Page 77 of The Summer I First Saw You
I shrug. “It ran its course.”
He raises a brow. “Ran its course? You sure acted like it was a bigger deal than that a few months ago. Anyhow, you need to get back on the horse. Try some dating apps.”
Daisy was smiling before, but she isn’t now. Her gaze drops to her plate. She doesn’t want to think of me gettingback out there. I know this because the thought ofhergetting back out there makes me sick to my stomach.
“I just got out of a five-year marriage, Liam. There’s nothing wrong with taking some time to figure things out.”
“Of course not,” he says. “But that’s what I mean. You figure things out by doing a little experimenting. You were always in a relationship with someone. Have a couple one-night stands, followed by a couple of threesomes—” He looks over at his niece, who’s gone pale beneath her tan. “Cover your ears, Daisy.”
Her laughter is forced and unhappy. “A, you’re supposed to tell me to cover my earsbeforeyou say the offensive thing, and B, I’m twenty-one, Liam. I’ve actually heard of both threesomes and one-night stands. I might’ve even had some.”
Liam groans the way I’dliketo. If I can barely stand the thought of her with one guy who isn’t me, I sure as hell can’t stand the thought of her with two. At once.Fuck.
“Do not even joke about that,” Liam warns her before he looks back at me. “My point, Harrison, is that you’ve always tended to be a little too monogamous. You met Audrey and that was it. So don’t make the same mistake again. Don’t fall in love with some chick and marry her just because the sex is good. Live a little first.”
“Look who’s suddenly an expert on relationships,” jokes Emerson. “You’re thirty-two, and I’m your first serious girlfriend.”
He wraps an arm around her. “That’s because I waited for therightgirlfriend.”
“Who should I set him up with?” Bridget asks Liam. “What about Holly?”
I’m about to stop her, but Daisy’s already rising from the table. “There are some guys from high school inside. I’m gonna go say hi.”
Bridget and Liam continue discussing Holly while I sit frozen. I can’t follow Daisy without attracting attention, and what would I say if I did? Even if I’ve got no desire tolive a little, as Liam suggested, I still want marriage, stability, children—and that’s all a long way off for Daisy.
“I’m not interested in being set up,” I say firmly, and the topic moves on at last, but I’m no longer listening…because Daisy’s now at a table full of guys, chatting with some douchebag in a backward baseball cap, and I fucking hate it.
She’s a foot smaller than him—anything could happen to her. He could follow her into the bathroom or lure her away with the promise of a party down the road. The fact that it’s going to happen a million times in the coming years without me around at the night’s end kills me. Every night for the rest of her damn life, I won’t be there to stop it.
And my desire to stop it is exactly why I shouldn’t have begun this in the first place. This is what she’ssupposedto do—spend a few months dating some dumbass from high school ina backward baseball cap, then dump him to date some other dumbass, and continue the cycle until she’s certain of what she wants.
The guy she’s talking to rises and pulls her toward the dance floor. My gaze is laser-focused on his hand, which slides from her rib cage to her hip. Other people join them, and his distance from her shrinks until they’re maybe two inches apart at most. My hands wrap around the bench to keep myself in place.
“Do we trust this kid?” Liam asks Bridget, finally fucking aware of a situation I haven’t been able toceasebeing aware of.
She bites her lip. “He’s not the one who was accused of raping that girl on the soccer team, right?”
She and Liam are getting out their phones to check, but I’m not willing to wait that long.
“I’ll handle it,” I say, rising from the table before anyone can stop me. They’ll assume I’m just being Harrison, the upstanding citizen and all-round good guy, when it’s the fucking opposite. I no longer care.
I march inside, pushing through the crowd on the dance floor to tap the guy Daisy’s with on the shoulder—thoughtapmight be underselling the amount of force exerted. “Can I borrow her for a moment?”
He looks like he wants to argue, but something in my expression must make him decide against it. Daisy’s eyes narrow, but she doesn’t argue either as I guide her across the room to the back side of the bar, where we’re blocked from view.
“Shouldn’t you be out sowing your wild oats?” she asks, arms folded protectively over her chest. “Enjoying a variety of threesomes and one-night stands?”
I roll my eyes. “Liam’s an idiot. You know I’m not interested in that.”
Her tongue prods the inside of her cheek. “I didn’t see you shutting it down.”
I reach out to squeeze her hip. This situation is impossible, and what I’d really like to do is throw her over my shoulder and walk out the back door when I shouldn’t even be touching her. “Daisy, obviously that’s not what I want. But Lucie and Caleb already know about us, and I think Emerson suspects something too…I’m doing my best not to make it any more obvious than it already is.”
Her shoulders begin to relax. “Then why are you in here, pulling me off the dance floor?”
“I think it’s pretty obvious why I cut in,” I reply. “It’s because Liam and your mom think that guy is a rapist.”
She grins. “Andyouweren’t concerned at all. What a good guy you are, selflessly coming over here to cockblock me.”
