Kiss in the Dark (4 page)

Reaching out, she pushed the CD player button. As Taylor Swift sang “Love Story,” Boston smiled. Steph never wanted the music on in the car—especially anything even resembling country music—and Boston suddenly felt quite entirely liberated.

“It’s my freaking car!” Boston exclaimed out loud. “I can listen to whatever the heck I want to listen to!”

To further assert her own power, Boston reached out and set the CD player to repeat. All the way back to Danielle’s, she sang “Love Story” with Taylor Swift—sang at the top of her lungs and with such a feeling of triumphant freedom that she arrived at Danielle’s door smiling, rosy-cheeked, and more hopeful than she’d felt in a long, long time.

“Did you forget something?” Danielle asked as she opened the door.

“Nope!” Boston said, smiling. “I told Stephanie I’m getting my own place, and she told me to leave.” Gesturing quotation marks in the air with her fingers, she added, “‘Go find something to do for an hour or two so I can have time to think,’ is what she said exactly.”

Danielle rolled her eyes and laughed with utter disbelief. “Oh my heck,” she groaned. “That girl is whacked! How did we ever get ourselves mixed up with her?”

“I don’t know,” Boston mumbled. She was beginning to feel bad about being so happy at the prospect of ridding herself of Steph’s constant presence. “I think our initial intentions were to help her…you know…teach her how to make friends or something.”

“Those were
your
intentions,” Danielle said. “The rest of us just endure her for your sake.”

“Really?” Boston breathed as she stepped into Danielle’s apartment.

“Of course not,” Danielle giggled. “We all felt sorry for her.” Yet Boston wondered if the first reason Danielle offered was more the core truth.

“Well, I’m glad you finally said something to her,” Danielle said as they sat down at the table. “Do you want some ice cream?” Danielle asked.

Boston smiled. “Sure. Ice cream always makes me feel better.”

Vance was already sitting at the table eating a bowl of ice cream. Boston studied him quickly, feeling sorry for the man. He had no idea what was about to come his way where Stephanie Crittendon was concerned.

“Did you have a nice swim?” Boston asked, still studying him. Mercy—he
was
handsome! She really couldn’t blame Stephanie for wigging out at the sight of him. “You must be a complete prune. You were gone forever.”

Vance glanced up at her then, and Boston was startled; the way his eyes fixed on her caused her to experience an intense, although pleasant, sort of discomfort.

He shrugged broad shoulders and said, “I didn’t want to mess up you girls’ evening, so I went for a run after the pool.”

“Well, I’m sure that was very refreshing,” Boston said. She felt like an idiot!
Very refreshing?
What decade did she think she was in? What century?

“So,” he began, “you’re having roommate troubles, huh?”

“Oh, yeah,” Boston sighed, rolling her eyes. “I’ve been having roommate troubles for a while. But…you know…it’s so sticky…getting out of a situation like that. I mean, she doesn’t have her own car. She’ll have to do the dishes.” Boston paused, frowning as she considered something. “I don’t even know if she knows how to do dishes,” she said. “Plus, she doesn’t have any friends. The only people she hangs out with are us. I feel so awful about it really. I feel worse the more I think about it. Maybe I shouldn’t have—”

“So she hangs out with your friends, rides around in your car, and you do the dishes?” Vance asked.

“Pretty much,” Boston admitted.

“Let me ask you this,” he began. “Does she borrow money from you? Does she whip up a good show of tears whenever you disagree with her on something? You said she told you to leave the apartment so she could have time to think?”

“Yeah,” Boston said tentatively. This total stranger sitting next to her at the table was leading up to something, but she didn’t know what.

“She’s a poisonous friend,” Vance said. He picked up the bottle of chocolate syrup to his right and slathered the remaining ice cream in his bowl with a generous helping.

“A poisonous friend?” Boston asked.

“She puts her own wants, needs, feelings before yours…before your friendship. She uses you at every turn and sounds like a manipulative little—” he paused and glanced up at Danielle. Boston saw Danielle arch one eyebrow in warning to her brother, and he finished, “—a manipulative little wench. She’s what I would tag a poisonous friend. And I’m guessing you’re a very empathetic, caring individual who finds it really hard to say no to anybody about anything. Am I right?”

“Maybe,” Boston said, blushing with humiliation. He’d pegged her! Totally nailed her to the wall. How could he possibly have done it? He’d only met her once before.

“I’m pretty familiar with poisonous friends,” he began, “So my guard is always up. That’s why I can spot them right away. What did she growl at you about when you first got here earlier this evening?”

Danielle set a bowl of vanilla ice cream on the table in front of Boston and smiled. “No, you’re not transparent,” Danielle said. “Vance is just the creepiest people-reader I’ve ever known. Don’t take it too personally. I’ve seen him peg someone’s character by just glancing at them.”

“So you’re judgmental,” Boston teased, reaching for the chocolate syrup and squeezing a generous portion over her ice cream.

Vance chuckled. When he looked at her again, he was smiling, and Boston was astounded that he was even more good-looking when he smiled.

“No. Just…just observant,” he said. He laughed and added, “Besides, just before you came back, Danielle was sitting here telling me everything about all her friends. She’d just finished up about you and your roommate.”

“Danielle!” Boston exclaimed, laughing. “You were letting me think he was, like, psychic or something!”

Danielle laughed too. “Oh, don’t let him fool you. He sort of is!” Danielle said. “Sure, I told him some stuff. But that whole poisonous friend routine…that’s purely Vance Nathaniel and his theories.”

“But I’m right…aren’t I?” he asked Boston.

Boston couldn’t help but smile at him—couldn’t help being momentarily smitten by how handsome and charming he was. “Maybe,” she said.

