Maximum Exposure: The Heartlands Series

by Harper, Jenny

  He let out his breath contentedly. Perfect.

  Diddly dah. Diddly dah dah dah.

  The harsh electronic notes of his mobile broke into the silence with shocking brutality. He reached into his pocket with resignation. His mother, probably, wondering where he was. He should have had the sense to leave a note for her.

  ‘Hello?’ He fumbled for the green button without looking at the number that came up.

  ‘Ben. Hi.’

  Feeling his body tense, he sat up straight. Martina. ‘Hi. How are you?’

  ‘Did you get my texts?’

  ‘Yeah. You OK?’ It was odd hearing her voice again. It had been how long – a month? And yet the tones were so familiar.

  ‘Yeah. You?’

  ‘I’m good. Great.’

  Please God, she doesn’t want to try again.

  ‘It’s been a month. I miss you,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah.’ God, he’d become inarticulate. ‘How’s things? Work going well?’ Martina was a lawyer, working in a large global firm in the City. Her hours had always been long, but she thrived on it. Her work, like her eating habits, was a form of self flagellation. Quite what she was punishing herself for, Ben had no idea.

  ‘Challenging.’

  ‘Good challenging?’

  ‘Yes and no.’

  There was a silence. Again Ben could hear the tick tock of the clock. Down on the shore, the large black and white birds had gone and a flock of smaller birds had replaced them. The sea was looking rougher now and a large dark cloud hung over the horizon. The fine weather of the early morning looked as if it was moving away. He should really get going.

  ‘Ben, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I wish we could have done it all differently.’

  ‘Me too.’

  ‘I am trying with the food, really I am.’

  ‘Good. I only wish the best for you, Teeny.’

  ‘I know.’

  Again there was a short pause, then she said, ‘I do miss you, Ben.’ His heart sank. ‘But only in a good kind of way. Actually, I’ve started seeing someone else. I wanted to tell you.’

  The words were shocking. He’d never imagined that she would start dating again so quickly.

  ‘He’s a lawyer at my firm. Nothing started before we split, Ben, honest. But he’s fancied me for some time, apparently. We headed out for a drink one night and it went from there. Are you OK about it? I want you to be OK, Ben.’

  Ben twiddled the teaspoon in his saucer. It made a small chinking noise against the cup. Martina and someone else. It was an odd thought and underlined their separation in a way he hadn’t managed to in the past month. It gave him permission, he realised, to move on. Perhaps it was what he’d been waiting for.

  He smiled. ‘Babes, I’m delighted.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Really. It’d make me feel very good to know that you’ve found happiness.’

  ‘Thank you, Ben. I do miss you, you know. Really. I’ll never forget what we had.’

  ‘Nor me.’ He meant it too.

  ‘Is there anyone else for you, Ben?’

  Was there? He would like to think so but wasn’t at all sure. ‘Maybe,’ he said slowly. ‘I don’t know if she cares for me though.’

  ‘Go for it Ben. You’re a great guy. Go get her.’

  The sun through the window picked out the rich deep amber of his eyes as he rumpled his hair and grinned. ‘Thanks, Teeny. Be happy.’

  ‘You too, babes.’

  He flipped his phone shut and looked out. It was starting to rain. He’d better go. But his heart felt light, whatever the weather could throw at him.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘Ben, you’re dripping! For heaven’s sake, let’s get your things off.’

  Kath, greeting him at the door a good three hours later, spotted her son coming into the hall and dodged out of her living room to intercept him. Daisy, feeling prim and proper and dressed in her Sunday best, was uncomfortable – more than uncomfortable, seriously awkward. Only her mother’s pleading and the knowledge that with Kath present her father would be on his best behaviour had finally persuaded her to accompany them to the Gillies’s for lunch. That and the oddest feeling that she shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to see Ben somewhere other than work. Now, though, sitting on the chintzy sofa, waiting for Ben to appear, she felt crucified. What would he think when he found her there? Too late she realised that there should be a separation between work and not work. Sitting in his house, with her parents observing everything, she just wanted to bolt.

