Chapter 32 Daisy - The Sweetest Sight
DAISY The Sweetest Sight
I felt it as soon as I woke up. This feeling I couldn’t quite recognize, a warmth low in my belly that spread all the way through me.
“Happiness” didn’t seem like the right word.
“Glee,” maybe. As my mind pieced together that I was in Amelia and Parker’s house, I realized another body was wrapped around mine.
And then I remembered why I felt so happy.
Mason. I’d had plenty of boyfriends throughout the years, but never one who had made me feel like this.
I yawned quietly, not wanting to wake him. “Hi,” he whispered sleepily, pulling me closer.
“Hi,” I whispered back.
He nuzzled his face into my neck, kissing that place behind my ear lazily like it had always been this way. Then he rolled me over and kissed my mouth, morning breath and all. He grinned at me and said, “So, uh, last night was pretty great.”
“Pretty great” was the understatement of the century. I understood now why all these poor women got totally hooked on Mason Thaysden and couldn’t break the habit. The man had a talent. “Well, for you,” I said. “For me…” I made a so-so motion with my hand.
“Oh yeah? Just so-so. Well, I need to rectify that immediately.” As he disappeared under the covers, I protested, “Mason! You have to get to work.”
He popped his head out from the sheet and said, “That’s what I’m doing.”
Before I could argue, a voice outside the door called, “Aunt Daisy!”
Oh shit. Greer. Mason popped his head out again, and I whisper-hissed, “Hide!”
“Why?” he whispered back. “She’s three.”
“Do you want her to tell Mommy and Daddy that Uncle Mason spent the night with Aunt Daisy?”
He grimaced. “I do not.”
“Then hide!”
“Aunt Daisy!” Greer protested again.
I looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was almost six thirty, but Amelia promised they never woke up before seven, so I hadn’t been totally negligent.
I hopped out of the bed, pulling my bathrobe off the chair by the door and wrapping it around me in one swift motion.
“Hi, sweets,” I said, opening the door. “You’re an early riser.”
I smoothed her disheveled blond hair as she peered up at me. “I want to get in bed with you,” she said.
It was so cute. But since poor Mason was hiding underneath said bed, it wasn’t a possibility. “Let’s go get in your bed for a minute,” I said. Before she could whine, I said, “There’s no pink at all in my room. We need pink, right?”
It made no sense, but she nodded in agreement.
An hour later, the kids and I were up and dressed, and I was driven to absolute distraction by when I would see Mason again.
I was in the kitchen scrambling eggs when I heard the screen door slam.
It could be Tilley. It could be a neighbor.
I was tempering my excitement until I heard, “Who wants doughnuts?”
Greer and George squealed and ran to the door. They were half hanging on Mason as he entered the kitchen.
“You are a bad influence,” I said. “They don’t need all that sugar in the morning.”
Mason opened the box on the counter and said, “One only, please.” The kids each grabbed a doughnut, and Mason took my arm, spatula still in hand, and pulled me into the walk-in pantry.
“But I need some sugar in the morning,” he said.
I laughed as he kissed me. That kiss wasn’t just an opening now.
It was a remembrance. As my free hand found the back pocket of his jeans, I wondered briefly how fast I could get them off.
But, no. The eggs. And the kids.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he said.
I nodded, wiping my bottom lip. “The feeling is mutual.”
He took the spatula from my hand and went out to attend to the eggs, as I watched him. Get it together, Daisy.
As he scraped the eggs and joked with his niece and nephew, the most uncomfortable knowing washed over me: I loved him. I was in love with Mason Thaysden. And, if the stories I had heard were to be believed, there was nothing he could ever do but break my heart.
I loved my nursing schedule. I worked three twelve-hour shifts per week, which, yes, was draining while I was in it, but gave me plenty of time off to recuperate—or, as I was doing now, babysit.
In the future, it would give me plenty of self-care time, which I was looking forward to.
While keeping George and Greer had reminded me how physically and mentally demanding it was to be a parent, it was also showing me how much fun it was.
And how convenient it would be to have so much time off when and if I was fostering Maisy full-time.
So today, I walked through the doors of Cape Carolina Medical as a guest. “Hi, Bernice!” I called to the woman at the front desk.
She looked confused. “Aren’t you off today?”
“Yes, but I wanted to come visit Maisy.”
