Chapter 26
Daisy
“What is it?”
I blinked and set the delicate vase back on the table, looking over my shoulder at Max. “Hmm?”
Today was the first time I’d been back to the store since the incident with Todd’s mom.
Max had stopped in a few times to handle some things with Erica for the upcoming fundraiser because it was crunch time, but he always managed to coordinate those stops when I wasn’t with him.
I was honestly surprised when he’d told me we were going to pop in today on our way back from deliveries, but maybe he was finally convinced that the McCormicks were going to let this go—let me go.
With every day that passed, I grew more convinced that Mrs. McCormick was lying about having spoken to Todd. That it was just one more attempt to hang onto control of a situation that she had no control over.
“I know that look,” Max said, coming closer. “What are you thinking?”
How did he…My stare slid back to the vase. Nox had made a handful of vases in various sizes—practice rounds for him and free decor for MaineStems.
“I was thinking this would be pretty as a perfume bottle,” I paused when he stopped beside me, his look making me shiver. “Do you think Nox would make bottles for you?”
He took my hand and brought it to his face, pressing his nose right to my wrist and breathing deeply from my skin. “For your perfume.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed. My hobby—my distraction from the raging urge to nest—had ballooned.
I knew it was a consequence, a side effect of avoiding asking Max what was going to happen with the house, with us, but I wasn’t ready to give up this bubble.
The one where we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.
The one where, when I was too exhausted to come again, he’d rub my back or my feet or my head until I was sound asleep.
The one where I woke up to a home-cooked breakfast every morning.
The one where we sat on the back deck every night and watched the sunset.
The one where I was wholly in love with my husband.
“If you ask him, probably.”
Nox had warmed since that first dinner. There was still a general frostiness and edge to his demeanor, but he seemed satisfied that I was here to stay.
Before I got a chance to reply, Max got a message. Something about the way he checked his phone bothered me. Maybe it was how his eyes flicked to mine like he wanted to see if I was watching him. Or maybe it was how he turned his screen away from me, even though there was no way I could see it.
“Everything okay?” A tremor betrayed my worry.
“Yeah. Let’s go home,” Max said, brushing off the questions as he tucked his phone away and took my hand in his, my grip just a little looser as we walked back to the truck.
“Did you know peonies are the king of flowers?” I asked after we’d driven a few minutes in silence.
Something was wrong. Max was too quiet, too focused on something else.
And I felt the familiar noose tightening around my neck—the one that whispered I told you so as it cut off oxygen to my heart.
So I scrambled for a thread of conversation and found this one.
I’d meant to ask after the shower last weekend, but I’d been so exhausted, I’d fallen asleep on the ride home, waking only when Max carried me inside.
How this man kept carrying me, like the added weight of the home stretch of this pregnancy made no difference, I had no idea.
“I did,” he admitted. “They’ve been called that for centuries. Why?”
“The jar of jam Gigi gave me had peony written on the label.”
“Your favorite.”
I looked at him. “Because you’re the king of flowers.”
His eyes pierced mine, desire flaring deep in them, and then he quickly boarded it up and looked back at the road as we turned onto the driveway.
Max parked the truck to go out and open the gate. Meanwhile, I watched him, feeling panic bubble up in my stomach, dislodging all the questions I’d been afraid to ask sooner. I needed to know—needed to get it over with.
“When are you going to put the house back up for sale?” I blurted out when he got back in the driver’s seat.
He jerked. “What?”
“The house. You wanted to sell it. I know you took down the sign while we’re staying here, but I just wanted to know when you’re going to put it back up for sale.”
“Daisy, what are you—”
“I can even go back to the apartment if you want. I think it’s safe to say Mrs. McCormick isn’t going to come back there.”
Max stopped in front of the house and threw the shifter into park. “Is that what you want?”
No!
“I know we…” I swallowed. “We’re together now, but the rest of everything happened fast, and I don’t want you to feel pressured—”
“Stop,” he cut me off, shaking his head.
“No, Max. We should talk about this. We should’ve talked about this before.”
He got out of the truck with a growl, long strides bringing him to my door. “I have to show you something.”
“Max, please,” I begged, even as I held onto his arm until my feet landed on the ground. “Can we just talk first?”
“Not until you see this.”
I went to pull my hand away, but he wouldn’t let me.
Locking it in his grip, he led me inside, heading straight for the stairs.
We reached the second floor and walked right by the room where I’d stored all the gifts and other things I’d bought for the baby.
For Lucy. Another sharp pain jabbed my chest.
We walked past the master bedroom, and I grew even more confused. There was another bedroom at the end of the hall, I knew, but I hadn’t gone in it since the night Max had brought me here and given me a tour.
He stopped just outside the door, staring at it for a second before stepping to the side.
“Go inside,” he said, angling himself against the wall so I could pass him.
“Max,” I breathed out.
“Please, Daze.”
I should resist. I should get clarification of what was going to happen to us. How us was going to work moving forward. But I wanted just one more minute of that bubble. So I bit my tongue and grabbed the doorknob and turned.
Every inch the door swung open was another inch my jaw dropped. Gone was the staged guest room, and in its place was the most magical nursery I’d ever seen.
The dark green walls had been hand-painted with trees and flowers and forest animals, transforming the room into a magical space between a fairy forest and a secret garden.
Or even a scene straight from Narnia. I noticed all the dark wood furniture.
It was impossible not to. The large dresser.
The rocking chair. I didn’t have to ask.
I knew Jamie had made it all. But it was the crib that drew me right to its side.
It wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before, the antique style as beautiful as it was uncommon. The way the sides were solid panels rather than fence-like. How it rested on two bows of wood so the whole crib could rock.
It was exquisite. Perfect.
It was all perfect.
“Max…” I hung my head, unable to look at him because I knew I’d simply collapse.
