“What?”
“I’ve wanted you since that morning in the coffee shop, Daze,” I forced the words out, freeing them from the prison they’d been locked in for years.
Her head swayed. “But you were meeting?—”
“I was meeting Todd there, but I had no idea about you. Todd told me he was seeing someone, but he wouldn’t give me details—didn’t give me details. Not even when he arranged a surprise meeting for us.” Pain stabbed my chest like a thorn buried deep between my ribs. “I thought he was introducing me to a potential investor, the way he was excited. I had no idea he…no idea you…”
No idea I was about to be introduced to the woman of my dreams as my best friend’s girlfriend.
“All this time, Max…” Daisy’s head kept twisting in disbelief, like if she shook it enough, my answer would turn into something different.Would mean something less.“Why did you never say something?”
I couldn’t tell if it was pain or anger that roughened her voice, and the glaze that came over her eyes made them too murky now to read.
“What was I supposed to say?” I bit out, scraping my plate clean and setting it in the sink. “Todd was my best friend. I’d never put that between us—put that between the two of you.”
“And what about me?” Her brow furrowed deeply. “Was I nothing compared to that?”
“Christ.” I drove my hand through my hair, the level of my voice rising. “You were everything, Daze. Every fucking thing to me. The reason I don’t date. The reason I don’t have a girlfriend. The reason I bought this house.” My arms fell to my sides, all the fight going out of me in a single sentence. “And you wanted him.”
Her breath came out of her in a single burst. Like a balloon popping on the point of a needle.
“And every time I thought about ending things with Todd? Every time I came to you about his drinking? About how he never seemed to care? Never seemed to have any dreams or goals except those of his parents?”
My jaw erupted, the muscle firing like grenades had been daisy-chained together.
“You chose him, Daze. You wanted him, and even when you came to me, you came wanting to figure out a way to work through it. The right thing for me to do was to be there for the two of you,” I rasped. “Not exploit a moment of weakness to try to steal you from my best friend.”
“So you’re saying you were too much of a gentleman to tell me the truth? To be brave enough to tell me how you felt?”
“Dammit, Daze.” I swallowed, feeling like acid had been dumped down my throat, hollowing out every idea of honor I’d held onto. “I won’t apologize for it. I care about him—about you. I wanted the two of you to be happy if that was what you wanted, and it never seemed like it wasn’t. So yeah, I did everything I could to make things work for you and Todd, to fix things, to help him, to make everything perfect for you because it was the right thing to do.”
I’d thought her anger was bad. Her silence was worse.
“What are you talking about?”
I winced.Shit.
No.Fuck.
“Daisy—”
“What did you do, Max?”
“I talked to you. Talked to him.” I reached out and gripped the edge of the counter. “Little things…nothing, really. The peonies. I would send the peonies from him. He would alwayssend daisies no matter how many times I told him they weren’t your favorite.”
The first tear that fell felt like a bullet to my chest.
“What else?” She was resolute, knowing that wasn’t the end of it. “You don’t do little things, Max. Not for me. You moved out of your apartment so I could stay there. You married me so the baby and I could have insurance. Nothing you’ve ever done for me has been little.”
I held my ground like a bull pawing at the ground.What was I trying to preserve?I’d already—thoroughly—wrecked the veneer of a friendship I’d spent years propping up.
“Tell me the truth,” she charged, the red flag waved.
“The notes. I helped him write them. The dates he’d take you on, I’d tell him about the Monet exhibit you wanted to see because you saw the billboard one time while we were out on deliveries and said you’d love to go see it. The Titanic experience. The Albanian restaurant you kept saying you wanted to try…”
Her cheeks were soaked now, but she stared at me like she hadn’t even noticed. “What else?”
I ground my teeth together. “The wedding. He was going to agree to do it at the courthouse. I was the one who asked Lou to use the inn. Set everything up. I went to the cake tasting. It wasn’t a big deal?—”
