A/N: Thank you for the reviews so far. Readingfrenzy, I don't want to change Daniel's character too much obviously, as that's what we love about him, but I hope you like the actual change in his 'life plan'. After all he is starting over. Anyway, I hope you like the second part as much as the first. Please r & r.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from those characters/places I have created in order to move the story forward.
Chapter 2
Over the past year Daniel had come to love the water but he was definitely glad to be back on dry land. The voyage from France had had its scary moments, especially across one of the widest parts of the English Channel, but the yacht had coped well. Even hardened sailor Alexis had been impressed by the way the yacht had handled the crossing with all that it was being battered with. "That was some ride, hey DJ?" Daniel's arm snaked across the teens shoulders as the three members of the Meade family walked up the hill towards his home, 'Blue Lagoon'.
A green faced DJ turned to Alexis, "Maman, we are flying 'ome aren't we?"
"Yes, we have to. Unless I can persuade your Uncle Danny here to give us one of those prototypes at a discounted rate?"
"Sorry Alexis, testing starts on Wednesday, and all of the yachts need to be at the University before then. Unless you want to sail one round to Plymouth for me Tuesday, then that was your last jaunt?"
As they piled through the front door and dropped their stuff at the foot of the stairs, Daniel grabbed at the mail and started flicking through the envelopes.
"I think I could manage that," Alexis said as she took off her deck shoes, padding with bare feet across the cool ceramic tiles of the hallway to the lounge, "as long as you don't mind looking after DJ for the day."
"Ok, I'll get Mike to skip with you then." Daniel ruffled DJ's hair, "so it's just the two of us on Tuesday then, what do you fancy doing?" He walked through to the kitchen, placing the envelopes on the end of the granite worktop of the breakfast counter before setting about making tea for Alexis and himself.
"We could just go to the beach for the day. You could show me 'ow to pick up girls?" DJ asked, a wolfish grin that was not dissimilar to any Daniel had worn in the past appeared upon DJ's face.
"I don't think your mother would approve, not for another couple of years anyway."
"And not even then; I don't want my son getting the same reputation as his uncle once had." Alexis fell silent for a moment taking in her surroundings. "This is very ... homely," she observed. DJ had already found the games console and was busy choosing something to play.
"I got it for a song, it was half finished, the plastering was all but done but no painting had been started, it still had the original windows and there was no kitchen, bathroom or any heating. Good job I came in last August otherwise I think I would've frozen with the winter that followed. Anyway, I started asking around for good workmen and got everything fixed up."
"But are you sure it's you?"
"What do you mean, Alexis?" The water was now brewing the tea.
"Well, all the wood and stone in this kitchen for a start. What's wrong with chrome and white Formica? And floral curtains Danny, not really you are they? Is there something I should know?" Her smile was broad as she winked at him.
"I'm not sure what you're implying?" Daniel looked perplexed.
"This," she swung around in the space. "An old blue cottage with white windows, in a very small town and in an extremely rural spot. When you told me you were going to build boats for a living I expected you to be somewhere near to civilisation."
"Salcombe is one of the wealthiest areas for sailing in the UK, I'd have been stupid to think that I could set up a boatyard just anywhere. Buying into Philippe's was the wisest decision in the end."
"Well after looking at the figures, I can't argue with that. And I'm hoping that my investment will be well looked after too. But you're a city boy, this doesn't exactly fit. And when did you start drinking tea?" She took the proffered mug, "is there a girl that I should know about?"
"No."
"But Danny, this just doesn't feel right. It's not you. This is a family home with no family in it."
"You're here, you're family. Mom's coming across before London Fashion Week and Tyler wants to bring Amanda when I'm up at the Southampton Boat Show."
"I mean your family, the kind you would've had with Molly, had she lived."
Daniel's anger flared momentarily but it passed just as quickly, after all Alexis didn't mean anything unkind by her remark. "I know. I had hoped there would be someone to share this with by now but I'm still working on that."
