I’d completely forgotten it was Thanksgiving that week. Most days I didn’t know what day it was, though I knew fall had come because of the changing leaves. “Maybe get dinner at a diner with some of the guys?”
It was usually just another day for me. I’d call home. Say hi to my parents and sisters. That was the extent of my Thanksgivings these days.
“If you’re going to be in town tomorrow, you should come by my parents’ house,” she said. “We love having company. You’re more than welcome. I promise my family won’t bite.”
She twirled a strand of icy blonde hair around her finger and smiled. Apparently she’d forgiven me for kissing her hours before.
The way I saw it, I had two choices. I could let Daisy leave and walk out of my bus, never seeing her again. Or I could meet her family, spend a little more time with her, and attempt to dig myself out of my deep dark rut.
I raked my hand across my five o’clock shadow, my eyes locking into hers. “Yeah, I could do that.”
The next night after Thanksgiving dinner, Daisy kissed me. Closed mouth and on the cheek. But she kissed me.
“Come with me,” I said to her as she dropped me back off at my bus.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“What’s a sweet little thing like you doing working at a bar anyhow?”
“I’m not as sweet as I look, Beau. Trust me.”
“What do you have keeping you here?”
“My family.”
“Haven’t you ever wanted to do something crazy before? Shake things up a bit?”
She lifted a single shoulder, though the flicker in her baby blue eyes told me she was considering it.
“You could stay here and work at the bar the rest of your life or you could hop on that bus with me and live a little.”
She toyed with her bottom lip, staring over my shoulder and into the tinted glass windows of the Beau Mason wrapped bus behind us.
“If you don’t like it – if you don’t like me or if I don’t like you – I’ll buy you a plane ticket and ship you home, and you can forget we ever met. How’s that sound?”
She smiled before laughing, and while the notion of riding off into the sunset with that sweet little plaything in my bus seemed exciting at the time, the reality of it wore on me quickly. It wasn’t love at first sight. It wasn’t fireworks and goose bumps.
It was the promise of a distraction.
My intention was for her to be a diversion, and to maybe find something in her I hadn’t been able to find in anyone since Dakota. Daisy was a refreshing change compared to most of the women I met on the road, and I wasn’t quite ready to let her go so fast.
“Fine. I could use a little change in my life about now,” she breathed. “But just for a little bit.”
“Morning,” I said as I met Beau in the kitchen just after sunrise the following day, forcing a smile on my face that proudly proclaimed I was over what had happened the night before.
If the whole news anchor thing ever fell through, I could pursue acting.
“Coffee?”
“Please.”
Beau handed me a mug with some co-op brand printed on it and steam rising from the top, filling my lungs with hot, roasted goodness.
“You seem to be in betters spirits,” Beau declared, watching me sip my coffee as I stared out the south-facing window. “I take it you slept well?”
“I did. Haven’t slept in a twin bed in forever, but it was cozy.” I offered a smile. Three more days. I had to make it three more days. If I had to fake it until I made it, so be it. “When should we start?”
Beau turned to face me, hooking one hand into his belt loop. “Miles and Gracie are coming out today. Should be here any minute.”
“No school?”
“Conferences.”
“So you’re babysitting today?”
“Just until noon,” he said, sipping his coffee. “Ivy’ll come pick them back up when she gets off work.”
Three car doors slammed outside a moment later, and Beau stood to peer out the window.
“Speak of the devil,” he said as he trudged toward the door and slipped his boots on. I waited, watching quietly from inside as two grinning little angels ran into his arms. They looked to be maybe five to seven years of age, and their gap-toothed smiles told me he was their favorite uncle in the whole entire world.
Watching Beau with his niece and nephew held a sweet pain like I’d never tasted before. He would’ve been a good father, or at least he was in that alternate universe we lived in. Seeing Beau play with those kids was like watching a video of what might have been in real time.
He hoisted Gracie up onto his shoulders as he chased Miles around, and Ivy headed inside with two book bags.