Chapter Thirty-Five Daisy
Chapter Thirty-Five
Daisy
Daisy’s eyes landed on the timetable for the bus as she checked her watch again, before staring up the road and back to the
it seemed. Except today. Today the timetable had said due for the last ten minutes but there was no sign of it.
She pulled her phone from her pocket out of habit, but there was no one she needed to tell.
She wasn’t even running late, because she could choose whatever hours she wanted to work, it was just that most days she still chose to do the early shift.
Perhaps it was the one gift her dad had left her with—to enjoy that early part of the day—or maybe it made her feel closer to Tom who was often away with his work, taking breathtaking photos that Daisy may have been biased about, but was fairly sure were changing the world.
His most recent series had been portraits of influential women shaping history, and she’d shaken her head in disbelief when he casually sent a selfie with Greta Thunberg and Michelle Obama.
He was currently away for the week taking some photos for Daisy’s latest news story about a group of women who turned into amateur sleuths and discovered their husbands were undercover police officers.
It was a story that was about to be published after Daisy had worked tirelessly on it for three months—some of the greatest months of her life.
On her phone was a message from Clara—a selfie of her and Leisha at the airport, ready to fly back to London. Having Clara
go back and forth had taught Daisy how important she was to her, and even better than that, Leisha was becoming important
too. She was slightly more gentle than Clara, her advice perhaps more considered. They complemented each other in a way that
Daisy knew would last.
Can’t wait to see you both! she replied, putting her phone back in her pocket as she checked again for any signs of the bus. She swiveled the watch on
her wrist, thinking about how much her mum had underplayed the value of her dad’s watches when she mentioned them at the wedding.
She’d called Daisy and Dan a few weeks later to say that it turned out they’d been sitting on a small fortune for years with
a Hublot Big Bang hiding in their house and that she and Silly Billy—now just Billy—were taking themselves to TGI’s to celebrate.
Less than a month later their mum, through their dad, had gifted Daisy and Dan one hundred thousand pounds each. It was enough
to pay off a huge chunk of the mortgage on the flat Daisy had owned with Zack, finally making it affordable. Zack had signed
the property over into Daisy’s name the moment he heard how much he’d get in the buyout and had turned up the next day to
hand her back the key. “I hope one day you realise that everything I did was because of how much I loved you. And when all
of this blows up, you’ll be on your own. Just remember that,” he’d said, walking away, and Daisy had closed the door without
comment. The only way her life had blown up was in size. It was bigger and better than she’d ever imagined it could be.
She checked the timetable again, still seeing the word due.
Two more minutes and she’d give up and do what?
She stopped to ask herself the question, waiting until she heard the answer.
She’d pick up her kit and go to the gym for a swim—a sport she was now in love with.
That’s what she’d do. Just as she was about to turn away, the bus appeared around the corner and Daisy frowned as she took in the sign on the front.
N73–SPECIAL. When the double doors opened, she stepped on.
Looking down the aisle, she was met by a stream of people filling all the seats, heads bent down so all she could make out
of the passengers were woolly hats or baseball caps or, in some cases, heads of hair. There was only one row of seats that
wasn’t taken, and it was her usual one.
She reached into her bag to pay, but the driver put his hand over the machine, staring straight ahead.
Frowning, Daisy started walking toward her seat.
Just then the whole of the ground floor of the bus lit up with fairly lights and Daisy’s favorite album by Hollow Coves started
playing gently from somewhere at the back.
One by one each of the passengers lifted their heads and Daisy pressed a hand to her mouth, laughing. It was everyone she
knew. It was Clara and Leisha who were supposedly on an airplane right now, except they couldn’t possibly be because they
were there, right at the back in the same seats as those drunk men all those months earlier. Along from them was Tom’s best
mate, Ralph, and his wife, Tina, who Daisy had completely fallen in love with the moment Tom introduced her to them.
She looked to the row in front, dropping her hand and grinning as she saw Dan with his girlfriend, their mum and Billy directly
across from them. In front of them, and it was Laura and Tom’s dad, Martha squashed between them as she wriggled and squirmed,
clapping her hands together.
Eventually Daisy turned to look at the seat she’d come to know as Tom’s, her face breaking into the biggest smile of all as
she saw someone sitting there, holding Orlando open in front of their face.
Daisy’s heart was pounding in her chest as she held her hand up and gave a small wave.
“Hi, everyone,” she said, before turning to Tom. “Hello, stranger,” she whispered, the corners of her mouth twitching.
She hadn’t seen him since he left to take shots for her story a couple of days ago and she was already desperate to hold him
again. To push her fingers into his hair and pull him toward her, kissing him the way she did on her non-wedding day. The
way she hadn’t really stopped doing ever since.
Daisy could feel her hands starting to shake and she clasped them together in front of her, taking another step forward as
Tom pulled the book down from his face and stood up.
