Girl Gets Her Man Ch. 11

"Joanne..." He got up and followed her. "I'm not gonna lie and say that I don't want you. I want you anywhere, at anytime of the day or night. You don't want to try me on that score, honey." He raised himself in the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. He was too tired to continue with peace keeping. She was going to listen if it took him all night. "But, I wanted you to know the truth first, so you knew what you were getting into. Did it ever occur to you that I wanted to talk to you all of those times because you should have heard the full story from me instead of your" 'Bitch of a friend' "...Jesse?"

"What are you doing," she faltered.

He knew he seemed intimidating, in that stance, but at least he had a captive audience. "I wanted to take you places. I still do, but I wake up at the crack of dawn and you don't. Honestly, I can't stay up much past 11."

"But, all of those nights..."

"I took a little nap before I went to see you, then went to sleep for another couple of hours after I made sure you were going home."

'You did?' Jo heard a sappy version of herself purr. She shook it off. 'Remember, this is what he did before. He was all sweetness until Jesse busted him out. There's still Candy.' "That's just stupid. I'd've picked the uninterrupted sleep."

"Well, you're not me, are you? I'm an idiot, and I let my heart run off with me. You. You're in control."

'Usually,' she sighed.

"You tired?"

"No, I'm fine," she squared up her shoulders.

"Good. This may take a bit, so..." He gestured at the chair nearest her.

He watched her look at the low wall that divided the kitchen from the living room. 'She's not gonna try to jump that, is she?' She sat down sideways in the chair and stared at the faucet on the kitchen sink so that she couldn't see his face as he sat down across from her. By her crossed arms and hunched demeanor, she was on her way to shutting down. He would have to be brief.

Daniel pulled in a big breath, focused on his fingers on the table, and started to finally tell the truth, "Candy cheated on me. That's why I broke things off. I didn't leave her at the alter. I hadn't gotten my tux or anything, yet." He watched Joanne's body turn slightly toward him out of the corner of his eye. "Candy and I ... We were good friends. I thought I loved her, and she loved me. I did stupid things, because she wanted me to. She wanted a threesome, so I did it. She liked bondage, so I did that, too. I can honestly say that there were some good things I learned from it. But, it didn't outweigh the fact that I didn't want to live like that. I wanted to be with just her. I told her the extra people weren't for me. She told me she was pregnant. I thought getting married was the natural progression from that. Three years ago, I asked Candace to marry me. She said yes, and things were great for about a month. Then, I saw her at a club talking to Jerry. His hands were where they shouldn't have been. I brushed it off. I figured, they knew each other a long time, and Jerry was like that. Then, there were calls that I couldn't answer. I figured it was a surprise for the wedding. She wouldn't come home, then blame it on work. Catching her in bed with the strippers was the last straw. I went back home that night. She called me a couple weeks later and told me she'd gotten an abortion." He looked up to see Jo leaning over the table and looking directly at him. Dan saw the pain that he once felt reflected in her eyes. "I went over to her house. We got into this fight over our baby. She didn't tell me it wasn't mine for another week. She let me hang with the thought of losing a child..." Dan shook off the anger. 'This isn't supposed to still hurt.' "...for an entire week."

Joanne watched him think. There'd been no sugar coating to a single word. His scowl intensified. "So, I went to visit my cousins in France for the summer. A summer turned into two years. When I got back to town, I didn't try to look for her. I had nothing left to say. She didn't look for me, so....I thought it was officially over. I decided to go back to school. It worked out pretty good. I didn't think about her. I didn't think much of women at all. It was like a part of me died."

He looked up, "Then, I saw you." 'And I came back to life.'

"Any questions," he quipped to defuse the heavy silence. He hated the sensation that washed over him. Joanne didn't deserve this. She just sat there with her lips pressed together. 'God, you're beautiful.' He tried to soften his face, but he felt it doing the opposite. He put his face in his hands and let out a big breath.

