Page 58 of The Life Daisy Devlin Designed
“Here’s the boss!” From the other side of the room, Alec, clad in tighter jeans than Daisy had ever seen on a building site, gave a mock-salute.
She gave a polite smile. “Hello, Alec.”
“Have you nothing to do?” Kenny said.
Alec cocked one dark eyebrow. “Just being sociable.”
Kenny glared at him for a moment longer, before turning back to Daisy. “There’s something I need to show you in the living room.”
Daisy walked ahead of him, stepping awkwardly around a huge green-and-gold harp in the middle of the room.
“I’m assuming this is Kayley’s?” she said.
Kenny rolled his eyes. “It was in our way so we moved it here. Yer man said it’s a prop, and they need it later.” He closed the door over. “Listen, Daisy, there’s something I should have mentioned about Alec before I brought him on the job.”
“Okay?”
Kenny huffed a sigh. “I took the guy on as part of a prisoner release scheme. It’s his first job since he got out.”
“What?” Daisy glanced nervously at the door. No wonder the guy was muscled and tattooed: he’d probably been involved in one of those Dublin gangs, and had spent years in prison with nothing to do except push-ups in his cell. Maybe the tattoos represented members of his gang family, or the hits he’d made, or –
“He got a year for stealing cars, with six months suspended,” Kenny said, interrupting her thoughts.
“Stealing cars?” Daisy echoed, relaxing slightly. “Ah, that’s not so bad.” When Kenny shot her an odd look, she added hurriedly, “I mean, he’s not a murderer.” She gave a weak laugh.
Kenny looked a bit offended. “Lookit, Daisy, I wasn’t sure about taking him on, but he’d no priors, and everyone deserves a second chance. But I thought you should know. And I’ll be keeping a careful eye on him. Especially around Niamh, with her being the only woman on the crew.”
Daisy nodded, trying to process this. “Um, thanks for letting me know, Kenny. I’m sure it’ll be grand. Anything else?”
Kenny looked relieved. “Well, Niamh’s busy. She doesn’t like the original job done on the electrics and, sure, with all the extra stuff going on, it’s easier to start from scratch.”
“You mean, completely rewiring the whole place?” Daisy folded her arms. “That seems a bit drastic.”
“I have to trust her.” Kenny scratched his head. “I can’t start second-guessing skilled tradespeople, so if she says she needs to redo the electrics –”
“No, I get that.” Daisy nodded. “It’s just that you’ve never worked with her before, have you? And she’s quite young.”
“You were quite young when I started working with you.” Kenny pursed his lips. “You still are, compared with an old fart like me! And I’ve never questioned you.”
God, she’d managed to upset him! “You’re right, sorry, Kenny. So what’s Niamh doing right now?”
Kenny pointed a thumb towards the ceiling. “She’s upstairs talking to yer man. According to himself, the whole place is too dark. So I told him he could have Blackpool Lights once he cleared it with her.”
Daisy suppressed a sigh. That was the first she’d heard that Matt felt the house hadn’t enough light. He’d already agreed to keeping the original windows, which had been retrofitted by the previous owners.
“Excuse me.” She headed upstairs, following the murmur of voices coming from the master bedroom. From inside, she heard Matt’s deep chuckle but, when she went in, the room was empty.
“Hello?” Daisy called out.
“Daisy?” Matt appeared from behind the half-wall that faced the door.
“Hi.” For some reason she couldn’t put her finger on, Daisy felt wrong-footed. “Kenny said you and Niamh were –”
Matt turned as Niamh came out from behind the wall.
“Oh, hi, Daisy.” Niamh tucked her hands into the front pockets of her jeans. “I love the walk-in wardrobe, but I was just telling Matt it could do with more lighting.” She flicked Matt a smile.
Daisy tried to imagine how a walk-in wardrobe with sensor lights on every door and slide-out drawer could do with more lighting, but she nodded encouragingly.
