Love Redesigned (6 page)

‘Why is he going to be cross with me, Harry?’ Holly asked more gently after a deep breath, deciding to humour him rather than lose her own temper.

‘Because you were kissing that man at the door,’ Harry said, a huge dollop of a tear escaping down his cheek. ‘Daddy will be angry at you, and then he won’t want to see me anymore.’

‘You saw that?’ Holly asked incredulously.

‘Yes, through your bedroom window.’

‘Harry, I told you to brush your teeth, not spy on me.’

‘Look Mum, I saw you kissing that man and now Daddy will be angry with you.’

So. It had begun already. The boys were already taking sides and ganging up against her, Holly sadly thought to herself. Her earlier euphoria at getting one over on Daniel had by now worn off, and she was a bag of badly disguised nerves. Not because she’d kissed the security bot; because Harry seemed to see things in the same black-and-white way in which his father did. Holly had an inkling that if she wasn’t careful, this weekend had the potential to do some damage between her and her precious little boy. From now on, she had to be on her guard.

‘Some things are between me and your father, Harry. You’re a little bit too young to understand now, but I promise I’ll explain everything to you when you’re a bit older. You father absolutely wants to know you and he would never stop wanting to know you because of something I did,’ Holly explained, trying to exude a calmness she didn’t feel. She hoped as she’d never hoped in her life that she was telling the truth, and that Daniel really did want to get to know his son.

Harry had been relatively mollified after their talk, and he spent the remainder of the car journey chatting away with his toys in the backseat, as usual. After just over an hour of driving, and only one wrong turn, they reached Daniel’s house. Holly was surprised that he lived so close. All these years, and he hadn’t been all that far away from her. Or Harry. She thought he’d have stayed in the area they’d lived in when they’d been together, but obviously not. Granted, his driveway was a bitch to find, and he was completely out in the sticks, but still, seventy minutes or so, door to door—it wasn’t unworkable.

And what a house. As Holly pulled up in her tired-looking Nissan, she now wondered if this was why Daniel had sent that big black shiny car for them. Her little workhorse was a blot on the landscape. The house, the grounds: they were all seriously beautiful. The house was a new-build boxy construction with lots of glass, presumably to capitalise on the magnificence of the surrounding countryside. In the afternoon sunshine, it was hard to imagine the place being any more breathtaking.

But something was familiar about the place. It niggled in the back of Holly’s mind as she looked up to admire the architectural details and the sheer scale of the impressive house. And yet she was certain that she’d never stepped foot here before in her life. Then it dawned on her. When she’d left Daniel, she’d been drawing up what she considered to be her dream house.
Their
dream house, for their dream life together. And when it had all gone pear-shaped between them, she hadn’t bothered to take her sketches and the beginnings of her working drawings with her. What would have been the point? They would only have been reminders of what she’d left behind, and it wasn’t like she would ever have the funds independently to realise such a project. But here her project was. Standing right before her eyes. It wasn’t exactly a true and faithful representation of her original sketches, but the essence was definitely there—that much she could see. This building was bigger though, and the general proportions had been augmented to a much grander scale.

Holly found herself dumbstruck as she tried to take it all in.
He’d built her house.
Daniel had gone and put into being her dream house. That must have been why he’d sounded so much more knowledgeable with regard to her work back at her office. He must have taken an interest in the process of building his home.

‘Mum,’ Harry called, tugging her hand. ‘Come on, Daddy will be waiting.’ Holly couldn’t even remember helping him out of his car seat, she was so dazed.

‘Okay,’ she replied numbly. ‘We’ll collect our stuff from the car later,’ she added as she walked over the gravel driveway and headed for the front door with Harry in hand.

Holly studied the complex-looking keypad on the wall by the door. It was like something from the Millennium Falcon, and not at all intuitive. This had not been in her architectural plans. Holly was not an electronic-gadgety-aficionado-type person. But Daniel was. This had Daniel written all over it. Holly gave up trying to decipher the little symbols next to the numbers and randomly started stabbing buttons.

