Waiting on Love (Love in Madelia Book 3)

by Jessa Chase

  While waiting for Cole to arrive, Daisy busied herself with getting her hood up and pulling the jumper cables out of her trunk. Mason waited patiently in the backseat, acting out an elaborate drama between his two green army men and his T-Rex.

  Before too long, Cole’s red Audi pulled up beside her, shifting the gravel beneath its tires but otherwise making barely a sound.

  “Hell of a thing, that car,” Daisy noted as he exited the driver’s side. “How do you know it’s even on without a big loud engine grumbling and growling?”

  Cole laughed. “It has all kinds of fancy lights and gizmos inside. Sometime I should take you for a ride, show you.”

  Daisy felt her heart skip a beat when he made the suggestion. She hadn’t felt that kind of feeling in a good long while, well not since the last time a boy asked to give her a ride in the car he was so proud of.

  She only had to glance in her backseat to see how that particular car ride had turned out.

  “Thank you, for coming to our rescue. You’re kind of our hero right now.”

  “Not a problem. Let me get the cables on, I don’t want you messing up your dress.”

  Daisy smiled as she watched the man roll up his sleeves and get to work on jumping her battery. It was a hell of a thing when a nicely dressed man rolled up his sleeves and got down to do some dirty work.

  “Okay, turn your car on, let’s get it going.” Daisy hopped in her front seat and turned the engine, but again, nothing happened. Not even the click of a dead battery this time. Just…nothing.

  “Shit.”

  “Momma!”

  “Double-shit. Sorry, Mason. I’m going to owe a whole lot to the swear jar by the end of today.”

  She exited the car again, while Cole inspected the jumper cables to see where they’d gone wrong.

  “I don’t see anything amiss here. I don’t understand why it didn’t work. Should we let it sit for a minute, see if the battery just needs to build up a little power?”

  “We can do that.” Daisy glanced at her watch. “We’ve got some time still before visiting hours are over.”

  “Bring Mason in my car, we can crank the heater for him.” Daisy nodded, and opened the backdoor to move the little man and his mountain of stuff over to Cole’s backseat.

  Cole watched, open-mouthed, at everything that came with. “Wow, you don’t really get how much stuff kid’s come with until you see it.”

  Daisy laughed. “Oh this is nothing. You should see when they are babies, the diapers and the creams and the bottles. Some days I wished for a donkey just to carry all the baby stuff, not to mention the baby himself!”

  “I can’t imagine. You really are amazing, you know that Daisy?”

  She blushed, hoped it wasn’t noticeable in the cold morning air. “I did what I had to do. Women do it every day all over the world, I wasn’t anything special.”

  “You are. Something special, that is.” Cole wrapped his hands around hers and pulled her toward him. “You did something amazing, you are still doing something amazing. Mason is strong and healthy and smart and happy. That’s a hell of a thing.”

  Daisy didn’t trust herself to speak without busting out in tears, so she just nodded.

  “I’m just sorry you had to do it all by yourself.”

  “Not your fault, obviously.”

  “Doesn’t mean I can’t be sorry.”

  Daisy became very aware very suddenly of how close the two of them were standing

  “We, uh, we should probably try the car again.”

  Even given the extra time, Daisy’s battery stayed dead. She threw her hands up in frustration.

  “Let me drive you guys to the hospital,” Cole said.

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that. It’s bad enough I already got you out of bed and messing around out here in the cold.”

  “It’s no trouble,” he insisted, moving again into her bubble, grabbing her hands and pulling them up to his lips. “And I wasn’t in bed. I’ve been up all night practically, working on paperwork. It’s probably good for me to get away from that desk for a while longer.”

  “If…if it’s really not too much.”

  “It’s not. If it were, I’d tell you. I may not be the nicest guy in the world, but I’m pretty much honest to a fault. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to come with you. I have been meaning to visit and I haven’t. It’s about time I think.”

