“I have a date with Adam tonight…”
“And you didn’t start there?”
Huffing, I plant my hands on my hips. “Don’t even. You know you wanted to hear about Gabe first.”
Daisy tilts her head to the side and smiles. “Of course, I did. Come on. I’m helping.”
She takes my hand and drags me upstairs to my room, opening my closet and ruffling through the clothes I’ve hastily thrown in there.
I didn’t pack everything from the apartment I rented in the city, but I would have to decide if I want to go get the rest of my things before the new year.
“I’m going to dress you, and you’re going to talk. Because honestly, Adam I can see. He’s totally the kind of man I can see being interested in you and your newfound confidence, but Greyson? Wasn’t he your coach? How did that happen?”
So, I tell her. All of it since I’ve returned to Pinebrook amongst trying things on and having her reject them.
When she sprints off to her room and returns with her own things to try on, I feel like a little girl again. I’d always wanted to be more like Daisy when we were kids.
Finally, when she’s chosen a pair of my tight jeans and one of her tops, she has me sit so that she can brush powders across my skin.
“Now, tell me about why you came home.”
The sigh puffing up my chest hurts, and she must notice because she crouches down in front of me and grabs my hands.
“Don’t let the man defeat you. Or the town. You have a right to tell the story from your perspective.”
Nodding, I finally find my voice. “His name is Nick. My…ex?”
“Yes. Whether he was married or not, he is still your ex.”
I laugh sadly. Yeah. Sure. “Well, I didn’t know he was married.”
“Obviously.” Daisy’s matter of fact response fills me with a much-needed absolution.
“He worked at the publishing company, the head of his department—not my department but an adjacent one. I’d see him around all the time, and he was…good looking. There’s something about a man who can dress himself.” Although now that I think of it, his wife probably dressed him. “Nick was coy with me at first, sneaking glances, little exchanges, and they were always drenched in so much tension that even I couldn’t miss it.”
Daisy’s smile reaffirms how oblivious I’ve been about guys for most of my life.
“It started with drinks with others from the office, and they all petered out long before the two of us were tired. Then it was drinks alone. Dinner. Nights at my place. But we had to be quietabout it at work for what I thought was to maintain professional boundaries.”
Daisy stops her ministrations on my face to send me a look. “Red flags flying all over the place in this story.”
“Well, it’s obvious why now, but I didn’t know at the time.”
My sister makes a neutral noise but goes back to her makeup case and instructs me to blink into her mascara wand.
I do before I tell her the hardest part of the story.
“My last day of work…we’d snuck into a janitor’s closet to make out. It’s the same one we used on occasion to sneak kisses and touches.”
“And you were caught.”
I nod.
“By who?”
This is the part that’s hard to get out because it’s the most embarrassing piece of the puzzle. “By his father-in-law, the CFO.”
“What? No.” Daisy’s utter and horrified shock brings back the echoes of those feelings. “The moment I heard daughter and wife, I was out of there. I bolted. Grabbed my stuff and simply ran out of the building. Packed my things. Came home with my tail between my legs.”
