Chapter 17
17
brYCE
It’s like something out of my worst nightmare, the way everyone turns to look at us when we walk in. The gawking eyes feel like sandpaper rubbing up and down my skin, but I keep myself in check instead of telling them all to fuck off the way I want to.
I touch Daisy’s lower back with a firm hand and guide her through the bar. It’s not the first time I’ve witnessed people staring at her, but it’s for an entirely different reason this time. While I’m used to them pausing to take a look at her breathtaking beauty whenever she steps into a room, this time, they’re pausing to wonder why she’s here with me.
Smug isn’t an emotion I’m familiar with, but maybe I’ll have to get used to it. I think I might like it after all.
Daisy scoffs under her breath and rolls her eyes at a couple I recognize from the town office as they observe us from their booth without a care. The woman tugs her phone from her purse before we’ve even made it past them, and my gut tells me that it isn’t the babysitter she’s texting.
“I’ll never get used to how nosey everyone is here,” Daisy says beneath her breath, words just for me. “In Calgary, you could walk into any busy spot, and nobody would know who you were or care why you were there.”
“You forgot how small a small town really is, Sunshine. It’s spending a night out drinking and constantly reminding yourself not to get crazy out of fear of waking up the next morning to every single person in town knowing and judging you.”
“You’re right. It was easier to forget about the pains of this place the longer I was away. But I still missed it.”
“I wouldn’t miss the town. Just the people,” I say, letting her see something deeper inside of me.
The bartender glares at me the way she always does, but once she notices Daisy beside me and the hand I have on her back, she strays from the usual. With a sharp laugh, Victoria’s mother, Pamila, makes a scene, shouting to the second bartender words that she hungers for me to hear.
“Look at this! Another victim for the infamous cold-hearted bitch to sink her teeth into. Is she the first Mitchell daughter you’ll be testing out, or have you already sampled the others?”
My throat constricts with a mixture of anger and embarrassment, the former being my focus. Daisy is stiff as a board beside me, but I don’t spend time contemplating the reason behind it before dropping my hand and storming over to the bar.
My skin beats with a pissed-off flush. Pamila is more immature than her daughter. I should have expected something to have been coming all this time. She’s been too quiet about my relationship with her daughter for too long not to have been itching to cause a scene. Seeing me with Daisy—the first woman since Victoria—has struck a chord.
Pamila doesn’t know the truth of what happened between me and her daughter, and I haven’t given enough of a shit to tell her differently. Victoria is a coward when it comes to her mother, and for a while after our breakup, I hated the part of myself that didn’t want to ruin their relationship the way I knew would happen if the truth came out. It shouldn’t have mattered what damage I left behind after she broke my heart, but for some fucking reason, it did.
I’m paying for that now.
“Wait!” Daisy calls before her fingers curl around my bicep. My attention snaps to her touch, my anger gone for the briefest of moments. “We’re not here to deal with that woman. She’s not worth it.”
“It is worth it. I’ve waited a long time to put her in her place.”
“Not tonight, Bryce. Please. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go,” she pleads, face scrunching painfully.
It’s that expression that has me turning my back on Pamila. I suck in a long breath and try to ignore the eyes I can feel sinking into me from every direction as I focus on Daisy’s.
“She has it coming. I’m not someone to hold my tongue, Daisy. I’d rather chomp it off than do that. Especially when people I care about are brought up to piss me off,” I snap, hoping that she doesn’t remove her hand as a result of my anger. “I’ve walked on eggshells in this place for years despite that. Just trying not to start shit with people who more than deserve it.”
Her fingers loosen before drifting up along my sleeve and settling on my shoulder. My chest grows tight, too tight to get a full breath in, but I keep completely still.
“Just one more night. There’s something more important about tonight than a cruel person who clearly thrives on attention. You want to make a point to parents? Let it go one last time, and tomorrow, you can make her life hell and teach her not to mess with you.”
“I want a drink,” I mutter.
She laughs, and it pushes back the black clouds in my mind. “Poppy’s already got it handled.”
With her hand on my shoulder, Daisy urges me to look back at the bar. The sight of my best friend leaned over the bar with a finger jabbing into Pamila’s chest is more than enough for me right now, but her words soothe the sharp edges inside of me that hadn’t quite dulled from Daisy’s.
