Everything Has Changed: Book Two

Chapter Eleven: Conversation

I apologize for this short chapter

*****

Chapter Eleven: Conversation

The engine silences when Beatrice pulls out the key. She turns to me with a small smile.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm nervous." I admit, rubbing my arm.

"Everything is going to be fine." She says calmly. "Let's go inside."

I might as well get it over with, so I unbuckle my seatbelt and get out of the truck. She walks with me to the door and then turns to me.

"He is my son." She says. "And if he's upset, don't get mad at him."

"I'm not going to get mad at him for something that's my fault. I hardly ever get mad at him."

She just nods and opens the door.

Everyone is awake and the entire house is lit up.

Danny and Caleb are both standing, and Danny looks exhausted. His hair is a mess and he looks stressed.

Caleb looks calm but there's an edge to his demeanor.

Beatrice shuts the door gently, and Pepper stands up, walking over to me to sniff me. I ruffle her ears to use her as a distraction, but I don't want to seem like I'm doing it to use her as a distraction, so after a few seconds I force myself to look at Danny. He gives me a gentle smile.

"Can we talk please? Alone?"

"Yeah." I rub my sweaty palms on his pants and follow him out the back door. The deck is on the second story and there's a staircase down to the lake. On the deck is a table that's a few feet from the glass sliding door. He sits down at the table and I sit across from him, my right leg bent up so my foot is on the chair.

"Grace," he starts. He stops though, rubbing his eyebrow. His hands are wringing together on the table. "Did I do something wrong? Say something?" He asks gently. "Because I want to apologize for whatever it is."

I sigh softly and shake my head.

"Please just be honest. I can take it, whatever it is."

I wring my hands together and nod.

"Danny, you're the only reason I'm alive." I say softly. "And since Maryland, tonight specifically, I just keep wondering what the point is, and I-" I bite my lip and lift my eyes from him to his face.

"You deserve better than me, and I just...I want you to be happy. You should have somebody you don't have to keep fixing. You-" I shake my head. "I just feel like you deserve better."

He's very calm.

"Grace." He whispers, shaking his head. He runs his fingers through his hair and gives me a sad smile, scooting closer to me. "When I told you I loved you, I meant it."

"I know Danny, but-"

"I'm not done." He says, so I press my lips together and wait. "Loving you means I accept you for who you are. I love every piece of you, even the broken pieces, and I won't try to change you into somebody that you're not." I open my mouth to interject, but he shakes his head and keeps going. "Loving you," he strokes the back of my hand with this thumb. "Means standing by your side, even in the worst of times. Loving you means I'll love you even when you're in a bad mood or you're tired or you're on your period and you're cranky. Loving you is knowing your deepest secrets and accepting them, and knowing you'll do the same for me. It means I care enough about you to fight for us, for what we have, but also to fight for you." He smiles a little at me. "And I know you're upset and heartbroken, and that hurts me, but the only reason you're upset is because your Dad and your Mom don't care about you. I know it sucks that you had to shut them out, but now you won't have anything bringing you down. We can go on trips and not have to worry about your Dad arguing with you about me. You don't have to wonder if your Dad will bring up your Mom. You on't have to worry about any of that, because you're strong, baby. And you cut out the negativity, and I know right now it hurts, but pretty soon that pain is going to fade into happiness and the only reason you'll cry is because of a sad movie, or you saw an animal and it made you happy." He pauses. "I understand you're trying to spare me, but by leaving me, the only thing you're doing is hurting me."

"Danny, I just feel like a burden to everyone." I whisper, looking up at him.

"You're not a burden." He says. "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me."

I know he means it, but I just feel so stupid for everything that happened tonight.

With a sigh, I lean forward and rest my head on is shoulder. He reaches out and starts rubbing my back.

"So are we okay?" He asks.

"We're good." I murmur. I lift my head up to smile at him. "I'm sorry, Danny. Can we just pretend this never happened?"

"Of course we can."

We're both quiet, unsure what to say to each other.

He starts to fidget after almost a minute of silence, and then he sighs. "My parents lied."

"About what?" I ask.

"They knew."

I hesitate.

"They knew that my parents are back together? With a baby on the way?"

"They found out at like, noon today, and when I called them, they lied. I don't know why. I mean, how is it possible that I called them at ten, they said no, and they were here two hours later? I confronted by Dad about it. I guess my lied because my Dad's upset."

I nod slowly.

"Well why is he upset?"

"He cut your Dad off, I guess."

"He lost his best friend, I lost my Dad." I sigh. "What a horrible day."

"The only good part of this day was our shower adventure this morning." He grumbles.

*****

I'm thinking of doing a time skip but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?

Also, so you want more intimacy between Danny and Grace? Some of you get mad when I cut off kissing scenes. I'm just trying to figure out what you guys want to see

~Sam