“I don’t see what the big problem is.” Daisy’s waitress friend Joan smiled down at the baby, cradled in the crook of her arm. While she talked to Daisy, she kept grinning and making silly faces at Angel. “I mean, geez, we should all have such terrible ordeals to live through. A rich, handsome man wants to spend time with you. Why don’t you go step out in front of a truck and end the misery?”
“Very funny.” Daisy folded Angel’s laundry and set it in a neat stack beside her on the couch. Joan had stopped by on her way in to work the lunch shift at Antonio’s. And she hadn’t stopped talking about Alex yet.
Late morning sunshine poured in from the single window overlooking the back alley. It wasn’t much of a view, but with her window box filled with determinedly cheerful yellow and orange nasturtiums, Daisy could fool herself into thinking she had a lovely garden just outside. The faded, overstuffed furniture was comfortable and welcoming, and just being here, in the nest she’d built for herself, gave her a feeling of warm satisfaction.
Which Joan was trying to shake up.
“Well, come on.” Her friend made big eyes at the baby. “You tell her, Angel. Tell Mommy to just chill out and enjoy herself already.”
“Easy for you to say,” Daisy countered. It had been nearly a week since that day in the mall when she and Angel had posed for their first picture together. And in that week, Alex had become even more of a regular visitor than he had been before. He would show up carrying a pizza, or a couple of videos or Chinese food or… Daisy shook her head. She just didn’t know what was coming next. And that was part of the problem. She liked knowing. She liked having a plan. Being able to see far enough down the road in front of her so that there were no surprises.
Unfortunately, around Alex she’d discovered way too many bends in the road to be able to see very far at all.
Joan slowly sank onto the other end of the sofa, curled her legs up under her and shifted Angel to her other arm. “I just don’t get it. Why does this bug you so much? Do you hate the guy?” As soon as she said the words, Joan’s face clouded up and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Hey, is that it? Do you want him to leave you alone and he’s not? Is he like a stalker or something? ’Cause if he is, I’ll talk to Big Mike at the restaurant and he’ll—”
“No!” Daisy spoke up so quickly it startled the baby, who jumped in Joan’s arms. Guiltily, Daisy lowered her voice again. “It’s not like that. And for heaven’s sake, I don’t need Big Mike.” Just the thought of the two hundred fifty pound wrestler-turned-waiter was enough to make Daisy smile. He looked so big and mean, yet was as protective of the waitresses as a mother hen with her chicks.
Sighing, she leaned back, still clutching a tiny pink T-shirt. “The problem isn’t that I don’t like him. It’s that I do.”
“Then I repeat—chill out and enjoy.”
“I can’t.”
“Why the hell not?”
To Joan these things were black-and-white. But then, Joan didn’t have to worry about a baby, did she? Yet even as that defense went through her mind, Daisy had to discount it. It wasn’t Angel keeping her from making more of Alex’s attentions than she was. This was all Daisy. She’d trusted a man once—and he’d left her alone and pregnant.
Not that she thought Alex was that kind of guy. But then she hadn’t thought Jeff was, either. Had she?
“I know what you’re thinking.”
Daisy sighed. “Suddenly everybody’s a mind reader.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Go on. What am I thinking?”
“You’re comparing Alex Barone to that worthless, lying, no good, lazy, shiftless…” she paused and covered Angel’s ears with her hands, so the baby wouldn’t hear her father’s name “…Jeff.”
“No, I’m not.”
“No?”
“All right, maybe I am. A little. Do you blame me?”
“I guess not,” Joan admitted, sitting back against the cushions and staring down into Angel’s eyes. “But, honey, all men aren’t like that louse. Are you going to join a convent because of one creep?”
“I don’t think convents take single mothers.”
“Their loss.”
Daisy smiled, in spite of the weird conversation. She’d always been able to count on Joan for just about anything. She’d been a good friend over the last few years. And she understood what Daisy had gone through after Jeff left. But Joan came from a warm, loving family. She had parents, two brothers who teased her unmercifully, and nephews and nieces, and she had no idea what it was like to be completely alone. To have no one for support when your legs got knocked out from under you.
Daisy just couldn’t risk being hurt that badly again. Not when it would affect Angel this time, too.
Joan glanced at her wristwatch, sucked in a breath and reluctantly laid Angel down on the wide sofa cushions. “I’m gonna be late. Gotta go.”
“Say hi to everyone for me.”
“I will.” She slung her brown leather shoulder bag onto her left arm, straightened her short, black uniform skirt, then said, “You know I’m on your side, right?”
“Sure I know that.”
“Okay. Just checking.” Waving one hand at Daisy to tell her to keep her seat, Joan headed for the door. But she paused with one hand on the door-knob. “You know,” she said with a smile, looking back over her shoulder, “if you decide you really don’t want him hanging around, you could always throw him my way.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” Daisy said wryly. But after Joan left, Daisy realized that the thought of Alex Barone with someone else made her stomach churn.
And that told her she was in big trouble.
