“Hey, someone’s gotta make sure you’re surviving this thing.Besides, it wouldn’t be a bad way to spend the evening, right?”he teases.
Right, except I am imagininghimas dinner. I blush. “I suppose not. I’ll keep it in mind.” I sip the hot coffee that is keeping my hands from freezing as we stop outside the grocer’s.
“Good. Now, don’t worry about anything today. Take it one step at a time. And if anyone gives you a hard time, just remember, you have a supply of tomatoes in the back to throw at them.” He chuckles.
He makes me laugh.“Sounds like a plan. And Sam? Thanks for walking me in. It means a lot.”
“Of course. Anytime. Now go show those veggies what you’ve got.” He sticks his tongue out and turns to leave.
“Sam?” I shout before he gets too far. “Will I see you later?”
He spins round. “Absolutely.” Then he carries on towards the butcher’s. He walks like he has not a care in the world. No urgency. Just on his way to work. I wish my brain worked like that!
I find Jim round the back of his shop where he asked me to meet him. He carefully shows me the shop and everything I need to know about running it from the stockroom, the details of the suppliers, the till and anything else he thinks I might need to run the place. He asks me a further ten times if I’ll be OK and I reassure him each time. Eventually he agrees to go if I promise to call him if anything goes wrong. He heads off on a much-needed rest and I start my first shift in the village grocer’s.
As first days go, it’s pretty smooth. A steady flow of customers from the village and from the surrounding areas. I’m quite surprised just how many customers Jim’s little grocer’s attracts! But from the get-go, it is clear that community spirit is what keeps people coming back. They love the homegrown vegetables from my aunt’s garden and Pete’s farm. I think if you know where something is made, it makes it taste better, right?You can taste the love and hard work put into the produce.
The day seems to fly by. I feel good doing something with my time instead of sitting at Granny’s worrying about my impending doom or the fact I can tell the future or that I’m lusting over a man I can’t be with. All good things.
I finish serving my last customer of the day and the shop bell chimes on the door. In walks Sam, his hair pushed back where he has been working hard. His sleeves are rolled up on his denim shirt showing his bulging forearms. His face lights up when he sees me. He is not making this easy for me.
“I’ll be right with you,” I tell him.
I finish packing the bag of the lady in front of me and start to help her with her sacks of potatoes to her car.
“Let me.” Sam throws both onto his shoulder and picks up her bag of vegetables and walks them to her car.
“Oh, what a lovely gent.” The old woman smiles. She turns to me and whispers, “If you are single, lovey, I would get in there quick before he is snatched up! Don’t see men like that anymore.” She winks then disappears out of the door following Sam to the car.
She is right. You don’t. But you also don’t get it easy. I lock up the till, hang my apron up and start to close. I make sure everything is turned off and triple check the door is locked. I wonder where Sam has gone, but I spot him waving off the old lady in her car.
He jogs towards me. “Sorry. She needed her rear light changing. She had one in her boot, so I just did it quickly for her.”
“Oh, so you’re Superman now as well?”
He shrugs confidently. “Oh, most definitely. I’ve got the looks, right?”
Of course he has, but instead of agreeing I just laugh the comment off. We both know there’s chemistry between us. But Iam not going to fill his big head even more.
“So, first day, you survived?” he asks.
I nod. “I did! I think everyone was nice. I was worried that I’d get no customers, but I was surprised.”
“Everyone loves Jim’s. People shop there to protect him and Fi, you know, to help them financially. But also, he does have the best vegetables. Your aunt’s veggies are always perfect. I would love to know her secret. They taste magic!”
“They really do.” I chuckle to myself at the fact that she most definitely does use magic to grow them in her homemade fertiliser that she brews at the bottom of the garden in her shed.
He stops in front of me, his big green eyes sucking me in. “So, can I interest you in a slice of banana bread and a latte?”
“Always!” I flirt back.
He opens his arm for me to link my arm in his. I hesitate but I can’t resist his cheeky grin. I want to try to keep things from going too far, but it’s just an arm link. That is all, right?
Fifteen
We make it into The Wandering Wisp and Lola is sat colouring at a table. She sees us walk in and runs towards us. Sam puts both arms out, but she bypasses him and runs to me, wrapping her tiny arms around me.
“Hi, Harri.” She smiles, looking up at me with her big, beautiful eyes just like her brother’s.
