In true Melissa style she gritted her teeth and stomped away back towards the steps. ‘If you’re not going to take me seriously I won’t bother talking to you anymore.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he called after her, he’d only been trying to add a bit of humour into the moment. She looked like she was getting all wound up and worried and her homecoming or whatever this was shouldn’t be like that. ‘Come on, Winnie,’ he said when he realised Melissa wasn’t going to stop and wait.
*
Melissa had forgotten how pig-headed Harvey could be but she couldn’t be too annoyed when Winnie caught her up and trotted by her side. She stopped before they reached the road, waited for Harvey to put Winnie’s lead back on, and together they all set off for Tumbleweed House.
Harvey reheated the elderberry tea and poured both of them another cup as Melissa tried again to work out a way forwards with Barney. She was well aware she wasn’t going to be here all that long. ‘I don’t want to leave without knowing he’s back to normal.’
‘I get it, you have a timeframe,’ said Harvey. ‘But not everything can work to your timetable.’
‘I wouldn’t even suggest that it could.’ She refused to rise to it. She wished he’d just come out with it and tell her what he was thinking, but as usual he kept it all in. ‘I’ve extended my stay, which means I’ll be around for the ball. I’ve taken unpaid leave, booked in for longer at the Heritage Inn, I’m doing everything I can. I just want that ball to go ahead, see if it’s the secret ingredient to get our Barney back.’
Phrasing it that way seemed to calm Harvey down. ‘I hope you’re right. And it’s good you’re staying, for Barney I mean. He’ll be happy about that if nothing else.’
She relaxed a little with fewer accusations flying her way, whether in words or the way he looked at her. Sometimes it was hard to guess what he was thinking. ‘It’s the talk of the old folks’ home that scares me the most,’ she confessed. ‘I saw a brochure for Aubrey House residential care home at his place, it must’ve come through the door.’
Harvey shook his head. ‘He asked Tilly to have her friend who works there drop it round.’
Her heart sank. ‘I didn’t realise he’d requested it.’
‘He’s still our Barney, whatever happens,’ said Harvey. ‘Perhaps it’s you and I who need to accept that things change.’ He laughed at his own remark when he saw her reaction. ‘Didn’t think for one minute you’d agree with me.’
She let out a groan of frustration and gave her tea another stir to mix in the tiny pieces of dried elderberry that had slipped through the strainer.
‘Trying to persuade Barney to do the rehabilitation exercises is impossible,’ Harvey went on. ‘Have you had any luck at all?’
‘What do you think?’
‘If he does them, he’ll feel better, and if he feels better, he’ll be back to himself. It’s a vicious circle he’s stuck in.’
‘Look, I know you don’t want to, but I really think we need to step up and take on the task of the Wedding Dress Ball. If it was already suggested to you it means he’ll be on board, and I can’t see him objecting to my help.’
He groaned. ‘How did I know you were going to mention that again?’
‘Because you know I’m right. If we tell him we’ll take on all the work to get the barn ready, he won’t have to do anything, he might just agree.’
‘You know there was a time he would’ve hated not being involved.’
‘And maybe that time will come again, but this year it’ll be down to us.’
‘I haven’t got a clue where to start.’
He looked about as panicked as any other man left in charge of an enormous wedding-related event. ‘We’ll manage.’ She smiled tentatively, unsure whether he was going to agree or push her away. Since she’d arrived and bumped into him on and off, she’d found herself permanently trying to read his moods, his reactions, his words. She put down her empty tea cup. ‘I know you may not believe me, but I have felt guilty over the years, about not seeing him.’ She felt guilty about not seeing Harvey too, but talking about that was much more difficult. She still wasn’t ready to tell him how she’d felt a part of her ripped away when she left, then how let down she’d felt that he hadn’t gone through with their plan. She wasn’t ready to admit how she’d pictured him by her side many a time enjoying a new life away from Heritage Cove, one she’d pined for and thought he’d wanted too.
‘Why don’t we both go over to Barney’s and start making firm plans?’ she suggested when a tiny muscle in his jaw tensed and he made no further comment. ‘No time like the present. I just hope he hasn’t officially cancelled everything already or it’ll make our job so much harder. And the barn…I mean, it looked fine when I saw it the other day, but is it in a good state of repair or is there work that needs carrying out?’
She almost jumped out of her skin when his hands settled on her shoulders reassuring her. ‘One step at a time. First, I’ll pick us up a sandwich each from the bakery.’
‘Sounds good to me. It is lunchtime after all.’ She sounded hopeless, giving away the effect his touch had on her.
‘Then we’ll go to Barney’s. I need to inspect the barn and work on fixing up a couple of wobbly beams, check there’s nothing else to take care off. It’ll need to be one hundred per cent safe for the ball.’
‘It’s hard to believe we once climbed up onto those beams,’ she whispered, still aware of his touch. ‘I doubt kids would do that now. I have a friend in London who has twins and she’s fussing over them all the time, I can’t imagine her ever letting them run loose in a barn with an old man for company.’ She was rambling, nerves getting the better of her.
‘We had a good childhood. The Cove saw to that.’ He finally took his hands away and it felt strange to no longer be beneath his touch.
But it was time to go to Barney’s now. And she only hoped their plan would work out, that the both of them organising the ball, might just be the key to getting Barney back to being himself.
