‘So you can be in our team too,’ Henry said, decisively.

‘I can’t, it’s families of employees only.’

‘You can be part of our family,’ Daisy said simply and Henry smiled that his daughter had just given her seal of approval so readily and unknowingly.

‘Edward isn’t going to care too much about who is on my team, he won’t exactly be demanding to see a marriage certificate before he lets us in,’ Henry said.

‘I’ll do it if you do it, Penny,’ Daisy said. ‘And it is for charity so you can’t really say no.’

Henry laughed at the exact same persuasion technique that Penny had pulled on him to get him to agree to the ball a few days before.

‘I’m rubbish at building things. You really won’t want me on your team, I’d be more of a hindrance than a help. When I built the barbeque in the summer, I ended up with pieces upside down and several pieces left over.’

‘We need you on our team, you have the inside edge, you’ve seen what other people have done before to win and we don’t have that. As newbies we need a fighting chance. And Daisy and I can’t do it alone, other teams will have five or six people in them. You can’t let us down, Penny, will you be part of our family?’

He fixed her with his best puppy dog eyes and she laughed.

‘OK, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

‘Now you’re part of our family, I think you should come for dinner every night,’ Daisy said. ‘It gets pretty boring looking at his ugly mug every night.’

‘Hey!’ Henry said.

‘Well, that sounds lovely, it does get a bit dull talking to Bernard every night, especially as he doesn’t talk back, but understand I’m only doing it for you, Daisy, to save you the tedium of talking to your dad.’

‘Hey, I am sitting here you know,’ Henry protested and Daisy laughed.

‘Except I can’t come tomorrow night, I have plans.’

‘Ooooh, do you have a hot date?’ Daisy said, getting excited about the prospect of some gossip. Henry rolled his eyes; she was going to thrive in this town.

‘No. I—’

‘I saw Fabio come round earlier, do you have plans with him?’

Henry was surprised by this. ‘Fabio was here?’

‘He was next door for over half hour and when he left he was looking pretty pleased with himself,’ Daisy said. ‘I saw it all from my bedroom window.’

Henry stared at his daughter incredulously. ‘I’ve raised a spy.’

‘Well, as we’ve already established, living with you can be really boring so I have to provide myself with some entertainment.’

‘What did Fabio want?’

‘Nothing much, to apologise for his behaviour the other night and to ask me out on a date.’

He cleared his throat. ‘And you’re going?’

‘Dad, it’ll be nice for Penny to go on a date. Let’s face it, her dates with you aren’t going to set her world on fire.’

‘I don’t think I did too badly last night.’

‘It was OK,’ Penny shrugged, clearly fighting with a smirk. He couldn’t help the smile from spreading across his face as she blushed bright red and focussed her attention on her spaghetti again.

‘So you’re going out with him?’ Daisy asked.

‘Sure, why not? I love a guy in leather pants.’

‘Hear that, Dad? If you really want to impress the ladies you need to wear leather pants and maybe get a medallion too. It seems the old clichés never die.’

‘I’ll be sure to remember that, especially as my dazzling conversation skills clearly need a lot of work. I have plans too tomorrow night. I’m going for dinner with a guy from work. You can come if you want, Daisy?’

‘Nah, I’m fine here. Shame though, there’s a mince pie making class at Linda’s bakery tomorrow night, I was going to suggest you go as your mince pie making skills are absolutely dire.’

‘Hey, I’m not that bad,’ Henry said, indignantly. ‘Why don’t I take you out for ice cream before I go out for dinner tomorrow night? I’m at work tomorrow too, someone has called in sick and there are a few jobs that need to be finished before the factory closes for the holidays, so you won’t see me all day.’

‘I’ll cope.’ Daisy flashed him a cheeky smile. ‘But yes to ice cream. Can we do some more carving tomorrow, Penny?’

‘We can actually. I have a snowman carving that needs to be finished for a corporate party so you could help me do that if you wanted, or just have fun creating your own pieces.’

‘You’d let me help with one of your professional pieces?’

‘Yes of course. You’re an ice carving champion now, your credentials more than speak for themselves.’

Daisy laughed.

‘I was serious about the job offer; if it’s OK with your dad, I’d be happy to pay you for your help.’

Daisy fixed him with pleading eyes and he nodded. ‘Only if you promise me you’ll be really careful with those tools and I don’t want her using the chainsaw.’

Penny and Daisy both nodded.

‘I have an errand to run tomorrow morning so come round about lunchtime,’ Penny said.

‘Does the errand have anything to do with Fabio?’ Daisy asked, clearly still digging for dirt.

Penny flashed Henry a mischievous grin. ‘Maybe.’

Obviously he had been forgiven.

Daisy looked over at Henry, obviously sensing that something was going on between them. ‘How did your important meeting with Clara go?’

‘It was fine.’ He watched the smile slide off Penny’s face.

‘Your meeting was with Clara? That’s who you rushed off to see?’

‘It was to talk through my designs, it was nothing,’ Henry said, staring at his plate again.

‘Dad, what happened to your shirt, it’s all torn at the top, did you lose a button?’

‘I just got it caught in something.’

Daisy giggled. ‘Is that lipstick on your neck? Wow, when you said it was fine, I didn’t realise just how fine you actually meant.’

He glanced up at Penny in time to see the look of horror and disappointment register on her face before she stood up to clear the plates away.

He wanted to tell her that nothing had happened, that she didn’t need to worry, but in front of Daisy it was out of the question.

A clap of thunder rumbled overhead and the tension that had dissipated had suddenly returned.

Penny got into her pyjamas later that night. Henry and Daisy had disappeared back to their own home shortly after dinner, leaving her alone, where if she had been in a proper relationship she could have spent the night cuddled up on the sofa with her boyfriend. Although she certainly wasn’t in the mood to cuddle up to Henry right now. She couldn’t get the thought of him and Clara together out of her mind and how guilty Henry had looked when Daisy had spotted the lipstick. He didn’t even try to deny that anything had happened. She knew, however, that if he cared about her at all, he would come over once Daisy had gone to bed and try to explain. She was going to try to keep an open mind until then. She had been cheated on before and she wasn’t going to let it happen again but she wouldn’t judge Henry until she heard him out.

She got into bed and had just started to read her book when she heard the soft thud of feet on the stairs.

She put her book down and watched him as he walked into the room. He looked scared as he approached the side of her bed.

‘I’m sorry I wasn’t there for dinner and you had to cook when I promised that I would.’

She arched an eyebrow at him; he had to do better than that. Annoyingly, very faint traces of lipstick were still present on his throat.

‘Nothing happened with me and Clara, I swear. She kissed me, I told her I had a girlfriend and I walked out. I was an idiot for thinking that she actually wanted to talk about my designs and I was so eager to have an opportunity to share them with her and Edward that I couldn’t see her true motive for bringing me there. I’m sorry, but you have to believe me, nothing happened. I’m not interested in her at all or anyone else in fact, I only want to be with you.’