She pursed her lips and reviewed the application. “Hmm.” Mel looked up. “So you’re gonna supervise this?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She clucked. “Don’t yes, ma’am me. That girl was in here the other day lookin’ all flustered about this.” Mel leaned closer, her eyes big and imploring. “She was pretty cute, too. What’s her name again?”
“Daisy.”
Mel laughed again, heartily. She shook her head. “If this isn’t the sweetest thing.”
He leaned casually against the counter, grinning. “I appreciate your help, Mel.”
She filled out the permit and smacked it with a big rubber stamp. “Yeah, I just bet you do.”
Twenty minutes later Jake pulled into the drive of his family’s beach house. He didn’t bother to go inside, but instead crossed the divide, permit in hand. On the ride over, he had decided to offer more help to her. No way would he allow Daisy to put that siding up there all by herself, especially up at the top. The danger of it all sent a shudder through him. His vow to help meant delaying his own project some, but if they worked together, he felt sure they could have it done quickly.
He stopped short.
Rafael was around the back, stacking fiber-cement siding beneath the deck. He had, apparently, forgotten to wear a shirt again.
Daisy skipped out of the back door with a pitcher and a cup. She allowed the screen door to slam behind her. “Hey, Jake.”
Rafael swung around at the sound of Daisy’s voice. He pulled off one of his gloves and wiped it across his brow in slow motion. Then he flashed Daisy a smile and took the cup from her, waiting as she filled it with water.
Jake thought he might be sick.
Daisy gasped. She jogged over to him, the pitcher still in her hand. “Don’t tell me you got my permit!”
He smiled and put it behind his back. “Okay.”
She reached for it. “Jake Morelli!”
He held it up in front of her. “Got it.”
She squealed. “Oh my gosh! You’re a miracle worker.” She paused. “Did you have to pay them off or something?”
“Something like that.”
Her eyes grew big. “Really?”
“No. The paperwork was in order, so there was no good reason for them to turn down the permit.” He did not add that he’d had to suffer through one of Mel’s bear hugs as part of the bargain. “Surprised you bought the siding already. Need help installing it?”
Daisy waved a hand casually in front of him. “I had faith in you. And no worries. Rafael and I are going to work on putting it all up there together. Phew, though. This permit came in the nick of time!” She reached for it. “May I?”
He handed the permit to her and cast a look over at her handyman, who stood there holding an empty cup and wearing a stupid grin on his face.
Jake was no longer needed.
He backed away. This was for the best. Jake owed his lawyer a phone call, had email to answer, and if he ever wanted to cook a meal in the family beach house again, he knew he had better get moving. He stuck a hand in his pocket and turned to Daisy. “If you’re sure, then—”
“We’re good,” she said, waving him off. As he turned away, he noticed that she had already joined Rafael underneath the deck.
Hours later, Jake held his phone up to the empty kitchen, scanning the space. “What do you think, Mags?”
“I think anything looks better than those old cabinets and counters. Even nothing.”
He grinned. Two of his other sisters would likely agree, though the third, Bella, would no doubt have a hard time seeing their old family kitchen this way. He had a soft spot for his youngest sister, even though she was an unrealistic dreamer at times.
He turned the phone around so he could see Maggie. “You’re mighty chipper.”
She quirked her head. “Am I?”
“With all due respect, my sister, you usually have some sort of, hm, how do I say this?”
“Criticism to share?”
“That’s it. You usually have something constructive to add after your compliments. Which, by the way, are usually few and far between.”
“I’m hurt.”
“You’re not.”
She threw back her head, laughing in that robust way of hers. As he listened to the sound of it, the front door opened. He slid a quick glance toward it. Daisy wandered in, moving tentatively across the space. Their gazes collided as she passed by, the moment sending an electrical current through him.
