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Especially now I know, the best bit starts now.
EPILOGUE
‘Congratulations, ladies, we survived!’
Ellie popped the cork on the last bottle of elderflower champagne in the whole of Wiltshire to a round of applause from Tess, Dee and Maddy, as Annie shut the sliding glass door on the last of their Christmas Eve customers. Only ten minutes after their official closing time.
The shop looked as if a bomb had hit it, a bomb full of glitter and fairy lights and tinsel. The shelves had been ransacked, and they’d sold out of pretty much everything, including the range of hampers Dee had designed for the Christmas period, packed full of her Christmas delicacies and the array of cheeses from the dairy. The last of the Christmas trees Mike had sourced from a supplier near Gratesbury had gone a week ago – much to Art’s eternal gratitude, because he’d had the onerous task of lining them up and packing them away each day.
Ellie glanced round the shop floor at the few items still remaining, and clocked some of the empty spaces. On the day after Boxing Day she planned to do a thorough inventory to make sure they were properly supplied for next year. Selling out had been wonderful for their egos, but next year she planned to be better prepared with a lot more inventory in the lines that had been particularly popular.
She pushed the thought aside. They could always do better. But they’d had a spectacular first Christmas, their customer numbers steadily swelling every single day in the two-month run-up since Halloween, and right now was pat-on-the-back time.
Ellie filled the paper cups Annie lined up on the counter. As the alcohol fizzed on her tongue and her mum and her friends toasted each other, Ellie felt the bubble of excitement in her stomach.
A whole week off. She glanced at the clock on the wall. Ten past two. Art and Toto would be back any minute from their six-hour round trip to pick up Josh at Heathrow from his flight back from New York.
He’d been away for a fortnight, hanging out with his father, and she’d missed him horribly, despite the daily Skype calls she and Toto and Art did with him. The custody arrangements were still fairly chaotic, because Dan didn’t seem to understand the concept of school term dates, but she wasn’t going to bitch about that now. After draining the last of her cup, she pulled her apron over her head.
‘Right, we need to clear this mess up,’ she said.
‘Why don’t you leave it to us, Ellie?’ Dee touched her arm as she reached for the broom. ‘You’ve been here since six today and Josh will be home soon.’
‘I can’t leave it all to you guys,’ Ellie said. ‘The place is a mess.’
‘Course you can,’ Annie said, pouring herself another cup of champagne. ‘We’ve got it. Haven’t we, girls?’
‘Yes, we’re good,’ Tess said getting a refill from Annie. ‘As long as the champagne keeps flowing and I know I never have to tie another ribbon on a bag of Dee’s Christmas cookies.’
‘Hallelujah,’ a heavily pregnant Maddy concurred, while saluting them with her cup of fizzy apple juice.
‘Until next year, that is,’ Dee said, grinning when the other women all groaned.
‘But what about your date with Marjorie, Mum? Don’t you need to get ready?’ Ellie asked.
‘Don’t be daft,’ Dee said, looking flustered as the others all added words of encouragement.
Ellie couldn’t hold back a smile as her mum blushed prettily.
Dee and Marjorie Durden, Gratesbury Secondary’s head teacher, had been an item for nearly two months, but it still made Ellie’s heart sing to see her mum’s flushed face. The light of new possibilities had chased away so many of the shadows that had haunted her mother when Ellie had first arrived at Willow Tree that summer.
She knew Dee would always mourn Pam – the woman had been the love of Dee’s life – but seeing her mother’s joy in this new relationship delighted Ellie too. Her mother deserved this, because she had more courage and compassion than any other woman Ellie had ever known.
‘Marjorie and me are just having a quiet night in tonight,’ Dee added, her cheeks beaming.
‘Not too quiet I hope,’ Annie said, wiggling her eyebrows lasciviously as everyone laughed.
‘Go on, Ellie, you’ve been putting in silly hours all this week, we’ve got this,’ Tess added, once they’d all got a grip.
‘Yeah, take a load off while you have the chance, before Josh gets home and you and Art have to start organising the feeding of the five thousand for tomorrow,’ Maddy said, caressing her baby bump.
‘Yikes, don’t remind me.’ Ellie smiled, already anticipating how much she was going to enjoy riding herd on Art and the two kids while they prepped the Christmas meal she and Art had invited everyone to at the farmhouse – so that Dee could have time off cooking Christmas lunch for the first time in years. And how much she was going to enjoy the celebration herself, with all her favourite people in attendance.
‘OK, I’ll see you all tomorrow. Thanks for being so awesome.’
Tess gave a bow, Maddy laughed, a tear slipped down Dee’s cheek and Annie splashed the last of the champagne into her cup before saying, ‘Oh bugger off. I refuse to start blubbing before I know for sure Rob hasn’t got me the box set of Poldark I ordered from him for Christmas.’
*
