Chapter 4:
The next day during church, Daisy couldn't concentrate on the sermon. She was still upset over Darcy's refusal of her. She couldn't remember the last time he or any man who mattered to her had done that. Why would he doubt her decision to get married? That's all that she's ever really wanted; to be a wife and mother and have a family all of her own.
"I mean, you still date Enos for God's sake."
So what if she still would go out with Enos from time to time. She liked knowing that he cared for her so much and she'd always been very fond of him in return. Going out with him was always fun but she'd thought that Darcy understood her better than to consider him a real threat to their relationship. She really didn't think that Darcy had any reason to be worried about him. Yes she had at one time decided to marry Enos but that had been to protect him. She was as close to Enos as she could be to nearly anyone. Why shouldn't she have been willing to do anything that it would take to keep him safe from harm? Cops don't do well in jail and she wasn't about to let him go away for something that hadn't been his fault.
"I want to marry you, Days. I just want to make sure that you want to marry me."
Of course she wants to marry Darcy. She just didn't know how to convince him of that.
Letting her eyes wander the sanctuary as her mind continued to focus on her problem. When they fell on Enos, she swore that she'd caught him looking at her. He blushed and quickly looked away but not before Daisy gave him a smile. Every time she found him catching brief glances of her she felt just like she was back in school. She'd admit that she loved the feeling that she always got when he would stumble after she'd cast a look his way or gave him a wink. What woman wouldn't like knowing that a sweet man like Enos was so enamored with her?
All around her, Daisy noticed that the rest of the congregation had bowed their heads in prayer so she supposed that the service was coming to an end. Daisy did her best to pay attention to the last bit of the service and was ready to jump out of the pew the moment that the preacher released everyone to leave.
When the family stood up, Daisy grabbed her purse and caught a glimpse of Kira as she reached out to hold on to the pew in front of her. For just a split second she thought her cousin was going to fall but Kira shook her head and reached for the twins' diaper bag and look toward her husband to see if he'd noticed her brief moment of unbalance. Clearly he hadn't since he was gathering up both of the boys who in only two weeks will be two year olds. But Daisy had. Before leaving the church Kira ducked into the bathroom so her cousin followed her in to check on her.
"Honey, are you alright?"
"Why do you ask?" Kira turned to Daisy just a bit impatient. She really needed to go to the restroom and if she didn't soon she felt like she was going to bust. Her bladder was so full it was painful.
"I saw that just a minute ago. You looked like you were about to take a header in there when you bent down to get the boys' bag. Is something wrong?"
"Oh, that." Kira groaned both with the knowledge that Daisy had seen her during her moment of vertigo and with the fact that if she didn't get into the stall fast she was afraid she'd wet herself right then and there. "It's nothing, Days. That happens from time to time if I stand up too fast. Now if you don't mind…" Kira motioned toward the stall as she spoke.
"If you're sure that you're alright." She knew that her cousin still had some holdovers from her pregnancy that had left long-term effects on Kira's health. Many of which still required regular monitoring. Daisy nodded in understanding but made a mental note to keep an eye on her cousin just in case she had more instances of vertigo. If she'd been holding one of the twins she could have dropped them. "I'll go help Jebb put the boys in the car for you then."
"Thanks." Kira jumped into the stall as soon as Daisy left.
In the last week or two she hadn't been able to go more than an hour, two at most, between bathroom breaks. Today she didn't think that the minister was ever going to shut up. If the sermon had lasted another five minutes she was going to have to stand up right in the middle of it. Her days in court were becoming even more miserable since breaks were few and far between. And she was only in the jury selection portion of the trial. She had no idea how she was going to survive the rest of it.
~01~
After lunch, Daisy was doing dishes as the rest of the family sat around the kitchen table while discussing the court date the next morning. Kira was explaining that at the minimum, if the judge decided to lock the fellas up, they would be in jail until just after Christmas. If the judge decided to play hardball they could expect up to a full year. That, of course, was the worst case scenario. Bo was holding out for a simple fine but Luke knew that realistically they both could expect at least a short stay in the local jail.
Hearing a car, Daisy looked out of the window and saw Darcy pull up just outside her cousin's farmhouse that she'd been living at for just over a month. Ever since the old family farmhouse had been destroyed by a tornado. Grinning, Daisy just knew that Darcy had come to apologize to her about what he'd said about doubting that she wanted to marry him.
