‘And how are things at the shop?’ she asked instead, and Daisy would rather discuss her near brush with incest.
‘Fine.’
‘Fine?’
‘Well, thanks to some new business with the inn, we can pay our bills this month, so, fine.’ Daisy had been so relieved when she got the call from Mary. She’d be providing monthly arrangements for the lobby for now, and then once the breakfast room was done, she’d be doing mini arrangements for each table. It wasn’t a season filled with weddings, but it was something.
Another skeptical hum.
‘I heard you and your new boyfriend were caught in the act at the bookstore.’
Daisy nearly choked on her cookie.
‘We were not!’
‘Well, according to Marissa who heard it from Gladys who heard it from Iris who heard it from Jeanie, you and that Elliot were looking mightydisheveledwhen they spotted you.’
‘We were looking at books! That’s it!’ Maybe they had been too convincing that day. Now she had the whole town thinking she got plowed between the shelves at the bookstore. Hazel was going to kill her. That was not the kind of publicity she would want for the store.
‘The book club seemed to think you were doing more than that. They said you looked flushed and with your hair all a mess…’
Daisy groaned.
Grandpa Jim turned up the volume on the TV. Apparently, he’d heard enough about his granddaughter’s bad decisions. Decisions she hadn’t even really made!
‘I would never…’ Daisy started to protest, raising her voice above the din of the news but Grandma June patted her shoulder, giving her an encouraging squeeze.
‘Keep it up, dear. The town thinks that boy is in love with you and that’s just what we need.’
The town thinks that boy is in love with you.
Now there was a sentence that was sure to keep her up at night.
But the town could think whatever they wanted. In fact, they were thinking exactly what she wanted them to think. So, everything was going as planned. She and Elliot were pulling it off.
And besides, there was no way Elliot was in love with her. He was like her. Neither of them were capable of falling in love again. Neither of themwantedto.
But if they wanted to make out a little, now that she was sure they weren’t some kind of cousins, then what would the harm be in that?
Daisy took another bite of her cookie and pretended that she totally believed she could kiss Elliot with zero repercussions.
Daisy was getting very good at pretending.
* * *
‘What do you think the moral implications of sleeping with one’s fake boyfriend are?’ Daisy asked as she weaved another flower stem through the wire frame of the crown she was working on. She didn’t need to lift her head to feel Iris staring at her from her spot across the worktable Daisy had hauled out of the storage room. They’d been working on crowns for so long that Owen had fallen asleep in his baby seat beside them.
Long enough for Daisy to work up the nerve to bring up what had been weighing on her mind since Elliot confessed to having fantasies about her. Which was only yesterday. But it had been a long (and mentally graphic) twenty-four hours.
‘Are you asking me if you should have sex with Elliot?’
‘Maybe.’
Iris laughed. ‘I’d say if he wants to have sex with you, then you are morally good to go.’ She placed her completed crown on top of her head with a flourish. The purples and blues looked lovely against Iris’s copper hair.
‘I just don’t want him to get the wrong idea about the whole thing.’
‘And what would the wrong idea be?’
