Hope

Chapter Sixteen

The next morning, I woke slowly. When I didn't feel Danny's warm arms around me, my eyes opened quickly, worried that he had left me. As I looked around the room, I realized that the shower was on so I calmed down a little before I recognized that I was a terrible person. Danny had covered the bed in red rose petals, candles were lined up all around the room, and there was a bottle of champagne sitting in an ice bucket on a small table off to the side. He had worked hard yesterday to set up something nice for me, and all I had done was fuck it up.

I climbed out of bed and winced as my arm brushed against the bed frame. The place where Seth had grabbed me had a darkening handprint bruise on it that I had no idea how I was going to explain to Danny. Rather than worry about that, I opened the door to the bathroom and went over to the shower. Opening that door as well, I stepped inside.

When Danny turned around he had a sad look in his eyes, "Morning, babe. Did you sleep well?"

I answered him by walking over to him and wrapping my arms around his waist. We sat there for several minutes under the warm water. "I'm so sorry, Danny," I said as I started to cry. "I wish you would get angry. Yell at me, storm off, hell even slap me, I just can't take you being upset. It hurts me more than anything else I've had to deal with."

Danny pushed me away from him so he could look down at me. His eyes were still sad, but he forced a smile to his face, "It's okay, Rose. I'm going to finish showering, will you go make us some coffee?"

Rather than break down crying again, I nodded and left the shower. I was hurting inside that he had pushed me away. Before, he had kept talking about 'fucking things up' every time he had kissed or touched me too soon. But I really had fucked things up this time and I didn't know how to fix it. I threw on some clothes and braided my hair, then went into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee for Danny.

While it brewed, I went out onto the back patio so I could sit and stare off into nothing without worrying about Danny sneaking up behind me and catching me moping. I didn't cry, I think all my tears were drained from my body over the last several days. When I heard the back door open and shut, I just stayed there staring off at the trees. I couldn't take looking into his disappointed eyes again.

"What do you want from me, Rose?" he asked in a strangled voice.

Hearing the pain I had caused made me tear up again, "I don't know, Danny. I honestly don't. All I know is that seeing you like this is killing me, especially knowing that I caused it." I couldn't look at him so I just closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair when he walked in front of me and sat down on the ottoman, "I could take you being angry at me. If you yelled at me and told me how bad I fucked up, or hell, even if you hit me I wouldn't be mad."

"Rose," he started to say as he grabbed my hands with his. "Will you look at me?" I sat up straight and slowly opened my eyes, "I'm not upset with you, truly I'm not. I was just so scared last night when you decided to walk home, and two hours after your shift you weren't back. If Daisy hadn't called me..." A tear rolled down his cheek, "That's the only reason I'm upset. I thought that something bad had happened to you and I envisioned my life without you."

I stood up and walked over to the ottoman so I could sit down on his lap, straddling him, "Are you sure that you're not angry or upset with me?"

"Honestly, I'm not. Anything you are seeing on my face is just because I had a glimpse of what my life would be like if I lost you in a horrible way like that, and it scared me." His hand reached up and caressed my cheek softly, "The way I am feeling for you, I've never felt this way for anyone, not even Claire." When my eyes didn't look shocked to hear her name he chuckled, "I see you've been told about Claire."