It didn’t, but it did make his decision to follow through with his new game plan easier. There was a real possibility that she would never speak to him again after this, but…
What the hell? It would be worth it. She’d be his forever and she would know for the rest of her life that a man loved her, truly loved her and wanted her, then that was a risk that he was willing to take.
“I understand,” Danny murmured absently as he reached down and took her hand in his, running several possibilities through his head.
“Danny?”
“I need to make a call,” Danny said, grabbing his phone off the bureau as he made his way towards the door. “I’m going to be a while.”
“That’s okay,” Jodi said around a yawn as she laid back down on the bed and snuggled back beneath the covers, more than happy to have an excuse to get in a few more minutes of sleep before she was forced to face a long day ahead.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Danny promised just as she started to drift off.
Nine hours later…
“Baby pink or baby blue,” Jodi contemplated out loud to the empty hotel room as she tried to decide between the two small bottles of insanely expensive nail polish that she’d bought from the hotel store.
Sighing, she shot another glance at the alarm clock bolted to the nightstand and once again couldn’t help but wonder what kind of phone call took nine hours. When she woke up to discover that she’d managed to sleep for three whole hours, she’d been admittedly surprised. When she’d managed to get in a shower and get dressed, she’d become a little concerned and now, she was becoming pissed for a good reason.
Because apparently, Danny had ditched her ass again this morning so that he could go out without her. Not that she would begrudge him some time alone with his family if that’s what he wanted. She would absolutely understand if he wanted to spend time alone with his family. In fact, she’d encouraged him to spend some time alone with his family more than once.
But he wasn’t doing that.
Apparently, last night she’d bruised his ego, but instead of admitting that, he’d given her some piss poor excuse that he had something to do and left her stranded with his family at the reptile farm. She’d been pissed, but she’d been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, figuring that he needed some time to himself. When he wasn’t at the hotel when they got back, answered her calls, returned her texts, or even returned to the hotel until after two in the morning, exhausted and distracted, she’d decided that perhaps they should have a talk in the morning. He’d apparently decided that wasn’t necessary.
Now as she sat there on the bed in the room that she’d decided to rent after she’d found out from Darrin, who’d been buying Advil, icepacks, and an insane amount of snacks from the hotel store where she’d run into him two hours ago, that Danny had ditched the family to go out on his own, she was counting down the hours until she had to leave for the airport in the morning.
It was over.
Of course, Danny probably didn’t know that she’d dumped his lying ass yet. But that was okay because he’d know soon enough. She’d left him a note in his room along with an IOU note promising to pay him back for the airline ticket as well as one for his father for the credit card he’d taken upon himself to pay off. She’d also called Zoe and informed her that she was moving out effective immediately. When Trevor grabbed the phone away from his wife and tried to argue with her, she’d informed him that she was more than happy to pay whatever it took to break her lease.
When he asked why she needed to break her lease and she informed him that his cousin was a lying bastard whose ego couldn’t handle it when a woman refused to marry him, he’d sighed heavily and wished her luck. Once that was done, she’d made a phone call that she’d been putting off for quite some time.
Her father had been understanding, more than understanding actually and had even offered to come down to Florida to get her and bring her home. She promised him that she was fine right now, but she needed a place to crash while she paid Dr. Bradford back and got her life back together. She’d also called Greg and asked him if he could get a couple of the guys together and move her stuff to her dad’s house.
After promising to kick Danny’s ass and then promptly ignoring her when she’d told him that she didn’t want his ass kicked, he asked her the one thing that almost broke her. He’d asked her if she was in love with Danny and she’d lied since the last thing that she needed was Greg worrying about her. He’d seen enough of her humiliation over the past year and he didn’t need to see anymore.
As much as she loved Danny, she couldn’t go through this again, not after the last time that her life had been destroyed because of a lie.
Chapter 40
“Danny-”
“I’m busy,” he said, not bothering to look up from his phone as he headed towards his room.
“I need to tell you something,” Darrin said, quickening his pace to catch up with him.
“Tell me later,” Danny said, pulling out his keycard.
“But-”
“Later,” he said, opening his door and stepping inside only to come to a halt when he spotted his father sitting on the edge of the bed.
“She’s left the hotel,” Darrin said, unnecessarily it would seem since the note Tinkerbelle left for him on the mirror said it all.
“When?” Danny asked, trying not to panic.
“A little after ten this morning,” his father said, standing up.
