The Life Daisy Devlin Designed

CHAPTER 41

Daisy spent most of Saturday morning trawling through Dublin’s antique shops to find some authentic pieces for Granary House. Even though Alma had mentioned that she’d be spending the day in the college library, Daisy was relieved to get out of the house.

The previous evening, Alma had agreed to pizza, and James had managed to get her talking about her childhood in Sweden. As Daisy had listened to them chat, it struck her that James and Alma were kindred spirits.

There had been one brief, awful moment where Alma had asked her where she was working in Wicklow. Thanks to Kayley, she was pretty sure Matt was publicly linked to the place now, and it definitely hadn’t been the right time for that conversation with James.

“ Er , Glaston House.” She’d glanced over at James, but he’d only seemed politely interested. She’d hated that she was lying to him – but they were lying to each other.

Now, she photographed a few items of furniture and sent the pictures to Matt. Almost immediately, he replied with a thumbs-up, and she paid and arranged to have them delivered.

By lunch, she’d found herself in a newly opened furniture shop off the Portobello Road, which sold a mix of genuine antiques and good second-hand pieces. She’d look through everything, she thought, grab some lunch and then head over to Ballsbridge, where she’d managed to persuade James to view a luxury new showhouse with her.

After the previous night, she’d hesitated about asking him. It was normally the sort of thing she did with Laura, or sometimes with a client looking for ideas. But she’d told him that she wanted them to spend more time together and, to her surprise, he had agreed.

Daisy wandered through the shop, inspecting occasional tables, dressers, and chairs. Every surface was covered with rattan baskets, old pottery, silver services, old costume jewellery, gilt-edged mirrors, fun, cheap prints and ornately framed paintings.

She ran her hand lightly over a mother-of-pearl hair set, before reaching for a beautifully strung locket at the same time as a heavily pregnant woman.

“Sorry, go ahead,” Daisy urged.

“No, it’d look much better on you!” The woman gestured to Daisy’s flared skirt and short, knit top. “You’ve got amazing style.”

Daisy started to reply when Laura appeared from the back of the shop.“Daisy!”

“Laura!” This was perfect! They could go for lunch! “I discovered this place today! Are you shopping for a client or ...” Daisy stopped, noticing that the other woman was regarding them both with interest.

“No, just browsing. Em , this is a friend of mine, Stephanie Ryan. Stephanie, this is Daisy Devlin, my business partner.”

“Friend and business partner!” Daisy beamed and stuck out her hand. “Lovely to meet you, Stephanie. I heard Laura’s redesigning your place to make it ready for a family! Congratulations, by the way. My sister has twins, but triplets is wild! At least you’ll be fit – I’ve heard that helps.”

Stephanie shook her hand. “Lovely to meet you too.” She gave a nervous laugh. “I’m not sure how fit I am, but my mother’s going to be staying for the first six weeks to help us out. After that, I guess we’ll muddle through.”

“Oh, I just meant all that running will help. My sister played tennis before she had her twins, but she doesn’t get as much time now.”

Stephanie frowned. “Well, I don’t – ”

“– really have time to chat because we’re meeting that photographer in half an hour across town,” Laura said firmly. “For the baby photos, remember?”

“Right.” Stephanie looked a bit flustered. “Baby brain, sorry. Great to meet you, Daisy.”

“See you on Monday.” Laura shot Daisy a brief smile, before turning and manoeuvring Stephanie towards the door.

What had that been about? Daisy mentally flicked back over the short conversation, trying to pinpoint anything she’d said or done that could have made Laura close that conversation down so rudely. Suddenly, she wasn’t in the mood for shopping anymore. She should just leave.

A well-dressed, elderly man appeared from the back of the shop. “Can I help you with anything?”

“Uh, no, thanks.” Daisy managed a tiny smile.

“I’ll be here if you want anything.” He retreated to the back of the shop.

Daisy found herself looking at the necklace she’d picked up. She definitely didn’t want it anymore.

First James. Now Laura. She wasn’t stupid. There was no appointment with a photographer across town. The truth was, Laura couldn’t wait to get away from her.

“How much did you say these are going for?” James said as he and Daisy trooped around one of the luxurious new showhouses in Dublin’s wealthy Ballsbridge.

“Two million.” Daisy grinned

In stark contrast to the grand, Victorian houses with their big gardens that stood facing each other on the tree-lined road, the newly created Dodder Court was a development of just seven high-spec three-bedroom homes, built on what had until recently been a field.

“Say if we won the Lotto,” Daisy mused, “would we buy one of these?”

“I thought you liked falling-down old houses.” James ran his hand over a marble table in the hall. “This house looks like a giant Lego build.”

Daisy thought about Granary House, and she flashed James a guilty smile. “ Ha , hard agree.” She stopped and pulled him aside. “Never mind about what sort of houses I like for a moment. What about you? Would you live here?”

“Probably not.” He laughed. “It’s way too big.”

Daisy squeezed his hand. “I know. But we should pretend we’re interested buyers.” Just like all the times she and Matt had done. Stop thinking about Matt. “So, either we’re both on huge salaries, or we’ve come into a massive inheritance.” She beamed up at him, starting to enjoy the game she’d played so often in the past.

“Or one of us takes a hand-out from rich parents?” James said.

Daisy suppressed a sigh, wishing he wasn’t always so hung up on his parents’ generous offers of money, and his refusal to depend on them in any way. “Come on, James, lighten up!”

He released a tense laugh. “Sorry! Lead on!”

“There’s a little garden.” Daisy walked across the kitchen and stepped through the open sliding door. The tiny outside area was paved, with raised flower beds and large potted plants, and featured a garden dining set and built-in barbeque.

“Imagine sitting somewhere like this on summer evenings! I’ll bet it’s a suntrap.” Daisy ran her hand over the hardened, glass-top table.

“Yeah, I could work here on my laptop, keeping an eye on my offshore accounts.”

“You reckon if we lived here you’d have offshore accounts?”

He grinned. “I reckon if we lived here, I’d definitely need some!”

Daisy turned and looked back through the glass doors. A couple just a few years older than them, with a young child in tow, were inspecting the kitchen.

“Okay, what’s your favourite room so far?”

James shook his head. “I don’t have one. The best thing about this place is you, Daisy.”

She stared at him, trying to remember when he’d last said anything like that to her.

“Anyway, this is all fantasy stuff. I prefer to live in the real world.”

She swallowed her disappointment as he brought her back to reality. She knew he didn’t mean to, but in the real world he spent most of his time hunched over a laptop, and the rest of it gaming with their lodger!

“How’s that working out for you?” Shit, that sounded awful! She sighed. “Sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

His expression closed. “It doesn’t matter – I know what you meant. Look, this was fun.” He looked like he was about to say something else, then changed his mind. “I’d better go, Daisy. I’ve a lot to do.”

“How about I meet you at home later and we’ll go out for dinner?”

“Takeout might suit me better tonight.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, honestly. My head’s not in the right space.” He kissed her quickly and left before she had a chance to say anything else.

Daisy sat down at the table and looked around the little garden. How many secrets was James keeping from her, she wondered.

But until she was ready to tell him everything, she couldn’t expect him to be honest with her either.