Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
N ever in a million years could she have imagined running into Rafferty Ames in an ice cream shop. She’d spent the last day and a half miserable in a migraine haze, so maybe she was dreaming him up. Not to say she hadn’t thought about him over the years, but there was no way her imagination could have conjured the man who found her after that embarrassing incident.
Even though she followed his kid to the table he’d commandeered, Daisy hesitated because she wasn’t sure it was a good idea. He probably had a partner waiting at home and she didn’t want to cause any drama if that was the case. Besides, seeing him again was making her heart do that funny tripping and dancing thing it had always done when Rafferty was around.
As a teenager, she pined for him like almost every other girl at their school. He was the beautiful, aloof older boy who played football and walked the hallways like a king. He was also her best friend, but nobody ever knew that. She’d kept their connection a secret, so his friends and the other older kids would never know he was slumming it with her.
She slid into a chair, glanced at his son and smiled. He was beautiful, just like his father. A shock of light brown hair covered his head, long lashes fluttering against his cheeks as he ate his ice cream precariously balanced on a waffle cone. He was wearing a light pink T-shirt and dark shorts, his nails were painted green and yellow and he looked absolutely content with himself.
When Rafferty sat down across from her, he slid a stack of napkins in front of his son. She wasn’t kidding when she said he’d be a great father, because being raised by the Ames family meant that he had turned out perfect. Sitting back in her chair, she scooped up some ice cream on her spoon and looked him over. There was an unwelcome pinch in her chest at the realization that someone else got to enjoy everything he had to offer.
Twenty years apart and her body still responded to him the same way.
Who can blame me, look at him!
She was unabashedly admiring him too. He’d been taller than most kids his age when she last saw him, but now he was huge—broad shoulders and thick biceps straining against his flannel shirt. The firmness of his torso was evident through the gray T-shirt and she had to force herself to swallow so she wouldn’t drool everywhere.
That wasn’t what made her body react, though. It was his face. People so rarely called men beautiful, but he’d been that as a young adult. Now? He was delicious. She didn’t know how long his hair was, but enough to be pulled back into a loose knot at the top of his head. A well-groomed beard framed his perfect face, putting those soft lips in focus.
With the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, she could see tattoos on both his arms. Flames wrapped around his wrists, a forest setting was visible around his forearm and the inside of his right arm had what looked like a collection of small random tattoos. It was his left arm that had her staring—silver lines that looked like lightning were inked into his skin. There was something else under the folded portion of his sleeve, but with the way he was resting on his arms on the table, she couldn’t see it clearly.
Releasing a shaky breath, she sat up and shrugged out of her jacket, letting it hang over the back of her chair. All of that respectful staring made her warm. When she looked up, his golden eyes were wide as he stared at her. More heat spread over her body and she lifted a hand to fiddle with a necklace. His gaze dropped to where the four thin gold chains rested against her skin and then back up to hers.
She cleared her throat and ate her ice cream, uncertain of what to say or how to respond in a situation like this. It didn’t matter that they’d once been best friends or that they’d shared an amazing kiss twenty years ago. They’d blatantly checked each other out for the first time in decades. Everything was awkward.
“I’m Callahan,” the kid announced, interrupting her chaotic spiral. “Callahan Duncan Ames.”
“That’s a great name, especially since you’ve inherited some of your grandfather’s charm.”
“That’s what Grandpa told me too!”
Rafferty chuckled and held out a napkin. “Wipe your mouth first.”
Callahan did as he was told and turned back to her. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Daisy.”
His eyes widened as he glanced from her to his father and back. “You’re Daisy?”
“Yes?”
“Like…Dad’s Daisy ?”
“Cal.” The word came out as a gruff warning and she frowned.
“Didn’t know I belonged to anyone.”
Rafferty shook his head. “Dad and the grandparents talked about you a lot when he was growing up.”
“Nonna said that you and Dad were the best of friends. Then you went away.”
She swallowed hard, fingers gripping her spoon and cup tight as she nodded. “That’s right. My dad got a job in a different city, so we had to leave.”
“We did too!”
She arched an eyebrow “You left New York?”
“Just moved here a few weeks ago,” Rafferty replied.
Oh no, this is not good for my heart .
“Did you know that Dad has a picture of you in his wallet?”
