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He ignored the way that his brothers, sister and cousins were looking at him and focused on the woman that had cried over him, held his hand, wiped his face and arms down with a cold cloth when his fever got too high and the medication stopped working. This was his mother and he was breaking her heart.
He sighed heavily, already regretting what he was about to say before the words left his mouth.
“We’d be more than happy to go, Mom.”
*-*-*-*
“Danny, I-”
“I have to go, Tinkerbelle,” he sighed, throwing the truck into park.
“Yes, but I don’t,” she said, opening her door and jumped out.
She still couldn’t believe that he’d done this to her, putting her on the spot like that in front of his family. What was she supposed to say when his mother suddenly burst into tears? Say no? Seriously? The woman had practically tackled her and strangled the life out of her when she’d reluctantly agreed to go.
She also couldn’t afford this trip or to take any time off.
God, what the hell was she supposed to do? She’d told Danny’s mother that she would go, but she had no money, no time off and a large credit card payment to make at the end of the month. She wasn’t going to be able to go, which meant that she’d lied to her boyfriend’s mother the first night that she’d met her. This did not bode well for their relationship.
“You promised my mother that you’d go,” he said, joining her in front of the truck.
“No, you promised your mother that I would go,” she felt obligated to point out as they walked up to the front door.
“I distinctly remember you telling my mother that you would go,” he said, reaching past her to open the door for her.
“You mean when she was crying hysterically as she clung to me, thanking God for sending me to her?” she snapped back, rolling her eyes in disgust.
“It still counts,” he said, shooting her a grin as he reached down and took her hand into his.
“No,” she said, sighing heavily as she pulled her hand free and pulled her keys out of her purse, “It doesn’t.”
“It really does,” he said, taking the keys out of her hand and unlocking the door for her.
“Think again,” she said, taking her keys back from him and tossed them on the table by the door. “I’m not going.”
“You really are.”
“Nope,” she said, walking towards the back hall. She gestured towards the kitchen as she walked past the open door. “There’s leftover spaghetti if you’re hungry,” she said, guessing that he was starving since he hadn’t eaten a single bite of the delicious meal that his mother had made.
Then again, neither had his father…….
“I’ll heat some up in a bit,” he said, following her into her bedroom. “First, we’re going to discuss our plans for the trip.”
She sighed as she kicked off her shoes and undid her pants. “We’re not going on a trip,” she reminded him as she pulled off her shirt.
“Yes,” he said, reaching back and grabbing a handful of his shirt, “we are.”
She shook her head as she reached back and unsnapped her bra. “Danny,” she said, sighing his name as she dropped her bra on the floor and walked into the bathroom, “I can’t go so please just let it go.”
“Why not?” he asked, following her into the bathroom as he shoved his pants down.
She hooked her thumbs in her panties and opened her mouth to tell him exactly why she couldn’t go when something occurred to her. “Umm, what are you doing?” she asked, pointedly looking at his hands, which were currently pulling down his boxers.
He blinked innocently at her breasts as he said, “Continuing our conversation?”
Shaking her head, she turned around and pulled the curtain open. “You don’t need to be naked to continue this conversation.”
“No,” he murmured thoughtfully, “but it helps.”
Too tired to argue with him, she pushed her panties off and climbed in the shower, uncaring if he followed her inside. They hadn’t seen each other naked since that morning when she’d woken up to find him lying on top of her, apparently pinning her to the bed so that she couldn’t do anything questionable during her drugged out state.
“It will be fun,” he said as he stepped inside the shower behind her, pausing by her side long enough to press a kiss against her shoulder.
“I’m sure you’ll have a great time with your family, Danny,” she said, licking her lips and trying to pretend that the feel of his lips on her bare skin didn’t make her breath catch.
“Not unless you’re there, Tinkerbelle,” he said, moving his lips along her shoulder. “Please come with me, sweetheart,” he asked softly as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him.
She opened her mouth to argue with him, but that “please” undid her so the only thing that came out of her mouth was, “I can’t. I just can’t.”
“Why not, Tinkerbelle?” he asked, turning his head so that he could press another kiss against her neck. “I can’t do this without you, Jodi. Please don’t make me do this without you.”
She opened her mouth to tell him no, but somehow she found herself saying, “I’ll ask, but I can’t make any promises.”
“Thank you,” Danny whispered, pressing another one of those kisses to her shoulder that she was really starting to love.
She closed her eyes and leaned back into his touch and felt herself relax for the first time all day. She’d ask and her boss would say no, but at least she could say that she’d tried. Then Danny would go on his trip, she would stay here and miss him, those two weeks would be difficult, but she’d get through it. Then when he came back she would-
“Pass the soap?”
Chapter 25
“What the hell?” he asked, stumbling across the small bathroom floor after the little bully shoved him out of the shower.
Tinkerbelle’s beautifully smug face peeked out from behind the curtain. “I believe that you wanted to take this slow,” she said, clearly biting back a smile as she reached out and grabbed a clean hand towel off the rack and threw it at him.
He didn’t bother trying to catch it. Instead he focused all of his energy on glaring at the woman that was driving him out of his fucking mind. “We were having a conversation.”
She shrugged as she stepped back and disappeared behind the semi-clear curtain, leaving him with a tantalizing view that left him fighting the urge to rip the curtain off the rod and get right back in there with her. God, she was sexy, he thought, licking his lips hungrily as he followed the outline of her curvy little body with his eyes.
