Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
H e stared at the soft sunlight as it danced across the beams above him, his mind fixed on Daisy. It had been four days and in the moments when he wasn’t busy, she was all he thought about.
She looked nothing like the girl he once knew, and yet looked the same. The caramel swirls in her eyes still hooked him, as did her plump lips when they curved into a smile. When she shrugged out of her jacket, he had to hold himself still so he wouldn’t do something like touch her. To find out what her skin felt like against his callused hands. The black tank top dipped so low, he had the best view of her cleavage and the top of her breasts. She’d never worn jewelry back in the city, but the four thin gold necklaces glowed against her skin. Her strong, toned arms and shoulders were distracting on their own, but when painted in bright colors and familiar flowers, it was a miracle he hadn’t leaned across and licked her.
She made it worse by telling him that some of those flowers were for him . His tattoos for her—and there were more than the daisies and initials on his bicep—were well hidden so she didn’t know how much she’d impacted his life too. Sitting across from her eating ice cream was probably the most random thing that could have happened. He wondered how differently their meeting might have gone had Cal not been there with him. It was the one time he was grateful to his son for being a cockblock.
Speaking of his son, soft mumbles and huffs of breath came from beside him. He looked at the little boy taking up most of the space in his large bed and smiled. Of late, Cal had been having nightmares he couldn’t explain—the monster under his bed or a complicated fantastical story. On those nights, he could crawl into Rafferty’s bed. He’d made sure to bring it up at Cal’s first session and the therapist assured him that they’d work on it.
The night before, he’d insisted that a fire monster was tickling his feet. After a quick investigation, he let Cal sleep in his bed. It wasn’t like he had anyone sleeping over anyway.
I’d love to have a certain someone in bed with me instead .
Shaking away the thoughts, he blinked up at the light stretching across his ceiling. His brain provided a second-by-second replay of the day in the ice cream shop. From the moment her eyes met his under the stolen cap, the way her pink lips formed his name, how her nail polish captivated him. Not to mention the way she interacted with Cal. She could have talked to him like a child, but instead she included him whenever she could.
He also remembered the chubby, soft and shy version. The young girl who was always tugging at her clothes, like she was uncomfortable in everything she owned. That wasn’t who she was anymore, even if she still shied away from the attention.
More importantly, he was glad she got her ice cream in a cup. Because even now he could vividly remember the last time they’d eaten the frozen dessert together. It had been their last summer together—she was sixteen to his nineteen—and they’d been visiting every ice cream shop in the city for a silly ranking system. After eating out of disposable cups at the first few places, she opted for a waffle cone. She’d licked her way around the two scoops, moaning at how good it was. To make matters worse, it started to melt and drip down her fingers. Daisy hadn’t hesitated to lick up what was sliding down her arm, totally unaware of the effect she had on him and everyone around them.
That was the week she kissed him on the front steps of her brownstone. The same week her father drove them away from New York for good.
“Is it time to wake up?” The sleepy voice broke into his thoughts.
“Nope, go back to sleep.”
“Mmmkay.”
Cal flipped over and was asleep in seconds. Rafferty shook his head and quietly slid out of bed, snapping his fingers to get Boots’s attention. His dog gave him a ‘what do you want?’ look, but got off the bed. He pulled jeans and a tee on and ushered the dog out of the room. He started up the coffee machine, grabbed his sneakers and the leash and the two of them set off on a morning stroll.
“There’s Indigo,” Cal said as they walked up to the school. He’d attempted the drop-off line a few mornings ago, but his son wanted more time to cuddle Boots, so that plan failed. They’d get there eventually. For now, Rafferty parked the car and walked Cal up to the entrance.
His son had already shot off like a rocket, heading straight to his best friend who was looking up at a tall man. When he reached the trio, Cal had his hand stretched out.
“Hi! I’m Callahan Ames,” he started, then pointed over and added, “And this is my dad, Rafferty Ames.”
“Nice to meet you two. I’m Mack, Indigo’s dad.”
Rafferty shook Mack’s hand and smiled. “Good to finally meet you, Mack.”
“Dig hasn’t stopped talking about Callahan since they met.”
“My kid thinks your kid is the coolest person he’s ever met.”
They turned to watch the kids whispering to each other while feeding Boots his snacks. The dog was going to be snoozing the whole day with how much he’d eaten, but at least he was getting some extra love. Beyond that, though, he was glad Cal had found a friend who lit him up. Not to mention the fact that Indigo was wearing the exact same T-shirt as his son.
