The One Who Changed Everything (The Cherry Sisters)

by Darcy, Lilian

  “We had an agreement, Emma and I, and I was fighting not to break that by getting involved with you. I lost the fight tonight, but the divorce is nearly through. Just a week or two more.”

  “I’ll look forward to seeing the paperwork on that.”

  “And if you want, I’ll show it to you. Look, I haven’t handled this well.”

  “No...you think?”

  “Believe it or not, I was trying.”

  “Hate to think how it would have gone if you hadn’t been, Tucker.” The sarcasm was light and bitter, and even in the midst of this, he felt the pull of her energy.

  Arrgh!

  He stepped back, intensely frustrated by his own inability to decide how to come at this, whether to tell her it was just the marriage that was holding him back. He didn’t in all honesty know if that was the case. How could he tell her truthfully that everything would be fine as soon as the divorce was final, and that he had no other doubts? The sheer strength of what he felt filled him with doubt right now.

  Ten years ago, one sight of her had changed everything, and yet where had it led? Nowhere. Was that where it would lead again now?

  He should never have kissed her.

  And yet he hadn’t had the power or the will to stop himself.

  A mess. Great. Just what he’d so much wanted to avoid. Just like his father.

  The step back had been a mistake—one amongst many. It allowed Daisy to shut the car door, and she didn’t waste the opportunity. In the middle of him trying to say to her, “Let’s talk when we’ve had a chance to cool down,” there was a slam and he knew she wouldn’t even have heard beyond the second word.

  She had the engine turning over in two seconds, and another two seconds after that she’d put it in gear and was pulling away. He had two choices, launch himself onto the hood or the roof like a character in an action movie, or watch her drive away.

  He chose the second option. Told himself not to be stupid and melodramatic. This wasn’t the end. They could talk tomorrow. They would talk, he’d make sure of it. In the meantime, he just had to work out what he was going to say.

  Chapter Eleven

  There was a familiar car parked beside the Cherry family residence when Daisy drove down the resort driveway in the dark.

  “We got here today rather than tomorrow,” her mom announced, stating the obvious.

  “Why didn’t you call and let me know?”

  “We didn’t want you to stress.”

  “Why would I have stressed?”

  “Well, we didn’t know if we’d manage to make the drive all in one day and we didn’t want you to worry about the state of the site.”

  “Why would I have done that?” Daisy knew she sounded tetchy, but she couldn’t help herself.

  She was tired and angry and racked with conflicting emotions. She’d wanted to slump on the couch with the TV running mindlessly in front of her while she tried to sort through what had happened with Tucker tonight, and now here were her parents, and the last thing she needed was for either of them to guess that something was wrong.

  “You might have felt you had to tidy it up for us. Because it looks a mess,” her mom said.

  “But I’m not worried about that. Of course it’s going to look a mess at this stage in the work. Are you worried? Did you want me to tidy it?”

  “We thought you might worry that we’d be worried.” Denise came to a stop, hearing herself. She switched her slightly plaintive, anxious tone for one that was brisk and sensible. “You’re right, I’m being ridiculous. Anyhow, we didn’t call, and we’re here, and we were slightly concerned that you weren’t.”

  “You only just arrived?”

  “Five minutes ago.”

  There was a beat of silence in the air as Daisy’s parents attempted to recall that she was over thirty years old and that they didn’t need to ask her where she’d been just because it was after eleven at night and she’d only just gotten home. They battled with themselves for several long seconds, won victory over their curiosity and maintained a heroic silence.

  Daisy took pity on them. In any case, she needed to give them the news on Kyle. “The reason I wasn’t here... We had an accident on site today, one of the Reid Landscaping crew. He had an epileptic seizure and fell into the pool and hit his head.”

  “Is he all right?”

  “Much better than he was. He’s regained consciousness and his family is with him.” She skipped over the details of Annette and Rebecca and their hostility. “I’ve been at the hospital. Tucker was there, too, and it got late and we grabbed some pizza.”

  “Long day,” her dad suggested.

  “That’s right. Sorry if I’m sounding like a witch.”

  “You’re not, honey.”

  That was generous on their part. She was, and she didn’t hold out much hope of improvement. Or not until she’d had some sleep, at least. She made a quick excuse and headed up to bed, then lay there with sleep a hundred miles away.

  Tucker was married.

  He’d kissed her and she’d felt as if she was in heaven, and he’d said those words I’m married and it had taken her straight to a kind of hell.

  The problem with being thirty-one years old and single was that you’d heard all the variations on that theme, whether it was from your own experience or from listening to friends, or just from watching shows on TV. Some men thought that “married” was a very flexible condition, and there was always a justification, from their point of view.

  Marriages did end. Tucker’s was apparently on the point of doing just that.

  If she could believe him.

  Because some men lied.

  Was Tucker that type? Her heart said no, but could she trust her own judgment when she knew how much it was impaired by the wild wanting in her body?

  They’d kissed tonight. They’d just kissed, nothing more. In an unappealing public place, with the temperature twenty degrees lower than comfortable. And yet the kiss still burned all through her, kindling into life every time she thought of it, the way the embers of a forest fire sparked into life when the wind sprang up.

