Chapter 34
The sky was bright cobalt blue with tufty white clouds, and the sun was shining, and if it wasn’t for the finger-tingling cold you could be fooled into thinking it was a summer’s day.
It had rained a couple of days ago, but not since, which was perfect for her plans.
She was as nervous as she was excited about today.
She hoped everything had fallen into place.
“When you say you’re ‘bringing the date’ to me”—Ajay’s voice emanated out from her phone—“what does that mean?”
She smiled. “It means exactly that,” she replied as she stuffed an extra layer into her rucksack. “You oversaw our first date, and now I am overseeing this one. Now, you’re going to require Wellington boots and warm layers, and I will see you in an hour.”
“You’re not going to try and get me to bond with the geese, are you? Because I’m telling you the way they chased me felt personal.”
She laughed. “Oh, it was. They hate your guts. No, there will be no geese. But I can’t rule out pygmy goats.”
“Ha, neither can I. I came home the other day to find them curled up on either side of Jared on an armchair. It was so incongruous that I took a photo and sent it to Tanzie and she accused me of Photoshopping the picture. I never imagined he’d take so well to the farming life.”
“It’s nice when people surprise you, isn’t it?” She smiled.
“It is.”
“I bet the geese don’t hate Jared,” she teased.
She heard Ajay tut good-naturedly. “Of course they don’t. He’s like the bloody pied piper of farmyards.”
“He’s been a godsend for Nigel and Vern.”
“They’ve been a godsend for us.”
Casey smiled, her heart glad. “Right, I’ve got to get going; we’ve got a big day ahead of us. Make sure you’ve had your Weetabix; you’re going to need your strength.”
He laughed. “Blimey! And you still won’t tell me what we’re doing?”
“Absolutely not.”
—
At just after half past nine, she knocked on Nigel’s front door.
Her cheeks were two pink apples from the cold but her limbs warm from the cycle up.
On her back she carried a rucksack full of vegetable seeds that could be sown in winter as well as seeds for companion plants like nasturtiums and calendula, which would be grown alongside the vegetables to encourage pollinators and distract less welcome creepy-crawlies like slugs and snails with their bright flowers.
As a bonus they went very nicely in a salad—the flowers, not the slugs.
“Good morning!” Nigel greeted her, smiling.
She noticed he was walking with a stick.
“Come on through, Vern’s out the back getting things prepped for shifting it all up to the cottage.
We had to call Jared twenty-five times this morning to wake him up.
I had recharge my phone by the time I got through. ”
Casey sniggered. “He is a teenager.”
“I reckon he’d sleep through the apocalypse, that one.”
“Clara and Mildred would drag him to safety.”
“More than likely.” Nigel chuckled.
She wiped her feet on the mat, instantly too warm as the heating enveloped her, and followed slowly behind Nigel, past the giant giraffe and Christmas tree in the hall, through the kitchen with the detritus of a breakfast hastily consumed—toast and jam—on the table and the wood burner merrily flickering, and out through the boot room back into the cold.
“Did the plants I ordered arrive?” she asked as they crunched across the courtyard.
“All present and accounted for.”
“And the compost?”
“Arrived yesterday afternoon. We got the truck to drop it at the end of their garden behind the sheds, so unless Ajay went rooting around in the dark when he got back home last night, he’ll be none the wiser.”
She sighed with relief. So far so good.
“Good morning, cherub!” Ms. Vernita Marcasite called over from where she was loading a large wooden trough onto their old pickup with Jared’s help.
An additional two troughs had already been installed, and they shared the space with a rotavator and a plethora of gardening tools.
A smaller trailer was attached to the back of the pickup, and this contained the potted herbs and bedding plants Casey had ordered.
Ms. Marcasite was in full drag: a carmine sequined catsuit, Hunter Wellingtons, wax jacket, feather boa, and a Dolly Parton wig.
“Morning! You look fabulous,” Casey said admiringly, feeling somewhat dowdy in her jeans, jumper, and her old blue duffle coat.
“Why thank you,” Ms. Marcasite replied. “You look like Paddington Bear.”
Casey mock-pouted and then called, “Hey, Jared, how are you?”
Jared grunted and shrugged, looking like a person who had needed every one of his twenty-five phone calls to get up that morning, but he became quickly animated when she approached one of the troughs.
“These look fantastic, Jared!” she said. “Your uncle is going to be made up.”
Jared beamed at her, and she realized it was the first time she’d seen his teeth. “Vern showed me how to use the tools and we made them together.”
