Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
‘So where did you grow up?’ Daisy asked before taking a bite of one of the massive burgers they’d gotten from Mac’s pub.
They were sitting at a picnic table in the sun at the public beach.
Daisy told him there were more private spots along the shore, but they were sticking with their goal of being seen today.
There were more people on the beach and at the surrounding tables than Elliot had expected, considering it was only April, but it was unseasonably warm today, and there were plenty of townsfolk out soaking in the sun.
Elliot finished his mouthful of fries before answering. ‘Not too far from here, really. I grew up in North Bedingfield.’
‘Just a few towns over! Does your mom still live there?’
‘No, she moved south a few years ago. Said she couldn’t stand another winter.’
‘I get that,’ Daisy said, tipping her face up to the sun. ‘I feel like I’m finally defrosting.’
Elliot chuckled.
‘I went to school at Cornell, though, so I lived in New York for a while.’
‘That’s where you lived with your wife?’
‘Yep.’
‘And your dog?’
Elliot sighed. ‘Yep.’
And his brother, but he didn’t feel like bringing that up.
‘Dream Harbor is a big change from New York.’
‘I needed a change, I think. I kept running into Leigh in our old neighborhood. It wasn’t … healthy for me to stay there.’
That and Caleb was driving him crazy.
‘That makes sense. That’s how I ended up back here. I needed to not be in all our old places. Well, and I had nowhere else to go.’ She gave him a rueful smile as she popped another fry in her mouth.
‘On the plus side, these burgers are delicious.’
Daisy smiled. ‘That’s true.’
‘And you can’t beat this view.’
They were sitting on the same side of the table so they could look out over the water and it really was a beautiful view. Deep blue sea met rocky coastline met pale blue sky. Even the seagulls swooping overhead looked idyllic.
‘Yeah, it’s pretty good,’ Daisy agreed with a sigh. ‘I’m not sure anyone is paying much attention to us over here, though.’
Elliot looked around the beach. There were a few families with small kids set up in the sand, a game of beach volleyball happening down by the nets, a couple of very brave young women in bathing suits, sunbathing, despite the fact that it wasn’t that warm, and a few sleek black seals swimming out in the water.
No one seemed the slightest bit interested in them.
‘Should I stand on the table and start shouting a love poem or something?’
Daisy giggled. ‘Would you?’
‘Uh…’
She laughed harder. ‘I’m just kidding.’
‘Okay, good. I’m not much of a poet.’
She turned on the bench, so she was facing him. ‘What were you like as a kid?’
‘More things you think we should know about each other in case it comes up around other people?’
‘No,’ she took a sip of her Coke, the straw tucked between her lips. ‘I genuinely want to know.’
Elliot turned, too, so their knees were touching. ‘I was painfully shy, actually.’
‘Painfully?’
He nodded. ‘There was an entire year in elementary school when I just didn’t speak. Refused. That got me sent to therapy.’
‘Did therapy help?’
‘A little. I just never liked the feeling of being the center of attention. Even if the attention was just the teacher calling on me in class. It made me feel all hot and panicked.’
‘Oh, God, Elliot!’ Daisy’s eyes had gone wide in horror making Elliot feel like a seagull was about to land on him or something.
‘What?!’ He waved a hand over his head to protect himself.
‘No, nothing’s there.’ She grabbed his hand and sandwiched it between hers. ‘I just feel horrible.’
‘About what?’ he asked, still not able to figure out what she was so upset about.
‘I’ve been making you perform and be the center of attention all over town! You stood up at a town meeting for me!’
‘Of course, I did.’
She shook her head, her hair flying wildly around her shoulders. She’d never put it back up, and Elliot realized he was still wearing her hair tie around his wrist. He liked seeing it there—a little piece of her on his body.
‘No, Elliot. Not of course you did. You were the only person in this damn town that stood up for me, and I didn’t know that it was basically your worst fear!’
He tucked her hair behind her ear and she stilled, her eyes going wide.
‘Daisy, I’m not eight years old anymore. I can talk in front of people. Is it my favorite thing? No. But I can do it. I present designs to clients all the time. It’s really okay. I’m not doing anything I don’t want to do.’
At some point, he’d gone from tucking her loose hair back to cupping the side of her face. Her eyes fluttered closed as she leaned into his touch.
‘Okay,’ her voice was breathy when she finally spoke again. ‘But you have to tell me if this goes too far.’
Too far with Daisy … what would that look like? He didn’t know anymore. He knew he was falling too hard for this woman who wasn’t looking for another relationship. He knew he was repeating old mistakes.
