There were the plans for Connect Four, but they hadn’t made plans beyond that. Daisy didn’t even know if the rest of her meals were covered or not, since she was a coach passenger riding in a roomette. Better play it safe and just eat the granola bars and trail mix she’d brought with her.
She pulled back her curtain and slid her door open and there was Cannon, looking up at her from his seat in the roomette across the hall. Without thinking, Daisy stepped back and pulled her curtain shut, then stood there with her heart racing. The door was still open, and she couldn’t shut it without opening the curtain again.
“I can see you,” he said, chuckling.
Daisy looked down and realized her legs and feet were clearly visible below the curtain. How did she get out of this one? And why wasn’t she expecting him to be there! If he wasn’t so dang perfect, she wouldn’t be so off her game. The window popped out in an emergency, right? How badly would she get hurt if she jumped out at 60 miles per hour?
“Come on out,” said Cannon.
Daisy was stuck. Now she couldn’t even take a minute to get presentable. She picked up her toiletry bag and slid the curtain back. She completely forgot about herself when she saw him as perfect as yesterday with his immaculate suit, perfect brown hair, and sparkling green eyes. And had he shaved sometime during the night? Unlike Daisy, who hadn’t even thought about doing anything with her hair and still wore the sweatpants and t-shirt she’d slept in, he looked ready to dine with the president. At least Daisy had thought to put a bra on. That was something at least.
Remembering her predicament made her start sweating.
“Morning,” he said.
“Did you sleep okay?” she asked sliding past and inching toward the bathroom. Even at the crack of dawn, he still wore that smile like it was great living in his world.
“Nope. Thank goodness.”
“Oh, that’s right.” Duh, he stayed awake all night. “I’m just gonna …” She escaped down the hall and into the bathroom.
The tiny bathroom felt claustrophobic. Daisy’s pulse was racing like she’d run a mile. To make matters worse, in the small mirror of the restroom, she saw a train wreck looking back at her. Her hair was going every direction, and her face was still puffy from sleep. She’d stayed up talking to him way too late last night, and the bags under her eyes showed it. Makeup wasn’t a huge part of her life, but she did put on moisturizer, as well as a little eye shadow and mascara. Without it, and so early in the morning, she looked pasty and puffy. Hopefully Cannon liked glazed donuts because that’s what she’d looked like out in the hallway.
Not that he’d seemed to mind. Not late last night and not just now. His bright face had brightened even more when she came out of her room and started chatting.
Daisy did what she could with her hair and brushed her teeth. When she went back out, Cannon was in his same spot keeping an eye on everything. He smiled at her when they made eye contact, and it made Daisy feel like Cinderella.
Walking down the corridor in my dirty servant’s clothes I approached the prince’s quarters. Our eyes met and I froze, trapped in the spell of his emerald eyes. The world around me shimmered and I looked down to see my clothes had been transformed to a deep blue embroidered ball gown. My ratty hair was up in a princess-do complete with a jeweled tiara. In an instant I had become the most beautiful lady in the kingdom.
“Are you okay?” asked Cannon. He was standing and reaching out a hand to her.
Oh perfect. She had been gazing at him all dream-like. Dang him and that enchanting smile. “Sorry, I was lost in the sway of the train for a second.”
“Wait, you were, what was it I said yesterday? Mind switching?”
The door at the end of the hallway opened and out stepped Miss Dee—looking as perfect as the night before, but not as perfect as Cannon’s smile had made Daisy feel—followed by Pasha, wearing a pair of designer jeans, tan blouse, and a Supreme brand hoodie.
“Good morning,” said Daisy, happy for the rescue.
Pasha ran past Miss Dee and gave Daisy a hug. “Hi, Daisy Mae. I have to eat breakfast before we can play Connect Four.”
“That’s fine,” said Daisy.
“You’re coming with us, right, big sister? To breakfast?”
“Yes, please do,” said Miss Dee.