  ‘We’ve got guests, love,’ she heard Kath Gillies say. ‘I’ve asked Janet and Eric round for lunch.’

  ‘Oh? Right.’ There was a rustle (a jacket being shaken out?) and a couple of clunks (boots?), then she heard him say, ‘I’ll just go for a shower first, will I?’

  ‘Fine, just pop in and say hello before you go.’

  Ben’s head appeared. It had been raining for the past three hours and he looked as though he’d been out in every minute of that time. His thick browny-red hair was plastered to his head and his fair skin looked flushed.

  ‘Oh! Hi Daisy. Hi.’ Surely his face had gone a deeper shade of pink? ‘Hello Janet, hello Eric. Good to see you. Listen, I’m dripping here, I won’t come in and spoil Mother’s carpet. I’m going to nip up for a shower.’ His head disappeared for a moment, then reappeared suddenly. ‘Good to see you,’ he repeated, weirdly, before Daisy heard the soft thump, thump of him bounding up the carpeted stair in bare feet.

  She stared at her skirt. It was an ankle length, swirly affair in dusky blue, with huge diagonal patchworky type squares and raggy bits. Why she’d let Lizzie persuade her to buy it she couldn’t imagine, it wasn’t really her thing, and she felt like someone else in the skirt.

  What the hell was she doing here, thinking about a skirt, for God’s sake – and on her day off? She could be at the gym. She twisted her mouth pensively. No, no point in going to the gym today. Jack would be with Iris, though not for much longer with any luck. Kitten. He’d called her kitten.

  Purrr.

  ‘Hey.’ Ben was back. Christ that had been quick. Men seemed to get through the shower-and-change thing so fast.

  Daisy smiled. ‘Hey.’

  ‘Remember I was telling you about that old Cream album? Want to hear it?’

  He dressed casually in the office, but he looked even more relaxed now, standing there barefoot in cotton joggers and a soft zipped cardi over a white T-shirt, clean and scrubbed like a small boy just out of the bath – a big version of the Ben she used to play with all those years ago. And abruptly the girl Daisy had been was there with him again, running barefoot off to his room with smuggled treats to play board games or guessing games or just lie on the carpet staring at the ceiling and listen to music. She realised with surprise that she really liked Ben – more than just liked in a ‘He’s all right’ kind of way. He was easy to be with, really comfortable. And actually, it occurred to her, looking like he did right now he was really rather sexy.

  ‘Daisy? Cream? Crossroads? Baker, Bruce, and Clapton?’

  She’d been drifting. She blinked, grinned and said, ‘Sure. Love to. Have we time?’

  Kath nodded, smiling. ‘Want to take a drink up with you?’

  ‘What, you mean legally?’ Ben laughed.

  He had the same memories.

  They chose white wine, took a bottle and two glasses and pinched a couple of bags of crisps for good measure. It was funny how she was remembering – little things, like how he used to dance like a maniac whenever she put Abba on. God, he’d lacked co-ordination. She looked at his sturdy legs, the broad shoulders, the comforting solidness of him as she followed him up the stairs and wondered whether he’d changed.

  ‘Do you dance these days?’ she asked as they reached the door to his room on the top floor. A week or two back she would have been puffing but now, she was pleased to note, the long climb hadn’t troubled her.

  ‘Are you asking?’ />
  She laughed. ‘I’m supposed to say “I’m asking,” huh?’

  ‘Then I say, “I’m dancing”.’ He turned inside the room and stared at her for such a long moment that she felt uncomfortable. She blushed and turned to pretend to admire the view, then saw that there was someone else in the room. ‘Hi,’ she greeted the dummy involuntarily, then laughed at her mistake. ‘My God, Ben, what’s that?’

  ‘Let me introduce Nefertiti, my constant companion and chaperone.’

  ‘Delighted,’ said Daisy, crossing the room to inspect her. ‘Heavens, my friend Lizzie would just love her.’

  ‘She’s a dummy fetishist?’

  ‘Nope. She’s a textile designer. That looks like one of her hats.’

  ‘Ah. Got it now. You share a house with her.’