"Anyone I know?"
"Maybe." Daniel countered, "but if you think I'm telling you anything then you can forget it."
"Oh Danny, afraid I'll put a spanner in the works?"
"No, it's just delicate and I have to pick my moment."
"I see." She drained her cup and placed it back on the work surface. "So, how's Betty?"
"Betty?" What was Alexis' game? "I have no idea?"
"Have you still not spoken to her?" The look on Daniel's face gave her her answer. "I can't believe you; you live in the same country for Pete's sake. What's stopping you?"
"I have to find the right moment and London's not exactly on the doorstep here."
"The moment passed several weeks after she got here. Mom has all this faith in you and yet I knew it, I told her ..."
"What did you tell her?"
"That you're an idiot, that you'd let Betty walk out of your life because you'll never feel that you did anything wrong."
"I didn't, I did everything I could to get her to stay and then I let her go."
"And when will you realise that she needed to go, Daniel. She couldn't stay at Mode forever, it wasn't her dream. She also needed the support of her family and most especially the one person she'd always looked to as a friend. You seriously let her down."
Daniel looked at his shoes, Alexis was right, but when was she ever wrong? "I know," he whispered.
"You really can be a duffus at times, she was perfect for you. It wouldn't surprise me if she's with someone else now. I hear Matt Hartley is in Europe."
"I know," he was getting agitated.
Alexis continued, "whilst you sit here picking the perfect moment to approach her and see if maybe you have one small chance of taking her out and making something good happen for once in your life, she's probably moved back in with Hartley."
He threw his mug in the sink, the ceramic shattering against the granite, "I know, Alexis. I know. I'm a complete idiot for letting the best thing that happened to me for ages walk away, whilst I turned my back on her."
"You love her." It was a statement not a question.
Daniel's eyes seemingly sparkled as he thought about Betty in the green dress at Hilda's wedding; a hint of a smile was captured on his lips. "Yes."
Alexis couldn't help herself any longer. She moved around the counter and brought him into a hug, "then we have to do something about this, and quickly."
Daniel pulled back, his blue eyes piercing. "No, I have to do something about this."
"Then will you please do something already. We all love you but we really could do with you producing a Meade heir, even if it's just to satisfy Mom's incessant whining."
"I'll try."
Alexis reached for her purse, "you'll have to do better than that if you don't want me to become involved." She handed him a piece of paper.
"What's this?"
"It's her office number duffus. Give her a ring. Tomorrow."
Daniel watched his sister move into the living room and pick up the other controller, soon both mother and son where engrossed in Call of Duty. That was his cue to leave them to it.
He made his way into his study, turning on the laptop and looking through his emails, nothing of any great importance that he needed to sort out today. Pulling the piece of paper that Alexis had given him from out of his shirt pocket he opened his calendar and input an appointment for the following day; it simply read 'Call Betty'. Nothing else was needed as he punched the number into his phone.
He sat back in his chair, contemplating what he was going to say. Hi Betty, I'm sorry for being such a Jackass and I'm sorry for not saying goodbye, which wasn't cool. So goodbye, good luck and have a safe flight. That would do for an opener, the rest he could play by ear. "Here's to tomorrow, and to us. Speak to you soon Betty and sweet dreams."
With that his screensaver burst into life, all the photographs of Betty that he had on his laptop whirled in front of him as the slideshow played away. He couldn't help but smile. "I love you Betty Suarez, I just hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me and at least be my friend. If nothing else."
Alexis smiled, whilst silently closing the study door. Regardless of whether Daniel wanted her help or not, he was going to get it. She crossed the hall and fumbled around in her purse for her mobile. She punched in the number whilst she moved out onto the back porch, "hey Christina, it's me. Can you talk? ... How's operation BDTF coming along? ... Oh, that's perfect. Everything's set for Tuesday so I'll meet you by the chemists at about ten ... Good. See you then."
