“I’ll take it to him.” He waited for her to plate the food and set it on the tray, then carried it to Liam’s door. He knocked before heading inside and found the old man already sitting up.
“I’m going to be plum spoilt by the time I get this leg healed. Your little lady has fussed over me so much, I should be embarrassed by it.”
Clay grinned and carried the tray across the room, setting it on Liam’s lap. “Well, get used to it. Until that leg is healed, we have no choice but to pamper you.”
Liam reached for the tray, picking up his fork as he smiled. “With meals like this, I won’t complain much.”
Clay watched him dig into the food, Liam’s eyes closing for a moment as if savoring the taste of it. Daisy did nothing halfway. The plate was filled with eggs and bacon, with pan-fried potatoes and the biggest cathead biscuits he’d ever seen, smothered in sausage gravy. His stomach growled just looking at it. “Do you need anything else, Liam?”
He mumbled, “No,” around a mouth full of food, and Clay left him to eat in peace.
Stepping back out into the main room he found Daisy had already had a plate fixed for him and was sitting at the table. She gave him one of those shy smiles he was growing so fond of before telling him to sit down. As usual, the food was delicious, and he told her so. “Miss Mabel has nothing on this, you know.”
“Miss Mabel, what?” she asked.
He said it again, slower this time. “Has nothing on this. This is better.”
She blushed and ducked her head. “Is that where you eat your meals?”
He nodded. “Yes. She won’t even let me pay her most of the time. Even offered me a room at her boarding house, but I didn’t want to take rooms away from paying guests.” He waited until she’d understood what he’d said before continuing. “When it's warm, I enjoy being in the tack room. All I had to do was open the window shutters and let a cool breeze in at night.”
“Summer breezes are nice.” She took another bite of food before grinning. “I feel kind of sorry for Gramps now that I’m gone. Violet isn’t the best of cooks. She hates being in the kitchen, so he’ll more than likely eat nothing but rabbit stew until I get back home.”
He wiped his mouth and sat up straight. “You’re not going to continue to Boston then?”
He could see the answer on her face, and she confirmed it when she said, “No. I never wanted to go to begin with.”
He hated that she would miss the opportunity to travel across the country and experience all the East Coast offered, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t glad she was staying. He didn’t want her to go either.
They fell into a routine, and by week’s end, Daisy didn’t think she’d ever been happier. She loved her family and missed them, but they had their own lives to live, so she felt left out most of the time. The only attention she really received was when they shared meals. Most of that was her own fault, though. She’s the one who didn’t go outside much. She’d made herself a shut-in in, and she wasn’t even sure why.
But here, she didn’t feel the need to hide away. Maybe it was because there were so many people in Butte. No one paid much attention to her here, so she wasn’t the deaf girl who lived in the big house down the street. Here, she was just Daisy. A visitor passing the time until she could contact her family while playing house with a man she was falling for, quicker by the day.
Clay left every morning to tend the horses in the livery stable while she prepared breakfast. Once she’d fed Liam and seen to his needs, she and Clay would eat together and then clean the mess before he went back to work. At night, they sat by the fire and talked, or tried to. They spent more time laughing because she kept misunderstanding what he was saying. The low light and the shadows from the flickering flames made it hard to tell sometimes what he'd said, and she thought he threw in odd things just to see if she’d catch the words.
She couldn't remember a time when she'd laughed as much as she did with him, and she lost count of how many times she caught him staring at her, his gaze falling to her mouth, and butterflies would dance erratic patterns in her stomach every time she saw him looking at her as if he wanted to kiss her. So far, he hadn’t tried again, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t disappointed by it. Even though there were no more kisses, she felt closer to him, their relationship changing by the day. He knew more about her than her sisters did, and he'd told her his entire life story. Clay had been alone for a long time, his parents dying when he was too young to take care of himself, but he’d earned his living helping out where he could. But he was ready to settle down. When he’d told her that, something in the look in his eyes had made her think she was in those plans of his, and her heart had fluttered like a caged bird at the thought. But he never said outright he’d like anything more serious than friendship, and she wasn’t sure what to make of that. He’d kissed her, but maybe she was wrong about his feelings. Maybe it was all wishful thinking on her part, and Clay wasn’t as interested as she wanted him to be.
She dusted off the mantel and cleaned the ashes from the fireplace, then turned to inspect her work. Liam’s home was as clean as she could get it at the moment. With it being so cold, it was impossible to open the windows and doors and let it air out, so this was the best she could do. Playing house this way just made her long for a future she’d only dreamed of, and being with Clay made it seem so real that most days she forgot it wasn’t.
The scent of cinnamon filled the house, and she hurried to the oven to pull out the rolls she’d made. The small pastries were one of Gramps' favorites, especially when she smothered them with a sweet icing glaze. Liam looked so miserable being confined to his bed, she’d decided he needed cheering up and baked a big batch of them. Plating one, she spooned extra glaze over it before taking it to Liam. She knocked and waited a minute before opening the door. Not being able to hear him say, Come in, made it difficult to tend to him, but so far she’d not walked in on him at the wrong time.
He smiled big when he saw the small plate in her hands. “What have you brought me?”
She grinned and hurried to his side. “One of my Gramps’ favorites. They're just rolls layered with cinnamon, butter, and sugar, but they’re very good, even if I say so myself.”
“I’m sure they are. I’ve yet to eat anything you’ve fixed that was bad.”
She handed him the plate and a fork, but as her Gramps did, he picked it up with his fingers and started eating. Clay had pulled a chair up next to the bed. She sat down while he ate, grinning when he made the same pleased face her Gramps did.
He licked his fingers before looking at her. “Clay still down at the stables?”
“Yes. He said he needed to clean the stalls today.”
“That boy is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen. Works more than I do, truth be told.” A wide grin curved his mouth, his shoulders shaking, and she knew he was laughing. “He’d make a good husband.” With a raised eyebrow, the innuendo in his words was clear. She felt her face heat as she blushed, Liam’s shoulders shaking again as he laughed.
“That boy is half in love with you, if not completely.” He took another bite of his cinnamon roll, licking his fingers clean before saying. “What about you?”
“Me? What about me?”
