Chapter 20
20
‘Goodness! It’s like a peacock parade out there.’ Gertie, one of the villagers I’d come to know through the time spent at Jules’ café, bustled in and plopped her shopping bags down at her usual table. ‘Hello, dear. How are you? Another warm one out there.’ Spring had now merged into summer and, although some of my newly discovered garden plants were struggling somewhat, the rooftop solar panels for the heating were coming into their own for hot water.
‘I’m fine, thanks, Gertie. You?’
‘Oh, not too bad, not too bad. Not part of all that wedding hoo-ha up at the big house, then?’ She cocked her head at the door.
‘No, nothing to do with me.’
‘That’s a shame. Jules said you had some lovely frocks, didn’t you, love?’
‘Talking about me behind my back?’ I asked, grinning at my friend.
‘Not at all. We were discussing your wardrobe. With envy, I might add. Do you want to try one of my chocolate shortbreads? It’s a new recipe.’
‘Jules, are you trying to distract me with baked goods?’
‘Is it working?’
‘Absolutely. Hand it over.’
The plate arrived and was as delicious as I’d come to expect from everything I’d had in the little café since I’d moved here.
‘Verdict?’
Mouth full, I made a circle shape with my finger and thumb. Jules grinned and went back to serving her customers.
* * *
‘Felicity?’
I looked around from where I was loading my laptop and the fresh chicken I’d got for tonight’s supper into the boot of the Mini.
‘Felicity DeVere, it is you!’
‘Caro?’
‘Felicity, darling! What a wonderful surprise. Are you here for the wedding too?’ She hurried towards me with long, elegant strides on her five-inch heels and enveloped me in a hug and a cloud of Chanel No 5.
‘No, I’m not. I actually live around here now.’
‘You do? How perfectly marvellous! I heard you’d left the London company.’
‘Oh, I’m sure you did,’ I replied with amusement. Wildfire would have had nothing on that particular piece of gossip.
She grinned and flashed her eyes. I’d always loved working with Caro. She had impeccable taste, a wicked sense of humour and absolutely pots of money, which she was more than happy to spend. Caro bent closer.
‘Did you really tell them to shove their job as you were going off to commune with nature?’
‘Something like that. I’m not sure I used the word commune. It sounds like the tale has been embellished somewhat.’
Caro gave a dismissive wave. ‘Don’t worry about it. You know what people are like. Tiny, narrow little lives. But look at you!’ She took my hands and held them out. ‘You look amazing and, stuff that London lot, you are out in the countryside after all.’
‘I am, and you’re too kind.’
‘Not at all. You know me well enough to know that if you looked like a wild woman, I’d have told you.’
‘That is true.’
‘You’re positively glowing! The country air obviously agrees with you. I never did like Adrian anyway.’
‘Yes. You made that quite clear a couple of times.’
‘He was no good for you,’ she replied, unapologetic, before her attention was caught by something over my shoulder. I turned.
‘Hi.’ Jesse smiled and, reaching me, bent to kiss me hello.
‘Now I see why you’re glowing,’ Caro said. ‘Hello. Caro Whitely. And you are?’
Jesse took the offered hand and shook it, shooting me a brief, confused look as he did so. ‘Jesse Woods.’
‘Caro is one of my oldest?—’
She cleared her throat.
‘Most established,’ I corrected myself, ‘clients from London.’
‘I took my business elsewhere after they fired you. I demanded they rehire you and when they wouldn’t, I told them where to stick their business too.’
‘You did?’
‘Darling, you know I couldn’t work as well with anyone else as I did with you. I’ve tried a couple of other interior designers, but it’s not gone well.’ She pulled a face at us both.
‘You know Fliss has started her own business here?’ Jesse said.
Her hand went to her throat. ‘You have? Oh, my darling! Why didn’t you say? Thank goodness for this hunk of a man filling in the blanks. Do you have a card? I have to go to this ghastly wedding this weekend and there’s all sorts of extra “fun events” they have planned.’ She rolled her eyes dramatically. ‘Oh God,’ she said quietly, ‘here comes that dreadful Araminta.
