Gold Digger (Daydreamer, #2)

by Susie Tate

The warm brown of her expressive eyes was impossible to look away from. That feeling of… connection, even possession, swept through me. But it was even more than that. It was as if my very soul was looking straight at hers through her eyes and simply saying, “Oh, it’s you. There you are.”

“I looked at your ding dong.” There, I said it. If he needed to fire me, he could.

“You know that I eat your custard creams,” I whispered, mortified. He chuckled. “Lottie, you eat about three packets a week. Who do you think makes sure there’s a steady supply?”

By the time Lottie gets to my house, there’s literally nothing for her to do. No washing up, bathrooms are spotless. And she doesn’t eat enough, so I might have started leaving food for her.”

Family is important. You’ve got all these threads between you in families, weaving in and out, strengthening you all as a whole, giving everyone a safety net, a sense of belonging. Don’t risk cutting any of the threads. Not when your sister could be the one to fall through the hole it creates.”

“Your hand is really small,” he said, his voice still low. “Er, I think it’s average size,” I said in a hoarse voice, then cleared my throat. “Yours is just too big.” He smiled at me then. “That’s what she said,” he muttered my joke from weeks ago back to me, and I lost it.

“Good girl,” he said against my breast. “Such a good girl for me.

“I really don’t want any confusion, so I’ll spell it out again. I like you. I’m pretty much obsessed with you, actually. I think about you all the time. Your laugh, your dry sense of humour, your clumsiness, your eyes, your skin, the way I can tell if you think someone’s a dickhead without you ever having to say a word. How we can share a joke with just one raise of your eyebrow. That you’ve got a sweary rhyme to stop yourself punching people who annoy you and that you blushed when you sang it to me because you never swear. I just…” He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “I just really like you.”

“But you’re fantasy material, Ollie. You have to see that. You’re gorgeous and funny, and kind to your mum, sisters and niece; you do endless charity work and you actually care about it. The way you wear a suit is beyond drool-worthy. You’re like the dream man. Not to mention, you are an actual duke. I’d be a disgrace to the sisterhood if I didn’t have a raging crush on you, and you know it.”

“I’m in love with you, Lottie,” I told her. “And I’ll spend forever making it up to you. I’ll spend forever proving that you can trust me. I let you down again today, but that’s just because I was being an oblivious arsehole, not a vindictive one like I was before. So, you’ll just have to forgive me for that too.”

“Please come home. I love you. I⁠—” “Stop saying that,” I snapped. I’d had enough. “It’s meaningless now. You only love me if it serves your purposes – if I’m helping your family, if I keep my unpopular opinions to myself. Your love is conditional. I’ve had limits and conditions put on love my whole life and I’ve had enough of it. I’d rather be alone. And right now I want you to leave.” I pulled the ring off my finger and pressed it into Ollie’s hand.

“Hayley,” he said, smiling at her. “I know I’m marrying Lottie today, but I want to make some promises to you too, okay?” Hayley nodded, her eyes shining as she looked at this amazing man. He took a deep breath then he blew our world apart. “I promise to love you even when you eat the last of the Nutella,” he started, and Hayley giggled with the rest of the church. “I promise to keep telling rubbish jokes to embarrass you in front of your friends for the rest of your life.” “Oh great,” groaned Florrie, sparking more laughter from the congregation. “I promise I’ll love you bigger than the whole sky,” he said in a softer voice, his hand taking her hand to her chest covered with his, before moving them both to the centre of his chest. “I promise that you, your sister and I will always be a team. And Hayley, my little stowaway, I promise I’ll never let you go.”

Because that was family. You wound them up, you drove them crazy, but, above all, you loved them.