Blind Dates Can Be Murder (27 page)

Danny realized that the blanket had fallen from his shoulders. He gathered it up and pulled it back on, wishing he was fully dressed for this part of the conversation. It was kind of hard to concentrate when he was soaking wet and half naked.

“What’s the second bit of news?” Jo asked eagerly. “You said you had two things.”

“Yes,” he replied, pulse surging. “I do.”

“Well?”

Danny took a deep breath and held it, realizing that the last six months had led up to this moment. Was he a man or a mouse? He was a man. It was time to tell the woman he loved how he felt about her.

“Okay, this one’s a little more complicated,” he said, trying to remember the words he had used in the car when he was alone. Somehow, it had seemed easier then, when he was just practicing it. “You remember when Tiffany said I had strong feelings for someone?”

Jo’s smile dimmed a bit, but she nodded.

“The truth is, Jo, I am in love with someone.”

He took another breath to say
that someone is you
, but before he could get the words out, Jo jumped to her feet angrily.

“I
knew
it!” she exclaimed. “You lied to me! You sat in my car not three hours ago and said Tiffany didn’t know what she was talking about. Now you’re telling me—”

“Jo!” Danny said, standing up also. “Jo.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “The person I’m in love with is
you.
”

That shut her up. She stood there, her eyes on his, confusion filling her face. She opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again.

“You…what?”

“I’m in love with you, Jo. I don’t just love you like a friend. I
love
you.”

She swallowed hard, her face as white as a sheet.

“I guess I’ve loved you for years,” he added, “but I only realized it last fall. Then, when I was going to tell you, you announced your moratorium on dating. I thought you needed time to figure out what you wanted. So I waited. But I don’t want to wait any more. I need for you to know.”

He wanted to kiss her then. He wanted her to say
I love you too!
and leap into his arms. Instead, she took a step backward, shaking her head.

“I have to think,” she said. “I…I…”

He stepped backward also, giving her plenty of room. This wasn’t exactly how he wanted this to go.

“So the hair, the clothes, all of that was for me?”

Suddenly, he felt pretty stupid.

“Diana’s idea,” he said sheepishly.

“Diana? She knows?”

Danny nodded.

“And Denise?”

He nodded again.

“Donna?”

“Yeah.”

“Tiffany?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Who else?”

“I think that’s about it,” Danny said. “Oh, I guess my mom. And your grandmother.”

“My
grandmother?
”

“I’m sorry, Jo. She dragged it out of me.”

“I left you alone for ten minutes! Do you know what a fool I feel like?”

“It wasn’t like that. We were talking.”

“It’s not just her. It’s all of them. So the whole world knows that Danny loves Jo? Everybody’s in on it except
Jo?
”

Danny tossed the blanket onto the bench and put his hands on his hips. From the corner of his eye, he could see Chewie crouching in wait for a squirrel.

“You’re in on it now,” he said. He didn’t understand her reaction. “So what do you have to say about it?”

She put her face in her hands and turned away. At first he was afraid she was crying, but then she turned back, her face still pale, her eyes dry.

“I have to think about this,” she said again, shaking her head.

Without another word, she took off walking.

“Just wait here,” she called over her shoulder.

He kicked at the ground, wondering where he had gone wrong. He paced for a moment, replaying the whole conversation in his mind. Finally, he sat on the bench, grabbed two deviled eggs, and shoved them into his mouth at once.

“You’re supposed to say you love me too,” he said to the air as he chewed.

Then he watched as Chewie leapt for the squirrel and missed, plunging back into the water.

Her thoughts swirling, Jo replayed the last six months in her mind and remembered all the times Danny could have told her but didn’t. Suddenly, like a giant puzzle, many pieces clicked into place.

His not dating
.

His weird reaction when she signed up for the dating service
.

His distrust of Brock Dentyne
.

His kiss at Peter Trumble’s house
. His kiss! No wonder he had kissed her with such passion.

Jo began jogging, wishing she could take back the last ten minutes, wishing she could stop him from ever telling her. Didn’t he understand that this changed everything?

Didn’t he understand that they could never go back to the way they were?

That was the question that kept running through her mind. She tried to pray, but her brain was too unfocused. Eventually, she stopped running, caught her breath, and turned back around. She went the way she had come, trying to frame her response for Danny.

Did
she love him?

She didn’t
not
love him.

She didn’t know!

When she finally reached the clearing, she realized that Chewie was once again soaking wet. Danny was in the water, just sitting, his hands splayed out behind him.

Jo walked to the edge of the pool and stood on a rock, looking down at him. He seemed so vulnerable there, so eager for something she wasn’t able to say—not yet, anyway. She closed her eyes and prayed for guidance.

“This changes everything,” she said. “You know that.”

He nodded.

“I thought it was worth the risk,” he replied.

She looked away, for some reason wishing she could cry.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Danny.”

“I understand,” he replied. “I’ve had six months to get used to the idea. You can’t expect to wrap your brain around it right away. All I ask is that you think about it. Think about what we have together. Think about what we could be to each other—what I think we already are to each other.”

