31 Days of Summer (31 Days #2) (2 page)

Sunday 29
^th
June – Year One

Dan

It had been six months
since I’d walked away from Ellie in London and come home to Scotland. Leaving,
with her still believing I was a complete shit, was better than telling her
that I was as bad as the drunk guy who’d killed her parents. Telling her that I
might have been a morning after drunk driver, someone she’d despise, on top of
me being married and breaking my vows, I feared would chip away at even more of
her confidence. I’d rather she think I was an arsehole than actually know the
truth. This way she could move on hating me, which should expedite her healing
process. After losing Rebecca and my son, then pretty much killing Moira and my
second child, I was damn cursed when it came to relationships with women that
progressed beyond a few fucks. Ellie Baxter would be better off without me in
her life, no matter how much it might hurt me to stay away. I knew I cared
about her, deeply, but I hadn’t realised just how much until I’d rushed to the
airport and we’d locked eyes in the departure lounge. I knew in that second
that I was never going to get over her. I wanted her, I wanted to open my heart
again, to her, to give her everything she ever needed, but most of all I wanted
to protect her, by laying down my own life if I had to. I’d been with enough
women to know how strong my bond with her was. It had taken nearly two years
for me to realise with Rebecca, just a few weeks with Ellie. I considered
myself a tough man, you had to be when you ran your own global corporation, I
could only recall two occasions in my adult life when I’d cried. The night I’d
lost Rebecca and the night I’d walked away from Ellie in London. To have had a
glimpse at a normal life, a life with her, to know that it was out of my reach,
and probably would be forever, was a bitter pill to swallow.

‘Oliver, are you ready?’

‘Mother, why must you insist on calling me
“Oliver” when you know I prefer Ollie?’ I sighed, as I ran down the stairs
buttoning up my black suit jacket.

‘You were christened Oliver Daniel Davenport,
Oliver you’ll always be, my darling,’ she announced, with a kiss on each of my
cheeks. ‘Just because you boss everyone around at that ridiculously large firm
of yours, don’t think you can boss your mother around.’

‘I’d be too scared of one of your infamous Brazilian
temper slaps, mother,’ I smiled, as I held open the door for her and led her to
the Mercedes, waiting outside on the gravelled driveway of her home.

‘You’re never too old for one of those,’ she
laughed, as James opened the car door for us.

‘Morning Mrs. Davenport, Sir,’ he nodded.

‘Morning James. Busy day?’

‘Just Mr. Steele this morning.’

‘Ah the usual Sunday routine,’ I chuckled, as I
lowered myself into the backseat.

‘Yes, Sir. He was most put out to hear that you’d
booked me first. Apparently he also had a lunch date with a lady,’ James
replied as he closed the door.

I shook my head. While I’d stopped my screwing
around bachelor lifestyle after my accident, my best friend Logan hadn’t. When
he’d seduced the girlfriend of a premiership footballer in the toilets of a
private box at Wembley, with all her girlfriends listening in, he’d been
inundated with offers, before a financial bidding war started, so he’d set up
as a high class male escort. Even I’d tried to talk him out of it, offering him
a management position in my firm, but he loved sex and enjoyed the thrill of
vetting clients and coming up with the perfect solutions to their fantasies. So,
my job offer was on hold, until he saw the error of his ways and decided to
settle down. I’d gone out on Friday night with him, neither of us drinking. Him
for his physique, me due to my accident, since then I’d rarely had any, never
if I had to drive the next day. Logan had told me that he had a redhead lined
up for Saturday night, who wanted sex in a public place with the risk of being
caught. Sex in the great outdoors, and fucking married women, were the only
things he did that were risky. He had a strict set of rules he followed to keep
himself safe, not least being don’t become emotionally attached to your client,
which apparently he’d fucked up big time when he’d met with a new client recently
and was worried he was becoming obsessed with her.

I’d told him to screw the escorting career, work
for me and ask her out. I’d never known Logan talk about another woman the way
he did this mystery brunette, not even his ex Lucy. In return he’d told me that
I needed to go and see Ellie and come clean and see if we could make a go of
it. I’d not been back to London since I’d walked away six months ago. Ian my IT
genius had offered to keep track on her and give me regular updates, but I’d
told him I didn’t want to know unless she was in serious trouble. I needed to
distance myself from her, knowing she was seeing someone else, fucking in my
house, in my bloody bed no less, would kill me.

‘Oliver, where are you?’ my mother sighed as she
reached over and grabbed my hand and squeezed it. ‘You look so sad, even more
than normal. I worry about you.’

‘I’m sorry, the takeover contracts are due to be
signed on Saturday so I’ve been focussed on that,’ I smiled, as I stopped
staring out of the window and turned to face her.

‘Nonsense. Don’t lie to your mother. This is woman
trouble. I recognise the look. Talk to me, darling.’

‘I met someone,’ I sighed, as I rubbed my free
hand over my eyes. ‘Someone I can’t stop thinking about.’

‘Oliver, you need to let Moira go. It’s been
nearly four years since the accident. Four years that you’ve holed yourself
away, visiting her nearly every day, denying yourself the basic pleasures in
life.’

‘I’m married,’ I snapped. ‘I never wanted to be
the sort of person that would get married and cheat, mother.’

