“Deal.” She gives my arm a firm squeeze, and a jolt of electricity presses in with each of her fingers. “You first.”
“Some production company wants me to participate in a documentary. Hometown boy lifts himself up from the bootstraps kind of a thing.”
“Really?” Daisy backs up to get a better look at me, but I’m the one who’s drinking in her features, especially those cherry-stained lips. I miss them. I miss those long legs wrapped around me—her mouth over the most eager part of me, my face buried in her chest. But here we are, having a conversation, and a part of me feels like this is the missing puzzle piece—as if just chilling out with a girl was what I was wanting all along. At least some of the time.
“Yes, really. That chick’s been hounding me for weeks. Lucky doesn’t think I should do it.” I lean my head against the wall and roll the back of my head against it. “I don’t know. I don’t like people digging into my shit. I’m pretty private.”
“I can kill that for you if you like.” She wrinkles her nose, and my dick twitches as if that’s all it takes. And with Daisy, that might be all it takes. “I’m an expert at taking a good thing and burning it to cinder. I sort of have the Midas touch but backward. What’s the opposite of gold?”
“Mold.”
“There you go.” She tosses her hand into the air. “Everything I touch turns to mold.”
We share a quiet laugh.
“That’s not true. I can promise you that.”
“Oh, yeah?” Daisy threads her fingers in the back of my hair and gives a little tug. “How can you be so sure?”
I tug the lip of my jeans and pretend to inspect the goods. “Still gold.”
Daisy belts out a laugh that reverberates off the ceiling, her chest ripples as she throws her body into it.
Something in me loosens, as if I’ve let go of a breath I’ve been holding for years. The simple act of making Daisy happy has my adrenaline pumping. There’s something. Just knowing that I’ve evoked that belly laugh in her makes me feel as if I’ve won an Olympian feat.
Her fingers slip over my chest, dipping under my T-shirt as she curls up against me. Daisy sighs as she wraps her arm over my chest and nestles her head into the crook of my arm.
“You really should do it—the documentary.” She glances up with those butterfly wings she calls lashes.
In all honesty, I’m not sure what’s happening. I’ve had dozens,hundredsof girls in my bed, and not one of them has donned a pink fuzzy robe, holding me as if it were the most natural thing in the world. My dick keeps perking with hope, but I’m pretty sure that’s not where this is headed. Surprisingly, I’m fine with it, more than fine. This is almost as good. Hell, it is.
“Oh, hey!” She scratches her nails over my chest with the epiphany. “You should do something like that.” She blinks toward the television. “God knows I love me some reality TV. If you had those bustling biceps jumping while inflicting pain in people, you’d have them hooked by the millions.”
My ego expands when she mentions my muscles. I wish it didn’t, but apparently, that thirteen-year-old in me is back, and he likes to have his ego stroked.
“Huh.” I lean back and watch as the boys on the show do their thing. “Isn’t this rigged, though?”
“Oh, honey, I don’t think so.” Her arm tightens around me, and my body catches fire. The way she saidhoneymade me melt a little on the inside. I’d die before I told anyone, but I’m loving the hell out of whatever’s happening between the two of us. “They’re just going on about their business,” she whispers. “You could do that. You just need to forget that the cameras are there. I bet it would drive up business a hundred percent. You’d have to expand, or franchise. People are always looking to get into a lucrative opportunity.”
Her words soak in as I try to envision what it might be like having a set of cameras follow me around all day.
“Drive up business a hundred percent?” I whisper. “That would be criminal to turn down.”
“Who knows what that documentary could lead to? It wouldtotallybe criminal to turn down this opportunity.” Her nails glide over my chest one more time, and a shiver runs down my spine straight through to my balls.
“Your turn. What possessed you to turn into a human serving platter?” Without hesitating, I wrap my arm around her shoulders, and she freezes. I’m hoping it’s her fear of the subject matter that has her turning to stone, and not the fact I’ve decided to get into the act.
Her head wilts over my chest. “Let’s just say that I went astray when I tried to pull myself up by the bootstraps. Some of us aren’t as good at it as you are.” A dull laugh rattles her. “Oh, the press is interested in broadcasting my hardship story, too. My parents are especially glued to the screen.” Her body quivers as if staving off tears. “My brothers aren’t too impressed either.”
“I’m sorry.” They’re not just meaningless words I’m spouting off. I mean it with everything in me. I hate that she’s fumbled, and now the world is peering into her mistakes. “Everyone goes through a tough time sooner or later. It’s just yours happens to be in the public eye.” I pull her in tight, closing in the gap. “Are your parents in Hollow Brook?”
“No, thank God.” She glances up, the gloss on her lips catching the light. I want to kiss it off, lick it off, touch my finger over her mouth if she’d let me. I don’t think we’re there tonight, but that would be pretty incredible if we were. Daisy and I seem to be engineering things backward in the bedroom. “They’re about forty miles out in Friar’s Corner. Ever heard of it?”
I shake my head. “I’ve pretty much laid low in Hollow Brook. Jepson is about as far as I venture out.”
“I don’t blame you. Nothing good ever comes out of Friar’s Corner.”
“Not true. You came out of there.”
