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“So you would have no problem with me just showing up like this in your house?” I gestured to my naked torso with a smirk. I had worked hard on my body these last few years. I knew I was fit, and I appreciated the fact that she took notice of it, too.
She gave a soft laugh trying to seem collected and calm, “not at all. Heck, I would walk around naked in this heat if I could.”
I blinked at her for a moment before I threw my head back and let out a loud laugh. Her eyes went wide completely mortified at what she had just said.
“That’s not what I meant. What I meant to say was that…if you umm..feel more comfortable with no shirt on then by all means.”
Her voice trailed off at the end and as if possible, her face grew redder with each passing second.
“You checking me out, Anderson?” I teased her.
In this light, her hair looked lighter than it actually was. When we were kids, she had been blonde but, as we grew older, it had changed color to brown. I preferred her brown hair to the blonde because it brought out her unique blue-gray Anderson eyes. They had always been my favorite feature about her.
Seeing her again had hit me like a ton of bricks. It had felt like a lifetime since I had last seen her face. She had grown. She was no longer the same shy girl I had met when we were nine. She was a woman now. A woman who, like a lot of us, had been jaded and scarred by life.
Although her beauty had only intensified with age, the light she used to carry dimmed. There was something sad in her gaze. It was the way her head always hung low sometimes when she walked into a room. It was the stare she often did when she found herself lost in thought.
“Shut up,” she murmured, scampering out of the barn like it was on fire. I let out a low chuckle and walked out of the barn too, making sure to grab my shirt. By the time I exited the barn, Danny was already climbing the porch steps that lead to the door.
I had been wanting to ask but I also knew Danny well enough to know that she would not just spill her guts about everything that had gone down these past ten years. But I wanted that one on one conversation with her. The intense need to protect her was still there. I had thought it had faded with time but it was still as strong as ever.
Life had a way of making you cold and calloused and maybe that was what had happened to her. Maybe that was where her light disappeared to. It was funny because back when we were kids, Danny’s light, seemed untouchable. Like no one could ever dim her inner glow. It was like her superpower—one of the many things I admired about her.
Life had a way of making people cold and calloused, and maybe that was what had happened to her. Maybe that was where her light disappeared to.
I put my shirt over my head and walked over to the main house. I also lived on the ranch at the cottage. It was only a five-minute walk from the main house which was nice. Staying on the property made work easier for me, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t like the fact that Dan was my neighbor.
There had been days I would watch her drink her morning coffee on the porch steps with her hair in a messy bun and her long, fuck-me legs on full display. I’d had to take many cold showers
Danny had left the door open for me and, as soon as I stepped through it, I was assaulted with little foam bullets.
“Intruder! Intruder!” Axel’s voice reached my ears. He came from behind the door and pointed his gun right at me. “Hands up. You are trespatising.”
I let out a soft chuckle. “I think you mean trespassing, Axel.”
“Yeah.” He continued to point his gun at me. “Any last words?”
“Jokes on you,” I said before I lunged at him and picked him up. We play wrestled for a moment, going back and forth, before his mother finally called for both of us. I set him down and crouched down, so I was at eye level with him. “To be continued…okay, buddy?”
Axel smiled his adorable little smile. The kid was going to be a lady killer when he was older, I was sure of it. He had his mother’s charm, after all.
“Okay.” He dropped the gun on the floor and took my hand. He led me outside where Danny was laying out lunch. It still felt so surreal that she was actually a mother. It had always been one of her lifelong dreams and now she was living it. But she didn’t look very happy about it.
She looked up from the table. “I hope tacos are okay.”
“They are perfect, Dan.” I walked Axel to his seat and sat in my own.
We dug into our tacos and made small conversation between the three of us. Axel was able to talk an ear off a donkey. The kid talked about anything and everything and sometimes didn’t stop to breathe in between.
Danny listened to him tentatively. It was clear to anyone with eyes that Axel was her sole reason for existing. The same way she had been my sun, Axel was hers.
When we were done, Axel ran back into the house in search of his toys. Danny and I remained at the table, an awkward silence falling over us. Whenever we were left alone, there was always an awkwardness between us that I hated. We never used to be like this. We used to bounce off each other. We were electric and now…well, now it was like we were strangers. Most of the blame fell on me. I had been the reason for our rift, so now it was time that I fixed what I had broken. I just didn’t know where to begin.
To be fair, it had been eight years that had passed between us. We had aged. We had grown into two different people. I didn’t know her anymore. The Danny I knew was the eighteen-year-old girl I had been madly in love with. This Danny was a woman who had become jaded and scarred from the world around her. She was more reserved and closed off. She was on defense mode at all times. If I wanted to learn who she was now, I needed to break down her walls.
“So…” she drew out, “it’s been hot lately, hasn’t it?”
I scoffed, “Really Dan? The weather? That is what you decided to talk about right now? We might as talk about the bloody stock market.”
