Twist of Fate: A Heartbreaker Bay Novella Read online

  “He’d hire you in a hot minute to do what you’re already doing for someone else.”

  “I like San Diego.”

  “Which brings me to points two and three,” Rocco said. “San Diego doesn’t have me. And even more importantly, San Diego doesn’t have Daisy.”

  Diego shook his head. “It’s not that easy, Rocco.”

  “Again, bullshit.”

  * * * *

  Back on his boat late that night, Diego had to shake his head. He’d somehow been talked into hanging out at the tattoo shop the next day before his next wedding task, which was picking the wedding band from the final five. Because according to Rocco, if he let Tyler do it, a decision would never get made. Diego’s head was spinning, and he had to keep repeating the words he’d given Rocco—it’s not that easy…

  But then he thought about how it’d felt to be with his brother again, how much he liked seeing how happy he was with Tyler, and how it would feel to have them back in his life.

  Then he thought about Daisy, and how right it’d felt with her the other night. And not even just in bed, but out of it, too. Talking. Laughing. Just being… It’d all felt shockingly right.

  It’s not that easy…

  Nothing ever was, not in his experiences.

  But maybe…just maybe this time it could be.

  * * * *

  The next evening, he was just getting off his bike in front of Daisy’s place when she stepped outside in a long-sleeved knit dress that clung to her curves in a way that made his mouth water. Or maybe that was her knee-high black leather boots. She was shrugging into a leather jacket when she saw him and froze.

  “What are you doing?” she asked. “I assumed we were meeting at the first venue.” She had a list in her hand and looked at it. “The band’s going on in thirty minutes.”

  “Yes,” he said. “I got the same list. But mine says to pick you up.”

  They stared at each other.

  “You know,” she said slowly. “I’m starting to smell a rat.”

  “Two of them.”

  She pulled out her phone and hit a number. She put it on speaker and tapped her toes impatiently. “Hey,” she said when Rocco answered. “Why didn’t you tell me you were having Diego pick me up?”

  “I’m sure I mentioned it,” Rocco said.

  “You didn’t.”

  “Huh. Sorry, honey. Wedding brain. I can’t keep a thought in my head. Is there a problem?”

  Daisy looked up into Diego’s eyes. Once upon a time, he’d been able to read her like a book, and the skill was coming back to him. Like getting on a bike. She was thinking, yeah, she had a problem, and its name was Diego. He smiled.

  She rolled her eyes. “No problem,” she told Rocco and disconnected. “Let’s get this over with.”

  The first venue was a restaurant and bar on the wharf, with a deck that was suspended over the water. It was packed. The band was playing top hits from the ’80s, and they were good enough that when Daisy started moving to the beat with a tantalizing, hopeful smile, Diego took her hand and led her out to the dance floor.

  As he remembered all too well, she could move. And watching her lose herself in the fun and the music loosened him up in a way that he hadn’t felt in a long time. It made him feel like he’d been drinking. Unable to resist, he tugged her to him when a slow song came on, and they moved together as one.

  “Miss this,” he murmured against her ear, the words escaping without conscious thought.

  “San Francisco?”

  “You.”

  She stared up at him with those big eyes.

  “You don’t believe me?”

  “I’d like to think you missed me,” she said. “As much as you’d miss, say, a limb.”

  He smiled. “How do you know I didn’t?”

  Biting her lower lip, she rolled her eyes, whether at herself or him, he had no idea. “I know.”

  His smile vanished. “You’re wrong. I missed you more than I’d miss a limb. I missed you with my entire being.”

  “I missed you, too,” she finally whispered. “Even when I was still angry and hurt, I missed you.” She hesitated. “A lot.”

  “Daisy…” Pulling her in a little tighter, he ran a hand up her spine and into her hair, wrecked at the thought of how much he’d hurt her. “I’m so sorry. I never meant to desert you. I had no idea—"

  She put a finger over his lips. “We talked it out. I get it. It’s okay, you don’t have to apologize again. I mean…” Her tone lightened. “Unless you do something else stupid enough to warrant an apology.”

  Warmth filled a hole in his chest that he didn’t even realize he had. “I don’t plan on it.”

  “Good to know.”

  He held her close through the slow song. “Rocco and I talked.”

  Daisy looked up at him in surprise, clearly hopeful that he and his brother had worked things out, which touched him in ways he hadn’t known he could be touched.

  He nodded. “We’re going to be okay.” He paused. “He wants me to stay in San Francisco and help him run The Canvas Shop. I could also get a job with Jake at the marina.”

  Her gaze briefly skittered away. “Is that something you’d want to do? Stay?”

  “Would you want me to?” he asked and found himself holding his breath.

  She stared at him for a long beat, her eyes saying yes, which had him breathing again. Until she spoke, her tone not matching her eyes. “That’s…a lot of pressure,” she said quietly. “I’d never ask anyone to move because of me.”

  Not what he’d wanted to hear, but what had he expected? He’d hurt her, she wouldn’t want to take another chance on him.

  When the song ended, he lowered his head and kissed her without thought. It was simply like drawing in air. When she moaned and pressed closer, he deepened the embrace, not breaking away until the music revved up again and they were bumped from all sides by people dancing.

  “We should get going,” she said. “To check out the next band.”

  Right. The next venue was another restaurant and bar in the Castro district. They walked up the rainbow-colored sidewalks and into the place that smelled so delicious they ordered food.

  Over a pile of hors d’oeuvres, they dug in. Diego worked his way through a stack of wings and pizza chips and was headed for the queso when Daisy spoke and had him stilling.

  “This is nice.”

  “It is,” he said. “But last night you were reluctant to go there with me again.”

  “I know. I know I must seem like an emotional see-saw, and I don’t mean to be making you dizzy with it. I just couldn’t see how this could ever work out between us.”

  “And…something changed that?” he asked and then held his breath.

  “I decided I would regret not even being willing to try.”

  Her words both revved him up and also calmed his heart. “Me, too,” he said quietly.

  She was playing with the condensation on her glass. When he’d picked her up earlier, she’d had that polished, professional, can’t-touch-this look about her, and that had been hot as hell.

  But she’d been dancing and had imbibed a bit. She was flushed. She’d let her hair down, and it was wild around her face. She stared at his mouth in a way that made him want to do a whole bunch of really wicked things to her.

  This band was even better than the first, and Daisy looked happy and relaxed and sexy as hell, and Diego had no idea how he was going to let her walk away from him again.

  “Dance with me,” she demanded softly, letting her gaze travel the length of him. At whatever she saw, she smiled and stood. Then she pulled him up, and with her hands on his chest, shimmied close to him.

  She was going to be the death of him.

  But he let her draw him out onto the dance floor, where she slowly slid her hands up his biceps and wound her arms around his neck, all while wriggling the sexy, hot bod that fulfilled his every fantasy. With a low groan, he yanked her roughly into him and le