  ‘More of a tiny cottage, and a cold one at that, but yeah. You’d like her, she’s gorgeous.’ The heavy beat of Ginger Baker on drums filled the room and she closed her eyes to listen to Bruce and Clapton on guitar with the old classics she remembered from her parents’ collection. ‘Jesus, it’s years since I heard this. Fabulous.’

  Ben tossed her a pillow on the floor for her to sit on. She subsided onto the floor and leaned back against the bed. Ben screwed the top off the wine, filled her glass, took his own and sank down to the floor with a practised ease, his toes splaying slightly to aid his balance.

  Distracted by the sight, she said, ‘You know those tickets that came in to the paper, the ones for the X Factor tour concert at Braehead?’

  Ben’s foot was tapping the carpet to the strong beat. ‘Sharon won them in the draw, didn’t she?’

  ‘Yeah. But afterwards she told me she’d realised she had a diary conflict and can’t go that night. She gave them to me.’

  ‘What, just gave them away? And why you? Pardon me for making the observation, but I hadn’t thought you were the best of mates.’

  Daisy grinned. ‘I know it’s not saying much, but I’m as good as she’s got there.’

  ‘Hmm, you may be right. Sad.’

  ‘I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?’ The idea had just occurred to her. She would normally have invited Lizzie, but Lizzie was away next week. There was no point in asking Jack, not yet anyway, and Ben was cool, easy to be with.

  ‘Are you on?’

  ‘Are you asking?’

  ‘I’m asking.’

  ‘Then I’m on.’

  Fucking magic. Ben sank back into the pillow he’d grabbed from the bed to lean against the wall in his lowly position on the floor and closed his eyes. ‘Goin’ down to the crossroad …’ He was at a crossroad all right. Before him lay all sorts of possibilities. The day, which had started early and had looked rather unpromising, had got better and better.

  ‘Crossroad, crossroad, crossroad.’

  He didn’t need to worry about how to ask Daisy Irvine out on a date.

  She’d just asked him.

  Sales of the Herald had slumped. Chantelle in advertising was finding sales harder than ever. Sharon seemed to be constantly grumpy and Daisy guessed things weren’t going too well with Jay because he was irritable most of the time and they hadn’t been spotted in each other’s company.

  Out together on a story, Sharon chose – unusually – to confide in Daisy. ‘It all started so well, Dais.’

  Daisy, driving to the school in the small rural village of Main where parents were staging a protest against the decision not to exclude a very troublesome pupil (aged six), negotiated a tight bend in the narrow road, squeezing past a tractor coming in the opposite direction. That corner was dangerous. There’d be a serious accident there one of these days. The villagers had organised plenty of protests about it but the Council’s attitude seemed to be to do nothing until there was a fatality to prove the villagers right. ‘Yeah?’

  ‘I mean, he’s just gorgeous, don’t you think?’

  ‘Jay?’

  ‘Of course, Jay. And he really took to me, I mean really.’

  Daisy glanced across at Sharon. ‘Not surprising. You’re very pretty, Shar.’ She was too. If she could just curb her bossiness she’d be a much more attractive person, but she had looks all right.

  ‘Thanks.’

  Sharon sounded surprised. Maybe she didn’t get too many compliments. Was she aware of Sir Cosmo, finding every excuse to come into the office, standing in the corner eyeing her up like a loyal Labrador, his tongue practically hanging out? Daisy thought not. And even if Sharon was aware of Cosmo’s unspoken passion, she’d probably be dismissive of it. He was, perhaps, a bit on the crusty side, but a good scrub and an airing, plus a bit of TLC, and Cosmo would probably come up shining in unexpected ways. He was too much under his mother’s thumb and that was his biggest problem.

  ‘But it’s a bit difficult. He’s kind of all over me one minute then looks at me like I’m a complete stranger the next. What can I do?’

  Daisy passed the small, isolated church that marked half way to their destination. She picked her words carefully. ‘Shar, is it the best idea to be trying to date the boss? You know what they say.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, I know, don’t shit on your own doorstep. But I can’t help it Dais, I’m smitten. And to be honest …’ she hesitated.

  ‘What?’

