Chapter 39
39
brYCE
The smell of bacon wakes me before my alarm does. I stretch my arm out at my side and feel cold sheets instead of the warm body I remember falling asleep beside.
After Daisy woke from her nap with my tongue tracing the shape of her breast, it was late by the time we managed to tire ourselves out again. But I wasn’t so far gone that I imagined sprawling across Daisy’s chest and falling asleep.
She was here, and now she’s gone. Even if she’s only in the kitchen, I wanted her here when I opened my eyes. Maybe to give me some sort of validation after what we did last night and the steps we took, or who fucking knows. I just wanted her to be the first thing I saw.
The whole “sex is a good way to relax” saying is bullshit. Sex with Daisy makes me clingy and desperate, not relaxed.
I groan and throw my arm over my eyes. Maybe if I go back to sleep, I can have a redo.
“I heard you groaning, so you can’t pretend to be asleep just so you don’t have to go to work this morning.”
Baring my eyes, I push up on my elbow and glare at her. It’s hard to keep it up once I spot the plate of food in her hands and the bright grin on her sleepy features .
“Stop glaring at me, Frosty. I left to make breakfast.”
“I wanted you in bed when I woke up,” I grunt.
She teases me with a pout and hovers the plate of food over my lap. “You could have told me that last night.”
“Neither of us were doing much talking then.”
Snatching a piece of crisp bacon, I rip off a chunk and begin chewing. There’s more than enough food on this plate to feed three people, let alone the two of us.
“That’s fair. I’ll keep in mind that you’re needy in the morning.”
I swallow the bacon and curve a hand over her nape before bringing her in for a kiss. Her lashes flutter shut as she kisses me back and pushes my messy hair over my shoulder, running her fingers through it.
She entertains me for a couple of minutes and then pulls back with a bump of our noses.
“Eat, Bryce. We both have work today.”
“I’d rather stay here.”
“Me too. But it’s too short notice to find a sub, and I want to keep my sick days for the next time you find yourself kneeling over a toilet.”
I chuckle, propping myself up against the headboard and folding my leg to make room for her to sit on the bed. “How do you know it won’t be you puking next time?”
Her chin tips toward the ceiling when she sits and places the food on the mattress beside my stretched leg. She holds my knee and takes a peanut butter–smeared pancake between her fingers.
“I never get sick. It’s a Mitchell family blessing.”
“Must be a sham because Johnny’s gotten sick plenty of times.”
“You mean he’s pretended to be sick plenty of times,” she corrects me.
I lean forward and steal a bite of the pancake held to her lips.
“Do you like peanut butter on pancakes?” she asks, taking in my expression as I chew .
Swallowing, I take another pancake from the stack. “I’ve never had it until now. Who doesn’t like peanut butter?”
“You’d be surprised. But I love it. It’s been a while since I’ve had it on pancakes, though. Johnny hates peanut butter and used to hide the jars our moms would buy for me.”
“Johnny’s a shit disturber.”
She giggles, and I decide right here, right now, that I never want to start a day again without hearing that sound.
“I had a good time yesterday,” she murmurs.
“Poppy’s going to meddle into Delaney’s life, you know?”
“Would that be such a bad thing?”
“It will be if she’s doing what I think she is and getting herself involved in Delaney’s relationship with Darren.”
“I’m assuming he won’t be any happier about that than Della?”
“I told him she was coming with us yesterday, and he called me six times while we were gone. I haven’t answered him yet, but I’ll need to soon.”
She rolls her lip between her teeth before letting it go. “He’s mad at you for letting her come? You should tell him that it was my idea.”
“I won’t be doing that, so he needs to get over it. I’m glad she came. It was nice.”
I mean it too. Delaney is good company. And Darren is a grown man with a child old enough to learn from the examples he sets. He can sort himself out before he self-destructs. They’ve been separated for nearly a decade.
Daisy nods, accepting my explanation without a doubt, showing her trust in me. I take her hand and guide her up onto my lap. She hovers over my thighs and sucks a smear of peanut butter off her thumb.
