Staying at Daisy's by Jill Mansell

Author:Jill Mansell
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2010-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

A family of tourists strolling around the hotel grounds caught Daisy’s eye as she glanced up from her computer screen. The sight of the children eating ice lollies bought from the village shop recalled last night’s dream with a jolt.

Good grief, until this moment she hadn’t even known she’d dreamt it, but now it came catapulting back to her, clear as day. She and Dev Tyzack had been sitting together on the front steps of the hotel, talking about… well, something or other, possibly rugby. And he’d been eating an ice cream—not a glamorous one, just the swirly synthetic whipped-up kind you got from an ice-cream van. It didn’t even have a flake in it.

But it was a hot day, and she’d longed for some of the ice cream. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from it. The next moment, Dev stopped what he was saying and offered it to her.

‘Want some?’

Oh, she did, she did. Overjoyed, she leaned towards him, steadying herself with her hand on his knee. She licked the ice cream and Dev smiled slightly before taking it back. He licked it too, which seemed wonderfully intimate. Seconds earlier, her mouth had been on the ice cream; now his mouth was there at the exact same spot. Almost like kissing by proxy.

And then he’d resumed his conversation, every now and again pausing to offer her another lick. They’d shared the whole ice cream, even the cone.

That was it. That had been the sum total of the dream. Feeling hot, Daisy reached for the tumbler of water on her desk and hastily glugged it down. Damn, the effects dreams could have on you. And how embarrassing; a psychiatrist would have a field day interpreting this one.

The phone rang and she grabbed it, glad of the diversion. God, and Josh had been lying asleep next to her the whole time! Sharing a bed with one man and inadvertently dreaming of another was almost like being unfaithful, and why on earth would she want to dream about Dev Tyzack anyway? She was perfectly happy with Josh.

Oops, still not concentrating. Realizing she’d forgotten to speak, Daisy hurriedly cleared her throat and, to make herself sound more efficient, said, ‘Good morning, Colworth Manor Hotel, Daisy MacLean speaking.’

‘You’re behind the times. It’s good afternoon,’ a male voice observed, and for a horrible moment Daisy thought it was Dev Tyzack.

Then, even horribler, she realized it was him. Oh God, out of her dreams and into her phone. This simply wasn’t fair.

‘Sorry. Working too hard to notice the time.’ Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was one o’clock. ‘What can I do for you?’

‘Well, I’ve got this ice cream here, melting faster than I can eat it. I wondered if you’d like to come and help me out.’

Dev didn’t actually say this, obviously. It was her imagination working on feverish overtime without any help whatsoever from the sensible part of her brain. Wherever that might be.

‘Just ringing with an update on the figures for the conference.

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