Renata Santos doesn't expect her heart to flutter when she catches a boy stealing flowers out of her backyard. But as she unravels his reputation, she realizes puppy-eyed delinquent Isaac Marshall may just be the sunshine she needs to turn her life...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
D A I S Y
[bellis perennis] ➳ innocence.
ISAAC PULLED ME TO my feet, his palm as clammy as mine.
He balanced a plate of chocolate cake in his other hand. I blinked at the two dessert forks he'd carried along. He must've seen me leave the building and followed me onto the golf course from a distance.
Humiliation singed my cheeks. But if he noticed the whirlwind of emotions fighting for dominance behind my eyes, he said nothing about it. Instead, he handed me the plate, and jiggled the top button of his collared shirt.
"My grandma's gonna kill me for this," he said, the tiniest of smiles accentuating the pout of his lips. Before I could protest, he unbuttoned his shirt all the way and slipped the blue fabric off his shoulders. He laid it onto the ground, spreading out the sleeves to create a makeshift picnic blanket.
Despite the inappropriate timing, I wouldn't have complained about seeing his bare chest. The sight I received instead, though, was much more comforting. Underneath his dress shirt, Isaac wore a clean white t-shirt — one that showed off his recent tan as he lowered himself to the ground.
He left enough space for me to sit down next to him, so I did. I kicked off my shoes and crossed my legs, and we both scraped off small bites of the dessert with our forks.
The sky swelled as big as my worst fears above us, and the soft ground dipped slightly as we leaned closer to one another. The flowers on my dress could've been any of the flowers I tended to on a regular basis, and the chocolate flakes on my tongue were as bittersweet as every moment I'd lived with this boy at my side.
This was just like all the other evenings we'd spent together in an innocent bliss, but everything felt different now, like we'd been barrelling towards the end this whole time. And I had been left in the dark.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, forcing down a childish whimper. I had already said goodbye to Anthony and every other friend I'd had in my life before moving to Newberry; this wasn't supposed to be different.
Except that it was.
"Ren," Isaac said. His gaze tethered mine, holding in place the tremors that threatened to wrack my body. "What did my dad tell you?"
I swallowed. A dozen different answers pieced themselves together in my head, but none of them felt right. Exhaling, I set my fork onto the plate. "Nothing I didn't already know," I said. "He thinks you deserve more, and so do I."
He fidgeted but remained calm, a chocolate crumb finding its way to his chin. "So you know he wants me to go live with him, starting next week," he said. The reluctance in his voice made this even more unbearable — and I realized I wasn't afraid of him leaving.
I was afraid I would have to be the one to convince him to leave.
Flicking the chocolate off his face, I gave him a watery smile. "Yeah. You should do it. Go with him."
