Page 93 of A Doctor for Daisy

They were talking quietly and both grinned. “What’s this about a food bender? I don’t know I’ve ever seen you do that before.”

Daisy never ate much food. She didn’t diet by any means, but she never gorged herself to the point she’d have to undo her pants.

“When I was a teen my mother wanted to have candy bars and sundaes for dinner a few times a month. She said it was like a girls' night and every girl should do that. I guess at fourteen I thought it was fun. But after a few times I’d get sick to my stomach.”

“Why not say you don’t want to eat that?” he asked.

“It was fine,” she said. “I ate it but not as much. I’d eat a small sundae and have some candy later. My mother thought she was being the cool parent doing those things.”

“And you didn’t want to hurt her feelings?” He got the impression that Daisy did that a lot in life. Held her feelings in to spare her mother’s.

“No,” she said.

He took the dishtowel out of her hand and started to dry the pots. Daisy turned the dishwasher on and then the oven was set on low.

“What are you making now?”

“I’m warming up the apple pie,” she said. “It’s best with ice cream that way.”

“I might have to unbutton my pants,” he said.

She reached for the waist of his jeans, slid her fingers in and yanked him forward so that he was right in her personal space, their hips touching.

“Only if we are alone and we won’t be tonight. It has to wait until tomorrow.”

“Speaking of tomorrow,” he said.

“What?” she asked.

“My father texted. He had dinner with my sisters today. He’s coming to visit tomorrow for the weekend.”

“Oh,” she said. “Okay. I’ve got to work tomorrow and Saturday anyway.”

“I know,” he said. “But I want you to meet him. I think Erica and Harmony might come tomorrow too. They’ve been texting me too.”

“That’s great,” she said.

“They know my on call ends tomorrow night. I did tell them you are working though.”

“It’s nice if you can spend time with them,” she said. “And you’re off tomorrow so you can visit while I work. I feel bad for that since you don’t get a lot of days off.”

“Don’t feel bad,” he said. “Your mother is very proud of you. You know that, right?”

“I do know that,” she said. “She has a few of my pieces on. She wants some things in yellow gold. I’ve never known her to wear it, but I’ll do that for Christmas.”

“Maybe she wants to match Charlie,” he said.

“Could be,” she said. The oven beeped that it was ready, so Daisy put the pie in and he pulled her to the living room to sit next to him on the big chair. Charlie was right in the middle of the couch hogging it all and Penny was in the other chair.

“My mother never told me how you two met,” Daisy said when a commercial came on.

“My cousin has a pub,” Charlie said. “I help him out behind the bar now and again. Luckily Penny walked in with some friends one night.”

“I didn’t know that,” she said to her mother. “You never said a word.”

“You know I don’t go out much,” Penny said. “I didn’t want you to think poorly that I was out picking up men.”

“Considering you don’t date much in life or ever really go out, there was no reason for me to think anything negative,” she said.

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