Page 40 of The Secret Holiday Kiss

But she got behind the wheel of the Land Rover, insisting on driving, begging to hear all of Sophie’s plans for the ball now she’d spent the afternoon in stationery heaven.

Daisy wasn’t going to crumble: it wasn’t something she did. She would keep everything together, and view her dinner with a generous, appreciative client who had sought out her services as a positive thing. She ran her own business, she could blur the lines a little bit for the sake of his happiness. Lars was charming and flirtatious and made her feel good about herself. If she didn’t want it to go any further, then it wouldn’t, because if the last two years had taught her anything, it was that she could cope with whatever the world was determined to throw at her.

Chapter Thirteen

The next day, Avery invited Daisy to the house. She hadn’t expected it to be so soon, or so sudden, but the last thing she wanted to do was turn him down. She dressed in jeans and her new grey-blue jumper, tied her hair away from her face in a low ponytail that wouldn’t get in the way of a hard hat, and grabbed her bag.

‘I’m off to see Avery,’ she announced to Sophie and Harry, who were in the kitchen, lingering over a long breakfast.

‘Want to take one of the dogs with you?’ Harry said with a grin.

‘Not a chance. See you later.’

‘Have fun!’ Sophie called, with a gleam in her eye that Daisy didn’t like. On the way back from Norwich the day before, Daisy had mentioned seeing Avery and the unease she had felt over his behaviour. Sophie had pointed out that he still lived in Norwich so it made sense that he would visit people there, but Sophie hadn’t spent much time with him, and Daisy felt she was more attuned to his ‘tells’ than her. She knew she was fixating on it, though, so she had tried to change the subject too swiftly and now, of course, Sophie thought she had a crush on Avery.

The cloud hung low over the parkland, filling the air with mizzle, the sea nowhere near visible and, as Daisy put her hood up and kept her head down, she had to admit that Sophie was right. She did have a crush on Avery. She didn’t see how any heterosexual woman with eyes and ears and a libido wouldn’t find his brand of scruffy charm attractive. Avery Hudson was hot: there was no way around it.

She had almost reached the village green when a woman with a shock of blonde hair called ‘Team Christmas ball!’ across the road to her, raising both her thumbs.

‘Oh!’ she shouted back, stupidly. ‘Amazing. Thank you!’ She raised her own thumbs, and the woman smiled and bustled on to wherever she was going. ‘Ridiculous,’ Daisy muttered, as she passed the hotel.

Was whoever had sent her the book staying here? Was that why it had been left at reception for her? She scrolled through her mental address book, but she had met so many people over recent years, clients and hotel customers, Stefan’s colleagues and friends. None of them had any reason to send her a creepy book that, it turned out, was also an addictive story.

As she walked up the lane by the side of the hotel, she could hear music. It took her a moment to realize it was ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears for Fears, and she was grinning when she emerged onto the site. Avery’s team, clad in hi-vis jackets and yellow hard hats, were engaged in various tasks. The cement mixer was going, and the grating whine of some kind of electric saw reached her from inside the walls of the house.

‘You get your team to work on a Saturday?’ she said to Avery, who was leaning against his van, jotting things down in a notebook.

He looked up and smiled, and Daisy forgot how cold it was. ‘I offer them the chance to work on a Saturday with double pay, and they always say yes.’

‘A hive of industry. I bet the hotel guests love it.’

He shrugged. ‘That’s for Mary and Winnie to sort out. We don’t use any machinery until after ten, and November’s a better time to do it than spring or summer, even though it makes our lives more difficult.’ He raised a hand to the sky, and Daisy knew how much the damp weather could impact on the build, delaying things and causing any number of frustrations.

‘You just get on with it,’ she said.

‘We just get on with it.’

‘Are you sure today is OK for my tour?’

‘Of course.’ His smile deepened, his eyes crinkling at the edges. He looked tired, she thought. Was that something to do with his trip to Norwich? ‘I can get the guys to take a break.’

‘You don’t have to do that.’

‘I do, otherwise we won’t be able to hear each other talk. Give me five minutes.’

He strode towards the house and spoke to each of his team in turn. They nodded, then secured whatever they were working on, a couple glancing in Daisy’s direction. They passed her, smiling, and one of them tipped his hat to her before taking it off.

Avery met her at the van. ‘I’ve told them to take half an hour, go get a bacon sandwich.’

‘Oooh.’

Avery laughed. ‘Let me show you the house first.’ He reached into his van, passed her a hi-vis and then, when she’d put that on, held out a hard hat. ‘They’re not the most comfortable, unless you have them set up specifically for you, but they’re non-negotiable.’

‘I have my own in London.’

‘You do?’ He placed it gently on her head, then adjusted the angle, his brows lowered in concentration. ‘How does that feel?’

He was standing so close, she could smell his sea-salt scent, and she could feel the warmth coming off him, his arms brushing her shoulders as he got the hat settled on her head. ‘Great,’ she said. ‘I go onto enough sites that it made sense to have my own.’