‘That was quick.’ He laughed.
‘I wanted to escape before Riley gets back.’ She tapped the dashboard. ‘Quick, let’s get a move on.’
He put the car into gear and slowly drove back up the driveway, having to pull over when he saw a taxi coming from the opposite direction. Callum watched it pass by, frowning. ‘I wonder who that was?’
‘Sorry?’ Tasha looked up from her mobile. ‘I didn’t see them, I’m afraid. Too busy checking my emails for the hundredth time this morning.’
He drove on and after checking nothing was coming turned onto the main road. ‘You must get a lot of them.’
She groaned. ‘They seem never-ending.’ Then, smiling at him, added, ‘But it’s my job to keep on top of all the correspondence, so I shouldn’t moan.’ She placed her phone onto her lap and looked out of the window, breathing in deeply. ‘The air here seems so much fresher than at home.’
‘Maybe it’s because we’re so near the sea.’
‘I suppose it could be that.’ She opened the window fully and rested her arm on the door. ‘You never mentioned where we’re going.’
‘Didn’t I?’ He loved that she had readily agreed to join him without knowing where.
‘Is it to the farm?’
‘It is. I thought I could show it to you when there aren’t a pile of people and vans there.’
‘Sounds good to me.’
They drove on in silence and Callum loved how comfortable they were with each other. He was beginning to get excited to show her the farm as it usually was.
‘Here we are,’ he said, slowing down and turning into the driveway. Someone was buying bags of vegetables from the honesty box and Callum had to drive around their badly parked car.
Tasha laughed when the old man shouted at Callum to slow down. ‘You were barely moving.’
‘I know. And he was the one parked so badly too. Cheeky devil.’
He continued down the driveway smiling as Tasha oohed and ahhed at the animals.
‘How come I hadn’t realised there were alpacas?’
‘Because Lettie will have kept them well out of the way, knowing her.’
‘Will I be able to see some Jersey cows this time?’
‘Yes. Did you know all the animals at Hollyhock Farm are either rescues or retired?’ he said, proud of his friends for giving these animals such an amazing life.
‘I love it more like this than I did before.’
He slowed right down. ‘You must have seen the farmhouse from a distance,’ he said, pointing ahead to get her attention from the animals in the field to their left.
‘No, I haven’t. We were told to turn off the driveway before we reached the yard so that we kept away from the barns and went straight up to the larger fields at the back for any filming. We’d done some filming in the woods, of course.’
Callum hadn’t realised that was the case. Anticipating her reaction, he slowed and turned into the yard and immediately heard Tasha gasp. ‘What do you think?’
‘Those hollyhocks either side of the front door and along the wall are breathtaking,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a pretty farmhouse.’
‘It is pretty special, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’ She sighed. ‘And your friends own this place, is that right?’
‘Lettie’s only been running this place for the past year since her father retired. Her parents now spend a lot of their time travelling.’
‘It’s so pretty. Like one of those pictures I remember from books with nursery rhymes when I was a child. What an incredible place this must be to live. Shall we get out?’
