“What about you?” I ask, tapping her on the end of her nose.
“What about me?”
“How’s your life?”
“That’s a big question.”
“I’ve got all the time in the world, for you.”
“Awww,” she says, hugging me again.
“Well, I’m just working, doing some self-study as I mentioned, and that’s about it.”
“I don’t want to stick my nose where it belongs, but are there any other guys you’re talking to?”
“What do you mean?” she asks, taken aback by my question.
“I hear kids these days like to date around a lot, to not really just be in a monogamous relationship, but more to just date and have fun.”
“Not all of them,” she says.
“That’s what I figured, but I just wanted to make sure. I need to stay up with the times in that regard I guess.”
“I’m a bit of an old soul, I guess,” she says.
“I see that as a good thing.”
“I kind of do, but no one in my age group really does.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for starters they’re mostly dating around and just living the YOLO life.”
“The YOLO life?”
“Yeah, it’s an acronym for you only live once. It’s kind of an excuse to just act dumb, spend all your money, and have a lot of sex whenever and with whoever you want. Stuff like that.”
“Let me guess…it’s an app?”
She literally bursts out laughing. “Oh my gosh, I feel Coke in my nose right now.”
“Gross!” I say.
She can’t stop laughing as she hits me playfully with a pillow.
“It’s not an app, but there are plenty of apps for it. Tinder is the big one.”
“Like to light a fire?”
She laughs again. “Well, yeah I guess the idea is definitely for the app to be the spark to a sexual fire.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I guess it’s easiest to just give you a personal example.”
“Okay.”
“I was in a relationship not so long ago, and the guy I was with…well…he said he wanted to download Tinder just to see what it looked like. Just to know what everyone was talking about, he said.”
“And you dumped him right then and there.”
“That would have been the smart thing, but no. I trusted him. Foolishly.”
“It’s not foolish. He’s was your man and you were supporting him, even though it definitely doesn’t seem like he was doing the same.”
“Yeah, that’s it exactly. So of course just to know what everyone was talking about turns into just trying it out with…I don’t know…maybe five or ten girls?”
“What a little shit! Sorry, for my language. I usually don’t talk this way around a lady but that guy who doesn’t even deserved to be called a man, is just that exactly.”
“I couldn’t agree more. But the best part is I catch wind of this and break up with him. A couple months later he’s calling me wanting to get back together. Says he realizes the mistake he made and that he loves me.”
“And?” I say. I don’t like where this is going at all. No woman should ever be treated that way, and this girl in particular is way too special to me to ever get hurt again. I pity the fool that would even try.
“Well, I love you can be like kryptonite to a woman. It’s our weakness. I don’t pay him any mind, but the more he keeps saying it the more I start to think a little, that maybe he’s just young and that’s the kind of mistakes that young guys make.”
“Can’t make excuses for his behavior.”
“That’s the conclusion I came to.”
“What was the final straw that led you there?”
She pauses for a second. “You.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“But we just met recently.”
“Yeah, the timing couldn’t have been better. I mean I’m young. I’m still figuring things out, and you showed me in real life how I already thought a guy should be, but just didn’t think guys like that existed. You showed me what a real man is and that I’m not crazy to hold a guy to a high standard, just like I hold myself, even though it may not have first seemed that way based on the initial way we met. That was very out of character for me, but there was just this pull to you that I couldn’t control. But yeah, I didn’t think guys with that level of honor and trust existed anymore.”
“But what about your dad?”
“Gross.”
“Not like that. I mean he’s similar to me. He conducts his life with the utmost in honor, courage, and commitment.”
“He does, but he’s my dad, so I kind of expect it from him. I know he’s a cut above other guys, so I guess I make excuses for other guys, but…”
“But what?”
“But with you I don’t have to. And I like that.”
CHAPTER 11
Duke
A few more hours fly by and eventually we both pass out. She’s in my arms, and it feels perfect, but what doesn’t feel perfect are the dreams and thoughts I’m having when I should be resting. As much as I know that her and I are right for each other my own words about honor, courage, and commitment are tearing me up inside. I can’t do this in my best friend’s house. I’m going to be with her, without question, but just not here. Not now.
“Daisy,” I say, touching her lightly on the shoulder.
