Wicked Flower (21 page)

“Have a seat anywhere you’d like.
I’ll bring water,” said the young man acting as host.
 
Stefan led her past several empty booths and
settled on a table in the very back. He pulled out her chair and then took his
own seat. Her phone startled her with a text from Daisy so she put it on
silent.

She sipped her water and watched
him ignore his. “I don’t mean to push you on this, but how was your day with
your mom, Stefan? I only ask because I’ve had some rough days with her but I’ve
also seen her bounce back.”

A gust of air rushed from his
mouth. That he was frustrated was clear.

“I don’t know how you do it,
Dani.”

But just then the waiter came by
to take their order. She hadn’t looked at the menu but didn’t need to. Already
her mouth started watering at the thought of her favorite Mario’s pizza.

“For the lady?” asked the waiter.

“I’ll have the Hawaiian please.”

“Personal size?”

She was going to say yes even
though she could have easily scarfed down at least a medium all by herself when
Stefan spoke up. “Bring us a large. I’m having the same. And I’ll have whatever
you’ve got on tap.”

“Yes, sir.
And for the lady to drink?”

“Nothing on tap
for me.
I’m fine with water.” Her hand naturally fell to her stomach and she rubbed it.
It was the first time she’d acknowledged in a public place other than her OB
checkups that she was pregnant. Stefan watched her carefully although his eyes
looked so tired she nearly reached over and rubbed his brow for him.

“Oh
hon
,
what happened?” she asked as soon as the waiter left. “Come on, it’s me.”

A buzz came from her phone but
she ignored it. Daisy would keep this up all night. Dani watched as he blew out
and rubbed his jaw like he really just wanted the pizza to get there. Why? He’d
invited her here and didn’t seem to be kicking her to the curb. But when the
waiter returned with a tall glass of beer, Stefan took a long drink and then
she started getting her answer.

“She was dizzy
all morning. We checked her blood pressure. I didn’t know how tight to squeeze
the damn cuff. I wanted to drive her to the emergency room to get it checked by
a professional but she’s so stubborn.
Wouldn’t go.
I
squeezed that damn thing on so tight, I saw her wince.”

“Hey, I’ve done that too. Her
arms are too small for the adult cuff but not quite right for the kiddy one.”

“Yeah, well I bruised her skin. I
saw the marks...”

Stefan’s eyes darkened and then
he looked away. Something was not right. “Hey, what are you not telling me?”

“I saw the marks
because I had to help her into the shower this afternoon. She needed a shower
in the middle of the day because while I was messing around in the backyard,
she got dizzy and fell in the mud.
All the damn rain lately.
Fuck, I felt like total shit that I let that happen.”
 

“Stefan, hey, I know this might
not make you feel any better right now, but I’ve had worse days with her. Okay?
In the grand scheme of things, yes it was tough, but she’s
gonna
be fine.”

“She could have broken a bone,
Dani.”

“Then it’s a good thing she
landed in the mud.” She hoped he’d smile at that.

It nearly worked but he kept
blinking his eyes. “She uh, she used her last Depends today. I think you need
to add that to your shopping list. And her teeth were giving her problems.
Something about the stuff that’s supposed to keep them stuck in place. She
could barely eat anything I made. Fuck, Dani. It was a tough fucking day. I was
gonna
call you and say we should eat another night.”

But he hadn’t. So either he
wanted to be here having a meal with her or he needed to be here to cut the
ties for good.

His eyes started to shine and she
didn’t know what she’d do if they
teared
up all the
way. He rubbed at them like he was soothing a tension headache but she could
guess the truth.

“Hey,” she said, completely
unprepared for him like this. She reached out and without thinking, grabbed his
hand and held it. “It’s okay.” He let her hold it but not for long. That was
the strangest feeling of all when he pulled away. She didn’t know how they were
going to get through this meal. Not now that she’d seen this side of him and
all she wanted was to comfort the man. There was no teasing in him. Everything
he’d had inside, all that playful joy she loved watching, today had wrung him
clean of it. The man sitting across from her was all that was left.

****

Half an hour later and she was
full. Stefan could tell because she leaned back in her seat like she was
stretching to make room for the food to go down. Mario’s pizza was as good as
he remembered. Stefan was still exhausted. But the food in his stomach and the
beer and her company had helped. They had the place to themselves. They could
talk, now that he wasn’t so on edge.

“Hey, sorry for
the
Eeyore
imitation earlier.
I guess all the
stuff with my mom just got to me. But I’m glad you came tonight.”

“Me too.
And you don’t
have to blow off how hard today was. I wouldn’t lie to you about your mom,
though. She’s
gonna
be fine. In fact, seeing how good
she looks tomorrow will probably mess with your head more than today did. It’s
just one of those things. You get used to it. It gets easier.”

Her phone must have buzzed again
because every time he heard the vibration, she patted her dress pocket. He
almost wished she would just answer it but the fact she ignored it for him
flattered him.

Stefan felt like shit for being
so grumpy through the pizza portion of their meal. He decided to shake it off
and enjoy the rest of their night. He had a lot to get to.

“So what are we having for
dessert?” he asked. When she kept her head bowed low, he knew she was hiding a
smile because he could still see her cheeks bunch up at the tops.

“I shouldn’t … screw it.
Cannoli, please.
What about you?” she said.

That’s right. She had the sweet
tooth and he did not. “I’m not really a sugar guy.” Her face fell. “But I’ll
have a bite of yours.”

“Okay,” she said and held him
with a look in her eyes that said all this polite date-like stuff was just as
awkward to her as it was to him.

