Page 33 of Where She Is
“Lovely darling. It’s one of my favourite places. What did you think, Hannah? Fabulous, isn’t it?”
“Very much so. The restaurant is beautiful, and the food was fantastic.”
“Excellent choice, son,” Peter pipes up from his high-backed chair. He pauses, then shifts in his seat to face me. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. I told Richard that Daniel would take care of you.” There’s a split-second where I have a mouthful of coffee and it nearly chokes me.What did hesay?I swallow the hot liquid and manage not to cough. “I’m sorry, didI miss something?”
He laughs, “There I go again. I should have said, I spoke toRichard earlier.” Peter smirks a little, and I can see where Daniel gets that particular look from. “He seemed surprised you were here this weekend.”
I’m sure I can talk freely and honestly to Peter. He may be the chairman, but he’s not that imposing. “To be honest, I didn’t mention it because I didn’t think he would approve.”
Peter’s kind face releases a laugh. I wonder how he ever became such a shrewd businessman. I just can’t see him as the tough guy.
“I understand. Richard would never tell me what he really thinks about your friendship with my son because he doesn’t want to cause offence, but when I mentioned you were here, he sounded shocked.”
“Oh.” Is all I say.
“And maybe a little put out he hadn’t heard it from you.”
“I feel awful. I would never want to offend Richard intentionally, but I wanted to save myself from a lecture.”
Smiling kindly, he nods in agreement. “I know. You don’t have to explain yourself to me. Richard seems to have a problem with you being friends with Daniel,” he says leaning over. “However, we do not.”
Diana smiles knowingly as realisation dawns on me. They are giving me their blessing. Peter directs his beaming smile right at Diana when he says, “Some of the best partnerships are formed in the workplace.” She smiles back fondly then rests a contemplative finger over her tightly shut lips and hums, “Can I let you into a secret?” I nod enthusiastically while Peter sits back in his seat. I’m unable to look at Daniel, but I can sense his eyes on me while his mother talks.
“You know, I once worked for Grant’s, for Peter’s father in fact.”
I shake my head in surprise, “No, I didn’t know.” I can’t imagine Diana working anywhere, let alone an office.
“Oh yes. I was the admin girl. It was a very long time ago. Iwas around twenty-one, twenty-two?” Diana’s eyes glaze, as if she is really enjoying her trip down memory lane. “The company was small back then, and there were very few women in the office. It was easy to get noticed.” She gives her husband a knowing smile. “Peter was working on the sites when I first met him,” Ahh, I see where she’s going with this now, “but still the boss’s son. There was no way of knowing how things would go and I thought we would get into terrible trouble. As it turned out, Mr Grant Senior was perfectly reasonable about the whole thing.”
Peter laughs, “My father always had a soft spot for his favourite office girl.”
Diana rolls her eyes while Peter chuckles to himself. “We’re just trying to tell you that although Richard has a problem with relationships in the workplace, we don’t.” There’s a comfortable silence between us as I chance a peep at Daniel. It’s refreshing to meet the head of an organisation that approves of inter-office relationships, but then Peter Grant is not your run-of-the-mill chairman.
Joe strides into the room, kissing his mum then hugging his dad and brother with warm, manly back slaps before turning to me. I’m more than a little flustered when he leans over and kisses my cheek. What is it with the cheek kissing?
“Did you two have fun last night?” He says, wiggling his eyebrows at me.”
“We did, thank you,” I smirk, “I loved the restaurant.” Maybe my subtle smile to Daniel isn’t so subtle and I realise there’s silence until Peter clears his throat. I quickly add, “Did you enjoy your evening, Joe?”
“Oh yeah, it was a bundle of laughs as always,” his tone is thick with sarcasm. Then, just to continue the conversation and fill an awkward silence, I add, “Is Freya okay? We just bumped into her and she looked a little upset.” Perhaps I shouldn’t say anything, but Daniel was so harsh, someone should at least checkshe is all right. The atmosphere in the room changes and there’s a brief silence that’s broken by Diana. “Don’t worry about Freya, love.”
I note Joe rolling his eyes to the heavens. He throws a tight-lipped stare at Daniel, who shoots off the sofa and offers me his hand. I wonder if I’ve annoyed him because suddenly, Daniel is in a rush to leave.
“If you’ve finished your coffee, I wanted to take you out for a drive. Sound good?”
My hand wraps around his and I nod in agreement. I’m ready to go as the atmosphere has plummeted since mentioning his sister-in-law. I glance over to his parents. “Thanks so much for the coffee.”
“It was our pleasure, love,” Peter says while standing from his seat to see us out.
Diana is quick to add, “Please say you’re joining us for dinner tonight, won’t you? We’d love to spend more time with you, Hannah.”
Daniel drops my hand and steps in. “We’ll be here, Mum. Try stopping us.” His arm is firmly around her shoulders, giving a reassuring squeeze. I can’t decide if our parting smiles are false or awkward, but Daniel’s crooked, almost apologetic smile coupled with Joe’s sympathetic head tilt, both in my direction I might add, makes it apparent that they know something I don’t.
Chapter Ten
“Ready?”Daniel holds out his hand towards me.
“Ready for what exactly?”