“Keep your poison tongue inside your mouth, Pamila, or I’ll encourage that ‘cold-hearted bitch’ to cut it off and shove it up your ass.”
There’s a hush around us, but Poppy doesn’t care. She grabs two beers from behind the bar and takes them with a toothy grin.
“Consider this the start of an apology,” she drawls before turning to wink right at me and Daisy and gesturing around the bar toward where I know our group of friends are waiting.
Daisy strokes a hand up my spine and dips her chin at my best friend. Poppy leaves us then, her hips swaying confidently.
Pissed off doesn’t begin to describe my feelings, but fuck if I’m going to let it ruin my night. I’d rather be pissed than know I’ve hurt or disappointed Daisy by not being the bigger person here.
“Are you ready?” she asks.
“I’m sorry she brought you up like that. I’ve never thought about any of your sisters in that?—”
Daisy cuts me off with a finger to my mouth.
In the middle of Peakside, she touches my lips with the pad of her finger and steps close, closer than she has before.
A boulder smashes into my chest, stealing my breath. Something warm and charged fills the space between us and brushes my body with electric fingers. She’s not much shorter than me and probably weighs as much as one of the bar stools nearby, but she watches me with the determination and focus of someone ten times her height and size.
My mouth is dry, lips aching for me to reach out with my tongue and wet them. I’d taste her then. Probably wind up sucking the tip of her small finger into my mouth and moaning at the new connection.
Fuck, my entire pussy clenches at the idea. Would she like if I bit down on the soft pad of it? Just gently . . . enough to have those pretty blues widening and pupils expanding with a dangerous mix of shock and lust.
“Don’t apologize for the actions of others, Bryce. We’re not responsible for anyone besides ourselves. Everyone has their own mind and their own conscience, even if they choose to ignore it,” she murmurs, eyes flitting between mine before drifting down to where we’re connected.
Her cheeks turn pink as she applies pressure with her finger, forcing my lips to part enough for it to press against the bottom more than the top. I exhale over the dainty fingertip, and her breath hitches, gaze bouncing back up to snag on mine.
I’ve dreamed of being this close to her. Of what the heat from her body beating into mine with wild fists and attention fixated on me and only me would feel like. What I was wishing for was nothing compared to the real thing.
“You’re blushing, Sunshine,” I breathe out.
The pink deepens and spreads to her ears. “You don’t blush.”
“I don’t?”
She touches my cheek with her other hand, using the backs of her fingers to stroke the length of it. I shiver from head to toe, unable to hide such a visceral reaction this time.
“Maybe you do,” she whispers, stroking my skin again where I know it flames as brightly as hers. “Pink looks good on you.”
My laugh is rough, but as she stares at my mouth with a startling sense of awe, I don’t think she cares how it sounds.
“Your smile looks better, though,” she muses, one of her own appearing.
“I’ve smiled around you before.”
“Hardly. Not like that.”
Cool air attacks my hot skin when she removes her hand and uses the other to trace the shape of my bottom lip and pull up the corner of my mouth.
“I’m more of a scowler,” I say bluntly. Aiming for it to sound like a joke, I hope it doesn’t sound as self-deprecating as it feels.
“I like your scowls too. ”
If we stand here like this any longer, I’m going to start thinking too far into these comments and find meanings behind them that don’t exist.
We’re in public.
This is all for show.
An act for or Pamila and the couple that I’d bet have already told my mother everything we intended her to learn.
I’m not interested in hurting myself.
Daisy’s forced to stop touching me, our connection breaking when I take a step back. My neck is hot, and I feel how damp it is with sweat as I pull my hair into my hands and drape it over my shoulder.
“If we don’t go now, someone will have drunk our beers,” I mutter.
She blinks a few times, her face unreadable for the first time since I’ve met her. “You’re right.”
I hesitate to touch her now.
In front of Darren, we were able to keep our distance in the classroom. But we aren’t in a classroom this time, and we’re about to do this in front of everyone important in my life. Her twin brother included.
“What do you need me to do?” Daisy asks, reading my mind. She looks like herself again.
“Do we hold hands?”
“We do whatever feels natural.”
But what if everything feels natural with her? I’d hold her hand every day if I could, even if my palms grow sweaty in seconds.
“Start with this,” she adds, threading our fingers.
I focus on every point of contact we have, from our hands to our arms that are pressed together, and take a deep breath.
