“Kind of like my mom and me. We had our differences along the way. For a long time, I resented her for sending me away to Colorado. Now that I’m older, I understand what the circumstances were back then. We’re becoming friends. Like you and Jack, we only have each other.”
“There’ll be somebody else in your life eventually, Hannah. I’m sure of that.”
Jack and Danni lingered in the kitchen, slowly putting the dishes and the pots and pans away.
“It was a great day,” he told her. “Thanks for inviting us.”
“Thanks for coming. You made it special for Hannah. It would have been boring with just her and me.”
“You two seem very close.”
“We are. It’s been just the two of us for a long time. It’s nice to have men in the house, though.”
* * *
Jack didn’t see Danni again until the next Wednesday. She wanted to spend all her time with Hannah before her daughter had to return to school. On Wednesday, they had dinner at The Swamp before going to the movies. Ron was there as usual.
“Jack, are you still in town?” he asked, faking incredulity. “I know your case is over. What is it that keeps you here—The Swamp? You want to help me with the rent on my condo? I can’t figure it out.”
Danni thought she’d have a little fun of her own at Jack’s expense. “It’s the free meals, Ron. Like tonight, for instance, Jack knows you’re going to pick up the tab. That’s why he insisted on coming here. I’m beginning to wonder about him.”
“Beginning?” Ron replied. “He’s got more money than God and he’s living at my condo for half price and showing up here every night for dinner.”
Jack laughed. “Okay, okay, I get the picture. Ronnie, tell Liz we’re all going out Friday night on me—to the best restaurant in town. And then we’re going dancing.”
And they did. Ron and his wife, Liz, met them at a restaurant downtown called Preston’s where they had a wonderful meal. Afterward, they went dancing at a nightclub called Stella’s.
Jack wasn’t much of a dancer, but he’d had a few glasses of wine at dinner and it didn’t take long for Danni to get him out on the floor. She was smooth and, in no time, she had him dancing like he’d been a star pupil at Arthur Murray. Once they got into it, the two of them couldn’t get enough of each other. No matter whether it was a fast dance or slow, they were in each other’s arms, pressing close. Time had ceased to exist for them.
Ron and Liz left somewhere around midnight but Jack and Danni hardly noticed. They continued dancing until the lights came on and the bartenders were yelling for people to go home. Even after the band had stopped playing, they stood on the dance floor moving to music only they could hear.
“You guys gotta go,” the bartender yelled at them. “Get a room, for Chrissakes!”
He finally got them to leave on the third try.
“I’m gonna call the cops.”
That sobered Danni up quickly. “We’ve got to go,” she told Jack. “I don’t want any trouble at work. We can continue this at my house.”
When they finally arrived at Danni’s front door, there were no words between them. Jack simply followed her into the house. She closed the door behind them, took his hand, and led him to the bedroom.
They fell on the bed smothering each other with kisses. Jack lost all sense of everything but Danni. All he knew was the warmth of her skin, the sweetness of her smell, the moist touch of her lips. They made love slowly, softly, as if with a rhythm they had secretly known their entire lives.
In the morning, they awoke so enmeshed with each other it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began.
For the next two weeks, they saw each other constantly. The first weekend of their relationship, Jack had to speak at a conference in Siesta Key. Danni went with him. Friends of Jack’s and their wives were there along with other folks neither of them knew. Danni fit in with everybody. They stayed out too late having fun on Friday and got up early the next morning and played in the surf. On Sunday morning, they just stayed in bed and talked about the people they’d met and the fun they’d had. Jack knew he was falling hard.