I looked over the house rising in front of us. Max’s house.My dream house.
“Everything I’ve done has been for you.”
Over the course of the day, Max’s words metabolized in my mind, dissolving my fears word by word, piece by piece, until the only thing left was the deep-rooted yearning in my bones.
I wanted him. I’d wanted him since the beginning.
And after last night, I couldn’t hide from it any longer.
“I think I will be,” I answered finally and squeezed her hand when she reached over and took mine. “Thanks again.”
I worked my way out of the car, somehow feeling like an extra-wide tractor-trailer by the end of the day. Holding the rim of the door, I turned and dipped my head to her. “Good night, Harp.”
“Good night, Daisy.” Harper leaned over the console. “Don’t forget, feel free to torture him a little. He needs to not be so much of a gentleman all the time.”
I pulled my bottom lip through my teeth, the corners of my lips curling slightly into a stifled but sheepish grin.
“Don’t worry, Harp. He’s not.”
I shut the door on her comically round eyes, chuckling to myself all the way to the front door.
Toeing off my sneakers just inside the door, I went to the kitchen for some water. Filling a glass from the sink, I gulped it down, staring at the windows over the rim until I’d drank it all.
Leaving it on the counter, I let myself out the sliding back door, filling my lungs with the crisp night air. Stepping off the back deck, my bare feet pressed into the ground.
Tonight was one of those nights that could’ve been ripped straight from my dream. A calm, glistening ocean. A star-studded sky. A peaceful pocket of…home.
“Daisy.”
I turned. “Max.” I hadn’t even heard him come outside.
My gaze raked over him like I hadn’t seen him in years, rather than hours. Like he was a figment that could disappear at any moment. I curled my toes into the grass, wanting to root myself here. With Max.
“I’m sorry I left earlier,” I started before the pressure bubbling up from my chest flagged.
“It’s okay. I know…it’s a lot.” He dragged his palm along the edge of his jaw, and it killed me to see him torture himself like this. “I shouldn’t?—”
“I wanted you too, Max,” I blurted out, watching him freeze. “Iwantyou too.”
His stare pierced mine, his irises like twin comets of lust barreling toward me, and I…I lowered my arms and anticipated the collision.
“Daisy, you don’t know…don’t understand?—”
“I do,” I interrupted, taking my first step toward him. “I know why you never said anything. I do understand. You’re a good man, Max, and an even better friend. Maybe I wished you weren’t so good to Todd, but I’m not—I can’t fault you for not telling me before. If anything, all the signs were there…if I’d wanted to see them.”
His jaw pulsed. “It’s been a long day, Daze. Why don’t we?—”
“Why are you still trying to walk away from me?”
He drove his hand through his hair, his gaze dropping for a split second to my hand resting on my stomach, and then growled, “Because you’re still wearing his ring.”
I held up my hand, staring at the diamond like it was a sparkling scarlet letter.
“Do you really think I’m wearing this because of Todd?” I asked, lifting my eyes to his. “That, after everything…I could still be hoping…wanting him to come back?” I took another step closer, a thrill running down my spine when I saw Max’s reaction, like my closeness tugged on a string. Not a string…on the sole rope of restraint anchoring him to the shores of sanity. “That there’s any part of me that aches for Todd…after last night?”
His sharp inhale pierced the air like a star shooting through the sky.
“Then give me a better reason.”
