Chapter 15 Daisy
FIFTEEN
DAISY
SIXTEEN YEARS OLD
“Have you lost your mind?” Daisy hissed it from where she stood at the base of the tree with her face upturned toward Cash’s second-story bedroom window.
He poked his head out the opening, hands gripping onto the bottom portion of the windowsill and his face full of that smile that made her belly tumble into fanciful things.
“In the best way possible,” he whisper-shouted back.
Mischief rained all around him.
“You do remember the way we met?” She tried to keep her voice quiet as she glanced around his side yard that was fully in the shadows under the cover of night.
It was bad enough that he convinced her to sneak out of her own bedroom window. If Ms. Lopez found out, she was going to be grounded for a month. But at least she wouldn’t break her neck if she fell while she climbed out from hers.
But this…
She let her attention glide back up the long trunk of the tree.
The branches were staggered out, starting low and climbing toward the night sky. She supposed they made a pretty decent ladder, like Cash had exemplified when he scaled right up it like he was walking on even ground, not even breaking a sweat.
Suffice to say, Daisy was sweating.
Soft laughter floated down.
“That’s because you were going too fast. You just have to take this nice and slow.”
Vacillating, she bit at the inside of her cheek.
A piece of golden-brown hair flopped over Cash’s forehead as he stared down at her. His hazel eyes glinted green in the strike of the moon. “You can do it, Daisy. I have faith in you.”
He didn’t even know her. Not really. Sure, they’d been hanging out nonstop for the last two weeks, something she still couldn’t wrap her head around, but he had no idea the number of ER visits she’d taken because she tripped over her own feet.
“And look what I have when you get up here.” He waved a pack of Red Vines at her.
Was he trying to kill her?
“Are you afraid?” His voice changed with that. There was no teasing or mocking to it.
It was knitted in worry.
Embarrassment heated her cheeks, and she itched on her feet. Before she could figure out what to say, he was out the window and scaling back down. Moving so fast he was a blur in the night. One second climbing out the window and the next standing in front of her.
“Hey, you don’t need to worry. I’m right here, and I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”
Her heart felt like it was going to crack. Break wide open and heal at the same time.
Then he grinned, turned around, and leaned down as he hooked a thumb toward his back. “Hop on, and I’ll show you how easy it is.”
Was he serious? He wanted her to jump on, and he was going to carry her up? Like, wrap her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck? Her boobs pressed into his back?
Nuh-uh. No way.
“Oh….um…I don’t think that’s a good idea.
” She started to back away, deciding all of this was a terrible idea.
Letting this boy drag her out of her comfort zone.
She would fare much better hidden in her room where she belonged.
Or maybe if she was feeling extra social, curled up on the bed next to her big sister while they watched a movie.
Not sneaking out with the popular boy who had no shortage of friends.
Though she doubted Hadley would be home. Where Daisy wanted to hide in her grief, Hadley seemed not to be able to sit still in it. Every moment out.
At least she’d taken the time to give Daisy the lowdown on the Cunningham brothers. The two star football players who were the golden boys of their town.
Players in every sense of the word.
Hadley had been all too eager to share the shreds of gossip she gleaned after she started hanging out with another girl who lived down the street.
Her sister ribbing her that Daisy would be next in the long line of girls who fell at Cash’s feet.
She’d fallen, all right. Crashed and burned in the most mortifying display. And still, he insisted they were going to be friends.
She totally didn’t get it.
Why her?
It was all bad news because this boy had heartbreaker written all over him.
She kept backing away.
“I think I’m just gonna…” She awkwardly gestured in the general vicinity of the road.
Only her heel caught on an exposed root that grew from the soft soil, and the momentum tipped her back.
Her arms pinwheeled as she struggled to catch her balance, but she knew from experience there was no hope in that.
She braced for impact.
Only strong arms were suddenly around her, and a grinning face was in her line of sight, the boy dragging her up and against him.
He was hot and hard, and she sucked in a shocked breath.
Dizziness swept through her brain as she looked up at him.
The softness in his gaze and the short, light stubble that only seemed to grow on his chin.
Her stomach fisted and her heart felt like it was going to explode in her chest.
