Page 116 of My Kind of Happy

Chapter Thirty-two

Sam had only been gone a few minutes when I had a visitor to the shop whom I’d not met before, although I’d seen her from a distance.

‘Oh these flippin’ wheels!’ she muttered from the doorway. ‘They all insist on going in different directions.’

She was trying to manoeuvre a double buggy over the threshold. It was long rather than wide and contained two sleeping children. She was breathless and red-faced, her pale pink hair escaping from a ponytail.

‘Let me help.’ I went to her assistance, guiding the front end in.

‘I’m so unfit. You must be Fearne!’ She beamed at me and thrust a hand in my direction, still panting. ‘I’m Gina. I was hoping to meet you at Rosie’s baby shower. I saw your flowers though. Really gorgeous.’

‘Thank you.’ I shook her hand. ‘Nice to meet you, finally.’

She pulled a face. ‘I know. Sorry, I don’t buy flowers much at this time of year. We’ve got such a big garden that I can usually find enough to stuff in a vase or two. But despite the garden growing like topsy, as Bing would say, I haven’t got what I need for today’s emergency.’

‘You’re in the right place, I’m an expert at emergencies.’ I set the envelope with the Hogg Property Services logo down on the counter and gave her my full attention. ‘How can I help?’

She peered at the two little ones to check they were still asleep, which they were, and then pulled a couple of vases out of a bag she’d got hooked over the handles of the buggy. ‘Massive cheek, but Delphine said you were very kind and wouldn’t mind helping me? I’m afraid I’m in a terrible rush.’

‘You’re a friend of Delphine’s?’ I smiled, remembering that she’d been one of the first customers through the door on my very first day, bringing her own flowers with her.

Gina nodded. ‘We all live together at The Evergreens. There’s me, Dexter, my boyfriend, and then our older residents, Delphine, Bing and Una, plus half a million children in the daytime.’

It sounded the most unusual living arrangement I’d ever heard; I wondered what the emergency could be.

‘I can deliver them this afternoon if you like,’ I offered, thinking that I’d quite like a peek inside The Evergreens.

‘Under normal circumstances, that would be great,’ she said, wrinkling her nose. ‘But I’ve got some … er … unexpected visitors arriving in half an hour. I’ve left my friend supervising nap time, Dexter and Delphine tidying inside and Bing and Una titivating the garden. I had to bring Tabitha and Harris with me because they wouldn’t sleep. I’ve got twenty minutes, tops.’

‘Gosh, you really are in a rush.’ I looked at the big vases. ‘How about I make bouquets to fit those with their own water pouch, then you can just pop them in vases when you get home.’

She shot me a look of gratitude. ‘Oh, please. And can I leave the buggy here while I nip into the café and pick up a Victoria sponge?’

I said she could. She was only gone for five minutes and thankfully neither child had stirred, despite Scamp stealing a soggy biscuit out of the hand of the little boy in the front. I picked big bold blooms which would quickly fill the vase to save time and filled the gaps with foliage.

‘That’s so impressive,’ said Gina, whistling through her teeth as she watched me make a cellophane bag for the first bouquet and fill it with water. ‘If today’s meeting goes well, we’ll be in the market for flowers regularly. This sort of thing will look amazing in the hall.’

‘You’ll have to be quick.’ I nudged the envelope in her direction and invited her to read it. ‘Our landlord wants us out. Goodness knows where we’ll be come September.’

Gina frowned as she skimmed over the letter. ‘You have my sympathy. This exact thing happened to me with my business. So unsettling.’

Just then the little girl sitting in the back of the buggy woke up and began kicking her legs. Gina scooped her up and cuddled her while she told me how she had come to buy The Evergreens last year. The owner, Violet had passed away and the relatives who had inherited it decided to sell. Gina had been renting the small gatekeeper’s cottage at the time while Delphine and Bing had lived with Violet in the big house.

‘I couldn’t bear the thought of my friends being made homeless, so I decided to try and buy the property myself. It was quite an eye-opener to find that I had the courage to do it. I’d never really fought for anything in my life before.’

‘So what changed?’ I smiled at the little girl and handed her a flower to hold. She gasped and waved it about like a wand.

‘I just knew that The Evergreens was my future and I couldn’t bear the alternative. It had so much potential and I wanted to see it full of love. It also helped that the person who was trying to evict me was the most gorgeous man I’d ever met.’ She sighed dreamily.

‘Is he now your boyfriend?’

Gina grinned. ‘Dexter, yes.’

‘What a coincidence.’

‘Do you know him?’ she asked, surprised.

‘No,’ I laughed. ‘It’s just that the person evicting us is also pretty gorgeous.’