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

Chapter 29

29

This wasn’t the first time Daisy had gone camping, but it was a very different experience to the camping holidays she had been on with her mother as a child. Then they had gone to the type of resorts where they already had the tents set up and she spent five hours a day at the kids’ club, while Pippa slept in and drank wine at lunchtime. It wasn’t always camping in tents, either. Sometimes, they stayed in mobile homes, or chalets, but the kids’ club and wine were always a common feature. Daisy didn’t think badly of her mother for that, though. Even from a young age, she’d understood that, as a single parent who worked full-time and a bit, her mother needed any chance of respite she could get. And as an only child, Daisy had enjoyed the opportunity to make new friends who she’d play with all day. But it would have been nice to have had a few more memories of her childhood that involved adventures with her mum. Like she suspected these children were getting, as they walked back to their tents with paddleboards on their shoulders and parents laughing beside them.

A slight sense of melancholy shrouded Daisy’s thoughts, but she shrugged it away. She couldn’t regret any part of her childhood. Her mother had done what she’d thought was best and Daisy wouldn’t have grown into the person she was now without it. A person she was incredibly proud to be. Besides, they had probably made up for any missed adventures when her mum came and completed the last part of the journey from Wildflower Lock to Slimbridge. That trip felt like a year’s worth of holidays crammed into less than two weeks.

Despite the generous signposting around the park, Daisy’s lack of concentration, and desire to take in everything around her, meant that after five minutes of walking, there was no sign of the car park. Instead, she had found herself in a very different area of the campsite.

Great fire pits were set up in front of cloth tepees, many of which were opened to display the various cushions and blankets laid out inside. There were large wooden swing seats, again adorned with plush blankets, and various little gazebos dotted around the space. It appeared like several families had come together in a large group, and as the children played, the adults had set up a speaker that was blasting music into the air.

‘Wow,’ Daisy said, as she noticed that one of the parents had turned a gazebo into a makeshift bar and was busy shaking cocktails as they laughed with their friends. She had thought a couple of times about whether or not she should try to get a licence for selling alcohol on the September Rose . There was definitely a market for it, at least in the summer as people wanted to cool off and quench their thirst with a crisp cider or a chilled white wine, but it was a whole heap of hoops to jump through and she wasn’t sure if she wanted the added pressure. But as she watched the families enjoying this time together, she considered the idea yet again.

After a couple of minutes, Daisy realised she had been staring for far longer than was probably appropriate and she needed to head to the car and get back to the campsite before Theo started wondering where she had got to. And so this time, when she moved off, she made a far more concerted effort to follow the signposts.

Given how out of her way she had walked, Daisy passed two sets of shower blocks, along with a kayak hire and the launderette, before she finally reached the car park, and was about to click the button to unlock the boot of the car when a voice called out to her.

‘Daisy?’

Stopping in her tracks, she turned around, frowning, wondering why she recognised the voice. The minute she laid eyes on the person, she knew exactly why.

Daisy’s stomach dropped as her jaw fell slack at the pristine image in front of her. Of all the people she didn’t want to see right now.

‘Heather?’