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Their dad was taking care of the bouquets and sourcing the flowers from Meadowbank’s gardens. She would need to remind him of this later.
‘Hi, love,’ called Steve as he walked in the back door. She could hear him kicking off his boots. ‘How’s your morning been?’
‘Fine,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Same old. Laundry, dishes, tidying up. And scrubbing the sink,’ she said with a giggle. ‘Life on the edge.’
‘But at least the sun is shining.’
‘Yes, that is true. We are living the dream. I just hope it stays like this for the wedding. Anyway, how was the walk?’
‘Great.’ He smiled. ‘They were over the moon this time to see so much. I mean sheep, otters and a Highland cow in the same day.’
‘Really?’ she said, wondering if he was being sarcastic.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It would seem they want to make the most of their last day with us.’
Kirsty laughed, knowing full well how much Steve wanted to impress Trudy and Chuck and it seemed like the wildlife had done the trick.
‘Yes, and they said they would add it to their Trip Advisor review.’
‘Great,’ said Kirsty. ‘Let’s hope they leave it at that and don’t complain about the towels.’ Much as she didn’t like online reviews, she knew they were a necessary part of the business and, touch wood, they had all been positive so far. She always made the effort to send a follow-up email to all guests thanking them for their visit and also asking them to leave a review if they didn’t mind.
However, she always worried that their luck would one day run out. All it took was for one disgruntled customer to make a complaint and it could affect their bookings. She knew plenty of small business owners who took great exception to negative reviews and would go on and reply to each one. Kirsty sometimes cringed at the tone some of these took as they could be both quite defensive and aggressive, and she didn’t think it made good business sense. She knew the customer was always right, in theory, but even if you disagreed then it wasn’t ideal to start getting into a hostile exchange on a public platform.
She reached across to the cupboard to take out a couple of mugs and then turned back to see Steve filling the kettle. He was whistling an upbeat tune and she couldn’t help smiling at his general cheeriness. He was so happy here.
Steve grew up in the Highlands and had struggled to adjust to life in London even though he told Kirsty, when they met, he saw it as a rite of passage and had to be done. But he was a country boy at heart, always had been, and he jumped at the chance to move to Arran when the kids were small. Now, he was in his element and loved showing off the wildlife and natural beauty to the tourists.
‘I had an enquiry for the first week of July,’ she told him as he dropped a couple of teabags in the mugs and filled them with boiling water.
He frowned. ‘I thought we were fully booked?’
‘Yes. But it just goes to show that if we had another couple of rooms, we would probably fill them.’
‘I know, love, but it’s just going to cost too much at the moment.’
The couple had ambitions to restore the barn at some point and turn it into a studio with an ensuite shower room. Steve was usually ever the optimist while Kirsty tended to worry about the cash side of things, and it worried her slightly he was now becoming more cautious like her. She was also concerned that the roof of the main house would need attention soon and prayed that the dry spell continued so she didn’t need to think about putting buckets out to catch drips. Steve was great around the house and good at doing odd jobs, but he had a tendency to start jobs then get waylaid when other areas needing attention distracted him.
‘You look tired, are you okay?’ he said as they sat down at the scrubbed pine table.
‘Yes, I’m fine. Just a busy head and lots going on . . .’
Steve reached across and squeezed her hand. ‘I worry about you sometimes. You’ve had so much on your mind . . .’ He looked at her pointedly as he said gently, ‘Especially these past few months.’
She looked away and pursed her lips. ‘I’ll be fine, Steve. Honestly, don’t worry. I just want to get through the wedding. Then I’ll talk to them. I don’t like keeping secrets.’
Steve knew better than to argue, so he changed the subject. ‘Do you know when Amy arrives?’
She shook her head. ‘No. She’s being a bit evasive. She did say it would be at least a week before the wedding. But I’ll try and pin her down and work out what her plans are. It would be good to have her here sooner rather than later.’
‘I’m sure she’ll be here before you know it.’
Kirsty hoped so. Right now, she needed her sisters around her more than ever.
Chapter Eight
‘I know there’s something on your mind,’ said Ross as he pulled into the driveway and turned off the ignition. They sat in silence for a moment.
‘I’m fine,’ said Amy, doing her best to convince him she was. She smiled but turned into more of a grimace.
