Sunshine at Daisy's Guesthouse

by Lottie Phillips

  Chapter 15

  She must have fell into a deep sleep because she thought it still the middle of the night when Lisa pounced on her.

  ‘Wakey-wakey!’ Lisa sat on Daisy’s weary legs. ‘You slacker.’

  Daisy looked at the clock. 9 a.m. ‘Holy crap, breakfast!’

  ‘It’s alright, sleepyhead. Tom whipped up pancakes and has fed the masses.’ Lisa grinned. ‘How many children do Annabelle and her friend actually have? They must have been going at it like rabbits.’

  ‘Yeah, well,’ Daisy said, a sour taste filling her mouth. ‘She can’t wait to get into bed with James. Or maybe she has, maybe my plan was all too late.’

  ‘Plan?’ Lisa arched a brow. ‘And is this because you’re madly in love with James?’

  ‘Am not!’ Daisy threw a pillow at her friend’s head.

  ‘Yeah, and does the Pope kiss tarmac?’ Lisa cocked her head to one side. ‘Actually James is in a right piss this morning and there’s been no sign of Annabelle.’

  ‘I saw them last night. Annabelle probably has a raging hangover and James is probably still reeling from my news…’

  ‘News?’ Lisa leaned in, intrigued.

  ‘Alistair and I are going on a second date.’

  Lisa released a raucous laugh. ‘Well, that’s brilliant!’

  ‘James clearly doesn’t think so.’

  ‘OK, not being funny, but what’s it to do with him? It’s good to see you getting out. Anyway, a date doesn’t equal marriage.’ She sniggered. ‘Because if it does, Bob and I are married, have had a million children, reached our Golden anniversary and probably about to snuff it.’

  Daisy filled Lisa in on last night’s events.

  ‘I think that Ali and I would make good companions.’

  Lisa’s turn to throw the pillow at Daisy. ‘Companions?’ She rolled her eyes. ‘You can meet people at village clubs if you want, you don’t need to date a complete stranger, who ordinarily lives at the other end of the country, to make a point.’

  ‘Listen,’ Daisy said seriously, ‘he opened up to me last night…’

  ‘Yeah, I should bloody think so, after lying to everyone about who you are!’

  Daisy had to release a nervous laugh despite the gnawing in her stomach. ‘No, I mean later on he opened up too, and I can relate to him. Like I totally get what he’s been up against.’

  Lisa stood. ‘I think you’re mad. If you want to date him because you like him, then that’s great. But for the sake of companionship?’

  Daisy pouted. ‘Bit rich coming from Miss Dive-into-the-first-guest’s-pants.’

  Lisa stared, mouth open. ‘You cannot compare my relationship to yours!’ She paused. ‘I’m not trying to make another man jealous!’

  ‘What on earth do you mean?’ Daisy’s voice grew louder

  ‘James, it’s so clear you adore him so don’t compare me to you, Daisy Ronaldson. Your relationship is ludicrous, mine is love.’ Lisa turned on her heels. ‘I’m going out.’

  ‘Lisa, don’t be like this. Let’s not argue over stupid men.’ She smiled at Lisa as she turned back. ‘I shouldn’t have said what I did. You’re right mine is ridiculous and I will put a stop to it before it gets out of—’

  ‘O. M. G.’ hollered Tom up the stairs. ‘You are kidding me!’ Tom’s footsteps could be heard bounding up the stairs and then Daisy’s door burst open. ‘You’ve got a second date!’ He ran over to her and hugged her tight. ‘You do not waste time, my love.’

  Lisa gave her one last look and left as Tom sat and asked if he could be the bridesmaid at their inevitable wedding.

  ‘Well, the thing is, Tom,’ she started to say when James barged his way in with a tray of toast, orange juice and coffee with a flower in a small vase. He barely glanced at her, but slammed the tray down on the bedside table, orange juice sloshing over the side of the glass.

  ‘Breakfast,’ he said gruffly, pointing at the tray.

  ‘Um, thanks, James,’ she said. ‘That’s really kind of you.’

  ‘Not my idea, it was Annabelle’s.’ His face remained stony. ‘Hence the flower.’

  ‘Oh, well, thank you.’ Daisy tried to catch his eye but he wasn’t giving her anything.

