Kiss in the Dark (21 page)

Danielle smiled again. “Why ruined? Why not found…spoken for? What if…by kissing you…why can’t one kiss from Vance be the sign you needed that you’ve finally found the guy you were meant to be with?”

“Have you looked at him?” Boston asked. “Look at him now…right now!” Boston turned around and nodded to where Vance stood surrounded by women. “I swear, they’d start licking his face if we weren’t in public.”

“Well, that’s because they know he’s still on the market,” Danielle said. “So…take him off the market.”

“He’s too perfect,” Boston said, anxiety over the feelings she was trying to suppress for Vance twisting her stomach into knots.

“You know,” Danielle began, “that is one of the things I hate about Stephanie more than anything. What she’s done to you.” She took Boston’s arm and turned her away from Vance. “She’s made you doubt yourself! She’s made you think there are things you can’t accomplish. She’s taken so much of your energy that you sometimes don’t see things the same way you used to.”

Danielle was right. Boston knew she was right. Yet she didn’t know how to overcome the self-doubt Steph had so perfectly planted in her mind.

“Remember that first summer, Boston?” Danielle asked. “You saved my life…and I’m not exaggerating. Just by letting me know you cared, by being my true friend, by not pressing me to reveal things I wasn’t ready to, by just knowing me and loving me unconditionally…you saved my life. I wanted to die, Boston! I’d thought about how I would do it. I had it planned. I was going to take the job at the North Pole to get away from my parents and family so that I could kill myself and they wouldn’t be the ones to find me.”

Boston frowned and felt tears in her eyes. Danielle had never before told her of having thoughts of suicide. Never! She hadn’t known. It was very hard to imagine—to hear—to absorb.

“Then I met you…that very first day I came into the café and you and Halle were there,” Danielle explained. “It was going to be my last cup of hot chocolate. I’d decided that hot chocolate was the last thing I wanted to remember about being alive.” She smiled. “But you were friendly…talked to me like you’d known me forever.” She giggled a little. “You were babbling on and on and on about how excited you were because they were going to add hot spiced apple cider to the menu. I looked at you…and couldn’t believe anyone would be so excited about apple cider. You said, ‘Danielle! You
have
to come in tomorrow! The cider will be in, and you
have
to come in and taste some with us!’ I couldn’t believe it! You were so excited about apple cider…and I started to think that maybe, just maybe, apple cider was good enough to live for…that maybe I didn’t want that mug of hot chocolate to be my last. So I didn’t do it. I didn’t go home and take the pills I’d stolen from my mom before I left home to go to work at the North Pole.”

“Danielle,” Boston began, brushing the tears from her cheeks. “I…I…”

“I started enjoying taking the pictures of the kids with Santa,” Danielle continued, “really enjoying it…not just pasting on a smile and pretending. And then you and I started hanging out, going to movies, talking for hours. And I told you something was wrong with me, but you didn’t push me…just kept telling me how great I was…how wonderful life is. You saved my life, Boston.”

“
You
saved your life, Danielle,” Boston mumbled. “Nobody saved it but you…except, of course, probably God. But in the end, you made the decision. I only listened and encouraged.”

“You loved me,” Danielle said. “Now I’m asking you to let yourself fall in love with my brother. He’s strong enough to have made it through what he did without contemplating ending his life. Vance is too strong. The thought would never occur to him of simply wimping out on pain and struggle. But believe me when I tell you, his baggage…is maybe even heavier than mine was. But I’m still asking you to let go…let go of whatever Steph did to you that’s keeping you from following your heart and chasing your dreams.”

“Chasing my dreams?” Boston asked.

“You don’t really want to be the assistant news scriptwriter at Channel 7,” Danielle said. She turned and nodded toward Vance. “You just want what Vance can give you—love, happiness, a home, and babies.”

“Danielle!” Boston scolded. She’d been through enough emotional drama in the past few minutes with what Danielle had revealed! She didn’t want to have hope well up in her only to be crushed by cruel, cruel reality.

“Will you do it?” Danielle asked. “Will you let go of all the trash Steph injected into your brain and mind and soul? Will you let go of it and make my brother happy? Save him?”

“Danielle,” Boston whispered. “He’ll break my heart! He’ll rip it out of my chest, take a bite, grimace, and throw it down the garbage disposal. I don’t know…I don’t know if I could ever recover from that!”

“I know,” Danielle said. “But think how great it will be when the scary part is over.” She grinned. “You can spend all the time you want locked in the pantry with Vance. According to poor Trisha Coleman,
that
would be worth any risk. Wouldn’t it?”

Boston looked at her friend. Danielle was right. Too much time spent in Steph’s company had not only poisoned Boston’s confidence but had also dulled her senses—the senses that led her to helping others, to reading them, to staying on the path she knew she was meant to be on.

“Here,” Danielle said. “Close your eyes for a minute, Bost. Close your eyes, and put aside all that poison Steph pumped into you.”

Boston closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

“Now keep them closed,” Danielle whispered. She felt Danielle’s hands on her shoulders. “Keep them closed…and turn around.” Boston let Danielle turn her around. “Breathe…breathe…that’s it. Now…Boston Rhodes…open your eyes.”

