The Best of Us (13 page)

“
I’ll go and get it.” Mike turned and stopped the first officer he came to. They both headed for the store entrance so Mike could go inside and get her bag.

“
Carly,” Daniel sounded apologetic, “I’m sorry I lost it. But after what happened tonight, I don’t want you home alone and I want to be there with you.” He looked at her and stepped into the light, it was the first time Carly got a real good look at his face. She had been so busy with the police and the paramedics that she hadn’t gotten a good look at him. When she did, she gasped.

“
Your face.” Carly reached up and touched his cheek. Daniel leaned into the warmth of her hand. “What happened?”

Daniel gave a low, warm chuckle as he reached up and put his hand over hers, holding her hand to his cheek, “You did.”

“
What? I did that?” Carly said in disbelief.

“
I don’t think I could ever say you are defenseless.” Daniel had a busted lip that was pretty swollen now and he had some scratches on both cheeks from where she tried to scratch at his eyes. He held on to her hand as he lowered it to his lips. He kissed her knuckles and said, “I have some nice goose eggs on my shins too.” He smiled warmly at her when the look of absolute horror crossed her face. “I might have to have rabies shots too from the bite on my arm. It still hurts like the dickens.”

He tried to lighten the tension around her eyes but the tears started to fall. “I’m so sorry Daniel, I never meant to hurt you.” The events of the night were slamming down on her. Daniel took her into his arms and held her while she cried. He made the appropriate soothing noises men do when they aren’t sure what else to do. He wasn’t sure how long he held her but he knew she had cried herself to sleep.

He shook his head, “Amazing. She is outside surrounded by police and an ambulance and she falls asleep.” Daniel thought as he leaned down to kiss the top of her head.

An officer walked up and put Carly’s purse beside her on the stretcher. Daniel gave her a questioning look. She whispered, “The gentleman that went up to get it saw you holding her. He said he didn’t want to upset her more and asked me to bring it to you. He said it looked like you were the best medicine for her right now.” She gave a small shrug, “I waited a bit. He was right; she looked like you were all that she needed.” She smiled and looked at Carly, and then the young officer turned and walked away.

Daniel put Carly’s purse on her lap, picked her up and carried her to his car. He drove her to his house and put her to bed, while she made protest noises at being moved, she didn’t wake up. He lay down beside her and held her, grateful that she was still alive. He stayed awake for many more hours trying not to think about how close he had come to losing her.

Carly woke to the smell of coffee. Since she lived alone, fear snaked down her back and seemed to paralyze her legs. She laid there with her heart pounding so hard she thought it might bust out of her chest. Something in her brain must have kicked in because she realized that if someone wanted to do her harm, they wouldn’t be making coffee first.

“
How sweet, Mike must still be here...” Carly thought out loud as she started to get up and not realizing she was supposed to be at her parent’s house now.

“
Sorry to disappoint.” Carly looked up to see Daniel standing in the doorway, his expression was unreadable.

“
Daniel,” Carly was trying to figure out what was going on, “What are you doing here?”

“
Well, I live here.”

Carly’s grogginess from sleep was wearing off and she realized that she was in Daniel’s bedroom, not at home or her parent’s house.

“
I didn’t want you to be alone and my place is close, so I just brought you here.” Daniel turned to leave then stopped and turned back, “I started breakfast so you could get some food in your belly since you missed dinner last night.”

Memories of last night came flooding back, but all Carly said was, “You brought me here? I thought Mike was going to take me to my parent’s.” Carly couldn’t quite remember getting home. Her last memory was of her and Daniel sitting in the alley waiting on Mike. Then she remembered Daniel holding her while she cried.

She looked at Daniels face and noticed that the swelling had gone down but there were still some scratching and bruising.

“
Well, apparently he didn’t.” Daniel’s tone was very neutral and there was no warmth in his words.

Carly started to stand and let out a cry of pain when she put weight on her ankle. Daniel was at her side helping take some of the weight before the pain had subsided. Daniel didn’t like seeing the pain on her face; he leaned down and scooped her up and carried her down the hall. She wanted to protest but the pain in her ankle kept her quiet. Daniel sat her down at the kitchen table, walked into the living room and came back carrying a throw pillow. He pulled a chair out and put the pillow in it, then reached down and gently picked up Carly’s leg and placed her ankle on the pillow. While Carly was too touched by his gentleness to say anything, Daniel turned to the freezer where he kept a cold pack for emergencies, took it out, wrapped it in a dish towel and placed it on her ankle.

Daniel turned and he and Carly just looked at each other for several heartbeats. Carly didn’t know what was going on, but her heart was once again beating like it wanted out. This time it didn’t have anything to do with fear. Daniel squatted down beside her, his hand resting on her leg. There was emotion in his eyes Carly had never seen before.

“
I don’t think I could have lived if anything had happened to you.” He spoke very quietly, but Carly had no trouble hearing him. She held her breath waiting to hear what else he had to say. “I heard the screaming and for a moment, I didn’t realize it was you. When I came around the corner and saw him right behind you…” His voice broke a little and he swallowed hard. “You dropped to the ground and even though I didn’t hear anything, I thought he had shot you. I froze.”

Daniels eyes searched Carly’s face, “I’m sorry, for everything.” The look in his eyes did more to convince Carly that he was sincere than anything he said.

“
Daniel, you saved my life.” Carly absently reached up to caress his cheek just as she had done the night before. Again, Daniel reached up with his hand and pressed her hand firmly to his face and he leaned into the caress, closing his eyes.

