Page 6 of All Wrapped Up

‘Not yet,’ he shrugged. ‘But living in Will’s barn for the time being is no hardship.’

‘It’s been converted,’ Joanne said for my benefit. ‘He’s not stuck in a filthy byre with no hot and cold laid on and only a bucket to—’

‘I think Clemmie gets the idea,’ Ash cut in and I laughed.

It didn’t strike me immediately, but it felt odd to hear a man, other than my dad, say my name.

‘And now Will, that’s my boss, has moved in permanently with his partner, Lottie, at Cuckoo Cottage,’ Ash further explained to me, ‘I do have the place to myself which doesn’t give me much impetus to keep looking. But it’s only until he puts it on the market.’

‘Almost to yourself,’ I corrected.

‘Yes.’ He nodded, with a slight smile which made the few lines around his eyes attractively crinkle. ‘Almost to myself. I really had better get back. Do let me know if there’s any further news about the Autumn Festival, Lizzie, won’t you?’

And with that he was gone. Thankfully before she’d had a chance to tell him that she’d tried to strong-arm me into taking it on.

‘Isn’t he a dream?’ Jemma wistfully sighed, looking after him as he crossed the square.

‘Hey,’ laughed Lizzie. ‘You’re a married woman, remember?’

‘How can I forget?’ Her friend grinned back while she fanned herself with a menu.

‘And very happily married,’ Joanne giggled. ‘But what about you, Clemmie?’

‘Me?’ I squeaked.

‘He’s single. You’re single,’ she said, with a wink. ‘At least, I think you’re single.’

‘I’m on my own,’ was as much as I was willing to say on the subject of my relationship status. ‘And definitely not looking for a partner. And even if I was, Ash is about as far away from my type as it’s humanly possible to get.’

That wasn’t entirely true, but I didn’t want her getting any ideas and Jemma’s next words were confirmation that I was right to put Joanne off from the outset.

‘So, that’s you told, Little Miss Matchmaker,’ she laughed before heading back to the kitchen.

‘Fair enough,’ Joanne said, eyeing me astutely. ‘Message received and understood. But I’m bored with Aiden – that’s my partner – being on the other side of the world and I do love pairing people up. It’s my favourite hobby.’

‘Shouldn’t your favourite pastime be getting yourself ready to leave?’ Lizzie asked. ‘I thought you had loads to do for that.’

‘I’ve got three couples successfully together so far,’ Joanne carried on telling me while ignoring her boss, ‘and I’ve already decided that the happy ever afters are going to be my legacy to the town…’

Well, she certainly didn’t need to get any ideas about amusing herself in that department where I was concerned, unless she was in the market for further boredom and a dose of dis-appointment.

‘Never mind bugging Clemmie about all that,’ Lizzie said dismissively and Joanne walked away without taking my order. ‘What can we get you, Clemmie? And more to the point, please say you’ve come to tell me you’ve had a change of heart about taking on the festival idea?’

The autumnal additions to the menu weren’t in place yet, so I ordered a coffee and toasted panini.

I also told Lizzie that I hadn’t changed my mind about offering to be in charge of organising and running the festival, but conceded that I would volunteer a little time to help out if, by some miracle, the idea that Moses had was realised.

With my mental mood board from the day before still floating about in my mind, it was impossible not to offer to do something, even though I’d been telling myself that slow and steady was the safest way forward on the social front.

‘That’s very kind,’ Lizzie smiled sadly, ‘but actually, we had a quick meeting about it in the pub on Monday and no one stepped forward. I did mention what you’d said about not wanting a newcomer to take up the cause, but just as I suspected, no one objected to that or the fact that you’d never met Moses, either.

’ I wasn’t sure how I felt about her specifically discussing me.

‘We truly don’t mind who takes it on, just so long as someone does. Or did. It really is too late now.’

‘In that case,’ I said, purposefully pushing away thoughts of pumpkin carving competitions, ‘fingers crossed for next year.’

It wasn’t too busy in the café and I was mostly left alone to enjoy the panini and coffee, take in my surroundings and wonder what the poor grieving pooch, Pixie, looked like. She truly had my every sympathy.

I hadn’t experienced a whole raft of lovely things as a result of my trip into town, but I’d met a few more people and felt both confident and relieved that Lizzie had kept her promise and hadn’t told Jemma or Joanne that I was the person behind AutumnEverything.

That alone was enough to make up for the awkwardness I’d felt on my arrival.

‘So, what are your plans for the rest of the week?’ Jemma asked, when she came to clear my table.

‘Chicken research,’ I told her. ‘I’m thinking about having some, but I’m a total novice so I’m doing some studying first. I think it’s too late in the year to get organised enough to take some now, but I can start planning for the spring.’

