Page 37 of Healed
“I’d like to get to know you, Daisy. But if you’re not interested, all you have to do is say so. I’m not unreasonable. Fair warning, though. Carson has decided your dad is some kind of god worthy of hero worship. We may be around from time to time anyway. I hope we can be friends.”
“That’s not it at all, Charlie. It’s just…” she looked away for a second, then back to him, her expression almost afraid. “I’m broken. I don’t know how to fix me.”
“Tell me how to help,” he said.
“I’m not sure you can help. I may be like this forever,” she confessed, her voice going softer and quieter.
“You, just like this, is just fine with me. But I’d like you to be really happy. So if I can help you get to that point, just tell me what you need.”
“You are far too nice to me,” she said, smiling at him.
“I’m just being me. Trying to let you know that I really, really like you. I care about you and I haven’t cared about anyone in a long time. I was raised to be honest, and to let people know when they matter to you. You matter to me.”
“For now,” Daisy said with a snicker, trying to make light of the moment.
“For always, Daisy.”
Daisy’s smile faltered and the lawn tractor with her dad and Carson riding it came back up and made the turn to head back down the field toward the tree line. She watched them as they made the turn, laughing as Carson put his whole little body into turning the tractor. As they started back down the field, following the pattern they’d begun, she brought her attention back to Charlie. “Where is Carson’s mother?”
“She passed when he was just a toddler.”
“So, you’re telling me she’s really gone. There won’t be anyone popping up claiming to be your wife or fiancée, hurling insults at me and threatening me, passing out photos of me and him and leaving them on all the windshields of the vehicles everywhere I frequent, with home-wrecker written across them in red?”
His face went from genuine care to anger in about 2.4 seconds. “Is that what happened? Who the hell did that to you?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m just so afraid to trust anybody. I believed him when he said he was divorced. But he wasn’t. He was still very married and I fell for it all. I was such a fool,” she said, her eyes filling with tears she fought furiously to blink away.
Charlie stepped closer to her and placed a single finger beneath her chin, lifting her face so she’d look into his eyes. “First, I need to make sure that you’re alright. Then I need to pay this sonofabitch a visit.”
“I just want them to forget about me,” she begged. “If they find me here, she’ll humiliate me here, too.”
He shook his head as he pulled her in for a hug, holding her to him, but gently, without pressure. “You’re going to be happy again, no matter what that takes. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping it was me in some form or fashion, but even if it’s something or somebody else, if that’s what you want, that’s what you’re going to get. Anything it takes. Then I’m going to find a way to make him pay, and his psycho wife, too.”
“I just want to forget.” She took a step back, away from him and he let her go. “I already left everything behind and came home. I don’t want to have to leave home, too.”
“You won’t. And I mean what I said. You’re going to be happy again. That’s our mission — no matter what it is that makes you happy. And we’re starting with food. Now. You ready?”
Daisy laughed softly. “You’re stubborn, you know that?”
“I’ve been told that before. I prefer to think of it as persistence. Seriously, though. No expectations. Just someone who cares about a very kind lady, taking that very kind lady out to relax and eat and just have no worries for a while. When you want to come back, we will. Deal?”
She smiled and shook her head. “Okay. Deal.”
“What do you want to eat?”
“Surprise me.”
“I was thinking steak. I found a great steakhouse on the other side of town during the week. If you don’t like beef, they have other things, too.”
“Are you kidding? I adore steak! Let me trade these shorts for jeans and I’ll be right back,” she said as she turned and started up the steps.
“I’ll be right here,” he said. “But don’t forget I’m starving!” he called after her.
Daisy hurried inside closing the door hard as she rushed through the living room.
“Do not slam the door, Daisy!” Janie called out.
“Sorry! I’m in a hurry,” Daisy answered.
