“Yeah,” she admits shyly.
“You did an amazing job. I’m impressed.”
“There’s another one,” she prompts me again, looking nervous now.
I move the tissue paper around and find a pop of mint green. I let out a soft chuckle when I recognize the significance. “It’s just like the one I borrowed from Blake.”
“It’s actually the original tie,” she says. “I asked Loren if I could buy Blake a new one. I told her it held sentimental value for us, so she made the swap for me.”
I run my fingers over the silky fabric, and my eyes begin to sting.
She shakes her head before she continues. “It’s silly, I know, but?—”
“It’s perfect,” I say on a gulp.
Then I wrap her up in another hug so that she can’t see what the thought of leaving her does to me.
CHAPTER 36
landry
“Oh no,you can’t get out on the road now,” Mrs. LaFleur begins.
“It’s just a little sleet,” I say. “I’m driving a Jeep. We’ll be fine.”
Ironically, we’d left the air conditioner on at home. It was muggy and seventy degrees out when we left for Baton Rouge earlier today. Neither Daisy nor I realized such a severe cold front was coming through tonight, and now the forecast is calling for snow flurries.
Just another Louisiana “winter.”
“You may be all right, Landry, but I’m not so sure I trust the rest of thesecouillonswho’ve never driven in the ice, especially when more of them have been drinking than usual.” Daisy’s dad crosses his arms and gives me a serious look, and I’m still trying to sort it out when she speaks up.
“Dad’s right. We should stay,” she tells me quietly. “We’ll leave early in the morning so we can make it back for Christmas Eve with your family tomorrow afternoon.”
I sigh, realizing she’s trying to decode her dad’s message for me:You’re not leaving with my daughter tonight.“Okay,” I agree reluctantly.
Rowan clears his throat and tilts his head. “My drive isn’t as far, but I think I’ll hang around, too. Come on, Lan. We’ll make sure the guys’ room is ready.” I nod and follow him, casting one more glance at Daisy before I go.
Everyone else left after dinner and the adults’ gift exchange game in which Daisy traded a frying pan for a towel warmer and I ended up a fancy sandwich press. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.
“So,” Rowan begins as soon as the door closes behind us. “Want to tell me what the heck is going on with you and my sister?”
I cringe. He’s caught me with my guard down, and I’m afraid I’m going to say too much.
“It’s definitely not what it looks like, that I can promise you.”
“I seem to remember you making me a similar promise a while back, but I’m not sure you’ve kept it,” he replies, crossing his arms over his chest. But he’s still smiling, and I don’t know what that means. Is he angry? Does he think we’d make a cute couple? I can’t tell. So I do what I do best—or worst, I guess. I blurt out the truth.
“Daisy and I got married.”
He blinks at me in disbelief. “You didwhat?”
“Not long after I moved in, I found out that she was having some trouble getting health insurance.” I purposefully leave out the part about Daisy’s seizures out of respect for her privacy, though I imagine it might have made our argument more compelling. “So we came up with this plan to get married—on paper only—just until her benefits kicked in, and we’d get the marriage annulled. No one else knows about it. But I swear, nothing’s going on.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Nothing besides a fake wedding, you mean?”
“Okay, we might have kissed a few times. And we slept together once or twice, but?—”
“You did WHAT?” he repeats more loudly this time, and his face turns beet red.
