Easy (13 page)

Daisy dabbed concealer on her skin
, just above the bust line of her borrowed dress. Easy had managed to give her one hell of a hickey, right where everyone could see. She slapped the cap back on and tossed the tiny bottle onto the table Tildy had been using to get ready. She caught sight of Sarah looking at her in the mirror and shook her head.

“Don’t.”

Sarah held up her hands. “I didn’t say anything,” she insisted, but she was grinning from ear to ear.

“Good,” Daisy replied. The sex had been good, phenomenal really, but she didn’t want to talk about how he’d just left her standing naked in the hallway. As she looked at the small, black box that housed Hawk’s wedding band, Daisy couldn’t help but be reminded of the silver one she’d discovered when she’d snooped in Easy’s room
afterward, looking for a shirt.

She was startled out of her reverie by Abby pounding on the bathroom door. “Have you gone yet?” she demanded.

“Yes!” Tildy called back through the door.

“What does it say?!” Sarah practically shrieked.

Tildy flung open the door. Her face was red, and she was close to hyperventilating. “It takes three minutes!” she reminded them.

“You’ve been in there for fifteen!” Abby cried.

“I can’t go when I’m nervous!” Tildy looked like a strange combination of innocent and guilty. She was clad in a white bra and panties with a slip over them. Her long, beautiful hair hung in curls around her shoulders. Sarah had done her makeup, light and fresh, and altogether Tildy looked like one of the models in her wedding magazine. She was also glancing furtively at the plastic stick in her hand.

“You’re not the first person to take a pregnancy test on their wedding day,” Daisy assured her.

Tildy wrinkled her nose. “Do you think he’ll know?”

“Well, he’s pacing outside the door,” Abby pointed out. “So, yeah
, I think the cat’s out of the bag, hon.”

“Not Hawk! The minister!” Tildy whispered fiercely.

“He’s seen Hawk,” Daisy said helpfully. “He’s probably wondering why you don’t already have two or three.”

“Oh, God!”

“Don’t say
that
around him,” Daisy replied.

“Don’t worry about it,” Abby said. “He’s making an honest woman out of you. It’s fine.”

“Is he, though?” Sarah asked and reached for the stick. All four women leaned in and peered down at it.

“What’s that mean?” Daisy asked, never having taken one herself.

Sarah screamed, and Tildy fumbled the stick. Suddenly Daisy was drawn into a screaming, giggling mass of arms, perfume, and hairspray. The door burst open, and Hawk’s huge frame filled the doorway. Tildy broke free from the girls and flung herself at him.

Hawk swept her into his arms and held her tightly. “Yeah?” he asked quietly.

Tildy nodded into his broad chest.

Hawk beamed as Tildy stepped back and swiped a hand over her cheek. “You have to go,” she told him firmly.

He grinned at her. “Babe, I’ve already seen you. It’s too late.”

“I’m naked!” she hissed.

“This isn’t naked. You’re
going
to be naked, though. When I get you alone I’m going to-”

“Go!” she cried and pushed him out the door.

He laughed but complied. Tildy slammed the door and sagged against it. She was smiling, too.

“Dress!” Abby declared, snatching it off the bed. “Then we’ll fix your makeup again.”

Daisy tugged at her own dress as Tildy finished getting ready. Now that she was used to it, she kind of liked it. The heels were a little more than she was used to, but she’d manage. She smoothed her hair and tried to pretend there was nobody in particular she wanted to look nice for.

When Tildy was finally ready for her wa
lk down the aisle, Abby and Daisy headed to the ballroom to snag some seats. Abby took the chair next to Tex in the front row, and Daisy sat beside her. She caught sight of Easy seated at the end of the row and cradling baby Hope in his arms. Well, if that wasn’t enough to make a girl’s panties melt, Daisy didn’t know what was. She tore her attention away from the two of them when music started.

Hawk and Shooter, looking damn fine in their tuxes, made their way up front and stood with the minister and waited for Sarah, who looked just as beautiful as Tildy in a very light pink dress. She grinned at her husband as she headed down the aisle. Daisy thought that must have been the look she’d had on her face when she’d gotten married herself. Shooter couldn’t take his eyes off his wife
, and Daisy was glad to see it. They seemed like great people.

The march started
, and Tildy appeared at the large, double doors. She looked a bit nervous, even though the room was hardly packed. It seemed Tildy and Hawk had only invited their closest friends and family. Maria sat next to Milo, probably to keep him in line during the ceremony, and there were a few other faces Daisy didn’t recognize.

