Page 73 of Daisy Chain
Fuck, he’s right. I haven’t touched anyone since that night. It hasn’t even crossed my mind. When I thought about having sex, it was with Daisy. No one else interested me. No matter how much a woman tried to flirt with me.
“I’ll tell you what it says,” Lincoln chimes in. “You’re falling for Daisy, or maybe you’re already in love.”
“Do you know how nuts you two sound? If there was an ounce of truth in what you’re saying… if I’m falling in lo—” The word sits like a lump in my throat, and I cough in my hand to clear it. “If I’m falling for her, nothing can come of it. We live such different lives. It would never work.”
Lincoln and Asher both sit in silence. Like they know I’m right.
After a moment, Asher speaks up, “You’re right. You come from different worlds. I’m not sure how you’d fit together and make it work. Daisy has seen your life and hasn’t run away screaming. She actually followed you here. I think she’d be fine. It’s you I’m worried about. Do you care enough about her to try and fit into hers?”
Fuck no! I can’t fit into hers. She’s kind, caring, and into her church and faith. I’d be like the devil stepping into it, setting it on fire and destroying everything. “You can’t fit a round peg into a square hole, no matter how much you force it.” My life would blemish all that is good about her. My heart is dead… cold. Yet, whenever we’re together, it’s like there’s a soothing warmth trying to thaw it out.
“Maybe you shouldn’t force it. It could all just have to do with acceptance. Compromise. If she matters to you, surely you’d think of some way to have her in your life,” Asher says.
I shake my head. This is getting too deep. I can’t deal with feelings and emotions. “No, this is bullshit. You’re making a big deal out of one night in Vegas. Stop playing with my mind. This is only about sex. I got it, and like every other woman I’ve fucked, she’s out of my mind. I’ll move on to the next one.”
“She’s not like any other woman though, is she?” Asher persists.
“She may not be like any other woman, but she’s not one I want a relationship with either.” I’m moving on.
“If that’s the case…” Lincoln nods his head in the direction of a woman sitting nearby. Her long dark hair is tied into a high ponytail. She’s supermodel-tall. Slender with caramel skin. The V of her white top plunges to her navel. Her pink skirt rides high up her firm thighs. She’s gorgeous. “That woman has been eye fucking you ever since she arrived.”She has?I didn’t notice her before now. “Show us how you’re moving on.”
Lincoln is daring me. He thinks I’m too hung up on Daisy that I won’t accept. I’m done here and ready to get back to my old ways.
She smiles seductively and wiggles her fingers in a little wave. She looks like she’d be a good time.
Yeah, I can have her if I want.
I push out of my chair. “I’ll be busy for the next couple of hours. Don’t disturb me.”
Leaving their smug, disbelieving faces, I amble over to her.
I’m ready to prove the fuckers wrong.
twenty-six
DAISY
Inthecaronour way to see Natasha, Sally asks, “How did it go with your dad?” I find a spot close to the building and pull into it. By the time I’d gotten back from Las Vegas, he’d already left to attend a week-long retreat. But as soon as he arrived home this morning, he wanted to see me. It was too much to hope that he’d forgotten about me missing church and running off to Vegas.
“When I’d confessed to being there with a man, there was a lot of ‘I’m disappointed in you. This is not the kind of behavior I’d expect from you’.” We get out of the car. I wrap my sweater around me to ward off the morning chill as we walk the short distance to the building. “Oh, and the best one was ‘what would our congregation think if they knew you’d skipped church for debauchery’.” I laugh. It was better to laugh than cry. “I know I’m his daughter, and he loves me, but sometimes I feel like I’m a child.”
“Living in the eighteen hundreds,” Sally giggles.
“I know, right? It’s so embarrassing.”
“You’re all he has. After your mother died, he’s clung to you. It’s not fair. He needs to understand that just because he lives and breathes the church, you don’t. You have your own life to live the wayyouwant to. There’s nothing shameful about what you did.”
We stop and watch for traffic before we cross the road. “The church is important to me too.”
“I know. Although, is working there what you want to do for the rest of your life?”
“No. It’s not. I want to go to nursing school.”
“You should tell your dad and find someone to fill your position so you can enrol.”
“He relies on me too much. I can’t leave him.”
We enter the building and step into the elevator. It’s been a week since I’ve seen or heard from Kade. I was hoping, after he left me in Las Vegas with only a note, he might reach out to me and explain why he left before I woke up, but I’ve come to realize why he really left. It was his way of proving it was a one-time thing. In case I had any other ideas.
