Danny had a feeling the City Council wasn’t going to agree to that, especially since the doors were probably the original doors, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he grabbed hold of one of the door handles and tried not to cringe when the door slowly swung open on rusty latches, emitting a high-pitched noise that was barely noticeable over the sounds of children screaming.
“What the hell…” Trevor mumbled at his side as they tried to make sense of what they were seeing.
The large front room where he remembered Mrs. Pattinson, the old librarian who used to smell like butterscotch and dusty books, used to read to them was filled with screaming children covered with what appeared to be glue and glitter. Frowning, he watched as the horde of screaming children clambered to get to the desk where-
“Oh, shit,” Trevor muttered just loud enough for him to hear when they both spotted Matthew, Trevor’s youngest son, sitting on the checkout desk with several large bottles of paste on one side and a pile of brown paper bags and baggies filled with cookies, brownies, and cupcakes on the other.
While the rest of the kids were flipping out, fighting over small canisters of glitter, Matthew sat there, calmly eating what appeared to be a rather delicious-looking sandwich. Danny’s attention shifted to a closed door where he could just barely make out the pounding and the sounds of women demanding that someone open the door. When Matthew spotted them standing there, he took another bite of his sandwich and gestured absently over his shoulder.
Almost too afraid to look but unable to help himself, Danny looked past his cousin’s frightening child and nearly swallowed his tongue when he spotted that delectable ass that he’d been fantasizing about for the past two nights wiggling enticingly. This was definitely a pleasant surprise finding her here. He may have groaned. He definitely licked his lips as he watched Tink try to escape the clutches of two seven-year-old girls by climbing on top of a cabinet. Unfortunately for her, she was too short to pull it off, and fortunately for him, he now had his game plan solidly in place.
Grinning hugely and ignoring his cousin’s impending nervous breakdown, Danny sauntered over to the front desk to put his game plan into action.
Chapter 11
“Oh, damn,” Jodi muttered, trying to find purchase on the old metal cabinet, but there wasn’t any to be found.
“Alien!” one of the girls currently trying to pull her down so that they could douse her with more paste and glitter, screamed somewhat hysterically.
“Girls,” Jodi said, licking her lips nervously as she tried to pull herself up, but the small hands clasped around her ankles and the fact that she lacked any real upper-body strength prevented her from doing that. “Matthew was only kidding,” she said, forcing a smile and trying to sound as nonthreatening as possible.
“We need more glitter!” she heard one of them yell as little fingernails dug into her skin, trying to yank her back down so that they could dump more paste and glitter on her in an attempt to destroy her powers, the powers that Matthew claimed she had.
Man, when she got out of this, she was going to-
Scream her head off as two large hands cupped her bottom and pushed her up, giving her no choice but to scramble into a sitting position on top of the metal cabinet. As soon as her butt hit the top of the cabinet, she pulled her legs up, a tad bit concerned that the little monsters hellbent on destroying her would manage to grab hold of her legs and pull her back down. She pulled her knees up to her chest, scooted back until her back hit the wall, and-
Frowned as she looked down at the face of the obscenely handsome man, who, up until two days ago, she’d considered risking becoming Big Bertha’s bitch in order to wipe the smug smile that he was currently flashing her off his face and couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing here.
“So, here’s what I’m thinking,” Danny lazily began, that smug smile of his becoming increasingly sexier with every syllable that left his mouth and distracting her a bit from what he was saying, “I’ll pick you up at seven. We’ll grab a bite to eat and then catch a movie afterward.”
She blinked, sure that she’d misheard him. He couldn’t have possibly just asked her out on a date.
“Umm, I’m sorry, what?” Jodi asked, shifting so that she could glance down and immediately regretting it when she saw how high off the floor she was. She moved back until her back was once again touching the wall.
That killer smile of his became knowing as he said, “I’d like to take you out tonight.”
“I see,” Jodi said, simply to say something while her mind processed what he’d said and when it did, she said, “Oh, um, no thanks,” and moved to climb off the cabinet only to remember that she was afraid of heights and that there was currently an army of seven-year-olds waiting to attack her.
“Why not?” Danny asked, leaning back against her desk, looking unfazed by her rejection.
Instead of answering him, Jodi asked, “Do you think you could help me down?”
“No,” he said, his lips twitching with amusement as he studied her.
“No?” she repeated, swallowing back a curse when she risked another peek over the edge only to find a small group of angry-looking seven-year-olds glaring up at her, armed with paste and bowls of glitter. “Umm, why not?” Jodi asked, moving back a safe distance from the edge and those rather frightening children.
“Why won’t you go out with me?” Danny returned calmly.
Because she wasn’t looking for another friend, another guy to look at her like a kid sister, and she sure as hell didn’t want to go through the motions of a date only to get rejected at the end with a barely-there kiss on the cheek and a few complimentary words about how sweet she was. She especially didn’t want to go through that with him.
She knew that it was foolish, but after falling asleep in his arms the other night, she couldn’t stomach the idea of him looking down at her like she was the sweet baby sister that he’d never had and he would. There was just something about her, she didn’t know if it was her size, her looks, the way she smiled, or the way that she spoke, but something about her made men view her as nothing more than a little sister. She didn’t want Danny to see her like that, not when it meant that he’d start viewing the other night with horror.
He’d held her all night, caressed her stomach, constantly kissed her and had refused to let her go. If she went out with him, the illusion that a handsome man wanted her would be ruined. Within minutes of the date, he’d start looking at her funny and start to feel uncomfortable, but he wouldn’t know why until the end of the date when he walked her to the door and stared down into her eyes. Then, the realization would hit him and that would end any fantasy that an incredibly handsome man wanted her.
“I can see that I’m going to have to do this another way,” Danny murmured and before she could ask him what he was talking about, he was back in front of the cabinet and pulling her off.
“What are you doing? Let me go!” Jodi said a bit hysterically as he pulled her down into his arms, forcing her to wrap her arms around his neck in a desperate attempt to stay there, when small hands made a grab for her.