  Daisy nodded, and he moved to the side to open the side door for her. She felt a little light-headed, and wondered if it was from the cold weather, or the hot feeling she got when she remembered the way his lips touched hers.

  The drive over to the hospital wasn’t very long, but Daisy wished it could be longer. She laid back in the plush leather of the passenger seat, played with the back and butt warmers, and enjoyed herself immensely.

  Even Mason was awed by the interior of Cole’s car, but after a quick warning from Daisy about damaging the seats with his dinosaur, he pretty much kept his hands to himself.

  Cole, for his part, seemed content with playing chauffer, a fact that surprised Daisy. She didn’t find herself surprised very often by a man, but nearly everything this man did surprised her in some way or another.

  From her partially reclined seat next to him, Daisy let out a soft sigh. She opened her eyes just a smidge, enough to see the man next to her, his hands tight on the steering wheel at exactly 10 and 2.

  “You drive like a driving instructor,” she said softly. He chuckled, looking down at his own hands before glancing at her.

  “I drive like I have a very powerful, very expensive piece of mechanical engineering under my control.”

  “Mmm true. But so boring.” She closed her eyes and smiled.

  “I’ll remind you just how not boring I can be,” he replied, nearly under his breath. “Sometime when little man isn’t in the car.”

  Daisy opened her eyes again, raising an eyebrow at him. He merely continued driving, as if he hadn’t said something so blatantly sexual. As if he hadn’t just propositioned her, while she lay reclined in his incredibly sexy luxury vehicle.

  As if a man like him, a man with the experiences and maturity that he possessed, would ever have a sustainable interest in a country bumpkin single mom like her. It was one thing for him to have slept with her when she was a stranger named Kellie, but now that he knew her situation, knew the baggage she dragged along with her?

  For the length of the drive, however, Daisy could pretend he meant what he said, that he intended to explore something deeper with her, sometime in the far off future.

  For the length of the drive, Daisy imagined spending another night in a hotel with a man like Cole, one a bit fancier than the one they’d stayed in before. She pictured soft silk sheets and mood lighting, 24-hour room service that brought roses and real actual champagne, strawberries with whipped cream.

  “We’re here,” Cole said softly, breaking Daisy from her daydream. She sat up straight and blinked her eyes, the harsh morning sun a world away from the evening in she was just imagining.

  She glanced at Cole, the man she’d been fantasizing about. Yep, he looked just as dashing here today as he’d looked in her mind just a moment before. His hands were a little dirtier from the jumper cables, and he had a little smudge of oil on his right cheek, but she still felt just about ready to jump him right there.

  COLE

  He rounded the car and offered a hand to Daisy, who blushed when their hands met. He felt his heart race at her touch, and he wanted so much more.

  Patience, he thought to himself. Maybe don’t jump the poor girl at the hospital.

  “Do you know what room she’s in?”

  Daisy nodded. “I’ll lead the way. Come on Mason, let’s head in.”

  Cole walked a step behind mother and son, not sure where exactly he belonged, either physically or emotionally. He was interested in Daisy, had been since the night they’d slept together, but he also knew it was dangerous territory.

  She w
as a single mom, for starters, and he was only beginning to consider a life with children in it. And she desperately wanted to keep the diner going, whereas he still wasn’t convinced of its viability. He just wasn’t sure if sexual attraction and chemistry was enough to overcome those obstacles.

  The hospital was big and brightly lit, the hallways long and nondescript. Even paying attention to signs and watching where they went, he was pretty sure he’d get lost trying to find his way back out of the building.

  After a few quick turns down similar looking hallways, they stopped in the ICU, Daisy asking the head nurse at the desk if they could go in and see “Eleanor”.

  He smiled, knowing calling his great aunt by her first name was awkward for Daisy after years of referring to her only as Mrs. Shuster.

  “We can go in,” Daisy said with a smile and a little wave. “She’s in that room right there.”

