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“I’d like some of it.” Their dad scraped out the bowl and drowned the remnants in cream, obviously forgetting Dr. Tio’s advice to moderate his fat intake. “I’d love to be a kept man.”
Daisy’s face fell, and this time it was Adam who reached for her hand. “I’m sure that if Daisy makes it big, she’ll throw a huge pile of cash your way, Dad, but for now we’re doing fine just the way we are.”
“Sure we are—but—”
Ben grabbed the empty bowl and a handful of glasses. “How about we clean up? There’s a game on.”
Grateful to his brother for intervening, Adam started helping clear the table. Their dad wasn’t one to mince words. He believed in speaking his mind whenever he found the opportunity. Sometimes his honesty was hard to take even when he was right. Daisy felt bad about having all her money rolled up in the tech company. It wasn’t helpful to pick at her about it.
In fact, when he’d first found out Carlos was thinking of getting rid of the ranch, he’d asked Daisy whether she had the ability to buy it for him. Even thinking about that low point in his life made him feel ashamed. He had no right to criticize his father for asking the same thing.
As he stacked the dishwasher, Adam wondered how Lizzie was doing. His stupid, impulsive gesture of retrieving the toy, and getting her pizza, seemed crazy now. She hadn’t called to say thank you even though she must have known it was from him.
Like she’d call him. She probably didn’t even have his number. He’d told her to keep the hell away from him, and she’d kept her promise for almost fourteen years.
He passed a plate to Daisy who had stayed in the kitchen when the rest of them had disappeared into the TV room. She rarely cooked, but she was always willing to make up for it by cleaning up at the end of the meal.
“Are you really not happy about Leanne coming here?” Adam asked her.
She made a face. “I’m trying not to think about it too much. I don’t know what she wants from me.”
“Maybe she just wants to get to know us.” Adam tried to convince himself that was the truth.
“Why now? Why wait over twenty years?” Daisy demanded.
“I hear you.” Adam added more hot water to the sink. “I’m interested to hear what she’s got to say for herself, but I’m not expecting much.”
“I’m glad you feel like that, too.” Daisy looked over at him. “The rest of them, including Dad, seem to think it’s a great idea.”
“I know.” He dunked another set of plates into the water to rinse them off. “I don’t get it.”
She sighed. “Well, apart from Dad, you and I are known as the most stubborn people in the family, so maybe it’s us.”
“Maybe it is.” He considered that. “Maybe we need to try and become more flexible.”
“Jackson keeps telling me that one day I need to meet her and make up my mind as an adult.” She grimaced. “Like I can forget that she walked out when I was five. I cried myself to sleep for months.”
Adam remembered crying himself a few times, but he wasn’t going to tell Daisy that.
“She can’t hurt us anymore,” Adam reminded his sister. “We don’t have to give her that power.”
“I know.” She grinned at him. “You sound just like Jackson.”
“Seeing as you think he’s good enough to marry, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should.”
He was closer to Daisy than anyone else in the family and her approval meant a lot to him. He continued cleaning the pans as she chatted away about her floral business, his mind straying back to Lizzie even as he tried to concentrate on his sister.
“Did you go to Yvonne’s today?” Adam asked, surprising himself.
“Yes, I had lunch with Nancy there. Why?”
“Was Lizzie around?”
Daisy paused to consider. “No, she wasn’t. Yvonne said she’d stayed home with Roman.”
“Makes sense.” Adam carried on rinsing the plates like a man who asked questions about random women all the time. “He had a bit of a shock yesterday.”
