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‘No, don’t worry. I’ll join you now.’ Standing up, Elsie picked up the cafetiere.
‘Me too.’ Downing the dregs of her coffee, Heather stifled another yawn. She was already daydreaming of her bed.
Chapter Ten
‘My turn.’ Diane let the kitchen door swing shut behind her as she joined Heather at the sink. ‘I’ll take over washing up now for a bit. Give your hands a rest before your hands turn into raisons.’
Laughing, Heather dried her hands on the tea towel. ‘Thanks.’
‘No worries. It’s relatively quiet out there at the moment so hopefully you’ll have a bit of a break before the lunchtime rush.’
Heather nodded and made her way towards the kitchen door. A break would be good. What would be even better though, would be if Teresa is also having a lull. A lull at the coffee and cake counter could only mean one thing—drinks for all.
‘Hey, Heather. Hoe’s it going back there? Any sign of someone from the dishwasher repair service yet?’ Brooke finished serving her customer before looking across at Heather.
‘Nope. Not a peep. Elsie is waiting for a call back, but she hasn’t heard anything yet.’ Shrugging, Heather yawned.
‘Late night?’
Looking up at the customer in front of her, Heather grinned. ‘Hi, Gus. How’s it going?’
‘Great, thanks. We’re pretty sure we’ve found a new bevy of otters up at the reserve.’ He laid his hands, palms down, on top of the counter.
‘Oh, wow. That’s great.’
‘It is, isn’t it?’ He frowned. ‘You look shattered. Is everything okay?’
‘I am.’ Heather yawned into the crook of her elbow. ‘We were woken up by the dishwasher malfunctioning and flooding the kitchen at about half two this morning.’
‘Ouch!’
‘Yes, ouch is the word.’ Heather laughed.
‘Has Elsie managed to get it fixed?’
‘Not yet, she’s waiting for someone to ring her. We’re taking it in turns to wash up.’ She held her hands up and grimaced, the skin still wrinkled on the tips of her fingers.
‘Aw, I take it you’ve just finished your turn?’
‘Is it that obvious?’ She wriggled her fingers.
‘Just slightly.’ Laughing, he touched the pads of her fingers.
‘I’m just hoping I haven’t suffered any permanent damage.’ Heather inspected her fingers before holding them out towards Gus again. ‘Otherwise, I may be known as the wrinkly-fingered woman for the rest of my life.’
‘Yes, well, that is always a risk you take when washing up manually.’ He looked at her seriously before grinning.
‘Ha-ha. Here’s hoping my fingers make a full recovery then!’
Chuckling, Gus shook his head. ‘Do you want to show me where the dishwasher is and I can take a look at it?’
‘You can fix dishwashers? I thought you were a conservationist. How many dishwashers do you keep hidden amongst the trees of the reserve?’
‘You’d be surprised.’ Gus smiled. ‘I’ve done my fair share of travelling and taking numerous jobs here and there to finance my trips.’
‘Oh, that’s cool.’
‘Well, it means I can turn my hand to most things now, so that’s a plus.’ Gus shrugged.
