Chapter 14 Daisy
Two weeks later, the deck was finished.
I stood at the back door of Cal's cabin, watching Knox secure the last board. He moved with easy confidence, his hands sure and steady, muscles shifting under his t-shirt as he worked. The new deck stretched out wide and solid, golden wood gleaming in the afternoon sun.
He'd built it to last. Made to withstand whatever storms might come.
Knox straightened, wiping his forearm across his forehead. He caught me watching and smiled, that slow smile that still made my stomach flip.
"Done," he said. "What do you think?"
I stepped out onto the new boards, feeling them solid under my feet. Walked to where he stood at the edge, looking out at the mountains.
"It's perfect," I said. "Cal's going to love it."
"Hope so." Knox pulled me against his side, his arm settling around my waist like it belonged there. "Feels strange. Being done."
"Strange how?"
"This is what brought us back together." He looked down at me. "The deck. The forced proximity. All those mornings watching you through the kitchen window, pretending I wasn't dying to touch you."
"You weren't subtle about it."
"Neither were you." He grinned. "I saw you watching me work. Especially when my shirt came off."
I felt my cheeks flush as I laughed and pushed at his chest. He caught my hand, brought it to his lips and kissed my knuckles.
"I love you," he said. Simple. Direct. Like it was the easiest thing in the world.
"I love you too."
The sound of a truck in the driveway made us both turn. Cal's cruiser pulled up, and he climbed out, still in uniform.
Things had been careful between us. Polite. The rawness of our confrontation had faded, but we hadn't found our footing yet. We were both trying, both circling the wound without knowing how to heal it.
Cal walked around the side of the cabin and stopped when he saw the finished deck.
"It's done," he said.
"Just finished." Knox stepped forward, and I felt the tension in his shoulders. These two men, finding their way to something new. "Should hold up for twenty years, easy. Maybe longer if you maintain it right."
Cal stepped onto the deck, testing the boards with his weight. He walked the perimeter, examining the railings, the joints, the careful craftsmanship that Knox had put into every inch.
"This is good work," Cal said finally. "Professional quality."
"Learned from the best." Knox shrugged. "Old man Hendricks. Said I had good hands, if I could keep them out of trouble."
"Hendricks was a smart man." Cal turned to face Knox, and something in his expression changed. Became more open. More honest. "I owe you more than thanks for a deck."
Knox went still. "Cal..."
"Let me say this." Cal held up a hand. "I've been thinking about it for two weeks. Trying to find the right words. There probably aren't any, but I'm going to try anyway."
I stayed quiet, watching the two of them face each other across the deck Knox had built.
"Eight years ago, I looked at you and saw everything I was afraid of," Cal said. "A kid with a record. A temper. No future that I could see. I looked at you and I saw my sister's worst nightmare for her daughter."
Knox's jaw tightened, but he didn't speak.
"I was wrong." Cal's voice was rough. "I saw what I wanted to see. What was easy to see. I didn't look deeper. I didn't try to understand who you actually were, or who you could become."
"You were trying to protect her," Knox said quietly. "I understood that, even when I hated you for it."
"Understanding doesn't make it right." Cal shook his head. "I took something from both of you. Eight years. I can't give that back. But I can do better going forward."
He stepped closer to Knox, and I held my breath.
"You're a good man, Knox Parker. You've proven that a hundred times over. And I'd be proud to have you as part of this family. I know you don't need my approval." Cal almost smiled. "But you've got it anyway."
Knox exhaled slowly, then he extended his hand.
Cal took it.
"Thank you," Knox said. "For saying that. For trying."
"Thank you for not giving up on her." Cal looked at me, and his eyes were wet. "Either time."
I crossed the deck and wrapped my arms around Cal, burying my face in his chest the way I used to when I was a kid and the world felt too big.
"I love you," I said. "Even when I don't understand your choices. You're my family, Cal. That doesn't change."
His arms came around me, holding tight. "I love you too, sweetheart. More than I've ever been able to say."
We stood there for a long moment, the three of us on the new deck, the mountains glowing gold in the evening light. Something had shifted. Healed. Not perfectly, not completely, but enough.
Enough to build on.
That night, I went home with Knox. His cabin had started to feel like home over the past two weeks. My toothbrush in his bathroom. My clothes in his closet. My presence woven into the fabric of his life.
He built a fire in the woodstove while I opened a bottle of wine. We settled on the couch together, my legs across his lap, his hand absently stroking my ankle.
"That was big," I said. "What Cal said."
"Yeah." Knox stared into the fire. "I didn't expect it."
"How do you feel?"
He was quiet for a long moment. "I spent a few years hating him. Then I spent a few more years understanding why he did what he did. Accepting it, even if I couldn't forgive it." He looked at me. "But hearing him say those things? Hearing him say he was proud of me?"
"It mattered," I said softly.
"It shouldn't. I don't need anyone's approval. I know who I am." He shook his head. "But yeah. It mattered."
I set down my wine glass and shifted, straddling his lap. His hands came up automatically to grip my hips.
"You spent eight years becoming someone you could be proud of," I said, looking down at him. "Not for Cal. Not even for me. For yourself. That's what matters."
"It was for you," he said. "Everything I did was for you."
"Maybe it started that way." I traced the line of his jaw with my fingers. "But somewhere along the way, you became the man you were always meant to be. I was the catalyst, Knox. Not the cause. You did the work. You made the choices. You built this life."
He pulled me closer, his forehead resting against mine. "I don't know who I'd be without you."
"You'd still be you." I kissed him softly. "I'd still be me. We just would have been lonelier."
He kissed me back, deeper this time, his hands sliding up under my shirt. The familiar heat sparked between us, and I let myself sink into it.
"You want to finish your wine?," he murmured against my mouth.
"Not if you are offering something better."
He stood, lifting me with him, my legs wrapped around his waist. I laughed as he carried me toward the bedroom, my arms around his neck, my heart so full it ached.
He laid me on the bed and stood over me, stripping off his shirt.
"I'll never get tired of looking at you," I said.
"Good." He crawled over me, caging me with his arms. "Because you're stuck with me." He kissed my neck, my collarbone, the swell of my breast through my shirt. "Forever, if you'll have me."
"Forever sounds good." I pulled his mouth to mine. "Now stop talking and show me."
He showed me. Slowly. Thoroughly. Taking his time to worship every inch of my body until I was shaking and begging and calling out his name.
When we finally came together, it was different from the desperate urgency of before. This was slow.
"I love you," he breathed against my lips as he moved inside me. "I love you. I love you."
"I love you too." I held his face in my hands, watching his eyes as the pleasure built.
We fell over the edge together, tangled in each other, breathing the same air.
Afterward, we lay in the darkness, my head on his chest, his fingers tracing patterns on my back.
"Move in with me," he said.
I lifted my head to look at him. "What?"
"Here. Now. Don't go back to Cal's cabin. Stay with me. We can live here until the house is finished, and then we can move into that together."
"Knox, that's..."
"Fast?" He grinned. "We've been in love for eight years. That's not fast. That's overdue."
I laughed, my heart swelling. "You make a good argument."
"Is that a yes?"
I thought about it. About Cal's cabin, where I'd been healing. About Knox's cabin, where I'd found home. About the house on the mountain, waiting to be finished.
"Yes," I said. "It's a yes."
He kissed me, long and deep, and I felt the future stretch out before us. Solid. Built on a foundation that had taken eight years to lay.
We were finally ready.