  She could still feel his mouth on hers, feel the soft strength of his palms against her cheeks. She could still taste him, smell him. Her body still throbbed with need for him, throbbed with its insistence that this was right. Something that felt this good had to be right, didn’t it? Right, and important.

  Her body said so, her heart said so, and she fought not to believe either of them, because the loss of control was frightening. It reminded her of how she’d felt in the heady early days with Michael, as if her life was being swept along on a great powerful tide. It had been wonderful at the time, and it had ended in ashes, and she didn’t want that again.

  At four in the morning she was still lying there with the sheet twisted around her like a rope. Cursing, she straightened it out, got up and drank some water, came back to bed and felt sleep overtaking her at last.

  It didn’t last nearly long enough. After what felt like five minutes of oblivion, she heard her mom knocking at her door and calling her name, and realized when she took a bleary, one-eyed look at the clock that it was already after nine.

  “Sorry I slept in so late,” she croaked. She could hear the sounds of the workmen, but for once had slept through their arrival.

  “And I’m sorry to wake you,” Denise called. “You must have needed it. Honey, Jackie Bennett from the Reid Landscaping office is on the phone for you. Shall I tell her you’ll call her back?”

  “No, I’ll take it.” She struggled out of bed, opened the door and took the cordless phone.

  “Hi, Daisy,” came Jackie’s voice, managing to sound both cheerful and apologetic at the same time. “We have a slight problem with the bricks for the barbecue area, and I’m wondering
if you could possibly come in...”

  “I’ll be there in an hour.”

  And there is no reason to think that Tucker will be there, too.

  He wasn’t.

  She dealt with the problem that Jackie had flagged. The company who made the decorative brick that was her first choice for the barbecue area had gone out of business, so she needed to make a new selection.

  Fifteen minutes and it was done.

  If she’d done it in fourteen minutes, she might have missed what happened next.

  “Hey, Emma,” Jackie said as the front door opened and a stranger entered. “Wow, it’s good to see you!”

  A stranger’s face, but Daisy had no doubt as to who she must be.

  This was Tucker’s wife.

  “Hi, Jackie, same back at you,” she said in a crisp accent that Daisy couldn’t quite place. Not American, definitely. English, maybe, but with a hint of something European and exotic in it. She was thin and brunette and model tall, very neat and chic and well groomed and Daisy hated her on sight.

  It was a horrible shock to feel it—such a gut-level surge of ill feeling that shouldn’t have been there but was, oh so powerfully.

  “What can I do for you today, honey?” Jackie said to Tucker’s wife with casual good cheer.

  “Nothing. I’m not really here. Flying visit. Just had these papers to drop off.” She placed a large envelope in a wire in-tray on the front desk that had Tucker’s name on it.

  “Are these...?” Jackie asked, suddenly alert.

  “Yep. Earlier than we expected.”

  “Wow! Congratulations! I mean, I guess...”

  Emma laughed. “Is that what people are supposed to say? You’re sounding doubtful.”

  “I’m trying to find the right thing. You know I’d have preferred congratulations for a different reason.”

  “You’re too much of a romantic. Life doesn’t work that smoothly.”

  “It can,” Jackie stated, sounding slightly aggrieved. “There’s absolutely no reason why it can’t.”

  “This is why I like you, Jackie, you’re forty-one years old and you still believe in happy endings.”

  “And if you don’t believe in them, then you need me in your life more than I thought.”

  “Actually, I’m pretty happy at the moment, celebrating a whole new chapter in my life, although if it’s going to lead to a happy ending, I’m not so sure. Maybe just an interlude. I’m not feeling a need to tie myself down with that right now. I’ve been tied down for three years, for Max’s sake, and that’s what needed to happen. But let’s...” Emma trailed off, a hand movement filling in the blank. Let’s not talk about this anymore.

  “Tucker’s not around, unfortunately,” Jackie said.

  “That’s okay, just make sure he gets these. Well, I know you will.”

  “Should I text him?”

  “No, no need. Doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you text or call about, don’t you think?”

  The two women shrugged at each other. Their mood seemed wry, almost bittersweet. Could these be the finalized divorce papers Tucker had talked about last night? They must be, Daisy decided, trying to stay calm. It made sense of everything they’d said.

  “Anyhow, I must run,” Emma said.

  “You’re not staying for coffee?” There was disappointment in Jackie’s tone. The two women liked each other. Were friends. Daisy realized that Emma appeared in two or three of the pictures on the showroom walls, wearing shirts with the Reid Landscaping logo. She’d worked here once.

  “I really can’t.” Emma sounded as disappointed as Jackie did. “I’d love to catch up, but I have someone with me.” She gestured out to the parking lot, where Daisy could see the silhouette of a male head and torso at the wheel of a white car. As she glanced at him, he opened the car door and climbed out, as if he needed to stretch his legs. He began to look at the fall plantings that bordered the small parking lot. “Soon, though.”

