Work Text:
One perk of staying overnight at her boyfriend’s place, aside from the obvious, was the ability to wake up without her back aching from a shoddy, too-thin mattress. Daisy rolled over in the luxuriously cushy king-sized bed and wrapped her arms around Daniel’s pillow to bring it to her face.
Mm, another perk. Every inch of the bedding smelled like the aftershave he liked to use, woodsy and heavy and delicious. She pressed her nose further into his pillowcase and debated falling back asleep just like this, but a consistent buzzing from the adjoining bathroom kept her from dozing off again.
Comfortable, delicious-smelling bedding aside, the downfall of staying at Sousa’s was that he was a notorious early bird. Like, disgustingly early. Daisy fell asleep in his arms whenever she stayed, but never woke up with him holding her because he insisted on climbing out of bed before the sun even got through her morning stretches.
He was such a predictable thing, too. Whenever Daisy managed to catch him during his routine it was always the same. Coffee and oatmeal at the table while he checked e-mails and the weather on his phone. Shave at the sink, then the world’s hottest five-minute shower. Out the door no later than a quarter after seven for his half-hour commute to the office.
A fumbled tap and cursory glance at her phone told Daisy that she had about twenty minutes before he grabbed his work bag and headed out the door. And while a hot shower with her boyfriend sounded incredibly tempting, drifting back off to sleep with his pillow in her arms sounded even better. So she did, until a soft murmur brought her back to consciousness.
“Daisy,” Daniel said quietly, his weight sagging the mattress by her hip. “You need to get up or you’ll be late.”
“Ugh,” was the only reply she could manage.
His laugh echoed in the quiet room and sent waves of warmth through her. Alright, that was worth waking up for. But she didn’t have to be happy about it. Slowly, Daisy lifted her head from the pillow, blowing some tangled strands of hair from her eyes.
“There she is.” Daniel grinned. “Plan on keeping my pillow hostage, do you?”
Daisy yawned and wrapped her arms tighter around his pillow to make her point. “Mm, it’s collateral.”
“Collateral for what?” There was that laugh again.
She sat up a little more while he wiped what was probably smudged eyeliner from under her eyes, cursing herself for not taking her makeup off before bed. The lingering soreness in her core reminded her exactly why she’d been so distracted, though. Totally worth it.
“This,” she said, grabbing the lapel of his jacket to pull him in for a clumsy kiss. “Duh?”
Daniel grinned and kissed her again, wrenching the pillow from her grip and tutting when she tried to grab it back. “No way. I gave you your kiss, now it’s time to get up. I gotta go or I’ll be late.”
She gasped and put her hand over her heart. “And we just couldn’t have that, could we?”
“Alright, that’s enough out of you.” Daniel tried his Serious Business voice, but the dimples in his cheeks were showing. God, he was so cute. “Up and at ‘em, sweetheart.”
“Wait, wait.” She scrambled up onto her knees with a practiced, dramatic pout. Nothing like being childish to get her way, especially since she knew he couldn’t ever resist it. “One more?”
As expected, he braced a hand on the nightstand and bent to give her what she wanted. Daisy tried to take advantage and drag it out but Daniel was onto her and simply pecked her once, twice, three times before backing off. She made a protesting noise, but all it got her was an indulgent smile and a kiss on the forehead.
“Have a good day,” he said into her hair. “I love you.”
Quick as a lightning strike, Daisy froze. First to make sure she’d heard him correctly, and then to give herself time to come up with some kind of response.
“Uh…” She watched him straighten, a curiously calm look on his face. “Thank you?”
Daniel cocked his head, a strange smile on his face like she’d said something funny instead of completely mortifying. “You’re very welcome?”
Still cool as a cucumber, he checked his watch and groaned. “Shoot, I really do have to go. I’ll see you this weekend.” He pressed one more kiss to her lips, one she was too shocked to reciprocate, and then he grabbed his cane and left.
It took a minute for Daisy to process, and when she did she fell back on the bed and groaned out loud. Maybe it wasn’t how he’d intended, but Daniel had ensured that she’d make it to work on time. With his words and her ridiculous response echoing in her brain, there was no chance of her going back to sleep now.
“Well, well, well. Look who made it into work early!”
Trip’s voice echoed through the nearly-empty reception area of the clinic just as Daisy set her bag down, breaking her from the endless rotation of her thoughts. He never had a great handle on his volume, so all the boarded dogs in the back stirred and started to bark back in response.
