Page 12 of All Wrapped Up

With my first attempt to immerse myself in community life ending in such a disaster, my mood took a nosedive and I shrugged off Lizzie’s promise to get to the bottom of the disastrous meeting, closed the cottage curtains and ignored both the knock on the front door that came the next day and the multiple messages stacking up on my phone.

The only person I had contact with, and that was via a WhatsApp message rather than a call, was Mum.

I told her the meeting had gone ahead, there was loads to do as a result and I was saving the details until I could send her something official, like a poster advertising what was happening.

I knew I was setting myself up for a further fall, but my current mood didn’t offer up the right frame of mind in which to make a genuine explanation about what had embarrassingly occurred.

For two days, I lay low as the rain hammered down and the wind rattled the garden gate and made a determined effort to blow the end of summer out and the beginning of autumn in.

Ordinarily, I would have been rejoicing about that, but not this time around.

This year, I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to embrace the change or the energy to look again for hope and solace in Callum’s encouraging and inspiring notes.

I left the special treasure box I kept them in undisturbed on the wardrobe shelf in my bedroom.

‘Clem! I know you’re in there!’

It was Ash’s voice that roused me from my Saturday lie-in with a magazine and pot of tea, but I still didn’t feel inclined to respond to my new friend.

‘I need your help! Please open the door.’

I didn’t budge.

‘I wouldn’t ask you,’ he continued to shout, ‘if I wasn’t desperate.’

With a long sigh, I carefully pushed back the duvet, to avoid upsetting the tray and peeped around the curtains.

I couldn’t see Ash because he was likely sheltering from the rain in the porch, but I did hear an indignant woof and felt annoyed that he had subjected Pixie, as well as himself, to a soaking.

I assumed his appeal for help was a ruse to get me to open the door, but with the pair of them in attendance, I supposed it was as good a time as any to explain what I had decided.

‘Just a sec!’ I shouted through the window that I opened only far enough for my voice to reach him. ‘Hang on!’

I pulled on my cotton dressing gown and padded down the stairs, hoping that Pixie was going to forgive me for turning her away and that Ash wouldn’t try to convince me that I would have more than enough time to look after her now the festival wasn’t going ahead.

The failed meeting had plunged me into an emotional maelstrom and I had even found myself wavering about my former conviction to never sell Rowan Cottage during the long watches of the night.

I hoped with the whole of my heart that the current upset would pass – my slow walk along life’s path, with grief as my companion, had given me reason to believe that it would – but it didn’t currently put me in prime position for being in the best headspace to take on and nurture a depressed pooch.

‘At last!’ Ash muttered, stepping straight in when I opened the door. ‘I was beginning to think you’d left the county.’

‘If this is about the festival or Pixie, or both,’ I immediately began to say as I pulled back my shoulders and put on my bravest face, ‘then please, just let me say—’

‘It is about Pixie,’ Ash interrupted, producing her like a magician with a rabbit in a hat, from the depths of the huge waxed coat he was wearing and thrusting her into my arms, ‘and it would be about the festival too, given what Lizzie has told me about the meeting after I couldn’t get you to answer your phone, but I haven’t got time to get into it right now. ’

Pixie started to wriggle and, not having the best hold on her, I put her down. She made a beeline for my armchair and jumped straight on to it, then looked at me with her head cutely cocked and her ears pricked.

‘I know it’s an imposition,’ Ash carried on, ‘but can you take her?’

‘No,’ I said, feeling cross. ‘Ash, I can’t. I’d already decided—’

‘Not forever,’ he cut in quickly. ‘Just for the weekend.’

I looked from Pixie back to him and realised he didn’t look like his usual sunny self and I got the impression that wasn’t only because of what Lizzie must have told him about the meeting.

‘What’s happened?’ I therefore asked. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘My nan has had a stroke,’ he told me, sounding distraught. ‘And I need to go. The journey is too long for Pixie to manage and Will’s working this weekend and so is Lottie and there’s really no one else I’d trust her with.’

‘Oh, my goodness,’ I gasped.

‘I know it’s probably the last thing—’

‘No, it’s fine,’ I told him, cutting off whatever plea he was going to make. ‘Of course, I’ll take her.’

I felt guilty for not noticing straightaway that something was wrong and for assuming the purpose of his visit was to convince me to rethink my decisions. Not everything was about me.

