“It was great seeing you tonight, Tara,” Danny had said to me in a husky voice. His voice along with his soft touches that night had unleashed feelings I hadn’t felt in years, if ever. His touches created pressure in places that left me feeling on edge. 

Danny’s words and actions were on my mind throughout much of the following week. As much as I wanted to see him again, I was doing what I could to avoid him. I could never let him know how he made me feel. He was going to leave and I couldn’t let my family get hurt again. We would not be abandoned.

Wednesday afternoon, Paisley and I were sitting at the diner having our lunch break away from the station. It was a busy lunch hour at the diner. Nearly all of the red and white booths and tables were taken. We had managed to snag a table along the back wall. 

“You’re doing a great job avoiding him,” she said sarcastically after I got her up to speed.

“It most certainly isn’t for lack of trying.”

“You could try being nicer to him.”

“I am being nice. If I were any nicer, it’d give him the wrong idea.”

“You’re trying to push him away.”

“I can’t do it again, Pais. I can’t let myself break again.”

“No one is asking you to do that. Stop putting up a front and at least be friendly with him. You don’t need to go on a date with him, unless of course you want to, but at least stop pushing the guy away. He’s saved your neck a couple of times. Plus he volunteered for the talent show.” 

Opening that door even just a little would open the floodgates. There wouldn’t be any going back. I’d be at the point of no return. These little moments that Danny and I had shared were making my heart burst and I could feel the walls I had built slowly crumbling down.  “I’ll take that into consideration.” I finally said, then took a bite of my chicken salad. 

“You better consider it quickly because he just walked in.”

“What?” I glanced around frantically. Sure enough, he had just walked in the door and was waiting to be seated. “Oh god, oh god, oh god.” I slumped down in my booth.

“Too late, he saw you,” Paisley said gleefully. 

I quickly straightened in my seat and fluffed my hair while Paisley watched on in a smirk. “Shut up,” I mouthed to her.

“I didn’t say anything.” She was cackling.

“Ladies,” Danny said as he walked up to our table. He looked gorgeous as always in a pair of jeans with his signature leather jacket over a fitted blue t-shirt. 

“Hi, Danny,” I said timidly.

“Hi!” Paisley chirped brightly. “We were just talking about you.”

“You joining them?” Our waitress, Clara, asked as she breezed by carefully balancing 4 plates of food. 

“Yes,” Paisley quickly answered for him. “Sit down, sit down.” She waved her hand toward my booth. Danny slid into the seat next to me.

“So, you were talking about me? Hopefully good things.” He looked between the two of us, his eyes lingering on me.

“She was just filling me in on the incident at the grocery store, a.k.a. Cassie Ann,” Paisley informed him.

“I don’t think Tara here was too pleased about that. She was worried that we’d become the talk of the town,” he said.

“You’re lucky that didn’t happen,” I muttered to him.

He gave me a warm smile. I longed to reach over and run my fingers along the stubble on his strong jawline. Instead, I did the unthinkable. I smiled back.

“You want to order any lunch?” Clara asked him as she came zipping up to our table. 

“Sure, I’ll take a BLT with a side of fries,” He said after a quick glance at the menu. “Add what these two ordered to my tab too.”

Clara glanced between Danny and me with interest. “That’s awfully nice of you.” He shrugged. “I’ll go get your order in.”

“You are determined to get this town talking,” I accused him.

Danny looked at me bemused. “That’s not what I was trying to do at all. Besides, there isn’t anything for the town to talk about. Just a friend buying you two your lunch.”

“I think what she meant to say is, thank you for lunch,” Paisley chimed in, shooting me a chastising look.

“Yes, thank you,” I grumbled. 

“What have you been up to this week, Danny?” Paisley asked.

“I edited some photos for a hotel I photographed recently. I’ve otherwise been working on the house. We’re just about done getting a fresh coat of paint on the walls. It’s already made a big difference, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

“We?” I couldn’t help but ask. I saw Paisley try and fail to hide a smile.

“Cade has been helping out quite a bit. He’s been a huge help honestly, plus he owns a lot of the tools which has saved me a lot of money.” Clara dropped his sandwich order in front of him and he hungrily took a huge bite.

“It’s the house over on Spruce Street, right?” Paisley asked.

He nodded and swallowed his bite of food. “You two will need to come by to see it one of these days.” Danny’s focus was on me as he said it. 

“Maybe we will,” I replied, shoving my salad around with my fork. 

“I love that house,” Paisley told him. “It still has the old town charm.”

“That’s really mostly why I bought it. The state it was in almost stopped me, but it’s tough for me to back down from a challenge.” Why did that last part feel directed toward me? Does he see me as someone to win?

“Sounds like you have an issue with always needing to win,” I said and immediately wanted to smack myself. That really was rude. Paisley was right. I have been unfriendly toward him. “I mean -.”

He surprised me with his low laugh. “Sure, I love to win but it’s also the satisfaction of feeling accomplished.” His voice dropped, so Paisley had to strain to hear him. “There is one challenge I’m really struggling with.”

“What’s that?” I almost whispered. 

“There’s a woman that’s been driving me crazy that I’d really like to get to know. I can’t seem to break down her walls so she’ll trust me.” My breathing stopped for a moment as emotions swirled through me. His eyes locked into mine. It was suddenly just the two of us in a diner full of people.

“Maybe some walls aren’t meant to come down. They’re protecting what’s already broken.”

He shook his head. “I’m not buying that. I think you’re scared to move forward and instead of focusing on healing, you’re shutting people out.”

“Are you a therapist now?” I shot at him.

“No, but I can tell when someone is hurting and closed off. It doesn’t take a therapist to see that.”

Paisley cleared her throat. “Sorry to interrupt, but Tara and I need to get back to work.”

Danny took his time with the last few bites of his meal before flagging Clara down to pay our bill.