3. Wes
***Wes***
Iwrote the mouthy teenager a check and pointed towards the door. “Go home, kid.”
He took the check, looked at it, and whistled. “I’ll add you on my Insta, D. Feel better! Just remember, men ain’t shit, or whatever Lizzo says.”
Daisy slumped forward, her elbows resting on her bare knees and cried harder. The deep couch had forced the bottom of her dress to climb higher on her thighs and I was fighting for my life to not look at them. She was sobbing, for fuck’s sake.
I looked over at my brothers and nodded towards my youngest brother’s ex, trying to get them to do something.
Someone needed to comfort the woman but I didn’t have a fucking clue where to start.
Plus, getting closer to Daisy did not seem like a good idea.
Not when I was noticing the way the apron she’d materialized did nothing to hide the way her full breasts were moving with each sob. Shit, I was an asshole.
“Oh, no! What happened to Aunt Daisy?” Poppy came running from the hallway powder room and jumped onto the couch with Daisy. “Aunt Daisy? What’s wrong? Does your knee hurt?”
Her knee? I shifted my gaze down her legs and swore when I saw the torn skin on her right knee.
I couldn’t help with the tears but I could help with wounds.
I stomped to the kitchen and cast a longing glance at the feast Daisy had cooked for us.
She’d made enough food to feed the whole village while walking around with a bleeding knee.
“Crazy woman.” I huffed at the open kitchen, angry and out of my depths.
When Tyler told me that he broke up with Daisy and told her not to come for her planned summer trip, I’d felt equally glad and furious.
I didn’t need another day with the temptation that was Daisy Harper, much less a whole summer.
But I wanted it. I’d never expected the woman to show up in her vintage dresses and never-ending curves they seemed designed to hug. “Fuck my life.”
Back in the living room the kids had swarmed.
Even Hazel, who’d never fully let down her walls with Daisy, was standing close, her own eyes wide with tears.
Charlie had forced his way into her lap and was hugging her neck so tight that her face was going red.
Poppy was standing on the couch, petting Daisy’s head while singing the only song Max had ever sung for her as a lullaby.
“Momma, just killed a man. Put a gun-” Max stepped forward quickly and slid his hand over Poppy’s mouth. She glared up at him until he moved away. “-against his head, pulled the trigger, now he’s dead. Momma, woo-ew-woo,-”
“She’s singing Bohemian Rhapsody.” Daisy looked up at Max and smiled through the tears. It was weak and wobbled dangerously. “That’s adorable.”
Poppy kept up the song and the dog started howling along with her. Charlie decided that was a sign for him to start barking. Hazel watched her younger cousins and sighed dramatically.
“Come on, you guys. Let’s go eat.” She practically had to drag Poppy and Charlie away but the dog went willingly.
That left us alone with Daisy again and I had to fight the urge to call the kids back. What were we supposed to do? I felt helpless until I remembered I was holding a first aid kit. I jumped at the chance to do something, to help in some way.
Kneeling in front of her, I couldn’t help noticing the long expanse of bare legs.
They were full and dimpled in when you grabbed them.
I knew because the summer before I’d watched Tyler grab her thigh and squeeze when she handed him a glass of water.
The flesh curved around his fingers and I’d nearly broken my teeth off I’d clenched my jaw so hard.
Shoving those jealous thoughts aside, I opened the kit and pulled out an alcohol pad.
Her knee wasn’t terrible but the driveway had eaten away the top few layers of skin in multiple spots.
I gently wrapped my hand around the back of her calf and swallowed down the thoughts of how smooth and soft she was.
I heard her soft intake of breath and looked up to find her watching me, red-rimmed eyes still full of tears. I couldn’t even pretend to smile when I felt like the only thing holding me together was sheer will. “This is going to burn.”
She nodded and kept her eyes on my face.
It was unnerving, having her large, almost teal, eyes on me as I leaned closer with my hands on her body.
The act was innocent but my mind was deranged where it concerned Daisy.
Tyler cheating on her and leaving her the way he had meant she was single and my brain was firing all cylinders over that simple fact.
The first swipe of the pad made her hiss and then cry harder so I leaned even closer, getting a whiff of her vanilla scent, and blew lightly, the same way I did for Hazel.
I heard Daisy’s breath hitch again but I kept my eyes on the job.
I felt too out of sorts, too raw and exposed to meet her eyes again.
I took care of the rest of the patch job quickly and then stood up so fast that my head spun.
