less harsh. ‘It’s far easier for him to keep the grass looking smart and in check if he hasn’t got to weave around vases of dead flowers.’
I knew that wherever Eloise had gone, she was most likely surrounded by flowers and she certainly wouldn’t want me feeling obliged to keep the vase at her grave freshly filled as well, especially now I was living that much further away.
‘Jackson isn’t going to come at all, is he?’ I swallowed.
‘Of course, he isn’t,’ Samantha laughed, ‘and don’t tell me you were foolish enough to think that he would?’
‘No,’ I said, ‘no, I wasn’t.’
‘And never mind him,’ she said dismissively, bending to stroke Nell, ‘you will always carry Eloise in your heart and that’s all that matters. You already know you don’t have to keep coming back here to find her, don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ I nodded, looking at the bouquet, I had stopped on the way to buy.
‘I’ll even take those off your hands and put them in the church so you aren’t tempted to leave them,’ she helpfully added, whisking them away.
I thought about our conversation on the journey back to Nightingale Square and glanced down at Nell. She looked thoroughly depressed again, curled up in the footwell and emitting the occasional heavy sigh. I had looked forward to visiting Eloise, but my decision not to return was the right one. As Samantha had pointed out, I carried my friend in my heart and I always would and thankfully that was enough for both of us.
Chapter 16
It didn’t take Nell long to get her Nightingale Square mojo back again. A couple of laps around the green at full pelt with Gus after work on Monday and she was like a dog with two tails, and she wasn’t the only one with a spring in her step.
Graham had applied himself with gusto to the garden tasks assigned to him and I was feeling much more settled in my mind that we would be ready to open on time. If only my mind felt as content every time it flitted to Finn, which it often did, but I was beyond busy and sorting things with him would just have to wait.
‘Morning, boss,’ beamed Chloe when she waltzed in, earlier than usual on Tuesday morning, and pulled a cardboard tray bearing two takeaway coffees and a bag from Blossom’s bakery out of her basket. Clearly, she was as enamoured with life as Nell and Graham. ‘As the weather’s so miserable I thought we’d start the day off with a little sustenance and some self-care.’
The weather was rather dismal; foggy, damp and very dull, and I had to admit I was rather intrigued by the idea of practising self-care because I’d never been very good at putting myself first when it came to the work-life balance conundrum.
I was either at work or at home, and doing little else in between, and living on-site quite often meant the lines between the two were blurred. I supposed now I wasn’t actually situated quite so close to my workplace, I should make more of an effort to distract my mind from planting schemes and weather forecasts and the tempting bag from Blossom’s looked as good a place to start as any. I was making more of a success at keeping busy at the weekends now, so there was no harm in the occasional mid-week treat to back it up and keep the momentum going, was there?
‘Someone’s in a good mood this morning,’ I smiled, reaching for the bag and peering inside.
Nestled snugly together were four breakfast pastries, still warm and emitting the most delicious buttery smells.
‘I’m not going to go into details,’ giggled Chloe, ‘because you said you didn’t want to know everything and besides, we haven’t got all day, but,’ she dreamily added, ‘what I will say, is that you will definitely find you receive a much warmer welcome the next time you go to the pub.’
Suddenly shy, she ducked her head and reached inside the bag, pulling out a pain au chocolat which was generously studded with dark chocolate chunks and topped with toasted almond flakes.
‘Oh Chloe,’ I sniffed, delighted at the sight of her obvious happiness, ‘I’m so pleased for you.’
Admittedly, I was almost as relieved for myself as I was happy for her and Hannah. I’d felt awful when she told me I’d messed things up, not that she’d put it quite as bluntly as that, but now everything was sorted and my new friend was