Jago laughed, shaking his head, his familiar lopsided grin lighting up his face. ‘I get it. Keep me waiting even longer. It will be you who’s in trouble.’ He glanced back at her and gave a cheeky wiggle of his bum before getting back into the tractor.
Rita looked up to spot Teo touching up the barn door with varnish. With a deep breath, she limped over to him.
‘Teo.’ She was slightly breathless. ‘I have something to tell you.’
His face dropped. ‘Are you OK?’
Rita laughed. ‘Yes, yes. I’m fine but also very pregnant.’ Rita took a breath. ‘With twins again.’
He froze mid-roller, then his face lit up. ‘BellaRita… wow. That’s amazing!’ He leaned in, careful not to bump her bump, or cover her in paint, and kissed each cheek in a flurry. ‘I am so happy for you.’
‘I just wanted you to know before anyone else told you and before Jago starts broadcasting it from the tractor.’
Teo laughed, glancing toward the trailer. ‘Sí, I know why now. Zenya she say, if I see Rita lifting, I stop Rita lifting.’ He then was wide-mouthed. ‘¡Madre mía!’ He thought hard for a second. ‘So, I have theneuvoshalf-brothers and or sistersand two new cousins all at the same time.¡Estupendo!’
Rita, thinking that with this level of drama and complication in her life maybe she should consider writing forEmmerdale, looked lovingly at the exuberant young man.
She then turned and shouted. ‘Come on, all of you, take a break. Betty’s goodies for lunch in the Nook.’
By mid-afternoon, the farm still hummed with purposeful energy. Stan and Jago rumbled past Rita on the tractor, the trailer clattering behind them, piled high with the final blackened remains of what had once been the café’s snug little heart.
‘Careful on the turn,’ Rita called, hand shading her eyes. ‘We can’t have Cinderella’s coach getting stuck in tyre tracks now, can we?’
Jago pulled over and grinned, soot still smudged across his cheek like war paint. ‘You wound me. This is precision driving.’
Stan gave a mock salute from the passenger seat. ‘We’ll have it fit for a fairy tale by dinner time, don’t you worry, Mrs Jory.’
‘I meant to ask you about the wedding day weather.’
‘And your birthday weather, too.’ Jago smiled at her.
Stan nodded slowly. ‘I’ve been watching the sky this week, listening to the wind through the gorse, and checking the sea swell.’ He tapped the side of his nose. ‘Dry all day. Light breeze. Perfect.’
‘I hope so,’ Rita said, laughing. ‘The bride arrives in the morning with her entourage so it will be good to impart that seasoned knowledge.’
With the tractor and trailer trundling its way back to Hawthorn Acre, Rita stood and surveyed her home. The fire site was almost fully dusted with fresh sawdust, pale and clean against the dark ground, Zenya and Teo working methodically with shovels while Thom ferried barrow after barrow from the stack. Sennen, who had just finished meeting the caterers in the farmhouse, moved between them all with military efficiency, clipboard tucked under her arm, hair scraped back like a woman on a mission.
‘That looks so amazing! Thanks, team.’ Sennen looked to her notes, causing a sense of pride to flow right through Rita. ‘I need to check the yurts next,’ she added.
Zenya wiped her hands down her jeans. ‘They are all done. Let me show you.’
‘Ooh, I’ve got some books to put in there,’ Rita remembered, ‘four of them on the kitchen table, if you don’t mind getting them. You’ll be quicker than me.’
With Zenya and Sennen up at the yurts, Rita followed Teo into the barn. She stopped just inside, breath catching. The space had been transformed. White silk-covered chairs gleamedin the soft light, arranged around a long table already laid out for the feast, each place set with care and Clarice Cliff vases ready to house the beautiful pink Cinderella roses. Uncovered trestle tables, stacked and polished, were set for the food and wedding cake that was arriving with the bride. Fairy lights twinkled overhead like captured stars. Off to one side, a bar area had been prepared, stocked and waiting, and hay bales were dotted around, adding a touch of rustic charm. A dance floor gleamed by the huge barn doors, which opened onto the cliffs, the sea stretching endlessly beyond.
Rita let out a little sigh of wonder. ‘It looks incredible. Well done. And what a perfect place to get married… it really is.’
‘Sí, maybe you’ll need to buy a hat sooner than you think.’
‘Teo!’ Rita’s eyes widened. ‘Have you got something to tell me?’
‘Well, Jude, he has to ask me first.’ The young Spaniard burst out laughing.
‘You kidder, oh and how about the chairs for the ceremony up at the Singing Tree?’
‘The hire company they forget them; they comemañana.’
Once outside, with Teo stashing paint cans in one of the outhouses, Thom jogged over to Rita. ‘The drive’s clear.’ He swept his hand towards it. ‘Plenty wide for a Cinderella coach, and then some.’