Tildy began her slow walk down the aisle. Her nerves seemed to fade away, though, as she watched the man she was about to marry. In truth they looked as though they were the only two people in the entire world. Tildy reached the front and stood next to Sarah. Hawk reached out and took her hand to hold it during the ceremony. They exchanged rings and kissed to the applause of the small group watching them. Ushers cleared the folding chairs
, so that Hawk and Tildy could dance under the twinkling white lights of the decorated hotel ballroom.

Daisy sipped some champagne and watched them, then she caught sight of Easy handing Hope back to Sarah. Sarah disappeared out of the ballroom, probably to feed her, and Daisy slipped up next to Easy. “You look nice,” she told him, gesturing to his suit.

He tugged at it uncomfortably. “I guess. Haven’t worn anything close to it since the Army,” he grumbled.

Daisy waited for him to say something about her dress, but he didn’t. Undeterred, she set her empty glass down on a nearby table. “Dance with me,” she said.

Easy looked stricken. “What?”

She sighed, irritated. “You heard me.”

“I don’t want to dance.”

“It’s a wedding. Everyone’s dancing. Even Milo.” Daisy pointed to the old man who was doing something alright, though even Daisy had to admit it was a stretch to call it dancing.

“Not interested.”

“No one’s going to notice. It’ll be fun. It’ll-”

“No,” he snapped and tried to walk away.

Daisy snagged his elbow and tugged him back. “How about a honeymoon, then?” she asked, batting her eyelashes at him for effect.

“What?”

“Apparently the honeymoon suite comes with the ballroom,” she told him. “But Hawk and Tildy are catching a plane tonight.” She grinned at him. “Abby gave me the key. There’s a mini bar and a
Jacuzzi tub.”

“Jesus.”

“I didn’t borrow Tildy’s bikini, though,” she told him. “I forgot.”

“Still not interested.”

“Why not?” she asked, though she knew goddamn well why not.

His eyes narrowed
, and he leaned toward her. “We just fucked yesterday,” he said quietly. “Can’t you get enough?” He pried himself loose of her hand and turned.

“Apparently not,” she told him harshly. “Guess I’ll scout the place out for a real man. A
whole
man.”

Easy turned on her, anger blazing in his eyes. “What did you just say to me?”

"You heard me,” she said quietly, not wanting to attract attention. “You’re sure as shit aren’t a whole man. And it’s got nothing to do with your leg.” She raised her hand and jabbed a finger at him. "I know exactly what's underneath that pant leg of yours,” she whispered fiercely, “even though you won't show it to me. I know, and
I
...
don't... care.
" She continued her one-woman invasion into his personal space. "But you sure as shit aren't a whole man, Jimmy Turnbull! I'm also telling you that you better locate the missing pieces of that heart of yours. And you better do it right quick, 'cause I am not waiting forever for you!”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Now, I’m willing to forgive a lot, because I happen to know a thing or two about needing someone to look beyond what’s right in front of them and into the soul of a person. And no matter how much you treat me like a piece of shit, white trash,
bathroom lay
, don't think for a second that I don't see how you hold Hope, like she’s the most precious thing in the world.

“So, there's something inside you, Jimmy Turnbull. Something that kinda looks like a heart. Something that maybe used to
be
a heart. Like the
ghost
of a heart. It's just missing so many pieces that there's not room for a whole hell of a lot of people in there."

She stomped away before he could respond, careful not to totter on her high heels. She would have preferred to just leave, but Tildy blocked her path. She was holding a large, cardboard cylinder in her hand. “You didn’t have to get a gift!” she gushed.

Daisy felt heat creeping up her face and blamed Easy for it. Her stomach turned as she felt another kind of embarrassment. “I... ” she said weakly. She’d buried the ‘gift’ behind all the other wrapped presents on the corner table, hoping neither Tildy nor Hawk would notice it. “I didn’t really,” she mumbled.

To Daisy’s horror, Tildy pulled the top off and began pulling the rolled paper out of the tube. She bit her lip and looked at h
er feet. It wasn’t a toaster, or a clock, or whatever else people gave as gifts for a wedding like this.

Tildy rolled it flat onto a table and gasped. “Oh, Daisy.”

A fair number of people gathered around to look. Daisy was used to colored pencils more than anything else, but she’d opted for charcoal this time, and it had taken several tries to get it just right. The drawing was large; it took up half the table. Most of the details she’d drawn from memory, which hadn’t been hard because she saw the place almost every day.

It was Maria’s bar, minus Maria- or anyone else. The jukebox
was against the wall; the glasses and bottles were lined up on the shelves. The only two people were Hawk and Tildy, dancing alone in the center of the room, just like they had moments earlier for their first dance as a married couple.

