Page 53 of The Do-Over

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‘Please, tell me you’re kidding.’

‘I’m deadly serious. Think about it. How many people will come through here today, do you think? Five hundred? A thousand? Multiply that by the entrance price and you’re looking at a serious amount of cash, and that’s before they buy any drinks or lunch, or their children go mad in the gift shop.’

To my mind, there’s so much wrong with this plan that I don’t know where to start, but I know I have to tread carefully so as not to upset her.

‘There are a couple of snags though,’ I say carefully.

‘Such as?’

‘Well, I don’t imagine you can pick up animals like these at the pet shop, for starters. Plus, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the first clue how to look after monkeys or lemurs, or even meerkats and penguins.’

‘I wasn’t thinking we’d have animals like this,’ she tells me, undeterred. ‘I was thinking more of a farm-type vibe. You know, chickens, pot-bellied pigs, pygmy goats, those kinds of things. We could open the mill as an attraction, sell flour in the giftshop. We could even have an on-site café and a soft-play area in one of the barns.’

‘Let me get this straight. You’re proposing, based on a single visit to a zoo in the pouring rain, that we completely change our business plan and do something neither of us knows the first thing about?’

‘Look, I know it sounds crazy when you say it like that, but you’re forgetting the aces up our sleeves.’

‘What aces?’

‘Ben and George. I bet Ben knows all about keeping animals, or he’ll know someone who does. George knows all about the mill, and I bet we wouldn’t be the first HIBT partner to do something like this.’

‘OK, but even if that’s true and they’re willing to help, where is the money going to come from?’ I persist. ‘We’ve just about got enough to build the extension on the cottage, but this would cost a fortune. The cost of the fences alone is making me feel faint, and that’s assuming the council will let us do it, which I’m almost certain they won’t.’

‘We don’t extend the cottage.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘We get it up to standard but don’t extend it. That’s where we’re going to live. It’s like it was meant to be, Thea. Our plot may be “too big to garden, too small to farm”, but it’s just the right size for something like this.’

I study her for a while. Her face is lit up with enthusiasm, and I just don’t have the heart to pop her bubble. Her plan is so full of holes that I’m confident it will sink quite happily on its own, so I decide to humour her.

‘OK. I’m not buying into this yet,’ I tell her. ‘But I’m happy for you to talk to George and Ben to see what they think.’

I’m certain they’ll both think the same as me, that this is the worst idea ever. Rebecca evidently doesn’t see it that way,however, as she leaps up, comes round the table we’re sitting at and envelops me in a massive hug.

‘Thank you,’ she breathes after a few moments.

‘What for?’

‘For being such a good friend and listening to me. I know you think it’s bonkers because I can see it in your face, but it’s got to be worth a look, hasn’t it?’

‘There’s certainly no harm in finding out more,’ I tell her as she releases me. I feel like a terrible coward for not saying no straight away, but maybe it’s kinder to let her discover the flaws in her idea on her own.

George’s traction engine turns out to be located in an industrial unit not far from Tenterden. It’s nearly four in the afternoon when we get there, so we’ve told the boys this will be a flying visit. Despite their earlier enthusiasm, that seems to go down well as they’re both flagging after running rampage through the soft-play area for over an hour.

I was expecting to be confronted with a load of rusty-looking bits of metal when I stepped through the door, but the engine appears to be almost complete, and it’s absolutely massive.

‘Wow,’ Rollo breathes as he takes it in. Louis appears to have lost the power of speech completely.

‘Hello?’ I call, my voice echoing in the large chamber.

‘I’ll be with you in just a sec,’ George’s voice calls back, and a few moments later his head pops up in the area where the driver would stand. His smile is wide and, even though he’s dressed in the filthiest overalls I think I’ve ever seen and he has grease smudges on both cheeks, my stomach still flips at the sight of him.

‘What do you think?’ he asks the boys once he’s climbed down and greeted us properly. This is the first time that Saffy, Rollo and Louis have met him, and I can sense Saffy sizing him up.

‘It’s awesome,’ Louis practically shouts. ‘Can we climb up on it?’

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