Page 42 of The Life Daisy Devlin Designed
Kenny’s eyes narrowed, and Daisy realised her slip.
“Um, we went to college together.” She caught Alec’s eyes, and glanced quickly away, focussing on Kenny. “So, what do you think?”
Kenny folded his arms. “I’ll have to hire more men.”
Daisy nodded. “How many?”
“Three, probably.”
“Do what you have to, Kenny. I’ll make sure the budget allows it.”
“He seems to think the budget is a piece of elastic,” Kenny grumbled.
When Daisy gave him a blank look, he sighed.
“He’s gone and changed his mind about the bathrooms. Wants those smart toilets instead. You know, heated seats and built-in bidets. Makes no sense unless he’s turning it back into a posh B&B, in my view. What’s wrong with bog-standard loos?”
Daisy hid a grin, privately wondering exactly how deep Matt’s pockets were. “What the customer wants, Kenny.”
“Don’t I know!” He got to his feet. “Right lads, you heard the woman: tea break over.”
They trooped inside, past Matt, who Daisy could see had cooked and served up rashers and pancakes.
When they’d left, she sat down at the kitchen table and cut into a pancake with the side of her fork.
“Kenny will have to hire three more men to get all the heavy work done before Kayley Lynch arrives. Which means I’ll have to charge you more, Matt. It won’t be a stupid amount. I just need to know you’re on board.”
“Absolutely, thanks for sorting this.”
He reached out, and rubbed his thumb lightly across the back of her hand.
Daisy swallowed hard on the pancake, as his touch sent tiny pleasure signals to the rest of her body, then jerked her hand away as the kitchen door opened and Kenny came back in.
“So, just to be clear: we’re stripping away the tiles in all five bathrooms. And we’ll rebuild whatever we need to.”
Daisy nodded. “Go ahead, Kenny.”
Kenny gave Matt a pointed look, and left again.
Daisy folded her arms. “I want to have a look at the bathrooms too but, honestly, it’s nothing to worry about. I can check a few more things while I’m here, but after that I need to get back to the office.”
“Sorry for dragging you out.” Matt ran a hand through his hair.
“Don’t apologise.”Not for that.
“Listen, Daisy, I know things were … complicated between us, but maybe we could have a fresh start?”
Did he mean as friends? She still wasn’t sure whatshewanted.
The doorbell rang, and Matt left to answer it.
Moments later, Daisy heard Niamh’s voice in the hall, before the two of them came into the kitchen.
“Hi, Daisy.” Niamh smiled at her as she dumped her work bag on the floor and shrugged out of a black leather jacket.
“Hey, great band.” Matt pointed to Niamh’s ‘My Chemical Romance’ T-shirt. “You have to help us eat some of this food, by the way – I’ve made way too much.”
Niamh made a show of inspecting the table. “A coffee with one of those pancakes?” She flicked her dark curls back off her shoulders.
