14. Chapter Fourteen

Weston was annoyed with me.

Nothing new about that.

"What were you thinking?" Weston shoveled his overgrown flop of hair off his forehead. "You can't believe either of us want to spend the next four hours with a random woman you met when you hired her for a lap dance or wherever you're finding them these days."

The thing about me was I liked to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. I'd sprung Daisy on Weston and Elise when I'd pulled into the parking lot at the base of our hike. I'd been so thoughtful, I'd told Daisy to come fifteen minutes later than the real meeting time so I could get the conversation out of the way before she arrived.

If she'd heard Weston calling her a random stripper, I might not have let it roll off my back so easily.

My brother was almost four years older, and while I'd always looked up to him, he could be a gigantic, stubborn dick. It was his way or the highway. The only person he bent for was his fiancée, Elise, and that was because he'd lose her if he didn't. He almost had once, and I'd been there to tell him how stupid he was.

"Say whatever you want about me, but Daisy is off-limits. If you'd paused a fucking second, I would have told you I'd met her at work. She's starting a business I'm helping her with, and we hit it off." I stepped into his space. "You'll be nice to her, or I'll hire some of those strippers for your bachelor party and tell Lisie it was your idea."

Weston raised his hands and backed up. "All right. I'm prepared to be wrong, but it's still a dick move not to forewarn us."

Elise laid a hand on my brother's arm. "It's unexpected, but certainly not unwanted." She flashed a dimple at Weston, and he instantly relaxed.

"Thanks, Lisie. I can always count on you to be on my side."

Weston growled and tugged her close. "She's always on my side."

Elise patted his puffed-up chest. "Is it possible we're all on the same side? I'd love it if we were." She pointed at something. "Oh, look. That has to be her pulling in."

"Be nice," I warned Weston.

He gave me a long, assessing look. My brother was smart. At twenty, he'd invented a thin, lightweight, environmentally-sound insulation for outerwear and started his company, Andes. He'd build it into something more massive than any of us could have foreseen, even him. So, when he looked at me the way he was, he was using that big, fancy brain of his to find the things I wasn't saying.

I'd never warned him about a girl before.

Had never invited one along on a hike.

Had never met one at work or talked her up the way I had Daisy.

He was seeing there was something different at play here. This wasn't casual.

That was true. This thing with Daisy was serious. I didn't fool around when it came to my business, and this relationship had become the focus of my work.

Daisy made her way across the parking lot toward our trio. Her head was covered by an army green hat, and she wore a plaid shirt tucked into slim, dark brown cargo pants. On her feet were a fine pair of hiking boots—boots that told me she really was a hiker.

I went to her, stopping ten or fifteen feet from Weston and Elise. "Hey, Daisy-daze."

"Hey, Spreadsheet."

I tugged on the bill of her hat. "I'm going to give you a great big hug now. Act like you like it, okay?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Oh, all right. I'll try."

With a grin, I swooped her into my arms and lifted her right off her feet. She was too short for me to waste time bending over and trying to get in there. Her arms circled my neck, holding me tight in the same way her mom had. For a second, I found myself wishing she'd wrap her legs around me too.

"You've got that Dunham hugging gene," I said as I buried my face in the side of her neck.

"Why hug if you're not going to go all in?" She played with the hair at my nape and sighed. "You can kiss my cheek, but then you have to put me down."

"What if I want you to kiss my cheek?"

Without a word of argument, she turned her head, catching her lips on the hinge of my jaw. A soft press of warmth and it was over as quickly as it had started. "There," she whispered. "Put me down now. I'm dangling."

"I didn't get my kiss yet." I pulled my face out of her neck and slid my cheek along hers, touching my lips to her chin. "There."

I set her on her feet, holding her elbows until she was steady. "Ready to meet my asshole brother and his sweet fiancée?"

"I heard that," Weston called.

I grinned at him. "Why do you think I said it so loudly?"

Daisy went ahead of me, greeting Elise then Weston. She shook their hands, the little business lady. Of course, Weston approved. Probably because the last woman he'd seen on my arm had been at Elise's birthday party almost two years ago. She hadn't really even known where she was, much less whose birthday she was celebrating.

Daisy and I were an arrangement, but if one of the effects of faking it with her was building me up in my brother's esteem, I would take it. Weston didn't give a shit about names or pedigree. He judged based on work ethic and loyalty. I already knew Daisy had plenty of the first, and I was banking she wasn't short on the latter.