“They insisted on getting one too,” Mack offered, clearly noticing what Rafferty had been looking at.
“That’s amazing. I’m glad they found each other.”
“Yeah. Indigo has never talked about school as much as they have these past few weeks.”
Rafferty smiled, nodding as he felt his chest expand with relief. This was all he wanted and now his son had it. “So, what do you do, Mack?”
“Struggling artist. Well, more struggling than being an artist. It keeps me busy and at home a lot of the time. What about you?”
“Landscape architect, running the family business. And I’m a volunteer firefighter.”
“Seriously?”
He chuckled. “Been doing it since my early twenties.”
“That’s crazy. But hey, throwing this out there, happy to have Callahan over if you need some peace and quiet while you work.”
The offer couldn’t have come at a better time. “I’d appreciate that, man. Especially on days when I’m on call. He’s been at the community center some afternoons or at the pet shelter.”
“I mean, we can’t compete with a pet shelter, but I know Dig would be happy as shit.”
Rafferty smiled and shook Mack’s hand. “I’ll owe you big time.”
“Are you friends now? Does this mean we can hang out together?” Indigo asked, Cal right beside them with matching grins.
“Depends.”
Cal frowned at Mack. “On what?”
Mack smirked. “Will you behave and listen to everything we tell you to do?”
At their firm nods, Rafferty added, “Will you be respectful and kind when you’re away from home?”
Another round of nods, this time even more enthusiastic. “We promise.”
“I guess we can make it happen.”
The kids cheered loudly until their teacher came out with a frown and guided them inside. Together, they walked back to the parking lot with Boots between them.
“What’s your volunteer schedule look like?” Mack asked.
“It’s about thirty hours a week, some of it in training which happens during school hours. Sometimes I do happen to be at the firehouse when a call comes in, so Cal’s already with someone else.”
“I get that. You said something about the community center?”
“Oh yeah, signed him up for some after school activities to find hobbies that don’t include staring at a screen for hours.”
They shared a laugh. “I think I’ll set my kid up there too. It would be better than watching me stare at an empty easel.”
Rafferty frowned. “So the struggling is serious.”
“Never had a creative block before, so it’s been a learning process.”
“I know your schedule is a little more flexible than mine, but if you need some peace and quiet to create, let me know. Happy to take the kids for the day.”
“I won’t hold you to that, but I appreciate the offer.”
They laughed, because it was clear that Rafferty’s unpredictable schedule would get in the way of him ever hosting Indigo at the Ames house.
Daisy was back on his mind when he got home after drop-off. Going through his contact list, he was confused as to why her number wasn’t there. Frowning, he stood in the middle of his office and mentally retraced his steps. He’d slid the napkin with her number into the pocket of his jeans, then he’d come home and taken Boots for his walk. After that he helped Cal with homework before dinner. They’d cleaned up and gone for another walk before a shower and collapsed into bed. The next morning, he’d done laundry and… shit, laundry . Groaning, he went through his freshly washed clothes to find the offending jeans. Lo and behold, in the pocket was the remnants of a napkin.
“You’re a moron,” he muttered and returned to his office—which he had finally set up in an effort to actually catch up on things. He googled her full name and clicked the first link for a place called Daisy’s Patch. There she was, smiling brightly with her dark hair fluttering behind her as she stood in front of a flower shop.
She really did it .
He punched in the number listed on the website, but before he could dial, his phone started ringing. Followed by a series of texts and reminders about the meetings he had that morning. He took a minute to calm himself down then turned to his computer and loaded up the video conferencing software they used.
“Hey everyone, sorry I’m late,” he said as his face popped up on the screen. “All right, take me through what’s on our list for this week.”
When he took over Ames Landscaping, the one thing he didn’t want to do was the meeting clients part of it. He was the kind of guy who liked to get his hands dirty and be on the ground from start to finish. He might have studied to be a landscape architect, but digging his fingers into the dirt, getting close to Mother Nature was more his speed. That had been easy when his father was in charge. Now he not only needed to plan everything, he also needed to smile politely when looking into the faces of rich assholes that made ridiculous demands.
His team in New York were capable and didn’t need him to babysit, but now they were redrawing the design for a client and revisiting every single detail of their original plan. He’d been making notes on his iPad while also working on the new layout as per the client’s request. In short, he was ready to punch a hole in someone’s face.
