I don’t exactly understand it, but you settle me.”
“I don’t think it’s strange. We gravitate to those who have something we need. Maybe—”
He cut her off, jumping on what she said. “Maybe you’re what I need, Jane.”
His words burned through her, allowing a long-protected part of her heart to crack open a little bit. In that tiny space, hope bloomed, and Jane thought maybe second chances weren’t just for everyone else. His hand still covered hers, and Jane, feeling brave for the first time in ages, turned hers over, allowing her fingers to tangle with his. Danny stared at their joined hands, his thumb moving back and forth over her knuckles.
There was a bond between them that went beyond the old feelings and crushes. These emotions were mature, deep. They were the kind of emotions that could change lives forever. Feeling the heat rise in her face, Jane was determined not to miss another chance.
“You know what? I do think I’m going to close the store. Would you like to, I don’t know, hang out?” She laughed at herself. “Is that the correct terminology?”
With a grin, he nodded. “I’d love to hang out with you.”
“Okay. Let me start wrapping things up.”
With a sense of purpose, Danny took off his jacket. “How can I help?”
*
Once she locked the front door and set the alarm, Danny realized they were going on their second date, and without meaning to, she had asked him. This day was getting better and better.
“So,” she said, turning to him, “what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.” He really didn’t care. Just having the opportunity to spend time with her was enough. “I saw the bakery was open—do you want to go there?”
Jane tilted her head and thought for a second. “Oooh. Good idea. I love Viti’s chocolate mousse, and she makes an amazing apple tart.”
“You won’t get any argument from me.”
“No? How’s your blood sugar?” It was a joke, but not.
“I’m fine. It’s why I run every day. Keeps all those numbers in check.”
“I do my thirty on the elliptical. It’s not as hardcore as the running, but it gets the job done. I’m careful because of what happened with my father.”
“The maintenance is getting harder, isn’t it?” He was only half joking. Jane’s statement about her father was a good reality check.
“Yeah, but it’s not bad. I’m actually in pretty good shape.” Jane smiled and raised her arm in a mock flexing of her biceps.
He wanted to tell her she was in great shape. From where he was standing, she was pretty perfect. Jane had been rail thin when she was a teen. He’d seen her eat, that wasn’t the problem, but she seemed to have the metabolism of a jackrabbit on speed. It got her teased pretty badly in junior high school, especially when combined with her braces and big glasses. No one could see past the big brain to the even bigger heart. But he did. He always knew what was inside. What made her special.
By the time she hit senior year, Jane had finally started to grow into herself. There was more confidence, a sense of adventure, but overcoming that shyness would be her challenge. When she left for college in DC, the braces were long gone, and she’d lost the glasses for contacts. She was pretty, smart, and ambitious. And she had big dreams.
Danny remembered visiting her once when he and a couple of his frat brothers stopped in DC on their way south for spring break. They waited for her in the student commons, a big open space in one of the newer buildings on the campus, which was a stone’s throw from the National Mall.
He and his friends were picking through some fast food, when he heard her. That voice, clear and sweet, traveled over the din of the crowd around him and evoked a hundred memories.
“Danny!” she’d called.
When he looked up from his soggy fries, and saw her coming toward him, Danny’s heart stopped in his chest. No longer skinny, but long and lean, Jane looked like she should be walking down a runway in a gown, not wearing a sweatshirt with a picture of the Rosetta Stone screened on the front. Her hair fell in soft waves to her shoulders, and when her smile bloomed and her dimples popped, the world pretty much stopped.
His friends had lost all powers of speech as she stood there chattering endlessly in that way she had. Charming. Adorable. Happy.
They hadn’t seen