Dannika Dark: Six Months

I drifted away from the door and stood by the sink. Maddox ducked his head and moved inside, shaking water off his hat.

“You mind if I sit?” he asked, motioning toward the sofa on his immediate right. I shrugged and he sat down with his knees apart and forearms resting on them, leaving the door open. “Ginny was pretty good about settling her small loans. I know she died a ways back, and let’s just say I have a soft spot for women and decided to give you a grieving period.” Maddox stared at the hat in his hands. “One thing I’ve got is time. But time’s up and there’s no clean slate with my loans due to death. I’m not insured like the bank. Her debt rolled over to the next in line and that’s you.”

“Fifty? I can’t pay you that much money. I don’t even have enough to buy a car.”

He obscured his mouth with his hat and glanced around the trailer with a contemplative look in his eyes. Oh please, let this guy have a heart.

“Tell you what. I’ll give you a week to figure it out, then I’ll come back for a visit and see what’s what. You got something you can liquidate? You better do it.”

“Why did she borrow that much?”

“I don’t ask what people do with my money. I don’t care. I baby-step them into my services to see how good they are about paying back the interest. You seem like a smart girl; you don’t know what she would have needed that much money for?”

God. I did. To help put me through school. Grandma had helped pay for college, but I’d assumed she had money stuffed in a savings account or it was coming from her paychecks. Rose had saved up for her VW by working summer and evening jobs, and I shared a car with Grandma. The trailer had been paid off for eons, so I couldn’t think of another explanation.

I never thought it was possible to hate someone for loving me so much.

He scratched his beard, staring at a short stack of paperbacks on the counter. “You got a boyfriend? To help you out, I mean.”

“I think you need to go.”

“I’m a reasonable man,” he said in a smooth voice, rising to his feet. “You’ll see that in no time. Charmed to meet you, April Frost.” He opened the door and peered over his shoulder. “Stay dry.”

Early the next morning, I had a banana for breakfast and decided to walk to the local drugstore to shop around before my afternoon shift began. Since morning sales were slow, we usually gave those hours to the part-time girls. That meant I could sleep in, but today my thoughts were in a scramble and I needed to take a walk and clear my head.

I slipped on a pair of black biker boots to keep my feet dry. Perish the thought I was making a fashion statement when I put on a pair of leggings and an oversized black shirt. In the summertime, I loved wearing Capri pants and fashionable sandals. But with the cold weather fast approaching, I began to dip into the bottom drawers and pull out some of my casual-crazy wear for gloomy weather.

An indie group played on my earbuds and I walked into Walgreens, humming along and tracking in a few streaks of mud behind me.

“Can I help you?” I heard a voice say over my music.

A middle-aged woman with a prominent mole on the side of her nose and heavy glasses stared at me impatiently. The small tag on her blue shirt displayed the name Patsy.

“Where’s your perfume?” As if I didn’t already know.

She pushed her glasses up her nose and stole a glimpse of my boots. “This way.”

Sometimes they put the perfume samplers on display, but this was not one of those days. The boxes were sealed in plastic and locked behind the glass case. It was ludicrous to think someone would come into a store and steal a bunch of perfume when they had expensive makeup at their fingertips. So I wandered the store and scoured the clearance aisle for makeup, sifting through green eyeliner and whore-red lipstick. I’d learned to make things stretch; it’s something my grandma had taught me. It’s why I’d adopted the smoky liner look—that stuff went a long way and didn’t require eye shadow. Rose had also showed me a neat little trick of using a Q-tip to get all the lipstick from beneath the barrel. We had become quite resourceful in learning how to save money when it came to expensive makeup.

I lied whenever someone asked how I was doing. People don’t want to hear the truth. Lexi had given me a slight salary increase, but it wasn’t enough to get me where I needed to be. One of Austin’s brothers was helping her manage the business and analyzing her profit margin, so she’d told me to hang tight until she got a firm grip on the finances. Lexi’d really had a lot dumped on her at once and had taken it like a champ. There’s a huge learning curve with operating a business, but she stayed positive, and to be honest, Charlie chose the right person. Lexi had been working there for years and knew what it took to keep things running. So I’d been putting aside all my money and living off the necessities. Things like junk food, movies, and books were temporarily cut out of my budget.

“April Showers,” a bristly voice said.

Loud enough that I heard him over my music. I popped out one of my earbuds, knowing who it was before I looked up at his handsome face.

“You really need to stop calling me that,” I said, quirking my mouth.

“When I’m near you, I feel nothing but showers of love, babe.” Trevor offered a staggering smile and lifted me off the ground, embracing me in a tight hug. “Missed you.”

“I missed you so much, Trevor. When did you get back in town?” I grunted as he squeezed so tight my lungs constricted.

“Last night. Should have known I’d find you perusing the makeup aisles or at the bookstore. Any good romances I should know about?”

I chuckled when he set me down. “Didn’t you get my last e-mail?”

Trevor’s razor-cut brown hair had an edgy style with dark highlights. He liked combing his hair in different directions across his forehead. Trevor was the most fashion-forward guy I’d ever met—always in designer jeans and a button-up shirt. Today he sported a pair of black leather oxfords with his dark denims. A girl standing near the makeup counter ogled him; little did she know my best friend would be more interested in her boyfriend who was busy sniffing a bottle of body lotion. Trevor looked like an incognito celebrity with his sweet face and sexy lips. He had a commanding presence—like he was somebody important but didn’t want people to know.

He was mysterious, and that’s what I loved about him.

It’s how we met. While riding down an escalator in the mall, I’d watched him going up in the opposite direction and had one of my mantastic episodes. I’d turned around to gawk at him, hadn’t noticed the landing coming up, and had fallen flat on my back.

Little had I known that Trevor was a romance novel hero sprung to life. He’d performed a one-armed vault to the other side of the escalators and run down to make sure I was okay. I still remember the smirk on his face when he cradled my head and asked if I’d fallen head over heels for him.

He had walked me to a nearby bookstore and bought me a latte. After a long conversation, we found out we had a lot in common, including our love for reading. I’d always been a huge fan of romance novels, whether contemporary, paranormal, or something risqué. Trevor offered me a unique chance to hear a man’s perspective on books, and I got him reading a bunch he’d never heard of. In return, he turned me on to indie music.

Trevor loved playing the acoustic guitar and had an appreciation for undiscovered talent. He wasn’t in a band; singing and playing guitar was just something he did when we were lounging around with nothing to do. It was only later that I found out Trevor was gay—I hadn’t had a clue until he brought up his boyfriend in conversation. I didn’t make a big deal about it and neither did he.