Daisy strode through the pasty-white hallways of the hospital. This morning, she’d been awake before dawn and known exactly what she wanted to do. Still, she’d stayed in bed listening to the sound of Wade’s quiet and even breaths. Trying to decide if she should tell him about her plan. But if she told him, he’d talk her out of this. Or he’d want to come with her.
This was one thing she had to do alone. Face the man who’d wrecked her family. The man who’d wrecked her life. Were Maggie anywhere to be found, Daisy would do the same with her.
Now, the sounds of her boot heels thudded against the linoleum floor.
She approached the nurse on the second floor of the cardiology wing. “I would like to see Rusty Jones, please.”
“Visiting hours are after five o’clock,” the snooty nurse said. “Come back then.”
“No,” Daisy said. “I’m his daughter, and I need to see him now.”
“His daughter? Which one?” The nurse flipped through some forms on the desk.
Aw, hell no.
“He has more than one?”
“Two, I think? No one knows each other, apparently. But it’s the first time I’ve seen you around.” She studied Daisy with narrowed eyes.
“Yes, I’ve been out of town. Daisy Mae Carver. He’ll recognize the name.”
“Have a seat.” The nurse indicated a row of empty chairs. “I’ll check with his doctor and see if he’s up for visitors today.”
Well, if he wasn’t up for visitors, Daisy supposed she would stick around until he was. She’d driven all this way, after all, not even taking the time to leave Wade a note. Regret pulsed through her because he’d likely wake up and be worried to find her gone. With his truck.
She’d seen the regret in his eyes last night. His girlfriend was the daughter of two horrible people who obviously didn’t know the meaning of loyalty. Of faithfulness. Would Wade view her the same way? Had her stupid DNA determined that she’d wind up like her mother? No man would want a wife like Maggie. Daisy had two strikes against her. She didn’t have Hank’s DNA, but that of a no-good, cheating, rodeo cowboy. With three daughters? Seriously? Were they all illegitimate, or was she the only one? Daisy burned with anger. If Rusty wasn’t dead yet, maybe she’d help facilitate that.
A couple of long hours later, the nurse gestured to the room. “You can go in and see him. Make it a short visit.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Daisy stomped toward the room. “This won’t take long.”
But when she crossed the threshold of the doorway, all the hot air whooshed out of her. She barely recognized the man she’d supposedly met at her auto shop a year or so ago. That man had been lively and wily. Funny, with his Southwest idioms. Now, his face was pale against his shock of white hair. His arms were attached to various leads, the skin purple and blotchy in places.
He didn’t look like he’d ever been on a bucking horse.
“Daisy Mae,” he said in a hoarse voice.
“I go by Daisy. Just Daisy.”
“You look just like your mama. Man, she was beautiful.” He beckoned her closer. “I heard the news. And I’m sorry.”
Sorry. That’s something she hadn’t expected to hear out of the man.
“It’s too late to be sorry,” she said.
“You’re right about that, young lady. But I can’t go back and change things, so all I have for you is the sorry.”
It was hard to argue with that. “I don’t want to be your daughter.”
“I know.”
“I… I’m just here to tell you that I already have a father. His name is Hank Carver and he never abandoned me. He was always by my side, practically my best friend when I was growing up. You and my mother both left me. So, whether or not my DNA matches yours, that doesn’t matter to me.” She took a breath. “I just wanted to tell you that I already have a family.”
“Well said, darlin’. Well said. Hank is a much better man than I ever was. I guess what happened is an accident of biology. And I’m sorry you had to find out. I never wanted the stupid DNA test. I was going to leave you my money either way. It was my fool brother who insisted. Maybe we’d all have been better off not ever knowin’ for sure.”
“I thought so, too, but I’m glad I know. Secrets shouldn’t be kept in a family. I plan on telling mine the truth and they’ll accept me anyway. That’s who they are. Good people, like me.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
She cleared her throat. “Do I have sisters?”
“’Fraid so. They came out of nowhere when word got out I was dyin’. Funny how that is. I had a little money set aside from all my years in the rodeo. You’re the only one I thought might actually be mine. The timing and all.”
“Or because my mother was kind enough to tell you?”