  Sharon’s hesitation, uncharacteristically, continued. ‘Well, to be honest, I don’t like what he’s doing to the paper. I want to leap on the guy and shag him to death, but professionally … I’m worried.’

  Daisy, taken aback, admitted, ‘I know. Me too. What can we do?’

  ‘That’s the problem. I haven’t a clue. I can’t do a thing. If I tell him, I’ll certainly lose him. I’m sure he’s capable, but he’s just getting it so wrong.’

  Daisy thought about it. She had to slow down to pass a horse and rider. It gave her time.

  ‘I think he’s doing it with good intentions. He wants the paper to be great. He’s just made a wrong judgement about how we can achieve that.’

  ‘Can you help Daisy? Please? You’re so good with people.’

  A compliment? From Sharon Eddy? Was the world turning upside down? They had reached the edge of the village. The school was yards away. Daisy could already see the small gaggle of protesters, women mostly, carrying placards. She’d have to concentrate now on the job in hand.

  ‘I’ll try Shar. I’ll think of something.’

  Chapter Fourteen

  As it happened, an opportunity to talk to Jay presented itself remarkably soon.

  It was April Fool’s Day and Daisy woke to a white world. She opened her curtains and looked out on the snow with astonishment and delight. The cottage didn’t have a garden, as such, it was more of a small field, marked out from the farmland beyond only by a low dry stone wall that had deteriorated into ragged humps and bumps over the years. The view out to open countryside, therefore, was a long one. Daisy could see across several fields to a small wood at the foot of the hills that rose beyond. They were all white. Everything glinted and shone in the brightest of sunshine from a clear blue sky. She thought she had never seen anything quite so beautiful.

  Hea-ven-ly, she thought, before recalling that she had to drive down to Kelso and negotiating the roads wouldn’t be easy, even in the 4x4. To make matters worse, she couldn’t find Tiny Ted. She spent a frantic ten minutes searching the cottage before realising that she must have left the bear on her desk. She felt naked and vulnerable without him in her pocket. Idiot. She swallowed some coffee and cursed her own scattiness. She really must concentrate instead of letting her mind wander.

  Lizzie was away, she had the cottage to herself, and the task of digging the car out of the drift that had built up round it was all hers as well. When she’d finally managed to clear enough space between it and the road to get started, Daisy felt as though she’d had another full workout in the gym. Thinking about the gym naturally sent her mind spiralling to Jack Hedderwick, her beloved Jack. Surely it wouldn’t be long now before they were back together? They’d
fallen into a pattern of being at the Fitness Centre on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, six thirty sharp unless work prevented her getting there. She’d upped her repeats several times (which Markie took the credit for) and she actually found that she had begun to enjoy the exercise for its own sake. Sometimes she ran alongside Jack on the next treadmill and even found breath to talk. They almost always had a coffee afterwards. Over the past few weeks they’d fallen back into the kind of closeness they used to have, before the cracks had begun to show. Cracks caused by Iris up-herself Swithinbank. Well, the woman would soon know what a rift between you and the man you loved felt like.

  She felt close to Jack again. Only yesterday, she’d asked his advice about Jay. ‘What can we do, Jack? We’ve got to save the Herald.’

  ‘Have you tried talking to him?’

  She shook her head. ‘I think he still sees us all as hicks from the sticks. He doesn’t get it.’

  ‘What does he say about the threatened closure?’

  She pondered that before answering. ‘You know, he’s never mentioned it. Not once.’

  ‘Does he know?’

  ‘Know? Surely he knows.’

  ‘Try to find an opportunity – informally if you can – to talk about it, huh? Soon.’

  ‘I will. Thanks Jack.’ She tried to put all her love into her eyes when she looked at him. Did his clear blue ones show the same? She held his gaze for a long tingling minute and felt the thrill of it lift the hairs on her neck. Talk about a meaningful look! He hadn’t said anything yet, but that didn’t signify anything. He would soon, it was just a matter of time. Their reunion was inevitable. Jackanddaisy. Daisyandjack. They were meant to be together. The gym was just a start and it wasn’t really the place for romance, she had to find a way of meeting him somewhere more intimate. And she would.