‘What?’ Tommy asked.
‘Tommy said “good morning, my dear”,’ Jacques translated.
‘Huh,’ Erin said. ‘Bad joke seeing as we have issues with a deer that hasn’t turned up.’
She side-stepped Tommy, took one of the mugs Jacques had got down, slipped it on to the machine, pressed two buttons and the machine set to work.
‘What the hell!’ Tommy exclaimed in awe. ‘How did you do that?’
‘Do what?’ Erin asked.
‘Get that thing to spurt actual stuff that looks like coffee into a cup without it showering everyone or doing nothing at all. Never really knew which one was worse but none of them got me coffee where it should be.’
Erin shrugged. ‘Life skills I guess.’ Her phone made a noise and she tipped it over so it was screen down on the countertop.
‘OK, Jacques, I put Erin in charge of making all coffee from now on,’ Tommy announced. ‘I drink a lot of coffee by the way.’
‘I can tell,’ Erin replied.
‘Yeah? Well, what do you think my go-to is?’
‘Judging by your constant high energy, I’d say triple espresso.’
Jacques couldn’t help but laugh and straight away both of them looked at him as he began to cut bread into slices at the table.
‘Wow, you bossed the coffee machineandyou got my brother to laugh this early in the morning. Grand feats,’ Tommy said.
Erin’s phone made another noise.
‘Sounds like you’re in high demand,’ Tommy remarked. ‘Maybe it’s the universe calling, asking you to fix global warming.’
The phone dinged again.
‘Wow,’ Tommy said. ‘Either you’re going viral, or you have a stalker.’
‘I’m in a talking stage with someone. It’s three months now.’
‘Sounds like he’s the one doing all the talking. Jacques, where’s the eggs?’
‘Damn it!’ Jacques remarked. ‘I meant to get some from Delphine yesterday.’
‘What happened to your chickens?’ Tommy asked.
‘It’s cold, Tommy. They are in the barn. They do not lay in the winter.’
‘You have chickens?’ Erin said.
‘I do,’ Jacques answered as he put bread into a small basket.
‘Orla loves chickens.’
‘Really?’ Jacques said. This was interesting. Someone who had seen many different animals from every part of the globe loved common farmyard poultry?
‘Our mum used to joke that if Orla never got married she would be a chicken lady rather than a cat lady.’
Erin’s phone dinged again.
‘Make it stop! It’s distracting,’ Tommy said.
