by Iles, Jo
It occurred to her that Daniel hadn’t even asked her about Harry. Wouldn’t that be a normal thing to ask if he had the emotional capacity of a normal person?
By the time Holly had got back home, she was absolute and one-hundred-percent resolved to have nothing more to do with Daniel Madison in a romantic sense ever again. Yes, he was Harry’s father, and she would encourage Harry to see him if that’s what he wanted. But she and Daniel were done. Completely finished. She would be civil for Harry’s sake, and perhaps one day they could turn this current shambles into a friendship of some sort. But nothing more.
As far as Holly was now concerned, those divorce papers couldn’t come soon enough.
Part 2
Chapter 1
Daniel was at a loss. The great Daniel Madison, famed for being eternally calm and contained. And now, for only the second time in his life, the control that usually pervaded every aspect of his being had gone completely AWOL. As he looked out of his office window, down from his tower in the sky, he spied the cause of all his inner turmoil: his wife. Or, to put it more correctly: his soon-to-be ex-wife. Holly was getting in her clapped-out rustbucket of a car, looking as polished as he’d ever seen her. There was something about the way her smart and sexy exterior contradicted with the tiredness of her car that he knew she would have found aesthetically pleasing. Where Daniel just saw a piece of junk, Holly would see something deeper. Experiences and memories. Maybe that was why he’d asked her to redesign his house. To put more depth and meaning into it. When he’d first considered it, he’d regarded it as nothing more than a business experiment. A gamble to try and win yet more business and make more money. But the more he thought about Holly spending time in his house, and ultimately more time with him, he wasn’t so sure it was only business that was his real motive.
Since he’d reconnected with Holly, she’d thrown a considerable-sized spanner into his streamlined and ruffle-free life. He’d originally sought her out to find out about the son his mother had kept from him. He’d always wondered what had happened to Holly and her unborn child after she’d deserted him and run out on their marriage. But he’d never wondered hard enough. After a while, whenever he found his mind thinking about Holly, he’d simply deluded himself into assuming that she would have seen sense at some point and done what he’d expected her to do all along: terminate the pregnancy. Fatherhood was never something that had held much appeal to Daniel, and he’d made that viewpoint crystal clear to Holly before they got married.
Yet, despite being on the pill, Holly had somehow fallen pregnant—most likely through a lack of care and attention on her part. Or so that was what Daniel thought. He was furious when she told him. He could recall everything about her on that day. Her white cotton sundress. Her nervous smile. Her foolish naïveté, thinking that he would actually be pleased. Then her heartbroken face when she realised that he wasn’t pleased. At the time, Daniel had felt like she’d committed the ultimate betrayal. It was like she’d deliberately tried to trap him into being someone he didn’t want to be; someone he’d never had any intention of being. She knew his stance on children. And yet, there she was. Happy with the news.
Daniel looked into her eyes that day, and he knew she’d go. She’d defied him once already, and he knew she wouldn’t stay around long to try to convince him. And he also knew he’d do nothing to stop her. Even so, her disappearing act on him whilst he was at work one day just compounded the betrayal he’d felt. After a week of sulking, he realised he missed his wife something chronic. But when he tried to find her, it seemed there was nothing to find. She’d successfully disappeared into thin air—her trail had gone cold.
He’d been cut-up then, feeling truly out of control for the first time in his life. He’d spent months trying to find her, on and off, until his mother finally managed to persuade him to stop. Meanwhile his business had gone down the drain, and Miranda had stepped into the void in his life. First as a business partner, and then, over time, something more. She’d become the constant that eventually ceased his wondering about the whereabouts of his wife.
It wasn’t until after his mother’s death—and the subsequent discovery of Holly’s letters—that Daniel had felt curious again. It had turned out that Holly had kept the baby—and that he had a son. Harry. With uncharacteristic nerves and trepidation he’d looked Holly up again, on the premise of meeting his son. And to his surprise, meeting Harry had proved to be a better experience than he’d ever expected possible. Although knowing that he was now a father hadn’t exactly caused a massive turnaround in his thinking, each time he saw Harry something deep inside him softened a little, and he couldn’t help himself. Limited as his experience was so far, being a father hadn’t turned out to be the end-of-the-world catastrophe that he’d always thought it would be.
