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“What’s so funny?” Dane said, his lips curving into a smile, as if he’d found my snort cute.
“Nothing,” I mumbled, blushing.
“You were laughing at nothing?” He is eyebrow shot upwards, and his grin formed more of a smirk. Great, now he thought I was nuts.
“Yes. I laugh at nothing all the time,” I laughed again to prove my point, preferring he think I was a nut than admit to him what had amused me, and I was pretty sure I was nailing the ‘nutter girl’ persona.
“You’re an odd girl, Lily,” Dane grinned, repositioning himself in his chair, his leg now up against mine. I jumped, not expecting the contact, or the chills that went surging down my back. His leg was touching mine. I craved the feel of his hand on mine, as I eyed it sitting casually on the edge of the table. “What now?” He asked, chuckling.
“Nothing,” I mumbled, cursing myself. Yep, this was going awesomely. How could I not be expecting a second date? I sighed, “Okay yes, I’m slightly odd. Your leg touched me and I jumped, and then I saw your hand and wanted to hold it,” I was rambling.
Oh. My. God. What the hell was I doing?
“Like this?” He reached, his fingers softly combing over my own, until his whole hand covered mine. I would’ve gasped, but I was forcing myself not to react. On the inside, my body was going mental. I was having hot and cold flushes, tingles and numbness all at the same time, and all were fighting each other.
“You’ve got soft hands,” He chuckled, “I believe you that you’re a nut, but maybe I like nuts.”
He likes nuts? I giggled as his face went red.
“Not what I meant, Lily,” He muttered amused, running a hand through his hair, “I like you. I want to get to know you.”
“Awesome,” I replied, a giddy smile on my face. I pulled my hand out from under his, resting mine on top, gently running my nails over his soft skin. Our fingers twirled together, when the sudden urge to beat him at a thumb war came over me. I slammed my thumb down over his.
“Yes!” I cheered.
“What the hell, Lil?” He chuckled, confused, “Did you just cheer because you beat me in a thumb war that I didn’t even know we were having?” I reddened. Well, when he put it like that, it didn’t sound nearly as impressive.
“If we’re going to do this, Lil, we’ll do it right,” He said seriously, taking my hand and putting it into position. “One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war.” He slowly said, the last word was barely out of his mouth and our thumbs were up, on high alert, circling each other like they were in a shoot off. I swooped below him, he reacted quickly. Too slow. This time I pretended to go, anticipating his reaction, my thumb slamming down on top of his.
“Yeah!” I cried, throwing my arms up in the air. Dane laughed, his head in his hands, as several of the nearby tables glanced over to see what all the noise was about. I put my arms down, making a face at Dane, who was still chuckling.
“God, you’re insane,” He muttered, pulling me in once again with his little lopsided smile. At least he found me amusing.
“So
rry,” I murmured. “I can get kind of competitive…”
“I noticed,” He said dryly, “So tell me about you, Lily.” Dane offered me the plate of garlic bread the waitress had just put in front of us. My mouth watered as I took a slice.
“I’m nineteen. I have a sister, who’s fourteen. I had another sister. A twin. She died last year,” My voice broke a little, like it always did when I spoke about Abby.
“God Lily, I’m so sorry. That must have been incredibly hard,” His voice was raw with emotion.
Knowing what I knew about his sister, I knew he understood my pain. The one thing I hated more than anything was pity from people who had never lost a sibling. The number of times I’d had people say they could imagine how I feel, or they know how I felt because their pet bird died was crazy. Well, maybe not pet bird, but you don’t understand what it feels like until you’ve been in the same situation, and no amount of imagining comes even close.
Dane understood. Maybe that was part of why I was so drawn to him. He wasn’t just another person with no idea of how it felt. When I looked into his eyes and saw his own pain and emotion.
“It was hard. It still is,” I admitted, “How about you? Tell me about Dane,” I smiled, breaking off a piece of my bread. It tasted even better than it looked, the soft fluffy bread combined with the salty, garlicky butter dulling some of my hunger.
Dane’s eyes turned downward, “I don’t want to turn our first date into a poor us pity party, but I want to be honest with you…I had a sister too. She was kidnapped and murdered when she was six.” I gasped, not sure why, but not wanting to let on that I knew that already.
“I’m so sorry…” My voice trailed off, unsure of what to say next. So this is how people felt when I told them about Abby. There was nothing that could be said to adequately respond to his words.
“It happened a long time ago, she was six and I was twelve. I was thirteen when they caught the guy. He confessed and everything, but he died in prison before they could get her location out of him,” Dane looked away, but not before I caught the sadness in his eyes, “That’s the worst part. Knowing she’s out there somewhere and us never getting the chance to say goodbye.”
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat that felt the size of an orange.
“With Abby, at least I got to say goodbye. She was sick for a long time. At least I had the chance to tell her every day I Ioved her,” I could feel tears pricking my eyes. Suddenly I began to laugh. Dane looked at me, both confused and amused by my outburst.
