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“Why can’t you give it to her?” I think of Daisy and how I believed I wasn’t someone who could be serious either. Though really, I was committed to Cadence, even though I regretted that decision pretty quickly. But I stuck it out.
I guess I’m a commitment type of guy, which is a little fucking mind-blowing.
“I don’t know. Because I saw the way my parents fought when I was a kid, before they finally got a divorce. How they used their kids like weapons against each other. Love is bullshit, man.” JJ hits the steering wheel.
“It’s not so bad if you open yourself up to it,” I say, sounding like the sap I’ve become.
“Please.” He makes a dismissive sound. “I had a front row seat to the disaster that was your relationship with Cadence. That was a nightmare.”
“My relationship with Cadence doesn’t count.”
“For real. What other relationship are you talking about?” He sends me a quick look, his eyebrows rising. “You and jail bait?”
Fury fills my blood, leaving me hot. “Don’t call her that.”
“You still hot for her? You don’t talk about her.”
I can’t. I don’t want to. “I’m in love with her.”
JJ goes completely silent. It’s not until he’s pulling up to the curb downtown and parking the car that he finally speaks.
“In love? You?”
Nodding, I avert my gaze, staring at a store I ran into with Daisy. The day before our world imploded. “Tell me I’m an idiot.”
JJ remains quiet and I turn to face him, only to see the sympathy flickering in his eyes. “You’re an idiot.”
“I am.” I nod. “I fell in love with her and she ended it with me.”
“Why?”
“She said we were too different.” That’s not the only reason though. I have suspicions and maybe that’s why I don’t push.
I think the breakup has everything to do with her dad, and while I probably can’t change his mind, I’m still tempted—a month later—to go to Ralph and ask him what the hell is up.
Why does he hate me so much that he doesn’t want his daughter to come near me? He must think so low of me, and I don’t get it.
I’m a fucking catch.
I treated his daughter like gold.
Daisy makes me want to be a better person. I still want to be a better person, even though I’m not with her. I still want to do it for her. In the hopes that she’ll see and realize that she misses me.
Pathetic. That’s me. I’m not an idiot. I’m a pathetic fool who’s hung up on a girl who’s so closed-off, she’s probably already forgotten all about me.
“Women,” JJ mutters, shaking his head and I can’t help it.
I start to laugh. Because he’s right.
Daisy’s my favorite person in the whole world.
But she’s also become my worst nightmare.
FORTY-EIGHT
ARCH
I findhim out in his workshop, puttering around in front of a massive red tool chest that’s as tall as he is, going through a drawer full of wrenches. I pause in the open doorway, fearful for a second that he might take one look at me and grab a wrench to use as a weapon against me.
