Wicked Flower

by Carlene Love Flores

  Stefan knew he was just being a smartass, but yeah, Will had done this relationship stuff before. Stefan didn’t have a clue and for the record, he wasn’t calling this a relationship. All he knew was he wanted to be with Dani. Dani wanted to be with him. But she’d chosen not to let that happen and for good reason. He wouldn’t admit it out loud right now, but Will had no idea how needed he was.

  Stefan watched Dani standing there at the kitchen sink. She was probably finishing up the breakfast dishes and getting stuff ready for his mom like she did every day, no matter how tired her body was, how upset her stomach might be, or how much shit she probably had on her mind. The whole time, she’d kept a smile on her face and even cracked jokes with Will. She’d fit in so well with the girls. Tris and Lily would get a real kick out of her. Jaxon and Ben would worship the ground she walked on for Dani’s amazing ability to blow Stefan off. The fact he was even having those thoughts … He couldn’t keep telling himself all it meant was that he wanted her for here and now.

  He did owe her a dinner. Mario’s pizza, he remembered. A peace offering maybe?

  Stefan squeezed the electric mower’s trigger bar until it roared and vibrated under his hands. And he’d yet to check in on his empty house. He closed his eyes for a second and hoped like hell she didn’t shoot him down when he asked her to join him tonight because Will was right, if he didn’t do it, he was a pussy. He let the mower die for a second.

  “How do I do just dinner with her?” he asked Will, dropping as much of the asshole from his voice as he could.

  Will stood next to him with his arms folded over his chest, both of them staring toward Dani in the kitchen window. “You got it bad, brother. Don’t you? The fact you’re even asking me that.”

  “You have no idea. I can’t believe I fucking let this happen.”

  “Well, you can either fight it all night, or you can accept it and let nature take its course,” Will said then looked at him and waited a second while he chewed his cheek. He closed his eyes then opened them again and Stefan knew he’d been remembering Honey. “The way you just have dinner with a girl is easy, man. When it’s the right girl, you do whatever you can not to fuck it up. If all she can give you is dinner, then that’s all you ask her for. In that moment, it’ll be enough, if it’s the right girl. You’re just gonna have to trust me on that.”

  Stefan almost let Will go, aware that had taken a lot out of his friend by the hollow look on his face.

  “How can she be the right girl? We just met.” Stefan frowned.

  “I knew Honey was it within minutes, brother.” Will cleared his throat. “Hey, I gotta go. Your girl is waiting on me for our date.”

  “Fuck you.” Stefan gave him a helpful shove toward the back porch door of the house. “Take care of our girl, or I’ll kick your ass.”

  Will just nodded his head and ducked inside. Stefan watched him meet up with Dani by the sink. He closed his eyes and thought about the first time he’d seen Dani at that pump.

  “Oh shit.” It hadn’t taken minutes, it had been seconds. He had to figure this shit out.

  ****

  When Dani opened her eyes, Will was inside, standing before her. A funny look pulled at his face.

  “Hey, ready to go shopping?” he asked.

  “Oh, um yeah sure. I thought you were about to mow and that we’d go after.” That had been an interesting exchange to watch between the guys out back. Men interacted with each other on a whole nother level she didn’t understand. She wished she knew what had been said but their body language had fascinated her. Along with the flying objects and shoving.

  “Nah. Stefan’s got it. Let’s go.”

  She put the last plate in the dish drainer to dry. “Oh, okay,” she said, trying to come back from the whiplash in her mind. “Let’s go.”

  Will just nodded and walked through the living room to the foyer by the front door. Apparently he was in such a hurry to leave, he wasn’t concerned with much else.

  Dani glanced behind her, still able to see Stefan through the large, back glass door opening to the back yard.

  He yanked at a bright orange cord so hard and fast it looked to have bit him in the ribs. Then he kicked the ground he stood on so rigidly he sent clumps of dirt and grass flying. Was he pissed she was going somewhere alone with Will? Hadn’t he just insisted the night before when she’d brought it up? Men, she’d never understand them apparently. Well, whatever. They’d gotten through one week. Just one more to go, she thought and squeezed fingers to her palms.

