Page 79 of Welcome to Pennycress Inn

Tammy’s voice suddenly rose above the noise as she came hurtling up the steps towards them, her arms wide ready to hug them both. As she squeezed their waists she looked up and grinned, the gap from the front tooth she’d lost earlier in the week giving her a lisp as she spoke loudly. ‘Auntie Laura, I told you that you and Jackson should get married. Didn’t I?’

Laura laughed as she hugged her niece back. ‘Yes, you certainly did. And I think it was a great idea of yours.’

‘Me too, Tammy.’ Jackson chuckled as he high-fived Tammy before watching her race back towards her mum.

‘I don’t think this day could get any more perfect.’ Laura looked down at her ring before placing her hand on Jackson’s cheek and looking him in the eye. ‘I love you so much and I can’t wait for us to be husband and wife.’

‘I love you too.’ Jackson lowered his lips to hers and kissed her before stepping back and nodding towards the garden and their guests. ‘Shall we?’

Laura nodded as they began descending the steps to the garden. ‘This is everything I ever dreamed of.’

‘I—’ Jackson’s reply was punctuated by a series of screams.

With her eyes widening, Laura looked across the garden, quickly locating the cause of the interruption to the party. She and Jackson both looked at each other. ‘Claudette!’

‘Away, away! Get away!’ Jenny screeched as the sheep raced through the garden and propelled itself into the game of Connect4, giant plastic discs raining down around her fluffy white fleece as she headed towards the trestle table covered with sandwiches, cakes and snacks.

Within a split second, the party had divided, some people running to the back of the garden to escape Claudette’s rampage whilst others made a beeline for the trestle table, racing to rescue plates and bowls of food before Claudette ran head first into it. With an almighty noise, the trestle table shuddered before collapsing and landed in a heap on the ground, the food which hadn’t been saved raining down across the lawn, the guests and the sheep.

Balancing Vivienne’s famous fruit cake in one hand and a tray of cupcakes in the other, Laura watched as Claudette, seemingly unfazed by the drama, squeezed through a gap in the hedge, leaving behind the chaos and destruction. She looked anxiously at Jackson, who was standing next to her clutching a now empty serving dish in his hands and wearing a covering of cheesecake across his shirt. ‘We’d better be on the lookout for the others.’

Blinking, Jackson knitted his eyebrows together. ‘The others?’

‘Yes, the other sheep! I can’t remember all the names listed at the first village meeting I attended, but Gertrude, Florence and the others. If Claudette has come through the hedge, the others might be following her!’

Laying the empty serving dish on the mound of plates and ruined food, Jackson doubled over and laughed.

‘What?’

‘There’s only one escapee, people just have different names for her.’ Jackson managed.

‘Oh.’ All this time, she’d assumed there was a whole flock of sheep on the loose and yet there was only one. She looked around the garden. The group of people who had rescued the food were taking it inside, whilst the rest of the guests were either getting back to their games or laughing, chatting and talking amongst themselves. Passing the cakes she’d rescued toJenny, Laura laid her hand on Jackson’s back and began to giggle.

His bout of laughter finally coming to an end, Jackson straightened up and chuckled. ‘Is this the opening day you were hoping for?’

Grinning from ear to ear, Laura shook her head. ‘No, it’s better. Much better.’

MORE FROM SARAH HOPE

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The Seaside Ice-Cream Parlour,the start of another heart-warming romance series from Sarah Hope, is available to buy now by clicking on the image below. Or read on for an exclusive extract…

Chapter 1

‘Please don’t start grumbling, Grace. You’ve already had something to eat, you just need to give in and go to sleep now.’ Pushing the brake down with her foot, Jenny Weaver peered over the top of the buggy. Grace looked shattered. Not that she blamed her. They’d had to catch the coach at 6:45am, a time when they’d usually still be asleep. ‘Notlong now. Soon we’ll be on the train and then hopefully youwillfall asleep.’

Looking over at the departure board, she watched the updates flashing through. She smiled, it looked as though their train was still running on time. Another five minutes and they’d be out of the London smog and on their way to their new life. They’d done it. Well, almost. Their recent life of sofa surfing was over. In just a few short hours, they’d have somewhere they could call home again. Somewhere Grace could leave her toys scattered on the living room floor of an evening, ready to jump back into the same game the next morning. A place where they could finally start to put some roots down.

‘Excuse me, miss.’

Shaking her thoughts away, she focused on the boy standing in front of her. Taking in his ripped jeans and blue baseball cap pulled down over his eyes, she shifted her weight, clicking up the brake to unlock it, ready to head further up the platform towards the suited office workers if she needed to. She wasn’t in the mood for any trouble. Not today.

‘You’ve been dropping your luggage. I think your suitcase might be broke.’

Turning behind her to where he pointed, Jenny cursed under her breath. T-shirts, underwear and a collection of other items littered the path behind her leading all the way back towards the lift. ‘Thank you. I hadn’t noticed.’ Leaving the suitcase where it stood, Jenny turned the buggy and began picking up items of their clothing, balancing them on the hood of the buggy.

‘Oi, you lot! Come and help.’ The boy in the baseball cap whistled back at his friends who unfolded their long limbs from the bench and lumbered towards them.

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