Chapter Seven

Sam anchored her attention on Danny as he crossed the room that night to get to his side of the bed. After a long day at the movies and then at home, she had been anxiously awaiting their big 'heart-to-heart conversation'.

He climbed into bed with a husky sigh, slipping underneath the blankets. "Okay, so we should set some ground rules for this conversation." Sam waited for him to continue, her eyebrows curling together. "No talking over the other person, no—"

"You mean like this?" she interjected, a hint of humor seeping into her tone. He rolled his eyes at her, but smiled afterwards. "Sorry. Just kidding. Go on with the rules."

"Right. Well, no interruptions, no secrets, no going to sleep while mad, and we have to keep an open mind about everything we talk about." He extended his hand out to her, studying her closely. "Deal?"

She bit down on her lip and eyed his hand. Then, she accepted his gesture, shaking it slowly. "All right. Deal."

"Good." He moved his hands to his lap as she turned to the side to face him a little better. "So, what do you want to talk about first? I mean, I know there are a few subjects we need to touch on, but—"

"Valerie. What's her deal with me?" Sam cut him off, completely forgetting his ground rules until he frowned at her. "Sorry, sorry. That one was a genuine accident, but I seriously want to cover that subject first."

She knew how much he hated talking about Valerie, but she couldn't help herself; she was curious. The woman's animosity for her certainly couldn't be about anything pertaining to high school because that was years ago, and she thought they somewhat patched up their differences then.

Danny bowed his head and quietly asked her, "Is there anything in particular that you're aiming to talk about?"

Her lips stretched into a thin line, but she nodded. "Why is Valerie always attacking me, especially about children? And why is she constantly hanging out at children play spots with no kids of her own?" she inquired, her right eyebrow rising high.

"That," Danny answered abruptly, "I cannot tell you."

Sam scoffed at him, but shrugged nonchalantly. "Okay, well, you just broke your ground rule of holding no secrets, so I'll just break the one of not going to bed mad, then."

She pretended that she was going to lay down and go to sleep, but his hands quickly shot towards her shoulders to grasp them, stopping her. "No, don't do that. I'll speak," he surrendered with a deep sigh. "Remember what I said about keeping an open mind, though."

She rolled her eyes at him. "C'mon, Danny. Look who you're talking to. You know you can tell me anything."

He rolled his head back slowly and closed his eyes. For half a minute, he was silent, but when he spoke again, his voice was soft. "Val lost her son a few years back, so I guess hanging around children-targeted areas is her way of grieving."

Sam felt a rush of mixed emotions at that moment: she was bemused, surprised, and in shock all at once. "I— w-wow," she managed to stammer, shaking her head in disbelief. "That's awful. What happened? I never even knew she had a kid."

Danny opened his eyes again, but he refused to meet her gaze. "She had him when she was 21, but he... passed three years later. I don't feel comfortable with saying his cause of death because that's not my place, so I hope that doesn't go against the 'no keeping secrets' rule."

Her expression sank into one of sympathy. She hadn't known all of that, but then again, it wasn't really her place to. "No, no. It's fine," she replied, shaking her head. "I don't even know what to say. That's such a huge bombshell. Wait. How do you know all of this?"

"Tucker told me," he admitted, shuffling his hand through his hair. "I literally found all of this out today. When I said my ghost sense went off earlier, I was lying. I met up with him to figure out what was up with Valerie, and that's when he told me what happened."

"But why would she tell him what happened before telling you?" Sam pressed.

"I don't know. Either because he was directly involved in that situation somehow or she stopped trusting me with her secrets because she thought I'd just turn around and tell you."

She closed her eyes and raised a hand to her head, fighting off a wave of nausea. "I'm so... confused. I literally have so many questions racing through my head right now."

Right after she said that, she felt Danny grab that hand and lower it, holding onto it in a comforting manner. "And I'll sit here and answer all of your questions, even if it takes me all night," he told her. She opened her eyes again, piercing them right into his.

"That whole situation is devastating, but while it is, it doesn't really tell me why she's so against me not wanting a child." She clasped onto his other hand and squeezed it lightly. "What's her deal? Why does she have it out for me?"

"Because she knows that's your weakness. She knows the subject of children bothers you, so she brings it up to stir a reaction from you," he explained. "At least, that's the only logical thing I can think of."

"No, no. This feud is way deeper than children. Trust me." Since she had a lot of questions on her mind, she chose not to linger on the topic of her versus Valerie. "We should probably talk about the park incident now, though. That's what we argued about the most."

"No. I don't want to discuss that." Danny pulled his hands away from her and lowered his head, pressing his palm against his forehead. "My response to Valerie's remark was so..." he trailed off, not finishing his sentence.

