Page 52 of Ghost Note

You don’texpecthim to bother you. You want him to.

“Oh, go screw yourself, Daisy Piper,” I muttered.

I slammed my book shut and dropped it to the arm of the chair in frustration, draining my glass of blissful rosé before I stood up and walked back into the kitchen. I slid the empty glass onto the kitchen counter and pulled out the rest of the bottle. Somewhere between twisting off the cap and pouring, I caught sight of the old CD player sitting in the corner, a slight coating of dust laying over it, like the tortured instrument its owner refused to play, or even polish and dust.

My eyes lingered on it for a few seconds too long, unable to remember what I’d last listened to anything on it before I found myself sliding over and turning it on.

The moment my finger hit the power button, a little crackling happened, and then lyrics poured free through the barely-used speakers.

Karen Carpenter’s voice slipped out like caramel floating through the air, singing about herSuperstarto taunt me.

“Diane, do you know where Zee got that voice from?” Danny asked my mum. The three of us were sitting at the breakfast bar of my home, along with my dad, who had his nose buried in a newspaper. Danny was on his second bowl of Coco Pops after staying the night, and his mouth was turning the cereal over as he waved his spoon around idly and stared up at Mum. “It blows my mind that she’s nineteen now, and she doesn’t ever use this natural talent she has.”

“It baffles me, too, Daniel,” Mum said.

“She certainly doesn’t get that voice from Diane, let me tell you that,” Dad muttered under his breath.

Mum rolled her eyes, casting a quick glance at Dad before she dropped her mug of coffee back on the table and started to peel the crust off her toast. “Thank you for that, Malcolm,” she said sarcastically. “I wish I could argue with him, but he’s right. Daisy’s voice doesn’t come from either me or her father, although her Grandma Elsie did always love singing for the church choir.”

“Oh, yeah. I remember that,” Dad chipped in, his eyes still scanning the news. “One of her better qualities.”

“What are you saying about my mother?”

“There’s plenty I could say. You wouldn’t like much of it, though.”

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Mum asked, eyeing him. “Like… work? The church? Or, I don’t know? A lonely ship in the middle of the Antarctic?”

Danny and I laughed together, and I caught his sly wink when I glanced at him. Even after so many years together, he never failed to make me blush. I couldn’t believe thatIhad been the one to capture Daniel Silver. Compared to the other girls in our small High School, I’d been quiet and uninteresting, not taking part in any of the clubs or being particularly athletic, yet it was me who had caught his eye.

Me!

I was drifting off into a daydream, remembering the first time he’d jogged up to me in the school halls, with his backpack bouncing behind him, and his floppy hair falling forward until he brushed it out of his eyes. With one dazzling smile and a,“Hey, Daisy. I know this might seem random, but are you free on Friday after school?”I’d become his.

“Isn’t that right, Daisy?” Mum said, forcing me to blink back at her.

“Erm… sorry?”

“I was just telling Danny how we had to bribe you to sing in the church for the village’s May Day celebrations when you were eight. You told your dad and me that you’d only do it if we bought you a kitten.”

“That’s right, and I’m still waiting,” I reminded her.

“You’ll be waiting a long time. You know I have cat allergies,” Dad chipped in.

“You want a cat?” Danny asked, his brows raised as he shovelled more Coco Pops into his mouth.

There were very few things he didn’t know about me, so when he looked at me the way he currently was doing, I loved to roll around in his surprise for a few seconds.

“I didn’t care if it was a cat or a dog, a rabbit or one of those guinea pig things. I just wanted some company.”

“Why?”

“Being an only child can be lonely. You know that as much as I do.”

Danny’s eyes searched mine, and I saw a twinkling of something there before he looked down into his bowl of cereal, only to look back up at me with a smug smile on his face. “Well, if we ever get a place of our own, I’ll make you a deal.”

“What deal?” I grinned back at him.

“If you singSuperstarfor me every morning, I’ll buy you a kitten.”

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