‘Bingo,’ she said, as the door started to open. She looked down at Harry and gave him a reassuring wink. Holly felt a wave of butterflies start doing their butterfly dance in her stomach. She was nervous at what was about to come, and if she was totally honest, a little excited about the prospect of seeing Daniel again, and being able to deliver her earlier security-bot message in person.

‘Hello and welcome,’ an attractive woman in her early forties said in a well-educated-sounding English accent. ‘You must be Mrs Madison. And this must be Harry,’ the posh lady continued, as she beamed a megawatt smile down in Harry’s direction. Holly was stunned. She hadn’t been expecting this yummy mummy to open the door to Daniel’s house in a million years. She’d expected Daniel to be there, and for them to continue their awkward verbal dance around each other in front of Harry before he whisked her off to bed. Holly suddenly realised that she knew nothing about this man anymore—she was effectively starting from scratch. All her old information was apparently defunct. This was a warning for her to tread carefully, she told herself.

‘That’s right,’ Holly eventually managed as she fought to put a smile on her own face, albeit a rather forced one.

‘Please, call me Stephanie, and do come in and make yourselves at home,’ posh lady said as she ushered them into the reception hall.

‘Daniel was expecting you a little earlier, and is currently otherwise engaged,’ Stephanie explained with the barest hint of disapproval in her voice. Holly couldn’t tell if this was directed towards her for being late, or towards Daniel for his absence. ‘Would you care for some light refreshments on the terrace whilst you wait for him?’ Stephanie offered, recovering herself and smiling brightly.

‘That would be lovely,’ Holly replied, and she followed Stephanie through the house, absorbing as much of the place as she could.

Unfortunately for Holly, it seemed the full house tour would have to wait, as Stephanie quickly whisked her and Harry outside again via a side entrance. From what she did see, the place was huge, cavernous, and consisted of hard white surfaces, reflecting light from every angle. It was also perfect. There wasn’t a piece of furniture out of place and literally zero clutter. Daniel definitely didn’t live with a five-year-old, that was for sure, Holly found herself thinking.

Stephanie settled them in the garden with homemade lemonade while she excused herself to attend to some party arrangements. Holly was alone with her thoughts—of which there were plenty—whilst Harry explored the garden. At the top of Holly’s list was the relationship between Daniel and Stephanie. Were they together? Was she his new wife? No, that wasn’t possible, Holly told herself. Legally she was still married to him. But she’d called him by his Christian name. Security bot had referred to his boss as Mr Madison. Holly was confused. Who
was
this Stephanie?

More to the point, what the hell was she doing letting herself get emotionally entangled with this man about whom she knew nothing anymore. If not Stephanie, then maybe someone else. He could have just been fooling around with Holly, thinking she was an easy option. Holly now wholeheartedly regretted having slept with him. Twice. She knew she shouldn’t have done it. For all she knew, Daniel could be seriously committed to someone else. He could even have more children, she thought—and had to catch her breath. The thought had never even crossed her mind previously. But this house was plenty big enough to house a nursery full of children and still keep the reception areas free of child paraphernalia.

Harry’s shouting roused Holly from her sad reflection on the mess she found herself in.

‘Daddy Daddy Daddy!’ he called. He ran as fast as his little legs would carry him towards his father’s tall figure, which was confidently striding towards them.

Daniel effortlessly scooped him up and spun him round, much to Harry’s delight. To Holly’s critical eye, Daniel seemed to be a natural with the little boy. Either that, or he’d been getting some practice on some
other
children in the past five years. Daniel proceeded to completely ignore her as he carried Harry round the garden looking at this plant and that tree, all the while Harry chatting ten to the dozen.

Holly observed the pair closely. Daniel was looking particularly nice. There was no denying it. He was working his sunglasses, jeans, and casual shirt combination with his usual gusto. It seemed to Holly that it didn’t much matter how he stood, he always seemed to make his physique appear to its best advantage for the rest of the world to see. Even carrying Harry around, he looked like he was posing on a magazine shoot.
Oh, to be that naturally good-looking all the time
, Holly sighed to herself.

Harry had his arms wrapped around Daniel’s neck, and Holly couldn’t help but feel guilty that maybe she hadn’t tried hard enough with Daniel when Harry was born. She felt that Harry had missed out on so much of this kind of father-son relationship, and that she was to blame. She’d always told herself that she was parent enough for Harry… but seeing the way he was now looking at Daniel with such unconditional love and sheer awe—she wasn’t so sure.

