Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Elliot didn’t get a chance to argue with Daisy about her not being cursed before Iris entered the shop, with a tear-stained face and a wailing baby in a stroller.
‘Iris. Oh, my gosh, what’s wrong?’
Daisy dashed out from behind the counter to put a comforting arm around her friend.
‘Nothing … I don’t know. Everything?’ Iris sniffed.
‘Honey, you’re crying. What’s going on?’
Iris wiped her eyes, pushing the tangle of red hair away from her face.
‘I was just out for my daily mental health walk with Owen. Obviously, that’s going super well,’ she said with a watery laugh.
‘And we passed the shop and I was thinking about how I should start up my classes again soon, but then I thought about how I can’t even get him to stop crying today and …
I don’t know, Daisy, how will I ever be a normal human again? ’
She was crying again and so was the baby. Daisy rubbed circles on her back, glancing up at Elliot as though he could be some help here.
Unfortunately, postpartum emotions and newborns were not things Elliot knew anything about. But he was willing to try.
‘How about you go make Iris a cup of tea and I’ll man the shop,’ he said. ‘And … uh … the baby.’
Both women turned to look at him like he’d lost his mind.
‘You’ll just be right back there,’ Elliot said.
‘And I’ll be here with Owen. We’ll be … fine.
’ He looked down at the fussing baby. Owen seemed even less convinced than Iris, who was now pushing the stroller back and forth in the shop, getting Owen to stop his more boisterous cries, but he certainly wasn’t happy.
‘Maybe that’s a good idea,’ Daisy said, hesitating at first but seeming to come around as she talked. ‘Just for a minute. You can have a little break and you’ll feel better. Come on.’
Iris eyed Elliot as he took over pushing the stroller.
He tried to give her a reassuring smile even as he doubted his entire plan. He may not know much about babies, but he knew a lot about having big, devastating feelings. He knew what it was like for the world to feel too much sometimes.
‘Just a short break,’ he repeated. ‘We’ll be right here waiting.’
With one last sniffle, Iris shuffled off with Daisy to the back of the shop and her apartment, and Elliot looked down at Owen.
‘Hello, there,’ Elliot said, and the baby scrunched up his face and made an angry squawking sound.
‘Hmm. Maybe you’re tired of being trapped in here.
’ He reached in, and after several intense moments of squawking escalating to full-on cries as Elliot tried to extract him from the high-security baby seat buckle, he lifted him out, and Owen was free.
Owen’s body immediately curled up, turning himself into a tiny ball.
Elliot held him to his chest, supporting his little head with one hand and his little bum with the other.
He was so small. And yet so full of rage.
He was still crying and squirming against Elliot, so Elliot began to walk, taking slightly bouncy steps around the shop, shushing and whispering to his new cranky buddy.
‘I get it man, life is tough out here,’ he said and Owen seemed to agree with another loud cry. ‘There’s a lot to be upset about.’
‘But there’s good things, too.’ He patted Owen’s back with a steady rhythm, and the baby started to settle.
‘Right, that’s a good man,’ Elliot whispered. ‘Plenty of good things, like your mom. She obviously loves you a lot so you should probably give her a bit of a break.’
Owen made a little snorty pig noise that Elliot chose to take for agreement.
He’d pictured himself like this once, rocking a crying baby—his own. He figured it would be something he would do one day. He always thought he’d be a dad, but it hadn’t happened.
He cleared his throat. ‘And I’m sure your dad is great, too. It’s nice to have one of those. And I hear you have a sister. You two will get up to a lot of fun someday.’ More snorts and wiggles.
‘If that’s not enough for you, there’s … um … sunny days, and the way dogs look when they smile. There’s ice cream. You’ll like that. There’s flowers and big fat bumble bees covered in pollen when they fly out of one.’
Owen let out another angry grunt, and Elliot adjusted his patting.
What else could he tell this new little human he could look forward to? What were the things that kept Elliot getting out of bed in the morning, even in those dark days after Leigh signed the papers, when he wanted nothing more than to disappear?
‘There’s the taste of a tomato fresh from the garden sprinkled with salt … um … the sound of rain on the roof while you’re tucked inside reading, driving with the windows down singing at the top of your lungs.’
There was something new getting Elliot out of bed these days, and he thought he could probably confide in Owen. Babies were good at keeping secrets.
‘And one day you might meet someone who becomes your new favorite person and then hearing them laugh becomes your new favorite thing.’
‘Wow, Daisy, I didn’t know your fake boyfriend was so poetic.’
Elliot turned at the sound of Iris’s voice, who was apparently feeling better enough to tease him. Daisy was looking at him with a curious smile on her face.
‘I was just … trying to convince Owen that maybe the world isn’t so bad,’ he said, feeling his face heat. How long had they been listening and exactly how pathetic had he sounded?
‘A noble endeavor,’ Iris said with a chuckle. ‘And how’s it going so far?’
‘Not great,’ Elliot admitted, right as Owen squirmed against him, burped, and released a stream of spit up right over Elliot’s shoulder and down his back.
Iris clapped a hand over her mouth, clearly trying not to laugh.
At least he was providing her with some comic relief.
‘Oh, no, Elliot! So sorry! But at least that explains why he’s been so cranky today.
’ She rushed over yanking spit cloths from her diaper bag and patting them against Elliot’s back, which only caused his shirt to stick to him and pressed the warmth of regurgitated milk against his skin.
