Chapter 35 Daisy #2
I skidded to a stop behind them when I came face to face with the scene.
It was an enormous great room with a family area on the right and the kitchen to the left. Nearly the entire thing had big windows that overlooked a rambling meadow in the back. Gorgeous scenery with the lawn expansive and extending out from the wraparound porch.
A stream cut through the middle of the field, and a few towering trees were dotted throughout before the yard gave way to the woods on the other side.
But it was the people inside that made my ribs compress so tightly that I felt like I would implode.
Their conversations clipped off and every pair of eyes swung to us.
I started to inch backward. Needing to hide the way I did when I was young.
Only I backed right into a solid body.
Cash was right there.
Blocking my escape.
His presence holding me up when my legs went weak.
Heat flashed to my cheeks as I watched their mouths gape as they stared, my throat thick as I shifted my weight from side to side.
I can do this.
I can do this.
Cash edged around me and came to stand at my side, and their gaping mouths basically unhinged and clattered to the floor at the sight of Cash still holding my youngest daughter hooked to his hip while his free hand returned to the base of my spine.
Shock freezing them as they stared like they were witnessing the unfathomable.
My shock blazed right back.
Holy crap.
I wasn’t even close to imagining them correctly.
Four men gawked back from the other side of the large kitchen island. These terrifying beasts who oozed menace and peril. Completely covered in tattoos. So clearly dangerous that my stomach twisted in a fit of nerves.
Right then, I was registering just how deadly Cash must be.
Because that’s what these men looked like.
Deadly.
Different than Ethan, though. It wasn’t hidden behind perfect smiles and tailored suits.
It was clear and patent.
Each of them were wrapped around an incredibly beautiful woman.
Discomfort roiled from Cash.
From the right side of the room, a high-pitched squeal broke the silence, and a little girl with blond hair done in two pigtail braids jumped off an oversized couch. “Are these my brand-new friends?”
She came dashing across the room, her precious face split in a smile.
A young boy who appeared to be about a year older than her jumped up from where he was playing on the floor with another little boy who couldn’t be more than two.
“They gotta be!” the older one who had to be Nolan said.
The little girl bounced in front of us, waving her hands overhead. “Hi, hi, hi! I’m Maci! Did you want to meet me? My mommy said you were real excited to come play at my house. Guess what! We’re gonna have a picnic, and I got a whole lotta games, so we’re gonna have the most fun you ever had.”
“I wike fun!” Eva raised her hand like she was volunteering. She kicked her feet in Cash’s hold. “I want down, My Giant!”
Cash set her down beside Colin.
“I think you came to the right place because that’s what we got around here,” Nolan said. His adorable face was stretched in a wide grin, his warm blond hair longer on top.
“Are you my new friend Nolan?” Colin asked him, dancing back and forth on his feet.
The boy puffed out his chest. “Yep! That’s me. And you gotta be Colin.”
“That’s my name, all right. We kinda match because we got a bunch of the same letters in our names. Do you know how to spell it? Because I do. C-O-L-I-N and N-O-L-A-N. So, I bet we’re really supposed to be friends.”
Nolan cracked up. “I didn’t even think of that! My Daddy-O said I’m really smart, and I guess you’re really smart, too, so I guess we’re definitely supposed to probably be best friends.”
“You want to be my new best friend?” Maci beamed up at Addy. “But we all gotta be best friends because we love each other so much. We can’t be leaving no one out.”
“We never forget the ones in our hearts,” Addy agreed. My heart squeezed tight at her words. The truth that I forever tried to instill into my children. She lifted the bead set. “And look, I brought something for us to make.”
Maci’s eyes lit up. “You got a bead set?! Do I get to make a necklace?”
“Or a bracelet. Whatever you want. Mr. Cash got it for me, so it’s extra special, but we’ve got to do it on the table so the little kids don’t get any of the beads. We have to be careful so they don’t eat any.”
The younger boy popped up from the floor and came tottering our way. White hair framed his cherub face. “I is Finn!”
“Yep, this is Finn, and he’s our family, so he’s our best friend, too.” Maci slung her arm over his shoulder and tugged him so close to her chest that it squished his little lips together.
“That’s right, ’cause family is who you love most.” Nolan peeped it like fact.
His statement pierced me in the chest. The wisdom from a little boy who couldn’t be more than six or seven.
My gaze was drawn up to the eyes that still watched us in shock as the children made their introductions. Meeting the disorder of gazes.
Curiosity, surprise, and speculation.
