- 3 -

Mary slowly opened her eyes as the sun shown brightly through the window of her suite. The dull throbbing in her head quickly reminded her of yesterday's tumble into the slot machine and she cautiously let her fingers trace the lump which had taken up residence at the back of her skull.

"Not too bad," she thought to herself as she experimented with a bit more pressure. While it was still tender, it wasn't nearly as bad as she'd expected. Suddenly, she heard a noise from the front room and she sat up--remembering that Danny had slept on the couch.

"Good morning, Sleepyhead," he sing-songed as he breezed into the bedroom pushing a cart covered in food. He was dressed in a different suit than he'd been wearing yesterday and showed no signs of the uncomfortable night he must have spent on the sofa. "How's your head?"

"Much better," Mary replied as she watched him move across the room.

"Wolfgang was in early so I asked him if he'd make you some breakfast. I wasn't actually expecting him to say 'yes', but apparently he likes you," Danny told her as he removed the silver cover from a plate to reveal a stack of blueberry pancakes. It smelled divine and Mary's stomach let out a grumble of approval. They both chuckled at the noise before Mary regained her composure and excused herself to use the bathroom.

After a few moments she returned to find Danny sitting at the small table in the corner of the room—an amazing spread of food laid out in front of him.

"You shouldn't have gone to all this trouble, Danny," Mary perched rigidly in the chair across from him, taking a small sip of her orange juice as she spoke, "I haven't even really been eating breakfast lately."

"Yes, I know," Danny said as he laid a napkin across her lap, "And I must say I'm very disappointed in you, Mary. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day—isn't that what you always used to tell me?"

Mary didn't reply. The truth was a few months ago she would have told Danny that very thing. She'd always taken care of him just like he'd done for her, but somewhere along the way she felt things had shifted and the care she thought was mutual became one-sided. She felt like instead of a caring friend Danny saw her as a nag. Looking back she wasn't sure when things had taken that turn, but she knew exactly when she'd finally figured it out. Even though Danny's relationship with Penny had been based on a lie, his indifference to Mary and her opinions during the last part of it had made her realize that things would never be the same. During that time he'd avoided her calls like the plague and despite the fact that she was still helping him pack up his dad's things he remained cold and distant.

She didn't blame him for it. In fact, Mary told herself that she probably deserved it. She knew her relationship with Jake had hurt him deeply despite his efforts to hide it. Mary had wanted him to find happiness, but all the effort she'd put into rebuilding their relationship in the months after his father died had been tossed out in a second. He'd turned to the new woman in his life and Mary realized that she'd never hold that special place in his heart again. If it wasn't Penny it would be someone else. The night Ed had offered her the position of hotel manager, Danny had been her first call, but when he didn't answer his phone, somehow Mary knew that she'd been pushed down the list and she cried herself to sleep that night—alone in the bed she shared with Jake.

Things were different now—they had to be. She couldn't cry over Danny McCoy or anyone else anymore. She supposed it was her pride finally bubbling to the surface that had made her pull herself as far away from him as she could get. She didn't want to lose him completely, but she needed to find out who she was separate of him. Even Jake, in the last days of their failing relationship, had called her Danny's little puppy dog--always following him around desperate for any scraps he would give her. Well not any more. She was done taking whatever the men in her life were willing to give. The declaration sounded empowering in her head—now she just had to get her heart on the same page.

"Earth to Mary," Danny interrupted her thoughts and she realized she'd been sitting with her fork halfway to her mouth for quite some time. "Anything you want to share with the rest of the class, Miss Connell?"

"N-no," Mary stuttered. "I was just thinking about everything I have to do today."

Danny could tell she was lying, but he didn't want to push. He'd done enough of that last night and he didn't want to scare her off completely.

"Well, I'll let you finish your breakfast and get ready then. Maybe we can meet up for lunch later if you're not too busy."

The automatic protest died on Mary's lips when Danny leaned over and kissed her softly on the side of her mouth—placing his hand over hers where it lay on the table.

"I'll see you later, okay?" Danny looked deeply into her eyes as he waited for an answer. Mary stared at their hands for several long moments--finally forcing herself to meet his gaze and giving him a slight nod before turning back to her breakfast. Danny gave her hand one last squeeze and headed out of the suite.

Once the door was securely shut behind him Danny let his head bang softly against the hard wood. At so many points in his life he'd been able to look in her eyes and see everything he needed to keep him going and now she just looked broken. Had he done that to her? Had Jake? He supposed at this point it didn't matter--he was determined that he would be the one to fix it.

---

Danny walked into Wolfgang's to see his friends waiting for him at a back table. He sat in the only remaining chair between Delinda and Mike and gave the waitress his drink order. He hadn't been at the table five seconds before he felt a hand on his knee and for the first time in his life he actually hoped it was Mike's. "No such luck," he thought as he glanced down to see Delinda's slim fingers working their way up his leg. He discreetly moved her hand back to her own lap and gave her a pointed look before addressing Mary who was seated across the table, "I was getting worried about you, Mare. Why haven't you been answering your phone?"

"I've been meeting with the auditors all day and I had it turned off," she said without looking up from her menu.

"Your head still doing okay?" Mary couldn't help but be touched by the concern in his tone. So much so that she felt it necessary to take a deep breath before responding—just to keep her emotions in check.

"Yeah. Just a bit of a headache, but that's all," she graced him with a warm smile before turning her attention elsewhere.

"So, Sam, I hear Casey's going to be here next week. Have the two of you come to any sort of agreement?"

"Yeah, he's giving me a nice settlement and stock in the Montecito so at least I'll have some say about what goes on around here."

"And all you had to do was calm down and be nice to the poor dude," Mike chimed in.

Everyone shared a good laugh at Sam's expense before the waitress arrived to take their order. Danny could see that Mary was a bit more relaxed than she'd been earlier and he was glad that she seemed to be enjoying herself a bit. He wanted her to be happy before anything else and he hoped he had just the plan to make that happen. He'd lost quite a bit of sleep over the last few nights, but he felt that he'd come to some pretty important conclusions. No matter what, Mary had always put others first--even at the cost of her own happiness—and Danny realized now that even though he loved her beyond words he had done a terrible job of showing her just how much she meant to him. Mary had been on the back burner in too many people's lives for too long and Danny was the worst offender of all. He intended to shower her with so much attention that she couldn't help but feel special and loved and hopefully somewhere along the way she'd fall for him again.

Almost before he could finish that thought he felt Delinda's hand again. In the two months since their conversation neither one had given any indication that they planned to consummate their drunken agreement. Of course, now that he'd finally realized that he wanted to be with Mary, Delinda would decide to make a move. If he could just get through this lunch then he could take her aside and explain that he wasn't interested anymore—that he'd decided it was better if they were just friends. Unfortunately, Delinda was hell-bent on causing a scene as she moved beyond his thigh to his groin. Danny shot up from the table—knocking his chair over in the process.

"Danny, are you okay," Mary asked him, alarm clearly evident in her tone.

He briefly thought about faking a story about something running across his foot, but considering their recent health department problems, he quickly decided against it. He still had to get out of there fast before Delinda's wandering hand tore through the last delicate threads of his relationship with Mary--threads he was trying desperately to weave back together. "I just… I just remembered I forgot to do something. Will you have them box up my food? I'll pick it up later."

Ignoring everyone else at the table Danny leaned down to kiss Mary's head before hastily exiting the restaurant. The rest of the group, including Delinda, were so startled by Danny's strange departure that they didn't notice the gesture, but it definitely was not lost on Mary.