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Chapter 25
Daniel didn’t want to wake up, but his phone was insisting he did. For a second, he considered ignoring it but when he checked the time and saw it was only eight o’clock a feeling of dread came over him. No one rang anyone this early on a Sunday morning unless it was bad news, and his first thought was for his grandad.
Trepidation making him clumsy, he snatched the phone off the bedside table and squinted at the number. It looked vaguely familiar, but it wasn’t his mum or the care home – it was Miss Carruthers.
Sinking back onto his pillow, relief making him feel slightly weak (or was that due to the lack of sleep last night?) he croaked, ‘Hello?’
‘Is that Daniel Oakland?’ The woman’s voice was clipped, and she sounded cross.
‘It is.’
‘That’s not the way to greet people. I could have been a customer. The last thing I want to do is to have to ask you who you are when you pick up the phone.’
‘Sorry, Miss Carruthers.’
‘You neglected to call me. I left a message.’
‘Sorry,’ he repeated. She had the effect of making him want to apologise for simply being alive. ‘I’ve been busy.’
‘Nonsense! You should never be too busy to answer your phone to a client. That’s not the way to do business.’
‘Sorry,’ he said, for the third time.
‘So you should be. Now, listen carefully: I have recommended you to someone of whom I think very highly, who is in need of a permanent gardener. Highfields House – have you heard of it?’
Dumbly Daniel nodded, before realising Miss Carruthers couldn’t see him. ‘Yes, I have.’
‘Then you’ll know what an excellent opportunity this is. Mr John, the head gardener, will phone you tomorrow. Please be polite. That is all. Goodbye.’
Daniel continued to hold the phone to his ear for several seconds, then he slowly lowered it, his mind reeling.
What had just happened?Highfields House?Gosh.
He should feel pleased, elated even, but all he felt was numb. His thoughts were too full of Seren and the way she had deceived him, to think about anything else.
OK, maybe deceived was too strong a word, but she had kept an incredibly significant and important piece of information about herself from him, and he knew he was being a heel to even think about ending their relationship just because she was a single mother, but for his own sake and sanity he didn’t have any choice.
It was better to end it now, rather than have things progress to the point where her daughter became attached to him, only for the child to get hurt if everything fell apart.
Logically, he knew that Seren wasn’t Gina, but after seeing his ex and Amelia yesterday and hearing the little girl say those words that cut him to the quick, there was no way he could even think of continuing to date Seren.
He might have fallen in love with her and she him (he hoped for her sake he was wrong about that because the last thing he wanted was to hurt her) but cutting Seren out of his life was for the best, no matter how much pain it caused him.
Last night had been horrendous. He’d made his excuses, leaving Tobias in the pub happily chatting up one or both of the young women, and he’d made his slow way home, his heart breaking.
If he’d realised Seren had a child, he would never have asked her out, and he blamed himself for not checking. But asking a question like that was hardly the done thing, and if he was honest, it hadn’t even occurred to him – he’d assumed she would have mentioned a child at some point, and especially before they’d spent the night together. But she hadn’t said a word. Not even a hint.
He’d lain awake most of the night, dwelling on how he was going to break the news to her that he didn’t want to see her again. What would he say? ‘Sorry Seren, but I don’t want a relationship with you because you’re a mother’? What kind of a man did that make him? Not a very nice one, clearly.
He’d have to give her some other reason, one that didn’t make her feel awful about her being a single parent, one that didn’t knock her confidence, and one that didn’t make him out to be the worst of the worst.
Suddenly it came to him –Highfields!The place was a few hours drive away and it would be impossible to commute to it from Tinstone; it was the perfect reason to break off a relationship.
Daniel got out of bed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, despite having had only an hour and a half rest. After tossing and turning all night, his thoughts churning and his heart aching, sleep had finally been a blessed relief and he dearly wished he could sink back into its oblivion, but he knew he wouldn’t.
He may as well get up and get on with his day. He was supposed to be taking Seren to the cinema this evening, with a bite to eat first. He’d pick her up as arranged and he’d tell her over dinner that it was over. It wasn’t ideal and he felt sick thinking about it, but it was better than ending their relationship over the phone. She deserved to be told face to face, no matter how much he didn’t want to do it. He was dreading seeing her reaction, knowing he was causing her pain, and if she accused him of dumping her as soon as he’d got into her knickers, then so be it.
‘Not seeing your lady friend today?’ Edwin asked when Daniel arrived to pick him up from the care home to take him to Linda’s for lunch.