  Cole felt his heart in his throat when they walked into the little room. He heard the steady beep of the machine that monitored her heart rate, and the wheeze-puff of the oxygen tank.

  She looked to be asleep when they walked in, but no sooner than he’d had second thoughts and considered backing out of the room, but her eyes fluttered opened and she smiled weakly.

  “Oh, Cole. And Daisy. And Mason!” She took deep breaths between sentences, mustering her strength as best she could. “How lucky can one old lady be?”

  Mason made a beeline for the side of her bed and plastered his little body against her chest.

  “Oh, bunny, please be gentle!” Daisy chided her son quietly, and made a move to pull him back off of her.

  “Don’t worry about him, Daisy. He’s just fine. Aren’t you, Mason?”

  Mason nodded up at the old woman before collapsing against her again. She patted his back and smiled up at Cole and Daisy.

  “What brings the three of you here today on a Sunday?”

  Cole couldn’t help but notice a little gleam in his great aunt’s eye as she spoke. He wondered if she sensed something between the two of them, but no that couldn’t be.

  Could it?

  “We wanted to come see you,” Daisy said as she found a spot on the bed to sit, near her feet. “Seemed a good day as any, don’t you think?”

  “I think any day I get to see these bright and shiny faces, is a good day.” She took a deep breath and let out a long, rattling cough that had Cole concerned enough to go look for a nurse.

  Only the commanding voice of his great aunt stopped him, halfway out into the hallway.

  “Don’t go bothering the nurses now, Cole. I’m fine, just a little tickle in my lungs from this damn dry oxygen.”

  He turned and looked doubtfully at Daisy, who was biting her lip to keep from saying anything.

  He complied with the stubborn old woman, but made a mental note to speak with the nurses after their visit was over.

  “Come over here and sit,” she said, patting the side of the bed that Daisy was occupying. “Tell me everything I’ve missed in Madelia since I’ve been in here.”

  Cole rounded the other side of the bed and took a seat opposite of Daisy.

  “Well, this interesting couple came by bus on Thursday. The wife is very nice, she’s eaten at the diner a few times, but her husband isn’t as social.”

  “Oh? Not a nice man?”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Daisy hedged. “But he hasn’t taken more than one meal with us, and when he did he didn’t say three words.”

  "Daisy, sweetheart,” she started. “Do you mind taking Mason down to one of the vending machines for a snack? I’d like to speak with Cole alone for a minute.”

  “Not a problem, I understand.” Daisy pulled Mason from the room, promising him first pick of the treats inside the vending machine if he could walk backwards down the hallway the entire way.

  Cole had a moment of panic as she left the room, unsure of what his great Aunt had in mind for their private conversation but fearing the worst.

  “You look like you’re in pretty good spirits,” he said as a way of delaying the conversation. He was in too good of a mood, being there with Daisy and her son and seeing his sweet old aunt. He didn’t want to talk about death and estates and everything that came with.

  “I am, I am.” She sighed, and she looked older than he could have ever imagined. “But I’m tired, Cole. And I think you more than anyone here understands that I won’t be leaving here.”

  Cole grasped her hand in his, squeezed tightly. “Please don’t say that. We need you around.”

  “I know you do. And I want to be around, for all of you. I see this little bloom of something pretty growing between you and Daisy, and I want to see what happens there.” She chuckled to herself. “I’m a curious old woman, after all.”

  Cole stammered, at a loss for what to say. Needless to say, this wasn’t actually the way he’d expected the conversation to go.

  “Don’t tell me I’m seeing things that aren’t there, Cole. I might be dying, but I’m not blind.” She pointed an accusatory finger at him, tempered by a mischievous smile. “Are you or are you not sweet on that girl out there in the hallway?”

  “You aren’t wrong. Not at all. But things between us are a lot more complicated than all that.”

  “What’s complicated? You like her, she likes you.”

  “Well, for starters, we live thousands of miles away from each other, in drastically different areas of the country. She loves this town, and I have a life of my own in Chicago.”