He chuckled and returned his attention the bowl of ice cream on the table in front of him.

“I’m right,” he mumbled.

“So…you’ve told Steph you’re moving out. Now what?” Danielle asked. She glanced to her brother a moment. “I don’t suppose it would be appropriate to have you move in here with Vance and me.”

“You can share my room,” Vance teased. “There’s only one bed…but I’m all good with it if you—” Danielle slapping him soundly on the top of the head silenced him.

Boston giggled as Vance mouthed, “Ow!” at his sister.

“But when Vance’s house is finished, you can totally move in with me! It’s what I wanted you to do before…remember?” Danielle reminded.

Vance looked to Boston, then to Danielle, then to Boston once more. “You’re kidding me, right?” he asked. “There’s no way you’ll last two weeks with this chick! You’ve offended her pride; she’s ticked off. You’re a girl. Do you really think she can be amicable for two weeks?” He shook his head. “Nope. She’s gonna make your life a living hell.”

“Thanks for the encouragement,” Boston said, stirring her ice cream and chocolate syrup in the bowl. Once it was smooth, she put a heaping spoonful into her mouth and sighed, “Mmm!”

She felt somewhat self-conscious when she noticed both Danielle and Vance watching her—Danielle with apparent amusement, Vance with something akin to befuddled intrigue.

“Oh, I do!” Boston said, stirring her ice cream some more. “No doubt she would’ve found a way to drop by your office so she could check him out…and then try to steal him. She answered my phone when Logan called the first time today.”

“Oh my heck! I don’t know how you tolerate her!”

But Boston shook her head. “Let’s not talk about it. Worrying about Steph occupies too much of my time anyway. Tell me about the guy at work.”

Danielle’s face brightened. Her smile was so broad Boston wondered if her face might crack clean in half.

“His name is Theo, and he’s
so
cute! He wears these little bow ties that are so adorable and—” Danielle began.

“Danny!” Vance interrupted. “Are you kidding me? Bow ties?”

“Yeah! He sort of looks like Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies. He even wears glasses. He’s just the cutest handsome I’ve ever seen!”

“I’ve only been here one day…and with all you girls around—with no guys in my corner—what will I be like after a month of this? My estrogen level must’ve already gone out of sync.”

“Estrogen levels? Why do you say that?” Boston asked, giggling.

“Because right now, as I’m sitting here, the thought is running through my mind that Harrison Ford
is
kind of cute wearing glasses and a bow tie.”

Boston and Danielle erupted into pealing laughter. They laughed and laughed—then laughed harder! Boston couldn’t catch her breath. Her lower back began to hurt with the force of the laughter. Danielle was out of control, rocking back and forth, gasping for air.

“It’s not funny,” Vance grumbled.

But as Danielle and Boston continued to laugh, Vance growled with disgust. He stood, taking his bowl of ice cream with him as he sauntered over to the couch.

“You’ve got satellite, Danny, right?” he asked, depositing himself on the couch and picking up the remote. “Let’s hope the Military Channel or something with a little testosterone is on.”

Boston’s and Danielle’s laughter was renewed, and Boston stamped her feet on the floor trying to gain control of the painful laughter.

“Well, I’ll say this for you and your friends, Danny. You sure are easily entertained,” Vance said, shaking his head.

“Oh my heck! Oh my heck!” Danielle gasped, finally able to draw a deep breath.

Boston sighed and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. “Oh, I feel so much better!” she said. “I swear…there’s nothing like a good laugh.”

“Oh my heck!” Danielle breathed. “I swear he cracks me up so bad sometimes!”

Boston glanced to where Vance sat stretched out on the sofa, eating his ice cream—his head bobbing back and forth to the rhythm of the
COPS
theme song as images of police officers handcuffing bad guys flashed on the TV screen.

“You go on and talk about your boy toys, girls,” Vance said. “Me and Officer Rodriguez are going on a drug bust in New York City.”

Boston giggled again and asked, “Is he always that funny?”

Danielle shook her head. Lowering her voice, she said, “Not always…and there’s the deal. It’s usually accidental like just now! I mean, if he tried to be funny…it wouldn’t be nearly as funny!”

“I feel so much better,” Boston sighed. She ate a spoonful of ice cream, and a residual giggle of amusement caused her to choke. She coughed and ate more ice cream. “I can’t tell you how rotten the atmosphere in our apartment is. I can’t wait to get out of there.”

“I can’t wait for you to get out of there either!” Danielle said. “Steph…she’s a piece of work.”

“You have no idea,” Boston said, rolling her eyes. She looked to Danielle and lowered her voice even further. “You know she’s already planning her wedding to your brother, don’t you?”

“What?” Danielle exclaimed in disgust. “Oh, please tell me you’re kidding, Bost.”

Boston shook her head. “Nope. He’s all she talked about on the way home,” she whispered. “She went on and on and on about how hot he is…how she felt like she’d known him her entire life! Actually, it was after blabbering on about Vance that she launched into this whole thing about how people meet…how interesting it is to hear stories of how couples find their mates.”

Danielle stuck out her tongue and put a finger toward her mouth to indicate she wanted to vomit. “How they find their mates?” she repeated. She giggled then and whispered, “Actually, that’s kind of funny…considering Vance will be the exhibits curator at the zoo soon!”

Boston laughed, nearly sucking ice cream into her sinuses. Shaking her head, she whispered, “It still nauseates me though. Plus, what if she did manage to catch him? Then we’d be stuck with her forever! At least you would.”

“Won’t happen,” Danielle said. “Not in a billion years. Vance pegged Steph the minute he met her…I know he did. He won’t give her a second look. I don’t care if she was a dead corpse still hanging out of an anaconda’s mouth—he wouldn’t look twice.”