"Why didn't you just say something," made his ears prick up.

He glanced up at her through his hands, "What was I supposed to say? 'My ex is a whore, so you shouldn't worry about her showing up everywhere?' That would have made you worry, right?" He leaned back in to his hands. "I didn't want to say anything. I get embarrassed just thinking about it. It took me a long time to get over what she did. I didn't want it to be important, anymore. Not with you."

"Danny..." She couldn't come up with anything that would change the pain he showed her. 'He must have thought if he told me, I wouldn't want him. Stupid ass. No. No, that's cruel. I've been in knots for months because he was too stupid to... ' "Ow," he gripped the top of his head. '...tell me up front!' She'd tapped him with her knuckles a little too hard. It was supposed to be a light rap to get his attention. She put her hand on his scruffy face and let her fingers trace his earlobe.

"I'm not that special. You should have just said something, you idiot." 'I shouldn't be mad. He's free. He's really not with her, but I'm still mad. Why couldn't he just say it?' She got mad at herself, 'The same reason you just started a fight to avoid telling him.'

"I told you mine," he closed his eyes and took her hand from his face. "Ball's in your court."

She looked away from him and pulled her arms in close to her body so that her hands rested on the edge of the table. "I don't feel like telling the whole thing. Tell me what you know. I'll try to fill in the blanks."

"Okay. Jerry and I were at prep school together until I left. I wrote this song. It was a good song, but I wasn't at prep anymore. I sent it to Jerry. He practiced it over the summer... It was maybe 3, no, 4 years ago. That's when it happened. You probably watched him play. You said you liked to watch me play."

"We all watched," she whispered. "It wasn't just me."

"I know. He played the album before it came out. I was supposed to be at that party, but Pop had some things he needed me to do. Who knows. I might have met you that night under other circumstances."

Joanne looked at her knees as he took a deep breath and continued. "Everyone went out on the dock while you went to the bathroom. When you came back, it was just you and Jer alone."

"And, his dog. We sat there on the floor petting his dog..." Her words lacked emotion. "So, we weren't alone," her eyes bore into him for a moment. She considered telling him the whole thing for a second, but it didn't matter anymore. She felt the coldness flow over her back as she spoke to him. "We laughed about how all of the adults were talking about him, and... He kissed me. I didn't think much of it, because he'd done it before. It was just an innocent kiss. It wasn't even long or good, really. I remember laughing when he said he'd fuck me right there on the floor."

Joanne covered her mouth with her hand and blinked at the table. They sat there in silence until she said, "It's not like I think about it all the time."

A set of keys in the lock made them both straighten up. Jo ran a hand over her hair and glanced over her shoulder to meet Jesse's eyes as she entered the room.

Jesse dropped her coat on a chair and said to both of them, "So, are we cool, now?"

"She's eaten," Dan gruffly said as he got up. "I've set up a fruit salad, there's cereal in the cabinet for breakfast, and there are pork chops marinating in the fridge." Joanne saw his face change, but she wasn't sure what to expect. He turned away so quickly.

"Well," Jesse watched him collect his books and put them in his bag. "Where you going? You don't have to leave on my account."

"I left a copy of Dr. S's notes on the coffee table, Jo. I've got to get back to the shop," he said as he pulled on his coat. He arranged his coat before opening the door. 'Gotta get outta here, now, before I promise to kill him.'

He was going to just leave after she said that. Jo followed him and reached out to touch his hand, "Dan, won't you stay for dinner?"

For a few seconds, he frowned down at her. She was offering a little bit of her time, but he didn't want a little bit. He wanted all of it to finish the conversation. He knew he wouldn't be able to sit at the table and make small talk. He bent down and kissed her cheek, "Maybe, some other time. Call me when you talk to Gary?"

'Gary.' She let go of his hand. What the hell was she supposed to do about Gary?

"I've been making sure I give you your space at work, so this won't be a problem. Let me know when you want to talk," with that low voice only for her.