The heat was sweltering. Santana felt hot and sticky yet Dani still held her tight. Their current state of warmth bothered neither. They were together and no matter how gross the Alabama weather made them, neither cared.
Eventually they detached but Dani still had her arms around Santana's neck. "I miss you so much." She admitted biting her lip due to her vulnerability. "You have no idea." Santana sighed placing a hand on each of Dani's hips. "If not for Ciara I would have gone insane. All my old friends are just so stupid. We had just separated. Did they seriously think going to party after party would cheer me up?"
Dani smiled sympathetically and brushed a rebellious strand of hair behind Santana's ear. "As someone who attended party after party I can confirm they don't help." Santana nodded, a fleeting look of guilt flashing across her features. Before addressing it a car behind them drive down the lawn.
It slowly pulled up beside them and Lacy rolled down her window from the driver's seat. "Hey Dan we're going to go home, give y'all a chance to catch up."
Dani smiled brightly at Lacy and reached a hand down to touch her outstretched one. "Thanks babe. For everything." Santana sensed a deeper meaning behind the sentence but decided to broach it at a later date.
"Anytime. Santana I can genuinely say it was great seeing you today." Lacy acknowledged the raven haired girl who just smiled shyly in response. "Okay well text me later. Maybe we can all hang out sometime." Lacy concluded motioning to Dani, Santana and Coby. Accepting Dani nod as a valid response she began to drive again.
Once the car was out of sight Santana turned back to Dani. "Sorry about earlier when I assumed you went back there. You two were cuddling though."
Dani shook her head. "I get it. You never met Lacy my best friend. You meant Lacy my ex-girlfriend who was jealous and petty. It's understandable you assumed that."
Santana sighed and closed her eyes. She leaned forward so her forehead was resting on Dani's. "It doesn't excuse the accusation though. God I hate that I hurt you. How are you this forgiving?"
Dani scoffed and pulled Santana into a hug. "Babe I should have known you didn't accept yourself. You never had the support I had and no matter how much I loved you it wasn't going to be enough. You needed to come to terms with your sexuality yourself. You needed to love yourself first before you could even contemplate loving me." Dani planted a kiss on Santana's cheek. "We should talk though. Figure out what's going on here."
Santana exhaled once more and then stepped back. "You're right. Are we just going to stand in the drive and talk or what?"
Dani shrugged and then scrunched her face in thought. Santana watched amused. Eventually Dani grabbed her hand and began pulling her toward the house. "First we'll get some water and then I know where we're going."
Santana followed bemused. She was just glad to be back in Dani's presence.
They strolled hand in hand down the fields, filling the awkward silence with awkward small talk. Both were anticipating the oncoming conversation, trepidation over the tsunami emotions that would soon occur evident.
"Yeah Lily's a great kid." Dani agreed as they arrived at the barn.
It was the place that they had met, the place where they had first kissed and it was now the place that would make or break them.
Dani led the way inside and upstairs. Once they were situated sitting opposite each other, using the bales as back supports, neither knew how to begin.
"So how long are you here for?" Dani asked cautiously fiddling with the cap on her bottle. "A week." Santana replied staring at her feet. "My Mami rang your Mom and she said I could stay here. If you're okay with that obviously." Santana added hastily.
