Chapter 8
8
Jesse’s arm rested a moment longer as he turned his back to the rest of the crew, his size effectively blocking me from their view.
‘It’s going to be fine.’
‘I know,’ I replied with a broad smile. The facial movement dislodging a tear, which made a beeline down my cheek and did nothing to back up my words.
‘Do you want to start, Frank? I’ll be there in a sec,’ Jesse called.
Frank began giving the other men instructions as Jesse’s hand wrapped gently around my biceps and led me round the corner of the nearby outbuilding, out of sight of the others.
‘What’s up?’ I asked.
‘Nothing, but I’m worried about you,’ Jesse replied.
‘Honestly, you really don’t need to be. I’m tough as old boots. I think that was probably allergies actually, the more I think about it.’
His expression told me he smelled something and it wasn’t coming from the countryside. ‘It’s OK not to be invincible – or be seen to be invincible – all the time, Felicity.’
I looked up at him, ‘Is that what you think I’m trying to do?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I’m not. And I’m not sure you know me well enough to make a judgement like that just yet.’
‘It’s not always about the length of time you’ve known someone. You can know someone for years and still not have a clue what’s going on with them. Alternatively, you can be minding your own business getting building supplies and get knocked on your arse by some random woman in a hazmat suit and a short time later, feel like you’ve known her for a lot longer than a few hours.’
‘Is that how you feel?’ I asked, surprise filling my voice, replacing the defensive tone completely.
‘Kind of. It’s hard to explain.’
‘You looked like you were feeling mad as hell, if I’m honest,’ I said with a grin.
‘I was too busy seeing stars to think much at all!’ The corners of his mouth tipped up and his eyes glittered with amusement.
‘Oh, come on,’ I teased back. ‘I barely tapped you.’
The laugh this time was full and rich. ‘Barely tapped me? You knocked me on my backside and drew blood!’
‘Such a drama queen. I’m sure you could have steadied yourself better. There’s quite the difference in our size, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
‘I’d definitely noticed,’ Jesse replied, looking down at me from his significant height advantage. ‘But the added lumber made a hell of a lever to add force.’
I put my hand to my cheek. ‘I still can’t believe I did that.’
‘Me neither.’ He grinned. ‘But I’m kind of glad you did.’
‘You are?’ The faintest flutter of butterflies in my stomach took flight.
‘Yeah.’ He paused. ‘Julie’s not stopped talking about you since she met you, especially as you tagged her café in a social media post. I don’t know how you did it, but it’s certainly brought in new custom and boosted her figures. She’s a worrier when it comes to the bottom line so anything that helps with that, I’m really grateful for.’
The butterflies fled back into the shadows.
‘Oh. Yes! Of course. I really like her too. She’s lovely! I hope we’ll get to spend more time together. The post was nothing. Social media was part of my job before so I’ve just got good about knowing how and what to do to catch people’s attention. I’m glad it’s had a good effect. The café’s a great place so it deserves to be known.’
Jesse made a sound of agreement as he pinned me with a look. ‘What just happened?’
‘Sorry?’
‘You shut down. One minute, we were talking and opening up and the next moment, all the barriers were right back in place.’
‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I replied, a tad more coldly than I’d meant.
Jesse didn’t flinch.
‘Look. It’s been a hell of a night and, as Frank pointed out, albeit politely, I’m in the way here, so I’m going to go and look at the garden room in the back and see about tackling that. If you need me, just call. Is that all right? Also,’ I continued without giving him a chance to reply, ‘even for a novice like me, it’s obvious that there’s a lot of work to be done, and I know they’re all saying they owe you favours but, as I’ve said, those are your favours, not mine. I have some money, but I need estimates so that I can plan and budget.’
‘I’m not using the favours so you may as well have them.’
‘But you might need them in the future.’
He drew himself up, planted his feet squarely and crossed his arms. ‘Then I’ll deal with that when and if it happens. I’m not arguing with you about this. Right now, your bloody roof is falling in so that’s what we need to focus on.’ He turned away.
‘Jesse!’
‘Felicity.’ He looked back towards me. ‘Could you for once just accept some help? You don’t and won’t owe me anything. There’s no worry that I’m going to think you’re beholden to me. Like I said, it’s what we do around here.’ His boots crunched on the gravel as he strode back to where there was a hive of activity buzzing around my house, including an operator climbing into the cab of a small crane that had trundled up and was now secured in place. Jesse really did seem to know everyone.
