Daisy's Choice (A Tale of Three Hearts) (23 page)

Strange that now, with money in the bank and a credit card in his pocket, he chose ‘this’ as a place for the night. He opted out of comfort and instead he sought something to fit the dark fog engulfing him. He wasn’t that loser who couldn’t afford a respectable place, although he bet Daisy thought he was. Maybe that was why she pushed away from his arms when he reached for her. It was painful to be denied his existence to his own child. The anger returned. In truth, he’d never be a man to own a home on the beach or waste money on that fancy car she had in her driveway. And the woman he wanted wouldn’t mind; a woman like Nina.

Pete's chest rose and fell with another deep sigh. There was only one person in his life he could tell anything to. His anxiety lessened with thoughts of her. He remembered her standing behind him in the Winn Dixie as he frowned at the meat behind the frosted glass.

“
So your mama never told you what would be quick and easy. Try the cube steak. It goes over nice and tender if you do it up on the stove at medium heat.”

Pete’s head turned to the sound of the sweetest voice. Nina Stevens stood behind him with a green grocery basket hooked on her arm, stuffed with milk, onions, and eggs. She wore white scrubs with little blue patterns and a smile. It had been years since he even spoke the name, Nina Stevens. He hadn’t seen her since high school and hadn’t thought of her since grade school.

“
Hi, Nina.”

“
Hi, Pete?” she said.

“
Pete, can ya hurry it up?” Mrs. Patterson said behind her.

Nina gave a soft giggle that made her eyes dance with merriment. He ignored the old woman and focused on her plump lips, then back to her eyes. Nina’s eyes were a beautiful walnut shape and deep amber brown with thick lashes. She looked past him to the butcher. “Give him two pounds of the cube steak, Ronald.” She returned those large doe-like eyes to him. “Ronald keeps them tender. Here’s what you do. Season em’ first. Then cook em’ in onions with a little Kitchen Bouquet and some flour to thicken it for the gravy,” she winked. “It’s easy.”

“
Sounds like your specialty.”

“
No. My specialty is pot-roast, but you’d have to earn that.”

“
Here ya go, Pete.” Ronald placed his package, wrapped in white butcher’s paper and taped into a small block, on the counter. “The same, Nina?”

“
Yeah, thanks. Add a pound of chicken breasts and wings too,” she said, checking her watch. She barely caught her yawn with her hand.

Pete reached blindly for the cold block of meat in cellophane paper and dropped it in his basket while never taking his eyes off Nina. She’d changed. Gone were the thick bifocals and acne. Her hair was shorter than he remembered, a sexy pixie-cut, tailored in a neat style about her round face. It bought out her eyes that now held him in a hypnotic gaze. She chewed on her bottom lip and blushed, avoiding the intensity of his gaze. He kept staring. He imagined looking in her eyes all night. A slow smile crept over his mouth at the thought of Nina Stevens and him as an item. Who would’ve ever thought it? She was such a nerd in school. Damn, the boys didn’t know a rare beauty was among them.

She frowned. “Excuse me?”

“
Huh?” He feared he spoke his thoughts.

“
My meat.” She pointed behind him to her package.

Ronald glared at Pete. In fact, everyone behind her in line fixed him with a look of irritation. Time had lapsed. Several minutes had ticked by as he stood there gawking. “Oh.” He took the meat and put it in his basket instead of hers.

“
That’s mine,” Nina smiled.

“
Yeah, well it’s on me since you just came to my rescue and all. Least I could do, right? Now, how about you show me where the Kitchen Bouquet is for this gravy?”

She blinked those thick lashes with an exaggerated eye roll and laughed. It gave him stomach flutters and warmed his groin through his pants. “Okay, Pete. Consider it my good deed for the day. I've worked twelve hours straight, but I can’t turn a hungry man away. I might even cook it for you too.” She winked and started to walk off. He quickly fell in step behind her, trying hard not to imagine how she looked out of uniform.

Nina was miles away, but he could actually feel the gulf between them widening with each passing minute. “Damn.”

He dropped his arm over his eyes and tried to resist a stronger urge,
to call and lay it all out for her
. It wouldn’t be fair, especially now when he wanted to unload this on her. But who could make sense of nonsense but Nina? Who could make him feel like a man, but Nina? He missed her so much. He just wanted to hear her voice. “Fuck it!” he snapped, reaching for the phone and dialing an outside line.

****

“
Hello?” Nina sighed, phone pressed to her ear. She was bent forward, removing her thick-soled sneakers. Wiggling her sock covered feet and trying to bring life back through her toes, was a part of her daily routine when her shift ended. She blinked away the tears that formed the moment she saw his number on the caller ID.

“
Hey, babe. It’s me. You sound tired. You okay?”

Nina bit down on her bottom-lip. She rolled her eyes heavenward as she slunk back into the dimpled cushion on the leather sofa. She hadn’t been in the door ten minutes before the phone rang. “Just got home,” she mumbled.

“
Still in your uniform, huh? You know the rules,” he chuckled.