‘Minty, darling!’ She held out her arms as she had done to me, pulling a face over her shoulder. ‘Do you know Felicity DeVere and Jesse Woods?’
‘Oh God, yes! We go back ages, don’t we, Felicity?’ Araminta said with an enthusiastic sincerity that, from the stolen glances she aimed at Jesse, I assumed she was still hoping would lead to a better acquaintance.
‘We went to school together for a while,’ I replied, my expression cool but polite. She slanted her gaze towards me. It might have been a long time ago but I hadn’t forgotten Minty’s behaviour towards me back when she and her cronies had made me feel worthless. But she didn’t have that power any more. Nobody did. And Minty knew it.
‘So how are you, Caro?’ she asked, turning her back to me.
‘Wonderful, thank you. You’re blocking Felicity, darling,’ Caro said, manoeuvring Minty into a more polite position. A pink flush appeared on Araminta’s enhanced cheekbones as she made a fake apology.
‘That’s OK. We need to get home anyway.’ Jesse and I still weren’t actually living together but if Minty took it to mean that, then all the better. And from the look on her face, it worked. ‘Caro, here’s my card. If you have anything you want to chat about, then just give me a call.’
‘I absolutely do! I hope you’ve got space in your diary. Since you left, I’ve been itching to get on with things. Finally!’ She raised her expensively beringed hands to the sky. ‘I’ll call you next week. Lovely to see you again!’ She gave me a hug with an added squeeze.
‘And very lovely to meet you too.’ She held out her arms to Jesse, who also received a hug. Minty tossed her hair and pretended not to care but I knew her of old. She hated anyone to be one up on her, which, of course, Caro knew too and was likely why she’d made such a display. When she winked at me out of sightline of Araminta, I was sure.
Jesse walked around and opened the driver’s door for me.
‘And manners too!’ Caro called, sending a chef’s kiss our way, causing Jesse to laugh and shake his head before folding himself into the passenger side.
‘She’s a character,’ he said as I pulled out onto the road and pointed the car back towards Jesse’s house. I was currently mid kitchen, although what was in already was looking amazing and I couldn’t wait for it to be finished. I might not know how to cook but learning how to was on my list.
‘That’s an understatement,’ I replied, laughing.
‘She seems different from Araminta.’
‘Chalk and cheese. She plays along because that’s how things are done. But she’s loyal to the people she actually cares about.’
‘Like you.’
‘Yes! Apparently!’ I looked across at him for a moment before returning my eyes to the road.
‘You seem surprised.’
‘I am. We always got on really well and seemed to be very in sync in understanding what was needed. I got what Caro wanted so it was always just easy and enjoyable working with her, which I can’t say about everyone.’
‘She obviously felt the same way. Sounds like she might be sending some more work your way.’
‘I’m trying not to think about it too much in case it doesn’t happen but if it did, it’d be amazing. Some of my biggest commissions were Caro’s, as well as the most fun.’
‘Fingers crossed, then.’
‘Fingers crossed!’
* * *
Caro, true to her word, had rung the following Tuesday – ‘once the hangover had subsided, darling’ – and on Thursday, I was being thoroughly wined and dined up in London as she and I spent several hours going through all the plans she had for what she called her ‘projects’. I felt myself fizzing with excitement. Working with Caro had always been so much fun and this time, these well-paying commissions would be helping pay off the huge loans I’d taken out in order to make my house the paradise its title promised it was.
Three weeks later found me on a plane, first class, to Milan to ‘do a little shopping’ then on to Venice, where it transpired that Caro had invested in a stunning palazzo in need of a revamp, which was Caro-language for a complete makeover. Then there was the Chelsea apartment we’d done several years and one ex-husband ago, and she wanted a whole new look for that too.