Daisy checked with Cannon and got a tiny nod. Unfortunately no wink this time, but that did make three invitations. “Of course,” said Daisy. “Can I meet you there in a few minutes? I don’t want to wear my PJs to the dining car.”
“Yeah that’s okay,” said Pasha. “Even though I’d wear PJs all day if I was allowed.” She looked up at Miss Dee, who shook her head and tried to suppress a smile at the absurd idea.
“Save me a seat, okay, sis?” said Daisy.
“You got it,” said Pasha, and the three of them did the little dance they did when they went through the corridors, changing places at every junction, which made it kind of hard to track him all the way.
At breakfast, instead of watching the scenery go by, they got to look at the train station in the town of Klamath Falls, Oregon. There would be an hour delay due to conductor staffing issues. Daisy didn’t care—she was on a train, and who rode a train if they were in a hurry? Besides, the company wasn’t bad at all, especially the late night company. And if they got sick of her, Daisy had plenty of work to do.
After breakfast they went back to the parlour car and Pasha beat Daisy in four straight games of Connect Four. The trio excused themselves for tutoring sessions and Daisy envisioned that Pasha might just be the mental equivalent of a high school senior by the time she started first grade. Daisy grabbed her laptop, took it to the lounge car, and spent the next couple of hours editing as the majestic forests of Oregon rolled past her window. It was a colossal sea of trees that seemed as vast as the oceans.
The four of them ate lunch together, played Mancala—which Daisy managed to win two out of like eight games—then after her afternoon tutoring, dinner. As much as Daisy enjoyed spending time with the brilliant little Pasha, it was Cannon whom she longed to see. Unfortunately, he had barely said two words to her after Pasha and Miss Dee had appeared that morning. Around them he was all business, and Daisy was all but forgotten.
She’d never been so torn about a man. Even with Sterling, she liked him enough to spend years with him. Throughout his medical residency she’d always assumed that when that life was over, she would take a more prominent role, but life hadn’t changed when he became a real doctor. Daisy was still less important than his career and she had felt it nearly every day. Less than a week before the wedding, a friend of his had insulted her, and instead of defending her, Sterling laughed it off. Daisy called off the engagement then and there.
And here she was falling all over again for a guy who only noticed her because he noticed everything in the room. Except when they were alone, of course, but hadn’t Sterling been like that? It was when any sort of distraction came up that she was pushed to the side. The problem was, all the feelings she’d ever felt for Sterling didn’t compare to how drawn she was to Cannon. He was like a walking, talking fantasy for her, minus the talking part for most of the day. Maybe it was his reticence that drew her to him. Maybe if he all of a sudden took an interest in her it would remove the mystery and she’d be put off. She sincerely doubted it, but maybe.
As the train approached Seattle, Daisy packed up her things. The sliding door to her roomette was open, as was Cannon’s, but he was too busy staring down the empty aisle to notice her. A voice over the intercom announced their arrival and thanked them for riding with Amtrak.
She and Cannon stepped up to their doorways at the same time. Before she could be whisked away into a fantasy, he said her name.
“Daisy?”
Heart fluttering, she tried not to wilt under his smoldering eyes. She only had seconds left with her fake boyfriend, and things had suddenly risen to a crescendo.
I stood on one train car and he stood on the
other, both knowing that the cars had been disconnected and we’d be ripped apart at any second. I leaned forward, craving one simple kiss goodbye, and saw him leaning too. He said, “Daisy, are you listening? Hello?”
Daisy snapped out of her trance. “Yeah. What? I’m listening.”
“Someday you have to tell me what’s up, but before we stop—”
“Yeah?” She was leaning out of her doorway. Why was he taking so long to get to his point?
“When we get back to L.A., do you want—”
The door to the suite opened abruptly and Miss Dee hurried out with Pasha on her heels. “Mr. Gold himself is here to pick up Pasha. He’s waiting in the front.”
“Well, bye,” he told Daisy, then quickly joining the hurry, he stepped into the hallway to lead the way out.
