Someone Like You

Daisy groaned into the coffee. “If this mug were bigger, I’d try to drown myself.”

Kiwi,” she read with a laugh.

The dog lifted its head, as though to say Yes?

The man had a dog that would fit in his palm. Adorable

“Yep. Cream and sugar.”

She held out her hands in a gimme motion. “How’d you know?”

He smiled as he approached. “You told me. About four times.

“I have everything I need right here,” he said quietly.
And even as his daughter opened her tiny mouth and let loose with a barrage of not-too-tiny screams, Lincoln knew it was true.
At long last, his heart had found its happiness.

“What do you want?” she asked, wrapping her arms around his waist and smiling up at him.
He smiled back, resting his forehead on hers. “You, Daisy. I want someone like you.”

They held each other for long minutes, and even Kiwi had the sense to curl up on the mat by the back door and leave them alone as his hands stroked up and down Daisy’s back.
“I don’t know if I can let you go,” he said with a broken laugh. “I thought I could, and I meant to, but—”
Daisy pulled back slightly and dragged his mouth down to hers, pouring her heart and soul into the kiss. His hands lifted to her head, deepening the kiss before breaking away and tilting her face up to his.
“Give me one more chance. Just one more chance, love. My love.”
She looked up at him and realized that a lifetime of risks with him would be infinitely more fulfilling than a safe lifetime without him.
“Let’s do it,” she whispered.
His eyes flashed with hope. “Do what?”
“All of it. Put our hearts on the line, trust the other that it’ll be worth it.”
“It’s already been worth it,” he said quietly, touching his lips to hers. “But I’m greedy. I still want.”

through her.
“I’ll go,” he whispered. “But Daisy, if I can ask a favor, as a friend…”
She nodded, her heart squeezing at the thought that she might really let him go. “Anything.”
“Tell me you love me.”
Daisy gasped in pain, and his gaze was tortured but steady as he looked at her.
“Lincoln—”
“I know you love me,” he said, his voice desperate. “Or at least you did before I screwed it up. Let me have the words just once, Daisy. Lie to me if you have to, but give me something to replay when I’m old and all alone and loving you so much it hurts—”
Daisy let out a strangled sob as she launched herself at him, arms going around him as she buried her face in his neck. “I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”
Lincoln froze in shock, a second before his arms came around her and he shuddered. “It’s better than I thought it would be.”

ask the hard question. “What about Katie?”
He didn’t flinch. Didn’t wince. “Katie’s gone. And she and I have an understanding.”
Daisy didn’t ask how he had an understanding with a dead woman. The conviction in his voice had her breath catching, daring to hope, that maybe, just maybe…
Then reality settled in, and she remembered how he’d freaked out the second Katie’s shadow had popped up.
Daisy stepped back, and his hands fell to his sides, his eyes closing as his head tipped back in defeat.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, but I can’t put myself out there again and risk that you’ll freak out on me with every anniversary of Katie’s birthday, or the accident, or her death. I know that sounds cruel, but—”
“It’s not cruel. I mean, that won’t happen, but it’s fair that you fear I would after the way I’ve treated you,” he said, opening his eyes and looking at her. “It’s what I expected.”
The agony in his blue eyes ripped

I was an idiot, and I’m sorry.”
“You weren’t an idiot,” she whispered. “You were—you are—a man who’s lost someone and is trying to figure it out.”
He nodded, his eyes locked on her mouth before moving up to her eyes. “I was still an idiot. And I’m still sorry.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But Lincoln, I’m not angry at you. I was never angry at you. I understand that you’ll need time, and when you’re ready you’ll find someone wonderful—”
“I don’t want someone wonderful, I want you,” he interrupted.
She lifted her eyebrows, and he closed his eyes, laughing sheepishly as he realized what he’d said. “Damn it. That’s not what I meant.”
“Not so smooth today, I see,” she teased. “Not like with the other girls.”
“No,” he said gruffly. “No, because the other girls don’t matter like you do, Daisy.”
“Lincoln—”
He tilted her head back. “You may have noticed I have a weird habit of calling everyone love. But never you. I never called you that. You were always Daisy or Wallflower.”
Lincoln took a deep breath. “I think…I think I didn’t call you love in the dismissive way I did everyone else because I knew if I ever said it to you, it would come true. That you would be my love, and I would love you, Daisy. I didn’t want that. I couldn’t risk it. So I never said it. But damn it Daisy, it ended up not mattering. I fell in love with you anyway. Somewhere between New York and Charlotte and back to New York again, I fell so hard for my Wallflower.”
She laughed and wiped at her tears. “I thought we agreed not to call me that.”
His lips brushed her cheek, capturing the tear. “How about I call you something else? Love.”
Her eyes closed, and her heart soared. “Bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Not anymore,” he whispered, his mouth brushing over hers. “Only you, Daisy. You are my love.”
She leaned back and forced herself to

She lifted her hands, skimmed her fingertips over his perfect cheekbones. “I’ve been cautious, yes. And it takes me a bit longer to feel safe around men, true. Perhaps that will always be the case. But I’m not afraid of you, Lincoln. I never have been.”
“Daisy—”
“I want you,” she said, going for simple and straightforward. “I want your hands on me, I want you gentle, rough, desperate, because I’m feeling all those things. I’ve been feeling them.”
He swore softly, his forehead resting on hers, and she could feel him warring with himself.
Damn stubborn man.
Daisy would stop short of pleading, but she would fight.
She pushed him back, firmly, purposely. “You said you came over to apologize for the way you left me that last night in Charlotte.”
Lincoln pulled back slightly and nodded, even with narrowed eyes.
She went on her toes, pressed her lips softly to his. “Don’t make the same mistake twice. Don’t leave.”