It was too much. Too thoughtful. Especially when, moments ago, I’d been mentally preparing myself to leave this house and live separately from him, convinced that, in spite of how he told me he felt, things had moved too fast. That we needed to backtrack all the steps that circumstances had forced us to skip.
“I’m not selling the house, Daze.”
“I don’t understand.”
He cupped my face, holding it to his. “I think you do, but I’m happy to say it if that’s what you need, my little wife,” he rumbled, dipping his head until his eyes could find mine.
“I bought this house for you, Daisy. For my dream to live here with you.” He swiped a tear off my cheek.
“I put it up for sale when you and Todd decided to get married because I figured that dream was off the table. But now that you’re here, now that you and Lucy are mine, I have no reason to sell the house.
I don’t want to,” he paused when I couldn’t control the whimpers that blubbered from my chest. “Living here, with you, is all I’ve ever wanted. ”
“I can’t believe…” I hiccuped. “I can’t believe you did all this.”
Max tipped a grin. “I did almost none of it,” he confessed. “But I did ask for a lot of help.”
“Jamie…”
He nodded. “When I went over to his shop to help him the afternoon of the shower, that was to take a look at the crib. It wasn’t done yet. I hadn’t asked him in time for it to be finished for the shower. But he wanted to make sure it was what I wanted.”
“It’s beautiful. So beautiful. And I—” I broke off, my head sinking into his hold with shame. “You did all this, and I doubted it. Doubted you.”
“Daisy, honey…I don’t expect you to not have doubts. Or to not worry.” He tenderly brought my face back level with his. “In fact, I thoroughly enjoy proving them all wrong.”
A watery laugh fluttered from my chest. “I bet you do.”
The nursery. The murals. The furniture. He’d orchestrated all of it and managed to keep it a surprise for me.
I slid from his embrace, my heart feeling like it was about to burst. Walking the perimeter of the room, I stopped at the dresser, opening the drawers to find all the gifts from his family inside.
“I just told Jamie to put everything in drawers for now. Figured you’d want to unpack it all and decide where it goes.”
I nodded, unable to speak. This was why he’d kept everything in the other room and brushed off my questions about putting it away somewhere earlier.
With my hand still in his, I continued walking around the room, taking a closer look at the details of the mural. “Who painted the walls?”
“Kit.”
I exhaled. “Of course.” I’d forgotten his cousin was a painter with his own art studio in Friendship. Pregnancy brain. “I can’t believe I had no idea. I didn’t even smell the paint.”
“He’s been working every day when we’ve been out on deliveries.
He worked with the window open and put some vanilla extract out.
I guess it helps soak up the paint fumes,” Max said as I took a closer look at the magical murals.
“He finished yesterday and said to give it a night to dry before letting Jamie deliver the furniture.”
“It’s beautiful.” I blinked back another round of tears that hit me unexpectedly. “Perfect, really.”
“It was Jamie who texted me when we were at the store. He ran late getting the furniture over here today, so that’s why we stopped at the store,” Max said, his voice lowering. “I was waiting for his text to tell me when he was finished and gone.”
And I’d assumed the worst.
“So you don’t want me to move back into the apartment?” I teased hoarsely.
“I’m not giving you a choice, my little wife.” He put his hands on my waist and pulled me as close to him as my belly would allow.
“Going to chain me to your bed?”
“I just might,” he husked. “But I also told Wade that his brother and his brother’s daughter could stay at the apartment for a few months.”
“Is everything okay?”
He gave a shrug. “I didn’t pry, but I’m guessing there are some issues with the press again leaving him alone. That’s usually the only time Blaze comes to Friendship, to get Paisley away from the media.”
I couldn’t imagine. It was bad enough when I had to imagine all the ways the McCormicks planned to show off their grandchild.
The formal announcements and massive parties they wanted to hold.
The way Mrs. McCormick talked about having the baby at Mr. McCormick’s campaign rallies for good PR.
It made me sick, thinking of how they just wanted a grandchild to augment their image.
It was even worse to imagine being a target of publicity that was only in it for the money. And to target a small child.
“He’s going to be fine, Daze,” Max murmured, sensing where my thoughts had gone. “We’ll make sure he gets some privacy here.”
I sighed and blinked up at him, his handsome face swimming into focus. “I still can’t believe you did all this.”
“Everything I’ve done has been for you, Daze. It’s been you all along.”
I felt something shift inside me. Turning my mind from impossible to believe him to impossible not to.
“I know we went about things in a backward order. Marriage, then moving in together, then a baby, but I don’t want anything else, Daze. And I definitely don’t want to go backward, or in any direction that doesn’t consist of waking up to you in my home, in my bed, every morning. Forever.”
“Max…” I locked my arms around his neck, pulling myself up closer.
“I love you, Daisy. You’re home for me.”
My heart erupted in a flurry of beats. I wasn’t falling—I’d fallen. Hard. For my convenient husband. For the fantasy disguised for years as my friend.
Tears dotted the corners of my eyes.
“I love you too.”
I pushed up on my toes, knowing Max lowered his head enough so I could kiss him.
And boy, did I kiss him. I kissed him like his mouth could get me drunk, and most times, I swore it did.
The depth of his kiss, the intoxicating strokes of his tongue…
by the time I pulled away, my legs trembled from being up on my toes too long, the room starting to sway.
“Does this mean you’re not going to talk about moving out again?”
I shivered and went to smile up at him when the lust in his eyes prompted a different response.
“Only if you’ll still tie me to your bed.”
His growl of appreciation coiled right between my thighs. “As you wish, my little wife,” Max rumbled low, angling himself and holding out his arm toward the hall. “Go get in bed. I have one more surprise for you.”
I discarded my clothes as I went, feeling the heat of his stare clawing at my naked skin the whole way.