“I come in early all the time,” Daisy shot back. “It’s not my fault that you all think early means two hours before we even open.”
“Come on, girl, you know how the doc is about being punctual.” Trip leaned his hip against the desk with an amused grin.
Because she did know. Her lackadaisical attitude towards being on time hadn’t been the catalyst that ended her relationship with Lincoln, but it had certainly been on the list. Thankfully, continuing to work for him had never been an issue. They were adults, after all. He was an excellent veterinarian and was always professional and… well, it wasn’t like Daisy had a ton of marketable skills under her belt if she decided to wade back into the career pool.
Tracking appointments and medication schedules and getting to see adorable animals every day? That, she was good at. And all the busy work was great for keeping her mind off of things she’d rather not ruminate on.
“Do you need something, Trip?” She settled in her rolling chair and fired up her computer. “Don’t you have a spay and neuter clinic to prep for?”
“Already prepped. You know, since I got here extra early.” Smug asshole. She wanted to swat that megawatt grin off his face. “How was your night with lover boy?”
Daisy’s head shot up with a warning glare. “Dude.”
He rolled his eyes and gestured around the empty lobby. “Ain’t nobody in here but you and me. Bobbi’s not here yet, doc’s in the back.”
She made a disgruntled noise, her fingers clacking against her keyboard with more force than strictly necessary.
There weren’t any laws against dating someone new when you still worked for your ex. In fact, Daisy was one hundred percent certain that Lincoln would be happy for her if it became public knowledge that she was seeing Daniel.
But after some pretty public relationship failures, having something all to herself was intoxicating. Keeping things private meant that her feelings for Sousa weren’t something to be examined or judged by anyone else. There would be no comparison to past boyfriends, no raised eyebrows about the age difference, no quiet tidbits of advice when she hadn’t asked. It was just for the two of them, the way they’d agreed when everything started.
Well, the two of them and one notable exception. Trip knew because he was Daisy’s best friend and the only person she trusted not to nose his way into her relationship or ruin her secret.
“So again I ask,” he enunciated dramatically, nudging her chair with his foot. “How was your night?”
She tipped her chin up, eyes laser-focused on her computer screen. “It was fine.”
“Just fine? Damn, is he losing his touch that fast?”
She knew, knew that he was only trying to get a rise out of her, teasing her the way they usually did, but Daniel’s declaration had her thoughts tumbling around in her head like sneakers in a dryer. Maybe that was why the words spilled out before she could stop herself.
“He told me he loves me.”
And yeah, there was the reaction she expected. When she looked away from her computer, Trip’s eyebrows were halfway up his forehead. “Did you say it back?”
“Not exactly.” She grimaced, clicking absently through her e-mails so she wouldn’t have to make eye contact. “I said thank you.”
“What?” The incredulity of his gaze burned into the side of her head. “You said thank you?”
Her teeth clenched together. “Yeah.”
Trip erupted into a bout of laughter so loud that it set the dogs off again. Annoyed and embarrassed, Daisy reached over to pinch his side, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. He was still laughing hard enough that tears had appeared at the corners of his eyes.
“Trip!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he chortled, wiping his eyes as he straightened. “Thank you, huh? I mean… at least you used your manners.”
“Yeah, I’m sure politeness was what he was looking for,” Daisy deadpanned. “What the hell else was I supposed to say?”
Trip gathered himself enough to give her those ‘are you kidding me’ eyes again. He was one of the funniest people that Daisy had ever met, but he had a way of making her feel about two inches tall whenever she pulled something stupid.
“Well, generally, there’s one widely-accepted response when your boyfriend tells you that he loves you,” he said slowly, as though spelling it out for her to take notes. “Unless you don’t actually feel that way.”
Daisy maintained eye contact with a spam e-mail from a flea medication company, her lips pressed together firmly.
“You don’t love him?”
“I didn’t say that. I don’t know how I feel.”
Which was precisely why she was so mentally stalled about the whole thing. She supposed it was only natural that Daniel felt that way about her. They had been together for months, and the private nature of their relationship definitely provided an extra layer of intimacy whenever they spent time together. Love was certainly the next step in the progression of being a couple.
But it wasn’t always the right step. All she had to do was take a cursory glance at the disastrous lives of her birth parents or her own trail of broken relationships for proof of that. Scattered all over were the remnants of love, shattered by betrayal or quiet disagreements or the realization that it was never really love at all.
