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Soon their conversation turned from the past to more of the present. Lauren quizzed Danny about his work. He talked about what he loved—and what he hated—about being on the job. He told her about a few the more humorous arrests he’d made. His favorite was one of his first as a beat cop—a very drunk college student had stripped naked, climbed on top of a parked truck, and proceeded to serenade all passersby with his version of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.”
“I was the rookie. That meant I got stuck getting the naked guy off the truck.”
“I’m sure that was fun.” She rolled her eyes.
“Oh yeah.” He took a swig of beer. “Photographer for the paper got a picture. A few days later, I came in to find my locker plastered with pictures of me with the idiot looking like he was trying to hump my leg.”
Lauren wiped an amused tear away. “Oh, God. That’s an image I’ll never get out of my head!”
“You and me both.” Danny’s deadpan answer made her laugh even harder. As their mirth subsided, they lapsed into a silence. While it wasn’t entirely uncomfortable, the ghosts of old decisions and regrets stalked them through the stillness.
Lauren finally broke the quiet, asking, “So, how are you, Danny? For real.”
She looked at him with an earnest, thoughtful expression. God, he’d missed that. He remembered their conversation at Dom’s and how he’d realized then how much he missed her friendship. But Lauren had been more than a friend or a girlfriend. Back then, she was hisbestfriend. They’d shared everything when they were younger: hopes, dreams, secrets, lies. And they’d always had each other’s backs. He bit his lip, wrestling with what he wanted to say, how to spin the insanity somehow.
Instead of spinning, he blurted out the truth.
ChapterNineteen
“I’m not sure anymore… everything seems like it’s coming off the rails.”
Taken aback by his statement, Lauren reached out and squeezed Danny’s arm. “I’m sorry. God knows I’m the last person who should give out life advice, but I’ll listen if you think it’ll help.”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, fiddling with the unbuttoned cuff of his sleeve Then he coughed out a bitter laugh. “My marriage is all fucked up.”
“Your wife certainly didn’t seem to like me.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
She waited while Danny pressed his fingers against his temples. He opened his mouth to speak and closed it again as if he was weighing whether or not to expand on his last statement. Instead, he went back to the beginning.
“Me and Heather, we’d only been together three months when we met up with Kev, Mario, and Paul for St. C’s fifth-year class reunion. Of course, they all asked if I’d seen you, heard your new single, and if you were coming. Well, Heather wanted to know why someone like you would be at our reunion. Then she got the whole download on my famous rock-star ex.”
“Ah. I’m guessing you’d never mentioned me—and that Kevin shot his mouth off?”
“Right. And she took it personally—like I’d been hiding you on purpose. Never let go of it either. She’s always had a jealous streak, but something about this, about you … I never understood it.”
Lauren nodded. That explained a lot about Heather’s behavior after the Sandoval show.
“But everything changed a few months later—when Heather got pregnant.”
“And you were a stand-up guy and married her.”
Danny put down his half-full beer, the bottle clinking when it hit the coffee table. “Yep. Did the right thing. At least I thought it was the right thing. We had Lucas, and life was pretty good. He was—he is—my pride and joy. All three are. But somewhere along the line, me and Heather? We started down different roads. We’re only occasional lovers, and sometimes I think we’ve even stopped being friends. There have been a lot of days when I’ve wondered: if she’d never gotten pregnant, would we have ever gotten married?”
Danny ran a hand over his hair as he looked at some distant spot. Lauren wondered if he regretted telling her so much.
“What’re you going to do?”
“I don’t know. Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t come here to unload all my crap on you.”
“You can unload your crap on me any time, Danny.” She paused. “Do you remember how simple it was when we were kids? Well, maybe not simple from our perspective then, but looking back?”
“I know what you mean. Shit gets complicated when you grow up. Remember our first dance? Sister Agnes embarrassed us both? Do you remember what she said?”
Lauren nearly doubled over laughing. “Oh, God, that’s right. She poked us both with a ruler and said we’d better leave enough room in between us for God! Guess she didn’t want our naughty bits touching!”
“I didn’t know what to do. I felt awkward enough just dancing with you. That made it so much worse.” He grabbed a few chips out of the bowl.
