Even the Score

by Beth Ehemann

  The next couple of hours flew by in a blur of tequila shots and beer. Dani and Ellie were having a blast, grinding up and down each other on the dance floor and singing so loud I was pretty sure that wherever Louie had crawled off to, he could hear them. Brody, Viper, and I sat at the booth, mostly sober. Neither of them drank too much when they were at the bar, just in case something happened that they needed to handle, and I wasn’t having more than a beer or two so that I would be completely sober by the time we left.

  “So what’s your deal?” Viper asked carefully, with a smirk on his face as he looked at me. “Still denying that you like her?”

  “What are you talking about?” I played dumb as I avoided eye contact by peeling the label off my bottle of beer.

  He threw his head back dramatically and rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. Give it up. From the way you were staring Louie down when you walked up to you almost ripping his arm off for calling Dani a bitch, it’s obvious, dude. Painfully obvious.”

  I looked over at Brody, who just raised his eyebrows and nodded.

  I shrugged, looking back down at my beer. “I mean, what can I say? We’ve been working together every day for a couple of months now, we’ve clearly gotten closer.”

  “You’ve worked with Ellie for years, and you’ve never lost your shit like that over her,” Brody added. “Just sayin’.”

  I swallowed as my eyes scanned the table, trying to think of what to say. Those two knew me better than anyone, so it was pointless to lie about what was happening. “Do I like her? Sure. Am I in love with her? No.” I lifted my head, finally looking back and forth between the two of them. “We’re coworkers. Technically, I’m her boss. Nothing can happen.”

  “Except desk sex. Desk sex can definitely happen.” A wicked grin appeared on Viper’s face as he nodded.

  “Are you hormonally imbalanced? You are constantly thinking about, and talking about, your dick,” I joked, shaking my head.

  Before he could answer, a squeal from the dance floor caught all of our attention. A man had picked Ellie up and was spinning her around as she laughed. Brody and Viper both moved to get up, but I caught them. “Hold up. That’s her boyfriend, Kevin. She knew he was meeting us here.”

  Brody nodded and sat back down while Viper stood and stretched, raising his arms high above his head. “I’m fucking starving. I’m gonna go see what Ruth has cooking in there. I’ll be back.” He tapped the edge of the wooden table with his fingers and walked off.

  “All right, the walking hard-on is gone, be straight with me? You like this girl?” Brody asked seriously.

  I nodded, looking over at her on the dance floor. “I do.”

  I watched as Dani’s hips swayed with the music, her body moving in intoxicating, sexy movements as she danced with her eyes closed. Ellie and Kevin were tangled up together nearby, but she didn’t even notice. She was too lost in her own head, seducing the brains of everyone around her, especially me.

  “I think you should go for it,” Brody said, pulling my attention away from Dani and back to the table.

  “Huh?”

  “I said I think you should go for it,” he repeated.

  “What if I do? What if I tell her I like her, she tells me she likes me back, and we get together? We date for a while and then, like all good things do, it ends. Now what? What happens to my company?” I rambled the things I’d already been over in my mind.

  “What if? What if you don’t tell her and she starts dating someone else? What if you tell her and she turns out to be the most amazing human you’ve ever met, aside from me of course, and you two end up married?” Brody ran his hands through his hair and dropped them loudly on the table in front of him. “Don’t what-if me, man. You know I’m an incurable optimist, and I’m always going to find the silver lining.”

  “That’s a really annoying quality, you know that?” I joked.

  “Yeah, well you can thank my wife for that.” Brody grinned.

  “Your wife is awesome. You? Not so much.” I picked up the soggy, balled-up beer label and threw it at him. A buzzing sound caught our attention, and we both checked our phones.

  Brody picked his up and glanced at the screen. “Not me.”

  I looked down and saw that I had a text from Danicka. Confused, I swiped at the screen.

  D: Why the long face? Who’s the party pooper now?

