Daisy peered at the grainy, black and white photo. A few people stood smiling out in front of the shop, relatives of hers, presumably. One woman stood out, though, mostly because she wasn’t smiling. She looked miserable, actually, dressed all in black and staring straight at the camera like she would rather be anywhere else.
But that wasn’t the only thing that made her stand out.
‘She looks exactly like… me.’ The resemblance was so strong that goosebumps raised along Daisy’s arms. She sat back in her seat, needing some distance between her and the past staring at her through the computer screen. ‘That’s spooky.’
‘It’s uncanny, right? Do you know who she is?’
Daisy shook her head. ‘No. I can ask my grandmother. She might know.’
‘She’s clearly a relative.’ Elliot shut his laptop and started gathering his books, noticing that Jeanie was about ready to lock up. ‘You two could be twins if it wasn’t for the hundred-year age gap.’
‘Yeah,’ Daisy said, her voice faint. It wasn’t so much the fact that she had the same face as that woman, it was more the misery she saw in her eyes. Was that how Daisy looked? Did she give off an air of tragedy so strong that it was clear to everyone she was cursed? And what happened to this poor ancestor of hers?
‘You okay?’ Elliot’s gentle touch on her lower back brought her attention to the present.
‘Oh, yeah, fine. Just thinking about… you know… history,’ she finished lamely.
‘That’s how I spend a lot of my day,’ he said with a quiet laugh.
‘Do you need to do all this research for the inn renovations?’
‘That’s always how it starts,’ he said as they headed for the door. ‘I like to restore old buildings to their original glory. It’s usually why I’m hired.’
‘Are you good at it?’
‘I like to think so, yeah.’
The smile he gave her then was different from the shy one he usually flashed. This one was confident, like he knew how good he was at his job.
Oh, no. Confident Elliot was even more attractive than shy Elliot.
Damn it.
‘I bet you are.’
They were standing just outside the café now, Daisy’s face tipped up to his.
He cleared his throat. ‘Thanks for letting me bore you with that.’
‘I wasn’t bored.’
‘Maybe we can do it again some time?’
More time sitting in close quarters with Elliot? Daisy’s mind wandered to quiet library tables and cozy café corners, to heads bent together and hands on knees, on thighs, to darkening evenings like this one where they stood so close together and it would be so easy to… lean in.
She swallowed hard.
‘Sure. It would be good for people to keep seeing us together,’ she said, and the reminder of their arrangement sent Elliot’s confident smile slipping, just a little.
Maybe shewasdoomed to be as miserable as the woman in the photo. Maybe that Daisy had been just as screwed up in love as she was.
‘Right. Definitely.’ Elliot stepped back. The moment turned awkward, and Logan pulling up in his beat-up pick-up truck didn’t really help.
‘Hey,’ he said with a nod, through the open window.
‘Jeanie’s on her way out,’ Daisy told him, and thankfully she appeared from the alley beside the café.
‘Daisy, Elliot, you’re still here! I wanted to ask what you two were studying.’ Jeanie went to the driver’s-side window on the truck and leaned in for a kiss. Logan happily obliged and envy shot through Daisy like ice through her veins. She’d thought she had that. She thought she’d found her person.Twice.