"Do you do a lot of hiking, Daisy?" Weston asked.

"I make sure I get out at least once a week." She hooked her thumbs around the straps of her backpack. "I don't know if that constitutes a lot."

Weston stared down his nose at her. "By yourself?"

She shrugged, not seeing the danger she was about to step in. "Sometimes. It depends if I can find someone to go with me. But I'm always on populated trails, so I've never felt unsafe."

He whipped his head toward Elise. "Tell her about the mountain lion."

The four of us naturally fell into a group, Weston and me behind Elise and Daisy. I listened to Elise tell the story of the time she thought she was hiking on her own. Little had she known, Weston had been following her. She'd fallen asleep by a stream, and when she woke, Weston was there, telling her to be quiet.

"Oh my god. I would have screamed if Miles had appeared out of nowhere," Daisy said.

"I might have screamed, but he told me to look maybe fifteen feet away, and then I couldn't even talk," Elise replied.

Daisy gasped. "Was a mountain lion watching you?"

"Mmmhmm. If Weston hadn't been there, I probably would have walked right into it and wouldn't be here to talk about it."

Weston tensed beside me, his hands balling into fists. I'd heard this story a couple times, and he never failed to look like he wanted to hunt down that mountain lion and wrestle it. It had been nearly two years, and West almost always walked slightly behind Elise when they hiked. I'd asked Elise about it once, and she'd explained mountain lions attacked from behind.

My brother.

Total dick at times, but there was no question he loved his woman.

Elise reached behind me to twine her fingers with West's. They walked like that for a minute or two before he let her have her hand back. When he did, she looked at him over her shoulder, her dimple popping, and mouthed, "Love you." He told her he loved her at full volume.

Elise and Daisy had an easy conversation going, discussing their favorite haunts in Denver, the best hiking spots, their jobs, people they both knew. Elise and I were a couple years older than Daisy, but growing up in the same town, friendships and acquaintances were bound to overlap.

"You'll have to come to High Bar when I'm working," Daisy said. "It's a fun place to hang out, and once a month, the owner brings in some kind of act, like knife swallowers or acrobats."

"You work in a bar, Daisy?" Weston asked.

"Only two nights a week now," she answered, seeming ready to leave it at that. But my girl did more than wait tables. If she wasn't going to toot her own horn, I would.

"Daisy is a contractor there. She has a sweet little business as a cigarette girl, only she sells her homemade cupcakes and charcuterie cups," I explained. "You should see how feral the customers get for her treats."

Elise turned to her. "Oh, do you wear one of those trays strapped around your neck?"

Daisy nodded, her cheeks slightly flushed. It might have been from physical exertion, but I hadn't noticed them this red before. No, I swore my little Daisy was embarrassed.

"She wears a silly little hat on the side of her head too," I added.

"A pillbox hat," Daisy explained. "I play fast and loose with the time period of my costume, but none of my customers really question how accurate I am. They like the treats and short skirt."

"Okay, I'm definitely making a point of visiting on a night you're working. I'll bring Saoirse. She'll love it." Elise bumped her shoulder into Daisy's. "Don't let me forget to grab your number before we head home."

This was apparently what it was like to be dating a functional person who got along with my brother and future sister-in-law. In no time, Daisy and Elise were friends, and Weston wasn't poised to vault between them to keep Elise safe.

I was nine months sober—nowhere near ready to date for real. When I was…I'd look for a girl just like Daisy. One free and clear of feelings for anyone else. She'd be a little grumpy, with enough pessimism to balance me out. Someone who was good with meeting new people and gave hugs tight enough to squeeze the juice out of me. There probably weren't many out there like her, but she was setting the standard.

There was a stream at the turning point—not the one where the mountain lion had appeared. It was lucky Weston hadn't razed the ground there back then. If Elise had tried to go back to that spot, he undoubtedly would have.

Elise and Weston took their shoes off to wade. Daisy plopped down on a flat rock, turning her face up to the sun. Since she was all good, I wandered around the area, stooping to pick a few wildflowers—one bunch for Elise, the other bigger one for Daisy.

When I got back, Daisy had lost her flannel, leaving her in a white, ribbed tank top that hugged her tits and stomach. Weston and Elise were a short way down the stream, so I took a moment to appreciate the hotness of my fake girlfriend.