We head straight for the table around the bar, and every step settles me somehow. Despite what we’re doing here tonight, the people waiting for us are my family. They bring me a peace that isn’t possible to replace .
“Daisy, you’ve officially made the most punctual person I know late for somethin’,” Johnny says, the first one to notice us approaching the table.
Brody barks a laugh. “Fuck, you’re blind as hell.”
“What?” Johnny appears dumbfounded by the comment.
Garrison’s pressed to the wall beside Poppy on the other side of the table, but that doesn’t stop him from reaching across it to snap his fingers in front of Johnny. Daisy’s twin brother frowns at his friend.
Aurora, like everyone else at the table besides Johnny, is ping-ponging her eyes between Daisy and me and the hands we have interlocked. She smooths a hand down his arm.
“Hands, Johnny. Look at their hands.”
He whips his head in our direction and sucks in a breath at the sight pointed out to him. I avoid his attention and glance around for two available chairs to haul to the table.
“What the fuck, Bryce?”
Having only found one chair not already taken around us, I release Daisy’s hand and pull it from a nearby table before meeting Johnny’s stare.
“Surprise.”
“Surprise?” he echoes, voice climbing an octave. “This isn’t a surprise! This is a blindside!”
“Calm down, Johnny,” Daisy tells him.
I place the empty chair at the edge of the table and gesture for her to sit. She furrows her brows and shakes her head, waving me off.
Leaning toward her, I lower my voice. “Sit down.”
She cocks her head at me before spreading her lips in a smirk. “Fine.”
“Thank you.”
“After you,” she adds coyly.
My breathing shallows momentarily once I piece together what she means. There’s no time to deny her suggestion with everyone staring at us with blunt curiosity. Panic flushes through me as I sit on the chair and wait for her next move.
I exhale tightly when she plants her ass on my lap and beams at everyone. Head swinging, I look to Poppy for help, but she’s too busy giggling into her hand to be of use.
Johnny shakes his head frantically. “I’m gonna ask again. What the fuck is happening?”
He’s pale, shell-shocked as he stares at us like he’s seen a fucking ghost. Dramatic as hell, that guy.
“I thought it was pretty obvious. Bryce and Daisy are together,” Anna says with outward approval.
The guilt I was dreading hits at her words and the tone with which she says them, but I keep my face blank.
“When did this happen?” Brody asks.
“You’ve only been staying there for what? Two weeks? I want to know how this happened and why I wasn’t told way sooner!” Johnny adds.
Garrison clears his throat. “One week.”
Johnny points across the table at him, the sharp lines of his jaw loose. “One!”
“Not helpful,” Poppy scolds her boyfriend. “Not everyone acts like a total ass when they meet someone they’re interested in like you did. I’d bet it’s a lot easier to fall for someone when there isn’t so much tension.”
“You weren’t complaining about the tension when I was hate fucking?—”
Poppy shoves her hand to his mouth and flashes an apologetic smile at Daisy before Johnny steps back into the conversation.
“So, you moved in and immediately decided you wanted to date one of my closest friends?” he asks his twin.
I swallow past the tightness in my throat and cut in, continuing to keep my expression carefully closed off. “Does it matter? You can either approve or not. I don’t really care either way.”
Johnny gasps again, this time with a hand slapping his chest. “ You know, I’m the closest thing to a dad that Daisy has. Is this how you’d speak with her father?”
“Yes.”
Daisy’s body shakes with a gentle ring of laughter as she leans against me, back to my chest. The ease of her movements strikes something inside of me. A click of a lock moments before it swings open. On a wild fucking whim, I release the tight grip I have on my control and give in to my impulses.
Winding an arm around her middle, I rest my chin on her shoulder and inhale the sweet scent of her perfume. One by one, I meet the surprised and elated stares of everyone at the table, letting them see some of the truth that lies behind the mask I’ve slipped on.
“Well, I don’t plan on being the one to argue with Bryce on this,” Brody says, a beer pressed to his mouth. “Congrats.”
Poppy holds my gaze, pride and peace amongst the emotions in her eyes. “I don’t think anyone should feel the need to argue.”
“You’re really dating the one person I can’t intimidate?” Johnny asks Daisy, slouching back in the booth.
Daisy turns her head, and I look away from Poppy to stare at her instead. She looks honest, and I wish she weren’t such a natural at this.
It looks too real.
For them and for me.