Page 160 of Rough Around the Hedges

We looked at each other and smiled. “Go shower,” I said to my little brother. “You smell like crap.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He turned towards the house and rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t get arrested, you whacko.”

“No promises,” I sang, climbing into Isa’s car.

“Call me instead of your mother if you do!” Dad shouted.

I gave him a thumbs up before closing the door behind me and started the engine. I sent her a quick text asking when she’d return my beloved Ramona to me, tucked my phone into the centre console, and pulled out of the drive.

But not before hearing my dad give Jake an earful about the pizza sauce in his hair and his teenage drinking habits.

Oops.

I’d obviously missed that bit.

He’d survive. And, really, it was his own fault that his drunk habit was falling asleep on pizza.

I drove towards the allotments. My stomach twisted tighter and tighter the closer I got, and paranoia had me scanning every car I saw just in case one was Oliver’s. I made it there withoutseeing his Range Rover, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled in next to Susan’s car.

I climbed out, locked it, and pocketed the keys, scuffing my feet as I made my way towards my plot. It seemed like a cruel joke, that the place I’d loved my entire life would no longer exist in the very near future.

I had so many memories here. I’d practically grown up on the very plot I now kept, thanks to my grandmother. My grandfather had been the chairman of the committee, and my love for the outdoors and gardening had grown as I had.

And the place that sparked that love was going to be torn down.

Decades of memories would be wiped away without a second thought.

Money really was the root of all evil.

I sighed as I reached my plot. Hades was chilling next door on Susan’s glass table, sunning himself without a care in the world. A lump formed in my throat as he rolled over, opening his amber eyes, and sent a little meow my way.

If I could, I’d take him home with me.

But I couldn’t.

Not because it was an issue—my parents wouldn’t care, even if Jake’s idiot cat would—but because Hades could never survive as an indoor cat. He was born in a barn, raised outside, and this was how he’d lived his entire four years of life.

It would be too cruel to force him inside.

Besides, the farm that had agreed to take him was a safe place. It was even further away from roads than the allotments was, and he would have acres upon acres of space for all his little hunts he loved.

The same went for the chickens, too. They would have a fully free-range life on the farm guarded by livestock dogs, and although I would miss seeing them every day, I would eventually get over it.

Our garden at home just wasn’t big enough to keep them all in.

If it was, I wouldn’t need the allotment.

It was the same for all the plot holders, or one of us would definitely be taking them home.

I shook my head, sending those thoughts elsewhere. The reality of the situation was truly dawning on me now that I was back here, but I couldn’t cry again.

I didn’t want to cry again. I’d exhausted all my tears last night. I’d end up in the hospital on a drip for dehydration if I lost any more fluids.

“Oh, Rose!” George said, shuffling out of his shed. “How are you feelin’?”

I gave him the best smile I could muster. “A bit tired, but I’m all right. What about you? How was your night with your new fiancée?”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

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