The Life Daisy Devlin Designed

CHAPTER 34

American country singer Kayley Lynch is embroiled in a new scandal, after a second leaked video has gone viral. It appears to show Kayley verbally attacking former band member, Newry Stone, after Newry accused Kayley of racist remarks. Kayley has denied the remarks were racist, and claims that she was simply defending herself. The video comes just three months after another video, where Kayley appeared to verbally abuse a member of her band, who’d threatened to sue the singer for not being properly paid.

Kayley Lynch is currently in Ireland for the last leg of her European tour. She is staying at Dublin’s five-star Shelbourne Hotel.

Daisy was glad to be working at Freya’s house the following day. Since Matt’s revelation the night of the storm, her emotions felt ridiculously close to the surface, and she’d found herself second-guessing all her choices since he’d left. She hoped that a bit of time apart would put things in perspective.

Freya seemed distracted when she answered the door.

“Hi, Freya, all okay?” Daisy stepped into the hall, and shrugged out of her coat.

Freya gave a brief smile. “I’m just working from home. Holly’s off school sick.”

Daisy nodded, making sure her expression didn’t change. She’d noticed that Holly seemed to take a lot of time off school, although Daisy had never seen her sick. Freya always seemed more watchful around her too. It reminded Daisy of the way Rosie kept an extra eye on Ben.

She took out her iPad. “Mind if I start upstairs?”

“Sure. Oh, quick question just before you –”

“Yep, let me open up your file.”

“No, it’s not that. I was wondering if your sister knows a good occupational therapist in Dublin.” Freya folded her arms. “There’s a private wait list of three to four months – that’s too long. And it’s not therapy that’s needed, just a diagnosis.”

Daisy remembered that she’d briefly mentioned what her sister did, during her first meeting with Freya. Clearly, the woman had a knack of mentally filing stuff away.

“ Um , sure, I can ask her for you.” Was Freya worried about an elderly parent? Daisy wondered if either of her own parents would need an occupational therapist someday. They were so young, it seemed pointless to worry. But for the first time, she felt grateful that Rosie lived so close to them.

“Thanks, Daisy. So, the painters are finishing the girls’ bedroom, I think, and Niamh is finishing some electrics in the kitchen.” Freya turned and went into her study, closing the door firmly behind her.

Daisy went upstairs, hoping Freya was wrong about the decorators. When she’d checked the previous day, they’d finished the big bedroom at the back of the house. But she found Evan repainting the lower half of the walls a dusty rose.

“Howya, Daisy, come to check up on us?”

She shook her head. “Snag list. I thought you finished this yesterday?”

“We did.” He gave her a pointed look. “But this morning we found the whole lower part of the wall covered in navy-blue.”

“You’re kidding.”

“ Ha , I wish!” Evan shrugged. “Freya said one of the younger kids decided to get creative yesterday evening.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Once Freya doesn’t start complaining about a late finish. We have to give her daily updates!”

“If there’s any problems, Evan, just let me know.” Daisy’s phone buzzed, and her stomach flipped when she saw Matt’s name flash up on the screen. “Excuse me.” She swiped to answer as she went back downstairs. “Hi, Matt.”

“Daisy? Any chance you could get Niamh out to the house ASAP? Our electricity is gone, and Kenny’s dug his heels in, says she’s on another job that he can’t pull her from. I’ve told him he has to, or I get another electrician.” He sounded furious.

“Hang on, Matt, when did your power go?”

“About half an hour ago. And, before you ask, it’s not a local outage. It’s just our house.”

Daisy tried to think. “You know, you could be on a different power line to your neighbours, so even if –”

“It’s not that, Daisy! Look, I don’t know what’s happened, but somebody’s screwed up and your foreman doesn’t want to take any responsibility.”

Daisy started to defend Kenny, when she heard him shouting in the background.

Matt cursed, and for the next few minutes Daisy was forced to listen to what sounded like a muffled argument between the two men.

Finally, Matt came back on the phone. “Look, here’s the thing, Daisy: Kayley’s moved into the guest wing. She wanted to get away from the paparazzi, and she’s got all her rehearsals and filming happening. And your workmen have downed tools, so if we don’t get the electricity back, that’s a day lost.”

Briefly, Daisy shut her eyes. “Let me see what I can do.” She hung up before Matt could say anything else.

Almost immediately, Kenny rang, and she took a couple of breaths before answering the call. “Kenny, what’s happening?”

“ Jesus Christ, Daisy! ” Kenny practically snarled down the phone. “Yer man’s bad enough on a good day, but the moment something tiny goes wrong, he shows his true colours. He’s been bad-mouthing my crew.”

A little voice in Daisy’s head told her that Matt was acting like an entitled gobshite. But she reminded herself that he was probably under a lot of strain.

She spoke carefully. “Look, Kenny, I think Matt’s under pressure with Kayley and her band and crew around the place. Any idea what the problem might be?”

Kenny huffed a sigh. “Nothing I can see, but I’ll talk to Niamh.”

“She’s here with me in Freya’s house at the moment.”

“I’ll phone her,” Kenny said. “She might be able to tell me what to do over the phone.”

Niamh was still working in Freya’s kitchen a short while later.

“Did Kenny get you earlier?” Daisy asked.

Niamh shot her a brief look. “Yeah, he did. He told me not to bother going out to Matt’s place to fix the problem. And I told him there was nothing I could do over the phone.”

“Right.” Daisy tried to be diplomatic. “I guess he didn’t want to pull you off another job. And I’m sure another electrician –”

“Nobody knows the electrics at Matt’s place like I do.” Niamh grabbed a screwdriver from her bag.

Daisy thought quickly. “True. But you’ve done such a great job another electrician should be able to figure out what’s wrong.”

Niamh muttered something that sounded vaguely rude.

Daisy sighed. It was going to be one of those days.