“It’s not important. I was emotional and stupid.”
Valarie grinned. “It’s hard to imagine you being stupid. I can see emotional, but stupid is a stretch.”
Daisy shook her head. “What happened was stupid. I wish I could go back in time and change everything that happened.”
Releasing her hands, Valerie sat back and said, “If it helps, he’s completely miserable.”
“At least we have that in common.”
Valerie licked her lips. “Did you guys break up because he found out you’re pregnant?”
More tears. “No. He said he loves me and loves my baby.”
A waitress served their soup and salad. Daisy tried to regain her composure while she went through the ritual of presenting dishes and offering pepper. When she left, she said, “I don’t quite know how it happened. But knowing he’s miserable gives me hope that it can be rectified.”
“You’ll see him tomorrow, right?”
She sighed. “Yeah. All weekend.”
“Then I guess that’s your chance.”
Kenran his hand down the stair handrail, feeling for any rough spots he might have missed. It felt smooth all the way down, so he walked over to the makeshift table he’d created out of two sawhorses and a sheet of plywood and picked up the wood stain. He’d give it a good mahogany stain, then finish it with a high gloss varnish.
For two weeks, he’d worked non-stop on the house. Every room upstairs had drywall and trim, and most rooms had flooring. Painters spent the day upstairs painting bedrooms and bathrooms.
He’d started on the downstairs in the formal dining room on Tuesday. He built cabinetry and shelving, staining everything rich mahogany and then treating the wood varnish so it gleamed. Last night he finished the last of the trim in that room, and today he planned to start on the front room. Before he could begin, though, he had to put up the stair rail because he’d stored it on the fireplace hearth while he decided on wood stains and lighting.
Ken mentally replayed the conversation with Daisy over and over again while he worked. He hadn’t handled things well, but neither had she. Two weeks later, the silence between them screamed back at him. He missed her with every molecule of his body. Should he reach out or continue to wait for her to come to her senses?
Tomorrow, he would see her, build a house with her. He wondered if she’d even actively have a part in the construction or if she just set everything up and wouldn’t show. He didn’t think he’d ever wished tomorrow would come harder than now.
As he climbed the ladder to measure the wall above the front door, he saw headlights turn into his yard. He climbed back down the ladder and moved it out of the way so he could open the door just as Jon walked up onto the porch.
“Evening,” he greeted, opening the door wider.
“Yeah.”
His brother had looked better. He had dark circles under his eyes and lines around his mouth. “What’s wrong?”
“I messed up with Alex.”
“That was fast.” He led the way to the back of the house to the room beyond the kitchen. Here, he’d set up a small living area. He gestured at one of the folding chairs and took the other. “Spill.”
Jon rubbed the back of his neck and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “Alex comes from a different world. Estates, helicopters, power, a house full of servants. When she got pregnant, her father stripped everything from her, evicted her, even applied influence at the bank to withdraw her trust. Her friends were told to shun her, and they did so that they didn’t suffer the same treatment from their families.”
Ken had a hard time understanding what kind of a father would do that to a child. “Why?”
“Because he was trying to pressure her to have an abortion.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in. “That’s horrible.”
“I know. It’s very hard to take a passive approach with her family when I want to just charge up to Connecticut and introduce myself.”
Ken shook his head. “I’d be your wingman.”
“I have no doubt. Anyway, when she first arrived, Dad offered to connect her with someone to get her a job. She declined and later told me that her father had opened every door for her, and because of that, he had the power to shut them. She wanted to make it on her own. I respected that. So, when she said Wade’s campaign called her, I assumed you or Brad had contacted him on her behalf, not knowing about her situation. Instead of just admitting we were friends, I congratulated her on the call.”
Ken tried to process the situation. “When did you tell her?”
