Page 49 of Don't Remind Me
“What are you talking about?”
“Jase.” She said it likeare you serious?“You either can’t take your eyes off her or you’re completely avoiding her. One minute, you’re saying you can’t be friends, and the next, you’re running to her apartment to fight off a potential stalker.”
What was I supposed to have done, let her fend for herself?You could have called the cops. But it wasn’t like I’d stopped to think about it. I’d acted on instinct. And besides?—
“That was before,” I said. “We talked since then. Agreed to take a step back.”
“Is that what this overprotective thing you’re doing now is?” Aubrey asked, gesturing at my wide stance and crossed arms. “Stepping back? Because from where I’m standing, the only person messing with her is you.”
I watched as Dani’s smile filled the whole dining room, her silky brown hair falling down her back in waves, blue-green eyes bright with interest. My shoulders sank.
Aubrey’s voice softened. “It’s only as complicated as you make it, Chef.”
She went back to work, and after one last glance at Dani, I did the same. Neither of us brought it up during service. I avoided looking into the dining room altogether.
It was a steady Thursday night—not hectic but busy enough to keep my mind occupied. Until every so often when Dani’s laughter would reach my ears, floating on the murmur of conversation from the dining room, and it was like someone grabbed my rib cage and squeezed. It made me want to stick my head in a pot of boiling water. Or better yet, Evan’s head.
He’d probably emerge looking every bit as much like Prince Charming, an easy smile on his face like nothing could touch him.
He reminded me of Alec in that way. In a lot of ways, actually. Both had that easygoing charm that could let them step into a brawl and have the guy about to pound their face in one minute laughing with them like they were best buds the next.
They had the same laid-back charisma that drew attention to themselves without even trying. They were both good at whatever they set their minds to, not because they were determined not to fail so much as it never occurred to them that failure was even an option.
They were both good guys.
Aubrey was right. Evan wasn’t some player who would lie to Dani or try to manipulate her into bed. He was the kind of guy who would find twenty dollars on the sidewalk and ask everyone around if they’d dropped it rather than keep it for himself.
She was right about me too. I needed to let Dani go. Fully. Let her take a chance with a guy like Evan whodiddeserve her. He was exactly the kind of guy who could live up to the shadow of my brother still lingering in her mind, the kind of guy who could make her happy.
She deserved to be happy.
I didn’t know what I deserved. I was still trying to figure that out. But I couldn’t expect her to hang around in limbo while that happened.
So I left them alone.
I pushed through service, ignoring the clench of my stomach when their food orders came in and Dani’s favorite dish was printed right there on the same ticket as his. I cooked it, pretending it didn’t feel like holding my hand over a lit burner, searing my skin raw with every one of her laughs.
And then the laughing stopped.
Each minute, I braced myself to hear it again, and each minute that I didn’t added more pressure to the weight slowly sinking to the pit of my stomach, until a full hour had passed and I finally accepted that was it. She’d left with him.
I stabbed the last open ticket for the food that had just gone out and untied my apron, turning to Aubrey as I pulled it over my head. “I’m going up, if you need me.”
She nodded, and I headed for the office, planning to bury myself in sales reports until my brain went numb and could no longer form images of Dani and Evan together. Her fair skin under his touch. Her full mouth against his lips. Her long legs tangled in his sheets. I ground my teeth against the fire in my chest and lengthened my stride.
Only to freeze outside the door to the dining room.
There, sitting before me—laptop open, glass of sparkling water in hand—was Dani.
She sat alone, Evan nowhere in sight, and whatever delusions I’d built up over the past few hours crumbled as my chest expanded with what felt like my first full breath all night. Hell, all week.
We’d agreed to keep things simple. And while the logical side of my brain knew this was anything but, the rest of me couldn’t imagine anything simpler than how completely I wanted her. The fact that she was still here made me think maybe there was a chance she wanted me too.
Complicated or not, that was all I cared about right now.
And I wasn’t willing to deny it any longer.
Chapter Twenty-One