  “Come on,” said Will, his hand on her forearm. “We should go.”

  Will obviously knew something was up between them. She felt pretty damn pathetic.

  Dani wasn’t sure Will knew exactly what he’d signed up for, aside from his obvious excitement about Taggert’s. Once they were in her car, she brought him up to speed.

  “Hey, I hope you’re really okay going with me today. Taggert’s and my kid sister’s place probably aren’t on your bucket list so thanks.” Now that Dani was accepting her paycheck again, she could afford to buy Daisy a new blender and toaster, as long as they were discount store brand and not fit for a gourmet cooking show.

  “Yeah, um, no problem. How far away are these wondrous places?” Will asked.

  She smiled. “About thirty minutes.”

  “Cool. Gives us time to talk.”

  Oh boy. Will had been a man of few words this week. What did he want to talk about? There was only one thing she could think of and that was the disaster she liked to call throwing herself at Stefan twice that first day. She also wondered now if Stefan had kept her secret. Had he told Will she was pregnant? Just by looking, you couldn’t really tell she was four months along when she was dressed. Naked was another story as she’d seen this morning getting dressed. Pants were now a no-no so she’d had to switch to one of the few loose dresses she owned. “Sure,” she said, but her stomach tossed.

  Nervous about letting him start the conversation, Dani blurted out, “So you’re sure you don’t mind going to my sister’s with me? I know I roped you in with the Taggert’s part.” Dani shook her head, wondering how in the world Daisy survived on her own some days but was happy her sister led the life she wanted to live. Plus thinking about Daisy’s issues took her mind off the Calderons.

  Will tapped his thumbs against his cargo shorts pockets.

  Dani twiddled her thumbs on top of the steering wheel.

  Thank God he answered her, and in a sort of sweet way too that settled some of her jitters.

  “Are we going to a Super Taggert’s?” he asked and she swore he made a very deliberate point to look at her with an easy face when he did so.

  “Super Taggert’s all the way,” she was able to say with a smile.

  “I love those ones.”

  “Hmm, you know you didn’t strike me as one of their biggest fans.”

  “What can I say? They sell this soap, I swear it really is magical. Turns an ordinary shower into a peppermint sauna. I can never find it anywhere else. And the dollar bin deals, I’m always finding stuff there.”

  So he was a man of few words except for when it came to soap and good deals. “The dollar bin deals rock,” she said a little too enthusiastically. The silly talk made her like Will even more but also left her even more curious than she’d been before. He’d been nothing but kind since showing up with Stefan. Although he did keep to himself and only spoke to when spoken to first.

  His next question surprised her. “So Daisy must be your baby sister.” He emphasized baby.

  “Oh you can’t even imagine. How did you ever guess?”

  “Emergency appliance run. Classic.”

  “You sound like you speak from experience.”

  He didn’t have another quick comeback and when he was quiet a few seconds too long, Dani looked over at him to see if he was scowling or worse, hurt, by what she’d said. “Sorry, it just sounded like you…”

  He nodded, the kind that wasn’t for he
r but like he was acknowledging something to himself. “Baby sister-in-law,” he said quietly. “Mother’s Day, six years ago. Morning of.” He put his hand up to the side of his head like he was on a phone call and speaking into his outstretched, non-tattooed thumb. She noted again how Will’s tats stopped at his wrists like crisp neat sleeves. She wondered why but was too engrossed in this miniature revelation by Mr. Will Cordero. She smiled, encouraging him to continue. “I get a call. ‘Will, I completely blanked about today. Need you to pick up my mom’s gift. Honey’s not answering’.” His brows raised like he was unsettled at something he’d said. Then he blinked. Dani couldn’t peel her eyes from his endearing face and the fuzzy, nearly bald sides of his head. “She’d had the forethought to turn in her mom’s favorite pair of suede boots to be re-soled and made like new but had totally spaced on picking them up. I’m like, ‘okay, no problem, Heather.’ So then I ask what’s wrong with her car. One guess what she tells me.”

  Dani knew instantly. “Out of gas.”

