Page 61 of The Life Daisy Devlin Designed
“I just told you! Stop freaking out, Daisy – it would have been a lot for James. Listen, I’d better go, it’s getting a bit wild here.” She hung up.
Daisy was still staring at the phone when James arrived home carrying a small pharmacy bag.
“What did the doctor say?”
James dropped the bag on the table and scrubbed a hand across his face. “It’s strep. I told the doctor I couldn’t afford to take a week off work. I got an antibiotic.”
Wonderful, she’d probably get it now too. She opened the grill: the sausage and the potato waffles were burnt on one side.Crap.
Daisy was in a half-state between waking and sleeping, when the other side of the bed sagged gently. She rolled over to see James slipping under the covers.
“Hi,” she mumbled.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to sleep.”
“Weren’t you in bed earlier?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep so I went downstairs to get some work done.”
She rolled over properly to face him. “You can’t work in the middle of the night when you’re sick.”
“In a perfect world, no.” He sounded exhausted.
She felt herself tense. “James, what’s going on?”
“With what?”
“With everything.” She hesitated. “With us.”
“You want to talk about us?Now?” James sounded a bit incredulous.
Her heart pounded. Did she? Maybe now wasn’t the best time, not when he was sick.
He turned onto his back, and stared up at the ceiling. “Maybe you’re right. I guess we never really get to talk, do we? Tell me about your day.”
This was it, she thought. She’d just tell him she was working with Matt and it was no big deal, that he was just another client, and that she was finally getting a chance to enter the award with an amazing house. Except it would be a lie.
“Rosie rang,” she said. “She told me about my folks helping out with my birthday party. I don’t think she meant to, it just sort of slipped out.”
“Jesus!” James sighed. “Look, the truth is, I wanted to take you out to dinner for your thirtieth, and then your mum offered to have a party down in Galway, but I knew it’d be easier to have it in Dublin.”
Daisy couldn’t speak for a moment. So the party hadn’t even been James’idea!
“I want to thank them for helping anyway. I mean, I wouldn’t have known ...”Shit, shut up,Daisy, or you’ll sound like you’re accusing him of taking all the credit.Except hehadtaken all the credit on the night. Not that it mattered, he’d still done loads. And he’d bought her those beautiful earrings! She reached out and ran a hand over his chest. “How are things at work?”
“Honestly, you don’t want to hear about it.”
“Yes, I do!” This was exactly what was wrong, Daisy thought – keeping stuff from each other wasn’t healthy!
James didn’t speak for a few moments. “Things are shit in work. In fact, we’re having to let people go. And I took a pretty big pay cut recently.”
“What?” Daisy could feel the hairs on her arms prickle. “I didn’t realise, you never said. Could the company go under?”
“Not if I can help it.” His voice was tight. “We’re trying our best to scout out new clients at the moment.”
“Right.” Daisy lay tensely in the bed. If things got bad enough, could the board simply push him out? It wasn’t impossible, she supposed. But if it did, they’d survive on her salary. Just about. Still, there was absolutely no way she was going to tell him about Matt.
She tried to think of something comforting to say, but nothing came to mind. TakeOffwas the company he’d helped to start – and it meant as much to him as Discerning Designs meant to her.
