Chapter 72 - Man to Man

Jon paused just inside the door, his blue eyes narrowing behind his sunglasses as he scanned the tables and booths. Spotting the familiar face, he walked over to the table at the back of the almost-empty café, then lowered himself into the unoccupied chair.

“Mornin’,” he said by way of greeting. He took off his sunglasses and laid them on the table.

Danny laid his folded newspaper on the table and looked up at Jon, giving him a slight smile. “Hey Jon,” he replied quietly. He raised his coffee cup to his lips and took a long sip as the waitress approached the table. Jon ordered a cup of coffee, then turned his attention back to Danny.

“Is she okay?” Jon asked, his voice laced with concern. He had been surprised, then worried, when he received the text an hour ago from Danny, asking to meet him at Dawn’s Café.

Danny regarded Jon, his trained gaze evaluating Jon’s nonverbals. He had been watching Jon carefully from the moment he had stepped out of his SUV in the parking lot. After what Cate had told him, Danny had to be sure he was doing the right thing before he went any further.

Danny ignored Jon’s question. “What happened?” he countered. Let’s see what he does…

Jon’s eyes widened and Danny saw a flash of panic. “Is she okay?” Jon repeated, his tone more demanding this time. Jon sat forward in his chair, unconsciously taking an open but confrontational pose. Danny could see that his pulse was elevated, his breathing more rapid and shallow than it had been a moment ago.

Good, thought Danny. He’s being sincere so far. Danny calmly took another sip from his coffee cup, then set it on the table. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly.

Jon’s mouth dropped slightly open in surprise. “Danny…” he started, but stopped when the waitress appeared and set a cup of coffee on the table in front of him with a cheery smile. Ignoring her, Jon stared at Danny, worry now evident in his expression. “Did she tell you anything?”

Again Danny ignored Jon’s question and countered with his own. “What happened?” he repeated quietly.

Jon let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know.” He shook his head helplessly. “We had a fantastic weekend. It was… “ he paused and looked at the table, searching for the words. “… Amazing. Magical. Perfect.” Jon smiled slightly and looked back up at Danny. “She stayed with me last night.”

“You slept with her.” Danny’s voice was flat, devoid of emotion or judgment. He watched Jon closely, seeing a flicker of heat in his eyes.

Jon looked at Danny for a long moment. “Yes,” he answered, meeting Danny’s gaze with a slight challenge.

“You don’t think it’s any of my business.” Danny observed.

“Not really, no. But you’re Cate’s best friend. So if you feel you must know, or if she wants you to know, then I’m fine with it.” Jon answered, with a slight edge to his voice. He regarded Danny suspiciously. “Why, are you pissed? Is that what this is about?” His eyes narrowed as he spoke.

Danny watched as Jon’s posture straightened slightly, his shoulders falling back, his chest flexing, and his hands tightening into loose fists on the table. Defensive response, he noted. Normal, expected. Good.

“No.” Danny answered simply. He took another long pause to see what Jon would do. A person who had something to hide or who felt guilt usually felt the need to explain, or confess, or otherwise fill the uncomfortable silence of an interrogation. And whether Jon knew it or not, he was being interrogated.

Jon sat silent, staring back at Danny, a mixture of confusion, defiance, and annoyance in his expression. His coffee sat untouched, ignored as he focused his attention on the man he had thought was his friend, or at least his ally.

The two men regarded each other for several long minutes. Finally, satisfied with Jon’s reaction, Danny quietly continued. “She stayed with you at the villa last night. After you had sex.”

Jon was starting to get irritated by Danny’s methodical questioning. But he was too concerned about Cate to turn this conversation into an argument. “Yes, after we made love, she stayed with me at the villa.” He shot Danny a direct look. “She wrapped herself around me and fell asleep in my arms,” he added, just a touch smugly.

Danny kept his expression neutral and his gaze trained on Jon, though in his mind he chuckled at Jon’s territorial little jab. Ah, so Rock Star wants to let me know that Cate isn’t mine—she’s HIS, he analyzed. Uh huh….

“So why was she curled up in a chair on my deck when I woke up this morning, before sunrise?” Danny asked quietly.

Again surprise registered on Jon’s face, quickly replaced by concern. “I thought she went home. She… she texted me that she was home, getting ready for work,” he answered. “She went to your house?”

“Yeah. She has a key. But she didn’t come in the house, like she usually does.” Danny paused and stared at Jon. “What happened?”

Jon exhaled the breath he didn’t know he had been holding. He finally recognized the coffee cup was in front of him, and he took a sip. He set the cup back on the saucer and looked back at Danny.

“I don’t know, Man,” he shook his head and shrugged helplessly. “We had an amazing night Saturday and a great day Sunday, then I had to go to the Director’s house for dinner. Cate went home, but she came back over to watch the game after I got back. The storm was coming on and she wanted to get home, but I asked her to stay.”

