Crazy For You. Emma Heatherington
Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу Crazy For You - Emma Heatherington страница 12

Название: Crazy For You

Автор: Emma Heatherington

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Зарубежный юмор

Серия:

isbn: 9780007568819

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ my love,” said Maggie in a lively voice, her arms spreadeagled. Her face was make-up free and women ten years younger would have envied her complexion. “This really is a lovely surprise,” she added, beaming from ear to ear.

      Daisy stopped staring at the painting of her Dad, dragged herself from the depths of the armchair and hugged her mother tight.

      “Hi, Mum. How are things in this little neck of the woods?”

      “Oh, Daisy, you’re damp right through,’ she fussed, handing her daughter a second towel. “I was going to phone you this evening. I’m afraid I have bad news about Isobel.”

      “I know, Mum. I heard. Eddie told me…”

      “Have you seen him? The poor boy thought he was coming home for Jonathan’s birthday party but walked into all of this. I can’t imagine what those poor lads are going through. How was he when you spoke to him?”

      Maggie sat down and curled her feet under her legs. Her yoga session had reduced her tension slightly but the shock of Isobel’s illness was etched like a scar on her mind.

      “Well, he was very emotional at first, but he’s come round a bit,” said Daisy, munching on a handful of nuts that she’d found in a bowl on the coffee table. She spat them back into her hand when she realised they had been sitting there so long they’d almost grown a beard. “He picked me up in Belfast this morning, so we had a good long chat on the journey here. Jonathan seems in bad form, though.”

      “Yeah, he is. You do know he got engaged at the weekend.”

      “I heard.” Daisy’s head dropped but she shook herself and gave a weak smile.

      “That’s another piece of news I’ve been putting off telling you, love. Shannon’s her name. I’ve only seen her once but she seems a nice girl. A little outspoken for Jonathan, but pretty, and they’re getting married really soon. I wasn’t sure how you’d react. After all, at one stage we all thought it would have been you…” said Maggie shaking her head slightly. She could still remember her daughter posing nervously with Jonathan on the night of her debs ball. “It could have been, you know.”

      “Anyway, whatever.” Daisy felt a childish rant coming on but she couldn’t control herself. The reason she had come home wasn’t to talk about Jonathan and she’d no intention of doing so. “I’m sure you would rather want to know what brought me here when I should be in Spain. Lorna should be with me, but she’s not because she’s sitting in a jacuzzi drinking posh mineral water and being treated like a princess!”

      Maggie considered the subject closed. She reminded herself not to mention Shannon’s name again. It was for the best, obviously.

      “What a terrible disappointment that your holiday collapsed.” Maggie commented to her only daughter. “What’s up with you anyway? I hope it’s nothing more than a bit of man trouble. I could have come to stay with you for a few days up in Belfast if I’d known you were lonely.”

      Maggie was delighted at Daisy’s unexpected arrival. However she wondered what was behind the surprise visit. She stood up and straightened her yellow t-shirt. It said “The Virgin Tour 1985” across the front.

      Daisy made a mental note to hide the Madonna t-shirt or dump it before she went home. She could always recycle it and use it as a polishing rag if she was stuck, although Lorna would die of shock if Daisy suddenly started taking an interest in housework! Her flatmate had a strange fetish for micro-fibre cloths and could spend hours pondering over lotions and potions at the supermarket while Daisy headed straight for the pizza aisle or towards the special offers on red wine.

      “I think I’ll put the kettle on,” muttered Maggie. “Sod my detox plans; I have a feeling I’ll need a caffeine fix before I hear the end of all your news.”

      Daisy followed her mother closely through the narrow hallway, chattering non-stop into the cosy kitchen and almost treading on Maggie’s heels when she stopped at the fridge to take out some milk.

      “Mum,” she said, having finally used up all her small talk on the weather and the smell of fish outside. “Does Isobel know that Eddie is gay?”

      Maggie swung around and looked her daughter in the eye.

      “Of course she does. Well, at least I assume so,” she shrugged and poured some milk into a jug. “Yes, of course, she has to know.”

      Daisy paused. “But he said he’s never told her.”

      “Does he really need to? Isn’t it obvious?”

      “Mmm,” said Daisy. “You have a point. It’s just, if she does know, my whole life will be so much easier.”

      When the kettle finally whistled, Maggie made two cappuccinos and sat them on the chequered table. Daisy scraped her chair along the floor and sat down, hugging the cup in her hands. Please let Isobel know the score, she prayed to herself. Please, please let all this monkey business be totally unnecessary.

      “Well, it’s hardly something we’ve ever sat down and discussed,” said Maggie, wondering where on earth all of this could be leading. “Isobel, as you know, would hardly speak of such things, so she has never really said so. However even a blind man could see that Eddie is gay. Since he was a child, his destiny has been so unbelievably obvious. His passion for Barbie dolls, clothed Barbie dolls, gave the game away when he was about ten years old.”

      “But she hasn’t actually said it, has she? Has she even hinted?”

      “How do you mean?”

      “Like, does she ever mention how Eddie is living in the gay capital of the world, or that he perhaps has a very special friend called Brad, or that he has shirts in multiple shades of pink, as well as posters of his icon, Ellen DeGeneres, on his wall, just beside his altar to Cher?”

      Maggie thought for a few seconds while dunking a Kit Kat Chunky into her cup of froth.

      “No.”

      “No?”

      “I’m afraid not. Anyhow, what’s the big deal? I’m sure Isobel has realised it by now. But even if she hasn’t, what has it got to do with you?”

      Daisy fidgeted with the edge of the tablecloth.

      “This is going to sound crazy,” she said. “Because it is crazy. Pure mental, actually.”

      Her mother frowned. “OK, just spit it out, for crying out loud.”

      Daisy coughed quietly and shifted in her chair. She could sense her mother’s patience was wearing thin.

      “Eddie wants me to pretend we’re an item.”

      Maggie seemed startled but then started to laugh.

      Daisy ignored her. “Eddie wants me to pretend we’re an item so that Isobel’s last few months are content in the knowledge that her son’s a heterosexual.” She paused for breath. “He wants his mother to think he’s just a run-of-the-mill lad’s lad whose main ambition is to settle down here in Donegal and have two point four children.”

      There, she’d said it. And it was beginning to sound more stupid СКАЧАТЬ