Yet as exciting as it had been to meet Harry, his son, he’d encountered something completely and utterly surprising in Holly. Daniel had always felt there was some unfinished business between them. For a start, they were still technically married. He had hoped that in finding his son he would finally be able to draw a line under his relationship with Holly once and for all—and move on. But the instant he’d clapped eyes on his estranged wife he’d fought a losing battle to keep his hands off her. True, Daniel was a flirt, but he’d never once been unfaithful to Miranda since they’d been together. Yet two encounters with Holly, and both resulted in sex.
There was that word again, he mused to himself, still gazing out the window in the direction Holly had driven. Unfaithful. That was the word Holly had used to describe what he’d done with her. Funny how he didn’t actually see it that way. A part of him still thought of himself as being married to Holly, and he found it all too easy to rationalise it to himself by saying that he wasn’t being unfaithful if it was with his wife. Of course, he knew that Miranda might have a slightly different view of the matter, if she ever found out. Something else was bugging Daniel, though. There had been a judgmental insinuation in Holly’s words and tone, suggesting that she thought being unfaithful was something par for the course for him. That was why Holly was so damn infuriating. She clearly didn’t know him if she thought he would be stupid enough to risk his relationship and his business with Miranda with just anyone.
‘It was just sex,’ Daniel had told himself—and continuously repeated to himself every time he thought about Holly. Which had been more often than he cared to admit. After the second time in her office, he’d run straight back to Miranda and proposed to her, in a fit of guilt and anxiety, to reassert some of his former self-control. In fact, he felt pretty proud of himself for being so restrained during his birthday weekend. Of course, there had been that kiss. That kiss that had almost melted away the very last remnants of his resolve. But he’d come back from the brink, held firm, and walked away. Eventually.
Miranda was definitely the type of woman Daniel knew he needed. Miranda was both ruthless and astute, as well as being extremely pleasing to the eye. She had proved herself an able business partner, deftly making the transition from being his PA to being his sole supporter and financier for the development business. She was essentially a female version of him. They rarely argued, seeing eye to eye on pretty much everything. Plus, she wasn’t the least bit maternal: she quite firmly shared Daniel’s unwavering stance on parenthood. Or, that was, until recently: when his unwavering stance had become a considerable wobble, thanks to Harry coming into his life. Miranda was the woman for him. She was everything he could possibly ever need.
Holly, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more different from Miranda if she’d tried. She was argumentative, hard-headed. Even more so, it seemed, since she’d had Harry. Sure, he’d loved her to bits when they’d first gotten together, but this new Holly acted like a different person. She was proving to be a constant challenge, requiring continual negotiation and inevitable compromise. Daniel hated compromising. Or at least, he thought he always had. With Holly, this second time around, he didn’t seem to mind
quite so much. She was ballsy and brave. Becoming a mother had obviously been the making of her.
And when it came to fooling around with Holly, Daniel didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He liked her fierceness. He liked her for standing up to him and Miranda, and this wasn’t something he usually considered an admirable quality. And Jesus, he liked the woman’s body. She was sexy as hell, and yet she didn’t seem to have the foggiest idea just how sexy she really was. Miranda was sexy, too, but she knew it, and subsequently used her sex appeal to her advantage all the time. Holly was a completely different entity altogether. There was definitely something magnetic about Holly Percival—as she was calling herself these days. Now she was even threatening his business, and yet all Daniel could think in response was, go on then, if it means I get to see and play with you some more. He was just remembering the way Holly had looked in her tight black dress at his birthday party when Miranda barged into his office, bringing him out of a rather pleasant and increasingly graphic daydream.
‘So,’ she said, hands on hips.
