Chapter Nine

Danny drew a shaky hand through the loosened waves of his hair as he sat on the sofa in his living room, staring blindly at the television screen. He wasn't surprised when Lacey didn't call him by the afternoon like she promised. He'd expected as much. By now she was likely aware of what he had known since approximately 4 a.m. that morning. Regina Crane was dead.

It was splashed all over the television. The story had been running on a loop since the 11 o'clock news but it had been a breaking story well before then. Green Grove High School student found bludgeoned to death in her home in apparent robbery. The news anchor never announced the victim's name. That was being kept under wraps for now. But Danny knew with certainty who the victim was and how she had died.

With a sort of disconnected calm, he had been waiting for the better part of the morning for Kyle Masterson to arrive at his front door with a slew of officers in tow to arrest him for murder. He couldn't imagine how he wouldn't become the prime suspect in their investigation. After all, he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and it was rather inevitable that fact would catch up with him eventually.

When Danny had made the decision to sneak from his bedroom last night and confront Regina Crane about the threatening text message she had sent him he had never imagined the morning would end like it did. Having no choice but to travel to her home on foot, Danny had arrived at Regina's house shortly after 3:30 a.m. He had prudently decided to jog around to the back in an effort to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Once there, his intention to knock was aborted when he discovered that the back door to the Crane home was slightly ajar.

In hindsight, Danny realized that was probably the moment when he should have left. He should have turned on his heel and gotten out of there as fast as he could. But he didn't. Instead, he had pushed the door open and tentatively called out for Regina as he ventured deeper into the silent house. When he glimpsed the specter of a masked man dashing from the Crane living room, Danny had instinctively given chase.

His impulsive choice had ended in a brief struggle with the assailant. There had been one distinct moment when the attacker had paused in the act of choking him and Danny could have sworn he saw recognition flash in the man's eyes. It had been only a brief second of hesitation before he abruptly pulled back and whacked Danny hard against the side of the head. Stars burst before Danny's eyes in brilliant pulses of light as the assailant backed up several steps, stooped to make a blind grab for something Danny's couldn't make out and then took flight. In the aftermath, Danny had struggled to remain conscious in the wake of that ringing blow. He had watched with bleary eyes as the masked man made his escape and disappeared into the night.

It had taken him a few moments after that to regain his bearings. He had been dizzy and uncoordinated and very close to passing out. A fuzzy inspection of the lateral portion of his skull revealed that no skin had been broken but the strike had been substantial enough to leave quite a goose-egg that was incredibly tender to the touch.

Once he had regained his bearings a little, Danny had staggered through the house, calling for Regina again and again, his heart pumping with renewed dread each time his calls went unanswered. He discovered her broken body in her living room a short time later, lying in a twisted, macabre contortion of limbs on the floor, a trickling pool of fresh blood congealing beneath her head. Her blue eyes were fixed ahead in a dead stare. Her neck was obviously broken. Danny evoked every ounce of willpower he had not to throw up right then and there.

Afterwards, he had been left with an extremely difficult choice. Any other person in his position would have immediately called 911 and been hailed a hero for his bravery in facing a dangerous criminal. But he wasn't anyone else. He was Danny Desai, convicted murderer and resident sociopath. There was no way he would be able to plausibly explain away how he had ended up at Regina Crane's home in the early morning hours and she had ended up dead without drawing skepticism and suspicion. They would send him directly back to lock up, no questions asked.

In the end, Danny had done the only thing he could do. He left the scene. He returned home and he showered vigorously and he tried to put the image of Regina Crane's vacant stare out of his mind. He had climbed into bed and pulled Lacey into his arms, even though he had known he shouldn't, because he'd been absolutely sure it would be his last and only opportunity to hold her. And then, after what seemed like an eternity, he finally managed to fall asleep.