‘I was thinking of a Moroccan feel in the dining room. Or maybe Indian. I haven’t decided yet. We’ll have to have a couple of trips to help me get inspired.’
‘Or I could pull together some mood boards for them?’
Caro threw up her hands. ‘And where is the fun in that? You can do that once we’ve been inspired.’ When it came down to it, Caro loved to travel, and she loved to travel with people whose company she enjoyed even more. ‘I was thinking of a colonial look for the garden room. All dark wood and exotic plants. Is that what it’s called? Are we allowed to call it that any more?’ She threw up her hands. ‘I can’t keep up. Anyway. That. That’s what I want in there.’ With that, she gave a discreet wave to a member of the cabin crew and moments later, two more glasses of Champagne appeared.
‘I really missed this!’ Caro said, tinking her glass against mine. ‘Cheers!’
* * *
‘Hello, stranger.’ Jesse greeted me at the door and lifted the case into the hall. ‘How was the trip? You look shattered.’
‘Thanks. You look gorgeous.’
‘I never said you didn’t look hot. Just that you look shattered. Hot goes without saying.’
‘Nice backpedal.’
I laughed as I hooked my hands behind his neck and cuddled up to the strong, solid body I’d missed so much.
‘Just bloody well kiss me.’
And I did just that.
* * *
‘Remind me where this time?’ Jesse asked three days later as I tried my best to zip the case quietly by the light of my phone.
He pressed a button beside the bed and the blackout blinds began to rise. Ned, curled in his bed by the window, opened one eye, deemed it far too early to be awake and snuggled back down.
‘New York. Go back to sleep. I was trying not to wake you.’
‘Don’t you dare ever leave without kissing me goodbye.’
‘OK,’ I said and dropped a butterfly kiss on his forehead as I rubbed hand cream into my hands and popped the tube back on the bedside table.
‘I mean it,’ he said, catching my hand. His face was taut, his grey eyes turning darker with emotion as they always did.
I lifted my hand to his cheek, the slight roughness tickling my palm. ‘I know. And I promise.’
‘Thank you. Now give me a proper goodbye kiss.’
A few minutes later, I hurried down the stairs, Jesse following me carrying the case and my carry-on bag with my laptop and necessities in it. The limo was waiting patiently outside, the engine purring quietly in the dawn.
‘I miss you.’
‘I miss you too. But once Caro’s had her fill of travel, I’ll be back home more again.’
‘I know. And I’m really happy for you. It’s good to see you being valued in your work.’
‘Thanks. I’ve got some great ideas for Paddock House too.’ Jesse was currently in the process of building a stunning, modern house for a couple who’d bought ten acres of paddock land that had had a decrepit little shack on it. The new build was all glass and cedar wood and was going to be magnificent when it was done. The couple had given me a few ideas as to what they wanted but I mostly had free rein, subject to approval.
‘You OK doing that? I don’t want you burning out.’
‘No, it’s great. I’m loving working again. Especially having the freedom to choose the jobs I do and don’t want to do rather than being told what to do. That way, I get to work with friends and hot men.’
‘Hot men, eh?’
‘Don’t look at me like that or I’m going to miss my flight.’
‘I’ll make it worth it.’
And I knew for sure that he absolutely would have. I grabbed a fistful of cotton T-shirt, pulled him close for another hasty kiss and willed myself into the open door of the limo Caro had sent.
* * *
That night, thanks to jet lag that not even travelling first class could magic away, I lay awake, staring at the red dot of the smoke alarm on the hotel ceiling, thinking about home. It seemed strange that I now thought of the village and the once disaster zone of a house I’d bought as home. Thanks to Jesse and the many favours he’d pulled in from people I was now lucky enough to also call friends, the place was really coming together. Having gone from hating the sight of it, I was now falling in love with it. Just as I’d fallen in love with the village, the landscape and, without doubt, Jesse Woods. Yet here I was, once again, thousands of miles away from all of them.
