Chapter 16
‘When you invited us for the weekend, this wasn’t quite what I had in mind,’ said Ella with a sigh.
Hannah handed over a paintbrush. ‘I know,’ she told her. ‘But we’ve got to get these last walls painted before opening.’
Hannah was pleased that they were all together at long last. It had been a busy few weeks and it was great that Beth and Ella had come to stay at Maple Tree Lodge.
‘And as you were here anyway for Grandma’s birthday party tonight, I figured we could utilise the time,’ carried on Hannah.
‘She does love a party,’ conceded Ella. ‘And one of Frankie’s cocktails will go down very nicely after you’re making us work when it’s a Saturday.’
‘It’s so exciting,’ said Beth, tying back her long dark hair into a headscarf. ‘I can’t believe you’re going to have your very own café soon.’
Hannah glanced around at the many deliveries that had already arrived, including a few bottles of beer and wine, as well as water and cordials.
Hannah grimaced. ‘It’s not mine,’ she said quickly. ‘It’s part of the hotel.’
Lily frowned at her. ‘Except it’s all your responsibility,’ she told her. ‘We’ve got enough on our plates.’
Hannah’s insides clenched in fear. ‘But still, if it all goes wrong then the hotel won’t be affected,’ she carried on.
‘Why would it go wrong?’ asked Ella, putting on a shower cap over her blonde hair which was tied up in a bun.
Everyone else paused to look at her with raised eyebrows.
‘What?’ said Ella, with a shrug. ‘I’ve just had these highlights done and I don’t want to get paint in them.’
Hannah watched as Ella tucked a loose strand of perfectly straight hair into her shower cap. Her make-up was immaculate and discreet as usual, even with a slick of lip gloss on she looked gorgeous.
‘Very glamorous,’ murmured Lily. ‘Is that going on your blog?’
‘Not on your life,’ replied Ella. ‘My blog is all about high-end expectations and looking your best.’ She glanced down at the paintbrush she held in her beautifully manicured hands. ‘No offence but DIY doesn’t come close.’
Ella was always dressed conservatively. That morning, even to paint the café walls, she was dressed in a crisp white T-shirt and black jeans. Around her neck was the simple silver star pendant that Beth had given each of them.
Ella had started a blog which was slowly but surely drawing in more followers each week.
It was just like Ella herself. Cool and fashionable with a hint of humour.
Despite her fixation on looking perfect all the time, thankfully her friends knew that Ella was also huge hearted and would do anything for them.
However, Beth was frowning. ‘Shouldn’t your blog’s message be about what’s on the inside?’ she said. ‘Isn’t that even more important? Why can’t you tell your followers about that?’
‘Of course being bright and kind is important as well,’ Ella told her. ‘But you like to look good, don’t you? Well, present time excluded.’
Whilst Hannah and Lily were dressed in old shorts and T-shirts that they didn’t mind getting splattered with paint, Beth still retained the vintage style that she always wore.
Beth often scoured the charity shops in search of retro fashion and that day’s style was no exception.
She wore a pair of extremely short cut-off denim dungarees which showed off a fabulous pair of legs.
Underneath, she wore a Breton-striped T-shirt and on her feet a pair of Dr Martens boots.
Somehow, as usual, she managed to pull it off with her own unique style.
Her long dark hair was braided into two plaits and her dark eyes were lined with heavy eyeliner, as well as wearing deep pink lipstick.
However, beneath her kooky fashion and dreamy romantic personality lay the sharp intelligent mind of an astronomer. She was extremely bright and could often be found scouring the skies for stars.
Beth glanced down at her denim dungarees, which were decorated with patchwork flowers. ‘Don’t you like them?’
‘You look like you’ve come to fix the boiler, not ensnare some hunky man,’ Ella told her.
‘Around here?’ murmured Hannah. ‘You’ll be lucky.’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Ella, looking out across the lake. ‘There are some here to be found if you look hard enough.’
