Page 67 of The Only Way Is Up

‘Wait,’ she interrupted. ‘I know this seems like good news, but it’s not that simple. Just bear with me for a minute.’

Tom nodded, even though he looked confused. He sat back on the sofa. Hank hopped off Daisy’s lap and went to join him, so she stood up and started to pace the room.

‘I didn’t know Christian was coming to Austria,’ she told Tom. ‘He turned up, apparently to try to persuade me to take him back.’ Daisy reached the front door and turned around to pace back the other way. ‘I said no and he left, but there was a pap hiding in the trees. Christian’s got some issues. It’s complicated, so that’s why there’s been no announcement.’

Tom stayed silent so Daisy kept talking and pacing. ‘If things were different, I’d ask you out on a date, like normal people do. But I’m not a normal person.’

‘But—’

Daisy held up a hand again. ‘No, please. Let me finish.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’m not saying we can’t ever go on a date, but the timing is really important here.’ Daisy stopped pacing and finally turned to face Tom, wishing she had a flipchart so she could make notes and draw circles and arrows to connect all the important things.

‘If I go back to London, and then I announce that Christian and I have split up, that’s one small bit of news, right? Later, you and I go on a date, which is another small bit of news. No big deal. OK?’

‘OK.’

‘BUT,’ Daisy continued, ‘if I were to announce that Christian and I have split while I’m still living in this village, and then you and I start dating, you will become the REASON we split. That’s much bigger news and the tabloids will rake over every inch of your past.’

Tom looked away, clearly torn. ‘But what if I don’t care?’ he said finally.

Daisy sat back on the chair and leaned towards him, her hands pressed together like she was praying. ‘No, listen. They’ll write about Tessa. They’ll find old pictures and make a big thing about how alike we look. They’ll paint you as a homewrecking headmaster and me as a love cheat. They’ll interview your friends and family, then move on to school staff and parents and governors. It will be horrible in every possible way. You don’t want that.’

Tom took a deep breath. ‘No. I can’t imagine anybody would want that.’

‘So, I’m asking you to wait until after February half-term. Eight weeks from now.’ Daisy’s look was beseeching. It was all or nothing now. ‘I’ll go back to London at the end of January, then Christian and I will announce we split amicably over Christmas. Ruby will go on the school ski trip at half-term and I usually go to my villa in Portugal, so maybe we can go on a date after I get back.

‘We’ll stay under the radar for a while, see how things go. When the press gets wind, there’ll be a brief flurry of interest, but nothing compared to what would happen if I announced it now.’

Tom nodded slowly. ‘I understand.’

Daisy exhaled, letting go of all the breath she’d been holding in. She felt a little dizzy. ‘So for the time being we can’t be anything more than friends working on a project together. Nothing can happen that might implicate you when Christian and I officially split.’

Daisy turned her palms upwards, feeling like she’d emptied her soul onto the rug in front of him. ‘I’m sorry it has to be this way, but I’m just trying to protect you. It will be better in the long run.’

‘OK. I believe you.’

Daisy sighed heavily. ‘You should probably go.’

Tom looked torn, but finally he nodded and stood up, then walked to the front door with Henry shuffling reluctantly along behind him. He turned back to look at Daisy with those intense, beautiful eyes. ‘Eight weeks, right?’

Daisy nodded. ‘Eight weeks.’

‘OK.’ Tom took a deep breath, then giving her a soft smile, he murmured, ‘But before I go, is there any chance I could kiss you? Just once, to keep me going?’

Daisy hesitated for a moment, then took two huge strides across the room and pressed her lips against his before she changed her mind. She let herself go for a long moment, emptying her mind of everything but the feel and smell and taste of him. After ten seconds that felt like several blissful years, she pulled away and stepped back, holding his gaze until he smiled softly and slipped through the door, closing it quietly behind him.

PART FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Daisy sat on the edge of the bed applying her makeup using a plastic-framed mirror propped up on the windowsill. She could feel cold air creeping around the edges of the glass, condensation pooling in the flaking paintwork. These old cottages had bags of charm, but there was also a lot to be said for double glazing.

It wasn’t lost on Daisy that the last time she’d been getting ready for a big night out was the NTAs nearly four months ago. Today was her fortieth birthday and there was no red carpet, no towering heels, no Victor the stylist with his dress bag and diamonds. Today it was just her and a small dog curled up like a croissant on her pillow.

Ruby was home from school for the weekend, but she’d gone over to the Shipton Arms to see Stella. Presumably they were organising some kind of birthday surprise, although hopefully nothing too ridiculous. Daisy just wanted a small family dinner, a few glasses of half-decent wine and an early night. Maybe being forty meant you swapped falling out of a nightclub at 4 a.m. for stretchy joggers, fluffy socks and a mug of tea. She tried not to think what Tom might be doing.

The past two weeks since school had restarted had been hectic – she’d completed all five classes and finished edits to the recipes, on top of managing Justin and Stella’s new status as YouTube sensations. She’d called Roger and asked if he knew any agents who dealt with social media influencers, and it turned out one of his colleagues was a specialist. So at least now they had some support to deal with all the press and publicity and were no longer turning to Daisy for advice every hour of the day. She was thrilled for them, but had more than enough on her own plate without being an unpaid agent to her needy mother and the sweary but endearing chef next door.

She’d kept up her regular calls with Katie, and thankfully there’d been a lull in the gossip, possibly because she’d done very little apart from work. A daft story about her getting a dog, an article that essentially printed the contents of some Tweets from parents about her classes, as if this was hard news, a report that Christian was also currently working at a tennis academy in Latvia or Lithuania – Daisy couldn’t remember which, nor cared. Presumably it was Benny Bullshit and Christian was still in Switzerland, although it was always possible that he’d checked out of the clinic and was now shagging his way around the Baltics. Either way there was no further mention of Tom, which was a relief.