“I’m awake,” she says.
“You weren’t sleeping?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I was thinking about you. About us.”
“It’s not troubling you is it?”
“Yes, and no. I mean, no…I want to be with you, but you saw how my dad is.”
“I know how your dad is. And I know how much his friendship means to me. As much as I hate to do this, I think it’s best if I leave now, and we save this for another time.”
“You’re going?”
“Yeah, I just can’t do this in his house.”
“But we already did.”
“I know, and I don’t regret a single thing,” I say, reaching down and kissing her on the forehead. “But just imagine if he walks in on us and catches us in the morning.”
“He won’t.”
“You know him as well as I do. Getting up early to him is three a.m.”
“I guess you’re right,” she says. I can see she’s hurt, and I don’t feel a single bit good about it either, but it’s the right thing to do…for now.
I get dressed and she does too. She walks me to the door and I step out into the night. The rain must have stopped and the standing water has disappeared. The tree is still down, but I can reverse out of here and be on my way back home. I’m glad I was able to be there when she needed me, and I’m gladder we got to spend some time together.
I’m half way down the concrete walkway leading to the sidewalk when I see headlights coming down the block.
“This can’t be,” I say under my breath.
The truck speeds up and then screeches to a halt just behind my truck. The door swings open, and out flies Tim.
“You son of a bitch! What did I tell you?”
He’s running at me and it’s time to take my medicine like a man, and show Daisy how serious I am about her, although this isn’t the way I would have preferred.
Being that we’re two men of the same size and skill set it’s hard for one to overcome the other. We alternate between rolling around on the grass and throwing kicks and punches under the streetlights. At one point he drives me back into my truck door sending a loud thud through the neighborhood, and drawing a scream from Daisy.
That’s all that’s needed for the first neighbor’s light to come on, and then another, and another.
Three or four minutes later we’re huffing and puffing headed towards a draw, and inching closer to having a video on the damn Internet.
“You’re never welcom
e in this house again! You are not my friend!” he yells.
“We can’t do this now, Tim. Too many eyes on us.”
“There’s nothing to do, Duke. We’re done.”
It sounds like a break up and it is. We may be two big burly guys, but we’ve known each other for years. We know each other better than we know ourselves, and the end of the relationship is very real, and absolutely fucking terrible.
I see a young boy run onto his front lawn with a camera. He’s talking loud like he’s doing a play-by-play at a sporting event and I’m guessing he sees himself as some kind of live TV broadcaster for a bunch of strangers on the Internet to follow along. What sort of sick world are we living in?
I march right over to him and he takes off towards his porch. I turn on the speed and he’s no match for me. I scoop him up and set him down gently, taking the camera from him and pressing a few buttons until luckily the thing opens up and tape pops out. Thank god, it’s old technology and I can make heads and tails of it. I remove the tape and give the kid the camera back.
“Anything winds up on the Internet, I know where to find you and your father. You understand, young man?”
“Yes, sir.”
I don’t know what I hate more…that I have to talk this way to a boy or that this boy tried to film this. I squeeze the tape in my hands smashing it to pieces and stuff it in my pocket. I’m not taking any chances and I’m not making a mess of the neighborhood any more than I already have. Tim’s neighbors may know his past, and no military veteran wants a black eye for our country posted online. I jump in my truck and pull forward as much as I can, giving myself enough clearance to back up around Tim’s truck. I look over my shoulder as I speed in reverse.
I take one last look towards the house and see Daisy on the front lawn crying. She’s pleading with her father, but I know the man well enough to know once his mind is set, it’s set.
I’ve gone and screwed it all up, and to make matters worse it’s absolutely killing me that I’m not staying there to make it right…but there are two things you can count on. I’ll never put Daisy in this situation again, and I’ll be back to make this right once and for all.
CHAPTER 12
Daisy
I ’m making mistake after mistake on my work and eventually click on the “clock-out” button on my computer. I do accounts payable remotely from my computer, but today I just can’t focus.
I hear the doorbell and know it’s Dawna. She said she’d be over at this time, and she’s always reliable.
“Girl, give me the goods!” she says as she gives me a hug as she comes inside.