I was left standing with my mouth open, catching flies, as Nanny would have said. Hearing those long-ago tones in my head, I snapped it shut and stomped off towards the garden room.
On my way, I stopped at the chicken coop, hooking my fingers in the diamonds of the wire fence that surrounded it, watching as the hens scurried around, their sharp beaks contrasting with their fluffy, feathered legs. Their soft clucking and mumbling sounds soon began to soothe me, my anger scale sliding back down as I observed them scuttling about, pecking and hurrying over towards me to see if I had goodies for them.
‘No food, I’m afraid.’ I crouched down on a level with them. ‘I fed you earlier, if you remember.’ They continued to blink at me with their dark and beady eyes. ‘I’ll be back later with something, all right?’
They studied me a little longer, realised I wasn’t offering anything of interest after all and toddled off back to their pecking. I watched them go, feeling oddly thankful for their strangely calming presence. Prior to my arrival here, had anyone even suggested that I even be in the vicinity of a hen coop, let alone crouched down having a conversation with the inhabitants, albeit a one-way one, I would have thought they’d quite lost their marbles. But the strange thing was, having previously been almost laser focused on doing what people would approve of and disapproving of the same as all my peers, I was surprised at how quickly the wish to do that was fading. And how much easier life was when I wasn’t second-guessing everything I said, did or wore.
I looked down at the wellies a size too big for me as I plodded through the squelchy grass that was in need of a mow, but that Jesse had said was still too wet to cut, and began laughing quietly to myself. Prior to my arrival at Paradise Farm, the thought of wearing anything other than my Le Chameau wellington boots was something not to be even contemplated. Hunters at a push. But this? Shoving my thrice-besocked feet into the found wellies – because I was yet to unearth my own from the boxes piled in one of the spare rooms – was beyond comprehension. Admittedly, it still wouldn’t be my first choice, but I could hardly step out into the mud that was apparently my driveway and hand over drinks in my five-inch Dior stiletto shoe boots. Not that I knew where they were right now either.
I reached the garden room, reeled in my giggles – it was possibly on the point of turning hysterical, so definitely was best to rein it in – and pulled open the unlocked door. Peering inside, I thought perhaps leaving it unlocked was a good strategy. With a bit of luck, someone might actually steal the contents. I could live in hope. I looked around. Where the hell did I start?
* * *
‘Hiya!’ The cheery voice made me start and I tripped over my oversized boots as I turned and landed in an undignified heap on the ground.
Julie rushed towards me, holding out her hands to help. ‘Oh God, sorry! I didn’t mean to make you jump! Here.’ She helped haul me up. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Fine.’ I smiled, brushing myself off as I stood. ‘Don’t tell me Jesse’s roped you in too?’
‘Marjorie’s filling in at the café. She’s got her sister staying with her and although they’re close, I think she needs some breathing space. She rang up earlier practically begging me for a shift so I thought I’d pop over and see how things were going here. What you up to?’
‘Staying as far out of the way of the house as possible.’
‘Not a bad idea.’
As she spoke, the roar of a diesel engine chugging into life followed shortly by the raising of the crane arm made us turn.
‘Oh God. What if it goes through the rest of the house?’
‘It won’t. Jesse won’t let it. He trusts those blokes. He wouldn’t use them if he didn’t. Come on.’ She turned me around by the shoulders, away from the house. ‘What are we doing here?’
‘We?’
Julie shrugged. ‘I’ve nothing better to do and it’ll be a good way to get to know you more. If you don’t mind the help?’
‘Mind? Why would I mind?’ I asked.
She screwed her nose up a little. ‘Jesse said you’re very private and warned me not to come charging in but what can I say? I’m nosy.’ When she smiled, dimples appeared in her cheeks and her grey eyes, copies of her brother’s, sparkled with mischief. ‘And,’ she poked her head in the garden room, ‘it looks like you could do with a hand.’
Once again, in an action the complete opposite to my standard response, I told Julie that some help would be brilliant as I hadn’t a clue where to even start.
