Daisy couldn’t understand why and said so.
Fi thought for a few seconds. ‘I mean, who in their twenties would know anything about something that happened over sixty years ago? It’s odd.’
Daisy shook her head. ‘I don’t see why. I don’t even come from here and I know who Lydia Grey is. Maybe it’s because my mum was such a huge fan.’
‘Your mum can’t have been old enough to remember the fifties though, surely?’
Daisy sighed. ‘No, but she loved fashion and old movies, and I suppose I inherited that trait from her.’
Fi looked her up and down. ‘Even in your uniform it’s obvious there’s something a little different about you,’ she said.
‘Meaning?’
‘Your make-up, or what little you use, is like something out of the fifties. You only put eyeliner on your top eyelid and wear red lipstick.’
Daisy pictured herself. ‘I suppose you’re right. I hadn’t thought about that before.’ It also hadn’t occurred to her how different she must appear to Gabe now. He’d only ever known her with a make-up free face sporting nothing more than a tan.
‘Hi there,’ he said, as if she’d conjured him up with her thoughts. He was leaning through the doors into reception. ‘I can’t stop.’ He indicated his mother calling him from the back seat of his car. She hadn’t noticed them getting in and hoped Francesca hadn’t given her any orders she’d missed. ‘But I was wondering if you wanted to come out to see a band down at St Ouen tonight?’ he added.
Daisy didn’t have to consider the proposal. ‘I’d love to.’
‘Gabriel, will you stop drooling over that girl and drive us to the sodding airport,’ his father bellowed from the car.
Gabriel cringed. ‘He’s so embarrassing sometimes.’ He turned to leave. ‘I’ll pick you up at six-thirty,’ he shouted over his shoulder, before he got in the car and they sped off down the driveway.
‘So, you’ve pulled then,’ Fi said giggling. ‘Lucky cow.’
Daisy frowned at her. ‘We’re old friends and we’re going out for the evening to catch up, if you must know.’
‘You keep telling yourself that,’ Fi giggled. ‘If you’re not interested in him then I most certainly would be, so don’t go making out that he’s nothing to you if he is.’
Daisy admired Fi’s honesty and couldn’t help liking how direct she always was about everything. She supposed it probably had something to do with never having to worry if you upset someone, and knowing that whatever you did, your brother would be able to sort out any issues you inadvertently caused.
‘Fine,’ Daisy said. ‘I do like Gabe. Rather a lot, in fact. So keep your sticky mitts off him.’ She laughed. ‘I just know you’re going to be more offended by insinuating that you have sticky hands than the thought of you pinching some guy from under my nose.’
Fi held up her immaculate hands. ‘Damn right,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing mucky about me.’ She hesitated for effect. ‘Apart from maybe my imagination – that can be downright filthy.’
Daisy shook her head. ‘You’re impossible, do you know that?’
Gabriel was waiting for her outside the front of the hotel when she hurried through to meet him just after six-thirty. He was chatting to two elderly ladies, who came back to stay at the hotel several times each season. She waited for them to finish their conversation, staring out to the rectangular pool with its wooden steamer chairs which Fi told her had been sourced from an old liner and restored. She wondered how many times they’d had to re-order the cushioned covers in their navy and cream piping after they’d been ruined by a visitor getting careless with sun cream.
She breathed in the heady scent of tea roses and jasmine, and rather than looking as if she was impatient for him to finish talking, headed to the back of the hotel and the pretty herb garden. Watching the tall, toned man she’d missed so much made Daisy smile. He was beautiful inside as well as outside and now she knew how he’d left his own project to return to help out his grandmother, she loved him even more.
‘There you are,’ he said, a few minutes later. ‘Sorry to keep you waiting.’ He bent down to give her a kiss on the cheek.
‘It’s no problem at all,’ she said. ‘It’s so tranquil out here, I was happy to wait.’
‘Isn’t it a perfect evening? You can’t beat Jersey on days like these.’
They walked a little further. ‘There are so many glorious smells out here,’ she said. ‘I was just admiring the roses, then the different herbs over there, and now I’ve got a waft of salty air from the bay.’
‘The wind direction probably changed,’ he said quietly. ‘Come on, let’s get going. We don’t want to miss the music.’
She walked with him back to where he’d parked. ‘I do love it here though,’ he said. ‘It’s a little like going back in time to a more genteel era.’
‘It’s wonderful,’ she agreed.
Gabriel shrugged. ‘Mind you, after a couple of months I need to get away and get back into discovering things in the ocean.’