Phase one of 'Betty and Daniel Together Forever' was now complete and phase two would soon be put into action. Alexis couldn't help but wonder how long it would take Daniel to sort things out on his own, "too long," she murmured. At least this way Daniel would be in Betty's arms before the year was out or her name wasn't Alexis Meade. And she'd spent way too much money on operations and therapy to make sure her name was never an issue again. She just hoped that everything went as smoothly over the next few months than had done over the last few days otherwise they'd all be in trouble, and that was a place that neither Daniel nor Betty could afford to be in. Speaking of which, she just needed to make one last phone call, "Hi Arno, how's our boy doing?"
.oOo.
"Hey, Philippe," Daniel called as he made his way across the boatyard towards the company offices.
Philippe caught him before he reached the door, "'Ow did it go, with Alexis?" His face bright with expectation, if they could get the money to produce more of the prototype boats when they were ready to show in Southampton then maybe the company could start making some real money. It was a miracle that he'd met Daniel on that flight from New York the previous year, but to have his sister on board as well, that really would make the business fly.
"She's in. Came back with me and the boat yesterday and she really loved the way that boat handled itself across the Channel, wants one for herself now."
"Oh, that's great news."
"She want s to come across and meet you about eleven, is that ok?"
"Perfect. I'll get Natalie to set up the boardroom." And with that he was gone.
Daniel made his way past the enthusiastic Frenchman and the receptionist on the way to his office. Once safely ensconced, he set up his laptop, checked his emails and made a few calls. Natalie had meanwhile left him his tea and a couple of rounds of toast and marmalade on his desk. It wasn't quite what Betty used to bring him but it would have to do. Bagels were a little harder to come by in this neck of the woods so he'd have to manage with what he could get. He bit into the toast, savouring the flavour of the marmalade, smiling. Natalie's mum's homemade preserve was definitely the best.
He checked his calendar, apart from his meeting with Philippe and Alexis mid morning, and a sales drive meeting that afternoon, there was only one thing left to do. 'Call Betty'.
"Hello, Dunne Publishing. How may I help you?"
"Hi, yes. I'd like to speak with a Miss Betty Suarez, please?"
"Which publication is that for?"
"I'm sorry, I'm not entirely sure. I'm an old friend; I was hoping to hook up with her."
"Let ... me ... just ... see ... if ... I ... can, oh yes, I see her. She's the Executive Producer of 'The Capital'. However, she's on holiday this week. Can I take a message for her or would you like to leave a message on her voicemail?"
What to do, a message might get to her quicker than her picking up her voicemail, but this was Betty. She wouldn't be too far away from her phone and a voicemail would be more personal. "Could I do both?" Better to cover both bases.
"Of course, let me just take your details and then I'll put you through. Who shall I say is calling?"
"My name is Daniel Meade, we used to work together at Mode magazine," did he really just say that? "Um ... I ... er, just ask her to call me. I have a new cell ... er ... mobile number that she can reach me on. It's 07999 555368 and my email address is ."
"And you said you wanted to 'hook up' with her?"
"Yes, I just want to get back in touch with her. Thank you."
"Thank you Mr Meade, I'll just put you through to her voicemail ... Hi, you've just reached the voicemail for ... Betty Suarez ... please leave your message at the tone."
Daniel's skin broke out in goose bumps as soon as he heard her call her name in her perky style. If only he could hear that again. "Er ... Hi Betty, it's Daniel. ... Er ... Daniel Meade," was that absolutely necessary, "I'm just ringing to see if we could maybe talk. You left and there were things that were left unsaid. I'd really like to speak with you if that's at all possible. I'm hoping that you got an email from the receptionist, it has all my new contact details on it so please feel free to get in touch even if it's just an email to tell me to get lost." A nervous laugh emitted and he shook his head at himself, "anyway, I hope I'll get a chance to speak with you soon, we both appear to have a lot of catching up to do. Bye Betty." I love you.
