The Fae Book 2: Burr and Daisy

Chapter 5: I've Been Patient With You

Since Daisy had overheard all of the shit I'd spewed to Nan a couple of weeks ago, I had reached new levels of invisibility with her on the few occasions I'd seen her. From the time she was about fifteen, she'd always given me sweet glances, made sure she was near me whenever I was home and she was over and she always always always made sure to talk with me. Always. So even though I'd gotten a taste of being ignored by her before, with the way she was ignoring me now, it was like she changed her status from amateur to professional ignorer. And like before, I did not like it. It felt wrong. I felt restless, and my emotions were right at the surface, constantly, as evidenced by the numerous and frequent lightning and thunderstorms we were having.

When I'd come in from following Daisy to her car the night she'd overheard shit, Nan was waiting for me, her eyes burning. Right after I walked in, Mom and Dad came in behind me from their walk, and they stopped cold.

"What's wrong?" My mother had asked, immediately sensing the tension in the room. And there was no way she'd missed the violent lightning striking at the house. She always knew when I was behind a storm -- she said natural ones felt different.

"Your son," Nan said in an icy voice, "just insulted Daisy in every way possible...and the poor girl overheard every word."

"Oberon," my mother breathed out, dismay in every syllable.

"He ended his litany of insults," Nan continued in that same cold voice, "by comparing himself to a thoroughbred horse and Daisy to a donkey. However, I'd have to say, after hearing him spout those horrible words, that the true ass is none other than Oberon himself."

"Oberon!" this time my mother snapped my name at me, angry. "How could you say anything bad about Daisy? She's the sweetest, nicest girl in the world."

"And nice is the most you can say about her, right, Oberon?" Nan leveled me with a glance. "He basically called her fat, plain and stupid. Said she wasn't worthy of being his queen since she was just a cook. He said he'd never settle for Daisy because she just wasn't good enough to stand by his side. And then he...compared her to a donkey." By the amount of rage evident in Nan's voice, if she had my powers, the entire world would be burning.

"You jackass," my dad muttered at me. He was also a huge fan of Daisy but a man of few words.

My mother stared at me for a long moment, her hand over her mouth, shaking her head. When she slowly moved her hand away, I knew it was going to be bad, so I braced inwardly. She couldn't say anything I wasn't already feeling about what I'd said about Daisy.

"I'm so disappointed in you. I've never before said that to my boy; I've never had cause to. But I didn't raise you to be a hurtful man, Oberon. And Daisy overhearing you -- you, of all people! -- had to have destroyed her. Cut her deep."

All through the wedding rehearsal, I'd been trying to catch Daisy's eye. She'd refused to speak to me or otherwise acknowledge my existence yet again and that made my stomach churn. I needed to explain what she'd overheard, but in thinking about it, would she even believe me? Would she understand those awful words stemmed from my desire to get Nan off my back, shut her down and do so in a way that she'd never dare bring Daisy up to me again?

Once this dinner ended, I'd decided to corner Daisy and force her to listen to me so I could make this right.

When I saw Ginni burst into the private room my parents had rented for Harmony's rehearsal dinner,  it was all I could do to summon a returning smile for her. When she'd told me she'd had a photo shoot in Italy and wouldn't be back in time for my sister's wedding, I'd been relieved. So fucking relieved it wasn't even funny, and I knew that wasn't the reaction a newly-engaged man should have. Obviously, I knew I'd eventually have to introduce her to them, but I kept finding reasons to put off telling my family that I'd gotten engaged.