Chapter 73

73

After her walk with Johnny, Daisy headed straight to the Narrow Escape to return him to Theo for the rest of the night. That was what their routine was going to be, and she wanted to get into it as quickly as possible, for Johnny’s sake as well as hers.

Theo was already waiting on the stern, so Daisy didn’t even have to go into the boat. There were no exchanges of words this time. No hard truths that he wanted her to hear. Instead, he simply took Johnny’s leash and led him back inside. That was it.

Whether it was easier not speaking or not, Daisy didn’t know, but when she returned to the September Rose to find several more bags and boxes sitting just inside the door and Theo’s key to the boat in her letterbox, still attached to the little wooden keyring she’d bought him, she knew she couldn’t stay in Wildflower Lock, knowing that Theo was just across the water from her. Not this soon. So twenty minutes after returning, she was back out in her car, heading towards Bex’s. She had already set an alarm for the morning. She doubted she’d be in any fit state to work if she spent all night tossing and turning and didn’t get any sleep, which she was certain would happen if she stayed on the September Rose . Hopefully this way, sharing Bex’s bed with her, she’d get a couple of hours. That was the plan at least, although when she arrived at the apartment building, it was a different face she saw waiting outside.

‘Daisy?’ Ezra’s face lit up with a broad smile. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.’

‘Hey. Hey, Bruno,’ Daisy said.

Daisy took a deep breath in and forced herself to smile. She wasn’t sure which was harder, looking at Bruno or looking at Ezra, but she decided to go for the former. The dog’s tail wagged excitedly, although he looked behind her, as if he were searching for his friend. Reading his pet’s expression, Ezra spoke.

‘Where’s Johnny?’

‘Johnny is with my… my ex,’ Daisy said. If she’d thought the word ‘fiancé’ was hard to say, getting the word ‘ex’ out felt like trying to speak with daggers in her throat.

‘Ex? What happened?’ Ezra asked. ‘No, sorry, you don’t need to answer that. It’s none of my business. You’re here to see your friend?’

Daisy nodded.

‘Well, don’t let me keep you.’

He moved as if he were going to walk away, and yet he barely reached the edge of the pavement when he stopped and turned to look at her.

‘Look, I know this is probably hugely insensitive, and judging from our conversation yesterday, this is a very new thing, but can I give you my number? You don’t have to message me, not anytime soon, if you don’t want to. But who knows, maybe in a few weeks, you might want someone to go for a dog walk with? Or a coffee.’

He had such an open expression on his face that Daisy couldn’t help but feel drawn to it. Maybe when she had been single, before Theo, it would have been an offer she would have immediately taken him up on. But a lot had changed since then.

‘I tell you what,’ she said. ‘If that happens, I’ll post my number through your door. How would that be?’

A flicker of disappointment flashed on Ezra’s face, but he covered it quickly.

‘I’ll keep my eye out for it,’ he said, throwing her a smile. ‘Come on, boy, you need your walk.’

Daisy watched them for a moment before she headed inside and took the lift up to the seventh floor.

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