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

Chapter 39

39

Daisy was sitting on the barstool with a topped-up glass of wine and the rest of the bottle in an ice bucket. For a minute, she just stared at the drink, holding the stem between her fingers. She had no idea where she was. That was the truth of the situation. She had walked in pretty much a straight line from the campsite to reach the pub, but any further than that, she really didn’t know. She didn’t even know the name of the village the campsite was in. It wasn’t like she was lost or anything. She could easily ask the barman the name of the place and probably get him to call her a taxi back to the campsite if it came to that. It was just a strange situation to be in. It certainly wasn’t how she imagined spending the second night of her engagement.

After a moment longer, she picked up her glass and took a long sip. When she was done, she moved to put the glass down only to change her mind and take another sip, this one even longer than the first.

‘I’m sure they’re not worth it.’

Daisy looked up to find the barman staring straight at her. You could tell the restaurant was swanky from his clothes – a sharp white shirt with brightly coloured braces of all things.

‘Who said I was drinking because of man problems?’

‘Well, I didn’t. I was thinking it might have been a terrible boss or something, but now, judging by the way you responded, I would say it’s definitely a man. But my statement still stands. He’s not worth it.’

Daisy lifted the drink back to her lips, only this time she didn’t take a sip. Instead, she let out a deep breath that steamed up the inside of the cold glass. The thing was, she wasn’t sure whether the barman was right or not. If you had asked her forty-eight hours ago, she would have said he was certainly wrong. Theo, she had believed, was the best guy she had ever met, but was that just an illusion she had wanted to see? Was the fact she had said yes to spending the rest of her life with him all it took to reveal the real him? The him that would put words in her mouth? Perhaps the ring hadn’t been a forgotten error, and he remembered his proposal to Heather all along. And if that was the case, did she really know the man she planned on marrying at all?

‘You know, I’m a good listener,’ the barman said. ‘Comes with the job. You wouldn’t be the first person to sit on one of those stools and unload.’

Daisy scoffed. There was no way she wanted to share the intimacies of her relationship with this complete stranger, she thought, only for her to consider the idea for a moment longer. The problem with talking with any of her friends or her mum was that they already knew Theo. They, like her, might be able to dismiss things as a one-off or be clouded by their own preconceptions of the man they knew. Perhaps a stranger’s opinion was exactly what she needed.

‘Okay,’ she said, putting her glass down and straightening her back as she looked at the barman. ‘Maybe you can answer a question for me?’

‘I can definitely try.’

She nodded before taking another quick sip of her drink, although this time, it was more for courage than any other reason.

‘Would you propose to a girl with the same ring you had already used to propose to another who had said no, years beforehand?’

The barman’s eyes widened as silence punctuated the end of her question.

‘Jeez,’ he said finally. ‘It’s a good thing you ordered the bottle.’