‘So… what?’ Daniel replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets deliberately to add to his insolence. He rooted himself to his spot by the window defiantly, refusing to budge.
‘What did you say to that trumped-up money-grabber?’ Miranda demanded, eyeing him carefully. It occurred to Daniel for the first time that she must have her suspicions.
‘Don’t speak about her that way,’ Daniel scolded her coldly. ‘She’s still my wife, and more importantly the mother of my child. Need I remind you that she hasn’t once asked for money.’
‘Until now,’ Miranda bitched. ‘Look, Daniel darling. Let’s not fight about her,’ Miranda said soothingly, switching from viper to pussycat in the blink of an eye.
‘Let’s not,’ Daniel replied stiffly.
‘Don’t look so stressed,’ Miranda said as she sashayed towards him, threading her arms through his to hug him. He automatically rested his head on top of hers, inhaling the expensive scent of her shampoo.
‘I know it must be hard for you,’ Daniel conceded as his body relaxed into his fiancée’s.
‘Nonsense,’ Miranda sighed. ‘This will all be over soon. Once your divorce is finalised, we can move on and start planning our future. You and me.’
‘Can’t wait,’ Daniel said, consciously removing any doubt from his voice as he hugged Miranda closer.
‘Just promise me one thing,’ Miranda said, pulling away slightly so she could look at him.
‘Anything.’
‘Promise that you’ll spend as little time as possible with Holly. I know you may want to see Harry, but she doesn’t need to be a part of the equation.’
‘I promise. Like I’d want to spend time with her anyway,’ Daniel said, simultaneously smiling and lying through his teeth to appease the woman in front of him.
‘Good,’ Miranda said, smiling broadly, obviously having heard what she’d been wanting to hear. Daniel leaned in and kissed her deeply to hide any hint of confusion that may have crossed his features. He loved Miranda, he told himself, forcing any thoughts of what it would be like to kiss Holly in his office back into the dark and unexplored areas of his mind. He knew he shouldn’t, but he thought maybe he’d explore those areas later when he was alone.
Chapter 2
It was Friday morning, and for Daniel, it had been a long and interminably tedious week. He was looking forward to a quiet weekend, and even though it was his own company he was working for, he was already guilty of clock-watching. Miranda had some family party, which he thankfully wasn’t being forced to attend, and that meant he’d have the house to himself and plenty of football on the TV to keep him going. It had been a busy week, one in which he felt like he was continually fighting fires: troubleshooting build issues on multiple projects and then dealing with some staffing issues that had arisen out of nowhere. He’d also had to sit Miranda down for a serious heart-to-heart about the compensation package he’d promised Holly for using her designs. Miranda hadn’t exactly been ecstatic about any of it, but she had eventually agreed to his numbers, albeit through gritted teeth. He’d since instructed his solicitor to deliver the compensation deal, as well as to proceed with the divorce papers and settlement as quickly as possible.
Daniel hadn’t heard a peep from Holly, but then, he hadn’t really expected to. He guessed she’d probably want to think about the offer before she no doubt came back with queries, or something else that needed further negotiation and compromise on his part. It was only in his dreams that she’d been present. All week he’d been plagued with unusually vivid dreams starring Holly. He’d dreamed all manner of things about her: Holly camping, Holly baking a cake, Holly climbing a never-ending ladder, Holly in bed with him asleep, Holly in the shower. There had been nothing sexual in his dreams, much to Daniel’s annoyance. That would have made for a better quality of dream altogether, and would have been much easier to explain away. But no, all the scenarios he’d been able to remember pertained to ordinary everyday life. Boring everyday life. Even so, a little voice inside was asking: why was he dreaming about Holly in such situations? Shouldn’t it be Miranda he should be dreaming about performing these everyday tasks? That same little voice had even escaped into the real world at one point during the week, when he’d asked Miranda if she’d ever baked a cake. She looked at him like he’d fallen out of his tree and then cracked up laughing. She’d exclaimed, in a typical Miranda-like way, that that was ‘what the staff were for’.
