The door to the kitchen creaked, drawing her attention towards it, and she waved Daniel into the room when he stuck his head through the gap. She turned her attention back to the phone. It was still early, but her dad liked to get to his office before students started knocking and ruining his train of thought. She pictured him behind the big oak desk, which would be covered with precarious stacks of papers and books. His study at home had been worse, a no-go zone for them as girls in case they made a mess of the filing system only he seemed to understand.
‘I didn’t mean to upset you,’ he said again, sounding thoroughly miserable. Always more comfortable in the past than the present, the dusty remains of long-dead poets and scholars were his purview.
She sighed, knowing it was hopeless to wish for anything different. George Thorpe was too set in his ways to change. ‘I know, Dad. It was just that the mention of the Royal Brook caught me off guard. I haven’t been there since the accident.’ She swallowed hard and continued briskly. ‘Stupid little things like that set me off, but I’m okay.’
Silence greeted her and she could imagine him rubbing the lenses of his glasses on the front of his jumper as he tried to find something to say. ‘I didn’t think,’ he managed in the end, sounding forlorn, like a small boy scolded for some foolish transgression.
‘Forget it, Dad.’
‘I can see why visiting your mother would be hard. They’re taking very good care of her and it would be more useful to both of us if you saved your trip until she comes home.’
Mia sagged against the wall in relief. ‘And you’ll postpone your dinner?’
‘Oh, yes. Good job you reminded me. I’ll send the email now.’ She heard the clattering of his fingers on a keyboard.
‘All right. Will I call you in a few days then?’
‘Yes. Fine.’ He hesitated, then cleared his throat. ‘You’re a good girl, Eunomia. I’m not sure I ever told you that enough.’ Surprised how choked up she felt over his comment, Mia rang off.
She’d been half aware of Daniel moving around in the room behind her, but now she stared at the phone in her hand, not quite sure how to approach him. He saved her the trouble, turning her to face him with a gentle hand on her shoulder. He brushed a quick kiss against her temple.
Turning back towards the table, he took his customary seat and she could see he’d laid everything out for breakfast. She watched him pour tea into the mug in front of him then unfold the morning paper he must have retrieved from the front doormat. He looked at home. As it should be.
***
The next weekend dawned fine and dry and Daniel was grateful for the respite from the recent rain. He waited at the station, memories of his own journey down from London playing through his head. He wondered again what would have happened to him had Madeline not been in the same carriage as him. He shuddered to think at where he might have ended up, and scrolled through his phone to his browser to look for a local florist.
He found a number for one in the main town and racked his brain for Madeline’s address. Luckily the florist was the same one that Richard used and he was apparently a huge romantic as he had an account with them. The florist even gave Daniel some advice on which were Madeline’s favourite flowers.
On a whim, he ordered a dozen roses for Mia, and settled on mixed shades of pink after another helpful hint from the florist. White or cream was for weddings only and red was such a cliché, apparently. They’d been taking things steady since the night of her breakdown, nothing they couldn’t back away from, but a few tentative steps closer to the intimacy he grew ever more certain he wanted. He craved every connection with her. Nothing major, nothing they couldn’t walk back from without hurting each other. Simple things like when she’d rested her feet in his lap while they watched a film one evening. The peck on the cheek they used to greet each other in the mornings now.
Daniel reeled off his credit card details as the train approached. He thanked the florist as he raised his hand in greeting when he saw Aaron and Luke step onto the platform. He grinned and returned the bear hug from Aaron and shook hands with Luke.
‘You scared the crap out of me, Fitz! Don’t disappear on me like that again.’
‘It’s Daniel now, not Fitz.’
Aaron blinked once, then nodded. ‘About bloody time too. Welcome back, mate. I missed you.’ He tugged Daniel into another hug, thumping his shoulder a couple of times in the way men do rather than express too much emotion.