Boston did as Danielle said.

“Tell me what you see,” Danielle whispered.

Naturally, Boston’s gaze fell to Vance. He was still surrounded by women, still talking with them, being his charming, enchanting self. He glanced up, smiled, and winked at her. Instantly, her heart soared. Vance Nathaniel was everything she’d always dreamed of finding in a friend, a boyfriend, a lover—and more. Everything! Even down to his imperfections, he fit the bill—Boston’s bill. She could see it then—see her chance, perhaps her only chance, to find true happiness. She could see something else too; she glimpsed Vance Nathaniel’s very soul. For only a breath, for a mere instant, Boston saw the goodness in him, saw the promise of faithfulness and heroism. She saw too that he did indeed yet endure some secret torture—some malicious, haunting thing. In that moment, she meant to vanquish it—to conquer whatever thing it was holding him so tormented. She meant to conquer it, free him, liberate his soul the way he had liberated hers by protecting her from further damage at Steph’s hand.

Boston’s confidence—her self-assurance—was short-lived. Yet the moment had offered her a glimpse of her past self—of who she really was. Boston Rhodes wasn’t meant to be a pushover. She wasn’t too nice either. She’d simply been poisoned and lost a measure of her strength. Yet it was returning—she was returning.

“Okay,” she breathed. “Okay, Danielle…I’ll seduce your brother,” she said. She turned to her friend, and they embraced. She heard Danielle sniffle and knew more tears had escaped Danielle’s eyes just as they had her own.

Danielle giggled, even for her tears. “I knew you would. I knew he had his hooks that deeply in you already. They didn’t call him Vance Romance for nothing!”

Boston giggled too. “And you promise me, Danielle? You promise he’s not a cannibal?”

The heavy roller coaster of emotions both Boston and Danielle had been riding over the past few minutes finally reached its peak. Boston and Danielle embraced, laughing and weeping simultaneously.

“What’s so funny?” Dempsey asked, arriving at the snack table and dunking a stale tortilla chip in the bowl containing Boston’s bean salsa.

“I don’t know,” Vance said as Boston and Danielle continued to snicker and wipe residual tears from their eyes. “Something about a cannibal…though I suspect we’ve just intruded on an estrogen surge.”

Boston smiled at her friend. What would she do without Danielle? Who would she be? In that moment, she realized just how much influence Danielle had on
her
—on who Boston Rhodes had been and was. Danielle had enriched her life immeasurably—still did—always would. Silently she prayed—offered thanks for such a wonderful friend and teacher.

Boston smiled as she watched the blush rise to Danielle’s cheeks. Danielle was a great one for matchmaking, that was obvious. Still, Boston decided it was time Danielle stopped worrying about everybody else’s future and started worrying about her own—and Boston determined she’d find a way to make that happen.

“While you girls were over here brewing estrogen, the party started breaking up,” Dempsey said. “Everyone’s leaving, and Vance—weenie that he is—says he’s tired,” Dempsey whined dramatically. “So, I was wondering if you would mind staying and helping me clean up a bit, Danielle. Boston can go, and I’ll run you home afterward. Would that be okay?”

Boston felt her own eyebrows arch in astonishment. She glanced up at Vance to see him fighting a knowing grin.

Danielle looked like a deer caught in headlights. “Uh…um…” she stammered.

“That would be fine,” Boston answered for her. “In fact, I’m tired too. So why don’t you just bring my salsa bowl home with you when you come, okay, Danielle?”

“Um…sure,” Danielle managed.

“Great!” Boston exclaimed. She reached out and quickly embraced Dempsey. “Fabulous party, Dempsey,” she said. “As usual! Thanks for inviting me.”

“Well, good night,” Vance said. Boston smiled as he placed his hand at the small of her back and began pushing her toward the door. “I’ll see you later, Danny.”

Vance exhaled a heavy breath—as if he’d been holding it in for a long time. He shook his head and said, “I just want her to be happy, you know? Really happy.”

“Me too,” Boston whispered. She studied Vance for a moment, astounded at the realization only just beginning to wash over her. Vance and Danielle were each amazing! Not only in the obvious ways of Danielle’s being beautiful and Vance’s being gorgeous, but also that they both valued the other’s happiness more than their own. It was a rare and admirable quality—perhaps especially in siblings.

Boston shivered, and he said, “Hey! I’ve got all my laundry in my pickup…including a nice, clean, very warm sweatshirt. Let me get it for you.”

“Oh, no! I’m fine,” Boston assured him.

“No…let me get it,” he insisted, pausing next to his pickup.

Boston watched as he took his keys from his pocket and unlocked the passenger’s side door of the old pickup truck. He rummaged around through a couple of duffle bags for a moment, finally producing a pristine white sweatshirt.

“Here,” he said, unzipping it and holding it out for her to put on. “We don’t want you catching cold, now do we?”

Boston giggled at his parental tone, delighted as he proceeded to zip the front of the sweatshirt for her. She frowned, however, glancing past him to the duffle bags full of laundry sitting in the front seat of his pickup.

“Why are you dragging your clean laundry around?” she asked. “Don’t you have a washer and dryer at your house? You can use the one in our apartment next time if you want.”