So maybe Daniel did love her. It didn’t mean he would always feel that way. People changed their minds all the time.
Trip looked like he had other thoughts, though.
“Are you going to tell him?”
She was spared from any further interrogation by the squeak of someone’s sneakers on the tile floor and the groan of her desk as that tall, blonde someone hoisted themselves onto the desk on Daisy’s other side.
“Tell who what?” Bobbi asked, her voice entirely too bright and cheerful.
Daisy opened her mouth to save it all, but Trip beat her to it.
“I was just askin’ if Daisy here planned on telling the doc that she showed up a whole twenty minutes early to work,” he said. “It’s a Christmas miracle and it ain’t even October yet.”
“Oh my God,” Bobbi laughed. “That is a miracle. I didn’t even think you owned an alarm clock.”
Heart pounding from the close call, Daisy rolled her eyes and feigned the playful annoyance she’d felt only minutes before. “Whatever. Can you two get out of here so I can do my job?”
“Grumpy, grumpy.” Bobbi cocked her head. “You doing okay, Daze? You look a little frazzled.”
Daisy kept her face blank, cursing the ridiculously perceptive people that she surrounded herself with. If it wasn’t Trip, it was Bobbi, or worse, it would be her mother. Leave it to all of them to never notice when she was deliriously happy after a weekend sex binge, but they were sure to hound her the minute there was a tiny bump in the road.
“I’m good,” she lied, smiling with as many teeth as she could manage. “Just a busy day ahead and I didn’t get much sleep.”
Trip snorted and she resisted the deep, visceral urge to glare at him.
“Come on, girl,” he said to Bobbi, holding his hand to help her off the desk. “Let’s get outta here before grumpy gills rips somebody’s head off.”
Bobbi’s concerned eyes lingered for a moment, but then she was swept away by Trip and his story about a crazed cocker spaniel they’d dealt with the day before. Their laughter disappeared down the hallway and Daisy was left alone in blissful silence for about forty-five seconds. And then her phone buzzed.
Dad: Count on another seat at dinner. Invited a friend. Can’t wait to see you!
And twenty seconds after that:
Kora: dad invited one of his work buddies to family dinner again??? Pls bring booze
Daisy fired off a thumbs-up emoji to her sister and then tossed her phone down to put her face in her hands.
It wasn’t bad enough she was still on a mental rollercoaster from hell. Now she would have to pretend to be perfectly fine in front of her entire family and one of her dad’s work buddies, all of whom had a propensity for calling her pet names and talking way too much about insurance rates going into the toilet.
Could the day get any worse?
The day, as it turned out, wasn’t actually that bad. Daisy’s mood improved slightly when Davis and Piper, the ever-bickering groomers for the practice, arrived with coffee for the entire team. Caffeine and the sound of them volleying insults for a few minutes was enough to put a smile on her face. Then Jemma brought the good news that the orange tabby who’d come in the day before after a car accident was going to make a full recovery. And then Lincoln offered to order lunch for everyone so they could celebrate, which had her downright beaming.
Relationship turmoil or not, Daisy was never going to turn down free food.
Feeling a bit better after the morning rush and a belly full of tacos bought on someone else’s dime, she decided to at least try and reach out to Daniel while she had a minute alone in the break room.
Daisy: hope you’re having a good day. dinner with the fam tonight but I can call after?
He always took a late lunch on Wednesdays, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise when his response came forty minutes later. It was more the content of the message that sunk in her stomach like a stone.
Daniel: Last minute plans came up. Might be busy all night.
Daisy stared at her phone with the cursor blinking in an empty text box, thumbs hovering but unsure of what to say.
So his calm act this morning had been all for show. He was obviously hurt that she didn’t say it back. And how could she blame him? She might as well have signed the death certificate on their relationship the minute she’d opened her stupid mouth.
She started four different messages, all varying degrees of ‘okay!’ or ‘cool, call me when you can.’ And then she took a breath, settled on the same thumbs-up emoji she’d sent Kora earlier, and tossed her phone back into her bag.
Whatever was going to happen between them wasn’t going to be fixed by any simple text message. And before she could allow herself to start mourning everything she’d probably messed up beyond belief, she had other things to deal with.
Compartmentalization was the only way she was going to get through the day.
