Chapter Twenty-Nine Daisy
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Daisy
Men cling to false power, money, and status. It is not the highest power. But it can be used against them.
—Rules for Witches
The morning that she signed the papers to buy out Zach’s 51 percent of the business, she slid a penny across the table, and he slid the contract back toward her.
“This is the hottest thing that’s ever happened.” She stared at the paperwork.
Though, truthfully, it was much more than hot. It was something that felt dangerously like a partnership.
She wasn’t supposed to want more from him. But he was so good. Something she really hadn’t expected out of her gorgeous, ill-advised fling.
Shouldn’t the hot actor from your teenage fantasies be good for nothing other than multiple orgasms?
He was good for that. Last night, he’d joined her in the shower and covered her mouth so her screams wouldn’t frighten the children while he did things to her she’d never even imagined were possible.
Then he’d gotten up early and made pancakes for everybody.
It was intoxicating, and far too tempting to believe that it could be something.
But it was silly to fall for somebody this soon after splitting up from the man she’d been with all her life. The responsible thing to do would be to be single for a good long while.
The responsible thing. The idea of being single didn’t particularly make her feel responsible. It made her feel sad, not because she couldn’t be alone. If she had to choose between Jonathan and being alone, she’d choose alone every time.
Zach had nothing to do with a fear of being single.
He made her feel wild. He made her feel beautiful.
He made her feel like she didn’t have to perform endless chores and tasks to keep him happy or satisfied.
He just seemed happy and satisfied to be with her.
He was funny, which she hadn’t really expected, because she had been led to believe that when men were handsome, they often didn’t hone their personalities to go along with it. But he certainly had.
“Do you want me to go with you?” he asked.
Her face must have given away her obvious hesitance.
The look he gave her was hard, and she couldn’t quite parse the meaning of it. “You still want to keep this a secret?”
“I . . .” It wasn’t so much about the moral high ground anymore. It felt like unnecessary chaos for her to have him show up in Jonathan’s driveway. “It’s not a secret. The kids know that you’re here.”
“It’s not like you’ve kissed me in front of them.”
“I know. But they might say that Mommy had a friend spend the night. They might not know what that means, but Jonathan will. I mean, he’d have to actually pay attention, but I think at a certain point even he’ll put it together.”
“Fair.”
“I am willing to risk that. He’s moved on. I’m not pretending I’m not capable of having other relationships.”
“Other relationships.” He frowned.
“You know what I mean.”
“I think you’re trying to minimize this, Daisy.”
“I’m not,” she said, a little bit of panic making her heart beat faster. “I’m really not. But you know, when I storm the office and tell him you sold me the business, I didn’t think you’d want to be with me, standing right there.”
“Wrong, actually. I would love nothing more than to watch and then let him know that I’m fucking you better than he ever did.”
Her mouth went dry. It was true, but it was cruel, and Zach seemed to delight in that.
She could see why he would, and frankly that was one of the things she was avoiding.
Flaunting her extremely hot lover seemed like a petty move.
Maybe part of her was avoiding turning him into something petty.
Because he didn’t feel insubstantial, and he certainly didn’t feel like revenge.
“I get why I would want to do that. But why do you?”
“Because he didn’t appreciate you. He had you, Daisy, and he cheated on you. I don’t know Amberly, but she’s young. I can’t imagine she’s even half as interesting as you are.”
“I’m not sure if you know this, but generally speaking, when men cheat on their wives with younger women, it’s not because those younger women are more interesting.”
“Daisy, maybe it’s because I had an experience where I could have any woman I wanted.”
“This is weird.” She moved away from him.
“I’m not going to pretend that didn’t happen.
I’m not going to pretend I handled that differently than I did.
When the show was popular, it was whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
You can gorge yourself on sex, but the thing is, it’s like anything else.
You’re just hungry again when it’s over, and just like when you’re indulging in too many things that are bad for you, you kind of feel sick.
It doesn’t satisfy you. It doesn’t fill the ache inside of you.
It’s been twenty years, and until I met you, I didn’t understand what the drive was. What I was actually looking for.”
“You can’t mean that,” she said.
“I do. The problem was, you were married. And now you’re not.”
“I’m still not divorced.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re in my bed and not his.
Yes, I wanted you, so it’s perverse that I’m mad he fumbled you.
But I’m mad that he did that because he hurt you, and you didn’t deserve that.
You deserve to be treated like something precious, because that’s what you are.
I watched the way you cared for everybody.
Everybody who ever came into contact with you.
Whether it was me, him, other random guys on the construction crew.
His parents, your parents, your grandmother. Your kids.”
“If that’s what you like about me, then that might be a problem, because I’m kind of tired.”
“You don’t get it. I didn’t look at you and think I wanted you to do that for me.
I thought it was amazing how many people you were there for, and I felt like no one was doing the same for you.
Not with that same amount of energy. I just wanted to take care of you.
And be inside you. I can’t say it was all chivalrous. ”
“That’s good, because I can’t say I want all chivalry all the time.”
“Well, I don’t want to be a secret. I’m going to need you to tell him, if you don’t want me to do it.”
She scoffed. “You’re infuriating, do you know that?”
“Why? Because I don’t let you control everything?”
“Yes, actually.”