Now, however, he was wide awake and his mind was careening in a thousand different directions. He couldn't help but obsess over all the possible evidence he'd inadvertently left behind at the crime scene. His fingerprints were all over the back door. He had moved the body in a futile attempt to check for a pulse. Whatever the hell that man had hit him with was probably still back at that house. Any forensic expert worth his salt would be able to place Danny at the Crane house with relative ease. He was going to go back to prison...and not kiddie prison this time either. This time, it was going to be the real deal.

Danny drew his knees against his chest, wanting to weep with despair over the prospect of returning to that hell. But he found that he didn't have the tears to shed. He was too numb and too stunned that he had even found himself in such a position at all. He was so lost in his abject misery that he didn't even hear the doorbell ring or register the arrival of visitors until his mother placed her hand on his shoulder. He angled a startled look up at her.

"Jo's here."

Danny rolled off of the couch and shuffled into the foyer, surprised and a little speechless to find Jo and Rico standing there. He ignored Rico's presence entirely for the time being and focused solely on Jo. "Does your dad know where you are right now?" he blurted in greeting.

"Wow, someone's grumpy. Hey to you too, Desai."

"Jo, I'm serious here."

"He thinks I'm studying with Rico," she said, "I got it covered."

Rico bobbed a nod. "And since I refuse to be party to a lie because that just starts a whole downward spiral of mistrust and deceit that could very well lead to an unsatisfying life of crime, violence and drug abuse," the aforementioned rambled nonsensically, "I decided to come with her and then we're going to study at Johnnycakes later."

"Right...okay." Danny turned to regard Jo with a bewildered expression. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see if you were okay," she said, and when his expression remained puzzled, she added, "I know about Lacey. I know she stayed over with you last night. Her mom called my dad this morning and was talking about trying to get a restraining order against you."

Danny dropped his head forward with a low groan. "You're kidding me." He knew it was bad but he hadn't realized it was "petition for a restraining order" bad. "Did she put one in place?" he asked gruffly.

"My dad managed to talk her down but, Judy Porter is really pissed off right now."

"I kind of got that impression after she told me if I ever called Lacey again she was contacting the police. I didn't think she'd really make good on the threat though. This is the same woman who used to babysit me when I was a kid! It was unreal."

Jo winced. "I'll bet. Yikes."

"What about Lacey?" Danny followed up anxiously, "Have you talked to her? How is she doing?"

"I don't know. When I called, her mom wouldn't let me speak to her. She was polite but, really firm. She says that Lacey and I are 'contributing to each other's bad judgment' or whatever that means," Jo mumbled, "Basically, I'm persona non grata at the Porter house right now."

"Sorry about that, Jo," Danny muttered, "I know you're trying to fix things with Lacey too and now that's shot to hell. It's me that Mrs. Porter is mad at but she's taking it out on you."

"What exactly happened last night, Danny?" Jo asked, "I feel like I woke up this morning and the entire world had turned upside down. My parents are pissed off. Lacey's mom is pissed off. You're pissed off. What the hell did we do?"

"You mean you don't remember? Jell-O shots? The saddest attempt at twerking I've ever witnessed? Singing Lean on Me at the top of your lungs in the back of Lacey's car?"

Jo was aghast. "I didn't."

"Yeah, you did."

"I remember waking up this morning feeling like I wanted to die," Jo recounted, "My head was pounding. My dad said that you and Lacey dropped me off last night but I don't really remember anything."

"Oh, you were in rare form, Masterson," Danny told her, "You basically told Lacey and me that we were being idiots and that we needed to get over ourselves and make up already."

"And did you?" Jo prompted softly.

"We were starting to get there, I think but...things are really complicated now."

"More than you know," Jo added grimly. She paused a beat before she added, "I don't know if you've heard already but it's all over Twitter. That girl who was killed in the home invasion last night? Everyone is saying it was Regina Crane. My dad pretty much confirmed it was her, unofficially of course."

Danny did his best not to fidget guiltily. "Yeah, I heard. Lacey must be devastated. I know that she and Regina were pretty close."

