Daisy (Pushing Daisies Book 1)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  Right as I hit send on the last email that needed a response from me, someone knocked on the door. It was much too early for a stage call, but Cross called out, “Enter.”

  Mack Thompson entered the room and quickly searched it with a sweep of his eyes until he found me. “Hey, Lawson. Can we talk for a second?”

  I glanced from him to the guys. What the fuck had they done?

  “Sure,” I told him, following him out of the room. Whatever it was, he clearly didn’t want the guys to hear. “What’s up?”

  “Uh.” He scratched the back of his head. “Normally, I’d handle this myself, but…”

  “What is it?” I hurried him along. Whatever he needed, I’d help if I could, but first, he’d have to tell me.

  “Pushing Daisies has gotten some really weird messages through the website.”

  I nodded as he spoke. This was common. “That happens sometimes and now that you guys are kind of exploding… ”

  “Yeah. I know.” He sighed. “But they’ve gotten progressively weirder and all focus on Daisy.”

  Fire burned through my veins as acid broiled in the pit of my stomach the moment he’d said her name.

  It wasn’t unusual for anyone in the public eye to have crazy fans. Even more so for women in the spotlight. And Daisy was nice to everyone, and crazy fucking hot as hell, so she was bound to have people thinking all sorts of things about her that had me just about crawling out of my skin.

  “What do you mean by weird?” I asked instead of losing my fucking mind and punching the concrete wall beside me.

  Mack groaned. I’d never seen him look so uncomfortable. “Really fucking weird, man.”

  “Damn,” I muttered under my breath, torn between wanting to know exactly what the messages said and wanting to stay in the dark.

  “Yeah. Shit. I don’t want to read that shit about my sister.” He threw his hands up. “I don’t want to know what some fucker thinks she tastes like.”

  That was a punch to my stomach. It took everything I had not to bend over to brace myself as I felt like I was going to either vomit or find whoever sent the message and knock their teeth down their throat.

  “Anyway, I wanted you to know. I’m taking care of our security. Making them aware. Tightening some things up since some of the messages indicate that he’s watching her.”

  “I’ll arrange things with the venues and my guys,” I said immediately.

  If someone wanted to get to Daisy, they were going to have to go through a lot of people. Me included.

  Then, as if she knew we were talking about her, Daisy appeared beside us. Her copper red hair was pulled up into a bun, which I’d noticed she wore a lot of the time. Couldn’t blame her. Traveling like this wasn’t easy and in some places, especially when we head south, May was already hot.

  “Hey, guys,” she said in her normal happy tone. Sweet as hell sounding.

  “You’re not planning on leaving the venue today, are you?” Mack asked her.

  Her face scrunched up in confusion. There’d been no segue of any kind out of him. “No. We don’t have long before the show. Where would I go?”

  “I don’t know your mind,” he snapped. Even I didn’t like his short tone. I was already crawling out of my skin here and if Mack didn’t watch it, he’d be on the receiving end of an energy release.

  Her brows rose and she blinked five times. I shouldn’t have noticed that. “What’s wrong with you? You’re kind of being an ass.”

  Daisy didn’t back down from her brothers, which yeah, that made sense. They’d grown up together, but the juxtaposition of five-foot-nothing Daisy against her six-foot-ish brothers was hilarious. Yet still she held her own.

  His jaw tensed and I was about to step in when Mack said, “Nothing. Sorry. I’ll see ya later.”

  After he walked away, she turned to me looking utterly confused.

  “What just happened here?” she asked.

  “He’s just got a lot on his mind.”

  “Don’t we all,” she replied. Asking her what she had on her mind was on the tip of my tongue, but before I let it go, she continued. “But that reminds me of the time when I was nine and he was fifteen and I caught him sneaking into the house in the middle of the night. He thought he could bully me into keeping quiet.”

  I chuckled. “Did you tell your parents?”