"Ya'll, I'll be right back." Daisy dried her hands, grabbed her coat and was out of the back door before anyone could ask her what she meant. She walked out to meet Darcy as he climbed out of his old sedan. She wanted to reach out and hug him to show him how glad she was that he'd come to his senses but instead she put her hands on her hips and waited for him to be the first to speak.
"Daisy, we need to talk." Darcy glanced toward the farmhouse and saw Luke watching him and Daisy. "Could we get in the car?"
Talking could be good. She just hoped that the fact that he wanted to talk to her alone meant that he was finally ready to ask her to marry him. Nodding, Daisy waited for Darcy to open her car door up and got inside.
Darcy then drove them away from the farm while trying to figure out just how to start this conversation so that it would go any better than the last one. Once they were away from the farm, he steered the car toward a small, intimate, private area at the pond that was usually too far off the beaten path for most others in town to go to; especially in the dead of December. After they were parked, Darcy turned to face the woman that he'd been waiting on since his voice had first began to crack.
"Daisy, I wanted to talk about last night."
"I know that I shouldn't have just sprung that out of nowhere on you, Darcy. Like you said, I know that you love me and you even said that you wanted to marry me."
"Yes, I do. Like I said last night, I just want to make sure that you want to marry me, too. After all, it just seems that you're always fightin' off attention from other men. Maybe you like all of them askin' ya out all of the time. That you like bein' able to go out with Enos or any of the other guys around town."
"I may like some of the attention that I get from folks, but I don't go home with any of them," Daisy lightly pushed on his shoulder as she spoke. "Besides, I can't remember the last time I went out with anyone else-"
"It was two weeks ago. You went out with Enos only two weeks ago," Darcy interrupted as he thought back to the weekend after Thanksgiving. He'd been able to get his later flights covered and had hoped to surprise Daisy since he'd never been able to attend the holiday festival with her. To his surprise, when he'd gotten there he found Daisy was there with his longtime rival.
"What? I didn't go out on a date with Enos two weeks ago!"
"You attended the festival with him, Days."
"That wasn't a date," Daisy said matter-of-factly. "We just rode a few rides together. That's all."
"Are you sure that he knew that?"
"What does it matter, Darcy?"
"It matters because we're talkin' about marriage. Most men don't tend to like their fiancées or wives goin' off with other men. Whether it be just to ride the ferris wheel or it be for a night out on the town. If you still want to go out with other men, then it'd mean that you aren't ready to get married. At least to me. I guess I just want to know that I'll be enough for you."
Daisy's first instinct was to get offended at the very idea that she should forgo any association with men like Enos just to prove that she was ready to get married. Before she could react to that instinct, however, Daisy was hit by something else. Darcy wasn't jealous, he was insecure. If he'd been jealous then he wouldn't have waited so long to bring up her frequent excursions with her oldest friend. No, Darcy was afraid that she still planned to cast him aside and trade him in for Enos. He didn't see that she loved Enos like a friend or a cousin; a brother even. Yes he was good to have around for her ego and she was very fond of him but that wasn't the same as loving someone enough to want to start a family with them.
She wondered how she could convince him of that. Would he always fear Enos and what he could be for Daisy had life worked out differently? Or would he finally see that the other man wasn't really a threat to their relationship? Would it help if Enos found someone of his own?
Daisy took both of Darcy's hands in hers and looked deep into his eyes as she gave him her most brilliant smiles. "Honey, if you'll marry me, I promise you that you'll be more than enough."
Taking a deep breath, Darcy returned her smile. "That's all I wanted to hear." He then reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the ring that had been sitting on his mantle tucked away inside one of his model airplanes. "Now I believe I have something that belongs to you."
Daisy leaned forward to hug and kiss Darcy in response to seeing the golden band for the first time out of its small cage. After he put the ring on her finger she swore that it'd never come off again.
"Come on," Daisy pulled back just enough to give Darcy room to crank the car back up as she spoke. "Now let's head back to the farm to tell everyone."
~01~
"So Daisy, have ya thought about when you want to plan your weddin'?" Kira asked.
"I've always wanted a June wedding," Daisy said grinning. "But I don't know if I want to wait that long."
"What about you, Darcy? You have any suggestions?" Jesse asked since he was wondering just what Darcy would want when it came to the wedding date.
"June sounds about right. No offense to the others, but I've never been keen on fast engagements. Trying to get all that plannin' done in such a short amount of time gets kind of hectic. I'd prefer to take it slower and enjoy it all, instead."
