I take another swig of bubbly. ‘I’m sorry, Fudge, but if this is the treat, I may ask you to eat my shoes more often.’
Miles laughs. ‘This isn’t only about that. I wanted to bring you to a place where you’d have space to reflect.’
I’m biting into a gruyere twist that’s so delectable I take another straight away, then I mumble through the crumbs, ‘Before I think, you have to answer my question. You can’t duck the production issue when the pastries are why people come into the shops to start with.’
He’s stretched out on his side with his chin propped up by his elbow, smiling the kind of slow smile that makes my insides smoulder. ‘You’re the one with all the good suggestions, B B. Having had all day to ponder, I assumed you’d have worked out an answer to this by now.’
I take a slice of peach and a cube of roasted halloumi. ‘You agree you can’t make them all?’
‘Not unless I work day and night.’
I have no idea why he thinks I’m going to give him his answer when I know next to no one, and then I have a thought. The more I think of it, the more it makes me smile.
I start with the disclaimer. ‘You’re not going to like this, but…’
‘What?’
I smile more. ‘We’ve already had an offer of help today.’
Miles looks horror-struck. ‘Not my mum!’
‘There’s no one better than family.’ I keep my eyes on his face. ‘You said yourself she has spare capacity and excess energy. If we brought in some of her friends to make a team, they could cover for each other and help with large capacity for busy days. If we played our cards right, they might bake first thing, then tie in deliveries with their usual market and garden centre visits.’
He’s looking doubtful. ‘I’m not sure it’s fair to ask old people.’
I let out a cry. ‘They’re not old, Miles! They’re young and active, a pool of willing, untapped labour, and it would enrich their lives if we involved them.’
He blows out his cheeks. ‘This is still hypothetical, but talk me through it.’
I grin. ‘We’ll invite any who are interested to the cottage tomorrow night and you can show them the techniques at the same time as you teach me. You may well find they’re really good bakers already, a lot of their generation are.’
He frowns. ‘I thought you wanted to go dancing at the Surf Shack?’
I wave that away. ‘This is way more important than a disco– hypothetically obviously.’
Miles rolls his eyes. ‘Knowing what the over-sixties social calendar is like, they’ll probably be busy.’
I’m very confident. ‘Your mum would drop everything for this. Iknowshe would.’
‘We’ll revisit this once you’ve decided.’ He stares at his sandwich for a long time, then he looks at me again. ‘My mum and Harry are the reason I’m at the cottage. So you know.’
I’m blinking at him. ‘But I thought…?’ Now I come to think of it, this is another of Miles’s explanations that has never been clear.
He pulls a face. ‘Things moved very fast for them when they met. The last thing I wanted to do was to get in the way, but as it was so new I also wanted to stay around in case there were pieces to pick up.’
I’m amused and incredulous. ‘You took refuge at the cottage so you didn’t have to play gooseberry with your mum and her new boyfriend?’
He closes his eyes. ‘Tate found it hilarious too, but thankfully he took pity on me. They never usually let people stay unless they’re there.’
I’m nodding. ‘I know, Miles. You don’t have to tell me that.’
He shakes his head. ‘I thought it might fizzle, and I’d be back at Mum’s within the week, but it seems to be going well. Then, once Tate and Scarlett started World War 3 Tate was anxious for me to stay on anyway.’
I’m puzzled. ‘So why are you telling me this now?’
He raises his eyebrows. ‘In the interests of openness and honesty, in case you decide to take the business further.’ He shrugs. ‘With my last start-up I saw a gap in the market, and my business partner and I saw we could fill it. After that it all happened very quickly.’
I’m remembering what Scarlett told me. ‘Was that the one you sold?’
