Dancing Hours (35 page)

“Yes, Ed’s got him outside.”

Sharon insisted on checking the hallway for me first and gave me the all clear. 
I walked out of the bathroom and David was in the hall where X had been.  We hugged and I took a deep breath. 

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.”
I said, although I wasn’t really sure about that.

“C’mon.  Let’s go finish our dinner.”

“Uh, okay.”

We sat back down and I was feeling a lot less fabulous than I had been before I left the table.  Ed’s place was empty and his food was getting cold.  I started digging around in my purse until I found the
robo
-phone.  I put it on the table.

“Nice phone.”  David observed.

“Yes, very nice.  Apparently he’s been using it to track me.” 

“You’re doing that thing with your mouth again.”

I rolled my eyes at him.  He smiled.

“
I’m glad to have a quiet moment to talk to you.  There’s something I’ve been trying to say and I just really don’t know how to tell you this so I’m just going to say it.  Jessica is not my daughter, she’s my niece.”
  He stopped like he was holding his breath and just stared at me.

“What?”

“She’s Noah’s daughter with Holly.  I’ve been taking care of her because Noah’s an idiot and I just found out, thanks to your grandmother, that he and my mom have been
keeping
Holly from
finding us
.”

“What?” My brain was not wrapping around this information.

“Can you not hear me?”

“No, I heard you.  I just do not understand what you’re saying.”

“I don’t know how to say it any way other than that.  I think Holly wants to take custody of her and I think my life is going to change a lot and very soon.  I’m sorry that I lied to you, but I didn’t think this was going to happen.”

“Is
now
the right time to talk about this?”
I stammered and didn’t know what to say, but Ed came back in saving me from the trouble of having to come up with something.

He returned to his seat and took a drink as though nothing special was going on.

“What happened?  Where is he?”

“He’s gone home now.  I had some of my security
guys
give him a lift, and my accountant and his accountant are going to meet up with them there.”

“Accountants?”

“Yes, accountants.
  Wright Enterprises supplies nearly every restaurant and bar in this town with linens, paper goods, liquor
… Y
ou name it
,
we make it run.  Through subsidiaries we also provide most of the cleaning services and other independent contracting.  That private plane that he took you on was a rental from my company.  We rent it out when it’s not being used for corporate travel to help cover expenses.  When you said he took you to Vega
s, I checked into it.
”

“He said it was his.”

“I’m sure he said a lot of things that weren’t true.”

“I feel so ashamed.”

“Don’t be.  We know everything we need to know about him and pretty soon he’s going to know it too.  I could break him financially with a minimum of effort.  That should be enough to convince him that you aren’t the love of his life, but if you’re still not sure, I have a lawyer who could initiate involuntary commitment proceedings tomorrow.”

I put my hands over my eyes again.  I didn’t want to ruin his
life,
I just wanted him to leave me alone.  “No, I don’t want to do that.”

David spoke up, “Yes you do.  That guy was going to hurt you Andy.” 

“He doesn’t even know me.  I’m sure the accountant can talk some sense into him and if it doesn’t seem like he gets it, you’ll let me know right?”  I asked Ed.

“Absolutely.
  Whatever we’ve got to do, we’ll make sure you don’t get hurt.”

“What if he does this to another girl?”

“We’ll be keeping a close eye on him and there might come a time when a call to the police while he’s in a compromising position will be necessary; but I think he just had a weak spot for you.”

David let out a low chuckle.  I glared at him.

Ed took the hint and excused himself.  He thanked us for an adventurous evening and told me that he’d fill Nan in on all the details tomorrow.  I cringed at the thought.  He pointed to the phone on the table and let me know that I should find it a watery grave, just to be on the safe side. 

David and I to
ok the car back to my apartment.  We were quiet the whole way.  I was processing the evening and trying to make sense of what he’d told me about Jessica.  He seemed to understand.  When we got there,
he walked me up
to the apartment
.  “Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to
come
stay at the hotel?” 
he
asked.

“Yes, I’m sure.  This is my home and in a couple of days you guys are going to be gone.  Besides, I’m sure
he
is still with Ed’s friends.”

“I could… I could stay here and sleep on the couch.”
He said sheepishly.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why?”

“You lied to me too, David.  You didn’t trust me to keep it to myself or you didn’t think I deserved to know.  I thought we were friends.”

