by Force, Marie
“Yes! Exactly!”
“In the time I’ve spent with Charlie, I’ve discovered there’s an awful lot to be said for normal. I’ve had enough drama to last me a lifetime.”
“How are things with you two?”
“Good. Normal. Slow… Like you, I have my issues. I’m not a big fan of being touched. I keep hoping that’ll change, and he’s been amazingly patient and supportive, despite the fact that I still haven’t told him the full story of what happened with Mark.”
“A wise person once told me that when the time is right, you’ll know it.”
Smiling, Sarah lifted her coffee mug. “Touché.”
“What a pair we are, huh?”
“We’re survivors, Daisy. Don’t ever forget that. We walked through the fire and came out on the other side better and stronger, but damaged, too. There’s nothing wrong with being damaged. We didn’t cause it, so there’s no shame in it.”
“You always make me think about things in a way I haven’t before, and you’re right. It’s not my fault. But it’s not David’s fault either. He deserves someone who can give him everything he needs.”
“Let him decide what he deserves. If it’s too much for him, you’ll know it soon enough. In the meantime, try to believe him when he tells you he’s willing to wait for you.”
“I’ll try. Thank you for always being there for me. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”
“It means just as much to me to have someone nearby who understands what I’m going through, too.”
“I’d better get to work.” Daisy got up and rinsed her mug in the sink, bent to give Holden a kiss on his chubby cheek and hugged Sarah on her way out of the kitchen.
“Hang in there, honey, and you know where I am if you ever need me.”
“Same to you.”
Sarah and Holden waved her off from the doorway of the Surf, and as Daisy walked to the hotel in North Harbor, she thought about what Sarah had said. She still wasn’t completely convinced that continuing her relationship with David was the best course of action, but every time she thought about sending him away, she felt sick.
Once she arrived at the hotel, the morning went by in a blur of paperwork, mini-crises, inventory, and running. Daisy must’ve been to the third floor no fewer than ten times, and it was only eleven. While her ribs were burning, the activity kept her from dwelling overly much on her personal dilemma, and she welcomed that relief.
Right before noon, Maddie appeared at the door, looking bright-eyed and excited. “Are you busy?”
“Always, but never too busy for you.” Daisy got up to remove the stack of towels that had landed on her visitor chair. “Come in.”
“I have so much news I don’t even know where to start.”
“Good news, I hope?”
“The best news. I just hope you agree.”
Something about the way Maddie said that set Daisy’s nerves on edge. “What does that mean?”
Maddie flashed a sheepish grin. “I did something…”
“What did you do?”
“Remember when the town council decided to use the land Mrs. Chesterfield left to the town for affordable housing?”
“I vaguely remember hearing something about that. What’s that got to do with me?”
“Mac and his cousin Shane have been working with an organization that builds houses for low-income individuals, and they’ve gotten the approval for the first house.”
“That’s wonderful. Everything around here is so expensive. It’ll be great for regular working people to have affordable housing, too.”
“We couldn’t agree more. It wasn’t that long ago that I was in dire straits financially, so I know how it feels to work all the time and never really get ahead. Which is why I filed an application for you to get one of the houses, and it was approved. One of the houses will be for you, Daisy.”
Daisy’s mind went blank. She heard the words that came out of Maddie’s mouth, but they refused to register.
“Say something. I’ve been so nervous about telling you because I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea about why I did it.”
“Why did you do it?” Daisy asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Do you see me as a charity case or something?”
“No, God, not at all! Who knows better than I do how hard you work and how expensive it is to live here? I remember you saying a few months ago that you might not be able to stay here for another winter, and that’s why I did it. That was the only reason why. And because you deserve a break after everything you’ve been through.”
Blinded by tears, Daisy wiped them away. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Tell me you’re not mad at me for doing this behind your back. I didn’t want to get your hopes up if it didn’t happen, and that’s the only reason I didn’t tell you.”
“I’m not mad. How could I be? No one has ever done anything like this for me. I’m so grateful, Maddie. I’ve never had a friend like you.”
“Our lives were very similar until Mac McCarthy knocked me off my bike. Don’t ever forget that.”
“I appreciate that you never forget it.”
“How could I? I lived hand-to-mouth for years. I’ll never forget where I came from or how blessed I’ve been.”
“This is unbelievable,” Daisy said as more tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt like she’d done nothing but cry for the last twelve hours, but these were tears of joy. “My very own house!”
“I’m so glad you think so, too! The other thing I wanted to tell you is that Mac and I are having a cookout tomorrow afternoon, and we’d like you to come. And bring David, too, of course.”
Daisy used a tissue to mop up the flood of tears. “I’d love to come, but I don’t know if he will.”
“We anticipated that possibility, and we spoke with Joe and Janey about it. They both said it’s fine with them if he’s there.”
“Oh, well… You actually asked them that?”
“We did.”
“I’ll check with him.”
