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God, the whole thing sounded so unbearably sordid. She looked up, steeling herself to deal with the disgust she expected to see on Jessie’s face.
But she didn’t see disgust. Jessie’s shoulders trembled and then, to Daisy’s complete astonishment, she started to laugh.
‘You’re kidding?’ Jessie blurted out at last, when she could finally draw a steady breath.
Daisy shrugged, acutely embarrassed. ‘No, I’m not. It’s dreadful, I know. He’s deceived you and Monroe. I’ve deceived you…’ She trailed off, not sure what else to say when Jessie had to clasp her hand over her mouth to hold back her giggling fit.
As she stood there, listening to Jessie’s muffled laughter and watching the beautiful people nearby craning their necks to stare at them, Daisy began to wonder what was worse—being Connor Brody’s scarlet woman or a complete laughing stock.
‘I’m so sorry. Don’t be embarrassed.’ Jessie squeezed her arm, managing to subdue her mirth with an effort. ‘It’s just, you have no idea how ironic this is.’
‘Thanks for taking it so well,’ she said tentatively.
‘Don’t mention it,’ Jessie said, still grinning. ‘Look, I hope you don’t mind me asking this. But it’s obvious you’re not comfortable with
this whole set-up. Why did you agree to do it?’
Daisy blew out a breath. ‘That’s a good question. And it’s sort of complicated.’
‘I’m sure it is,’ Jessie said. ‘And I don’t mean to pry. But Connor’s a good friend, and I’d love to know what’s going on between the two of you.’
‘It might take a while to explain it, from my point of view anyway,’ Daisy said, realising to her surprise she didn’t mind giving Jessie her answer. After all, she’d given the question a lot of thought over the last week and it was about time she came clean about her motives—to herself as well as Jessie.
‘Honey.’ Jessie smiled. ‘We’ve got all evening, or at least until Monroe and Connor find a beer, which could take a while seeing as the caterers only stocked champagne for this event as far as I know.’
‘All right,’ Daisy said, taking a deep breath. ‘First off, I should tell you I live in a bedsit in West London. I work six days a week on my stall in Portobello Market. And this whole scene…’ she did a circling motion with her glass to encompass the glittering crowd of Manhattan’s movers and shakers surrounding them ‘…is about as far from my real life as it’s possible to get. I help out at the local old people’s home once a week. I run the Carnival Arts project for the kids on a nearby council estate. I mentor and volunteer and I’m totally committed to my friends and my community.’
‘Now I know why I liked you instantly,’ Jessie said easily.
Bolstered by the appreciation she saw in Jessie’s face, Daisy smiled. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I love my life. I love the stability and the purpose and the sense of belonging it gives me and I intend to build on that when I have my own family one day. And I’m not interested in becoming rich or anything.’ She hesitated for a moment, stroked the stem of her glass. ‘But I’ve spent my whole life being cautious, and practical and responsible until I find my Mr Right.’ She looked at Jessie, saw the compassion in her eyes, but decided against bringing up her mother’s misbegotten love life—that seemed a bit too personal. ‘Connor, like the world he lives in, is the complete antithesis of my Mr Right. He’s exciting, sexy, charming, completely spontaneous and totally unreliable.’
And the best lover I’ve ever had, she thought, but decided not to mention that either. After all, she didn’t want Jessie to think she was a total slut.
‘He’s the opposite of what I’m looking for in a life partner. He’s not dependable or interested in settling down and I totally understand that. So I’m not under any delusions.’ Thank goodness. ‘But right here, right now, I guess he’s a guilty pleasure that I couldn’t resist. I decided when I got his plane ticket, these two weeks were going to be my Cinderella fortnight and so far they’ve worked out really well.’ Give or take the odd heart bump. ‘But once this is over I’ll be happy to go back to my real life and my real dreams.’
‘I see,’ Jessie said, giving her a considering look.
‘I guess that sounds as if I’m using him,’ Daisy said quickly, realising how it sounded now she’d spelled it out so succinctly. She started to feel a little queasy again. This woman was Connor’s friend, after all, not hers, however much she might want her to be. ‘But as he’s using me right back,’ she continued, ‘I don’t feel guilty about it.’ Or she was trying hard not to.
‘I don’t think you’re using him,’ Jessie said staunchly.
‘You don’t?’ The knots in Daisy’s stomach loosened.
‘No, I don’t,’ Jessie said firmly. ‘And even if you were, it would serve him right.’ She sent Daisy a quick grin. ‘The words hoisted and petard springing to mind.’
Daisy’s breath gushed out in a relieved huff. Maybe Jessie’s approval shouldn’t mean so much to her, but somehow it did.
‘But I’ve got to tell you,’ Jessie continued, ‘I do think you might be selling Connor a little short. At least as far as you’re concerned.’
Daisy’s heartbeat kicked hard in her chest, her breathing becoming uneven again. She wasn’t sure she liked the wistful look in Jessie’s eyes. ‘How so?’
Jessie stared at her for a long moment. ‘The Connor you described—the handsome, reckless, unreliable charmer—is only the Connor you see on the surface. That’s the face he shows to the world and that’s the way he likes everyone to see him. Especially women.’
Jessie paused to pick up a canapé from the tray of a passing waiter, but her eyes barely left Daisy’s. ‘It’s the way he came across to Monroe and I when we first met him.’ Jessie bit into the salmon puff, took her time swallowing it. ‘In fact when we got involved with this project we were both worried about him. He’d come recommended, but still we thought, Can we count on him? Will he bail out if the going gets tough? We were putting a lot of money on the line and as much as we liked him personally we weren’t sure about him. Precisely because he seemed so relaxed, so easy-going, almost overconfident.’
‘So why did you risk it?’ Daisy asked, intrigued despite herself. She’d never asked Connor about his work, just as he’d never asked her about her stall. It was all part of that unwritten agreement they had that this wasn’t a serious relationship, but, still, she wanted to know more.
‘Originally we went ahead because I got my brother-in-law Linc, who’s a Wall Street financier, to do a thorough check on Brody Construction. The company’s still young, even now, but it came out with flying colours, so we signed the partnership deal with Connor.’ Jessie huffed. ‘Almost straight away things started to go wrong on the project. The permits took much longer to come through than originally forecast. One of the suppliers went into receivership out of the blue. The building had a structural problem that hadn’t come up on the survey. Talk about a money pit. Frankly, the whole rehab was a complete nightmare.’ She grinned. ‘Connor, though, turned out to be our knight in shining armour, and the exact opposite of what he had first seemed. He was dedicated, conscientious, incredibly hard-working, inventive and one hundred and ten per cent reliable. He even put on a tool belt himself a couple of times towards the end of the build to get things done.’
