Daisy's Choice (A Tale of Three Hearts) (40 page)

“
Why didn’t you call to tell me you were coming? I would pay for the room,” he said, walking her out to his car.

“
Because if I had spoken to you on the phone, I wouldn’t have come. And I needed… I needed to come.”

He opened the door to the rental. She got in and he hurried around the front, getting inside as well.

“
Steak or Seafood?”

“
Doesn’t matter.”

He turned the ignition, his eyes glued to her. She wouldn’t look at him. Instead she stared straight ahead. Even worse was this thing she had with not being able to talk to him and loosen up. He drove out of the Hampton Inn and headed toward the coast, hoping she would give an inch. There was a seafood spot not far from Daisy’s house.

“
I’m a little surprised. I mean I called, but you… you wouldn’t take my calls. I was beginning to think you had given up on me,” he said with a forced chuckle.

“
I couldn’t. It hurt too much,” she mumbled.

“
What hurt? Us? Nina c’mon. I told you I haven’t abandoned you…us.”

She looked at him and her eyes glistened with an accusation. She blinked and looked away. “Before you go into it, Pete, there’s something you should know.”

“
Talk to me, babe. What is it?”

“
I know what’s been going on here. I know about your daughter, Amy, and I know about the paternity suit.”

Pete slammed his size twelve on the break pedal. The tires locked and the car lurched forward as it slid to a stop. Behind him, another driver hit his horn coming to a screeching halt. “What do you mean you
know
?”

Car horns blared. The light changed from green to yellow to red. “Nina, answer me! How could you know?”

“
Aiden Keane sent someone to see me. To make me an offer. To bribe me to come here and convince you to back off. He threatened you and said he’d do things.”

“
And you came because of Aiden?”

“
Yes.” She looked at him. “I didn’t take the money, but I took the bait because I’m worried about you. The man is crazy and I… I don’t want you hurt. Besides, I needed to see for myself. See if it were true.”

“
If what was true?”

“
If I had lost you. If you were in love with her again. Evidently you are. You, her and your child. Got what you always wanted, huh Pete? To have the baby she got rid of? To have her?”

Pete hit his turn signal and eased the car out of the angry traffic back up. He quickly turned off to the next street.

“
Aren’t you going to say something? Ask me what I see now when I look at you.”

He was fed up with Aiden Keane trying to buy his way into controlling everyone around him. He would make him pay, and when he proved Amy was his, that sick bastard would never be near her again. It was time for it all to come to an end.

“
That son-of-a-bitch! I’ll kill him,” he muttered.

"Guess not,” she mumbled and looked away. Pete cut his eyes at her, disgusted by her lack of faith in him. He was angered that they would dupe her and come to him like this. So what if she didn’t accept the money, she should have called him. He opened his mouth to tell her just that but noticed how she wrung her hands.

“
No, Nina, I don’t want you to tell me what you see when you look at me. I rather tell you myself. Who I love, what I want and what I my plans are. Can you hold on to judging me until then?”

Her head snapped around as if he struck her. “I’m not judging you. I never judged you!”

“
Sure you are, Nina, but I understand it. I won’t cave to it though, not without a fight. I’ll deal with Aiden Keane. Trust me on this, but first I deal with us. You and me.”

He dropped his foot on the gas pedal and raced down the avenue.

****

“
Amy.”

“
Yes, and for the record, I didn’t name her after you. Geesh, how narcissistic,” Daisy said shaking her head.

“
Yes you did.”

“
Did not.”

“
She calls me daddy,” Aiden said, sitting up now, sand to his back and in his hair.

“
Because you told her you were. I can’t believe you went to her school. Oh yes, I know about that too. I’m pulling her out of there. It freaks me out that a stranger could get that close.”

Aiden nodded. “I agree. Take her out of the school, but—”

“
But what?”

“
Does she call Pete daddy too? I mean is that what she calls men she meets? Daddy?”

Daisy was floored that he’d have the nerve to take issue with it. She glared at him for a moment. He was so infuriating! Huffing, she rolled her eyes, but when she looked back she noticed the shadows deepen over his face. He didn’t look at her when he asked, which meant the question bothered him more than he wanted her to know. “No, Aiden, she doesn’t call Pete daddy or other men. She’s got it in her head that you’re her father. And you put it there.”

The vein protruded in his neck before the locked muscle of his jaw relaxed. “I saw the wall. Upstairs. There were pictures of you pregnant with Amy. She’s more than I could—”

“
Dream? Admit it. If you knew how to dream, she’d be that and more,” Daisy finished. “That’s what it’s felt like since I first felt her kick.”

Aiden looked away again and she could see him withdrawing from her with that thing he did, hiding within himself.

“
Why does she scare you? Because she may not be yours?”

“
She’s mine. I can see it. I can feel it,” he said, but he didn’t sound as convinced as he had before.

“
Okay, say she is. Why wait? You don’t want to be a father, do you? This thing with you and me… that’s all you want… more of the chase, none of the work.”

“
That’s not it, Daisy.”

“
Then what? You tell my baby you’re her daddy and you damn near try to kill Pete. You come back here for what?”

“
Stop pushing me,” he whispered. He rose from the sand and she looked on speechless as he walked toward the sea, closer to the shore. Daisy got to her feet and went after him.

“
You’re scared, Aiden. Of what?”