“It’s a trade-off. You got to control a lot of things in your marriage, but he made you do the heavy lifting. He wasn’t honest, he wasn’t proactive. That’s not what I want. But that means you aren’t in charge of everything.”
Her cheeks heated. Damn him. His bossy streak was hot, even if it shouldn’t be.
But he was right. She had been that woman who had taken care of all the details.
Who had been married to somebody so passive that he’d let her find the things he’d been buying his mistress rather than have a conversation with her.
“Are you telling me this is a partnership, and I don’t get to be in charge of everything?”
“I’m afraid so.” He kissed her forehead. “But you also don’t have to do everything by yourself.” He pulled away from her and smiled. “Now, give ’em hell.”
She kissed Zach, then walked out to the driveway and put Soraya and Nora on a group call after.
“How would you both like to earn a little bit of extra money?”
“Money?” Nora asked.
“Yes. I’m letting Jonathan know about the change in business ownership today.”
“Oh!” Nora crowed.
“And there’s going to need to be some overhauling,” she continued. “I might want a mural. And I love the way your house was decorated, Soraya. Perhaps you might like to do a little bit of design work.”
“But I’ve never done that,” Soraya said.
“It seems like the right day to learn. I’m about to storm the office, and you agreed to help with storming.”
“Yes.” Nora sounded ecstatic.
“Should I swing by and pick you guys up?”
“Hell yeah!”
“Yes,” Soraya added.
When they arrived at the offices, Daisy pushed open the double doors, went right past reception, and straight into the open-plan workspace. Jonathan’s office was at the end of the room. There was a slight ripple throughout the five or so desks in the space when she came in.
Veronica, one of Jonathan’s coworkers, stood up. “Daisy. Jonathan is actually in a meeting.”
“Well, he’s about to be in another one.”
“No, I . . . You don’t understand, he’s busy.”
“He’s not too busy to talk to the new majority owner of the company.”
With that, Veronica backed way off.
With Nora and Soraya flanking her, Daisy strode straight through the office building. “I think we need a lovely sitting area over there,” she said. “Don’t you think so, Soraya?”
“Oh yes.” Soraya walked quickly to keep pace.
“And there.” Daisy pointed at the big blank wall at the back. “A mural, I think, Nora. To really express the mission statement of this company. The natural beauty of the surroundings. Family. This is a family business, after all.”
The door to Jonathan’s office opened, and he emerged a moment later, looking somewhat wild eyed, and Daisy smiled, suspecting Veronica had messaged him.
“Hi,” she said, as bright as could be.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, looking from her to Nora to Soraya.
“Oh.” She did her best to look innocent. “I’m looking at my office.”
“Your office?”
“Well, not only mine. But majority mine. Fifty-one percent of it, I think.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Daisy?” he asked.
“Oh, that’s right, Zach probably didn’t tell you. He’s unhappy with the trajectory of the company, Jonathan. He doesn’t want to be involved anymore, and so he sold it to me.”
“He what?”
“He sold it to me.”
She waited. Waited for the accusation that she was screwing Zach, or whatever, but it didn’t come.
Because he didn’t see her that way. He didn’t see her at all. He saw her as a housewife. As an attachment to him. And not as a whole human being. He couldn’t fathom her having goals, ambitions, skills, a life outside of him. It was almost hilarious.
“You can’t do this,” he said.
“Yes, I can, and I did. Things are going to change around here. Immediately. Starting with the fact that you’re going to be paid a salary. You can no longer spend indiscriminately out of business funds.”
“I don’t—”
“You do. I saw all the jewelry you bought for your girlfriend from the company account.”
The employees shifted all around. They didn’t like that. And why would they? They were probably being denied raises to help support the lifestyle Jonathan wanted to cultivate.
“Any excess will go back into the company or will be evaluated for disbursement at the end of the year. To be split among business partners, and staff, of course. Also, you need to do something about your subcontractors. Effective immediately, you will be using Sam Reynolds for your electrical. I’ll get referrals for your other subcontractors, but there have been complaints. ”
“You’re not in construction. You don’t get to make these decisions.”
“I get to make these decisions because we are now business partners. You can divorce me, but you can’t get rid of me entirely.” She looked around the room. “I’m thinking pink accent pillows.”
“This is insane,” he said.
As she turned to face him, with Nora and Soraya on either side of her, she’d never felt more powerful. More like a coven.
“No. Insane is cheating on your high school sweetheart, not even trying to work out any problems you were having, just cheating like a coward. Insane is lying to your new girlfriend about the state of your marriage and bringing her into a mess she wouldn’t have brought herself into if she’d known.
” That was a Hail Mary, based on her recent chats with Amberly, but she could tell by the look on his face she was right.
“Insane is being a father who acts like he doesn’t know his kids’ meal schedule or what their teachers’ names are. This is just a little light revenge.”
“I’ll buy you out.” His tone was desperate, and the feeling of being in charge right now? She’d been the one who felt so powerless. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy this. Watching him sweat. Watching him wonder what his life was going to look like in the next month, the next year.
He’d taken all her certainty away. Now she was taking his.
“I’d make you pay,” she said.
“This is petty.” He took a step toward her.
Nora, Soraya, and Daisy exchanged glances. And they laughed.
“Petty? Hell yeah, it’s petty. It turns out I’m very, very petty, Jonathan.” She smiled. “To think, you could’ve lived your entire life without ever experiencing just how petty I am. What a treat.”