Page 34 of Killer Summer
“I suppose I am.” Dani placed her grocery bags on the counter. “I’m moving soon, so the less I have to take with me the better.”
“Oh yeah? Where too?” Ethan placed his grocery bags on the counter next to hers and passed her the bottle of wine.
Dani retrieved two wine glasses from her kitchen cabinet, pondering her response. How much did she want to disclose? Jessica at work already had a vague idea about her early retirement plans, so it was likely that half the staff knew too. The fact was, Dani was warming up to Ethan, and fast. It had been a long time since she allowed herself to be vulnerable. She wasn’t a teenager anymore, but she was still human after all. If there was any hope of him being more than a one night stand, she would have to open up to him eventually.
“My aunt has some property in the mountains,” Dani said. “She wants to start a survivalist school. I’m going to help her run the place and figure out how to get some subsidized funding so we can provide scholarships to those in need.”
“A survival school, huh? You mean like scouts, only for adults?”
“Yeah. She, uh … she lived off grid in the jungle in South America for a while. She learned how to hunt and build while she was there. She knows her stuff.”
“That’s so great,” he said. “Sometimes I fantasize about escaping into the woods forever myself.”
“That’s the idea,” Dani said, bringing out the wine bottle opener. “I was going to wait until the end of the school year to retire and join her, but between you and me, I might go sooner. I don’t think I can hack it anymore.”
“I get that,” Ethan said. “It’s the first day and I feel burned out already.”
Dani uncorked the bottle and poured two glasses of expensive chianti. She passed a cup to Ethan and clinked her glass against his. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.” Ethan took a sip and placed his glass on the counter. “So, you’re really going to quit?”
“Yup,” Dani said. “After today, I realized I’m done. Something came up, and I just need to call it quits.”
“That’s too bad,” he said. “I was looking forward to getting to know you a little better.”
“Yeah,” she said, a sad smile set on her lips. “I was too.”
“Do you have a cast iron pan?” he asked.
“Sure. I’ll dig it out.”
Dani retrieved her only pan from her spartan cabinets and placed it on the stove top. She attempted to relax and chatted with Ethan between sips of chianti. He found an onion and a half-empty container of mushrooms in her fridge and diced them, all the while listening as she filled him in on which administrators were secretly dating, which instructors to avoid, and which students were her favorite. Ethan proved to be every bit as charming and useful around the kitchen as she anticipated he would be, a fact that both warmed and broke her heart all at once.
She cleared her throat and poured a second glass of wine. “So, I watchedInterferencewith my Aunt Lisa the other night.”
“Really.” Ethan snickered as he plated up their dinner. “What did you think?”
“I liked it better the second time around,” Dani said. “I don’t think I appreciated it for what it was when I saw it in the theater, but the story grew on me.”
“Well, don’t feel bad,” he said. “Most people hated it, even after it won all those awards. But I’m proud of it.”
“You should be proud. When you make something new and different, not everyone will enjoy it or understand.”
“That’s the truth.”
Dani took their plates to her kitchen table, her stomach a hollow, empty pit. Her desire to binge her favorite comfort snacks was gone, her hunger for food replaced with an anxious, gnawing urge. She glanced out the kitchen window and shut the blinds as a car passed by.
Ethan sat opposite of her and opened a second bottle of wine. “So, Dani Spencer. Tell me about yourself.”
Dani pushed her empty wine glass toward him. “What do you want to know?”
“Oh, the usual. Where you’re from, how many ex-husbands you’ve got buried in your backyard.” Ethan winked. “You know. Normal stuff.”
“Ha! There’s nothing normal about me,” she said. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“About your dead ex-husband's? You would be surprised.”
“No, about where I’m from. About my past.”