She knelt down, poking in the soft dirt with a stick. She would think about it. She would.

“I can’t lose you,” she whispered.

He scooted forward, little waves bouncing away from his legs.

“You’re not going to lose me,” he said, shaking his head. “No matter what happens next. I’m still here.”

Her eyes met his.

“But it’s not the same,” she said. “And that scares me.”

“I understand.”

Jo dropped the stick and stood.

“Listen, Danny, I appreciate all you have said. And please don’t think that I’m rejecting you, but I honestly can’t answer you right now. Maybe we should go. I really think we need to get home.”

“Sure,” he replied. “But you’ll have to help me up.”

“Help you up? Why?”

“Because I think I broke my foot.”

15

T
he pain was incredible.

Danny was angry at his own stupidity, wondering why he thought he could go back into the water and rescue the dog without once again falling down. This time, his foot had slid on a rock and turned as he did so, making a loud cra-a-a-ck that reverberated through his bones.

They started back to the car, a full mile and a half of hopping, resting, and hopping again. Jo was so petite under Danny’s arm, but he had no choice but to put almost his full weight onto her. She was up to it, supporting him mightily as they went. More than once she suggested that she jog out, go get a wheelchair, and come back for him with it. He refused. For some reason, no matter how badly it hurt nor how slow the going, he refused to be wheeled out of there like a little old man.

With half a mile left to go and the sun dipping low behind the trees, a lone bicycler came past. Seeing their predicament, he offered Danny the bike. Near tears from the pain, Danny gratefully accepted. He sat and pushed himself along with his good foot, while Jo and Chewie walked on one side and the bicycler walked on the other, one hand on the frame to help keep the bike stable.

“I’m sorry to ruin your evening bike ride,” Danny told the man once the parking lot was in sight.

“I’m just glad I happened along when I did,” the man replied in a clipped British accent. “You would have been caught out there in the dark.”

The man helped Danny into the backseat, where he turned sideways, propping his throbbing foot up on the seat next to him. Chewie got the front, which seemed to confuse him completely. He kept trying to jump back on Danny and Danny kept pushing him away.

They thanked the cyclist profusely before heading out. Jo drove as quickly as she could, but it would still be nearly two hours on the road before they would be home. She offered to take Danny to a hospital there in the Poconos, but he said he’d rather wait for Mulberry Glen.

Conversation was nonexistent. He couldn’t understand her reaction, and he was in so much pain he wasn’t up to talking about it anyway. He could only hope that over the next days, as Jo warmed up to the idea, she would realize that she did, indeed, love him too.

The alternative was too scary to think about.

“Do you have your insurance card and all that?” she asked as they neared Mulberry Glen. “Or should we stop by the house before we go to the hospital?”

“No, I should be fine. Maybe we ought to call my mom, though. She would want to know.”

“Of course.”

“Can you do it?”

Danny hadn’t ever been in so much pain before. He didn’t want to be a baby, but it took all he could do not to gasp with every bump and turn.

“Sure.”

Jo pulled out her cell phone and punched in the numbers for Danny’s parents’ house.

“Mrs. Watkins, hi, this is Jo Tulip…I’m fine. Listen, Danny’s okay, but he wanted me to let you know he had a little accident.”

Of course, it sounded as though Danny’s mother was flipping out. Jo had to calm her down and assure her that it was just his foot, that it was probably broken, and that they were on the way to the emergency room.

“We’ll probably be there in ten or fifteen minutes,” Jo said. “Okay, see you there.”

Jo hung up and told Danny what his mother had said. He was glad they were coming as he didn’t want Jo to have to see him like this much longer. She could drop him at the door of the hospital and his family would take over.

When he said as much to her, though, she grew angry.

“See?” she said. “That’s the sort of thing that will change now. You never cared about anything like that when we were just friends. Now it’s as though you have to put on this front for me, this perfect I’m-Danny-Watkins-and-everything-is-cool thing.”

He exhaled slowly. He wasn’t in any condition to debate with her.

“You’ve got Chewie with you. You can’t just leave him out in the car. I could be in the ER for hours.”

“Fine,” she replied. “I’ll drop you and go. Should I slow down first or just throw you from the vehicle?”

“Sarcasm, Jo,” Danny said, leaning back, his eyes closed. “It doesn’t become you.”

They were both quiet until they reached the hospital. As she turned into the parking lot and followed the signs around to the emergency room, she spoke softly and evenly.

“Understand something, Danny,” she told him. “From this point on, either we have to start dating or I lose my best friend. There’s no middle ground here. You’ve spoken words you can’t take back.”

She pulled to a stop and simply sat there in the darkness with the engine running. He pulled on his shirt, trying not to gasp at how cold and damp it still was.

“That’s basically the idea, Jo. Do you think I would have told you how I felt if I couldn’t see the future—our entire future—clearly? I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Further, I feel certain that you are in love with me too. You just don’t know it yet.”