  My eyes shot toward the dance floor, quickly scanning all the people. Just a little to the left of where they’d originally been, Danicka waved at me. I grinned and waved back before turning my attention back to my phone.

  I don’t have a long face. You having fun?

  I watched out of the corner of my eye as she stopped dancing, the glow of her phone lighting up her face as she bit her lip.

  D: I am, but it’s hot in here. Wanna go outside?

  I didn’t even bother texting back. “Danicka’s hot and wants to step outside. I’ll be back,” I said to Brody as I stood up from the booth and straightened my shirt.

  Brody spread his arms out to the side, resting them on top of the booth, and raised an eyebrow at me. “Remember what I said.”

  “Yes, Dad,” I answered with an eye roll.

  Dani had started dancing again and didn’t notice me walking up behind her. I reached out and grabbed her hand, trying not to laugh when she jumped and spun around. She couldn’t hear me over the music, so I just tilted my head, motioning toward the door. She nodded and held one finger up, signaling for me to wait a minute. Letting go of my hand, she ran over to the table, grabbed her beer, kissed Brody on the cheek, and ran back with a big grin on her face.

  Brody’s eyes widened as he gave me a thumbs-up.

  Before I could even reach for it, she put her hand back in mine and led me to the front door. As we got to the front of the bar, I reached around and opened the door, stepping back with my hand resting on the small of her back.

  What had been a hot and humid day had turned into a cool and breezy night.

  “Wow! It really cooled off, huh?” Dani sighed happily as we walked over to the bench out front.

  “Sure did. You having a good time?”

  “I am! Kinda crazy that we ended up here, on this bench, huh?”

  “Definitely a little ironic.” I laughed, thinking back a couple of months to when I offered her a job on that same wrought iron bench.

  “I’m so glad I ran into you that night,” she said as she pulled her knee up and turned to face me.

  I pulled my knee up, mirroring her. “Me too. And I’m even gladder that Sadie had too much to drink and got lost. You were so pissed at me that if you didn’t need my help, I doubt we’d be sitting here right now.”

  She pulled her lips into a tight smile. “You’re probably right. I can be a little stubborn sometimes.”

  “A little?” I teased, raising my eyebrows.

  She bit the corner of her top lip and nodded with an excited twinkle in her brown eyes. “I’m so glad that in spite of my stubbornness, you guys didn’t let me go home and be grumpy by myself.”

  “Ellie can be quite persuasive.” I laughed.

  A soft gust of wind blew strands of her dark hair across her face as her eyes fell to her lap, and she picked nervously at her bright red nail polish. “I didn’t come here to hang out with Ellie, Andy. I see her all day, every day.”

  I took a deep breath and held it, worried that if I opened my mouth to talk, I would say the wrong thing. I couldn’t see her face, but I had a feeling she was going somewhere I really wanted her to go.

  She continued, “What really changed my mind is when you said you were coming.” Finally she looked up at me, but something about her gaze was different. Her eyes were focused on mine as much as mine were on hers. Dozens of people talked and laughed as they walked past us, but the way we were staring at each other was like we were the only two on the whole street.

  “Well, I have a confession to make, too.” I paused and cleared my throat. “I almost never go out after wor
k, especially on Fridays. I’m usually in too much of a hurry to get home and see my kids, but when I realized we were going out for your birthday, I didn’t think twice about it.”

  Danicka’s cheeks flushed, and while there was a chance it was because of all the alcohol, I was pretty sure it was because of whatever was shifting between us at that exact moment.

  “Listen, Dani—” Before I could even get a sentence out, she leaned forward and rested her lips on mine. My initial shock quickly disappeared as I closed my eyes and kissed her back. The kiss was soft, hesitant even, both of us clearly a little nervous about the line we were crossing, but that imaginary line vanished the second she opened her mouth and invited me in. I put my hand on the back of her head and gently pulled her closer, eager to keep kissing her. My tongue slipped to the front of her mouth, where her tongue met mine. She tasted like beer and mint and two months’ worth of tension exploding right there on that bench where it all began in the first place. Someone catcalled to us from across the street as her hand wove through my hair, but we were so lost in that moment and in each other that we didn’t care.

