Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay) by Holly Martin Page B

heartbreaking way possible. If I go into a relationship again, it has to be with someone I can trust not to hurt me. You seem lovely and kind and Daisy adores you, but you also seem the sort that can get any woman he wants and I certainly don’t think you want to put up with all my insecurities and baggage and crap. So can we please put a stop to all of this flirting, because it’s killing me.’
    Penny was suddenly aware of Daisy standing in the door again, she quickly turned to face her.
    ‘Sorry, Penny, Josh says he’s in a bit of a rush.’
    Penny nodded and with one more glance at Henry’s dumbfounded face she hurried out. Well, if she wanted to put Henry off her for good, she’d certainly done that with all her crazy. The men of the town really were right. She was damaged goods.
----
    H enry watched her go , confused by how quickly and disastrously that conversation had gone. He didn’t know why he was so drawn to Penny; only a few hours before he had sworn to himself that he wouldn’t pursue things with her but he couldn’t seem to stay away from her. He looked back at Daisy, who fixed him with a glare as she folded her arms across her chest.
    ‘What?’
    ‘You said you weren’t going to get involved with her.’
    ‘I didn’t say that.’
    ‘We agreed that she was an all-or-nothing kind of girl. You’re not capable of anything serious. You’re going to hurt her and I really like her. She’s said she’s happy to teach me about carving and that I can work with her part time around school and she will pay me to carve. You have no idea how much I want to work with her. My first proper job doing something I absolutely love and you’re going to screw it all up for me.’
    ‘I won’t screw it up. I have no intention of hurting her, that’s the last thing I want.’
    ‘But you will. Look at Rosie. You broke her heart.’
    ‘Rosie was never anything serious.’
    ‘It was for her.’
    He knew he had hurt Rosie when he broke up with her and he felt bad for that, but the worst thing was how upset Daisy had been by the break-up too. He shook his head. Why was he trying to justify his relationships to his sixteen-year-old daughter? Surely it should be the other way round.
    ‘She was never going to be a good fit for us.’
    ‘She doesn’t need to be a fit for us, she needs to be a fit for you. You finished it with her because she was getting too close.’
    It was true that he found it hard to imagine ever trusting or loving someone enough to have them in his and Daisy’s life permanently. He always kept women at a distance. But Daisy had lectured him about his commitment issues after he had split with Rosie and he had tried to prove he didn’t have these issues by bringing Emily into their life, which had resulted in the very thing he had tried for years to protect Daisy from. Daisy feared rejection, he knew that, that she was scared that one day he would leave her just as her mum had. But what Henry feared was any woman he was with rejecting Daisy, making her feel for one second unloved and unwanted, and Emily had done just that. It would be a long time before he could trust someone enough to let them into his life again.
    ‘Look, I like Penny and the ice carving is important to me. If you break her heart she is hardly likely to want me around any more. Be nice to her, be friends with her, but please don’t sleep with her,’ Daisy said.
    ‘Hang on, you don’t get to dictate who I do or don’t go out with. I would never presume to tell you who you can or can’t date.’
    ‘Oh, if that’s the case, you’ll be OK with me dating the huge tattooed guy who was just flirting with me in the kitchen.’
    Henry let out an involuntary growl. ‘That’s different and you know it.’
    ‘I have never asked you not to date anyone before, not even bitches like Emily.’
    ‘Watch your language.’
    ‘The point being I hope you can see how important this job is to me. I like living here. I know it’s small