I zone into the movement, desire coiling low in my belly. Depending on what time it is, I could convince her to get back in bed for a few minutes . . .
She releases her thumb with a loud pop, and her lips curl high when she notices my stare. “Don’t even think about it, Ms. Punctuality. Eat and then get dressed.”
“I’m not thinking about anything.”
“Liar,” she whispers, leaning forward to kiss the tip of my nose.
“I want every morning to be like this,” I admit, pushing past the voice in my head that tells me not to be so obvious with my love.
“The being served breakfast part or the being with me part?”
“You know the answer to that already. Although the breakfast is nice too.”
She sweeps her knuckles across the hair tickling my forehead, a serene warmth lighting her eyes.
Eating breakfast in bed in the early morning with someone you love is such a mundane thing, but it means more to me than most others do. It’s a step in the right direction. A look into the future I hope to have with Daisy.
The words I love you bubble up my throat, and I’m one heartbeat away from telling her how I feel. It’s a risk, but if I keep it inside any longer, I’m going to burst, and she’ll learn about my feelings from the doctor after I’m left with a heart-sized hole in my chest.
I steel my spine and open my mouth?—
Someone starts pounding on my front door, making it rattle on the hinges loud enough for me to hear it all the way in my bedroom.
“Who is that?” Daisy gasps, hopping off me.
She rushes to my dresser and starts riffling through the first and then second drawers. I don’t have a chance to tease her about looking through my panties before she’s whipping a shirt and shorts at me. They’re tiny fucking things that Poppy forced me to buy over a year ago, but I put them on without complaint.
“No clue,” I reply tightly. “But stay here while I go look. ”
“As if. Who are you, Captain America? If you’re getting hit with a baseball bat, I want to be hit too,” she says, and suddenly, I wish she hadn’t gotten dressed already this morning.
I scroll my eyes up and down her body and would have smiled at how weird she looks with all-black clothes on if I wasn’t so annoyed with whoever it is threatening to plow through my door.
“Fine, Daisy.”
She doesn’t wait for me before leaving the room, so I fumble out of bed and jog to catch her in the hall.
I knew I should have spanked her last night.
The knocking gives for a second, but the silence doesn’t last for long. Johnny’s voice blows right through the door, and I freeze, feeling Daisy’s attention shift to me.
“Open up, Bryce!”
“Were you expecting him this morning?” I ask, quietly enough her brother won’t be able to hear.
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Great,” I mutter.
I slide past her and unlock the deadbolt before opening up the door. Johnny Mitchell doesn’t wait for an invitation inside. He just storms right past me.
“Sure, come inside,” I tell him, no hint of a joke to be found in my voice.
He’s clearly pissed off about something, but when he doesn’t take his boots off before disappearing into the living room the way he always does, something sours in my gut.
“What’s wrong, J?” Daisy asks, quick to chase after him.
I trail behind and linger beneath the archway. Johnny faces his sister with raging eyes the same shade as hers. “Why haven’t you checked your phone this morning?”
“I was busy.”
He spins to face me, and his anger swells. “And you?”
“Not like it’s your business, Jonathan, but I was with Daisy. Now, knock it down a few pegs when you’re speaking to her. ”
“Oh, you’re takin’ this whole thing really far. You can cut it out now that I know the truth,” he snaps.
That sour feeling grows in intensity, turning to queasiness. Daisy isn’t able to hide her emotions from me, and as she starts piecing together what he’s saying, her face pales beneath flaming red cheeks.
“Watch it,” I warn again. “What are you talking about?”
He plants his hands on his jeaned hips and stares me down. “This whole sham! You’ve been lyin’ to us. All of us .”
“It’s not a lie—” Daisy starts.
Johnny keeps me trapped beneath a stare flickering with betrayal. “You used my sister for your own benefit. I trusted you with her, and you stabbed me in the back. We were all so happy for you, and then first thing this mornin’, I had Eliza Steele pull me aside and explain the rumours flyin’ around town about you and my damn twin sister.”
“What rumours?” I snip, letting his other words slip away for now, not giving them space in my mind. They’ll hit really fucking hard in a few minutes.
