“Seems like you’re a busy lady now that you’re back on the road, making house plans, and hanging out with your in-laws, not to mention all the baby making,” I remark.
Her shoulders droop, but she looks up at me through wide, green eyes. “There’s always time for you, though.”
Dammit. This is what I get for befriending an actual Disney Princess.
“I guess we are overdue for a girls’ night,” I tell her and watch as her face lights up.
“We definitely are,” sheagrees.
“Maybe we should plan something the next time your brother is in town, so he can keep your husband preoccupied,” I suggest.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” she says, “except Rowan might get jealous.”
I click my tongue. “He’ll be fine. I’m not his only friend.”
“No, but we both know he doesn’t see you as only a friend,” she reminds me. “And he’s certainly never looked at any other woman the way he looks at you.”
I drop my keys on the ground, hoping the move distracts her from the guilt written all over my face. “Then we should definitely plan to set him up with someone new. Put it on our girls’ night agenda.”
She sighs. “You’re going to break his heart.”
I cross my arms and stare down at my feet, unable to form a response.
“He deserves better, Claire.”
My eyes begin to sting, and I struggle to swallow the emotion lodged in my throat. “I know he does. That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell him, but he’s not …”
She furrows her brow. “I didn’t mean better than you. I’m saying he deserves a chancewithyou. And you deserve to be loved by someone like him.”
It takes me a moment to find my voice again after that. “As usual, you give me too much credit, and I think your brother is just as amazing as you are. But that doesn’t make us right for each other. He’s looking for something I couldn’t give him, even if I wanted to. And I wish I knew how to spare his feelings, but he can’t seem to accept that what we have now is all we can ever have.”
“He’s never going to accept that,” she says with an incredulous laugh. “You’re asking him to ignore a direct order from God.”
I groan. Of course. I should have seen this sooner, but it makes sense that he’d be mistaking the need to fix me for actual romantic feelings.
“Well, I’d rather be alone than be his pity project … or yours,” I mutter and yank open the door of my Bronco.
“Claire, wait,” Daisy calls after me. I stop, but I don’t look her way.
“I understand what it feels like to be pitied, and it wasn’t that long ago I prayed for you to like me enough to become my friend, in spite of feeling sorry for me,” she explains, Juniper whining when her voice cracks. “I wouldn’t be here asking you to give Rowan a chance if I so much as suspected he was motivated by pity. But you have to consider the way he’s built. You said it yourself—there’s no reason a guy like him is still single, unless he’s looking for perfection. And now that he’s found it, do you really think he’ll be so easily discouraged?”
I let out a tired exhale. “If you really wanted to save your brother from disappointment, then you’d help him see that he’s confused.”
Daisy smirks and gestures for Juniper to get into the car. “I’ve already done that, silly. It’s your turn.”
And with that, she ducks into the front seat and slips on a pair of shades. She waves at me on her way out, her hand flying up to her mouth when she scrapes her rim on the curb, and I can’t help but smile, even if she did just simultaneously poke at my guilty conscience and stomp all over my plans for the evening.
Daisy’s intervention turns out to be at least a partial success, because by the time I get home, I’m not sure I can go through with the plot I concocted earlier this week. I’ve been thinking the only way to get Rowan to move on is to convince him that I have, so I took the plunge and responded to a DM I received a while back from one of Jeremy’s old coworkers. As luck would have it, within seconds of extending a dinner invitation to Nick, I got a text from Rowan regarding my plans for the same night, setting up the perfect opportunity to at least make him believe I’m climbing back on that horse.
But I’ve been struggling to justify my plan since I made it. I know giving Rowan an out is the right thing to do, but this feels worse than a quick Band-Aid rip. I’d already been doubting whether I could follow through at the risk of hurting him and damaging our friendship, even before Daisy added another layer to the guilt settling in my gut.
I pull out my phone, thinking there’s a way I can still accomplish my goal while mitigating the sting.
Claire
Hey, sorry to bail at the last second, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come over after all. I’m not feeling well.
Rowan
