Page 22 of Meet Me at Sunset Cove

Daisy picked up the cup, savoring the heat against her fingers. She glanced at the older woman. “Want to join me? It’ll probably be a couple minutes before my phone has enough juice.”

Vera’s smile swelled at the invitation. “I would love that.”

They sat down across from one another.

“So,” Vera said, nestling against the gray-green cushion that ran along the wall. “If you don’t mind me asking, what made you travel all the way from California just to look at the old Barrett house?”

Daisy warmed her hands around her mug. “Oh, it wasn’t the Barrett house that got my attention. It was the dollar house program. I heard about it on the news coverage of Asher Quinn’s concert. What they’d neglected to say in the news coverage was that all the one-dollar houses were gone.”

“Oh! That’s too bad.”

“It’s okay. Turns I don’t think it would have worked out anyway. I would have needed to open a business here too.”

Vera smiled. “I didn’t know you were a business owner.”

“I’m not.” Daisy laughed. “I mean, I was. I had a home design firm once. But about five years ago, I started hosting this show on HGTV.”

Recognition lit in the older woman’s eyes. “Double Decker! The curb appeal show, where you build the beautiful porches and reface houses and such.”

Daisy shrugged, lifting her palms. “That’s me.”

“I knew I recognized you from somewhere,” Vera said excitedly. “I really enjoy that show. Such beautiful landscapes. I loved the one where you incorporated that family’s old gazebo into the deck rebuild. It was very touching.”

Daisy smiled politely. “Thank you.”

She’d enjoyed that build as well. And she’d had to fight tooth and nail off camera to keep that little piece of history. Logan had wanted to tear it down.

“It takes so much talent to do what you do,” Vera said, a touch of awe in her voice. “How did you get started in the business?”

Daisy cupped her drink and took a quick sip, savoring the bitter mixed with hints of caramel and crisp apple. It reminded her of corn mazes and yellow fields, dotted with burnt-orange pumpkins. It had been a long time since she’d spent a fall in the Upper Midwest.

“Well, I grew up in the outskirts of Chicago, in an old neighborhood with a lot of young families. Starter homes we call them in the reno business.”

Vera sipped her coffee, nodded for her to go on.

“My mom and I lived in this cute little worker’s cottage. It was blue with green trim,” she continued. “It had all this personality. Sunburst gables. A covered porch with dentil molding. The bay window looking out over the garden my mom spent entire summers caring for…” She trailed off, realizing just how much design jargon she was using. She glanced up at Vera and found her grinning, her eyes alight, listening to her. Daisy laughed, shrugging. “It was a cute house. But the inside was a disaster. My parents had bought the place with plans to hire contractors to fix it up, but”—she sighed—“then I came along and suddenly they didn’t have the budget anymore.

“Anyway, my parents split when I was in middle school. A couple months went by and then one day, my mom just shows up with all these supplies. Paint. Tarps.” She let out a laughing breath. “She even got us matching overalls…That summer, we worked every night, painting and patching, and making every nook and cranny of that place just as much of a home on the inside as it was on the outside.”

Daisy took another sip of her drink.

“Wow,” Vera said, her voice reminded Daisy of a proud grandparent. “Your mother sounds like a strong woman.”

“She is,” Daisy easily agreed. “She’s amazing.”

“I bet she’s very proud of you.”

An overwhelming sense of homesickness washed over her. She wondered if her mom had heard the rumors already making the rounds.Diva Daisy Decker storms off set.

“I haven’t talked to her in a while.” Not aside from the usual “mom texts.”Thinking about you today. Hope you’re doing well, sweetie.Or the occasionalJust checking in.She was saving her next phone call for a day with good news. Daisy ran her fingers over her neck. “Hard to find the time when you’re in showbiz.”

She should call. It wasn’t like her mom would be disappointed in her. She’d never been disappointed in her. But she just…couldn’t. Not yet. Not until there was a tangible plan to pull her from this catastrophic failure.

The sound of coffee grinding pulled her attention back to the present as Jill set a fresh batch of baked goods into the display case across the shop.

Vera took another sip of the drink and set it down. “And what about your co-host? Is he looking at houses as well?”

Daisy dropped her gaze to her fingers, picking at the corrugated paper sleeve of her cup. “Um, actually. I don’t know what he’s doing these days.” She ripped a piece off and added it to the small pile growing in front of her. Cleared her throat. “They fired me from the show.”

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