They all followed her look to where Alex was making slow progress with Tiny on a lead on the opposite side of the lake. Hannah was pleased to see that he had moved down to only using one crutch which meant that he was hopefully beginning to slowly recover.
‘Oooh,’ cooed Beth, always desperate to find romance for all her friends. ‘Am I sensing a crush?’
Hannah found herself a bit perplexed about the thought of Alex and Ella having a romance.
Ella looked at Beth with raised eyebrows. ‘Not in the least. I mean, he’s lovely and all that but so not my type.’
‘What is your type?’ asked Lily. ‘Not that you ever seem to date anyone.’
‘That’s because my type is rich, available and eminently pliable,’ said Ella. ‘Unfortunately that dating pool is extremely small.’
Beth shook her head. ‘That’s cold,’ she said, with a shudder. ‘What about romance, love, the flutter you get from seeing the one that you can’t stop thinking about?’
Her friends all exchanged a knowing grin.
‘Who is he this time?’ asked Hannah.
Where Ella was entirely cynical about love and relationships, Beth seemed to fall for every date she ever went on. And because she was so beautiful, she went on quite a few.
‘Brad,’ Beth told them, breaking into a beautiful smile.
‘And where did you meet this Brad?’ asked Lily.
‘Online,’ said Beth. ‘We’ve gone out three times and it’s going so well. I really think…’
‘That he’s the one,’ chorused her friends, finishing her sentence for her.
A frown crossed her forehead. ‘Look, I know I’ve said it before,’ Beth told them.
‘Every time,’ murmured Lily.
‘But this time it’s different,’ carried on Beth.
‘Also said every time,’ added Ella. But in the end, she did a palms up. ‘Well, it’s your heart to be broken all over again,’ she said, heading over to hug her friend. ‘Just try and be careful this time.’
Beth gave her friend a squeeze before stepping back. ‘So once the walls are painted, what kind of vibe are you thinking in here?’
‘A cheap one,’ said Lily. ‘We used up almost all the money on the renovations.’
Ella immediately shook her head. ‘That won’t sell,’ she said. ‘You need a gorgeous Instagrammable space which makes people desperate to come.’
‘It’s only my cakes,’ muttered Hannah.
Lily turned to look at Hannah. ‘And what do you mean “only”? Your cakes are amazing.’
Beth nodded. ‘Exactly. So we’ve got pale blue walls. How do you want the rest of it to look? You know the feel of the place.’
Hannah shrugged and glanced at Lily. ‘You’re the interior designer.’
‘And you’re the client,’ Lily told her, taking her by the shoulders. ‘We know you’re scared but we’ve got your back, remember?’
‘And your sides and front too,’ added Beth.
It was a familiar mantra between the four of them and helped ground some of Hannah’s nerves that she at least had her friends’ support.
‘You must have daydreamed a little about having your own café one day,’ said Lily. ‘So, close your eyes and how do you imagine it looking?’
‘Do I have to?’ asked Hannah.
‘We’re not going to push you in the lake, if that’s what you mean,’ said Ella, her eyes gleaming. ‘At least not yet.’
‘Very funny,’ said Lily, giving Ella a steely glare. ‘She needs to relax. Hannah, trust us. Close your eyes and tell us how it looks when you imagine it.’
Still a little uncomfortable, Hannah did as she was told. With her eyes closed, Hannah found at first it was hard to drown out all the negative noise in her head. But gradually she relaxed and suddenly there it was.
‘It’s not how it looks, it’s how it feels and sounds,’ she murmured.
‘Tell us,’ said Lily in a soft tone.
‘It’s warm,’ began Hannah. ‘The sun is flooding through the open doors. It’s bright and airy with the lake sparkling beyond the veranda.
There’s little vases of wildflowers on each table that rustle in a gentle breeze.
The silver teaspoons clink against bone china cups.
There’s a ripple of “oohs” and “aahs” as the customers have a tray of decorated cakes delivered to each table. ’
‘How does it smell?’ asked Lily softly.
