Page 60 of Ghost Note

“What if I don’t want to go travelling around the world?”

“You’ll cave eventually. You can’t resist me, no matter how hard you try.”

“Oh, yeah?” I smirked.

“As sure as eggs is eggs.” He grinned… right before I pressed my hand to the top of his head and pushed him back down under the water with a laugh of my own.

Twenty

“You never cancel plans,” Gina said. “Not even for Ben. What’s going on?”

I locked up the shop at 4:00 p.m. that afternoon and tucked the key into my bag before I began to walk home at a faster pace than usual.

“Nothing’s going on,” I assured her. “There’s no drama.”

“Are you ditching me to spend time with some new friend?”

“You know you’re the only woman for me, my little Smurf.” I smiled to myself before I glanced over my shoulder to check the roads were clear before crossing. Although car traffic wasn’t bad around here, you could get taken out by a madman on a bike, or worse, Mr Elvin and his electric scooter. “I’ll call around on Sunday instead.”

“Sunday? That’s days away.”

“I’m sure you can survive without me until then.” I chuckled.

A silence lingered between us, but not even my exhaustion and achy back could keep that weird small smile from my face or remove the spring in my step that I had no explanation for. Even though Gina wasn’t there, I felt like she was watching me—judging me and every move I made.

“This has something to do with Danny, doesn’t it?” she eventually asked accusingly.

“What? No. Don’t be stupid.”

“Fuck, Dais. Fuck!” she cried. “It does. I can tell by your voice.”

“Gina, I—”

“You’re seeing him tonight, aren’t you?”

“N—”

“—and before you lie to me, young lady, know that I can sniff out your deceit from a half a mile away. I can also ring around every resident in Hope Cove if I have to. You know I make it my business to have their numbers in my back pocket any time I need them in a crisis.”

“This isn’t a crisis!”

“No? So, you aren’t seeing him tonight then?”

With a sigh, I ran my free hand over my forehead and squeezed the phone in my hand. “Okay, fine. I am seeing him tonight, but it’s not like you think, it—”

“Iknew it!Holy shit, I just knew it.” Gina laughed, but it wasn’t the kind of laughter that lit you up. It was the accusing kind. TheI can’t believe you’re being so stupidkind. “Give that guy a few days and he somehow makes you forget what he put you through for years.”

“I’m not that weak, Gina.Jesus!”

“Tell that to the version of you that will be crying on my shoulder this time next week.”

“Stop it. Please. This isn’t what you think it is.”

“Then what is it, Daisy?”

“I’m doing this for Florence. Danny was going to sell her house. I’ve convinced him not to. It needs to stay in Flo and Albie’s family somehow. Everyone around here knows that place and that garden was her pride and joy. Imagine some family moving into it and wrecking every acre of it, or someone turning that beautiful grass into slabs of concrete or digging up all her rose bushes to replace them with a gigantic swing their kids won’t even use. I couldn’t let it happen. So, yeah, I made a deal with Danny to help clear out some of her things tonight so he can consider putting it up for rent and getting some vetted tenants in.”

“You mean he trapped you into spending time with him.”

---