Daisy started to follow them. Maybe if she hung around with them on their way out, he’d have a chance to finish what he’d been about to say.
In the middle of the hallway, where the exit was, he took one lingering glance over his shoulder at Daisy, then picked up a suitcase from the luggage rack and carried it out the door.
Miss Dee said, “Pasha, do you have all of your things?”
“Yes, Miss Dee.” She held up her tiny Moana suitcase and plush Moana doll.
Daisy followed them out of the train. On the platform, people were pouring out of every car, and in the activity, Cannon’s attention was completely consumed.
“Goodbye, Daisy Mae,” said Pasha, who had stopped, to the dismay of Miss Dee.
“Goodbye, Appassionata.”
Again, Pasha came forward and gave her a hug. “I’m not s’pose to tell strangers this, but I ride the train back to Los Angeles next Friday. In case you wanna see us again.”
“Maybe I will see you,” said Daisy. “Thanks for teaching me Mancala.”
“You’re welcome. Bye.” She waved and Miss Dee tilted her head in farewell as they walked off.
Cannon turned his head, gave her another wink and then she was forgotten.
What had he been about to say? And why was the timing so crappy?
Oh well, it was probably for the best. Never again would she be involved with a man who put her so low on his list of priorities and she had serious doubts about Cannon. With a sigh for what might have been, Daisy pulled out her phone to call Maia and find out where to meet her.
Chapter
Cannon hauled the last two sheets of drywall into the small addition to the church and laid them on top of the pile. The church was relatively new, and some parts of the building were still only framed out. This addition would be a room built specifically to be a nursery, so parents could worship and study while their kids were taught and cared for here. After catching a red-eye back to L.A. Saturday night, he’d slept a few hours, gone to services, then slept some more. Monday morning he was refreshed and ready to get to work on this project.
Blayze, one of his SEAL Team 7 buddies, pulled the trigger on the drill and said, “You slap ‘em up, and I’ll drill ‘em in.”
“Thanks again for giving me a hand,” said Cannon, lifting one sheet and carrying it to the far corner and lifting it flat against the studs in the ceiling.
“I didn’t have much of a choice with that guilt trip you took me on.”
Blayze sunk a couple of drywall screws and Cannon went for the next piece while Blayze completed that sheet. After years of training together and working on covert operations, they didn’t need to talk to complete such a basic task.
“So,” said Cannon, going for another sheet, “how are things with … what’s her name again?”
Blayze growled. “Don’t bother learning it. We’re done.”
“Done? You barely started.”
“Don’t remind me,” said Blayze, using the drill to take his frustration out.
They continued to work, complementing each other and finishing the ceiling in record time.
“So what’s the issue,” asked Cannon, lifting a sheet and carrying it to the corner of the wall. “Why don’t your relationships last?”
“Oh, no,” said Blayze, shaking his head. “I came here to do drywall, not be psychoanalyzed.”
Cannon chuckled silently. The hostage-negotiation-slash-human-polygraph guy hated it when people tried to get inside his head. Still, even if Cannon couldn’t help Blayze work out his issues, he knew it was good for his buddies to get together once in a while and just hang out, or even better, give service.
What Cannon didn’t tell any of them, was that he needed time with them once in a while. When he was with his SEAL buddies, it was easy to be the happy one, the one who always thought life was great and the future was bright. What they didn’t know was that when he didn’t have the role to fill on the team, everything was different. All the darkness he’d seen and experienced grew inside him and sometimes made it hard to see the light.
It was the same feeling when he was around Daisy, but times a million. Like all was right in the world. He didn’t know what it was about her personality, but he’d never felt like that before. In the few days since the train trip ended, he’d even considered going to Sutton Smith, the Warrior Project leader, and asking for help tracking her down since he had seemingly limitless resources.
