“It’s two blocks, Carly.”
She huffed again and took off. “You walk two blocks with a human inside you that won’t stop kicking your organs. Thanks, Kye. I owe you one.”
She walked off, and I turned, suddenly determined to find Daisy.
I saw her before she saw me. Her blonde hair was pulled back and her fake prom queen smile was plastered on her face.
I circled around, coming up behind her and stepping by her side so she wouldn’t see me right away.
“Having fun?” I asked, leaning down next to her.
She jumped, glancing over once as her fake smile fell before her eyes went back to the crowd. “You know what, Kye? I’m going to be honest with you because I can’t seem to be with anyone else. No, I’m absolutely not having fun. This is stupid.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I agreed to help Mark.”
“By doing…what, exactly?”
“I don’t know. Showing the town he has my dad’s support?”
I laughed, knocking against her a little. “Do you want to know what would really show that your dad supports him?”
“What?”
“Your dad being here. Not you.”
She finally spun, looking at me with a blank stare.
“I’m just saying. I don’t get why you have to be the middle woman when he could be here.”
“He was working.”
“And he couldn’t take off?”
She only stared more, her eyebrows furrowing the slightest amount. “Stop,” she finally said.
“Stop what?”
“Making things sound more simple than they are. I agreed to help Mark show the town that he’s capable of taking over the position and he…agreed.”
It felt like the floor dropped out beneath me for a moment, and my brain tried to speed up enough to understand what she was implying.
“How exactly did you agree to help Mark do that?”
“I don’t know. My dad asked me to just be seen with him, talk him up, or tell people how much my dad supported him being sheriff.”
I forced my mouth not to drop open. “I have a very specific question, and I am going to need a very specific answer, Daisy.”
“Don’t call me Daisy,” she said, throwing her shoulders back. It was so defiant. Every time she tried to straighten up and look perfect, it was all a show to look more capable, and as strong as I knew she was, I always thought the show of it was cute.
“I thought that was your name.”
“It is, but you only call me Daisy when you’re mad or upset. I feel like I’m getting scolded when you call me that.”
“Is there something that you think I would be scolding you about?”
She didn’t answer, and I was starting to worry I already knew the answer to my question.
“Daisy,” I said again. “Are you pretending to date Mark to make him look good for all of this?”
“No. I mean, we are dating, I guess, and it does help his image, but it’s not like we agreed to pretend to date.”
“Why did you start dating him, then?”
“I don’t know. My dad asked me to go on another date with him, you know, since you ruined the last one, and I agreed. He was nice enough, so I went on another, and then another, and I guess then it turned into us dating. Why are you bothering me about all of this?”
“I’m not sure if I should be mad or start laughing. Are you saying you only started dating Mark because you wanted to make your dad happy and then you kept dating him to make him happy?”
“Kye,” she warned.
“Tell me right this second I have it all wrong, that none of what I said is true at all, and you are actually crazy about him. Tell me, and I won’t bring it up again.”
She spun back towards the crowd, her arms crossed over her chest, as her frown deepened. “You are the worst. No one asked for your opinion.”
“It wasn’t an opinion. It’s, apparently, a fact because you aren’t giving me an answer.”
“Because I don’t know what the answer is.”
