Her throat bobbed, working up an answer. “Because Lou brought them over, and I didn’t want to seem ungrateful for not wearing them.”
Not the whole truth, but it was all I was going to get, as Daisy walked through the honey-yellow door.
Inside, the shop was designed to look like a bookstore. Display tables filled the room, the walls lined with rising shelves. Every surface was covered in flowers. Bouquets. Single blooms. Books on various species. Framed photographs of our previous arrangements. It was all Erica. Well, not all of it, but most of it, and I was happy to give credit where credit was due.
“Oh, Max.” The brunette rose from behind the desk at the very back of the room. “Is everything okay? I didn’t realize you were coming in…” She trailed off when she saw Daisy. My head was immediately visible above some of her taller arrangements, but Daisy was too short to be seen until she was close. “Daisy, hi.”
Of course, Erica knew what had happened with Todd, with the wedding. I had to explain how I could suddenly cover for our missing delivery driver on the day my best friend was supposed to tie the knot. We didn’t talk much about it besides the basic facts. Erica knew when it came to Daisy, there were certain questions that were off-limits.
“Hey, Erica.”
The women embraced.
“It’s really good to see you again. You look great. How are you feeling?”
“Mostly good. Still getting some nausea in the mornings, but driving…doing the deliveries with Max has been helping,” Daisy said, her palms absentmindedly rubbing the sides of her growing stomach.
Between my cousins, there were enough new babies in the Hamilton-Kinkade clan for me to know that every pregnancywas different. As Frankie said, “Some bellies were early poppers, and some were late.”Earlyandlatedidn’t mean much to me, but what I did see was Daisy changing every day. Her stomach rounding out. Her clothes—or whoever’s clothes—pulling tighter across her chest. The glow of her skin. Even the little things seemed fuller. The swells of her cheeks. The deepness of her breaths. I noticed everything about her.Always had.
Which was what made it so fucking painful to watch her choose Todd when he noticed nothing.
“Oh, that’s great. When are you due again?”
“December 12th.”
“Oh, a winter baby. That’s so exciting. I’m so happy for you,” Erica gushed with so much excitement, it was almost easy to forget theyoushe was happy for was singular. That Daisy was now treading down the path of single parenthood. “Max mentioned you know you’re having a girl. Do you have a name picked out yet?”
Erica was great at conversation, at making people feel comfortable and getting them to open up, and at reading between the lines when they didn’t. As her boss, that skill was a double-edged sword. It worked just as well on customers as it did on me. She was about the only person who knew that it wasn’t for work-related reasons I’d kept my distance from Daisy over the last six months. There was no business, let alone rational reason, that I was too busy to go up to Portland and visit the happy couple, yet I’d had time in my schedule to pick up the slack on their wedding planning.
“You were the one who suggested the inn. Who suggested a show. Daisy said she was fine with the courthouse.”That was what our conversations always devolved to—Todd blaming my being involved on myself. Because I’d insisted that the mother of his child deserved better.
The real reason I couldn’t complain? I’d buried the knife in my own chest and then chose to keep twisting it. By helping him. By making excuses for him.By making up for him.I wanted Daisy to be happy more than I wanted her to not be with Todd.
“Not yet,” Daisy replied, her smile falling.
“My parents already have names picked out. What’s the point in talking about other ones?”
Another argument. Another disappointment. Another hour spent trying to draw him out of his…resignation…when it came to his parents. To the baby. It was the same fruitless discussion when he didn’t understand why she wanted to look at things for the nursery.
“It’s so far away. Why look at stuff now? She hasn’t even been to the house yet. How does she know what can fit in the room?”
How did I explain to someone for whom there was no negative concept of last minute why some people liked to plan ahead—why Daisy, the child of a single mom who worked multiple jobs to support them, who had to work as soon as she was old enough, who had to allot every penny, every second, and every emotion of her life because she couldn’t afford otherwise, would take comfort in being prepared for the birth of their daughter.
“Her name is McCormick. That’s all that matters, right?”
I cleared my throat and unclenched my fists before one of them realized.
“Daisy’s going to be helping us out for a little while with deliveries, so I’m having her stay in the apartment,” I said firmly, not having had the chance to warn Erica about the change of plans.
“The apartment? But aren’t you—” At my sharp stare, Erica snapped her mouth shut and quickly recovered. “That’s perfect.”She carefully—purposely—avoided my gaze now. “Well, then I guess I’ll be seeing you around more often.”
“Yeah.”
I went around Daisy and led the way to the bookcase in the back corner of the room, shifting all her bags to one hand.
“Where are we—” Daisy stopped as soon as I pulled the bookcase off the wall, the Murphy door opening to a staircase leading to the second floor. “Did you really…a hidden door?” she asked, an almost childlike expression of excitement on her face as I moved aside so she could go up first.
When I’d asked my cousin, Jamie, to put in the hidden door for me, I told him it was because I thought it would be cool, and I always wanted one. It wasn’t the whole truth. I wanted one since the day I’d met Daisy at the Bean Bar. When I’d approached her, the book she was reading wasThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
