Falling for Fitz (13 page)

Daisy turned to open her door, and her
movement snapped him out of his thoughts. He put his hand on her
arm, suddenly panicked that he didn’t have a plan to see her
again.

“
Tomorrow, come to the
office for lunch? We’ll discuss what comes next for
Daisy’s Delights,
and I
can have my secretary start ordering your equipment and everything
you need to get started. Come at noon. We’ll have all
afternoon.”

Daisy smiled at him, her eyes tracing
his face with care and gentleness, and it made him long for her
touch on his skin again. “Earlier today, you said ‘what I lack in
love I make up for in business.’”

He nodded, watching her carefully,
memorizing the delicate lines of her face in the moonlight of his
car, feeling his heart swell with love for her such that he had
never known.

“
Nobody, not ever, has
romanced me the way you have tonight. Whatever happens between us,
don’t undervalue that part of who you are, Fitz.” She smiled before
leaving the car and closing the door behind her.

He watched as she let herself into the
house, staring at the door as the porch light went to dark and the
bedroom that used to be Emily’s was suddenly illuminated. There was
nowhere else on the earth he wished to be at that
moment.

“
It only exists for you,”
he finally whispered into the silence before turning the key and
driving home.

One of the first things
Daisy had done when she and Josh arrived in Philly on Thursday was
to take her father out to lunch and find a reliable used car to
buy. And the second she saw bright red VW Bug with only twenty-one
thousand miles, she was sold. It wasn’t a vintage model, which her
father advised her could be costly for repairs, but it
was
a convertible and
something about buying a shiny red convertible bug had made Daisy
feel as though a new life was really beginning.

As she drove the thirty minutes to
downtown Philadelphia in the warm, late-morning sun, she realized
how right that premonition had been. Over the last two days, she’d
reunited with the love of her life, he’d found her a place to open
a new business, and she was headed to meet him now to iron out the
details.

For the first time in too many years
to count, Daisy’s life felt hopeful. Just being around her father
and family had eliminated a good portion of the loneliness that had
been her companion these many years far from home. And though she
worried about protecting herself against heartache where Fitz was
concerned, after he had dropped her off last night, she’d had time
to review what was happening between them.

Most impactful of all was that he had
been so clearly grieved about their tiny daughter, something she
had never suspected. It gave her insight into the man who was Fitz
English, who would cry over a baby barely formed, lost almost ten
years ago. How much of who he was, what he felt, what he wanted,
was carefully concealed until it tumbled out accidentally? After
she moved to California to be with her mother, she’d destroyed the
six letters he’d sent to her during the six weeks he was in London
because they were so impersonal, and to her teen eyes, which
clamored for words of love undying and passion everlasting, they
were painful. She wished she still had them now to review them for
subtle clues about what he felt for her, what he wanted for them.
She might not have found anything, but imbedded into words that had
seemed perfunctory and dry to her, there may have been a bigger
message visible only to a more mature heart.

For so long Daisy had wished that Fitz
was a different person—someone showy and passionate with his
emotions and articulate in the declaration of them. But as she put
the top down and let the warm autumn sun fall on her blonde hair,
she knew that those adolescent hopes were just a fantasy she’d
projected onto him. It occurred to her that maybe Fitzpatrick
English simply wasn’t given to emotive language, but that didn’t
mean he didn’t own the feelings. The question was, what did Daisy
need in her life? Did she require the words? The tender, passionate
words in a lover’s voice whispered into her ear? Or not? And was
Fitz able to offer them or not?

Her cell rang in the console next to
her, and she pressed the Bluetooth button on her radio.

“
Hello?”

“
Daze? It’s Em.”

“
Hey, cuz.”

“
It’s so loud. Where are
you? The car?”

“
Yeah. Give me a sec.”
Daisy hit the button to close the roof on her little bug, waiting
to speak again until the rush of wind had stopped. “Sorry. I’m
back. What’s up?”

“
Uhhh… what’s up with
you?”

“
Nothing much. Headed into
the city. You?”

“
Are you
sure
there’s nothing
going on with you?”

“
You’re speaking in
riddles, Em.”

“
I was going to put the
ring on last night, remember? Except my future mother-in-law was in
a snit all evening because her son and my cousin pulled an MIA
maneuver.”

“
Oh, my God. We ruined
it.”

“
Uh-huh. Again.”

“
Oh, God, Emily,” sighed
Daisy, glancing at the GPS to make sure she was still headed to
Fitz’s building on Arch Street near 30
^th
Street Station. “I’m so
sorry. Fitz wanted to talk to me. And then the bakery and dinner
and the hat in the ring … sorry.”

“
I have to teach a class on
the Lowell Mill Girls as an example of the exploitative nature of
early American industrialization in … twenty minutes. Which means
you have eighteen minutes to explain what a bakery, dinner and
rings have to do with why Barrett is going to have another
torturous day wondering when his girlfriend is going to say yes to
his proposal.”

Daisy grinned. Every fiber of her
being was grateful to be living near her cousin again.

“
You know how I’ve always
wanted to start a bakery? A little place that had baked goods and
really, really orgasmic coffee?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Fitz—well, actually, Fitz,
Alex and Stratton—arranged for it to happen. They found the most
charming little pla—”

“
Hold up. Hold up. What are
you talking about? They
arranged
for it?”

“
Fitz asked me on Saturday
night what I was going to do now that I’m back and I mentioned
wanting to start a bakery. Last night when we were walking up to
Eleanora’s, he said he wanted to talk to me. Turned out Alex
approved a loan, Stratton tracked down a suitable place in
Haverford and Fitz did the rest. Permits. Contracts.
Everything.”