‘It’s fine, really.’ He squirmed away from Iris’s help, still holding a now sleepy and content Owen. ‘And what makes you say I’m Daisy’s fake boyfriend?’ Was it that obvious already? Did they just not make sense as a couple and everyone could tell?
Daisy was definitely out of his league, but he was hoping they could fake it at least for a little while…
‘It’s okay,’ Daisy said, snapping out of her dreamy staring and coming over to them. She ran a hand over Owen’s soft head. ‘I told Iris. And she won’t tell anyone.’
‘Right, your secret is safe with me.’ Iris smiled. ‘Oh, except I totally already told Archer.’
Daisy rolled her eyes. ‘Of course you did.’
‘He won’t say anything! You know he doesn’t have the Dream Harbor gossip gene like we do.’
‘I don’t know. I think there’s something in the water and he’s been here a year now, ingesting all that Dream Harbor gossip-y-ness.’
Iris laughed. ‘Keep your conspiracy theories to yourself, Daisy. I have enough problems.’
‘You! I’m the one that everyone thinks causes marriages to break up!’
‘It really sounds absurd when you say it out loud.’
‘I know!’
Elliot smiled to himself as he rocked Owen and listened to the two friends talk.
‘Maybe you two need to hold hands and dance around the fire at Beltane. We’ll tell everyone it’s a love-curse reversal dance or something,’ Iris suggested.
Daisy was giggling now, and Elliot was right. Her laugh was reason enough to get out of bed every day.
‘That sounds like a nightmare. Doesn’t it, Elliot?’ She turned to him with a big grin, and he would jump over the damn fire if she wanted him to but decided not to voice that thought. Judging by the look on Iris’s face, she might actually think that would be a great idea.
‘Yeah, maybe we just go together? But without the public dancing part.’
Daisy held his gaze, her cheeks rosy from laughter. ‘Are you asking me to Beltane, Elliot?’
‘I … uh … yes. It’s what a boyfriend would do, right?’ He swallowed hard, even when it was fake, he wasn’t great at this. ‘And Iris is right; it would help sell our story to the town.’
Daisy’s smile dimmed slightly, but she nodded. ‘Definitely. We’ll show them how fake-in-love we are and if any night would break a curse, it’s gotta be Beltane.’
Iris’s gaze flicked between the two of them, and Elliot had to look away from Daisy’s sweet face, or he was sure he was going to give away how much he wished this wasn’t fake.
‘Riiight … okay, well, give me my baby back. I’m feeling at least partially sane again.’
Elliot handed over Owen, already missing the weight of him on his chest.
Iris snuggled her face against his chubby cheek, like she’d missed him in the few minutes she’d been away. ‘Thanks, you guys. I guess I really did need a break.’ She laid him back in the stroller and then gave Daisy a kiss on the cheek.
‘Any time,’ Daisy said, and Elliot wanted to agree.
He’d be happy to hold Owen again even if meant being covered in spit up, but Iris barely knew him, and he didn’t want to overstep.
Iris was Daisy’s friend not his, but this fake relationship had already thrust him into Dream Harbor life, more than living here for over a year had.
Apparently, dating the florist really got you noticed.
‘That was very sweet of you,’ Daisy said once Iris and Owen were on their way again. ‘To hold Owen like that.’
Elliot shrugged. ‘He’s a good guy.’
Daisy laughed. ‘He spit up on you.’
‘It happens.’
‘Lupita should be here soon to take over for the afternoon. Do you want to show me what you found out about the shop when she gets here?’
‘Sure, sounds good.’
Her eyes flicked up to his, a shy smile on her face. ‘You looked really cute holding a baby, by the way.’
Elliot swallowed hard. He looked cute?
Daisy thought he was cute.
This was life-altering information.
‘I don’t think I can take credit for that. Owen is a very cute baby.’
‘The cutest,’ Daisy agreed with a little smirk, stepping closer. She smelled like springtime, like leaves and earth and honey. Like life. ‘But you are also very cute.’
Elliot had always hated his tendency to blush, and he felt it now, the red seeping into his cheeks and ears. He hated it until Daisy ran one delicate fingertip over the outer edge of his ear and whispered. ‘It’s cute when you blush, too.’
He felt that fingertip over his entire body. He wanted it everywhere. He wanted to pull Daisy to him and breathe her in, to taste her, to have her.
He’d never felt anything so strongly in his entire life.
But he didn’t have time to react before Daisy was moving past him, rearranging the bouquets by the window. He blew out an unsteady breath. What the hell was that?
He’d been attracted to his wife, he’d loved her, but his feelings for Leigh had always been more …
measured. His feelings for Daisy were turning into something he didn’t recognize.
Could he like and respect this woman and want to ravage her at the same time?
And when the hell had he started thinking words like ravaged.
He stood stunned in the middle of the shop for far too long before he propelled himself back into action.
‘Maybe I’ll just go home and change my shirt and come back in an hour?’
‘Perfect. How about we meet at the café?’ Daisy said, not looking up, her own cheeks pink like maybe she’d surprised herself with her comment as much as she’d surprised him.
And she’d sure as hell surprised him.
‘Sure,’ he said, heading for the door still feeling stunned and a bit giddy, Daisy’s touch lingering on his skin and her words replaying in his mind.
It’s cute when you blush.
Life-altering.
Every time he left this flower shop, it felt like he was a new person. Maybe there was some magic at play here after all.