A Is for Alpha Male (26 page)

I wasn’t saying it was right or that at the appearance of your new family, your old one disappears. I was, however, being realistic. One, solitary person only has so much time. As you add more pieces to the pie, each member gets a smaller share.

Allison and I laid on our sides, one hand tucked under our heads and the other stretched out into the center of the bed to clasp with each other.

Our kindles were in front of us, but for once, we weren’t even attempting to read.

Instead, we were already reminiscing, memories of years past and those from the trip alike.

Stroking the back of her hand with my thumb, I told her, “Sorry we didn’t find our KA inspired dream men, Mamalicious.”

“I haven’t given up hope, Haley. I already had one dream man. Unfortunately, I didn’t have him nearly long enough, but I did get two dream kids out of it. One day, I hope I’ll find another one.”

I smiled, giving her hand a squeeze, trying to bleed my encouragement into her skin through touch. If anyone deserved a second dream man, it was her.

She squeezed my hand back, searched my eyes with the entire depth of hers, and stated firmly, “And as for you, I’m not so certain you haven’t found him.”

I didn’t know whether to agree with her or not. In a lot of ways, I thought Danny was
the guy
with every physical fiber of my being. But other factors muddled it, left my emotions scattered and unsure.

Allison could obviously see the disquiet of my mind and heart on my face, continuing, “I think you need to be ready. I think Danny is going to take you on one hell of a bumpy ride before you get to the other side, to the safety and happiness of indisputable true love. But I think it’s worth it. And another thing I not only think, but know, is that no matter what, you’ll regret it if you don’t give it everything you’ve got. Don’t hide from love. Don’t try to protect yourself from the loss, and in doing so, end up robbing yourself of the experience.”

Taking her hand out from underneath her pillow, she reached out and wiped away the one, warm, salty tear that was leaving a track down the side of my face.

“Alfred Tennyson got this one right. And you know, I
know
. ‘Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.”

WEARY, WORN DOWN, and looking like effing road kill, Allison and I rolled into Gulf View, Alabama after two thousand miles, thirty or so hours, or what amounted to five days of driving.

We could have done it in three days of ten hour shifts, but I also could have put a gun to my head and blown my brains out.

I wasn’t exactly keen on either activity.

And we weren’t really on a particular schedule. So we took our time, stopped to see the NASA control center, and took pictures in Ciudad Juarez in front of the Mexican border.

I wanted to see the World’s Largest Ball of Yarn, but alas, it wasn’t on our route.

Talk about a major letdown.

Desperate to wash the feel of road grime off of my skin, I planned on taking a shower and going to bed with wet hair. Chewbacca consequences be damned.

We rolled up to the same hotel, figuring there was no reason to change when we already knew the lay of the land with this one. After the first time, I had learned how to sweet talk the sickly ice machine, and I hadn’t knocked on anymore wrong doors. Plus, they had let me get away with my illegal towel activity, earning them one miniature, gold star in my book.

Allison’s flight was all scheduled for in the morning, and Danny had agreed to drive her to the Pensacola Airport.

She was excited to get home, and Hunter had assented to pick her up from our perfectly small, cute, impeccably easy to travel in and out of airport in Knoxville.

I wasn’t sure what Hunt thought about me staying behind while I sent our girl home on a plane because I took the chicken shit way out again and let my mom call him.

Thinking about warm, soapy, comforting water and the following plush, comfortable mattress, I pulled in at the hotel almost on autopilot and most definitely not paying attention.

So when Danny approached my door, he surprised me. But more importantly, he scared the ever loving shit out of me, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin, shriek out in terror, and flail carelessly into the passenger side and right into Allison’s lap.

She jumped back at the contact coupled with my screams of horror, clawing for the door handle and whaling a scream so intense, it was a wonder my eardrum didn’t rupture.

In order to get our attention, as our terror had taken on a life of its own, Danny leaned into the now vacant driver’s side of my car and honked the horn three consecutive times.

The noise thankfully cut through, stopping our screams and calming our flailing.

When Danny’s beautiful face registered, the light of the Hotel pull-through driveway glinting off of his scruff as he slowly shook his head back and forth and a smirk tugging at the corners of his lush lips, a greeting that would have been warm turned into an outburst of outrage.

“What is wrong with you?! Didn’t you learn your effing lesson when you snuck up on us at the beach?! We don’t handle sneaking well!”

“Christ, Hales, quiet. You’re gonna wake up everyone within a twenty mile radius of Gulf View,” Danny shouty whispered.

“And whose fault is that?” I shrieked in return.

Losing the hold on his patience, Danny shouted back, “I thought you saw me! I wasn’t trying to scare you!”

