Page 129 of The Life Daisy Devlin Designed
“You did.” She gave a hesitant smile.
“I’m sorry I’ve let you down, Daisy.”
She closed the gap between them, and took his hands. “You haven’t let me down. You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but my job ...”
“I don’t care about that. You’ll get another one when you’re ready.” She looked at him. “What you said before about me always going on about work – ”
“I’m sorry – ”
“No, you were right.” Daisy scrambled for the perfect words. “I know I’m a bit intense. I think it’s because it’s just me and Laura, and I need to make things work. But I never meant you to feel that was all I cared about.”
He nodded. “I know I locked you out, Daisy. I didn’t want you to know how bad things were. There was no point in both of usworrying.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Maybe I should have asked my parents for help – they’ve been offering for long enough.”
“We’d have managed, James.” He seemed to have aged these past few months. How had she not noticed? “I’m not telling you what to do, but I think we’ll be grand.”
He glanced down at their hands. “Actually, I think I might have been a bit harsh on my folks.”
Daisy waited as James met her eyes again.
“I saw Daniel and Fiona when I went to London. Apparently, Mum and Dad are always going on about how well I’m doing!”
Daisy looked at him. “Did you tell them that – ?”
“It’s all I hear about them? That I’m such a complete twat, I thought our parents were comparing us?”
“Why don’t you have a family WhatsApp group?” Daisy said.
“Fiona just set one up.” He frowned. “I’m not sure why we didn’t have one. Not that it’ll make any difference to my folks – they’ll still phone us all regularly. But I might phone them a bit more too. And go see them.”
Daisy nodded, and they stood in silence for a moment.
Finally, James said, “Tell me about Matt.”
Time to tell the truth, she thought. “I thought it was some sort of sign that he was back in my life. Which sounds really arrogant, but things had been so crap between the two of us ...”
“So you thought that was a sign as well.” A flicker of hurt crossed his face.
“I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah, so am I.”
Neither of them said anything for a few moments, and Daisy realised she wouldn’t blame him if he just left.
“For what it’s worth, James, I’ve been an idiot about Matt. But I’m completely over him. I’m just sorry he ever came betweenus.” She took a breath. “Not just in the last couple of months – in the whole time we’ve been together.”
He nodded. “I guessed.”
“You couldn’t have.” Daisy swallowed. “I never talked about him.”
“I know.” His voice was dry. “You remember, when we first met, I didn’t want to rush things between us?”
Daisy rolled her eyes. “You kept me in the friend zone for so long, I didn’t think you were interested.”
“I was, Daisy! I knew you were special. And I didn’t want us to be a rebound relationship, so I waited. But that whole time, you didn’t once mention Matt!”
“Wait, youwantedme to talk about Matt?”
