Chapter 10 #3
“Try. Close your eyes, think happy thoughts and clear your mind of all the things that make you hurt. I’ll be right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Listening to his words, Daisy couldn’t help but relax a bit. He was here. He wasn’t going to leave because he didn’t get what he wanted from her. He said he might love her a little bit. That last thought brought a hint of a smile to her lips. What might it be like if he loved her a lot?
Daisy would like to find out, because after tonight, after the way he’d cared for her after her meltdown, she could easily see herself falling completely in love with him.
Arriving home in the morning to shower and change before work, David thought about what’d happened with Daisy the night before.
It had taken a long time, maybe even an hour or more, before she was finally able to relax and sleep.
He’d been awake the whole time, which was how he’d known the exact second she’d given in to the exhaustion.
She’d been sound asleep when he left her this morning with a note to call him when she woke up.
He couldn’t help being a bit angry with himself for going along with something she wasn’t ready for.
In medical school, he’d gone through Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder training, and he knew the signs to watch for.
He could beat himself up all day long for missing the signs in this case, except there hadn’t been any.
The only signals he’d received indicated she was as into what they were doing as he had been.
Things had been going so well for them, which was the real kicker in this whole situation. He was finally in a really good place.
While he’d expected the encounter with Janey to throw him out of sorts, it’d had the opposite effect.
It had given him closure he’d desperately needed.
They were able to be friendly with each other, and if she stayed on the island, she might need him before she had the baby.
He’d be there for her if it came to that.
But even if it didn’t, he was more at peace with the outcome of their relationship than he’d been since it blew up in his face two years ago.
For the first time since then, he felt truly ready to move on and engage in a genuine relationship with another woman.
But if last night’s incident had shown him anything, it was that Daisy was still a long way from being ready for the same things he wanted.
That was okay, though. He’d meant it when he told her he would wait.
He liked to think he was wise enough after all he’d been through to recognize something special when it came into his life. And Daisy was special. There was no denying that.
In the driveway, he noticed the sleek Porsche that Jared brought with him whenever he came to the island. His comings and goings were always a mystery to David, who often didn’t lay eyes on his elusive landlord for months on end.
He took the stairs to his apartment, thinking about Daisy, hoping she’d be okay today and counting the hours until he could be with her again.
Inside his front door, he stopped short when he saw his mother sitting on the sofa, nursing a takeout cup of coffee and flipping through the Gansett Gazette.
How had he missed her car in the driveway?
He’d been too captivated by the Porsche, apparently.
“Hey, Mom. What’re you doing here?” He’d given her an extra key in case he ever got locked out, but he hadn’t expected her to actually use it.
“I was concerned when I couldn’t reach you.”
David drew his phone from his pocket and noticed three calls from her that he’d missed when he’d been occupied the night before. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing other than I have no idea where my son has been the last few days.”
“I’ve been busy, Mom. I have a job and a life.”
“Too busy to call me once in a while?”
He wanted to remind her that he was thirty years old and didn’t need to check in with her the way he used to, but ever since the lymphoma diagnosis, she’d been hovering the way she had when he was younger.
Since she and his sisters had gotten him through the worst of his illness and the treatment, he supposed she had the right to hover.
But breaking and entering was taking it a bit far, even for her.
“I’m sorry to have been out of touch.” David went to the kitchen and moved through the motions of making coffee. “Things have been nuts.”
“What happened to your lip?”
David stopped moving and tried to think of a story she would be believe. “I punched myself when I was pulling on something and my hand slipped.”
Her raised brow indicated her skeptical reaction. “I heard you’ve been dating.”
His muscles tightened with tension that he was certain she saw because she didn’t miss anything. “Maybe. Some.”
“Were you going to tell me you’ve met someone, David?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Eventually.” His parents had been enraged—and ashamed—over what’d happened with Janey. He hoped to never again give them reason to be ashamed of him, but he also had a right to privacy, as did Daisy.
“Who is she?”
“I don’t think you know her.”
“I’d like to know her if she’s important to you.”
She was important to him and becoming more so with every passing day, but that didn’t mean he was ready to bring her home to meet his parents. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Will you tell me her name?”
“Daisy.”
“That’s all I’m getting?”