Page 47 of Never Say Never

“It was soooo good,” she beams, stretching out theosound. “But everything Aunt Sierra makes is delicious.”

“I agree, Birdie,” I say, bopping her on her nose.

“Hey, Dad, can I go play on the swing set?”

“Of course you can, Birdie-girl. We’ll meet you back there in a few minutes,” Jake answers, crossing the lawn to where I’m standing as Birdie takes off for the gate at the side of their house hollering bye Uncle Tuck. It’s fucking cool to hear Birdie call my big brute of a friend “Dad.” I know how much that little girl means to him, and he is her dad in every sense of the word, even if she doesn’t have his DNA.

“I’ll see ya later, Tuck,” Everly says with a wave. “I’m going inside. My feet are killing me.”

“I hear you were out with Daisy?” Jake asks. “You’re finally manning up. It’s about fucking time.”

I shake my head. Living on the same street in the same small town with your best friends is the dream, but it also makes having a private life basically impossible. “It wasn’t like that. Wesort of ran into each other on a hike, and we were both hungry, so we went to Delila’s. That’s all.”

“If you think for a second, I’m buying your bullshit, you’re fooling yourself. Anyone with two eyes can tell that you have a thing for her. Hell, you’ve had a thing for her for years. What the hell are you waiting for?”

I stare at Jake for a second, weighing my options. I haven’t admitted my feelings for Daisy to anyone. Not ever. Jake has always been easy to talk to. He’s also the human version of a vault. So, I know that whatever I say to him will stay between us.

“I slept with her.” I exhale, feeling some of the weight lift from my shoulders.

With a nod, he drags his hand over his beard. “Okay, and…”

“It’s complicated. She’s not into me like that. We’re not dating, we’re not together. We’re just friends with benefits for the next few months, until she leaves on her trip.”

“Why the fuck would you agree to that?”

“It was my idea.” I wince.

Jake lets out a slow whistle, shaking his head. “And now you’ve caught feelings for the girl.”

“Yeah,” I force out, running my fingers through my hair.

“You realize this isn’t going to end well, right? Someone’s getting their heart broken and I have a feeling it’s going to be you.”

Jake isn’t telling me anything I don’t already know. It was clear to me after the kiss in my father’s office that this wasn’t just a pact for me. Daisy has always been it for me. She’s always been the one.

“You could tell her how you feel. Let the chips fall where they fall.”

“Not that easy, man. One, I told you she isn’t into me like that. And two, my parents would have a huge issue with it.Three, I finally have her back in my life, and I don’t want to lose her.”

“You think your parents will get caught up on the god-sister thing?”

“It’s my dad. He can barely tolerate me, but he’s always thought of Daisy as a daughter. I’m sure he thinks I’m not good enough for her. Fuck, if he so much as knew I was sleeping with her, he would bury my body.”

“Well, then I guess you have your fun on the down-low, hopefully fuck her out of your system and move on with your life.”

“That’s your advice? I watched you put it all on the line to get Ev, and you’re telling me to fuck the girl I’ve wanted for my entire life and then justmove on? Is that what you would do?”

“Fuck, no. There’s no way I could have said goodbye to Ev, and just friends was never going to be enough. I would have done anything I had to do, and I wouldn’t have stopped until she was mine.”

I chew on my lip, thinking about what Jake just said. In another world, maybe I could be with Daisy. Our families would adjust, my father would get over it, and everything would just be… okay. But there’s no reasoning with my dad. And he doesn’t bark out threats without backing them up with consequences. He would never understand what Daisy means to me. He’s so convinced I’m a fuck-up, of course he’d assume that I’d screw up her life, too—tire of her or break her heart, and shatter our family’s bond with the Carters in the process.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I wish like hell I knew.”

Jake shakes his head with that smug look that he gets when he thinks he knows everything.

“What? Why are you giving me that look?”

---