Page 64 of Summer At Willow Tree Farm

She detached her gaze from Art, only to find Annie watching her with a ‘just jump him already’ look on her face.

She took a sip of her own cider and ignored it. She’d already decided that jumping Art was not a solution. Maybe they didn’t hate each other any more, and maybe they’d managed to forge a good if distant working relationship during the shop build, but they were hardly best buddies.

One insane kiss and a couple of hot looks did not a friendship make.

Jacob cleared his throat loudly as the table fell silent again.

‘I wanted to let you all know how much this means to us both. But especially to me, because I’ve been carrying something around in my pocket for over a month now.’ He pulled a small velvet box out of the front pocket of his jeans.

A hush descended over the whole company. Even Jamie Jackson stopped rapping a chicken bone on his high chair as if aware of the gravity of the occasion.

‘I had planned to do this in private.’ Jacob cleared his throat again, staring intently at Maddy. ‘So that if the answer was no, I wouldn’t look like a complete twat.’ He thrust his fingers through his hair, his nerves palpable now.

Maddy had been struck dumb. Obviously she hadn’t been expecting this as much as Jacob thought.

‘But I figured, what the hell? Why not do it in public, in front of all the people I admire and trust most in the world? If I’m going to make a twat of myself, why not go the full twat while I’m at it?’

He turned to Maddy and opened the box, the tremble in his fingers visible. A silver ring embedded with tiny diamonds shone gold in the dying sunlight.

He pulled out his chair and knelt in the grass in front of Maddy, his usually smooth movements clumsy. ‘Maddy… I… Oh shit. For God’s sake put me out of my misery here.’

The beaming smile that spread across Maddy’s face was an answer in itself. ‘If that’s your idea of a proposal, it’s a piss poor one.’

Jacob chuckled, still looking a little unsure. ‘If that’s your idea of an acceptance, it’s an even piss poorer one.’

‘I guess we must be made for each other then.’ Maddy threw her arms around Jacob’s neck, her corkscrew curls bobbing round her shoulders. ‘Yes, yes, yes.’

Jacob roared with pleasure then rose to swing his new fiancée round in his arms. Everyone surged to their feet, shouting congratulations and applauding. Toto and Josh whooped and whistled, dancing around behind Jacob and Maddy, who were now kissing as if their lives depended on it, while Jamie Jackson screwed up his face and screamed his lungs out as if he were being murdered.

Ellie’s heart jitterbugged. These two had their whole lives ahead of them and, unlike her and Dan, she didn’t think they were going to bugger it up. Because they didn’t just love each other, they liked each other too.

But, as her gaze travelled round the table at all these people she had come to like so much too, it snagged on Art again. Unlike the others, he wasn’t watching the kissing couple, he was watching her.

She looked away, the heat spreading up her scalp, and everything inside going tight and achy and fluttery. Blast.

*

‘Ellie, could I speak to you a minute?’ Maddy still beamed like a solar-powered flashlight, her cheeks rosy with the apple cider they’d used to toast the couple.

‘Of course, what do you want to speak about?’ Ellie said, handing her mother the box of bowls they’d just finished washing out in Maddy’s new kitchen.

Dee headed out towards the tractor they were loading.

Maddy’s smile spread as she whispered, ‘Wedding plans.’

Ellie laughed. ‘Don’t want to waste any time?’

‘Are you kidding? It took him so long to propose, I want this done before he changes his mind.’

Lifting the box with the last of the leftovers they’d saved, Ellie nodded to the bag of cutlery and plastic plates they had to load before they could head back to the farmhouse. ‘Give me a hand with that and we can walk and talk.’

Hauling the equipment together, past Art and Jacob who were busy dismantling the barbecue, Maddy nudged her arm. ‘I want to do it this summer, while you and Josh are still here. When are you planning to head back to the US?’

The sweet thrill that Maddy would be so keen to include them in her special day was accompanied by a pang of longing.

It was already the sixth of August, the shop was due to open next weekend and they’d already made huge inroads into getting the newly refurbished building stocked. All her thoughts and planning had been focused on the launch. But once they were up and running, she only had three weeks of summer left before the school term started in the US. She’d emailed a lawyer a week ago about the divorce proceedings, but had basically avoided thinking about that too – wilfully putting off any negotiations with Dan and his legal representatives about the splitting of their assets and his visitation rights. For goodness’ sake, she still hadn’t even spoken to Josh yet about the divorce – the thought of having that conversation still giving her panic attacks. That Dan hadn’t raised it in any of his Skype calls with Josh suggested he was more than happy to avoid it too.

‘I suppose we’ll have to head back at the beginning of September.’

---