"Hey, Danny!" I call as soon as I finally find the little guy. He turns to me in surprise and grins at me.

"You look beautiful."

"Aww," I say and hug him tightly before thanking him quite a few times, but Danny promptly looks panicked and pushes me away before quickly looking around. That's when I start to understand and now back away a little intimidated myself.

"He's actually distracted," I mutter, biting my lower lip uncertainly, to which he nods cautiously. Sighing, I shake my head mentally. I'll talk about the 'Danny' issue with Leroy later.

He simply can't believe that I can even stay away from his son now that we're married!

I'm about to ask him if he's eaten something yet when I realize that his attention is probably still on Leroy, who is still talking to Kelly.

Maybe Danny knows her and can tell me who that is!

"That woman standing next to your father.... do you know her?", I ask him, pointing unnoticed in her direction. Danny follows my gaze, squints his eyes, and then shakes his head, after which I slump my shoulders.

"But she looks familiar," he declares, to which I merely nod. Well, it doesn't get me anywhere, but I do know that Danny must have seen her once, which means she's been to Leroy's before.

But who is she? After Leroy introduced us, we cut the cake afterward, she came up to us again and only talked about her work. She wasn't interested in talking to me and at some point, I just felt stupid just standing by, listening and knowing that I will never live such an exciting life again.

Whereas I might be able to talk to him about my studies...

Although I have missed a lot in the meantime, I am good at catching up quickly.

I am pulled out of my thoughts when Danny taps me and then points his finger at Leroy, who suddenly looks at me. My heart skips a beat, but I try not to let it show. Until now he hadn't even noticed my absence and now, of all times, when I'm standing next to Danny, he's looking for me, great! He nods at me, making me sigh loudly inside.

"Some guests are leaving. We should say a proper goodbye to them," he explains in a relaxed manner and I can't help but look a little confused for a moment. No hiss? No threat for approaching Danny?

After patiently saying goodbye to some guests that I don't know, accepting congratulations, and trying to smile as broadly as possible - at least I do - Ben's voice suddenly rings out through the speakers. I turn in surprise to the small grandstand, which Leroy does the same.

Ben raises his glass and shouts "Test" several times into the microphone.

"Leroy, my friend! I, um, wrote a little speech - for you!" he slurs unexpectedly. "We've been friends for so many years already - since forever, actually. Although we didn't go to the same high school, but in college, we found each other again, isn't that super sweet? I never thought you'd get married so young, especially because there are still such hot chicas in the world, but you seem to have found yours already, which makes me incredibly happy, really! Even if I'm a bit jealous of you, Katrina, because you've now taken my friend away from me forever. I can't even go on holiday alone with him now... Or would you allow us to do that? Oh, she nods! You're a lucky man, Leroy, although I think she's only nodding because she doesn't want to deny it in front of everyone now."

Ben seems to have already looked very deeply into the glass, but it's sweet and funny at the same time what he's saying, so that I can hardly stop laughing, feeling Leroy's gaze on me several times because of it.

He is still standing next to me, his arm around my waist, so that we don't jump out of our roles, of course, playing the married couple in love.

I would have loved to tear myself away, spit in his face, gather up my skirts and run.

But I pull myself together. Where am I going? My family is now behind Leroy, whereas I couldn't have joined them either way.

"I love you guys and wish you all the luck in the world," Ben now finishes his speech, which is accompanied by a round of applause. Leroy raises his glass and Ben follows suit.

"Now it's time to dance!" he yells into the microphone, whereupon the music immediately starts again.

Good Spanish music blares through the speakers and the crowd begins to dance exuberantly. Even Tara is dancing with some man, but I don't know who he is.

"Come on!" Kelly suddenly shouts and reaches for Leroy's hand, but he just raises his eyebrows in surprise before shaking his head, which I already expected. Pff, as if Leroy would dance!

She rolls her eyes in annoyance, Leroy merely looking after her with amusement as she turns around and starts to dance. He would have lectured me now if I had rolled my eyes like that.

"You've never been this nice to me before," I slip, whereupon Leroy looks to me, all warmth disappearing from his eyes again. I just look him in the eye for a small moment before looking back to the dancing patrons. "I just mean you've never smiled at me before," I explain quietly, which he seems to hear despite the loud music.