  “No. But not because he bullied me, but because I’m not a snitch. Snitches end up in ditches.”

  Suddenly, I wanted to know so much more about how she’d grown up. Was that a mantra they actually held to? If it was their sibling relationship was beginning to sound more like the mafia.

  “Anyway,” she said, shaking off her brother’s behavior. “Is Barrett in there? I wanted to show her something.”

  “Yeah. She’s in there.”

  Daisy took a step for the door then stopped. “I’m not going to walk in on any naked Chaos, am I? I mean, I know a lot of women who’d kill to do that, but they’re becoming like brothers to me and I have a rule about not seeing my brothers naked. Ever.”

  I gave her a big grin. “No one was naked when I stepped out a minute ago, but I can’t make any promises.”

  She shrugged. “There have been occasions when I’ve walked in on one of my brothers naked even with how careful I am. I loved which means I could probably handle this.”

  Relief flooded over me. When she said they were becoming like brothers, she hadn’t included me in that group. I really didn’t want her looking at me like a brother.

  “How about I go first? Shield your innocence.”

  Now she snorted. “If you wanted to shield my innocence, you’d need to get a time machine.”

  Regret straightened my spine. Why had I even said that? I didn’t want to know that shit about her.

  “Let’s go,” I told her, still heading in first.

  While I headed back over to my iPad and bag, Daisy went right to Barrett. She pulled out her phone and showed Barrett whatever she’d wanted to show her then they both burst into a fit of giggles.

  It might’ve made me a creeper to watch them together, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Daisy. The way she tucked a non-existent strand of hair behind her ear. Or the way she moved in close to Barrett for a picture. I even wanted every detail of her getting a little nervous when Barrett pulled her iPad out and said she was going to do a group video call with Bellamy, Indie, and Paige to introduce them all officially.

  But my favorite part was how she held her own with the close nit group of women and grew comfortable in just seconds. The five of them were laughing in no time. The other guys in the room didn’t seem to care much at how loud the women were being, but then again, these were their women. Why would they care?

  Or so I thought that was my favorite part.

  Having her here in the room with me, where I knew she was safe from anything out in the world, quickly took over top spot.

  Even that moment was dethroned when Daisy glanced up and locked her gaze with mine. Her tongue shot out and quickly wet her lips as the heat between us scorched my skin.

  I wondered if she felt it too.

  Chapter Five

  Daisy

  After New York, we headed up to Boston for our next show then it was off to Providence. The only downside was that I, of course, wasn’t seeing much of the cities we were visiting. But that was all part of touring.

  My brothers were off doing whatever they do before a show, but I just wanted to the play my violin. My fingers yearned to press the strings and move across the wood. But I needed somewhere with the right sound. The bus wasn’t it. I began to wonder if one of the dressing rooms was empty. If nothing else, the shower room would be perfect acoustically.

  Yeah. That was exactly where I wanted to go.

  But as I made my way over to the arena, the call of the fans was too much. The fact that they knew who I was and wanted my attention still floored me.

  “Hey, everybody,” I called out from a decently safe distance.
Mack had asked me not to mingle without at least one of them around but wouldn’t give me a reason. Which meant he was being the overprotective big brother. Security was out there. Even some police. What could happen? “Excited for the show tonight?”

  There weren’t too many people, honestly, given that we still had loads of time before the show. But some fans were dedicated. Different people were calling out different things and I couldn’t really make out any of it.

  Yet all of it made my heart grow to twice its size.

  “I was just going to go play my violin for a bit. How about I play it out here?”

  They cheered, which I took as a yes.

  I had to brush my hair back due to the wind and the fact that I hadn’t put it up into a bun. I lifted my instrument, tucked it under my chin, and closed my eyes.

  Immediately, I dove into one of my favorite classical pieces. A slow, melodic song that reminded me of a swan. Graceful and elegant. Building and moving like ripples in still water. This right here… was half the reason I’d fallen in love with this instrument. The crowd quieted and I lost myself in the music.

