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The observation didn’t bother her. Apparently, Danny didn’t care either. He opened his hand to the table.
“Come eat.”
Her head was still spinning, and her body ached all over. That was what a night of crying and screaming at nothing did. With a hand on the shower, then the closet, she steadied herself and made her way down the trailer.
The table was set. A big stack of pancakes stood in the middle by an assortment of condiments. Near the window the flame of a stubby little tea light flickered.
“Candlelight?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Best I could do.”
Resting a hand on his torso, she pushed to her tiptoes; he lowered to accept her kiss. “I love it.”
They both sat down. Danny grabbed her plate to put a pancake on it. As he picked up the syrup, his concentration put a smile on her face. He was determined to beat that damn syrup spiral into submission.
“Sorry for losing it,” she said. “That’s what I was apologizing for. I didn’t mean to get… emotional.”
“Overdue,” he said, sliding the plate across to her. “No worries. You’re not a robot.”
Apologizing seemed like the polite thing to do. Tess hadn’t really expected he’d have a problem. Danny didn’t know the meaning of the word.
Using her fork to cut her pancake, she speared it and took it to her lips, watching him work on another spiral. “Good thing is, you’re free now,” she said after swallowing the pancake.
“I’m free? Cool,” he said, tilting his head to watch the syrup run into itself. “Didn’t know I was chargin’.”
She smiled. “From me. You’re free.”
Done with spiral practice, his focus was on shoveling the pancake into his mouth. “What does that mean?”
Opening her mouth, she inhaled. “There’s nowhere I need to be. I don’t know what I’ll do now. The letter didn’t give me any clues about what I should do next. Short of staking out the Rotunda and hoping H announces himself if he ever shows, I don’t have any idea how to find him.”
“Or if you’d want to,” he said, pointing his fork at her. “You said he killed her.”
Nodding, Tess conceded the point, though she wasn’t as vehement about it in the light of day. “That was harsh. The letter doesn’t imply he threatened her, not with violence.”
“What does it imply?”
Looking left, then right, worry struck her. “I left it on the bed, where is—”
“In the nightstand,” he said. “I put it away.”
Of course he’d taken care of it. “Did you read it?”
He shook his head, his mouth full of pancake. “It’s your private thing.”
She smiled and hooked a hand on the edge of the table to boost herself up enough to lean closer. “Didn’t we establish you already saw me naked? You’ve seen me exposed and vulnerable.” Admitting that wasn’t easy, especially after losing it the previous night. “I don’t think you reading my mother’s letter will make much of a difference to my allure… that’s long gone.”
“So we don’t have any secrets now?”
The way his lips twitched to a smile brought a laugh from hers. Such joy from a simple thing. Even if he was teasing her, she appreciated him brightening her mood.
Tess cut another chunk from her pancake. “I guess not.”
“Good, then I gotta ask…” Waiting for the question, her brows rose in anticipation. “How many bikinis you packin’? We’re in beach weather now and the next place we’re going is right on the coast. Like right there on the beach.”
“The next place?”
Didn’t he hear her granting him his freedom? He’d asked what that meant. Didn’t he get he wasn’t shackled to her any longer?