He paused and looked back down at his hands on the coffee cup, a gentle smile creeping to his lips. “She did. We made love. It was so… intense. Passionate. Romantic.” Jon looked back up and Danny saw the genuine affection in his eyes. “She’s amazing,” he said softly.

Danny didn’t react. He watched and listened quietly, analyzing every nuance of Jon’s demeanor and evaluating his words.

Jon took a deep breath. “She fell asleep in my arms. That was, oh, around midnight or so. Next thing I know she’s up, getting dressed in the dark, telling me it’s 4:30 and she has to go home and get ready for work.” Jon’s brow lined with worry as he described the memory, his expression duly noted by Danny.

Jon continued. “I asked her to stay until the sun came up, but she insisted she had to go. She came around the bed and gave me a kiss, and she had tears in her eyes. Then she ran out of there. By the time I got out of bed, put my pants on, and got to the door, she was driving away.”

Jon paused and looked past Danny, speaking as he thought, trying to figure out what Cate must have done after she left him. “I tried to call her, but her voicemail kept picking up,” he continued. “She texted me about a half hour later and said she was home getting ready for work.” Jon looked back to Danny. “But apparently she was at your place.”

This time Danny saw something new in Jon’s eyes. Hurt. She lied to him, and he felt it, Danny thought. He cares. Danny nodded. “Yeah. She came to my place. That’s what Cate does when she needs to talk, or bitch, or yell, or cry on my shoulder, or just think things through.”

“So she’s not okay,” Jon said quietly. He felt a stab of pain in his heart. What did I do?

Danny sighed, finally showing some emotion. “I don’t know, Jon,” he said again.

After reading the signs Jon had displayed during their conversation, Danny was satisfied that Jon was being sincere and truthful about his feelings for Cate. In fact, he probably had deeper feelings for her than even he realized, or wanted to admit. That was what Danny had hoped to uncover with his covert interrogation. Now he had made his decision.

Danny leaned forward, giving Jon a direct look. “Listen. I’m about to do something against my better judgment. In twenty-three years I’ve NEVER betrayed Cate’s confidence. We have always supported each other one hundred percent, through thick and thin, even when we knew the other was making a mistake. I’ve always had her back, and she’s always had mine.”

He paused and drew in a deep breath. “And that’s what I’m trying to do now, protect her while I support her. Even though she’s about to make one of the biggest damned mistakes of her entire life.”

Jon felt a wave of dread wash over him at Danny’s words and at his tone. He could see where this was going. “She’s walking away,” he said quietly. “From me. From us.”

Danny’s eyes widened slightly at Jon’s unexpected response. From US. Shit, first Cate says she “made love” with him, and now he’s talking about “us.” Holy Hell. This is more serious than I thought. And I don’t think they even know it…

“You told her you want to continue to see her after your training is done this week. You want to do some kind of long-distance relationship,” Danny stated. Jon nodded. “You mean it.”

“Yeah. I do. I don’t want to leave. But I have to.” Jon’s voice was hoarse with emotion. He felt like he had just been punched in the gut. “She doesn’t believe me.” he murmured.

Danny was taken aback by the pain in Jon’s eyes. “She believes you,” he answered quietly. “She even thinks you are sincere. But she doesn’t trust her own judgment. She’s afraid you’ll find somebody else, someone better than her.” Danny paused, watching Jon closely, then continued. “Her entire marriage was a long-distance relationship, and it was pretty much one fiasco, one infidelity after another. You know how that story ended.”

Jon nodded silently, looking past Danny at the wall, trying to wrap his mind around what Danny was telling him.

Danny paused, then spoke again. “She thinks she doesn’t deserve to be with you. I agree.”

Jon turned his gaze back to Danny, reading between the lines of his words. “She deserves better than me.” he replied.

“Damn straight. She deserves a man who is gonna worship the ground she walks on. Who will be there for her, ALL the time. Not somebody who is gonna be gone for weeks, months at a time; who’s gonna forget how incredible she is.” Danny stared back at Jon. “You can’t give her that. You may be able to worship her, to adore her, but you can’t be with her all the time. It’s impossible, in your line of work. And I don’t know if she can get past that, after what she’s been through.” Fucking Kevin! he thought again, bitterly.

“Danny, I swear to God, I’ve been trying to figure out how we can be together,” Jon said, frustration flooding into his voice. “I have contractual agreements I can’t break, with this movie, and then there’s the promo shit for the new album, and a tour next year…” He took a deep breath. “If there was just some way she could… I don’t know, take a leave of absence, or something. Come with me.”

Oh, fuck! He’s serious! Danny’s eyes widened. “Man, whatever you do, do NOT say that to Cate,” he warned. “If you even hint at the idea that she give up her job here, or compromise her career, she will shut you down so fast your head will spin. And there will be no way in Hell she will EVER consider a relationship with you. Her career is her life.”