He replaced the receiver, happy in the knowledge that he'd at least set the ball rolling. He just hoped that she didn't just press the delete button on her phone as soon as she heard his voice.
"You're looking a little anxious?" Alexis stood in the doorway of his office, the door banging against the wall behind it.
"I just phoned Betty." He smiled.
"And ..." Alexis prompted.
"Well, I didn't get to speak to her; she's on vacation this week. But I left a message and a voicemail."
"Covering both bases, well done Danny, I'm impressed." Alexis grinned, "not such a duffus after all."
"I'll just have to wait and see if I get a response, won't I."
Alexis watched Daniel get up from his seat and pick up his half eaten toast along with his notes for the meeting. "You will, I'm sure of it. Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, fire away?" He offered her a slice but she declined.
"Do I look ok for a meeting on a boatyard; I sadly didn't bring any Chanel with me?" Dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and converse he was hardly dressed for a meeting of any importance himself unless it was at Player.
He took in the bleached denim turn ups and the pillar box red scooped necked batwing jersey top, but wait, "you managed to pack the Louboutins's. I'm sure Philippe will be impressed."
"So you can take the boy out of the fashion mag," she teased, "Is Philippe single?" She knew he was hot, she'd already seen his profile on the boatyard's web page.
Daniel shook his head and smiled, "yes, he is. He ran to England from a messy divorce about 5 years ago. Be careful, Alexis, I don't think he's over it yet."
"Don't worry; I have no intention of throwing myself at anyone especially with my track record. Let's just see how the land lies." She smiled, "come on, let's get this meeting going."
Daniel crossed the hallway in front of her and opened the door to allow her access into the boardroom. Sauntering in, she stopped just short of where Philippe was sat and bent forward, a good amount of cleavage on show. "Hi, you must be Philippe."
An eyebrow raised, Daniel watched the scene unfold in front of him shaking his head and smiling to himself. Philippe had all but fallen out of his chair in order to take Alexis' proffered hand and kiss the back of it. "Bon jour, Mademoiselle Meade. You are even more beautiful than your brother's appraisal."
"Thank you Philippe. And you are definitely more handsome in the flesh. Would it be awkward if we had a drink sometime this week whilst I'm here?"
What was that she said about taking things slowly? Daniel closed the boardroom door. "Right, now that you two have made your own introductions maybe we can progress with the meeting."
.oOo.
Christina had opted for a pre natal massage that took twice as long as Betty's stone massage. Noticing that Christina was actually asleep she nipped off back to her room to check on her emails and messages before the milk bath that they'd booked for later on that morning.
As her laptop booted into life, she checked around for her diary. She needed the pass code to pick up any messages on her voicemail and she knew she'd written somewhere ... she found the page, placing the book upside down on the desk in order to keep it open whilst she checked her emails. She scanned through them, ticking off any that looked like junk and moved them into trash; she was still left with thirty messages. She skimmed through the rest, several from Lesley; two about a shoot in Leicester Square the week after she was due back; one about a new restaurant that had opened up in Soho; and one to wish her a happy holiday.
She cocked her head to one side and smiled. "Aw, he's so sweet."
She forwarded several on to her next in command, asking for him to check out the requests and deal with them how he saw fit, or more importantly how he felt she would deal with them. That left her with about ten. One was from Hilda and another from Papi, she'd read them later when she had more time. One was a newsletter from Amanda's Stylist web page inviting people to join her LinkedIn profile, go figure and several were from Marc's blogsite telling her that he had updated. Another couple of things to do for later on.
Which left her with three; an invitation to help Mr Suarez out by getting his gold out of Ethiopia in exchange for $20,000. Delete. Another invitation but this was legitimate, to a soiree at the Dorchester for Betty plus one, to a gala dinner in aid of Cancer Awareness, mark as unread and move to Invitation folder. Lastly a message from reception headed 'Daniel Meade called'. Her finger hovered over the delete key momentarily. A little impersonal but he could ring her instead of hiding behind an email. Delete.
