Page 91 of The Village Shop for Lonely Hearts

‘Sorry!’ he told her, letting go instantly. ‘I think we’ve found our USP.’

Amber rubbed her shoulders. ‘You’re going to have to break it down for me. I’ve not had much sleep in the past twenty-four hours.’

‘Home-made,’ he told her. ‘Locally sourced. Not mass-produced. Are you with me?’

‘Yes,’ she said. But she still wasn’t looking convinced.

‘What’s the matter? Don’t you like the idea?’ He had thought she’d be thrilled with his plan.

‘Of course,’ she told him. ‘It’s just we’re surrounded by water. Where are you going to get this kind of thing when everywhere’s flooded?’

He brought out his mobile and pointed at the map. ‘Look at the number of farms around here. There’s a mix of dairy and vegetable farms. How about we source some fresh stuff from them for today and worry about the home-made stuff later on.’

‘I can ask any customers that come in if they know of anyone local as well,’ she told him.

‘Excellent!’ Josh could feel the excitement surge through him. ‘This is it. I can feel it!’

She laughed. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Saving the shop!’ he said. ‘I think we can do it.’

Amber bit her lip. ‘You mean, despite the tractor in the middle of the floor?’

‘I love the tractor!’ he told her, picking her up and twirling around. ‘The tractor stays! Are you with me?’

He put her back down and she was looking up at him amazed, but her brown eyes were shining bright. ‘I think so,’ she said.

‘Excellent! Right. You restock where you can and I’ll get out and see what I can find.’ He stopped suddenly and smiled at her. ‘I knew the tractor was a good idea!’

He ducked out the back of the shop just in time as a bale of kitchen rolls whizzed past his head.

37

Despite living in the area on and off for the past twenty years, it was the first time that Josh had actually driven to any of the local farms. But he was quite enjoying himself, he found, as he hummed along to the radio. He had a good feeling about what he planned to do next, even though there were a number of trees down, including one on the road to Tully’s farm, the first one he had on his list to visit.

But he didn’t even need to get as far as the farmhouse as he came across Joe Tully using his tractor to move a giant tree trunk which had fallen across the lane.

‘Afternoon,’ said Josh, getting out of his van.

‘Hi,’ said Joe.

They had a met a couple of times in the pub and chatted about football and the weather. But they had never talked too much about work.

‘Need a hand?’ asked Josh.

‘All done thanks,’ said Joe. ‘How’s the village looking?’

‘It survived,’ Josh told him. ‘Some homes were flooded. The pub cellar was under water. Thankfully, it didn’t get as high as the shop.’

‘At least that’s something,’ said Joe. ‘What can I do for you?’

‘Well, the road to Aldwych is still blocked,’ said Josh. ‘Going to take a couple of days for the water to go back down, they reckon.’

‘Aye,’ nodded Joe. ‘It normally does. Haven’t seen floods like this for a long time.’ He looked out to the fields beyond. ‘It’s a mess out there. We’ve had to bring the cattle in because there’s no grass for them to feed on, only mud.’

Josh nodded and looked around them. All the grass in the fields was under a layer of mud.

‘It’s such a tough time for everyone,’ he said. ‘And we’re running low on everything. It’s pretty bad in the village, as you can imagine. Trouble is, the locals need supplies. Milk especially. They cleared us out this morning. So I was wondering whether you had any we could take off your hands.’