Stay Tuned
“Look, Daze,” My first mistake is making eye contact with her.
My second is every word that falls out of my mouth from here on out.
“You hate me, I’m never going to be your biggest fan.
” She scoffs. Typical. “But for some reason everyone here still gives a shit about us. We need to drop it. For them. For the babies.”
Daisy shakes her head, clearing whatever emotion was trying to break out of her. I watch the metaphorical light bulb go off above her head. “Want to make it a competition?”
“Huh?”
“The twins have some time to cook, right? We agree to put our differences aside for as long as Margot’s pregnant, and when you break the truce-”
I bark out a laugh. “Don’t go assuming it’ll be me.”
“Whatever. If one of us breaks the truce, the loser walks away. Not like, entirely. I’m not evil, asking you to hightail it out of Merrymount, although I wouldn’t hate that…” she mutters the last part to herself. “But the winner gets first dibs on all family get-togethers and events going forward.”
“That’s insane.”
“No it’s not. If we can’t coexist for the most innocent forms of life, then there’s just no use in trying. Frankly, they-” Daisy motions to our crowd of people, “don’t deserve us at our worst anymore.”
If it was coming out of anyone else’s mouth, I would have instantly agreed. It’s actually kind of genius. I’m not telling her all of that though. “Hmm,” I start noncommittedly.
“I know you’re only not saying it’s a good idea because I came up with it. Don’t be fucking dense, August. For once.”
“Ah! There it is.” I wag a finger at her. “You’ll never survive this. You’ll be out before we find out the genders. You know what? Sure, Daze. Let’s shake on it. Nine months, me and you, buddy-buddy.” I hold out my hand.
When her tiny fingers attempt to wrap around mine, I almost pull back at the shock. Static electricity must be weird today, I don’t know. For how small her hand is, the grip is tighter than I expected. It’d feel fucking amazing wrapped around something else.
And that’s the thought that tells me I haven’t been laid in a while, if I’m thinking about Daisy Stiles anywhere near my dick from a simple handshake. Nothing a quick trip to the bar can’t fix. Nothing to cause alarm.
“As much as this pains me to say…Deal,” Daisy agrees. She snatches her hand back in the next second and takes a step back towards Margot and Red gushing over ultrasound pictures. “For the record, Gus, I don’t…I don’t hate you.”
For some reason the only thing my brain can come up with is a one word answer. “Okay.” With that, she turns her back to me.
It wasn’t a compliment, it wasn’t an admission of affection or close to anything you’d write home about. But for the first time in ten years, Daisy Stiles said one singular sentence to me that wasn’t an insult or jab. It was just a simple fact she felt the need to drop on me.
And I have no fucking clue what to do with that kind of world shattering information.
Because Daisy Stiles hates me. It’s one of the few things I’ve known with complete sureness.
And if she doesn’t then…
Well, if she doesn’t then it changes nothing.
She’s still the most insufferable, stuck up, bitchy, unreliable, messy woman I’ve ever come in contact with.
We still mutually can’t stand the sight of each other and when she loses the dumbest kind of bet she could have come up with, I’ll get to enjoy this makeshift family I’m somehow included in without her breathing down my neck.
merrymount book three
coming late fall 2025