The Dating Plan(50)
Daisy stiffened and for a moment he wondered if he’d said something wrong.
“Or I can go,” he said quickly. “It’s late and—”
“No. I want you to stay.” She gently pushed him back. “It’s just . . . I’ll have to go and get it. We moved the console up to Sanjay’s room after he broke the old TV stand.” She hesitated. “It happened when my mother came back.”
“She came back?” he repeated. “After all those years? Is she around?” Sanjay had rarely talked about his mother, but Liam knew he had been deeply affected by her departure. At the time, he’d figured it was the reason why Sanjay had gone off the rails in high school. He’d tried to help by taking the fall for his friend when he could.
Liam had never regretted his decision. After all, no one expected anything of him, and it was the least he could do for a friend who had opened his home and given him the closest thing he’d ever had to a loving family.
“She came and then she went again.” With a sigh, Daisy leaned her head against his shoulder. “It was the year after you left. She’d been gone twelve years by then, and one day she just walked in the door.”
“Fuck.” He squeezed her hand, although what he really wanted to do was pull her into his lap, wrap his arms around her, and hold her tight.
“Yeah. That sums it up. Sanjay was in the last year of his medical degree and he’d come home for Sunday dinner. We were all in the kitchen, and suddenly she was there. She’d been in touch sporadically over the years—the odd phone call, the occasional birthday card, sometimes an e-mail—but that was the first time we’d seen her since she left. At first I thought she’d finally come home for good. And then I thought maybe she finally wanted to build a real relationship. But she wasn’t interested in us. She didn’t want to see my room or hear about my classes or my friends or my dancing. She didn’t seem to care that Sanjay was in medical school. She’d come for money.”
“Jesus Christ.” As if she hadn’t put the family through enough.
Daisy’s voice wavered. “She and dad still owned the house jointly, and she needed her share. Sanjay lost it. He threw his phone at the TV stand and broke the glass doors.”
“I can’t even . . .” He shook his head. “I wish I’d been here for you both.”
She pressed her lips together, her eyes glistening with tears. “It was terrible. Sanjay walked out. Dad was shouting . . . She didn’t say much to me except to ask if I was still ‘weirdly smart.’ I ran up to my room, and when I came down she was gone. My anxiety got bad after that. It was like being rejected all over again except this time I knew she’d left because I wasn’t normal. That’s when Layla gave me Max, and he’s made all the difference in the world.”
For a moment, Liam couldn’t speak for the fury surging through his veins. What kind of mother would say that to her daughter after twelve long years? He didn’t like to judge, but hell, he had no problem judging Daisy’s mother and finding her totally unworthy.
He curved his arm around her to hold her close, rested his cheek against her head. “Don’t ever think there’s something wrong with you,” he murmured. “You have gifts that people can only dream of having. They make you special and utterly unique in a way that is as far from weird as you can get. You blew my mind when you were a girl. I loved coming here to see what you could do, whether it was solving difficult math puzzles, destroying your dad at chess, memorizing the entire Human section of The Guinness Book of World Records, or trying to beat me at video games.”
She jolted up, her mouth curving in a grin. “Trying? Seriously? Was there a video game I didn’t win?”
Cheer-up mission accomplished, but his ego was taking a beating. “Guitar Hero was never your strong suit.”
“Don’t even think about challenging me,” Daisy warned. “I was a fret-shredding machine.”
He gave a dismissive shrug, baiting his trap. “You were young, so Sanjay and I let you win . . .”
She gave him a calculating stare and jumped to her feet. “The guitar is mine.”
“The guitar is lame. Drums are where it’s at.” He picked up the mugs and plates. “Two songs and I’ll call an Uber.”
“What if we tie? It will have to be the best of three songs and I’ll call an Uber.”
“Are you sure you’re up for it?” He watched the gentle sway of her hips as she climbed the stairs. “I don’t want you to feel bad when I destroy you.”
Daisy looked back over her shoulder and gave him a grin. “You are so going down in flames.”
? 19 ?
DAISY awoke as the bright morning sunshine slid through the curtains, her head nestled against Liam’s chest, her legs tangled with his. Although she was precariously close to the edge of the couch, she didn’t dare move for fear that if she woke him, this perfect, blissful moment would disappear in a puff of smoke.
She closed her eyes, tried to take a mental snapshot—the slow steady beat of his heart, the rhythmic cadence of his breathing, his familiar scent, and his warmth—heat that sank into her bones. His body was hard beneath her, and his arm lay heavy across her back—comforting and secure.
Despite Max’s misadventure, she’d had a good time last night. A great time. After countless games of Guitar Hero and a tableful of snacks, Liam had finally conceded her Guitar Hero superiority. Of course, she hadn’t told him she’d hacked the game so that no matter how badly she played, she’d never miss a note, but it was fun to watch him try. Liam never got angry the way Sanjay did. He was a good loser, his self-deprecating humor making it impossible to gloat when she won.