Daniel tried to process his friend’s response as he bent down to pick up his bag. He felt sick at the mess that he had abandoned in his wake and guilty that he had essentially dumped his most loyal friend to live the high life. Yet here he was, with almost no complaints, ready to pick up where they’d left off. Daniel had used and abused their friendship and there would need to be a lot of restitution soon.
He dropped the bag and it was his turn to gather Aaron in for a tight hug. ‘I’m sorry, mate. Truly I am. I’ve been such a selfish bastard.’ Daniel swallowed hard around the lump in his throat as Aaron stepped back but kept his hand on the back of Daniel’s neck and looked him straight in the eye.
‘It wasn’t a problem, Fit…Daniel. Sorry, that’s going to take a bit of getting used to. I’ve been worried about you for a while now and I was just glad that you had got out of town for a bit. That lifestyle was killing you and I couldn’t find a way to make you see it.’
Daniel shook his head and wondered again about fate bringing the right people into your life when you needed them. It had certainly done the trick when he and Aaron had ended up in neighbouring rooms during their first year at university.
Both new to London, they had little in common other than proximity and not knowing a single person in the city. Daniel, the gruff Northern lad from a loving, working-class background. Aaron the outgoing West Country boy with a bumpkin’s twang hiding a sharp brain and plenty of heartache. They had bonded over stock North-South divide jokes and taking the piss out of each other’s accents. A few ill-spent evenings followed by some extremely rough mornings and they had become fast friends. Best friends.
They reached the car and Daniel helped them stow their bags in the boot. ‘I really appreciate you guys coming down here. I know I’ve been a shitty friend, but I’m getting myself back together I hope.’
Aaron patted Daniel on the arm as Luke crawled into the back seat. ‘As I said, you weren’t right for a long time and I knew it but I didn’t know what to do about it. I had my own stuff going on and it was easier to drift away when you got in with that crowd. It wasn’t my scene but I should’ve tried harder to get you out of it rather than just backing away. Let’s say we both could’ve been better friends there for a while and leave it at that, okay?’
Daniel felt a bit choked up and he grabbed Aaron for another quick, hard hug.
‘Pack it in, you two love birds,’ Luke yelled out the window. ‘I want to meet this woman who’s turned you on your head, Daniel and get on the right side of some of that great cooking you’ve been boasting about. The sandwich I had on the train was rank.’ As if to punctuate his point, Luke let loose a large belch and grinned unrepentantly.
He was still playing the annoying little brother, even at twenty-five. He’d been the bane and the pride of Aaron’s life since the day his step-mother had brought him home from the hospital. Daniel knew all about the problems Aaron had been through with his stepmother and it was to his eternal credit that he’d never allowed it to sour his relationship with his half-brother. Aaron adored Luke and he hero-worshipped him in return. Their closeness had been a source of envy to Daniel at first, being an only child, but the two men had just drawn him into their lives and he was beyond grateful for that.
The three of them laughed together and chatted about Daniel’s ideas for the barn as he drove them back to the house. They rounded the corner of the drive and he pulled up as the back door opened and Mia stood on the doorstep in her usual huge jumper and jeans. She smiled shyly as first Aaron and then
Luke swooped on her with hugs and kisses before Daniel shoved them both away and stepped in front of her, arms folded like a bodyguard. ‘Oy, keep your hands and your lips to yourselves!’ Things might still be up in the air between him and Mia, but he’d be damned if either of these two charmers would swoop in and steal her from under his nose.
Mia gave him a shove in the back then ducked around him. ‘Why don’t you go and check out the barn and I’ll put the kettle on. Tea will be about fifteen minutes.’ She disappeared into the kitchen and Daniel pointed the brothers in the direction of the barn. Luke rummaged in his pocket for a notebook and his laser measure as he strode purposefully towards the ramshackle building. Aaron followed at a more leisurely pace, taking his time to examine everything around him, including turning back to survey the imposing structure of the main house.
‘It’s incredible here. I can’t believe how clean the air is after London.’ A touch of envy tinged his voice.
