He reached out to take her arm. ‘Daisy, listen to me, please. I need you to trust me on this.’
She shrugged him off. ‘Look, you go and do what you have to do. I understand that you have commitments.’ Shemade a pretence of checking her watch. She wasn’t sure why but needed to do something. ‘I need to get on with this painting.’ She strode away, back to her paints and easel and picked up her brush and a tube of oil paint. She didn’t hear Gabriel come up behind her. ‘Daisy…’ he said, touching her shoulder lightly, giving her a fright and causing her to spin round and squirt Azure Blue all over his grey T-shirt. Daisy gasped.
Gabriel’s mouth dropped open in surprise. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to give you a fright,’ he said. He stared down at the paint splashed across his top and then looked at Daisy and said, ‘If you give me the brush I’ll rescue some of that and put it on your palette. You don’t want to waste it.’
Damn Aaron for making her so distrustful and nervous. ‘It’s not your fault,’ she admitted, embarrassed by her reaction. He was right, though – the paints were expensive and she didn’t have money to throw away by wasting half of her oils. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll do it,’ she said, not wishing to give in to anything he suggested too easily.
She put her hand inside his top, the back of her fingers connecting with his stomach, which contracted on her touch. He gave a small intake of breath and without thinking she looked up at him to see him staring intently at her. Before she had time to think, his head had lowered and his lips connected with hers.
The taste of orange and champagne on his firm lips and the warm sun on her face took her back to them being together in Vietnam, and forgetting everything else she continued kissing him, one hand on the inside of his top, the other dropped to her side.
Someone cleared their throat behind her, causing Daisy to remember where she was. She spun round, taking Gabe with her as she pulled his top. An old man walking two Labradors was smiling at them.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, realising she and Gabe had been blocking the pathway.
He grinned at them with amusement and said, ‘Don’t you worry, lovely, it warms my heart to see two youngsters so in love. Now if I can just get past you both, I’ll leave you to carry on.’
Daisy’s face reddened. She opened her mouth to argue that he was mistaken, but Gabriel, taking her hand and extricating it from his top, pulled her gently back from the path. They stepped onto a slight mound to give the man and his dogs space to pass them.
‘Thank you,’ he said.
As soon as the man was out of earshot, Daisy faced Gabriel and glared at him. ‘I don’t know what came over me,’ she said, furious with herself. She daren’t let him think that she’d forgotten about his situation with Bella.
He took her by the shoulders. ‘Daisy, really, Bella coming with me is not what it seems,’ he said, as if he’d heard her thoughts. ‘I wish you’d trust me.’
‘I do trust you, Gabriel. I hope the two of you have a lovely time.’ She stared at her painting intently, willing him to go away.
He sighed. ‘Daisy, as I explained earlier, Bella and I worked on the project before. She was there right at the beginning and she’s coming back to try and resolve a few issues. She’s part of this team.’
She wanted to believe him but knew from past experience that her instincts where men had been concerned were off-kilter. ‘Look,’ she said, tired of thinking about it all. ‘I wish your project all the luck in the world, but I need to get on with this painting before I lose the daylight.’
He frowned. ‘Fine. I’ll leave you to get on, but I wish you wouldn’t judge me by other people, Daisy.’
She watched him walk off to collect the picnic hamper, his T-shirt smeared with paint. Realising that she must also be covered in the bright blue, she looked down to see her top now ruined with areminder of that kiss. Daisy looked at the half-finished painting drying on her easel and couldn’t help wishing things could be different between them. She wanted more than anything to trust him and to let herself go and get closer to him, but she wasn’t going to end up like her mother had done, bitter and alone. She’d learnt the hard way that just because you want someone to be a certain way, it doesn’t mean that they will be.
She picked up her paintbrush and pictured how happy her mother would be to see her standing here right now. Her last wish had been for Daisy to leave their home town and move away, start afresh somewhere new and build the life for herself that her mother hadn’t managed to achieve. She felt her throat constricting as the knowledge that whatever she did make of her life would not be something that she’d ever be able to share with her mother.
Tired of feeling sorry for herself, she pulled a tissue out of her back pocket and blew her nose ‘Right,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘Time to finish this painting.’ She focused her attention back to the spectacular view behind her easel. The one thing she could rely on was her ambition to see her paintings sold, but she needed to finish some first. ‘Here goes.’
12
GABRIEL
‘You must explain to Daisy why you’re leaving,’ Lydia insisted, as they walked along the beach early one morning a few days later. ‘She needs to understand what you’re trying to do to sort everything out.’
‘Not yet,’ he said, bending down to pick up a lump of green glass made opaque from years of roughening by the sea and sand. ‘As far as she’s concerned what we had is behind her.’ He rubbed his thumb against the rough surface. ‘I thought we could make a go of it, but she’s adamant that she won’t be in a relationship with a married man, and I can understand her decision. That’s why I’ve persuaded Bella to come with me on this leg of the project so that we can try and get our marriage annulled while we’re in South Africa. She was reluctant to go and says she needs a break from being away, but I’ve managed to explain to her how this will benefit us both. She’s met someone new now, you know?’
‘Good, I’m pleased, but I don’t understand why you don’t explain to Daisy exactly what you’re doing?’
He wished he could. ‘I would, but I don’t want to give her any false hope. I daren’t mention it to her yet.’
Lydia pulled her straw hat down further over her eyes. ‘I do hope you two can resolve this matter. Maybe I’m an old romantic but I know life is really too short for these dramas. But if you’re sure now is not the time to tell Daisy, then fine. I just hope you can sort this out when you’re in South Africa.’
‘So do I. I think Daisy believed me when I told her that Bella and I are no longer romantically linked in any way, but she’s been badly hurt by her parents’ choices, Nan. The next few weeks are going to be important in so many ways.’
‘I can see that now, darling,’ she said. ‘And I’ll be thinking of you the whole time.’
They walked on for a few minutes in silence. Gabe could tell his grandmother was concerned for him. She was obviously fond of Daisy and he could understand her irritation with the situation and hoped that he could resolve these issues once and for all.