Finally Harry decided he wanted to regain the use of his legs, and he wiggled out of his father’s arms and ran off to the opposite end of the garden, her hyper-excited little boy once again. Daniel casually made his way over to where Holly was sitting and sat down lazily beside her, watching Harry run out his excited energy. He didn’t say anything.

‘Happy birthday,’ Holly said quietly, fiddling with the straw in her drink.

‘Thanks,’ he replied, finally acknowledging her. Silence.

‘Nice house,’ Holly offered, not sure why Daniel was being so uncharacteristically quiet. He normally had plenty to say for himself. Small talk was his speciality. She’d seen the evidence first-hand in her office with her staff.

‘Thanks,’ he replied, and poured himself a lemonade. They sat in an uncomfortable silence—from Holly’s perspective—for a few minutes, watching Harry burning off his excess energy by rolling around on the grass.

When Holly couldn’t stand being ignored any longer, she stood up abruptly and began walking back to the house.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ came Daniel’s quick response.

‘To ask Stephanie where we should put our things,’ Holly snapped back at him, surprised by his sharp tone. It reminded her of how her father used to speak to her when she was a teenager.

Daniel exhaled loudly and made a big show of standing up.

‘I’ll show you,’ he said, as though it were some great effort.

‘Thanks,’ Holly replied tersely, giving him a glare that she hoped he was receiving clear as day through his sunglasses.

But she couldn’t tell if he did; he just walked right on past her, making sure he didn’t come close enough to touch her.

‘Leave Harry here. I’ll send Stephanie out to watch him,’ he added without turning around. Holly huffed, but she did as she was told. She wasn’t sure how she felt about a woman she hardly knew supervising Harry, but she bit her lip.

‘I thought you’d be happier if you were in the same room together,’ Daniel said as he dumped their overnight bags on the floor of a very spacious double bedroom. Once again, the colour palette for this room was overwhelmingly white.

‘Thanks,’ Holly replied, her bad mood now somewhat dissipated. Although they’d barely said a word to each other since collecting the bags, she’d at least glimpsed some more of the house, which had forced her mind to occupy itself with other things, rather than how much she disliked Daniel right at that moment.

‘Party starts at eight-thirty downstairs,’ he said brusquely, and turned to leave. He was almost out the door when he changed his mind, turned abruptly, and was up in Holly’s personal space in a split second. He’d taken his sunglasses off, and Holly could see a vein in his temple clearly starting to throb.

‘What’s the matter, Mr Madison? You seem a little angry,’ Holly heard herself taunting him. That wasn’t exactly how she’d planned to open up a discussion, but it was too late now.

‘You just
had
to do it, didn’t you?’ Daniel spat at her with disgust.

‘Do what?’ Holly replied with genuine innocence. For the life of her, she didn’t think her crimes were so very great.

‘Undermine me to my staff. First, you won’t get in the damn car I went to the trouble of sending for you, and then you go and pull a stunt like kissing Perkins. And to top it all off, you drive all the way over here with my son in that death trap,’ Daniel fumed.

‘Good, he passed on my message then,’ Holly replied sweetly. She knew Daniel would always be able to shout and scream longer and louder than she could, but she knew her facetiousness would rile him. It would serve him right for slighting her little car. A death trap, indeed.

‘For Christ sake, Holly. Are you trying to make me jealous?’ he asked, stepping away from her, obviously exasperated.

‘No,’ Holly snapped back quickly. The thought had never even crossed her mind.

‘I just wanted to get your goon off my back and give him something to do. He wasn’t taking no for an answer, and we weren’t ready. By sending him you forced my hand. You can’t control everything we do, Daniel.’

‘Is that what you think I’m doing?’ he asked—not exactly gently, but at least he wasn’t shouting anymore.

‘Of course you are,’ Holly exclaimed. It was her turn to sound exasperated. ‘You send a car to collect us so that we’ll definitely be here to fit in with your plans and schedule. Well, being a parent means not everything always goes neatly to plan, I’m afraid.’