  ‘Annabelle and I are going out to lunch,’ he said and Daisy felt that familiar lurching in her stomach. ‘So I’m going to go and book somewhere now.’

  ‘Oh, well…’ Daisy didn’t manage to finish her sentence once again as there was a brief, polite knock at the door. ‘At least someone around here has manners.’

  Alistair appeared around the side of the door. ‘Good morning, Daisy,’ he said, a formality to his voice. He looked at Tom and then let his eyes rest on Daisy. ‘I hear we are going on a second date.’

  Daisy nearly snorted with now excruciatingly nervous laughter. The ridiculousness of the situation was like being in a very vivid, Nineties happy pill state of mind. If a doctor had appeared over her bed and said, ‘Don’t worry, Mrs Ronaldson, you’re tripping out. Or as we would describe it officially, you’re experiencing a transient mind state.’

  ‘Yes, we are.’ She nodded and then suddenly feeling very self-conscious, pulled the duvet up over her gaping nightdress. ‘Would everyone mind just giving me some time to get changed and then I’ll come see you, Ali. Is that OK?’

  ‘Of course, it’s just I don’t actually, you know, expect you to—’

  She broke him off mid-sentence, just as he had done to her last night. ‘Yes, I know, you don’t want it to sound so serious when you’ve only asked me on a second date, it’s just that—’

  ‘He’s got you summed up pretty well.’ Tom grinned. ‘Daisy doesn’t know how to do casual.’

  ‘Do too.’ She pouted.

  ‘Have you ever had a fling?’ Tom pushed. ‘Have you ever just snogged someone because you could?’

  ‘Well, not that I can remember,’ admitted Daisy, ‘but at university I was either clubbing and high as a kite, then soon after university I was married.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘We haven’t all led the same liberal existence as you, my friend.’

  Tom kissed Daisy on the cheeks. ‘Aw shucks, thanks babe.’ He grabbed Alistair’s hand. ‘Let’s leave the beast to become the beauty.’ Alistair followed like an obedient puppy, looking somewhat dazed.

  This time Daisy shot the pillow at Tom as she fell about laughing.

  ‘I’ll come and find you,’ she said more gently to Alistair. ‘Give me half an hour.’

  It was a gloriously sunny day and she opened the shutters to her room wide, allowing the warmth of the sun to sink into her skin. She looked out the window at Annabelle’s children playing hide and seek and James showing one of the girls a rosebud about to bloom. She ran herself a bath with oil she used only on special occasions. Then once bathed, she put on a hint of blusher and lip tint and chose the most flattering pale blue dress she owned. It had a tie-waist that she hoped made her look womanly, and not like a ribbon keeping a Christmas cracker’s goodies in place.

  With one final glance in the mirror, she decided she didn’t look a day over sixty, and as she stepped from her room she took a deep cleansing breath.

  She found Alistair sat in the drawing room looking undeniably anxious.

  ‘Daisy,’ he breathed heavily as he rose from his chair. ‘Can we talk? Please.’ He wrung his hands. ‘I’m a bit confused.’

  ‘What? As about confused as I was when I thought I was going on a supper date and instead found myself in the middle of your birthday party?’

  He hung his head. ‘I know, I truly am so sorry.’ He looked up at her. ‘Is this why you’re doing this? To get back at me?’

  Daisy shook her head and took his hand, inviting him to sit next to her. ‘Well, I was thinking that maybe us dating one another wouldn’t be such a bad idea.’

  He furrowed his brows. ‘Why?’

  ‘Well, I know it sounds daft, but you are under a certain amount of pressure to find the right woman and I clearly can’t be all bad or, tru
st me, Hugh wouldn’t have touched me with a barge pole.’

  Alistair smiled at this.

  ‘And I do get lonely, even though I’m surrounded by my friends now, it’s still not quite the same as being with someone. So,’ she paused, ‘we could be companions.’

  ‘Why do we need to date to be companions?’ He looked confused and Daisy had to admit his point was valid.

  ‘Well, I guess we don’t, but if you want people to stop piling pressure on you to find the one and I want people to stop waiting for me to move on… it might just work.’

