‘I heard you have a new man,’ Iris said, her face returning to the screen, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.
‘A new man? Ha.’ Daisy continued watering her plants with one hand while she held the phone with the other. ‘There is no new man in sight.’
Iris pursed her lips, not at all convinced. ‘Well, I heard from Carol, who heard from Joe at the café, who heard from Jack at the inn, who had a wedding venue meeting today and he said that the groom was your ex and that you now had a new boyfriend.’
‘What the actual hell?’ Daisy jerked upright and poured water all over her shoe. ‘Damn it,’ she hissed.
‘Daisy. Language. There is a baby present.’
Daisy rolled her eyes. She knew perfectly well the kind of language that came out of Iris’s mouth. Iris would be lucky if Owen’s first word wasn’t four letters and not appropriate for church.
‘Sorry, but the gossip chain is out of its mind. How did you even hear any of this? I thought you were out of the loop?’
‘I’m still on the aerobics-ladies group chat, of course.’
‘Of course. Well, there’s no new man.’ How was it possible that it had been only a few hours since Elliot left her shop and half the town already thought she was in a full-blown relationship?
Iris looked skeptical. ‘Give mesomething, please. I’ve been trapped here with this baby sleeping on me all afternoon. I have to pee. I need a snack. My shirt is covered in breast milk and Archer took Olive out for ice cream after school. I have no one to talk to but a newborn.Pleasegive me something to work with here.’
Daisy sighed, about to deny it again, but her friend really did look pitiful. And exhausted. She knew these first few weeks with the baby had been hard on Iris. The least she could do was fill her in on the hot mess that was her own life.
‘David came in today with his new fiancée.’
‘That bastard,’ Iris gasped, her eyes lighting up with the gossip.
‘I tried to be cool about it, I really did, but they looked so damn good together.’
Iris winced. ‘How did you handle it? I mean, how did you feel seeing him?’
‘Like my heart was ripped from my body and thrown into a blender and turned into some kind of heartbreak smoothie.’
‘Wow. Graphic,’ Iris joked but her face was full of sympathy. They’d known each other growing up, but they’d never really been friends in school, since Daisy had been a few years ahead of Iris. It wasn’t until Daisy came home heartbroken and depressed that she and Iris got close. Iris had helped her mom out a lot with the shop while Daisy was gone, and it was so good to have her here while Daisy got her footing back. And now she considered Iris her closest friend. If anyone knew how rough this last year had been for her, it was Iris.
‘This was the first time seeing him again, right?’ Iris asked.
‘Yep, since the day I packed up and left. So, it’s been nearly a year.’ What a pitiful day that had been. She’d barely had three boxes worth of stuff at David’s place. She’dwanted to think of it as their place, but had he ever thought of it that way? As she moved her few belongings out, it was painfully clear he hadn’t. Just one more kick to the gut.
‘And then he just shows up here with his new girlfriend? That’s bullshit.’
‘Iris, the baby.’
Iris glanced down. ‘He didn’t hear me. And besides, itisbullshit. What was he doing here?’
‘He said Hailey liked the town and they wanted to look at wedding venues. He thought we could all be adults about it.’
‘Ew.’
‘Yeah. And they were all in love with each other right in my face, and it was disgusting. And then Elliot walked in…’
‘Wait, the nerdy architect guy?’
‘Yeah.’
‘And…’ Iris was practically vibrating. Daisy was actually concerned she might wake the baby.
‘And I may have said he was my boyfriend, and he may have gone along with it, and there may have been some light flirting. Oh, and we held hands.’
‘Held hands?!!’ Iris squealed and Owen shifted. Her eyes went wide. ‘You held hands?’ she whispered. ‘That’s so cute.’
