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He tipped his head to one side. “What do you mean?”
I attempted to swallow past the lump that had formed in my throat, which had also grown painfully tight. “I’d give up every last dollar in that trust if it meant my parents would have shown the slightest bit of interest in me.”
Forrest was looking at me like he thought I’d lost my mind.
“I know you probably think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not kidding, Forrest. My parents were never around. I guess they loved me in their own way, bought me everything they could, paid for lessons or camps, and gave me a life where I never needed to worry about a thing. But the one thing I needed the most was the one thing I never got. I certainly never felt the love from them.”
“God, Daisy, I can’t imagine how that must have felt. I wish I could say something to make you feel better about it.”
I shrugged. “It is what it is. I can’t change it now.”
For several long moments, Forrest stared at me. I could see his mind working and waited patiently for him to say something. Finally, he jerked his head toward my plate and urged, “Eat up, sunshine. After dinner, I’m taking you out for ice cream before we head back to the ski resort.”
“I get the distinct feeling you’re trying to cheer me up,” I noted.
His brows shot up, and a smile formed on his face. “Is it working?”
How could it not?
Smiling back at him, I replied, “It’s working.”
From that point forward, Forrest and I got back to our dinner. And after we finished, he took me out for ice cream.
This man was an absolute dream come true, and I was going to be utterly devastated when this trip was over.
TEN
Forrest
For the first time since I’d met Daisy, I woke up and didn’t immediately hop out of bed.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t eager to see her again today. It was simply that I needed to take some time to reflect on everything.
It surprised me just how quickly things could change.
When I woke up yesterday and got myself ready to take Daisy to Westwood’s, I had planned to learn more about her throughout the day.
Admittedly, most of that didn’t happen until we were out to dinner, since we’d been having so much fun during our visit and hadn’t really settled down long enough earlier in the day to have any deep conversations.
I was thrilled to finally have the chance to do that during dinner; I just hadn’t expected to learn what I did.
As grateful as I was to know something more personal about Daisy, I couldn’t say it didn’t bother me to learn about her family situation and just how devastated she felt about it.
It blew my mind.
Daisy was just about the most grounded, fun-loving person I’d ever met. Recognizing she was that way without having her parents actively involved in her life when she was younger only made a stronger case for just how incredible of a woman she was.
I couldn’t get the melancholic sound of her voice when she was sharing the truth about her parents out of my head, though. It was not only filled with despair, but there was also an overwhelming sense of longing.
I wanted to give that to her.
I felt this undeniable urge to give Daisy everything she’d missed out on.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know if I’d be making a smart move if I attempted to do that.
The problem was that the fondness I’d felt for Daisy from the start was becoming something else. I cared about her, and I found I couldn’t stop thinking about her whenever we were apart.
The minute she’d closed the door to her hotel room when I saw her safely there last night, thoughts of our day together instantly filled my mind. Those thoughts continued as I made my way back to my cabin, right up until I crawled into bed and fell asleep. And now, first thing in the morning, she was on my mind again.
