8. Heart Of Gold
HEART OF GOLD
T he microwave dinged at the same time there was a knock at the door.
Daphne hoped to hell it wasn’t Abe again.
Rather than trying to figure out her dinner, she wished she had a bottle of wine she could have opened and chugged straight from the top.
She’d never been a huge drinker, having witnessed enough of it in her house growing up.
Her rotten luck Abe not only lived locally but also knew the same people she did.
There was no avoiding him for at least a month on top of it.
Not that she was the avoidance type of person, but she’d like to wrap her head around the fact that one of the most embarrassing things in her life happened with him and now she’d have to see him as a reminder.
A reminder that she couldn’t even get him out of her mind!
She walked to the front door and opened it to see Poppy standing off the porch with the stroller on the sidewalk.
“Hi,” she said. “Out for a walk?”
“You left your sunglasses at the house. I used it as an excuse to get some exercise in and try to calm the kids down.”
“I want to play,” Holly said, wiggling around to get out.
“We aren’t staying,” Poppy said. “Just dropping Daphne’s glasses off and going home.”
“Can I run home?” Holly asked.
“You might tire her out real well if you let her,” Daphne said, laughing.
“And then worry she’ll trip and I’ll have a screaming kid all night while I clean up blood. Or more likely while Reese does it. Then I’ll have Mom guilt.”
“Good point,” she said. “Holly does tend to run more than walk, which is why I keep her on the grass.” She reached out her hand for the sunglasses.
“I see you were talking to Abe.”
So much for hoping that hadn’t been witnessed.
“He was checking a few things out on the property,” she said. “We ran into each other as I was walking home.”
“I’m sure I know what he was checking out,” Poppy said, doing a little hip action again.
She felt the color fill her face as if a sponge was soaking up a can of red paint.
“Did he tell you that?” she asked.
“No,” Poppy said, laughing. “But I told you I wanted to introduce the two of you. I think you’d get along great. He’s such a nice guy. Heart of gold and a hard worker. Hard to find both of those things nowadays. Just has those good old values many of us didn’t have growing up.”
“You’re selling him hard,” she said, smirking. “What did he say to you about me?”
The color was seeping out of her face, but she was hoping it wasn’t to the point she’d look like a ghost that Abe might have confessed to her boss that she’d slept with a stranger a few weeks ago.
They might be appalled and worry she’d be bringing guys on the property and partying when she wasn’t working.
It hadn’t been a conversation they’d had, but she wouldn’t do that.
She’d never jeopardize her job for anything.
“Nothing,” Poppy said. “I just told him I’d mentioned him to you and that I thought you’d be perfect together.”
Which wasn’t going to help her case any.
Not that she had a problem with getting to know Abe.
If she could get past the fact that she’d slept with him without them even knowing last names.
She just worried that it was always going to be hanging over her head when he thought of her.
If she learned one thing in life, it was that you can’t outrun your past actions.
She’d seen it with her parents.
With her brother.
For good or bad, you had to own up to things.
She wasn’t so sure she was ready to own up to that just yet!
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “No one is perfect.”
“I think Aster and Raine are,” Poppy said. “And Laurel and Easton. Me and Reese. My sisters and their husbands.”
She put her hand up and laughed. “Got it,” she said. “But I’m still trying to get acclimated here.”
“What is there to get acclimated to?” Poppy asked. “It’s a small town without a ton to do in your eyes. Right?”
“There are things to do, but I’m not so keen on doing them alone.”
“Abe,” Poppy said drily as if that was the answer to all of Daphne’s problems. “He’s an outdoor type of guy and so are you. I can see it. You’d rather be outside with the kids doing something than sitting around watching a movie or going to dinner.”
“True,” she said. “I can’t always seem to sit still. I’m not sure what to do with myself with all my time as it is.”
“That’s right,” Poppy said, wiggling her pointer finger around. “You need a sexy guy to spend some time with.”
“I’m sure Abe is tired at the end of the day,” she said.
Poppy let out a little giggle. “You didn’t deny he was sexy.”
There was no use denying it. Lying didn’t sit well with her.
“Hard to miss what was in front of my eyes.”
Over six feet of sweaty man.
She was good with that.
Once he took his hat off, his hair was damp and messed up some and she remembered how soft and silky it’d felt in her hands that night.
The solid muscles on his body that told her how hard he worked for a living.
He was a little dirty and she might have found that even more attractive.
She couldn’t remember ever thinking one way or another before.
But when she was waitressing, guys would come in all polished and they never did much for her.
Those that came in with jeans and worn boots or sneakers were her type.
Blue-collar workers...yes, please!
“That’s my girl,” Poppy said, dancing on her tiptoes.
“Seriously. I won’t push. Though I love to push and want to do it, I won’t.
When you’re ready, he’s a great guy. You can trust that.
And there is a six-degree of separation thing.