Rico chose that moment to chime in as well. "The whole community has come to a standstill," he said, "Things like that just don't happen here! I mean, the last time there was a murder in Green Grove, it was when..." He trailed off into silence when he realized belatedly where his line of thought was going.

Despite his clumsy attempt as sensitivity, Danny finished the thought for Rico. "You were saying that the last time there was a murder in Green Grove, it was when Tara Desai was killed. When I killed her. And now there's been yet another murder and only a week after convicted killer Danny Desai was released from prison. What are the odds?"

Jo reached over to place a steadying hand on his forearm. "Danny, Rico isn't accusing you of anything."

Danny shook off her touch. "Maybe he's not," he acknowledged tightly, "But someone eventually will. It's only a matter of time."

Hoping to make up for his earlier verbal faux paus, Rico said, "Look at the bright side, they need actual evidence to convict you for murder and since you're innocent everything should work out okay."

"Yeah, everything should work out," Danny echoed without much conviction. He nibbled at the corner of his mouth, carefully constructing his words and tone before he asked Jo with deceptive casualness, "Does your dad have any leads on the case yet?"

"He doesn't usually talk about his cases with me and my mom," Jo replied, "The only reason he said something this time was because he knew Regina went to school with me and was friends with Lacey. Other than that, I know what you know. Regina was killed in a robbery gone bad."

Danny was privy to a few more details than that. He knew that the authorities would probably be selective in what information they leaked to the media. They were already doing it. The official story being circulated was that the young victim had been beaten to death but Danny knew the truth...and so did the killer. Regina's neck had been broken and she had very likely died instantly as a result of her injury.

There had been a jagged gash on her forehead approximately 2 inches long. It had looked deep but Danny had noted that the bleeding wasn't as profuse as most head injuries. He suspected the laceration might have happened postmortem and was sustained when her head clipped the edge of the coffee table as she fell to the floor. Those were vivid details that only someone who had been present at the crime scene would know. The police would expect that from the killer, therefore, Danny realized he had to be selective about what he said from that point onward.

The knowledge left Danny feeling drained and defeated. It was yet another secret he would be forced to keep and yet another barrier created between him and the people he loved. That truth made it increasingly difficult for him to be around Jo right then because he hated lying to her, especially when she had shown him nothing but unwavering support. It was a forceful reminder to Danny of all the reasons he had cut off contact with her and Lacey in the first place. They deserved better than the half truths, evasions and outright lies that he could give them.

Unable to bear the saturating shame and guilt another second, Danny said suddenly, "Well, thanks for stopping by, Jo. I don't want to keep you and Rico from your plans."

Jo scowled at him. "Is that your really not so subtle way of kicking me out of here?"

"I've already caused enough friction between you and your folks. I...just..." He blew out a heavy sigh. "Maybe you should keep your distance from me for a while until everything settles."

She stared at him blankly. "Yeah...that's not even going to happen."

"I'm trying not to make more problems for you, okay!" Danny exploded shortly, "Your parents already have enough reasons to hate me. I don't want to give them new ones!"

"I'm not worried about them right now," Jo argued, "I'm worried about you."

"As you can see, I'm fine, Jo," Danny replied in a light tone that belied the turmoil churning inside of him right then, "Go study."

"Danny, I know you're blaming yourself for everything that's happening with Lacey and me and I know you're disappointed. It seems like you and Lacey were just starting to make some progress and then everything turns to crap. First with her mom and then with Regina."

Rico surveyed her with a chastising, sideways glance. "Yeah, how inconvenient of Regina Crane to die right now. I mean...how could she be so selfish?"

Jo rolled her eyes with a light huff of aggravation. "You know what I mean," she sighed before turning to address Danny with her next statement. "This has to be frustrating for you. You take one step forward and then it's three steps back again."

Danny shoved his hands deep into his pockets. He ducked his head, which caused his unbound hair to fall forward and conceal his broken expression. "It's okay, Jo," he murmured, "Everything will work out the way it's supposed to work out. In the meantime, it would probably be better if I gave Lacey her space. She needs some time to process."

