Page 89 of The Life Daisy Devlin Designed
She shrugged. “I mean, if I’d come up with a cool idea, I think I’d want to get funding for it myself.”
“Fuck sake, Daisy, whose side are you on? We’re making them an offer they can’t refuse. We need this!” He pushed a hand through his hair. “This is more than us just having a bad year. Ethical travel is the next big thing, and we’ll be expanding it to include hotels, restaurants, shops, holiday experiences. It’s next level stuff!”
“Why are you shouting at me, James?”
“I’m not shouting!” James took a deep breath. “I’m not shouting,” he said more quietly.
“Fine.” Daisy folded her arms. “Maybe you’ll make so much money, we won’t need to rent out our spare room anymore.”
It was meant flippantly but, judging by James’ expression, she’d made things worse.
He gave a tiny shake of his head. “Look, do you want me to order a pizza or something?”
This is important for him, Daisy, don’t ruin it.“Sure. Why don’t I message Alma? Ask if she wants some too.”
“Probably be better if I message her.” He didn’t meet her eye as he took out his phone.
Of course it would be, Daisy thought.Silly me.To her relief, her phone rang, and she fished it out of her pocket. “It’s Rosie. I’ll leave Alma to you.”
CHAPTER 41
Daisy spent most of Saturday morning trawling through Dublin’s antique shops to find some authentic pieces for Granary House. Even though Alma had mentioned that she’d be spending the day in the college library, Daisy was relieved to get out of the house.
The previous evening, Alma had agreed to pizza, and James had managed to get her talking about her childhood in Sweden. As Daisy had listened to them chat, it struck her that James and Alma were kindred spirits.
There had been one brief, awful moment where Alma had asked her where she was working in Wicklow. Thanks to Kayley, she was pretty sure Matt was publicly linked to the place now, and it definitely hadn’t been the right time forthatconversation with James.
“Er, Glaston House.” She’d glanced over at James, but he’d only seemed politely interested. She’d hated that she was lying to him – but they were lying to each other.
Now, she photographed a few items of furniture and sent the pictures to Matt. Almost immediately, he replied with a thumbs-up, and she paid and arranged to have them delivered.
By lunch, she’d found herself in a newly opened furniture shop off the Portobello Road, which sold a mix of genuine antiques and good second-hand pieces. She’d look through everything, she thought, grab some lunch and then head over to Ballsbridge, where she’d managed to persuade James to view a luxury new showhouse with her.
After the previous night, she’d hesitated about asking him. It was normally the sort of thing she did with Laura, or sometimes with a client looking for ideas. But she’d told him that she wanted them to spend more time together and, to her surprise, he had agreed.
Daisy wandered through the shop, inspecting occasional tables, dressers, and chairs. Every surface was covered with rattan baskets, old pottery, silver services, old costume jewellery, gilt-edged mirrors, fun, cheap prints and ornately framed paintings.
She ran her hand lightly over a mother-of-pearl hair set, before reaching for a beautifully strung locket at the same time as a heavily pregnant woman.
“Sorry, go ahead,” Daisy urged.
“No, it’d look much better on you!” The woman gestured to Daisy’s flared skirt and short, knit top. “You’ve got amazing style.”
Daisy started to reply when Laura appeared from the back of the shop.“Daisy!”
“Laura!” This was perfect! They could go for lunch! “I discovered this place today! Are you shopping for a client or ...” Daisy stopped, noticing that the other woman was regarding them both with interest.
“No, just browsing.Em, this is a friend of mine, Stephanie Ryan. Stephanie, this is Daisy Devlin, my business partner.”
“Friend and business partner!” Daisy beamed and stuck out her hand. “Lovely to meet you, Stephanie. I heard Laura’s redesigning your place to make it ready for a family! Congratulations, by the way. My sister has twins, but triplets is wild! At least you’ll be fit – I’ve heard that helps.”
Stephanie shook her hand. “Lovely to meet you too.” She gave a nervous laugh. “I’m not sure how fit I am, but my mother’s going to be staying for the first six weeks to help us out. After that, I guess we’ll muddle through.”
“Oh, I just meant all that running will help. My sister played tennis before she had her twins, but she doesn’t get as much time now.”
Stephanie frowned. “Well, I don’t – ”
“– really have time to chat because we’re meeting that photographer in half an hour across town,” Laura said firmly. “For the baby photos, remember?”