"You're just someone too, chica. We have nothing in common," he replies and takes a sip from his glass. As much as I dislike it, I pull myself together and say the next words.

"We're married now, Leroy. In fact, we have too much in common."

"More than I'd like," I add in a mumble. He says nothing to that.

We both watch the guests dance boisterously to music until it eventually changes to a slower song, whereupon Leroy finally drains his glass with a few sips and reaches for my hand after putting the glass down.

I look up at him in confusion and have to swallow as I look around and all the couples start dancing close together.

Leroy pulls me right into the middle of everyone and wraps his arm tightly around my waist, only to pull me close so that barely a leaf fits between us. I smell him, I feel him, and it makes me look into his eyes for a few seconds as if struck by a blow.

"You don't give me any reason to be nice to you at all," he says suddenly as we start to dance.

I rest my hands precariously on his shoulders, not knowing where else to place them. I can't help but laugh dryly at his words, but not loud enough for anyone to hear us.

"I'd rather not give you any reason to be so mean to me! I really can't believe you said that," I interject, stunned. "I understand what you think, Leroy. You think I'm a spy, sent by my father, but we'll ignore why a caretaker would do that. So... And then you think I want to hurt Danny, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't even react like that when I get close to him, so you don't just consider me a little bit of danger, no, I'm a real threat to everything you hold dear, but since you're not even sure if you're right with your speculations, you don't let me go and you don't kill me either, because you might as well miscalculate and therefore snuff out an innocent person's life light, which is not okay with you, because the big bad mafia boss has a heart for innocent people, doesn't he?"

Leroy looks at me blankly for a few seconds before pursing his lips appreciatively.

"Wow, if I could, I'd applaud right now. Because you've never said that much before and hey, you haven't even stuttered or had any tears in your eyes," he sneers, where I can just barely keep my jaw from dropping open in bewilderment.

There won't be another asshole like him, I'm sure of it.

" I can't even have a conversation with you," I whisper angrily, now turning my head away because I only now realize how close we actually are. I try to pull myself together and not allow it to show that I'm just enduring his closeness, because right across from us my grandparents are dancing, and they're just throwing me a smile, which I return with effort.

"That's it, keep smiling," he whispers in my ear. I shudder at the deep sound of his voice and grit my teeth.

"Stop it," I plead with him, but can't stop it from sounding angry. I sigh inside and admonish myself to get a bit of a grip on myself, as it would be worse if he got angry because I was being silly. Leroy actually stays quiet and I don't say anything else either.

"I don't want to spend my life like this. I don't want to be constantly groping in the dark and I don't want you to be the enemy either," I sigh after a while. I should take advantage of the fact that he's not angry right now and engages in a conversation with me.

"I won't hurt Danny. He's super sweet, I could never hurt such a wonderful being, I swear that on my own body. I would like to talk to him from time to time or play something with him, so that neither he nor I have to be bored here, because to be honest it is super boring just sitting around all day," I explain to him a bit more carefully now.

Leroy just squints his eyes and shakes his head for a moment in irritation. I bite my lower lip as I realize that he is now looking a little more pissed off. There goes my chance.

"Are you making demands right now?"

"I... No, those aren't exactly demands, they're more like wishes," I interject uncertainly, unable to meet his gaze. I have no idea how he does it, but sometimes he gives me that look....

You just can't look him in the eye anymore.

"If I'm forced to stay here, then I want to make myself as comfortable as possible," I confess and shrug my shoulders slightly.

My words leave an unpleasant aftertaste on my tongue because they sound so wrong, after all, I was kidnapped and not simply invited. So the fact that I now want to make my abduction place as comfortable as possible is just brazen and crazy, but since I realize anyway that Leroy doesn't value my words, why not try?

When he stops answering, I sigh again without lifting my eyes from his chest, but before I can say anything else, a pleasant voice already speaks in between.

"May I?" Kelly's deep red lips are adorned with a crooked grin, and her hand reaches out invitingly, looking only at Leroy. I nod cautiously and break away from him.

He merely gives me an indefinable look before my view is blocked by the brunette, who is as tall as Leroy and therefore much taller than me.

And much more beautiful.

☼ ❅