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She put down her glass of wine and picked up the remote, ready to change the conversation.

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I think we’re out of new horror movies to watch, which means we’re on to thrillers or true crime.’

‘Not romance?’ Bex said sarcastically.

Daisy shot her a glare. ‘True crime it is,’ she said, flipping through the channels to find something she wanted to watch. But before she could press play, there was a knock at the door.

‘Do you want me to get it?’ Bex said, a look of concern on her face.

Daisy shook her head. ‘I’ll go. It’s probably just Francis trying to get me to adopt whatever stray cat she’s found this week. Although maybe that’s not a bad idea. Maybe I’m destined to become an old cat lady.’

‘You’d have to get more than one for that to happen, though,’ Bex replied. ‘You know that.’

‘Well, let’s start with one and see how that goes.’

The pair let out a slight chuckle before Daisy walked to the back of the boat and opened the door.

‘Hello, love. It’s not a bad time, is it?’ Her mum was standing on the stern.

Daisy hadn’t responded to any of her mother’s texts in the past week, or even called to tell her about the situation with Theo, so finding her standing there probably shouldn’t have been a surprise. Her mum’s normal reaction to Daisy wanting space was to give her anything but. However, whatwassurprising was that her arm was around Nicholas.

‘We wanted to know if you and Theo fancied coming to a barbecue on theJeanettethis evening.’

Daisy tilted her head to the side, struggling to understand what was going on. Meanwhile, Pippa glanced past Daisy into the boat.

‘Hello Bex, dear,’ she said. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here. You’re welcome to join us too. The more, the merrier.’

‘Right,’ Daisy said. ‘On theJeanette? With you and Nicholas?’

‘Yes, well, given that we’re going to be spending a bit more time up north with his family, we thought we should make the most of our days down here. And it’s such a lovely one. It seems silly not to have a barbecue, don’t you think?’

Daisy was sure she’d slipped into an alternate universe, one where the last four days hadn’t happened, one where her mother hadn’t turned up on her doorstep and told her that her relationship with Nicholas was over and that Daisy’s engagement with Theo was going to end in disaster. Daisy looked to Bex, and the pair exchanged a knowing look that could only be shared between two people who had known each other their entire lives.

‘Nicholas?’ Bex was suddenly on her feet and moving past Daisy and out onto the stern. ‘I wanted to ask you some questions, actually, about sloe gin. I was thinking of making my first batch this year, but I’m not actually sure what sloes are. Any chance there are some here on the canal you could show me?’

Daisy was normally in awe of her friend’s spontaneous ability to come up with questions like that, but at that moment, she was too preoccupied, staring at her mother.

‘What’s going on? You’re being very strange about this. I only asked if you wanted to come to a barbecue.’

‘You told me things were over between you and Nicholas,’ Daisy said. ‘You came here, drank my wine, and told me you’d never be getting back together with him.’

A pinkish hue tinted her mother’s cheeks as she waved her hand dismissively.

‘Oh well, you know what we’re like. We bicker, that’s all. But you can’t believe anything I say after more than a couple of glasses of wine, you know that.’

Daisy could feel her jaw hanging open, the disbelief making it near impossible to speak and yet she forced herself to.

‘What about when you said Theo and I shouldn’t get married?’ she asked. ‘What about when you said that I was an idiot for not being able to see that things wouldn’t work out? If I had any sense, I’d end things before we got even more embroiled? What about that, Mother? Was I meant to believe you when you said that?’

Pippa’s cheeks turned a deep red.

‘Daisy, you didn’t… I didn’t… Oh, darling, please don’t tell me that you—’ she stammered, unable to finish the sentence.

Daisy finished it for her.

‘That I ended things with Theo because of what you said. Yes, Mother. I did. Because I foolishly believed that you were telling me the truth. That you were trying to protect me. That was honestly what I thought you were doing.’ It felt as though the world was slipping out beneath her feet, yet somehow she managed to straighten her back. ‘Thank you for the barbecue invite,’ she said, ‘but I think I’ll decline. Now, can you please leave?’

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