  When I looked up at them again, they were all staring at me with round eyes before breaking out into loud applause. Which was when I decided to spring into a fiddle piece that was my dad’s favorite. He said it reminded him of kids running around on a summer evening, chasing fireflies without a care in the world.

  They clapped. Someone cheered and I wanted to keep going. So I went right into one of our songs. “Losing Myself in You” wasn’t even one of the songs that I played on. The crowd began singing and I joined it.

  It was some of the most fun I’d had so far on this tour. I scanned the crowd as I played and sang. Then I had to do a double take.

  Lawson was standing nearby, watching me with the fans. His gaze was a physical touch against my skin, warming and calming while at the same time leaving ripples of excitement over my body. If only he didn’t see me like a little sister. But alas, there was nothing I could do about that.

  When I finished playing, I pulled my violin from my chin and waved him over. He shook his head like he wasn’t going to come over, so I did it again. Again, he shook his head, but then after his chest rose and deflated like he’d sighed, he began walking toward me.

  “You should sing with me.” I told him when really, I just wanted him closer.

  A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest. “I leave the singing to the bands.”

  I pushed my lip out into a pout. “You’re a poor sport.”

  “Nah,” he told me. “I’m doing you a kindness. I’m not a singer.”

  “It’s just for fun,” I pled, knowing that I had less than no chance of convincing him. The look of determination on his face made that perfectly clear.

  Lawson leaned in close, his lips so close to my ear, I could feel the heat radiating off them. “You should wrap it up and come inside.”

  I snapped back. “Why?”

  His jaw clenched tightly. “You just should.”

  I didn’t know why, but some gut instinct or sixth sense, told me to listen to him. “Thanks for hanging out with me,” I called out to the crowd as I waved and made my way back to the venue with Lawson. “Hey,” I said once we were inside. “If I can’t hang out with them, are you going to hang out with me?”

  The no formed in his eyes. He was going to make an excuse. I knew it as well as I knew my own name and my name was Daisy Thompson.

  “Sure,” he said, surprising me. “The guys haven’t come in yet.” He kept walking toward Courting Chaos’ dressing room. “You can play in here if you want.”

  I waited for the door to close behind him before telling him, “I don’t want to play.”

  “Then what do you want to do?” The husky tone of his voice hit me in all the right spots.

  My stomach tumbled in on itself. That feeling I’d get when an elevator was about to stop but did that last little drop to line up with the floor. It was all happening inside me and all Lawson had done was speak.

  “Is your first name or last name Lawson?” I asked instead of giving him the answer I really wanted to. That answer would’ve been deemed inappropriate.

  He gave me a great smile as he dropped onto one end of the couch in the dressing room. I went to the other end and, after setting my violin carefully against the end of the couch, pretzeled my legs in front of me.

  “First name. It was my grandpa’s name.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Then what’s your last name? I seriously haven’t heard it once since I’ve been here.”

  “Styles.”

  “Lawson Styles?”

  He nodded.

  “I like it,” I told him, which again got one corner of his mouth to turn up.

  I wasn’t sure what was with this guy, but he was harder to read than anybody I’d ever met.

  “How’d you get your name?” he asked me.

  “Daisy?” Duh. Yes. That was my name, but nobody tended to focus on my name. My brothers, sure. Their names were unique.

  “Yeah. Your brothers all have recognizably famous names. Van Zant, Bonham, Daltrey, McKinley. Your parents must’ve thought they wanted to do presidents then changed their minds, but they’re all recognizable. How did you get ‘Daisy’ and not ‘Debbie Harry’?”

  I snorted. “Can you imagine a girl going through school with Harry in her name?”

  That at least got a good, real laugh out of him.

  “Well,” I began, “my mom says it’s because after having so many boys, she was so excited to have a girl. They chose ‘Daisy’ because I was a flower in field of weeds.”

