THREE - Daniel Ricciardo

Chapter 29 - Present

DANIEL

I welcomed Pamela into Amy's home and offered her a drink, introducing her to the boys who were scattered around the house, explaining who we were and what we were all doing in her home. She was warm, kind and hilarious. She reminded me so much of Amy, you could tell where she had gotten her gorgeous genes from. Amy's mom didn't give me the cold shoulder or brush me off, which left me to wonder; had Amy not told her mom about what had happened in Monaco?

"So Pamela, what's Mr Fox like?" Lando asked as he leaned upon the kitchen counter. Pamela stood there with a glass of wine in her hand, smiling over at the other boys across the room.

"Steve is a military man, very disciplined and hard faced. But once you get to know him, he's such a gentle soul. A very difficult man though, I must add." She giggled and took a sip of her wine before promptly placing it onto the surface in front of her.

"He served in the army?" Max queried and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs.

"Oh yes." Pamela informed us. "He did six years in the British Armed Forces before being recruited for Special Air Services, where he served a further ten years."

"The SAS?" George's eyes widened at the news.

I gulped at the thought of Amy's dad. The SAS was tough and only the best of the best could ever be recruited. I imagined her dad being a massive, scary bloke who would most likely kick the shit out of me if he ever found out about last weeks charades.

Pamela nodded at the boys, giggling to herself at their reluctance to ask any further questions or pry into their personal life, maybe now afraid for their lives at the news that Amy's dad was ex special forces.

"Now boys, why don't you go start the fire outside and get some drinks together." Pamela smiled and ushered the lads out into the garden before turning to face me. "I'd like to talk with you, in private."

The air in the lungs had been temporarily stopped as my heart beat sped up and my hands became clammy. Her sudden change of mood worried me as I knew she was going to ask what was going on between her daughter and I. I couldn't lie to her, that would only make matters worse, but the thought of telling my, hopefully, future mother-in-law that I had slept with another woman the day before asking her daughter to be my girlfriend, only for that relationship to last five minutes, was not the conversation I wanted to partake in right now.

I sat down on the sofa in the living room, whilst Pamela followed me in and shut the door, taking a seat opposite me on the stool. She placed her hands on her knees and looked over at me. Her eyes still looked kind but her facial expression was not the happy-go-lucky vibe she was just conducting to the other boys.

"I need to ask you a question." She began and used her fingers to move some hair from her face. "What's going on between you and my daughter?"

I shuffled in my spot, using my thighs as a surface to wipe my sweaty hands on. I coughed to break the silence in the room before finding the words which were hard to place in my head.

"She's, erm, we," I stumbled as my mind wouldn't co-operate with my mouth; words swirling around my mind as I relived every conversation I'd ever had with Amy. "We broke up, last week."

Pamela gave me a forgiving look before turning to pick her wine glass up off the coffee table to take a sip.

"My daughter can be very stubborn, her last relationship wasn't great and she finds it hard to trust people." Pamela spoke in a hushed tone and returned her attention from the alcohol in the glass back to me.

"I know about Amy's last boyfriend, she told me." I confessed and started twirling one of my rings around on my finger.

"She did?" Pamela seemed surprised at this fact. "She never usually opens up like that. She must really like you."