“Good. And did I mention my sister is getting married, and the cookout is going to double as a wedding reception?”
Daisy’s mouth fell open in surprise. “Are you serious? I saw her yesterday, and she never mentioned that.”
“Probably because it happened last night.”
“They’re getting married tomorrow.”
“Yep.”
“Is it because of Jim?”
“You know about that, huh?”
“She was on the phone with Dan when I went to the store yesterday.”
Maddie’s brow arched in question, and Daisy realized she’d said too much. “And what, pray tell, were you doing at Tiffany’s store?”
Daisy made an effort to keep her expression vague. “I hadn’t been there yet, and I wanted to check it out.”
Maddie’s husky laugh echoed through the small room. “You’re a terrible liar, Daisy Babson. You should never, ever play poker. I hope you got something sinfully sexy that made Dr. David drool.”
Daisy knew defeat when it was staring her in the face. “I don’t know that he drooled, per se, but he definitely appreciated Tiffany’s taste in lingerie.”
“So things are moving right along?”
“You could say that.”
“You’re okay with…you know…everything?”
Maddie was so excited about the house and Tiffany’s wedding that Daisy didn’t have the heart to dump her problems on her friend. “I’m hoping I will be, eventually. He’s very good to me.”
“That’s awesome, Daisy. I’m so happy for you. Hell, I’m happy for both of you. He deserves to be happy, too.” She stood to leave. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“I’ll be there.”
“And you’ll try to talk David into coming with you?”
Daisy swallowed hard when she remembered that things with him were a bit uncertain at the moment. “I’ll try.”
“Tell him we’d love to see him
.”
“I will.”
“And tell him we mean that.”
Laughing, Daisy said, “I’ll do that, too.”
As she walked home later that afternoon, Daisy tried to wrap her head around the news about the house. It was one of the most exciting things to ever happen to her. Added to her burgeoning relationship with David, she could safely say things had never been better in her life.
That’s when everything usually went wrong for her.
“No,” she said. “Don’t think that way. Maybe this time will be different.” Up until last night—and even including what had happened then—everything about her relationship with David was different than anything she’d ever experienced with anyone else. For one thing, he was always nice to her. Always. She’d yet to see him annoyed or out of sorts or anything other than a perfect gentleman. In all the time they’d spent together, she hadn’t known a single moment of unease or fear that he might take out his frustrations on her.
That feeling of safety was new to her, and it might be the one thing she liked best about him. Of course, he was awfully nice to look at, too, which didn’t hurt anything. The thought made her smile as she took the stairs to her porch and used her key in the front door. Before the incident with Truck, she’d never felt the need to lock her door. Now she couldn’t conceive of leaving it unlocked.
Once inside, she curled up on the sofa and tried to calm her racing mind. David had said he wanted to see her tonight, but they needed to talk about where they went from here. And the thought of that conversation had her nerves stretched nearly to their limit.
* * *
David left the clinic on time for once, locking the door to the emergency entrance at the stroke of six o’clock. They’d had a relatively slow afternoon that had given him a chance to catch up on the endless paperwork that had accumulated into small mountains on his desk.
Never far from his mind as he worked was the offer from Dr. Garrity. As he stepped into the warmth of the late afternoon sunshine, David thought about the implications of the offer and whether he was even interested in the job.
On the one hand, the oncology specialty intrigued him. It had been his favorite rotation and had given him the opportunity to make a genuine difference for patients who were in the fight of their lives. After his own battle with lymphoma, he had a better understanding of what cancer patients were going through and could bring that life experience to his work. He really liked the other doctors in Garrity’s practice, too. They were all first-class physicians who would make for excellent mentors and colleagues.
For those reasons, the offer was highly attractive.
When he and Janey were together, their plan had been for him to come back to the island after medical school and take over the practice of the doctor who’d served the island since they were kids. He’d never really considered doing anything else. After they broke up, he’d floundered for a while after his treatment concluded, trying to figure out where he wanted to be.
He’d sort of fallen into the job on the island when Dr. Cal Maitland had left abruptly after his mother had a stroke in Texas. David had been home recuperating from the last of his treatments when Cal’s departure created an opening for the job David had hoped to have all along. Without much consideration, he’d taken the offer from the town council and never looked back.
He’d been fumbling and stumbling through life since he’d broken up with Janey, not giving much thought to the grand plan while he tried to get through every day. Now, however, he felt like he was finally coming up for air, and it was time to take stock of where he was and what he wanted.
After these last few weeks with Daisy, it was impossible to ponder what he wanted without also thinking about her and how she fit into the big picture. He was anxious to talk it out with her but also hesitant to give her reason for doubts when everything was still so new between them.
As he drove by the police station, he noticed Blaine’s SUV parked outside and made a spontaneous decision to stop and see his friend. He needed to bounce this dilemma off someone he trusted, and Blaine Taylor definitely qualified.