  I thought Lawson would’ve laughed, but that was exactly what my mother always told me. She also reminded my brothers that they were the weeds.

  He did chuckle, this great smile spreading across his face as he did. “I think I’d like your mom.”

  “Everybody likes my mom. She bakes cookies.”

  “Then I’d definitely like her.”

  We were alone in this room, which didn’t happen too often, and I knew this could be my only chance to get the kind of answers I wanted.

  “Why don’t you have a girlfriend hanging around?” I asked. “The rest of the guys do.”

  “I really don’t want to talk about this,” he told me. But I narrowed my eyes, feeling brave enough to challenge that. I never asked questions of other people that I wouldn’t be willing to answer myself. If he truly didn’t want to answer, he didn’t have to, of course, but that was something that had been on my mind since we’d arrived. “Fine.” He sighed. “Because I don’t.”

  I groaned in response. Of course that was the reason he’d give.

  “It’s the only reason I can give you,” he explained. “I could say I’m busy. I could say it’s the schedule, but it’s not any of those things. It’s just that I don’t.”

  “As in… you haven’t found the right person.”

  His weighted gaze fell to me. “You could say that. Why the violin?” he asked, completely changing the topic at hand. I’d answer him but wasn’t going to let that go forever.

  I’d half-expected him to ask me why I didn’t have a boyfriend, but instead he’d asked about the violin. Lawson was so confusing.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. I tried so many different instruments before falling in love with the violin. It just… ” I shook my head. This was the hardest question to answer and many people asked it. Violin didn’t fit my rocker image. “I don’t know. It spoke to me. The first time I played, I knew.”

  “Play me something.”

  My eyes widened. He’d heard me play, but now he was asking to play for him. I nodded because I didn’t trust my voice.

  At first I thought I wouldn’t face him while I played, but something inside me gnawed at my chest and told me that I had to. I didn’t know how long he’d let me stay here, but I’d take advantage of the time he gave me.

  For the second time that day, I dove into the swan song, as I called it. He hadn�
�t been outside when I’d played it before. My eyes closed based off muscle memory. This song, for whatever reason, was played with my eyes closed. Something I was absolutely grateful for now that stupid hot Lawson was watching me. But I could feel it. I could feel him watching me as I moved, as I lost myself in the music.

  When I finished the piece and opened my eyes, I found Lawson on the couch running an index finger over his top lip, his dark hair looking like he might’ve run his finger through it.

  Damn, I liked him watching me.

  Lawson pushed off the couch then came over and didn’t stop until he was so close that I had to look up at him.

  “That was beautiful,” he said quietly.

  “It’s my favorite piece.” I spoke equally soft as he had, given that we were completely alone in the room. Nobody would hear… or see anything.

  I’d thought about Lawson being this close to me basically since the day we’d joined the tour. I wanted him this close… yearned for him to be this close. Now that he was, all I could think about was that he’d pull away.

  My chest rose and fell rapidly.

  When Lawson reached up to place a hand on each side of my face, my heart took off, threatening to pound right out of my chest. He stroked my cheeks with his thumbs as a war battled behind his eyes. It was like I could see him actively trying to talk himself out of kissing me but I desperately didn’t want him to.

  As I waited for him to make his decision, I bit my bottom lip between my teeth and slowly released it.

  Lawson groaned and pulled me toward him as he leaned down.

  When his lips touched mine it was like a volcano erupted inside me. Lava flowed through my veins instead of blood. I was sure of it. It was the only explanation that made sense as to how quickly my body caught fire. With my free hand, I grasped his waist to steady myself.

  His soft lips moved against mine yet demanded everything I had to give. But when his tongue ran across me, it took everything I had not to explode right out of my skin.

  I’d had first kisses, second kisses, hot kisses, romantic kisses, and everything in between before, but none of them had ever been like this. I stepped in closer to him, needing to be closer, until my breasts brushed against his chest. No matter how long he kissed me, it’d never be enough.