Jon stared back at Danny, surprised by the intensity of his reaction. Then he nodded slowly, remembering how Cate had responded yesterday when he suggested she accompany him to the dinner party. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he sighed. “I asked her to come to dinner at the Director’s house as my date and she kinda freaked out. She was worried about rumors and her reputation.”

“Well, she’s right,” Danny replied. “This place is a big fishbowl, and she’s a woman in a man’s world. If word gets out that Cate has a relationship with you, Mr. Big Shot Rock Star, her credibility is shot. No pun intended,” Danny answered. “So between worrying about her career and thinking she doesn’t deserve you and that you’ll eventually find somebody better than her, can you see why she feels like she needs to end this… whatever you have… right now?”

Danny paused, then continued, more quietly. “It’s not personal, Jon. It’s instinct, self-preservation. She’s trying to avoid getting hurt, and she knows she’s already well on her way. But in her view, it will hurt less to push you away now than to watch you walk away later. This way, she’s in control.”

The men were silent again for a moment, then Jon looked at Danny, his eyes narrowing. He was now beginning to understand why Danny was telling him all this. Danny was warning him, against Cate’s wishes, what she was planning to do. Danny thought Cate was making a mistake. He’s trying to help me change her mind.

“So, what do I do?” Jon asked quietly.

Danny gave Jon a long look. “Don’t go along with it. Tell her you don’t agree, and that you’re not gonna give up. But you’re gonna have to walk a fine line, and not push back so hard that you piss her off.” He sighed. “I don’t know, Man, I’ve never seen her like this before. She’s stubborn as Hell, and when she makes up her mind, she never looks back. But then again….” Danny trailed off.

“Then again what?” Jon asked.

“…I’ve never seen her look at anyone the way she looks at you. And I’ve never heard her talk about a man like she talked about you this morning.” Danny finished.

“What did she say?” Jon asked, his heart jumping hopefully.

Danny shook his head. “I’m not gonna repeat what she told me in confidence,” he said firmly. “Except… well… “ He hesitated. Maybe this is going a little too far….

“Except what?” Jon prodded.

“Well… aw, shit, Man. I can’t believe I’m gonna say this.” Danny took a deep breath. “You… are apparently… um… unlike any other man she’s ever slept with.” Aw Hell, here we go again. The things I do for Cate.

“Apparently, you were… it was… uh… ‘transcendent,’ I think was the word she used.” Danny felt himself color slightly. Christ, I’m giving Jon a second-hand evaluation of his sexual prowess. And I can’t even joke about it.

“Uh… thanks, Man,” Jon replied awkwardly, sharing Danny’s discomfort. Then he chuckled and gave a little grin. “It really was pretty incredible,” he said quietly, recalling the bliss he had felt, joined with her, body and soul. “She’s somethin’ else…”

“Aw, Dude, you’re talkin’ about my sister!” Danny grimaced. He gave Jon a pained look, then both men laughed quietly, realizing how silly they sounded.

Danny sighed and shook his head. “Alright, we’re grown men. So I’m just gonna say this, because I think it’s important.” He gave Jon a serious look. “Man, never in all the years I’ve known her has Cate ever told me she ‘made love’ with a man. She’s fucked, screwed, nailed, boinked, laid… Hell, pick a verb. She doesn’t believe that sex is love. But today, when she told me about sleeping with you…”

Danny trailed off for a moment, remembering his shock. Then he continued. “Jon, she told me the two of you ‘made love’ last night. That’s a big deal for her.”

Jon’s heart somersaulted at Danny’s disclosure. He smiled gently, looking down at his hands. “It was kinda a big deal for me, too,” he admitted.

Danny sighed again. “And that’s why I’m here, telling you all this. Jon, she’s crazy about you. She wants to be with you. She’s just too afraid to let herself take a chance. I can’t just stand by and let her walk away from the one guy who may be able to make her really happy.”

Danny gave Jon a warning glare. “But you can’t let on that I told you all this. If she finds out we talked, you’re done. She’ll be good and pissed at me, but eventually she’ll get over it. You, on the other hand, won’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell of her ever trusting you.”

Jon nodded. “I understand.”

Danny nodded in reply, then looked at his watch. “I gotta get back. I’m helping Brandon with DTs at eleven.” He stood and pushed in his chair, then pulled a couple bills from the pocket of his range pants and dropped them on the table. “Good luck, Man.”

Jon smiled and stood as well. “Hey, Danny… thanks. You’re a good guy.” He held out his hand to Danny, who shook it firmly. “And you’re a helluva friend to Cate.”

“Yeah, I know,” Danny sighed. “It can be a full-time job.” He grinned. “But she’s worth it.”

“Yes, she certainly is,” Jon agreed. He gave Danny a little wave, then watched as he strode for the exit. Signaling the waitress for a refill of his coffee cup, Jon settled back down into his chair and picked up the newspaper Danny had left. He scanned the pages, not seeing the words, as the wheels started turning in his mind.