Page 110 of Sunshine
“I’ll explain everything after I make a few calls.” I’m halfway across the stable when I call back. “Meet you at the house in three hours?”
“But Dylan!” she shouts. “What’s the plan? What are we doing?”
“We’re going to prove to Poppy she’s family,” I shout back. “And I’m going to finally give her that happily ever after she’s been chasing for so long.”
thirty-three
Poppy
I know Dylan isbeing thoughtful when he tells me to take the afternoon off and rest, but I can’t sleep. So, two hours after he leaves to talk to Daisy—two more hours of my phone staying sadly silent—I get in my car and go for a drive. And I don’t stop until I reach the lake.
I haven’t been here since the summer, and it was the first place Daisy and I visited when we returned to Aster Springs. We went swimming and lazed in the sun for hours, just like we did when we were teenagers, and it was like no time had passed. That’s the kind of friendship we’ve always had. We can be separated by time and distance and careers and relationships and always pick up where we left off. It’s never awkward. We never have to explain. We know who we are to each other. Sisters in our souls, if not by blood.
At least, that’s what Daisy is to me.
It’s a relatively quiet spot here; there’s another section of the lake that’s popular with tourists, but this hidden alcove remains a local secret. So, when I’m sitting with legs dangling off the edge of the single dock, a short thing that was rebuilt sometimein the ten years I was away, and I hear the approach of someone behind me, I sigh and prepare to leave. I want to be alone, not be a witness to other people’s happiness. But as I get my feet underneath me, someone sits down beside me, and I freeze.
“Hey,” Daisy says.
“Hey,” I reply. “How did you know I was here?”
“I tracked your phone.”
“Oh. Of course.”
I pull out my smartphone as if I need proof she’s telling the truth, but all I really want is the reminder that for the last ten years, we’ve watched each other crisscross the map and never lost sight of each other. I can’t count the nights I lay in my bed and watched her little dot move from place to place—room to room in a house somewhere, street by street to a restaurant for dinner, over trail rides on horses, across oceans on planes. And she’s done the same for me.
And there we are right now. Two blinking dots on a map. Side by side in Aster Springs.
Daisy takes a deep breath in and releases it, letting her shoulders sag.
“I’m sorry I didn’t return your calls or your messages.”
“That’s okay. I wouldn’t have returned yours either if this situation was reversed.”
She gives me a sidelong look. “Yeah. You would have. You’re a better person than me.”
I hunch my shoulders and shake my head. “I’m really not.”
Daisy sighs and takes my hand into her lap. “Yeah. You are.”
I stare at my fingers entwined in hers and blink away the sting in my eyes. “Does this mean…?”
“It means let’s talk,” Daisy says as her grip tightens. “Let’s have the conversation we should have had three months ago.”
“Okay.” I clear my throat and try not to hope too hard. “I love you, Daze. You’re my best friend, and I never wanted to hurt you,but I’m in love with Dylan. And Izzy. I love them so much it’s hard to breathe. And I want to build a life with them.”
Daisy’s voice is sad. “That makes mehappy, Poppy. I’m not angry because you love my brother. I’m angry—no, I’m hurt and disappointed—that you didn’t come to me. And I’m so, so sad you said those things about me to Annalise. Do you really believe I would think you’re not good enough for Dylan?”
I shake my head. “No. I thinkI’mthe one who was worried I wasn’t good enough, and I made you responsible for my insecurities. It’s a really shitty thing to do, but I didn’t even realize I was doing that until last night. I’m so sorry. I shared my fears with the wrong person. I should have come to you.”
“I think that’s the part that hurts the most. You, of all the people in the world, should know our friendship is strong enough to survive whatever it is you have to say.”
“You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I wasn’t. Maybe I was too busy feeling a whole bunch of emotions that kind of overwhelmed me.”
“Because you’ve loved Dylan since we were kids?”
I nod slowly and with regret. Not for loving him but for the lie. “Yep.”