"I'm going to try and call her when I get to Johnnycakes, see if I can convince her mom to let us talk," Jo said, "Any particular message you want me to pass along?"

I miss you. I need you. I can't stop thinking about you. Nothing makes sense without you here. Danny left those thoughts unvoiced. Instead, he said, "Tell her I hope to see her soon."

He watched Jo and Rico leave, waiting until they had disappeared from view completely before he moved to shut the front door. When he swiveled around, however, he nearly jumped out of his skin to find his mother standing there. He pressed a hand to his thumping heart. "Good grief, Mother! Do you have to creep up on me like that?"

Unfazed by his snappy demeanor, Karen Desai regarded her son in thoughtful silence. "I'm glad to see you're spending time with Jo again," she remarked softly, "I hardly recognized her when she showed up at the door. She's become such a beautiful young woman." She let that compliment settle before she added, "So has Lacey. Though I wasn't able to get as good a look at her."

Her knowing tone was obvious. Danny crossed his arms in impatient expectation. "Spit it out, Mother."

"I saw Lacey coming out of your room early this morning," Karen said, "She snuck out of here like a little thief. I might have missed her completely if I hadn't been up since dawn for Pilates."

"Right. I forgot about your fitness regimen. You're nothing if not faithful to that."

Karen ignored the implicit criticism in his tone and forced a bright smile, keeping her tone conversational when she said, "So, Lacey spent the night with you?"

"Yep."

"In your room."

"Uh-huh."

"In your bed?"

He wasn't fooled by the unassuming nature of her question. She was fairly bludgeoning him to death with each statement she made. Finally, Danny sighed in exasperation, "Nothing happened, Mother. We talked. We slept. She left. That's it."

"Danny, the sleepovers were all very cute and innocent when you and Lacey were six," his mother argued, "But now you're sixteen. The same rules don't apply. I'm not sure if it's appropriate anymore."

"Are you seriously lecturing me on what is and isn't appropriate?"

Karen regarded him with a taut expression. "I'm still your mother."

"That's a question of DNA, not maternal instincts!" he retorted, "Besides, you've chosen the wrong subject to go all parental over. It's not like that between me and Lacey. We've only just started to be friends again and...she has a boyfriend. This discussion is moot."

"That's not the point, Danny."

"Then what is the point?" he demanded irritably.

Karen cleared her throat several times, her fair cheeks blooming with color as she fumbled for the right words. At last, she said, "You were very young when you were sent away to Huntington. There were a lot of...a lot of things that you never had an opportunity to experience or discuss and...and I think it's time that we do that. We should have a discussion."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"The birds and the bees, Danny."

"The birds and the bees?" he echoed incredulously, "What am I? Five? You're kidding me right now." He could feel a migraine coming. The longer he spoke to her, the more his head pounded.

Steadfast, Karen pressed on in spite of his derision and lack of interest. "We should..." She stumbled again, closing her eyes in a brief bid for courage before she forged on. "We should talk about sex, Daniel. I think it's time."

Danny dragged all ten of his fingers through his disheveled hair. "I can't believe this is happening right now," he muttered under his breath.

"I know the last thing you want to do is talk about sex with your mother, but-,"

"-Mother, this is unnecessary! I know all about sex!" Danny interrupted stridently, "First of all, just because I haven't had it before, that doesn't mean I'm completely ignorant! Second of all, I'm not having sex with Lacey but even if I were...you and I are not going to talk about it!"

"I'm not talking about what you learned from those god-awful hooligans you served with, Danny!" Karen retorted, "I mean the two of us sitting down and engaging in an honest, respectful discussion about sexual intimacy between two people who love each other."

"Dad already had that discussion with me when I was ten," Danny bit back stiffly, "Perhaps you missed it because you were upstairs passed out drunk that night."

Karen reacted to that as if he'd physically slapped her. Her large, blue eyes brimmed with tears but she managed to maintain her poise. "Alright then," she conceded thickly, "Why don't we address this resentment you obviously still harbor towards me instead?"

