Chapter 28 #2
Her curiosity generally got the better of her, though, and she usually ended up reading Elliot little snippets when they were together.
‘Okay,’ she said, joining him on the floor again. ‘Here we go.’
July 18, 1925
The town has begun to talk, of course. Nate is in the shop nearly every day and after attending the dance together, the word is out about us.
They act as though we should have a chaperone!
You should have seen their scandalized faces when Nate showed up in his car to pick me up.
It was the talk of the town meeting, I’m sure.
But I don’t care about all that. I want to be happy.
I should be giddy to have a man like Nate take an interest in me, but I can’t help but feel like I’m betraying William.
‘William again!’ Daisy said, looking up from the book. ‘She’s mentioned him before, but no explanation! I wish I had more than this one diary. I feel like we’re missing out on so much information.’
Elliot chuckled at her exasperation. ‘It is too bad we don’t have the whole series.’
‘It’s like my great-aunt didn’t even consider that we’d be reading this diary in the future,’ Daisy teased before getting back to the diary.
July 23, 1925
I will certainly have to burn these pages now because Nate kissed me, and I simply can’t leave that detail from this book.
‘Ooh’ Daisy squealed. ‘It’s getting juicy!’
Maybe my mother is right in calling his car a Devil’s Wagon, because I couldn’t resist him as we sat in the back seat after our night out.
Maybe I should have but I didn’t want to, and I can’t feel sorry for it!
This kiss wasn’t anything like the chaste kisses my William gave me before he left for good.
This kiss … this kiss burned. It sparked.
It made me want things, so help me for saying it but I would have done more.
I would have given Nate everything, if he wasn’t such a gentleman.
His lips, his mouth, his hands, they set me on fire, and I’m afraid I don’t want to put it out.
When Daisy looked up her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright.
At some point, she had drifted closer to him again, her knee pressed against his.
Unable to resist touching her anymore, he reached up and traced her cheek, letting the back of his hand caress her jaw and down her neck.
She shivered beneath his touch despite the warmth of the shop.
‘If that journal gets any more explicit, you’re going to have to stop reading it out loud,’ he teased and Daisy laughed softly, her face tipping toward his, like maybe she didn’t want to resist any more, either.
‘What’s this?’ she asked, her gaze flicking to his wrist. ‘Is this a hair tie?’
‘It’s um…’
‘Elliot,’ she said, running a finger between the elastic band and his skin. Her touch sent his pulse skittering. ‘Are you wearing my hair tie on your wrist?’
‘Maybe.’
Her grin was delicious.
‘For how long?’
‘Since our bookstore date.’ He was surprised she’d never noticed before.
‘The one where we pretended to make out?’
Just the memory of it, of Daisy pressed against him was enough to make him groan.
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’ her voice was barely a whisper now, her face so close to his, her finger still trapped under the hair tie.
‘It’s a little piece of you. I wanted it near me.’
‘Elliot,’ she breathed his name, tugging him closer with just her finger.
‘Daisy?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Can I kiss you?’
Her smile was positively edible. ‘Yes. Please.’
His heart thundered in his chest as he cupped her face in his hands. Her breath caught. It turned out this was actually the best moment of his week. Month. Year.
He leaned forward and his lips met hers. The sweet sigh that escaped her when he did was almost too much to bear.
‘Daisy,’ he whispered and she whimpered. He felt the sound down to his bones. ‘I want you so bad.’ Honesty. It was all he had to give her. His raw, honest words.
Her hands were in his hair, tugging. ‘Same.’
Same.
What a gift to have his feelings reciprocated.
He groaned and kissed her again, deeper, his tongue sliding against hers, his fingers slipping into her hair. She was lips and breath and she tasted like honey, sweet and earthy at once. He wanted to lap her up.
He was about to haul her onto him when he suddenly remembered where they were, the hardwood floor beneath them, the counter at their back, the smell of flowers surrounding them. He pulled away, panting and Daisy was doing the same. She leaned her forehead against his.
‘Woah,’ she breathed.
‘Yeah…We probably shouldn’t do this here,’ he managed to say. Even though he wanted to go right back to kissing her and possibly never stop.
‘I guess you’re right. We are kinda in the middle of the store.’
‘While it’s open.’
‘And you have a puppy in your lap.’
‘We shouldn’t subject her to this.’
Daisy laughed and the sound lit him up. And he was so damn relieved that her reasons for stopping were puppy-related and not something deeper.
Neither of them said they shouldn’t do this anymore.
No one said this was a bad idea.
Daisy wasn’t putting the brakes on this for any reason other than location, and he was so far past his ability to stop this moving train that he was willing to lay down in front of it and let it destroy him.
He wanted her too much.
‘Looks like we stopped just in time,’ Daisy said, gesturing to where Kira and Bennett stood outside the door. She waved at them through the glass.
‘I guess so.’ Elliot stood and reached a hand to Daisy to help her up. They both dusted the dirt from their pants as Kira and Bennett walked in.
‘What are you guys up to… Oh, my goodness, a puppy!!’ Elliot had a feeling a lot of his conversations from now on were going to go like this. Goldie was, after all, the cutest puppy ever.
‘This is Goldie,’ Daisy said, beaming like it was her puppy too. Like they were a little family. Elliot loved that a bit too much.
‘She is so precious! Where did you get her?’ Kira cooed, reaching over to scratch Goldie’s head. Elliot could swear the dog smiled in her sleep.
‘Second Chance, of course. Shawn said she was left under a car with her siblings.’
Kira’s face transformed into something so outraged and so sad at the same time, Elliot was afraid of what would happen next. Apparently, so was Bennett.
‘Babe, we can’t.’
‘But they were abandoned!’
‘We can’t take in any more animals! You just brought home three baby goats.’
‘They were also abandoned.’
Bennett sighed like a man resigned to his fate when Elliot decided he should probably chime in.
‘Actually, Goldie was the last one. The whole litter has been adopted.’
‘See, Peaches. All the puppies are safe.’
Kira glared at him even as her mouth tipped up in the corner. ‘You’re off the hook for now, but you know it won’t be for long.’
Bennett slung an arm over her shoulder and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
‘I know what I signed on for.’ He grinned and Kira laughed and Elliot thought they looked so damn happy and he wanted that, too.
He wanted to put his arm around Daisy and adopt pets with her and kiss the top of her head and not have to worry that this thing between them was impermanent.
But he had to go back to work, and despite their most recent make-out session and their previous status of fake-dating, Elliot was at a loss for how to say goodbye to Daisy and not make it weird.
Luckily, Daisy planted a kiss on his cheek before petting Goldie’s head and saying goodbye to them both.
It was almost normal.
It was almost real.
It was almost perfect.