Chapter Twenty-Nine #4
“I’ve been lying to myself. Acting like life could go on as per usual, that he would never knock down the boundaries I’d set up, the barrier around my heart.
” Daisy stood and began to pace. “But the funny thing is, I don’t think I ever let him out.
He’s always lived there. Quietly. And now… I don’t have to lie about it anymore.”
Anna stood, too. “So is this it? You and Jameson. Is this endgame?”
One simple, direct question, and Daisy knew.
She had found her soul mate when she was young, unaware how rare that truly was. The past was now irrelevant. Her band boy had never really left her; he’d been there all along, subtly strumming chords that spoke to her soul.
“I have to go.”
“What—where?”
“I have to explain. He thinks Matt’s back, that I’m still figuring things out. He needs to know the truth.”
“Daisy…” Anna grabbed her shoulders. “Are you sure? It’s obvious to anyone with eyes that the boy is mad about you, but still—his life, his fame, Amelia… I just want to make sure it’s worth it.”
Anna came from such a good place, her sister, her truest confidante. Even with Daisy’s heart racing amid all the chaos, Anna just wanted what was best for her. She had been there through all the love and all the heartbreak, the one who helped piece Daisy back together.
Daisy hugged her tightly. “He is, Anna. He is.”
While Anna stayed with Amelia, Daisy raced out the door and into her car, darting out of the city and back toward Hillsborough.
She outlined several scenarios in her head: would she throw herself into his arms, drag him back to bed, and explain with her body the love she felt in her heart?
Or would she sit him down, calmly and clearly, and map out the future she wanted with him?
While the former was certainly more appealing and aligned with the adrenaline coursing through her, she owed him honesty. The type of honesty he’d given her just hours earlier.
She made it to his house in record time. Her heart rate spiked the moment she turned into the drive. Knowing she’d lose her nerve if she hesitated, Daisy parked and made her way to the front door. She blew out a shaky breath and rang the bell.
She waited, pulse pounding. After tonight, the possibilities could be endless. They could be a real family. Amelia would finally get what she’d always wanted.
Daisy closed her eyes briefly, smiling at the thought—until the door opened.
“Daisy? Is that you?”
She opened her eyes and balked.
“Jenna… hi.”
A knot formed in Daisy’s stomach. Jenna wore nothing but a red bikini—if you could call it that.
“Do you want to come in?”
“Oh, no,” Daisy was quick to say. “I was just looking for Jameson, but clearly, he’s busy.”
“Not yet.” Jenna grinned slyly.
Daisy’s chest constricted. “I’ll grab him for you,” Jenna added.
“It’s okay, really.” Daisy tried to retreat. But before she could turn away, Jameson appeared—hair wet and shirtless.
“What’s going on?” he asked Jenna.
“Oh, I heard the doorbell while you were in the shower, so I answered it.”
Daisy’s heart sank. The scene was too familiar, a cruel echo of the heartbreak she’d lived once before.
She had to get out.
“Can you give us a second?” Jameson asked Jenna.
Jenna nodded and disappeared inside.
Now his attention was fully on Daisy. “What are you doing here? Is Amelia okay?”
“She’s sleeping. Anna’s with her.”
“Okay… so what’s going on?”
Daisy folded her arms, still stunned.
A woman half-dressed in his house? Definitely not on my list of possible outcomes for tonight.
Instead of crying, she laughed bitterly. “What’s going on? Are you serious?”
He crossed his arms defensively.
“Jameson, you bared your soul to me just hours ago. Asked if you were on this island alone, which clearly, you’re not.
Seeing how quickly you found a survival mate.
” She gestured toward the house. “I came here to talk about us, about last night, about everything. But I guess I see now it was all bullshit.”
His jaw tensed. “Everything I said was bullshit? No, Daisy. Everything you did was.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well played, truly. Would’ve been a great bit of revenge if it weren’t for the fact that we share a child together. I never thought you’d be so cruel.”
“Jameson… I have no idea what you—”
“Don’t,” he cut her off. “Please, let’s not play dumb. I saw you. You and Matt—at our daughter’s birthday, in the garden I planted for you, at my home. I saw the ring he gave you, and while I didn’t hear your answer, it was pretty clear when you kissed him.”
