Page 95 of The Life Daisy Devlin Designed
She hesitated, hugging the box a bit tighter to her. She shouldn’t listen – it was none of her business. Maybe just for a minute ...
For a few moments she listened for another voice, but when she only heard Matt’s, she realised he must be on the phone.
“I made a big mistake ... totally screwed up, Charlie ... see her today ... I don’t know if she …”
Daisy held her breath. He was talking to his brother.About her!
“... not that easy ...”
Daisy’s mind raced to catch up with her heartbeat. He’d just said he’d made a mistake breaking up with her. Hadn’t he? What else could it be? He said he was going to see her today! Here she was – he was going to see her in a couple of minutes! She didn’t know if she was ready. Sounded like he was going to ask for a second chance.
Matt had stopped talking. Shit, she couldn’t be standing here if he walked around to the front of the house. Except if he wanted to ask her something, maybe he’d see it as a sign that she was here, on her own, standing in the driveway! Crap, maybe not, though. She heard the crunch of gravel, and sped to the open front door. Inside, she put down the box and tried to calm her breathing.
She tried to rationalise her feelings. Did she want a second chance with him? What would that even look like? The sameas before? Maybe she’d move into Granary House with him.Interior architect finds second-chance happiness with her first love and lives happily-ever-after in heraward-winning dream home.But she didn’t want to hurt James! Except would she be hurting him when all the signs …
She went back out to the car.
Matt had started to unpack it for her.
“Oh, hi.” She flicked her hair, hoping he’d put her flushed face down to the exertion of carrying boxes.
“Hi, yourself.” He grinned. “I assume we’re taking all this in?”
“Yes.”Work talk: safe.“These are the finishing touches. I always buy them in person. It’s one of my favourite parts of the job.” She sounded a bit breathless, she realised.Breathe, Daisy.
“Because it means you’re nearly finished?” He pulled a sad face but, when she laughed, said, “I should have asked you to completely redesign the guest wing.”
Was this the moment? If all the signs were there, shouldn’t she be sure? She lifted two more bags out of the back of the car and followed him into the house.
“I’ve something for you, hang on.”
Oh my God, what?
He went into the study, and re-emerged with what looked like a large painting covered in brown paper. “I thought you might like it.”
Daisy tore down a small corner of the paper, her heart thumping as she tore the rest away to reveal a life-size painting of her younger self, sitting curled up in an armchair. She glanced up at Matt, then back down at the painting with her mother’s signature in the bottom right-hand corner. Peering closer, she recognised a small, silver star-shaped earring in her left ear. She’d made them when she’d been in college, but had only worn them for a short time before managing to lose them on a night out in Dublin.
“Mum painted this from a photo of me one Christmas when I was home.”
“It’s good,” said Matt. “She’s very talented.”
Daisy nodded. “She is.”
“You look like you’re trying to solve the world’s problems there,” he teased.
Only a few, she remembered. That had been the last Christmas she and Matt had been together before he’d left. As always, she’d invited him down to Oranmore for a few days and, as always, he’d refused.
As she stared at the painting, she wished she could travel back to that moment and warn her younger self that her life was about to go spectacularly wrong unless she could prevent a simple misunderstanding.
She looked up at Matt. “How did you get this?”
“Remember the day I was looking at that website to buy some art for the house, and you mentioned that your mum painted? Well, she has her own website.” He paused. “I wanted to try to make it up to you for thinking the worst of you that summer, Daisy. When I saw this, it felt like the right thing to do.”
She nodded, struggling to understand her feelings. It was a thoughtful gesture. But did he really think it could go any way towards “making it up” to her for believing the worst of her? And what had that conversation with Charlie been about? She shifted her weight, starting to feel a bit awkward as the silence stretched.
“Thanks.” She managed a small smile. “I’ll go put it in the car.”
Matt’s phone rang. “I have to take this, excuse me.”