Before a piercing screech suddenly broke the tension. “Oh my gosh, how in the world is this real life?”
A woman with the blackest hair and even darker eyes peeled herself from the burly mountain of a man who stood at her side. She rounded the island.
My eyes widened when I saw she was wearing the highest stiletto heels, black leather shorts, and a lacy white tank.
She was gorgeous to the extreme. Her eyes lined in thick makeup and her lips painted red. Her hair was woven in one thick, long braid and adorned with little white flowers.
Self-consciously, I shifted on my flip-flops. Apparently, I’d underdressed for this little soiree.
I didn’t have time to elbow Cash in the side for not warning me that I should have worn something nicer since the woman strutted in my direction. Before I could make sense of what was happening, she took me by the hand and pulled me forward so she could inspect me.
“She’s real!” she shouted over her shoulder to the rest of the group still gawking from the kitchen.
She turned back. Her red-stained lips stretched into the biggest smile.
“I mean, obviously, you’re real, but when my husband told me that Cash was bringing someone with him to today’s family gathering, I was pretty sure he was yanking my leg. ”
“Ah, Moonflower, if I’m yanking on those gorgeous legs, it’s for an entirely different reason.” A guy with brown hair and big blue eyes set his hands onto the island and wagged his brows.
“Okay, fair,” she said with a sexy kick of her heel behind her. “I was pretty sure he was yanking my chain,” she corrected, “since our Cash here likes to fly solo.”
She widened her eyes at Cash. Full of disbelief and questions.
He only grunted at her.
“My mom is very real.” Addy planted one hand on her hip, clearly thinking she needed to stand up for me.
The woman laughed a throaty sound, and she knelt in front of my daughter. “You’re right. That was very rude of me. I’m just really happy that you and your mom are here. That all of you are here.” She glanced at each of them. “I’m Raven.”
“You mean Auntie Raven!” Nolan interjected.
A soft giggle rolled from her. “That’s right. Auntie Raven.”
“Are you my auntie?!” Eagerness blazed out of Colin.
“You can absolutely call me Auntie Raven since pretty much my favorite thing in the whole wide world are my nieces and nephews.”
“And Uncle Otto and Baby Luna.” Maci clapped her hands.
Raven laughed. “They’re definitely at the top of my list.”
The woman pushed to stand. I had to plant my feet on the floor to stop myself from turning and darting back down the hall.
I couldn’t stop shaking. Old insecurities welling in a way they hadn’t in so long. For the most part—okay, fine…halfway—I’d gotten over my shyness.
Maybe I started shy with Ethan, but really, what it had amounted to was submission. Downtrodden and repressed. Any life that had wanted to sprout stubbed out.
When I finally left him, that life had finally, finally managed to emerge.
Raven’s dark, dark eyes softened as she looked up at me. The edges were creased in understanding and a true welcome.
“You must be Daisy.”
“I am.” I forced it out around the nerves.
“And as you heard, I’m Raven, but you can go ahead and leave the auntie part off,” she teased.
I choked out a little laugh. “It’s nice to meet you, Raven.”
She peeked over at Cash. “Believe me when I tell you the pleasure is all mine.”
Slowly, the rest of those in the kitchen made their way over.
A beautiful woman with warm blond hair stepped forward first. She stretched out both hands, taking one of mine. “Hi, Daisy. I’m Emery. Welcome to our home.”
A man sauntered up behind her and wrapped himself around her back. He extended a hand from the side of her. “Kane. It’s a pleasure to meet you, darlin’.”
Kane.
Right.
The owner of the club.
I fumbled to take his hand, a craggy gasp of words getting loose. “You, too.”
His eyes flicked to Cash while he still clung to my hand.
Cash who prickled with discomfort.
Wow.
We probably looked quite the pair.
Itching and anxious. I wondered if they knew him as anything else. If they’d even had a glimpse of the boy who had been so vibrant.
“And this one right here is mine,” Raven said as she wound an arm around the man who sauntered up to her. She patted his wide, wide chest as she snuggled into his side. “Otto.”
“Forever yours,” he grunted near her ear before he sent a jovial smile my way. “Ah, so you are the Daisy that our boy Cash can’t stop raving about?”
Displeasure left Cash on a huff.
Otto only laughed, and his blue eyes sparkled. “Now I see what has him stepping out and acting so out of character.”
“Leave it,” Cash grunted.
“And why would I want to do that?” Otto asked, a clear razzing tease, Cash’s grumpiness not affecting him a bit.