Neither of us had said the L word yet. Was I holding back, waiting for him to say it, just in case he didn’t feel the same and saying it first might freak him out and scare him off? Not that he was a man that scared easily. Although he’d had a pink fit when he’d come in from the garage a couple of weeks ago when I was home briefly between sojourns abroad and found me balancing on the very top of the ladder to reach the top corner of the wall I was painting.
‘Jesus Christ!’ Jesse had grabbed the ladder with one hand and me with the other and unceremoniously plonked me down on the floor.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Preventing you from breaking your neck! What the hell were you thinking?’
‘It was perfectly safe!’
‘Fliss, when a ladder is tilting at a forty-five-degree angle, it is not “safe”, perfectly or otherwise.’
‘Stop exaggerating.’
‘OK. Thirty-five. I’ve just aged ten years!’
I had shrugged. ‘You look good on it.’
‘Ha ha. I’m serious.’
‘You’re overreacting.’
‘Fliss, you were about to go crashing to the floor!’
Admittedly, it had felt a little wobbly, but ladders never felt that secure, did they?
‘I wasn’t quite tall enough.’
‘Then call me. Do not risk injury or worse by overreaching. Promise me!’ There was no humour in his eyes and his mouth was set in a line.
‘I promise. Sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out.’
‘I’m not freaked out. I’m just… OK, yes. You freaked me out. I don’t want anything to happen to you.’ His hand had cupped my face.
‘I know. I promise I’ll call you next time, or wait.’ I had placed my hand over his and turned my head, kissing his palm.
‘Thank you.’ He had wrapped his hand around my waist and looked around. ‘It’s looking good. You know you didn’t have to do all this though, right? You’ve got more than enough on your plate to then start painting the house.’
‘I know. And if I’m honest, I don’t think I’m going to have time to do the rest. But I’ve never painted my own house. I wanted to do at least one room myself.’
The room I’d chosen was the dining room, which was now a beautifully soft duck-egg blue with white trim and woodwork. I’d been itching to do it as soon as it was ready, but Jesse had explained we needed to give it a few weeks to let the plaster dry out enough. Thankfully, the good weather had helped and then, when it was ready, he’d had the decorators do a mist coat with watered-down white paint to help seal the new plaster. Now that I’d finished my second coat of blue, it looked perfect. New, efficient glazed doors in a period design opened out on the garden. I’d rediscovered some plants now that the brambles were all removed but that was as far as I’d got on that front. However, the vision board I had been pulling together for it, when the time came, was looking fantastic.
But the truth was, I was exhausted and I knew it wasn’t just down to the jet lag. My business had been steadily increasing and then, once Caro had booked me too, I was really running beyond capacity. Her projects alone were more than enough for one person. But I couldn’t say no. And it wasn’t as if I didn’t enjoy the work. I loved it and I was good at it. But the backlog of plans Caro had built up was beyond even my expectations. Jesse had told me I didn’t always have to say yes, but that was what he didn’t get. I did always have to say yes. Not just because I loved Caro, but because, right now, I was still too scared to say no.
What if the work just dried up for whatever reason? It could happen. I’d gone from feast to famine once before and had worked my arse off to get a seat back at the feast before chucking it all away again. Had it not been for the kindness and generosity of Jesse and the rest of the village, I could very easily have been in real trouble. So, as tired as I was, as much as I hated being away from home and the man I loved, I couldn’t turn down work. I had to keep building up that financial security so that I would never, ever be in that position again.
I watched the light on the ceiling blink on, off, on, off for another minute or two until it started irritating me. I grabbed one of the spare pillows, stuck it over my face and tried to sleep.
* * *
‘Oh, wow!’ I’d left my luggage at Jesse’s and, despite him suggesting I take a nap after my flight back from New York, I was too excited to see the rooms after he’d told me he’d arranged to have them all painted as a welcome home surprise.
‘What do you think?’
