The Life Daisy Devlin Designed

CHAPTER 54

James was sitting at the end of the stairs when Daisy got in, the only light in the house coming from the slightly open kitchen door.

“You’re home,” she said.

He scrubbed a hand tiredly over his face. “Yeah, I think my flight was one of the last to take off from London before this storm.” He looked at her. “You’re soaked.”

Daisy said nothing as she stripped off her raincoat and toed off her soggy runners, before peeling off her torn, wet tights, every inch of her numb with cold.

“I’m going to shower.”

James looked like he was about to say something, but instead he simply nodded and got up to let her pass by him.

Upstairs, Daisy turned the shower dial to the hottest setting she could manage and stepped under it, the hot spray stinging her clammy skin. She braced herself against the tiled wall, and closed her eyes, as the water poured over her head.

Mentally, she wandered through Granary House. She’d been so excited to redesign the Georgian home. Every part of it, from its beautiful hallway, grand reception rooms and extended, light-filled kitchen, to the understated elegance of its ensuite bedrooms were perfect, she knew. Yet all she felt was mild satisfaction at another job well done.

Gradually, the tension drained out of her body. She turned off the tap and wrapped herself in towels. By the time she came down in pyjamas and dressing gown, James had turned on the heat in the sitting room.

“There’s wine.” He gestured to the bottle and empty glass on the coffee table. “Did you eat?”

“Yes, I had dinner.” Daisy poured herself some wine and took a large gulp.

“I messaged you. And called you. When you didn’t answer, I was worried you might be driving to Galway in this. So I called Rosie.”

“What? Oh God, she’ll be phoning every hospital in Dublin!”

“It’s okay, I let her know.” He leaned forward. “I called Laura earlier too.”

“Was there anyone you didn’t call?” Daisy sighed. “I didn’t even know you were back in the country, James.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Laura didn’t know where you were but she gave me Fionn’s number. He told me the fucking rescue services were being ...” James clenched his jaw.

Daisy realised he wasn’t angry – he was upset. He knew about the rescue.

“He said a few of you went out to Granary House tonight.”

Daisy looked at him. “Matt invited us out. He thought Fionn could meet Kayley. And I had some business to finish up with him.”

“Right.” James’ voice was flat. “Are you hurt?”

Not physically, she thought, shaking her head. “I should go to bed. We can talk in the morning.”

“I’d prefer to talk now. Please?”

Oh God, this was it. Daisy folded her arms. “Are we over?”

“I don’t know, Daisy. You tell me.”

She curled her fingers hard into her sides. “You left, James. In a bloody sulk.”

His jaw tightened. “You lied to me! How do you think that made me feel?”

“How would I know how you feel anymore, James? All you do is work. We don’t talk, we don’t hang out – we barely have sex. You seem to hate visiting my family. We never see yours!”

“You can go and see Mum and Dad whenever you want. I’m not stopping you.”

Daisy opened her mouth to say she wasn’t comfortable visiting James’ parents on her own, when she was so unsure about her and James as a couple. Especially as the last time they’d been there, his dad had asked if they were ever going to have “a day out”.

At the time, James had seemed annoyed by the question, so she’d laughed it off. Privately, she’d wished they’d at least talked about it.

“Do you blame me for working the way I’ve had to?” James demanded. “TakeOff was struggling, it’s still struggling!” He dug a hand through his hair. “I was talking to Mike and Ciara today. They’re sorry about what happened, but they’re worried about their own jobs.”

“I didn’t know things were that bad,” Daisy admitted. “You should have said something.”

“What could you have done?” James raised his voice. “Anyway, you’re so competitive, I didn’t want you to think …”

Daisy folded her arms. “You didn’t want me to think what?”

James’ eyes slid away, and when he spoke again, he sounded utterly defeated.

“I didn’t want you to think that I was a loser.”

“I don’t think you’re a loser.” Daisy struggled to take everything in. “And I’m not that competitive!”