Allison, finally managing to maneuver herself out from underneath me, lost her battle with her hilarity, muttering vaguely, “Bumpy ride.”

But the meaning was all too clear.

Turning to her, I snapped amiably and with no real malice, “Well, aren’t you just a know it all!”

Danny’s delicious, deep chuckle sounded behind me, and just like that, all was forgotten.

Scrambling my way out of the car, I somehow ended up in his strong arms, his fresh scent enveloping my senses and calming my outburst.

There in his arms, a place in which I had spent remarkably little time, felt amazingly like home.

Like it was right.

Like it fit, and it was meant to be.

Like it was made just for me.

The next morning I rode along with Danny to take Allison to the airport.

Even though I had recently decided cars were evil inventions created to make us all lose our minds, I couldn’t stomach the thought of sending my mom off to the airport with nothing more than a pat on the back and a smile.

I had to at least drop her off.

Mind you I let Danny do the driving. And the bag lifting. And I only got out of the car to give her a real hug.

But I did go with her to the airport.

That had to earn me at least a few daughter points.

Truthfully, I had tried to go in with her, but she had insisted we just drop her off.

I protested, but Allison was in no mood to be trifled with, snapping her fingers with attitude, waving me off with a hand, and finishing with the flourish of putting her hands on her hips.

I let it go, waving to her sadly as she gave me one last smile and then headed in through the automatic doors.

Danny pointed his 2012 SRT8 392 Dodge Challenger in the direction of his house as we pulled away from the curb of the drop off area and headed for activities unknown.

The car was earning him some major points. Points he didn’t fucking need, mind you, but points all the same.

I had no idea exactly how long I was staying, what we were doing while I was here, and when he planned to broach what seemed to be the never-to-be-talked-of-again topic.

Yet, the tingle of excitement was still well and alive, singing through my veins and feeding my body with all sorts of feel good endorphins.

“What are we doing?” I asked, trying to pry information out of the man who had been completely tight lipped for the last half an hour and trying not to fidget in my seat while I did it.

“I figured you would want to say hello to someone,” he answered ambiguously.

The only other person I knew in Gulf View was Wade.

“Wade?”

A startled bark of laughter jumped out of his throat and landed straight on my chest, radiating out and enveloping me from the outside in.

“Um, no. Sorry to disappoint you, but Wade’s gone for the next few days,” he said, glancing over at me as he spoke, his half-smirk just barely changing the lines of his face.

Who the hell else was left?

“Butch?” I asked insanely, and at that, his laughter waxed, climbing to a chuckle so free that I questioned if I had ever really heard him laugh before that moment.

“No, baby doll. But you are right on topic,” he said, giving my knee a squeeze of encouragement.

Like a light switch, my brain flipped on.

“My baby!” I shouted, throwing my hands into the air and tilting my head back and into the headrest. “You’re taking me to ride! I knew there was a reason I loved you!”

Immediately, I realized what I said, but there was no going back. The best course of action was to ignore the color staining my cheeks, pretend I couldn’t feel the overwhelming power coming at me from the driver’s seat, and ride the wave I had created by altogether pretending I hadn’t said it, and that even if I did, it was no big deal.

Also, by not acknowledging it, I didn’t have to lie.

We both sat silently for the rest of the drive, no doubt each lost in our own thoughts.

It was slightly awkward, but Danny reached over and touched his hand to my knee again, giving me an extended version of the same small, lingering pat of reassurance. It was amazing how much comfort I felt from such a tiny touch.

And how different it felt from Jason of Denver’s touches.

Jason’s touches caused anxiety. Danny’s quieted it.

Before I knew it, we were pulling into Danny’s property, parking, and he was shutting his badass car off.

All of a sudden, it hit me.

Crap!

I didn’t have any clean clothes with me to shower and change into when we finished riding.

Rounding the metallic black hood of the car after climbing out quickly, I started talking as I went. “Danny, I just realized I don’t have any—”

“You do,” he cut in mysteriously.

“Um, I don’t. And how do you even know what I’m talking about?” I questioned.

“Because I had Allison pack you a bag with clean clothes and any other girly shit you use to get ready,” he stated dryly.

How in the hell did he do these things? And know what I was talking about before I even said it?

Man, was that annoying. He was a clever bastard, and I knew that that would come back to bite me if we ended up in a real relationship down the line.

“Danny—” I started, never able to just shut up.

“Hales,” he interrupted. “I think I can hear your baby crying for its mommy all the way from here,” he continued, going for a distraction tactic.

And quite frankly, it worked.

I took his outstretched hand in mine, half walking half skipping my way into the house to put on yet another one of his long sleeve shirts.

We didn’t dawdle at all, heading straight to his bedroom, through it, and into his closet.