She checked the time and knew her parents would be up and going two time zones away. They had a house in Florida and enjoyed early morning Tai Chi on the beach every Tuesday. She dialed her mom and tucked the phone next to herear.
“Hello,darling.”
Daisy’s mood lifted at the chirp in her mom’s voice. There would never be a time in her life when she didn’t need her mom in one way or another. That’s just how it worked when your mom was amazing. “Hi,Mom.”
“How arethings?”
“Good. I’m on track with the cosmetics line. We had a banner month introducing the coconut-flavored lip balm. And my subscriber list is stillgrowing.”
“Yes. Yes. But how is my girl? Are you getting enough sleep?” There was a rustling in the background. “It’s too early for you to beup.”
Daisy smiled. She wouldn’t tell her mom she’d been up for over almost two hours already. Mom would just worry. “It’s the perfect time to meditate at sunrise,” she said. Which she planned to do as soon as the sun decided to come up. She settled onto the east-facing front porch swing and tucked her legs up underneath her. The huge hoodie easily cocooned her legs andfeet.
She really needed to talk to Beckett about buying clothes that fit. Though the jacket had a clean scent that mingled with mint shampoo and something specific to Beckett, it wouldn’t do for him to wear jumbo-sized clothing—especially if people thought she had dressedhim.
Which brought her to the real reason for her call. “Hey, Mom, do you still have thosescrapbooks?”
“I sure do.” Mom was the queen of MyHeartChannel scrapbooking. Back when Quinton was in high school, she showcased her award-winning designs and gave tutorials on how to use everything from chalk to glue dots. She still made money off ads and she hadn’t posted in eight years. It was unlikely that anyone knew the scrapbook queen was Daisy’s mother, despite the fact that pictures of Daisy in her prom dress, graduation gown, and an inner tube on the lake were all over thatchannel.
“Can you find some fun pictures ofBeckett?”
“Beckett?”
“Yeah, I’m doing a fundraiser for FreeWater. If we raise $5000, I get to give Beckett amakeover.”
“Beckett’s there?” Her mother’s pitchelevated.
Daisy nodded even though her mom couldn’t see her. There was a fine line between lying and withholding information. “It was just supposed to be for a couple days, but then there was a revolution and he wasgrounded.”
Mom laughed. “Beckett started a revolution and gotgrounded?”
It was Daisy’s turn to laugh. “Okay, that came out wrong. Long story short, he’s stuck here for a while, so we’re collaborating to raise money forFreeWater.”
Mom was quiet. The sound of waves crashed in the background, letting Daisy know she hadn’t dropped the call. The longer the silence stretched out, the antsier Daisy became. “FreeWater’s purpose and mission statement go hand in hand with my commitment to beautifying inside and out. This will provide my subscribers with an opportunity to do something for a person they’ve never met before. A random act of kindness a day is in mypledge.”
“You’re right aboutthat.”
“But …?”
“But you don’t want to commit to a cause and then remove your support later. I’ve seen that ruin too many channel owners. They give while they’re making good money and pledge to continue, only to have to pull their support when they lose a big sponsor and their income drops. Then the trolls swoop in and paint them as a monster who refuses to helporphans.”
Daisy chewed her lip. “This is a one-off with a $5000 cap. I haven’t promised proceeds from sales or anything likethat.”
“So you’re only getting one episode out ofthis?”
“No, I’m working out how to set up four—it’ll run through the end of the month, which is all the time Beckett could freelycommit.”
“Tell me theplan.”
Daisy leaned back into the coral cushions, making the swing rock gently. “The first segment will be after we raise $1000. I don’t anticipate that taking long, so it should air this Friday. I’ll go over …” She glanced down. “How to buy a shirt that fits. Soooo many men are walking around in the wrong-sizedshirt.”
“A little investment and a little payoff. I like it. What’s afterthat?”
“A full wardrobe at $2500. For Beckett that’s like two pairs of cargo shorts and a few shirts, but I’ll need to get him dressed up too. He has these amazing shoulders and a flat stomach that would look fantastic in one of those untucked fitted dress shirts. I’ll post that one the followingWednesday.”
“You’ll have a weekend to collect funds and for the movement to gathermomentum.”
“Exactly. The next Wednesday we’ll shave the beard for $4000. And a week later the man bun will disappear for the full $5000.”
