Daisy laughed, and the sound, while usually his favorite, split through his head. He must have winced.
‘Hungover?’ she asked.
‘Very.’
‘Whatever Mac was serving, it was definitely stronger than wine.’
Elliot shook his head and then immediately stopped when the room spun. ‘Regardless,’ he said, squeezing his eyes shut again. ‘I’m a grown man. This whole thing is on me. Passing out in your bed? Ranks in my top five most embarrassing moments.’
‘Ooh… now I really want to know the other four.’
He opened his eyes, and Daisy was smiling at him again, teasing like she was willing to forget the whole drunken night. But Elliot wasn’t ready to. Not yet, anyway. Not before clearing the air.
‘Well, serenading you also ranks pretty high.’
‘I feel so honored to take up two spots.’
‘You’re being far too nice about this.’ He found his glasses on the table and put them on, running his fingers through his hair to put it back in some sort of order.
‘It’s not that big of a deal, Elliot,’ Daisy said, taking another sip of her tea. ‘I’m sure half the town is hungover this morning.’
‘But how many of them woke up in someone else’s bed?’
‘I would bet a pretty high percentage, actually. Beltane, remember?’
‘Right. Beltane.’ Elliot felt his cheeks flush hot at the reminder of why he’d had so much to drink in the first place. He was nervous. He’d wanted the evening to go well for Daisy. He’d wanted to be fun and charming and to give Daisy the boyfriend she deserved. After running into her exes, he’d wanted to prove he was different from them,betterthan them, because at some point he’d started trying to convince Daisy this could be real between them, without even realizing it. Without even meaning to. Probably right around the time he’d had his hand down her pants and his lips on her neck.
Damn it. He was screwing this all up. His feelings had become too much, and he didn’t know what to do so he’d gone hard on fairy wine.
Like an idiot.
‘Do you want some tea? You’ll have to pop down to the café if you want coffee.’
‘Tea is fine, thank you.’
Daisy prepared him a mug and handed it to him where he was still perched on the edge of the bed. He just needed to make this right…
‘I’m sorry, Daisy.’
‘For what?’
Elliot sighed. ‘For ruining your night.’
‘You didn’t ruin it.’
‘I drank far too much, inflicted my singing voice on you and then took up three quarters of your bed.’
Daisy rolled her eyes like he was being overdramatic.
‘We had a great time at the festival. We ate and drank and danced. It was a perfect evening. Tell me you remember that much.’
‘I remember it all.’
‘Good.’ Daisy crossed her arms over her chest, like she was angry with him now for ruining her memories of their night. ‘And then you sang a song that is near and dear to my heart as we walked home together under the stars, and while we didn’t end the night in quite the way I had imagined, you kept me warm all night long.’
At her mention of it, more memories flooded in. Memories of him holding Daisy in the night, her soft little body tucked against his, of her sweet sighs brushing across his neck, of the way his hands had roamed over the delicious curves of her?—
‘You’re pink again,’ she teased.
