‘You’re going back to the city?’ Blake asked, his eyes catching mine. There was a pause as my heart lifted. ‘What do you mean – a surprise? Why can’t you tell me… Sarah, we need to talk… wait…’ Blake sighed heavily as he listened to her. ‘Fine, okay. I’ll see you soon.’ He hung up with a frown. ‘Sarah is going back to the city. Says she is working on something to do with our app and won’t tell me as she wants it to be a surprise if it all comes together. Said she’d call me soon. I guess at least she’ll be away from Birchbrook for a while.’
I could tell he wasn’t sure if her surprise would be good or not. I touched his hand. ‘Maybe it will help you both decide what to do about working together,’ I suggested. I knew it was foolish of me to hope that it was something that would let Blake walk away because Sarah had made it clear she didn’t want that. And I needed to keep reminding myself that Blake lived in the city. He had talked about enjoying being back near home but that didn’t mean he was going to let go of the life he had been making for the past year.
Blake nodded. ‘I hope so, yeah. Either way, we’ll need to talk when she gets back and make some decisions.’
I was dying to know what decisions he was considering but I wasn’t sure I should ask. Things felt so new between us. I was glad Sarah wasn’t coming here today, though.
‘That sounds like a good plan. Maybe we can talk after dinner about last night?’ There had been so much to do today, we hadn’t had a chance to be alone really and we wouldn’t now until everyone separated for bed.
‘I’d like that. Do you want to come to the cottage when you can? I have some wine. We can talk then. And maybe…’ He dropped a quick kiss on my cheek. ‘I can kiss you properly,’ he added in a whisper.
I chuckled, happy that he wanted to kiss me again. I wanted to kiss him again too. ‘I might let you,’ I replied coyly as we walked inside and through into the kitchen, holding hands until we reached the doorway then we let go before Willow or Dylan or Uncle Adam clocked us. We needed to talk before we let them see we’d grown even closer while they were away. But I longed to talk to Willow about how good it had been to kiss Blake. To really kiss him finally. I wondered if she had felt the same after she had kissed Dylan.
We sat down at the table opposite one another and Blake dropped me a wink, making me think he was thinking along the same lines as me.
‘How are you all doing?’ Blake asked the others as Dylan brought over a tray with mugs of tea and Willow carried over the lemon drizzle Uncle Adam had made a couple of days ago. ‘We were worried about you.’
Blake using the ‘we’ made me smile although I tried to hide it because I knew Willow didn’t miss a trick.
‘Thank you. It was scary, I’ll admit. But these two looked after me as usual,’ Adam said, giving his daughter and her boyfriend a fond look. ‘And I’ll be right as rain.’
‘You need to take things easier,’ Willow reminded him. She looked weary from the night. ‘They said you’ll need to cut down on what you do on the farm…’ she trailed off.
‘I already have,’ Adam reminded her. ‘I’ve signed this place over to you, and let Dylan take on much more but I can’t just put my feet up all the time…’
‘But Dad—’ Willow said before my uncle cut her off.
‘I’m not going anywhere yet,’ he interrupted, reaching across the table to give her hand a squeeze.
‘Promise?’ Willow asked lightly but I saw a flash of younger Willow across her face. The Willow who, like me, had lost her mother. I could imagine how scared she was of losing my uncle too.
‘I’m like this farmhouse: built to last,’ he replied with a cheeky grin as we all knew the house needed lots of repairs that Willow and Dylan were getting round to as and when they had the time and money.
‘It does make you think, doesn’t it?’ Dylan said then. ‘About how life can just throw surprises your way. Sometimes, they are good ones…’ He reached for Willow’s hand and squeezed it. I felt myself glance at Blake, who did the same to me. ‘But they can also be ones that you never want to happen. All we can do is try to make the most of life while we can and be around the people we love as much as we can.’
Willow looked at him. ‘Are you thinking about your family?’
‘I guess you going to see yours,’ Dylan said to Blake, ‘did make me think about how long it’s been since I’ve seen Nate and my father. Nate is my older brother,’ he added so I knew who he was talking about. ‘Neither of them understood me coming to live here and I just gave up trying. Maybe I should try again, though.’
‘I was nervous to go home because I felt like a failure,’ Blake said. ‘But then I realised, it’s home for a reason, you know? They are there for me whatever path I take, and I want to be there for them too.’
‘No one fails in life,’ Adam said. ‘We are all just trying our best with what we’ve got and we all make mistakes. I know all your families just want to see you happy. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for Willow. And they are proud of you. How could they not be?’
I swallowed a lump in my throat. We all came from families broken in some way – by death or by someone leaving – and yet here we all were around this table together doing our best to live our lives despite our losses. ‘This summer is teaching me to not let life pass you by – if there’s something you want to do or someone you want to tell something to, you need to just do it. Even if it’s scary. I know my parents…’ I took a moment to get the rest of my words out. Blake shifted in his chair and I just knew he was itching to comfort me. Even though he couldn’t, it helped anyway that he was there and he was on my side. As they all were around this table. ‘They would have hated to see me stay somewhere that I didn’t want to be. And my mum. She wouldn’t want me not to do something because it reminded me of her; she would encourage me to follow my heart.’ I thought of how happy working with flowers these past couple of weeks had been making me. I knew I couldn’t ignore that feeling. Nor did I want to. The thought of going back to an office job again made me sad.
‘Your mother was a wonderful woman, just like my wife,’ Uncle Adam said. ‘Two women both taken from us far too soon. And my brother too. They would all be unable to believe the wonderful women their daughters have grown into.’ He wiped a tear from his cheek and by this time, we were all feeling pretty choked up too. ‘They would also laugh at us for all being so soppy right now,’ he added then, making us all laugh. ‘I just want to say, whatever happens in your lives, you can always come back here, okay? Can’t they, Willow?’
She smiled. ‘I’d kill them if they didn’t,’ she said, making us laugh even more.
We all tucked in to the tea and cake then, and I could tell we all felt a little bit better. I didn’t know what it was about Birch Tree Farm but it seemed to be healing us all piece by piece.
30
I was able to catch Willow alone after dinner. I saw her walking Maple out on the Strawberry Fields Trail and I caught up with them before I planned to go and see Blake.
‘I wanted to walk the trail,’ Willow said, smiling when I fell into step with them. ‘We open on Monday, which is crazy. I feel like we’ve been on this huge journey since last September. The farm looks so different but also, Ifeelso different. I thought I’d have to let go of this place and now I just want to make it as special as it used to be when my mum was still alive. I can’t though, can I?’ she asked, looking across at me.
Maple sniffed the sunflowers ahead of us, reaching up to catch the last rays of sun for the day. It was still warm – Willow was in denim shorts and a T-shirt, and I had on a linen shirt with my shorts, both of us in comfy trainers. Her hair was in its usual messy bun whereas I’d kept mine down but had on my straw hat to keep the sun off me.
