11. Daisy
***Daisy***
I’d had too much to drink. I’d been too tense because of the reaction to my pajamas and over the way Wes insisted on doing everything, including serving everyone at the big wooden table that one of his ancestors had built with their own hands.
I hadn’t been able to recall the last time someone had served me.
Trying to remember brought up too many bad memories of times I’d desperately needed to be helped and had found no one like Wes there to help. So, I drank.
I wasn’t the only one. Flynn and Wes also had their fair share of wine while Max watched us with those intense hazel eyes, naturally taking over the role of big brother.
The kids kept the table entertained, thankfully, because after my second glass of wine, my lips felt too loose for mixed company.
I kept finding my eyes going to the brothers, drinking them in as hungrily as I was drinking the tasty wine.
They snagged on Max, especially, over and over again.
My mind couldn’t reconcile the man at the table with the man Tyler had described with bitter details late at night when he was just drunk or tired enough to let the ugly show.
He’d painted Max as a worthless addict who tried to ruin their family.
He talked about the horrible woman Max brought home and tried to infiltrate their bloodline with.
I’d listened and taken it in but from the first time I’d met Max, I couldn’t see a single thing that Tyler had claimed.
Max had seemed rigidly controlled, if anything.
The man hardly ever smiled or showed any emotion at all, unless it was for his daughter or niece and nephew.
Even then, the emotion was controlled. I couldn’t see the man Tyler had claimed was out of control and always out for blood.
When I noticed Wes and Max studying me the same way I was studying them I jolted. I didn’t want to overthink what they were seeing. We’d just finished our dessert so there was nothing holding me to the table. I stood up on legs shaky from nerves more than wine and bowed for some unknown reason.
“I’m turning in for the night.”
Poppy looked up at me. “We’re having a sleepover in the living room. Daddy said it’s okay. You want to sleepover with us?”
Charlie nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! Stay with us, Aunt Daisy.”
I grinned but shook my head. “Your Aunt Daisy needs a bed and a solid eight hours of sleep. You can have Hank for the night, though, if he’ll stay with you.”
Hank’s head came out from under the table, two rolls protruding from his floppy jowls. Poppy looked up at the ceiling and covered her mouth to hide a giggle.
“Looks like someone has been feeding the monster.” Max cut his eyes at his daughter, making her giggle harder.
I waved it off, feeling much looser about Hank’s diet after the wine. “Eh. The woman who nannied me before my parents decided I was too old to need a nanny used to say a dog ain’t a dog if it ain’t helping you sneak your vegetables under the table.”
Wes’ eyebrows rose as he let out a quiet laugh. “How old was too old in the deep south?”
Charlie interrupted. “Ain’t is a fun word. You sound even funnier tonight, Aunt Daisy. Ain’t a dog if it ain’t a dog. I like it.”
I stuck my tongue out at him, refusing to acknowledge that I was tipsy enough for my accent to get even thicker. I looked back at Wes and smiled, remembering the sound of his laugh. “Five.”
His face went pale and his eyes hardened. “They thought you were old enough to take care of yourself at five?”
I was just tipsy enough to miss the anger in his voice. “Yep. I grew up fast. I was making cookies for their dinner parties by the time I was seven. I’d say it was just in my blood but in all my years I’ve never seen my mom in the kitchen for longer than it takes her to grab caffeine.”
“You were seven and baking for them and their friends?” Max’s voice was always gruff so it didn’t strike me as weird.
“Yep. I had to show them I was useful.” I shrugged and ruffled Poppy’s hair. “They liked me when I was useful.”
Hazel frowned at me. “Are they still mean to you?”
I opened my mouth to correct her and say that I hadn’t said that my parents were mean to me but I cut myself off when I thought about what I’d said.
Heat touched my cheeks as I understood how much I’d just overshared.
Instead of running from Hazel’s question, though, I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.
“It’s strange. Some people are meant to be parents, like your dads.
And other people, like my parents, probably weren’t meant to be parents.
They’re really good to my little sister, though.
So, maybe they were meant to be parents, just not to me. ”
Poppy didn’t sound sad when she asked a question that seemed to body slam Max. “Like my mom? Was she not meant to be a parent, either?”
I was too tipsy, too…unmoored to answer that question but I still found myself kneeling in front of her. “I don’t know. But I do know that your dad loves you enough for all the parents in the world. And I know that anyone would be lucky to be your mom.”
She threw her arms around my neck and sighed. “I wish you were my mom, Aunt Daisy.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and avoided Max’s gaze. “I’m lucky enough just to be your aunt, honey. I can’t be greedy and have it all.”
Hank broke the tension with a well-timed fart that had us all rushing away from the table, kids giggling happily.
I hesitated at the edge of the living room, watching Poppy.
I felt like kicking myself for the way I’d inadvertently made her think of the woman who’d abandoned her three years earlier.
That was the one thing that Tyler had told me about Max that seemed to be true.
Max appeared next to me like a shadow, silent and dark. “She’s already moved on, Daisy. Go on to bed.”
I looked up at him and bit my bottom lip. “I didn’t mean to-”
“You didn’t do anything but talk about your shitty parents.” He rested a heavy hand on my lower back and gently pushed me away from the room. “Go to bed.”
I wanted to linger to keep the weight and heat of his hand on me but I didn’t.
I listened to him and walked away with the feeling of his eyes burning through me until I disappeared up the stairs.
It didn’t occur to me that he’d called my parents shitty with a growl in his throat until I was upstairs and walking on tingling legs.
Leaning against the wall for a moment, I replayed that growl and let the warmth wash over me.
He’d been angry at the things I’d admitted about my parents, angry for me.
I was overwhelmed by the wine and the feelings and distracted enough that I moved past my bedroom door without noticing it.
The next room was the hallway bathroom, the same one I’d found Flynn stroking himself in.
In another stroke of genius on my part, I thought it was my room and burst into the room without seeing anything.
I closed the door behind me and leaned against it, head tipped up and eyes shut.
The smallest smile played at the corner of my lips but I was doing my best to stop the bubbling feelings that wanted me to overthink Max’s touch.
Just as I felt the air shift in front of me, I opened my eyes and then my mouth to scream, but Flynn clamped his hand over my lips just in time to stop the sound.
His Paul Newman eyes flashed with humor as his hair dripped cool water down his face and onto my silk top.
His lips parted in a smile that hit me low in my stomach, low enough that maybe it wasn’t my stomach at all.
“The first time could’ve been an accident, Daisy, but now I’m starting to think you’re a peeping Tom.” When he was confident I wasn’t going to scream he uncovered my mouth and gripped my hip with that hand instead.
“Why are you in my room?!” I whisper-shouted at him, instantly shifting my voice into something secretive to match his.
“Look around, sweetheart. You’re in my bathroom again.” He watched my eyes widen after seeing that he was right. “Yep. You were trying to sneak another peek. Pervert.”
My face heated and I slapped his chest in indignation. “I am not a pervert.”
He caught my hand and held it against his chest, immediately slamming my attention back to how close he was.
I was trapped between the door and his big, tan body.
He stayed silent as my focus shifted to his bare chest. His chest hair was blonde and his small nipples were pebbled, a hard bud under my palm. I’d never noticed Tyler’s nipples.
“Can I admit something?” He waited until I lifted my eyes back to his and nodded. “It probably makes me a fucking asshole but I’m glad you and Tyler aren’t together anymore. Really fucking glad.”
My breath caught in my throat. I should’ve pushed him away and told him that it was incredibly asshole-like to be glad I was cheated on and dumped. Those thoughts were the furthest thing from my lips, though. Instead, I told the truth. Just for the moment. “I’m glad, too.”