She didn’t stop. Instead, Daisy headed toward the hallway, a slight limp in her gait, her eyelids drooping. Tension spread across his back and up his neck. Maybe he should have chased away that pretty boy and helped Daisy himself. She looked as if she could use a long nap and he hoped, for her sake, that she wouldn’t emerge from her room anytime soon.
“So anyway,” Maggie said, drawing him back into the conversation, “how are you really doing over there? I’m worried that your money’s going to run out, Jake. I … I wish I could help.”
It was the closest she had ever come to admitting how difficult her finances had become. If Jake didn’t have such a good friend at her bank, he would never have found out just how close she was to poverty.
“Maggie, I have it covered. Really.”
“But you’re doing the work and paying for it.”
“I’m actually enjoying it.” He swept a glance across the bare room, imagining the possibilities. “I haven’t done this kind of work in years. Thought I’d never miss it, frankly.”
“So it’s … therapeutic?”
He smiled. “Kind of, yeah.”
She let out a long sigh. “If Dad could hear you now.”
Jake’s shoulders stiffened at the mention of their father. How many times had he stood in this very room, his feet shoulder-width apart, arms crossed in front of him, listening to his father’s berating? Far too many.
After he and Maggie said their goodbyes, he unclenched his teeth and shook away his negative memories. His father was a good man, had taught him much, though he had been stubborn.
Jake had always wanted to design buildings and homes and complexes. He wanted to put his wild ideas to paper and watch those creations take shape by someone else’s hand. Not because he was lazy, as his dad sometimes alluded to. Nor because he was inept, a thought that Jake secretly wore at times. It was because his mind moved fast, like a shot that rang out in the east followed by another in the west. By the time all the permits and teams were in place to build what he had envisioned, he wanted to have moved on to his next project, his next fantastical idea.
The quick pace had served him well, though no one in his family knew exactly how well. How would they feel if they knew he could buy their parents’ home and hand it back to all of them without missing a dime? That he could buy it hundreds of times over? Not that doing so was an option—his parents had seen to that by writing their will the way they had.
A sobering gratefulness filled him. He glanced around the room. Some might only see the bareness of it all and declare it empty. Plain. Insufferably unlivable. His shoulders began to fill with oxygen, relaxing, because as Jake took it all in, he saw the possibilities.
His sister’s words rang out in his head. So it’s … therapeutic?
Jake pressed his lips together, thinking. His sister needed more help. He knew it by her bank account balance, the way it hovered dangerously over the color red, but also by the wistfulness in her voice. When was the last time Maggie had a day all to herself? Didn’t women like pampering?
He scowled, his mind detouring toward some of the women who had attempted to date him. The makeup … the clothes … the suffocating perfume! Wasn’t exactly what he meant or wanted for his sister. Now that he thought about it, many of those women seemed to appear in the middle of his workday, for no apparent reason, dressed to someone’s idea of perfection.
Jake leaned his bum against the single cabinet he’d left behind to hold coffee. A memory caused a curl of a
smile to find him. The first time he’d seen Daisy—well, the first time in many years—she’d been wearing a knockout of a dress and tottering on heels. Somehow, that didn’t bother him. With a start, he realized he had no idea where she had been going that day, dressed like that. A date? He cringed at that thought.
Of course, that was before he knew she was the munchkin from his childhood, the word bringing a slight chuckle out of him. The more he knew Daisy, the more annoyed he became with himself. Why had he been such a beast as a child? A teen? He hadn’t had too many girlfriends—hadn’t had the time. He’d been a serious one, with many goals. Women weren’t one of them, although, admittedly, they had always been a pastime.
Jake sighed. If he weren’t so overwhelmed and stressed with the pending fines, maybe he could explore something more … permanent. He tossed away his musings, reminded once again of his sister’s predicament. A quick look at his phone told him his friend at the bank would be going home soon. Jake leaned forward and peeked toward the empty hallway. He had heard nothing from Daisy since she wandered past him ten minutes earlier.