I know you know Laurel, who works with your brother, and her boyfriend, Easton, is Abe’s first cousin.
Easton came here to cover for Abe for a few months and that is how they met. ”
She was trying to process that information. Son of a bitch.
“Mommmmmmmy,” Holly yelled. “Let me out.”
“Oops, guess I overstayed my welcome. Got to move or this one is going to get the other one wailing when Tatum likes to hang out and look around.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks for bringing my sunglasses back.”
They were just cheap twenty-dollar ones and if she’d lost them, she’d replace them.
Not like the Oakleys that Abe had on his head.
She could see where he’d pay more for glasses while he worked outside.
She returned to the house, went to the kitchen, and hit the button to reheat her leftovers again.
Just chicken and vegetables over noodles that she’d made over the weekend.
It’s not as if she had much more to do on Sunday.
When she was sitting at the island eating, her phone rang and she got up to get it off the counter.
She debated all of two seconds and answered it. “Hi, Mom.” It would take her mind off of the fact that Abe wasn’t that much of a stranger in the big picture.
“Daphne,” her mother said. “I wasn’t sure if you’d answer or not. I doubted you’d be working this late.”
“No,” she said. She noticed it was barely six. Poppy had gone in later today and returned but was talking to Reese so she’d stayed with the kids.
“Dad and I are going to close on the house in sixty days. The offer went through, but the buyers need time to close on their house.”
“That’s good,” she said.
So long to any of her childhood memories.
Probably not a bad thing.
There weren’t many that were so wonderful other than what she had with Aster.
He was here now and they could make many more.
“I heard your brother got engaged.”
She wasn’t sure if Aster had mentioned it yet and she wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up.
“He did,” she said. “I’m so happy for him.”
“Raine doesn’t know how lucky she hit it with him and his bank account.”
Daphne ground her teeth. Her parents had no idea how much money Aster had, but they always tried to find out.
Or they asked for ridiculous gifts and help.
Maybe if her parents had been hands on and helped their kids more in life, she and Aster wouldn’t be so dead set about her parents doing it on their own now.
“I don’t believe Raine cares about those things,” she said.
“Everyone cares about those things,” her mother said, snorting.
“Not like you think,” she said.
Which reminded her of what Abe said.
His question about if she had a problem with what he did for a living.
Hell no!
She trusted someone in his career more than a guy with a flabby belly who rode a desk.
“You need to get out and see the world for what it is,” her mother said. “You’re too clouded by innocence having spent so much time with kids.”
Was she naive?
She didn’t think she was one bit.
Not with the way she was raised and the people she was exposed to in bars she’d worked in.
“You have no idea what I think or see, Mom. Don’t do that.”
“Whatever,” her mother said. “You’re probably there being a hermit and putting all your money under the mattress. Your dad and I could use some help. You know, we let you live at the house for years.”
She ground her teeth. “I’m not a hermit,” she said.
“That’s all you did when you lived at home. You hardly ever went out.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed her plate of food away. She’d lost her appetite.
“Because I was tired, Mom. I was working sixty hours a week on a good week and never sat down once doing it. I didn’t have a desk job like you.”
“How hard is it to watch kids and bring people drinks and food?” her mother said.
“Mom,” she said. “I’m done talking about this.”
She wasn’t going to let her mother degrade her for her choices in a career.
She already felt bad enough about herself that she never went to college and would be looked down on for that. Bad decisions many said and she lived them for a long time.
She’d made another at the casino weeks ago she had to live with too.
The last thing she needed was a family member to make her feel worse.
Which made her think of Abe.
Was that why he asked her that? Did he have women think less of him because maybe he didn’t go to college?
By the looks of it, he had one hell of a thriving business he should be super proud of.
What did she have? A high school degree and experience watching kids and serving food and drink.
“Whatever,” her mother said again. It was her go-to when she was done talking about something or not getting her way.
“How about floating Dad and me a little? You have to be making more working for that wealthy family and having no living costs. We need to get a few things done on the house to pass inspection.”
“Not my problem,” she said. “You should have been putting away the money I paid in rent for the past decade while I lived there.”
Half the mortgage, she’d been charged, to stay in her ten by ten bedroom with her single bed.
“I didn’t think you’d be this ungrateful for everything we did for you,” her mother said and then hung up the phone.
“That was a lovely end to my day,” she said to herself and tossed her phone on the counter.
Guess her two-month streak of not being talked down to or hearing negative things said about her was at an end.
Not surprising it came from her mother.
Her dinner was cold and she had no desire to eat it.
Though she hated to waste anything, she threw the rest of it out, filled a glass with ice, and then poured in her lime seltzer that she was rarely without and went to sit on her front porch in the rocking chair.
There wasn’t much of a view, but it was peaceful and it was hers for now.
She’d never had anything that was truly hers in her life and wondered what that might feel like.