by Jessa Chase
“Thanks for having me,” Cole murmured.
“It’s nice, you know. Having another grown up over.” She blushed, turned her face away.
Cole wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed, gently. Daisy glanced up and saw he was watching her, saw he had a smile on his face.
“Noodles,” she said, before laughing at herself. “I need to get the noodles cooking or we’re going to be having some pretty strange spaghetti for dinner.”
COLE
Dinner smelled heavenly, and Cole found himself in a better mood than he’d been in in quite a while. He was still worried about Daisy’s fainting spell earlier, but he was happy to have an excuse to be around her longer.
“Let me go grab Mason,” she said as she stepped out of the kitchen and headed toward, he presumed, Mason’s bedroom.
The mobile home was small but well appointment, and Cole could tell immediately that Daisy cared a great deal about her home. She’d decorated where she could, and the place was comfortable and well lived-in.
He stepped away from the kitchen himself while he waited, and spotted the edges of a well-worn notebook peeking out from under a couch cushion. He tugged, and pulled it free, only to discover nearly every page inside was covered in Daisy’s loopy handwriting.
It looked like the beginnings of a romance novel. He smiled and sat on the couch, found himself unable to put the little notebook down once he started to read.
“Okay, wash your hands,” Daisy said to Mason as they both walked into the living room. She glanced at Cole, who still sat on the couch, entranced by her little book.
“Is this yours?” He asked, pointing to the notebook as Mason went running to the bathroom to wash his hands. Cole stood and handed the notebook back to Daisy, and saw her face flush bright red.
“It is. I wish you hadn’t read it, it’s just a stupid thing I do…sometimes.”
“There is nothing stupid about this,” Cole replied. “You are a hell of a writer, Daisy. Don’t tell me I’m the only person who knows that.”
Daisy winced. “I haven’t shown it to anybody else. It’s not even finished, to be honest. I stopped writing it a while ago.”
Cole wrapped his hands around her upper arms, looked deep in her eyes. “Please finish it. I only read a few pages but I’d really like to know how it ends.”
“It ends the way all good romance novels end,” she smiled suggestively. “With a hell of a kiss and a roll in the sheets.” Seeing the amusement in his eyes, she laughed. “Get your mind out of the gutter and help me set the table.”
Dinner went well, well enough that Cole found himself thinking about how easily the three of them fit together. He’d heard horror stories from others at his firm about how badly blending families could go. As far as he could tell, they’d had a pretty easy transition. Mason seemed to like him as much as he liked anybody, and Daisy definitely had positive feelings for him.
After dinner, Daisy took Mason to the back part of the trailer, where the half bathroom and his bedroom were located. Cole took the opportunity to finish cleaning up the kitchen. It didn’t take long, which he supposed was something positive about living in a smaller space like the trailer.
He flopped himself down on the couch just as Daisy came tip-toeing out of Mason’s bedroom.
“Is he asleep?”
“Out like a light,” Daisy said with a satisfied smile. “I wish I could sleep like that.”
“Come, sit.” Cole patted the couch cushion next to him. “I’m pretty sure I owe you after that meal.”
Daisy laughed. “Well, considering the meal was payback for you working my shift, I’m not sure how that would work.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
Cole tugged her feet up into his lap. She initially made a face and a token resistance, but as he dug his thumb into her soles, any resistance melted away.
“Oh, oh man,” Daisy groaned, her eyes rolling back in her head.
It was quite a sight, one that Cole was enjoying the hell out of.
“Feel good?”
“So freaking good. This. You should be doing this, like all the time. I’d never be able to argue with you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind for the future. How’s your stomach doing? You don’t look as bad as you did before, at the diner.”
“Gee, how could a girl ever resist such abject flattery and flirtation?” Daisy laughed. “I do feel better. A little more of this, I think I’ll be all fixed up.”
“I can do that,” he said, moving his hands along her ankles, applying pressure across her heels.