Over two hours later, everything that had been stuffed into the garden room – which sounded grander than it currently looked – was surrounding it. Thanks to teamwork – something which up until now hadn’t exactly been my first choice – the job had gone far quicker and been a lot more fun than it would have been had I been on my own. Julie was great company, always ready to laugh, and as open a person as I was closed off. But in her company, it felt much easier to crack open that door in my defences and peer out. The only blip in the proceedings was coming across a large, hairy spider the size of Jesse’s dog, which had us both tripping over one another to get out of the door.
At the sound of screaming, Jesse and another man came running over, their faces grim, but their pace slowed as they saw us clinging to each other in fits of laughter.
‘What the hell?’ Jesse asked.
‘Massive… spider!’ Julie forced out in between giggles.
He rolled his eyes and mumbled a couple of choice expletives.
‘Still in there?’ The other chap stepped past him.
Julie nodded. Was that a faint blush I detected on her cheeks? It looked as if there was a story here.
‘Want to show me where, Jules?’
Behind him, Jesse glanced up at the sky.
‘That’d be great, Pete, if you don’t mind? Although I’m going to stay close to the door!’ She giggled again and Pete grinned.
‘No problem. Come on, then.’ And they disappeared into the building together.
‘What are you shaking your head about?’ I asked in a whisper, coming to stand next to Jesse. ‘It was huge!’
‘I’m sure. You’re in the countryside. It won’t eat you though.’
I gave him a Paddington stare. Wait, was that a smile? I deepened my frown. ‘I’m well aware of that, but I paid for this place and inherited some animals I’m desperately trying to keep happy and alive but I’m not prepared to cohabit with an eight-legged monster. That wasn’t part of the deal.’
‘You’re doing great. Better than you think.’
‘Apart from opening the tin of paint with a tin opener?’
His mouth twitched.
‘Bloody hell!’ Pete’s exclamation interrupted us.
My hands went to my hips. ‘Told you.’
‘He’s just going along with it because he fancies my sister.’
‘Ooh! Does she know?’
‘Nope.’
‘She clearly likes him though.’
‘Yep.’
I let out a frustrated huff of air. ‘Well? Is he single?’
‘Yep.’
‘Then why don’t you say something? It’s obvious to everyone else that there’s a spark there.’
‘A spark?’
‘Yes.’
He checked his watch. ‘None of my business. They’ll work it out sooner or later.’
I looked back towards where the two were now exiting back into the bright light of the midday sunshine, squinting and laughing as they did so, Pete’s hands cupped around what I certainly hoped was the monster that had been within.
‘And don’t you say anything either,’ Jesse whispered hurriedly to me before they reached us. ‘People will work it out or they won’t. The last thing anyone needs is others telling them what they should and shouldn’t do about their love life. All right?’ His eyes were fixed on me.
‘All right! No need to get uppity.’
‘I’m not uppity.’
‘Could have fooled me,’ I whispered back and turned to smile at the approaching couple.
‘They weren’t joking! It’s a big bugger. Want to see?’ Pete held out his hands towards Jesse and I did a six-foot leap in the other direction in case the arachnid made a bid for freedom.
‘Not particularly.’
‘Show him, Pete,’ Julie insisted. ‘He’ll never believe us otherwise.’
Pete did as he was asked and Jesse’s eyebrows lifted.
‘See?’ It was now Julie’s turn to stand hand on hips and stare down her brother in a game of I told you so.
‘Admittedly, it is rather large.’ Jesse’s eyes turned towards me. ‘It’s still not going to eat you.’
‘Would you mind getting rid of it for us, Pete?’ I asked.
Pete nodded, smiled again at Julie and began walking towards the house.
‘Not near the house!’ I squeaked.
Pete spun on his heel and marched towards the woods on the other side of the field.
‘Thank you,’ I called after him.
‘I’ll go and make sure he chucks it far enough away,’ Julie said and jogged to catch him up.
As I turned back, Jesse was smiling.
‘Now what?’ I asked.
‘You.’
‘Me what?’
‘You’re quite the contradiction.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means you’re never boring.’
‘My ex-fiancé would likely disagree.’ The words tumbled out unexpectedly and I fixed a smile in place before turning away and pretending to study all the junk we’d hauled out.
‘Then your ex-fiancé and I would disagree.’
I swallowed at the lump that had unexpectedly formed in my throat.
‘I think that’s possibly the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.’
