Page 32 of The Secret Crush Book Club (Peach Blossom #3)

Twenty-Three

D ani was trying to keep it together as she drove back to the house.

She hadn’t gone into the library intending to walk out with a date for dinner at Zoey’s, especially not after their last conversation.

It hadn’t even taken her a day to regret her words.

She had barely gotten two steps from Zoey’s front door before wanting to turn back around and tell Zoey she was just kidding.

When Zoey had still shown up with books, ready to help out, Dani had given her a watery smile before spending the next couple hours talking to herself while immersed in a tub of water.

If not for Ava banging on the door and needing to get in and ready for a dinner date with Grace, Dani might have stayed in there all night.

She might have walked out looking like a prune with her shriveled-up fingers, but she had come away with the realization that she didn’t want to let Zoey go so easily.

Bringing Jordan to the library to return the books had been an easy excuse to come in and apologize.

That was all she had intended to do. But when Dani was face-to-face with Zoey again, her mouth had run away with her and the next thing she knew, she had a couple hours to prepare to have one of the hardest conversations she’d had in a long while, certainly since she had to explain the birds and the bees to Jordan without sending them both running for the hills.

“Are you and Ms. Zoey going to hang out again?”

Jordan’s question caught Dani off guard, and she glanced over at where he sat in the passenger seat of the car. His voice didn’t give her any clue how he felt about it, so Dani decided to play it safe.

“Yeah. I’m going to have dinner with her tonight if that’s okay with you.” He shrugged but picked at his shorts, which was a telltale sign he had more to say. “Are you okay with that?”

Jordan shrugged again but spoke up this time. “That’s fine. I like her.”

“I know. We talked about—”

“Not like that,” he said, quickly cutting her off. “And it’s not that I like her like her anymore. I just think it’s cool that she knows about gaming and stuff.”

Dani didn’t press the issue. “So, you’re alright with me hanging out with her tonight and later on?”

“Yeah. You smile a lot more after book club, and her brother is pretty cool. He added me on my game, and we obliterated the other team when we did team battles. If you and her stop being friends, he might stop playing and that would ruin my streak.”

“Nice to know where your priorities are, kid,” Dani said with a soft snort of amusement.

As much as she sounded nonchalant, she was very much not on the inside.

She could kick herself for thinking about making a sweeping decision before she even talked to Jordan.

Isn’t that what his dad had done? As much as she had wanted to do differently, at the end of the day she had almost botched this chance at communicating with Jordan to hear his thoughts.

“But what if…what if I wanted to date Ms. Zoey? Like how Ava and Grace date.”

Dani had racked her brain for weeks trying to figure out how to approach this subject, but at the end of the day, all she had come up with was to just do it. Rip the Band-Aid off and ride the wave of pain as it came.

“Okay.”

The answer was simple to the point of causing Dani some confusion.

Okay? Just like that? Was that really all Jordan had to say?

It seemed so anticlimactic and yet, he was just sitting in his seat, totally unbothered by this huge revelation.

How was it that Dani felt this major shift and yet for him it was just another Tuesday night?

“Well…okay then,” Dani said, nodding. She looked back at the road as she turned onto their street. “Good talk.” Beside her, Jordan snickered but she didn’t bother calling him on it.

When they got to the house, Dani was relieved to see Ava’s car in the driveway. As soon as they got inside the house, she was at her sister’s bedroom door.

“Ava? You in there?”

“Yeah.” Ava’s voice was muffled, and Dani opened the door slowly, only peeking in at first to make sure Grace wasn’t in there too.

When she saw Ava sitting at her desk, she sighed in relief and walked in before shutting the door behind her and locking it for good measure.

Ava raised an eyebrow. “Are you about to murder me or something? I promise I didn’t take your purse. ”

“I know you took it, don’t even try that,” Dani shot back as she walked over to the bed and dropped down onto it. “But this isn’t about your sticky fingers. As long as you return it in the condition you pilfered it in, you’ll live. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Ava’s expression didn’t change but she waved for Dani to go ahead.

Dani took a deep breath in before speaking.

She had to be prepared for tonight’s dinner and when in doubt, she fell back on the familiar act of research until she felt she had a better handle on the situation and was equipped to deal with whichever direction things went in.

“I want to have sex with Zoey.”

Silence met her words and Dani sat up with a jerk when she realized she had just come out with it. That wasn’t what she had intended to say. It wasn’t a lie. She did want to have sex with Zoey, but she had planned on easing into that by asking other questions first.

