do we have any birthday cake in the trailer freezer?”
John sighed, remembering this well. Birthday cakes, of course, were kept in the freezer, for birthdays occurring on the road. No muss, no fuss. And nothing home baked. The boys had been homeschooled, too, which meant a rolling education. But Mary was smart, and they’d learned everything they needed to know to do very well on the standardized tests. At one point, young Javier had even decided he might want to attend college and had applied to Florida State, finding himself a very desirable candidate before he’d ultimately decided he preferred to stay with the family.
That was what happened: you spent your life on the road, and nothing else seemed as exciting.
They sat under one of the awnings at a concrete table. A couple of birds hopped near, wondering if the humans might drop any crumbs. Pity the bird that thinks it is getting crumbs from the Mathisons, John thought—feeling bad when Javier came out from the trailer triumphantly bearing five slices of cake, one of them anointed with a lit candle. Javier put this one in front of John, grinning. He whistled a long note, and his family all burst into the “Happy Birthday” song.
“Make a wish!” they exclaimed, so John blew out his candle—totally annoyed with himself when he realized that the image that flickered across his mind the instant he tried to think of what he’d wish for was Daisy’s beautiful face.
Before he’d had a chance to stop his brain, he’d wished she were here with him right now.
What a stupid wish.
John couldn’t have been more stunned when Sam’s truck pulled up beside the family trailer, but his brain seemed to separate into two parts when Daisy’s long-legged sexiness got out of the passenger side.
He shoved his cake with the birthday candle still smoking far away from him—clearly Bridesmaids Creek didn’t have the only claim to mystical mayhem—and got up to greet his friend. And the woman who drove him mad even in his sleep.
“What the hell, buddy?” John said to Sam, slapping the bearlike man on the back by way of embrace. Over Sam’s shoulder, John’s gaze was locked onto Daisy. She smiled, looking a trifle unsure of herself, which was unusual for Daisy. “What brings you two here?”
“Following you,” Sam said, then went to say hello to Mr. and Mrs. Mathison, and Javier and Jackson.
That left John staring at Daisy, drowning in her dark eyes. “Hi.”
She smiled. “Hello.”
“So, is somebody going to tell me what’s going on?” John asked.
“You left without saying goodbye.”
“How did you find me?”
“It wasn’t hard. You told the fellows exactly where you were headed. Sam said we’d just get in the truck and follow the smoke of your truck as you burned rubber out of BC.” She frowned. “How could you leave without saying goodbye? After...after we rode on your motorcycle all the way home from Montana?”
That was a nice way of saying How could you just leave like that after we’d made love like crazy? John sighed. “I’m sorry. I was probably a heel. Didn’t think it through.”
“I’d say you didn’t.” Daisy’s frown deepened, and he could tell she was really hurt.
“Daisy, look,” he began, “we just don’t suit. You know that.”
She stared at him silently.
“I mean, we suit sexually,” he said, lowering his voice, then pulled her farther from the group. His parents would be concerned about getting off schedule, but for the moment, they seemed happy to visit with Sam. Sam, of course, had helped himself to John’s slice of cake, casually flinging the candle in the trash. “What happened in Montana is best left in Montana.”
Daisy shook her head. “I don’t believe that’s really what you want.”
“Do you see my family, Daze?” He pointed to the trailer. “This is my life, and it’s as far away from Bridesmaids Creek and all that crazy magic as it could be. This is real life, this is the real John Lopez ‘Squint’ Mathison. I ain’t no Prince Charming, sweetheart.”
“I understand that you’re—that you’ve misunderstood what I need from a man after I chased Cisco, stupidly, of course,” Daisy began, but he shook his head.
“I don’t even think about that. I knew what was going on all along. I understood that you were just trying to fit in, and to find your own place in BC. But, Daisy, beautiful as you are, as desirable as you are, I’m not the man for you. I’m sorry.” He took a deep breath. “I’m really sorry that you came all this way having to listen to Sam’s hot air, too.”
“John,” Daisy began.
“I’m not going to turn into a handsome, secret prince like Cisco did.”
“Cisco’s from some kind of minor, minor royal lineage. And that’s not why I’m here!”
“But at the time, the idea of a title was dazzling to you, and this,” he said, gesturing to the beat-up trailer, “isn’t dazzling. It didn’t dazzle you then, and it’s not going to dazzle you now, but this is my family. This is our way of life.” He touched one of her long dark locks ruefully. “And I don’t think you’re exactly cut out for the migrant sort of life, princess.”
She moved his hand. “Thank you for your opinion, but I’m capable of figuring out what I want.”
“Because you knew what you wanted last year?” he asked, hating to be an ass but needing to make her see.
She stepped closer. “John, I know you care about me.”
“Always have, and part of me always will.” He moved away from her. “Trust me, Daisy, this would be an even bigger mistake than you and Cisco would have been.”
“I was never in love with Cisco. I never cared about him, not the way you think I did.” Daisy looked like tears might sprout any second, which was also a very unusual thing for the town’s ex-bad girl. “You and I belong together, John Mathison.”
He had to give her credit, being a daddy’s girl had taught her to go after what she wanted. Or thought she wanted. But John understood human nature, and in this case, Daisy had just turned her gotta-have-it shopping list from one man to another. “Next year, it’ll be someone else, beautiful, I promise.”
She reached out, lightly touching the Saint Michael medal under his denim shirt. “You and I both know about this medal. You got it from a peddler you met when you and your family were following the rodeo. He told you it would always protect you. All of you SEALs have one, but you and Cisco got yours switched overseas one day at training, and Suz thinks that tangled up something. She said it misplaced the Bridesmaids Creek magic, so that I thought Cisco was the man for me.” Daisy took a deep breath. “I’m not sure it happened that way. You’ve always been the only man for me. In fact, I know it in my heart. It just took me too long to see it. But I’m not going to beg you, John.” She smacked his chest, right over his heart, and his
