up until the equinox in March. I won’t be asking everyone to give their time again after this initial launch, unless they want to, of course, but if we can generate enough interest then Winterfest can run all winter long, especially the outdoor events.’
‘Like I told you,’ said Kate, with a smile as she linked her arm through Luke’s, ‘he’s full of ideas.’
‘He certainly likes to keep busy,’ I laughed.
‘Oh yes,’ she agreed.
What with the Winter Garden and Winterfest, Luke was going to have his hands full for the next few months.
The pair moved off to talk to some of the others and I listened to the excited voices and flurry of suggestions that were beginning to come to the fore. I was in no doubt that there would be enough ideas to fill Luke’s initial proposed weekends and probably sessions to spare. Which would be good if it did continue after the festive season.
‘What do you think, Freya?’ asked Finn, striding over, with his hands in his jeans pockets and a thick woollen scarf wrapped around his neck.
That he looked gorgeous was annoyingly my first thought.
‘I think it’s a great idea,’ I told him, sniffing my half-empty mug in an attempt to stop the woody scent of his aftershave assaulting my senses.
‘What are you going to do?’ he asked, pinning me with a look.
‘Me?’
My eyes momentarily flicked to his face.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘you, Freya. You’re the gardening expert. Surely, you’re going to offer to do something.’
I absolutely was not. There was no way I was going to stand up and instruct anyone to do anything.
‘Have you come up with anything yet?’ Chloe beamed, as she bounced over to join us.
Clearly Luke’s plan had got her well and truly fired up, unless talking to Finn had put the smile on her face and the glow in her cheeks.
‘Finn’s going to offer to teach people how to make bird boxes and hedgehog homes out of wood offcuts, aren’t you?’ she enthused, digging him somewhere near his ribs with her elbow.
She wasn’t quite tall enough to do it properly.
‘I’m thinking about it,’ he said, lowering his voice in case Luke got wind of the idea before he was ready to officially air it.
‘It’s a brilliant idea, isn’t it?’ Chloe said to me, her eyebrows raised. ‘Just what Luke will be hoping for.’
‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘great.’
Perhaps she would offer to step up and work as Finn’s trusty assistant and they would fall in love over the woodpile. I let out a long breath, absolutely hating myself for even entertaining such a mean thought. That wasn’t the sort of person I was at all. It was no business of mine whether or not they got on, and given everything Chloe had been through, she was entitled to a little romance. If that was even what was brewing.
‘Well,’ said Finn with a sniff, looking crestfallen as he let his shoulders drop, ‘it was just a thought.’
He strode off again and Chloe turned to me and frowned.
‘You might have sounded a bit more enthusiastic,’ she tutted. ‘He sounded really shy when he asked if I thought it might be a good idea, but I told him it was brilliant and that you’d probably snatch his hand off if he offered to make some for the garden. I bet he won’t even mention it to Luke now.’
‘I hardly think he’s going to care about what I think,’ I said, feeling my face flush as I watched him walk out of the Grow-Well without a backwards glance.
He hadn’t stopped to talk to Luke, but that was probably because he had to be somewhere or had something else to do. I was certain his departure wasn’t anything to do with me.
‘Well, whatever,’ said Chloe, ‘you could have been a bit kinder. That was the first time I’ve spoken to him and he was really reserved to begin with. I got the impression that it took a lot for him to even come out here.’
She was right, I could have been kinder. I usually prided myself on being kind and consequently felt every bit as bad as I deserved to.
‘He said you’d had some sort of falling out when you first met,’ she carried on, making me feel even worse, ‘but he was pleased to have it sorted because he thought you were really lovely.’
Given the speed at which he’d just left, I thought it was pretty safe to assume that he wasn’t thinking that anymore.