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Chapter Forty-Two
Okay, Now Dan is Really Feeling Things
Dan
When I peered out my window for the fiftieth time and finally saw Rafe’s car in his driveway, my pulse leaped and a huge grin stretched my mouth.
I’d already showered and eaten some dinner, so I was ready to head over immediately. Honestly, I’d just been sitting around waiting for him to get home so I could see him. I’d called my momma to pass the time and see how my parents were doing, but he’d been gone a fair bit longer than I’d expected, so after the call I’d ended up wandering aimlessly through my house like a lost puppy.
I turned off all the lights before grabbing my keys and leaving. I was hoping he’d let me stay over again tonight. He’d given me a spare toothbrush to use this morning, and that was all I needed.
It was strangely nice to have something as simple as a toothbrush of my own at his place. Something weird had happened to my chest when I’d placed it in the cup beside his earlier.
I strode quickly from my house to his, hoping Mrs. Tupper across the street wasn’t peering out her windows. I’d politely declined when she’d knocked on my door the other day and asked me again about dinner with her granddaughter, but I didn’t think that would stop her.
My lip curled at the thought of it. I didn’t want to date her granddaughter. Besides, Rafe and I had agreed not to sleep with other people. Even if we hadn’t, the idea of doing it—with anyone else, not just Mrs. Tupper’s granddaughter—made me feel a little ill.
Which was not something I’d experienced before.
After bounding up the steps of Rafe’s front porch, I knocked on the front door. I was already smiling at the thought of spending the evening with him. Maybe we could watch a movie or something before we went to bed. Or he probably hadn’t eaten dinner yet—I could cook for him. I was a shit cook, but I could slap something half-decent together. It was the thought that counted, right?
My grin widened when I heard footsteps approaching on the other side of the door, my belly jumping with anticipation of seeing him, even though it’d only been a few hours since I last had.
Then my whole body locked up when he opened the door and I saw his face.
He was hurt.
There was a bruise starting to bloom in the corner of his right eye, and he was holding a bloody tissue under his nose.
“What happened?” My voice was hoarse with a unique kind of panic, one I’d never felt before, as it tightened my chest. “Are you okay?”
He nodded, sounding stuffy when he said, “I’m fine.”
“What happened?” I urged again, striding into the house and carefully cupping his face. When he pulled the bloody tissue away and I saw dried blood under his nose, crusting around his medusa piercing, I swallowed thickly past the sudden lump in my throat.
He huffed with wry amusement. “Weirdly, not much.”
“What do you mean?” I asked quickly, my brows pulling low into a heavy frown. I smoothed my thumb over his jaw, not wanting to touch him anywhere that might hurt.
He rolled his eyes then winced. “I mean, I guess technically I got mugged, but it was—”
“What?” This time, my voice came out in almost a growl. My whole body tensed up as fury like I’d never felt before made my blood boil in my veins.
Someone had mugged Rafe. And hurt him.
For the first time in my life, I felt truly capable of committing murder.
“It’s fine. I’m fine,” he said again, looking a little surprised because I was almost vibrating with anger at this point, my face tight with it. “It was Frank and Beans.”
My eyes snapped to his in shock. Then I started to get even fucking angrier. “What?” I growled again in a seething voice.
He huffed. “They did a piss-poor job, so nothing even really happened.”
“Then how the fuck do you have a black eye and a bloody nose?” I gritted out through clenched teeth.
“Beans launched himself at me off a dumpster and clipped me in the face with his elbow.” He shrugged a little. “I don’t even think he actually meant to hurt me. I mean, I have no idea what he was doing, but—”
“I’m going to fucking kill them.”
