Page 40 of The Life Daisy Devlin Designed
Colour flashed to Daisy’s face. “There is no me and Matt. Forget I said anything.”
Laura folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. “You know the weirder thing, babes? That Matt hasn’t mentioned you to Brian.”
Which was exactly what she’d been thinking last night. “How do you know he hasn’t?”
Laura looked closely at her. “I think Matt likes to have his secrets. He always did.”
Laura was right. Matt was still keeping the biggest secret from her – the one she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about all these years.
“Is he in touch with his brother?” Laura sounded thoughtful.
“Yeah, he’s running the family bar in Kilkenny.”
“Charlie? Wasn’t he some hot shot accountant or broker, or something? He was certainly a lot smarter than Matt.”
Daisy bristled. “Maybe Charlie just fancied a change in career. We don’t really talk about personal stuff.”
“Oh-kay.” Laura arched an eyebrow, and Daisy glanced away.
She shouldn’t have even mentioned Matt! Especially after running into him like that. Now that he knew she was keepinghim a secret from James, she was nervous at the prospect of seeing him again. Which was crazy, because nothing had actually changed. At the same time, it felt like something significant had shifted.
Alma phoned her halfway through the morning. “The doctor says I have strep throat.” Her voice was barely a whisper on the other end of the phone.
“Shit.” Daisy sighed. “Did she give you an antibiotic?”
“Yes, but I have to take some time off college, so I’ll eat in my room. It’s quite contagious.”
Daisy’s phone extension rang and she motioned for Fionn to answer. “Er, thanks, Alma. Sorry, must go.” She hung up and looked at Fionn. “It’s strep. Looks like James and I will be doing room service.”
He shot her a look of sympathy. “I’ve Matt Deveraux on the line for you.”
Deep breath, Daisy.She nodded to Fionn and picked up the call, swivelling her chair towards the window.
“Hi, Matt.” She cleared her throat, pressing the back of her hand against her warm cheek.
“Hi, Daisy.” Matt sounded agitated. “Look, Kenny’s run into a problem with the bathrooms. He’s talking about completely rebuilding walls. Could you come and take a look?”
Daisy tried to sound reassuring. “You can’t foresee everything that happens on a job, Matt. What’s the problem?”
“When they took down the plasterboard, they found the wall had been filled with old underwear and socks!”
“You’re joking!” Daisy started to laugh.
“Nope. Your guy has wedged some wood in instead. Look, I don’t want to play hardball, but there’s a bigger picture here and Kenny just isn’t getting it. I told you Kayley Lynch is performing on the first of June? She and her film crew are coming two weeksbefore that to start filming her in Ireland. And they’ll be using Granary House.”
“I thought it was just the grounds, Matt.”
“Her people want to use the house and gardens to film her composing and rehearsing. They want footage to show on screens during her Irish concerts, or future concerts or something.”
“Matt, there’s no way the place will be ready in two weeks.”
“But the heavy work could, couldn’t it?” Matt said. “Kayley’s people will pay extra to make it happen.”
Daisy hoped that was an understatement.
“We can give it a go.” She opened her phone diary, scrolling through her plans for the day.
Most of it was phone calls or online orders. “I’ll get out to you around lunch and have a chat with Kenny.”
