Page 9 of See You Soon
Danny leads me to the parking lot and we’re both walking fast in silence, as the rain falls. I follow him until we got to a pickup truck. He opens the passenger door for me, and I climb in.
Danny closes my door quickly and jogs over to his side, attempting to avoid getting completely soaked by the rain.
"Where would you like to eat?" He asks as he closes his door behind him.
"I'm not sure... the weather’s getting bad." I'm still shaken up by running into Shane, my voice comes out like a whisper and Danny notices how uncomfortable I’m feeling.
"Hey I can take you home, it's ok—"
"No." I immediately respond, cutting him off. I look up at him and give him a reassuring smile.
Seeing Shane threw me off. My heart stopped for a couple of seconds out of fear. I finally escaped him but when I saw him at Chrome Beans it reminded me of all the feelings I would get when I was with him. It shook me to my core. Still, I wasn’t going to allow him to ruin the possibilities with other men.
"How about we grab takeout? And we can have dinner and a movie at my place?"
Dinner and a movie at his place sound like a dream after the whole year I've had so far. Experiencing domestic abuse followed by my brother's passing was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. I didn't just lose my brother; I lost my best friend. We were so close.
"I'd like that."
* * *
"This is it," Danny announces, casually.
We pull into his property, driving through a front gate. After picking up Brooklyn-style pizza, I took a glance at his property. A beautiful two-story home on acres of land. It was gorgeous. It had a front porch and a wrap-around fence.
"Wow, Danny, your place is nice."
I grew up in a small three-bedroom house in an over-populated neighborhood. So, this house looks like paradise to me. It was so spacious and modernized.
"Thank you."
I should be scared, but I feel completely warm inside next to Danny. He has been such a gentleman to me since we met. I hadn't been on a date since Shane and I broke up months ago. Iwasn'tbreaking myno military-menrule yet.
With the pizza box in his hand, Danny gets out and walks to my side of the truck, and helps me out of the passenger seat.
"Short girl problems." I laugh as his hand holds mine. With every slightest touch he gives me, butterflies flutter harshly inside of me. As I get closer to him, his strong cologne scent catches me. His scent was marvelous, it was radiating woodsy and rebellious.
Even though I just met Danny, it feels like a breath of fresh air out of the darkness. I feel safe with him, something I never felt with Shane.
When we reach his porch, he grabs his keys and unlocks the front door so quickly like he probably had a thousand times.
The first thing I see when he reaches over to his right, switching a light on, was a very rich spacious wood cabin-themed home. It was absolutely mesmerizing, I felt like I was in a very expensive lodge in the mountains.
"Wow..." I look up to the ceiling and noticed every single detail of his house was well thought out and designed.
Danny looks amused at my astonishment. We reach the living room, and he turns on his electric fireplace followed by a large tv screen that was mounted on the wall above it. This was a date night I hadn’t imagined going on anytime soon. Simple yet amazing. I was never attracted to men who thought flaunting fancy things would impress me.
"Would you like some red wine?" Danny asks me after putting the pizza down on his living room coffee table. He makes his way into the kitchen area where a large island is in the center of his kitchen, with a bar area in the corner. Lots of wine, liquor bottles, and beer were on display like a collection. He must be a heavy drinker.
"Yes please." I politely reply. I walk over to the couch and get comfortable, sitting on a soft cushion. I really hope he's not expecting anything more from me than just a date of getting to know each other.
Danny returns with a wine glass and a drink for himself. He turns on the weather channel after he places my wine glass down, the glass making a collision noise as he sits next to me. I grab the glass of red wine and take a sip. My taste buds jump in excitement as the red wine rolls down my throat. I look over and Danny’s watching me with a glass of whiskey. He’s so handsome, his strong jawline covered in a short beard, and those blue ocean eyes I could stare into forever.
"I thought military men couldn't have beards," I say with eyebrows raised curiously. It was one of the first things I noticed about Danny. Before Paul became a Navy SEAL, he always had his facial hair clean-shaven and well-kept.
"Yeah, we typically can't. I'm getting deployed though so I get the okay."
"That explains it."