She didn't understand what he meant by that, so she thought back to the conversation between him and Valerie at the park. She couldn't quite remember what response he was referring to at first, but once she did, her mouth slacked open.

"Are you married, Val? Do you have children of your own?"

"Oh, my gosh. Danny, that's not your fault," she said softly, frowning at him. He closed his hands together and nodded, but she obviously knew he wasn't listening to her. "Hey. I'm serious. You didn't know, so don't beat yourself up over it."

He rolled his head to the left and shrugged. "How do you know I didn't trigger some sort of suppressed emotion within her that day because of my stupid response?" he asked her.

"Honestly, that's something you'd have to take up with her. I can't answer that question for you." He gave her a weird look, to which she smiled faintly at. "Yes, you can talk to her about it. If it means you'll be able to stop beating yourself up over it, then I'm okay with it."

He grinned, flashing his perfectly white teeth. Only for a few seconds, though, because before she knew it, the smile was gone. "Look, about our fight," he started, his tone becoming much more serious, "I want to apologize."

"You do?" she asked.

"Yeah, I do. It was wrong of me to call you selfish and it was wrong of me not to defend you against Valerie. It'll never happen again and I'm sorry," he apologized. "I also shouldn't have gotten so angry at your choice to not have children."

A warm, growing smile formed at Sam's lips. "I'm sorry, too. You know, for eavesdropping on you and Valerie and for being so harsh with you during our argument. There were much calmer ways to word everything I said, but instead, I took the angrier route."

"Yeah, you totally did."

She rolled her eyes. "Danny—"

"But," Danny slowly leaned forward, not once breaking eye contact with her, "I forgive you," he said in a seductive whisper. He closed the distance between them and pressed his lips to hers, gently pushing her down against the bed and deepening the kiss.


"Are you sure you want me to do this?" Danny asked Sam for the millionth time the following morning.

She started fixing the buttons on his shirt, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Yes, I'm sure. I already told you that I was okay with you going to see Valerie yesterday night. Well, as long as you're bringing Tucker with you."

"That I am," he confirmed. "You going to be okay with Amaya for awhile?"

"Yeah," she scoffed. "I've babysat her by myself before." When she was done toying with his buttons, she patted his chest and gazed into his eyes. "Please let me know how it goes, and no funny business. Tucker's going to be watching you at all times."

"Even if he wasn't, no funny business would happen." He closed his eyes and kissed her on the forehead gently. "Want me to go wake up Amaya for you?"

Right on cue, Amaya came careening down the steps. Sam chuckled softly and shook her head. "Something tells me that she's already up," she replied.

To her great confusion, her niece ran straight over to her and hugged her leg tightly. "Oh, aunt Sam! You're okay!" she cried out, nuzzling her cheek against the fabric of Sam's jeans.

Perplexed now, Sam stared down at the terrified girl with wide eyes. "Yes, I'm okay... why wouldn't I be?"

Danny crouched down beside Amaya and draped an arm around her shoulders. "Hey, hey, slow down. What's wrong?" he asked, eyeing her warily. "Did you have a bad dream?"

She shook her head profusely. "Last night, I heard aunt Sam making these noises like she was hurt." Upon seeing both Danny and Sam's puzzled expressions remain intact, she started to imitate the noises she heard yesterday.

Or rather, the moaning.

When Sam felt her face radiating like a hot pan, she immediately knew that she had turned beet red. "Uh..." was all she could muster. She desperately glanced over at Danny, but he wore an equivalent look of shock on his face.

"Yeah," Amaya nodded, "that's the sound I heard. Were you hurting her, uncle Danny?"

"No," he answered quickly, scoffing and raising the pitch of his voice the way he usually did whenever he was lying. "We were just, uh..."

"Having a very aggressive pillow fight," Sam chimed in, laughing nervously. "I did get hurt a little, but the most important thing here is that I'm okay and we never have to bring this up again."

Danny rose to his feet, nodding in agreement. "Especially not to your mother."

Amaya's eyebrows curled together and she crossed her arms over her abdomen. "So, you guys—"

He hastily swept her up from the floor and into his arms, carrying her into the kitchen. "Okay, Amaya, no more questions! It's time for breakfast." She squealed and giggled, swinging her legs back-and-forth through the air.

"What's for breakfast?" she asked as he set her down onto the floor.

"I don't know. Whatever your aunt decides to make." He kissed the top of her head before moving over to Sam and pecking her on the cheek. "I'll be back soon. If you need anything, call me."

She tangled her fingers together and smiled uneasily at him. "Okay. Same to you. Make sure you call me afterwards to let me know how it went."

"I will."