The Game Plan (Neighbor from Hell #5)(47)

“Yeah,” she mumbled as she laid her head against his chest and sighed pathetically.

“You give off a sisterly vibe,” he said, nodding slightly, “that much is true, but you play off it. You use it to push away men, but I don’t think you’re doing it on purpose.”

“Then why am I doing it?” she found herself asking as she took his hand into hers and began tracing circles on his palm.

“Because you have absolutely no idea how to tell a guy that you’re not interested in him. So instead, you friend-zone him by acting like you’re his kid sister,” he said, pressing a kiss against her forehead.

She shook her head. “There were a lot of guys that I really liked, a lot of them that I could have really fallen for and-”

“And they’re your best friends now, aren’t they?” he asked, guessing correctly.

“Yes.”

“They weren’t for you, Tinkerbelle, and on some level you knew it.”

“What about Jerry?” she asked softly.

“What about that prick?” he asked coldly.

“Greg said that I treated him like a brother, an unwanted brother, but I still encouraged him. He was a jerk, selfish and I….I didn’t love him, but I was still prepared to spend the rest of my life with him,” she said, feeling her cheeks burn with mortification at the realization that she’d been willing to marry someone that she didn’t like, never mind love.

She was pathetic.

“You were settling, sweetheart. That’s all. Don’t try to make more out of it than that. You met some nice guys, but you couldn’t force yourself to want more from them and then you found an * who didn’t care how you saw him. You’d been driving men away for so long that you were willing to settle even for an *.”

“W-what about you? Have I ever treated you like that?” she had to ask.

He chuckled as he pressed another kiss against her forehead. “I pissed you off too much for you to waste the energy trying to push me away. Besides,” he said, pressing another kiss against her forehead, “it wouldn’t have worked on me.”

“No?” she asked, smiling despite the fact that she felt like crying.

“No,” he said, pulling his hand away so that he could trace her jaw with the tips of his fingers, “because there is nothing that you could do that would ever make me stop wanting you.”

“You want me?” she asked with a watery smile.

“More than my next breath,” he swore as he gripped her chin gently between his fingers and tilted her head up as he leaned in to-

“Hey! You’re holding up dinner, *!” someone yelled with a bang on the driver’s side window.

Sighing, Danny pressed a kiss against her forehead and said, “Let’s get this over with.”

*-*-*-*

“Ever hear of a phone, *?” Darrin asked, even as he pulled him into a hug. “Mom was about to send us to go find you,” he whispered low enough so that Jodi, who was standing nervously nearby, couldn’t hear.

“I’m fine,” he said, squeezing his arms around his little brother one last time before he pulled back and took Jodi’s hand back in his. “Just got a little delayed.”

“I can see that,” Darrin murmured, looking Jodi over. With a smile, he nodded towards the house. “Why don’t we head inside?”

“I should have called,” he said, shooting Jodi a glance, noting the way that she was worrying her bottom lip.

“And warned Mom that you were bringing a woman to meet the family for the first time ever?” Darrin asked brightly, chuckling when Danny shot him a homicidal glare. “Now, why would you want to do that?”

“Umm, maybe I should wait in the car? Or walk home?” Jodi asked, slowing down a bit. “I can walk home. It’s really not that far.”

“It will be fine. I promise,” he said, raising their hands so that he could kiss the back of hers.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t supposed to be here tonight. I don’t want to interfere,” she said, looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here.

“It’ll be fine,” he promised her, resisting the urge to laugh at the expression on her face. “Besides, I want you here.”

“Fine,” she said on a drawn out sigh with a miserable little pout that had him stopping so that he could lean down and kiss her. “No worries, Tinkerbelle. Everything will be fine.”

*-*-*-*

Oh, he was a lying bastard, she decided five minutes later as she pressed back against the wall and out of trampling distance of all the large men yanking Danny into bear hugs. Even Jason and Trevor pulled Danny into a hug, seeming very pleased to see him and acting like they hadn’t just spent all day with him at work. It was really sweet, she thought with a smile that disappeared when all the large men in the room suddenly stopped talking and as one, turned around to look at her.

“Ummm,” she murmured, awkwardly clearing her throat. “Hi,” she said a little nervously, adding a little wave to try and make the moment a little less awkward.

“Who’s this?” Darrin asked, making her frown, because she’d just been introduced to him ten minutes ago.

“This is my girlfriend,” Danny said, pushing the men surrounding him out of the way so that he could come to her side and for the first time since they’d arrived, she realized that he wasn’t happy about being here.