Chapter 25
D aisy spotted Miles before he saw her. He was standing just opposite the station entrance, leaning slightly forward with both hands around a takeaway cup.
He looked like she’d never seen him before; extremely tense as if he was trying to appear composed but wasn’t quite pulling it off.
There were shadows under his eyes, a frown on his face and his jacket collar was up.
Daisy swallowed. Things did not look good.
She waved, he glanced up and caught her eye, half-smiled and raised his eyebrows. Daisy walked across to him, holding her bag close to her side. He stepped forward, hugged her with quite a force and kissed her on the cheek.
‘Hi.’
Miles shook his head. ‘Thanks for coming. I’ve just been thinking about it and thought there is no way I should have asked you to come all the way here just to make me feel better. What an idiot…’
‘What? Don’t be silly! I’m glad I came.’
‘It’s a big ask to make you come up here.’
‘It’s not. I’m fine.’ Daisy didn’t really know what to say next.
The street around them was busy in a London way with taxis buzzing past, cyclists weaving between traffic, the odd person stopping to take a call right in the middle of the pavement.
It was noisy, but between them, it was as if someone was holding a knife above and might slice right down through the centre any second.
Miles nodded to the right. ‘There’s a café around the corner. It’s quiet and down an alley. Come on.’
The café was tucked on an alley down a little street lined with weathered brickwork and overgrown ivy crawling up the side of a battered pub sign next door.
Its windows were fogged in the corners, but light poured out onto the pavement.
Daisy gazed up at a striped, faded green and cream awning and two little tables set up outside.
One table was occupied by a couple with matching coats and a dog sat underneath and the other by a woman with a laptop and a large frothy coffee in a blue-and-white mug.
As they stepped inside, Daisy felt her shoulders drop as the scent of coffee and toast hung in the air.
The café itself was all soft wood and whitewashed walls, long shelves lined with plants that dangled lazily from terracotta pots and low pendant lights that threw pools of light down onto tables.
Vintage botanical prints in wonky frames lined the walls and menus chalked up on boards behind the counter displayed drop-your-chin London prices.
The whole place had a curated kind of charm about it.
Like someone with good taste and an eye for detail had spent time layering in lovely things.
It reminded Daisy of a page in one of Annabelle’s interiors magazines, a little bit gentrified East Village via South West London, not that Daisy had been or would ever be likely to go to the East Village, but still.
It was sweet and full of regulars with dogs and MacBooks, low playing jazz, and wasn’t trying too hard to impress.
After ordering and choosing a corner table by the window, they sat down. Miles looked like he hadn’t slept properly, which made Daisy feel awful.
Miles didn’t bother with preamble. ‘She’s doing okay, relatively speaking.’
‘Good. That’s good. Have you been back in this morning?’
He nodded. ‘I went first thing. She knew who I was straight away, which is something, but she couldn’t open one eye. I just can’t believe it.’
‘I know. I’ll come with you later for visiting hours to give you some moral support.’
‘Thanks.’ Miles smiled, but it was short-lived. He stared out of the window for a second, eyes on the road. ‘My brother left for Tokyo this morning.’
‘Right, so he decided to go?’
‘Yeah. There wasn’t even a conversation about it, really. He just texted last night to say his car was booked and the flights were confirmed.’
Daisy blinked. ‘Seriously?’
‘Yep. He’s speaking at some leadership thing. I get it. He planned it months ago. But…’
‘That’s tough.’
‘It is. It means everything falls to me now and I’m not exactly winning gold medals for my handling of things.’
‘You don’t have to win medals. It’s not surprising you feel awful.’
‘It means a lot that you’re here.’
‘I wanted to be.’
‘On a different note, before I forget to ask. Have you heard anything else from Holly about the business people who are interested in that building and bringing in GayesBooks?’
‘Not really anything substantial. I bumped into Holly and Xian this morning, they’re calling a town meeting. I’ll deal with it when I get back. What can I actually do about it? Not a lot.’
‘At least that’s a start.’
‘They said there would be no way they will let a big corporate into Pretty Beach but really what can be done to stop it? I guess we’ll get a petition going. I’ve decided to try not to worry about it and that I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.’
‘What a nightmare.’ Miles shook his head.
‘Yup.’
The waitress brought over their drinks, a pot of tea for Daisy, a buttered toasted tea cake cut in two and a coffee. Daisy eyed the tea cake. ‘Ooh, that looks nice.’
Miles broke the atmosphere with a joke. ‘I feel like I could eat six after hospital food yesterday and you look like you’ve come halfway across the country on foot. I can’t believe I made you leave Pretty Beach seeing as I know how much you hate it.’
Daisy chuckled. ‘I feel like I’m in another country.’
‘It’s strange how quickly things unravel. One minute Mum was getting back to normal and fine, the next this.’
‘Life’s fragile, so they say.’
‘Yep. I bet Mum will now be scared to go out, which she never used to be and I’m supposed to carry that.’
‘You’re not on your own. You’ve got me. For what it’s worth.’
‘I’m just so glad you came.’