‘Can I have a word?’
He nodded and stepped outside, relishing in the fresh air for a moment. He took his goggles off too. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I’m just worried about you being over here and not working in your shop,’ Judy said.
Xander frowned in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Easter is a very busy period for the shop with everyone buying Easter chocolates. I know you are a kind man and you like to help people but I feel like your business is going to suffer because of it. I’d open up the shop for you, but I couldn’t cope with the volume of customers on my own.’
‘Judy, you’re still going to get paid for any days you were supposed to work.’
‘I’m not worried about me, I’m worried about you. I think you’re being taken advantage of.’
‘By Immy?’
‘Yes.’
He nearly laughed at that but he could tell she was serious.
‘One flutter of her eyelashes and all these men are falling over themselves to help her.’
Perhaps Judy didn’t realise they were his brothers because of the masks and goggles.
‘Immy is my girlfriend,’ he said, firmly, although he wasn’t sure he could technically call her that yet.
Judy scoffed. ‘Then she should realise how importantthis time of year is to you and your business and not keep asking this of you.’
‘She hasn’t asked anything of me, I want to do this for her. I care about her.’ He paused because he wasn’t sure if they were telling people about the baby yet. But Judy was his friend. ‘She’s pregnant with my child so of course I’m going to help her.’ He glanced inside at Immy and saw her wipe dust off her forehead. She was waning already, it was probably time for another break.
He turned back to Judy, who was staring at him in horror. ‘She’s pregnant?’
‘Yes, three months.’
She didn’t seem to have anything to say to that. There certainly weren’t any words of congratulations.
‘Look, I have to get back. Thanks for your concern, but I’m fine,’ Xander said.
She shook her head and walked away and he watched her in confusion for a moment and then went back inside.
The dry sponges had worked amazingly, lifting all the soot off the walls easily. It had taken a while to clean all the walls with them but the shop was looking better already. They’d vacuumed up any remaining dust from the floor, so they could finally take their masks off, and now they were starting with the special wet cleaning solution which was supposed to lift the grease off the walls. But the smell was so strong and pungentthat it was making Immy feel really sick. She hadn’t really experienced too many pregnancy symptoms so far, apart from her sudden love of pistachio, but she knew that sensitivity to smells was one of them. No one else seemed to be bothered by the smell, not even the children, although Etta and Zara were more interested in flicking water over each other than the actual cleaning.
Immy didn’t feel like she could take another break. Xander had been insisting she take regular ones all day and she felt so bad every time, leaving everyone to clean her shop while she sat outside or went over to Xander’s to let Jacob out in the garden. It didn’t seem fair.
So she positioned herself near to the door to clean in the hope that the fresh air from outside would help. But it really didn’t. In fact a burger van had set up right outside the shop to take advantage of the Easter holiday crowd and the smell of onions was vile.
Should she put the mask back on, would that help?
Suddenly Xander snagged her arm, his face clouded with concern. ‘Are you OK?’
‘I’m fine,’ Immy lied. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘Because you’ve turned a pale shade of green.’
‘Oh.’
‘Are you feeling faint?’
‘No, I feel sick.’