  “Exactly. So then I’m like, ‘tell me the ticket number and I’ll swing by and get it, no worries.’ I’d be late for a few band things but no biggie. She’s lost the claim ticket. Tells me her mom needs them for a special dinner that night. That the boots were their father’s Mother’s Day gift to her twenty years ago. She has to have these boots for that night.”

  “Oh man, next I bet you’re gonna tell me they were at some place in BFE.”

  Will just nodded and a gigantic smile turned him into that man-child she’d seen beating the Mercedes dashboard at the truck stop and shoving around with Stefan. “Specialty shop. Fifty miles on the other side of Los Angeles. Freaking Dodgers game going on, due to let out the same time my dumb ass is driving to pick up these boots.” He still grinned, even though the details sounded gruesome. Dani had never been but had heard of LA traffic.

  “But I bet you went.”

  He nodded again. “If she called me right now, needing something, I’d find a way.”

  “And all this you’d do for an in-law. Lucky girl.”

  He frowned this time and turned to her when he said, “Lucky me. She’ll uh, she’ll always be family. So I uh, I’m sorry for the long ass story, but I get it. Why we’re picking up the stuff for your sister.”

  Dani didn’t know what to say. She’d wondered lots of things about Will. One of them being if he was single, married, girlfriended, boyfriended. Apparently he’d been married and spoke of the woman, Honey, and her family with so much love, Dani knew in the pit of her stomach the two hadn’t split up. She glanced at his hand, no ring. But she’d wager there hadn’t been a divorce. Life had to have taken this Honey from him. She wouldn’t hound him over it. But maybe he’d be okay answering something about Stefan.

  “Hey Will?”

  “Yeah?” He rubbed his right hand through his strip of hair, tugging as he went and ending at the knot. “What do you want to know about Stefan?” He grinned.

  Shit, he’d called her bluff, expertly she might add. “Nothing. I wasn’t gonna ask you that. About him, I mean.”

  “Never been married. No kids. No significant other.”

  She tried to stop him even though she’d let him throw out these fragmented details about the man without end if she could. They were presently far enough away that she couldn’t go running after Stefan like a desperate little puppy. “You don’t have to tell me all this. I respect his privacy.” She knew she just threw that out there for posterity. Trying to sound better than those who would pry into his private life even though she was curious to the point of salivation, especially after their mutual avoidance of each other. Only one more week and he’d be gone. The thought was as agonizing as it was a relief.

  Will just tilted his head in her direction and smiled another soft smile. “Six-One. Hundred-ninety pounds. Oh, excellent smoothie maker, by the way.” Did he just laugh?

  “You’re teasing me, aren’t you? And this whole time I’ve been taking you for the nice one,” she exclaimed.

  “Yeah, well everything I said is true, but I’m just messing with you. Seriously, we can talk about Stefan, if you want. That was just my way of breaking the ice. I don’t get out much.”

  “Will, you’re just about the coolest guy I’ve ever met.” She meant it. But talking about Stefan with Will, while it might be tempting, was entirely too nerve-wracking. Probably because she had yet to find out if Stefan had been the type to kiss and tell.

  “Code for you’re too nice of a girl to pry. That’s cool. If you change your mind, I can be bribed with midnight trips to Taggert’s. Just sayin’.”

  She laughed. “You wouldn’t really divulge his secrets, would you? Isn’t there some type of guy code you’d be breaking?”

  “There is.” He winked. “Like I said, if you change your mind.” And then he added, “He’s being an idiot avoiding you.” He tilted his head and looked at her differently than he had when they’d been joking just now. What was that about? Will continued before she had the chance to worry anymore. “Which is why I’m really glad he plans to take you to dinner tonight. You can’t say no because I need some quality time with Mrs. C.”

  A thousand emotions choked down any chance of even one word making its way out. Will must not know she was the one who’d insisted on the distance in the first place which meant Stefan hadn’t complained about her to his friend. Stefan was only doing her bidding. Doing it well. Too well. He wasn’t an idiot for it. He was … decent.

  But with Will’s admission, was there really anything else she needed to ask? With the little bit of time they had left? The thought that Stefan still wanted to take her to dinner and had told his friend both excited and broke her heart. What else could come of it?

