Dani laughed loudly, she couldn’t contain it. “I’ve forgotten. You broke the radio when that song came on. Remember? That stupid thing went off, and you got so mad, you threw a rock at it.”
“Well, yeah, because we were in the middle of being—” Intimate. Jake shut up. “Oh.”
Dani coughed. “Uh, Aiden’s probably looking for me.”
“Yeah.” Jake nodded.
Dani turned and left, but Jake caught her arm. “Maybe not now, but some day I’d like to be friends again. I mean that.”
“Me, too.” She went to look for Aiden, but she meant it. She hoped one day she and Jake could be friends again. Not best friends. That was too far again, but maybe family instead?
She joined Aiden and Bubba. Kate was there, too, glaring at Robbie, whose head was hanging down. Jonah came up at the same time. Everyone straightened to attention. He touched the small of Dani’s back, saying, “Everything’s ready. You guys can bunker down in my office. There should be cots in there, too.”
“What about you?” Aiden asked her brother.
He met Dani’s eyes. “Save me a place, but I’m going to be up for a while.”
The rest nodded and filtered off.
Dani touched his chest. “Is everything okay?”
Bags had formed under his eyes, and he raked a hand through his hair. “To be honest, there’s no good way for me to answer that so, get a good’s night sleep. For me.” He dropped a kiss on her lips, and before he would’ve moved away, she caught his face. She held him there, just a moment longer. She pressed against him, wanting him to know she cared. She was there for him. He hesitated, just a moment, then he answered back. His lips became hard over her, almost claiming and draining her at the same time. He pulled back, breathing a little heavy, and rested his forehead to hers. “I’m going to slip away tonight, but it’s not looking good.”
“You don’t want to tell me what’s wrong?”
He hesitated. “I do. I just can’t.” He brushed a kiss over her cheek, stepping back. “I mean it. Get a good night’s sleep, if you can. Don’t worry about me.”
But she would. He knew that, too. She watched him go. Trenton met him halfway, and their heads bent together. Hawk joined their group, and a deep frown formed over Jonah’s face. Something was going on. Something she was going to have to make Jonah tell her, but later. He wasn’t ready to break protocol yet.
Instead of heading to Jonah’s office, Dani grabbed a blanket. She went to a bathroom and tried to dry off as much as possible, then she wandered the back halls of Jonah’s headquarters. She wasn’t moving to a specific target, but she found herself at the freshwater tank. The tank ran the entire wall of the room. It circled around how the river wound along their town and their lands. It was an exact replica of Falls River. And Dani saw the black mussels she helped finance. There were a few real ones sitting in the water. One opened.
A grey pearl was nestled in the sand dirt.
“So this is what your boyfriend does.” Julia cleared her throat from the doorway, and Dani’s momentary amazement vanished. She looked around, her gaze falling on the tank and then zeroing in where Dani had been looking. Julia chewed at her lip. “Those are mussels?”
“Yeah.”
“They’re ugly.”
“Of course, you’d judge them on their appearance.”
“I’m just saying they’re ugly. They are.”
Dani was tired. Dealing with her sister was the last thing she wanted. She pulled her blanket tighter around her. “What do you want, Julia?”
Julia ran a hand through her soaked hair. She had a blanket draped around her, too, but her hand fell away from holding it closed over her. She propped it on her hip and made sure to drill Dani with her eyes. “Stay away from Jake. I saw you guys hugging before. You have a boyfriend. Leave mine alone.”
“You’ve already tried this trick. It didn’t take. Also, get the facts straight. Your boyfriend hugged me. He was trying to put everything behind us.”
“Just stay away. I saw the awkwardness.” Her eyes flashed in anger. “You want facts? Here are the facts. Jake loves me. He is with me. All true, but he still holds a torch for you. And before you get a big head, it’s not really you you. It’s his past transgressions. He feels a whole ton of guilt about leaving you for Erica, and that was why you left. It’s that issue that he can’t get over, but since he can’t deal with that, he’s trying to reconnect with you. It won’t work. He’s just going to end up trying to hook up with you, and even if you don’t, he’ll hate himself all over again. I know he loves me, but he feels guilt about you and Erica, too. That’s why I want you to stay away from him. For his good, your good, and my good.”
Dani was so tired of it. All of it. “Just stop. You’re being dramatic.” She felt like years were just taken from her. Maybe it was the night, or the last month, or maybe it was everything. “Go away, Julia. Go away.”
“You’re such a—never mind.” Julia moved toward the door, but stopped short and whirled back. “You could have called. Just once. You could’ve told us you were alive, but you didn’t. That was your choice. And that shows me how much you cared. So, why should I be all ‘welcome home, sister-who-doesn’t-give-a-shit-about-me’?”
“Kathryn knew I was going.”