In the drawing, Tildy’s head rested against his
chest. Her eyes were closed, her face serene. Hawk had his chin against the side of her head. His eyes were closed, too. Hawk Red Cloud, with his huge muscles and large frame, looked even larger when compared to Tildy’s wispy figure. They looked like a couple that shouldn’t work, a hulking bad ass and a rich princess, but they fit together perfectly. And they only had eyes for each other. Daisy didn’t actually know what that felt like, to be with someone in a crowd of people but still be alone together.

Daisy sat alone in the hotel room, ke
eping one eye on the door. As much as she’d meant it when she said she wouldn’t wait forever, she had to admit she was doing just that. She sighed and grasped the neck of a bottle of champagne that Abby had thoughtfully left in a bucket of ice.

As she tugged on the cork, she made another cursory inspection of the suite. It was beautiful with thick, plush carpet and a huge, four-poster bed. The comforter was a deep, royal blue that matched the walls. The only thing Daisy regretted, other than being alone here, was the fact that she’d have to give it up in the morning.

The cork burst, and champagne bubbled out. Surprised, Daisy quickly held the bottle over the bucket. She didn’t want to know what the cleaning bill was for a place like this. Her mama’s carpet was permanently stained and bore more than a few cigarette burns. It was vacuumed regularly (because Daisy was the one who did it), but it had never been cleaned.

In fact, nothing had quite made her acknowledge the dinginess of her life the way this room did. She poured some champagne into a glass and sat on the edge of the bed- the large, unused bed. Jimmy had problems, of that there was no doubt. His insecurities were a large part of the reason they hadn’t moved forward. Daisy hated having to consider the fact that the other reason might be because he thought he was too good for her. Just because he’d let Sarah, Hope, and to some extent Tildy into his life didn’t necessarily mean he was interested in Daisy joining their ranks.

There was a knock at the door, and she jumped up, spilling a bit more champagne.

“Damn,” she whispered
, and for a moment she couldn’t decide whether to reach for a towel or the door. The door won out as her heart pounded. She twisted the knob and flung it open.

Instead of Easy, Sarah stood outside the door. Daisy could tell by the look on the other woman’s face that she wasn’t the bearer of good news.

“He left,” Sarah told her, and Daisy nodded like she already knew it. And she had, hadn’t she? She’d been sitting here long enough to have figured that out. “Can I come in?”

Daisy stepped back from the door and gestured with the half-empty glass still in her hand. “Sure,” she replied. “Misery loves company.”

“I’m sorry, Daisy.”

Daisy shrugged and took a seat at the table next to the bucket. “Want some?” she offered.

Sarah nodded and slid into the remaining chair.

“Whatever,” said Daisy, though Sarah hadn’t said anything else. “I had a nice time. Got to wear a dress I could never afford to own and sleep in a bed I couldn’t afford to rent. I came out ahead on the deal.”

“He just needs time.”

“I think he’s had plenty of that.”

“Don’t give up,” Sarah pleaded.

Daisy played with the glass stem of her flute. “Maybe I’m not the one giving up,” she replied quietly. “What happened?”

“It was an IED. It killed-”

“Yeah, I got that. Bomb, half the team died, and then discharge. But what
happened
?”

Sarah was silent so long Daisy thought she wasn’t going to answer. Then she said, “He wanted to die.”

Daisy took another sip and considered this. “So, he comes home and everything’s fucked up and-”

“No,” Sarah told her. “Right then. He wanted to die
right then
, right when it happened. He knew his leg was gone, and there’d be nothing anyone could do. So he asked Caleb to kill him.”

“Like shoot him in the head?”

“Chris said they’d do it with morphine.”

“
Chris
said?”

Sarah nodded. “He didn’t mean it, though. He just wanted Jimmy to believe it, because he was so scared and in so much pain. They didn’t do it. They only gave him enough to make him sleep.”

“Why didn’t he do it himself when he came home?”

Sarah shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “He’s Catholic.”

Daisy nodded to herself. “He’s afraid the real Hell might be worse than the one he’s living in now.”

“It’s not Hell!” Sarah insisted. “He has family, people who love him. People who-”

“It’s not about you,” Daisy interrupted. “It’s about him and how it’s got to be ten times harder for a man like him to accept that this is the way it’s going to be.”

Sarah stopped and looked at her. “What do you mean, a man like him?”

“He’s an engineer. He builds things, gets them working again. From what I hear about Burnout, they’re all pretty damn good at it. It’s got to be a special kind of punishment that the one thing he can’t put back together is himself.”

“So... are you done?” Sarah asked, tears brimming in her eyes. Daisy felt like crying, too, not that it would help anything.

“I like him, but I don’t love him, Sarah. How can I? He won’t even let me try. I know he’s important to you. I know you want him to find peace, but I’m afraid I’m just
a
piece.”