Her moans were becoming increasingly distracting, but he had no intention of stopping.
“Where the hell did you learn to do this, Cole?”
“You pick things up, over the years,” he chuckled. “I had a girlfriend who worked on her feet all day, so I got a lot of practice.”
Daisy rested her head along the back of the couch, closed her eyes. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had a guy who liked me enough to rub my feet.” She paused, as if deep in thought, before peeking one eye open and glancing at him. “How sad is that?”
Cole raised an eyebrow. “Pretty sad. Girl like you should have men falling all over themselves to rub your cute little toes.”
“Ha,” she replied. “Small towns aren't exactly a breeding ground for handsome, intelligent men just dying to spoil a girl.” She chuckled at her own joke. “Well, I guess in my case it was a literal breeding ground for me, but the only long term relationship I got out of it was with Mason.”
“You’re a really great mom,” Cole said after a moment. “It’s pretty plain to see that everything you do is for him.”
Daisy pushed herself to an upright position and looked him in the eye. “Is it? I mean, I try really hard, but most of the time I just really can’t tell if what I’m doing matters, if I’m even doing things right.”
Cole tugged her onto his lap, cupped her cheek in his hand.
“Believe me, what you do matters. It matters to that little boy, and it obviously matters to this town because everyone here adores you.”
She tilted her head and gave him a small smile.
“That’s sweet of you to say.”
“It’s the truth,” he said before pulling her closer. “I never lie when I’ve got a girl in my lap.”
Daisy’s body shook with laughter, so much so that she nearly fell off of him before he hooked an arm around her waist to steady her.
Her eyes were wide and as blue as a summer sky when she pulled back and looked at him.
“You’re being awfully nice to me,” she said warily.
“I like you,” he replied. “I like you a lot, actually.”
Cole pressed his lips to hers, gently teasing them open with his tongue. “I liked you, that night at the bar. And then I got to know you, got to know what an amazing, strong woman you are.”
She tangled her fingers in his hair, gave a little possessive tug that set a fire low in his belly. Her voice was husky with need, and when she spoke, he thought at first he’d imagined it. He shook his head, tried to clear his hormone-fogged brain.
“Can you...can you say that again?”
Daisy chuckled, traced her fingers along his collarbone, her eyes cast downward as she followed the path of his sensitive skin. After an aching, teasingly long moment, she raised her eyes to find him watching her.
“I asked if you wanted to stay. Stay the night. With me.” Her lips curled up in a smile. He clasped the back of her head and pulled her forward. His kiss wasn’t gentle this time. It was demanding, possessive.
“Hell yes,” he growled, grasping her hips as he lifted her up into the air. She gasped, held onto his shoulders, but he carried her like she weighed nothing.
DAISY
When he got them to the doorway of her bedroom, he paused to let her feet touch the ground. His gaze was as soft as a caress, and yet the smoldering flame she saw in his eyes startled her.
“
I’m not pushing you,” he said softly.
“I don’t feel pushed. I feel...” She searched her brain for the right word but her usually prolific vocabulary failed her in that moment.
“Excited?”
“And terrified. And confused.” She bit her lip nervously, casting her eyes downward.
He stepped forward and clasped her body tightly to his.
“You can feel all of that. Add on nervous as hell and you’ve got me covered too.” His lips brushed against hers as he spoke.
“You don’t look nervous,” she countered.
He pulled her hand up until it was resting on his chest. She could feel his heart tripping just under his skin.
She smiled.
“It’s going a mile a minute.”
“Just about to pound right out of my chest, in fact.”
Reclaiming her lips, he crushed her to him. His kiss was urgent and exploratory, overwhelming her senses until she was lightheaded and wobbly on her feet.
She raised a hand to her forehead, closed her eyes for just a moment.
“Are you dizzy?”
“A little bit.”
He pulled back and looked her in the eyes. “Is it as bad as before?”
Her laugh was half-formed in her throat. “It’s different this time.”