Daniel was just looking at his phone, urging its digital clock to fast-forward through the remainder of his day, when, as if by magic, it started ringing.
‘Claudia. I thought I said to hold all my calls,’ he snapped irritably into the phone.
‘I’m sorry sir, but I have Mrs Madison on the line for you. She was most insistent she be put through to you.’
‘Oh, okay,’ Daniel replied, surprised on two counts. One, that she was calling, and two, that she had used her married name. ‘Put her through.’
‘Hi Holly,’ he said smoothly, once the line had connected. ‘Everything alright?’ He attempted to sound casual as an image of them cooking dinner together flashed through his mind—which was weird, as he rarely cooked these days. He actually quite liked cooking, but he just didn’t do it so much anymore. Not since he’d gotten together with Miranda anyway. She was more a Michelin-starred eateries fan than a home-cooked meal kind of gal. And if they did stay in, Stephanie would usually cook for them.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ Holly began, making no attempt at small talk or pleasantries.
‘Okay,’ Daniel replied, fighting the urge to make a joke about how that must have been painful.
‘I’ll do your house,’ Holly announced.
‘You will?’ Daniel said, surprised.
‘Yes. But on one condition,’ Holly continued.
‘What’s that?’ Daniel said slowly. She was doing that negotiation thing again.
‘I only want to work on it outside of my usual office hours. My workload is just too packed at the moment. So that means evenings and weekends.’
‘That’s fine by me,’ Daniel said automatically, without thinking through what he was saying—and the consequences for him when Miranda found out. Seeing Holly on evenings and weekends wasn’t exactly sticking to his promise of spending a minimal amount of time with the woman.
‘You do realise Harry will have to come along for the ride, don’t you?’ Holly said, with an edge of triumph in her voice. She knew she’d caught him out.
‘Of course I do,’ Daniel lied. Being a father was still so new to him that the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. Being a father was one thing, but thinking like a father twenty-four seven was going to take some time.
‘And Harry’s fine, by the way. Thank you for asking,’ Holly added, sticking her knife in further.
‘I was just about to ask, actually,’ Daniel lied again. ‘But I couldn’t get a word in edgewise.’
‘W
hat time do you want us?’ Holly asked, ignoring his jibe.
‘What—tonight?’ Daniel asked, seeing his soccer evening rapidly disappearing off into the distance.
‘Is that a problem?’ she said impatiently.
‘No, I guess not,’ Daniel said, unable to mask his disappointment. All he really wanted to do was stretch out on his couch. Choosing new fabrics and cushions wasn’t really the start to his weekend that he’d anticipated.
‘I thought you’d like to spend some time with your son,’ Holly said in a condescending tone, still twisting that knife of hers. ‘Much better than watching whatever football match or matches you had in mind,’ she added.
‘I’d love to spend time with Harry. How about six-ish?’ Daniel said, answering her earlier question.
‘Fine. I’d like to see the house at sunset anyway. See how the light works,’ Holly said, sounding less argumentative.
‘Maybe I’ll cook,’ Daniel offered, as that image of them cooking made a reappearance.
‘Yeah, whatever works for you,’ Holly said dismissively. ‘Oh, you might want to get some sausages in then, because that’s all he’s eating this week.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ Daniel said, sounding more like a father.
‘I have to go. See you around six,’ Holly said, and hung up without even waiting for him to respond.
Daniel looked at the dead receiver in his hand. The sceptic in him wondered what had prompted Holly’s call. Was she really coming to do his house? Or was there an ulterior motive at play? Whatever game she was playing, Daniel couldn’t help but feeling a little excited about the prospect of seeing her again, even if he did have to forgo his first-choice plans. And then there was Harry, of course. He must not forget about Harry. The more he thought about it, the more fortuitous he felt. Miranda was out of his hair for the weekend, and Holly wanted to come and do his house. It was obviously meant to be. Miranda would never have to know a thing.