“You’ll be fine,” Danny said, cutting her off once again, but this time adding a swift kiss that left her stunned. “Remember to stay low.”
And with that, he was gone and Jodi was left kneeling on the ground behind a wooden barrier, in the middle of the woods, about to be chased down by a bunch of psychotic men sporting blue armbands.
Nibbling on her bottom lip, Jodi looked wistfully over her shoulder at the entrance. She could wait for him by the gates, she decided, already getting to her feet when someone yelled, “Incoming,” and her world suddenly turned blue.
“You’re banned!” the manager yelled, taking him by surprise, not because he’d never heard those words screamed before, he was a Bradford after all, but because of who the manager of the paintball facility was screaming at.
“Are you kidding me?” his little Tinkerbelle demanded, wiggling wildly over his shoulder to get free. “You’re seriously going to ban me because a few wimps complained?”
“You made over twenty men cry!” the manager shouted, gesturing wildly towards the group of men standing by the first-aid station, bitching and whining about their injuries and the fact that his little Tinkerbelle had ignored their surrender and kept shooting.
Damn, he was proud.
“If they couldn’t handle it, then they shouldn’t have walked through those gates!” his little warrior shouted, making him smile and the manager’s jaw drop in astonishment.
“Get out!” the manager yelled once he’d managed to get over his shock.
Danny considered arguing with the manager, but he knew that look well enough to know that the man was less than thirty seconds from running for his life and calling the cops. Since he didn’t feel like wasting part of his date dealing with the authorities, he tightened his arms around Tinkerbelle’s legs and walked away, grinning hugely when his little warrior started insulting all the men jumping out of their way.
“Are you actually pouting?”
“No,” Jodi mumbled, folding her arms over her chest as she glared ahead. She wasn’t pouting. She was justifiably pissed.
“The ban isn’t going on your permanent record, so I wouldn’t worry about it,” Danny explained as he took a turn on Parker Street.
“I’m not worried about it,” she mumbled, glaring straight ahead.
“Then why are you upset?” Danny asked, sounding amused.
“Because I should have won,” Jodi grumbled, contemplating going back there just to prove it.
“You did,” Danny said smoothly, obviously trying to appease her bloodthirsty needs.
“Then why did they end the hunt?” Jodi demanded, looking over to find him grinning hugely. “This isn’t funny!”
“No, no, of course, it’s not,” Danny said, biting back a smile, but she didn’t miss how his damn lips twitched with amusement.
“Where are we going?” Jodi asked, changing the subject before she did something stupid like pout.
“I thought we’d grab lunch before the movie,” Danny said, pulling into the parking lot of a fifties-era diner.
“We’re seeing a movie?” she asked, suddenly perking up, not only because it had been a while since she’d been to the movies, or could afford to, but because she’d thought after her…ummm, little meltdown, that he’d want to end things early. Most guys that she’d gone out with would have ditched her by now. Even Greg would have dropped her off at her house, shaken his head in disbelief and walked off.
“Your choice,” Danny said, shooting her that grin that did funny things to her along with a wink.
“That sounds nice,” Jodi said, trying to bite back a smile, failing and not really caring all that much for one simple reason.
She was on a date, a real date. Not that she’d never gone out with a man before, obviously she had, but she’d never been treated like a real date before. Danny wasn’t treating her with indifference, constantly checking the time, or even checking out the really beautiful woman walking in front of the truck. Instead, all of his attention was on her and it was nice.
Before she could open her door, he was there, opening it for her and helping her out of the truck. He took her hand into his and together, they walked towards the diner that was giving off the most delicious aroma. She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was until that moment, which of course, made sense since she’d spent the last three hours building an appetite by hunting down a bunch of crybabies in the woods.
“Welcome to Henry’s. How can I…” the hostess started to say with a big smile as they walked through the door, only to let her words trail off with a frown when her gaze landed on Danny.
“We’d like a table for two,” Danny said, seemingly oblivious of the waitress’s weird greeting.
“Umm,” the waitress mumbled, licking her lips nervously as she stepped away from her station, “I-I’ll go see if we have any tables available.”
“It smells good in here,” Danny said, drawing her attention back up to him.
