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Daisy glanced down at her hand. She hadn’t mentioned the ring situation to her mother and hadn’t even been sure whether she was going to, but as she considered where to start and how much she wated Pippa to know her mother spoke again.

‘Nobody changes their engagement ring without something happening. Besides, I saw it on your face the moment you walked in here and demanded the ice cream. You and Theo had a fight, right? And I’m betting it’s not the first one you’ve had since you accepted his proposal. It’s your subconscious, Daisy. It’s telling you this isn’t right. Face it – if you marry him, you’re setting yourself up for failure, and you know it as well as I do.’

58

Daisy didn’t look back. She knew Johnny was there behind her as she marched down the towpath and towards the car park and she would take him with her wherever it was she was going. She just hadn’t decided where that was yet.

Her first urge had been to kick her mother out of theSeptember Rose,but then what? Her mum had drunk an entire bottle of her wine and likely a fair bit more before she had left Nicholas’s. There was no way she was in a fit state to drive. And Daisy couldn’t go back to Theo’s. The fact that he had been right about her mother didn’t make Daisy feel any better. If anything, it made her feel madder for not having noticed before. Going from one argument to another was not what she wanted, and that was what she knew would happen if she returned to theNarrow Escape. What she wanted was a safe place, a person she could talk to without fear or judgement, and so, as she opened the back of the car and clipped Johnny in, she decided she was going to London.

Rush hour had been and gone and so Daisy drove into the city at a near record speed. Her one aim was to get away from Wildflower Lock, but it was only when she reached the multi-story car park opposite Bex’s apartment block she realised there was a problem.

‘Come on, and be good,’ Daisy said as she hurried Johnny along on his lead. ‘I don’t think she’s meant to have dogs here.’

Daisy pressed the buzzer to Bex’s apartment, using her body to block Johnny from the road, in case there were any nosy neighbours, ready to accost her for bringing an animal into the building. She should have rung, she realised. She should have at least checked that Bex was home. Perhaps after a weekend on the boat, she had decided she wanted to go out for a bit of culture or city life, or to spend some time with whichever boyfriend she was seeing at the moment. Daisy pressed again, while simultaneously reaching for her phone to make the call she should have made an hour before. She had just swiped the screen when there was a loud buzz and crackle through the intercom.

‘Hello?’ Bex’s voice rattled through the line.

‘Bex?’ Daisy couldn’t stop the trembling in her voice, and once it started, there was no stopping it. All the tears she had stored up from the disastrous weekend and now the fight with her mother were bubbling to the surface, and there was nothing she could do. By her feet, Johnny was whining, pushing his body against her legs as he tried to comfort her, but it was no good.

‘Daisy, is that you?’

‘Bex?’ Daisy’s voice stuttered as she fought the tears that were rising through her throat. ‘Can I come up?’

‘Of course you can. What is it? What’s wrong?’

The air caught in Daisy’s lungs, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe, and yet she choked out the one word that summed up how she felt.

‘Everything,’ she said. ‘Everything is wrong.’

59

Bex didn’t have any wine or beer in, but Daisy didn’t care. She didn’t feel like a drink, anyway. She didn’t feel like anything other than curling up and crying herself to sleep. It must have been obvious how terrible she looked because although she flinched a little, Bex didn’t say anything as Johnny jumped up on the sofa next to her and placed his head on Daisy’s lap. In fact, the only thing she’d said about Johnny so far was that she wasn’t meant to have dogs in the building, so he’d need to be quiet. Thankfully, she hadn’t told Daisy they needed to leave.

‘I can’t believe your mother said that,’ Bex said, letting out a sigh. ‘I love Pippa, you know I do, but she has some funny ideas about parenting. Claire and I have said it before. She’s always gone for the friend route, not the mother one. I mean, letting you drop out of art college after one term is a perfect example.’

‘I know,’ Daisy said, glancing at her phone, although the screen was black. She’d had three missed called so far from her mother and two from Theo, so she’d switched her phone off altogether. She would speak to them when she was ready and she wouldn’t be pestered into deciding when that was. ‘But the thing is, do you think she’s right?’

‘What?’ Bex’s face scrunched up so much, it became a mass of wrinkles. ‘About you and Theo being destined to fail? Absolutely not. It’s clear that you adore each other.’

‘But that’s not always enough, is it? I mean, you hear it all the time, that love isn’t enough, right? And this weekend has been a disaster from start to finish.’

‘That’s not true,’ Bex said. ‘The hotel was amazing. You had a great time there.’

Daisy let out a long sigh. ‘I know, but that seems kind of insignificant compared to the rest of it. Maybe it was a sign. It’s clear his parents don’t approve of the match either. You’d think at least one set of parents would think it was a good idea.’

‘Maybe, but it’s not your mum or Theo’s parents who are getting married, is it? It’s you guys. Look, you just need to put this behind you. Think of your engagement. It was perfect.’

‘A perfect five minutes when he proposed, you mean? It’s not real life. I don’t know…’

Daisy slowly stroked Johnny along his back before picking up her glass of water, although she didn’t bother taking a sip. Instead, she just stared at it for a moment before letting out a sigh.

‘I just keep thinking how she’s right. At least in one sense. What do I know of real relationships? Puppy love and Theo. That’s all I’ve had.’

‘And Christian?’ Bex offered, although Daisy scowled in response.

‘I can’t count that as a relationship. If I did, it’s definitely a very failed one. Maybe I need to know more about that kind of thing before I actually commit to spending the rest of my life with a person. Take a leaf out of your book.’

‘Out of my book?’ Bex said, her scoff turning into a laugh. ‘Now you can’t be serious.’