Daniel watched Aaron wander away from the barn to stop halfway across the scruffy rear lawn as he saw the break in the hedge and caught sight of the beach and the rolling sea beyond it. He smiled as he watched the joy suffuse his friend’s face. The whole place was working its magic and Aaron was hooked—he could tell.
‘Christ, mate, it’s paradise.’ Aaron’s words were thrown back over his shoulder as he loped across the grass towards the inexorable pull of the sea beyond.
Chapter Thirteen
Mia turned her back on the three men at the table as they threw ideas back and forth, discussing the correct level of light for each of the studio areas, colour schemes and textures for the floors and walls. The discussion was dizzyingly fast and the noise was something she was just not used to. She found it quite unsettling to be in such a masculine atmosphere again. Jamie had been one of four brothers and when they got together it was like they spoke their own language, often leaving Mia a little alienated.
It was so different from being one of three girls. Largely ignored by their mother, they had been left to their own devices unless they managed to draw the ire of their father. They had basically raised each other and had dwelled in a fantasy world of lost maidens rescued from fearsome beasts by handsome, but very politely spoken and entirely harmless, heroes. The reality of boys, in all their awful smelly, wonderful, disgusting glory was a shock from which Mia was never sure she had quite recovered.
The boisterous exchanges behind her now were a bit of an intrusion on the quiet solitude of the house, and Mia felt equal parts annoyed at them and guilty with herself for wanting to deny Daniel the time with his friends. He had a beautiful laugh—a deep rich baritone, which rolled through her and curled her toes. It was nice to hear him so positive and excited about the potential for the new venture of fixing up the barn. She just wished they could be positive in a slightly quieter fashion.
Mia rolled her eyes at herself and set about making tea and coffee for everyone. She stared towards the window. The black night was impenetrable and the window reflected the room behind her. Fifteen minutes had turned into three hours and dusk fell quickly this time of year. She watched the men talking and teasing each other until Daniel raised his gaze as though conscious of her eyes on him. She smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring manner but she obviously missed her mark because Daniel frowned and rose from his seat to cross the room and stand behind her.
He placed a warm hand on her shoulder and met her gaze in the reflection of the glass. Mia smiled more warmly, feeling more settled and secure under his touch, and she raised her hand to cover his.
‘All right, pet?’ Daniel was still frowning a little and Mia couldn’t stand that she was putting a dampener on his mood.
‘Really all right, Daniel,’ she whispered and patted the back of his hand. ‘It sounds amazing already. Aaron and Luke seem to be full of good ideas.’
Daniel snorted and squeezed her shoulder. ‘They’re certainly full of something,’ he muttered then laughed out loud as a balled-up tea towel struck him on the back of the head.
‘Cheeky sod, we dropped everything to rush down here and help you, worried half to death about what sort of state we would find you in and look at you! Shacked up with the most gorgeous girl, who not only looks beautiful, but also cooks like a dream and is the nicest person I think I have met. We had visions of you with your hair turned grey and bones poking out, but you’re fit as a fiddle and happier than I’ve seen you in at least five years.’ Aaron’s words were spoken in jest but there was a trace of the worry and stress he must have felt when his best friend had all but vanished off the face of the earth for weeks.
‘Shacked up?’ Mia raised an eyebrow at Daniel’s reflection in the window.
He held his hands up in protest. ‘Nothing I’ve said. The lads have put two and two together and made five.’
‘You sent her flowers, roses even. What the hell are we supposed to think?’ Luke pointed out, not unreasonably.
She caught Daniel’s eye again. ‘I love them,’ she mouthed and his lips quirked up in a shy grin.
His face became serious as he turned back to his friends. ‘I’m sorry, Aaron. I don’t know what else to say to you other than that. I had to get away from London—you’re right, it was killing me.’ The bleak expression on his face made Mia want to hug him, but that would only add to the speculation from the others about their relationship.