Bernice knew all about our little Jane Doe and how Mason and I had nicknamed her. I walked toward the desk and, lowering my voice, said, “No one else has come to see her, have they?”
It was selfish. Real love was wanting what was best for the baby, and I should want her to have visitors. I should want her to be smothered with love from every direction. And I would want that. In the future. For now, I wanted her to be mine, all mine.
Bernice shook her head sadly. “No visitors. Breaks my heart. I can only think of one other baby in all of Cape Carolina history that has had no visitors. Usually family members are fighting over who gets to come in.”
That made my heart surge with love for this little baby. And for another one that I had to increasingly push out of my mind. “But she has us, right?” I swallowed hard, trying to keep tears out of my eyes. Were we enough? Sometimes, I well knew, we had to be. But sometimes it felt so unfair.
Bernice nodded. “I go up and hold her a couple times a day on my breaks like you told me to.”
“Thanks, Bernice. I know she really appreciates it.”
I knew I did too. I couldn’t be here every second, especially this week.
I walked to the elevator bank to the right of the check-in desk and stepped inside a pair of doors opening at the perfect time.
I was so excited to get upstairs, to see my girl.
But I mused that I was excited to step inside that elevator most days.
I truly loved my job and felt so grateful to have the opportunity to do it.
How many people felt that way about their careers? I knew it was a gift.
And, also, let’s face it: A big part of my good mood was from Mason.
He had insisted on helping me get the kids to school since Aunt Tilley was noticeably absent from the morning’s festivities.
And then we’d made out a little in the high school parking lot, which was pretty fun.
I felt giddy and alive and like all the colors were brighter.
The first bloom of early love, the urgency of it, the heightened sensibility, were too great for any words. I wanted more and more of that.
Laura was holding a chart in one hand and a lollipop in the other when I stepped off the elevator.
“What’s cookin’, good-lookin’?” she asked.
“Just came to visit Maisy.”
Laura paused, her hand in the air. She pointed at me. “You had sex.”
I looked around. “How do you know that?”
“Oh, I’d know a good sex glow anywhere.” She set the folder down, took the wrapper off the lollipop, stuck it in her mouth, leaned against the counter of the nurses’ station, and said, “Tell me everything. I need all the details.”
I scrunched my nose. “I’m not going to give you the details.” But, oh, did I ever want to. But no. That was gross and overshare-ish. “But I will say…” I did a little dance and sang, “I have a boyfriend! I have a boyfriend!”
Laura looked wary. “Honey, multiple orgasms do not a boyfriend make.”
I gasped. “How did you know about that?”
She snorted. “Mason’s bedroom skills are as notorious as his failure to commit.”
“Great,” I said under my breath. But no. I shook my head. I wasn’t going to let anything ruin this moment. “No, he asked me pre–multiple orgasms if I would be his girlfriend. It was so cute.”
Laura squealed very softly, jumping up and down a little. “You have a boyfriend! That means you’re going to stay here with me!”
I laughed. “What?”
“Oh, you know. A girl can’t stay in a small town when there’s no one to date.”
I nodded seriously. “That’s the truth.” I pointed toward the nursery. “I just wanted Maisy to have a visitor today.”
“Oh, um…” Laura started and trailed off. “You don’t want to go in the nursery right now.”
“What? Why not?” I was walking that way.
“Oh, you know, huge blowout from one of the babies. The smell is just…” She waved her hand.
She was lying, and she wasn’t even good at it.
As I turned the corner, I saw through the window why Laura didn’t want me to go to the nursery.
Her face told me that she had heard all about Julie and me.
But I wasn’t surprised. I was no stranger to small-town gossip.
Julie was there, in the corner rocking chair, holding a baby. I sighed.
“She’s one of our volunteers,” Laura said.
Holding preemie babies has to be the best volunteer position in the world.
I had a decision to make. I could leave. But that would mean not seeing Maisy today, because I wouldn’t have time after I picked up the kids.
And I couldn’t bear the thought of that sweet girl not having a single visitor. So I would put her first. I would overcome my childish thoughts and be the bigger person and say hello.
Julie noticed me right away. Her face darkened and then brightened artificially.
She smiled like seeing me was all she’d ever wanted.
We were too far away to really speak, but she waved, and I waved back, noncommittally, I hoped.
I didn’t even care that she was there. It meant nothing to me.
At least, that’s what I tried to tell myself.