  Our lips smacked as I pulled back for a second to take a breath and make sure this wasn’t a mistake. “Danicka—”

  “Andy, shut up and take me home.” She breathed heavily as she licked her plump lips.

  I brushed a piece of her hair behind her tiny, sexy ear. “I can’t. You’ve been drinking.”

  “I’ve been drinking, but I’m not drunk. I know exactly what I’m saying, exactly what I’m doing, and exactly what I want.”

  “Are you sure?” I was prepared to accept it if her answer was no, but I prayed it was going to be yes.

  Her eyes grew darker, fogged over with lust. “Now,” she ordered. That one word was like a shot straight to my core, and within seconds I was up and had her hand in mine, pulling her back into the bar to let the others know we were leaving.

  “Kevin!” I called out as we got closer. “You have Ellie, right?”

  “Yeah, she’s coming back to my house.” He nodded.

  I turned back to Dani, anxious to get her out of there before either of us decided it wasn’t a good idea after all. “Your purse at the table?”

  She nodded, still looking at me like she wanted to tear my clothes off right there on the dance floor. I bent down close to her ear. “If you keep looking at me like that, we’re not gonna make it out of the parking lot.”

  “That’s okay, too.” And just like that, with one shrug of her shoulders, my cock grew hard against my jeans.

  Holy shit.

  “Be right back,” I called out, hurrying over to the booth.

  “I take it the talk went well?” Brody asked playfully as I reached across him and grabbed her purse.

  “Sorry about the bar tab, but I promise I’m good for it. Call you tomorrow . . . or Sunday if all goes well.”

  I turned and practically jogged back to Danicka, who was talking to Ellie on the dance floor.

  “Night, Ellie,” I said as I walked past, grabbing Dani’s hand and dragging her behind me like a caveman. She giggled but didn’t object as she waved good-bye to Ellie.

  We would’ve made it back to my car in record time except we stopped to kiss two times along the way, once up against the cinder block wall of a McDonald’s. I’m sure it was no secret to people out on the street what we were rushing to do, but that was so far out of our minds, we didn’t care. When we finally got back to my car, I opened the door, and she slid quickly into the passenger seat. I was tempted to pull a Bo Duke and slide across the hood to get to my door faster but decided to at least play it a little cool.

  I ducked in behind my steering wheel, and just as I put my key in the ignition, she leaned over and planted a soft kiss on my neck. My eyes drifted shut, and I groaned without even meaning to. She pulled my shirt collar toward her and kissed my collarbone, dragging her tongue all the way up to my ear.

  “You better start driving, or I’m climbing over there.” Her warm breath tickled my ear.

  I shoved the key into the ignition and barely had my car started when I whipped out of my parking space. Dani sat back into her own seat and buckled her seat belt, which settled perfectly in between her breasts. As I wove through the streets, torn between not getting a ticket and blowing every stop sign, Dani’s hand rested comfortably in mine.

  Suddenly she sat up straight, gasping softly.

  Shit. Please don’t change your mind.

  “What is it?” I squeezed her hand tighter, praying that she wasn’t having second thoughts.

  “My car.” She looked over at me sadly. “I don’t want to leave it there overnight.”

  “Babe.” I chuckled. “You’re not exactly in any position to drive tonight, anyway. Let’s just leave it there. It’s safe in the garage.”

  “Okay, but we need to stop back so I can grab the lens.”

  I shot her a quick glance. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Now?”

  She shook her head back and forth as she stared straight ahead. “That lens is super expensive, and I’ve waited too damn long for it to have something happen now.”

  “It’s in the parking garage, I promise it’ll be fine.”