Over the last year, Ames Landscaping had been doing a lot of community garden work. It was the good kind of stuff that he enjoyed and one successful client referred them to another one. It brought in a lot of money because Upper East Side folks liked ‘giving back’, but they also liked spending tons before that final step. The only downside was that rich people thought that because they were spending large sums, they could boss everyone around.
He’d designed the garden a year ago and gotten it approved. His team had already started prepping the space with the intention of work starting that week. Now, one of the board members wanted it changed—apparently he hadn’t seen or approved the original design. And if redesigning the whole thing wasn’t enough, the board still expected them to complete the garden within the previously approved timeline.
Because this was a special case of stress for everyone, the conference call was still connected while everyone went about doing their work. He was bent over the original design while making changes to the new one he’d started working on a few days ago. Every now and then someone would pop in with a question or suggestion, and Rafferty would do his best to guide them in the right direction.
“Hey boss. I spoke to the original supplier and they’ve hit a snag in sourcing some of the materials,” one of his project managers said.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair, stretching his muscles. “Get in touch with our usual guys and see if they can help with the rest.”
“Within this timeline? I doubt it.”
“No harm in asking. Get it done today. If that falls through, we have only a week to find someone else.”
Another person added, “The construction crew might be a few members short.”
“Of course,” he muttered under his breath and rubbed his face. “See how many people they can spare and I’ll talk to Henderson about getting a few of his guys. Any of you want to work with cement for a month?”
There were a few murmurs and hands shot up in one of the boxes. His team were fucking talented and would always step up to the plate, but he didn’t like taking them for granted just because they had the skills. That’s why they hired professional teams to do the big work while they handled everything else.
When the silence stretched on, he tilted his head and frowned. “What?”
“Any chance of you coming into the city in a few weeks? This new client is…particular.” One of the senior guys he’d put in charge when he left.
“Maybe. When is it?”
“Three weekends from now. She insisted on speaking to the boss and didn’t want to deal with us.”
He chuckled and shook his head. Very often they’d work with an über rich client who expected things to happen the way they wanted by snapping their fingers. He was surprised by how much patience he had when dealing with them. This lady sounded like she would make him want to bash his own head in. It was his least favorite part about New York clients, but they did bring in all the money at the end of the day.
“Send me her details and requirements. I’ll get back to you in a few days.”
“Great. Also, we found a new flower supplier out of Jersey. Can I schedule a call between the three of us next week?”
The mention of flowers reminded him that he’d been interrupted in the middle of calling Daisy hours ago. He glanced at his phone and saw that he had enough time to visit her flower shop and pick up Cal from school.
“Yeah, yeah. That sounds good. Send me a reminder the day before.” He peered into the boxes on his screen and nodded. “All right, if there’s nothing else, I need to head out. I’ll have the updated design sent over tonight.”
He didn’t give anybody a chance to protest before he logged off. Not bothering to change, Rafferty followed the instructions to the flower shop. With his sunglasses hooked into the front of his T-shirt, he walked inside and inhaled deeply. Soft music filtered through the space, staff in matching aprons were helping customers and every surface and corner he could see was filled with plants and brightly colored flowers. He smiled as he did a slow spin, taking in how incredible the shop was. If his nonna was still alive, she’d be so proud of what Daisy had been able to do.
“Welcome to The Patch, are you looking for anything in particular?”
He turned to face the blond with a name tag that read Ripley . “I was actually hoping to see Daisy.”
“She’s at an event right now, but should be back soon.”
“Can I wait until she gets here?”
Ripley nodded and gestured to a long high table to the side. “Can I get you anything, water, coffee?”
“I’m good, thank you.”
He turned to the table and saw a hand-painted sign hanging from the ceiling that read Flower Station. He smiled as he took in the baskets hanging over the sides with scissors, ribbons and other bits of stationery. He was certain that if he brought Callahan to the shop, his son would make this place his home.
He didn’t know how long he’d been waiting, but when he heard her voice, Rafferty straightened up. She had a face full of makeup, her dark hair was in a thick braid and over her left shoulder, she wore a green tee and jeans, the look completed with a light gray apron. She was gesturing and talking, gardening gloves in one hand and a small bunch of flowers in the other. He saw Ripley sidle up to her and smiled when she turned to face him.
“Hero.”