She was a pixie goddess.
Setting her book on the table—The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—she turned to me, head tipped and brows lifted, and rested her hands on her knees, saying, “You know a lot about flowers.”
There were a lot of replies to that, not the least of which was offering up that the bouquet she was admiring was one of mine. But I didn’t. I didn’t reply with anything about me because none of it mattered.
“When I like something, I want to know everything about it,” I murmured and extended my hand. “I’m Max.”
And I wanted to know everything about her.
Her lashes dusted her cheeks, her eyes hooding as she looked at my hand.Hesitation.But only for a moment.
“I’m—”
“Daisy!” Todd’s voice detonated through the coffee shop, and he strolled in like he’d just rolled out of bed—and smelled like he’d just rolled out of a beer can.
The big brown eyes of the pixie goddess flashed with what I swore was guilt before my best friend, my oldest friend, strode right beside me—in front of me—and kissed the woman of my dreams.
Daisy.
Pain shot like a hot spear straight through my chest. Impossible, my mind argued. I’d just met her—hardlymet her. I couldn’t ache for someone I barely knew.
My bright-eyed goddess laughed as he tipped her almost off the stool until she was forced to cling to him. And then I saw them, the bouquet of white-petaled blooms hidden haphazardly behind his back that he drew out as he sat her upright.
“For you, doll.” Todd handed her the bouquet of daisies. They were beautiful. They were her namesake.But they weren’t her favorite.
And that was Todd in a nutshell—thoughtful but thoughtless at the same time. Moving through life, trying to fit everyone, including—especially—himself into the picture his parents had laid out for him.
I watched Daisy smile and thank him, but it wasn’t the same smile as before. It wasn’t themost beautiful.But Todd didn’t notice that either.
“Sorry, I’m late,” he said, already focused on me with a wide grin—the same smile he’d had when he’d pulled out front of my house in the brand-new Mercedes his parents bought him for his sixteenth birthday. Thelook what I gotsmile. “It looks like you guys already met, but doll, this is my best friend and businesspartner, Max Hamilton.” He motioned to me. “And Max, I want you to meet my girlfriend, Daisy.”
I held my smile like there was a gun pressed to my back.What other choice did I have?The woman I couldn’t stop staring at was my best friend’s girl.
If only that meant I’d stop looking at her the way that I was, but I knew it didn’t. I already knew that for the time she was his, I’d look at her and wish she were mine.
Unfortunately, reality was even worse. What it really meant was that for the next four years, I’d continue to do what I’d always done—save Todd from himself. And spare Daisy from his genuine thoughtlessness.She deserved a man who knew what her favorite flower was and who brought out her most beautiful smile.
Even if that man wasn’t me.
Chapter 1
Max
NOW…
“Todd?” I called as soon as I saw his tux hanging off the bathroom door. “What the hell…” I ripped the hanger down and tore off the plastic, opening the door to the grunt of his acknowledgment.
Shit.
My oldest friend sat in the tub in the bathroom of his hotel room, drinking what looked like the last bottle from the minibar. The others spread like confetti inside the basin. Or maybe like hollow graves inside a porcelain tomb.
“Dammit.” The metal hanger clanked on the shower rod as I crouched and ripped the nip from his hand.
“Hey!” Todd’s protest died on a deep groan as he tipped forward and hung his head in his hands.
My best friend looked like shit, and it was his wedding day.
His hair was a mess, tangled in every direction. He reeked of the unholy union of fresh and stale alcohol. And the circles around his eyes made it look like he hadn’t slept a wink.
