Free You Can't Go Home Again by Aubrianna Hunter

since breakfast had been after eleven a.m., lunch was around three.
When all was said and done, they ran back to the grocery store to pick up some
things they needed for tomorrow.
    Walking through the store, her mind wandered. Dani sighed a
little at the thought of tomorrow’s barbeque. More questions, more people to
see. More of Jace. And she’d have to face Nicole.
    Dani hadn’t been lying when she’d told Jace she liked
Nicole. She really did. The woman was way too sweet not to like. Now she had to
look her in the eye and pretend that she hadn’t been wrapped around her
boyfriend in the last twenty-four hours. Another wave of guilt swept through
her. As much as she was enjoying being here, coming back had been a huge
mistake.
    She thought about the fight with Jace. She still couldn’t
believe she’d screamed at him, let alone what she’d screamed. She had always
been the calm one, more in control of her temper, her emotions. He seemed to
bring out the worst in her. She had managed to keep control of her own anger
the first two times he’d insulted her, so maybe this venting was exactly what
she’d needed. Maybe now they could talk and put all of this behind them.
    Dani rolled her eyes at her own thoughts. Not bloody likely.
So, tomorrow, instead of allowing another scene at the party, she would simply
avoid him. If she managed to avoid Nicole in the process, well, then so much
the better.
    She figured it had to be better to avoid him, since she
wasn’t at all sure she could hold her tongue any more. She had been trying to
keep things calm for Jenn’s sake. After this morning, finally letting her anger
run loose, she didn’t think she’d be able to rein it back in. In fact, she was
fairly sure she would scream at him again. And she would enjoy it. Again.
    After the kiss, and her response, she’d been humiliated.
She’d always found cleaning therapeutic, and about halfway through Jenn’s
kitchen, she’d gone from humiliated to irate. Dani had always had a fairly long
fuse, but once she was mad, the mad tended to stay awhile. And right now she
was furious.
    When Dani grabbed a container of Ex-Lax and tossed it in the
cart, followed by denture cream, Jenn couldn’t hold her tongue any more.
    Giggling her way through the words, Jenn asked, “So… You’re
constipated and you need more denture cream? When did you lose your real
teeth?”
    “Huh? What are you talking about?”
    Jenn laughed even harder at the completely stumped
expression Dani was wearing as she pulled the two packages out of the grocery
cart. “You’ve been out of it all morning. So far, I have pulled out a package
of diapers, a gallon of apple juice, fabric softener and…oh, I left the
maxipads. Did you need those?”
    Dani stared at her, holding the Ex-Lax in her hand. “I
grabbed this?”
    At that, Jenn roared, laughing so hard tears started to run
down her cheeks. “Okay, just tell me what he said this morning. You were
obviously upset when I got there, but I was giving you time to work it out. So,
what happened?”
    Dani set the package back on the shelf, pulling out the
maxipads as well. “Nothing, really. We just fought again.” She shrugged. There
really wasn’t much she could tell Jenn without telling her everything, and she
really didn’t want to get into that.
    “He was going to apologize. He told me last night.” Jenn
kind of wiggled her head at Dani’s look. “He came back while Brian was taking
you home. He apologized to me, said he’d talk to Bri today and that he’d
apologize to you, too.”
    “Well, that at least explains part of the conversation.”
    “So, what explains the rest of it? You looked shell shocked
when I got there, like someone had just shot your dog, or something.”
    “It’s just…” How did she explain this? “It would be like
fighting with you. We’re friends, or we were at least, so it feels worse. Plus,
just like with you, he knows me too well. Knows too much about me. I