“Yeah right, whatever. Can you look into someone for me?”
“You’re not supposed to be working, and you know we aren’t supposed to use the databases for personal shit.”
“Do me a solid man, how many times have I done a favour for you without asking anything in return?” I hear him grunt at me through the line, and I know I have him cornered. He owed me, we both knew it. “I need you to look into a Constable Jason Devlin.”
* * *
Drew’s and dad’s cars were still missing from the driveway, so they hadn’t arrived home yet from work giving me the perfect opportunity to talk to mum alone about Daisy. I needed next level advice, advice from one of the few people I knew would give me a straight answer.
I find mum in the living room, a blanket of knitting resting across her lap as she reclined in the gray leather chair. There were many times when we were little that Drew and I would climb up into that chair with Mum, for a cuddle after a tough day at school or before it was time for bed. Looking at it now, I had no idea how all three of us even fit in it.
“Mum, have you got a sec?”
“Sure, Ollie.” Setting the needles and wool aside, she turns her full attention to me.
“I need some advice.” I ignore the fact that her perfectly plucked eyebrows shoot sky high.
“Sure, love. What is it you need advice on?”
“Daisy.” I answer her flatly, waiting for a further expression of shock that doesn’t come.
“You still love that girl, don’t you, son?”
“Yes, ma’am. I do. But she hates me.” I take the seat next to the recliner my mum was already occupying. “How do I make her stop hating me?”
“Matters of the heart are the hardest to navigate.” She thoughtfully pauses. “But not impossible.”
“I’ve already asked her to dinner but she refused, so now I have one hundred and forty-five cupcakes standing in my way.”
“Cupcakes?” At her confused expression, I explain to her the deal I made with Daisy, she lets out a light chuckle when I get to the end and shakes her head. “You broke her heart, Ollie. I know you never meant to hurt her but you did and that takes time to heal. Seeing you again must be dragging up all those feelings she thought she’d dealt with, so my advice to you is be patient with her. It’s going to take time.”
* * *
After my conversation with mum, I pull on my running gear to work off the overload of sugar I’d eaten. The breath rushing from my body, the beat of my heart and my shoes on the gravel are the only sounds surrounding me as I run, giving my mind plenty of cause to wander back to the conversation I’d had with mum.
I hadn’t given it too much thought of what it was like here for Daisy after I left. I knew she was pissed off with me; I mean, that was agiven from the way she looked at me and the epic levels she went to avoiding me now. She’d told me how she’d cried herself to sleep, remembering that moment and imagining her balled up in her bed, her tiny perfect body wracked with gut wrenching sobs and emotional turmoil I had caused, felt like I’d just had the wind knocked out of me. Doubled over, I couldn’t take another step until I caught my breath.
My lungs burn as I stretch my torso in an attempt to suck in more air. In my pocket, my phone starts it jolly tone. The screen says Trent, smiling to myself, I hope his calls means he has an answer for me already.
“Hey.”
“Ollie, that kid you wanted me to check out?” Direct and straight to the point, classic Trent.
“Yeah? What about him?”
“What’s the deal?” The motive for his asking pulls me up, he’d never questioned me on anything before, we’d been working in the same unit for our entire careers, even went through the academy together so we knew each other well enough by now to call each other out on our shit.
With a sigh, I confess, “He’s the cop here in Fosford and Daisy was getting a little flirty with him. He’s married and I wanted to know what fire she was playing with.”
“You got me to dig into the background of a fellow officer because of a piece of arse?”
“Daisy isn’t just a piece of arse, so how about backing the fuck off and telling me what you found, yeah?”
“Whatever, arsehole. He’s squeaky, like straight as they come. He married his high school sweetheart, never had so much as a parking ticket and the poor bastard was probably a virgin until their wedding night, he’s really that squeaky. He received some sort of commendation or some shit.”
“Yeah, right.” Processing the information my mind begins to whirl. There must be something about him, why else would Daisy be interested in him, a straight married real pillar of the community square type was not her thing. She’d be bored of him in five second flat. I thank Trent, tuck my phone back into the pocket of my shorts and turn for home. Something didn’t fit and it sure as shit was going to irk me until I worked it out.
16
daisy
* * *
Both of the Coxen brothers are standing at the shop door when I arrive, laughing together and mucking around like a couple of school kids waiting for the bell. Even with their slight difference in appearance there was no mistaking these boys for brothers, Oliver was as dark as Drew was fair, but they had the same chiselled jaw and sculpted high cheekbones, but there was difference in the way both men carried themselves, Drew was a little more goofy with a quirky sureness where Oliver was more, more intentional, confident within his skin and borderline arrogant in a charismatic and ridiculously sexy kind of way.
The fact I still saw him that way to cause my body to react in a flurry of butterflies and pools of heat didn’t go unnoticed.
Only when I begin my approach do they notice me. Drew pushes Oliver in the shoulder with his forearm, causing him to move a little unbalanced whilst Oliver stands still as if made from stone.
“Morning, Daisy Blossom.” Oliver’s greeting receives little acknowledgment other than a deserving eye roll from me and a snicker from Drew.
“What are you both doing here? I don’t open for another hour.” I unlock the front door, flicking on the lights with the switch just inside the door.
Standing in the doorway I prevent them access as I turn to face them both.
“Coffee. Like every day, Dase.”
“I thought that was why you’re here, Drew. I’m just not open for customers for another hour.”
Pointedly, I glare at Oliver. I step back and let Drew pass, Oliver stands stoic with a slight smirk on his lips, turning up at the side.
* * *
“You could just let him in, you know.” Drew tells me, as we both turn to watch as Oliver sits on the bench outside the shop.
“Waiting won’t kill him.”
“Still not an Ollie fan then? When are you going to forgive him, Dase?” There is a pleading in Drew’s tone, one that I didn’t appreciate and caused my skin to slightly prickle with heat.
“Forgive him for what exactly, Drew?” Lifting the last of the chairs from the tables, I turn to Drew and wait for his answer.