‘Paranoid,’ she said to herself. She was standing right out in the open, on the wide walkway, so it wasn’t as if anyone could creep up on her. She shook her head to dispel the ridiculous thoughts coursing through her head. She needed a few early nights then maybe this paranoia would go away.
She took a deep breath and continued with the first touches of her painting. Within what seemed like seconds, Fi jogged up to her, only slightly out of breath.
‘How’s it going?’ she asked. ‘Phil’s just called me on my mobile and asked if I could meet him down at Gorey for an ice cream. You can come too, if you like, or I could collect you in about an hour. It’s up to you.’
Daisy didn’t want to intrude on Fi’s unexpected meeting with her new man and was perfectly happy working on her painting. ‘No, I’m fine here. I can meet you back at the gate in about an hour, or whatever suits you best.’
Fi narrowed her eyes. ‘I don’t have your mobile number. If you give it to me, I’ll call you when I’m leaving and that’ll give you a chance to walk back to the car park to meet me.’
Daisy grimaced. ‘Sorry, I don’t have one.’
Fi laughed. ‘Who doesn’t have a mobile now? That’s so odd, Daisy.’
‘I did have one, but I lost it,’ she said, not wishing to continue with the conversation.
‘I had a friend who was standing outside a café down in Rozel when a seagull took her phone out of her hand, I think it thought she was holding up a piece of bread or something. She screamed but it dropped it in the sea and she never got it back. Bloody birds.’
Daisy smiled, unsure what to suggest. ‘I can always catch a bus back to the hotel, rather than you coming back to fetch me,’ she suggested.
Fi shook her head. ‘No, it’s fine. I’ll go to meet him and jog back here to fetch you when I’m done. The exercise will do me good.’
‘That’s perfect, thanks,’ Daisy said, grateful for the extra time to continue with what she was doing. ‘I’ll see you when you get back.’
‘Great,’ Fi said, turning to leave and texting as she walked away.
Daisy pushed a stray strand of hair away from her face and began working on her painting once again.
Sometime later while taking a break, she put her hand up to the back of her neck when suddenly another hand rested itself on top of hers. Daisy shrieked and spun round, horrified to see the one man she’d been avoiding for the past two years. He was standing so close to her she could feel his warm breath on her face.
‘So this is where you’ve been hiding,’ he said. ‘You ran away from me once, to Vietnam of allplaces. I told you then that you wouldn’t get away from me twice. You did try though, didn’t you?’
She could barely catch her breath, the shock of seeing him standing in front of her was so great. It was like being in a nightmare. ‘Aaron, I…’
‘You what, Daisy?’ he asked, breathing heavily, his voice calm yet with a suppressed rage she knew only too well could be unleashed at any second. ‘You were looking for me here? You hoped I’d find you?’ He raised a thick dark eyebrow. ‘You thought you’d hide here away from me, didn’t you? Admit it.’
She didn’t know how to react. If only she’d agreed to go with Fi instead of standing here by herself. Why hadn’t she listened to her instincts and not stayed out here where she could be watched?
‘Even your hair’s different,’ he said. ‘All those years dying it and cutting it short. Look at you now with your long, curly blonde hair.’ He moved even closer, so his nose was almost touching hers. ‘I’d recognise you anywhere, though.’
She swallowed in an attempt to moisten her dry mouth. Summoning up her courage, she braced herself. She was determined to brazen out this confrontation, however much she wanted to cover her face with her hands and cry. Hopefully someone would come by here soon, she thought. Hadn’t Fi said that after the school run people would be bringing their dogs here?
Bolstered by that thought, she cleared her throat. ‘We agreed things weren’t working between us, Aaron,’ she said, trying to keep her voice as strong and adamant as possible. Even saying his name out loud made her want to throw up. Everything he represented frightened her. So much for starting a brand-new life in Jersey.
The beautifully shaped lips she’d once found so attractive pulled back in a slow sardonic smile that chilled her to her core.
‘I told you before your mother died that our relationship was over whenIsaid it was, and not before.’
‘You knew she died?’ Daisy couldn’t understand how. It wasn’t as if her mother’s death had been recorded in the local papers.
‘I was at her funeral,’ he said. ‘Didn’t you see me?’
She shivered. Thinking back to the rainy day when only a handful of kindly neighbours and her mother’s nurse had attended the brief service before her body was cremated, she realised he must have been watching her then, too.
She stifled a cry. ‘No, I didn’t,’ she admitted, wishing she could believe he was bluffing. The day had been a mixture of emotions with Daisy’s heartache, and yet at the same time the relief that her mother was no longer suffering.
It dawned on her that he was waiting for her to say something, but what could she say? He always liked to think he was so clever, she mused, aware that she was trembling. Then it dawned on her. ‘How did you know I was in Jersey?’ she asked, unable to help feeling intrigued as well as terrified. If she was going to find a way to be rid of him then she needed to discover how he worked.
He tapped the side of his nose with one of his fingers. ‘Now that would be telling,’ he said, smiling. ‘So, aren’t you going to give your childhood sweetheart a kiss? Or is there someone else who you’ve been snogging behind my back?’
