Daisy's Choice (A Tale of Three Hearts) (29 page)

Aiden’s eyes stretched at what he saw in her open palm. His coin rested in the center of her hand. He looked back up to Amy and frowned. “Where did you get this?”

“
Mommy,” she giggled. “My mommy gave it to me.”

****

Glass was everywhere. Now she had to deal with a missing door with sun sinking into the sea. What was she going to do about that? The makings of a headache formed, Pete’s words rang in her ear, and the sight of him in pain had her rattled. She couldn’t keep punishing herself for hurting him. And she couldn’t let him do it either. Their past was a shared one. There weren’t any victims, just a lot different degrees of guilt. She had her pride after all.

She sucked in a slow breath through her teeth and exhaled, her hands to her hips. With the toss of her locks from her eye, she surveyed the damage. It was a wonder they didn’t kill themselves.

“
What the hell am I going to do?” she said, throwing her hands up in defeat. Fragments of glass crunched under the heels of her shoe. She left the terrace and went to the kitchen. Daisy decided on the broom, dustpan, and a large trash bag to start to put the pieces of her life back together. But when she turned to step out of the kitchen, she froze. Her eyes went up to the ceiling. Her baby had been unusually obedient the past hour. Maybe she’d treat her to a happy meal, and they’d go stay in a hotel for the night to avoid Aiden and Pete until they both cooled off. At the very least, she needed to put space and distance between them to give the jerks enough time for her to reason with them.

She frowned at the thought of Amy. Yes, her daughter had been out of her sight for quite some time. Setting everything aside, she climbed the stairs. Halfway up, she heard Amy’s laughter fade to giggles. She thanked God that she didn’t come downstairs and walk in on the disaster. But her relief was short lived when she heard a man speak. Aiden. Quickly she hurried to her little girl's room.

****

“
Do it again!” Amy clapped. Aiden made the coin roll over his fingers. It dipped and bobbed between them. Amy’s eyes were full of joy. He then palmed it and opened his hand, making it disappear.

“
Where’d it go?” Amy gasped, trembling with excitement. She grabbed his hand, looking between his fingers in amazement. “Where’d it go, daddy?”

“
Right here,” he said, reaching behind her ear and making the coin reappear.

“
Magic!” Amy squealed and roared in laughter. “Do it again! Do it again!”

“
What are you doing in here?” Daisy asked, walking in, glaring at him.

“
Mommy!! Daddy did magic,” Amy said, running over to show her the coin. Daisy looked down at Amy then to Aiden. He saw her struggle with something to say, and then her eyes returned to him in anger as if she and Amy had been violated just by his presence. He gave a sigh of defeat, tired of the battle with her.

“
She was on the stairs. She asked that I play a movie.” He rose, wincing at the pain. “It was nice meeting you, Amy.”

“
Where you going? Don’t go, daddy.”

“
Amy! Don’t call him that.”

Amy blinked at her mom, confused. “But mommy?”

Daisy pointed at him. “I want to talk to you.”

“
Mommy?”

“
Watch your movie. We’ll go get something to eat soon, and put on your shorts, okay?”

Amy nodded. She stepped in front of Aiden, smiling. “You like McDonalds? Ask momma to take us, okay?”

Aiden smiled. “I’ll do that.”

Amy ran back to her chair and sat down to watch her movie. Aiden left, begrudgingly. His slow stroll through the hall filled with his attempt to gather his emotions and thoughts. Daisy stood in an open doorway, her lips pressed tightly into a thin angry line. She turned and went inside, a clear invitation to follow. He lifted his hand, damp with perspiration, and fingered it back through his hair. The pain in his arm intensified enough for him to take in ragged breaths to suppress the suffering.

He entered after her to find her pacing a slow worried stroll before the bathroom door. When she looked up at him, it was as if she was seeing him for the first time. She turned and went into the bathroom. He could hear her in the cabinets. Frowning, not sure of what she’d do next after finding him with their daughter, he approached the room cautiously.

She turned on him. “Take your shirt off. Let me see how bad it is.”

“
What?”

“
Take it off, Aiden.”

He did as she asked, watching her. She pointed to the vanity for him to lean against. He stepped back, removing his shirt. The cut to his arm was deeper and more severe as compared to the bruise on his side. He saw her stiffen at the sight of his blood. Her eyes lifted to his with genuine concern. It was fleeting and not his imaginings. He saw it.

Then she approached him, standing in close. It was so close he could see the small mole at the base of her throat and smell the sweetness of her breath when she exhaled. Her thick lashes flipped up and he got a good look into the brown swirl of her irises. “You need to go to the hospital. It’ll need stitches,” she said, inspecting it once more. She moved in closer to reach for the cotton balls and ointment. Her breasts brushed against him and her hair fell over out of the tuck behind her ear, giving him a whiff of her natural fragrance.

He imagined she was a woman to take extreme care of herself; skin, hair, nails, teeth. Even without the means, he saw that pride in how she groomed and preserved her natural beauty. It was one of the small things he loved about her.

She dabbed his wound with a cotton ball. It burned something awful, but he didn’t mind He just kept staring at her and kept wondering.

“
I’ll cover it, but get someone to stitch it up tonight.”

He touched her hand, staying the action. She refused to look at him, pulling her fingers away to place the gauze to his skin and a bandage over it. “What you did to Pete today, Aiden, was cruel and purposeful.” She finally looked up at him. “You like hurting him, and each time you do I see how petty and mean you are.”

