Page 92 of Book and Ladder
When he doesn’t respond, I power off my desktop. Then I ball my fists in front of my face and squeal, tapping my feet in rapid succession. I’m deliriously giddy.
“He wants to meet me,” I whisper, smiling so widely it stretches my cheeks.
“But that doesn’t mean he will follow through and actually meet you,” I say.
“It doesn’t not mean it,” I insist.
And then, to complicate matters, my traitorous lips softly hum with the reminder of what it felt to be kissed by Patrick O’Connell.
Chapter 25
Patrick
You can ignore reality,
but you can't ignore the consequences
of ignoring reality.
~ Ayn Rand
“You’re here again?”Maeve asks.
I showed up an hour ago, let myself into the backyard and started trimming the shrubs.
“Yeah. Are you complaining?”
“No. I’m just wondering what has you coming over here so much these days.”
“A brother can’t want to help his sister?”
Maeve crosses her arms over her chest. “Patrick, I’m not saying you never help around here. You’ve always been great about lending a hand or helping with the girls—even running errands for me on your days off. But this? Coming here and getting straight to work without being asked? You have to admit it’s fishy.”
I set the hedge trimmers on a bistro table near where I’ve been working and take a long pull from my water bottle. I’m not about to tell my sister about the way I stormed across the lawn at Moss and Maple. And I’m certainly not about to tell her how I ended up kissing Daisy.
As if I could actually explain that crazy turn of events.
I obviously didn’t wake up yesterday morning planning to kiss Daisy Clark. On the job, I know when to charge in and when to hold back. Off duty—under the influence of Daisy’s pull—I tossed every bit of discipline out the window. One challenging look from her, and suddenly all my rules went up in flames.
I went by Moss and Maple because my dad had asked me to meet him out there. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ve been so wound up over Dad’s project and my inescapable feelings for Daisy. I acted on impulse—which I rarely do. And it backfired—of course.
After that kiss I didn’t even stick around. I moved my truck, just like Daisy had asked me to. Once I got behind the wheel, I just kept driving. Dad hadn’t even arrived yet, but I couldn’t sit there, staring at Moss and Maple, emotions swirling like a storm, her kiss still burning on my lips.
Dad has called—multiple times. I haven’t answered.
As if that weren’t enough, barely an hour after that reckless—clearly unwelcome—kiss with Daisy, I found out M&M lives here. In Waterford.
The idea of us meeting each other thrills me, confuses me, and scares me in equal measure.
So, yes, I’m hiding out at my sister’s, cutting shrubs and raking leaves—avoiding the woman I kissed on impulse and the one tempting me to break my biggest rule: stay anonymous. Both have me acting like a man I hardly know.
“Are you saying you want me to stop?” I deflect.
Maeve holds her hands up in a gesture of innocence. “Far be it from me to stop you.”
“That’s what I thought,” I say with a smile.
I spend another few hours in the yard, raking leaves and replaying that kiss over and over. I try to focus on anything besides the way Daisy softened into me, the sound she made when our lips finally met in a kiss I don’t think I’ll ever forget. The intensity of our connection floored me. It shouldn’t have. We’ve always had a tension between us. Cody was right about that much.
