Chapter 7 #3
While Daisy got Victoria settled on the sofa, David took a shower and thought about the terrible situation his friend had found herself in.
He had no doubt whatsoever that Vic loved Shannon and had for quite some time.
That said, however, he’d been increasingly concerned by Shannon’s seeming inability to commit to anything more than what appeared, from the outside looking in, to be a somewhat casual domestic arrangement.
Knowing Victoria wanted and needed more than that, David had worried about her getting hurt.
It was, he’d discovered, a tricky proposition to warn a friend about the man she loved.
Daisy had advised him to tread lightly with his concerns out of fear of Victoria deciding to marry the guy knowing David had reservations.
The last thing he’d wanted was to put any more doubts in her mind when she already had her own.
So he’d kept his mouth shut even as he watched her get more and more involved with Shannon as the last year unfolded. Now that she had, in fact, been hurt by the guy, he wondered if he should’ve done more to prepare her for that possibility.
He took those concerns to bed with him, where he waited for Daisy to join him.
She came in a few minutes later, closing the door behind her.
“How is she?”
“Not great. She’s going to watch some TV and try to sleep.
” Daisy sat on the bed and kicked off her flip-flops.
“I feel so bad for her. I can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been to find out what’d happened to Shannon and then to lose him over it.
” She turned so she could see him. “You saw this coming.”
“I didn’t see this particular scenario, but you know I’ve been worried that he wasn’t as invested as she is. I should’ve said something.”
“No, I still believe you really shouldn’t have.
What if, down the road, she ends up married to him?
Then you’re the friend who doubted the man she loves.
Take it from me. I’ve been the girl in a relationship where everyone in my life hated the guy.
With good reason, as it turned out in all instances, but no one could’ve told me that when I was in it. Love makes people blind.”
“Is that so?” He reached for her hand. “What are you blind to when it comes to me?”
“The fact that you’re thirty years old and still eating Cap’n Crunch.”
David laughed and feigned offense. “I love my Cap’n Crunch.”
“I know.” She leaned in to kiss him. “And I love you, which is why I buy it for you.”
David drew her into bed with him. “What else are you blind to?”
“That sometimes you forget to put the seat down.”
“I do not! I was raised with sisters. I know better.”
“Once in a blue moon.”
“I require proof of this character flaw.”
Daisy giggled at his outrage. God, he loved her so damned much. Witnessing Victoria’s heartbreak up close made him so thankful for Daisy and the life they had together.
“I’ll take a picture next time.”
“You do that. Is there anything else?”
“No,” she said, smoothing her fingers through his hair.
“Would you tell me if there was?”
“If it was something important. Would you tell me?”
“You’ll never be anything other than perfect to me.”
She snorted with laughter. “That is such bull. How about last week when I saw a perfectly good chair by the side of the road that I wanted to bring home, and you said we don’t need other people’s junk?”
“What about it?”
“You don’t think my attachment to other people’s junk is a character flaw?”
“Not at all. I think it’s a throwback to a time in your life when you couldn’t afford better. Now you can buy your own junk brand new.”
“But why would I waste money on something brand new when there’s a perfectly good free version right in front of me that I can clean and paint and make new again?”
“So what you’re telling me is you’re always going to be a frugal Fannie?”
“Yep, and you’re going to have to live with it.”
“Most men would say that frugality in no way counts as a character flaw in a potential wife.”
She raised a brow. “A potential wife?”
“I mean future wife. Nothing potential about it.”
“That’s much better.”
David reached up to frame her sweet face with his hands. “I’m extra thankful for you tonight. I wish everyone we love could be as happy as we are.”
“I wish that, too, but we worked long and hard to get where we are now. It wasn’t always easy.”
“Yes, it was.”
“Are you remembering the same things I am?”
“I remember every minute of it, and it has always been easy to be with you. It was other things, outside stuff, that made it complicated.”
“True.”
David dropped one of his hands to her leg, teasing the hem of her sundress, raising it up until his hand cupped one of her ass cheeks.
“Stop,” she said, wriggling. “We can’t misbehave when our friend is heartbroken in the next room.”
“Yes, we can. We just have to be really, really quiet.”
“David…”
“Yes, Daisy?”
“We can’t.”
“We absolutely can.” In one smooth move, he had the dress over her head and her on the bed under him. Then he reached over to shut off the bedside light. “Shhh.” He brought his lips down on hers and knew he had her when her arms curled around his neck.
“We could go one night without, you know,” Daisy whispered, her lips pressed against his. He could feel the curve of her smile.
“No, we can’t.”
“Yes, we can!”
“You’re being quiet, remember?”
She poked his ribs, making him gasp and then laugh.
Looking to regain the upper hand, he sat back to remove her panties and bra and get rid of the pajama pants he’d worn to bed. Then he came down on top of her, taking a moment to gaze at her lovely face, visible to him in the nightlight coming from the bathroom.
She looked up at him with big eyes gone soft with love and desire.
“Even after all this time,” he whispered, “you still take my breath away.”
“Same here,” she said in the same whisper. “I love you so much. More every day.”
He made slow, sweet love to her, taking his time and reveling in her soft gasps and the quiet moans that he muffled by kissing her. Afterward, he held her in his arms, caressing her back and marveling at her soft skin. “That was so much hotter because we had to be quiet.”
“I can’t believe you talked me into that when we have a guest.”
“I didn’t exactly have to twist your arm.”
“I’m far too easy where you’re concerned.”
“No, sweetheart, you’re absolutely perfect where I’m concerned.”
She kissed his chest and snuggled in closer to him. “She’s going to be all right, isn’t she?”
“In time.” It had taken him a very long time to get over the explosive end to his engagement and to put his guilt over the pain he’d caused Janey in the past. And Daisy had suffered terribly in the violent aftermath of her relationship with Truck Henry. “We know how that works, right?”
“Mmm. All too well.”
“We’ll take good care of her and get her through it.
Try not to worry.” He said what Daisy needed to hear, but he too was worried about Victoria.
He’d never seen her anything other than upbeat and happy.
Her tears had really gotten to him, and he could only hope she’d bounce back from the heartbreak.
She’d been such a good friend to him and Daisy that he’d do whatever he could to help her through this.