I'd done well for myself, that was for sure.

Whoever had dumped her was an absolute idiot. If circumstances were different, I might've tried to win her over. Might've said something stupid, hoping she liked my sense of humor. If that hadn't impressed, I probably would have flexed my arms to show her I was strong enough to toss her around if she wanted.

Christ.

It was a wonder I'd ever gotten laid. Then again, I couldn't remember the last time I'd picked someone up while either of us were sober. I was a lot funnier to drunk people.

Sitting down on the rock beside her, I thrust the wildflowers at her. "For you."

She stared at them then her eyes flickered up to mine. "You…picked flowers for me?"

"Yeah. Probably dumb. I should have left them in the ground, but I saw them and pictured them in a jar on your desk. I thought you'd like to look at them while you're working."

Her hand covered the top of mine. "It's not dumb at all. You surprised me. I haven't gotten flowers in ages, and I didn't expect you to go out of your way to pick me some." She prodded my fingers open enough for her to slip the flowers from my grip and held them up to her face. I couldn't name a single one, but they were yellow, blue, white, and purple. "I love them, Miles. I bet you picked that other bouquet for Elise, didn't you?"

Something in the roughness to her voice alarmed me. I dipped down to get a good look at her face. She had her bottom lip pinned between her teeth, and her dark eyes were glassy.

"Hey." I took her chin between my fingers to raise her head, bringing her eyes to mine. "What's this about, Cupcake?"

She gave her head a shake, but it was halfhearted. No effort into breaking free from my hold.

"I told you, I'm not used to this type of kindness. I don't know how to handle it."

"Daisy—" I had a thousand questions, and my biggest was about her ex-boyfriend. If he hadn't treated her with kindness, how in the hell had he treated her?

Before I could bombard her—what I would have done—Elise and Weston made their way back to us. Daisy popped off the rock and waved her bouquet at Elise.

"Look what Miles found. Aren't they so sweet?"

Elise's gaze bounced to me, and her brow lifted in a way that signaled her approval. That did something to me. Meant more than I could explain. Elise and I were friends now, but we hadn't always been. Our history was steeped in mutual trauma and a flurry of mixed feelings. Slowly but surely, we'd been working our way out the other side. This felt like it could have been the final step to putting it all behind us.

Too bad it was all pretend.

I waved the second bouquet. "Got you one too, Lisie."

She claimed it from me, giving me a half hug. From the pure annoyance in his gaze, if Weston could have lit the flowers on fire, he would have.

On the way back, Weston ended up beside Daisy, while Elise and I took the lead. I kept an ear open, just in case, but mostly trusted Weston not to mistreat her.

Elise leaned into me, keeping her voice low. "Saoirse didn't tell me you were dating anyone."

"She doesn't exactly know."

Her brow crinkled. "Do you think she'll have a problem with you dating a client?"

"Hope not." I took off my hat, shoved my hair off my forehead, then replaced it. "I have no intention of making a habit of it. There's just something about Daisy…"

"Yeah, there is," she agreed. "Are you going to bring her to the wedding?"

"I—uh…"

This was where being impulsive got me into sticky situations. In six weeks, I was going to be the best man at West and Elise's wedding. If Daisy were my real girlfriend, she would be there as my plus one. Since it hadn't really crossed my mind—yeah, terrible best man, I know—I hadn't discussed it with her.

When I didn't respond quickly enough, Elise took the job out of my hands.

Twisting around, she said, "Hey, Daisy—are you free the evening of June seventh?"

Daisy shot me a wide-eyed look before shifting her focus back to Elise. "If it's a Saturday, I normally work, but I can take the night off since I'm technically my own boss. Why? What's happening June seventh?"

Weston chuckled. "You just got invited to our wedding."

Her mouth fell open. "What? I mean, wow. Thank you. I'd love to come." Her quick recovery was impressive. It was almost as fast as the threatening look she shot me.

I imagined we'd be discussing this later.

"Good. We'd love to have you." Elise elbowed my arm. "See how easy that was?"

"Thanks, Lisie." I almost threw my arm around her to drive Weston crazy but stopped myself, not wanting Daisy to feel weird.

"You're not going to say you can't wait to share the first dance with me?" she asked.

I barked a laugh. That sounded like me. "Nah. I'll let Weston have that. I'm going to be busy dancing with my own girl."

Surprisingly, I was really looking forward to it too.