‘Right, that’s a good man,’ Elliot whispered. ‘Plenty of good things, like your mom. She obviously loves you a lot so you should probably give her a bit of a break.’
Owen made a little snorty pig noise that Elliot chose to take for agreement.
He’d pictured himself like this once, rocking a crying baby—his own. He figured it would be something he would do one day. He always thought he’d be a dad, but it hadn’t happened.
He cleared his throat. ‘And I’m sure your dad is great, too. It’s nice to have one of those. And I hear you have a sister. You two will get up to a lot of fun someday.’ More snorts and wiggles.
‘If that’s not enough for you, there’s… um… sunny days, and the way dogs look when they smile. There’s ice cream. You’ll like that. There’s flowers and big fat bumble bees covered in pollen when they fly out of one.’
Owen let out another angry grunt, and Elliot adjusted his patting.
What else could he tell this new little human he could look forward to? What were the things that kept Elliot getting out of bed in the morning, even in those dark days after Leigh signed the papers, when he wanted nothing more than to disappear?
‘There’s the taste of a tomato fresh from the garden sprinkled with salt… um… the sound of rain on the roof while you’re tucked inside reading, driving with the windows down singing at the top of your lungs.’
There was something new getting Elliot out of bed these days, and he thought he could probably confide in Owen. Babies were good at keeping secrets.
‘And one day you might meet someone who becomes your new favorite person and then hearing them laugh becomes your new favorite thing.’
‘Wow, Daisy, I didn’t know your fake boyfriend was so poetic.’
Elliot turned at the sound of Iris’s voice, who was apparently feeling better enough to tease him. Daisy was looking at him with a curious smile on her face.
‘I was just… trying to convince Owen that maybe the world isn’t so bad,’ he said, feeling his face heat. How long had they been listening and exactly how pathetic had he sounded?
‘A noble endeavor,’ Iris said with a chuckle. ‘And how’s it going so far?’
‘Not great,’ Elliot admitted, right as Owen squirmed against him, burped, and released a stream of spit up right over Elliot’s shoulder and down his back.
Iris clapped a hand over her mouth, clearly trying not to laugh. At least he was providing her with some comic relief. ‘Oh, no, Elliot! So sorry! But at least that explains why he’s been so cranky today.’ She rushed over yanking spit cloths from her diaper bag and patting them against Elliot’s back, which only caused his shirt to stick to him and pressed the warmth of regurgitated milk against his skin.
‘It’s fine, really.’ He squirmed away from Iris’s help, still holding a now sleepy and content Owen. ‘And what makes you say I’m Daisy’s fake boyfriend?’ Was it that obvious already? Did they just not make sense as a couple and everyone could tell?
Daisy was definitely out of his league, but he was hoping they could fake it at least for a little while…
‘It’s okay,’ Daisy said, snapping out of her dreamy staring and coming over to them. She ran a hand over Owen’s soft head. ‘I told Iris. And she won’t tell anyone.’
‘Right, your secret is safe with me.’ Iris smiled. ‘Oh, except I totally already told Archer.’
Daisy rolled her eyes. ‘Of course you did.’
‘He won’t say anything! You know he doesn’t have the Dream Harbor gossip gene like we do.’
‘I don’t know. I think there’s something in the water and he’s been here a year now, ingesting all that Dream Harbor gossip-y-ness.’
Iris laughed. ‘Keep your conspiracy theories to yourself, Daisy. I have enough problems.’
‘You! I’m the one that everyone thinks causes marriages to break up!’
‘It really sounds absurd when you say it out loud.’
‘I know!’
Elliot smiled to himself as he rocked Owen and listened to the two friends talk.
‘Maybe you two need to hold hands and dance around the fire at Beltane. We’ll tell everyone it’s a love-curse reversal dance or something,’ Iris suggested.
Daisy was giggling now, and Elliot was right. Her laugh was reason enough to get out of bed every day.
