Page 52 of All Wrapped Up
‘Yes,’ said Joanne, picking it up. ‘I know you said earlier that we know you, but we don’t really, do we? Though we do know you’re not originally from around here, so I’m guessing your relatives most likely live a bit of a distance away…?’
‘There’s only Mum and Dad,’ I reluctantly shared, ‘and yes, they are quite a way off.’
‘Do they visit often?’ Lizzie asked curiously.
‘And more importantly,’ Joanne cut in, ‘will they be coming to the festival?’
I was so looking forward to showing Mum and Dad what I had – hopefully – achieved once the festival was in full swing, but there was no way I’d be able to stop them talking to the likes of Joanne and potentially filling in some blanks about me. How much longer, I wondered, was I realistically going to be able to keep my reason for moving to Wynbridge under wraps?
My being a widow might not necessarily come up in general chit-chat, but it could. Would it be better to talk about it ahead of Mum and Dad’s visit or risk leaving it to chance? I wasn’t sure how I’d cope if it randomly cropped up in conversation without my being prepared for it, and given Joanne’s now vaguely hinted-at continuing fondness for pairing people off, it might get a mention, because if she revealed some plan for me and Ash, then Mum and Dad could say something…
It would have been wonderful if my new life could have carried on without the sympathetic head tilts and sad looks sharing my history would doubtless provoke, but if I was committed to getting to know these people properly and building a full life for myself here, then sharing my past at some point had to happen, didn’t it?
‘I’m hoping they’ll visit,’ I said, mindful that my time to decide whether to share or not now potentially had an expiration date. ‘We’ll talk properly about it once the festival is underway.’
‘And,’ Joanne then asked, with a twinkle in her eye, ‘will there be anyone else who might visit? By which I mean,’ shethen more bluntly added, ‘might there be someone special left behind who will come with your mum and dad?’
‘Joanne!’ Lizzie tutted.
‘Mum and Dad are pretty special in their own right.’ I smiled tightly.
‘Quite right,’ said Lizzie as she tried to rescue me.
‘But have you left your heart behind?’ Joanne further probed, ignoring the warning look Lizzie threw her and which would have stopped most people in their tracks. ‘Was it a matter of the heart that prompted a move such a long way from home?’
Callum was the largest and most important part of my pastandmy heart, but I wasn’t about to drop him into the conversation – or should that have been, interrogation – until I had had the chance to further consider whether or not I was ready to.
‘In a way,’ I then, however, felt inspired to say, ‘it was a matter of the heart.’
‘Go on,’ Joanne insisted.
‘I fell in love with Rowan Cottage,’ I said simply.
Joanne huffed and Lizzie laughed.
‘And having seen it for myself,’ Lizzie smiled, ‘I’m not surprised.’
Joanne didn’t look so amused. ‘You blooming tease,’ she tutted at me. ‘I bet there was loads more to it than that!’
There most certainly was and what I then grasped I needed, was the listening ear of someone I had started to consider a close friend to hear what I had to share first. That was, someone I had started to consider a close friend until I had got the jitters because of what Molly had hinted at and, erring on the side of caution, backed off.
In a moment of much appreciated clarity I realised that talking to Ash might help me decide whether I was ready to go public about my past or not. And, whatever the outcome, it was high time I trusted my intuition about him, rather than be governed by Molly’s ungrounded prediction, and reclaimed him as the closest friend I had in Wynbridge.
‘I was beginning to think you didn’t want me,’ was the first thing Ash said, when I opened the cottage door to him that evening and he scooped an ecstatic Pixie up into his arms.
My thoughts shot back to Molly again, but I quickly cast them off. What I wanted was a friend and Ash had never given me any reason to believe he considered me as anything other than that. It wasn’t his fault that Joanne had cast herself in the role of Cupid or that Molly had hinted that there might one day be something less platonic about my feelings for him and therefore, it was time to make amends for dropping him and I was going to hopefully do that by taking him into my confidence and making him my confidante as well as my friend.
‘Of course I want you,’ I therefore said, the word catching, as I closed the door and made light of my recent disappearance and silence. ‘But given everything else you’ve had going on, I thought you probably needed a bit of space and the opportunity to get your head straight.’
‘I did actually,’ he said, as he put Pixie down, ‘so, thank you, Clemmie. I’m pleased to say, Nan’s now settled and Will and I have decided I should call off my house hunt until after the winter. He’ll put the barn on the market in the spring rather than now.’
‘So, you still haven’t found anywhere then?’
‘I haven’t, but I’m happy, and relieved, to be able to stay where I am for a few more months and now I’m not trawling Rightmove every spare minute and worrying about what’s happening in Bakewell, my head is in full-on festival mode and I’m completely at your disposal.’
‘Well,’ I swallowed, ‘that’s great. Perfect, in fact.’
‘I’m guessing that means you’ve got loads for me to do?’ he predicted, as he rubbed his hands together and looked keen to get stuck in. ‘I know you’ve been going great guns with it all because everyone has been telling me. And, as much as I have appreciated you carrying everything yourself, I do want to make amends.’