She closed the program but was prompted, 'Do you wish for all mail in trash and junk mail folders to be permanently deleted?' She hit yes, no point in keeping anything that she didn't need. 'Thank you, all mail has been deleted'.
"And thank you." She smiled at the screen before picking up her phone and gaining access to her work voicemail. Once she was connected there were only a handful of messages and most had already been sorted out via email, she could sort out the rest when she got back to work next week. She got to the last message and hit 1 to play.
"Er ... Hi Betty," her heart skipped a beat. "It's Daniel. ... Er ... Daniel Meade," she had to laugh, it wasn't like she was likely to forget who Daniel was for a long while. At least he'd left a message as well as an email. "I'm just ringing to see if we could maybe talk. You left and there were things that were left unsaid." She felt her mouth constrict a little as she held her breath. "I'd really like to speak with you if that's at all possible." Oh yes, if it meant an end to the sorry mess she was in then she really was ready to talk to him. "I'm hoping that you got an email from the receptionist," no! "It has all my new contact details on it." NO! "So please feel free to get in touch even if it's just an email to tell me to get lost."
"No, no, no, no, no!"
"Anyway, I hope I'll get a chance to speak with you soon, we both appear to have a lot of catching up to do. Bye Betty."
"Oh shute," she opened up her email program, sure enough when she opened the trash folder there were no messages left. She called her works reception.
"Hello, Dunne Publishing. How may I help you?"
"Hi, my name is Betty Suarez; I'm Executive Producer of 'The Capital'."
"Good morning Miss Suarez, how can I direct my call?"
"Well, I don't know if it was you ... erm ... sorry, what's your name?"
"I'm called Amanda, Miss Suarez."
"Oh, right Amanda." Hopefully she was nothing like another Amanda she knew, "I don't know if you took a call from a Mr Daniel Meade this morning?"
"Oh yes, Mr Meade. Lovely American accent."
"Yes," OMG. "Well, you took a message from him which had his contact details and you emailed them over to me. Do you think you could resend the message as I deleted it by mistake?"
"I'm sorry Miss Suarez; we're not able to do that. Once the message leaves the reception email account and reaches yours it's deleted automatically."
She should've known, "oh, ok. I don't suppose you wrote the details out before sending them over?"
"No, I typed them straight into the email. I'm very sorry."
"No, no. It wasn't your fault." You weren't supposed to know that he was the love of my life! "If he rings back can you make sure you get his details again?"
"Of course Miss Suarez. I hope your trip is wonderful and see you in a week."
"Thanks, Bye." She put down the receiver, her heart weighing heavy in her chest. Tears threatening to drop just as Christina walked through the door.
Betty rushed over to her friend; a hug was what she needed. "Hey, what's happened?" Christina soothed, her hand stroking Betty's arms as she steered them both towards the edge of the bed.
"Love isn't supposed to be this hard, is it?"
"Perhaps you should ask your readers that one?" Christina looked down to her bump. "Can I ask what prompted that question?"
"Daniel!"
"Daniel?"
"He called my office this morning and left a voicemail."
"Well, that's good isn't it?" Christina smiled, phase two nearly completed.
"Yes," she sighed, "and no. Listen." She handed her phone over to Christina for her to listen to Daniel's message.
Christina nodded and smiled encouragingly, "so what's the problem, he wants to speak to you."
"I deleted the email."
"The one with all the contact details in it?"
"Mmm-mm, yep. I'd just phoned reception at work before you came in, to see if they could resend the email but it gets deleted from the server once it's got to its destination."
"Oh." Phase two hits a snag.
"I'm such a dork."
"No you're not. These things happen, Betty. If it's meant to be it will happen, you just have to hope and pray that Daniel rings again." He bloody better do.
"And if he doesn't?"
Christina put her arm around her friend, "then we'll just have to see if we can find out where he is, won't we?"
TBC