I realize I haven’t spoken to her since that afternoon we first saw Duke. I’ve been so caught up in everything I haven’t even returned her messages. It’s so unlike me, but right now I don’t even know what “me” really is.
“Where do I start?” I say, not really wanting to begin.
“Did you go out there and get that guy? I want the 411! All the dirty details.”
I put my head in my hands and the waterworks begin. Dawna immediately wraps me up from behind in a hug.
“He better not have hurt you, because I’ll go over there and kick his butt! I’ve been taking Tae Bo. You have no idea how effective it can be.”
I’m still crying, but Dawna always makes me laugh. “He’s a SEAL,” I say as I wipe my face with my sleeve.
“Shiiiit. SEAL, dolphin, crab, it doesn’t matter. This octopussy is a shark that will eat his ass alive if he made my best friend cry.”
I get Dawna caught up. I don’t hold anything back, as she patiently listens to every single word I say, without interrupting. I’m lucky to have a bestie like her.
“What are you going to do, beautiful?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know.”
“You’ll be twenty-one in a week. At that point everything is fair game.”
“I was thinking that actually.”
I’ve got my elbows on my knees and I’m leaning forward. Dawna leans in in front of me until we make eye contact. “Oh my gosh. I can see it.”
“See what?”
“You.”
“Of course you can see me, silly. I’m right here.”
“Not you, as in you. You as in you.”
“What?”
“You. You’re in love with this guy.”
“No I’m not.”
“Daisy, it’s written all over your face. It’s so clear. This is your guy. This is the one for you.”
“Maybe.”
“Don’t try that maybe nonsense with me. How long have we been friends?”
“Forever.”
“And a day, and in that forever and a day I have learned a thing or two about you. And I know you love this guy.”
“And how do you know.”
“Girl, you’ve got it bad. This is more serious than that last guy. What was his name? I forgot already.”
I laugh. Of course she remembers, but her words always lighten me up.
“No need to talk about him.”
“Obviously, because Mister Seafood has obviously taken his place.”
“SEAL, Dawna. As in Navy SEAL.”
She tickles me in the ribs letting me know she’s goofing around. I’m feeling better by the minute.
“So…twenty-one in a week.”
“That’s the problem.”
“Don’t you mean that’s the solution?”
“No. The problem.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I don’t know if I can wait that long.”
CHAPTER 13
Grandma Gertrude
W hatcha’ doin’, grandma?”
I rise up from my lilacs and turn to see my only grandchild, and the absolute joy of my life.
“Daisy!”
I had convinced my boy to name her after a flower. Told him doing so would cause her to bloom into a beautiful young woman and was I ever right. She was happy, healthy, and the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world. My friends told me I might be a little bit biased, but I never paid them no mind.
I open my arms and she comes to me. We hug.
“Just watering my lilacs. You have to be careful though. They don’t like wet feet.”
“I know, grandma. You told me when I used to water them as kid.”
Daisy spent many weeks at my house when her father was on deployment half way around the world. I was proud he was taking care of our country, but I told him he needed to get his butt back over here and take care of his own. My own! I didn’t have him so he could run off and get himself hurt, or worse. He needed to be here to be a strong father and role model for my granddaughter. I was glad he was retired now and looking after her.
If there’s one thing that eighty-three years on this planet will teach you, it is to recognize when someone’s not having their best day. It was written all over Daisy’s face.
“What’s wrong, child?”
“Nothing, grandma.”
“Come out with it! You can’t hide anything from your grandma.”
“Is it that easy to see, grandma?”
“You know you used to try and tell me you didn’t eat any deserts before dinner, when you had chocolate chips smeared all over your face. You remember that?”
“Yes, Grandma Gertrude.”
“Well, it’s even more obvious than that, young lady.”
That child spent half of her childhood on my lap and the other half in my garden. My age may be creeping up there a bit, but I am still sharp as a tack, and there was no way this youngster was going to pull the wool over my eyes.”
“It’s dad.”
“Hasn’t still he learned that us girls are different? What’s he gone and done now?”
“He doesn’t approve of the guy I’m seeing.”
“Well, it’s none of his darn business who you’re seeing. That’s why it’s called your life, and not his.”
Gardener: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 18) Page 5