The Life Daisy Devlin Designed

CHAPTER 36

MyStarScope Taurus: With Neptune in your Orbit, you should view challenges as opportunities to grow.

“Oh crap, Matt, what happened?” Daisy stood in the kitchen at Granary House the following Monday, and stared at the huge hole in the conservatory roof directly above the scaffolding and the shattered glass all over the floor.

Matt folded his arms tightly across his chest. “I’d have thought that was pretty obvious. Kenny didn’t secure this properly.”

Daisy’s stomach clenched nervously. “Matt, hang on. I’ve worked with Kenny for years. There’s no way he’d mess up scaffolding. And it doesn’t explain the hole in the ceiling.” She peered closer. “Wait, isn’t that where the ceiling fan was?”

Matt’s lips thinned. “It fell down.”

Daisy walked carefully across the room, trying not to step on any glass. “It’s here – it’s broken too.” She squinted up at the ceiling. “You’re lucky the way this roof was constructed. You’ve only lost a couple of panels, the rest of them seem to be intact. But we will have to get the whole thing checked.”

“ Fuck! This is going to delay everything, isn’t it?”

“A bit,” Daisy admitted.

Matt rubbed the back of his neck. “How much is a bit? I need this job done, Daisy, and I can’t afford any more delays.”

Daisy pushed away her annoyance. “Look, we probably shouldn’t be disturbing anything. I’m assuming your insurance will take care of this. Have you called them yet?”

“ Er , no.” Matt cleared his throat.

“Okay, well, let’s wait to see what Kenny has to say. He might have an idea what –”

“ Christ on a bike, what the fuck happened? ”

They both turned at the sound of Kenny’s voice. He seemed to be assessing the scene. “Out of there now, Daisy. It’s not safe.” He glared at Matt as Daisy picked her way carefully back across the room.

“I’ve had a quick look, Kenny,” she said, once she was back at the door. “There’s only a couple of panes of glass gone, and the rest seem fine. We’re just not sure what happened.”

“I’m going next door to make some coffee.” Matt left abruptly.

“If the house was on fire, yer man would make sure he had his bloody coffee,” Kenny grumbled.

Daisy sighed. “He has to call his insurance company too.”

Kenny grunted, swapping his beanie for a hard hat from his tool bag, before walking into the room. He studied the ceiling for a moment, before turning his attention to the scaffolding.

“The scaffolding doesn’t seem damaged.” Kenny gave her a level look. “This floor is all sticky. Beer, I think, judging by the smell. But I’ll want a serious word with yer man. Someone was messing around!”

“Kenny, let’s not jump to any conclusions,” Daisy said as she heard Matt coming back into the hall.

“I never jump to anything, Daisy.” Kenny took off his hard hat, and ran a hand across his stubbled head. “I’m just calling it as I see it.”

Matt came back into the kitchen carrying a tray with three cups of coffee.

“It’s all right.” He handed a coffee to Daisy, and offered the second one to Kenny. “I saw Kayley when I went next door. Her band all crashed there last night, after a late session. I think things might have got a bit out of hand.”

“Here? In a room full of scaffolding?” Daisy flicked Kenny a nervous look.

“No.” Matt looked uncomfortable. “By the looks of it, they were in the living room for most of the night. But the bass guitarist, Greg, came in here and climbed to the top of the scaffolding. Kayley said he spilt beer all over the planking and slipped,so he grabbed on to the ceiling fan to steady himself.” He shrugged. “I think we can guess the rest.”

“ Fucking gobshite! ” Kenny said.

For one tense moment, Daisy thought Kenny might be talking about Matt, but Matt seemed to assume he was referring to Greg.

“So, is this fellah paying for the damage he’s done? Because either way, we’ll just have to keep going and add this onto your bill.” Kenny drank some coffee and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Keep going, please,” Matt said tightly. “I’ll speak to Kayley’s manager. But you might want to ask that workman of yours what he was up to the other day when I saw him messing around with this.”

Kenny stared hard at him. “What are you on about?”

“Alec! He had a screwdriver – he said he was checking the structure to make sure everything was okay.”

A pulse throbbed in Kenny’s neck. “If that’s what Alec said he was doing, that’s what he was doing!”

Matt jutted out his chin. “Fine, well, we can’t prove anything –”

“There’s nothing to prove,” Kenny ground out. “We know for a fact that your house guests were messing around with my scaffolding!” Kenny gesticulated towards the structure, causing some coffee to spill.

“By climbing on it?” Matt gave an angry laugh. “Sorry for thinking that that’s what it’s for!”

“It’s not a fucking toy!”

“Guys, stop!” Daisy said, quickly. “I’m sure Matt will talk to Kayley’s manager to make sure this won’t happen again and um , Kenny, you can recheck the planking to make sure it’ll be safe for your crew to use.”

There was silence for a moment.

Then Matt shrugged. “Okay by me.”

Kenny still looked annoyed. “We’ll inspect the ceiling, and see what needs to be done.” He glared at Matt. “Tell your guests to stay out of here. In fact, tell them to keep out of our way altogether. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee your house will be finished on time.”

Matt rolled his eyes. “Pretty sure this won’t be a big deal, Kenny. Now, if you’ll both excuse me, I’ve got stuff to do.” He turned to go.

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand,” Kenny said.

“What?” Matt uttered the word with exaggerated patience.

“How come you didn’t know this was going on?”

A muscle flickered in Matt’s jaw. “I was out.”

Kenny gave him a disbelieving look. “And you didn’t notice any of this when you came back?”

“I went straight to bed,” Matt said dismissively. “Daisy, I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

Daisy managed a smile. “Sure.”

“ Gobshite ,” Kenny muttered after Matt left.

There was no mistaking who Kenny was talking about that time, Daisy thought, hoping Matt hadn’t heard. Trying to shake out some tension, she wandered into the main living room. There were empty cans, bottles and cigarette butts everywhere, and the old wood floor was visibly stained with spilt drink. She felt a wave of anger that anyone could leave a house in such a mess. Hopefully, Matt would have it cleaned as soon as possible.

She wondered about Kayley. Daisy didn’t know a lot about being a recovered alcoholic, but she was sure that avoiding situations where everyone was getting drunk or high was how-to-stay-sober-one-oh-one.

Daisy sighed. Technically, Kayley Lynch and her entourage was Matt’s problem. But if there were going to be any more nights like this, Kayley and her band would fast become her problem too.