Blue Skies Over Wildflower Lock (The Wildflower Lock)

Chapter 51

They walked back through the park at a leisurely pace. While Johnny wasn’t tugging on the lead anywhere near as much as he’d been doing on the way there, he wasn’t being the easiest to walk, either. He kept twisting around on the lead, trying to get in between Daisy and Shaun, even when Daisy switched which hand the lead was in and tried to swap sides.

‘It was ridiculous. I don’t know what I was thinking. It was for this photography shoot.’

‘Photography shoot, as in modelling?’ Daisy said, reading between the lines, although, as it happened, incorrectly.

‘I’m on the marketing side of things, but I’m flattered,’ he said. A smile twisted up on his lips. Clearly, he was a flirt, but Daisy wasn’t going to hold that against him. Not when he’d already done so much for her.

‘I got the address wrong. Places like Burnham don’t have much in the way of taxis at five-thirty in the morning, and according to my phone, the quickest route to get where I wanted was along the seawall.’

‘What about the campervan?’

Shaun looked at her, his lips remaining parted for just a fraction longer than normal before he spoke.

‘The garage. Typical, right? Of all the days, but hey, I got there okay.’

‘Only covered in mud?’ Daisy said, the guilt she had felt from the event returning.

‘Don’t worry, I told them I was rescuing some damsel in distress. It got me lots of Brownie points.’

Daisy laughed. ‘I promise I’m not normally the type of person who gets stuck in marshes.’

‘No, well, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself? If you’re only here for one night, where are you off to?’ Shaun asked.

‘Like I said, I’m on a bit of a journey, too. Not for months like yours, just across to the Cotswolds to see my boyfriend.’

‘Wow, and you’re doing it all by yourself.’

‘Not exactly. I’ve got a friend. An older lady who lives on the same stretch of canal as me back in Essex. She used to do lots of adventures like this when she was younger. I think she’s enjoying it. Apparently, I’m the skipper, because it’s my boat and everything, but she’s very much in charge. Honestly, I would have turned back at least a dozen times without her.’

‘Sounds like a great woman. I can’t wait to meet her.’

‘She is,’ Daisy said, feeling a warmth of gratitude at having Yvonne with her on this trip, though she was fully aware that her adventure had so far dominated the conversation. ‘So, where have you been so far on your travels?’

‘So many places,’ Shaun said. ‘I went down south first, straight to Cornwall. The Minack, the Eden Project, I did all that. I know people don’t think the scenery is great in winter, but I wanted to do it all before it got too touristy. You know? Try to see the real beauty of the place without it being obscured by swarms of people.’

Daisy nodded. She’d learned that Shaun was several years younger than her, and yet, he seemed to carry a much greater wisdom. The type of wisdom belonging to someone who travelled, even if it was within their native country.

‘And then what?’ Daisy asked. ‘What’s your plan after that? Where are you going after London?’

‘Well, I’m kind of zigzagging. Honestly, this country is so beautiful. I was sleeping in the New Forest with wild ponies one night and then on the Isle of White less than a week later. I mean, we’ve had the summer for it, right? This weather. It’s been perfect, sleeping with the doors open, seeing the stars in the sky, the smell of the forest and the sea.’

‘Sounds amazing.’

‘Oh, it has been. Like I said, there’s no way I want to go back to living in some shared house, where no one wants to clean the bathroom after them and you spend half the time worrying that someone’s going to steal your food out of the fridge the minute you go out for the evening.’

Daisy nodded in agreement, though she didn’t have much experience of such a life. Her stint as a student had been short. One term at art school, after which she’d dropped out and set up home by herself in her little flat. Not that she regretted it. Not any more, at least. Her life was going well. It seemed silly to have regrets when she was so happy with where she was.

As they reached the marina, Daisy pulled Johnny in on a shorter leash. He seemed to be much happier being right up close to her, though Daisy kept worrying she was going to step on him.

‘I love the names of boats, don’t you?’ Shaun said as they walked by the water towards the September Rose. ‘I make a list in my head every time I see them. I might use one when I have my own. How did you decide on yours? It does have a cool name, right?’

‘It’s kind of normal,’ Daisy admitted. ‘It’s called the September Rose.’

‘That’s quaint,’ Shaun replied. ‘Does it mean something?’

‘It was my dad’s choice. She was his before I inherited it, and I didn’t want to change it. My boyfriend’s boat is called the Narrow Escape. I like that. Because it’s a narrowboat, and you get to escape the world out on the canal.’

Shaun smiled. ‘So he has a boat too? Did you meet him boating on the canals?’

‘Would you believe it, he actually had the mooring next to me when I first got the September Rose.’

‘Wow, talk about fate.’

‘Yes, I suppose,’ Daisy said.

There was no way she was going to get into the intricacies of how disastrous their relationship had been at the beginning and how they struggled to get together, especially not to some guy she’d just met. It was much nicer just to think of it as fate. But if fate really had played a part in her life so far, then what did it mean that Shaun was the one who saved her from the mud in the marsh, and again in the park? Their meetings definitely felt like they had a tinge of fate to them, too.

‘Well,’ Daisy said, coming to a stop just in front of the duck-egg-blue vessel. ‘This is me. Still fancy a tour?’