Falling for Fitz (16 page)

Daisy swiped at her eyes, remembering
how anguished he had looked—his beautiful aqua eyes stricken and
devastated. She should have known then how much he was hurting. She
didn’t. She’d read guilt, not love. But as she reached back for her
memories and let them focus in her mind, she could see it in his
eyes: the apology, the guilt, the sadness and, yes, the love. It
was all there.

“
What now?” asked Valeria
gently.

“
More beer?” suggested
Daisy.

“
I’ll get it,” said
Valeria, “but no talking until I get back. Swear it!”

Daisy and Emily nodded, giving each
other uncertain smiles across the table once Valeria was
gone.

“
I kept a lot from you,”
said Daisy. “And I lied about Dr. M..”

“
Oh, I understand. All of
it. I just wish you hadn’t felt so alone.”

“
I don’t now,” said Daisy,
rubbing her eyes again. “I’m really glad I came home.”

“
Your Dad is too. He really
missed you.”

Daisy nodded. “It was hard to come
home. Not just because of Fitz. I made a life for myself out there.
The East represented hard times, you know? Sad times. I had to let
go of those feelings before I could move home.”

“
Are you two talking?”
demanded Valeria, plunking the pitcher on the table.

“
No,” said Daisy and Emily
in unison.

“
Just family stuff,” Emily
added. “I’m glad to have my cousin home.”

“
So!” said Valeria. “We’re
all caught up. What next?”

Daisy sighed. “I don’t know. I mean, I
came back home expecting we’d politely bury the hatchet, move on
with our lives, and be cordial when we bumped into each other at
family stuff.”

“
You still love him, Daze?”
asked Emily.

Daisy looked into her cousin’s blue
eyes and nodded. “I never stopped.”

“
It doesn’t sound like he
did either,” said Valeria. “But how long are you going to make him
wait until you tell him you were never engaged?”

Daisy groaned. “Do I have to tell
him?”

Emily nodded sympathetically. “’Fraid
so. Can’t start a life built on a foundation that includes lies. I
mean, you’re doing such a good job ironing out the past with him.
You’d leave a fake engagement in the balance to bite you in the ass
later?”

Daisy scrunched up her face, sipping
her second glass of beer, then covering her face with her hands. “I
guess not.”

“
We all need a refill,”
said Valeria, picking up the pitcher and refilling all three
glasses to the top as Daisy mulled over her cousin’s
words.

“
Cheers to Daisy,” said
Emily, raising her glass to toast her cousin. “I love that you’re
home. I love that you have a new business. I love that you
reconnected with Fitz… but
promise
me
you’ll tell him the truth? That you’re
not engaged anymore? Just tell him.”

“
Yeah, Daisy,” said a
familiar voice from the end of the table. “Just tell
him.”

***

Daisy’s eyes were wide and shocked
when her neck whipped up and they slammed into his, but as round
and surprised as they were, they probably had nothing on
his.

Fitz didn’t care why. He didn’t care
how. All that mattered was that she didn’t look destroyed
and…

…
she wasn’t engaged
anymore.

Thank God.

Thank God.

Thank God.

“
Move over,
beautiful.”

She slid over slowly, staring up at
him. “W-what are you doing here? We have a date
tomorrow.”

Fitz cocked his head toward Barrett,
who sat down beside him, giving Emily a hungry look from across the
table. “He invited me.”

Daisy swallowed, looking anywhere but
at Fitz, and finally noticed Stratton standing awkwardly at the
head of the table, with his hands shoved into his
pockets.

“
Stratton!” said Daisy, her
scattered nervousness immediately replaced with warmth in her honey
voice as she leaned on the table and waved at the youngest English
brother in attendance. “It’s been a long time. It’s really good to
see you.”

“
Hey, Daisy,” said
Stratton, his rigid shoulders relaxing. And if it was possible,
Fitz fell even harder for Daisy Edwards’s sweet heart and kind
greeting to his socially-awkward brother. Stratton may have, too.
Fitz almost scowled when Stratton grinned at her, showing off his
little-known, panty-dropping dimples.

“
You want to sit down?”
Valeria asked Stratton, and Fitz looked across the table at her,
noticing her for the first time.

He’d met Emily Edwards’s roommate once
or twice before, but hadn’t really considered her until now because
she really wasn’t his type. As he checked her out across the table,
he realized that she wasn’t bad looking. She had wildly-curly dark
hair pulled up into some sort of messy bun, with escaped tendrils
framing her heart-shaped face. Her dark eyes were wide and bright,
and she had that olive-toned skin that looked tan year round. She
wasn’t thin, but the extra weight filled out her face in a sweet,
appealing way and a quick glance below her neck told him it filled
out other assets pretty well, too. And right now she was staring up
at Stratton like every drop of handsomeness in the English
Brothers’ arsenal had been poured without reserve into
him.

Stratton blinked at her. “Uh, yeah.
Sure. You don’t mind?”

Valeria shoved into Emily so hard she
flew across the wooden seat and her hip hit the far wall of the
booth with a thump.

“
Not at all.”

Valeria took over the conversation at
a clip, and Stratton gestured to the waitress to bring over two
more pitchers and three more glasses, looking slightly
shell-shocked, but more comfortable than usual. Thanking God for
Valeria Campanile, and reminding himself to be available if she
ever needed something from him, Fitz leaned an elbow on the table
and turned his entire attention to Daisy.

“
So…”

“
So…” She
sighed.

“
You’re not
engaged.”

She dropped his eyes and shook her
head back and forth, reaching for her beer glass. He stopped her by
placing his hand on top of hers and leaning down to whisper in her
ear.