  “Pleeeeease,” she begged in a sexy tone that drove me crazy. She trailed her hand up the inside of my thigh slowly. “If I worry about it all night, I might not be able to relax, and if I can’t relax . . .” The backs of her fingers grazed the uncomfortable bulge in my jeans, and I knew exactly what she was hinting at. “It’s only one street out of the way. I’ll be quick.”

  “You keep teasing me like that, and you’re not the only one who’s going to be quick.”

  She giggled and pulled her hand back as I turned right toward the garage instead of left toward my house.

  We pulled into the garage, and I looped around the wall to our parking spaces, my headlights shining right on Dani’s car.

  “What the fuck?” she yelled, sitting up straight. Before I’d even shifted the car into park, we were both scrambling to get out.

  Her car was parked just where we’d left it hours before, except now it was sporting four slashed tires.

  “Holy shit!” Dani whimpered, shoving her hands into her hair as she stood and stared at her car. “I thought he was done. I thought he was over this. This is crazy!” Her voice cracked as she started to lose it.

  “Hey, come here.” I wrapped my arms around her and started to pull her close to my chest, but she resisted.

  “No, I’m fine.” She pulled back coldly and cleared her throat. “I can’t believe he did this. What a fucking psycho!”

  “Dani, this has gone too far. You know what we need to do,” I said sternly, not really caring if she fought me anymore.

  “I know, just wait a minute, okay? Let me take all this in for a second.” She sighed loudly and walked around to the driver’s side of the car, where she froze, staring down at it. “Andy. Call the police. Call them right now.”

  Rushing next to her, I followed her eyes to the side of the car, where in thick, black marker it read HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BITCH!

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed 911, suddenly aware that he might not be gone and we might not be alone in that garage. With the phone still at my ear, I ran to my trunk and grabbed a flashlight. As I explained to the operator where we were and what had happened, I walked around, shining the light in every possible nook and cranny he could’ve still been hiding in. After I’d checked the whole level, I sprinted back to Dani, who wasn’t even attempting to hold the tears back anymore.

  “He broke my window. And stole the lens.” She sniffed, tears dripping down her cheeks as she handed me the empty yellow gift bag.

  “Let’s leave everything in the car so they can take fingerprints, okay?” I pulled my sleeve down over my hand as I took the bag from her and set it back on the seat.

  She stood perfectly still, hugging herself and blinking out more tears as she looked down at her car.

  “The poli
ce are on the way,” I said quietly, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. Thankfully, she didn’t push me away again; instead she turned in toward my chest and cried softly, breaking my heart piece by piece.

  A siren in the distance grew louder and louder, and all I could think was that she’d just had the worst birthday ever.

  CHAPTER 20

  Danicka

  The police were there for about an hour taking a detailed report, fingerprinting every inch of the outside of the car as well as most of the inside, and calling the building managers to tell them they needed the video camera footage from that whole evening. None of it made me feel any better, but it did sober me up real quick.

  As the tow truck was pulling away with my car on the back of it, Andy sighed loudly from behind me. “I’m so sorry about your birthday, Dani.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I shrugged, feeling numb inside.

  “It does matter.” He took a step closer, and I could feel him just behind me.

  I crossed my arms and took a quick stride forward. “Please don’t.”

  “Hey, come here,” he said softly as he turned me to face him. He hooked his finger under my chin and lifted it so I would look up at him. It was hard to look into his comforting blue eyes and not collapse against his chest in a heap of sadness and frustration, but that wasn’t my style. He’d already seen more emotion from me than most people had. “What can I do to help?”

  I turned my head, freeing my chin from his finger, and looked down toward the ground, taking a long, shaky breath. “I’m exhausted. I just want to go home.”

  “Do you want to go to my house?” he asked carefully.

  My face snapped back up to his, and I narrowed my eyes. “Are you kidding me? You still want to get laid after all this?” I bit out harshly.

  His eyebrows pulled in tightly, and he shook his head quickly. “No. No. That’s not what I meant at all. I just thought maybe you wouldn’t want to be alone tonight. I have a couple of guest rooms. We could order a pizza and talk.”