Inside, the officer on duty at the front desk asked Blaine if he was available for a visitor. A few minutes later, David was shown to Blaine’s office at the end of a corridor off the main dispatch area. Blaine was standing up and on the phone, but he waved David in.
“It’s all going to be fine, Mom,” he said, rolling his eyes at David as he grinned from ear to ear. “Just think of it this way, we could’ve eloped. Isn’t this better than that?” Blaine’s smile got even bigger as he held the phone away from his ear.
David could hear Mrs. Taylor yelling from across the room.
“Gotta go, Mom. I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow. Yes, I know. Bye.” He dropped his cell phone on the desk. “Oh my God! Note to self, don’t give Mom twenty-four hours’ notice the next time I get married.”
David’s mouth fell open in surprise. “You’re getting married?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Get outta here. Seriously?”
“Yep and I want you there. We’re tying the knot on the beach and then crashing Mac and Maddie’s cookout and turning it into a reception.”
“Oh, ah, I don’t know about that…”
“Come on, David. I need all the friends I can get there. My mom is flipping out, and Tiffany’s a nervous wreck even if she’s trying hard to hide it.”
“What’s the rush anyway?”
“No rush. I’ve wanted this for a while now, but now that the douchebag ex-husband is giving her a hard time about shacking up with me, we figured why not move up our plans a bit?”
“That’s awesome. Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” Blaine said with a satisfied smile. “I’m getting exactly what I want, even if my mother’s having a shit fit. Anyway, what’s up?”
“Nothing. Doesn’t matter. You’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
Blaine came around the desk and sat in one of the visitor chairs, gesturing for David to take the other. “Something brought you in here. How about you tell me what it was?”
David sat and leaned forward, elbows on knees. “I’ve been offered a job in Boston.” He spelled out the specifics as well as the many advantages that came with the position. “It’s a chance to specialize and to really make a difference.”
“You don’t feel like you’re making a difference here?”
“No, I do. It’s just that after having cancer, I think I could be really good at oncology. It was my favorite rotation during my residency. And then there’s Daisy… Things have been really great with us, and she’s liking her new position at the hotel, so it’s not like she’d want to move to Boston or anything.”
“Wow,” Blaine said. “I didn’t realize you two had gotten to the point where she’d factor into a decision like this.”
“Neither did I until I was faced with the decision and thought first of her,” David replied with a wry grin. “She’s a significant factor.”
“I sort of got the feeling you were liking general medicine and practicing here.”
“I do. I like both those things. I like feeling needed here. I like that I can’t leave the island without making sure I’ve got coverage from the mainland. That makes me feel important.”
Blaine grinned. “You’re like God around here.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Ask someone like Mrs. Murtry whether you’re right up there with God.”
David had saved the older woman’s life by performing a tracheotomy when she had a life-threatening allergic reaction.
“Or Chris Allston.”
Chris had severed a finger while trimming his hedges. David had preserved the finger, arranged for a medical helicopter to transport the injured man to a trauma hospital on the mainland and had kept him from bleeding out while they waited for the chopper.
“What would Paul and Alex Martinez have done without you over the last year?” Blaine raised a brow. �
�Need me to go on? How about Daisy? How about Sarah Lawry? Do you feel like you made a difference for them?”
“Yes, of course. And I appreciate what you’re trying to do. I know what I do makes a difference to the island residents. But is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?”
“I suppose only you know that for sure.”
“Sometimes I get tired of living in the town where so many people know I cheated on Janey McCarthy,” David said, getting to the crux of his dilemma.
“This may come as a newsflash to you, but you might be the only one still hung up on that. She’s moved on—happily, from what I can see whenever I’m with her and Joe. The rest of the McCarthy family must surely appreciate what you did for Mac and Maddie when their baby was born, not to mention that you were there for their sons after the sailboat accident.”
“They do.”
“So hold your head up high around here, David. You’ve paid your penance, and for what it’s worth, I think you’re pretty damned good at general medicine. You’ve made my job easier on more than one occasion.”
David got up and held out his hand to shake Blaine’s. “I appreciate that and the pep talk when you’ve certainly got better things to do.”
“No problem. So I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“You know I’d really like to be there, right?”
“I hope so.”
“Let me think about it.”
“Fair enough.”
“Congratulations,” David said. “I’m happy for you and Tiffany.”
“Thank you. I am, too.”
David walked out of the police station with a smile on his face, anxious to get to Daisy’s and hear what she had to say about the job offer.
Chapter 13
Since Blaine had to work until eight before he could break free for the weekend and Ashleigh was with Jim for the night, Tiffany decided to go to the home her mom shared with Ned Saunders to tell them her big news in person.
Francine and Ned were just sitting down to dinner when Tiffany walked in the back door.
“Hi, honey,” Francine said, leaning into the kiss Tiffany greeted her with. “This is a nice surprise.”