The Warrior Project had been started by Sutton to honor his son Doug’s death. Sutton invited five former SEALs from Doug’s platoon to help him right some wrongs. They didn’t always operated strictly within applicable laws but they always did what they could for people in situations with no one else to turn to. Like Rasmus Gold, who couldn’t just call up Bodyguards“R”Us to get the exact guy he needed.
A quick double-tap zip-zip with the drill brought Cannon back to the present. Blayze was waiting for the next sheet. They finished hanging all the drywall quickly and as Cannon started sweeping up, Blayze grabbed his keys and water bottle.
“Wanna grab lunch?” asked Cannon.
“Can’t,” said Blayze. “Meeting with Sutton today.”
“New job? Must not be something urgent or you’d be running out the door.” Since Blayze was the hostage negotiation expert, he was the most likely guy to be picked up in a helicopter and flown out somewhere.
“Yeah, nothing urgent, I’m sure, but I don’t know what yet.”
“All right,” said Cannon. “Thanks again. I’ll let you know when we start drywalling the basement.”
Blayze laughed and waved it off, but he froze in the door. “Sorry I can’t make it to lunch, brother, but let’s watch the Clippers game tomorrow.”
“Cool,” said Cannon.
Still Blayze stood there, forming his thoughts. “I know it’s hard for you to keep the lights shining all the time, Big Gun. When you don’t have the job to do for your buddies, it can be hard to do for yourself. Stay in touch. Reach out.” Blayze walked out without another word.
How in the world had he figured that out about Cannon? Yeah, reading people was his specialty, but still. Was Cannon that transparent?
The worst part of it was, his buddies weren’t always around. Corbin had Delaney, and River was in Hawaii on assignment. The job with Pasha was such a blessing, and it was easy to slip back into that role when he was being her best friend and protector, but that was only two days a week.
Maybe God had something else in store. Maybe that something else would include a certain blonde with a smile like the sun. It couldn’t be that hard to find Editor Daisy Close even in a big city, could it? He’d give her a week or so to return from her trip to Seattle and then he’d start tracking her down.
Cannon checked his watch. He was leading a youth Bible study tonight for the first time and wasn’t sure if he was ready. Just thinking about it made his palms sweat on the broom handle. His volunteer position as lay pastor was proving to be challenging in ways he’d never expected. He still didn’t know if he was trying to counteract the darkness from his life, or just trying to focus on the good in the world and help other people do the same. Most likely a combination of the two, bu
t the fact that he was so uncomfortable doing it, meant he needed more of it in his life.
Like Daisy. For the millionth time in three days, he thought about how much he needed Daisy.
Chapter
Six days after arriving in Seattle, Daisy hopped out of Maia’s car at the King Street Train Station. Her original plan had been to fly back to L.A., but ever since Pasha had mentioned the return trip today, Daisy had been reconsidering. When she realized the only way she’d see Cannon again was on the train, her decision was made and she booked another ticket on the Coast Starlight. Maybe her newfound sister and her almost boyfriend would be on board, and maybe they wouldn’t be. Only one train departed for L.A. each day, so it was worth a shot just for the chance.
This time she’d booked a roomette, and was directed by the attendant on her car to one of the upstairs rooms. Once again she’d lucked out and was on the side of the train that would allow her a view of the ocean once they got to Southern California, but she was on a different car altogether from her last trip. If she remembered right, Pasha’s suite was on the bottom deck of the car in front of hers. No, behind hers, since they were traveling south instead of north. Or did it all flip around entirely? She’d have to find out.
Either way, she didn’t want to go knocking on their door and impose on them first thing. So she got settled into her room, set up her laptop and was already deep into an edit before the train pulled out of the station. She knew where they’d likely be at six o’clock, so in the meantime she’d get as much work done as the passing view of Seattle would allow.
The car was relatively quiet but people passing in the hallway kept distracting her as she looked up, hoping to see Cannon, so she pulled the curtain closed. The view of the city gave way to open grassland, forests, and towns as the train motored down the track. She could get used to this life.
The Peaceful Warrior: Navy SEAL Romance Page 5
