Page 81 of Badd Love
I clutched her close again. "Yes, Rune. I'm okay. More okay than I've ever been. I just…I guess now I just have to hope I can salvage things with Dane." I blinked hard. "Is it…is it salvageable?”
She looked over my shoulder, a grin spreading across her face. "You tell me."
Dane was there in the crowd, staring at me. The crowd seemed to swirl around him, leaving space around him as he stood beneath a light as if spotlit. Hands in his trouser pockets, debonair in his tailed tux.
"DANE! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" Duncan was yelling, rushing for his brother. "Since when are you Josh fucking Groban?"
The tableau broke as his family surrounded him, and I faded into the background, knowing they and he needed this first.
I watched as his brother and sisters hugged him, and his mom gave him a single rose, and his dad clapped him on the back gruffly, muttering something while looking emotional. Aunt, uncles, cousins, they all swarmed him.
It was a massive crowd, his family, taking up the majority of the lobby outside the auditorium—and they drew a lot of looks, being a massive clan of tall, hot, loud Alaskans. They just…stood out.
I leaned back against a window, watching, and the joy on Dane's face as he joked and laughed with his family was enough to make me emotional. Albeit I was always emotional, these days. I'd spent so long hiding it all beneath vulgarity, cursing, and inappropriate humor that I was having to adjust to letting myself feel other stuff. It was hard, but good.
After a good thirty minutes, the Badd Clan finally filtered out—for Dane's parents' house, I heard, which was apparently the go-to spot for family gatherings.
The lobby was empty by then, except for a few stragglers, a janitor, and a tiny girl hauling a giant cello case around.
And Dane.
I stayed where I was; he came to me.
Stopped a few feet away, expressionless—carefully so. "Lindsey."
I pushed away from the window and moved a few inches closer, expecting him to back away. He didn't, but he did visibly tense at my proximity. "Dane. I…” I halted, swallowing hard. "You have an incredible voice. I had no idea."
He laughed. “You and me both. Came as a shock to me too."
This got a laugh out of me. "So then…how'd you end up in a choir, if you didn't know you could sing?"
A shrug. "Needed an elective credit, and this fit my schedule. Turns out I love choir." He licked his lips, cast his gaze down. "You're here."
"I am."
He shifted his weight restlessly. "For how long?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. I gave up my place in LA, and everything I own is in my car back at your family's bar."
"So...you're staying?" I still couldn't decipher what he was thinking or feeling.
I gulped, hands shaking. "That was the idea."
"Where are you staying?" he asked.
"With Rune in the spare room. Until I find my own place, at least." A long, tense, awkward silence ensued. "Say something, Dane," I whispered.
"Why'd you come?" It came out hoarse.
"I had to get away from LA. There was nothing and no one there for me. Rune's parents are in Europe for the foreseeable future, researching her mom's new book. Rune is here. Raquel is in Seattle." I saw his face shift. "I…I was also hoping there was still…um…another reason for me to be here."
"Lindsey, I…" he looked away. "We have a lot to talk about."
I nodded. "We do. I have a lot to say." I dropped my eyes. "What you said before you left my place."
"Yeah?" It was a ragged whisper.
"Do you…do you still feel that way?" My eyes burned, and tears fell despite my best efforts to stop them, and I couldn'tbreathe. Couldn't see for the haze of sudden salt burning my eyes.
