Forever Love at Wildflower Lock (The Wildflower Lock #4)

Chapter 24

24

Despite all their pleadings, the hotel didn’t have a room for the extra night.

‘It’s fine. I can just stay in the guest room and out of your parents’ way,’ Daisy said. ‘Or maybe I can just go for a very long walk in the garden and stay outside until they’ve gone to bed.’

‘You’ll be hard-pressed to manage that,’ Theo replied. ‘They’re complete night owls. They never go to sleep until they’ve had several night caps, but…’

He tilted his head to the side, and a slight smile twisted the corner of his lips.

‘Theo?’ Daisy said, knowing full well that his look meant he had just thought of something.

‘I have an idea. Give me a minute, I just need to go into the house and see if I can find something.’ He opened the car door and was halfway out when he changed his mind. Climbing back in, he kissed Daisy quickly on the cheek, before leaving for real. ‘I won’t be long,’ he called from the front door.

Ten minutes later, Daisy glanced at her watch. Theo’s idea of a minute was obviously substantially longer than hers and yet she wasn’t sure what else she could do other than wait. She didn’t want to go back into the house and could only imagine how Penelope would react if she stood outside and shouted his name, but she could always phone him. Ringing Theo to see how much longer he was going to be felt like the sensible option. Yet as she looked at the screen and prepared to hit Theo’s number, her phone started ringing itself. Only it wasn’t Theo calling her. Instead, Bex’s name flashed on the screen.

Worried that perhaps something was wrong with the café, Daisy answered.

‘Is everything okay?’ she asked. ‘Has something happened?’

‘Wow, now that almost sounds like you don’t trust us.’ Bex laughed. ‘Everything’s fine. I just thought I’d give you a quick ring. It has been manic, though. How do you do this five days a week?’

‘I don’t, I normally do it seven,’ Daisy reminded her. ‘Well, at least six.’

Bex let out a long blow of air, which buzzed down the phone line.

‘You know my respect for you is immense, don’t you?’

There was something so factual yet lovely about her friend’s remark that it caused a warm feeling to flood through her, but before she could reply, Bex was talking again. ‘Now tell me everything. You must be there by now, right? What’s his family like? I imagined they’ll be the total opposite to Theo, right? Super chill, maybe a bit messy?’

‘Oh, they are definitely not chill, or messy,’ Daisy said, biting down on her lip as she tried to work out what she should say next. She didn’t want to be overly down on Theo, given how they had just smoothed everything over, but she needed some perspective. Bex and Claire both loved Theo. They were hardly likely to take a harsh approach unless he really deserved it.

‘So, come?—’

‘I need to ask you something,’ Daisy said, cutting Bex off before she could properly start speaking. ‘And I need you to be honest, okay. I need to know if I’m turning this into a bigger deal than it is.’

Daisy heard Bex’s intake of breath down the line. ‘Is this about his parents? Do they hate you? Do you hate them?’

‘Absolutely, but that’s not what I need to tell you about.’

It was only as Daisy tried to steel herself that she realised her left hand was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles were white. Obviously, she wasn’t as okay with this whole thing as she’d tried to make out to Theo she was.

‘I just found out that Theo also proposed to Heather,’ she started.

She had decided to break the news into pieces. To see how Bex reacted to it bit by bit. Although it was hard to judge the slight hiss that she made down the line.

‘And you didn’t know about this?’

‘Nope. It was a long time ago. Like, years before I came onto the scene. He says he didn’t tell me because he completely forgot about it.’

‘And do you believe him?’

‘I don’t know. I think so. I mean, he said she turned him down outright, and it was never discussed again. It was just something he did because he was feeling all paranoid about their relationship. But you’d think you’d remember proposing to someone, wouldn’t you?’

Silence met Daisy’s question and though she had removed her hand from the steering wheel and was flexing her fingers, she was struggling to remove all the tension from the rest of her body. What she needed was for Bex to reply and say it was all okay.

‘I guess men think differently to us,’ she said. ‘And you trust Theo, right? He clearly adores you. If it wasn’t a big deal, then I think you need to take him at his word.’

Daisy nodded, despite the fact that Bex couldn’t see. Silence swelled again, although this time it was broken by Claire’s voice, calling in the distance.

‘Bex, I think we are going to get busy again. And I want to speak to Daisy too. You can’t take all the gossip, you know.’

‘Sorry, Daisy, Claire needs me.’

‘Sure, right. So you don’t think it’s a big deal.’

‘I don’t.’

‘Great. Definitely not a big issue.’

‘Definitely not.’

‘Okay. And if he used the same ring for us both?’

‘He did what ?’