Page 8 of Electric Kiss

“I guess the rigs have me in an early routine and then working at the accountant’s firm. It was long days while I was learning. Kinda used to it, plus there is not much else to do.”

“All right, but the point of us all working together is that we work together to make our lives easier, not harder. We’ve had enough of that.”

“If it gets too much, I’ll come and see my big brother,” Daisy said and grinned.

Teddy had inched himself to Daisy’s lap and had his head leaning on her thigh, which she scratched behind his ears.

“You do that, sis,” he said and stood.

Archer came over, kissed her head and left the empty tea mug on her nightstand.

“If I come by tomorrow on the morning walk and find your door open, I am ratting you out to Luke. Lock your door, Daisy.”

Archer let out a command, and Teddy leapt off the bed and joined Archer, sitting on his backside and thumping his tail. It impressed Daisy that a simple noise had the dog to heel.

“He’s obedient,” Daisy remarked.

“He is. No feeding him any treats.”

“Would I?” she said in mock affront, with her palm on her chest.

“I fully expect there to be a glass jar with a flip-top lid with doggy treats within days somewhere in this house.”

“Aww Archer, how am I supposed to spoil him?”

“Buy a cat,” he said, laughing as he left her alone.

Daisy waited for her back to close and then sank back onto her pillows. She didn’t display any mementoes or personal items she’d collected over the years. They were still in boxes in the spare bedroom. She mused when the time would come that she didn’t want to bolt. Telling Archer that she was all in was one thing. Telling her addled mind was another.

“I’m totally getting a cat,” Daisy muttered.

She reached for her mug of tea and forgot her brother had drunk it. Thumping the empty mug down, she threw back the duvet and headed for the bathroom. She might as well start her day.

Once she showered and dressed, Daisy grabbed her laptop bag and headed to Edward Hall. Only Erica was at home reading a pile of papers that looked like lines for a movie with Isobel at her feet in her carry cot. Daisy didn’thave time for baby cuddles, and Erica looked deep in thought, so she carried on walking to Edward Hall.

They didn’t have any groups staying at the hall that week, so the place was eerily quiet. Heading for her office on the ground floor, she entered the building through the front door. The enormous wooden doors creaked as she shouldered her way in. If they had paying groups, the main doors were wedged open. But she tended to go through the kitchens if there were residential groups. That morning she wanted to avoid pastries and bacon if she wanted to stay fit. After six months in London and three months at Edward Hall, she noticed she wasn’t as toned as before. She needed to get back out on her surf board. The sea was getting more turbulent as the season wore on, so there weren’t many weeks left she could go out. The perfect solution would be to swim laps in the pool at Turner Hall, but being watched by her aunt sent shivers down her back. There had to be another way to stay fit.

Daisy pushed down the handle of her office door and shouldered it open. It was a decent size, and like all rooms in Edward Hall, it had tall ceilings with windows overlooking the grounds. Her office was across the foyer, down a short hall on the ground floor. She had the perfect view when groups would work out on the lawns. Freya would sneak in and gawp once she’d found out where Daisy’s office was positioned. Freya was now engaged to Luke, so it was a moot point, or so Freya let Luke think. There were times when Daisy got an unexpected visit from Freya for no reason at all that coincided with a session on the lawns with half-dressed men.

Daisy hadn’t made it homely yet, but she had dragged in a plant from outside to the left of the window that allowed her to spy the outside without being seen. Other than thetall potted plant, there was a desk that had seen better days and was older than her aunt. A squeaky chair on wheels that was around the same date as the desk, a blue rug that ran to an inch of all four walls and two functional chairs on the opposite side of the desk. She had a fancy monitor to which she could hook her laptop and a chipped mug filled with pens and pencils.

That was the sum total of her office. No pictures, no filing cabinets, and nothing to give it any personality.

She vowed to add more things as the months wore on. One item on her list was a kettle, a small fridge for milk and a jar for her tea bags. But for now, she wandered down to the kitchens with her travel mug and stole Jason’s stash. She rounded the desk, put her laptop back on the floor, and grinned at the round foil-covered dome in the centre of her desk.

“So much for giving up bacon,” she said aloud, picking up what she knew was a bacon bap.

Jason arranged for breakfast to be waiting for her on her desk before she arrived every day. She loved her brother for it. He recognised she worked long hours for the greater good of all four of them. When he’d quizzed her a couple of weeks into her permanent position, when she came skulking for food, he said he would feed her breakfast and lunch while at Edward Hall. She could join his table for dinner if she didn’t feel like cooking.

Daisy worked through the whole day, only stopping when Jason brought her a sandwich for lunch, and then she was on her way home. All the cottages for her brothers had lights on, but no one was outside. So she carried on to her place, thinking of the bath she’d promised herself if she’d got her to-do list done.

Turning the handle on her back door, she huffed when itwouldn’t open. She cursed Luke and rooted around in her laptop bag for her keys. She cursed some more when she found them, and an errant paperclip dug in under her nail. Daisy simmered instantly, thankful she had brothers who cared about her safety. Leaving the laptop back on her dining table, she kicked off her shoes into the cupboard under the stairs and then ran up to the first floor taking the stairs two at a time. Daisy had about an hour before she needed to get online for her volunteer work. She was one of many accountants that helped start-ups with basic accounting questions. A lot of them were sole traders. She wanted to set one up for Copper Island but wasn’t sure how that would go down as the Turner siblings hadn’t received open house invitations from many of the residents since they’d returned home.

Still, it was on her list of things to accomplish to give back to the island, to balance out the damage Cynthia had done over the years.

After a while, Daisy got out of the bath and wrapped herself in a towel before sitting down with her laptop. She pulled on her headset, dialled into the network, and waited for her calls to come through. It didn’t take long before one came connected. Daisy took a deep breath and answered.

“Hi, this is Daisy. How can I help?”

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