Daisy tugged at the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head as he worked the buttons on hers. They weren’t rushed, but they weren’t slow either, each moment a choice.
He trailed kisses along her throat, down her arms, across the soft plane of her stomach, pausing at the button of her jeans. He looked up, asking without words.
“Yes.”
He shimmied her out of her denim, leaving her in soft cotton—nothing fancy—and looked at her like he’d discovered Atlantis. Wonder. Awe. A spark of fear that this could vanish at any moment.
He scooped her up and laid her on the bed, then made quick work of his own jeans until he was down to his boxers. Daisy hesitated when he reached to undress her fully. Her body was different now, mapped with the small, sacred changes only motherhood could bring. His gaze softened. Acceptance flickered into arousal, then back into something deeper, something achingly familiar.
“You’re so beautiful, Daisy,” he whispered, peeling away the last of the fabric until she lay bare in the lamplight.
She reached for him, pulled his mouth back to hers, and together they crossed a line, a beautiful and terrifying line, that there was no walking back from.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
DAISY’S HEAD THROBBED LIGHTLY WHENshe opened her eyes to the thin layer of morning sliding into the room. She rolled onto her back and stared at the painting that had started all of this. She couldn’t believe he’d gotten it back. She also couldn’t believe she was stark naked in Jameson’s bed.
Last night had been explosive and tender and everything in between. Jameson poured careful passion into her—gentle, then rough, then gentle again. It felt, dare she say, like home. She’d crashed after they both fell apart, only to wake again beneath his skilled hands, his mouth, until the world narrowed to breath and heat.
After, they had finally slept.
Now she lay awake while he breathed softly beside her. She didn’t want to look at him; she was afraid of regret. Not for the moment itself, but for the boundary she’d crossed. For Amelia. For the fragile ground they were trying to steady.
Finally, she let herself look. Jameson’s face was younger in sleep. He was content… totally at peace. She’d given him that. And she wasn’t naïve enough to think he’d let this go becausehe’d gotten his fill. The opposite. She knew him. This wasn’t a one-time invitation. This was everything. The whole party.
She leaned over to check the clock: 7:20 a.m. She groaned. There was so much to do before the party and she was already behind.
Quiet as a cat, she slipped from the bed, gathered her clothes, and padded to the kitchen. She drank a glass of water and grabbed her phone from the charger. The lock screen lit with a string of missed messages—from Matt.
Her stomach coiled.Oh, Matt.
If last night confirmed anything, it was that she couldn’t keep stringing him along. He didn’t deserve that. He deserved the full life he wanted and she couldn’t give it. Not honestly. Not now.
She unlocked her phone and started reading:
I thought I could wait, but it’s been killing me, Daisy. I want you.
All of you.
However I can have you.
I love you.
Daisy couldn’t deal with Matt. She also couldn’t deal with the fact that she’d slept with Jameson, either. There’d be time to unravel that later, just not today. Today was about Amelia. Today was about cake, laughter, and pretending her heart wasn’t tangled in two very different types of love.
Daisy rushed home to shower and get herself ready for the afternoon event, then waited until the bakery opened at 10 a.m. to pick up theGoonies-inspired cake, complete with gold pirate’s booty, skulls, and Mikey’s old map. Next, she ran to the party store to pick up more pirate ship ribboning they’d run out of lastnight. As she waited in line at the store, she scrolled through texts she couldn’t bring herself to answer.
What a mess.
By the time everything was crossed off her list, her pulse had steadied but only barely. She made her way to her parents’ house to pick up the birthday girl.
“Way to cut the clock,” her mother chimed as she entered the house.
“Sorry, I had a couple of errands I had to run beforehand. Is she ready, or do I need to do her hair?”
“She’s all ready and very excited. So am I, even though I still have no clue what a goonie is.”
“Well, you’ll soon find out. It actually looks really cool.”
