Page 44 of Summer At Willow Tree Farm

Ellie squinted at the different colours. ‘They all sound very… suggestive.’

It had been a week since her showdown with Art and she had been working her butt off. And this evening’s celebration was her reward. After seven days of working on grant applications, construction estimates, work schedules, polishing the business plan, setting up a Twitter and Facebook account and beginning a design on WordPress for the new website, she, Tess, Dee and Annie had spent the afternoon in Mr Hegley’s office at the NatWest bank in Gratesbury explaining exactly why the Willow Tree Farm Shop and Café was going to be the best investment he’d ever made. And, unlike Art, Mr Hegley had agreed with them.

So now she, Tess, Maddy and Annie were treating themselves to a mani–pedi girls’ night in. The buzz from celebrating their success, not to mention two glasses of Rob’s elderflower champagne, and an hour of girl talk, though, had left her feeling far too euphoric to make informed choices about toenail polish.

‘Yeah, Annie,’ Tess said, as she topped up everyone’s glass, ‘don’t you have any colours that aren’t pornographic?’

Maddy snorted out a laugh while wiggling her recently painted toes. ‘Don’t knock it. I think Jacob is gonna go insane when he gets a load of my Spoilt Diva toes.’

Given the amount of noise that had been coming out of the bathroom last night before the two of them had sheepishly appeared, Ellie wasn’t convinced Jacob needed any more encouragement.

‘I have two toddlers under three, who never sleep simultaneously,’ Annie said. ‘I need all the help I can get in that department – so stop knocking my toe polish choices. And for those of us who are looking for some action…’ She grinned at Ellie as she pulled a bottle of glittery scarlet polish from the tray and wiggled it. ‘I can highly recommend Art of Seduction. This polish even managed to get a rise out of a man who has to get up at 4 a.m. every morning to milk a herd of cows.’

Tess and Maddy laughed, while Ellie took a judicious sip of her champagne.

‘Art of Seduction?’ she said. ‘Is that supposed to be a hint?’

Annie’s grin widened. ‘Surely I’m not the only one who noticed the little frisson between you two while he was objecting to our project last Friday.’ She shook the bottle and lifted her eyebrows. ‘What do you say? Shall we knock Mr Dalton dead?’

‘Unfortunately, I think it would take more than hot nail polish to knock that man dead,’ Ellie said, the mention of Art putting a dent in her euphoria. She’d been avoiding him since last Friday night, but then he’d been avoiding her right back. She’d hoped he would turn up for the meeting they’d called this evening before supper to officially launch the project, but no, he’d been absent.

And OK, maybe there had been a slight frisson between them since she’d arrived, but she did not plan to dwell on it.

‘So what’s the deal between you two?’ Tess asked.

‘He thinks the project is going to fail,’ Ellie said, offering her glass to Maddy for a top-up, ‘but that’s absolutely fine because I am going to prove him wrong.’ And today had put her one step closer to that goal, whether he had been there to acknowledge their success or not.

‘There’s more to it than that,’ Tess said. ‘If it was just about the project, I don’t think he would have been so passionate about his objections. I think he said more in that meeting than he’s said all year.’

And more later that evening than he’d probably said in an entire decade, but Ellie had decided that wasn’t significant, and she refused to let it undermine her confidence any further.

‘Art’s passions aren’t my concern, thank

goodness,’ she said. ‘The deal is we’ve just never got along.’

‘Never?’ Annie’s interest perked up as she dabbed Ellie’s big toenail with the glittery polish, having made the choice for her. ‘I wonder why? Sounds like you two have got quite a history?’

‘Yeah, what exactly is your history?’ Maddy said from her perch on the arm of the couch.

‘I told you all, our history is we spent a summer together, we didn’t get on, and then I left. That’s it,’ Ellie said, downing the rest of her champagne.

‘Did you ever bang each other?’ Tess asked.

The bubbles hit Ellie’s tonsils and exploded into a coughing fit.

Maddy thumped her back.

‘Jesus, Tess, no we did not,’ Ellie said, once she’d managed to draw a full breath. ‘I was only fourteen. And anyway, why would I want to bang Art? I don’t even fancy him.’ And even if that was a lie, she had exceptionally good impulse control.

‘Why not?’ Annie said. ‘He’s gorgeous and available and he’s a guaranteed orgasm.’

‘How exactly do you know that?’ It was Tess’s turn to choke on her champagne. ‘You’re a happily married woman.’

‘So what? I can appreciate a good-looking guy, can’t I?’ Annie said, her head bent over Ellie’s toes. ‘Don’t look so outraged,’ she added, for Tess’s benefit. ‘I only know about his orgasm prowess by proxy.’

‘Whose proxy?’ Maddy asked.

‘Daisy Mayhew. She works at the Haymaker at the bottom of Candlewick Hill part-time and dated him briefly last summer. She was very disappointed when he stopped calling her. Very disappointed.’

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