It All Leads Back to You

Chapter 25 - Dani

Bad Blood

"I'll be out here the entire time, yeah?" Leah held both of my hands in hers. "If you need me to come in there or you're ready to leave, I'm right here."

"I'm scared...of what he might say."

"I am too. We're going to figure it out. You know that, don't you?"

"I know." She kissed my forehead, my nose, and cheek. "You missed a spot." I smirked.

"Yeah?"

"Mmm, yeah." She put her lips on mine, making my small smirk grow into a smile.

"You can't expect me to kiss you when you're smiling." She said into our kiss.

"Well, I get butterflies when I kiss you."

"And when I do things like this?" Her hand crept up my thigh and her lips went to my neck.

"Le, I have to go."

"Fine, fine. Go. I'll be here...doing my course work. Alone."

"Sounds like fun." I pecked her lips one more time. "I'll let you know if I need my knight in shining armor."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you." I got out of the car and made my way inside the small restaurant. I saw the man who had definitely aged in the ten plus years I hadn't seen him. He was tapping his coffee mug and bouncing his leg. "Derek."

"Dani!" He quickly stood up. "Ho—How are you?"

"Good. Great, actually. You?"

"I guess I'm alright. I'm glad you came."

"Yeah well, I have better things to do, so can we make this quick?"

"Sure, yeah."

We sat down at the table he was at. I watched him grab his mug. "How'd you find me?"

"I didn't intend on running into you. I went to the game and out to dinner with my—your—my wife and daughter and—"

"You have another...You have another family?"

"I—Yes."

"You left me, Derek. You left me with that woman and went off and replaced us with another family!"

"No! No. I tried getting you back, Elle."

"Don't call me that. You don't get to call me that anymore."

"Danielle, I tried. I left because your mother is—was a drinker. She was abusive and manipulative. I had to get out of there."

"Why didn't you take me?"

"I...I don't know. I should've taken you with me the moment I left but I didn't. Then I fought for you. I fought your mother for you, but she never gave me the time of day or—or I don't know. I didn't try hard enough."

"You didn't."

"When I somehow got through, you were gone. I saw you moved to England and I knew you probably didn't have contact with Mary. You seemed to be doing good—"

"I wasn't. I wasn't good. I was drinking, doing drugs, smoking! I was hurting the people I loved and cared for. I became unrecognizable."

"Do you remember when I took you your first soccer game?" I gave him this puzzled look. "You were five and I bought the state final tickets for the high school team you'd go to, and your cousin was on the team. You were pretty excited to go and watch your first live game. You know what you said to me though?"