“
Are you upset?”

“
No.”

“
Then say it. I need to
hear it.”

She turned her head slightly and their
lips were so close, if they hadn’t been at a crowded table with his
two brothers, her cousin and Valeria, Fitz would have closed the
distance. When she spoke, her breath warmed his lips.

“
I’m not
engaged.”

“
Since when?”

“
Does it
matter?”

“
No.”

He grabbed the hand closest to him and
elbowed Barrett in the side. “Get out.”

“
What the hell,
Fitz?”

“
Now.”

Barrett scowled at him and stood up.
Fitz pulled on Daisy’s hand, sliding her along the booth with him,
until they were both standing at the end of the table.

“
We’ll be back in a few,”
he said over his shoulder as he maneuvered them into the
crowd.

He’d been to Mulligan’s more times
than he could count, and he knew that in the back of the bar there
was a long, dark hallway that had an alcove at the end where a
payphone used to be. Now? It was just an empty alcove. Without
looking back at Daisy, he pulled her through the dense crowd of
Thursday night drinkers, not stopping until he’d jerked back the
curtain that still hung over the darkened doorway, pulled her
inside, and yanked the curtain closed.

The red light from the exit sign just
outside cast a pink glow over and under the curtain, and it was
just enough light to make out her face looking up at
his.

“
Say it again,” he said,
his body on fire for her, hard everywhere, practically trembling
with urgency.

“
I’m not engaged,” she
whispered through shallow breaths.

He placed his hands on either side of
her face, sighing with relief when one of her hands landed on his
hip and the other reached up to hold his wrist. He told himself to
be gentle, to take his time with her, but this was Daisy Edwards,
about whom he’d fantasized for most of his life. And by some
miracle, she was here in the dark with him, giving him a second
chance that he didn’t deserve, that he wanted so badly, it
hurt.

His lips crashed into hers, their
breathing mingling and quickening as his fingers firmly held her
face and his blood coursed with purpose to his groin. Her fingers
tightened around his wrist, and as she moaned into his mouth, he
touched her tongue with his. As though electrocuted, she jolted,
arching her body into his, and he pushed back against her until her
until her shoulders hit the wall of the tight space, her body still
bowed into his. He ran his hands down her neck, over her shoulders
and down her arms, winding them around her waist and flattening his
fingers against her sweater where her back curved.

She raised her hands to his face,
threading her fingers through his hair, moving her lips
desperately, hungrily beneath his, finding his tongue and sucking
it into her mouth. His fingers curled into fists on her lower back,
pushing her into him, wanting her to feel the hardness of his
rampant desire, and groaning when she rotated her hips just enough
to let him know she wanted him too.

He kissed her like it was nine years
ago, and like it was now, and like he’d never loved anyone as much
as her. He kissed her like his life depended on it, because it did,
and like he’d die if they stopped, because he might, and because he
never wanted to live another day of his life unless it included
kissing Daisy Edwards.

He trailed his lips down her neck,
murmuring her name over and over as she leaned her head back
against the wall, her breasts heaving into his chest with every
breath. Her skin was soft and hot, and he loved the little sounds
that she made in her throat, low and deep, that vibrated through
his lips, sending waves of pleasure to the center of his body where
they pooled with want for her, hot and electric, desperate for more
of her.

“
Kiss me again,” she
panted.

He raised his head to capture her lips
with his to nip and suck lightly while kneading her back. Her
tongue swirled into his mouth, and he caught it, sucking on it as
she wound her hands around his neck, lacing them against his skin,
making him shiver and pull her closer.

When she pulled away to rest her
forehead on his shoulder, he leaned down to caress her ear with his
breath.

“
I’m picking you up at six
tomorrow,” he whispered, like he needed to say it, like he needed
to tell her that tomorrow would be an extension of now, of here, of
more.

“
What are we doing?” she
murmured, tilting her head to the side to give him better access to
her throat and moaning softly as his lips brushed against her skin.
“What should I wear?”

Nothing.

“
I’m making you dinner,” he
murmured, his teeth capturing the lobe of her ear as she gasped and
trembled in his arms.

“
At your place?” she asked,
tangling her fingers in the hair that brushed his
collar.

“
Mm-hm.” He drew back,
looking at her face in the pale pink light. “Is that
okay?”

“
Yeah,” she said, taking a
deep breath and letting her forehead drop forward onto his shoulder
again. “Yeah, it’s okay.”

“
Daisy?”

“
Hmmm?” she hummed against
his shoulder, her voice kiss-drunk, soft and low.

“
I’m crazy about
you.”

She moved her neck slightly to nestle
more snugly into his shoulder.

“
Me too,” she finally
answered in a whisper. “I’m crazy about you, too.”

It felt so awesome to hear her say it,
he clutched her closer, as close as he could.

“
You can stay over if you
want,” he added, nuzzling her hair, wishing that they didn’t have
to go back to the table, wishing they could stay wrapped around
each other in a defunct phone booth all night long.

She leaned back, catching his eyes in
the dim light. “We’ll see, okay?”

“
Okay.”

“
You go back before me,”
she said, reaching up to smooth her braid.

He grinned but shook his head. “I
don’t think so, beautiful. Unlike you, I’m going to need a few
minutes.”

“
Oh,” she said glancing
down at where his erection was still pushed firmly against her
belly. She straightened away from him, loosening her grip on his
neck, letting her hands fall to her sides. “Is that
better?”

“
No. Not better.
Terrible.”

He sighed, and she grinned at him,
wetting her lips, knowing full and well that it made him crazy. He
forced his hands to let go of her, despite the way his body craved
more.