Chapter Thirteen

Emily finds out the truth about Daniel's girlfriend, and there is a stand off between her two favourite guys.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“My girlfriend? I don't have a girlfriend!” Daniel protested. I had evidently hit a nerve. “I thought you and I were....”

The roller-coaster juddered, threatened to toss me overboard, but I held fast, tried to stay calm.

“I saw you together yesterday, getting into your car; she was laughing. Cassandra spoke to her on Sunday, told me this girl was staying at your place!”

“She was” Daniel admitted, “but Robbie's not my girlfriend....” he tried to explain but I refused to listen. He followed me inside, closed the front door in his wake and put out a hand to stop me, but I sidestepped him. “Emily, stop! Let me explain. Em.......”

Anger and confusion overwhelmed me as I retreated to the kitchen, putting some space between us, but there was only so far I could go. I turned my back to hide the tears welling in my eyes. I would not cry; get a grip, I willed myself. Dolly had been wrong. I was falling for Daniel, and falling hard.

Daniel had followed me into the room. I knew he was standing close behind me. As he put a tentative hand on my shoulder I wheeled around sharply, knocking it away, hurled my anger at him. I knew my words would hurt him, but I let go anyway. My heart said no, but my mind disobeyed.

“You said you couldn't see me for a few days, and I thought you were busy at work. But no, you were with your girlfriend!” I jabbed my finger at his chest to punctuate my hateful tirade. I was unaware of moving forwards but I had forced Daniel to back up against the table. “I suppose journalists are like sailors, a girl in every port!”

Daniel stood his ground and grabbed my hands, held them still against his chest. His eyes locked on to mine, held my gaze. I could not look away. Those beautiful, sexy, blue eyes.

“I never meant to deceive you, Em.” I tried to back away, but he held me captive. “She's my sister.”

“You don't have a sister!” I argued. “You never mentioned a sister!”

“Yes I did” Daniel insisted. “I told you I had a twin sister, Robbie. She's been staying with me. When you saw us I was taking her to the station to catch her train home.”

“But Casey said...” I had jumped to the wrong conclusion, just like my big sister always did. But I had seen them too, and believed the worst.

Daniel wrapped his arms around me, held me close, kissed my hair. Being in his embrace felt so natural, so right, as if somehow we'd done this before, long ago, in another lifetime maybe.

We stayed up late that night, watching back-to-back reruns of a classic comedy that never gets old and is so quotable, laughing fit to bust. Daniel told me about his sister, Robbie, which was short for Robin.

“She hates her name. Never, ever call her Robin,” he warned.

Robbie was on leave from the army before being deployed to Iraq, where she would be helping to train Iraqi and Kurdish troops to fight ISIS. Daniel said he worried about Robbie all the time, that he would know instinctively if anything happened to her.

When we got hungry we raided the fridge. Daniel made a kind of scrambled cheesy omelette, with loads of veggies; 'Cooper's Confusion' he called it, a dish well named; I'd never seen any cook make so much mess before.

I awoke next morning with a feeling of deepest content; something special had happened the night before. As I lay in my bed, sunshine illuminating the room, I tried to remember, but my still drowsy mind wouldn't quite focus. I felt I wanted to do something, to give something back to the world, do a good deed, make an effort to help my fellow man. I just needed an idea, the right opportunity.

My idyll was rudely shattered by raised voices coming from the kitchen; two men, my two men. Memory dawned afresh as I realised that Daniel must have slept over, and Dolly still believed he had a girlfriend. I hastily pulled on my robe and shuffled into slippers; the voices became more heated.

“What are you playing at, Cooper?” That was Dolly.

“It's not what you think. I slept on the sofa” Daniel returned. “Honest.”

“She doesn't want anything to do with you” Dolly fired back. “Fetch your things and get out of our house. I'm not going to stand by and let you hurt her again.” Dolly got right in his face as he delivered his ultimatum but even standing tall he was still several inches shorter.

Seeing their stand-off from the doorway I called out to him. “It's OK, Dolly!” I had never seen him so incensed. “Damien, stand down!” I called again. My words took immediate affect. I never called him Damien, hadn't since we were eight or so.

“Yeah, Damien! Are you jealous? Well, let me tell you something mate, I don't drift in that direction”, Daniel hit back.

I moved further into the kitchen, put myself between my two boys. Daniel was standing beside the kettle, teaspoon in hand, looking gorgeous in boxers and t-shirt. All evidence of last nights supper had miraculously vanished. I wrapped an arm around his waist.

“Everything is alright, Dolly” I repeated. “Daniel explained everything. Robin is his twin sister.”

“And you believe him?” my BFF was still sceptical.

I gave Dolly my best attempt at 'the look' Aunt Jen used to give naughty kids when she was headmistress. He flinched,

“Coffee?” Daniel flourished a mug by way of a peace offering.

“Got to get ready for work” Dolly mumbled, “and so do you!” he reminded me. To Daniel he said quietly “I've got you on my radar, Cooper. You muck it up and your goose is roasted!”

Daniel gave him a mock salute to show he understood, and Dolly did that ' I'm watching you' thing with his fingers before he stomped out of the room and back up to the first floor.

We watched him go. Peace had been restored, for the time being. Dolly always tended to be a little over protective of me when it came to boyfriends. 'In loco fraternis' he called it. He could also be a little unsure of himself, a bit selfish maybe. I was his 'partner', his cover story so he could hide his true persona from Uncle Dickie. He was always afraid without me on the scene Dickie would take away the house, make him homeless. But I knew Dolly would come round eventually; he was not usually one to bear grudges, and I was sure he and Daniel would become firm friends one day soon. In the meantime I really needed to get ready for work.

Daniel gently pulled me closer, into his arms “Good morning” he murmured.

We enjoyed a long, lingering kiss; his beard tickled my face, my neck. This was where I was meant to be. My personal roller-coaster meandered o'er pastures new, 'neath cloudless skies. Who knew what peaks and troughs we would encounter around the next bend in the track.