Daisy cut me off. “I understand, dear.” She sighed. “Harry’s had a rough time of it, you must understand.”
“He left.”
“I know.” She frowned. “He has a bad habit of leaving when he feels overwhelmed.”
“Isn’t he too old to just leave like that?” I sighed. “What gets solved when you leave?”
Daisy laughed. “Age and maturity don’t always correlate, my dear Sarah.”
“I’ve noticed.” I roll my eyes and put the book down. I looked over at Daisy and smiled wistfully. “And yes, Beth’s death was hard but I don’t know if I ever got over Laurie marrying Amy. That was the part that really tore me apart.”
Daisy laughed. “You can’t always help who you love.”
“But he loved Jo,” I protested. “How does he go from loving Jo to loving Amy?”
“He loved Jo as his best friend, my dear.” Daisy smiled at me kindly and studied my face. “He didn’t have the passion and lust for Jo. She was his rock yes, and perhaps they would have had a wonderful marriage, but in the end Amy was his match. The right match.”
“Maybe.” I sighed. “I just never got over that, you know?”
“There are some things in life that we will never get over, but it doesn’t stop us from living, Sarah.” She paused. “And remember Jo ended up with her professor.”
‘Oh Professor Bhaer. I loved him.” I looked at Daisy seriously then. “You know in some ways I loved him more than I did Laurie for Jo. Professor Bhaer was her rock.” I paused. “But Laurie, well he’ll always be her Teddy.”
“Yes. Yes, he will. And Professor Bhaer always knew that Jo had another love in her heart but he loved her enough to know that what they had was special and could never be replaced.”
“I don’t believe that someone can have two true loves.”
Daisy smiled at me. “I thought that once.” She touched my arm. “But come, the rest of the family have all gone to their rooms, let me get you a snack.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I frowned, not wanting to leave the comfort of the library. It had become my safe haven and I was in no hurry to leave it.
“Come, Sarah.” She smiled gently. “I promise you’ll feel better.”
“Ok.” I stood up and sighed. “I’m sorry; you must think I’m a terrible mess, huh?”
“Not at all.”
I followed her out of the library and to the kitchen and she made me a large cup of hot chocolate and a cheese sandwich with pickled onions and potato chips. “This is good.” I ate hungrily, surprised that the weird looking tangy onions tasted so delicious.
“My mom made these sandwiches for me when I was a child.” Daisy smiled. “She was from England.”
“Oh yeah? I’ve always wanted to go to England. To London and to Stratford-Upon-Avon.” I sighed. “That would be awesome. Then I could go to the Globe and visit Shakespeare’s house and recite monologues from his plays.” I grinned at Daisy forgetting my woes for the moment. “Now that would be awesome.”
“It does sound pretty marvelous.” Daisy poured herself a glass of water and walked over and stood next to me. “So tell me about you, Sarah. What…”
“Mother, did you learn nothing from this evening?” Harry’s voice boomed loudly in the kitchen and both Daisy and I jumped back in surprise. I peered at him over my hot chocolate and he looked the same as ever. Tall, handsome and magnetic; I studied his eyes to see if they were blotchy and red. I was happy to note that they weren’t. At least he hadn’t gone somewhere to sob over Angelica.
“Harry, we were just talking.” Daisy sighed and walked over to Harry. “You can’t just run off and leave your girlfriend here without saying anything.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Harry pulled his hands from behind his back and presented me with a bouquet of flowers. “These are for you, Sarah.”
“Wow, they are beautiful.” I grinned at him happily. I never expected flowers. “I’m happy to see that you weren’t crying too hard,” I joked and groaned to myself. Now really wasn’t the time to try to be a comedian.
“No, no crying.” Harry looked at me oddly as I sniffed the flowers and beamed. “Have you ever gotten flowers before, Sarah?”
“No.” I blushed. “Well, not from a guy. Unless you count my dad, who is a guy, but you know what I mean. Not anyone I’d date or sleep with, because, of course, I’d never sleep with my dad. Eww. You know what I mean.” I grimaced at my poor choice of words and Harry started laughing.
“Oh Sarah. I don’t know how some young guy hasn’t snapped you up already.”
“They’re all too young and dumb,” I joked.
“As opposed to too old and intelligent?” He cocked his head to the side and grinned. “Or maybe now, you like them old and intelligent?”
“I don’t know about intelligent but old has some advantages.” I grinned at him.
“Like the way we…” He walked towards me and stroked my hair and Daisy coughed. I looked up at her, my eyes wide and embarrassed. I had completely forgotten that she was there.
“I guess I’ll retire to my room.” She smiled at us and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek. “Good night, dears. And Sarah it was great to meet you. I’ve been missing having another woman around the house.”
“Thanks, Daisy.” I smiled at her warmly. She was such a nice lady; I’d never have believed it if someone had told me that before. I just assumed that all super rich women would be catty and bitchy.
“And don’t forget what I said, Sarah. Think about who Jo and Amy were to Laurie.”
“Uh ok,” I answered slightly confused that she was bringing up Little Women again. “Night.” And with that, Daisy walked out of the kitchen. Harry drew a chair up and sat next to me.
“What a night, huh?” His eyes looked at me in concern as I sipped my hot chocolate.
“Yeah. You could say that.” I rolled my eyes and licked the whipped cream off my upper lip.
“Let me help you with that.” Harry leaned over and licked my lips with his tongue before pushing it into my mouth. He explored my teeth and then sucked on my tongue and groaned. “You taste so sweet and chocolatey.”
“That would be because of my drink.” I smiled at him, my heart beating fast. His pupils were dilated and I could tell that he was feeling horny. It excited me that I could turn him on so. I kissed him back and closed my eyes. I wanted to pretend that the night had never happened. And that I’d never found out about Angelica, that I never realized that I loved him, and that he hadn’t just disappeared.