“We were friends.  We are friends.  I didn’t do it to hurt you.  I did it to protect Jessica.  I don’t expect you to understand.”

“Why?
Because I’m just a kid?
  Isn’t that how you think of me?  I’m just a kid who couldn’t possibly understand the sacrifices that you would make for her?”

“I never thought of you as a kid, but you’re kind of acting like one right now.”

“And you are just so mature.”

“Hey, come on.  I’m not trying to start a fight here.”

“Whatever.  I need to go to bed and you need to go home.  Goodbye David.”  I walked in and closed the door.  I turned to watch through the peephole and saw him standing there, hands in his pockets.  He hung his head and turned to walk away.  I felt terrible, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. 
He had no right to lie to me.  He wasn’t a father.  He
had taken over the role so that a little girl would have some stability in her life.  He was the worst kind of liar.  He lied for a good reason.  And he didn’t tell me for a good reason.
    I flopped down on the couch and thought back to the first time I met him. 
He must have been exhausted by the façade.  Instant parenthood and he couldn’t even tell anyone because he was protecting her.  And it occurred to me that maybe he didn’t tell me because he wanted to protect me too.  Would I have stayed home if I’d fallen in love with him?  He always kept a safe distance with me, but I so loved to be around him.  I hadn’t had that first rush of excitement that I felt when I saw Noah for the first time, but as I’d gotten to know Noah he had grown far
more ugly
to me.  David was really kind of amazing.   And I had just been awful to him. 
I wonder if he will forgive me.  I wonder if he’s made it downstairs yet.  The elevator is kind of
slow,
maybe I could catch him if I take the stairs…
I walked out the door and saw David sitting on the floor at the end of the hall.  I smiled.

“I’m sorry.”

He smiled
back
.  “I’m sorry too.”

“What are you doing out here?”

“I wasn’t going to leave you alone tonight.”

“And you were going to sit in the hall all night long?”

“Well, I might have had to try to find a soda machine at some point, but yes.”

I reached out a hand and helped him up.  Before he reached his full height, I wanted to kiss him but felt suddenly unsure how he would respond.
  After he was up I let go of his hand, but he grabbed mine with his other hand and we walked that way back to my apartment. 
It felt electric to me and I wondered if it did for him too.

Aside from the whole incident with X, it had actually been a really nice evening.
  I closed the door behind us and
meant to ask him if he wanted some coffee, but what came out was something completely different “I’m not a kid.”

“I know you aren’t.”

He leaned down and kissed me gently on the lips, testing the waters.  I was still angry at him for lying to me, but I couldn’t help myself. 
That kiss was incomparable.  I’d dated guys during the last several years, of course, and kissed more than a few.  I couldn’t honestly say I didn’t like it with any of them, because I did.  But most of my other kisses
had felt like a gateway – what a guy had to do to get to the next level of the game.  David’s kiss was different.  It was tentative and hopeful and over too quickly.

He leaned back and looked at me and I realized that I had wrapped my arms around him involuntarily.  With the kiss over, I felt a million thoughts begin to swirl in my head.  Somehow I managed to finally ask
David if he wanted some coffee.

“Does it mean you’d have to let go?”

I looked down pondering the possibilities of making coffee with only one hand.  “Yes, otherwise things could get kind of messy.”

“Then I don’t want any coffee.”

“Okay, would you like to sit?” I motioned toward the couch.

He reached for my hand and we walked to the couch together, sitting down without any room between us. 
He moved his hand to lace his fingers between mine and
put his other arm around me.  T
here was silence for several moments.  I had no idea what to say, but I felt like every molecule in my body was buzzing to kiss him again.  I knew better than to ask him what he was thinking.  Men hated to talk about what they are thinking.   But it looked like he was doing a lot of
it
.

“That was nice, the restaurant.”  I started hesitantly.

“Oh, yeah, it was.  Good choice.” He agreed.  We were looking at each other and I felt uncomfortable – not because I didn’t know David very well or that we had nothing to talk about, but because I would have much rather been doing what we had done earlier.

“I know you’re upset with me.”  He started again.  “You’ve become my best friend and, in spite of that, I really didn’t think I could tell you and I’m sorry.  I know that you could have kept the secret, but it didn’t feel like mine to tell.
  I think things could have been different.”