Chapter 6
Chapter Six
The evening town hall meeting was already in full swing when Elliot slipped in and took a seat in the back.
Not surprisingly, Mayor Kelly was in the process of trying to get the crowd under control.
Elliot had started attending these meetings a few months after he moved to Dream Harbor, thinking it would be a good way to learn about his new town and maybe meet some people, or that was what he told himself, anyway.
And he’d been right. These meetings were a lively representation of the people who lived here.
But sitting in the back corner quietly observing meant he hadn’t exactly forged any real friendships. Story of his life.
‘But it’s not a wedding.’ Daisy’s voice cut through the din of the crowd. Elliot’s attention snapped to where she was now standing, her hands on her hips.
‘It’s not a wedding, dear, but Beltane is all about love and fertility!’
That felt like a stretch to Elliot. Beltane was traditionally celebrated on May first, halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice.
As far as Elliot knew, it usually involved bonfires and warding off evil from the ancient Celts’ herds.
Not exactly a romantic holiday, if you asked him. Which no one had.
Although, the fertility component had some truth to it…
‘And what are you worried about, Tammy? That your nonexistent cows won’t get knocked up this year if I make the flower crowns?’ Daisy said, and Elliot nearly choked. He laughed into his fist. Daisy had apparently done her Beltane research.
Tammy scowled.
‘Now, if everyone could just calm down,’ the mayor pleaded from the podium. ‘I think Daisy should do the flower crowns like every year.’
‘But you’re the one who said the flower shop was cursed!’ someone else yelled from the audience.
‘I never said that. I simply said there was a cloud over the shop, but flowers need rain so it’s very possible that the cloud was a good omen!’
The crowd just stared back at the mayor like he wasn’t making any sense before returning to the debate at hand—whether or not Daisy’s flower shop should provide the flower crowns for this year’s Beltane festival.
Because of course, this town had a Beltane festival.
Elliot had been here long enough to know that these people would celebrate just about anything, even an ancient ritual that had no real bearing on their modern lives.
‘For what it’s worth,’ Jeanie piped up, ‘Logan and I are still happily married, and Daisy did our wedding flowers.’ She held up her and Logan’s linked hands.
‘That’s because you had those lucky underpants Estelle gave you,’ Marty pointed out.
‘We did not use those,’ Logan grumbled.
‘It’s really all beside the point,’ Daisy said, ‘I’m not cursed. There’s no such thing as curses and even if there were, flower crowns for Beltane have nothing to do with weddings!’
‘But they have to do with love,’ Tammy said, continuing to argue.
‘Sex maybe, but not love,’ Daisy snapped back. ‘And you already blackballed me for Valentine’s Day…’
‘Again, love, dear.’
Daisy huffed. ‘What about your nephew’s baptism brunch? I heard that you bought flowers from Bakersville’s Blooms.’ Her hands came to her hips as she faced Tammy head-on.
‘Well, we can’t have a baby getting cursed!’
Daisy growled in frustration.
‘If it helps, my Great-Uncle Lenny is ninety-eight. We don’t expect he’ll be around much longer,’ Isabel piped up from the back.
‘Gee, thanks,’ Daisy gritted out. ‘And what about Mother’s Day? Are you all going to avoid the shop for Mother’s Day, too?’
The crowd shifted uneasily in their seats.
‘We love our moms, Daisy,’ Mac said, apologetically.
Annie glared at him. ‘We will be attending the Mother’s Day flower-arranging workshop, don’t you worry,’ she told Daisy, and Mac winced.
‘Right, of course we are,’ he said.
‘It’s really just love we’re worried about. We’re not trying to hurt you, Daisy, but you haven’t exactly been lucky in love, no offense,’ Tammy added.
Daisy’s face fell in defeat. She had no retort for that one, and it was the first time Elliot had ever seen her back down from a fight.
It was like she believed what Tammy was saying.
She really thought she was cursed—unlucky, bad at love.
Elliot knew exactly how she felt. And that was what had him springing into action before he knew what he was doing.
