Page 39 of The Pop-Up Cake Shop

So I did – and sure enough, there was a black and white photo of a very smartly-dressed middle-aged woman in a fur-trimmed coat, wearing bizarre headgear almost identical to the contraption that Ivan was currently sporting.

I chuckled in amazement. ‘So does it actually work?’

‘Not sure. I’m going to change the batteries and find out. But even if it’s no longer functional, it’s still a piece of history.’

‘Well, I’m very happy for you, Ivan. But you are going to take it off at some point, aren’t you? You’re actually scaring people.’

Caleb appeared, glancing pointedly at his watch.

‘Yes, boss.’ Ivan whipped off the headgear. ‘I’m heading back now.’

‘Good. Funnily enough, I don’t pay you to spend time roaming the market and chatting up the vendors.’ Caleb’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. It was clear he wasn’t at all amused by Ivan’s antics.

I flicked my eyes to the sky. And I’d thought it wasIvanwho was the grumpy one!

Later, as we were driving away from the market, past the building site, I looked over at the half-constructed eco houses, and I spotted a familiar figure strolling onto the site.

Caleb.

He was chatting to a tall, slender woman in pale jeans and tennis shoes. She turned to him and laughed, flicking at her long strawberry blonde hair so that it fell across the back of her cute pink sweatshirt. She was carrying a bunch of yellow roses.

As we drove away, I couldn’t resist a look back at the pair of them.

Although why I should be interested, I had no idea...

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

We drove on to the next village, Primrose Wood, in a companionable silence.

I seemed to swing these days between feeling bursts of optimism for the future but also times when I raked over the past, trying to work out when my relationship with Richard had started to go wrong. Meeting Mo and hearing her and her friend Dot’s alarming stories had made me feel quite gloomy.

Where was my life going now that Richard and I were done?

The thought of online dating filled me with dread – having to kiss so many frogs before by some amazing chance I managed to find someone who was vaguely suitable? It wasn’t a very enticing prospect. The single life seemed a far simpler way to live.

There really were so many advantages to living on your own. No compromising over how to spend your day off or what to watch on TV. You could choose exactly what you wanted! And you had the bed all to yourself with no one’s snoring waking you in the early hours so you found it impossible to drift off again. They were the obvious ones, but there were surely so many more little pleasures in a life lived as a single independent woman.

In fact, I was certain there must beloadsmore. I just couldn’t think of them right now...

With a resigned sigh, I turned off the main road and followed the signs for Primrose Wood.

The village was just a few miles along a pretty country road with sheep in the fields on either side of us – and as I drove along, it suddenly struck me how lucky I was that Ellie had offered me this opportunity at exactly the right time. Driving the cake van around such lush countryside as summer was appearing on the horizon, and meeting lots of new people, was just the boost I’d needed. A break from routine. Ellie could haveoffered it to Maddy. Or Primrose, who was looking to get back to work after having George. But I had a feeling she’d realised how much I’d benefit from a change of scene.

Being newly single after a break-up wasn’t so bad when you had your friends to look out for you...

On last week’s run, just a few people had come along to the cake van – among them, a lovely silver-haired woman in her sixties called Judy, who’d revealed that she was a widow, having lost her husband the year before.

She was there waiting for us when we arrived in her sensible dog-walking gear, her beautiful chocolate Labrador on his lead by her side, being a very good boy.

As I parked the van by the green, I smiled across at Ellie. ‘I could get a dog if I wanted to!’

She looked surprised.

‘Sorry, that was a bit out of context. I was driving along thinking of all the benefits of flying solo.’

‘Didn’t Richard like dogs, then?’

‘No, helikedthem. But he liked them more from a distance? If you know what I mean.’

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