"What do you want me to say?" Danny asked in a weary tone, "You've been checked out on me for most of my childhood."

"But I'm trying now, sweetheart! Can't you see that I'm making an effort?"

"Yes, I can. I can see that."

She slumped forward as her tears spilled over. "But it's not enough, is it?"

If Danny thought he hated himself before that moment, his mother's quiet weeping only tripled the self-loathing eating its way through his heart. When he spoke again, his words had lost most of their edge and anger. "I'm screwed up, Mother," he told her softly, "I'm very screwed up and... I'm never going to be able to give you what you want. The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can find some way to exist together without so much tension."

"What is it that you think that I want, Danny?"

"A normal son. A good son. An honest and decent son and I am none of those things and I never will be!"

Karen stepped forward to cup his cheek, tenderly brushing away the lone tear that had spilled down his cheek. "I don't want any of those things," she told him, "All I want is for you to let me be your mother."

Danny stared at her with a torn expression, suddenly wishing and wanting to unburden himself of every bit of pain he had been carrying for nearly the entirety of his life. There was a scared, little boy inside of him that yearned for his mother's love and needed the stability that love could provide. He wanted to believe that Karen was capable of giving him what he needed, that it was possible for her to undo the years of psychological damage she'd wrought with her neglect but the reality of his situation and hers could not be ignored. She was still a broke, unskilled, jobless and disgraced socialite who drank too much and knew next to nothing about raising a teenage boy. And he would always be seen as a conscienceless killer and an ex-convict. They could never be a real family. That time had come and gone long ago.

Frustrated with himself, her and his entire life situation in general, Danny shook off her hand and turned away. "I think the best that we can hope for is amicable coexistence at this point," he told her, "and you'll only have to deal with that until I'm eighteen and then I'm out of here."

"You can't keep shrouding yourself in anger and resentment, Danny," his mother warned, "Like it or not, I am your mother. I've been with you since your beginning. I know you better than you think. You're too angry with me to let yourself even believe that we can be better than this. You're scared to trust me and I understand that. But I promise you, if you try, if trust me again, I won't let you down."

"That's not going to happen. I've gotten this far without you mothering me, Karen," he said, deliberately using her first name as a means to emphasize his disconnection from her, "I'm fairly sure I can manage from this point forward." Suddenly inundated with the need to get out of there, Danny crossed over to the coat closet to grab his jacket and shrug into it.

"Where are you going?" Karen demanded when he headed to the door, "Danny, it will be dark soon!"

"I'm going for a walk," he answered curtly, "I've had enough 'family togetherness' for one day."

One hour later, Danny found himself navigating his way through the dense brush and scattered autumn leaves that marked the path towards the old fort that had been his refuge and hideaway for more than half his life. Many, many times over the course of those years he had gone there to escape, to think and to cry. Rarely had he ever had to go alone, however. Either Jo or Lacey had always been in tow, most of the time it had been both of them. The three of them had shored one another up in a quasi-normal family arrangement. Of course, of the three of them, Jo was the only one to have a non-dysfunctional family unit. Consequently, most of what Danny and Lacey knew about close knit family dynamics, they had learned directly from Jo.

When Danny thought of home then, he often thought of that ramshackle fort because it was there that he had felt loved. It was there that he felt safe. He suspected it had been the same for Lacey. Which was why he was startled but not completely surprised when he arrived at the fort and found her already there, as if she had been waiting for him. She sat perched on the makeshift stoop before the pit, gathering together broken twigs and dried leaves in preparation to make a fire. She glanced up at his entry and even in the dwindling sunlight it was clearly evident that she had been crying.

Before he could even find the words to formulate a greeting she was on her feet and closing the distance between them. He wasn't wholly prepared for the moment when she flung her arms around his neck and hugged him hard but, when she did, Danny didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her and return her embrace. They held onto one another so tightly that there was no space left between them, clinging to each other like two castaways stranded on a life raft in the middle of turbulent seas. It was the first time they had hugged in more than five years and neither Danny nor Lacey had realized how profoundly starved they had been for the contact until they finally had it again.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lacey finally lifted her face from the crook of Danny's neck and gradually extricated herself from his arms. "Sorry," she mumbled gruffly, unable to meet his eyes, "I don't know where that came from."

