Page 93 of The Village Shop for Lonely Hearts

‘Oh yes?’ He raised his eyebrows at her in question.

‘Do you remember my original design for the shop? With the tractor?’

He laughed. ‘How can I ever forget?’

‘Shut up,’ she muttered.

He really did love to make her blush, he thought.

‘Well, you probably don’t recall,’ she told him. ‘But in my design I had a number of crates placed around the tractor.’

‘What for?’ he asked.

‘Fruit and vegetables,’ she said, smiling.

Even though he was tired, he made the effort to stare over to where the red tractor was and tried to envisage how it could look.

‘I think it could really work,’ she carried on. ‘They don’t need to be in the refrigerator and I found a whole load of blackboard signs and paint out the back. We could write the prices on those. A touch of gingham cloth. Maybe some pumpkins. Rustic but still in keeping, if that’s OK? It would almost be like our very own market stall.’

She was looking at him warily as if waiting for him to flat out refuse the idea. Instead, he nodded. ‘I like the sound of that. Should I start wearing a cowboy hat?’

‘Well, it would match that old leather jacket of yours,’ she told him.

‘I’ll have you know this was my dad’s,’ he replied, tugging at the zip. ‘It’s a classic.’

‘Like the tractor?’ she said.

‘You’re the boss. Sort of.’ Josh found he was smiling as he leant back against the chimney breast and closed his eyes.

‘What do you think?’ he heard her ask.

‘Sounds grand. Carry on, ma’am,’ he told her, keeping his eyes closed and giving her a mock salute.

He sat and rested whilst he heard Amber moving around the shop. He knew her so well that he knew that she was already beginning to sort out the crates. But he didn’t mind. He trusted her taste and design.

She had finally begun to have a little confidence in herself and it was lovely to see her blossom, he thought.

He opened his eyes briefly and watched as she gave a little skip of joy as she rushed into the back room to pick up more decorations.

Josh closed his eyes once more, smiling to himself.

38

The following morning dawned bright and sunny, which, Amber observed, seemed to lift everyone’s spirits.

‘Aren’t people kind?’ said Glenda, the vicar, as she swept into the shop. ‘We asked for donations for those poor people who have lost so much in the floods and we’ve been inundated!’

‘All thanks to your very ownCranbridge Times,’ said Tom, who had come in for his third coffee of the day. ‘And Molly rang the local radio to put the word out as well.’

‘That’s great,’ said Amber, bending down to give Noah the Labrador a stroke as he sat down in front of the till counter.

‘What kind of things do you need?’ asked Josh.

‘Oh! Anything that can be spared,’ said Glenda. ‘Nappies, toothpaste, dog food, such random things you’ve never seen, but it all helps!’

‘I’ll drop a couple of boxes into the church later,’ Josh told her.

‘Thank you so much,’ said Glenda, suddenly doing a double take at the crates that now surrounded the tractor. ‘Is that new? I don’t remember all of this before.’