‘I find that anytime you have to finish a statement with no offense, it generally means you’re being offensive,’ he said. He was standing now, not quite sure when that happened, and the entire room had turned to face him.
‘Who the hell is that?’ Norm said.
‘That’s Elliot,’ Annie said. ‘Hi, Elliot!’
He waved weakly. What had he gotten himself into?
‘Elliot’s new to town,’ Annie said, explaining to the group.
‘Not actually that new,’ he said, probably only making matters worse. ‘Been here for about a year and a half.’
Everyone looked surprised, including Annie, whose blonde eyebrows rose dramatically. ‘Really? How did we not know?’
Elliot shrugged. ‘Not sure, but I’ve been here.’
‘That can’t be right.’ Annie looked truly horrified now, like she’d completely dropped the ball in failing to notice his exact day of arrival.
He shrugged again. ‘I was here when The Christmas Tree Farm reopened.’ He’d even gone and picked out a tiny tree and decorated it himself. It had been wildly depressing.
‘Really?!’
‘Yes, really. I was here when the diner was renamed.’ His favorite pancakes were the ‘Noah’. He was a big fan of blueberries.
The crowd looked truly shaken by this information, like an intruder had infiltrated their ranks and no one had noticed. It wasn’t great for Elliot’s self-esteem, but he powered on.
‘I just wanted to say that Daisy is lucky in love. We’ve been dating for a month now.’ He held her gaze when he said it and watched as her eyes widened in horror. Uh-oh … he may have misread the situation, but the crowd had already latched on to this new piece of information.
‘I knew it!’ Carol said, triumphantly. ‘I told you all they were dating.’
‘You’re dating?’ Annie looked even more upset about this development than she had about Elliot being in town for over a year. ‘How did I not know about this?’
‘We … uh…’ Elliot glanced at Daisy again who was looking only slightly less like she might run straight out of the building.
‘See, Daisy isn’t cursed,’ Jeanie piped in. ‘She’s dating Elliot.’
‘Why are we even talking about this?’ Logan grumbled from beside her.
‘I don’t know,’ Jeanie stage-whispered back. ‘But people seem very invested.’
‘Of course we’re invested,’ Kaori said, speaking on behalf of the book club gathered around her. ‘We need to know if Daisy’s flowers are safe.’
Daisy rolled her eyes. ‘Safe?! Of course they’re safe. They’re flowers.’
‘Potentially cursed flowers.’
‘They’re not cursed,’ Elliot said, struggling to get back on course. ‘Daisy’s flowers are perfect, and so is she.’
The crowd stilled.
Daisy was looking at him again, a new expression on her face. One he couldn’t quite read. Was it pleasure painting her cheeks pink or anger?
She cleared her throat. ‘Right,’ she said, snapping her attention from Elliot and back to the crowd. ‘We’re dating. Not that it should matter, but we are. So, there you go, you can all go back to worrying about your own love and sex problems and leave mine alone.’
Daisy plopped back down in her seat.
‘It’s settled,’ the mayor said, looking like a child who’d been chastised. ‘Daisy will do the flower crowns just like last year and there will be no more talk of a curse.’
Judging by the grumblings around him, Elliot highly doubted that the town was done with their curse-related speculation, but he was too busy thinking about the word sex leaving Daisy’s lips. Fake relationships didn’t include sex, right? Definitely not. That would be…
Elliot did not let himself finish that thought.
Because that would not be happening.
He’d only done what he’d done to help Daisy out. And to help himself, as well. They both would benefit from this situation. He could get his mother to stop worrying about him for five seconds, and Daisy could turn the tide of public opinion about her business.
Win-win. Assuming Daisy wasn’t pissed at him.
And just because it had been over two years since the last time he’d had sex, and that he’d kind of almost forgotten about it entirely until Daisy’s tight black tops and the sound of the word leaving her lips, did not mean … anything really.
This was fake.
A show.
And sex had always been very real for Elliot, never something he’d been able to do casually. It was all or nothing for him and surely this whole thing with Daisy was nothing.
Just a friend helping a friend.
He would just have to keep reminding his suddenly revived libido of that fact.