I sat blinking, wondering how he could have thought how he left had been acceptable. True, he’d left that letter, would he really have not gone had I cried?
“But now that's done,” he smiled. “There’s only a few more minor obligations, then I can have my life back and be here with you.”
“You think?” I scoffed at his confidence. There was still the matter of him not being around for so long. “So, I should be grateful that you came back? That you can squeeze me into your busy schedule after months of nothing, right?” I sounded bitter and I wished I’d controlled my feelings better, but I couldn’t just turn off months of hurt in a heartbeat.
“No, you shouldn’t be grateful. I understand how you feel, given what we’ve found out about Frances. If you’d done the same thing to me, I’d have been pissed, too. But, baby, I went to work. I didn’t expect you to shut the bar tonight to talk to me, did I?”
“That’s hardly a fair comparison for what you did.” I huffed, my eyes ticking over his face, and even though I felt extremely hostile toward him, my heart ached for his touch. “Even if I accept what you’ve told me, I can’t get my head around how you thought it okay to get your PA to call me like that. That was insulting.”
“That wasn’t my call. Paddy knew how being away from you affected me. We had both thought we’d be gone for a couple of months, and when it became four, I was afraid I had blown it with you. One of the production team left when we were doing the last few cuts of the final track and Paddy scribbled a note to his wife, Bernie to get in touch with my PA, Donna. Maybe when you hear the album you’ll hear how much you were on my mind, since most of the lyrics I came up with were directly related to you and the time I spent here with you.”
I must have looked gobsmacked, and I stared at him open mouthed as his confession of thinking he’d blown it with me sank in.
“So DistRoyed have recorded songs you wrote about me?”
“Yep, five tracks have been heavily influenced by you, and they’re beauties. Writing lyrics helped me express how I felt and that I’d fallen in love with you. Meeting you gave me so much to think about. Paddy knew you’d had a massive impact on me.”
“I don’t know what to say to that,” I admitted, my anger ebbing away.
“Believe me,” he pleaded. “Being quite newly married, Paddy wasn’t delighted about leaving Bernie, either. As soon as he knew we were coming home, he tried to arrange something for the four of us. It was a clumsy attempt, but he’d only had minutes to write that note, and he was excited about seeing his wife. Personally, I thought it was amazing that he had thought about us at all. It was unfortunate that he’d asked Bernie to contact Donna to make the arrangements because I hadn’t told my assistant about you. I’m so sorry that it worked out so badly.”
“And that’s why you’re here?”
“Yeah, as soon as Paddy told me what he’d done, I knew you’d have blown me out on the phone … and I’m hoping that’s too hard for you to do, now that I’m here.”
“I want to believe you, Jamie …”
“You can. Baby, when I think back to how happy we were before I left … You must know deep down how I felt. I mean I skipped out on the band to spend months here with you. Daisy, I fell in love … and that hasn’t changed,” he added, quickly.”
Chapter 4
After hearing his side of the story, especially about the note, I felt my anger switch from how he’d left me, to the girl I’d thought was my friend. Accepting the communication wasn’t all his fault, I shifted the focus on why he’d come back.
“You’re here on a break again?”
“No, I don’t have a break yet. I flew over because of what Paddy did and Donna’s subsequent phone call. She played me the message you left her.” He chuckled. “I tried to call when I was leaving Montserrat, but for some reason it never connected. I rang here at the pub last night but I got the message machine.”
“Message? I didn’t see a message,” I replied, knowing Terry listened to the calls that came in downstairs. “Terry,” I muttered, and I cussed under my breath.
Jamie looked annoyed and shook his head, I knew he probably felt as frustrated with the people around me as I had. Between Frances and Terry, my trust had been broken and what Jamie and I had, had almost been ruined. I figured with Terry I decided there was no malice, he had forgotten to tell me stuff plenty of times when we were busy.
“How long are you here for?” I asked, even though I had been still working through all I’d learned.
“I have to leave in the morning.”
“Tomorrow!” The panic in my voice would have sounded funny had it not come from my mouth.
For a moment my brain went into meltdown because now that I knew what had happened and that he’d come back, it gave us no time to put things right.
“Despite what you think of me, Daisy, I’m here because I really do want this to work. The reason I came all this way was to ask for a second chance … and to ask you to come and spend some time with me stateside.”
I stared at him in shock. “I … Me … go to America?” I asked, scoffing. “Impossible. We’re gearing up to one of the busiest times of the year here at the pub. I can’t go swanning off like that.”
“Then we need to plan a quick trip before you get busy. Please say you’ll come. Spending time here with you was amazing. It was the best time I’d had in years. I’m sure we’d still have been working on our album right now if it hadn’t been for you. I want to take you to my country, show you where I come from and share some of my hospitality with you.”
“Well, that’s a lovely thought, but I can’t be going galavanting halfway around the world on a whim. In case you haven’t noticed, this is my real job. It’s not a hobby I can just leave. I have my business to run and I can’t just shut up shop on your say-so. I mean, what would Archie and his cronies do every lunchtime if they couldn’t come here?” I snickered. “Hell, I don't even have a valid passport or a visa for a trip abroad.”
“Consider the passport fixed, my assistant can get that sorted in no time. Didn’t your mom tell you there’s no such word as can’t? And in my mind, that ‘can’t’ sounds like a yes, as opposed to a straightforward no or I don’t want to.”
“You’re not listening.” I insisted.
“It won’t happen for a few weeks yet, so that gives us time to make arrangements for the bar,” he continued, ignoring my protest.
“Us? Make arrangements? But I just told you—”
“No ifs and no buts, unless it's a perfectly formed butt like yours, with two T’s.” He smirked, then grew serious. “Look, I know I royally fucked up and you need to fact check more with Frances, and Terry, regarding my letter and call … I get that.”
“Jamie …” I wrung my hands together. I felt helpless because I had wanted to spend time with him, but I couldn’t drop everything, real life didn’t work like that.