The Life Daisy Devlin Designed

CHAPTER 26

Daisy was on edge when she got home that evening. She’d left Granary House around lunchtime, and had arrived back to the office to find Laura had gone.

“Did she say where she was going?” she’d asked Fionn.

He’d chewed his lip for a moment. “No, just that she was taking the rest of the day off.”

Which meant if she’d had to stay on in Matt’s, Fionn would have been in the office by himself.

Laura definitely didn’t seem as invested in Discerning Designs as she once had been, and Daisy had the uneasy feeling that she was pulling away. Running their own company together had always been their dream, but now she wondered if Laura might be starting to feel claustrophobic.

Her phone buzzed and she checked to see a message from James. Gone to doc, don’t worry about dinner for me . She messaged a quick thumbs-up and put her phone away. Hopefully it was just a bad cold.

She flung open the fridge door, wondering what Alma would make for dinner. Alma didn’t bother to hide the fact that she wasn’t a fan of Daisy’s cooking, even when she made an effort. She was also pretty sure that Alma had only ever learned to cook for one, and she always made exactly the right amount. Clearly, James’ lessons hadn’t extended as far as the wonderful Irish tradition of making far too much food and having leftovers.

Daisy rooted around in the freezer and found a single sausage – how was there a single sausage, she wondered – and two potato waffles slightly iced over in the bottom of a box.

With a sigh, she threw them all on the grill and poured herself a large glass of wine, drinking a third of it straight away.

When Rosie phoned, Daisy stuck her on speaker.

“Hi, Rosie, how’s it going?”

“Busy out, you know yourself.”

Daisy had a good idea what Rosie’s day looked like: her sister had told her often enough. But for a moment, she wondered what it felt like. Rosie was in control of her own little dominion – and Daisy had no doubt that it all ran like clockwork. By comparison, Daisy rarely felt in control of any aspect of her life, even when a job seemed to be going well. There were so many moving parts, she couldn’t take anything for granted.

“What about you? You sound a bit off,” Rosie said.

Daisy took a deep breath. “Ah yeah, it’s been a long couple of days.”

“How’s it going at Matt’s?”

“ Um , good, hectic.”

Dutifully, Daisy filled her in on the upcoming concert and filming at Granary House.

“Look at you, rubbing shoulders with the rich and shameless,” Rosie said, when Daisy had finished. “Or at least Matt is. You never know what might happen there!”

“She’s not his type.” Daisy tried to shake off her annoyance.

“Because they’re practically the same age, and she’s beautiful, talented, and rolling in money?” Rosie’s voice was dry. “I can see how that would be such a turn-off for Matt!”

While Daisy counted to ten, she reminded herself that Rosie didn’t even know Matt.

“Thanks for coming to my birthday party.”

“It was great. Pity James had to leave, though. How are the two of you?”

There was no way she was going to tell her perfect sister with her perfect marriage that things between her and James were crap.

“Grand. He wasn’t feeling great last night, so he’s gone to the doctor.”

“I was talking to Alma at the party, and she told me she’d had strep recently. Does James have it?”

“I’m not sure,” Daisy said. “But it’s very contagious. I mean, you only have to breathe on someone.”

“Right,” Rosie said, after a pause. “So, what were you and Matt chatting about that night? And please don’t tell me it was work. It’s just, Mum is a bit worried.”

Daisy felt a surge of irritation. She was thirty years old, but the rest of her family still treated her like she was sixteen. She did her best to sound offhand. “I can’t remember, just stuff.”

Rosie sighed. “Be careful around him, Daisy, please. I don’t trust him at all, and neither should you.”

“Rosie, you probably met Matt about three times in your whole life!”

“So has he explained why he ran off to the States?” Rosie said, ignoring Daisy’s outburst.

“Not exactly,” Daisy conceded.

“Imagine that.”

Daisy took a deep breath. “Can we not do this, please?”

“Okay, not another word.” Rosie’s tone softened. “But I’m always here for you, if you want to talk.”

In the background, Daisy could hear her nieces and nephews. It sounded like they were all killing each other.

“And don’t shut Mum and Dad out either, okay?” Rosie continued. “Look, they didn’t want you to know, but they coughed up half for your birthday party.”

“ What? ” It came out as a squeak. “What exactly did they pay for?”

“I just told you! Stop freaking out, Daisy – it would have been a lot for James. Listen, I’d better go, it’s getting a bit wild here.” She hung up.

Daisy was still staring at the phone when James arrived home carrying a small pharmacy bag.

“What did the doctor say?”

James dropped the bag on the table and scrubbed a hand across his face. “It’s strep. I told the doctor I couldn’t afford to take a week off work. I got an antibiotic.”

Wonderful, she’d probably get it now too. She opened the grill: the sausage and the potato waffles were burnt on one side. Crap .

Daisy was in a half-state between waking and sleeping, when the other side of the bed sagged gently. She rolled over to see James slipping under the covers.

“Hi,” she mumbled.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to sleep.”

“Weren’t you in bed earlier?”

“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep so I went downstairs to get some work done.”

She rolled over properly to face him. “You can’t work in the middle of the night when you’re sick.”

“In a perfect world, no.” He sounded exhausted.

She felt herself tense. “James, what’s going on?”

“With what?”

“With everything.” She hesitated. “With us.”

“You want to talk about us? Now? ” James sounded a bit incredulous.

Her heart pounded. Did she? Maybe now wasn’t the best time, not when he was sick.

He turned onto his back, and stared up at the ceiling. “Maybe you’re right. I guess we never really get to talk, do we? Tell me about your day.”

This was it, she thought. She’d just tell him she was working with Matt and it was no big deal, that he was just another client, and that she was finally getting a chance to enter the award with an amazing house. Except it would be a lie.

“Rosie rang,” she said. “She told me about my folks helping out with my birthday party. I don’t think she meant to, it just sort of slipped out.”

“Jesus!” James sighed. “Look, the truth is, I wanted to take you out to dinner for your thirtieth, and then your mum offered to have a party down in Galway, but I knew it’d be easier to have it in Dublin.”

Daisy couldn’t speak for a moment. So the party hadn’t even been James’ idea !

“I want to thank them for helping anyway. I mean, I wouldn’t have known ...” Shit, shut up, Daisy, or you’ll sound like you’re accusing him of taking all the credit. Except he had taken all the credit on the night. Not that it mattered, he’d still done loads. And he’d bought her those beautiful earrings! She reached out and ran a hand over his chest. “How are things at work?”

“Honestly, you don’t want to hear about it.”

“Yes, I do!” This was exactly what was wrong, Daisy thought – keeping stuff from each other wasn’t healthy!

James didn’t speak for a few moments. “Things are shit in work. In fact, we’re having to let people go. And I took a pretty big pay cut recently.”

“What?” Daisy could feel the hairs on her arms prickle. “I didn’t realise, you never said. Could the company go under?”

“Not if I can help it.” His voice was tight. “We’re trying our best to scout out new clients at the moment.”

“Right.” Daisy lay tensely in the bed. If things got bad enough, could the board simply push him out? It wasn’t impossible, she supposed. But if it did, they’d survive on her salary. Just about. Still, there was absolutely no way she was going to tell him about Matt.

She tried to think of something comforting to say, but nothing came to mind. TakeOff was the company he’d helped to start – and it meant as much to him as Discerning Designs meant to her.

James turned on his side to face away from her. “G’night, Daisy.”

“Goodnight,” she whispered.