“Whoa,” Cash murmured, only tightening his hold when she tried to pull away.
He slowly splayed his big hands over her back. They nearly covered the entire expanse.
Slowly, he dragged them up and around until he was holding her by the outside of the arms.
Staring down at her with something she couldn’t decipher etched into the contour of his handsome face.
“Don’t worry, my favorite Little Wallflower. I will never let you fall.”
She quietly rapped her knuckles against the windowsill, peering into his room through the open window. The pane pushed up high and waiting for her arrival.
The same as it’d been every night for the entire summer.
A slight breeze rustled the trees, brushing across her heated skin where she knelt on the sturdy branch.
Anticipation lined her bones and sent her pulse into overdrive.
Cash turned his head from where he sat in front of his computer, which was on the far-right side of his room. “Hey, you. It’s about time. Thought you’d gone and gotten shy on me, and I was gonna have to come drag you here.”
His voice was hushed. Quiet so his parents wouldn’t hear since he wasn’t allowed to have girls in his room, which she still couldn’t understand why she was the girl he kept inviting up.
He stood from his computer chair, wearing jeans and a gray tee that stretched across his chest. A cap on his head with the longer pieces of his hair curling out the sides.
Feet bare.
But it was the smile that pulled to his face that stole her breath.
That.
That was the whole reason she sucked it up and climbed that tree every night.
To see that smile.
It didn’t matter how many times she did it, redness still rushed up to flush her neck and cheeks.
“I told you I’d be here,” she whispered as she carefully stretched out her leg so she could set her foot on the bottom part of the wooden frame, though she was hugging tight to another branch that ran vertical to the house.
You know, extra precautionary measures to make sure she didn’t plummet to her death.
Cash stretched out his hand, and she tentatively reached for it so he could help her the rest of the way inside.
She basically dove through the window, and he set a hand on her waist to steady her. It didn’t matter. The momentum still had her crashing into him.
He grinned, low laughter rumbling in his chest. “You excited to see me?”
Yes.
Absolutely yes.
He stepped back, pulled off his cap and ran his fingers through his hair, before he resituated it on his head.
“I was actually getting worried about you,” he muttered, glancing back at her as he walked to his desk.
It was barely after ten.
“I watched a movie with Ms. Lopez.”
“Oh, that’s cool. I was kinda thinking you might have ditched me.” He grinned at her from over his shoulder.
Like that was going to happen.
“What, haven’t you ever been ditched before?” She attempted the tease.
He released a quiet chuckle, and he went playfully cocky, gesturing at himself with a smirk. “Of course not, Daisy. Have you seen me?”
Um, yeah. She stared far too often, but she wasn’t about to admit to that.
He shook his head. “But you are a wildcard, my Little Wallflower, and I figure there is a first time for everything. Thought you were gonna go and break my heart. And after I was so nice and got you these.”
He tossed a box of Red Vines onto the end of his bed, along with two other boxes of candy. “Thought maybe we could watch a movie, too, unless you’ve had your fill?”
She lifted a shoulder to her ear. “Movies are kinda my thing.”
“That I know.”
She was pretty sure he was becoming the one person who really knew her. The one who could somehow breach the cracks and get into the places she didn’t allow other people to see.
“Are you sure you didn’t want to go out tonight?” she asked, uncertainty turning her back toward the open window.
Giving him a pass.
She heard there was a big party. Hadley was sneaking off to it and had actually asked her if she wanted to tag along, but her sister should know that was not in the cards, not that she’d choose that over Cash if she actually was the type to go to a party.
Daisy still hadn’t gathered the courage to tell her sister where she would be going.
Whatever this thing was that she had with Cash was her secret.
“Nah,” he mumbled as he moved around to the far side of the bed and casually plopped onto it, his back propped on the pillows and his legs crossed at the ankles in front of him.
His bed was covered in a solid navy-blue comforter, and two long shelves hung above it that showcased a ton of his trophies and awards.
The boy lounged below them like a reigning prince.
Yeah, he was so far out of her league it wasn’t funny, not that she was interested in entertaining those kinds of things.
In a flash of anxiety, she shifted on her feet.
“Would rather hang out with you,” he added.
A frown curved her brow, and the single word was pouring out. “Why?”