‘Roasted coffee beans, tealeaves steeped in teapots and scones still warm from the oven,’ said Hannah.
‘And how does it look?’ murmured Lily.
‘Oak tables to match the beams. Turquoise chairs that really pop out with a bright colour. The rest is all cool blues and white. Bright and clean. Patterned plates and cups, plus cute teapots. A long bar on top of which are glass domes full of my cakes.’ Hannah stopped speaking and opened her eyes. ‘My cakes,’ she repeated, with a gulp.
‘In your very own café,’ said Lily with a smile. ‘I love the sound of the turquoise chairs. It sounds amazing.’
‘It does,’ said Ella, nodding her approval.
‘I’ll be first in the queue on opening day,’ said Beth.
‘No discounts,’ said Lily with a grin. ‘Listen, I’ll source the chairs. I know just the kind of thing that you mean. But I’ll show you before I order them so you can tell me how close I’ve got to the real thing.’
Hannah stood in silence, still coming to terms that the café she had just described might just come true.
‘It’s so exciting,’ said Beth, clapping her hands.
Lily nodded. ‘If it looks like you’ve just described it to us then it’ll be a huge success.
And let’s hope so because we’re still not out of the woods profit-wise.
’ She looked out across the lake. ‘Ben’s still trying to get some new paddleboards off Dodgy Del.
We were hoping to use the lake this summer to try and bring some more guests in. ’
‘That’s a great idea,’ said Ella. ‘Paddleboarding is huge right now.’
‘Anything on the water really,’ said Lily.
‘It’s lovely being out on the water,’ said Beth. ‘Don’t you remember when I spent three weeks in the Antarctic a couple of summers ago? Whales and penguins everywhere. So amazing.’
‘Not sure we’ll be able to rustle up any penguins around here,’ Hannah told her.
But Beth still had a dreamy look on her face. ‘The skies were amazing. So clear,’ she carried on. ‘And it was lovely to share it with someone.’ Her look suddenly darkened. ‘You know. Before he cheated on me.’
Ella shook her head. ‘If I’d have gotten hold of him, I’d have fed him to the polar bears.’
‘Me too,’ added Lily.
Beth’s soft heart needed protecting, thought Hannah. What if she fell for someone really bad, like Sean? She couldn’t bear it if her friend was hurt so badly. It had been almost a decade since she had split up from Sean and she still wasn’t sure her own heart had recovered.
‘Anyway,’ carried on Beth, as ever finding the positive amongst her heartbreak. ‘What about canoes or boats for two out on the lake? Can you imagine? A soft sunset. Serenaded by their partner as they drift across the water, he’s saying poetry and words of love.’
‘To the sound of the ducks and frogs,’ added Lily in a wry tone.
But Beth was still dreamy eyed and just nodded. ‘How lovely.’
‘And if you can hear yourself above the croaking and quacking?’ Ella rolled her eyes. ‘Let me think, what else would be heard? The sound of a big splash as she falls in, screaming, oars drifting away. Wet, cold and miserable.’
Beth blinked back to life. ‘You have no romance in your soul,’ she said, with a sad shake of her head.
‘Thank goodness!’ said Ella, with a hearty nod. ‘Apart from Lily here, the rest of us are right to keep that rubbish out of our hearts.’
Hannah glanced over through the window to where Alex was now watching Tiny play with a stick. ‘He seems to be recovering day by day,’ she said.
‘But he’s going to have to use that boot for at least another month,’ said Lily.
‘You know what this place needs marketing-wise?’ asked Ella, with a wicked smile on her face. ‘Alex cooking in just an apron!’
They all laughed, except Hannah, who found she was shaking her head.
‘What?’ said Ella, still laughing. ‘You don’t think he can bake?’
As her friends carried on laughing, Hannah realised that it wasn’t the joke that made her uncomfortable. She just didn’t want to think of Alex that way at all.
But she still stole one more glance across the lake before swiftly dismissing the thought of an undressed Alex and carried on decorating, her cheeks warm from what she hoped was the sun streaming through the windows.