‘So do you like my dad?’ Daisy said, without taking her eyes off the block of ice.

That wasn’t really a conversation Penny was willing to have with anyone, least of all Henry’s daughter.

‘All the women like him,’ Daisy went on. ‘I can’t see the attraction myself.’

‘Well, you’re not supposed to.’

‘Ha. No, I suppose not. But women fall over themselves to be with him. I guess he must be nice to look at.’

‘So he has a lot of girlfriends?’ Penny asked, still trying to avoid saying whether she found him attractive.

‘Yes. I mean, not girlfriends, just women that he sort of sees on a casual basis, the ones I’m not supposed to know about. They never last long though, a few dates here or there before he moves on to the next. I don’t think he has any interest in anything serious. There’ve only been two semi-serious girlfriends over the years. Rosie was lovely, but the other one was awful. He generally tries to avoid relationships because of me, which I feel really bad about. He thinks he can’t do both – be a dad and a boyfriend – but he can. He’d make someone a wonderful husband one day and I’m sure he’d like more kids, he’s so good with Bea and Oliver.’ Daisy continued to work on her block, making gentle taps here and there.

Penny bent down to smooth off some of the scratch marks from the angel’s dress. ‘How would you feel if he got married, had another baby?’

‘Honestly, I’d love it. He’s been stuck with me ever since he was sixteen, he deserves to be happy.’

‘Your dad adores you. I don’t think he would consider raising you as being stuck with you.’

‘Oh, I know he loves me, I see that every day, but I’ve obviously put a dent in the life he would have led. I want him to find someone he loves, who loves him. I always try to be understanding about him dating women as he should have a life outside of being a dad, but the last one was a complete bitch. Don’t tell him I said that, he hates hearing me swear. So I want him to choose someone lovely, though I totally get that who I would choose for him and who he would choose for him would probably be two different people. Although I think he likes you, which is a first for us both to like the same woman.’

Penny felt a tightening in her throat and she tried to clear it before she spoke. ‘Really?’

Daisy nodded. ‘But he went through a bad break-up with his last girlfriend and it got all messy because of me so he’s not looking for anything serious at the moment. I told him not to mess around with you unless he thinks he can cope with something serious and he really doesn’t do serious.’

Penny stared at her angel without even seeing it. So that was why he had tried to cancel their date earlier – because Henry didn’t want anything serious with her. Well, if he was only interested in a quick fling, then it was a good job it had stopped before it had started.

‘I didn’t say the wrong thing, did I? I just didn’t want to see you getting hurt,’ Daisy said, obviously noticing Penny’s disappointment with this new turn of events.

Was she that needy and pathetic that even a sixteen-year-old girl had noticed it?

‘No, it’s totally fine. I’m happy on my own. I like Henry, but I don’t like him.’

‘Well, that’s cool then, you two can be friends. He needs friends in White Cliff Bay and I expect it gets lonely for you up here sometimes. You’ll be good for each other.’

And that was true. She hadn’t rented out the annexe with the hope of finding a man, she’d done it with the hope of finding a friend and it seemed that she had done that with Henry and even with Daisy. She would be grateful for that.

‘You should come ice skating with us tonight.’

Penny couldn’t think of anything worse than being the pity date, even if the alternative was a night in watching old reruns of Quantum Leap with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s. ‘I can’t really skate.’

‘My dad will help you, he’s really good, he used to have lessons when he was younger. That’s how he and my mum met apparently, at the ice rink. She was so impressed with his skills that… well, nine months later I arrived.’

Penny blinked, surprised at her candour. ‘Do you ever see your mum?’

‘No. Thank god. Apparently she’s heavily involved in drink and drugs. Lucky escape for me.’ She gave the ice a hard whack.

‘Henry told you that?’

‘No, my aunt Caitlyn did, my mum’s sister. I still see her and my grandparents from time to time, though they never see my mum at all. Whenever they come round they always pick holes in the way that my dad raises me, but at least he stuck by me, didn’t run off to Australia as soon as I was born.’

There was bitterness there and Penny just wanted to hug Daisy but she didn’t know her well enough to be able to do that.

Daisy stepped back to inspect her work. ‘I think I’m ready to use the die grinder now.’

Penny picked up the power tool and moved to have a look at what Daisy had created. The sketch of the snowflake was beautiful and very intricate. It would be unlikely that Daisy would be able to carve it successfully but it would be a great design for practising several different skills on. She powered up the die grinder and went over one of the lines that Daisy had made with the chisel.

‘Don’t push too hard, just let the grinder do the work for you,’ Penny explained before carefully passing the tool to Daisy’s greedy hands. She watched Daisy push the drill bit carefully into the ice. ‘That’s it, just go really slow and then you shouldn’t stray from the lines.’

‘What if I make a mistake?’

Penny shrugged. ‘Most mistakes can be incorporated into the design. Besides, it’s your first time, you’re going to make mistakes. Just don’t panic if you do.’

She stepped back to watch Daisy move the die grinder with all the concentration of a Grand Master at a chess match. Satisfied that she was doing it safely she moved back to the angel on the pretence of doing her own work, though surreptitiously keeping an eye on Daisy at the same time, but Daisy’s focus didn’t waver once.

She watched her work and felt her heart ache. Daisy’s mum had missed out on this beautiful child growing up into a wonderful, talented, smart young lady. How could she have turned her back on that? Henry had done an incredible job on his own and Daisy was someone he could be very proud of. But it was very clear why he didn’t want a serious relationship. He didn’t want anyone to hurt Daisy like her mum had.

As disappointing as it was, Penny would accept the friendship and not hope for any more. She ignored the ache in her heart that told her that would be easier said than done.

Henry popped his head around the connecting door later to see if Daisy had emerged from the cool room. He knew Daisy was very easy to get along with but he didn’t want her outstaying her welcome. Jill was cutting into a huge loaf of bread and looked up and smiled when she saw him.

‘Hello there,’ she said, resuming her carving. ‘Can I make you some lunch?’

‘Oh no. I’m fine. I was just making sure Daisy wasn’t getting on Penny’s nerves.’

Jill gestured for him to sit down at the table and, recognising that she wasn’t the sort of person that you ever argued with, he did as he was told.

‘Penny hasn’t got a bad bone in her body, I think she is physically incapable of thinking bad of someone. Daisy could pitch up in her house every day and I don’t think Penny would ever get annoyed with her, she just hasn’t got it in her.’

‘Yes, she’s very sweet.’

‘You like her.’

It wasn’t a question and Jill seemed to command honesty. ‘Yes.’

‘She’s not someone you can have a fling with. She is fragile and I never want to see her get hurt again.’

‘She told me briefly about Chris and the baby. I bet she was devastated.’

‘She was, but Chris was an asshole. You’ll never hear me swear but there is no other word that I can use to describe him. Well, there are plenty of worse words. I think she would have been fine had he stayed with her just for a month or two after the miscarriage. She would have been upset for the baby, of course, but for him to leave her just two days after the miscarriage was the worst thing he could have ever done. She found out later there had been someone else too, which was a double betrayal. But the worst part of it was how he acted afterwards. The people of the town realised what he had done and so many of them were angry with him and to save face he bad-mouthed her to anyone and everyone who would listen, told everyone she was deranged and crazy, said some really horrible things about her. Although most people didn’t believe it and he ended up just making it worse for himself, there were some that did, especially his friends. Her parents protected her from most of it but it was still a tough blow for her when she was dealing with everything else. There has been no one for her since and I know it’s because she doesn’t want to get hurt like that again.’