Free Dark of kNight by T. L. Mitchell Page B

warmed. “It just seems like you are always saving me from a crowd of people.”
    “Oh, that.” He chuckled. “Hungry?” With twinkling eyes, he turned to face me.
    “Sure.”
    “Great! Come on.” Guiding me across the street, his hand slipped around mine. We headed for Tony’s Pizzeria, which happened to be my favorite restaurant.
    Once inside we were greeted by the hostess and seated promptly at a table near the window. After a few minutes, the waitress arrived to take our order. Still studying the menu, I heard Daniel speak up first. “Yes, we will have the medium, thin crust with pepperoni, pineapple and jalapeños. One large coke and one large diet sprite.”
    Smiling politely, I handed the menu to the waitress. Daniel sat across from me with a quirky grin. His eyes flickered with a sense of satisfaction.
    “How did you remember?” the question blurted out my mouth.
    “Your favorite pizza or your favorite pizzeria?” He leaned over the table. “There are many things I could never forget about you,” he whispered as the grin returned to his face when he sat back in his chair.
    When I looked across the table into his eyes, my heart felt like it was on the way to an utter halt. With sweaty palms and dreamy eyes, my blood ran a few degrees warmer than usual. Daniel took my breath away. Placing the food order, he impressed me yet once again by remembering my favorite pizza. The man that sat across the table from me wasn’t the same boy I once knew.
    “What?” he asked.
    “I was just thinking how much you’ve changed.” I spoke in a soft voice as I gazed into his dreamy eyes. “You were just so mean to me when we were growing up.”
    “Well, it was hard to win your attention. You and Casey talked about boys all the time.” A wicked grin formed on his perfect lips.
    “Were you jealous?”
    “Yes.” He laughed. Then a frown crossed his face, “My name never came up.”
    There was an old saying about sticking a knife in someone’s heart. I felt the sharp pain entering into the sacred area because of my shame. I had no response for his statement. I had always looked at Daniel as an older brother, not knowing he had a crush on me. This new all grown up Daniel had changed and was definitely more appealing than he was in his younger days.
    “I am sorry. Maybe it was the wrong thing to say. I seem to always say the wrong things, especially around you.” The uncomfortable tone in his voice disturbed me. Looking up into his face, the agony was apparent.
    “No. No. You didn’t say anything wrong. I guess I’m the one who… .” How could I measure what my thoughts were of him now? “Daniel, you’ve been great.”
    “Aside from being an ass on the first day you saw me in four years?”
    I laughed a little louder than I expected and nodded my head. “Yes, aside from you being an ass. Last night, you were there for me. That means something to me.”
    “Jewels, I will always be there for you. I mean that.”
    Something must have gone right in the universe at that moment, because my heart melted. It was all I could do to restrain myself from leaning over the table and kissing him.
    Suddenly, I realized there were a few topics I wanted to discuss with him.
    “Not to break the current conversation so abruptly, but I do have some questions for you.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “What type of DNA research are you doing? Your presentation sounded too good to be true. The type of technology you describe doesn’t exist.”
    “Apparently it does. We have developed a unique way to cure diseases through DNA reconstruction. It is more complex than what the presentation leads you to believe.”
    “No, I can guess its complex. I just wondered how you began. Usually, you need a type of gene to create a complex organism to replicate. Where did you find the source?” My question struck a nerve with Daniel. His head rose up quickly and his eyes narrowed.
    “How do you know about replication of complex