Incredulous, he looked over at her with his brows knitted. “Uh, because you’re cool as shit, and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t physically drag you to that party, so here it is.”
He phrased it like it should be obvious.
Her chest squeezed tight.
Then something flickered through his face. Full seriousness taking over. “I just like being with you, Daisy. I don’t have to…” He blinked before he continued, “I don’t have to be anyone else than who I really am when I’m with you.”
Then all the seriousness drained and he smacked the spot next to him. “Now get over here so we can watch this movie.”
She dipped her gaze before she crawled onto the opposite side of the bed, snagging the box of Red Vines as she went.
She tore it open and took one out.
“You gonna give me one of those or what?” He swiveled his head on the pillow and peered over at her.
He was so close. His body heat searing into her.
She gave him one, and he bit off a big piece the way he always did, smiling around it as he chewed before he switched on the television.
He told her he snagged his mom’s favorite movie from downstairs because he thought Daisy would like it, and he’d already placed the DVD into the player.
She settled down into the comfort of his bed, trying to keep at least a foot of space separating them because with the lights dimmed and his breaths all around, she thought she might combust if they touched.
She tried to get comfortable as she watched the scenes play out.
Cash laid beside her chomping on Red Vines and M&Ms.
His presence big and overwhelming.
A rock if she didn’t feel herself drifting away.
Because the film was supposed to be heartwarming. Feel good. A young woman who went away to college before taking a job in a big city with intentions of never returning home since she had a falling out with her mother.
Only when she lost her job, she returned home to discover what she’d been missing all along.
The two reuniting in a profound way.
It wasn’t supposed to be sad. It wasn’t supposed to cause someone to weep.
So, Daisy fought and fought the tears that burned at the backs of her eyes and raced up and down her throat.
God, she tried so hard to keep the sob from ripping from her chest.
But it was too big, and she choked on it.
The sound strangled and small.
Arms suddenly wrapped around her, pulling her close, her ear tucked against the thunder at his chest. “Hey, hey, hey,” he murmured at the top of her head. “What happened?”
The ball of fire rolled in the base of her throat, and she felt like she was being strangled.
“I’m right here. I’m right here. It’s okay, you can let go.”
At his words, she broke.
Tears burst free and sobs raked from the depths where she kept everything important to her hidden.
She fully turned into him, her hands fists in the fabric of his shirt.
“I miss her so much,” Daisy quietly gasped into Cash’s neck. “I miss her so much, and I’m never going to have that. Never.”
“Oh, shit,” Cash whispered as he realized why she lost it.
A subject she’d avoided like the plague since she was placed with Ms. Lopez.
Cash’s arms tightened further, and his heart thudded like a drum beneath her ear, sympathy spilling out as he held her hedged in the safety of who he was.
“I can only imagine, Daisy. Or maybe I can’t. I have no clue what that would be like.”
“It’s the worst thing in the world, Cash, knowing I will never see her again.” She clung to him like he could stop her from drowning. “She should have only been gone for fifteen minutes, and I waited and waited for her to come back, and she never did.”
She never did.
And their mother was the only thing she and her sister had.
“I hate it for you, Daisy. I hate it.”
“I feel so empty. Like a shell that has no shape. Like I might collapse in on myself.”
“I know it might feel that way, but I can see you. Feel you. And I bet your mom can, too, even though you can’t see her.”
“Do you really believe that?” she whispered, still clutching to him.
He ran a hand down the back of her head. “Yeah, I’ve gotta believe we are more than only this.”
Her mouth tweaked at the side, though the tears wouldn’t stop falling. “I want to believe that, too.”
“What do we have if we don’t believe?” His lips moved against her head.
She could only nod, clinging to the idea.
She stayed like that for the longest time before she peeled herself away and sat up.
Cash sat up, too.
A knee drawn up as he faced her on the bed. He peered at her through the shadows cast by the credits that rolled on the screen.
His shirt was soaked with tears and she was pretty sure some of her snot.
Embarrassment rushed. Sniffling, she whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
A frown cut deep between his brows, and he reached out and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “You’re my best friend, Daisy. You don’t have to be sorry. I’m here. You’re not alone anymore.”