Alex left his parents’ Beacon Hill town house and hurried down the walk toward the street. Late morning sunlight poured over the city in a pale warning of the summer heat lurking just around the corner. Soon enough the city would be steaming under a blanket of humidity. But for now, there was a breeze drifting in off the ocean and the promise of another day spent with Daisy and the baby.
Behind him, he heard the front door open and close again quickly. The rapid click of heels on the walk told him who was chasing him even before he turned around to say, “What is it, Rita? I’m in a hurry.”
“Yeah,” his younger sister said. “I noticed.”
Squinting in the sunlight, he let out a hiss of impatience. He’d cut short his visit with his parents for a reason. And that reason was waiting for him in a tiny apartment on the other side of town. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Rita dismissed his irritation as only a sister could. “I mean, you’ve hardly seen the family since you’ve been back in town. You’ve been spending all your time with Daisy, haven’t you?”
A teenager on a skateboard shouted “Heads up!” and barreled toward them along the sidewalk.
Alex grabbed his sister’s arm and pulled her out of range. Then, leaning back against the SUV he’d rented a few days ago, he watched her for a long minute before saying, “That’s none of your business, Rita.”
“Family’s family.”
“And who I see is up to me.”
“I know that.” A breeze whipped her hair across her eyes and she plucked it away to stare up at him. “Don’t get me wrong, I like Daisy.”
“Then what’s this about?”
She shrugged and shoved both hands into the pockets of her jeans. “Look, Alex, Daisy’s a sweetie. I know that. But she’s a single mom with a lot to deal with right now.”
“And?”
“And you’re a guy who’s on his way out of town.”
“Not for another three weeks.”
“Oh, well then, never mind.”
Impatience tugged at him, but Alex knew his family well enough to realize he wouldn’t be going anywhere until Rita had said what she wanted to.
“Say what you came out here to say, all right?”
“Fine. Daisy doesn’t need you pretending to be Prince Charming before you fuel up your jet and fly off into the sunset.”
“What am I supposed to do?” he demanded. “Not see her? Stay away?”
Rita looked up at him and he saw understanding and sympathy in her eyes. Neither of which appealed to him at the moment. “If you’re just going to walk away from her in three weeks, then yeah.”
“And if I’m not going to walk away?” The words were out before he could censor them. He’d been doing a lot of thinking lately, and most especially, he’d been thinking about having to leave Daisy. Hell, a few weeks ago he hadn’t known she existed. Now he woke up every morning eager to see her. Wanting to be with her, near her. He wanted to touch her. Wanted to kiss her, hold her and have her turn to him in the night. He wanted to belong in that tiny apartment with the rain forest look to it. That cozy sense of warmth she created wherever she was drew him in and made him want more.
And the thought of leaving her in three weeks made him almost regret, for the first time, being in the military.
Rita smiled up at him. “Could this be it?”
He frowned at her. “It what?”
But she didn’t answer. She just chuckled, shook her head and muttered, “I never would have believed it.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“Not a thing, big brother,” she said, and rose up on her toes to plant a kiss on his cheek. “Not a single thing.” Then she turned and headed back to the house, leaving Alex staring after her, wondering why women had to be so damned confusing.
“I said, you’ve made a mistake.” Daisy kept one hand on the doorjamb and the other on the door itself, ready to slam it shut and lock it, just in case. It paid to be careful anyway, but when you were dealing with a surly deliveryman who had to weigh three hundred pounds…
“Look, lady,” he muttered, waving his clipboard at her again, as if it were a magic wand and this time he’d be able to make her change her mind. “It says right here—deliver to Daisy Cusak. You Daisy?”
“Yes, but…”
“Last name Cusak?”
She huffed out a breath. “Yes.”
“Then we don’t got a problem, do we?” He stared down at her through two steely-blue eyes set in a wide, weatherworn face. Clearly, he expected her to back up and let him in with whatever was stacked behind him in the narrow hallway.
Daisy was not going to comply.
“There is a problem because I didn’t order anything and I’m—”
“I ordered it,” said a voice from the hall. A familiar voice. One that had the ability to trail along her skin like silk.
“Alex?” She tried to peer past the boxes and the mountain of man standing between her and the hall. But she wasn’t about to let go of that door. Not yet.
“I’m here.” In another second or two, he appeared, squeezing between two huge boxes and the big man who was growing more surly by the minute.
“What’s this about?” she asked as Alex stepped into the apartment. He took her arm and moved her out of the way, while opening the door wider at the same time.
“Just a sec,” he said. Then to the deliveryman he said, “Just bring it inside. I’ll take it from there.”
“Okay by me,” the fellow said, giving Daisy a look that told her he was thankful that at last a man had arrived to clear things up.
“Alex,” she demanded as she watched a stranger set two big boxes and several smaller ones down in the middle of her already cramped living room, “what is going on?”
He just grinned, dipped into his jeans pocket for his wallet and pulled out a couple of bills. Handing them to the man, he said, “Thanks,” and let him out, closing the door behind him.
