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

Chapter 55

55

How could a couple who had been so perfectly in love only a week before, have more arguments in the three days since they’d got engaged than in the entire length of their relationship? It didn’t make sense. Daisy’s mind went over and over the last five minutes. How they had been sitting together kissing one second and then shouting at each other a moment later? She couldn’t understand how it had all changed so fast, but she needed space to get her head straight. Unfortunately, space wasn’t something that was currently available to her.

Holding back the tears, Daisy pushed open the door to the September Rose and found her mother sitting on the sofa, a half-empty bottle of wine on the coffee table as she ate from a large tub of ice cream that she’d raided from Daisy’s freezer.

‘You’re going to have to share that,’ Daisy said, heading straight to the kitchen to grab a spoon. She slammed the door shut, and a moment later dropped onto the sofa and took the tub from her mother. ‘So,’ Daisy said, digging deep so she could get to the chunks of caramel and chocolate chips hidden in the ice cream. ‘What happened between you and Nicholas?’

Her mother let out a long sigh and reached for her wine glass. Upon finding it empty, she topped it up from the bottle and promptly swallowed several mouthfuls.

‘It’s just all the pushing. Like, trying to get me to go with him to Norfolk so I can get to know his children.’

‘Well, that’s lovely, isn’t it?’ Daisy said. ‘And it makes sense. He knows me.’

Pippa scoffed. ‘My bet is he just wants me there so I can make the food and clean up a bit while he spends all the time cuddling his new grandchild.’

‘Really?’ Daisy said. It was true, her mum was a great cook and her go-to form of helping people was to overload them with home-cooked food, but she couldn’t imagine that was why Nicholas would have invited her.

‘Did he say that to you?’

‘No, of course he didn’t. He says he wants me to get to know his family more, but I mean, really, it’s not like he’s made any effort to get to know you, is it? You live on the same canal. Having you and Theo over for a couple of barbeques doesn’t take any planning when you’re that close, does it?’

‘Well, it’s not like he’s made no effort,’ Daisy said, feeling the unusual urge to stick up for Nicholas. When she had first moved to Wildflower Lock, she had thought that at best, he was a miserable old man, and at worst, he was vindictive, angry and bitter. But the more she got to know him, the more her opinion had changed, and now she believed he was just very shy and guarded.

There was no denying that he had been a saviour, helping to find Yvonne’s relatives and driving her back to Wildflower Lock after their failed escapades on the Thames. And then, when her mum and Daisy had arrived at their destination, he had driven all the way to Slimbridge to take Pippa back home. He also had a soft spot for Johnny, and often Daisy had thought he felt more comfortable talking to her dog than he did with her. But some people were like that, weren’t they?

‘So I take it you had a fight?’ Daisy asked, assuming her mother’s evening was a reflection of hers. And yet, surprisingly, her mother scoffed at this comment.

‘No, no, Nicholas doesn’t fight. He goes quiet. That was what he did, and it made my blood boil.’ Pippa reached for her wine again, only to find the glass empty. Then upon seeing the bottle in the same state, she let out a slight hiss. ‘He said I was being ridiculous, that he wanted me to be there because he loved me and didn’t want to spend too long apart. He even said he’d do all the cooking, which we both know is ridiculous because the only thing he ever cooks is stir-in sauce.’

Daisy was struggling to follow how this had resulted in her mother storming out with her bag in her hand, so rather than beating around the bush, she asked the question.

‘So what happened then?’ she said.

‘Well, I said that I needed space and came here.’

Daisy straightened her spine a little as she sat up.

‘Sorry, so he did nothing wrong, and you just marched out?’

‘Did you not hear what I just said?’ Her mother rolled her eyes, although Daisy barely paid it any attention. Was Theo right? Was her mother just going through the same old routines she did with all her boyfriends when she was getting bored? Routines she really should have grown out of.

Growing up, Daisy had never been brave enough to call her mother out on her behaviour, and yet as she sat there looking at her mum who had already drunk a bottle of her wine and devoured half her ice cream, she couldn’t shake the question that had formed in her head. Was Theo right?

She put the tub of ice cream down on the coffee table and turned to look at her.

‘Sorry, Mum,’ she said. ‘But from where I’m sitting, it really looks like you’re the one who’s in the wrong here.’