Chapter 24- Grant
W hat gentleman wouldn’t rescue a damsel in distress? (Even if he’d rather be alone with his wife.)
Jewel’s boyfriend was drunk and in a nasty mood tonight, nasty enough to send her looking for family to stay with. “Does that happen often?”
Daisy shrugs, worry etching her lovely face as the first rumbles of thunder fill the night. “She doesn’t tell me the bad things. She only brags about how great it is being taken care of. She fell for the wrong sort, like all of us Potter ladies tend to do.”
I wonder if she’d include being married to me in that. “You told her what her boyfriend tried to pull with you?”
“I did. She didn’t believe me. Or, she just didn’t want to.”
“Hmm.” Jewel needs her eyes opened and her boyfriend needs his life ruined.
“We’re here, sir,” Anders informs us. “Don’t see anyone waiting in front of the building.”
Jewel had told Daisy she was in front of Shady Acres but, with the amount of people loitering around, she was afraid to stay in one place. Then, her phone battery died. We hope. Calls aren’t going through at any rate.
A storm front has turned the weather menacing but there are many more people out on the street than last time I was here. Eyes follow the car, watch it roll to a stop. Many sets of eyes and just one me. Glancing over at my wife, I make a decision. “You’ll remain in the car.”
“No, I won’t.”
“I am not letting you out in this area at night. You’ll remain with Anders where it’s safe.”
“They’re just people, people like me,” she says, growing defensive.
“Yes, just people but it only takes one to pose a risk that I won’t run with you.”
“I know the area and I know my sister. You don’t. You can remain with Anders and stay safe.”
“Don’t argue with me, Daisy.”
“Don’t make me punch you, Grant.”
She’s impossibly stubborn and not thinking clearly at all. She’s also gloriously fierce and sweet and wild. “Stay warm and dry in the car,” I command, kissing the tip of her nose to make her grin despite herself. I wrap my tuxedo jacket around her, partly covering where her dress is torn. “Anders, if she gets out of this car, you’re fired.”
Daisy hisses like an angry kitten but the driver gives me a stiff nod and I get out. The people I’m most concerned about keep their distance but it’s not long until I have company. “Looking for a date, handsome?” a young woman in a pitifully skimpy dress asks.
“No, thank you.I’m married.”
“Aren’t they all?” she snickers, following me.
“I’m into blondes.” One blonde. My Goldilocks.
Shivering from the gusty breeze, she tries one last time, quoting a price and what she’d do for it. My heart sinks. So little money and she looks even younger than Daisy. She’s obviously cold out here dressed like that. Raindrops start to patter down on top of our heads.
“No, thank you, my dear, but go and get a room for the night and buy yourself a decent coat for winter weather,” I tell her, reaching for my money clip.
One frightened glance tossed over her shoulder halts my actions. There is a man standing in the darkened doorway over there, watching us… watching her. I’ve lived a sheltered life and perhaps I’m pitifully na?ve in ways my wife is not when it comes to life on the streets but I’m not stupid. Any money I hand her now will only wind up in her pimp’s pocket.
“On second thought, come along with me. I need to find someone, a young woman who’s not from around here. She’s lost and she’s frightened. She’s got blonde hair and blue eyes. She’s about this tall and her name is Jewel. Why don’t you tell me yours and we can help each other...”
∞∞∞
“My sister didn’t tell me she had married,” Jewel had said skeptically when I’d found her two blocks from Mimi’s old building.
“My wife didn’t inform me she had a sister until recently but here we are. Come along now, the weather is worsening.”
She shares her sister’s features but that fierce wildness that I love in Daisy is blunted in Jewel. Perhaps because she’s been living with a complete cretin from the age of nineteen, dimming the light inside of her, making her cower like a dog that’s been yelled at too many times. The thought of Daisy ever being treated that way? It would drive me to despair. Or into a murderous rage.
“Relax, Anders. I’m not going to fire you,” I mutter as I watch the raindrops roll down the window and the real estate outside the car rise significantly in value in the space of a few blocks.
Daisy did get out of the car but only in time to see me walking back toward it with her sister, flinging herself at her twin without a care for the rain or her torn dress. I hope my helpful guide finds a decent place to crash tonight with the money I gave her before her pimp comes after his share, poor girl.
“I would’ve done my best to keep her safe,” Anders says, not bothering to hide his annoyance. “Will you still need me to drive to the estate tonight?”
“No, I’ll call you in the morning once we’ve figured some things out.”
We stop speaking and I can hear Jewel in the backseat. Perhaps she doesn’t realize we can hear them rather well. Perhaps it’s best if Daisy doesn’t realize how much Anders likely heard through the divider earlier.
“I was trying to go to Mimi’s for the night. Just until he slept it off, you know? You told me you’d made a new friend and was staying with them. You didn’t mention it being a man or marrying him.”
“Surprise,” Daisy says, sheepishly.
I bite back a chuckle until Jewel replies, “I can’t believe your luck, not only snagging a rich guy but getting him to fall in love and marry you.”
“It’s a complicated story. He doesn’t love me. It’s more like an arrangement.”
Frowning, I know Anders heard that. Worse, she thinks I don’t love her and… shit .
“You know I’ve never wanted to be dependent on a man, Jewel. It leads to nothing but trouble.”
Oh yeah. That’s why I won’t be telling her how I feel even if I want to. I can’t trap Daisy into staying with me the way my mother felt trapped. My wildflower will be free to do as she pleases when this is done… no matter how miserable it leaves me.
∞∞∞
“You have a delivery, Mr. Barclay,” the building’s night-shift concierge calls to inform me.
“Thank you. I’m on my way to fetch it.”
