‘That chef bloke, Hope’s boyfriend.’
‘Daniel?’ supplied Maggie helpfully.
‘Yeah. Except that’s not it. That’s why it’s taken me so long to place him. Because he wasn’t called Daniel then, when I met him.’
Maggie was lost. ‘Tiger, you’re not making much sense,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you start at the beginning?’
‘Right, yeah. So, I recognised that Daniel bloke, but I couldn’t think where I’d met him. It’s been driving me mad. I couldn’t get it out of my head because something about it felt important, but I just couldn’t place him. So, in the end I decided the only way I was going to remember was if I clapped eyes on him again. I reckoned that if I wasn’t three sheets to the wind, I’d do a better job of recognising him. So, I went back to the restaurant today, hung around a bit outside to see if he appeared. And when he did, it finally came to me. I’ve worked out who he is, but he’s changed his name. That’s what threw me before. When I met him he didn’t call himself Daniel. He was called Jax.’
There was a pause as Maggie’s mind raced to join the dots.
‘Jax, as in Angie’s Jax?’ she asked.
‘The very same,’ he replied.
‘And so that means that this Daniel, now boyfriend of the divine Hope, is . . .’
‘Bingo!’ said Tiger. ‘Give the woman a banana!’
‘Shit!’ said Maggie.
‘Shit indeed,’ replied Tiger. ‘So, what should I do?’
Maggie’s mind was making connections. She had never met Jax, but she had met Daniel before, at Hope’s party. She searched her mind to remember how Angie had reacted to seeing him, but found nothing. Had they been introduced? She thought not. Slowly the pieces fell into place. Daniel had arrived late, and they had worked out who he was because Hope had told them he was on his way. And then not long after that they had left the party.
‘Maggie?’ came Tiger’s voice down the line. ‘Are you still there?’
‘Sorry, yes. I’m just thinking it through,’ she said.
‘Do you think Ange knew?’ Tiger asked.
‘I think she must have done,’ replied Maggie. ‘We went to Hope’s birthday party and he was there. She didn’t say anything to me, but she must have recognised him. And that will be why . . .’ All the shakers were falling into place now and the lock clicked open, leaving the answers like treasure, golden and twinkling in Maggie’s mind. ‘That’s why she chose Hope to be one of Romany’s guardians.’
‘The one looking after relationships,’ interrupted Tiger, the triumph clear in his voice.
‘The sly old minx,’ replied Maggie with a wry smile.
‘Exactly! But what do we do now? Now that we’ve worked it out?’ asked Tiger. ‘Do we tell Romey that we know where her dad is?’
And now Maggie remembered another day. A picnic in Whitby when Angie had insisted on having a rather forced conversation with Romany about her father. Had she done that in front of her so that she was aware of Romany’s views on the subject? That seemed a little far-fetched, but now, in light of what they had just worked out, perhaps it had all been part of a plan, although she wasn’t sure the timings worked exactly. She needed to think it all through more carefully. The point now was, what did Angie want her to do next? Romany had been very clear that she didn’t want to know who her father was. Did Angie disagree? Was she expecting the four of them to step in and create an introduction?
‘Maggie?’
‘Sorry, I was thinking. I think we need to tread very carefully. Romany once told me that she wasn’t interested in meeting her dad. I’ve got no reason to think that she’s changed her mind. And right now, she’s got enough on. It’s only a few months until her exams. Do you think we should keep it under our hats, for now at least?’
Maggie could hear Tiger’s disappointment through the silence on the other end of the phone. He must have been hoping that she’d suggest a big, drastic reveal.
‘Maybe,’ he replied reluctantly. ‘Although I think she might be changing her mind on the dad thing.’
‘But perhaps,’ said Maggie, ‘we could talk to Hope and Daniel and see what they think.’
Tiger sounded doubtful now. ‘I don’t know, Mags. Maybe we should just let nature take its course. As you say, the last thing Romey needs right now is another shock.’