“I am. Just because the last thing I ever wanted was to bring a child into this world the same way I was doesn’t mean things will be the same for him or her. And just because I’m terrified this will be the final”—she let out a shaky breath—“slip up to push my mom away for good is no reason…” She sniffled and wiped her nose. “Is no reason to do something so drastic and dastardly.”
Danny chuckled. “Dastardly?”
Liv’s gaze reconnected with his. “Yes, and stop laughing. This is serious.”
“Very. I know.” He pressed his lips together to let her know he agreed, but while he’d listened to her talk, his muscles had relaxed and his shock been chased away. There were a lot worse things people had to deal with.
“The first thing I did when things went wrong was come running to you. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Like hell you shouldn’t have. I’m glad you’re here. And I might remind you that when things blew up at work, you didn’t run to anyone, you took yourself to a new place and that’s one of the bravest things you’ve ever done.”
“Look where it got me.”
“Not where. What.”
She blessed him with a small smile. “Do you always have to see things on the bright side?”
“For as long as I can.”
Liv squeezed his hand. “How’s that going?”
Danny didn’t want to talk about his choroideremia, the rare genetic disease that slowly caused blindness, but Liv didn’t pity his future, she just wanted an update. Insisted on them, actually, because life’s too short not to be an utter pain in the ass to your best friend, she’d said.
“It’s gotten a little harder to see at night and in my periphery.” With any luck he wouldn’t be blind for at least fifteen more years.
“It’s still okay out in the sun?”
“Yeah.” He wasn’t light sensitive yet, but knew the day would come when he’d rely on sunglasses if he wanted to go outside. CHM harmed the eyes’ photoreceptors.
“The vision loss is different for everyone, right? Which means you are going to set new standards,” she said confidently. She always spoke with conviction on the topic.
“That’s the plan.”
“Speaking of plans…so the part of my brain acting like a crazy person thought if we got married, I’d get a reprieve from all the mistakes I’ve made and tell my parents about the baby in a couple of weeks. They like you more than they like me, and being married to each other wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, would it? Like in movies where friends agree if they’re not married when they turn thirty, they’ll marry each other.”
Didn’t those couples end up falling in love? Christ, did Liv harbor secret feelings for him? If that were true, he’d have to put a stop to this right now.
“Now that I’m sitting here with you, though, the sane part of my brain is telling me to forget it. So what if I got knocked up like my mom warned me against a hundred times? I’ve always been damned if I do and damned if I don’t anyway. There’s no reason to get married just to get my parents approval and save my ego. I’ll go apologize to Mrs. Landry and tell her the truth. I can handle the pity. It’s not like I haven’t experienced it before.” Liv sat taller. “But if I do that you won’t be able to buy this house.”
Danny shrugged.
Liv narrowed her eyes. “You really want this place.”
“We don’t always get what we want.”
She thought on that for a minute. “Is my idea really so awful?”
He rubbed the side of his neck. “You’re talking about a marriage without an end date?”
“Yes. I mean there’s never a guarantee but—”
“You’re not secretly in love with me, right?”
“What? No, you big oaf.” She pushed him in the chest. “But obviously you have reservations—which you should—so forget it.”
When he didn’t answer right away, she moved to stand. He put his hand on her arm.
“Let’s do it,” he said, hoping she didn’t hear the hesitation in his voice.
They stared at each other for several seconds, playing the read-your-mind game they’d gotten good at over the years. “You’re sure?” she asked.
Not really. But he’d vowed a long time ago to protect Liv and do anything for her. Now that extended to her and her baby. Danny wanted to give them the certainty and security he knew Liv had never had with her own family.
“You know where I stand on marriage, so if I’m going to break my rule for someone, it’s going to be for my best friend.”