The Dating Plan(87)
“What wasn’t real about it?”
Daisy twisted her skirt in her hand and told him everything from the moment she’d seen Orson and Madison together at the conference to the day Liam had walked away—minus the R-rated moments, of course. “I fell in love with him,” she said finally. “And then the accident happened, and . . . well . . . now he’s gone.”
“I think you should sit down, Nadal.” Priya took the spoon from her father’s unnaturally still hand and gently helped Daisy’s silent father to a chair.
“Too much,” he mumbled.
“I know.” She patted his hand. “I’ll get you a cup of chai.”
“He was like a son to me, and then poof, he was gone.” He swallowed hard. “Just like your mom.”
“She left because she didn’t want us,” Daisy said tightly, sitting in the chair beside him. “He left the night of the prom because he thought he wasn’t good enough, because he thought I would have a better life if he wasn’t around to drag me down.”
“Ah, then they are not the same.” He hugged himself, rubbing his arms. “Your mother said we were holding her back from the life she wanted to live. She was a free spirit. I think I always knew she would leave, but it didn’t hurt less when she did.”
Daisy bit her bottom lip. “I thought she left because I wasn’t normal, because I wanted to do math puzzles and science experiments instead of playing dress up and dolls. When she came back, she asked if I was still ‘weirdly smart.’ I thought that was the reason she didn’t want me.”
“Who is the normal one?” He was agitated now, hands waving in the air. “The mother who leaves her family to find herself, or the woman who works hard, achieves success, finds love, and stays to look after her father so he isn’t alone?”
Priya handed him a cup of chai and he kissed her hand. “I always thought I’d done something wrong, too,” he said. “Maybe I didn’t tell her I loved her enough. Maybe I wasn’t kind enough. Maybe I spent too much time at work . . . She told me it had nothing to do with me—or you or Sanjay. She said she just wasn’t cut out for marriage and motherhood, but I refused to believe her. All those years I wasted, blaming myself, afraid to love again, and every day I was going into the bakery café near my office, and I would see Priya. I would have my treat and my coffee, and her smile would make my heart sing, and I wasn’t listening to the song.”
“Tell her about the rappelling,” Priya said. “I love that story.”
Daisy’s father grinned. “Do you remember the day I rappelled down the Hilton in Union Square? Forty-six stories! An old man like me.”
“I remember begging you not to go,” Daisy said dryly.
“Well, I went, and when I got to the bottom—”
“You had an epiphany?”
“No, beta. I had a hunger pain. All that adrenaline used up the sugar in my body and I craved a pastry from Priya’s bakery, the chocolate ones with the chocolate inside and swirls of chocolate on the top.” He licked his lips. “I drove all the way there, and when I walked in the door, I almost slipped in a puddle of spilled coffee.”
“I was about to clean it up,” Priya said. “It had just happened.”
“And that’s when I knew,” he said. “Life is short. One moment you are pulling out your wallet to buy a pastry, and the next maybe you are lying with your head cracked open on the bakery floor, blood and brains oozing out everywhere. I knew then that I had to ask her out.”
“He did it when I bent down to pick up the cup.” Priya pressed a kiss to his forehead.
Her father smiled. “I didn’t stand a chance when I saw that luscious—”
“Dad!” Daisy stood so quickly the chair wobbled. “No. Please. Just. No.”
“My point is,” he said, “if you want something, go after it. Don’t let fear hold you back. Take your chance. Live a life of no regrets. And don’t blame yourself if it goes wrong. People have their own journey and it has nothing to do with you. If he comes back to you, then maybe I will talk to him and hear his story. If he doesn’t, then the world will not end. You have survived this before, and you will survive it again because you are my beautiful, clever, brave, strong, sweet Daisy and you have the strongest heart of anyone I know.”
? 29 ?
“THIS invention is going to revolutionize the world.” Barely out of his teens, and dressed not to impress in a pink T-shirt and a pair of oversize board shorts, the blond surfer-dude inventor flashed a megawatt smile. “I introduce you to . . . Pot-ee. The first edible cannabis underwear.”
“Could you bring us a couple of samples?” Liam called out. “Any flavor will do.” Turning to James he lowered his voice. “First impressions?”
“He’d be a good face for the company,” James offered.
Liam was back in San Francisco tidying up loose ends while the partners searched for a new branch manager. James had good instincts, but he needed more experience to handle the pressure of running an office. In the week Liam had been away, the work had piled up, and the dude still couldn’t distinguish a good pitch from a dud. Today’s pitch session at a small tech con was Liam’s last chance to guide him in the right direction.