Page 45 of All Wrapped Up
The branding and logo designs would become the online face of the festival, quite possibly for longer than just this year and I really wanted Ash’s input when deciding on how it should look, as it was quite a responsibility.
‘I’d love to help. Count me in. I’ll pick you up around ten,’ I read aloud, when Ash replied within a couple of minutes.
Excellent,I sent back.See you tomorrow!
My phone pinged again.It’s a date.I stared at the three words and remembered Joanne’s former determination to push us together.Not a date, date!came through immediately after and was accompanied by the grimacing emoji.
‘I knew what you meant,’ I whispered as I typed, after just a moment’s hesitation, because I knew that Ash could see that I had read what he’d sent and I didn’t want him to think I was pondering over it, even though I was.
See you tomorrow, I added, along with a smiley face andthen I put my phone down and decided it was time to get the washing in and take Pixie for a windy walk.
‘Oh, wow,’ said Ash, when I opened the cottage door to him the following day. ‘Clemmie, you look amazing.’
‘Do I?’ I asked in surprise, as I looked down at the patterned dress and red patent Mary Janes I’d picked out. I didn’t think it was anything particularly special but the compliment, coming straight after the ‘it’s a date’ discomfiture of the day before, made my cheeks flush.
‘Totally,’ Ash huskily said, then cleared his throat. ‘Very smart. No one’s going to question your role as festival organiser looking like that. Not that anyone would… what I mean is…’
His words trailed off as Pixie wandered over to say hello and, with my attention then focused on her, I reasoned it was the text muddle that had got Ash a bit tongue-tied rather than anything else.
‘Is she okay?’ Ash asked, as the little hound sighed when he fussed her and then wandered over to her bed and flopped heavily into it.
She’d been a little subdued that morning and I had reminded myself that grief probably impacted on animals in much the same way as it did humans. I could now go for great stretches of time feeling fine, and then wallop, something would suddenly trigger me out of the blue and I’d feel its dreaded weight all over again. Or worse, nothing I could identify or pinpoint would occur, but I’d feel low anyway and without the benefit of knowing where the shift in emotion had sprung from.
I knew I was playing my part in Pixie’s recovery, but it would have been foolish, and perhaps rather arrogant, to assumethat I was the answer to her prayers. Just because she was apparently content living in Rowan Cottage, it didn’t mean that her heart had healed.
‘Sadly, I think she’s having a low day.’ I sighed in sympathy myself.
‘In that case,’ Ash suggested, ‘we’d best take her with us.’
‘To the library?’ I frowned.
‘Yes. Come on, Pixie.’
‘Are you sure?’ I asked, as Pixie climbed back out of her barely used bed.
‘Yes, absolutely. Can you grab her harness out of your Land Rover?’
‘You’re really being serious?’ I questioned. ‘You did hear me when I reminded you that we’re going to the library, didn’t you? I don’t think they allow dogs in there.’
‘I take it you haven’t visited the library then?’ Ash smiled.
‘Not yet. Why? What am I missing?’
‘The manager, Kay, has an ancient golden lab who sleeps behind the counter all day,’ Ash told me. ‘Sandy and Pixie are great friends. He’ll cheer her up no end.’
‘Oh well, in that case,’ I said, gathering up my notebook, bag and keys. ‘As long as you’re sure Sandy will be there, let’s get going.’
Chapter 12
While I collected the harness, Ash telephoned the library to double check that both Kay and Sandy were going to be in residence and, having confirmed they were and that they’d love to see Pixie, we all set off. I sat in the back, while Pixie was secured in the front seat next to Ash, like the extra precious cargo that she was.
Unfortunately, we hadn’t gone far before she started to crane her neck to see where I was leaning through the seats to look at her, and then started to fuss.
‘Do you think we should stop?’ I asked Ash. ‘She’s obviously not happy.’
‘I think you should sit back so that she can’t see you and then she’ll be fine.’
‘Are you telling me off?’ I gasped, in almost mock outrage.
