Page 109 of The Life Daisy Devlin Designed
Daisy waited until they’d left.
“So.” She looked at Matt.
He poured some more wine. “You sure you won’t have one glass?”
“No, thanks.Um, I have the form here.” She took it out of her bag and slid it across the table with a pen.
As Matt scrawled his signature across the bottom of the page, she waited for the rush of euphoria she normally felt. But there was nothing.
“I’m glad this has worked out for you,” he said.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “I think we’ve got a fighting chance at the award.”
Matt paused. “I’ll be honest … I had a pretty good idea you’d pitch for this job.”
“You did?” Daisy buttoned up the short cardigan she’d worn with her dress.
“When I told Brian I was buying this place, he mentioned the annual award. I knew this kind of project would be perfect for it.”
“Right.” A thought struck her. Something she somehow hadn’t considered before. “Matt … if I hadn’t pitched for the job, would you have got in touch at all?” She found herself holding her breath.
“Yes,” he said, after a moment. “I would have contacted you – asked you to do it. I knew you’d do a good job. And Ididwant to see you, Daisy.”
So what had priority? Getting his house expertly fixed up or seeing her? She suddenly had a slightly sick feeling in her stomach.
There was a distant rumble which Daisy hoped wasn’t thunder, and she forced herself to focus on Matt. She needed closure on all this.
“I know you thought I’d cheated on you that summer.” She kept her voice even. “If you hadn’t been so stupid, Matt, you’d never have believed that.” Hadn’t she believed the same of James and Alma?
“I’ve already apologised, Daisy.” There was an edge to Matt’s voice now.
“Yeah, I know.” It didn’t matter – she didn’t want him back. All this time it seemed she’d been misreading the signs, but none of it mattered now. She had to figure things out, and Matt wasn’t the answer. She took a deep breath. “What did you want to talk about tonight?”
“Firstly, I wanted to thank you for all this.” Matt gestured around the room. “You should be very proud.”
Daisy smiled politely. She couldn’t pinpoint why, but the compliment sounded intensely patronising. “It was a group effort: it always is.”
Granary House had been the Holy Grail, and she’d had carte blanche for its redesign. But she hadn’t got the expected dopamine hit. And something else was scratching at the edges of her mind.
“Do you remember the other day when I told you James had been fired over a deal he’d lost?” Daisy looked closely for a reaction, but Matt’s face was blank. “You asked me was I okay. You didn’t ask me anything about James, though.” For a moment, she thought Matt would pretend not to remember.
Then he smirked. “Why would I be interested in James?”
She allowed herself a brief, painful moment to think about James. He probably hated her. He’d definitely never trust her again. She wouldn’t blame him.
“What exactly have you got against him? I know you bought that new travel app. Did youknowthat James was trying to buy it?”
Matt shot her a hard look, but Daisy dug her fingernails into the soft flesh around her thumb, and forced herself to wait.
“Brian told me that James wanted it.”
He could have been talking about the weather, Daisy thought, as she stared at him in horror. But the worst part was thatshe’dtold Laura, who must have mentioned it to Brian. This was all her fault.
“I just offered them a better deal.” Matt shrugged. “It wasn’t difficult, given your boyfriend’s moral compass when it comes to business.”
Daisy folded her arms tightly across her chest, trying to steady herself. “What are you talking about?”
“Come on, Daisy, don’t pretend.”
