“I told you that,” she finally breathed out.
Like watching a train wreck about to happen, I knew devastation was coming, and I was powerless to stop it.
“The night of Mr. McCormick’s birthday party,” I revealed roughly, plating the bacon next before grabbing the toast from the toaster oven.
I wasn’t surprised it took her a beat to remember. Daisy was a lightweight. Even before Todd’s drinking became a problem, she never indulged in more than a glass of wine here and there.
That night, she’d had two glasses of champagne to bolster herself against Todd’s parents by the time I’d found her sittingon the railing of the grand mansion’s back patio, her hands propped on the edge, her head tipped to the sky.
“I remember…on the deck…” Like a Jenga tower being built in reverse, I watched her piece together the memory. “I was avoiding Todd and his parents,” she murmured with a strained laugh.
“You told them how much you loved the house, and how if you lived there, you’d never want to go into the city…” I offered up another piece along with her plate of food.
Her eyes flicked wide. “Mrs. McCormick said, of course I’d think that because I hadn’t grown up with multiple residences. Something about how society doesn’t stay in one place, and as Todd’s girlfriend, I should know that.”
I nodded, vividly recalling what she’d told me about why she was hiding out on the deck, and exactly how furious it made me.
Taking her fork, Daisy stuck it into her eggs, irritated by the memory. Only when she had a mouthful of food did I start to pick at my own.
We ate for several minutes in silence, and I could practically hear her mind turning through everything I’d just told her. A Rubik’s cube turning the facts round and round until the only explanation that lined up was that I’d bought the house because of her.
Her fork clanked on her plate, drawing my attention straight to hers.
“I remember…” she began. “I remember you asked me if I really wanted a house on the coast. A place out here to start fresh.”
My body stiffened like my veins were being pumped with steel. “Are you finished?” I asked, though I could see she wasn’t.
“No,” she said with an edge, pulling her plate toward her. “You asked me if I wanted a house on the coast, and I said yes, and you…you asked me what I would do if you bought me one.”
“Daisy—”
“No, Max, you asked what I would do if you bought me one, and I said I doubted Todd would ever agree to live in it. And you…” She paused, her breath catching. “You asked me if it was really Todd I saw myself living with…”
She’d finished the Jenga tower, and now I wanted to knock it all down.
I never should’ve said any of those things that night. I knew I was overstepping. I knew I was busting through a barrier I’d obeyed for years. But she was so damn beautiful out there under the stars, and Todd was too busy drinking himself away and avoiding his parents, hanging with Scott and me, to even notice his girlfriend was upset.Just like he’d been too distracted to realize that Daisy never liked daisies.
But I noticed.
My hand curled around my napkin. “It was a hypothetical.”
“No.” Her head swayed. “It wasn’t.”
“Daisy—”
“Was last night a hypothetical too?”
My hand released, the crumbled napkin falling like a paper grenade onto the counter.
“Tell me the truth,” she begged.
I gritted my teeth. It was one thing to torture myself all these years, unable to stop myself from wanting her. It was another thing to dig my own goddamn grave and confess what a fool I’d been.
“How long, Max?” I could practically hear the lump in her throat. “How long have you felt this way?”
There was no avoiding this, I reminded myself. She literally caught you with your dick in your hands and her name on your lips.
“Since the beginning.” I felt the force of her exhale from the other side of the counter.
