to Zak, who was flexing and stretching more than was probably really necessary for someone simply wielding a tape measure. Carole and Poppy, but particularly Carole, had put a lot of work into the proposed Winterfest schedule and I wasn’t about to be distracted by some silly bloke’s behaviour.
‘This is all amazing,’ gasped Luke, flicking through the pages. ‘Far better than anything I could have come up with. I knew I was doing the right thing handing it over to you guys. There’s a fantastic mix of stuff here and, Freya, you’ve only just arrived and your name’s down twice. That’s wonderful.’
‘Well,’ I said, trying to sound blasé, ‘it was the least I could do… hang on… twice?’
‘There’s so much variety,’ Luke enthusiastically carried on. ‘We can have some of the nature-based sessions in the Grow-Well and gardens, depending on the weather of course, and the cooking in the kitchen here. If the weather really puts a spanner in the works, I suppose we could even have some of the crafting inside too, after the initial foraging and gathering.’
‘That’s what we were all thinking,’ Carole keenly agreed.
Clearly the discussions had continued after I’d added my contribution to the cause. I wondered what else I’d been signed up for in my absence. I was about to ask, but Poppy spoke up first.
‘So, when are you planning to make it all official?’ she asked Luke.
‘Well there’s no time to hang about,’ he said, reinstating what he had said on Saturday. ‘I’ll ring the radio this afternoon and if you could ask Ryan to come over when he gets back from college, Poppy, then we’ll set a page up on Facebook and share the details on Twitter.’
‘He should be home by three,’ said Poppy, looking at her watch. ‘At this rate you could have everything online by teatime.’
‘With less than three weeks until Freya and Lisa launch the project,’ grinned Luke, making my stomach roll, ‘that’s no bad thing.’
‘Finn was talking about all this at dinner yesterday,’ said Zak.
My eyes flicked back to him.
‘Finn and Zak are brothers,’ Luke said to me, filling in the blanks.
‘Half-brothers,’ Zak was quick to point out. ‘And your name came up too, Freya,’ he added, pinning me with his blue eyes and making me blush.
‘Is that right?’ I swallowed, determinedly meeting his gaze.
I would have paid good money to find out what had been said and Zak’s wide grin told me he knew it too.
‘Mum and Dad weren’t sure if he’d turn up yesterday,’ he carried on, ‘what with the fallout from him moving in here, but he arrived just as Mum was getting ready to serve up. He said he’s going to be making bird boxes or something, is that right?’
His tone was a little too amused for my liking.
‘Yes,’ said Carole, with a sniff. Clearly, she’d picked up on Zak’s tone too. ‘He’ll be making hedgehog homes as well. He’s very talented, your brother.’
I was relieved that Finn had agreed to take part and that my unenthusiastic response hadn’t put him off. Not that it should have done, but Chloe had made me feel guilty and I could hardly tell her that my lacklustre response to his plan was borne out of jealousy at seeing the pair of them together, rather than a dislike of his big idea, could I?
‘If you say so,’ said Zak, flipping and catching his tape measure again. ‘Dad says he should be building houses instead of fannying about making bijou boxes for blue tits.’
‘Well,’ said Luke, sounding cross as I caught an echo of someone walking along the corridor, ‘your dad always has had a way with words, hasn’t he?’
Finn had said his half-brother was very much like his dad. If that was the case, I wasn’t sure I’d like him. Zak struck me as a troublemaker and a mouthy one to boot.
‘Gift of the gab, Dad’s got,’ Zak proudly said. ‘Must be where I get it from. Finn’s more arty-farty, like his mother was.’
I looked at Zak again. He was obviously aware someone was outside too and it didn’t take a genius to work out who he thought it was.
‘Well,’ said Luke, ‘I think that covers everything. I’m going to double-check the rules the council have about this sort of thing and then it’ll be all hands to the pumps.’
It certainly wasn’t my place to, but I wished he had said something to shut Zak up as opposed to ignoring him, but then perhaps Zak was the sort who