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Chapter 15
Seren was waiting outside her house when Daniel arrived to pick her up. To his relief it was a crisp, bright day with not a cloud in the sky, although that did mean it was decidedly chilly. But it also meant it was a fantastic day to go for a winter walk in the woods.
He was glad to see she was wrapped up warm and had a pair of Wellington boots on her feet. Neston Wood was popular with ramblers and dog walkers alike and the paths – such as they were – would be muddy and slippery underfoot.
She gave him a bright smile as she got in the cab, and he was struck anew by how pretty she was. Her cheeks were already rosy from the cold and her eyes sparkled. And she had the most wonderfully long lashes framing those bluebell eyes. He’d love to bring her to the woods in May when those flowers were in full bloom, to see if he was right about their colour.
‘All set?’ he asked, as she stowed several large bags in the footwell.
‘I thought we could put anything we find in these,’ she said. ‘One bag for holly, one for fir branches, and so on. It’ll save me sorting them out later.’
Daniel would happily have helped, but he was also aware she was due at work later, and he guessed it must be hard for her to juggle a full-time job plus trying to get a new business venture off the ground. But doing the two alongside each other was probably the right and sensible thing to do financially.
Neston Wood was only a twenty-minute drive away, and before he knew it he was pulling into the car park at the edge of the trees and wishing the journey had taken longer. He enjoyed chatting about this and that in the warmth of the cabin, her perfume filling the air, and the sound of her ready laughter as he told her a couple of stories about the gardens he’d been to and their owner’s odd requests, and in turn she shared stories about some of the odder customers she’d served.
‘Ass’s milk, I ask you!’ she declared, as she finished telling him about a customer who’d read that Cleopatra had bathed in the stuff to keep her looking youthful, and the lady was convinced it would work for her if only she could get her hands on some. ‘She had to have been seventy if she was a day,’ Seren giggled. ‘When I told her we didn’t stock any she became quite annoyed.’
‘Will you miss it?’ he asked, as they got out and he locked the truck.
‘Miss what?’
‘Working in the supermarket. I’m assuming you’ll jack it in if Dippy takes off?’
She fell into step beside him as they walked down the wide trail, dry leaves crunching underfoot and a gentle breeze whispering through the bare branches overhead.
‘I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do,’ she said. ‘It started with trying to find a mobile gift shop online that would be willing to pay a visit to the care home, and has ended up with me using all my savings to convert and run one myself. This wasn’t what I had in mind when I saw that mobile library.’ She bit her lip. ‘To be honest, it’s got away from me a bit. I should have insisted my dad sold it before I was talked into having all that work done.’
‘I’m glad you didn’t, because if he had sold it we never would have met,’ he told her earnestly and was rewarded by a smile.
She had the loveliest smile, he thought. It lit up her whole face, and he basked in it, feeling warmth spread through his chest and curl around his heart.
‘I’m going to get Christmas out of the way and then take stock. Literally,’ she giggled. ‘It’s a full-time job in itself, trying to keep track of what’s been sold, who I owe what to, whether they can make me any more and when can I fetch it…’
‘Bet it’s satisfying, though,’ he said. ‘You’ve taken a tired old ice cream van and turned it into a quirky travelling gift shop. Aside from making a profit – which you’ll have to do – are you enjoying it?’
‘I am. I didn’t think I would, but I love being able to tell customers who made the snow globe they’re thinking of buying, and how the lady who makes such fab chocolates came up with the flavours. It’s so much more satisfying than sitting on a checkout scanning items in.’
‘And you seem to enjoy making wreaths and so on. Speaking of which, how does this tree grab you?’ Daniel had spied a small juniper which was sporting some marvellous blue berries. ‘Or what about this Norway spruce?’
Seren’s eyes lit up and she fished a pair of secateurs out of her pocket. ‘Other girls carry a lipstick or a purse in their pocket – I’ve got a lethal weapon. For the poor tree, that is. I do feel rather guilty hacking away at it.’
‘You’re not most girls,’ he told her. ‘And I love a decent pair of secateurs. Snap!’ Laughing, he brought forth his own pair. ‘As long as you don’t take too many branches off one tree, the plant will recover. Look at it as pruning,’ he suggested. ‘Does that make you feel better?’
‘Funnily enough, it does. I bet you have to prune all the time.’
‘It’s part and parcel of gardening, and sometimes it’s to make the plant look more pleasing to the eye, and other times it’s necessary for the health of the plant. Show me which bits you want, and I’ll snip them off for you.’
By the time Seren’s bags were full the morning had marched on, and when Daniel’s stomach gurgled, she said, ‘I think I’ve got enough. This should last me a couple of weeks, although it will depend on sales.’
Daniel had helped her gather some holly (he’d brought a pair of heavy-duty gloves along for the purpose) and had scaled a tree to pick mistletoe for her.
He’d briefly considered holding it over her head, but thought it might be too soon, even for a jokey Christmas kiss. After all, they hadn’t had a single date yet, and scavenging for prickly holly and pointy pine needled branches wasn’t up there in the romantic gestures department.
Seren had been pleased with the acorns they’d gathered too, and if she’d thanked him once for bringing her here, she’d thanked him a hundred times.
‘Before I take you home, have you got time for a quick bite to eat?’ he suggested. ‘There’s a coffee shop not far from here that does the best paninis ever.’
‘Um…’ Seren checked the time. ‘I’m due at work in two hours.’
