Page 32 of My Grape Crush
I gnaw on my thumb, mind racing.
Now what?
I have a five-week commitment to honor. There is no island to hide on. Unlike a perfectly curated post, I can’t edit out the morning and pretend it never happened.
This mess with Dani needs to get sorted.
Recent events say showing up uninvited at Dani’s place spells all kinds of trouble. But giving her a heads-up might mean she ghosts me. The only play is a sniper attack. And now that I know where her front door is, I plan to stay glued to the welcome mat until we erase this tiny hill of weirdness.
I knock on her door, not aggressively, but with an intensity that rings through the wood. If Dani views me as a six-foot-one piece of ass who can’t keep it in his pants, not only will Sawyer have a leg up, but this powerful feeling rattling my heart might eat me alive.
I sense this is something bigger than me, but I don’t understand it.
I don’t know what follows this.
Ten seconds pass. No answer. I knock again, louder. Despite all my positive self-talk on the way over, there is a chance of being told to fuck right off.
If she’s home, that is.
I took a long cold shower, napped, and scarfed down a microwaved burrito before I summoned the courage for this mission impossible. Is Dani out on the town? Raging with the seniors? Restless thoughts ricochet in my brain as I stare at the lake, inhaling and trying to let nature calm me. The still green water feels trapped, confined by the dusty hills. On Corfu, the turquoise sea stretches forever, a never-ending horizon.
“Hi.”
I spin around to find Dani hovering in the doorway, a purple robe wrapped tight around her. Domestic goddess. And the current threat to my emotional well being.
“Hey there.” I smile even as I feel my throat go a little tight.
A moment of silence passes. Dani angles her head, waiting for me to go on.I can sense the smile slipping from my face, but an emotion lurks in her expression, enough to make me brave the nerves.
“You know, today ended a bit weird, and I’m not great with weird, so I thought maybe I could cash in the rain check? To watch the sunset together,” I clarify because it’s apparent she has no clue what I’m talking about. “It doesn’t have to be anything other than two people watching the sunset,” I’m quick to add before she shuts me down.
She raises her eyebrows ever so slightly. I had no clue how she’d react when she saw me, and I half-expected her eyes to glare holes into me. But those light gray wonders skim over me with interest and make my body come alive.
“I’m still trying to recover from today,” she admits, hands suddenly fidgety, twining and untwining.
“You and me both.”
Dani studies me for a beat. We both know none of today had to do with me. But her actions were not small and meaningless. Am I here to hold her feet to the fire or grill her about motives? No. Do I want to understand what was behind that fine coat of hurt in her eyes as she broke me? Yes, but that can wait.
All I want is to smash the bullshit simmering between us from earlier.
The longer Dani says nothing, the more I feel the moment slipping away. So, I tell myself not to be too excited with her crinkle of a smile.
“Give me a minute,” she says. “I’ll throw on my bikini and grab some towels. It’s still a goddamn furnace in here.”
“One hundred and ten stairs.” Dani directs my attention to the clearing at the cliff’s edge. “Trust me when I say you'll feel them on the way back up.”
What I feel is a sharp jab of arousal in my chest. Holy smokes. Her crochet cover-up covers very little. The deep plunge of her red bikini top reveals an overflowing amount of touchable flesh.
“Let me carry that.” I reach for her canvas bag stuffed with two beach towels. It weighs nothing, but I would carry her down to the lake if it meant my fertilization of Yvette’s prized Chardonnay terroir becomes a distant memory.
“There’s a raft we can swim to if you want,” she says.
“Perfect. I could use a cooldown.”
Dani takes the lead down slatted stairs that are so camouflaged that they seem to sprout naturally from the sand-colored landscape. As we descend, the town comes into view, glowing softly with lights, while the lake stretches out vast and glittering, tranquil before dusk settles.But another view has me equally captivated: her ass cheeks jiggling in the high-cut bottoms of her bikini, bouncing along in silent rhythm with the smacking sound of our flip-flops.
Dear lord. That is a fine rear view.