Finish the work day, pick up some booze, then family dinner. Maybe somewhere in the middle she could figure out how she really felt before she had to look Daniel in the eye again.
The whole house smelled like burnt cinnamon, which meant Coulson had probably put Kora in charge of watching the kitchen timer again. His misguided attempts to involve her sister in his baking forays had led to plenty of small fires and required a replacement stove right before she graduated high school.
Her thoughts were confirmed by the plaid apron around her father’s neck and the frantic babying he was doing to a loaf pan when she walked into the smoke-hazed kitchen.
“Seriously? Have we not learned our lesson?”
Coulson shushed her, shaking the pan with a little more force. “It’s gonna be fine, it just needs a little glaze.”
Kora, who looked disinclined to help from her seat at the island, flipped her off. “Did you bring booze?”
Daisy held up the case of beer she’d brought as an answer.
“Thank fuck,” her sister said, finally deigning to get out of her chair. “Dad’s going ballistic trying to impress whoever he invited over. Guy crush, for sure.”
“I do not have a guy crush,” came their father’s indignant reply. “He’s a colleague and a highly-respected one at that.”
Kora took the case of beer to put it in the fridge, mouthing bromance at her behind his back. Daisy stifled her laugh and went to wash her hands in an attempt to at least try and help him sort out whatever mess of a dessert he’d made, but Coulson shooed her away.
“No, no, I’ve got this one. Go help May set the table.”
She could have pointed out that her mother needed help less than anyone she’d ever met, but arguing with a man who was saying prayers to his vanilla glaze seemed like a losing battle.
As expected, the dining room table was already fully set for five places. She knew May far too well to think that she’d need assistance with something so simple. Sure, they weren’t her birth parents, but seventeen years with Coulson and May had taught her a thing or two. How to change the oil in her car, the proper way to throw a right hook if she needed to, and what stability felt like after an entire childhood without it.
May set down a vase full of flowers in the center of the table and raised her eyebrows.
“Did he manage to save it?”
Daisy grinned, running her fingers over a few of the blue hydrangeas. “I think dessert might be a no-go tonight.”
“I bought ice cream,” May replied. “It’s in the freezer in the garage. He was way too excited about that apple bread for it to actually turn out.”
“Kora said he’s trying to impress that guy from work. Golf buddy?”
“I wish.” May scrunched her face up. “History buff from another firm. They spent twenty minutes on the phone the other night talking about FDR.”
Daisy sighed. “So it’s a good thing I brought beer.”
“Probably.” Her mother’s gaze settled on her face, searching, and she tried not to squirm. “Bad day at work?”
Nope, nope, nope. They were not about to have this conversation. She’d managed a solid fifteen minutes without her chest tightening at the thought of Daniel, and the plan was to keep it that way until she could do it in the privacy of her own apartment.
“No, it was fine. I’m just tired.”
Her mother’s lips twitched, a telltale sign of her disbelief, just as the doorbell rang. “Speaking of our guest…”
Daisy tried not to let her relief show too clearly so maybe she could make it out of the house without being cornered again. She and May walked together through the kitchen, waving smoke out of their faces on the way and following the sound of Coulson’s voice carrying from the living room.
“—baking incident gone wrong, nothing an open window won’t fix.”
Warm laughter followed, a sound that lit Daisy up from head to toe. She didn’t realize why until she and May rounded the corner and their eyes locked on the man standing at her father’s side.
“There’s the rest of them!” Coulson had his signature Proud Dad look going on, but Daisy couldn’t look at him to confirm it.
She was too busy staring at Daniel, her own shocked expression mirrored back on his face.
“Girls, this is Daniel Sousa. Sousa, my girls Kora, Daisy, and my wife Melinda.”
He broke first, gathering himself to shake her mother’s hand and greet her sister with a dimpled smile and polite tip of his head. Daisy’s ability to bounce back took three or four seconds longer, but when she stepped forward and offered her hand, she was proud to note that it didn’t even tremble.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Sousa.”
Daniel held her gaze while he took her hand, his large fingers curling around hers. He shook it once, breaking the traditional polite gesture to stroke his thumb over her skin.
“And you as well, Daisy.” He tried for casual, and maybe it sounded that way to anyone else.
But she knew him too well. Knew the shape his lips made when they said her name, how it sounded when he groaned it in the darkness, when he whispered it in her ear with his arms around her at night. He might have been trying for casual, but they’d crossed that line months ago.
