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Of course, instead of rocking the boat, I had simply picked up a bazooka and blown a hole in the bottom of it. Amanda was pissed and hurt, and rightfully so, and I was settling back onto the couch that I realized was much less comfortable than the bed.
At least the sound of the fan was soothing, and it didn’t take long before I was able to relax and let my mind wander toward sleep. As I drifted off, I thought in the morning I could make it right. I would be able to talk to her and tell her it was a mistake, that I panicked when I was asked and that I just needed some time to think about what we meant and how to move forward with whatever we decided.
I woke up a little later than usual and sat up. The fan was off. The door to the bedroom was open. And Amanda was gone.
Fuck.
I stood and crossed the room to the desk, noticing a piece of paper folded on my laptop. Opening it up, I realized it was a note, in Amanda’s handwriting. It was short, just a few lines long, and my heart dropped into my stomach as I read it.
She had left for home, taking an early flight. She would call or email if there were issues, but I clearly needed to stay and help my family. And I shouldn’t worry about the company during the time off, because she and Landon would handle it.
“Dammit,” I said, crumpling the paper and tossing it away. I walked into the bedroom and noticed every trace of her was gone. I sat heavily on the bed and tried to breathe deeply.
It hurt. It hurt way more than I was prepared to admit it did. I’d messed up in a way that was monumentally stupid, but I didn’t think she would just leave. Not without giving me a chance to explain myself. To figure out how to fix it. It was the worst possible scenario. Now she not only had returned home, and we weren’t together, but I had hurt her in the process.
Deciding a shower might help me clear my mind, I stripped down and got under the hottest water I could stand. Instead of clearing my mind, however, it only made me laser focus on my anger and look for an outlet to direct it. It settled on Danny.
The PI, Dallas, had sent me Danny’s information, which included a home address. I was sure he thought I would never be so stupid as to go confront him directly, but at that moment, I was ready for the fight. If I could just clear this whole thing up with Danny, then I could move on, go back home, and try to figure out what could be done about Amanda. I wasn’t ready for her to be out of my life in that way yet. And the more I thought about it, I wasn’t sure I ever would be.
I got out of the shower, got dressed, and headed down to my car. Speeding a bit, I made my way to Danny’s house hours before I knew he would have left for the bar. As I parked, I watched the house for a few moments, making sure there was no one around before I confronted him. I wanted this to go smoothly, but if it didn’t, I also didn’t want a whole lot of witnesses to see me beating the ever-loving piss out of him, either.
Slamming the car door a bit harder than I perhaps thought I would, I wondered if I’d alerted Danny to my presence. Either way, the reckoning was coming, as I walked up his pathway and then up the steps to his porch. When I knocked on the door, I could hear the sound of a small dog yipping somewhere inside and feet shuffling toward the door.
“Who is it?” Danny’s voice said from the other side of the door.
“Tom Anderson. Open the fucking door,” I said.
I realized as I said it, that perhaps it wasn’t the best way of ensuring he would either open the door or open the door and not have a gun in my face. Too late to change it, I stood there waiting, and when the knob turned, I readied myself to bolt if a piece of steel was shoved between my eyes. Instead, the bleary-eyed and confused Danny stood behind a screen door, wearing a T-shirt and striped pajama pants.
“I ain’t letting you inside,” he said from behind the screen.
“I don’t want to come inside,” I said, then sighed. “Look, asshole. We know you did it. You burned our place down. You’re trying to sabotage us.”
For a moment, his eyebrows raised and he looked confused, then angry. I saw him reach for something beside the door and tensed, relaxing when I saw it was only a coffee mug. He took a sip and sat it down.