“You and Daisy! Your fake relationship that was only created to trick your parents into leaving you alone so that you didn’t have to actually stand up for yourself.”
“Johnny,” Daisy says, a threatening edge to her tone that I haven’t heard before. “You don’t know the whole story.”
He snaps his head in her direction and scrunches his brows. “I don’t want to talk to you right now, Daisy. Me and Bryce have some shit to work through.”
“Okay, macho man. That’s not going to work. You need to take a breath and really think about whether you want to continue acting like a bull in a china shop.”
“I like you, Johnny, but I’m not going to stand here and let you attack me in my own house,” I say coolly.
He laughs humourlessly. “You lied to my family and my friends. I’m sorry for not being cool-headed.”
“They’re my friends too,” I snap back .
“Then why didn’t you tell us the truth? Actually, it doesn’t matter. I don’t even trust you enough anymore to stand here and listen to whatever it is you have to say in your defense.”
“You’re being dramatic, Johnny. Just calm down and listen to what we have to say,” Daisy says.
He shakes his head hard. “What do you even have to say? That you felt it was okay to just lie to everyone you know and care about in order to help someone who should have known that it’s okay to ask for help straight up? Do you have any idea how badly this is going to hurt the moms when they find out the truth? If they haven’t already.”
Daisy winces, her face crumpling. “They weren’t supposed to learn about the fake part. Not now, considering it’s not like that anymore.”
“That’s not for you to decide. Word broke in Peakside last night when one of the ranch hands started runnin’ his drunk-ass mouth to anyone who would listen. The others mentioned it to Eliza this mornin’, but I’d put money on it being all over town by now.”
Alarm spears through me as I start to panic. My mom.
She has fingers in every social circle in Cherry Peak. I wouldn’t doubt if she was one of the first few people to find out.
“How did that guy even learn about this?” Daisy asks.
Her twin blows out a harsh breath. “His sister was up in Calgary yesterday. Apparently, she was in a goddamn sex shop and recognized Poppy when she overheard everything.”
I shove trembling fingers through my hair and keep breathing steadily. The odds of that happening are one in a million.
I’ve never given a shit what the people in this town think or say about me, but I do care what they say about Daisy. She doesn’t deserve to be spoken about and judged by people who don’t know a damn thing about her because of something she was doing for me.
And Poppy . . . She’ll never get over knowing that her innocent words were stolen by someone and used to create a burst of harmful gossip.
I force myself to speak. “Which ranch hand was it?”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s too late to get ahead of it. The truth is out now, and it won’t pass until somethin’ else comes along. You know how it works here,” Johnny answers roughly.
It’s not what I want to hear but knew was coming.
“I have to go,” I mutter.
Johnny scoffs. “What? We’re a long way from done talking about this.”
Daisy ignores him and comes to stand in front of me. She takes my face in her hands and forces me to stare at her. My lungs feel like they’ve shrunk as I can’t seem to get enough air into my system.
“Go see your mom. I’ll talk to Johnny,” she whispers.
Her touch doesn’t soothe me the way it always has before. Instead, it makes me feel worse. Like I’m undeserving of it.
I don’t have it in me to smile, even just to soothe her temporarily. Instead, I use my words. “Don’t let him make you feel small. You’re the furthest thing from it.”
Johnny is one of the kindest people out there, but everyone is capable of having a villain moment when they think they’re protecting someone they love.
I’m one drive away from experiencing exactly that.
Daisy presses her lips to mine in a fierce kiss that I know is meant to reassure me, but I keep it short for the very first time. It feels wrong to pull away, but the alternative is to take her back to my bedroom and lock her inside for the next few months until all of this blows over.
Despite our mutual agreement to fake date, I was the one who benefited from it. It was my parents I needed help pushing out of my business so I didn’t lose them completely and my best friend, who unknowingly exposed our secret. We lied to not only my best friends but to her family too.
The blowback for this needs to catch me before it so much as considers touching her. And there’s only one place to go to try and make that happen.
My parents’ house.