He grasped her shoulders, his fingers making little dents in the fabric on her shirt. His concerned look didn’t fade with her answer, and he continued to stare her down like she’d break if he just waited long enough.
“It’s late but maybe we should call your friend, the doctor-”
Her frustration bubbled to the surface and she crinkled his shirtfront in her fist. She pulled him toward her as she walked backward, until the backs of her knees hit the edge of the mattress.
His look of concern changed then, into one of desire. She grinned.
“There he is,” she said.
He gently eased her down onto the bed, his touch light and painfully teasing.
Instinctively, her body arched up to meet him.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured against her skin.
His lips seared a path down her neck, across her shoulders; it was a raw act of possession that burned her to her core.
His hands, meanwhile, explored the soft lines of her waist, her hips; the stroking of his fingers sent pleasant little jolts through her.
He paused to plant kisses along the length of her, whispering his love for each part of her body.
Daisy gasped in sweet agony; the man really knew how to prolong the pleasure and the pain of foreplay.
As he moved above her, a moan of ecstasy slipped from her lips. She squirmed beneath him. Instinctively, they found a tempo that bound their bodies together. They were able to take the time to explore, to arouse, to give each other every pleasure.
After all, they had all night.
Chapter 7.
DAISY
She eased her eyes open, expecting to see the sun shining through her bedroom window. But she hadn’t opened her shades the night before, hadn’t gone through most of her usual evening rituals in fact. She grinned wickedly at the memory. No, she hadn’t followed hardly any of her usual bedtime routines. She’d taken a man to her bed-something she hadn’t done in years-and she’d slept like a baby for the first time in longer than she could remember.
She could still smell his citrus aftershave on her pillows. And bacon.
Bacon?
Daisy sat up in bed, her heart pounding as visions of her kindergartner attempting to cook himself bacon and burning her home down danced through her head. She barely got a sleep-shirt pulled over her head before she came crashing through the trailer, to the kitchen, only to find...Mason sitting at the table, book in hand, and Cole, manning the stove and flipping pancakes and frying bacon like a pro.
He raised an eyebrow at the panicked look on her face. “Good morning,” he said as he moved the bacon off the front burner. “Just in time for breakfast.”
Daisy was fairly certain she’d gone to sleep a wanton sex kitten, only to wake up in some kind of blissful domestic situation. She sat at the table, next to Mason, and ruffled his hair.
“Hey cutie,” she said as she looked over his shoulder. “Whatcha doing?”
“Telling Cole some jokes,” he replied matter-of-factly, as if waking up to find this strange man in his house wasn’t strange at all.
“He’s an early riser apparently,” Cole said with a dramatic flip of a pancake onto a plate. “Peeked his head in while you were asleep, asked for pancakes.”
Daisy felt her face flush. “Oh, God,” she muttered. She had to be the worst mother in the history of bad mothers. Not only did she have a man over, but she was such a deep sleeper that she didn’t hear either of them wake up.
She buried her face in her hands, and so she heard and smelled more than saw Cole come over to the table with plates piled high with pancakes, eggs and bacon.
“Okay, time for one more joke and then let’s eat.” Cole turned back and grabbed cups and orange juice from the counter.
Daisy watched with fascination as this man she’d known just a few weeks found his way around her kitchen like he lived there. It didn’t hurt that the man looked damn good in the morning, his hair mussed from sleep and his shirt a little more crumpled from having spent the night in the corner of her room on the floor.
“Why did the chicken cross the...What’s this word momma?” Mason handed Daisy his joke book.
“Playground.”
“Why did the chicken cross the playground?”
Cole tapped his finger on his chin, mimicking a look deep in thought. “Hmm...Why did the chicken cross the playground? I don’t know. How about you, Daisy? Do you know?”
Daisy suppressed a smile and answered seriously. “I don’t know either. How about you tell us, Mason?”
Mason grinned widely as he read the punch line to himself first, then out loud. “To get to the other slide!”
