‘Yeah,’ Kira said. ‘Tell Annie she owes me twenty bucks.’
‘For what?’
‘Elliot and Daisy broke up.’
Mac’s gaze swung to Daisy, who did her best to keep a neutral face.
He smirked. ‘Well, Annie is never going to buy that, but I’ll give her the message.’
‘I told you!’ Iris said as Mac walked away. ‘No one is going to believe you two broke up.’
‘Why not!’ Daisy said, sipping her drink. She found it oddly romantic that Elliot wanted the town to see she didn’t need a man to break her curse. But apparently, no one was convinced.
‘It’s the way he looks at you,’ Kira said.
‘How does he look at me?’
‘Are you kidding me right now? Daisy, he looks at you like you are his entire reason for being. He has since long before you two were dating or fake-dating or whatever.’ Kira waved a hand at her before grabbing another chip. ‘That man has had it bad since day one and he’s terrible at hiding it.’
Iris nodded. ‘That’s true.’
Daisy couldn’t help her smile, the heat washing over her face. Hedidlook at her like that. She knew he did. And she was sure she looked at him like a lovesick idiot, too, but it was really nobody’s business but their own.
‘Oh, well,’ she said. ‘I’m sticking to my story. We decided to be just friends.’
‘Whatever you say,’ Kira said with a smile. ‘But let’s get down to the real reason why we’re here.’
‘A brainstorming session,’ Daisy said, pushing her empty margarita aside. ‘Screw weddings.’
Iris and Kira’s eyebrows rose.
‘I need your help figuring out how we emphasize other big life events. And how to market that. Weddings are not the be-all-end-all of people’s lives, right? I want to help people celebrate all the other stuff, too.’
‘You are speaking to two happily un-married ladies,’ Iris said with a smirk. ‘We can definitely figure this out.’
Kira leaned in, her mind clearly already working. ‘I liked what that one commenter said about buying her friends flowers. Maybe we could do something with that?’
‘Ooh, yeah, and what about some kind of subscription service? Like monthly bouquets?’ Iris chimed in.
‘Yes, perfect, this is all good.’ Daisy took out her phone again and started filling her notes app with all the ideas her friends were spilling out.
By the end of the night, they’d polished off two plates of nachos, several rounds of margaritas, and renewed Daisy’s faith in herself to pull this off.
The Daisy Chain Flower Shop was not going down without a fight.
A real one this time.
Daisy wasn’t hiding behind a fake relationship anymore.
Or a probably fictional generational curse.
It was time she made the long line of Daisies proud.
ChapterThirty-Eight
Ten months later
Elliot’s palms were sweating. So much so he’d nearly dropped Goldie’s leash several times on their way here.