“Now, I know you must hate her, and I can’t blame ya. But ya know, darlin’, your mother was a very sad woman. She told me that she’d fallen in love with a man who still loved someone else. After a while it didn’t work anymore. She felt that she deserved better.”
“You?” Daisy snorted.
“Heck no, not me. I think I was pretty much nothing to her but a diversion. Contrary to what you might think, hookin’ up with rodeo cowboys was not something she did all the time. She wasn’t what we like to call a buckle bunny. Got the feelin’ this was a one-time deal for her. She said she was going back to try to work things out with her fella.”
“Did you know that she was married?”
“No, I didn’t. Can’t recall if I asked.”
“You should have asked.”
“Maybe, darlin’, but I wasn’t the married one.”
“Are all you rodeo cowboy likes this?” She waved her hands around. “Spreadin’ your seed around, makin’ the world a better place?”
Daisy had spent her life trying to be different than Maggie. How on earth had she wound up in the same place? Here she was, in love with another rodeo cowboy. Who knew how far and wide he’d spread his seed? The thought choked off her airway.
“We’re not all ‘seed spreaders,’ as you like to say.” He held up air quotes. “Some cowboys are family men who travel with their wives. Sometimes the children, too. Others are loners and dead serious about winning. No time for hanky-panky. Only some of us are like me, or how I used to be.”
She didn’t know that she believed this man, but it didn’t matter.
“There’s no point in talkin’. I just thought I’d come in person to tell you that I don’t want your money.”
“Take the money,” a man said from behind her. Daisy whipped around to find the other Mr. Jones in the doorway, Rusty’s brother. “Hello, Daisy.”
“I’m only here for a minute.”
He held up a palm. “I understand. Don’t let me interrupt, but it’s my opinion that Rusty owes you this at the very least.”
“I owe her a hell of a lot more than that. But this is the best I can do.”
“Think of the money as a gift, Daisy. No strings attached. Rusty doesn’t expect you to visit his grave or be a devoted daughter in death.”
“Well, that’s good. Because it isn’t goin’ to happen. What about the other women? My…my sisters?” The word felt foreign coming out of her lips.
To think she’d always wished for a sister. Not like this.
“Only one of them had similar test results. You’ll share the inheritance with her.”
Sister. She had a sister. Not a real sister, of course. Not someone who grew up with her, sharing a room, brushing her hair, reading to her, chasing frogs, and collecting rocks and sticks. Not someone who worried about her enough to invade her privacy and ask who the sexy panties were for. Sadie.
At the thought, Daisy was caught between a sound that was somewhere between a snort and a sob. Daisy already had two sisters who were more real to her than someone who had a biological link. The words should mean more. Sister. Father. Mother.
“I don’t wish you any harm, Mr. Jones,” Daisy said to Rusty. “Thank you, but I don’t want your money.”
With that she turned and left the room. She wasn’t going to forgive him. The forgiveness was not hers to give. Hank should forgive, if he wanted to. He would be the only person owed an apology in this scenario. He’d raised another man’s daughter all along believing she was his own. It wasn’t fair to do that to a man.
Daisy was halfway to the nurse’s desk when she heard the sound of Wade’s deep voice.
“I don’t care when visiting hours are, ma’am, I need to find Daisy Carver and I need to find her now!”
The nurse turned her attention from Wade to Daisy when she stopped a few feet away from the desk. Wade’s gaze followed and his eyes met Daisy’s. His eyes soft and warm, he slowly walked toward her.
It seemed like a lifetime ago since last night when he’d held her and she cried her heart out.
Her feelings had not changed for Wade, but now she had tiny seeds of doubts. Maybe she’d wanted Wade so much that she’d formed him into who she wanted him to be. Loyal and faithful. Trustworthy. Was he all of those things or were those just words, too?
“I’m sorry I took your truck,” she said. “But I didn’t want you to talk me out of this.”
“Forget that.” He pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly against him. “I was worried.”
“I know.”
“You should know that I went looking for you at the ranch, and I showed Sadie the letter.”
“That’s okay. There’s no way I could keep this from my family. I was a dummy to think that I could.”
“Sadie wouldn’t tell anyone else. We can still keep this quiet, if you want.”
