Page 31 of New Beginnings at Lullbury Bay

‘Thatwasn’t very nice,Daisy,’Jansaid. ‘Imean,Marion’snot my favourite person but whatever has she done for you to treat her like that?’

‘Wherewould you like me to begin?’Daisyglared at her mother and concentrated her anger on drinking her tea.Slammingthe mug down, she said, ‘Now, can we actually start some work today?’

Shemarched into the office, missingMiaandJanpulling faces at one another.Returning, brandishing the by now slightly batteredManilaenvelope, she read out, ‘Sunflowers.That’sWalter’sorder for this month.AlongwithHonorandJago’swedding,I’vetwo other weddings, plus theWebFloristinspection to prepare for.EvenwithoutGretel’sfuneral it was going to be full-on, soIcheated and opened upWalter’senvelope early.’

‘Ilove sunflowers,’Jansaid. ‘Lovethe way their heads turn to face the sun when they’re growing in the field.Birdslove the seeds too,’ she added, nodding. ‘Alwaysstriking.Andpretty easy to get hold of inAugust,Iwould imagine.Iapprove of this month’s choice,Walter.So, come on,Mia, tell us what the message is.’

‘Pride.That’swhat they stand for.Andthey look like proud flowers, don’t they?Theycan also standfor loyalty and theVictorianswould know they meant, “Youare splendid”.Wonderif it means he hasn’t made it up to her?’Miaadded thoughtfully.

‘Madewhat up?’Daisyasked, already picturing what she could do with the sunflowers.Theywere one of her favourite flowers.Shewondered if she could get some stalks of straw from somewhere or run some tall stems of solidago through.TappingherBiroagainst her teeth she remembered she had some gold-sprayed twirly sticks left over fromChristmasbut then dismissed the idea.Keepit simple and natural, with some dark-green butcher’s-broom and raffia.Itwould look gorgeous.Shejust wished she had a person to actually hand it over to.Thatwas always the fun part.Thebit that made the job worth doing; seeing the pleasure on customers’ faces.

‘EarthtoDaisy.Rememberlast month he was saying sorry for something.Anargument maybe?’Miastamped her foot, making her purple hair fly.Nowterm was over, she’d returned to the dye. ‘OohIwish we knew the whole story!’

‘Heprobably just likes sunflowers.Lotsdo.Ido.Ithink there’s nothing nicer than a bunch of them.It’slike giving sunshine.’

‘Andthat,’Janstated, ‘is as romantic as my daughter is willing to get.MissRomancecrept from her cave, sniffed the air momentarily and retreated post-haste.’

Daisygave her mother a filthy look.Ifonly she guessed!

‘Oh.’Miaclapped a hand to her mouth. ‘Imeant to say andIcompletely forgot!Petesays sorry but he got bogged down with end of term school stuff and he’ll ring you as soon as he’s back fromCrete.Soz.’Shegiggled nervously.

‘Justyour luck,Daisy.’Janlaughed. ‘Whata shame.’

Daisywrenched her thoughts from sunflowers and glared at them both.She’dhad enough. ‘I’mso glad you find the topic of my love life so amusing.’

‘Tobe technically correct, it’s your lack of love life we find so amusing,’Janadded unhelpfully.

Daisypointed her pen at her mother. ‘Andyour love life is allsilver foxes andViagra?’Jangasped. ‘No, didn’t think so.’Sheknew she was being cruel but, now she’d started, she couldn’t stop lashing out.Shewas fed up with being the butt of jokes.Sheturned toMia. ‘Andyou, not yet twenty-three and should have men falling at your feet.’Shemade a point of looking down dramatically atMia’shigh-topConverses. ‘No, don’t see any.Notone.’Mia’smouth dropped open and then she closed it again, her bottom lip quivering.

‘Daisy,’Jansaid sharply. ‘That’senough.Don’tbe so spiteful.What’sgot into you today?’

‘Me?I’mthe one being spiteful?Whatabout you two?Nothappy unless you thinkI’mpining over some unfortunate hunk of testosterone.Hasit occurred to either of youImight be perfectly content on my own and that women have been known to actually exist and even flourish quite happily without a man hanging off their arm?Andyou asked whatMarionhad done?Youdo know she set me up with another online date last night?’