  She watched his face soften and then he chuckled. ‘Well, it would save me the bother of now having to announce our relationship as over.’ He smiled. ‘Not sure why I did it… I think that if you had been the one to supposedly break it off, I thought people would feel sorry for me. In actual fact, I’m pretty sure they’d let me be for a few weeks and then the matchmaking would start all over again.’

  She pushed her hand through her hair, suddenly feeling somewhat self-conscious. ‘I mean we don’t have to share a bedroom or anything like that…’

  Alistair blushed. ‘Not that it wouldn’t be nice to sometimes…’

  ‘Oh, absolutely,’ Daisy agreed, wishing she could keep that desperate tone out of her voice whenever she talked about sex. Sex nowadays was like a foreign language. She was pretty sure she needed to go back to school to learn the basics. Sex with Hugh, well… whilst she had loved him dearly, he had never been one for anything spontaneous. Their lovemaking took on a rigid routine of its own. She had never imagined she would end up marrying someone who had to carefully place his trousers in the trouser press and line his shoes up before any action took place.

  ‘I mean, look, we’re in our forties. This could be a good thing for people of our age.’ She noticed Alistair visibly flinch.

  ‘I don’t consider that to be old. Do you actually feel any different to how you did when you were in your twenties?’

  She heard people stamping past the door to the drawing room and she wanted to tell them all to mind their own business. There was the sound of suppressed laughter too but she tried to ignore whatever was happening on the other side of the door.

  She considered this. ‘No, I suppose not.’ She laughed. ‘Though my bed looks more and more inviting and not for sex… and parts of my body have started hurting that I didn’t even know I had.’ She smiled. ‘And I’ve started complaining about the youth.’

  He joined in her laughter. ‘Well, I guess I can understand all of those.’ He held up his hands. ‘No wait, one more…’

  ‘Go on…’ Daisy grinned.

  ‘Someone invited me to Glastonbury last year and the thought of camping and those loos filled me with horror.’ He pushed his hand through his hair. ‘So I stayed in a four star hotel up the road. It took me that long to get to the site I missed most of the acts but I slept bloody well.’

  ‘You see,’ she said, ‘we’re a match made in heaven. Frankly, I think you were brave to actually even go to Glastonbury.’

  ‘No, it was fun,’ he admitted. ‘But yeah, probably even more fun when you’re twenty-something.’

  ‘Anyway, listen, I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life.’

  His face grew serious. ‘No, I often think how much that scares me, being alone for the rest of my life. It’s not to say I don’t like my own company or love my friends’ company for that matter but it would be nice to have someone to share a bottle of wine with in the evening.’

  Daisy took his hand. ‘Look, maybe it was meant to be.’ She smiled.

  His face lit up. ‘Yes, maybe I’m not such an idiot after all.’

  ‘Oh no, you’re still that and I will never let you forget what you did but it’s oddly romantic.’

  ‘Right, shall we go and join everyone?’ He stood, his hand still in hers. ‘Well, I mean the two people in the world who don’t already know.’

  ‘Your friends knew before I did.’ She chuckled. ‘Let’s go.’

  They walked out hand in hand towards the garden where there appeared to be a hive of activity. As they walked out, Daisy was taken aback to find a lot of familiar stood on her lawn, as well as Lisa and Bob, Tom and the Dream Team and a scattering of others she didn’t recognise.

  ‘Here they are!’ Tom hollered and whooped. ‘The happy couple!’

  Daisy was confused and through gritted teeth, asked, ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘I’ve thrown you a dating party.’

  ‘Is that an actual thing?’

  Tom put his arm around her shoulders. ‘It’s all the rage in London.’

  Daisy was once again ensconced in a party where she had no idea how she came to be one of the guests of honour.

  Alistair grew increasingly confident in his role as her boyfriend and his face shone with happiness and pride. Daisy felt her stomach flip with guilt; why couldn’t she embrace the situation like he had? She knew it was her idea after all.