  “Call me,” Jackie suggested. “I can definitely tell we need to talk.”

  “Oh, we so do!” Emma agreed effusively. “Next week. Would that work for you? Lunch on Wednesday?”

  “Perfect!”

  “See you then.”

  She was gone in another moment, and Jackie turned back to her computer, straightening her shoulders as if to signal to herself and to Daisy that she was back at work. “Great, they’ve replied already, to confirm the order,” she told Daisy, about the new bricks. “Delivery by Friday.”

  “That’s great. Thanks.”

  “No problem. We’ll be in touch if there’s anything else, and I’m sure you’ll see Tucker on site today or tomorrow.”

  Daisy managed an appropriate goodbye and could only hope she’d successfully hidden how shaky she felt about seeing—meeting—Tucker’s wife.

  Ex-wife, apparently.

  Outside, the air hit her with a chill and she stopped on the steps to gather her control.

  And to watch.

  Be honest, Daisy, you want to watch. You’re pretending to look for your keys, but really...

  The man was still strolling around, but he turned when Tucker’s wife—ex—approached. Turned, grinned, put his arm around her, pulled her close and gave her a kiss on the mouth. She nuzzled against his neck for a moment, then looked up into his face and deep into his eyes, whispering something that made him laugh and kiss her again. After a moment, they broke reluctantly apart and climbed back in the car, and as Daisy crossed the lot to her own vehicle, they drove away. She didn’t think they’d even seen her, they were both so lost in each other.

  She felt so far out of her depth, her emotions like a rudderless boat being tossed in a storm, it wasn’t funny.

  * * *

  Daisy wasn’t back from the Reid Landscaping office when Tucker arrived at Spruce Bay. He knew she’d gone to the office because Jackie had let him know about the problem with the brick for the barbecue area, and had sent him a text just now to say, Problem solved. New order in. Delivery promised Friday.

  Which meant Daisy would probably be back here soon.

  The knowledge put him on a hair trigger.

  Denise and Marshall Cherry were here today, also, and keen to catch up with the changes that had happened since they’d been away in South Carolina. He felt hunted on all sides, even though he usually dealt well with nagging clients. Marshall and Denise weren’t even that bad. He just wished they weren’t here because when Daisy did get back, he really, really wanted a chance to talk to her and he suspected it wouldn’t happen with extra people around.

  Especially when those extra people were her parents.

  Sure enough, when he saw her car, it turned directly into the lot in front of the resort office and she disappeared immediately inside, and he thought to himself, That’s that, then. She’s still just as angry as last night.

  But she didn’t stay in the office for long. He didn’t realize she’d come over to the pool area until he heard a prompt from Brad—“Boss?”—and looked up to find her standing there all bundled up in a pink, red and cream fringed silk scarf and a padded jacket, its dark, smoky red bringing out the blond of her hair.

  “Do you have a few minutes, Tucker?” Her mouth was tight and her eyes narrowed, but she looked tense rather than angry.

  He straightened and dropped his tape measure on the ground, on full alert at once. “Sure, of course.”

  Marshall and Denise must be somewhere inside. Daisy didn’t take him into the office or upstairs to their private residence—which he’d barely entered since his familiarity with it ten years ago—but began walking to the still-raw and uncompleted pathway that led down to the boat dock and the lake, moving at such a rapid, determined stride that for once the length of his legs was no advantage.

  He followed
her and had to say to her, “Daisy, if you don’t slow down a bit and let me walk beside you, it’s really not going to look as if we’re just coming out here to consult about the paving.”

  Reluctantly, she dropped the relentless pace to a tense, staccato movement that was meant to look like a relaxed stroll. Even in the midst of the unspoken conflict between them, he couldn’t help smiling to himself as he put the brakes on his own pace. She never did things by halves. The pink and red she was wearing seemed like the perfect colors for her today—passionate and rich—and he wondered if she’d chosen them on purpose.

  “I saw Emma just now,” she said as they came down the slope to the boat dock. “Your wife, Tucker.”

  “Oh, you did?” This wasn’t what he’d expected.

  “She was dropping something off at the office.” She took a breath. “Tucker, I couldn’t help overhearing. From what she and Jackie said, I think it was your finalized divorce papers.”

  “Whew, really?” This hit him in a way he hadn’t expected. To be getting such news from Daisy, of all people. Today, of all days.

  He was divorced. The chapter was closed.

  If he believed in signs and omens... But he didn’t. He clawed his mind back to the practicalities, while the cold that he hadn’t noticed while he was working began to seep its way into his awareness. “She didn’t call me. And Jackie didn’t mention it.”

  “They seemed to think it wasn’t something you talked about in a text message.”

  “I guess not. Those papers have come through sooner than I expected.”

  “That’s what Emma said, too. I don’t know if I’m glad I happened to be there, or not.” They’d reached the boat dock. She stopped in the middle of the wooden planking and turned to him with an appeal in her face. “Tucker, please tell me the full story in a way that makes sense.” The words ended on a whisper that had him watching the softness of her mouth like a man hypnotized.