Standing, I rush from the room. The arsehole that had done this to her needed to pay. I needed to find him and make the mother fucker pay.
Downstairs, I find a swarm of armed and geared up personnel with a guy twisting in the handcuffs securing his arms behind his back. Storming up to him, I scruff the front of his shirt before letting my fist fly, connecting with his chin. The force is enough for the officers holding him to lose their grip as the arsehole falls to the ground in between us.
“You killed her.” Before I’m pulled away I land a boot into the side of his tender stomach. There is no satisfaction in the assault, nothing I could do to him would balance out the pain he has caused for everyone who knew and loved Ginny.
Silently, I curse him and hope that his sentence is the worst possible a human being can endure, even then it still wouldn’t come close to the destruction he caused by pulling that trigger.
10
daisy
* * *
If I was being honest with myself I’d admit the feeling of disappointment returned at not seeing Oliver parked at the curb as I locked my front door. He hadn’t been waiting for me at the store after I closed up and he was not here again this morning. I consider waiting a few minutes to see if he arrived, if maybe, he was just running late.
I let out a short giggle at my own ridiculous idea as I shake my head. Thankfully, the weather had improved since yesterday, the lawns were sparkling with morning dew and the birds were trilling and chatting at speed in the trees that were dotted along the lush and nurtured nature’s strip. It felt like today had the possibility of being a good day, I felt motivated. I felt confident and I felt happy. My buttons were safely in the exclusion zone of being pressed. I wanted to fling my arms wide and circle, inviting the universe into my arms for a warm embrace and a thank you for such a beautiful day.
* * *
The main street was unusually abuzz with people making their start to the day. The warmer weather and extra daylight is what I expect was owed for the extra activity. After a greeting from Dan the butcher and a wave from Mr. Jones at the newsagents, I make my way to the shops front door. I had expected to see Drew waiting for me but the entrance is uninhabited at this time of morning. The hope I had of seeing him this morning faded as quickly as my good mood.
First Oliver was nowhere in sight and now Drew hadn’t shown up at the shop, my mind was going into overdrive; had something serious happened to the Coxen’s? My heart began to race as my mind runs through different scenarios. Had Luke had another turn with his heart? It had only been a few years since he’d had an attack which resulted in him being hospitalised. Drew had taken over running the garage whilst Luke was on bed rest. He’d proven to his dad that he knew how to take care of things and they’d become partners after Luke had been cleared to go back to work.
Every time the chime above the door rings out my attention is immediately drawn away from what I had been doing.
I was on my third batch of brownie mixture when the chiming finally announces Drew’s arrival. I have to contain myself at the sight, I nearly run to him, tears of relief welling in my eyes.
“Where have you been?” His lop-sided grin on another day would have been endearing, today it was annoying. “I have been going out of my mind with worry.”
“Dase, sorry. I meant to text you but we had a busy morning. The part for your car came in, so we decided to get it done and delivered to you.” Holding up the keys for my car, he gives them a little jingle.
“When I didn’t see you this morning, I thought…” My voice trails off, my mind reeling through the scenarios I had created in my head throughout the early morning.
“Thought what?”
“Something terrible had happened. First Oliver and then you didn’t show up.”
“Oliver?”
“He wasn’t waiting outside my house this morning.” Confusion closes Drew’s face like a rain cloud.
“What do you mean?”
“He’d been hanging around to give me a lift to and from work most mornings and afternoons. He wasn’t here last night or this morning and I was beginning to get worried.” My words come out in a rush on the wave of breath I hadn’t realised I had been holding.
“Has he just? Funny how he didn’t mention anything to his own brother about his knight in shining armour escapades.” The smirk on Drew’s face grows into a full shit-eating grin, an obvious sign he was telling me a lie, he was fully aware of what Oliver has been up to. “He’s gone back to the City, left yesterday morning.”
He’s gone back to the City? He left again and without so much as a word. The knife he’d plunged into my heart the first time had become rusty over time but it was still sharp and his leaving was like he was twisting it all over again. I should feel thankful that I was left relatively unscathed this time with what was left of my heart still intact.
“When is he coming back?” I square my shoulders and raise my chin, steeling my composure as to not let what I was feeling on the inside reflect on the outside in a public display of angst and hurt.
“I don’t know what to tell you Daisy. For someone who claims to hate my brother, you seem awful interested in him right now.”
“No, I don’t,” I protest, “I thought something had happened to your dad, Drew. I was worried.” Annoyingly, his face was still quirked up in that smile. “So my car?” In desperate need of a topic change I take the keys still dangling from Drew’s index finger.
“Outside at the curb, ready to go. I did an oil change with the hope I could bribe a cherry dream cupcake out of you.” Grabbing a cake box on my way to the cake cabinet, I pull out six cherry dream cupcakes placing them gently on the paper doily inside. While he waits, Drew takes a seat on one of the swinging black vinyl topped stools which line up against the counter. I place the box in front of his tapping fingers. Drew swiftly open the box and retrieves one of the cupcakes. His eyes sparkle as if he’d just witnessed a leprechaun riding a unicorn. A miracle sighting just for his own eyes. “You know these are Ollie’s favourites too.” I knew. My mother baked more than the odd batch especially for him and we’d sit in my bedroom on weekends in the winter time eating mountains of them whilst listening to old school rock music like The Rolling Stones and Poison and drinking hot cocoa.
I can only nod as I try to swallow over the lump that is forming in my throat after the trip down memory lane.
“So are the two of you on friendly terms now then?” A humourless laugh rolls across my lips, quickly I purse them together to suppress any further waves escaping me.
“Hardly, I would say he was more of a pest than anything that even remotely resembles a friend.”
“I thought you said,” Drew imitates a driving action, whilst his brows knit together in confusion.
“I accepted one time. One.” I hold my finger up in front of him as if to accentuate and leave no room for confusion on exactly how many trips to work Oliver had given me, instructed me, bullied me to accept.
Finishing the first cupcake, Drew pulls out another and bites in to it. With crumbs falling from him mouth he asks, “So you’re still pissed at him then?”