Blue Skies Over Wildflower Lock (The Wildflower Lock)

Chapter 74

Daisy wanted to smile. She needed to smile. If Theo saw that something was wrong, he might do something stupid like head down from Slimbridge that night, and that was the last thing she wanted. She needed to keep up the pretence of being at Wildflower Lock, the doting girlfriend, missing her boyfriend. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t make herself smile. And so she let the phone ring out. A minute later, silence filled the boat as the ringing finally stopped and flicked to voice mail.

‘Why don’t you tell him?’ Yvonne said. ‘You can at least tell him some of it? Tell him about the paintings?’

‘I just need a little head space, that’s all,’ Daisy said. ‘I’ll talk to him later.’

She was right. Now that she’d said it, she realised how much she needed space. Before that evening, she’d loved being inside the September Rose more than anywhere else in the world, but that was because until that day it had held only positive memories. All of a sudden, it felt different. Like Shaun was still lurking in the shadows.

‘What do you say we go for a walk?’ Daisy said, looking up at Johnny, who tilted his head expectantly. ‘Would you like that? Walkies?’

His tail wagged hard as he saw Daisy grab the leash from the side.

‘You don’t mind me heading out for a bit, do you?’ she said to Yvonne, recalling the bread she had just placed in the toaster. ‘I won’t go far.’

‘I’ll be just fine,’ Yvonne said.

Outside, Daisy’s eyes once again filled with tears. It was the fact she couldn’t see it that really got to her. The fact that Shaun had clearly been playing her from the very first moment they met. She remembered the bag that seemed so out of place with the rest of his outfit, and the dog treats when there was no sign of a dog. Perhaps he didn’t do any kind of housesitting at all. Perhaps he’d stolen the bag earlier in the day. That seemed like a far more viable idea now that Daisy knew what type of person he was.

Daisy’s chest ached, not with the loss of objects, but with the loss of pride. She had always thought she was such a good judge of character. That she could spot a rotten egg from a good one at fifty paces, but clearly that wasn’t the case.

‘You didn’t know either, did you?’ she said, looking down at Johnny. Every interaction the dog had had with Shaun had been so friendly. Daisy wasn’t the only one Shaun had fooled. Perhaps the fact they saw the best in people was a sign that she and Johnny were meant to be together. Daisy shook the thought away. She wasn’t keeping Johnny. She was finding him a home. There was no way she was going to get any more attached to him. It wouldn’t work. Not when she had to run the coffee shop from the boat. But the thought of leaving him, handing him over to someone else, when every day, she and he seemed to learn a little more about each other, was feeling harder and harder.

It was only when she was a fair distance from the boat that Daisy realised how selfish she’d just been. She might have needed space, but she had left Yvonne alone in a place that was clearly not the safest area of the city, and without Johnny. She turned back, ready to go, when her phone rang again. Theo. Once again, she let it go to voicemail, but this time, when the phone stopped ringing, a text pinged through.

Hey, I know you’re busy. Would love to chat, though.

There was something about the message that made her heart ache. She wanted to talk to him, too. She wanted nothing more than to hear his voice and tell him about Shaun and the locks and everything she had done. But then that would ruin the surprise.

She went to text back, only to change her mind. There were plenty of bushes around her. She could do a quick video call now and ring him properly later when she was back on the September Rose.

A second later, she was holding the phone up in front of her.

‘Hey,’ she said, her smile rising at the sight of him. It looked like it had been a tough couple of days for Theo, too. She hadn’t noticed when they spoke earlier just how dense his stubble had grown, almost to the point of a semi-beard. And dark circles ringed his eyes.

‘Hi, how are things going?’ he said. ‘I thought you were going to ring me back?’

‘Sorry,’ she said, only then recalling how they had finished their previous conversation. Though it wasn’t like it was her fault. She had a valid distraction, what with the break-in then giving their statements to the police. ‘It’s been a crazy evening.’

‘You mean after the pub in Maldon?’

Her brain was on delay, trying to play catch up with the lies she had told him.

‘Yes, yes, that’s right. Look, Theo, I’m just taking Johnny for a walk. Can I give you a ring when I’m back at the boat?’

‘Because you’ve got something more important to do.’

There was a terseness to his voice. A tone that Daisy couldn’t remember ever hearing from him before.

‘It’s not that, it’s just?—’

‘Look, I’m sorry, Daisy, but I need to say this. Are you just not into me? Is that what the problem is? Because if that’s the case, then I’d rather we ended it now. Before I get any more hurt than I’m already going to.’