Actually it was possibly the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me but he didn’t have to know that.
‘Then you’re welcome.’
I cleared my throat. ‘How are things going over there? I’ve done my best to keep my back turned. Felt it was better that way. Ignorance is bliss and all that.’
‘Nothing to worry about. Tree’s removed and the good news is you’ll have plenty of firewood once that’s all seasoned.’
‘I can think of less dramatic ways to get firewood.’
‘True. But it’s a plus point. Wood’s not cheap.’
I thought of my super-insulated, always warm, centrally heated apartment in London with a pang.
‘The roofers have been up and taken a look. They’re not worried about anything: fairly straightforward job as far as they’re concerned.’
‘Deal with trees falling in on houses every day, do they?’
‘Hopefully not, but they’ve done more than you’d think.’
‘Right.’ I paused. ‘I’d say good but that doesn’t seem appropriate.’
The hard planes of his face softened. ‘I know what you mean.’
‘Is it safe though? I mean, the walls and stuff?’
‘Yep. Looks like it. but the structural engineer is going to come up in a couple of days and go through just to make sure.’
‘A couple of days?’
‘What’s a couple of days?’ Julie asked as the two of them approached us. ‘The mutant spider is well away now.’ She thumbed towards the woods behind.
‘Thanks. That is good news.’ Unlike what I’d just heard.
‘The structural check on Felicity’s house.’
‘Anyone know a good hotel around here?’ I asked.
‘You don’t need a hotel,’ Julie said. ‘You stayed at Jesse’s last night. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind putting you up for a couple more nights.’ She ended the statement with a simple shrug.
‘Oh no, I couldn’t possibly!’ I replied, hastily, and did my best to communicate with my eyes to my new friend that that was a very bad idea. Now, I know people toss out this phrase when they fully intend to take up the offer of another glass of wine/a second helping of pudding/the last roast potato, but in this instance, the words had full meaning behind them. Yesterday had been an emergency. Now I at least had the opportunity to make other arrangements.
‘Rubbish. It’s ideal. You don’t need to waste your money on a hotel, does she, Jesse?’
I steadfastly refused to look at him. I’d briefly caught his look of horror, likely similar to my own, when Julie had first posited the idea, and I wasn’t about to add to either of our embarrassment now.
‘Really, it’s fine. I love a hotel anyway. It’ll be a nice break from ill-fitting windows and clanking pipes.’
‘You’ll have to go a way to find a hotel. I mean, the pub does B&B but it’s hardly The Ritz.’
‘That’s OK. I’m not fussed about it being anything fancy.’
‘Says the woman wearing an Armani jacket to clear out the garden shed.’ Julie grinned and the two men looked at me. I could practically hear Jesse revving up for an eye roll. I’d just grabbed what was nearest on the hallway coat rack this morning so as not to mess up the jacket Julie had lent me.
Julie wrapped an arm around one of mine. ‘No judgement here. I’ve just been eyeing it up all morning. It’s just that one look at you shouts “fancy”.’
‘No, it doesn’t,’ I reassured her. ‘It really doesn’t.’
Julie grinned at me. ‘There’s no denying it. You stand out like a sore thumb here.’
I felt the smile on my face morph into a rictus and clearly the others saw it too.
‘I mean that in a good way!’ Julie hurried on. ‘In that you just ooze “classy”.’
Jesse scratched his cheek. ‘You wouldn’t have said that the first time I saw her.’
I met his eyes as my mind helpfully went and fetched those mortifying images for me and held them up. Ta dah!
‘I find that hard to believe.’ Julie frowned at her brother, then looked at me. ‘Why?’
I locked eyes with Jesse. ‘If you tell her, I will kill you and make it look like an accident.’
The smile flickered. ‘Nah,’ he said after a moment. ‘But I reckon you’d hire someone to.’
‘You’re hilarious.’
‘Come on-n-n-n-n-n!’ Julie begged. ‘You have to tell us now, don’t they, Pete?’
‘I’m not sure I want to get dragged into this.’ He laughed. Pete was clearly a wise man.
‘Jules is right, though. The B&B’s a bit… rustic.’
I pointed to my house. ‘I’m getting pretty used to rustic.’
‘My point exactly. Thought you might want a break from that. In which case, the best hotel is about forty minutes’ drive away.’