Silence.

More silence.

“
Oh, my God,” murmured
Emily. “He’s
in love
with you.”

“
Emmy, don’t be a
moron.”

“
You mentioned you wanted
to start a bakery on Saturday night and Fitz bought you one on
Sunday? Oh, that is
so
English brothers!”

Daisy smiled at her reflection in the
rear view mirror as she waited for a red light to change.
“Yeah?”

“
Suffice it to say that
Barrett pulled a lot of strings in my life to get me where he
wanted in his. These boys leave nothing to chance,
Daze.”

“
I think he’s just trying
to be nice to an old friend.”

“
No. No, no, no, no, no. It
means Fitz is
into
you.
Really
into you. Really,
really
into you.”

“
Maybe,” said Daisy,
surprised when the word rolled so quickly off her tongue without
arguing with Emily even a little.

“
Okay … I have eleven more
minutes. What was the thing about hats and rings and why can I
picture nothing but weddings in England as a result?”

“
You’re getting ridiculous
now.”

“
Hey, I’m not the one with
the brand new bakery.”

“
I tell you what,” said
Daisy, not quite ready yet to tell Emily about Fitz’s campaign to
lure her away from her faux engagement to Dr. M.. “How about we
have a Girl’s Night soon? And I’ll spill everything?”

“
Everything
? Even what happened that
summer?”

Daisy took a deep breath. Emily had no
idea that she wasn’t just talking about a summer fling, but she
felt ready to tell her cousin. “Yeah. Everything.”

“
Damn, I always
knew
there was something
between you two that summer. Thursday night okay? Can Valeria come
too?”

Daisy had met Valeria several times
over the years when she visited Emily or when Valeria and Emily
came out to visit her twice in Portland. Daisy considered her a
friend, and if she was going to really make Philly her home, she’d
need a few go-to girlfriends.

“
Sure. I’d love to see
Val.”

Emily gave her the address of a bar in
Philly and Daisy committed it to memory as she pulled into the
parking garage under Fitz’s building, promising one more time to
tell Emily everything on Thursday night.

She hung up after exchanging “I love
you’s” and turned to the mirror again to check her make-up before
leaving the safety of her shiny red car in exchange for lunch with
Fitz English.

***

“Mr. English? Miss Edwards is here for
you.”

“
Thank you, Gladys,” said
Fitz, taking a quick look around his office. It wasn’t quite as big
as his father’s office or Barrett’s, for that matter, but Fitz had
traded size for a corner view.

From his desk, set on a
diagonal in the corner of his office, he could swivel in his chair
and look out at his favorite part of the city: the campuses of the
University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, in addition to
the 30
^th
Street Station and the Schuylkill River. While attending U
Penn, he’d crewed for the Campus Boat Club and he still enjoyed
taking his kayak down to the river on warm spring and summer
weekend afternoons and spending a few hours on the
Schuylkill.

He’d purposely left his apartment at
the crack of dawn and arrived at the office by six-thirty so that
the majority of his work was completed by noon. He checked his
reflection in the mirror over the burgundy leather sofa. His hair
had gotten out of control in the past month or so, and sorely
needed a haircut. It brushed the top of his collar in the back and
fell across his forehead in a wavy flop too often for his taste. He
made a mental note to have his secretary schedule an appointment.
He twisted the silver cufflinks on his light blue dress shirt and
straightened his tie, which was bright, fire engine red and had a
light blue repeat of bulls and bears. It had been a gift from Alex
and it was a little louder than Fitz’s normal selections, but the
bright red had grabbed his attention this morning.

He ran his fingers through his hair
again and headed for the door, walking briskly through the long
hallway to the reception area. He saw her through the glass,
sitting in a guest chair flipping through a magazine.

His heart skipped a beat as he stilled
the hand about to push through the door, so that he could watch her
for a moment.

Her blonde hair was parted on one
side, pulled back in a sleek ponytail. She was wearing a navy blue
wrap dress with a V-neck that somehow managed to look sexy and
conservative at the same time. Her long legs crossed at the ankles
and were tucked modestly under her chair. He had a sudden, blinding
flashback to those ankles locking around his back as he drew his
body back from hers, then plunged forward into her wet, tight, heat
again. He gasped softly, holding his breath, feeling desperation
overtake him for a moment. He couldn’t lose her again. He
couldn’t.

As though she sensed him, Daisy looked
up, catching him watching her. Her whole face brightened for him,
blue eyes shining, lips spreading quickly into a smile that showed
the whiteness of her teeth. She mouthed the word “hi,” holding his
eyes through the glass while closing the magazine and placing it
gently on the table beside her. Her eyebrows furrowed briefly,
which didn’t diminish her smile, but made him realize he was
scowling at her. He blinked twice, forcing a smile as he pushed the
door open.

“
Daisy.”

“
Fitz.”

He reached out to her and she slid her
smooth, white hands into his and stood up. Because he couldn’t help
himself, he pulled her toward him and leaned forward to press his
lips to her cheek before stepping back. He dropped one hand, but
not the other as he turned to Gladys.

“
Gladys, please hold my
calls for the time being. Miss Edwards and I will be discussing
business in my office and I don’t wish to be disturbed.”

“
Yes, Mr.
English.”

Fitz turned to Daisy, tugging her hand
gently back toward the glass doors, barely daring to look at her
again until he could get himself under control physically. The
overwhelming urge to lower her to his couch and cover her with his
body was wreaking havoc on his judgment.