“
My heart stopped and I couldn’t catch my breath. Then after it was all over, all I wanted to do was hold you, to reassure myself that you were okay.” Daniel opened his eyes and looked at Carly again. “I don’t want to ever let go.”

It was Carly’s turn to close her eyes as she absorbed the implications of what he was saying.

“
I was there last night because I wanted to talk to you.” Carly waited. “I was wrong Carly.”

Carly opened her eyes, “You were wrong about what?”

“
You.”

Carly waited for him to continue and when he didn’t she said, “I don’t understand. What about me?”

“
After the ball when I came to see you. The talk we had in the apartment.”

“
Daniel, you’re not making sense.”

Daniel gave a low growl and stood up. “I know what I want to say but not how to say it.”

“
Just say it, I’m listening.”

She was, he realized. He had been worrying that she would reject anything he had to say. After the jerk he was in the apartment after the ball, he really hadn’t expected her to give him the time of day. He took a deep breath and continued.

“
I was wrong when I said you were like a sister to me and that I didn’t want to mess anything up between us. In fact, I already screwed that up. We haven’t been able to talk comfortably with each other and I’ve been avoiding you. That isn’t what I want. Yes, once I thought of you like a little sister, and I’m not sure when that changed, but it has.”

Daniel went back to kneeling in front of her, “I need you. I thought I might lose you to Mike and then when I heard you screaming…I don’t want to go on like we have been. Carly, I want there to be an ‘us’. I’ve never wanted anything so much in my life.” Daniel wasn’t breaking eye contact and through her tears, neither was Carly. “Please tell me those aren’t bad tears.” Daniel all but begged, “I can’t bear to think that I’m causing you pain.”

Carly let out a shaky laugh, “No, they’re good tears. I’ve waited years to hear you say something like that to me but I never thought I would. But I want you to be sure. I don’t want to find out one day that you are making decisions based on emotional stress. You lost Jenna not that long ago and then I was attacked…I just want to know that these are genuine feelings.”

Daniel leaned in and kissed Carly, a gentle but passionate kiss. Carly forgot everything but the kiss. Her right hand came up, cupped the back of his head in a gentle embrace while her left hand rested on his right forearm. She felt the muscles in his arm tensing as he held himself in control. Daniel had a hand on each side of her face, just the way he had done that night after the ball. The difference was that this time he knew what he was doing.

When Carly didn’t pull back, in fact, she actually leaned in to deepen the kiss, Daniel groaned and the gentle kiss became more demanding by both of them. Daniel moved his hands from her face and before she knew it, he had picked her up and he took her place in the chair and sat her on his lap without ever breaking the kiss. He was now cradling her between kisses, whispering sweet words to her. Words she thought she would never hear. He didn’t tell her he loved her, but she hadn’t expected him to. The words he was saying meant more to her then anything and she was relishing in the wonder of it.

His right arm was behind her, holding her against him while his left hand had gone back to its place on the side of her face. He seemed to be holding her there as if he were afraid she would break the kiss and tell him to stop. “Not likely,” Carly thought.

Neither one of them could tell you how long they sat there holding onto each other but the phone finally broke through to Carly’s consciousness. “The phone.” Carly finally managed.

“
Let it ring.” Daniel said going in for another kiss.

“
It could be your parents, or mine. They might be worried if they heard about last night.”

“
You’re right.” Daniel picked Carly up off his lap and put her back in the seat she had originally occupied while he went to answer the phone. It must not have been her parents because Daniel came back in without the phone. The look on his face had Carly worried.

“
What is it?” Carly asked.

“
That was Mason Teague, he said he had an appointment with you tomorrow morning to look at the store and let you know what you could get out of it. Apparently he heard about last night and after not being able to reach you at the apartment, he tried here.”

Mason was Carly’s friend that sold real estate, “Yeah, I asked for an appraisal on what the store could bring.”

“
You’re thinking about selling the store?” Daniel felt cold all over. “What do you plan on doing?”

“
I don’t know. The store was Jenna’s dream, and she’s not here any more. I don’t know if I want to continue.”

“
What options were you thinking about?”

“
I had considered getting a place around here to have a place to call home between assignments and to be closer to my parents. But since there was nothing else but them here for me, I hadn’t decided. I do know that there’s nothing for me at my old apartment and,” Carly stopped because in such a short time, everything had changed.

“
And what?” All Daniel heard was that she didn’t feel there was anything for her here and she was thinking of leaving.

Carly looked up at him, “And with you not interested…” Carly didn’t get a chance to finish. Daniel was at her side holding her face again; she was really beginning to like having his hands caress her face.

“
I am interested Carly. Please, don’t leave. Not now that I’ve found you. I know that sounds silly, we’ve known each other for years, but I never realized…” It was Carly’s turn to interrupt.

“
As I was saying, and with you not interested, I had no reason to stay. But now things have changed. I’ve been waiting for you for years; do you think I wouldn’t stick around to see if something can really come of us?” Carly searched his face, “Not likely.”

Daniel gave her one of his melt you heart smiles, leaned in and kissed her. “There is not a doubt that there’s something there and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. I can’t make promises about what will be, but I can promise that I want to be around for a long time to see what can be.”

Carly ceased to think for a very long time, she just held on to the man of her dreams as if he would disappear if she let go. Breakfast had long since been forgotten as the two of them sat there talking about things that they had never shared before. Carly marveled at the things she didn’t know about Daniel and Daniel was surprised by the things she did know about him.