“
Things are out of control. I’ve done some things. Made a few enemies along the way. A kid… any kid is a risk. There’s just things I can’t explain. I didn’t plan for this. Okay? Trying to figure out how to control it.”

“
Control it? Are you kidding me?”

He dropped his head. “Not like that.”

“
You're right. You won’t control this, Aiden. Let’s get it straight. Look at me, damn it!”

He did. She felt bad for yelling. He truly looked pained. The man was so complicated and such a royal mess it made her want to pull her hair out from the roots. She calmed herself and spoke rationally. “You can’t plan for everything. Even if you could, she’s a child. Part of knowing her is getting closer to the things you haven’t experienced.”

He stared out at the sea. She stepped around him so they could be face to face. “Amy is okay, and she’ll be okay, whether you are the father or not. I’ll make sure of it. But you… you got to stop being so afraid of feeling things. The only enemy out there is you.”

He glared, but held back. Daisy rewrapped the shirt around her, the wind stronger as they stood closer to the shore. “Look, I just mean—”

“
You had a father. A good one. One you respected.” Finally, he did look to her but the darkness made it hard for her to read his eyes. “You don’t know what it’s like to have a weak one. She’s a sweet kid and she deserves the best of me, I guess. But I think… I think there’s really only a little there… for a kid I mean. I don’t want her to think of me like I did my old-man.”

“
Okay, that’s natural. I was scared too. Imagine it. I’m pregnant and I don’t know by whom. I can’t tell anybody, share it with anybody and she comes here so needy. So trusting. My responsibility. It scared the hell out of me. Then it hit me.” She pulled at his arm so he looked at her again. “Aiden, it hit me. You don’t get a playbook at this. You just got to put her first before yourself. You got to have a little faith too. You keep telling me to stop making you out to be the monster. Okay, I’ll do that, if you will.”

He stared down at her, a deep probing stare that had her nervously stepping into the encroaching shore. “Do you think she’s mine?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
Did you feel it when you gave birth to her? Did you feel it when you held her? What did you feel?”

“
I don’t know,” she said, trying to step out of the water. Waves hit the back of her feet and drained sand and shells away, repeatedly, like the question she’s been trying to avoid. He placed his hand on her hips and stayed her.

“
Did you think of me when you looked into her eyes, like I think of you when I look into her eyes? Is she mine, Daisy?”

“
Damn it, Aiden. Stop! How would I know that?” She tried again to step away but he took her by both arms and made her look up and her face him.

“
Because you’re her mother. And a mother always knows. She does. Tell me before I… before I can’t turn back. Tell me if she’s mine!”

“
You said you felt it, that… that… she was. You said you believed she was.”

“
I’ve been wrong before. I can’t trust myself anymore. Donovan says I’m obsessed and he's right. I can’t stop wanting you. Now I want that kid… that kid that I never wanted. So tell me.”

“
I don’t know!” she said dropping her head, her eyes burned with the threat of a fresh cry. He pulled her up by her arms and forced her to look up at him. “Tell me. I’ll believe you. Because at this point, I'll believe anything you say to me, Daisy.”

Daisy was stunned by his confession. She clenched her fist and her deepest belief, her most suppressed knowledge surfaced. She looked up at his pleading eyes and she wanted to scream in his face. Damn him for changing her, for making her become this—this woman that she feared.

“
Say something,” he said again, his voice cool with control, more like dread. He was ready to listen. This was the moment she could send him away and push him back to the past where he was supposed to stay. But tonight, a simple walk on the beach had opened her to so much.

“
Daisy?” he said, his hands tightening, his fingers digging into her skin. His jaw locked tight and his eyes were red as if he wanted to spill the tears that the dark empty chambers of his heart refused to let loose. He was on the edge. She was on the edge. The contents of her stomach turned into a concrete mass. And she knew. Deep down she knew the truth.

“
She’s yours.” Daisy looked up into his eyes. “I know it. She’s yours, Aiden.”

His hold loosened, as did the stress lines around his eyes and mouth. His eyes, that wintergreen cast, eclipsed to a dark jade under the moonlight. It was raw for her in that moment. Those were feelings she’d fought for so long, thought she was crazy for feeling it. She knew from the way she cringed when Amy’s tantrum would turn her eye color to the same as his. The intense way she loved her child was the same intensity she felt for him. Daisy kissed the corner of his mouth.

He scooped her and lifted her up against him, wrapping her legs around his waist she locked her arms around his neck. Her tongue delved deeper, bringing his forth and their lips locked with all the purpose and meaning between them sealed. She tightened her hold on him, fingers grazing his scalp.

“
I want you so bad,” she said into his open mouth. And it was true. Every cell in her body ached for him. She wanted to comfort him and be comforted by him. She wanted him to take her hard, and soft, and in all the ways he had done before that made her his.

He dropped to his knees but held her steady, lowering her within the passion of their kiss down on the marbled hard sand, smoothed by the constant rolling of the tide. The rushing waves came in as he lazily licked at her lips before taking ownership of her tongue again. Those waters soaked her hair, seeped under her, reaching as far as her hips before washing back to the sea.

“
I want you too,” he moaned, his hand squeezing her breast through her shirt. He touched them gently as her nipples ripened and bloomed from his caress. Aiden pressed in, pelvis to pelvis against her core, and she felt the bone of his existence hard and rigid.