The Fighter's Block (26 page)

Van sighed. “I’m not gonna hurt him. Well, as long he doesn’t tell me something bad.”

“Just don’t worry about him,” Mickey said firmly. “Let me go make a phone call. I got his mom’s number…”

Van watched him head to his office, but he didn’t feel any better. He stripped his hands of the tape, put his running shoes on, and headed out on the streets
to pound his worries into the pavement
for
a few
miles
. When he returned
,
Mickey told him that Quincy saw Dani that night because he picked up his movies. Other than that, he didn’t know anything else.

Van didn’t have any reason to doubt the story, so he didn’t say anything when Mickey relayed the message.
It didn’t make him feel any better though; he still needed to make things right with his girl.

Quincy was a different story. W
hen
he
hung up with Mickey, he dropped his head into his hands and
moaned
, “Oh, shit.” Dani begged him not to tell Van anything, even that they’d gone into East Orange. He knew he was screwed though; he knew that Van would find out. He didn’t know how, but he just knew. Why did he even do it? Why did he talk her into going?

He sat in his mom’s kitchen, shaking a nervous leg
and tapping two fingers on the table
. Van was going to find out and he was going to break his face. “Oh, I’m a dead man,” he whispered to himself.
“Fucking dead.”
He couldn’t sit there any longer though, and he left the house. He needed something to calm him down, so he went to Clive’s
to get a fix of something, anything.

On Monday Van showed up at Flegal Design. He knew it was a bad idea to show up at her place of employment, but he couldn’t help it. He also despised the fact that he was stalking her just like Brian had. What did that even say about him? Now he was acting like that asshole?

He stopped at the front desk and politely asked for Dani. The woman looked him over for a second, seeming to either disapprove that she had a visitor, or possibly not believe he was who he said he was. As embarrassing as it was, he was glad that she asked for his i.d. She looked it over and asked him to have a seat, but when she returned, it was she that seemed embarrassed when she said, “Um, she said she’d rather not see you right now.”

“Then I’m going to wait here until the police haul me away,” he replied.
“Tell her that.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, but this t
ime she dialed on the phone to relay
the message. Dani appeared a minute later and said, “Van, you shouldn’t be here.”

He
r beauty made him lose his breath. That, combined with how much he loved her, broke him in half. He
looked her over—examining her face, her hair, and her clothing for any answers—a
nd even though his heart was bursting with emotion he said, “You owe me an explanation.”

Dani glanced a Sheila, who was hanging on every word. With a sigh she took Van by the
elbow
and led him outside. Van couldn’t help it and he gathered her in his arms as soon as they were alone. It took her by surprise, but because she loved him so much, it made her cry.

“You can’t do this,” she said, even though she wrapped her arms around him tightly.

“I love
you
and I can’t let yo
u go. Dani, something happened
and you just need to tell me what. You can tell me anything, okay?
Nothing you say to me is
gonna
change how I feel about you. I swear to God.
”

“You need to leave,” she said quietly
, hastily brushing away the
tear
s
. “I can’t do this right now.”

“Then I’ll wait for you after work. Please, Dani, you need to talk to me.”

“I can’t,” she sobbed, laying her face against him. “Please just give me some time.”

“Time for what? What is it that you need to sort without me?”
He almost couldn’t handle the heartache. He would get his ass kicked in a cage every day of his life if he could trade the despair he felt at that moment. He was losing her, he could tell. His fear convinced him that she would close the book in his face.

She didn’t say anything for a while, but finally she felt like there was one thing that could push him away from her. She
took a step
back
from him and said, “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

He looked over her tear-stained face, complete with streaks of mascara.
His heart
dropkicked
his ribs but he said,
“Okay, then just be completely honest with me.”

She took a deep breath and said, “Um, I didn’t tell you this at the time because…
well, I’m not sure why but…”

“Just say it. Are you talking about
you and
Brian?”

She looked at him with alarm, believing for some reason that he knew
what Brian had done
.
But before her panic could cause her to break down in front of him, he added,
“Dani, are you talking about your engagement? Because I know about that.”

She stared at him with shock.
It took her by surprise.
“What do you-what do you mean you know about it? You know that we were engaged?”

“Yes,” he nodded. He took his thumb and wiped the tears off of her face. “The day you filed the restraining order… Doug told me that Brian called you his fiancée.”

“Oh,
my gosh
,” she sighed, turning away from him. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Why didn’t I ask you about it? Well, there were enough problems with that asshole. I didn’t want to make things worse. I thought you needed some time and eventually you would tell me, but Dani… I don’t even care, okay? I know that everyone makes mistakes, even
in
trusting people, but I don’t
hold it against you. It’s not like you’re married to the prick—thank God,” he added, “—but it’s all in the past, babe. Trust me on that, okay? I don’t care what your history is with him—”

“It’s not going to work, Van. You and I. It’s just…it’s not an option right now.”

