When she woke up the following morning, Dani felt a wave of happiness. She was back in her place again, back sleeping next to Jax. Dani felt relieved he knew about Donna. It meant there was one secret less between the two of them.
She tried to lay as still as possible hoping she wouldn't wake him up. Jax had his arm wrapped around her, his breath softly on her skin. Her mind wandered to Opie, and the Niner they killed for retaliation. How was Jax going to put this right? She doubted he wasn't going to do anything now he knew the truth.
The fight they had made her realize she didn't want to keep any secrets from him anymore. This relationship could only work if it was based on truth, not on lies. Jax told her everything, maybe she should do the same.
After what had happened to Abel, Dani was determined not to let him get out of her sight. She counted herself lucky Gemma was there yesterday to get him to the hospital quickly, but what if it had happened when no one was paying attention for a few minutes? The thought of it made her shudder.
She had parked her car on Gemma's driveway, hoping she'd still be home. Dani had come extra early, knowing Gemma was always out and about and it was hard to catch her during the day. Before she made her way over to the front door, Dani got Abel out of the car. There was no bike to be seen on the driveway, so she guessed Clay would already be gone.
It wasn't long before Gemma opened the door after she rang the bell.
"Hey," she greeted her.
Dani figured she caught Gemma just in time, seeing as she was already packing her bag to go. She stepped inside and placed Abel in his car seat on the table so she could still watch him from the corner of her eye.
"I gotta talk to you, Gem," Dani began. She had thought long and hard about this, but she needed to tell her this. She didn't want to keep any secrets from Jax anymore, including this one.
"Okay?" Gemma asked. "Is this gonna take long? I gotta be somewhere."
"No," Dani shook her head. "Can you sit down?"
Gemma frowned, hesitated for a second, but sat down on the chair at the table anyway.
"You need to tell Jax and Clay about what happened," Dani began.
"Tell them about what?"Gemma asked. She was carefully rocking Abel back and forth in his car seat.
Dani scoffed. "You know about what. The rape. I can't keep this from Jax anymore."
"I don't know Dani," Gemma replied. "Imagine what they'll do if I tell them."
"Imagine what Jax will do to me if he finds out I've known for all this time. He'll never look at me again."
Gemma sighed softly.
"And besides, I think it would do you good to tell them. I can see this is a heavy burden on you."
"It's not," Gemma defended quickly, but Dani knew the truth.
"Just think about it, okay?" she said. "I don't want to keep any secrets from Jax, but I know I promised you not to tell him. I'm not gonna break that promise but I think it would be for the best if you told him, and Clay."
Dani felt good after her talk with Gemma, and she could only hope she would listen to her. It would be better for everyone if they knew about this.
After her visit she decided to drop by the café too, seeing if everything was going alright. She knew she wanted to see Elijah again, still wanting to find out what his deal was. Dani didn't know what to make of him. The way he acted around her, the way he talked to her, and he had touched her.
She walked in on an completely empty café, but she figured customers would still come since it was early. She also made a mental note to sort out her administration later today, which had been falling behind a little since she had Abel so often.
"You need to fill up on your chocolate chip cookies," Dani remarked when she noticed the near empty pot.
Elijah hadn't seen her entering, as he had his back towards the door, but when he heard her voice he quickly turned around. A smile appeared on his face.
"I know, I'll do it in a minute," he replied. "I didn't know you were stopping by."
"I felt like a good cup of coffee," Dani said.
"I'll make you one then," he said, turning around again to pour her a cup of coffee.
"So," he began, placing the cup in front of her. "Everything alright with Abel?"
Dani nodded, her eyes shifting to the baby. He was sleeping peacefully, as if nothing had happened yesterday.
"He's fine now. Hopefully it'll stay that way."
"I hope so too," Elijah replied.
Dani smiled softly before taking a sip of her coffee. She had to admit, Elijah's coffee was almost better than the coffee she made, but she didn't want to admit that of course.
"Look, Dani," he started after it was silent for a few seconds. "I want to ask you something."
She looked up from Abel to Elijah, raising her eyebrows.
"I'm listening," she said.
"I would like to take you out for dinner sometimes," Elijah asked her confidently.
Dani frowned as she froze for a second. Her suspicions had been true. Elijah had been flirting with her, and now he was asking her out on a date?
"Elijah, you know I'm with Jax," she replied, cocking her head to the side. "And I'm your boss."
"I can take on Jax if I have to," Elijah replied with a smile. "And it doesn't bother me that you're my boss."
Dani sighed. She had to make it clear to him this was never going to happen. If he continued the flirting after today she had no other choice but to fire him, which was something she didn't want to do. Elijah was a great asset to the café, if he'd just stop the flirting.
"I doubt you can take him on," Dani chuckled, having seen Jax fight many times. "Trust me, you do not want to fight him."
She pushed her empty cup back towards him and put her hands on the counter. "Look, Elijah. You can stop the flirting because you'll never get me, okay? I have been in love with Jax since I was fifteen, you can't change my feelings. I will not go out to dinner with you as your date. As a friend I might consider it."
Dani could see the disappointment in his eyes, but eventually he gave in and nodded. "Okay. I'm sorry I asked, Dani. I really liked you and since you and Jax were having problems, I figured…"
"Me and Jax are not having problems," Dani snapped back. "Don't worry about it. Just focus on your work and please stop flirting with me so Jax won't have to kill you and I don't have to fire you, okay?"
Dani was glad she caught Jax at home, wanting to talk to him about something. When she approached him, a scent she could not place hit her. She sniffed a couple of times as she came closer, but she perfume she was smelling on him was definitely not hers, and most definitely not his.
"Have you been to CaraCara?" she asked frowning. She took Abel out of the car seat and placed him in the crib in the corner of the living room.
"Yeah, how did you know?" he replied. He pushed himself upwards from the couch and moved behind her, resting his head on her shoulder, his hands on her hips.
"You smell like it," Dani replied, chuckling softly. She turned around to face him, his hands remaining on her hips.
The fact that he had been to CaraCara would've made her angry before, but she trusted him. Besides, she made it very clear to Luann what she would do if any of the girls were ever to touch him.
"I wanted to talk to you about an idea I had," Dani started, almost too excited to tell him. "I want to sell my house. Move in with you permanently."
Sleeping at her own house made her realize how it was a good idea to sell it. Besides the obvious fact that having a house she would never sleep in was expensive, she also felt like it was bad luck. Instead of escaping to her own bed every time they have a fight, they needed to work it out like grown adults. It was time to move in permanently.
"I think that's a great idea babe," Jax replied. "We could be a real family."
Dani smiled. "That was my idea exactly."
A/N: Final update before I go on holiday! I will be back next friday so there won't be any updates for at least a week. I'm not brining my laptop with me on holiday, so sadly I can't update during that time. Hopefully I'll see you all next week and please let me know where you would like to see this story go! I could definitely use some inspiration at this point :) Take care!