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Elle didn’t need to know that. He would’ve spared her the hurt even if she’d insisted on hearing the details. And she could be pretty damn persuasive. But she seemed satisfied with the abridged version of the story. Maybe it was wishful thinking because Daniel had been in love with her since the first moment he’d seen her at Savannah Country Day, but it finally felt like the path to each other—that had always been blocked—was finally clear.
He wasn’t going to kid himself. With all that was happening with Aidan, if this was going to work out, it might take a while longer. But he’d waited this long. He was willing for them to take their time so they could finally get it right. And they still had hurdles to clear.
He hoped Elle wasn’t having regrets about the revelation and the kiss.
The kiss had come on the tail of such an emotional revelation that he needed to not get carried away or read anything more into it. It might have been nothing more than her way of coming to terms with the confirmation that her ex-fiancé had cheated the night before their wedding. It might even have been a reflexive payback. Which could’ve been a thank-you to him or a private So there, I’ll kiss your best friend directed at Roger, who would never know it happened. Daniel had spoken to Roger exactly once after he’d left Elle standing at the altar and Daniel holding the scapegoat bag. Then the weasel had disappeared into his new life.
Right now, Daniel needed to focus on the day ahead. He needed to go by the hospital to check on Aidan. An uneasy feeling nagged in his gut. No one had called, but rather than assume no news was good news—or at least it wasn’t bad news—he called the hospital.
Aidan was stable. That was great news.
For a moment, he considered not going to the hospital. He loved his brother but holding vigil at his bedside wouldn’t do anyone any good. But he knew he should go. That was what good people did. They went to the hospital. But it was so damn hard.
Chloe was still sleeping when he got up. He quickly showered and surveyed the food situation in his brother’s kitchen to see what kind of breakfast he could scrounge up.
As he started to open the refrigerator, a piece of paper tacked to the door with a couple of kids’ alphabet magnets caught his eye.
Daniel took the paper off the refrigerator and studied it. It was a flyer for a weeklong holiday camp at Savannah Country Day. Well, hell. It had been right there all the time. He hadn’t noticed it because they had ordered in pizza and he hadn’t paid attention to the collage of papers on his brother’s fridge last night when he’d gotten Chloe some juice to have with dinner.
It was for one week, but it didn’t start until the week before Christmas. If he could rely on Elle until camp started, it would buy him some time until Chloe started back at school after the new year. Maybe by that time, Aidan would be out of the hospital.
Within the hour, he had loaded Chloe into his truck, buckled her into the booster seat that Elle had taken out of her car and headed to the Forsyth Galloway Inn.
* * *
“Look what I found,” Daniel said as he walked into the Forsyth’s kitchen, clutching Chloe’s hand and holding up a piece of paper with his free hand.
He looked so darned hot, Elle thought. What was it about a big strong man holding a child’s hand that made her insides turn to mush? She’d seen plenty of fathers holding their children’s hands and none had awakened her lady parts like this.
It was Daniel. That kiss last night after the confession that she’d pried out of him had set her free.
And she’d been nervous about how he would act this morning. She worried that when she was admitting to herself that yes, she had a thing for her former nemesis, Daniel Quindlin, who hadn’t ruined her life but in his own stoic way had saved her from making the worst mistake, maybe he wouldn’t see her in quite the same way that she saw him.
Yet, here he was, smiling and thrusting a piece of paper at her, acting as if he couldn’t be happier to see her.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Chloe’s camp.”
“Seriously? You found it?”
He nodded. “It was hanging right there on the refrigerator in plain sight. It was sort of collaged in among the other stuff Aidan had up there, but it jumped out at me this morning.”