‘I love it! It looks even better than I’d imagined!’ I spun slowly, taking in the evening light as it shimmered and danced off the walls of the main bedroom now painted the colour of fresh cream. The colour gave a clean, crisp look but with a warmth that suited the period character of the original building. Ostensibly it looked the same, only much, much better, from outside, but inside the house was now far more economical to run thanks to the updated heating and a rainwater collection system buried in the ground outside.
‘Do you like it?’ I asked, reaching for his hand.
‘I do. Very much.’
I looked across to the full-length windows and balcony that now faced the bed, taking in the view of what would eventually be the garden, and then up at the man beside me.
‘What?’ he asked, brushing a strand of hair that had broken free of my chignon back from my face, a soft smile on his face. The smile he reserved for me.
‘No one’s ever built me a balcony before.’
‘That’s because you were never with the right man before.’
I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked up. ‘I think you might be right.’
‘No doubt in my mind.’
I looked back at the window and Jesse released me. ‘Go on, I know you’re dying to.’
I grinned, went on tiptoes to kiss him and then turned the key. Opening the door, I stepped through onto the balcony that overlooked what I knew would become a beautiful garden with the fields beyond. With a change around of layout, following Jesse’s suggestion, the bedroom had now been extended and become double aspect, but I’d chosen to place the bed this side because I knew I was more likely to sit here in the morning with a cup of herbal tea than I would in the evening. The opposite side had two squashy bedroom chairs that we could sit in to appreciate the sunset, the full-length windows there being framed by a smaller Juliet balcony.
Once we’d posited the idea of replacing the current windows with full-length ones, I’d mentioned to Jesse that I wanted to put a small seating area here to enjoy the view and get some morning light and air. A few hours later, he’d come to me with a drawing for a balcony extension off the bedroom and it was perfect. I hadn’t even known I’d wanted it – but he’d known. It was just one of the many reasons I loved him.
‘I love it so much. I can’t wait to sit out here with you.’
Jesse leant against the frame of the balcony door. ‘When you arrived, did you think you’d ever be standing here saying how much you loved this house?’
‘Not for one moment. I thought it was the worst decision I’d ever made in my entire life.’
‘And now?’
‘Now I know it was the best.’
His smile lit up his face as the evening sun danced through the leaves of the trees, the warm tones bathing his skin.
‘Best. Decision. Ever.’
‘Good. Now, come on, you need some food, a hot bath and your own bed after all those hotel ones. Well, my bed but as good as.’
‘Oh-h-h-h.’ I tipped my head back for a moment. ‘That sounds absolutely perfect.’
We headed back down the stairs. The carpets and flooring were being laid over the next few days and I couldn’t wait to see the final result. Then came the really fun bit – styling! And this time, I’d be doing it with Jesse. We’d already decided that this was going to be our home. We’d choose things together, make it really our home . The connection it had to his family and the fact that we’d been designing and working on it together made it seem the logical, and the right, decision. Together, we had made this house special. It was built with care, and thought – and love.
Love.
‘Jesse?’
‘Yeah?’ He turned, his hand on the latch of the front door.
Terror knotted my inside but I knew I had to say it.
‘What is it?’ he asked, his brow crumpling in concern as he took a few steps back towards where I was standing on the uncarpeted bottom stair.
‘I love you.’
He stopped dead.
Oh, shit! Abort! Abort!
‘I mean I love?—’
But I didn’t get to finish the sentence because Jesse was there, his lips on mine, pulling me close and whispering he loved me too.
When we came up for air, I pulled back.
‘You do?’
‘Of course I do!’ He laughed.
‘Then why didn’t you bloody say something?’ I whacked him on the arm. It was like a flea biffing a hippo.
‘Because I was shit scared I’d frighten you off!’
He wrapped his arms back around me, pinning mine to my sides to avoid any more flailing. ‘Believe me, I’ve been trying to work out how and when to say it for months.’
‘Months?’
He looked down at me. ‘Months.’
I stepped out of the house entirely happy and feeling so lucky, after everything, that we had found each other. I should have known it was too good to last.