Danny's words were husky with emotion when he replied, "I'm not complaining."

Lacey cleared her throat, taking yet another step back from him as if she did not trust herself to be too close. "I guess you heard about Regina, huh?"

"Jo came by the house earlier. She said her dad confirmed that it was Regina." He reached out to brush away the salty remnants of tears that continued to cling to Lacey's cheeks. "I'm so sorry for your loss, Lace. What can I do?"

"You're doing it. You're here."

"That was a fluke. I had a fight with my mom and I came out here to clear my head. I didn't know you'd be here."

"I knew you would be here." Danny's eyes flared wide in surprise. "I spoke to Jo earlier. My mother has lifted the ban provided we are supervised when we are together. Anyway, she told me that you seemed a little squirrely with her when she spoke to you earlier today."

He squinted at her. "What do you mean squirrely?"

"You know how you get. It's your big, manly routine of 'I gotta pull away from you for your own good,'" Lacey clarified in a mocking impression of him, "She said she figured you would run out here to lick your wounds and I agreed. First chance I got, I snuck out of the house."

"That's not going to sit well with your mom."

Lacey shrugged. "At this point, it can't get any worse." She crossed the fort to resume her earlier seat and made a space for Danny to fill beside her. She patted the empty spot. "Get over here."

He complied, his lips curving in a small smile that was altogether too brief. "So how are you holding up with everything?"

"It feels like a dream," she said, "Like it's not even real. I just saw her yesterday. We had this stupid fight and I wasn't even talking to her. It all seems so petty now."

"What were you fighting about?"

Lacey favored him with a bittersweet, sideways smile. "You." He favored her with a darting glance filled with astonishment. "She wanted to get you into bed, Danny."

He scratched behind his ear in a purely self-conscious gesture. "Yeah, I...uh...picked up on that."

"The idea didn't thrill me," Lacey confessed, "and we had words about it."

Danny digested that with a small grunt, his curiosity and his ego stroked by her admission. "Am I not supposed to wonder why the idea of me and Regina hooking up bothered you so much?" he asked softly.

"No. You are not."

The reserved pitch in her reply and her facial expression made it clear that she had no intention of elaborating. Given his own secrets, Danny respectfully decided not to push her. "Point taken." A pregnant pause ensued between them as they both struggled with saying the things they wanted to say but could not find the courage to voice. Finally, when he could no longer bear the silence without fidgeting, Danny asked, "Am I allowed to know how you and Regina became friends at least?"

"Oh, that's easy," Lacey replied with a nostalgic smile, "We met at this birthday party when we were in eighth grade. She made a typical mean girl remark about the dress I was wearing and then she and her friends started to tease me. But instead of bursting into tears and running away, I got angry. I stood up to them all and told Regina exactly what I thought of her.

"She was weirdly impressed with that," she continued, "After I was finished ranting, she announced that she was going to be my friend, like she was doing me this incredible favor or something. We were pretty much inseparable from that point on."

"Wow...sounds like a real solid foundation for friendship there, Lace."

Lacey smothered a giggle at his blatant sarcasm. "Okay, I know it sounds superficial on the surface but Regina really helped me not to focus so much on the things I couldn't change," she explained, "We got each other through some pretty rough times."

"You mean like her father's suicide?"

She cut him a sharpened glance. "She told you about that?"

"It wasn't like she broke down into uncontrolled sobs or anything," Danny scoffed, "She was pretty flippant about it actually."

"That sounds like Regina. But I know for a fact that she took her father's death really hard. Truthfully, the only way to know if Regina was really hurting about something would be how indifferent she acted afterwards. The more apathetic she was, the bigger her heartbreak. But," Lacey added with a fond chuckle, "I'm willing to lay odds that she would have played the 'we both have dead fathers so let's commiserate' card if she thought it would help her get you into bed. She didn't have a drop of shame in her at all."