Only a second or two had passed. They both dropped their hands and Daisy stepped back while the room filled with the voices of her family, white noise against the clamoring sirens in her brain.
What the fuck was she supposed to do now?
If there were awards for being cool under pressure, Daniel deserved an armful of them. Daisy thought she had a pretty good handle on herself, she’d fallen into her natural rhythm with her family even with her secret boyfriend at the table.
But he was blowing her out of the water.
He hadn’t stopped smiling all night. Seated directly across from her and between Coulson and Kora, he navigated the eccentricities of her family without missing a beat. Every turn of the conversation was like a tennis serve he was fully prepared to return. He laughed at every single one of her father’s dumb jokes, deferred to her sister when she wanted to rant about law school, and slipped in casual comments without commanding the conversation.
It was magic. He was magic. The calm, steady, bright presence she’d gotten to know and come to care for, fitting himself into the other parts of her life as easily as breathing. Daisy lost herself in the evening and tried not to regret that they were spending it as strangers.
They almost made it through dinner without anyone losing their filter. Almost.
“So what happened to your leg?” Kora asked through a mouthful of asparagus.
Daisy’s head shot up and she, May, and Coulson all gave her nearly identical looks of admonishment.
“What?” Kora widened her eyes. “It’s just a question.”
“A rude ass question,” Daisy said hotly, her pulse thudding in her ears, but Daniel only chuckled behind his napkin.
“It’s fine, really,” he told them. “People ask all the time, it’s not a big deal.”
Kora stuck her tongue out and Daisy had to resist the very sudden and real temptation to bash her sister’s head in with a melamine salad bowl.
“It’s just an old Army wound,” Daniel explained. “Back when I was in the service, I took some shrapnel in the thigh. Docs managed to save my leg, but there was some muscle and nerve damage. Cane just helps me keep my balance.”
Tactful as ever, Kora pressed on. “Did you at least get some cool scars out of it?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” He laughed while Daisy’s heart rate continued to rise. She stabbed the last piece of chicken on her plate to exert some of the pressure building up. “There’s plenty of them, so I’m sure at least some of them are cool.”
Coulson cleared his throat. “Hey, speaking of cool stuff, I’ve got some stuff in the back office I wanted to show you, Sousa…”
The conversation spun away to her father’s overwhelming collection of World War II memorabilia and she was able to breathe again. The adrenaline receded and all that remained were all the reasons it appeared in the first place, settling deep in her chest to replace the tightness with something snug and comfortable instead.
Daniel was deep in conversation with Coulson again, talking animatedly about something that she couldn’t follow or bring herself to care about. Something historical and dorky, no doubt. But he looked so genuinely happy about it that she couldn’t help but melt.
Slowly and carefully, Daisy slipped her foot out of her shoe and extended her leg under the table. It took her a minute since she was trying to be covert, but her toes found his shin and gave it a little nudge to get his attention. Enough to make him look away from his conversation and meet her gaze.
“Oh, sorry,” she said casually, holding his eyes for an extra moment. “Didn’t mean to get you.”
Daniel’s expression was quizzical, but he shrugged, playing his part perfectly as he had all night. “Not a problem.”
She waited until he was absorbed in conversation before trying again. He didn’t startle as easily the second time her toes met his shin, instead going for a drink and meeting her eyes over the rim of his glass.
When their eyes met this time, Daisy really did feel like melting to the floor. Any lingering doubts she had disappeared, evaporated by the heart-stopping warmth she saw clear on his face. For her. He felt all those warm, squishy, wonderful things for her.
And all she’d had to say was thank you.
Before the regret could set in, May caught her attention by excusing herself from the table and curling her hand around Daisy’s shoulder.
“We’ll be right back. Daisy’s going to help me with dessert.”
Code for: we’re going to talk and no, you aren’t allowed to say no.
They slipped away to the kitchen and Daisy braced herself the minute they were out of earshot of the others, but of course her mother didn’t operate that way. She really did go for the dessert, bringing out a bread knife to try and salvage Coulson’s mangled cinnamon apple loaf. Daisy grabbed a serving plate and held it out in an attempt to look helpful.
“How long?”
