He’s dressed like a power CEO, but he talks like a timid teenager. It’s a strange dichotomy. But he looks harmless, and I really have nothing better to do at the moment, so I shrug and say, “Sure. Lead the way.”
“I didn’t get your name,” he says as we walk.
“Daisy,” I tell him. “Daisy Wellington.”
He tries to hide it, but a look comes over the man’s face when he hears my last name. It’s not quite a smile and not quite a grimace; it’s something in between, like how you might react if a person suggested you try chocolate ice cream with ranch dressing.
“Is that right?” he muses as we walk. “The player finally settled down.”
Sebastian’s comment threads its way into my chest and stings. Player. Obviously I know Winter hasn’t exactly been living the life of a priest all this time, but it still hurts me to hear it, and I realize something simultaneously wonderful and terrifying: I love Winter Wellington.
That’s why hearing this from Sebastian hurts so much.
You know that morbid curiosity that comes over you when you want to know something that you know will only upset you?
Yeah. Well, that comes over me and I ask Sebastian, “Was he really that much of a player?”
Sebastian chuckles. “Oh, you have no idea.”
8
Winter
Well, that does it. I’m back in. CEO of the company. Officially.
Dad’s happy. I’m happy. The only one left to make happy is Daisy, and when I tell her what I have planned, that shouldn’t be hard.
A week in the Caribbean or the Amalfi Coast. Whichever she chooses. A honeymoon for our spontaneous wedding. She deserves it. The encounter with my father could have been worse, but it was still uncomfortable, and she’s probably feeling completely out of place tonight. I’ll ease her into the rest of our lives together. Just the two of us.
I’m feeling something new as I make my way through the party. I feel lighter. It’s not just the fact that I no longer have Dad breathing down my throat, but the fact that for the first time, I actually have something outside of work to live for.
Daisy came into my life like a shooting star, just at the right time. She changed everything. I’m a changed man now because of her.
And who would have thought we’d have so much in common? The car ride over here? How many more things could we have listed that we’d agree on? It just doesn’t seem possible. I figured I’d fake this whole marriage thing to make Dad happy, go about my business, and get a divorce down the line. But now I know that is no longer possible.
I’m a changed man, and it’s all Daisy’s fault.
I look around the room but don’t see her. I go outside and check the front lawn, but she’s not there either. One of the valets isn’t busy, so I ask him. “Hey, have you seen a gorgeous girl walking around here in a black dress with a slit up the side? Maybe looking a bit lost?”
He shakes his head. “Sorry, sir.”
“Thanks.”
I head back inside and keep looking around. I guess there’s a chance she went into the back of the house to get away from the crowd. That’s what I would do if I was feeling out of my element. So I head for the library, but as I round the corner of the stairs, I see something that almost knocks me over.
Daisy, pressed up against the wall, making out with Sebastian Goldberg.
My goddamn heart almost stops. The world goes into slow motion.
The fuck is happening? How could I have misread her so badly? And out of all the men she could pick to do this with, why Sebastian?
Is Daisy seriously just another gold-digger?
Quickly, I shield my heart and turn on my heels and stride away. Fuck her.
But as angry as I am, this is all my fault. I mean, what should I have expected? I pay a girl one million dollars to be my fake-wife and she’s supposed to be loyal to me? She sees me like all the other girls have ever seen me: as a pay day.
As I pass a side table, I slap one of Sebastian’s decorative vases onto the floor. It shatters, drawing the attention of a group of hedge fund guys.