“Oh, that’s a good one. I’m going to keep that one for future use,” Cole said with a laugh as he cut into his stack of pancakes.
Daisy felt his hand come to rest on her bare thigh, and it felt so damn good there. His palm was warm against her skin, and he squeezed lightly as he glanced over at her, applying just enough pressure to her thigh that she knew he was there. That he wasn’t going anywhere.
“I’ll drive you to work,” he said between bites of bacon. “Does Mason go to school before or after your shift starts?”
“Before. He only comes to the diner with me when he has late start or early release.” Daisy wasn’t sure why she felt the need to explain herself to him, but she suddenly wanted very much for him to understand that she did keep Mason to a schedule. It just didn’t seem like she did, lately, but the last few weeks had been pretty hectic, hadn’t they?
“Makes sense. Okay, so we’ll drop Mason off first, and then I’ll take you to the diner.” He squeezed her thigh again, and smiled. “Sound good?”
Daisy bit her lip. “You don’t have to do that, Cole. I mean, we can walk, it’s not like anything in Madelia is that far away from anything else. You don’t have to play chauffeur.”
“I know I don’t have to. But let me anyway.”
She cut a sideways glance at her son, who was devouring pancakes like he hadn’t eaten in days. “I don’t want you thinking you have to do this, because...”
Another light squeeze. Another pointed glance.
“I am perfectly aware that I’m under no obligation. I still want to. Just let me.”
Daisy laughed. “Okay, I get the hint. I’m sorry, I just not used to...all this.” She waved her hand toward the oven, and their plates.
“These are so good,” Mason said, mouth full of pancakes. “Momma, he put peanut butter and bananas in ‘em.”
Daisy raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Banana peanut butter pancakes, that sounds very fancy.”
Cole laughed. “I can’t cook worth crap but I can follow a recipe. They
were a top search suggestion when I looked up kid-friendly pancakes.”
COLE
The next day, Cole was elbow-deep in warm soapy water, running his sponge over a pile of plates when the house phone rang. He made the mistake of answering without checking the caller ID.
He wished he could blame it on being busy, but the only thing he was busy with at that moment was doing the dishes. Truth be told, his mind was simply occupied by thoughts of Daisy, the way it had been pretty much since the moment he met her.
“Hello?”
“I knew you’d be there,” his mother’s voice was accusatory and blunt. “You’re probably loving all this.”
“I’m not sure I know what you’re getting at, mom.” Cole was only half listening to her. She tended to go off on tirades anyway, and they rarely required an active listener.
“She’s my Aunt you know, not yours. Great-Aunt isn’t even really a thing.”
He mumbled sounds like “uh huh” and “hmm”, really the only participation she needed.
“I hope you know, I’m expecting to inherit quite a lot from her when she dies.”
“There isn’t much of anything to inherit here, mom. Take it from an accountant. She doesn’t own this house; she has a mortgage on it, and a pretty big loan on the diner. I don’t see anybody getting anything after probate.” He paused and pulled a dish from the sink water, propping it up on the drying mat. “Not even mentioning how tacky it is to be laying claim to the estate of a woman who isn’t dead.”
His mother harrumphed loudly. “Well, every minute she spends in that hospital, hooked up to all those machines, it’s another thousand dollars going to waste. And I don’t think you’re being truthful about her money anyway. Why would you be? You’ve always been such a spoilsport.”
“I’ve never lied to you in my life, mom. So listen when I tell you, don’t count on any money coming from here. You’re just going to be disappointed.”
“I don’t want to argue about it, Cole. But you better tell me when she does die, so I can come down there and pick out what I want from her house.”
Cole looked around the house, at the old but well taken care of furniture, at the dated decorations and the appliances that should have replaced decades ago. He couldn’t imagine any of it being worth much, but he also knew his mother’s pettiness knew no limits. She’d lay claim to something she didn’t even want, just so someone else couldn’t have it.