Quietly, he slipped out of the house and onto the front porch and dialed his friend.
Daisy awoke to the sounds of gulls cawing and drool puddling on her pillowcase. Her nap had been that good. She opened one eye, then the next. Feet on the floor again, she padded across the room, the house noticeably quiet. She had hit a wall earlier this afternoon, metaphorically speaking, and it was all she could do to drag herself back to the Morelli house and get some sleep.
Now up, she heard the muffled but unmistakable tone of Jake’s voice coming from somewhere outside of the living room. Funny how his voice hadn’t changed much over the years. Nor had her reaction to it. Daisy’s heart still stirred when she heard him speaking, as it had back when he used to so carelessly call her munchkin.
Idly, she tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear. She had more to accomplish tonight at her mother’s home, but going outside would mean encountering Jake when she still felt a little groggy and emotionally raw.
She took a step toward the front door, which stood ajar.
“We’ll do this as before, right?” she heard Jake saying. “Must be strictly anonymous.”
Daisy froze. Did she dare step out on the porch now while he was so obviously in the middle of a business call? She sighed. She already felt like a reluctant intruder in his life, his home. How awkward was this? She leaned toward the door anyway, listening.
Jake sighed. “That’s a legitimate question, Stu. One of these days I’ll tell Maggie that I’m the one who’s been providing her some help, but not now. She’s stubborn and might not take me up on my offer, quite frankly.”
Daisy frowned. Who was Stu? How was Jake helping Maggie? More than that, how could his sister not know if she was being helped? Daisy squeezed her eyes shut, pressing away lingering fatigue.
Jake continued. “Thank you, Stu. I appreciate your help again with this transaction.” He paused, and then chuckled. “Well, that’s the reason you’ve been my banker for all these years.”
After Jake said goodbye, Daisy pushed open the screen door and stepped onto the porch.
He swiveled toward her, phone in hand, his expression moving from surprise to benign in a blink. “Hey.”
She swallowed back a sigh, considering him. The late afternoon sun highlighted the shadow of whiskers on his handsome face. Much as she wished this not to be the case, he was still cute. And magnetizing … shoot, he was downright sexy. She forced a look across the sand toward her mother’s house. Allowing him to see the girlhood crush that showed up on her face periodically, like a bothersome blush, didn’t seem like such a great idea.
Finally, Daisy corralled her wayward attention and drew her gaze back to Jake. At the same moment, he stood and shoved the phone into his back pocket, his eyes on hers.
Steady, steady. She would not be going there. Her mind whirred. What had she been thinking about when she first walked out onto this porch? Oh right. The phone call. She made herself breathe. Refocus. Was he really giving money to Maggie without her knowing it? “Sorry to interrupt,” she finally said, her voice a squeak.
“No problem. I just finished up a call.” He slid a hand into his front pocket, still watching her. “Did you have a good rest?”
“Yes, yes, I did.” She paused, thinking. “Learned a while ago that the secret to productivity is a twenty-minute nap.”
He raised one powerful arm above their heads, gripped a low-hanging board, and grinned at her. “Really.”
His aftershave reached her senses, but Daisy tried not to drink it in. She took a step backward, but her rear hit the exterior wall of the house.
“What are you doing now?” he asked.
Trying not to fall helplessly for your charms. She cleared her throat. “I’m heading over to the house because I have, uh, lots of laundry to do.”
He wrinkled his brow, staring at her.
“Don’t give me that look, Jake.” She gestured toward her mother’s home. “If I go now before it’s dark, nobody’s going to see and report me.”
He let out a confused laugh, his brows shooting upward. “Will be difficult without electricity.”
“Oh! Right …”
“You can do your laundry here. The set is in the garage and it’s all yours.”