‘You will?’ Ash said, looking relieved. ‘You’re sure?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Just tell me what to feed her and go.’

Before I knew what was happening, he grasped the tops of my arms, pulled me close and planted a kiss on my cheek.

‘You’re a lifesaver,’ he puffed, then let me go. ‘I’ve thrown some bits in a bag. Hang on and I’ll go and get them.’

I don’t think it had even registered that he’d just kissed me, albeit in a fit of sheer relief, and I didn’t have the bandwidth then to process it, either.

‘Right, here you go,’ he gabbled, rushing back along the wet path in record time. ‘There’s far more than she’s going to need as I’ve got to be here ready for work on Monday. I’ll collect her as soon as I’m back.’

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘That’s fine.’

‘Now, I’ve written a note about how much she has to eat and when and I’ve put her bed in here, too. Though I have to admit, she’s got into the habit of sleeping on the bed next to me, so you might want to…’

He ran a hand through his soaked hair and looked with concern over my shoulder at Pixie who didn’t appear bothered by the unexpected change in her circumstances.

‘I’m sure we’ll figure it all out,’ I told him, hoping Pixie wouldn’t pine for him overnight. ‘Now, go on. Get off, otherwise you’ll never get to wherever it is you’re going.’

‘Okay,’ he nodded. ‘Okay. Thanks, Clemmie, and when I do get back, we’ll talk about the festival. Yes? I’m not giving up on it yet.’

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I had. I knew that Lizzie had called at the cottage again the previous evening and that she and Ash had now talked about what had occurred, but it wasn’t the time to get into all of that.

‘Just drive safe,’ I said, as I started to usher him out and didn’t answer his question. ‘I hope your nan is going to be all right.’

‘Thanks, Clemmie,’ he said again. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow night.’

Once he’d driven off, I closed the door and turned to look at Pixie.

I’d never been in charge of a dog before.

When I was growing up, we’d had a cat. An aloof creature who kept himself to himself, but I had the feeling that Pixie had the potential to demand far more of me than indifferent Mr Mittens ever had.

‘Well,’ I said, feeling a little ill at ease under her scrutiny. ‘Let’s just see how things go, shall we? What have we got in here?’

I took the bag Ash had given me into the kitchen and unpacked it.

There was enough food for at least a week, according to the note of instructions that went with it, and a bowl as well as a lead, which matched Pixie’s collar and her squishy bed.

I put the food in a cupboard in the utility and hung her lead on one of the leaf-shaped wooden hooks next to the back door.

It looked as if it had always been there, as did her bed – she chose to ignore it because she was comfortable in my chair – which I set down next to the log burner.

‘Now, how about a drink?’ I offered, only then remembering my tea, as I knelt next to the chair and gave Pixie a long fuss, which she lapped up. ‘I’ll go and get mine first.’

Pixie followed me up the stairs and had a nose in the bedrooms while I dressed and used the bathroom and then came down after me once she’d finished her inspection.

I put down a bowl of water for her, then ate my usual breakfast of overnight oats, fresh fruit and chia seeds.

Pixie looked at me appealingly while I chewed, but I didn’t cave because Ash had written that she’d already had hers and underlined it, which made me wonder if she was a bit of a glutton.

She certainly had the butter wouldn’t melt look nailed, so I could see how a weaker mortal could have been taken in.

‘Let’s have a mooch around the garden, shall we?’ I suggested, once I’d tidied away and noticed that the rain had finally stopped.

I’d avoided going outside during the previous couple of days.

Not only because of the downturn in the weather, but in case either Lizzie or Jemma happened to drive by while I was out there, but now I needed to find a spot for Pixie to use, so I couldn’t put it off any longer and actually, I found I didn’t want to.

As my Insta grid showed, the garden was really starting to come into its own now and I didn’t want to miss that for the sake of avoiding an awkward conversation.

Not that I was in any rush to talk to anyone.

If I heard a car approaching, I’d be ducking out of sight until it had gone, even though I knew Lizzie and Jemma were most likely then both at work.

‘Come on, then,’ I said, encouraging Pixie out of the door, once I’d pulled on my polka dot patterned wellies. ‘Let’s go and get some fresh air, shall we?’