Daisy's Choice (A Tale of Three Hearts) (20 page)

This was something Nina was good at, family pain. Helping others deal with the difficult and sometimes impossible news. She often times wondered if she was a nurse or counselor. Wiping her damp palms on her side, she approached Janette, stopped and laid a caring hand to her shoulder. “What exactly did your mother say?”

“
She said Daisy had some new name? Is that true? That she was living out West somewhere? That she came to her bragging about her life? That doesn’t sound like Daisy. Yeah she was fool-hearted, but she wouldn’t brag to mama over daddy’s death bed. Daisy and daddy were so close. She worshipped him. What mama did was cruel.”

“
Janette, calm down.”

“
I have to find her! I can’t even think straight. Daddy’s gone. Daisy’s here and gone. Mama’s locked away in that room upstairs, crying constantly. No faith in our family. My husband and my kids need me, but I can’t… I have to find her. I—”

“
I know where she is.”

Janette’s head shot up. “You do?”

“
Yes, she um, well she left your mother a card.”

“
Where is she?”

“
California. A place called Mango Grove. Pete… he went after her.”

“
Pete! Pete? No! She’ll just runaway again.”

“
I don’t think so. I think your mother is right. She has another identity and another life,” Nina sighed. “I told him. Well, he found out, and he left yesterday.”

“
Mango Grove, California? This makes no sense. What does she need another identity for? Is she in danger?”

“
She lives under the name Danielle Locke. I think she works for some kind of spa. It’s called Jahi. I can call Pete for you to get more details.”

“
Would you? Wait. No, don’t call him.” Janette stood up. “I’m going there. I want to see her.”

Nina nodded. “Good for you. You should.”

“
Come with me.”

“
No, I can’t.” Nina stepped back. The pain in her heart became a sick fiery gnawing at the mere thought of it. She could see Janette soften. Hollow Creek was relatively small. Everyone knew how serious things were with her and Pete. Hell, they were living together. She was mortified in just sharing that her man walked out to chase after his ex.

Janette reached for Nina’s hand and squeezed it to reassure her. “I don’t know anything about California. If you say Pete is there, then I can only imagine how you feel about it.”

“
It’s not my concern.” Nina tried to pull away, but Janette held firm.

“
What happened between them? Do you know? You do, don’t you? Tell me.”

Nina swallowed her hurt. It was all so humiliating. Even in school, Daisy could bat her eyes and all in the room would turn invisible. Damn it, they were grown women and she still couldn’t get out of Daisy Johnson’s shadow. She’d be a hateful bitch to wish her ill, but she was no saint to join the let’s ‘save-Daisy’ train.

“
I don’t know anything else. Pete and I aren’t together anymore. I just know that he left.”

“
Nina, please. You do. I can tell. Tell me. Did he ever say anything? I tried to ask him before, and he wouldn’t say much, I suspected he told daddy though. Somehow I just got that feeling in the things daddy would say.”

Nina shook her head. She withdrew her hand. “I don’t know anything, Janette. Here is Pete’s number.” She plucked a pen from her front pocket and wrote it on a small pad she had tucked there. “Call him. Tell him you’re coming and you want to see Daisy. He’ll help you.”

“
Nina.” She gripped her wrist once more, staying the action of scribbling. “I’m sorry about you and Pete. I have no right to ask you for this, but Daisy ran from us. I think she ran from him. I don’t want her to know I’m coming. I don’t trust Pete––because well, I just don’t trust this thing between them. He left my sister behind, and I can’t get my head around that. How could he come back to town but Daisy didn’t? Please help me. I know it’s a lot to ask. Just go with me and help me find her. I’ll fly you right back. Please.”

Nina rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. “I can’t.”

“
Nina, I’m begging you. I need your help.”

****

“
What are you doing here,” she repeated the words numbly. It was too much to see him again and have him materialize from thin air after all this time. She shuddered inwardly. The simple act of breathing became arduous. The question lingered between them. She asked it out of reflex, but after a day like today, she couldn’t claim surprise.

Daddy always said the
chickens came home to roost
. He’d say, “
D
aisy, what you do in the dark, will only come out in light, baby-girl. No point in hiding the truth. God sees all… and he’ll show it when he’s ready.”

In her hand was the doorknob. She tightened her hold on it, palm slippery and fingers cramping. She ached to slam it shut on the
light
, run from the truth just one more day. And if it were not for the shock of her first love’s sudden arrival, she would have done just that. The shock of it all kept her immobile.

Pete hadn’t changed at all. He wore a pair of faded jeans he had when they were together and a grey t-shirt over a white one with that familiar rugged Abercrombie look. The blue of his gaze was as deep and dark as the Pacific washing up on the shores behind her home. Age hadn’t touched anything but the few lines around his eyes. They had a worried almost mournful look to them as they bore through her.

She never thought she’d see him again. It was easy to convince herself that if their paths did cross he’d be the first to turn and go the other way. And now, he was here, on her doorstep, giving that look that made her feel special––one of a kind.

“
Let me in, Daisy,” he spoke. His voice was smooth and warm, similar to the way he’d speak to her when they fought back in the Hollow and he grew weary of the argument, ready to give in and love her once more, always on her terms. She took so much for granted with Pete back then. She was such a brat. Looking at him now, through a woman’s eyes, she saw him so differently.

“
I came a long way.” His tone was irascibly patient as he took a step toward her.

