Then Dane was behind her, turning her around to face him. His warm hands held her face as he lowered his mouth to hers, feeding her lovely, slow, hot kisses. Her mind stopped whirling, and she held his wrists, thinking that kissing Dane was her favorite thing to do.
She’d play it day by day, moment by moment, if necessary.
ChapterFourteen
Two weeks later, on Wednesday night, Dane crossed Main Street and entered Blackweather Green, heading to where the temporary, but still impressive, stage had been erected earlier in the week, to the left of the bandstand. Friday night was Lammas Eve, and the culmination of the Summerween festival.
Things were getting real in H-Town.
Deciding that he and Wren both needed coffee, Dane left Wren sitting on the stands in front of the stage and picked up two cups full of caffeine-y goodness from Spirited Grounds—temporarily open until late to take advantage of the hordes of tourists in town—to get them through watching the kids run through their routine. This was their dress rehearsal, and they needed to get it right. Surprisingly, of all of them, Wren was the least stressed. Or maybe she was just better at hiding her nerves.
After waiting in a too-long queue, Dane returned with two iced coffees. As he crossed Main Street, his phone buzzed with an incoming message. He stopped beside an empty bench, set the coffees down on a wooden slat, and pulled his phone from his back pocket. An email from the General. And a text fromhis boss at Humanatus.
He always read bad news first, so he opened his father’s message.
I had someone ask about you the other day, and I was embarrassed to tell them that you are still on vacation. You continue to disappoint me. WHEN ARE YOU GOING BACK TO WORK?
Dane closed his eyes and exhaled, his stomach clenching. He’d been feeling a lot better lately, and it was ridiculous that a few words on a screen could still affect him. He was grown and independent. Educated and successful. His life was his own and out of his father’s control. And yet an old, familiar weight crushed the air from his lungs. He’d fallen short, yet again, of his father’s expectations. He’d been measured and, as always, found wanting.
His entire childhood consisted of his father moving the goalposts whenever he came close to scoring. Every achievement just set the standard for the next hurdle. Praise, affection, attention—they’d been as ethereal as a belt of morning mist on the surface of the lake in summer. There one minute, gone the next. He fully understood why safety felt foreign to him, and why he couldn’t find it in people or relationships.
But Wren made him feel … accepted. Secure. Settled. Likehe didn’t have to try too hard. Yet, ironically, feeling like that unsettled him more than any disaster zone ever had.
Not wanting to go deeper down that rabbit hole, he pivoted to the message he’d received from his boss.
Dane, I need to fill the position in Ukraine as soon as possible. Are you interested? Otherwise, there’s a temporary position open in LA for a trauma physician, another in Hong Kong. What’s your preference so that I can get the ball rolling?
Fuck… He didn’t know and couldn’t answer. He started to type a response, saying that he still wasn’t ready, but hit the backspace and killed his draft. The truth was, he didn’t feel as restless, like he had live electrical wires buzzing under his skin. The nightmares were mostly gone, and he was sleeping so much better with Wren next to him. His anxiety had eased. The world felt … quieter.
And that had everything to do with Wren.
Leaving H-Town meant leaving her. And he wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. But this wasn’t just abouthimleaving. Wren had her own plans and future to pursue. He wasn’t the only person driving this on-fire and out-of-control bus.
It wasn’t just the sex—though what they did to, and for, each other in bed was, yeah, mind-blowing. But it was the ordinary moments that kept ambushing him. Movies on the couch. Easy dinners that turned into hours of conversation. Sitting on the steel jetty with a bottle of wine between them, the dark lake stretching out in front of them, content to be quiet. Watching her dance. Waking up with her, seeing her tangled in his sheets while he laced up his running shoes. Laughing at the ridiculous memes they sent each other when they were apart.
He simply enjoyed her. Her mind. Her laugh. The way she saw the world.
But H-Town wasn’t real life. Soon—next week, if Wren took her London offer, maybe the week after—this would end. They would say goodbye and would go back to the lives they knew. Maybe they’d try to stay in touch. Maybe they’d meet again somewhere. But he couldn’t see how this would work when they both ran around the world.
And there was still her ex-whatever, Alex. Still unresolved. Still there, whether she spoke about him or not.
Because, for all Dane knew, he could simply be a distraction for Wren—a great H-Town option. But thoughts and attitudes changed when you exited holiday-mode. He might be a temporary refuge before she returned to the man who knew her history, shared the world of dance, and offered her the stability she’d always craved. As Wren had said, Alex understood her.
Dane quickly typed a message back to his boss, saying he’d think about future projects and would let him know. Putting his phone away, he sipped his coffee and stared at the lake glittering in the summer moonlight. He had worked through aftershocks and chaos, operated while people bled out, tuned out grief and panic and loss, the screams of the injured and the dying. He had always thought himself brave. Yet, he was struggling with their dynamic.
He ached to know how she felt about him.Andhow she felt about her ex. But he couldn’t ask about the future, about where this was going. Couldn’t ask what would happen when either of them left. Couldn’t ask if she would see Alex again, if she would try to rebuild what they’d had.
Because a) he didn’t know how they could be together and what was the point? And b) he didn’t know if he’d like her answer.
The coffee churned in his stomach, sharp and bitter, and for the first time in a long while, Dane felt something dangerously close to fear.
His introspection was interrupted by someone calling his name. When he looked around, he saw the bulky man who’d joined him for early-morning exercises. “Hey, Dane, when are you going to start working out here again?”
Dude… given a choice between lying in bed with Wren and doing strength training in the park, he opted to spend his time with Wren.
“Uh, not sure, man”—he kept it vague—“life’s kinda got in the way.” He gave the guy an apologetic smile and picked up both coffees.
Walking on, Dane approached the grandstand where Wren sat watching the kids run through their routine on the stage. Even he, as dismal a dancer as he was, could see they were definitely better and a lot more confident than they’d been a month, even a week, ago.
