Chapter 35
35
The good news was that by the time Daisy finished the conversation with her mum, she was feeling slightly better, but that was mainly because she’d felt like she had to put a positive spin on everything.
There was a time in her life when she would have told her mother the absolute truth, no matter what, but it became difficult to maintain such a practice when she learned her mum had been lying to her for most of her life. They still spoke regularly, of course, and still had a relationship far better than a lot of mothers and daughters she knew, but it was changed. Different from what it had been only three or four years before. Now she felt the need to keep herself slightly distant from her mum. Emotionally, at least. Especially when she could already tell her mother had had a drink. The last thing Daisy wanted was everyone in Wildflower Lock knowing her business, and Daisy suspected that if she said anything too negative, Pippa wouldn’t manage to keep it to herself.
‘There’s a reason Theo moved away from his parents,’ Daisy said, parroting what Theo had said to her. ‘Honestly, they just weren’t particularly nice. And after a few snide comments, we decided we didn’t want to spend the night in the house with them, so we’ve come out camping instead, and it’s absolutely beautiful.’
‘What do you mean, snide comments?’ her mother said, latching on to the part of the comment Daisy had hoped she would skip over.
‘Well, I guess it’s because they haven’t met me. I’m sure you’d be a bit funny if I told you I was marrying someone you had never even met.’
Pippa huffed down the line. ‘They could have come down and visited you two.’
‘Yes, they could,’ Daisy said, wishing there was a way she could steer the conversation in a different direction, although before she had considered how, her mother was already on a different topic.
‘So what’s this campsite like? I take it there are lots of hills? And lakes too? Switch the video on so I can see it.’
Following her mother’s instructions, Daisy flicked to a video call and promptly swivelled the camera around so it faced the lake.
‘Look at that,’ her mum said with an exaggerated sigh. ‘Nicholas, come and look at this. It’s stunning. Look at the size of those hills.’
‘They might actually be mountains,’ Daisy said. ‘I probably need to check that with Theo. But yes, it’s very pretty.’
‘Where is Theo?’ Pippa asked, once again picking up on a tiny part of Daisy’s comment that she wished she’d not said. ‘I should probably say hello to my future son-in-law. Where is he? Get him to come and say hello.’
Daisy’s stomach plummeted. There was no chance she was going to tell her mother where Theo had actually gone. Given Pippa’s track record with relationships, there was no way she would believe anyone – even Theo – just wanted to say congratulations to an ex without some ulterior motive. And so Daisy was preparing a lie about him using the campsite bathroom when she suddenly saw him in the distance.
‘He’s just there,’ she said, turning the camera around so her mother could see him. ‘He’s just been for a bit of a walk.’
‘And you didn’t want to go with him?’
Daisy swallowed, annoyed that such a nonchalant remark had left her needing to find another lie to follow it.
‘I was keeping an eye on the barbecue. Actually, Mum, I should probably get going. I told him that I’d have something ready before he got back, but we’ve just been chatting away.’
‘Of course, love. I don’t want to interrupt this time for you. But think about what his parents said, okay? They know him best, after all.’
For a second, Daisy was sure she must have misheard her mother and that she must have said don’t think about what his parents said. But before she could question it, her mum had hung up and Theo was standing right next to her.
‘Hey, was that your mum or the girls?’ he said, planting a kiss on her cheek.
‘Mum,’ Daisy replied.
‘Well, I’m sorry I didn’t get to say hi. We were chatting a bit longer than I thought.’
Given how long Daisy had been lost in conversation with her mother, she hadn’t been keeping track of time particularly, but she was surprised when she glanced down at her phone and saw that he had been gone for almost an hour.
‘It’s not a problem,’ Daisy said. ‘But I am getting hungry.’
‘Then I shall put food on now,’ Theo said, moving towards the barbecue.
As he sorted out their meal for the night, Daisy considered whether she wanted to ask him her next question. She really didn’t want their entire trip to be dominated by conversation about Heather, but at the same time knew it would be churlish not to say anything. So, as nonchalantly as she could, she said, ‘How was Heather?’
Theo’s smile gleamed. ‘She was incredible. She’s having twins. Can you believe it? We always talked about twins because she’d always wanted to have them. How lucky is that?’
Daisy felt a lump forming in her throat, but it took her a minute to work out why.
‘Super lucky,’ she said, before turning around and facing the tent so Theo couldn’t see her expression.