Page 26

‘You don’t know?’ Theo’s brow furrowed deeply, and two long creases formed between his eyebrows. ‘I always assumed you’d want at least one.’

‘Why would you assume that?’ Daisy asked. She didn’t want to sound so sharp, but the more she thought about it, the more certain she was that they hadn’t ever discussed it, and yet Theo obviously had some very clear assumptions about what she would and wouldn’t want in the future.

‘Well, there’s the way you’re so close to Amelia, to start with,’ Theo said. ‘And you’re always so good with the kids who come to the coffee shop.’

‘It’s a bit different, smiling at a baby when you hand their mum a cappuccino, as opposed to having your own that you’re stuck with twenty-four seven.’

‘Stuck with?’ Theo said. ‘So I take it you don’t want children?’

‘I didn’t say that.’

‘I don’t think people who want children consider themselves as beingstuck withthem. Most people actually like their company.’

Daisy could feel a sense of ire rising inside her, and not just because of the assumption Theo had made. She had met plenty of mums when she had been working in London who very much felt stuck with their children. It wasn’t a long-term feeling, and it didn’t mean they didn’t love them, but she would need several more hands than her own to count the number who had found a sense of relief in coming back to work and having some adult company, even if it was just for one day a week.

‘I think parenting is a bit more nuanced than either wanting to be with your children every single second of the day, or not wanting to be with them at all,’ she said, trying to add a reasoned argument to her point. ‘I think staying at home works really well for people like Claire who are great at all those arts and crafts and homebody activities, but I think it’s a lot more complicated when you have a career or a business to think of.’

‘You mean like you have a business to think of?’

‘Yes.’

‘So you’re saying you don’t want children because they would interfere with your business?’

‘Will you stop putting words into my mouth?’ Daisy couldn’t remember the last time she had shouted at Theo, or if she ever had. But the words left her mouth in the closest thing to a yell she had ever done. ‘I didn’t say that. I didn’t say I didn’t want children. I said I hadn’t thought about it properly, and to behonest, I think that type of thing requires a lot of thought. It is a lifetime commitment, after all.’

At this, Theo tilted his head to the side. ‘And you’re saying that Heather didn’t think about it properly?’

‘What? Why are we talking about Heather now?’ Daisy’s jaw was hanging open. ‘I was talking about us, because it feels like we haven’t done that enough.’

Theo was shaking his head, as if Daisy was the one being unreasonable.

‘I don’t understand where this has come from,’ he said.

‘No, that’s clear.’ Despite her plate still being half full, Daisy slammed it down on the ground beside her and stood up. Theo had spent a great deal of time marinating the meat and creating a salad to go with it, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t hungry any more.

‘I’m going for a walk,’ she said, picking up her phone from the ground.

‘But it’s going to be dark soon,’ Theo protested, looking as if he were about to stand up after her.

‘Then I guess I’ll walk in the dark.’

37

Every part of Daisy’s body was pounding with anger as she marched away. She didn’t look back. Somehow, she knew Theo would have the sense not to follow her this time.

It was his gall to put words in her mouth that really got to her. The way he had said she wouldn’t have children because of the business. He was implying she was selfish. That was what he was doing. And then to bring up Heather at a point in a conversation where tensions were already so high. It was like he was after a fight.

Another thought tugged in Daisy’s chest. Maybe that was exactly what he had been after. Maybe he had seen Heather, decided he’d made a mistake, and come back hoping to bait and goad and upset Daisy so much that she was the one who ended things. Well, he’d been sorely mistaken. If he wanted to break off this engagement – or whatever the hell it was they were going through – then he would have to look her in the eye as he did it.

Daisy’s pace didn’t slow. If anything, it got quicker. She needed to put space between them, and that was exactly what she intended to do. Several minutes after storming off, she reached a narrow track labelled as a public footpath that led offthe caravan park’s land. As she finally began to slow, the last time they’d had a big argument resurfaced in her mind. It had been when Theo had discovered that she’d been secretly seeing him and Christian at the same time. She hadn’t meant to end up in such a sticky situation, having been desperate to find a way out of it, but she’d not wanted to hurt either of them. In the end, though, the way Theo had found out had been particularly cruel, given that Christian had kissed Daisy in front of dozens of people at the charity auction. But Daisy had owned up to her mess and taken full responsibility for how badly everything had gone. This time, however, there was no chance she was going to go back with a grovelling apology. She was not the one in the wrong.

Daisy didn’t know where she was walking. All she knew was that she wouldn’t stop until she had calmed down, and at this rate, she would be halfway back to the Cotswolds before that happened.

Still steaming with fury, she looked along the track a little way ahead and spotted a building that looked remarkably like a pub. With a new purpose to her walk, she picked up the pace. She didn’t care how many bottles of wine were sitting in carrier bags in the tent. Drinking them would mean going back to Theo, and that wasn’t something she wanted to do.

38

Daisy stepped into the building and glanced around her. The space was separated into two distinct areas: the bar, which stretched out in a narrow room towards her right in which a couple of people were sitting on stools sipping on drinks, and the restaurant part, which arced around to her left and, from what she could tell, was completely packed. It was a far classier establishment than she had expected from outside.