Pete’slack of interest and seeingRickagain at the funeral had decided her.She’dforced herself out there.Afterall, she wouldn’t find love if she didn’t make some attempt to look for it, so she’d agreed and had gone out the evening before.Takingin her mother’s disapproving face andMia’sshocked one, she drew in a breath and then let it all out.Itfelt good to rant.

‘Letme tell you about the delightful men out there who are just gagging to date me.Hisprofile said he was a successful barrister, had a house onSandbanksand was six foot three.Turnedout he was an unemployed law clerk, lived with his mother inWeymouthand when he stood up, came to my armpit.Butnone of that would have mattered.Iwould have overlooked the fact he’d been economical with the truth.Thatwasn’t the worst thing about him, you see.Ohno.Ican top that.Whenit came to paying the bill, he went to the loo and disappeared.Permanently!’

‘Oh,Daisy!’Janlooked aghast.

‘Sorry,Daisy,’Miamuttered,scuffing her feet.

‘Yes, sorry,Daisy,’ her mother added.

Daisyfelt better for having got it all off her chest, if guilty at upsetting her mother andMia. ‘Yeswell,’ she huffed. ‘Thebest thing you can do today is keep an eye on the shop andI’llbe out back making upWalter’ssunflower bouquet.Anddon’t, either of you, come near me unless you are bringing tea!’

Later, as she drove to deliverWalter’sflowers, reproach overcame her.Nomatter how badly the date had gone, and it had been truly awful; as well as lying on his profile he’d been an utter bore.Shenow knew all she needed to about theAtcoCommodoreB14grass mower.Andwho knew there was a grass mower museum inSouthport?Shehadn’t and had survived so far without that scintillating little tidbit.Evenso, she shouldn’t have spoken to her mother andMiathat way.She’dpick up some cakes fromOnaRollon the way back as a sort of apology.Glancingat the dashboard clock she could see it wasn’t yet eleven.They’dhave plenty left.

Thedate had been another disaster.Shecouldn’t believe she’d letMariontalk her into it.Witha heartfelt sigh she knew another apology was owed there.Afterthe conversation about babies with her mother, witnessingHonorandJago’sloved-up state, all on top of the poignancy ofGretel’sfuneral and the weird encounter withRick, a whole range of conflicted emotions had ambushed her.Shefelt thoroughly unsettled, itchy under the skin and raw.

SwingingPrimroseonto the main road, she asked herself if she really wanted children.Shethought she did.Atsome point.Atsome time in the future.But, as her mother had pointed out, time had a habit of running out.Daisyknew you didn’t necessarily need a man around to have babies, but it would be difficult enough to run the business and raise children with a partner; it might be nigh on impossible to cope on her own.Shehad her mother, of course and her mother would jump at the chance to babysit but she couldn’t see how fair that would be.Hermum wasn’t yet sixty and had taken early retirement to enjoy life a little.Janwould love thechance to be a granny though and, withDrewandLukeworking abroad and enjoying a fancy-free expat life, it looked as if it might be up to her to provide them.

Shethumped the steering wheel as the traffic slowed to an inevitable crawl.So, if she wanted babies as an option, she needed to get proactive with finding the man to have them with.Butdid that really mean yet more drunken, lying idiots met online?Whycouldn’t she just bump into someone and have sparks flying?Honorhad met someone.Andsomeone gorgeous.HercousinLuciewas happy with husbandJamie, although they bickered forEngland.EvenMarionseemed vaguely content with herBarry, even if she did moan about the hours he spent away at work.Daisylet a sigh escape.Hermum had always made it clear she’d known right away when she’d metRod.Whycouldn’t that happen to her?Wherewere all the good men?Themen like her lovely dad.

Glancingdown at the bunch of jewel-coloured peonies on the passenger seat, she made a snap decision.Turningleft to head out of town, she deliberately stopped thinking about men and concentrated on the traffic.

Chapter Seventeen

Daisysquinted into the sunshine as it beat onto the windscreen.Thesteering wheel was almost too hot to hold so, in an effort to cool down, she buzzed the window down.Sheturned up the volume on the radio and an old track from the eighties blared out.

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