“Daisy, just get in the car, I’ll drop you home and you won’t even have to thank me.”
I hear the two men chuckle as I storm past them. The heat in the cab of Oliver’s ute is welcome and it almost immediately takes the chill from my bones. I wait for him, my patience already beginning to run out. The overhead light comes on as Oliver opens his door before he climbs in behind the wheel. I’m caught off guard by the beauty of the man, soaking wet and still gorgeous in the soft light of the car. I feel like I can’t breathe as if I’d somehow forgotten the repetition of inhaling and exhaling. The air from my lungs is caught somewhere between.
“So, do you still live in the same place?” His deep caramel voice rings through the silence. How had I forgotten the sound of it, but I hadn’t forgotten the effect it had on me.
“With my parents?” I laugh, but there is no humour in it. “No, I moved out of there quite some time ago.”
“Yeah, I suppose you did.” I hear it, though his voice is muffled. The ride is uncomfortable, the air thick as if all the words that had been left unsaid between us occupied the space.
“Last house on the right.” I give Oliver the final direction and shortly after he is pulling into my driveway. Moving his car into park, he turns to me. I hold my breath, waiting for him to speak.
“Daisy,”
I cut him off, “No, you don’t get to talk to me, Oliver. You’ve had five years to talk to me and I haven’t heard a single word from you. So no, you don’t get to do me a favour and expect that is all it takes to make up for you missing for five fucking years.” Gripping the handle I push at the door but it doesn’t budge.
“I was just going to say, the door sticks sometimes.” I can hear the smile on his lips, Oliver has never been a stupid man so I know he’ll hold in his laugh until I’m out of earshot, but it does nothing for the embarrassment creeping up my neck, searching out my cheeks.
“Yeah, right.” With more force than necessary, I bump the door, it doesn’t budge. When the door continues to stick on the third attempt, Oliver climbs out and walks to my side to pull it open. The door swings wide immediately and he smiles as if mocking me. Like a spoilt brat, I push past him, deeply inhaling the fresh clean air.
“Goodnight, Daisy blossom.” Oliver calls after me, I almost falter as I do my best to ignore him on my way to the door.
* * *
Munchkin and I wait for Oliver’s car to reverse from our driveway before flicking on the light. Rubbing her head with my chin she nuzzles in close to me.
“Well, today has sucked a whole bag. C’mon, let’s go make some tea.” Munchkin purrs as if it were the best idea she’s heard all day and I couldn’t blame her, after all, it was the best idea I’d had all day.
The boxes of tea are arranged neatly in the cupboard above the kettle. I liked tea, I liked it a lot and I liked to have a selection to choose from, mood dependant. Tonight, camomile, after experiencing Oliver Coxen again in this life, I needed something to settle my nerves.
He had me conflicted, my mind and body couldn’t agree on how we felt about seeing him again. I wanted my head to remind my heart how much it was broken when Oliver had left, but even my head was betraying me with thoughts of how good he looked under the soft interior light of his ute. Time had definitely been kind to him. He’d grown up over the years and filled out, defined and muscular where he’s used to just be toned.
I’d thought he looked sexy before but he’d grown into flawless and gorgeous. Instead of being the boy to love, he’d become the man to fuck. And it would be dirty too; unforgiving and punishing, and oh so damn sexy. I knew it. There is no way the sex with a man like Oliver Coxen could be anything but.
5
oLIVER
* * *
I’d had to bribe Drew for information on Daisy, it was like we were kids all over again, and I owed him my dessert for a week and I had to do his share of the chores. There was nothing like living back home with your parents and younger brother to make you feel like the grown arse man that you truly were.
In the end it had been worth it, I knew Daisy hadn’t been actively dating anyone for a long time, he’d told me the last time she’d went on a date it was with the new doctor who’d arrived in town over six months ago, who was now living with the librarian from the high school. That piece of information had cost me tonight’s dessert and there was no room for negotiating with him on the information that I didn’t need. It all cost something and some of it of no use whatsoever.
Sweet Nothing’s was Daisy’s, it was so obvious now. She had always loved to bake, especially as a kid and her last name, well it was a face palm in itself because it was Sweet.
For the last hour, I had been sitting out the front of her house. It had crossed my mind that it was possible she’d call the cops on me, have me labelled a stalker and try to have me arrested. Well, that’s what the spirited girl I remembered from my past would do.
Maybe things had changed. No, things had definitely changed. She looked different now, her chestnut hair was longer and her lips seemed fuller and soft, kissable in fact even when she had them set to scowl. I wondered if they still tasted like the cherry flavoured lip gloss she had loved. It was her eyes that had changed the most, they were still the same captivating sea green colour but now they were more intense, sadder maybe. I wondered if I had caused that. I couldn’t help but notice the twinkle of mischief she used to hide there had been missing last night.
Some time ago a light had come on in the room next to the front door, it was still on even though the sun had risen. If it hadn’t been for that single light I’d have thought Drew a liar when he’d told me what time she started at the shop. I’d have thought I had missed her.
A light rap on the passenger’s side window brings me back to the present. The scowl on Daisy’s face is a dead giveaway she’s not happy to see me. Leaning over I wind down the window.
“What are you doing here?” Yep, she wasn’t happy to see me, in fact, she was downright pissed.
“I thought you might need a lift now your car is out of action.”
“You thought wrong and now you can leave.”
“C’mon, Daisy. Let me give you a lift to work.”
“No. Thank. You.” She punctuates the words, speaking them loudly and clearly. No margin for misunderstanding.
“Why are you being so stubborn?”
“I’m not, I just don’t want your lift, just like I don’t want anything else from you, Oliver.” She storms off before I’m able to say another word. I rolled the car along beside her as she made her way off down the street. To her credit she never once looked back, instead, she put her earbuds in and lifted her chin in steely determination and ignored me the whole way to her shop. She even managed to ignore the five cars behind me that had continually honked because of the speed I was rolling along at.
Drew is standing at the front door of her shop when we arrive, a wide grin spread across his face like the Cheshire cat as I pull into the curb. He salutes to me before following Daisy inside. The smug bastard. Toying with the idea to wait for him to come back out, I think better of it and head over to the garage.