“No, I need to do this. It’s the right thing.” She nudged her chin toward Rusty’s room. “That’s what I was doing in there with Mr. Jones. Facing him. Telling him exactly what I thought of him and Maggie.”
“That’s my girl.”
She buried her face in his warm neck. “I’ve had a very long morning. And I just want to go home.”
The moment Wade found Daisy, every thought, every emotion he’d had for the past several hours just loaded, locked, and clicked into place. There was no longer even the slightest doubt in his mind that he loved this woman beyond what he’d believed humanly possible. If it hadn’t been proven to him once, when he feared she’d been injured, waking up finding her gone solidified his feelings. He’d do anything for Daisy to give her the life she deserved.
He followed her back to the Double C Ranch, and he figured later, they’d both drive back to his house in his truck. First, she would tell her family, and he’d be there to support her. There was so much he wanted to tell her. His life had become clear the moment he stopped resisting his feelings for her. Without a doubt, nothing in this new life of his would ever again be boring with Daisy at his side. She challenged him in every way and made him a better man. She was simply…everything. And she had to marry him. She had to say yes to the rest of their lives together.
For the first time in his life, he wanted this security and safety with a woman. All the domesticity he’d previously rejected and found dull and complacent. It no longer felt that way. Not with her.
He parked the truck he’d borrowed from Sadie right behind his own.
Daisy hopped out of his truck and walked over to him. “I need to tell everyone. What a Christmas present, right?”
Right. It was Christmas Eve. Tonight, Daisy and her family would be going to the midnight service, most likely. He’d be there with them, too.
“You can wait, if you want.”
“No, it’s going to be all over my face that something is wrong. And Sadie knows. She can’t keep a thing from Lincoln. I just…better get through this.”
“If that’s what you want. I’m there with you.”
Then she fixed him with those deep-emerald eyes and what he saw in them killed him.
Regret.
“I think I need to do this alone, too. You should just go home and I’ll…talk to you in a few days. When everything has calmed down some.”
“You don’t want to spend Christmas together.”
“I think it’s best…I…I know we made plans, but everything has changed.”
“Nothing has changed for me. I love you, Daisy.”
“And I love you. That’s what kills me. I spent half my life trying to be different than my mother. And now, look at me. I fell in love with a rodeo cowboy. Just. Like. Her.”
“Jesus, Daisy. She didn’t love Rusty. It’s not the same thing.”
“Isn’t it? I’ve loved you for so long that maybe I idealized you. You’re not this perfect man.”
“Sweetheart, nobody is.”
“That’s not what I meant. But it’s just I didn’t let myself think about the life you led before. I’m a pretty blank slate, and you’re…you’re…”
“Not a blank slate.”
“There’s lots of different kinds of cowboys in the rodeo circuit. Some men bring along their wives, girlfriends, families. Others are loners too intent on the win to be distracted. And others are like Rusty, having a good time with every buckle bunny they could find.” She took a breath. “Which one were you?”
“Do you really have to ask? I’m the loner.”
He’d been the cowboy too intent on winning to be distracted by anyone. Except for that last event. He’d lost his concentration and now he understood why. He’d still been grieving for his mother, and the fact was that rather than face his grief, he’d run from Stone Ridge. Run hard, and fast, and far from reminders of what he’d really lost. Everything that mattered.
He’d lost his focus and paid for it dearly.
“Wade, you had a reputation. I wouldn’t listen to the rumors, but maybe I just didn’t want to believe them. Those rumors about my mother turned out to be true, too. Secrets don’t work. They come out eventually and destroy lives.”
“We don’t have any secrets. If you want to know whether I was a monk, then no, I wasn’t. But I was no Rusty Jones.”
“I want to believe that.” She gnawed on her lower lip and tears sprung to her eyes.
His heart cracked open like a walnut. “But bottom line, you don’t.”
“Wade, I’m sorry. I don’t know if I can do this—”
“No need.” He held up a palm. “Don’t be sorry. If you don’t trust me, we have nothing. I think we’re done here.”
With that he turned, and hopped in his truck, salvaging a little slice of his pride.
He drove away without looking back, leaving his sore and bleeding heart on the Double C Ranch.