‘And I didn’t want that for you either, but the
doctors say she’ll never wake up, darling. I can’t understand why you insist on
keeping her on that ventilator. It’s hurting you and it hurts her parents. Theo
still rings pleading for us to talk some sense into you. They can’t bear seeing
their daughter like this and you’re not living. They’ve forgiven you, it was a
tragic accident. You need to forgive yourself and live your life while you’re
still young.’

‘I don’t deserve forgiveness.’

‘You do. I could understand you grieving if she
were the love of your life, but she wasn’t. She was manipulative and deceitful
and snared you. She didn’t deserve the fate that the cards dealt her, but
neither did you. I want you to be happy.’

‘That’s the problem, for a few weeks I was. This
woman …’ I shook my head and blew out as I closed my eyes and visualised
Ellie’s face. ‘This woman has got so deep under my skin I can’t stop thinking
about her.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with that. She must be very
beautiful for you to have your mind all in knots over her. Other than Rebecca,
I’ve never known you be affected deeply by a woman before,’ she smiled as she
raised her dark eyebrows.

‘She is, but it’s not just about her looks or her
body for once. She’s beautiful on the inside too, she has a huge heart and fell
in love with me when she thought I was just Dan, the hired help who was renting
her the island house and looking after her.’

‘Dan not Oliver and
the house
? You rented
her the house instead of the boathouse?’ Mother looked at me surprised. ‘You’d
better start at the beginning and fill me in right now.’

‘I’d prefer not too,’ I sighed, but one look at
her creased brow and determined stare told me that I wasn’t going to get away
with any less. I commanded respect from thousands of employees, held audio
visual conferences with some of the most wealthy men in the world, dominated
women in the bedroom, yet one look from my mother had me caving like a pack of
damn cards. ‘Fine, you’d better get comfortable, it’s not a short story.’

‘Oliver,’ she sighed as she dabbed her eyes with a
cotton handkerchief embroidered with a navy blue
D
, our
Davenport
monogram. ‘You’re falling in love with this woman, if you aren’t already. You
need to let Moira go and pursue her. Don’t let this turn out like it did with
Rebecca, when you told her too late. Promise me.’

‘How about I promise to think about it?’ I
suggested, trying to get her off my back. ‘Are you good? We’re here and I don’t
fancy you having a melt down over Sunday dinner. I’d like to come back.’

‘I won’t have a meltdown, but I plan on talking
some sense into you. Even James agrees that you need the love of a good woman
in your life, don’t you James?’

‘I think Mr. Davenport deserves some happiness in his
life and if this Miss Baxter is that woman, then yes, Mrs. Davenport.’

‘See,’ she beamed at me, as I rolled my eyes. I
offered her my arm as we headed inside and smiled proudly to see men’s heads
turning as they looked at her. She was a stunning woman, with a shoulder length
bob of raven hair and dark green eyes. I owed many of my genes and features to
her. ‘I wish your father was with us, he’d talk some sense into you,’ she
sighed.

‘It’s his annual law golf tournament, nothing
interferes with that,’ I laughed.

‘His son’s emotional wellbeing would. You know he
adores you and wants the best for you, as do I.’

‘I know Mother,’ I leaned in and kissed her cheek,
before straightening up and walking to the Maître d’ to be seated.

Ellie

‘Brooke, seriously, I’m really not convinced that
this is a good idea,’ I sighed, as I adjusted my green lace dress, tugging on
the hem.

‘
Please,’
she sighed with a roll of her
eyes. ‘It’s been over six months, Ellie.
Six months
of bloody pining and
moping after arsehole three and you’ve refused to date every single guy I’ve
set you up with. This is the perfect plan, isn’t it Molly?’

‘Got to say I agree with her for once,’ nodded
Molly. ‘You’ll never get over him if you don’t get out there. Besides this is
just dipping your toe in the water, you’re simply going for lunch with a work
colleague.’

‘A work colleague who’s been asking me out for
months,’ I reminded her with arched brows. I’d settled into my new role as Junior
Partner at my publishing firm well. There’d been some chemistry with Tom, my
replacement as Senior Editor, when we met and we’d had some harmless flirtation
as I’d settled him in, but I’d constantly knocked him back when he’d asked me
out. I kept telling myself it was because it wasn’t professional, I was
effectively his boss, even though John was encouraging me to date Tom, on the
condition if we started something it was kept out of the office at all times. I
knew deep down though it was because of Dan. Tom was intelligent, good looking
and seemed to keep himself in great shape. We had a lot in common, due to our
love of literature and could spend hours talking and debating novels, but every
time I looked at him, I wished for those deep sea green eyes to be looking back
at me, for that husky sexual baritone voice. I just wanted him to be Dan. I’d
cried for days after fleeing Scotland before I’d pulled myself together.
Despite having told him not to contact me, I’d secretly hoped that if he had an
explanation, like he’d claimed to have at the airport, that he’d come to see
me, to apologise and set the record straight. I lived in his best friend’s
house for God’s sake, it wasn’t like he didn’t know how to get hold of me if he
was worried about turning up at my office, the address for which he had on my
original rental application, or in that damn manila file my landlord had put together
on me. I really had trusted him and was so disappointed that he’d been proven
to be another jackass.

‘O crap, she’s in Danland again,’ sighed Brooke as
she gently shoved my arm, startling me from my daydream. ‘You get this dreamy
vacant look when you’re fantasising about him. He’s a shit, a lying deceitful
shit. Tom on the other hand is single, available, desperate for you and in
London. What more could you ask for?’