Page 123 of Almost Always

“All right. So why do you believe everything else?”

“Because I…” She paused and shook her head, unable to formulate the thoughts that filled her mind. “Becausehervoiceis always so fucking loud,” she said, voice cracking as she closed her eyes. “Because every time something good happens, she has to come in and fuck it all up.”

“She’s not in your life anymore, Daisy. She’s not even real. She’s nothing to you and you deserve better than to let her plague you. Say it back to me,” Anastasia said firmly.

Breathing through the tears streaming down her face, she repeated the words. Once, twice and yelled it on the third time. As her therapist continued speaking, giving her different ways to battle those thoughts, Daisy sat on the grass and let herself cry. When they hung up, she lay back and stared at the sky. It always sounded so simple when Anastasia told her what to do and how to handle these moments, but putting them into action was way harder.

It took her about thirty minutes of watching the clouds before she was up and scrubbing her face clean. She grabbed her tools and Rafferty’s mustard cap, aka her security blanket, and returned to the garden prepared to spend a few hours tending to her plants. Even though Rafferty was back from a last-minute trip to New York, she’d still been spending a lot of time at her own house. He was busy with his own projects and the firehouse, and she was shuttling from event to event, so they were back to catching little pockets of time to see each other.

“Come on, I wasn’t gone that long,” she muttered, digging her trowel a little more aggressively than was required to loosen up the mud. Sighing heavily, she reached for another tool instead. “This is going to hurt.” She pressed the tip into the ground and pushed, grunting with exertion. “Stubborn assholes,” she huffed before sitting back to stare at the plants, like that would solve the issue.

“And here I thought you would sweet talk your plants,” a deep voice said from behind her and she jumped.

“Fuck.” She put her hand over her chest and glared at Rafferty. “They’re being annoying.”

“Aw, sweetheart. Cut them some slack and come here.”

Pushing to her feet at his sweet tone, she dropped her gloves and hoped she was hiding her emotions as she met him halfway. He took off her cap with one hand and cupped her face with the other, bringing their lips together. A soft sigh slid out of her at the contact and she fisted his shirt, pulling him closer. She felt his mouth curve into a smile before he pulled away, the sparkle in his eyes making her smile. Despite everything she’d gone through that day—and would continue to for a long time—seeing his happiness because of her made it all worth it.

“Hi, darlin’.”

“Hi, Da—” his hand clamped over her mouth before she could finish the word and shook his head.

“Don’t you dare.”

She pulled his hand away and said, “I was going to trydarlin’too.”

“I love you and think you’re the bee’s knees, but you’re a terrible liar.”

“You’re supposed to be nice to me,husband.”

He growled and tugged at her hair, her head tipping back slightly. He nipped at her cheek and dragged his nose up the side of her face. “I don’t know if I’ll survive you,wife.”

“Then don’t,” she whispered and bit his bearded jaw.

Another sound came out of him before he was releasing her and taking a big step back. The darkness in his golden eyes promised filthy, dangerous things and it made her knees shake.

“So, uh…how was your day?” she asked.

“I love you, did I mention that today?” he asked and she shook her head. Of course he had, but she wasn’t going to let him get away with it that easily. “Love of my fucking life. And my day wasgreat.”

“Oh?”

“I mean, the fire was a bit stressful, but what happened after made it great.”

She tilted her head, taking a small step towards him. “Tell me.”

“I got us a date.”

“What?”

“Wednesday at five.”

She frowned. “That’s in two days.”

“Exactly. I know we don’t have to rush into this, but I cannot wait to be your husband. I can’t wait to beyours.”

Her heart leaped against her ribcage and she nodded, unable to form full sentences. Since it was a civil ceremony and none of the noise around a wedding, she knew that the date didn’t matter.

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