But he also knew he wanted to lean forward and kiss her more than anything.
He ran his thumb over Daisy’s cheekbone, and a whimper left her lips.
Was this going too far?
He didn’t have a second to think about it before someone called out,
‘Heads!’
And he had to shift from nearly kissing Daisy to shielding her from the incoming Frisbee. Luckily, the plastic disc hit his forearm and not Daisy’s lovely face.
She blinked up at him from under his arm.
‘What the hell was that?’
‘Frisbee.’
A young woman came running over to retrieve it.
‘Sorry!’ she called. ‘The wind took it.’
‘No problem.’ Elliot handed it back while Daisy sat, still dazed beside him. If the stunned look on her face was from their almost kiss or from nearly being decapitated, he wasn’t sure.
‘Oh, Daisy!’ the girl said. ‘I was trying to convince my sister to use you for her wedding flowers.’
That snapped Daisy out of it.
‘Really? That’d be—’
The Frisbee girl cut her off. ‘She didn’t go for it, though, which is too bad because I really hate her fiancé and I was hoping you could do some of your magic on him.’
‘I don’t … it’s not … magic.’
She shrugged. ‘Whatever it is, I was really hoping to get rid of this guy. I hate to think he’ll be my brother-in-law soon.’ She shrugged again. ‘Oh, well. I’ll let you two get back to your date.’ With that she ran off and left a deflated Daisy and an imprint of her Frisbee in their lunch.
‘You’ll figure it out, Daisy.’
She sighed. ‘Yeah, maybe. Or maybe I’ll let down generations of women who have kept the shop running for decades. You said it yourself, remember? Daisy’s flower shop has always been known for weddings, and I can’t seem to book a single one anymore.’
‘You won’t let them down.’
‘You have an awful lot of faith in me for someone that barely knows me.’
Elliot shrugged. ‘It’s my job as your fake boyfriend.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
At some point they’d started holding hands again, their fingers intertwined in his lap. He gave her a little squeeze.
‘Don’t you want to keep quizzing me on my childhood? I have some real interesting sibling rivalry stuff we could get into.’
‘Ooh … sounds juicy.’ Her smile was slowly returning. ‘I always wanted a sibling.’
‘It can be nice sometimes.’
‘And not nice other times?’
‘When you have an older brother, it’s not always great,’ he said with a rueful smile, remembering all the fights he and Caleb used to get into. Especially the last one, the one they’d had right before he quit the business and left. Suddenly, he was sorry he’d brought up the subject.
‘Were you a lot alike?’
Elliot shook his head. ‘Complete opposites, actually. Caleb was always … bold. Loud and confident. Still is. People notice him when he walks into a room.’
‘I notice you when you walk into a room.’
His face heated at her words. He was going to argue that that was a recent phenomenon, but he stopped himself. It was nice to be noticed by Daisy. He didn’t need to be noticed by anyone else.
‘Thanks. I’ve been noticing you for a while now.’
Daisy ducked her head, letting her hair obscure her face again. ‘Oh, yeah?’
‘How could I not, when you’re always causing a stir at the town meetings.’
She lifted her head and laughed, giving his shoulder a playful shove.
‘Not always.’
‘I’ll just say, things got a lot more interesting when you moved back to town.
’ He remembered the town meeting, nearly a year ago, when Daisy showed up to weigh in on the new name for the diner-turned-pancake-house.
He’d been in town for six months at that point and still wasn’t sure why the hell he’d uprooted his life and moved here.
Daisy had caught his eye right away, and right away he knew that was a problem.
He’d tried to avoid her, but then he saw her at Jeanie and Logan’s wedding, laughing with her friends, dancing in that slinky black dress, arms above her head like she could dance away whatever it was that always made her look so sad.
She looked gorgeous that night.
Maybe that was the day his libido woke up.
‘Oh, really?’ Daisy asked, and he decided not to tell her just how much he’d noticed.
‘Yep. It was a total snooze fest my first few months here.’
Daisy giggled.
‘I was ready to pack up and head back to New York until you showed up and started yelling at elderly people.’
Daisy laughed harder. ‘I don’t yell at elderly people!’
‘It’s fine with me. They totally deserve it!’
She rolled her eyes at him, but she was still grinning. ‘They do sometimes, don’t they?’
Elliot nodded. ‘Totally.’
‘I’m sure you staying had nothing to do with that big fancy job you got redesigning the inn.’
He shrugged. ‘That may have played a small role.’ It certainly made him feel like he hadn’t made a big mistake moving here, after all.
‘So did you and your brother fight a lot?’ she asked, pivoting back to their earlier topic.