She smiled. First thing he would say when she came home and kissed him awake was for her to get out of her clothes and in bed with him. He would accept panties, maybe, but definitely no bra. Pete loved to rub up against her bare chest. She pushed those memories away. If it weren’t snuggling time, then he’d be up making her his special pancakes. They became her favorite from the way he heaped them on her plate and fed them to her. She looked over to the table with the plastic fruit in a bowl and nothing waiting for breakfast. Closing her eyes, she shut out the memories and spoke, “So you made it safely?”

“
Yeah, I did. I tried you earlier when I landed. You working a double?”

“
Mmmm.”

“
Nina, why? I told you to cut back some. We can afford it.”

“
We?”

She chewed on her bottom lip, anger punching her chest where her heart beat. “If I have to cover the rent by myself and everything, I need to make sure I save up.”

“
Hey, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

The tension between them on the line charged the air around her. For all she knew, he was with Daisy at that moment or leaving to return to her. She didn’t want to think about what he was doing. Her eyes kept going to what she’d bought home from the drug store sitting in the bottom of a paper Rite-Aid bag on the center of the coffee table.

“
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. But we aren’t done. Stop talking as if we are. I miss you, baby,” he said softly. “Really miss you. Been thinking hard about you… us.”

“
Mmmm.”

There was a long pause. Nina was so sleepy and tired of it all that she started to slip away from the call. She just couldn’t deal with him right now. She didn’t know how long, but she closed her eyes and let fatigue in.

“
Nina?”

“
Yeah, I’m here, Pete,” she yawned.

“
You still pissed at me?”

“
What do you think?” she mumbled.

“
I think you know I love you. You knew it before I did.”

“
Don’t go there,” she flinched. She didn’t want to be reminded of how stupidly she played the wait-a-while-and-he’ll-figure-it-out game with him.

“
I need to be able to show you so bad right now.” His voice dropped to a low and mournful pitch. She stiffened at the sound of it warming her ear, giving her sparks of hope. “Today, it got deep, babe, and…well I... I just wish you had come with me. I need your support.”

Nina closed her eyes. “So you saw her?”

“
Yea, I did.”

“
How is Daisy? She well? You two talk up old times?”

“
It ain’t like that. She wasn’t happy to see me.”

“
Yeah, well I could’ve saved you a trip on that one. What about you? Must have been strange finally seeing
her
again. How was that for you?”

“
You know I didn’t come here for that," he said.

“
No, Pete. All I know is that one night you told me that you loved me after making me ‘earn’ the words, and the next you were in the wind.”

“
I do love you. I have from the first day you made me cube-steak.”

Nina frowned. “Cube steak? What are you talking about?”

“
Things are a mess. I didn’t expect to find what I did here. I think we need to… no… I know we need to talk. Really talk, Nina. I just can’t get into it over the phone. I need to tell you in person.”

“
What do you want from me Pete? You’re there with her.”

“
Listen to me for starters.”

"To help you understand your feelings? Why? So I can help you break-up with me without any of the guilt?”

“
Listen for a minute, Nina.”

“
Can’t you just send an email like any other jerk!” She disconnected the call and tossed the phone. Putting her hands to her face, she released her tears. The day had been hard, working until she wanted to drop, Janette and her outrageous pleas, and now the fifth day and no sign of her period. She curled up, holding herself and ignoring the phone when it started to ring again. To hell with him. It stopped. Her eyes opened again. Nina stared ahead through tears. The paper bag, sitting on the center of the coffee table, became her only focus.

****

“
Mama, I want a turtle.”

Daisy looked up into her rearview mirror. Amy sat up in her booster seat in the back of the car. She stared out of the window kicking her legs.

“
Why a turtle?”

“
Because.”

Daisy sighed. She made the next turn at the light. A school crossing guard in a bright orange vest with a stop sign stepped out into the road. She slowed behind the other arriving parents.

Last night, her walk along the beach nearly caught the sun, and then she gave up and spent the rest of the night with one eye opened. She was a bundle of nerves and emotions.

“
Can I get a rabbit too?” Amy asked.

Daisy’s phone rang. She looked to her purse and her heart leapt to her throat.

“
Huh, mama?”

It vibrated in her hand. She felt as if her breath had been cut off. If she gave into her fears, this was Pete. She could handle it. She told herself that over and over.

“
Can I have one, mama? A rabbit and turtle so they can race like in school, the hare and turtle!” Amy laughed at something amusing to her. Daisy’s foot eased off the break and the car inched up in traffic.

“
Mama. Mama. Mama. Hey, mama! Can I? Mama. Mama!”

She flipped it open to check the LCD. The call was from Jahi.

A horn blew behind her, and she literally jumped in her seat.

“
Mama, I want a rabbit and a turtle,” she whined.

“
Amy! Be quiet! I can't think!” she snapped as she pressed the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“
Ms. Locke, it’s Michelle. You called and said that Ms. Andrews wasn’t allowed on the property. Well um… she’s here, and she’s demanding to get in her office. She’s making a scene.”

“
Let her in. But make sure she waits until I get there.” Daisy wheeled her car in front of the school. An administrator came to the door to help Amy. Daisy unlocked the door. She looked up in the rearview mirror. Amy’s head was bowed and her bottom lip poked out. “I’m on my way,” Daisy said and closed the phone.

She snatched the Hello Kitty book bag from the passenger seat and turned around to hand it to Amy. “You have your lunch inside. Mama put in an extra treat; cookies, Magdalena’s cookies.”