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This time, her laugh is more genuine.
I look around the empty kitchen. “Where is everyone?”
“Goldy’s at Henry’s. Grant and Dani went out for dinner. Clover’s teaching an evening class at the gym. And Honey’s working a shift at the diner.”
“Huh. I can’t remember the last time this house was so quiet.”
“Too quiet for you to avoid talking about my offer?”
“That wasn’t a real offer.” I’m praying it wasn’t a real offer.
“But it was.” She puts her hand over mine and squeezes. “It’s perfect. I’m as local as it gets. My family has lived here for generations. We’ll pretend to date, show up in town together, and act all serious and lovey dovey. People will assume we’re serious, even if we never mention marriage. It’ll be great.”
I stare at her. Her lack of romantic interest in me has never been clearer, and it hurts more than it should. I thought I’d put my fantasy of ending up with Daisy to rest years ago, but it would seem I failed miserably. “Except everyone suspects you aren’t sticking around. They’ll assume I’ll follow you back to New York as soon as you go.”
She grins. “That’s just it. When I go, we can have a big public break-up where you beg me to stay and declare you won’t leave Catalpa Creek, not even for love.”
“You can’t be serious, Daisy. You want to spend the few weeks you have left here pretending to be my girlfriend?” The pizza I just ate lies heavy in my gut.
“Sure, why not?” She’s not meeting my eyes, and she’s picking toppings off her slice like it’s a new sport. Definitely signs there’s something she’s not telling me. I’ve never known Daisy to lie, but she’ll definitely leave out the uncomfortable bits sometimes.
“What’s really going on?” I ask.
She twirls her hair around her finger, realizes it’s a finger with pizza sauce on it and grabs a napkin, hastily wiping off her hair and hand. “Nothing’s going on, Noah. I just want to help you out.”
“By pretending to date? Didn’t you once say dressing for success just means putting on a veneer to hide incompetence?”
“I don’t remember saying that.”
“Daisy.”
She huffs. “Fine. I’m bored, Noah. I’ve got all this free time now and I don’t know what to do with it.” She looks away, darkness washing over her expression. “I want to feel like I’m doing something useful while I’m here. You know, beat around the bush to find the stones.”
“Kill two birds with one stone?” For all her knowledge of language, Daisy is forever confusing clichés. I asked her about it once and she said learning clichés would only interfere with her job because they’re forbidden in literature.
She scrunches up her nose. “Ew, no. I just want to accomplish two things at once. I want to have fun on my vacation and I’ll have more fun if I’m helping you. We’re going to be spending time together, anyway. It wouldn’t be a hardship.”
“Of course it wouldn’t be a hardship.” I want to give her what she wants. It’s clear there’s more going on with her than she’s ready to admit, and I want to do whatever it takes to remove that sadness from her face.
“So, let’s do it. I promise I’ll make everyone believe I’m desperately in love with you.”
Damn, that one hits me hard, right in the heart. “No, Daisy. I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
She stares at me like it’s taking a moment for what I just said to sink in. “You can’t? Why not? It’s the perfect solution. And it’s not like we haven’t done it before.”
The way she references our Vegas wedding so casually makes me nauseous. “That marriage lasted less than twenty-four hours.” The best twenty-four hours of my life. We’d been in Vegas for the bachelor/bachelorette parties of mutual friends and we got caught up in the excitement and the atmosphere. Neither of us had even been drinking, but I’d been drunk on Daisy, her easy laughter, the way we couldn’t stop touching each other, the bright joy in her eyes.
I’d thought it was the start of something, but when she woke up the next afternoon, she decided the marriage had been a mistake. I didn’t even argue when she decided we should annul it right away. I never let her see how she’d broken my heart.
“I don’t want to start off in this town by lying to everyone.”
She rolls her eyes. “It’s more like a fudging of the truth. I plan to be your best friend forever, for better and worse. We’ll go out for dates and walk around town together and not correct the gossip Gentry will subtly spread. You’re a good doctor and you ought to get to be a doctor here. If achieving that means letting people think we’re dating, who would it hurt? It’s not really anyone’s business who you date, anyway.”
Her points are too good and I don’t have a solid counter-argument. “You’ll have to lie to your sisters.”
She grimaces and looks away. “They won’t care. It’s not like they’re invested in my love life.” Her lips turn up in a small smile. “We could go on a double date with Asher and Clover.”
“You’re underestimating your sisters’ interest in your life.”