The waiter took their cannoli order
and disappeared.

“Hey, I haven’t had the chance to
compliment you on your new look,” she said.

Stefan rubbed his jaw between his
fingers and thumb. He preferred the feel of his skin over the whiskers and the
thicker they’d
gotten,
the itchier. He was glad it was
gone and happy she wanted to give him a compliment over it.

“Oh yeah, you like?”

Her head dipped. She must have
heard him try to be himself for her just now. “I do. You look completely
different though. I’m surprised you shaved it off. I thought it was your
vacation disguise.”

“It was but turns out yard work
makes a guy sweat which makes a beard itch like hell.
So good
different?”
Falling back into the easy playful way they’d talked those
first days started coming back and rolling off his tongue. It didn’t hurt so
much to take a breath.

“Handsome
different.”

“Handsome? I was looking for
something more like hot.”

She bit the bottom of her lip,
failing to suppress the smile.
“That too.”

“I like your new look too. It’s
hot. I’m not a wimp like you. I’ll say it.
Sexy hot.”

She looked down at her dress and
tugged her windblown ponytail. She didn’t say anything because she obviously
thought he was lying. But the long summer dress clung to her body while managing
to look comfortable. He could see all her curves which was all that mattered.
He wouldn’t tell her right now, but her baby bump showed. “But if you’d rather,
I’ll just say you look very nice tonight, Dani.”

A soft, comforting smile opened
Dani’s cheeks. “Thank you. Daisy found it for me in one of her roommates’ piles
of clothes.”

 
The waiter showed up with her cannoli and her
smile broke loose, wider than he’d seen in a while. He could watch her dote on
Mom for hours and could bet that if he didn’t have her out of the house, that’s
exactly what she’d be doing right now. She cut her cannoli down the middle and
offered a half to him.

“Here you go.”

He hesitated because he only
wanted a very small bite but she held it out to him in her fingers. Well, if she
was offering, he was taking. That had been the deal he’d secretly made their
first day. Stefan leaned in and bit from the one end as she held it.
A big bite that nearly nipped her fingertips.
She obviously
hadn’t been ready for that because the flaky crust crumbled and cracked under
his bite. They each tried to scoop up what was left but his half was a lost
cause.

“Sorry,” she said.

“No need, that was good.”

She’d hand fed him. He’d known
from the first minutes of the grape licorice experience that being hand fed by
her would be exquisite. It was better. He licked his fingers and wiped powdered
sugar from his face from the cannoli explosion.

“Here, you missed some,” she said
and wiped her thumb against the corner of his mouth. He caught her hand in his
at the wrist, wanting to lick the sugar from her finger.

Realizing he startled her, he let
go. She went back to eating her half, having none of the troubles he’d just
experienced.

“Hey, so I was thinking today and
realized I know very little about you. Other than the basics like your favorite
pizza place and the fact you don’t like my band.” She tried to chew her bite
quickly like she wanted to refute his teasing but he didn’t want her rushing
and her mouth was full.
“Just teasing you.
Slow down,
enjoy your dessert.” It looked so good on her. He’d wait until she was done to
repay the favor and wipe her powdered sugar away. Or better yet, what he really
wanted to do and lick it off.

Fuck, he’d done so good all night
not to go there. Now he was there. Stefan guessed there was no avoiding the way
he wanted her. But after Will’s chat, there were still other things he found he
really did want to learn about Dani.

“Like I said, I think we need to
even up the playing field. You’ve read that magazine interview about me. So now
it’s my turn to ask some burning questions.”

“Oh gosh,” she said between bites
and sips of water.
“Really?”
Her face scrunched up.

“Yep.
Okay, so I’ll
go easy on you at first.” She probably thought he was about to ask what her
favorite sexual position was but he’d thought about these on the drive over and
intended to get to know her better because yeah, he liked this girl a lot. Of
course he’d do a little teasing too since she always smiled whenever he did
that. “I guess I’m curious to know what you’d be doing if you weren’t taking
care of my mom.” Never had cared to know that about anyone else but he’d spent
hours wondering that this past week watching her work.

“Oh, that’s not what I was
expecting…” She trailed off.

“I want to get to know you, Dani,”
he said from that place he was still getting used to talking from. It beat
hard, waiting to hear all about her.

“Well, I’d be doing the same
thing, just in another home or a clinic somewhere.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, don’t sound so shocked,
but I was going to school to be a nurse when my mom got sick.” She kept a
straight face but the pain of losing her mom had to be fresh still.

“Did you graduate?” His hands
wanted to touch hers while she talked but he grabbed the glass of water the
waiter had brought instead. He was being good and touching her right now would
be a distraction. What she had to say was important to him.

“No. Taking care of my mom made
it hard.”

“Can I ask what she had? My mom
let me know when she passed. I’m sorry I don’t know more than that.”

“It’s okay. She battled cancer
for a good few years but the last year it just took over and it was tough.”

“God Dani, I’m so sorry,
sweetheart.”

“It was tough seeing her body go
through everything it did but I think the reason she lived a year longer than
any of her doctors predicted was because she stayed positive until the end.”

He could see that she got some of
that from her mom. But he’d gotten a two week glimpse of his own mom’s fight
against cancer and Dani had done it for two years straight. And now she was
doing it with his mom, although not exactly at that same level. Fuck, he prayed
his mom didn’t get sick again. That she’d battled her battles and now would
live the rest of her life as healthy as possible. He wanted to give her the
best of everything.