“Coffee,” she said, picking up her mug in answer.

“Have dinner with me tonight?” he asked, picking up the bottle of maple syrup.

“Can’t,” she said, heading towards the doorway. “I’m meeting the guys at Joe’s Tavern after work for a drink.”

“The guys, huh?” he murmured thoughtfully, absently adding more butter to his pancakes.

“Mmmhmmm, and if you behave, you can tag along,” she said, watching as the corner of his lips kicked up into a pleased smile.

“I’m sure that I can manage.”

“Pick me up at seven!” she threw over her shoulder as she left the room to get ready for a fun filled day of sifting through rotted boxes, dust and the moldy basement that she normally avoided at all costs. She wanted to try to salvage whatever she could before tomorrow when the old library was demolished along with all its old treasures that had been long ago forgotten.

*-*-*-*

“Where are you?”

“Ummm, nowhere special,” she muttered, worrying her bottom lip as she watched the man lying on the gurney next to hers vomit all over himself, again.

“Nurse!” his nervous wife yelled, making Jodi cringe, because she knew without a doubt that Greg had also heard it.

There was a long-suffering sigh on the other end of the phone before Greg said, “You’re at the hospital, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” she mumbled, looking down at her arm where a large ice pack sat, concealing the reason why Mr. Tate had felt it was necessary to browbeat her into going to the hospital.

It wasn’t a big deal, but he’d refused to listen. Instead, he’d mumbled something about liability, lawsuits and unnecessary paperwork that would pull him away from his bridge game as he’d dragged her to his car, shoved her inside and drove her to the hospital where he’d made sure the doctor knew the extent of her injuries before he’d wished her luck and ditched her ass to the tender mercies of the emergency room staff.

“Do you need a ride?” Greg asked, not sounding all that happy about it. Not that she could blame him.

“No,” she lied, hating the idea of putting any of her friends in the position of having to handle her when she had medicine in her system.

“Are you sure?” he asked, sounding really relieved that he wouldn’t have to took care of her, but she knew that if she told him that she needed a ride he would be here in a heartbeat to look after her. He wouldn’t be happy about it, but he would do it.

“Yeah, I’m-” she started to say only to have her phone suddenly taken from her.

“She’ll be fine,” Danny answered for her, ending the call and tossing the phone on the bed next to her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, shifting self-consciously as she took in his freshly combed hair, handsome face and the dark navy shirt that molded to his muscles and then glanced down at her ripped, dust covered, coal stained shirt and pants and grubby arms and hands.

“They told me what happened down at the library,” he said, gingerly raising the ice pack off her arm so he could get a look at her injury.

“Why were you at the library?” she asked, deciding that it was for the best to pretend that her hair wasn’t a tangled grubby mess.

He gently gripped her arm and turned it over. “I came to bring you coffee and to see if you needed a hand,” he murmured thoughtfully as he studied her wound.

“It’s not broken,” she said, forcing a small smile as she picked up the ice pack and placed it back on her arm.

“No, it’s not,” he said, sighing heavily as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him, wondering where the doctor was. “It’s just a few nasty scrapes and a bruised bone.”

He nodded, but said nothing.

“It’s no big deal.”

Silence.

“Mr. Tate got nervous and made me come here. I just need to clean the scrapes and as long as I keep ice on my arm, I’ll be fine,” she promised him when the silence became awkward.

Rubbing his hands roughly down his face, he sighed, “It’s going to be a long night.”

Chapter 20

“Your lap is so comfy,” his drugged out passenger said dreamily as she snuggled closer.

“So you keep saying,” he said absently as he parked the truck.

This was going to be a very long night, he mused again as he opened his door and turned around to help Tinkerbelle out of the truck only to pause when he spotted the woman, who hadn’t stopped talking since the doctor had shot her beautiful ass full of medicine, fast asleep. Deciding that someone up there must love him, he picked Jodi up, careful of her head and carried her in the house, pausing only long enough to kick his truck door shut.

“You coming upstairs to watch the game?” his cousin Devin asked, shifting cases of beer in his arms so that he could hold the front door open for Danny.

“Not tonight,” Danny said quietly as he stepped past his cousin and headed for his door.

“What happened to her?” Devin asked, placing the beer on the floor. He took the keys out of Danny’s hand and opened the door for him.

“An old crate fell on her arm,” he said, carrying Jodi inside.

“Is it broken?”

He shook his head as he carefully placed Jodi on his bed. He pulled her shoes off and double-checked her bandage before he pulled the quilt his great grandmother had made him over her.

“So, this is her, huh?” Devin asked, reaching over to push a strand of Jodi’s dust coated hair out of her face only to draw his hand back with a darkly muttered oath when Danny slapped his hand away.

“Don’t touch her,” he simply said as he reached down and moved the strand of her beautiful hair aside.

“I thought she hated you,” Devin said with a frown, tilting his head to the side as he studied Jodi.

“That’s the only way she knows how to express her overwhelming desire for me,” he said, moving to stand up, but he thought better of it when he caught the appreciative look in his cousin’s eyes as he looked Jodi over. He leaned back down and kissed Jodi’s soft, unresponsive lips to make sure that his cousin got the message.

She was his.

“It’s nice to see you taking an interest in life again,” Devin said with an approving smile. “You were beginning to worry us.”

“Nothing to worry about,” he said, grabbing a pair of clean boxers from his bureau, hoping that his cousin took the hint and got the hell out of his apartment without telling him just how worried everyone was about him.

“Are you sure?”

“There’s nothing to worry about,” he said evenly, gesturing towards the door with his boxers.

“No,” Devin murmured, frowning down at Jodi, “I suppose there isn’t.”

“Try to keep the noise down,” Danny threw over his shoulder as he headed for the bathroom.

“I’ll do my best,” Devin said as he sauntered out of the room.

Danny threw one last look over his shoulder, making sure that his houseguest was still sound asleep in his bed. When she didn’t stir, he decided that it was safe to leave the room, but only after he locked his bedroom door to keep her from making an escape. Once he was positive that she wouldn’t be able to unlock the door in her drugged out state, he walked into the bathroom, stripped out of his clothes and stepped into the tub, turning the shower on full blast.