can never reach right round the back,’ I said, squinting to get a better look. ‘My arms give up on me.’
‘We need to work on your upper body strength,’ he grinned.
‘No, we don’t,’ I said, clipping on Nell’s lead, ‘I’ll just take advantage of yours.’
By the time we crossed the road from the square to Prosperous Place there was already quite a crowd gathered and when we dropped Nell in the kitchen, where she was going to spend the morning with Gus and the cats, the excitement was palpable.
‘When I looked out earlier,’ said Luke, who was doling out a cooked breakfast to Kate and the girls, ‘there were already a couple of people queuing.’
‘There’s more than that,’ said Finn, pinching a rasher of bacon from Jasmine’s plate and earning himself a stern glare in the process.
‘There’s nearer a dozen now,’ I said, pulling Finn away from Jas’s plate and into an empty chair.
‘Have you not come from the studio?’ Kate then asked Finn.
‘No,’ he said, ‘I came over with…’
His words trailed off and his face turned bright red, as did mine.
‘You did have an early start,’ Kate grinned at us both.
‘No doubt you’ll be wanting breakfast then?’ Luke said teasingly, adding more bacon to the pan.
‘Yes,’ said Jas. ‘Finn’s really hungry, aren’t you?’
‘I have got a bit of an appetite this morning,’ he admitted.
‘I’m just going to do one last tour of the garden,’ I quickly swallowed.
I did want to check that everything was as it should be, but I wanted to get out of the steamy kitchen too.
‘Everything’s perfect,’ Luke told me. ‘I’ve already been out and looked, so there’s no need.’
‘But even so,’ I said, heading for the door. ‘Just a quick check, won’t hurt, will it?’
‘Take this then,’ he said, thrusting a bacon roll into my hands, ‘and don’t start fiddling about with anything.’
Practically everything was perfect, but I still wasn’t completely satisfied with the arrangement of the containers we were using to show off winter planting combinations for small spaces. Chloe and Hannah were in charge of sales and the plants had all come from a nursery near Wynbridge which was run by two women Finn had met through his friend, Jake.
If sales were strong enough, we were planning to strike a deal which would mean we could set up something similar for each season, possibly with Graham and me heading up a container planting masterclass like the one he had organised for Winterfest. I refused to allow my mind to track back over that fateful day as I pulled everything out of place and then back into a much more satisfactory set-up.
‘What are you doing?’ Finn called.
‘Nothing,’ I said hastily stepping away.
‘The evidence on your clothes suggests that’s not quite true,’ he laughed.
‘Oh damn,’ I swore, when I looked down to find my jumper streaked with compost. ‘I’ll have to go back and change.’
‘You’d better be quick then,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘it’s almost time to open.’
I would have been far quicker had he not come back with me and insisted that I really needed help stripping off and re-dressing to settle my nerves. We were out of breath when we rushed back again, which was slightly embarrassing, especially when I spotted two familiar faces in the queue.
‘Mum,’ I said, pulled up short by her appearance. ‘Dad. I wasn’t sure if you were still going to come.’
The pair looked as impeccable as ever, but they were more casually dressed than usual. They were even wearing wellington boots, but not just any old wellies, of course. The matching Le Chameau boots they were sporting were way out of my price range and I was amused to see that they were completely spotless. Most likely fresh out of the box that morning.
‘I know we talked about today,’ I carried on, trawling back over our telephone conversations, ‘but I did wonder—’
‘We wanted to come and lend you our support,’ Dad cut in, kissing me on the cheek and neatly stopping me from mentioning Jackson as I lost sight of Finn in the crowd.
‘And I really wanted to come because I’m thinking about going back to my roots and doing a bit of gardening myself,’ Mum said.
My eyes swivelled from searching for Finn back to her again.
‘I’m serious,’ she said, flushing a little as she took in my shocked expression. ‘I think it will do me good.’
‘In that case,’ I told her, ‘you need to come to the plant sales area when you get inside, unless you