Page 72 of The Secret
“Thank you for coming here—you’ve no idea how much I needed it.” He closes his eyes.
I shift into him, and his arms come around me. He isn’t bitter and twisted yet, but I can see how losing all his opportunities and doing something he doesn’t want to do has ground him down, leaching his confidence and slowly destroying him. I ache with the desire to give him his life back.
“Come on,” he mumbles into my hair before pulling away. He puts the car into drive again and moves forward. I squeeze his thigh, and he clamps his hand over mine, keeping me there.
As we pull farther up the driveway, the house and the buildings beyond come into view. It’s pretty, but I can see that the white walls are peeling, the window frames practically devoid of paint. Everything is dusty, and what was clearly once a lawn opposite the house sits bare and parched. The outbuildings past the house aren’t in much better shape.
“We’ve had no time to do anything other than work on the farm and collapse back into bed each night,” he says, with a grimace, looking at the house through the dust-covered windscreen. “It’s not going to be luxurious I’m afraid. We might not have hot water.”
“Such a comedown from what I’m used to,” I murmur, and he grins. “I remember you and that nice cold shower …” I start with a smile as we pull to a halt.
His eyes fix on my lips, and he leans toward me, just as the door of the house bursts open.
“Danny! Danny!”
Her feet scuff the gravel as she races toward the car, and Dan gives me a rueful smile before swinging the door open. How like “Daddy” her words sound almost stops my heart. Why haven’t I thought about this part of the visit more? Everything that happened at the supplier meeting has faded to a distant haze in the relief of finding him. The woman I saw there with Benny is standing smiling in the doorway.
“How are you doing, poppet?” He bends down, and she wraps her arms around his neck as he scoops her up. “Come meet a friend of mine.” He walks to my side of the car with her as I open my door and jump out. She buries her face in his collar.
“This is Liss,” Dan whispers into her ear, nodding in my direction.
She still doesn’t raise her head, and I smile at Dan. He looks so happy with her, and I revise my earlier opinion of him having nothing to pull him through: Perhaps he had Benny and his family.
“You’re not going shy on me now, are you?” he says, his smile widening, and her little head pops up with a ferocious scowl. She swivels around to examine me, giving me a proper look at her face. She’s the spitting image of Dan, and it makes my heart bump in my chest.
I grin at her. “Hi, Benny,” I say.
“Hello,” she mumbles, not meeting my eyes, leg swinging against Dan’s thighs. “We made cupcakes!” she exclaims out of the blue and starts to wriggle, landing on the dust and grabbing Dan’s hand. She glances shyly at me before pulling him toward the house.
* * *
After some hot tea and cupcakes that we both compliment profusely, Dan decides he needs to ditch the suit and drags me upstairs to a light-filled bedroom.
“Is this the bedroom you grew up in?”
He smiles. “Yes, and you’re in here with me. Is that okay?”
I smile back at him. “More than okay.”
I look around in wonder at the old wardrobe and the bed with the crocheted blanket before wandering over to an old desk. There’s a dusty Airfix Land Rover, a pile of books and a photograph of two curly-haired boys and a fair-haired woman with her arms around them.
Dan comes to stand next to me. “My mom,” he says, and I step forward into him sliding my hands around his waist as I rest my head on his chest. This tiny view into his past after everything tightens my throat.
He groans and bends his head and I lift my face to his as he brushes his lips across mine, curling my fists into his shirt. I step backward, and he smiles against my mouth as we tumble down onto his bed and he trails his mouth down my neck, lighting my skin on fire.
“It’s so fucking good to see you, Liss.”
“Can we do this now?”
“Five minutes tops before Benny charges up here.”
“Better make it a good five minutes then,” I whisper.
Growling, he brings his hand up to cup my face as he kisses me, more demanding now, and I wrap my arms around his shoulders, trailing a hand down to squeeze his butt. It feels glorious, and as soon as I do this, he shifts over, notching himself between my legs. I widen them to let him press against me just where I want it.
“Liss, God, I …” he groans into my mouth.
“I know. I know,” I gulp, nodding as his forehead stills against mine.
