* * *
The ten-minute car ride back into town had been incredibly long and deafeningly silent, their confessions lingering in the air between them. But Daisy couldn’t let this awkwardness continue, not with Beltane coming next weekend. They needed to look normal and in love in front of everyone. Not weird and terrified of each other.
‘So…’ she ventured as they pulled in front of the shop. ‘That was?—’
‘I’m sorry,’ Elliot blurted out.
‘For what?’
‘I shouldn’t have said that.’
‘Was it not true?’
Elliot turned to face her. ‘No, it was very true.’
Daisy couldn’t help her nervous giggle.
‘Why are you laughing?!’
‘I’m sorry! I just, this hasn’t happened to me before!’
‘Well, me, neither!’ Elliot gave her an awkward smile. ‘You’re my first fake girlfriend, I’m not really sure of the protocol here.’
Daisy blew out a long breath. ‘I know our arrangement is for show but these… physical feelings I think are… real. I mean… I’m attracted to you…for real.’ Her face heated. She hadn’t put herself out there like this in so long, but Elliot’s answer was quick and sure.
‘Same,’ he said, blowing out his own sigh of relief.
‘So, what do we do now?’ Whatshouldthey do now? She had a few fun ideas, but would that just confuse everything between them?
The fact that she even found someone else attractive felt like a huge breakthrough, but she didn’t want to finally start moving on from David, just to get her heart broken by someone new. Especially by someone who was still hung up on his ex, too.
Ah, there was the red flag.
It was the same as her own. Still not over her ex. Still trying their damnedest not to repeat old mistakes.
But this level of sexual tension was becoming a problem. So maybe they could just… get it out of their systems? Or a friends-with-benefits situation? Or maybe…
‘We should probably confirm we’re not related first.’
Well, that knocked all the fun ideas out of Daisy’s head. Nothing kills the mood like the possibility of being related to the dude you’ve got the hots for.
She still had the old photo in her hands. ‘Right,’ she said, studying it again. ‘It really is crazy how much this looks like us. It’s freaking me out.’
‘It is pretty eerie.’ Elliot held out his hand and Daisy gave him the photo. ‘I’ve done some ancestry stuff already, and I don’t remember my great-grandfather looking all that much like me. Definitely not like this.’
‘So, whoishe then?’
‘Maybe a great-grandparent’s cousin or something?’
‘The more distant the better,’ Daisy muttered.
‘I really don’t think we’re related. Your grandmother told you her aunt never had kids, right? That’s how she ended up as the next Daisy?’
‘Yeah, true.’ Shereallywanted that to be true.
‘I’ll do some digging, okay? We’ll figure it out before we…’
‘Before we?’