  She found her voice and spit out the first non-Stefan related thing that came to mind. “I think you’re gonna get a real kick out of Daisy. You remind me a lot of her. She’s cute and can talk to just about anyone, anywhere, about anything.”

  His drumming fingers stilled over his cargo shorts. It was only when they pulled into the Super Taggert’s parking lot that he smiled again, and let go of the chunk of mohawk he’d fisted in his hand. Dani noted his reaction to her two-second stint as cupid and vowed not to ever go there again. But she couldn’t help but suffer a little heartbreak for the kind man who for the strangest reason, she could totally see as being the big brother she’d never had. He adjusted his glasses and smiled. So cute.

  “We’re here,” she said with a shot of overdone joy.

  “Let’s shop,” Will said back, apparently over their awkward bit about Daisy. “I know exactly where home appliances are. Come on. Let’s take care of that baby sister of yours.”

  Geez, how was she going to say goodbye to him too? She’d have to save up and go to a Sin Pointe concert on this tour. “Hey Will, do you guys ever come to Pittsburgh?”

  “Who? Me and Stefan?”

  She pinched him, and was so happy when he didn’t frown or flinch. “You know who I mean. Your band.”

  He stepped alongside her so that they walked almost shoulder to shoulder but his hands were tucked deep into his shorts pockets. “Pittsburgh is on the schedule. I’m just not sure of the date. You’re gonna come see us play, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe, I’d like to. I’ve never been. We’ll see.”

  “Well, I happen to know that if you show up, there will be tickets with your name on them. Cool?”

  “Cool,” she said, amazed at how much better she felt knowing that this wasn’t it. She had something fun to look forward to. She nearly slipped and said something about being very pregnant or having her baby in tow at the time of the show but held it in just in time.

  Dani followed behind Will who indeed knew exactly where to go. She had to smile at the back of his tank top as she doubled her strides to keep up with him. Save a drum, bang a drummer. So he was adorable and had no idea. Daisy was gonna eat that up. Will would be lucky if he made it out alive. But at those thoughts, her mind went ri
ght back to Stefan, and this dinner he had planned. She’d gotten exactly what she asked for all week with him avoiding her and now … she blew out. The more he stayed away, the more she wished he’d never leave. More accurately, the more she wished they didn’t have to be apart. She realized it didn’t matter where that was.

  “Will, do you think I’m dressed okay for this dinner tonight?”

  He smiled and it dazzled her because it was so real and genuine. His blue eyes settled on her like a brother’s would. “You’re exactly perfect, just the way you are.”

  “You’re all right, too, Will Cordero.”

  “That’s what they say, anyway.” Another smile. “Come on, let’s go get our Taggert’s on.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Dani knocked on the door. When Katy Perry answered because the music streamed out so loud that she and Will could have sung along, Will stepped up. Were they really going to break out into a “Peacock” duet right here on Daisy’s second story apartment door? It was so hard not to hum the words to that song but what would be even funnier would be to hear Will sing the chorus.

  “Let me,” he said, shuffling the red toaster he’d helped her pick out over to his left arm so that he could—holy cow—beat the heck out of her sister’s apartment door. “Sorry, was that loud?”

  He had to know his own strength. “Um, yeah, just a little.” Dani made a “tiny bit” symbol with her finger and thumb.

  But Will’s pounding did the trick because a second later, there was Daisy. She’d blackened her already jet black hair with a midnight wash and stood there in a terry cloth shorts romper, the one Dani loved because the turquoise did something to lighten up all the dark stuff her baby sister tried to do to herself. Whether it was overdone or not though, she could never deny how much Daisy’s thick, black liquid-lined cat eyes reminded her of their mom’s senior graduation picture. It had looked beautiful on Mom in the Sixties and just as jaw-dropping on Daisy today.

  Dani went to make her introduction of Will when she noticed him hedging back from front and center to nearly behind her. He licked his lips several times, more like he was stressed and not gearing up for sexy-time. Dani was about to offer him some of the cool new balm they’d bought but he cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows just when Daisy stuck out her hand, grabbed him before he’d completely retreated to Dani’s back and planted a kiss on his cheek.