Daisy’s heart felt like it was riding a seesaw—all giggles on the upside and a plummeting stomach on the down. She couldn’t let this evening be about small talk, or napping, or … laundry! Anything to take the focus off her … off them. She sighed. Jake was hiding a secret and she wanted to know why. She tilted her chin, snagging him with a look. “Why are you being nice to me all of a sudden? Are you feeling sorry for me or something?”
A grin broke across Jake’s face, like an extra-bright beam of sunlight. How did he do that? He stroked her with a gaze, the brush of it sending tingles down her bare arms. “On the contrary, Daisy. You’re handling a difficult situation with grit. I’ve got an army of women behind me and my little project here”—he turned his focus briefly to his family’s beach house and back to her again—“while you’re tackling everything alone. I have great admiration for you.”
She blinked. If only …
He could see her as more than some kind of warrior.
She could trust him with the deepest thoughts she’d kept locked away.
His admiration could be something … more.
A great big swell of air filled her lungs and Daisy steadied herself. She had to change the subject and do it now. “I heard your phone call, Jake.”
His arm dropped from where he casually touched that low board. “My phone call?”
She kept her chin raised. “You’re secretly giving Maggie money, right? Why not just tell her?”
Jake’s grin melted, first into surprised paralysis, and then slowly into a frown. He licked his lips, the gears of his mind turning right in front of her. “Hmm. Guess I need to learn to lower my voice.”
But that would only make it sexier …
He hung his head now, his eyes imploring her. “What can I say? What you heard is true, but I hope you will help me by keeping it to yourself.”
“But she’s your sister. At the very least, she would want to know who to thank. I know I would.”
“I don’t need thanks.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He shifted. “Look, it’s important to me not to take credit, sure. But it’s even more imperative that she not be made to feel needy. Does that make sense?”
His words niggled at her. She never really knew the state of her parents’ finances. They’d kept those kinds of details from her, as they probably should have. But, at times, she sensed a struggle with lack. Like on those days when she would ask her mother for lunch money and her mother’s smile would falter. Or when a shut-off notice would appear on their front door and her father would explain it away as a “clerical error.”
Once when she was in the kitchen
helping her mother fix “breakfast for dinner,” she flipped a pancake and asked, “Momma, are we rich?”
Her mother had kissed her on the cheek and carefully guided her hand away from the hot stove. “We’re as rich as we need to be,” she’d said.
Jake’s brows dipped further, his eyes dark and vulnerable. His often careless, fast-moving banter had suddenly been replaced with a soberness she could not remember ever seeing in him. And her heart softened a little bit more.
She nodded. Maybe she had been thoughtless in her attempt to extract information, to inflict her opinion on his business. She swallowed the taste of pride, her voice a whisper of its former self. “Yes. Of course, I can understand that.”
He watched her, no sign of anger or frustration in his face. And then Jake stepped forward, took her into his arms and whispered, “Thank you.”
Five
Daisy could not stop thinking about the way Jake had touched her last night. It had been innocent, of course. At least in his mind. But in hers, she had given in to the warmth of him, allowing his touch to linger on her skin and in her heart … for hours.
But she couldn’t think of that right now.
A nurse walked into the room where her mother had been living for the past few weeks and made a beeline for her patient. “You almost ready to get out of here, Wren?”
Wren smiled, though there was a slight bit of tilt to her mouth now. “Yes. My Daisy is going to stay with me.”
The nurse turned and looked at Daisy, both brows lifted, as if she hadn’t noticed her standing there. “What a sweet daughter you are. Do you have a medical background?”
Wren cut in, her voice joyful sounding. “No, no. She builds houses. She’s very smart, my Daisy.”
Daisy’s heart squeezed at the pride in her mother’s voice. She had always felt a little guilty for not finishing college, about not being farther along in life—a family, kids—so her mother could have grandchildren running around right about now.
“Good for you,” the nurse said to Daisy. She stepped closer, lowering her voice. “It would be a good idea if you spoke to the case manager soon. She’ll help you figure out how to best care for your mother’s needs once she’s out of here.”
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