“All this book did,” he said, holding the book in front of him, “was make me realize that I wanted you.” He stood up and dropped
the book onto the seat behind him as he started walking very slowly to where Daisy had stopped, just inside the entrance of
the bus.
He pulled his baseball cap off and rested it against his chest.
“The other day Martha said to me that I’m most Tom with you and, well, I couldn’t agree more. My life since I met you has been the most exciting, the most real and the most
loving experience of my existence, and I don’t want that to end.”
Daisy swallowed. Tom had told her how he felt once before and it had been the wrong time for her to say anything back and
while she had told him, many times since, how she felt about him, words were filling up her body now and she needed to get
them out. To listen to her gut and tell him everything that she’d felt since the day she met him. “Mine too,” she said as
he drew closer. “I used to picture you standing beside me when I was having a hard time, and even just imagining it made things
better, but now you actually are beside me quite a lot of the time.
And I don’t need you there to feel that way, but I want you there, Tom.
I really do. Because it turns out that I am the most Daisy with you, and I love you for that.
I love you so fucking much—sorry,” she said, turning to Laura, whose eyes had filled
with tears as she waved away the apology.
“I want to be there,” he said, walking toward Daisy. “I will always want to be there.” He was so close now that he put his
cap down on the seat beside him and reached out, taking Daisy’s hands in his. “Most Daisy Douglas,” he said, squeezing hold
of her hands and pulling her to him. “I’m sorry to do this in front of so many people, when I know you don’t like a scene—”
“I don’t care,” she said. “I don’t care with you.”
“Beautiful, smart, caring, thoughtful, dazzling, wonderful Daisy,” Tom said, bending down on one knee, holding onto the railing
beside him to steady himself as the bus moved closer towards Angel. “Will you please make Martha the happiest girl in the
world by marrying me?”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, navy leather box, opening it to reveal the most beautiful ring Daisy had
ever seen. A large oval emerald sitting between two smaller diamonds, nestled on a gold band.
Daisy pressed a hand to her chest, turning quickly to grin at Martha, who was now jumping up and down in her seat, her hands
clasped together.
Turning back, a rush of emotion filled Daisy’s entire body as her heart, her mind and all of her soul spoke at once. “Yes,”
she said. “Yes, I will. Of course I will.”
She held her hand out to Tom, who pushed the ring onto her finger, sliding it easily over her knuckle and into place. It fit
perfectly. Daisy stared down at her hand, her chest opening up at the sight of it. It was exactly the ring she would have
chosen, but of course it would be. He knew her. He always had.
Everyone on the bus started cheering and whooping, clapping and hollering as Tom stood up and pulled Daisy towards him, his soft lips pressing against hers.
And in that kiss, Daisy felt everything she’d hoped to be true.
It wasn’t just how well they knew each other that made her love him, it was all of him.
Thousands of tiny flutters filled her stomach, moving down her body as Tom opened his mouth against hers, pulling her closer.
She moved one of her hands, running it along his back and across the shirt she’d helped him choose that he still loved to wear.
Her entire stomach flipped as she pulled away, resting her head against his.
“The future Mrs Daisy Douglas,” he whispered, smiling.
She shook her head. “That’s Mrs Daisy Riley-Douglas to you,” she whispered back and he grinned down at her, raising his eyebrows.
“Tom Riley-Douglas,” he muttered, sounding it out to himself. “I love it. But please,” he said. “I have one request.”
Daisy’s heart stopped for just a moment, before she remembered who was asking. This was a man who would never ask her for
something unless it truly meant something to him. He wanted the best for her, always. “Anything,” she replied, meaning it.
“I’ll do anything you want for the wedding, but please no string quartet.”
Daisy felt a fresh wave of love tear through her body as she laughed. “You have my word.”
The bus pulled into Angel Station and Tom turned to look at everyone.
“Thanks for joining us,” he said, smiling as he ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry about the kissing bit, Mar,” he added.
The doors opened and Tom took hold of Daisy’s hand, the feeling now so familiar to her.
She thought of all the many times she’d watched Tom stepping onto the bus at the exact stop they were at and wondered about him, who he was, what his life was like outside of the short bus journey they took together.
She now knew the answers to those questions, but there was so much more to come.
There was the rest of their lives that they got to create, and she couldn’t wait to do that with him.
Tom lifted Daisy’s hand to his mouth and kissed it gently, a jolt of electricity racing through her body before he raised
their hands into the air, another cheer erupting as he turned to them all, pumping his fist.
“Yes, girl,” Clara shouted as Dan wolf-whistled and the rest of them applauded, drowning out the sounds of Hollow Coves singing
about feeling their hearts for the first time.
Tom and Daisy lowered their arms and turned, waving at the passengers on the bus. And then, hand in hand, the two of them
stepped off the N73 and out into the world. Together.
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