I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 207

Daisy laid there staring at Leo until the oven timer went off and he finally opened his eyes. He caught her and seemed rather delighted by it. His face broke into a satisfied, sleepy smile as he stretched.

“Good morning, Daisy!”

“Good morning. And happy birthday. I made you breakfast but I need to go get it out of the oven now.”

He sat up, startled, as she got out of bed and gripped the sheets as he gazed at her intensely. “You remember?!”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry if that’s weird. I saw it on your driver’s license on Valentine’s Day and figured we should celebrate. If you don’t want to we totally don’t have to do anything but I thought it might be nice,” Daisy said lamely.

Leo’s shoulders curled forward as if he was disappointed. What was that about? “Oh. It’s not weird. I’m glad you want to celebrate it. That’s really nice of you.”

She didn’t understand his reaction at all but she got the cinnamon rolls out of the oven anyway and served one onto a plate before bringing it to him with a glass of milk. “It’s no trouble! Here. Breakfast in bed.”

He thanked her and smiled so tenderly her heart skipped a beat. There seriously WAS something wrong with her this morning! She needed to pull herself together before she did something stupid like kiss him. He would definitely take that the wrong way.

Leo at his food happily and asked for a second one, which Daisy was happy to provide. She had already eaten two herself at the table. It had been ages since she had homemade cinnamon rolls and they were the best way to start off the day.

They went to work as usual and she noticed that he didn’t tell a single soul it was his birthday. He simply went about his day as if it wasn’t a special occasion at all.

She understood that urge. No one had celebrated her birthday since she turned eighteen and got a cake and some presents from her foster family at the time. There wasn’t much of a point acknowledging your birthday when there was no one to celebrate it with.

But Leo had someone to celebrate with. He had her.

At the end of the day Daisy got to work on the cake before ordering pizza for dinner. She was going to let him pick the toppings but he didn’t have an opinion and told her to get what she wanted.

He did things like that a lot. He didn’t seem to have much of an opinion on anything. At least not one that he was willing to share.

It was probably a defense mechanism. Goodness knows she was used to going with the flow to please the people around her. He didn’t need to do that with her though. He was allowed to want things that she didn’t.

Leo probably didn’t believe that though since he was so desperate to keep her around. That made her heart twist painfully. She hadn’t been very nice to him, had she? She really needed to do better for her friend. Because at this point they were definitely friends even if it was the weirdest friendship she had ever heard of.

Daisy put the cake in the freezer to help it cool faster once it was out of the oven and had been on a cooling rack for a while. She wanted to get started on the frosting without it being a runny, melted mess.

She sang as she worked and she noticed that he sang along quietly from his place on the couch to one of the songs. It happened to be one of her favorites. She already knew they had similar tastes in music from all the times she caught him humming but she hadn’t expected him to have such a good voice.

Most guys she had known over the years didn’t sing. Or they sang terribly. When she was in choir there was a major disparity between boys and girls in her class. That made certain arrangements requiring basses more difficult for her poor choir teacher to pull off.

“You have a nice voice,” Daisy told him. “You should sing more often. I didn’t think you could since I’ve only heard you hum things before.”

Leo actually blushed. “…I only know some of the words to most songs so I never bother.”

“You know you can look up the lyrics on your phone, right? That or listening to the same song on repeat is what helps me memorize things. Or some combination of both. Lyric videos on YouTube are helpful too while I’m trying to get them down.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Daisy finished frosting the cake not long after and arranged the candles in the shape of a twenty-one on top of it. She brought the cake to the table and went to fetch the present she had already wrapped. She instructed him to sit behind the cake so she could take a picture to mark his birthday and he did so without a word.

She went to get the matches but was only able to light two candles before it got too close to her fingers and she had to blow it out. As she dunked it in water before putting it in the trash can to avoid a fire, she didn’t see what was going on behind her.

Leo had lit the rest of the cake while her back was turned. That was impressive. She didn’t even see the matches!

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Leo, happy birthday to you!” Daisy sang before gesturing for him to blow out the candles, as he had hesitated.

He managed to get them all in one go and she asked him what he wished for. A half-smile lit his face. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”

“Oh right, the superstition about wishes not coming true if you talk about them. Whatever. I got this for you. Happy birthday.” She held the present out to him and he took it like it was a priceless treasure.

Leo unwrapped it, struggling with the paper for a moment, and smiled when he saw what it was. “Thanks, Daisy.”

“You’re welcome! I hope you had a good birthday.”

“I did thanks to you.”

Feeling satisfied with herself, Daisy cut the cake and served him up a slice. He took a bite before looking at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read. “You made me an apple cake.”

“Well, yeah, you did say apple desserts were your favorite. Why wouldn’t I? It’s your birthday. Everyone deserves to be spoiled on their birthday,” she replied casually though her heart was racing as his eyes continued to bore into hers.

Leo stood suddenly and held his arms out. “Can I hug you? Please?”

It was his birthday. She had no reason to say no. They certainly hugged enough already so this shouldn’t have been as embarrassing as it was.

Daisy hugged him tightly. “Happy birthday, Leo.”

“I love you, Daisy,” he sighed as he buried his face in her hair.

Her heart was going haywire again. There was no reason for that. He had told her he loved her before though, to be fair, at the time she had been too shocked to fully process it. And hadn’t been wrapped in his arms.

She knew it wouldn’t be fair to do this but it was his birthday and it would probably make him happy at least for the time being. Even if it did cause more problems later. It had happened once before so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if it happened again, right?

Daisy pulled back slightly so she could reach his face and kissed him. He didn’t hesitate for a second and kissed her back the same way he had before. Desperate. Passionate. And achingly sweet.

Leo kissed her like the was the most important woman in the universe—no, like the only woman in the universe. Like she was absolutely everything to him.

She let herself get carried away by his touch yet again but she didn’t regret it. If they were friends with benefits there needed to be more benefits involved. This fit their weird dynamic. She wasn’t doing anything wrong.

He had said she could do anything with him. This counted under that umbrella.

It was every bit as beautiful and wonderful as the first time and she melted under his touch, feeling like a very happy pile of goo by the time they were done. She burrowed against his chest as he held her close.

Leo’s lips repeatedly brushed her hair before he whispered, “Thank you. I needed that.”

Guilt pooled in Daisy’s stomach. Honestly, she had needed it too but it had been done selfishly without thinking of the consequences. She didn’t want him to get more attached to her than he already was but it was his birthday and she had wanted it anyway.. She was terrible at justifications.