“He’s a natural,” said Ms. Marcasite, coming to stand with them. “After the second one, he pretty much built the rest by himself.”
“Was it hard doing them without getting busted by Ajay?” Casey asked.
Jared shook his head. “He was mostly on early shift this week, so we worked while he was out.”
“They look even better than I imagined. I hope you’re proud of yourself—you should be.” He shrugged and looked awkward though was clearly pleased.
“You did good, kid.” Nigel gave him a wink, and Jared smiled bashfully.
“Cheers,” he mumbled.
“Jared’s going to do some filming while we work,” Ms. Marcasite announced.
“I thought it would make a great TikTok to show the actual making of a garden. Don’t worry, darling, you won’t be in it,” she added quickly when she saw Casey’s expression.
“I know you’ve had quite enough of being in the public eye.
I, however, require constant adoration.”
“She’s not wrong.” Nigel sniggered.
Ms. Marcasite rounded on him. “And what do we call this ensemble, dearest husband?”
Nigel looked down at his gray sweatpants, ruffled at the knees where his wellies had pushed them up. “Athleisure is a legitimate clothing choice,” he said defensively.
Ms. Marcasite raised a sculpted eyebrow. “Not on you, my love. When you wear it, it’s an abomination.”
Jared giggled—he actually giggled—which was almost the most shocking thing Casey had seen that month, which was really saying something, and Nigel chuckled. “We can’t all carry off a sequined catsuit, my darling.”
Ms. Marcasite struck a pose. “Of course you’re right,” she said, and kissed Nigel on his stubbly cheek.
“Okay, I think we’re about ready,” said Nigel. “How do you want to play this?” he asked Casey.
“I’ll go up now and get him into the garden, and you guys follow up in the truck in ten minutes?” she replied.
“Perfect,” said Nigel. “Come on, Jared, I reckon we’ve just enough time for a slice of chocolate banana loaf before we leave.”
Jared was in the house before Nigel had even finished speaking.
—
Ajay rubbed his hands together and blew on them. “Okay,” he said, standing in the back garden of the cottage and looking out over the expansive lawn. “Now what?”
“Now I want you to take a photo of the garden,” said Casey. She was so excited she couldn’t stand still. “This will be your ‘before’ picture.”
He smiled, perplexed, but did as he was told. “Having a ‘before’ picture suggests that there’ll be an ‘after,’ ” he mused.
“Ooh, you’re good,” Casey quipped. “You should be a police officer.”
Ajay grinned and pulled her in for a kiss. “Any more of that cheek, and I’ll have to take down your particulars,” he said, moving from her lips to her neck. Casey sucked in a breath and pressed her thighs together.
The roar of the old pickup climbing the drive broke them apart. “No time for that, I’m afraid,” Casey said, grinning with undisguised glee as the truck trundled around to the back of the cottage to meet them.
“What is going on?” he asked, laughing as Jared, Vernita, and Nigel climbed out. He pointed at Jared. “I thought you were still in bed!”
Jared smirked. “I climbed out the window and down the trellis.”
Ajay raised an eyebrow. “Note to self: Remove trellis.” Jared pouted.
“Okay, so you may have gathered by now that this is not a traditional date,” said Casey, turning to Ajay and taking his hands.
“But you said that you wanted to make a garden, only you didn’t know where to begin.
So, we are your garden makeover team. Jared and Vernita have built you some planting troughs for herbs and vegetable beds… ”
“You built those?” Ajay asked, looking at his nephew with genuine awe.
“Yup,” Jared replied, beaming for the second time that day and looking so proud that Casey would not have been surprised if a tail of peacock feathers exploded out behind him.
Ajay was scratching his head. “I can’t believe it.”
“Believe it,” said Casey, feeling a bubble of happiness swelling inside her that was so huge she thought she might burst. “We have a rotavator to dig out some vegetable beds and flower borders,” she went on, jigging on the spot with excitement.
“And a literal shedload of compost and plants and seeds to get you started. What do you think?” She looked up at him, thinking she might never have smiled this hard in her whole life.
Ajay was still wearing an expression of joyful bewilderment. He took her in his arms and said, “I think this is already the best date I’ve ever had,” and then he kissed her.
“No heavy petting on the job!” shouted Ms. Marcasite, and with that, they all jumped into action, except for Nigel, who—complaining bitterly—was made to sit in a deck chair stuffed with cushions and then covered with a blanket and given the job of supervisor, which he took to with unsurprising alacrity.