Page 148 of Stealing Sunshine

My stomach cramps as it continues, but I don’t want it to end. Not when I shake out of Darren’s hold and whip open the front door, and not when I stand on the front porch and stare at where Daisy’s standing on the sidewalk.

I’m in rumpled, borrowed pajamas with my hair a greasy mess, but Daisy looks at me now the same way she always does. Like she couldn’t care less what I wear or how much makeup I’ve put on as long as I’m here, close to her.

“What are you doing?” I ask, gripping the porch railing.

The thin costume-store angel wings on her back ruffle in the wind, and the feathers around the hem of her short white skirt and sleeves of the matching long-sleeve look just as fluffy as they did the first time I saw them on her birthday last year.

“I haven’t really gotten started yet. You weren’t supposed to see me until after you heard me,” she replies, tugging at the ends of her wavy hair.

I curl my lips into a cheesy grin. “Would you like me to go back inside, then?”

“No, but maybe cover your ears?”

“What?”

She doesn’t answer me. Instead, she picks up the megaphone I hadn’t noticed at her feet and brings it to her mouth.

“Good morning, Cherry Peak! This is Daisy Mitchell speaking, and I wanted to make a special announcement.”

I stare at her, dumbstruck, my fingers growing weak around the metal railing. A second later, they slip from it entirely.

One of Darren’s neighbours watches us from his porch across the street with a newspaper in his hand, his rocking chair remaining completely still. The front curtains of the house two doors down from him part as a woman gawks at us and waves to someone behind her. A second person joins her, and I look away, uninterested in anyone but Daisy.

“I love Bryce Lemieux! I love her so much, and I don’t carewhat anyone thinks about that because I’m going to love her forever!”

Her eyes don’t waver as they remain fixed on mine, gleaming with more affection than I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how I manage to walk down the steps and through the grass to meet her, but somehow, I get close enough to take the megaphone for myself.

Bringing it up to my mouth, I palm her bare waist and say, “I love Daisy Mitchell, and I will for a long, long fucking time.”

Her smile destroys me just to build me back up again, this time with all of my crooked, mismatched pieces in their proper slots.

“Do you mean that?” she asks softly.

I drop the megaphone and reach for her face instead. The weight of her cheeks in my palms is just right. Fucking perfect. She holds my wrists, locking them in place.

I tap our noses together. “Love codes, Daisy.”

“Love codes?”

Her hold on my left wrist tightens when I try to pull my hand back, but once she looks just a bit higher, she gasps and releases me.

“What—when? Oh, Bryce,” she rambles, tugging my arm closer while leaning in to look. “Is that for me?”

“Love codes was Darren’s idea, but it’s . . . it’s us. I’ve always been able to express myself with art better than I ever could with words. And these tattoos, Sunshine, the one on your thigh and my ankle and now my arm, they’re my love language. I could ink your name into every inch of my skin and still try to make room to keep going,” I confess, staring down at the new addition to my sleeve.

The cherry tree isn’t the focal part anymore. Both the snake and panther aren’t watching over it so much as they are the field of daisies now surrounding the trunk. The only colour amidst the grey and black is yellow.

“I found myself in the basement last night with my tattoogun in my hand. It’s not the first time I let my feelings for you control me while in that type of headspace. But this time was different. The piece I altered is complete now. It’s whole.”

Her eyes glitter with tears as she guides my arm to her mouth and kisses the raised skin. My nerves sizzle beneath her lips.

“Close your eyes,” she whispers, hot breath fanning over the field of daisies.

I shut them instantly and keep them that way while she shifts in front of me.

“Okay, open them.”

The moment I do, my heart rips through its restraints and tries to soar through my chest.

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