  “Do you care for her?”

  Cole sighed. “I do. More than I thought I would, considering how short of a time we’ve known each other.”

  “Do you love her?”

  “Not yet,” he hedged. “But there’s some lovey-dovey feelings developing, I can say that.”

  His aunt patted his thigh, the way she would when she would impart wisdom on his young and foolish head. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to cuddle up with her and let her tell him the ways of the world.

  “Cole,” she said with a raspy sigh. “The way you grew up, it’s natural not to trust in relationships, even in love in general. But I’m telling you right now, you have to figure out a way to move past that. Love is as much about trust as it is about those lovey-dovey feelings she’s giving you right now when everything is fresh.”

  She smiled up at the ceiling, lost in distant memories. “Over time, you learn to trust in them, and they in you. And those lovey-dovey feelings grow deeper and more meaningful.”

  She gave her grand-nephew a measuring look. “So if you really think you might love her, right now or in the future, it’s time you start thinking hard on what you want, and where you think you might be wanting it.”

  A light knock at the door, as if Daisy was testing to see if she had the all-clear. Cole swiped at his eyes quickly to clear them, then smiled when she and Mason entered.

  “We got chocolate!” Mason had his arms full of candy and tiny bags of chips, and the biggest grin on his face that Cole had ever seen. “I got this one for you, Cole.”

  Cole accepted the long thin candy bar like it was the greatest of honors, bowing to the boy and making him laugh.

  “I think we should probably let Mrs. Shuster get some rest, sweetie,” Daisy came to the head of the bed and kissed the old woman on her forehead. Mason followed in her footsteps, leaving squishy kisses on her wrinkly cheeks and wobbly neck.

  “Love you,” he nuzzled against the old woman, and they both gave out contented sighs.

  Chapter 6.

  COLE

  He’d arrived a few minutes before the diner opened for the morning and had been surprised to see the big, burly short-order cook, Enzo, opening up. The man had spoken less than three words to Cole, but seemed to know who he was and didn’t seem all that bothered by Cole’s appearance at the diner.

  He’d tried initially to sit at the counter again, but Enzo less than subtly directed him toward one of the corner booths. Cole hadn’t seen a reason to ar
gue, in fact after settling in with his papers and notebooks, he’d been grateful for the additional table-space.

  His goal for the day was to try to finish up with his aunt’s books and see if what he’d dug up made any sense. He wanted a complete picture of the diner’s finances, and although it wasn’t exactly his strong suite, he felt like he was probably the best equipped to do the digging.

  He’d done similar work at the accounting firm when he’d been an intern; combing through reams of documents and searching for that one line item that meant the difference between bankruptcy and solvency had interested him enough that he didn’t care that he wasn’t being paid.

  Nowadays he had interns of his own doing that kind of work, so getting back to the grind actually sparked an interest in him that he hadn’t expected. He suspected that it had a little to do with his interest in helping his aunt, and a lot to do with his desire to be around Daisy.

  Daisy. He sighed, just the thought of her name brought to mind an image of her instantly. She’d been so beautiful, so wild that night at the bar. He hadn’t known at the time why she’d ever even considered going back to the hotel with him, but he hadn’t wanted to question it at the time.

  When he’d discovered that she was the Daisy he’d heard so much about from his aunt, he was ashamed that his first reaction had been to call her a gold-digger. He desperately wanted to make that up to her, and part of him was starting to hope that digging through these accounting books would reveal some way that Daisy could keep the diner running and turn a profit.

  He was starting to think that it might be possible, if he could refinance the loan on the diner into something more manageable. At the moment, the payments were eating up all of the money that the diner brought in, and leaving his Aunt in the red each month.

  Cole glanced out the booth window and saw Daisy walking hand-in-hand with her son down the street, approaching the diner. She looked tired, her hair a little less bouncy and her smile a little less bright. He hoped he wasn’t the cause of her exhaustion, but he had a feeling he had contributed to it somewhat.