Well, that was surely going to come back to bite him in the ass. Why the hell had he said Daisy?! He couldn’t have just made up literally any other name?
‘What’s she like?’
‘Um…’
How to describe the woman he’d formed a secret crush on a year ago but had been avoiding ever since except for this morning when he held her hand and now couldn’t stop thinking about it?
‘She… uh… owns a flower shop.’
‘A Daisy who owns a flower shop? How perfect.’
‘Yes.’
‘And…’
‘And… uh… she has brown hair.’That sits just at her shoulder and looks like it would be silky to touch.‘And brown eyes.’More amber, really.Not that he would ever describe someone’s eyes as amber to his mother. ‘And she’s funny.’She jokes about keeping dead bodies in her basement.
‘She sounds lovely! Maybe I’ll get to meet her.’
Panic shot through his body.
‘Well, it’s all very casual still.’She’s clearly still hung up on her ex and so am I.
‘You don’t want me to scare her off. I get it. But I promise I’ll be on my best behavior.’ His mom beamed at him across the table, and between the copious amount of spaghetti and the guilt from his lies, Elliot could feel the heartburn kicking in.
For someone trying to avoid relationships, he sure seemed eager to be in this fake one. And he would be absolutely mortified if Daisy found out… Although, maybe she owed him one?
Maybe one chat between Daisy and his mother could get her off his back for a while? Daisy had been more than happy to use him as a shield against her ex, so maybe he could use her to convince his mother he was perfectly fine. If nothing else worked, maybe seeing him with someone new would finally do the trick.
He might need to pop back into the flower shop after all.
ChapterSix
The evening town hall meeting was already in full swing when Elliot slipped in and took a seat in the back. Not surprisingly, Mayor Kelly was in the process of trying to get the crowd under control. Elliot had started attending these meetings a few months after he moved to Dream Harbor, thinking it would be a good way to learn about his new town and maybe meet some people, or that was what he told himself, anyway. And he’d been right. These meetings were a lively representation of the people who lived here. But sitting in the back corner quietly observing meant he hadn’t exactly forged any real friendships. Story of his life.
‘But it’s not a wedding.’ Daisy’s voice cut through the din of the crowd. Elliot’s attention snapped to where she was now standing, her hands on her hips.
‘It’s not a wedding, dear, but Beltane is all aboutloveand fertility!’
That felt like a stretch to Elliot. Beltane was traditionally celebrated on May first, halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. As far as Elliot knew, it usually involved bonfires and warding off evil from the ancient Celts’ herds. Not exactly a romantic holiday, if you asked him. Which no one had.
Although, the fertility component had some truth to it…
‘And what are you worried about, Tammy? That your nonexistent cows won’t get knocked up this year if I make the flower crowns?’ Daisy said, and Elliot nearly choked. He laughed into his fist. Daisy had apparently done her Beltane research.
Tammy scowled.
‘Now, if everyone could just calm down,’ the mayor pleaded from the podium. ‘I think Daisy should do the flower crowns like every year.’
‘But you’re the one who said the flower shop was cursed!’ someone else yelled from the audience.
‘I never saidthat. I simply said there was a cloud over the shop, but flowers need rain so it’s very possible that the cloud was a good omen!’
The crowd just stared back at the mayor like he wasn’t making any sense before returning to the debate at hand—whether or not Daisy’s flower shop should provide the flower crowns for this year’s Beltane festival. Because of course, this town had a Beltane festival. Elliot had been here long enough to know that these people would celebrate just about anything, even an ancient ritual that had no real bearing on their modern lives.
‘For what it’s worth,’ Jeanie piped up, ‘Logan and I are still happily married, and Daisy did our wedding flowers.’ She held up her and Logan’s linked hands.
‘That’s because you had those lucky underpants Estelle gave you,’ Marty pointed out.