With the cardboard tray balanced in one hand, I ride back up the elevator, entering the penthouse to the sound of feminine laughter. After my shower (where I’d jerked off to clear my second brain), I’d discovered the Potter ladies sipping some atrocious pumpkin spice wine. Daisy said she’d found it at a discount market. Once I learned about the autumn latte tradition they’d missed out on, I knew that would not do.
“Can’t top this for service, eh?” Mimi says, chuckling as I pass out the drinks. “What have you got planned for breakfast, Grant?”
“I’ll phone in brunch from wherever you wish in the morning.”
“You are officially my favorite grandson-in-law.”
“He’s your only legitimate grandson-in-law,” Jewel says. “Rod will probably never propose.”
Mimi and Daisy share a look before gliding past that. “We should toast like we always did, don’t you think?”
“Yes, Daisy. A toast to my sweet Ellie. Wish you were here to celebrate with us.”
The smiles on her granddaughters’ faces grow strained though I don’t think Mimi meant for it to. Daisy’s turned white as a sheet, her fingers clutching the cup in anguish. “Speaking of your traditional toast, we met on your mother’s birthday, didn’t we, Daisy?” I remark, just hoping to ease her pain.
She gives me the most radiant smile in response, lighting up every corner of my soul. “We did, yes.”
“Didn’t you get yourself one?” Jewel asks me.
“No, I’m good, thank you.” I despise pumpkin-flavored anything and don’t want to have it replace the taste of Daisy on my tongue but no need to spoil their fun.
“You should join us. Mimi will tell you embarrassing stories about us as girls.” Affection and happiness rise up in me hearing those words from my wife but, with another glance at Jewel, I suspect I wouldn’t be entirely welcome just now.
“Over brunch perhaps. I think I’m going to turn in and allow you ladies your time to catch up in private tonight.”
“I’ll… I won’t be up too late.” The hint of girlish uncertainty in her voice is almost enough to have me snatching her up in my arms and telling her kin that, on second thought, they can carry on without my wife tonight.
Instead, I simply reply, “I’ll be waiting.”
Raucous giggling breaks out the instant the bedroom door snaps shut behind me. Let them have their fun together. Mimi and Jewel both need it and I’m glad to give Daisy whatever makes her happy and more.
Whatever makes her happy and more… Strange that I feel so strongly about that in the span of a few weeks but it’s undeniable. Daisy’s happiness and security mean far more to me than I ever imagined they might. Why? I know why.
Tossing and turning once I’m in bed, I wonder if she will come to me. I suppose it would seem very strange to her grandmother and sister if she didn’t.
Before we went to rescue Jewel, I had every intention of asking Daisy to sleep with me tonight. But the memory of the little lost girl in her skimpy dress makes an unfamiliar and unwanted guilt churn within me. God, that poor girl. I wish there was more I could’ve done.
My Daisy lived on those same streets not too long ago. I know her experiences were different than that girl’s but their circumstances are too similar for me to comfortably push the comparison away.
And, my mind can’t help thinking of another little lost girl from years ago – my mother. Her life went from charmed to nightmarish not long after her impromptu five-star ski resort weekend with my father. It’s fortunate that she tracked down my grandparents and that they took us in, little as they might’ve wanted to at the start. “Fortunate in some ways,” I mutter tiredly to myself.
At some point, I drift off but I’m alert again when the bed dips as thunder rumbles outside. “I’m sorry to wake you.”
I throw back the covers, releasing a contented sigh when she climbs in. Sex or no sex, I’m thrilled at the prospect of my wife finally sharing my bed after all my boneheaded stubbornness about us never sharing a bed.
“Don’t be sorry. Is the storm upsetting you?” She gives a sharp nod and that’s all I need. I pull her close, burying my nose in her silky long hair. “ Mmmm … peaches.” She giggles and relaxes against me. My fingers slowly trace the outline of her belly button. “You’re wearing one of my shirts again.”
“You like the way I smell, I like the way you smell.”
“I like the way you taste even more.” Her whole body goes taut as a bow string. “Nervousness or arousal, Daisy? It’s hard for me to know in the dark.”
“The latter,” she answers and I can picture the blush that must paint her cheeks.
Desire floods my veins like a torrential rain filling a dry creek bed. I lean forward to kiss her neck.
And, the loudest thunderclap yet interrupts, causing Daisy to yelp.
“You’re safe.”
“I know.”
Slowly, she relaxes again but I can tell arousal is far from her mind and now my brain is busy thinking. “What did you do before when it would storm? Is that why you’re afraid of them?” I’ve been caught in a few downpours, a handful of blizzards and even a hurricane once in the Caribbean but I always had sturdy shelter to retreat to. What would it have been like having no home at all as the sky was falling around your ears?
“I’m mostly afraid of them because of Mom. It was storming the night she had her accident.” God, that’s horrible. I hold her just a little closer so she knows I heard her. “She was coming to pick me up. I was at the library late and the weather turned bad. I could’ve walked home but I called her. She wouldn’t have been out there if not for me.”
She feels guilty over it. I know what that’s like. I cover her smaller hand with my own, gently caressing. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“If I hadn’t-”
“Not your fault,” I say more firmly.
I don’t know if she accepts my words or not but she turns to face me, curling up against my chest as she begins to cry. Holding her tightly, I let her until her eyes are dry and she’s fallen asleep. I don’t mind that. Much as it hurts to see my Daisy hurt, I cherish the fact she allows herself to be vulnerable with me.
What I do mind is the next morning when I wake and my sheets smell of peaches but Daisy is nowhere to be found.
Bleary-eyed, I find Mimi in the kitchen. No one else is here. She gives me an anxious greeting and I would almost swear the echoes of an argument are ringing around us. A suspicion is rapidly forming when I ask, “Where is my wife?”