Once they were alone again, Alex glanced around the room. “Where’s the baby?”
“She’s asleep.”
“Good.”
He looked so pleased with himself. A slow smile curved his mouth and seemed to reach across the room to light a small fire in her belly. She deliberately tamped it out. Hormones. It was just hormones.
“Alex, what are you doing?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Yeah, so far.” She glanced down at the unopened cartons and back again to him. “What is all this stuff?”
“I went shopping.” He shrugged, then dropped to his knees beside the biggest box. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small knife, opened it up and slit the cardboard.
“For what?” She stepped to the side, so she could keep an eye on both him and the box.
“You’ll see.” When he had the strapping tape cut away, he tossed the lid of the box aside and said, “Ta-da.”
Daisy looked down and saw a disassembled crib. Frowning, she shifted her gaze to him. “A crib? Angel already has a crib.”
“I know,” he said, then pulled some of the packing paper away from the intricately carved, pale oak headboard. “But this is the Cadillac of baby furniture.”
She was sure it was. The thing was gorgeous, and compared to the secondhand crib she’d painstakingly painted herself, it looked even better. And apparently Alex thought Angel deserved more than her mother could provide. Which stung Daisy more than she wanted to admit.
She’d been taking care of herself for a long time. She didn’t need a rich, handsome prince riding to her rescue.
As he pulled piece after piece out of the carton and she stood there, silently watching, Daisy felt her control slipping away. The shiny new crib made her whole apartment look different. Instead of cozy and familiar, the furniture now looked a little shabby. Forlorn. She’d always taken pride in the home she’d made for herself. But now she was seeing it as Alex must see it.
And she didn’t like it one bit.
“Take it back.”
“What?”
“I mean it, Alex. Take it back.” She moved away from the carton and him. “Angel already has a bed. We don’t need this.”
Obviously confused, he said, “I know you don’t need it. I just wanted you to have it.”
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“Why? It’s a simple question.”
He set the crib aside and stood up to face her.
“Because I saw it and I thought, apparently wrongly, that it would make you happy.”
“Because what I can give her isn’t enough?”
“That’s not what this is about.” His voice dropped a notch or two, and she heard a thread of anger rising through it.
Damn it, since when was giving someone a present a capital offense? For the first time ever, Alex had dipped into the inheritance he’d come into when he turned twenty-one. Until now, he’d been content to live on his salary as a navy pilot. It was only for Daisy and Angel that he’d wanted more.
And hadn’t that turned out well?
“I’m not spending time with you because you’re a Barone, you know.”
“I know.” He threw his hands up, then let them slap against his thighs. Where was this coming from?
“I don’t care if you’re rich.”
“My family’s rich. I’m a pilot.”
“Whatever. I’m not interested in your family’s money.”
“I never said you were.”
“Then why would you do all of this without even talking to me first?”
He crossed the room to her in three angry strides. Damn it, he’d wanted to help. To make her smile. To do something nice for a woman he was pretty sure didn’t experience that very often. And if he said all that to her, he had the distinct feeling she might punch him.
“I was downtown, picking something up for my mother, when I looked in a window and saw this crib.”
Her gaze fixed on him, waiting.
“And like an idiot, I thought you’d like it. I thought it would be a nice surprise.” He grabbed hold of her shoulders and ignored the flash of heat that swept from her body straight into his. “I love Angel. Like she was mine. I wanted to do something nice for her before I shipped out. Okay?”
That wasn’t all of it. That wasn’t nearly all. He’d wanted to make Daisy smile. To see her eyes sparkle with delight. To be the one to make her happy.
Idiot.
“You don’t have to spend your money on us, Alex.”
“Yeah,” he snapped, letting her go and turning around to pack up the crib again. “You know, I noticed that there was nobody holding a gun to my head, forcing me to buy these things.”
“I just don’t know what to do here,” Daisy said softly, and he looked over his shoulder at her. “Nobody’s ever… Well, I mean…”
“You could say thank you.”
“I could.” She took a step closer to him.
Alex stood stock-still, not wanting to break the connection that held them.
When she was less than an arm’s reach away, she went up on her toes and gave him a quick, light kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.”
He ground his teeth together and fisted his hands at his sides to keep from reaching for her. He wanted nothing more than to yank her close, wrap his arms around her and kiss her until neither of them could breathe. But the moment was too tenuous for that. And she’d given him no sign at all that she was interested in him as anything other than a friend.
Well, he wasn’t about to trust his heart again to a woman who didn’t want it. He’d learned that lesson the hard way. So he fought down his own instincts, his hunger, and said simply, “You’re welcome.”
They were so close he could feel her breath and count the beats of her heart, throbbing at the base of her throat. He wanted her more than anything. He spent his days being her friend and his nights dreaming about being her lover.
And neither situation was good enough.
He wanted more.
For both of them.
But if Daisy hadn’t wanted the gifts he’d brought her, why would she want him?