  Tom ensured the Saturday brunch party flowed seamlessly and the Dream Team, it turned out, were a dab hand at creating canapés from scraps in the fridge. Between them they kept wine from Hugh’s ever depleting cellar flowing and everyone appeared to be having a jolly time. In a brief moment of quiet, Daisy decided to slip back indoors and have some time alone. She looked at Alistair and wondered what his hobbies were and what sort of music he was into…

  Once inside the quiet of the house, she escaped upstairs to Hugh’s study. She noticed the door was slightly ajar and gently pushed it open. James was sat in the big leather armchair opposite the sofa, the same chair he had always sat in when he had stayed over and he and Hugh had talked for hours into the night. Daisy had often left them to put the world to rights and gone to bed.

  ‘James,’ she said, her voice tinged with irritation. ‘I thought we all agreed that no one was to come in here.’

  He nodded, clearly armed for this. ‘I know, I know.’

  ‘Then why are you here?’

  He took a deep breath. ‘Because I think you’re making a huge mistake and I don’t think Hugh would have been happy.’

  Daisy shut the door behind her, her hand momentarily resting on the oak panels. ‘Please don’t say that, James.’ Her eyes welled with suppressed tears. ‘Please.’

  ‘Well, you know it’s true.’

  She turned on him, anger bubbling up inside her. ‘No, I don’t know it’s true, James. You kept giving me letters from Hugh, telling me he wanted me to be happy. He wanted me to find love again.’

  James laughed sardonically. ‘And you’re happy? You don’t even know him.’

  ‘You make it sound like we’ve agreed to get married!’ She paused. ‘And I know he’s a kind and gentle man who is lonely.’

  James stood, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Can you hear yourself, Daisy? It’s utterly ridiculous … the whole thing. He was a guest for one night and, as far as I know, you two didn’t…’

  ‘How do you know?’ she challenged, even though he was quite right.

  ‘OK, fine, let’s say you did.’ His face clouded with anger. ‘But still, one week later, you two are infatuated? He hasn’t even been here for the week.’ He clenched his jaw. ‘It’s just…’ He searched for the word. ‘It is just desperate.’

  Daisy took a few steps closer to him. ‘Desperate?’ A sob escaped her lips. ‘Desperate? That’s what you think of me?’ She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘I thought Hugh asked for you to look out for me.’ She stepped closer again, his face inches from her own. ‘To protect me. Not make me feel like crap.’

  He brought his face closer to hers, his breath juddering. ‘Exactly, Daisy, I’m trying to protect you.’

  ‘Are you? Or are you letting your own perceived ideas of how life should go blur your vision? Because—’ her eyes met his glistening eyes, filled with emotion ‘—all I’m seeing is a man who refuses to let his dead best friend’s wife get on with her life. I am pretty sure that Hugh would tel
l you to back off if he could hear you now.’

  ‘No, he wouldn’t,’ he said, with such confidence, Daisy was momentarily taken aback.

  ‘How can you be so sure?’

  ‘Because…’ he started, his lips now unbearably close to her own. ‘Because…’

  She found herself leaning in, her eyes closing and then as his lips brushed hers, she heard Alistair’s voice on the stairs, calling out to her.

  ‘Daisy, are you up here?’

  Daisy jolted back to the now, her eyes still locked on James.

  ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have…’ James started. ‘I just can’t help the way I feel…’

  She wiped her lips with back of her hand. ‘I don’t know what’s going on, James,’ she said quietly. ‘But you can’t stop me from moving on, from being happy.’

  He looked at her, motionless. ‘Daisy…’

  ‘No, I have to go.’ She walked fast to the door, her back to James. ‘Please can you go too? This is not a place for you to come and sit.’

  He didn’t say anything, just walked wordlessly up behind her and she stood aside, not meeting his gaze.

  ‘Daisy, I…’ He put his hand gently on her shoulder.

  ‘Please, don’t.’ Tears blurred her vision and she resisted every fibre of her being telling her to turn around and collapse into his firm hold.

  ‘I just don’t think you need to date a man you don’t know.’ He lowered his voice. ‘You’ve got all of us… you’ve got me.’

  The lump in her throat meant she was unable to speak and he continued.

  ‘I just think it’s a bit out of the blue, a bit out of character.’ He paused. ‘It was only a couple of weeks ago you read your card from Hugh on your anniversary and you seemed…’

  She turned now, their faces once again inches from each other. ‘What is this, James? I thought Hugh asked you to look out for me, to ensure I was happy? It seems you want to dictate to me what I can and can’t do.’