Page 65 of Pushing Daisy
The broad shoulders and caramel hair tied back in a bun are a strange relief. “Sloan! What brings you to the Acorn?” Lachlan says, smiling brightly.
“I don’t know. I was walking and then found myself standing outside,” she says, sliding onto a stool at the bar.
He looks her over, likely noticing her disheveled hair from running her hands through it after leaving Daisy with Barker, or the mud on her shoes from stepping through puddles rather than avoiding them, or perhaps the coffee stain on the front of her sweater from when she went to take a sip and ran into a garbage can on the sidewalk instead. Yes, he probably sees how much of a mess she is.
His brow furrows as he takes her in. “You okay?”
She snorts, then covers her face, apparently now having lost all ability to remain collected. “I’ve been better,” she mumbles into her hands.
A broad, warm hand softly grips her wrist, pulling her hands away from her face. She looks up to see his comforting, steely eyes gazing back at her, and she breaks. A flood of emotions wells up inside her as tears rise and overflow.
“Here,” he says, handing her a couple of tissues. She wipes away her traitorous tears. “What’s going on?” he asks. “Did Daisy do something?”
She breathes in deep through her nose and releases the breath slowly through her mouth, giving her time to compose herself. “Yes. Well, no.” Lachlan does his best to hide his smirk, but Sloan still catches it. “Glad my pain is funny to you,” she snips.
He clears his throat and his face. “Sorry. It’s just, I know Daisy very well, and I’m not remotely surprised she did something to lead to this,” he says, pointing at her.
“I don’t think… or I hope she didn’t maliciously do something. But after some rough moments, we finally found our stride and were having a good time together.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem?”
“I ran into her and Petra at Taster’s…”
“And?” He asks.
“And there was someone else there. The owner of the orchard we visited a couple of weeks ago when we stayed at The Dandelion,” she explains, wiping away a stray tear.
“Again, and?”
“And it seemed like they were on a date. He gave her his number that day, and I didn’t expect anything to come from it because, as far as I knew, they hadn’t talked since. But I guess I was wrong.”
He steps back, mimicking fluffing a sheet in the air.
“What are you doing?”
“Rolling out your jumping-to-conclusions mat.”
Sloan glares at him. “Fuck off.”
Lachlan smirks at her momentarily, enjoying his little joke before narrowing his eyes at her. “Why would it matter if they were on a date?” he asks. Only as he finishes the question, his eyes spring wide, realization dawning. “Fucking Hades, you like her, don’t you? Like, like her, like her!”
“What are you, twelve?” Sloan groans, burying her face in her folded arms on the bar top.
“You fucking do! How the hell did that happen?” he asks excitedly, like a vampire with a fresh cup of blood before them.
“Shut up!” she grumbles.
He laughs at her misfortune. How the hell did she end up here, so worked up over Daisy having coffee with some random demon?
Lachlan composes himself. Mostly. “Seriously, though. You two despise each other and have for as long as I’ve known you, or at least of you. What changed?”
She raises her head, leaning back in the chair. Sloan picks up another tissue and starts running it through her fingers. “The Dandelion. That’s what changed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when I took Petra’s place that weekend, thanks to our little plan, we fought a ton, but we also managed to talk. And I think we realized there’s been a lot of misunderstanding. There’s also been a lot of miscommunication, or at least different ways of communicating. We talked about our past, and after working through some of our differences, I convinced her to give me a chance. She did. And we have been spending some time together, and yeah, I fucking like her.”
“Has anything else happened between you two?” he asks, eyebrow cocked.