"Now there's a thought. I don't know of many men that actually look forward to a long engagement," Jesse chuckled. At least he could take comfort in the knowledge that his baby girl was marrying for love. Not because she had to. Daisy and Darcy were planning a summer wedding.
"Take my advice, don't plan the wedding too far out," Luke said as he remembered just how much of a toll his and Jo's engagement had taken on him.
"Luke, you are the one who picked out the date. You wanted a date that you couldn't forget. Besides, we still only had a short engagement of two and a half months. It wasn't that long," Jo teased since Luke had been the one that had suggested that they should get married on Valentine's Day.
"I think that just means that his ass is dead the first time he forgets his anniversary," Jebb said, fully knowing that he was the next one in line when it came to being in deep shit the first time a gift didn't get bought for an anniversary. Of course he'd already figured out that all he had to do was make sure he bought two presents when he went Christmas shopping since he and Kira had gotten married the day after Christmas three years ago.
"You should talk, Jebb," Daisy laughed.
"So is this a Duke tradition, now? All you fellas chose a holiday to get married on," Darcy asked.
"Shoot, it doesn't stop there," Bo joked. "These little guys even took over New Year's and New Year's Eve for their birthdays. They get fireworks for their birthday every year," Bo reached over and ruffled one of the twin's hair as he spoke.
"This is a very festive family," Kira joked from between her sons. "Everyone really likes to have an excuse to celebrate," Kira said as she let Mikey out of his high chair since he was finished eating and was ready to run around again. "So June, huh? This doesn't mean that I have to wear another pink dress, does it?"
"You better hope I don't find a brightly colored pink dress with flowers and bows and ribbons all over the place," Daisy smiled an evil grin.
"Oh great," Kira groaned.
"I don't see why you hate pink so much anyway," Daisy smirked.
Not wanting to bring down the rest of the family with the real reason for her distaste for the color she opted for one that she figured that the others would buy without questioning too much. "Daisy, look at me. I'm a redhead with skin so pale that even ivory tinted powder is too dark for me to wear. Every time I wear pink I look like I've just spent the whole day out in the sun. And unlike you and the rest of the family, I don't tan."
"You just never let yourself build up a tolerance to the sun," Bo threw in even though he was very aware of the fact that his sister was the only pale skinned Duke. Heck, the first time he saw her in the flesh, he was certain that he was looking at a ghost.
"Right, I just love getting sun burned," Kira said sourly. Not to mention she didn't need to expose herself too much to the sun since she was already predisposed to cancer.
"Alright, so other than the fact that you already have one bride's maid who will hate her dress and you haven't even picked it out yet," Kim interrupted, "do you have anything else in mind?"
"Not yet. I haven't sat down and really started planning yet," Daisy said as her male cousins all exchanged looks and rolled their eyes. Daisy had been planning her wedding day since before she'd started elementary school. She had plans alright. She'll just tell everyone a few details at a time.
It has only been a few weeks since Kim and Bo had gotten married; now the Duke family could look forward to at least another six months of wedding planning ahead of them. This time with Daisy being the one who will be carrying the bouquet.
~01~
Hours later, Daisy headed up to her room that she'd been staying in at Luke's farm since the tornado ripped through the old family farmhouse a month prior. She was floating on air at the knowledge that at long last she was finally planning her very own wedding. And this time it wasn't like any of the other times in her life where she was dreaming of what she would want if she was going to get married. This time was for real.
Down the hall, Faith could be heard crying and Daisy could tell that Luke had gone in to tend to her while Jo was getting ready for bed. There was no doubt in her mind, Daisy wanted lots of kids. She couldn't wait until she could hold her own baby in her arms.
Lying down on her bed, Daisy rolled onto her side and stared out of her window as she tried to picture what hers and Darcy's baby would look like. Smiling, she started to drift off to sleep. She was nearly completely out when she was struck by a sudden thought. She should have had her period already this month. She should have had it late last week, this past weekend at the latest.
With her eyes popping open as wide as they could go, Daisy started to finger her new ring on her left hand. She then wondered if she had as much time as she had thought before she and Darcy started their own family.
Making a mental note, Daisy knew that she'd have to go to the drugstore and buy a pregnancy test this week. At least she and Darcy were already engaged. That meant that no one could accuse her of trapping Darcy into marriage by getting pregnant. Still, she hadn't planned on already being in the family way as she walked down the aisle. Not to mention, that if she was pregnant already, getting married in June was definitely out.