“Wow. Tell me how you really feel,” Ava quipped, making Dani scowl. Ava held up her hands in surrender before a smile split her face. “So, you finally decided to come over to the cool side of the Kinsey scale. Welcome. We have flags and the best agenda ever.”

Dani couldn’t help but chuckle, and shook her head. “Thanks, sis. But I do actually need advice.” She sighed and looked away, feeling strangely young somehow. “Other than myself, I’ve never been with another woman so I’m kind of at a loss about how to approach things.”

“Well, first things first, are you guys just messing around or is there something more there?”

It was a valid question. “We’re having dinner tonight. I know Zoey had wanted to date before I put the brakes on things, but now I don’t know if she’s still going to want that or if I’ve royally fucked myself there.”

Ava sat back in her chair. “I don’t know about that.

She seemed pretty into you and that doesn’t just go away like that.

I think if you sincerely apologize and just explain that you were suffering from a bad case of ‘doing what you thought you should instead of what you wanted to’ she’ll probably forgive you. ”

Dani had planned on apologizing as it was and giving a full explanation of where her head was at. She just hoped it was enough. “Okay. I’ll do that. But what if things do go well? How do I like…” Dani trailed off. She raised her eyebrows, trying to get Ava to get the hint.

Ava snorted and shook her head. “Approaching a woman really isn’t much more different than a guy, especially given you both want each other. I’m assuming you two have already kissed.” When Dani nodded, she continued, “Well, how did that go?”

Dani couldn’t help but smile when she thought about the last kiss she and Zoey had shared. “It was good.”

“Clearly, based on that reaction,” Ava said, rolling her eyes.

“Right, but what if I do it wrong and she thinks it’s not worth it? I’ve only ever had sex with men. What if I suck at women-on-women sex? Looking at lesbian porn just left me with a complex about shaving or not.”

Ava rubbed her forehead. “You’ve said the word sex one too many times for me to deal with this alone, and I never wanted to know about any of your nighttime viewing activities. I’m calling in a reinforcement.”

Dani tried to focus on figuring out who Ava was calling and ignore the downward spiral of her thoughts. When the phone connected and she heard Vini’s voice, Dani wasn’t sure whether to feel horrified or relieved.

“Ava, we talked about this. Time zones.”

“Dani wants to have sex with Zoey. Tonight.”

There was a beat of silence before Vini spoke again, her voice sounding far more awake than before. “Well, hell. Lead with that next time.” There was the sound of shuffling and then the closing of a door before Vini spoke again. “Okay. So, this is serious then? You finally jumped ship?”

Dani chuckled. “I don’t know about all that, but I like Zoey, and I think there’s something there that I want to lean into.”

“And you think about being with her physically?” When Ava asked, Dani gave her an incredulous look. “Hey, just making sure that you aren’t confusing friendship for attraction, and what you want to lean into is her pus—”

“She’s got a point.” Vini spoke up, cutting off Ava’s words. “Are you sure you aren’t just lonely?”

Dani wanted to protest, but the questions were valid, and she knew that.

She needed to think carefully about things to keep from hurting not only Zoey but the people they shared.

If things didn’t work out between them, it could make things awkward.

Still, when she thought about kissing Zoey and going even further than that, her body filled with heat.

The reaction confirmed what she had felt.

And even beyond, she thought about just relaxing with Zoey on the couch with a book and nothing but time.

That was almost as attractive as the sex.

That type of contentment had her sighing wistfully.

“Yeah, Vin, she’s got it bad,” Ava said, breaking Dani from her fantasies.

When she looked up, Ava had a smile on her face that looked equal parts fond and disgusted.

“You should have seen her face when she thought about Zoey. I’ve never seen so many emotions at one time.

It was wonderfully disgusting and I’m happy for you. ”

Dani rolled her eyes but didn’t deny it. She didn’t know what her face had done, but if it moved along the conversation, all the better. “Thanks, I guess. So now will you two help me figure out how to do this?”

Ava rolled her chair closer. “Of course. But first you have to promise to not tell us anything.”

“Agreed,” Vini chimed in. “No details. As long as you’re happy, we’re happy for you.”

Dani snorted. It was hilarious that they were the ones saying that stipulation, but she nodded in agreement. “Fine. Just help a girl out and then I’ll keep my bliss quiet.”

Ava laughed not unkindly. Dani wasn’t sure if she was making a bigger deal of things, but she knew she wanted to get things right this time.