Page 18 of Sweet
Daisy’s face burned. It could have been funny. If this had happened at Tompkins, Trudi would have teased Daisy and threatened to tell her cousins about Spider kissing her in the middle of the store after she’d been ranting about yarn and butterfly tattoos.
But they weren’t downtown.
Everything about the beige woman, from her derisive glare to her curled lip to the way she looked down her nose, told Daisy what she thought of them.
Cool as could be, Spider lowered Daisy to her feet, reached down for his basket, and casually tossed her four skeins of yarn in it along with another of the black chenille that she’d been sitting in.
Daisy decided not to mention it.
Then Spider reached out, took her hand, and walked toward the woman, who opened her mouth to protest until he stopped less than a foot from her, staring down into her face.
The woman shut her mouth.
“My girl and I were just checking out.” Spider didn’t move, daring the woman to say something.
She got her courage back, just a little. “Well, I’m telling you to—”
“Check out?” He cocked his head and stared at her, his dark eyes drilling into her glare.
It was the first time Daisy had seen Spider the way she knew others must see him all the time. Inked to the neck, baggy jeans, and black boots, his hair a close-cropped black velvet with terrifying legs threatening to emerge from the darkness.
He was… scary.
“Let’s go.” She squeezed his hand. “Let’s get our stuff and go.”
“Thank you for doing business at Hobby Hut,” Spider said softly. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to say?”
Daisy tugged his hand. “Please, let’s go.”
Spider didn’t take his eyes off the woman until Daisy tugged him away. He stepped past her and walked to the front of the store, where he checked out with a white-haired lady who looked amused by the whole thing and called Spider “sugar.”
Spider put his art supplies in one bag and her yarn in a separate one, then carried both of them and took Daisy’s hand, staring down the beige woman who lingered near the front of the store, waiting for them to leave.
As they passed her, Daisy paused. “Women like you give home arts a bad name.” She lifted her chin. “Shame on you.”
There was a hoot in the background along with the sound of laughter. Then Daisy and Spider walked to the parking lot and didn’t look back.
“I think I better stick to buying yarn at Tompkins from now on.”
“Yarn.” Spider shook his head. “Princesa, you’re gonna have to explain that one to me.”
Chapter 6
Spider drove backto his apartment, glancing every five seconds at the blue Honda Civic in his rearview mirror.
What the fuck are you doing, asshole?
He was an idiot. She’d been lonely and sad and indignant all at the same time, pushing every one of his buttons. He wanted to protect her, beat up any bastard who dared disrespect her, and then work the mad out of her in every hot and sweaty way he could imagine.
You’re an idiot.
Now Daisy was probably banned from buying yarn at her favorite store and he’d probably get the cops called on him for threatening Our Constipated Lady of the Cockblock. He glanced at the bag of art supplies and mentally cursed out Bill for telling him they were cheaper at Hobby Hut instead of going to Mancini Art Supply downtown.
Sure, he’d saved a little money, but no one at Mancini’s looked at him like he was a cockroach.
He stopped in front of the alley gate and dragged open the door before he pulled the El Camino into the asphalt driveway at the back of Bill and Ruby’s place. Then he waved Daisy in, and she managed to wedge her little compact car behind his with just enough room to close the gate.
She got out as he was securing the latch. “This is where you live?”
