Chapter 13 Daisy
Word traveled fast in Hollow Peak.
By noon on Saturday, everyone in town knew that Daisy Taylor and Knox Parker were together. The showdown at Timberline Tavern had been witnessed by half the population, and the other half had heard about it before breakfast.
I walked into the Switchback Café holding Knox's hand, and the entire room went quiet.
Mae was behind the counter, her silver braid swinging as she looked up. Her eyes dropped to our joined hands, then rose to my face, and a smile spread across her features like sunrise over the mountains.
"Well, well." She set down the coffee pot she'd been holding. "About damn time."
The tension in the room broke. Conversations resumed. A few people smiled at us and a few more pretended they hadn't been staring.
Knox guided me to a booth in the corner, his hand warm on the small of my back. I slid in, and he slid in next to me instead of across from me, his thigh pressing against mine.
"You didn't have to sit on this side," I said.
He draped his arm across the back of the booth, his fingers brushing my shoulder. "I spent eight years not being able to touch you. I'm making up for lost time."
Mae appeared at our table with two cups of coffee and a knowing look. "Cinnamon rolls are fresh. I'll bring you a couple."
"Mae, you don't have to..." I started.
"Hush." She waved a hand. "I've been waiting for this day since you were twenty years old, sneaking around with this one and thinking nobody noticed." She gave Knox a pointed look. "I noticed."
Knox had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. "We thought we were being careful."
"Sweetheart, you were about as subtle as a moose in a flower shop." Mae patted his shoulder. "But you turned out alright. Both of you. That's what matters."
She bustled off to get the cinnamon rolls, and I leaned into Knox's side, letting myself breathe.
This was real. We were here, together, in public, and the world hadn't ended.
"You okay?" Knox asked quietly.
"Better than okay." I looked up at him. "I spent so long being afraid of what people would think. Of what Cal would think. And now..."
"Now?"
"Now I don't care." I smiled. "The only opinions that matter are yours and mine. Everyone else can deal with it."
He kissed me, right there in the middle of the café, soft and quick but unmistakably possessive. Someone wolf-whistled from across the room. I was pretty sure it was Mason.
When Knox pulled back, his eyes were warm. "That's my girl."
We ate Mae's cinnamon rolls. Drank too much coffee and talked about everything and nothing, filling in the gaps of eight years apart.
He told me about the jobs he'd worked, the cabin he'd bought, the volunteer work with the mountain rescue team that had given him purpose.
I told him about nursing school, about the city, about the slow erosion of myself that had happened under Garrett's influence.
"I lost myself," I admitted, stirring the dregs of my coffee. "Piece by piece. He'd say something critical, and I'd adjust. He'd isolate me from a friend, and I'd let it happen. By the end, I didn't even recognize who I'd become."
Knox's hand tightened on my shoulder. "That's not your fault."
"I know." I met his eyes. "It took me a long time to understand that. But I know it now. And being back here, being with you..." I shook my head. "I feel like myself again. The self I was before everything went wrong."
"You're not that girl anymore," Knox said quietly. "You're stronger. You've been through things that would have broken someone else, and you're still here. Still fighting."
"So are you."
He smiled, and something in my chest settled. We'd both been through the fire. We'd both come out different. But maybe different wasn't bad. Maybe different was exactly what we needed to be.
June found us as we were leaving the café.
She was leaning against her truck across the street, arms crossed, purple-streaked hair catching the sunlight. When she saw us emerge hand in hand, she pushed off the truck and walked over.
"So it's true," she said, looking between us. "You two finally got your heads out of your asses."
"Nice to see you too, June," Knox said dryly.
"Don't give me attitude, Parker. I've been watching you mope around this town for years. It was getting pathetic." She turned to me, her expression softening slightly. "Glad you took my advice."
"You were right," I said. "About the story I was telling myself. It wasn't the whole truth."
"Usually am." June shrugged. "It's a gift." She looked at Knox again. "You hurt her, I'll put sugar in your gas tank and then run you over with my tow truck."
"Noted."
"Good." She gave me a nod that felt like approval. "Ladies' Garage Night is next Thursday. You should come. Time you made some friends who aren't also sleeping with you."
She walked off before I could respond, climbing into her truck and pulling away with a roar of the engine.
"I think she likes you," Knox said.
"That was her liking me?"
"For June? That was practically a hug."
I laughed, and Knox pulled me close, kissing my temple.
"Come on," he said. "I want to show you something."
***
He drove us out of town, up the winding mountain roads, past the trailhead that led to the overlook. I watched the landscape change, the trees growing thicker, the air growing cooler.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"You'll see."
He turned off the main road onto a dirt track I didn't recognize. We bumped along for another mile before the trees opened up and I saw it.
A clearing. A view of the entire valley spread out below, Hollow Peak glittering in the distance. And at the edge of the clearing, a foundation. Concrete and wood framing, the skeleton of something being built.
"Knox?" I turned to look at him. "What is this?"
He was quiet for a moment, staring at the half-built structure. Then he said, "I bought this land three years ago. Started building last spring."
"Building what?"
"A house." He turned to face me. "I told myself it was because I needed more space. Because my cabin was too small and I wanted something I'd built with my own hands. But that wasn't the real reason."
"What was the real reason?"
"You." His voice was rough. "I was building it for you. For us. A place we could have if you ever came back. If you ever gave me another chance."
I stared at him, my heart cracking open.
"You didn't know I was coming back," I whispered.
"No." He shook his head. "But I hoped. Every day, I hoped. And I wanted to be ready. Wanted to have something to offer you besides a cramped cabin and a history of bad decisions."
I got out of the truck and walked toward the foundation. It was bigger than I'd expected. Room for a real kitchen. A living room with windows facing the valley. Space to grow.
Knox came up behind me, his hands settling on my waist.
"It's not finished," he said. "Won't be for a while. But I wanted you to see it. To know that I wasn't sitting around waiting for you to come back. I was building something. For the future I wanted with you, even when I didn't know if I'd ever get it."
I turned in his arms, looking up at him.
"You built me a house," I said.
"I'm building you a house," he corrected. "It's not done yet. And I want you involved. I want you to choose the finishes, the layout, all of it. This isn't just for you, Daisy. It's for us. Our future. If you want it."
"If I want it?" I laughed, tears pricking my eyes. "Knox, I want everything with you. I've wanted it since I was twenty years old and too scared to say it out loud."
"Say it now." His hands tightened on my waist. "Say it out loud."
"I want this." I pressed my hand to his chest, feeling his heart beat under my palm. "I want the house. I want the future. I want to wake up next to you every morning and fall asleep with you every night. I want to build a life with you, Knox. Here. In Hollow Peak. For real this time."
He kissed me. Deep and fierce, with the valley spread out behind us and the frame of our future rising at our backs.
When he pulled back, his eyes were bright. "Then that's what we'll do."
I looked at the half-built house. At the man who'd spent eight years becoming someone who could build it. At the life stretching out before us, full of possibility.
"Show me everything," I said. "Every room. Every plan. I want to see it all."
He grinned. Took my hand. And led me into our future.