“
I don’t care about Pete,” he admitted.

“
I do,” she said. “And it’s evident you don’t respect that either.”

He wanted to tell her the truth; that Pete was only breathing because of her. There were grown men greater than Pete who were still unaccounted for after daring to challenge him. But he didn’t. He’d take her tongue lashing if she’d just admit for once that she felt something for him as well.

She didn’t.

“
It’s one of the many reasons this has to end. I want you to leave, Aiden. Not just my house. I want you to leave Mango Grove.”

“
Leave?”

She touched his side and her touch immediately soothed him. “That hurt?”

“
No,” he lied.

She smiled. “What’s this? What happened to your hand?” she said careful of her inspection to the cuts and bruises that weren’t as fresh as the one on his arm. “Did you do this to yourself?”

He snatched his hand away. “No damn it. What do you mean leave?”

“
Go back to Vegas.”

“
Not going to happen, Daisy. Don’t ask it again. Not until we resolve things.”

“
Listen to me.” She looked him in the eye. “I don’t know if she’s yours. I don’t know if she’s, Pete and I understand that I owe you both an answer. That I owe Amy,” her voice trailed off. She reached in the first-aid kit and got out another gauze. “I need time to... to think about all of it.”

“
No.”

She looked back at him, hurt showing in her eyes. “What did you say?”

“
You had five years. Petie-boy and I had 48 hours. No more stalling. If you want the fighting and madness to end, then end it. No more hiding.” He dropped a hand to her hip. She looked down at his touch, then back at him. “The DNA test will happen, Beautiful.”

His hand rubbed the side of her hip and his face came in closer. She stepped back. “You’ll live. Get out.”

His hand fell away. He rose and picked up his shirt. She was in more denial than him. It gave him hope and defeated him all at once. What he was fighting for was something he couldn’t obtain by his regular means. Although he was going to try, it was the only way he knew how. Shaking his head, he eased on his shirt as she stood there with her guard up. “Don’t try to run with her. I’ll talk to you tomorrow to set up the test.”

He left her standing there, staring. For the sake of his own sanity, he had to leave her, fearing what he’d say next. She didn’t know or didn’t care about how badly he needed her. And he grew weary from trying. At the top of the stairs, he considered Amy once more. She had his coin.
Her secret treasure
. Daisy gave it to her. That gave him hope.

****

Daisy stepped through her room, rubbing heat and feeling into her arms. Her heart was so heavy in her chest that she could feel it working the blood through her veins. From the overlook to her home, she watched him head off the bottom stair and to the door, never looking back. Part of her wanted to go after him. She struggled against a will so strong that she did walk to the step. She just couldn’t understand him. Why was he so hateful and intense? Why allow her to see glimpses of his vulnerability to only make her disbelieve in him in the end?

He wanted that fight, wanted to hurt Pete, and shame her. He would never be the man that she could trust. She told herself this and made herself say it over and over.

She put her hands to her face, struggling with her emotions.

“
Mommy, is daddy gone?”

Daisy shook her head. She looked back to Amy with the coin in her hand. “Come here, baby,” she said, lifting her in her arms and taking her back into the room.

****

He threw open his hotel door. It hit the wall and bounced back. Entering, he slammed it shut. Pete didn’t bother to check his wounds. It meant so little compared to the war raging in his heart and head. Instead, he stumbled over to the bed and dropped on it, suppressing the urge to hit something and break something. Sitting at the edge of the bed with his head slumped over, he put a hand to his eyes with his breathing coming and going in short pants.

Things were spiraling out of control.
Namely him
. He didn’t like who he was here: angry, full of hate, suffocating over feelings he didn’t understand. He’d lost his purpose after working so hard to find it. Prior to Daisy’s return, he was clear. Pete’s life was planned. He planned it, damn it. He had the girl, the business opportunity, the life he wanted. He was happy. And now it was all shit, and even through his pride he knew deep down why.

Him.

“
Fuck!” he mumbled. He missed his woman bad. Nina wouldn’t take his calls. Had he lost her? It felt like he had. And then there was Daisy. He couldn’t shake her and this thing of entitlement and anger he felt for her.

No, he was lost. Alone, he closed his eyes and let go a deep sigh. Pete fell back on the bed and winced, feeling the back of his shirt sticky and wet from bruising and bleeding. Sleep came fast. In fact, it was so fast that he didn’t know until the phone rang on the nightstand. He reached for it, cautiously, because his body aches traveled through his spine to the back of his skull in some kind of electric pulse.

“
Hel-lo,” he croaked.

“
Pete?”

“
Yeah, who is this?” Groggy and suffering, he couldn’t get his bearings.

“
Daisy.”

Suddenly his eyes flipped open, and his vision returned. “What is it? Is it Amy?”

“
We need to talk, Pete. Really talk.”

“
I guess we do,” he mumbled.

“
I’m sorry about today. I didn’t mean for things to escalate like that. I don’t want to fight with you. Not anymore.”

“
Daisy… I was… I was wrong to attack you. I just, I guess I can’t let some things go. I thought you were done with Aiden Keane. To see him there… I let it get to me. That’s my shit. I’ll deal.” When she didn’t say anything to refute it or blame Keane, he sighed. “What you do with Aiden Keane is not my business,” he conceded.