“I’ll go check on the kids.” It was cowardly to run from her but my ego could take it. What I couldn’t take was being around Daisy now that she wasn’t basically my sister-in-law. Still, when she spoke, I hesitated so I didn’t miss it.
“Brooke just posted…” She was silent for a few beats and then another broken sob broke free.
“She made it official. She posted a photo of them together. She added stupid hearts and tagged him in it. My sister just stole my boyfriend. Oh, God. Look at them. It’s like I don’t even exist. How could they do that to me?
I came here for the entire summer! I stepped back at the bakery for him.
I’m here. I was already in the state when he finally decided to let me know! ”
Rage at Tyler filled my body. He fucked up and made bad choices all the time but cheating on Daisy had to be the dumbest fucking thing he’d ever done. Hurting her the way he was…, it was unacceptable. Calloway men didn’t treat women that way.
“Of course, he chose my sister. She’s thin, blonde, and fun. God, I’m so stupid. I have to leave. This is humiliating. Now I’m in his family home, crying at his brothers. How pathetic can I be?”
“Tyler’s a fucking idiot, Daisy.” Flynn sounded like he had a lot more to say but he managed to keep it in. “You’re not pathetic, or stupid. This is on him, not you.”
“I have to go. Do you think Rat is still close? I’ll have him drive-”
“We need a nanny.” I almost looked around to see who had uttered those four words. Me. It was me who’d just opened his mouth and said them. It was me that everyone was staring at like I’d lost my mind.
Maybe I had. I didn’t like seeing her hurt and the idea of never seeing her again created an anxious feeling in me that I wasn’t going to look into.
“What?” She sounded, rightfully, confused.
I jumped in with both feet. “The nanny we hired for the summer called yesterday and said that her boyfriend had given her genital warts so she’d beaten the shit out of him with a Costco sized tube of medicine and got arrested.
Since this is the third time she’s done something like that, her mom is refusing to bail her out. So, we need someone.”
Daisy blinked. “She told you all of that on a call from jail?”
I nodded once. “She’s the most responsible violent offender I know.”
“What will you do without her?”
I shrugged. “We’d make it work. You’d still be their Aunt Daisy and-”
“I’ll do it.” She shocked all of us by agreeing. “I can’t go back to Atlanta and have to tell everyone what happened. My pride won’t allow it. This way I can still spend time with the kids… Since it might be the last time-”
“Don’t finish that sentence, Daisy.” Max sounded grumpier than he normally did, which was saying something.
Daisy didn’t seem phased. She wiped her eyes, smearing her eyeliner into her hairline, and grabbed her purse.
“I’ll start tomorrow. Tonight I’m going to take four cupcakes and a bottle of wine into my room and I’m going to eat Rat’s weed cookie and pray Tyler and Brooke get the same STI your old nanny got. ”
I raised my eyebrow at the edible and was about to warn her about taking drugs from teenagers named after a rodent but before I could she shoved the whole cookie into her mouth and stood up.
She kept her chin up as she took off the apron and then bent over to take off the heels she still had strapped around her ankles.
The view down her dress was sinful and I knew I was going to hell for the way my body responded.
“Can one of y’all point me to my room? Or to any place I can lay down and stare at a ceiling.
” She stood back up and wobbled slightly.
There were still tears leaking down her cheeks but her back was straight and her energy read as furious rather than heartbroken.
“I’m sorry for the intrusion. Now I know you weren’t expecting me.
I’ll find a place in the village tomorrow if y’all would prefer it. ”
“No!” Flynn shoved his hands into his pockets. “I mean, no. The village is so expensive during the tourist season and we have the room. I’ll show you the way to your room, Daisy. It’s got great ceiling viewing.”
She smiled at him and I frowned at him for it. He was staring at her like she was his favorite cut of steak.
When I looked back to see if Max was noticing, I saw that his hands were fisted at his side and he was doing his deep breathing shit. Were they as affected by her as I was? If so, had I just invited a world of drama into our lives for the summer?
Something heavy settled on my feet and I looked down to see the dog had laid down on them. He was on his back, staring up at me with an expression that felt more human than it should’ve.
I moved away from him and frowned deeper. “Go be with your human.”
He got up, strolled towards the kitchen with a flick of his ears over his shoulders, and I watched in stupefied awe as he jumped up on the table and grabbed the basket of fresh bread. Then, would’ve sworn he rolled his eyes at me before walking past me, towards Daisy’s trail.
“What the fuck?”