“ Callahan .” This time he sounded frustrated and resigned. Clearly the things his son knew about her hadn’t only come from his great-grandparents.
“Is it…” she said, smiling as she pulled out the bottom half of a photo booth strip from her purse, “like this one?”
“And another one.”
Rafferty made a sound between a grunt and growl, and it was weirdly attractive. He pulled two pictures out and set them on the table. She peered at the other half of the strip—they were laughing so hard their eyes were closed, while she had the two where they were smiling at each other. However, she was drawn to the picture of her lying in the grass with a giddy expression, while daisies were falling on her.
She remembered that day so clearly. It was a dual family outing to Central Park, like they did one Sunday every month. While their dads and his grandparents lazed around eating snacks, the two of them had gone exploring. He found a daisy field and wanted to take pictures of her in the flowers. They picked a few and she lay in the grass as he dropped them on her while taking the picture. She’d never seen the picture, but she recognized the giddy look on her face.
I’d been so deeply in love that day .
It was around the time her feelings were starting to surface and every minute spent with him was the best time of her life. She touched the edge of the photograph with her finger and smiled, remembering how much joy being around that boy brought her. When she lifted her eyes to his, he matched her smile.
“That was a good day,” she whispered.
“We had a lot of good days, Daze.”
He was the only one who got away with calling her different things. She’d never refused him anything. Not when he was a teenager and she had hearts in her eyes and most likely not now, when he was a mountain man with an adorable son.
“So, what made you pick Wildes?” she asked, sliding the picture back.
“Thought it was time to get out of the city and Cal picked it off a map.”
She chuckled. “Wildes shows up on a map?”
Callahan grinned, flashing his ice cream covered teeth. “Dad said I couldn’t use Google, so he got a huge paper one and a magnifying glass.”
“Well, you’ve got good taste.” Without thinking about it, she used her napkin to wipe his mouth. Callahan smiled sweetly and went back to his ice cream. “What have you two been up to since you got here?”
“We got a dog!”
“Finish eating your ice cream, son.”
“Why aren’t you eating yours?” the kid asked, pointing at the slowly melting goop in their cups.
“I’m having such a good time talking to you, I forgot,” she said, adding a dramatic flair for the fun of it. That made him laugh, but when the ice cream started to drip down his fingers, he was distracted again.
Her feelings for Rafferty had always been so intense, enough to create dreams of grandeur and hopes that she could have it all. Life kicked her in the ass for that, though. Shaking away the thoughts, she ate some more of her ice cream.
“You look incredible, Hero.”
She’d never get over hearing him call her that, especially now that his voice was deeper and felt like it was brushing against her body intimately.
“So do you, Raff. You grew up,” she offered quietly.
He chuckled and leaned back, strong hands with clean nails set on the table. Give me the strength to not drool over his hands . She’d come out that day with the intention of treating herself for surviving yet another crippling migraine. While seeing him was a treat, she was feeling a weird kind of anxiety.
“Nice ink,” he said, nodding to her arm.
She’d been so distracted that she forgot she’d taken off her jacket, leaving her in a black tank top that exposed her floral sleeve. She smiled and stretched the arm out, turning it as she admired the beautiful colors and intricate design. Starting at her wrist, it covered her entire right arm all the way to her shoulder, where leaves hung over her shoulder blade. It was a burst of yellow, pink, red and orange, and was one of her favorite pieces on her body.
“You and Nonna Ames introduced me to flowers. In Greenville, my grandaunt Magnolia taught me more and now it’s a part of me.” She pointed at a few and smiled. “Tulips for the two of you, gladiolus for my dad, magnolias for my grandaunt, daisies and peonies for myself and a bunch of others I really liked.”
“They’re beautiful.”
“What about yours? From the looks of it, every inch of skin seems covered.”
He smiled. “Almost. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.”
“I know the feeling. This was never meant to be a sleeve, it turned out that way because I was addicted.”
“I knew you’d get it.” He smirked and added, “How about that cap, Daze?”
She laughed and clamped her hands over her mouth when it turned into her infamous wheezy cackle.
His eyebrows dipped at the action. “Don’t hide your laugh.”
She cleared her throat and dropped her hands. “It’s a weird laugh.”
