Big D
Trigger Warning: This story involves discussion of suicide. It also has cheating. For what it's worth, I don't necessarily agree with anything said in the story. It is fiction.
Chapter One: ReintroDuction
Caleb's death had hit everyone hard, even Daisy, and while she carried little love for her son-in-law in life, she did miss him in his death. It wasn't that Daisy ever grew to like or even respect Caleb, but she did come to accept him as a fixture in her family over time. It helped that Caleb was, in his bumbling, stupid way, largely ignorable and inoffensive. Looking back, he was goofy but gentle, and he lumbered about the house with the life and focus of a Labrador Retriever.
When Summer had met Caleb and chosen to elope, Daisy had thought it was a mistake that would inevitably hurt her. When Caleb decided to take his own life, however, it was a hurt which Daisy had not expected. Caleb had left Summer with three children to feed and one on the way. That was the hardest part about it. Daisy knew it was pointless to be angry at a person's memory, but she also thought that she had the right to be angry. She wanted to call him a coward because she thought that he was one, but even in her irrational hurt she saw the futility of it. Caleb was dead, and her daughter was grieving. It was just hurt all around and nothing could make it better.
Months passed and then a year, and Daisy slowly found her family transitioning back into a normal life without Caleb in it. Somedays were easier or better than others, though his absence was always felt like a glare in her periphery at all times. Summer still called her sobbing and seeking advice, struggling to raise four children without a man's help, and Daisy would be angry. She wished she had told Summer to leave him years before, wished that Summer had listened to her all the times she did say something and save everyone the heartache.
Daisy was at the store doing shopping for supper when she heard a familiar voice delivering a familiar apology. "Daisy, is that you? My God, it's been a while. Hey, sorry about that guy Summer was dating. That's rough." It had been some time since anyone had offered her condolences, though a year ago it was every trip to the store with some people repeating the apology as the only point of conversation to be made. Daisy turned to greet the person, to thank them with rural hospitality. It was protocol for small towns, even if it wasn't sincere.
"Thanks," Daisy said, regarding the person quietly, trying to place their face from somewhere. It took a few seconds of sorting before she realized. The speaker was a young man only a few inches taller than her. He had a stringy body, slender but with a hint of strength. His face was round, boyish and topped with a mop of brown hair. His eyes were hazel in color and gave her an anchor point to stare into when she looked at him. He wasn't ugly, but he wasn't handsome either, just standard. When Daisy had first met him years ago, she remembered thinking that Summer could do much better. "Dylan," she guessed, and she smiled when he adjusted his ball cap and knew she had him. "Really, thank you. It's kind of you to say."
Dylan was the last boy Summer, Daisy's daughter, had dated before marrying Caleb. In truth, he looked a lot like a shorter, scrawnier version of Caleb. Otherwise, with round faces, pronounced jowls, and their ballcaps, the two of them could be twins down to the cut-off sleeves of Dylan's shirt. The same could be said of many of the young boys where she lived, however. Daisy's own husband, Willy, was very much cut from the same camo-wearing cloth. In fact, the fishhooks on Dylan's hat evoke memories of every man she has dated since high school.
Dylan gave her an easy smile as he spoke. He wore his shirt with the sleeves cut off, showing his slender, farm-tanned arms with a hint of underarm hair. He wasn't particularly muscular but, looking at him, Daisy felt a hint of arousal. It was the fashion of the town, but it looked good on him. "How's Summer doing," he asked.
Daisy smiled back in a sad, commiserating way. "It's hard for everyone, but it's definitely hardest for her." Daisy returned to shopping, moving through the store with Dylan following her. She could feel his gaze roaming her body, but it didn't bother her. It was flattering to think a boy so much younger than her would still find her attractive.
"I can imagine," he said. "Must be really hurtful to know what a coward she married, huh?"
Daisy paused in her shopping and turned to glare at him. "Excuse me?"
Dylan stuffed his hands into his pockets and retreated a few steps. He tried to shrug nonchalantly. "I'm just saying, what kind of man takes his own life when he's got kids to feed? Pathetic, really."
Frowning the frown of a married woman and a mother, the frown she used to keep her family from every repeating their mistakes again, she left Dylan quiet. "You're lucky that we're in public," she said. "Because if we weren't, you'd be knocked straight into the wall, do you understand me?"
Dylan lifted his hands up in front of him like a wall between them. "Didn't mean nothing by it. Just thought you'd be angry at him for being such a coward, too."
"How I feel about him, or how Summer feels about him, is none of your God damn business. Whatever Caleb did, he was her husband and he was the father of her children. You might think you get an opinion, but you were only a boy, and you're still acting like a boy. So, watch your damn mouth!"
Still with his hands between them, Dylan grinned. "Fine, fine. I'm just saying that I wouldn't run away like that. Real men ain't like that."
"Real men don't talk shit on the dead, either," Daisy snapped. "And I can promise you, even after death, Caleb is twice the man you could ever be. Got it? Now, get!"
"I'm getting," Dylan said, laughing as he retreated down the aisle and around a corner. Once out of view of him, Daisy sighed and glared at the empty space where he had been. It took a few deep breathes before she was able to finish shopping, and she didn't see him the rest of the way inside of the store. After paying and returning to the parking lot, however, she did find him waiting by the driver's side of her SUV. Daisy met him with a renewed glare. "What do you want?"
Dylan stood still as Daisy pushed by him, or at least tried to. Daisy was not a big woman. Where she came from, women were to be dainty but domineering. She ran her house on tradition, not on muscle. She didn't have the strength to bypass Dylan, who kept himself in front of her car door as she tried. "I just wanted to apologize for how I acted in there," Dylan said.
Daisy regarded him with her arms over her chest--a feat considering the size of her breasts--and she held her glare fixed firmly on him. Dylan responded by staring openly and brazenly at her breasts. "You should be sorry," Daisy said. "Caleb wasn't a perfect man, but he was my son-in-law and the father of my grandchildren." Suddenly smiling afterward, Daisy added, "And if I remember correctly, he did kick your sorry ass when he first started dating Summer, didn't he?"
With that, she managed to push her way through and open her driver's side door. Dylan watched her, his calm deteriorating. Feeling her breasts brush his arm as she pushed past him, Dylan turned on her with a glare of his own. She had the door open as he grabbed her by the hair, and she gasped, opening her mouth to speak until Dylan silenced her with a smack to the face. Holding her cheek in stunned silence, she stared up into his smoldering eyes.