Dani
They packed some clothes and moved into Mace’s place the next day. Leah was thrilled. Mace looked so happy it was scary, because Mace on a normal day was impossibly appealing, but Mace looking happy left her speechless. All she could do was stare.
Leah knew it, too. She stepped in and talked for both of them. That got Dani an odd look from Mace, but he let it go, probably because he’d won. She was here and away from Randy.
His place was spotless and organized with a degree of precision that baffled Dani. Who knew a man existed who was so neat and capable of cleaning up after himself?
He led Leah into the kitchen and told her where things were.
“You stocked the kitchen for us,” she said. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Mace shrugged, smiled and finished the tour, which Dani finally joined.
“What time do you leave tonight?” She braced herself for another good-bye. She hated them. So many she’d said to people had been permanent. She just hadn’t known it at the time.
“Early. Very, very early,” he said.
“Why didn’t you say so? We’re not kicking you out of your own bed tonight,” Dani insisted.
“It’s fine. Stay here. I’ve got a buddy two floors up with a spare bedroom.”
“No. We’ll leave and come back in the morning.” She headed into his bedroom to collect her things, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm.
She gasped. It had been a million years since anyone had touched her. Heat radiated from the spot he touched.
“Don’t go.”
His deep voice rippled through her as powerfully as the heat of his touch.
He didn’t mean it the way she was taking it. He couldn’t. He wasn’t touching her as a man who wanted to touch a woman. He just wanted to get her away from Randy.
But she’d thought all sorts of crazy thoughts since he said he was going away. She wanted to whisper, Don’t go.
Which she had no right to say.
What would he say if she did?
She’d been in love with Aaron not quite a year ago. Truly in love. But she had all these thoughts she didn’t want to have about Mace.
“Hey?” he asked. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Of course. Just thinking. You have to stay here. It’s your apartment. Leah and I can share the other room.”
“Hey, Mace?” Leah yelled from the kitchen. “What’s your favorite meal?”
“My grandma’s homemade tortillas wrapped around any kind of meat slow cooked with tons of hot chili peppers and … I don’t know. A lot of other stuff.”
“Homemade tortillas? Are those hard to make?”
“According to my grandma, it’s practically an art form.”
“Okay. We don’t have time for slow-cooking anyway,” Leah said. “Second favorite?”
“Fried catfish.”
“Just plain fried? Anything special about them?”
“They’d usually be fish my dad and I had caught that morning — ”
“Not doing that for you,” Leah said.
“And my mom used cornmeal instead of flour.”
“Okay, I’m making your second favorite for our dinner. Which means, I need to go to the store. Be back in an hour or so.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Mace said.
“I want to,” she insisted.
“Wait, I’ll go with you,” Dani said.
“No need. I got this. Settle in. Maybe take a walk on the beach or … You know. Whatever.” Leah looked way too happy with herself for leaving them alone.
Dammit.
Dani didn’t need to be alone with him. It was hard enough being here in his apartment and knowing he was leaving.
“Dani, relax.” But he laid his hand on her forearm, which didn’t help her relax. The opposite, in fact.
“Why are you so reluctant to be here?” he asked.
“You know why. You decided I need to be here, and you kept after me until you found a way to get what you want.”
“To keep you safe. My motives are completely pure.”
Dani rolled her eyes at him, and he laughed.
“Do you even have work being done on this apartment? I don’t see any evidence of it. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”
“I am having work done. I want to rent the place, and the nice Realtor lady says it should look a certain way. I’m not exactly an interior decorator, but the Realtor and my friend Will’s fiancée have been helping. There’s a plan.”
“Okay. When does this stuff happen?”
“I’m not exactly sure. You know how these things go. They tell you it’ll be on Thursday, but things still aren’t here the next Monday. I’ll give you a heads up, as soon as I know.”
“And the workers?”
“Can’t do work until the new stuff is here.”
“Right. Do you need us here at all, Mace?”
“Yes. I ordered stuff before I knew I was leaving. It’s already on the way. Supposedly.”
Dani would believe that when she saw it. “I’m a pretty good painter,” she said, just to watch him squirm. “I could paint for you, since I’m here.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I want to. What color does your plan call for?”
“Something to do with milk or maybe cream. I’d have to check.”
Dani laughed. She enjoyed messing with him. “So you’re going from white walls to off-white? Big change.”
“Smart ass,” he said. “They seemed to think it was important. I know better than to argue with women about things like decorating.”
“Okay. Get me a color name and brand of paint.”
He did not look pleased to hear that. She’d bet there was no paint color, but she’d rather think about that than about being here, having him be so much a part of her life that she was here, heckling him about his scheme to get her here. She didn’t want to think about where he might be going, what he might be doing, what kind of danger he might be in.
She didn’t trust him about that any more than she did about his big renovation plan.
“I have another favor to ask you,” he said.
“A fake one? Or a real one?”
“Real. Will’s not crazy about leaving Amanda alone here while we’re gone. She hasn’t been here long, doesn’t know a lot of people. Could you check in on her for him?”
“I’d think it would be the other way around, you asking her to check up on me.”
“I might have,” he admitted. “You two do have things to talk about. She could use someone who wants to get back into teaching. You could help each other. I think you’d like it. She wants to do some more volunteer work tutoring kids in shelters and in foster care.”
“Oh.” Dani did like the sound of that.
“It’s not unusual for these kids to bounce around a lot, from their home maybe to a shelter for homeless families or ones for batter
ed women, maybe in and out of foster care, maybe to a relative’s house or a couple of them, before they get settled somewhere safe. Not to mention what it has done to them to be living in a house where someone’s drinking, maybe doing drugs, beating up on their mom, maybe even the kids. They tend to miss a lot of days and fall behind in school because their lives are so chaotic. So Amanda wants to start a group offering them specialized help and tutoring.”
“That sounds like a great thing.”
“Yeah. She might be ready to hire someone to help her.”
“Might be? Does she have the money to hire someone?”
“Yeah. Money’s not an issue.”
“Which means … ”
“Look, don’t let this change how you see her, but she comes from money. Serious money. Like, she has a trust fund.”
Dani made a face. She couldn’t imagine being friends with a trust-fund baby.
“Don’t do that. She’s a teacher. She loved teaching — ”
“So, why isn’t she in a classroom?”
“That’s a long story. Not mine to tell. She’s been through some stuff. Shit-serious stuff. Being inside a classroom is not something she’s ready to do right now, but she wants to teach. I think the tutoring thing is gonna be great for her and the kids she helps.”
“You’re being uncharacteristically closed-mouthed,” Dani said.
“Yeah. Will would kick my ass if I wasn’t. Plus, Amanda’s great. I’d never do anything to hurt her. She’s … Look, when you find out her last name, you’ll be able to Google her and read the whole story, but think about how you’d feel if your story was all over the Internet and anybody who wanted to could read it. Try to wait and let her tell you herself.”
“God, Mace, what happened to her? Something worse than losing her husband? Or her fiancée?”
“I don’t know how you compare one person’s lousy experiences with someone else’s, but it was bad, and I think you two could be good for each other.”
“Okay,” Dani said.
“She’s better, but she still gets scared sometimes and tries not to show it, so go easy with her.”
“You have me thinking about terrible things that might have happened to her.”