It was crazy how fast her heart dropped to her knees. “I don’t know, you’d have to ask Dad, but I bet he left it in at least fifteen minutes too long…”
The withering stare May shot was enough to make her give up on the joke.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do,” her mother said calmly. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have been playing footsie with Sousa under the dinner table.”
Daisy scrunched her nose up. “Not really giving me much room to argue, are you?”
“Nope.” The corner of May’s mouth lifted as she severed a chunk of bread free and dropped it with a clunk onto the plate. “You like him?”
There didn’t really seem to be words she could form to answer that question correctly, so she simply nodded, teeth sinking deep into her lower lip.
“He seems like a good man.”
Daisy smiled. “He’s a total dork.”
“They’re not so bad.” May smiled too, a hint of fondness in her voice. “Sometimes they surprise you.”
“More than I thought,” she agreed, picking at a piece of blackened crust on the plate. “It’s been five months.”
“That’s a long time.”
She shrugged. “Not really. Not compared to—”
Another stare stopped her in her tracks. It was like being ten years old again, chastised every time she acted out, pushing buttons to see if they would throw her back out on the street. May’s expression was the same now as it was then, exasperated and full of love.
“Some people leave. Some people don’t work out,” she said quietly. “But the right person will be there when you’re ready.”
She looked towards the doorway meaningfully and Daisy followed her gaze to see that they weren’t alone.
“Uh, hi.” Daniel rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. “I just thought I’d see if you ladies needed some assistance.”
“We’re finished with this.” May took the plate from her hands and headed for the door. “But I think Daisy could use some help getting the ice cream out.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, and then they were alone in the kitchen.
The only sound for a moment was the gentle thud of his cane on the tile as he approached, and Daisy’s heartbeat picking up when the distance between them closed. She leaned back against the counter, tipping her chin up towards him.
“Hi,” she said softly.
“Hey, there.” Daniel leaned his cane next to her hip. “About that ice cream…”
“Are you mad at me?”
That one startled him. She watched him go from puzzled to even more puzzled, clearly trying to figure out if they were maintaining an act. “What? Why would I be mad at you?”
Daisy huffed out a low breath, steadied herself, and simply laid it out.
“Because of this morning. When you said… you know.” Daniel perked an eyebrow at her and she widened her eyes. “You know. When you said that you love me.”
The confusion gave way to laughter. She would have been a little irritated about it, except then his hand closed around hers and she was finally able to have the contact with him that she’d been craving all night.
“Sweetheart, you’re going to have to be a little more clear. I don’t really know what I have to be angry about.”
She bit her lip. “Because I didn’t say it back.”
Daniel’s face went slack then and he drew her into his arms. It felt so good that Daisy forgot to be concerned about her family seeing, didn’t care about keeping up any kind of act. She just pressed her face into his chest and breathed in that woodsy scent and prayed it wasn’t the last time she’d be able to do it.
“Daisy,” Daniel said into her hair. “I didn’t say it so that you would say it back. I said it because I wanted to tell you.”
His words prickled down her spine, setting all of her nerve endings aflame.
“Wait, really?” Daisy lifted her head with a bemused look. “But that’s… I mean… You don’t expect some kind of reciprocation?”
He looked at her as though she’d suggested something outlandish, like dyeing her hair orange or joining the circus.
“Daisy. Do you want to be with me?”
She nodded firmly. “Of course I do.”
“Then that’s all that matters to me. Everything else will either come or it won’t.” He cupped the back of her head, his fingers weaving through her hair as he dropped a kiss to her forehead. “I love you. And it’s fine by me if you need some time to catch up.”
She wanted to say it. The words were there, lodged in her throat, ready to spill out at a moment’s notice.
They didn’t, though. Instead Daisy surged up and kissed him, framing his face in her hands and pouring every bit of herself into it. Daniel made a noise of surprise but responded in kind, cradling her head and her hip and holding her like she was something precious and delicate.
Someday soon, she’d be able to tell him. The mental block, the fear of abandonment would fade, and she would say the words just as casually as he did. Until then, they could keep moving forward. That was enough for him and it was more than enough for her.
The sound of a throat clearing broke them apart.
“May said you were getting ice cream,” Coulson said, staring like he didn’t recognize either of them. “Did I miss something?”
Daisy flushed but simply smiled, releasing Daniel’s face to take his hands in hers instead. If they were going to do this, really do it, this seemed like a pretty good place to start.
“Dad,” she breathed out, “I’d like you to meet my boyfriend.”
