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‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ Dee brushed a hand over his hair. The familiar touch – which he’d taken for granted so often – made his chest hurt.
She lit the lantern to lead herself back through the darkness, but turned as she reached the treeline. ‘By the way, don’t mention the divorce to Josh, or Toto. Josh doesn’t know about it yet. Ellie’s waiting to find the right time to discuss it with him. So she doesn’t ruin his summer with the news.’
Lucky Josh.
He wished someone could have kept the news from him too.
Dee disappeared into the trees, and then reappeared down below, the lantern bobbing as she came out of the woods and headed into the farmhouse.
He reached back into the icebox.
Even without Jacob and Maddy within earshot breaking the sound barrier, he had a feeling he wasn’t going to be getting a lot of sleep tonight. The damage to his peace of mind had already been done.
He was having a bloody beer.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
‘Jacob, wait up, where are you headed?’ Ellie raced out of the farmhouse to waylay Jacob as he crossed the farmyard.
‘The lumber yard, near Gratesbury. Art needs me to pick up some extra wood for the shelving in the condiments section.’ Jacob tugged open the truck door, the smile on his face weary and forced.
Ellie’s sympathy spiked. According to Maddy, Jacob’s passionate defender while she and Dee had been b
usy every evening making jams and preserves to stock the shop, Art had been a monster in the last week. They were now three weeks into the fit-out and it was on schedule. But Ellie knew Art and his crew, which included Jacob and Mike, had been putting in a lot of extra hours to keep it that way. And Art wasn’t the most tactful person at the best of times. She also knew that Jacob wasn’t getting a lot of sleep at night, because neither was she.
She’d tried pointing out to Maddy that maybe less sex and more sleep would make everyone less grumpy, but Maddy hadn’t taken the hint.
‘Perfect. I need a lift into Gratesbury,’ she said. ‘I’ve got some paperwork to go through with Rick Chastain at the Rural Enterprise Office about the grant.’
‘Climb aboard.’ Jacob gripped her elbow to help her into the cab, then got in on the driver’s side. ‘How’s the grant looking?’
‘Very positive. Rick thinks we’ll get it no problem. It’s going to cover the cost of all the second-hand equipment we’ve ordered for the kitchen and café, which is great.’ She’d spent hours last week with Dee and Annie scouring a second-hand catering equipment barn in Andover and had managed to buy everything they needed for a lot less than they’d budgeted for, leaving enough to buy some extras, including a state-of-the-art espresso machine. ‘And the cost of the signage for the A30 and the A303.’
‘That’s cool.’ Jacob pulled off the sweat-soaked bandana covering his forehead and wiped the back of his neck. He really did look shattered. She had to have another word with Maddy. Young love was all well and good, but she didn’t want one of their crew having a heart attack from too much sex, especially not before the shop was ready. That the rhythmic thuds and occasional moans from Jacob’s room every night were also keeping her on edge when she really did not need to be was another consideration.
‘Who’s doing the signs?’ Jacob asked.
He reversed out of the car park and drove along the farm track, the truck coasting down the newly laid asphalt without a single bump.
‘We’re going to use Helena Jacobs again.’ The gorgeous hammered bronze sign she’d done for the co-op five years ago would be replicated in neon for the hoardings which Ellie was having put up two weeks from now.
Ellie’s insides twitched and quivered at the thought of everything that still needed to be done before the grand opening on Saturday the fifth of August. Even without the noise coming from Jacob’s room every night, sleep would probably still have eluded her – the many to-do lists she had on the go bouncing in her mind’s eye like malevolent hyperactive sheep.
Maybe she should consider pushing the launch back? To give them all a chance to relax and take stock before they started welcoming their customers. When she and Tess and Dee had attended the Setting Up a Farm Shop course a week ago run by FARMA at Wellhaven Farm, the instructor had pointed out that great customer service was key to making any farm shop a success. Customers would be looking for personal, friendly, upbeat service. It was difficult for anyone to do friendly and upbeat when they were exhausted. If they didn’t take a breather, they could all end up breathing fire like Art over their new clientele.
They needed to be on their best game when the shop opened, especially her, Dee and Tess, who would be doing the bulk of the shopkeeping.
Why not put back the launch for a week? They could organise a little social event for everyone to celebrate finishing the shop, and then take a leisurely week to get ready? She’d have to reorganise some of the social media campaigns she’d been working on, talk to the team and check nothing else would be affected, but otherwise she couldn’t see a problem.
Ellie added the thought to the to-do list in her head marked: ‘Brilliant ideas you don’t have time to think about until it’s too late to do anything about them’. Her stress kicked up another notch.
Jacob grunted a reply as they sped down the A30 towards Gratesbury. Ellie noticed his fingers white-knuckling on the wheel. Had Art been more of a dragon than usual today? Even when tired, Jacob usually had a joke or a cheeky smile on hand to cheer up the biggest grump.
‘Is everything going OK on the build?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, sure, give or take the odd screw up,’ Jacob said, but she noticed his fingers bunch at the fairly innocuous question. He was wound tighter than a ball of high-tension wire. ‘Most of which are mine,’ he murmured under his breath. But she heard the comment as he switched on the radio.
The cab filled with the sound of Rihanna Finding Love in a Hopeless Place. For some reason Ellie had a flashback to Art and that kiss three weeks ago now.
