‘No, I think you’re worried and you’re seeing the worst-case scenario.’
‘Can you blame me for being worried?’
‘Of course not.’ Zoe poured hot water onto the instant coffee she’d spooned into her mug and stirred it thoughtfully as she took a seat next to him. ‘But perhaps you should wait to see what happens today before you decide the sky is falling in.’
‘Thanks,’ he said, his tone thick with sarcasm. ‘So you don’t think I’m being melodramatic – that’s good to know.’
‘There’s no need?—’
‘The sky is falling in?’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘That’s what you said. The sky isn’t falling in, but I’ve worked hard and spent a lot of money to get this thing off the ground, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to be nervous when it looks like it might be over before I’ve checked out my first group of guests. Not to mention the refunds I’ve got to give – it would be bad enough refunding a small family, but there are twenty of them. It’s a lot of money.’
‘I don’t see why you should have to refund all of their money. They’ve had a few nice, trouble-free days – why shouldn’t they pay for those? Refund the days they’ll lose when they go home, not the others.’
‘I’m hoping if I show good faith, they’ll do the same. Maybe they’ll be happy to have all their money back and they won’t take things further.’
Zoe could see the logic in his reasoning, even if she didn’t agree. Then again, she didn’t have a business head in the way he did, and perhaps that was why. She was a midwife – hercurrency was compassion and caring, and she liked that she didn’t have to see the world as profit and loss.
He got up.
‘You’re going now?’ she asked.
‘I might as well. I’ll probably be back before you go to work.’
As he went to get his coat from the peg, a sleepy Grizzle was roused from his basket, padding over with his tail wagging.
‘Not this time, fella,’ Alex said. ‘I need to be in and out as quick as I can.’
Zoe took a gulp of coffee that was far too hot to drink quickly, wincing as she got up. ‘I’ll come over with you.’
‘What for?’
‘I don’t know…just feels like I should. Call it moral support.’
‘It’s fine – you’ve got work.’
‘Not for ages. You said you wanted to be there and back, so it won’t be a problem. How far did you say it was?’
‘I’m not sure, but from what I was told yesterday, it’s a few minutes from the campsite entrance. Zoe, you don’t have to?—’
‘Wait for me. I’ll sling on some jeans and a coat, and I’ll be back.’
She raced upstairs and found what she needed, but even as she pulled on her trousers, she heard the back door close downstairs. And so she ran down, pulled on her boots and rushed to catch up as he strode towards the gate that led out of what would have been Hilltop’s farmyard when it had been a working farm.
‘Why didn’t you wait?’
‘Because I don’t want to make you late for work.’
‘I said you wouldn’t.’
‘I don’t want to dump all this hassle on you. It’s not fair.’
‘We’re a team, aren’t we? I live here now, so that means your hassles, Hilltop’s hassles, are mine too because they affect me either way.’
He said nothing in reply as he opened the gate and let her go through first.
Dawn hadn’t yet broken, but the sky over the hills was indigo where the sun waited to appear, thin ribbons of smudged clouds hovering around the shadowed peaks. From every tree and hedgerow came the sounds of birds waking to greet it, and the grass beneath her feet was dusted with an overnight frost.
She took his silence to mean he’d given up arguing and so reached for his hand. Despite a lack of resistance to the action, there was a tremor of emotion that ran through him so palpably she could feel it, like he didn’t really want her to. His stress and impatience and worry was hers to absorb, and so she held on tight, hoping that somehow she could do that, even if he didn’t want it, because she was certain it was what he needed, whether he knew it or not.
