Hitting the Mark

“Has it occurred to you that being concerned about the person is the normal reaction when that someone you’ve just lip-locked with flees into the night?”

Danni gave a shudder. Security. The word had actually come out of his mouth. “You know, I should have figured it out. He dropped so many clues. He even checked my door to make sure it was locked. How creepy is that?”

Cassie pushed her reading glasses up higher on her nose. “Maybe he wanted to make sure you wouldn’t get robbed. Some women might call it thoughtful. Gallant.”

“You should have heard him say security. Like he was proud of it.”

Cassie shook her head. “What are you talking about? Of course he’s proud of it. Most people don’t have a deep-seated distrust of law enforcement the way you do.”

“Boy, I sure know how to pick ’em. Head of security, no less.”

“Wow, you didn’t mention that part. He must be pretty good to be head of security at a major casino.”

Eric Reynolds was pretty good at kissing, too. And at touching.

The coffee on the stove began to bubble, so Cassie hopped off the couch. After pulling down two mugs out of the cabinet, she poured Danni and herself a cup each. Cassie was the only person, other than law enforcement and her father, who knew Danni’s whole story.

For some reason her best friend seemed to be defending Eric. “He should have admitted he worked in security right from the beginning.”

“Danni, would you listen to yourself? You’re not even rational. I guarantee you that Eric probably never put ‘his job’ and ‘admitting’ in the same category. They don’t go together.”

Danni just shrugged.

“You like this guy. A lot. What’s more, it seems he likes you a lot, too. The only thing that’s holding you up is your past. Have you thought that maybe you’re using the past as some sort of artificial barrier between you, so you can maintain your feeling of security?”

Danni made the “T” sign with her hands. “Whoa, time out, sister. I hate it when you get all counsely on me. And can we stop saying the word security?”

“Then try you’re a woman, he’s a man. You both want to hook up. Forget everything else and hook up.”

“It’s not that easy. Nothing can happen between us.” And yeah, it blew because she liked him, he turned her on like no other. That kiss…

“Something can happen between you. You’ve paid your debt to society. You’re not breaking the law. In fact, you’re a tax-paying citizen working to make a contribution to the world.”

She did pay her taxes now. Weird but true.

Could Cassie be right? Hope surfaced, and Danni had a hard time batting it away. She wouldn’t admit to being irrational, but she was quick to make assumptions.

“You told him at the coffee shop that you wouldn’t stand for any game playing. I think you should stick to your own rule. Call him tomorrow and tell him the truth.”

“I hate the truth,” Danni said in a grumble.

“Tomorrow you can come over after you talk to him and we can chat about it all night.”

“Who says I’m calling him?”

Cassie sighed. “Let me put this in terms you understand. You’re really in a win-win situation. You tell him about your past, he accepts it and you go on to have great sex. You win.”

“What’s the other win?”

“If he can’t get past what happened with your dad, then he’s a jerk and you’re better off without him. You win.”

Danni sat back against the cushion of the couch. “So, is this what it’s like to have grown-up conversations with typical parents?”

“What do you mean?”

“The whole ‘You’re better off without him. There’s other fish in the sea’—all those platitudes come out of people who grew up with a semblance of normalcy. I always wondered who believed that kind of thing.”

Cassie laughed, tucking her blond hair behind her ears. “My parents even told me with a straight face.”

“Yeah? So did you. Okay, I’ll do it. But tomorrow night be prepared for us to trash-talk him because he will care. How can someone who enforces law not think about someone who broke it? Repeatedly.”

“Always the cynic. How can someone who enforces the law not appreciate someone trying to go straight?”

Danni had no answer for that one.

“See? I’m right and you know it. Come on, you can crash here for the night. I’ll drop you off at your apartment in the morning.”

Later than evening, Danni fluffed up the pillow on the couch for the twelfth time. Cassie had gone to bed long ago. She’d called her a cynic. What else was new? Although it wasn’t so much that she was a cynic, but that she lived in the real world.

Men liked relationships with simple, uncomplicated, low-maintenance women.

And Danni was none of those things.

She closed her eyes and stretched, remembering how good it felt to be with him. For a few hours tonight, she had exactly that with Eric. Uncomplicated, low-maintenance, everything was easy.

What P.T. Barnum had said all those years ago was definitely true. There was a sucker born every minute. And right now she was it.

She hadn’t thought she could get suckered anymore. That’s why it bothered her so much now. Because she wanted something. She wanted something, someone, for the first time.

And cynics knew that as soon as you wanted something, that’s the precise moment when lady luck vanished, and you were a goner.

ERIC HIKED UP THE STAIRS two at a time to Danni’s apartment, and knocked. No answer. As he’d expected. He’d already done this once tonight.

A woman running down the street away from him was not the usual reaction to his kisses. What the hell had happened?

He’d really thought they’d hit it off. The conversation always flowed. They’d laughed, and that kiss under the arch…it sizzled.

Eric moved away from her apartment door. He saw no light coming from any of the windows or around the doorframe. Her place looked exactly the way they’d left it earlier tonight. Reaching for his cell phone, he dialed her number again.

“I don’t know what happened to you tonight, Danni, but I wanted to make sure you got home safely. I’m sorry if I said anything that upset you. Bye.”

That would be his last call to her. He could only try so many times. He’d have a strange story to tell his coworkers when they asked how the date went. He’d have to improvise.

CASSIE WAS THE KIND of person who obviously thought mornings were a time of renewal and happiness that ought to be greeted with a spring in her step and a song on her lips. She also apparently thought mornings began at six, when Danni really knew they should begin closer to ten.

If she looked hard enough she might see small birds chirping gleefully around Cassie’s head, reminiscent of Snow White.

Danni pulled the pillow closer. For more than three years while in detention, Danni woke up according to a schedule, to a gong and an abrupt turning on of the lights. The first thing she did after reaching twenty was sleep in.