“Who the fuck said that? It’s one of my favorite things about you.”
There was something so demanding and possessive about the way he said those words.
“Dad said a bad word,” Callahan sing-songed and held a hand out. Her friend didn’t look away as he handed a dollar to his son.
“How much money have you made off your dad?”
“A lot. Dad likes to swear about everything,” he said.
“ Daisy .”
She sighed at the way he said her name and leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table. “My ex didn’t like my laugh. Thought it sounded like an animal dying.”
His frown deepened. “I like your laugh. Cal, do you like her laugh?”
“It is weird, so yes,” the kid said with the kind of candor only children were capable of. “But also because your eyes dance when you do.”
“I have to agree. They light up and that means it’s genuine,” Rafferty added.
Her heart twirled, pointe shoes and tutu included, at his words. Even as kids, he would tell her to fuck what everyone else had to say. Because the only opinion that mattered was hers. She did like her wheezy cackle. Sometimes.
“I should have known the Ames men would still be the sweetest of them all,” she said, eyes on Callahan as he puffed out his chest proudly.
“Spent a long time looking for that hat.”
She tugged it off her head, turning it over in her hands and smiled at all the embellishments she’d added over the years. “It became my security blanket,” she said, fingers tracing his initials. “Remember us lazing around in your bedroom the day before I left? Nonna called for you, so I was alone and wanted something of yours to hold onto. This is the first thing I saw.”
“Shame you didn’t leave anything of yours behind for me.”
“You seem to have done fine without it,” she teased.
“I didn’t.” The sincerity and firmness with which he said those words startled her. “Cal’s the best thing to ever happen to me, but I wasn’t fine .”
“Raff…I…” she wasn’t sure what to say, because there was nothing in the world she could say in response to that . They’d done the best they could in the first few years apart with phone calls that lasted hours. Life kept getting in the way and despite all their good intentions, it became really difficult to stay in touch. Moving on was the only way to deal with it, even though it hurt like hell. “We should have put in more effort.”
He nodded, rubbing a hand over his beard. “Fuck life for constantly getting in the way.”
“Fuck it, indeed.”
Callahan huffed and they handed over a dollar each. He artfully folded and shoved the money into his pocket. She smiled, but kept her focus on the man across from her as he seemed to struggle with his thoughts—the wrinkle between his eyebrows and the twist of his lips were enough of a sign.
“Raff.” He looked up and she continued. “We can wish and hope that we’d done better in the past, but maybe we can try again now. We’re still friends, right?”
His shoulders tensed briefly before he said, “Yeah, friends.”
“Let’s start over. We live in the same town and like the same ice cream shop, so we’re bound to have more run-ins.”
“I’m sticky,” Callahan mumbled and before either of them could say anything he was out of his chair and pushing through the crowd.
She smiled and said, “He’s a cute kid. Looks a lot like you.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.”
Probably not for the rest of us if he also turns into a heartbreaker , she thought to herself. It made her wonder about the mother and what she looked like. Whether she’d passed on any of her beautiful genes to the kid. Callahan returned as she started to reply and he looked sheepish at the large wet patch on the front of his T-shirt.
“How did you manage that?” Rafferty asked.
“It was an accident?” Callahan offered, blushing.
Daisy pressed her lips together to stop from laughing, because between father and son, the expressions were hilarious.
“It was nice to meet you, Miss Daisy.”
Oh . She startled, but smiled. “Nice to meet you too, Callahan.”
“We do need to get going,” Rafferty said softly, with what looked like regret in his eyes. “The dog is home alone and this one doesn’t like that.”
With a chuckle, she scribbled her number on a napkin and held it out to him. “For whenever you’ve got time.”
He smiled and tucked the napkin in his pocket. “Always have time for you, Hero.”
“You better catch up with him,” she said, gesturing to where Callahan was already halfway to the door.
“I’ll see you soon, okay?”
She nodded and lifted a hand in a small wave. “Looking forward to it.”
Leaning back, she watched them walk out, climb into a car and drive off. With one hand pressed to her racing heart, she closed her eyes and let the last hour fully sink into her soul. The person she once thought was her soulmate was living in the same town she called home. All those feelings she thought she’d buried? Resurfacing with a vengeance.
I am so screwed .