She twirled a strand of icy blonde hair around her finger and smiled. Apparently she’d forgiven me for kissing her hours before.
The way I saw it, I had two choices. I could let Daisy leave and walk out of my bus, never seeing her again. Or I could meet her family, spend a little more time with her, and attempt to dig myself out of my deep dark rut.
I raked my hand across my five o’clock shadow, my eyes locking into hers. “Yeah, I could do that.”
The next night after Thanksgiving dinner, Daisy kissed me. Closed mouth and on the cheek. But she kissed me.
“Come with me,” I said to her as she dropped me back off at my bus.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“What’s a sweet little thing like you doing working at a bar anyhow?”
“I’m not as sweet as I look, Beau. Trust me.”
“What do you have keeping you here?”
“My family.”
“Haven’t you ever wanted to do something crazy before? Shake things up a bit?”
She lifted a single shoulder, though the flicker in her baby blue eyes told me she was considering it.
“You could stay here and work at the bar the rest of your life or you could hop on that bus with me and live a little.”
She toyed with her bottom lip, staring over my shoulder and into the tinted glass windows of the Beau Mason wrapped bus behind us.
“If you don’t like it – if you don’t like me or if I don’t like you – I’ll buy you a plane ticket and ship you home, and you can forget we ever met. How’s that sound?”
She smiled before laughing, and while the notion of riding off into the sunset with that sweet little plaything in my bus seemed exciting at the time, the reality of it wore on me quickly. It wasn’t love at first sight. It wasn’t fireworks and goose bumps.
It was the promise of a distraction.
My intention was for her to be a diversion, and to maybe find something in her I hadn’t been able to find in anyone since Dakota. Daisy was a refreshing change compared to most of the women I met on the road, and I wasn’t quite ready to let her go so fast.
“Fine. I could use a little change in my life about now,” she breathed. “But just for a little bit.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Morning,” I said as I met Beau in the kitchen just after sunrise the following day, forcing a smile on my face that proudly proclaimed I was over what had happened the night before.
If the whole news anchor thing ever fell through, I could pursue acting.
“Coffee?”
“Please.”
Beau handed me a mug with some co-op brand printed on it and steam rising from the top, filling my lungs with hot, roasted goodness.
“You seem to be in betters spirits,” Beau declared, watching me sip my coffee as I stared out the south-facing window. “I take it you slept well?”
“I did. Haven’t slept in a twin bed in forever, but it was cozy.” I offered a smile. Three more days. I had to make it three more days. If I had to fake it until I made it, so be it. “When should we start?”
Beau turned to face me, hooking one hand into his belt loop. “Miles and Gracie are coming out today. Should be here any minute.”
“No school?”
“Conferences.”
“So you’re babysitting today?”
“Just until noon,” he said, sipping his coffee. “Ivy’ll come pick them back up when she gets off work.”
Three car doors slammed outside a moment later, and Beau stood to peer out the window.
“Speak of the devil,” he said as he trudged toward the door and slipped his boots on. I waited, watching quietly from inside as two grinning little angels ran into his arms. They looked to be maybe five to seven years of age, and their gap-toothed smiles told me he was their favorite uncle in the whole entire world.
Watching Beau with his niece and nephew held a sweet pain like I’d never tasted before. He would’ve been a good father, or at least he was in that alternate universe we lived in. Seeing Beau play with those kids was like watching a video of what might have been in real time.
He hoisted Gracie up onto his shoulders as he chased Miles around, and Ivy headed inside with two book bags.
“Hey, hey!” Ivy called out when she saw me. She set the bags down on the table. “Some toys and coloring books in there. Beau doesn’t have much out here besides a big yard and couple of empty barns.”
I nodded, smiling and silently observing all the ways in which Ivy Mason was all grown up. I’d been too shell-shocked the day before to really take it all in. Her once-round face had slimmed down a bit, and the smattering of freckles that once bridged her nose had faded.
“What do you do these days, Ivy?” I asked.
“I’m a nurse’s aid at Shady Grove,” she said, referencing one of the retirement homes in town. She held two fingers in the air and crossed them tight. “Hoping they’ll promote me to shift leader once Janet retires next year.”
“You like your new car?” I hated making small talk, but I couldn’t shake the way she was just standing there, staring at me all funny. “It looks really nice. Sometimes I really miss driving. Only get to do it when I travel.”
Ivy’s eyes snapped toward the window, where the two of us kept a close watch on Beau and the kids as if it entertained us both for entirely different reasons.
“Beau didn’t need to go buying me a car,” she huffed. “Thinks he needs to go taking care of everyone all the time, like he’s trying to make up for ten years of disappearing.”
“Disappearing?”
“Yeah,” Ivy shrugged. “Once he hit the road, he never came back but once or twice a year. He was a completely different person once fame hit him. It’s nice having him back.”
Maybe he didn’t come home that Thanksgiving when I’d called and spoke to his mother? Maybe he really never got the message?
“You know why he’s doing this, don’t you?” she said, her voice thick like honeycomb but not nearly as sweet.
“Beg your pardon?” I lifted my gaze in her direction.
“He lured you out here like some fish on a line because he’s still in love with you. He thinks there’s a chance.” Ivy shook her head. “I told him you moved on a long time ago. I mean, look at you. There’s not a shred of the old you left. You don’t even go by Dakota anymore. He’s fighting a lost cause, but he’s too stubborn to see that.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just stood there, marinating in the awkward silence and trying to determine whether she was just being honest with me or taking an extremely un-Ivy-like dig at me.
She glanced down at her watch and sighed. “I better get to work. We still going out tonight?”
I nodded.
“Good. I think we could all use a drink and a good time.” She flashed a quick smile like everything was suddenly cool before floating out the door on a breeze and kissing the foreheads of her little ones. A second later she was climbing back into her ride and rumbling down the gravel drive.
“Dakota,” Beau called for me from outside. I slipped my shoes on and ran out to the front porch. “Get in the truck. We’re going fishing.”