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“I think you need to calm down, sweetheart,” he tells her.
As soon as that jerk drops his hand and speaks to Danny again, and he uses a term of endearment formy woman,my anger is back, and my entire body vibrates with the force of it. I stalk away from Dottie and across the lobby, with Spencer right behind me again, my hands clenched down at my sides, really hoping this doesn’t hurt too much. Trying to remember if I’m supposed to tuck my thumb under my fingers or over them when I make a fist to throw a punch, I wish I would have watched a few boxing YouTube videos before I came here.
“I’ll give you three million dollars.” My feet immediately jerk to a stop at Danny’s words, and Spencer slams right into the back of me, both of us stumbling forward until he grabs onto my arm to steady us. “Every penny of my stupid trust fund is yours. Take it, and go the fuck away. This island is the most beautiful place in the world, and I’m not going to let you ruin it.”
Man, it reallyistoo bad my dad isn’t here right now. He would immediately adore her as much as I do.
Danny takes a step closer to Asher, and everything inside me is shouting at my feet to make them move and go over there, pull her back, and not let her even breathe the same air as that guy, but I am completely frozen, listening to her defend my home—and defendme.
“All you care about is money anyway. Take it and go, and don’t youevereven think of putting Ryan’s name in your mouth again. You don’t know him, you don’t talk about him, you don’t so much as eventhinkabout him again. He is ten times the man you could ever even dream of being, and you are a disgusting human being for what you did to him yesterday.”
“You know what’s funny about this entire thing, aside from you embarrassing yourself in public in front of all these lovely people?” Asher just gives Danny that ugly, cocky smile of his, while my heart feels like it’s bursting right out of my chest, and I honestly can’t believe I was ever jealous ofhim. “That nerd over there made you soft and weak since you got here.”
Danny spins around and finally spots me when Asher nods in my direction, and for a moment, I forget where we are and what’s happening when her beautiful blue eyes are on me. I see shock, I see anger, I see concern for me, and, now that I’m not being an idiot, I see love. It’s still there, and it’s still aimed at me, and that makes my feet remember how to move as soon as Asher opens his dumb mouth again to address the room.
“I’m sorry you’re having to witness such a childish outburst, when I’m only trying to help this beautiful island thrive.” He gives the room a fake salesman smile before looking back at Danny with a scoff. “You are such trash.”
“Oh shit,” Spencer mutters from behind me when I immediately start charging toward Asher, who is still looking at Danny with that smug grin on his face that definitely needs to be removed.
Thumb in or out? In or out?
“I’ve got twenty bucks on my grandson!” I hear Dottie shout to another city hall employee who wanders out of her office to see about the commotion as I go, with nothing but messing up Asher’s pretty, dumb face in my mind.
Please don’t let this hurt too badly.
“Ryan, no!” Danny is suddenly right in front of me, using all her force to push her hands against my chest and get me to stop, my eyes still on Asher’s grin, and my fist itching to do some damage. Until Danny’s hands are on my face, turning it away from him and forcing me to look at her.
“This isn’t you, okay?” she speaks softly, both of us momentarily ignoring Asher’s laughter behind her, until all I want to do is lean down and kiss her, breathe her in, wrap my arms around her, and never let her go. “You are amazing, and kind, and sweet, and even though I’m so pissed at you right now I could spit nails, you can’t do this. You would regret it as soon as you did it. You arenota fighter.”
“Isn’t that cute? The psycho has to protect her poor excuse for a man,” Asher continues to laugh at me.
A growl comes out of Danny that probably shouldn’t turn me on right now, considering the situation, but it does. As well as the slow, evil smile that spreads across her beautiful face as her hands drop from holding onto my cheeks.
“You’re not a fighter, but I am.” With that, she whirls away from me, bringing her arm up as she goes, her fist slamming into Asher’s nose so hard that he drops right down to the ground, screaming at the top of his lungs.
“You broke my goddamn nose!”
“Ahhh, yes. Thumbout.” I nod as Danny shakes out her hand.
“Dammit, I lost twenty bucks!” Dottie complains, while Spencer whistles and claps.
“Who’s soft and weak now, asshole? I’ll break a hell of a lot more than your nose if you don’tget off this fucking island!” Danny shouts as she leans over him, and blood pours through Asher’s hands he’s holding against his face.
“You bitch! I just had a nose job!”
I quickly have to wrap my arms around Danny’s body and start pulling her backward when she lunges for him again, my feisty little fighter.
“Thank you for doing that. It wasreallyhot,” I speak quietly against her ear.
She suddenly stops struggling, and her body just melts against the front of me, her hands holding onto my arms wrapped tightly around her.
Danny was right, and she knows me so well. No matter how much I wanted to punch that man in the face for insulting both of us, and still kind of do, I would have felt bad about it as soon as I did it, and I’d be embarrassed about losing my temper. I’m a teacher and a coach, and those kids look up to me and expect me to lead by example. I love her so much right now for protecting me it hurts, but it’s a good kind of hurt this time, and I don’t mind it in the least.
“What in the hell is going on here?”
Danny immediately pulls out of my arms, and we both turn around to find my dad standing next to Dottie, looking more than a little unhappy that there’s a man bleeding and screaming on the floor of city hall.
“Oh, fuck… I mean freak. I mean…shit,” Danny mutters, shaking out her hand again.