Aaron stood and slung his arm around Daniel’s shoulders. ‘Don’t worry about it. Seriously, mate, you look better than you have in a long time and I’m just pleased to see you getting back to yourself. If you do feel the need to redeem yourself then you could tell me some good news. Something along the lines of Mia having a sister—as glorious as she is.’
‘Two sisters,’ Luke interjected.
Mia laughed, turning towards the kettle to finish making the drinks. ‘I do have two sisters actually and they are the ones who got the looks in our family.’ Mia glanced fondly towards the pinboard on the wall where her favourite picture of the three of them was displayed.
‘The bad news is one is married and the other is living it up in New York. Although knowing her, she’s probably starving in some garret trying to capture that authentic artist vibe.’
She thought it best not to mention that Kiki’s husband Neil was an enormous arsehole who physically abused her sister in addition to a constant barrage of emotional bullying. She’d tried to talk to her so many times about it, but Kiki refused to acknowledge it, to the point of threatening to cut all contact with Mia if she raised the subject again.
After losing Jamie, the thought of her sister—almost her twin having been born less than a year apart—cutting her out of her life was too much for her to bear. Mia had maintained a reluctant silence on the matter and hoped that Kiki would one day find the strength to face the problem and deal with it.
Nee’s answer to their difficult childhood had been to fly the nest as soon as she possibly could to go to art school. She produced some incredibly dark pieces that Mia knew were her way of funnelling the frustration and upset of her childhood experiences. They were powerful and terrible in their beauty and they broke Mia’s heart every time she saw one of them. Nee had gained a bit of a cult reputation, which had led to the offer to study in America. She had been gone like a shot, seemingly needing as much physical distance from the past as she did emotionally.
Mia thought back to the period before Nee had left for the States; Kiki had just had her second child, Charlie, and Mia and Jamie had travelled back to their home town to stay with his parents and see Kiki and her new baby. Their mother had turned up at the hospital, clearly drunk at ten in the morning. She had become hysterical when Mia had refused to let her anywhere near the baby. Jamie had ended up calling Mia’s father, who had arrived at the hospital with the family doctor. Vivian had been swiftly interred in a clinic for a couple of months whilst her ‘nervous condition’ was treated.
Mia had cried on the phone to Nee about how awful it had been. Mia and Jamie had e
xtended their stay by a couple of weeks, taking Kiki’s older child, Matthew, to stay with them at Jamie’s parents’. The new baby was sick and Kiki had struggled to cope with her and a lively two-year-old. Matty had wanted to play with his new baby sister and couldn’t understand why she and their mummy kept crying all the time. Neil had been worse than useless, refusing to take any time off work to help his wife, insisting that as she did nothing else, the least she could do was manage to look after the children.
It had been a difficult and chaotic time and now that Mia thought about it, she realised that she had not listened to Nee during the fraught conversations they had over what to do about their mother, their sister, their niece and nephew. Mia and Nee had sadly reached the conclusion that they were powerless to do anything about any of it. Nee had been working on an exhibition for her finals and Mia had insisted that she stay in town and focus on that, determined to protect her baby sister from as much of the horror that was going on at home.
Then Jamie had died and she hadn’t had time for anything or anyone else. She’d let Nee drift away. Now Mia needed to talk to Kiki, find out what she knew of their little sister’s new life in New York and then track her down. She’d neglected her sisters for far too long.
***
‘The weather looks promising so I might try and distract them with some hard labour in the garden.’ They’d been rained in for twenty-four hours and Daniel was starting to regret inviting his friends to stay. It was foolish to be jealous, but Mia and Luke had been holed up in the far wing, running through the various design concepts the architect had drawn up. Every laugh from that direction had distracted him from the endless task of painting the first-floor landing. Aaron had smirked at every huff and sigh he’d made so he’d got his own back by making him paint the skirting boards.
Sunrise at Butterfly Cove Page 10