“
How? Why are you here?” she repeated.

Why indeed. Why had he come? How did he find her? Why now? Why now, daddy, why now?

“
You want to talk about it right here? Like this?” Pete asked.

With no other choice, she stepped back and allowed him to enter. He strolled pass her, his hands shoved into his pockets and his shoulders hunched forward. There was a smell of Kentucky sunshine on his skin and that spicy aftershave he and most men back home wore. She felt a stab of longing for home after that mild sample. Her eyes followed him, and she could barely close the door for staring. He stepped through her home, taking it all in.

Daisy’s place was more windows than walls with white floors and furnishings. Keeping it immaculate was not an easy task with a four year-old Tasmanian devil spinning about. In fact, she and Amy lived mostly upstairs where she’d painted the halls and rooms any color her baby could dream up.

Amy!

Her daughter was on her way home. Pete had to leave. He had to be gone before she got here. She closed the door abruptly. Too abrupt. He cast her a look over his shoulder after the slam.

“
What do you want, Pete?”

“
Nice. This place is really nice. Did I um… did I catch you at a bad time… I mean are we alone?” His eyes went to the stairs that led to her bedroom.

“
Yes, I live here alone, but—” She stopped as he walked near an end table that had a picture of her and Amy. With the turn of his head, he’d see it. Her eyes lifted to his, and she knew he saw her panic. She should’ve prepared for the worst better than this.

Pete gave her a half smile. “I know this is a surprise.”

“
Um, yeah… we can talk out there,” she said, nodding to the terrace doors, open, blowing in the salty oceanic breeze. Pete looked back and nodded. Daisy quickly followed. She checked her watch. Magdalena would hit rush-hour traffic on the PCH and probably get there in forty minutes. With her feet going over the cool floor to the warmed over deck facing the sea, she nervously ran her hand back through her hair.

“
It’s really not a good time… I… I’m expecting company.”

She caught a flicker of something in his eyes. Was it disappointment? It couldn’t be. He hated her and rightfully so. She knew he despised not only her betrayal with Aiden but the baby… the baby she aborted would forever be between them. She knew it. Accepted it. So did he. Didn't he?

“
Strange seeing you again,” he spoke in a broken whisper, his eyes drinking her in, stopping to linger on her toes. She blushed. Pete always loved her feet. He used to paint her toes for her and it would turn her on so much. Those same eyes, blue gems is what she used to call them, looked back up at her now with a hint of twilight matching the darkening sky.

Daisy’s heart hammered in her ears. He was so compelling and his boyish charm so potent that she was rooted to the spot. This was her first love, her first heartbreak; she had to hug herself to shake the feeling. He hated her. She remembered. “Yeah, it’s been a long time,” she said feeling even more awkward.

Pete nodded. “Five years, two months, sixteen hours and—”

“
Why are you here?” she blurted out. Damn it, he should say what he came to say and go. Daisy’s mind did a run on how his arrival was even possible. Her mother must have given him her card. How he found her address confounded her. But if Aiden was able to buy her company from under her, nothing was too shocking.

“
To see you. Why do you think I came?” he said, spacing his words evenly. “You didn’t come to the funeral.”

Shame heated her cheeks. She blinked away tears at the mere mention of home. Her father’s death was still fresh for her. She kept seeing her family seated in church minus her, saying a goodbye that she so desperately wanted to share in. Did he know how something like this would hurt her? Maybe he did. Maybe that’s why?

“
I wanted to be there.”

****

“
Daisy, I… I didn’t mean… I don’t want to fight.” Pete pressed his lips together, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, the remaining words lodged in his throat. She hadn’t changed. Not really. She was as beautiful as she was the day he left her. Even in all this, she was still his Daisy. This beachside palace she hid in seemed too big and too empty for her. He wondered if she truly stayed here alone and how her life was. Was she happy? There were so many questions and so much he wanted to say. And all he could do was stand there tongue-tied.

“
I’ve been looking for you.”

She glanced back behind her, as if she heard something, and then checked her watch again. Was she even listening? “Daisy?”

“
Pete, we have to do this another time.”

“
I know why you’re doing this’ living here, hiding under the name Danielle Locke.”

Daisy shook her head. She put both hands in her hair and began to pace a short walk. “You need to go.”

“
It’s because of me. The things I said. Daisy… I—”

“
Stop!” she shouted, whirling on him. Her eyes showed an intelligence and independence of spirit he didn’t recognize. Something he couldn’t pinpoint had changed. She stepped to him, her voice serious. “Stop! Okay? It was five years ago. It’s done. Why do you want to talk about it now?”

“
Why? I wanted to talk about it then. I came back after six months looking for you.”

She laughed. “You came back? Six months? It took you six months to come back?” She threw her hands up and they landed on her hips. “You said you hated me and that you never wanted to see me again. You also said that if I ever came home you would tell my father what… I did.”

“
I know what I said. I was wrong. I had no right to do that to you. What happened in Vegas, I was just as guilty of as you.”

“
Pete, just go, now… please.”

He reached for her arm. She stopped, her eyes dropping to the point of his touch. She didn’t resist. He stepped to her. Close. He could smell her shampoo, the soap on her skin and even the wine on her breath. “I was wrong to do that to you. I’m sorry, okay. Okay? I have to know… I have to know if it was the only reason you stayed away.”