His jaw tensed. “Everything I said was bullshit? No, Daisy. Everything youdidwas.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well played, truly. Would’ve been a great bit of revenge if it weren’t for the fact that we share a child together. I never thought you’d be so cruel.”
“Jameson… I have no idea what you—”
“Don’t,” he cut her off. “Please, let’s not play dumb. I saw you. You and Matt—at our daughter’s birthday, in the garden I planted for you, at my home. I saw the ring he gave you, and while I didn’t hear your answer, it was pretty clear when you kissed him.”
Daisy’s heart pounded.Oh no. He saw that?
“I literally couldn’t believe my eyes. Because while you hadn’t said the words, I could feel them, Daisy.” His voice cracked as he hit his chest. “Right here. I could feel them in my soul. I thought you were there with me. Finally—after all these years—it would be you and me.”
It could be, she thought. But then her gaze flicked to the house, where Jenna waited and the thought evaporated.
Daisy wiped away a tear. The hope she’d carried over had just splattered across his driveway.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” she stammered. “But you’re wrong.”
“How am I wrong?”
“About Matt. About me. About everything. Yes, he pulled me aside. Yes, he showed me a ring. But he didn’t ask me to marry him. It was symbolic, something I never planned to accept.”
“Is that why you kissed him?”
“That kiss was nothing more thanfinality, Jameson.”
“Didn’t look that way to me.”
Daisy groaned, pulling at her hair. “Well, itwas! Why do you think I’m here? Seriously, you think I drove all the way down here to rub it in your face that Matt’s back? Or to personally thank you for the great lay last night?”
His tension softened.
“Or could it be—just maybe—that I was finally ready to dive into the deep end with you, despite every fear and every hesitation, because it just so happens that I’m in love with you, too!”
Jameson’s eyes widened. The hardness on his face vanished.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me. And I’m not saying it again.”
“Wait—” He stepped closer. “You’re not with Matt?”
Daisy blew out a jagged breath. “No, I ended it.”
“It’s over? And you came here to tell me that this—us—is what you want?”
“Wanted.” Her tone cooled.
Jameson rushed to explain. “What you think you’re seeing, Jenna and I, it’s not—”
Daisy cut him off. “It’s not even the half-naked woman in your house, Jameson. Yeah, that’s a punch in the gut. But I’m not eighteen anymore. It’s that you think I couldplotsomething like that. That I’d sleep with you, then throw you away, just to hurt you. Before anything else, I’m Amelia’s mom. My love for her alone would never let me do that to her father.”
Just then, the front door opened. Kyler stepped out in swim trunks, hair dripping.
“Everything okay out here? I could hear you two from the kitchen.”
Daisy blinked. A pool party.So maybe we weren’t alone after all.
