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 breath flew from him, his brain shot into outer space and that red corpuscle-driving organ that was trying to deny how much it cared for Daisy seemed to stop beating for just the space of a second. Peace and tranquillity descended upon John just as Daisy walked away from him to go introduce herself to his family—only to be replaced by red-hot lust and fiery passion engulfing his entire soul as he watched her walk away from him. It felt as if he were drowning in desire, as if his impulses were threatening to overtake his good sense. Aching to take back every word he’d said, he rubbed his chest where she’d lightly smacked his heart, willing himself to come back inside his body and be rational, damn it—but he had never really been rational where Daisy Donovan was concerned, and today was probably not going to be the day he started.
Bridesmaids Creek’s reach appeared to be long-ranging.
* * *
“I’M FINE,” DAISY said as she and Sam got back into his truck. “Thanks for driving me out here to find John’s knuckleheaded self.”
Sam laughed as he pulled onto the highway. “I told you he’d have his cabeza pretty well stuffed up his butt.”
“It’s a lot of my own fault.” Daisy sighed, resisting the urge to glance over her shoulder in the vain hope that John might have had second thoughts about sending her away and was even now charging after Sam’s truck. “I chased something I didn’t even want too long, and ignored the man who is right for me. I don’t blame him for not being entirely convinced that my heart belongs to him.”
“So now what?”
“Now,” Daisy said on a long breath, “hopefully, I enjoy a healthy pregnancy—”
“What?” Sam slammed on the brakes.
“Don’t you dare even think about turning around and going back.”
“But you didn’t tell him that! I know you didn’t! John would never have let you go if he knew you were pregnant! Are you really expecting a baby?”
“Keep driving,” Daisy said in a toneless command. “Yes, I’m expecting a baby.”
“Holy crap!” Sam turned the air conditioner on full blast, though the day was chilly and overcast. “Listen, you’re going to get me in a whole lot of caca with one John Lopez Mathison. If he finds out that I knew—”
“It’s all right, Sam. John’s made his choice. I’m not using a baby to change his mind. Absolutely not. And if you tell him,” Daisy said, staring at him, “I’ll set the matchmakers in town on you.”
The gentle bear of a man literally developed a peaked cast under his skin. “You wouldn’t!”
“I would.”
“I don’t want a woman! I don’t want a bride. Everyone has long known that I came along with John and Cisco just for the ride. Just to cause trouble, really.”
“I’m aware.” Daisy nodded. “But troublemakers sometimes find trouble.”
He pulled off a ramp and parked in a deserted parking lot that appeared to once have housed shops, but was now long abandoned. “Daisy, listen. When Ty Spurlock invited us to BC to find brides, I made it clear that was for everyone but me. I made a deal, in fact, with Cosette that she leave me out of any sprinklings from her magic wand.” He mopped his brow with a blue bandanna. “I’m everybody’s friend and nobody’s fellow, you see what I mean?”
She shrugged. “All you have to do is keep your lips sealed very tightly, Sam. If I’m going to catch John, I don’t need you bringing him back home when he thinks he needs to be free.”
He gulped, his brown eyes rolling nervously. “I don’t want to agree to this, but I’ve seen the BC magic at work, and it’s potent stuff.”
“When applied correctly, yes, it is. Don’t think for one minute that I couldn’t convince Cosette that you’re just