He looked at her. “Yes, you are! You never seem to want to talk about normal stuff: you just quiz me about work. Or you go on about that award you want to win. Which you probably will, one of these days. But if you don’t, will your life actually fall apart?” He pushed a hand roughly through his hair, causing bits of it to stand up. “Wouldn’t it be a lot worse if your company had to shut down? Or if you’d messed up so badly, that Laura said she didn’t want to be your partner anymore?”

That wasn’t fair! She didn’t talk about work all the time. Maybe a lot of the time, though …

“James, the reason I ask about work, is because you’re always working.” Daisy tried not to sound defensive. “And any time we’re supposed to be doing stuff together, you use work as an excuse to escape.” Damn him, anyway, he didn’t get a free pass! “How do you think I felt at my birthday party? You pissed off home with Alma!”

“That’s not what happened, Daisy! And I didn’t fancy Alma! ” James spoke through gritted teeth. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t fancy me either. I just liked hanging out with someone who saw me as a person.”

“ I see you as a person!”

James slumped back in the chair. “Are you having an affair with Matt? Just tell me.”

“Of course I’m not!” Daisy’s face burned, as she remembered all the times in the last two months when she’d fantasised about Matt and her together again.

In her fantasies, James had happily slipped out of the picture, and Matt had stepped back into the frame as if the past five years had never happened. Rosie was right: she was a flake. Matt’s ego was as fragile now as it had been when they’d been together. But the truth was, she’d been nursing her own ego too.

“We’re not back together, James. He’s with Kayley.”

“So why didn’t you just tell me that the last time I asked?”

“I didn’t know about Kayley. But would it have made any difference? I tried to tell you nothing had happened between us, but you didn’t believe me.”

When James said nothing, Daisy tried to organise her thoughts.

“Remember when you said before that it was my fault that Matt bought that app? The thing is, I didn’t tell him, but I did tell Laura and she mentioned it to Brian. Matt told me earlier this evening.”

She met James’ eyes, and half-wished she hadn’t said anything. Too late now. She might as well go on.

“Matt said he bought the app as payback for you buying his and Charlie’s airline software five years ago. He said you’d ripped them off by giving them a fraction of what it was worth.”

James’ face had lost all its colour, and Daisy felt her heart break a little.

“I told him you wouldn’t have done anything like that.”

“So, let me get this straight.” James’ voice sounded strange. “Your ex-boyfriend is taking revenge on me because of something that happened five years ago?”

“Something he thinks happened, obviously.”

He shook his head. “Maybe if he’d tried harder to get some seed money for his idea, instead of just blabbing to everyone about it.”

“Well, yeah.” Daisy frowned. “But that’s nothing to do with you. I mean, you gave Matt and Charlie a decent price, didn’t you?”

He sighed. “It was early days for me and the others, Daisy. I had to get the company up and running, and I gave them what I thought I’d get away with. Charlie signed a contract. What else do you want me to say?”

“That you didn’t stiff them?”

“ For fuck sake, Daisy! ” He gave an angry laugh. “It was business! Matt was shooting his mouth off – all I did was go to his brother with an offer.”

Daisy felt a bit sick. “Do you know that he and Charlie fell out over that? Matt didn’t want to sell – he said you screwed them over.”

“Charlie wanted out!” James said tightly.

“ What? ”

“Charlie only helped Matt develop that software because Matt asked him to.”

Daisy stared at James, wondering what else she didn’t know about him.

“How come you never told me you bought that software from them?” she said finally.

“Because I barely knew you at the time, remember ?” James sounded exasperated. “I mean, I knew you’d dated Matt, but it didn’t seem that important that I’d had some business dealings with his brother!”

Daisy felt her eyes closing, as a fresh wave of tiredness hit her. “Well, I guess he never forgave you. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about the app.”

“Is that it?” James said.

Was that what? Her brain seemed to have shut down. She just wanted to sleep, and wake up tomorrow morning with this whole evening behind her.

She’d had no idea what closure looked like, but she could never have foreseen what had happened tonight. If there were any loose ends on Granary House, she’d get Fionn to look after them. She’d send Matt the final bill. She and James had already paid heavily for everything else.