“Can I not have to do a blow by blow right now?” I requested.

“Anyone want a beer?” Danny asked.

I twisted to give him big eyes because I loved my sister, I loved Rob, but I was down for 300, Chinese, an orgasm where I was sure Danny wouldn’t mind doing all the work, and then sleep.

What I wasn’t down with was having a beer with Sidney grilling me about my day, and Rob doing whatever he was going to do to ascertain he approved of my boyfriend.

But at my big eyes, he just allowed his face to go soft (nice, but that didn’t cut it) and then he winked at me (shit, that worked) as Rob answered, “I’ll have one.”

“I don’t drink beer. Do you have vodka?” Sidney asked.

I sighed.

Then I went stiff because two arms closed around me and they did this tight.

They were Rob’s arms.

I relaxed and slid mine around him too.

“I’m okay,” I whispered.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck me,” he whispered back, these words thick and agonized and said into the top of my hair.

Right, so it wasn’t only Danny who’d had a rough go of the last few weeks while a woman he cared about was in danger.

And…

All right, yeah.

I still had family.

Also, a big fat oh no.

Because I was going to cry again.

I sniffled.

His arms got even tighter.

I lost it.

Damn.

Okay, so maybe it all came crashing down on me in that moment, but yeah, there I was, in Rob’s arms, bawling.

And then I wasn’t in Rob’s arms. He shifted me so I was in Danny’s arms.

Wow, that didn’t take long.

A firm handshake, the offer of a beer, and comforting arms, and he had Rob Approval.

So, of course, this meant I started crying harder.

“She has to get it out,” Danny said, obviously not to me.

“I’ll do the drinks,” Sidney offered quietly.

“And it really is over,” Danny said, my guess, to Rob, specifically, but also to both of them.

“You sure about that?” Rob asked.

“Nothing’s ever sure, man, and you don’t know me, but I’m in love with your girl and you’re important to her so I would never lie to you about something like that.”

What?

Wait.

Whoa.

What?

Oh my God!

Holy shit!

Danny just told me he was in love with me by telling my stepdad he was in love with me.

I grabbed hold of his shirt and started wailing.

GAH!

“Don’t let that freak you out, she’s a crier,” Sidney advised. “I had to turn off a video I thought was cool that had this fireman doing CPR on this cat, who he brought back to life through kitty chest compressions, because she completely lost it.”

I tipped my head back.

Danny looked down at me.

“Y-you too,” I said, meaning I was in love with him too.

He knew what I meant, and I knew he knew because I got his soft face again, but this time it was even softer, and it also was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“Good,” he whispered, moving his hands to smooth my hair out of my face before he tucked my cheek to his chest and rounded me with his arms again, holding me warm and close.

I relaxed into him, held him the same way, and snuffled.

“We were gonna get Chinese,” he announced. “You two in?”

Yeesh.

A beer was one thing.

Dinner?

But I knew what he was doing.

Today, I’d forever and always lost half of my family.

And I came home with the other half waiting outside the door to see if I was okay.

So he was making certain I knew I still had something of meaning.

Still, we could all go out for Chinese some other time.

Like, next week.

“I’m in,” Sidney said.

“We’re not intruding?” Rob asked.

Yes! I thought. We just “told” each other we were in love!

“Not at all,” Danny said.

I let out a breath and relaxed further into him.

“Are you two gonna become one right there by the island? Or, Evie, are you gonna break off so you can give me and Rob a tour of this shit-hot pad?” Sidney asked.

I tipped my head back to look at Danny again.

He dipped in to touch his lips to my forehead.

Yikes, but I loved it when he did that.

“I’ll order Chinese, you do the tour,” he told me.

“Got it,” I replied.

He gave me a squeeze before he let me go and asked the room at large, “Orders?”

Sidney was now at his windows that faced Denver.

I was swiping at my cheeks when she turned to me and declared, “Nighttime, just like this. Sister selfie. Denver at our back. Both of us in a tank top. Big hair. Red lips. I’ll get, like, five thousand likes.”

“I’m uncertain I want a social media presence,” I told her.

She rolled her eyes. “How you can be a tech nerd and not have Snapchat is beyond me.”

“The true tech nerds wrote the code that became the app that is Snapchat and you probably have no idea what they look like,” I returned.

“Whatever,” she muttered.

“Sidney likes spring rolls and moo shu chicken. Evie likes crab Rangoon and sesame chicken. I’ll eat any of that,” Rob ordered for Sidney and me, and the fact he could made me realize that I needed what Danny knew I needed when I didn’t know I needed it.

Family.

And since he knew that, he gave it to me.

And that was how I would always and forever need Danny.

“Gotcha,” Danny said, and when I looked to him, I saw his head bent to his phone, his thumbs moving on it.

I looked the other way when Sidney hooked her arm in mine.

We locked eyes.

“They’re not a loss,” she whispered.

“I know that now,” I whispered back.

The relief in her face made my heart skip a beat.

How had I not noticed how worried my little sister had been about me?

“Good,” she kept whispering. Then she prompted, “Tour.” She pulled me along as she called, “Rob, you coming?”

Rob broke away from the island and came to us.

He then forced his way between us and slung his arms over our shoulders.

I took that as a yes.

I also looked over my shoulder when Rob had to angle us so we could walk in the door of Danny’s room and not come unattached (guess Rob was kinda still tweaked).

But what I saw when I looked over my shoulder was that Danny was no longer informing Postmates of our dinner selections.

He was standing at the island, watching us.

And he was smiling.

And that, too, was what I always and forever would need from my Danny.

Epilogue

Super Fly

Evie

I was really kinda into what I was doing.

So when Danny slid his hand along my cheek, cupping his other under my arm, tugging gently, and I got his message, I lifted my gaze up his glorious chest to his handsome face to share nonverbally I didn’t want to stop.

When we locked eyes (and his were completely dilated), he growled.

Okay, I changed my mind.