Falling for Fitz by Katy Regnery Page B

matter. He’s
not right for you and you know it. The way he talks to you? The way
he just left you here? You don’t light up around him, Daisy. I
don’t know why you’re settling for him, but I—”
    “ You and I have enough
baggage to fill fifty airport carousels.”
    “ So let’s start
unpacking.”
    “ You cannot ask me to marry you again,”
she panicked, her eyes stricken.
    “ I can. I just
did.”
    “ Fitz… This doesn’t make
any sense.”
    “ It does to me. It made
sense the second my eyes slammed into yours last night.”
    “ We barely know each other
anymore.”
    “ That’s not true at
all.”
    “ Stop. You don’t need to do
this.”
    Amazingly, she wasn’t struggling to
get out of his arms, as though she might actually be considering
his outlandish suggestion, or maybe she was just too surprised by
his words to do actually motivate enough to pull away from
him.
    “ You’re wrong. I do need to.”
    “ No, you don’t! God, you
don’t owe me
anything, Fitz!” she yelled at him and pushed hard against his
chest. “You don’t have to buy me bakeries and save me from bad
marriages!”
    She was so furious, he loosened his
grip on her, stepping back, letting her go.
    She put her hands on her hips, tossing
her braid over her shoulder, her face screwed up with anger. “I
forgive you, okay? Here and now, I officially forgive you for
everything that happened, for getting me pregnant, for never coming
to—You don’t owe me anything. You don’t need to do these things to
make up for…You don’t—Just. Damn it, Fitz.”
    Part of what she was saying
broadsided him as he heard the truth in her words. For most of his
adult life, yes, he’d carried around the weight, the burden, of
letting her down. Doing something for her— anything —to make her happy would
ease his guilt over taking so much away from her.
    But that part of him was
tiny compared to the feelings he had for her—feelings he had always had for her. Is
that all she thought there was between them? Obligation? Guilt? Did
she really believe he only wanted to be with her to make up for her
pregnancy and miscarriage? Jesus, could she really not know how he
felt about her? Could Alex have been right?
    He searched her eyes
desperately, but was disappointed by what he found there. Her eyes
had filled with tears, and her cheeks were red as she tried not to
cry. Oh my God, he thought, She did. She really
believed what she was saying was the truth. The realization crushed him, made him feel sick and
frustrated. A lot of emotions were fighting for space on her face,
but they all added up to one devastating reality: She had no idea
how he really felt about her.
    “ Just stop,” she whimpered
brokenly, turning on her heel to leave, but he had to say
something. Saying that he loved her wouldn’t ring true right this
minute, so he held that back. But, he had to let her know he wasn’t
giving up.
    “ Daisy!”
    She pivoted to look at him. He
clenched his jaw, unsmiling.
    “ This is our second chance.
You and me. Right now.” He paused, rubbing his jaw. “Fair warning
that you can pass along to your fiancé : While he’s gone, I’m going
to do whatever I have to do to make you fall for me, Daisy.
Whatever it takes.”
    With that promise lying like a
challenge between them, she turned and rushed out of the bakery,
leaving him standing alone, body humming, mind reeling, a casualty
of Hurricane Daisy.
    ***
    Fitz English had just proposed to
Daisy Edwards for the third time in her life, and for the third
time he’d made that proposal without the merest mention of his
feelings for her, without a word about his heart, or love, or
affection. She knew he didn’t like the idea of her marrying Dr.
M.—his fist connecting with Josh’s nose last night had made that
reality salient.
    She swiped at the tears on
her cheeks, walking purposefully down the street in the direction
of the Haverford Village Green, as his words bounced around like
missiles