‘That’s not so far.’
Jesse folded his arms. ‘And what, exactly, are you going to drive?’
I closed my eyes. ‘Shit.’ Opening them again, I found all three looking at me. Julie and Pete looked sympathetic. Jesse merely looked curious. ‘I forgot my car got pancaked as well as my house.’
‘That’s settled, then. You can stay at Jesse’s until things are sorted here,’ Julie said. ‘I’m going to make some teas. Anyone want one?’ she asked, already striding towards the outbuilding near the house where we’d moved the essentials like the kettle and mugs earlier to avoid traipsing mud in and out.
‘Sounds great. I’ll come with you,’ Pete offered, his longer strides soon catching her up, leaving the two of us alone.
‘Sorry about that.’ We both spoke the same words and the surprise burst the thin bubble of tension that hovered around us.
‘There’s nothing for you to apologise for. My sister however…’ He made a strangling motion with his shovel-sized hands, the corner of his mouth tilted up one side.
‘I’m sorry she put you on the spot.’
‘Not at all. I was going to offer anyway.’
‘Your face when she first suggested the idea would contradict that.’
‘No, no, no.’ He held up his hands, moving them slightly to and fro, the atmosphere relaxed now as we united in our mutual embarrassment. ‘That was due to Jules springing it on you like that. And in front of Pete too. I knew you’d feel awkward.’
‘I just feel like I’m imposing. You’ve already done so much. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for you, I’d probably still be sitting up there,’ I waved towards the area where a blue tarpaulin now covered the large hole in the roof, ‘hoping the tree would finish the job off.’
The smile fell away. ‘Don’t say that.’ His words were soft but I felt the full meaning of them.
‘I just meant?—’
‘I know.’
The silence hung between us for a moment, broken only by the sound of birdsong and the odd burst of laughter coming from where the men were now gathered around waiting for the refreshments to brew.
‘Let’s go and get a drink.’ Jesse tossed a look at the garden room. ‘Looks like you deserve it. You’ve certainly been cracking on with that. Unearthed anything other than monster-sized spiders?’
We fell into step as we walked back towards the others and I told him about one possible piece of treasure but that, for the most part, it was all going to have to be got rid of. Once I got myself some wheels again, of course.
‘I can give you a hand until you do, especially if it’s big stuff.’
‘I’m quite capable of lifting things, you know. I went to the gym at 5a.m. four times a week religiously.’
‘God!’ His expression was something between horror and impressed. ‘That sounds awful.’
‘Thanks!’ I replied, a little confused. From the look of him, Jesse was certainly no stranger to the gym.
‘I couldn’t do that.’
‘What do you mean? You’re hardly out of shape,’ I said, hoping that my words landed the right tone of telling him he looked fit without sounding like I was hitting on him.
‘Not from a gym. I mean, I have done all that in the past. But, honestly, it’s not for me. The noise, the poseurs, the… I don’t know… fakeness of it all.’ He shook his head. ‘Just not for me.’
‘You could have worn headphones.’
‘Or I could lift weights in my garden and listen to birdsong.’
‘Not everyone has that luxury.’
‘Nope. You’re absolutely right and I’m well aware that I’m lucky to be able to.’
‘I didn’t make you anything yet,’ Julie called as we approached. ‘Wasn’t sure how long you were going to be.’
I pretended not to notice the cheeky look she threw her brother and the mutinous one he tossed back.
‘That’s OK. I’ll do it. You have a sit down.’ I indicated where the others had now gathered nearby. ‘What would you like?’ I asked Jesse, walking into the building and flicking on the kettle.
‘I can do it.’ He reached past me for the coffee tin.
‘I’m sure you can but I offered. Quite frankly, it’s the least I can do.’
Jesse stood back, his feet planted apart, the strong arms crossing on the broad chest.
‘Uh-oh.’
‘Uh-oh, what?’
‘Whenever you stand like that, you’re usually about to tell me something else I’ve done wrong.’
He stared at me for a moment, then let out a bark of laughter. For a second, the sounds of chatter outside silenced. Jesse ignored it.
‘You’re a quick learner.’
The mouth curved up both sides this time. The kettle reaching boiling point gave me the opportunity to turn away, which was just as well. The last thing I needed right now – or at all – was to crush on Jesse Woods.