Daisy’s heart pounded. Oh no. He saw that?
“I literally couldn’t believe my eyes. Because while you hadn’t said the words, I could feel them, Daisy.” His voice cracked as he hit his chest. “Right here. I could feel them in my soul. I thought you were there with me. Finally—after all these years—it would be you and me.”
It could be, she thought. But then her gaze flicked to the house, where Jenna waited and the thought evaporated.
Daisy wiped away a tear. The hope she’d carried over had just splattered across his driveway.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” she stammered. “But you’re wrong.”
“How am I wrong?”
“About Matt. About me. About everything. Yes, he pulled me aside. Yes, he showed me a ring. But he didn’t ask me to marry him. It was symbolic, something I never planned to accept.”
“Is that why you kissed him?”
“That kiss was nothing more than finality, Jameson.”
“Didn’t look that way to me.”
Daisy groaned, pulling at her hair. “Well, it was! Why do you think I’m here? Seriously, you think I drove all the way down here to rub it in your face that Matt’s back? Or to personally thank you for the great lay last night?”
His tension softened.
“Or could it be—just maybe—that I was finally ready to dive into the deep end with you, despite every fear and every hesitation, because it just so happens that I’m in love with you, too!”
Jameson’s eyes widened. The hardness on his face vanished.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me. And I’m not saying it again.”
“Wait—” He stepped closer. “You’re not with Matt?”
Daisy blew out a jagged breath. “No, I ended it.”
“It’s over? And you came here to tell me that this—us—is what you want?”
“Wanted.” Her tone cooled.
Jameson rushed to explain. “What you think you’re seeing, Jenna and I, it’s not—”
Daisy cut him off. “It’s not even the half-naked woman in your house, Jameson.
Yeah, that’s a punch in the gut. But I’m not eighteen anymore.
It’s that you think I could plot something like that.
That I’d sleep with you, then throw you away, just to hurt you.
Before anything else, I’m Amelia’s mom. My love for her alone would never let me do that to her father. ”
Just then, the front door opened. Kyler stepped out in swim trunks, hair dripping.
“Everything okay out here? I could hear you two from the kitchen.”
Daisy blinked. A pool party. So maybe we weren’t alone after all.
But relief didn’t come, not when happiness had once again been ripped from her grasp.
“Sorry, Ky,” Daisy said, backing toward her car. “I was just leaving.”
“Daisy, please.”
Jameson rushed after her, closing the car door she’d begun to open. “Daisy, I’m sorry. Please, I’m begging you… don’t walk away.”
“Jameson, I don’t want to walk away. I was ready to choose you, to choose us, but—”
“But nothing! It’s still me, Daisy. How can you change your mind in seconds?”
“Because reality just slapped me in the face. You let me think you and Jenna…” She couldn’t finish. “Knowing our history, knowing what it would do to me. And then to think I’d be capable of that kind of cruelty? I can’t just move on from this.”
“But you love me.”
And there it was—the truth that had brought her here.
Daisy lowered her gaze, steadying her heart. “I do, Jameson.” His eyes flickered with hope.
“But…” And with that one word, the light in them dimmed.
“This isn’t how I want this to be. The last thing I wanted was for our drama, our past, to bleed into our daughter’s future.”
“It doesn’t have to, darlin’.”
She closed her eyes, savoring the softness in his tone. Resting a hand over his wild, beating heart, she whispered, “But don’t you see? It already has.”
“What do I have to do? Name it. I’ll do anything. I won’t lose you again.”
“You’ll never lose me. You’ll always have a piece of me… the best piece. But right now… I need to stand still. To figure out how to move forward. Without Matt. And without you.”
Jameson slowly dropped the hand still holding her car door. “And what does that look like?”
“It looks like co-parenting. Healthy, present co-parenting. And nothing else.”
No more dinners. No more tender moments. No more late nights.
Daisy needed time. Time to heal, to be alone, to finally understand what was best for her and Amelia.
As she pulled out of the driveway, the headlights washed over him, Jameson standing barefoot on the pavement, shirtless and silent, watching her fade into the dark. The light from the house glowed behind him, haloing his muscular frame, a man caught between love and loss.