Page 29 of My Kind of Happy

Nina gasped. ‘And? How did she seem? Was her bouquet all right?’

‘All the flowers were gorgeous; in fact, I loved them so much, I took pictures to show a friend.’ I pulled out my phone and showed her the photos I’d taken. ‘And she looked radiant, blooming actually.’

Nina made a whimpering noise. ‘Her baby is due in July, the last thing she needs is stress.’

‘Look,’ I said hurriedly, conscious of the time. ‘All is not lost. We’ve got a couple of hours before the wedding breakfast. If you’re quick, you can still get to see them tie the knot.’

She blinked at me, wide-eyed. ‘And leave you here alone?’

‘You can trust me,’ I promised. ‘But if it makes you feel better … There you go.’ I held out my car keys to her. ‘Now I can’t escape with your stock.’

‘Bloody hell!’ Nina said shakily, refusing to take them. ‘I’ve never, I mean, how kind, that’s just … Oh God.’

‘Don’t cry again,’ I said flapping at her. ‘Now go. Or you’ll miss the kiss.’

‘The kiss,’ she squealed, yanking on her apron strings to remove it. The full short skirt of her dress sprang out. ‘Literally can’t wait to see that. Such a gorgeous couple.’

Scamp, buoyed by the new energy in the room, started to bounce around in circles, barking at his tail. I caught his collar before he knocked Nina over.

‘Thanks so much for this.’ She planted a fierce kiss to my cheek. ‘You’re an angel.’

‘See you at the venue,’ I said, feeling slightly hysterical with all this excitement.

She chucked me the shop keys, grabbed a pink corsage from the counter and dashed out of the door. ‘Good luck,’ she yelled over her shoulder. ‘And thank you again.’

Scamp and I watched her sprint towards the green while simultaneously trying to pin the corsage to her dress. Once she’d disappeared from view, I turned back to the scene of floral devastation in the shop.

My stomach flipped at the size of the task ahead and the limited time I had to accomplish it. How would Fiona, the flower school teacher, tackle it? Only one way to find out. I found her number and called her.

‘Heavens above!’ Fiona cried when I brought her up to speed with the job in hand. ‘When I told you to practise, this wasn’t quite what I had in mind.’

‘Me neither,’ I said, surveying the vast quantities of spring flowers awaiting my attention. ‘Where shall I start? And how do I prioritise?’

‘OK,’ said Fiona, clearing her throat. ‘Grab a pen and make notes …’

I did as I was told and for the next couple of minutes I scribbled down as many instructions, including the main priorities and some brilliant cheats, as Fiona could think of.

‘So in short: maximum impact with minimum effort,’ I repeated, counting on my fingers. ‘Concentrate on the areas which will appear in most of the photos and anything which will only be seen from a distance, fudge it. Got it. I hope.’

‘Do you remember what I said yesterday?’ Fiona said lastly.

Her comment brought me up short; I’d only graduated from flower school twenty-four hours ago and now I was in charge of someone’s wedding.

‘Let the flowers do the talking and have a little faith,’ I said, pushing down a shiver of fear. ‘I’ll do my best. And thank you.’

‘No, thank you. Seeing my students blossom is my greatest reward,’ Fiona declared, then adding timidly, ‘And if you wouldn’t mind tagging the flower school in the photos …?’

I said I would, I ended the call and took a deep breath.

What had started with Laura handing me a random article about undiscovered villages had morphed into possibly the biggest, most nerve-wracking challenge of my life. The funny thing was, I realised, that I might be out of my comfort zone, but I was enjoying every second of it.

You can do this, Fearne, said a small voice in my head, sounding very much like Freddie.

‘Go big or go home,’ I said firmly and tied on Nina’s apron.

It felt a bit like one of those cookery shows where the contestants are given a mystery bag of ingredients and have to invent dishes without being able to look up the recipes. But after a very quick exploration of what I had to work with, I managed to form a plan. Nina had been halfway through a long and complicated garland which I’d got no hope of finishing but I’d use it somewhere. There was also a box of white bowls and circles of flower foam cut to size which I presumed were for table decorations. But I wasn’t going to use them, I had a new idea which would be far quicker and simpler.

Fiona advised me to do the flowers in situ so Scamp and I ran back to fetch my car and I crammed aluminium buckets full of flowers into every available space.