“What do you even mean? I think what we had
was
amazing. It was perfect. What are your reservations? Money? The apartment? My family. Oh Jesus, my family, Dani… I heard you were looking for my sister? What the hell happened with that? Did you-
did
you actually find her or something? That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? After that you left, you moved out. What happened, Dani?”

He knew he was rambling and wasn’t giving her a chance to answer a single thing. But there was a look on her face that made his stomach feel funny. However, he made himself wait until she spoke first.

“I didn’t find your sister,” she said
, at least glad she didn’t have to lie to him one more time
. “It turned out to be the wrong Leah Kemp.”

He studied her for
a few seconds and said, “D
on’t be disappointed, okay? I love you for trying, but Leah jus
t doesn’t want to be found.
I’m sorry if it was a bad experience for you. I’ve had a few of my own bad experiences—” He stopped short and eyed her carefully. “Is that what happened that night? Did you- did you go somewhere and—?”

“Van, just drop it,” she sighed. She tried to let the memory go so she didn’t start crying again, but the whole situation was just overwhelming to her. “I gotta get back to work,” she said, feeling the tears about to come on strong. There was a lump in her throat and she tried to swallow it down.

“Dani…”

“I can’t, Van. Leave me alone.”

She
hurried
into the building before he could stop her, and she was glad that he didn’t follow after her. She barely made it through the day, and when she left for her thirty-seven mile commute back to Manhattan, she almost looked forward to the change of scenery that her parents’ place offered.

She continued with that routine for the week, and when the weekend came, she was actually happy to work a fashion show and do two complete shoots. She was exhausted, and even though her mom mentioned a couple of times that
her exercise regiment was doing its job, she didn’t even admit that she wasn’t exercising at all. For on
e she was too tired from work
and stressing out;
and another, she had no time when she was commuting from New Jersey to New York. She did lose
six
pounds though, probably just from
stress. But e
ating with
Dominic
and Simone Martin could
also
do that to a person.

“Are you ready to do my shoot on Saturday?” Simone asked her on Sunday night.

“I’m definitely ready.”

Simone slightly nodded as she watched her daughter finish a glass of water. “Could I run an idea by you?”

Dani was surprised that she would
even ask
let alone share one of her ideas
. “Um, sure, I guess so.”

Her mom
didn’t even bother leading up to it.
“I’d like you to do the shoot with the young man in your photos.”

Dani stared at her for a while, unsure of what she was talking about. “What photos?”

“The ones you showed your father. He showed them to me too, and I’m absolutely
obsessed
with the young man on the pier.”

“Oh hell no,” she
replied, shaking her head. “
Nuh
-
uh. No way.”

“That’s an inappropriat
e way to speak to your mother.
B
ut why not?
Wouldn’t he like to make some money?”

“It has nothing to do with money. I just… No, I don’t want him doing that.”

“Danielle, he has a stunning
edge
to him, and it would be the most beautiful cover ever.”

“Cover?
No way, Mom.
You are not putting Van on the cover of a magazine with me.”

“It’s the only way it will
make
the cover,” she replied, raising her eyebrows for Dani to get her
implication
.

Dani shook her head. “I don’t care if it bumps me out of the running for a cover; I just don’t want to drag Van into this.”

“Why do you keep saying things like that? ‘
Drag’ him into this.
As if
it’s the most horrible thing in the world to be seen by millions of people?”

Dani sighed. She didn’t want to get into this argument with her mother again. “I can’t, Mom.”

“Maybe you should explain to me what happened, Danielle. I can tell you’re in love with him; it’s plain as day.”

She looked at her mom, remembering that she did have a passionate side to her.
That passion
was never interested in her daughter until now, but maybe it would be okay to hear an opinion. Jaime had talked to her several times over the past week, but with
Jaime and Steve
on the brink of divorce, she felt bad for burdening her with problems.

“He’s…an amazing guy,” Dani began
with an audible sigh
. “He’s sweet and sincere, and he always puts me first. He’s got a dysfunctional family like me—” She watched for her mom
’s reaction, but there wasn’t one
“—but he’s a good guy and he’s just…very protective of me.
He takes care of me.
”

Simone slightly
nodded her head, but all she could think about was that
Brian ha
d been ‘protective’ of her too. That didn’t turn out so well.

“How did you meet him?” she asked.

Dani was hesitant at first, but she did end up telling her mom most of the story. She left out the part about going home with Van, but she was sure Simone figured it out.

“So that’s why Brian is so hell bent on vengeance,” Simone replied.

“He hits me in the face, gets what he deserves, and he
still
wants to retaliate?”

“Men like that don’t like their egos challenged.”

Dani rolled her eyes. “And I’ve had to pay for it ever since. Van, too. It’s not fair.
I just can’t do that to him. He’s too good; he doesn’t deserve it.
”

“I know. But yo
u’ve broken things off with Van
and now Brian has gotten his way. It seems as if you’ve let him win after all.”