Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
She also had no reason to doubt Danny’s opinion of her strength and independence. They’d raced more than once to get to something first, both of them fighting dirty. She’d pushed him into a slimy mud pool on one memorable occasion, while another time he’d gotten her into deliberate trouble with Alison just so he could win their secret race.
The memory of her silent rage and his glee made her smile as she took her seat. Shit, they’d been two hellion kids together. Kids who’d had an unspoken rule against adult intervention when it came to their bets and sneaky tricks in pursuit of glory. Jake alone had been privy to their exploits, and he’d refused to take sides, saying, “You’re both equally nutso.”
As Danny came down beside her, she turned to him, and he instinctively angled his head down to hear what she had to say. “Thank you,” she murmured, breathing in the scent of his aftershave, his jaw close enough to kiss. “For keeping me from giving that witch Mara what she wanted.”
“I doubt she wanted a broken nose and her eyeballs clawed out and crushed under your sneakers, but you’re welcome.” A nudge of her shoulder. “You know she was stirring to get media play.”
“I know. I can deal when she’s sharpening her knives on me, but she went for Posey.”
Danny placed his hand over the one she had on the armrest, warm and a little rough and as familiar to her as her own skin… and yet it felt different tonight, in the whispering semidark of the theater. She wanted to slide her hand away but was all too aware of the eyes on them. It still took everything she had to keep it in place.
Then he was speaking, the deep timbre of his voice drawing her attention. “I get it,” he murmured. He ran the pad of his thumb over her skin. “What I don’t understand is why she got so catty with you. You’re an athlete, and whatever else she is, she’s a damn good sports journalist.” The man looked genuinely mystified.
“Are you really that clueless, hotshot?”
When he raised an eyebrow, she said, “Ahem” and nodded to their clasped hands.
He stared as if he’d only just become aware of the fact he’d been stroking her… holding her. But he didn’t break contact. “Oh right. She thinks we’re…”
“Exactly. And you’re on her hit list.” She told him what her fellow runner had overheard. “Be careful not to be caught alone with her. Looks like she’s out for a husband, but who knows? She might settle for a scandal and associated celebrity clout.” Feeling oddly protective, she frowned and held his eyes. “Promise?”
Dark eyes looking into hers with a focus so absolute it stole her breath. “Cross my heart.”
The lights went down.
Shuddering out a quiet breath, she faced forward… but she didn’t slide her hand out from under Danny’s. So if you wanted to get technical about it, they held hands throughout the play.
* * *
Danny had to be honest. He didn’t fully comprehend Leon’s masterpiece. But that might’ve been because he’d been focused on Catie rather than the stage.
Leon had decided an intermission didn’t suit the flow of this play, so Danny got to sit next to her all the way through, her presence a bright light: the light floral scent she liked that always took him by surprise, the slender bones of her hand, the softness of her skin—and especially how her face lit up when she turned to him as she laughed during a funny moment in the play.
Sharing the laughter with him.
Stealing another piece of his heart.
He was really in trouble, and he was beginning to think he didn’t want to get out of it.
Fuck.
The single terrified word passed through his mind just as the curtain fell to rapturous applause. Danny rose to congratulate his friend, Catie beside him. He might not have caught all the nuances, but he could tell it was good. The kind of good that would get Leon the attention he needed to take his work to a bigger stage.
“That was brilliant,” Catie said to him as she kept on clapping. “I could watch that again! We should go when he brings the show to Auckland!”
“Yeah,” he managed to get out through his thickening throat.
The curtain went up again as the cast came to take their bows.
They returned twice more as the applause continued on—and they brought Leon out with them on the final round. He emerged with shining eyes, and tears were rolling down his face by the time he took his own bow as the cast stepped back as one to applaud him.
Danny put his fingers to his mouth and whistled.
It startled the more sober theatergoers around him, but Leon’s local rugby mates as well as his extended family took up the whistle, adding loud yells of support, and they blew off the roof until even the “proper” theater people were laughing and clapping with their hands in the air.