"Is that what you liked about her?"

"I liked that she kept me from taking myself too seriously," Lacey said, "In an odd way, she grounded me and it was kind of like what you and Jo used to do for me before...before..."

"You mean before I went to prison and Jo went crazy," Danny finished for her quietly.

"Yeah...that."

Danny swept up a fallen twig from the ground and began idly tracing patterns in the dirt, his brow creased with a pensive frown. "Can I ask you something that might offend you?"

Lacey groaned. "That's never a good way to begin a question but, sure...go ahead."

"Okay, so I get why you washed your hands of me," he began carefully, "I pretty much cut you and Jo out of my life after I was sent away to Huntington. But, I don't understand why you gave up on Jo. I mean, I know she was sick and I know that must have been stressful for you but I can't understand why you had to completely turn your back on her. She needed you."

"I didn't give up on Jo," Lacey replied without censure, "She's the one who gave up." Danny surveyed her with a puzzled look. "She didn't tell you, did she?"

"Tell me what?"

"Jo attempted suicide when we were thirteen. She almost died. She spent nearly two months in a mental ward after that. It was awful."

"Are you serious?" Danny balked, swallowing down the sudden bile that rose in his throat. "Please tell me that wasn't because of me."

"You can't blame yourself, Danny. What happened with you might have been the catalyst for everything but Jo made the decision," Lacey sighed, "I lost it after she did that. I knew that if I didn't do something different then I was going to end up exactly like her. I just didn't want to be unhappy anymore."

"I didn't know that."

Noting the descending darkness, Lacey shifted to her knees to get the fire going. Danny moved to assist her and they continued their conversation while they worked. "Why would you have known?" she asked him, "It's not something either of us was eager to tell. I know Jo has regrets about it and so do I."

The fire crackled to life, illuminating Danny's features in a warm, orange glow. "What kind of regrets, Lace?"

"I do feel like I abandoned her," Lacey confessed gruffly, "I live with that every day. In hindsight, I can see where I could have made better choices but I can't do anything about it now. She's always going to remember that I dumped our friendship after she was released from the psych ward. And no matter how much progress we make, I know that's always going to be between us and I hate it."

"I know what that feels like," Danny commiserated, his dark eyes brimming with emotion, "It's the same regret I feel for not answering your letters all those months, especially now when I know what you guys went through because of me. I feel guilty and sad and angry...mostly at myself...because I didn't make better choices and we all suffered for it."

Lacey reached over the pile of leaves and twigs between them to take his hand. She laced her fingers with his. "You know that Jo and I aren't going to turn our backs on you now, right? You're stuck with us so you gotta deal."

Danny shook his head in mournful consternation. "You don't need to be worried about me right now, Lace. Your friend just died. You need to grieve."

"You're my friend too."

He met her eyes with fervid intensity. Their limpid, amber depths burned brightly in the firelight. "Lacey, what if I told you that I want more than that...that I want more than to be your friend? What would you say?"

She rolled away from him with a dismayed whimper and shifted to her feet. "Danny, don't."

Detecting the note of anger in her voice, Danny immediately tried to backpedal. "You're right. I'm sorry," he burst out, "I shouldn't have said that. I'm not trying to upset you."

Lacey stabbed him with an accusing glare. "You promised me that you wouldn't do this again!"

"No, I promised I wouldn't try to kiss you again and I haven't," he clarified quickly, "I was only asking a question, Lacey."

"Well, do you?" she pressed.

"Do I what?"

She made a wild, exasperated gesture with her hands. "Do you want to be more than my friend?"

He tipped back his head to favor her with a bittersweet, lopsided smile. "Lacey, I have wanted more than friendship with you since I was eleven years old," he whispered, "I don't think that's ever going to change. So I guess the real question is...what do you want?"