Daisy nodded. “Yes, she’s a client.” Allison had recently bought one of Daisy’s more romantic pieces.
“Right. I was at her annual holiday party this past December, you’ve surely heard of it,” Jenna added breezily. Daisy had not. “Anyway, she had this exquisite painting hanging over her dresser. Off-limits room, obviously, but we’re close,” she said with a wink. “When she said the artist was based in San Francisco, I knew I had to stop by the next time I was in town.”
“Well, thank you for the compliment and for coming in. What brings you to San Francisco?”
“I grew up in the Bay, but I’m here with a friend, actually. Not sure where he ran off to. He must be as taken with your work as I am. One sec—” She lifted her voice around the corner. “Hey, come meet the artist.”
With her hands placed in front of her, Daisy swiveled toward Jess, scrunching her face in confusion. Jess was trying to mouth something from a distance, but her words wouldn’t resolve. She couldn’t understand her excitement over Jenna O’Connell, especially when better known people had visited the gallery and elicited a much more subdued reaction from Jess.
But then it all happened in slow motion.
Daisy was still turned toward Jessica when she witnessed her eyes go wide with wonder and her body come to a complete standstill. The footsteps announced them first; quick heels on wood, and then a heavier tread beside them.
Jessica’s excitement instantly made sense. She wasn’t freaking out over the unknown model, but rather the man who now stood to her right.
He was a foot away.
Him.
The boy she had loved and lost turned into a man the world now claimed. Covers, campaigns, late-night interviews, stadiums. And still, somehow, the same eyes.
“Daisy,” Jenna sang. “This is—”
“Jameson,” Daisy said before she could stop herself. Not a question. A statement pulled up from someplace she rarely let herself go.
Jenna’s hand slid proudly along his arm. “Of course you know who he is. James, this is—”
“Daisy Daniels,” he said softly.
She kept her hands still so the tremor wouldn’t betray her. She could not believe that after nine years, they were breathing the same air.
Silence stretched. Daisy and Jameson stared, shock and something else flickering between them, until Jenna broke in, puzzled. “I’m sorry, do you two know each other?”
Daisy looked at Jenna, then back at Jameson.Do I know him?
Once.
A lifetime ago.
The man in front of her, she didn’t know at all.
“Yes,” Jameson said, the corner of his mouth twitching. “We do.”
“Oh? How?” Jenna nudged closer to him, possessive.
“Uhh, we… uhh, knew each other… uhh…” He stumbled over his words. Which from the expression on Jenna’s face didn’t happen often.
“We went to high school together,” Daisy supplied, gaze steady. She didn’t miss his flinch. They had been much more than classmates, but Jenna didn’t need those particulars.What was I supposed to say—he knocked me up once?
“Oh! I thought you were from England,” Jenna said brightly to him.
“I am,” he answered, eyes never leaving Daisy. “I went to school in San Mateo.”
Jenna shrugged and drifted toward the back wall again, apparently bored with the conversation.
“Wow,” he breathed, raking a hand through his raven hair. His eyes swept the space, then returned to her. “I can’t believe this. All of it.” He gestured at the studio, remembering what she’d wanted once upon a time. “How’ve you been, Daisy?”
“Fine,” she said, crossing her arms, almost to protect herself.