‘You need to talk to Ash about all that,’ Joanne said eagerly, as she popped a takeaway cakebox featuring the café logo on the table and Ash neatly back into the conversation. ‘He knows his hens.’

‘I think I can find everything I need to know online,’ I told her as I pulled out my phone to pay. ‘But thanks.’

A couple of days later, as I was bent over by the garden gate and pulling up a few weeds I’d previously missed, a truck pulled up with its windows down.

‘Joanne mentioned that you were thinking about getting some hens,’ came a voice from inside, which I instantly recognised as belonging to Ash.

‘Did she?’ I huffed, as I straightened, pushed my glasses back up and the legs of my shorts down so I wasn’t exposing quite so much bare skin.

It was another hot day and it didn’t feel any closer to autumn even though September was now just a few days away.

‘Was she wrong?’ Ash asked, clearly having noticed my irritated response.

‘No, she was right,’ I confirmed, amending my annoyance, because it wasn’t his fault that she’d told him and he had then decided to call and bring it up. ‘But I’ve decided to wait to do anything about it until the spring now.’

‘Oh, that’s a shame.’

‘Why?’ I asked, shielding my eyes from the glare of the sun.

‘Because I was going to offer to get you set up. I’m helping rehome a flock of ex-battery girls next month and hoped you might be interested in taking a couple or even three.’

‘I have been wondering about the rehoming option,’ I pondered, thinking that for some reason he was easier to talk to when he was in shadow in the shade of his cab. ‘That said, I couldn’t cope with three eggs a day, so I’ll probably only go for two.’

‘Well,’ he said, ‘if you are interested in taking a pair on, let me know when you’re ready for them and I’ll give you some dates for future flock allocation.’

‘Thanks. I’d appreciate that.’

There was a sudden noise in the cab that didn’t come from Ash. It sounded like a canine sneeze.

‘That was Pixie,’ he said, with a nod to the passenger seat. ‘She’s supposed to be getting used to a harness, so I can transport her out of her crate, but she’s not keen on it. She’s not keen on anything at the moment.’

‘With good reason,’ I sighed.

‘With very good reason,’ Ash agreed.

I couldn’t resist opening the gate so I could stand on tiptoe and peek in through the window to look at her.

‘Oh,’ I croaked, my heart melting at the sight of the scrappy little bundle of tightly curled up black and tan fur. ‘She’s tiny.’

She didn’t make any effort to move, but I knew she was aware that I was there, because her little brows quirked as she moved her eyes.

‘I think she tries to make herself invisible sometimes,’ Ash said sadly. ‘She thinks that if she can’t see the world and doesn’t engage with it, it won’t exist.’

‘Poor Pixie,’ I empathised. I remembered a time when I had felt like that. How I wished I could communicate to her that one day the feeling would fade, if not disappear. ‘Have you found a home for her yet?’

‘Sadly not,’ Ash sighed. ‘And I haven’t found anyone to run the autumn festival Lizzie is still obsessed with and I’ve said I’ll support, either. Have you heard about it?’

‘It might have come up in conversation,’ I said, looking across at him and then quickly back at Pixie, because he was closer now.

‘Lizzie has still got her heart set on it happening,’ he sighed.

‘So, I’ve told her I’ll deputise as and when, but only if someone else properly takes charge.

She knows I’m time poor what with my work commitments and looking after Pixie, but she was fond of Moses and doesn’t want to let the idea drop. ’

He gave the dog a fuss, but she didn’t react to his touch.

‘But I thought it had been decided that the festival won’t be happening now because of the lack of time?’ I said, thinking back to my conversation with Lizzie in the café and what she had told me had been discussed in the pub. ‘I thought the focus was now on getting it going next year.’

Ash shook his head and smiled. ‘That’s Lizzie for you,’ he told me.

‘She’s still hoping for a miracle. And once she’s got the bit between her teeth, she’s one determined woman.

’ I’d already worked that out for myself.

‘And Joanne’s just as eager in some respects,’ Ash then added with a disgruntled tut.

‘She is?’

‘Yes,’ he sighed. ‘But you don’t need to know about that.’

‘Judging by the look on your face,’ I responded, ‘I think I might. Forewarned and all that.’

‘Actually, you’re probably right,’ he then conceded. ‘Especially if you’re single.’

‘Go on,’ I said, neither confirming nor denying my relationship status.

‘Let’s just say, Joanne sees herself as some sort of Cupid,’ he elaborated. ‘And when I first moved here, she made it her mission to try and set me up on dates with other Wynbridge singles every night I wasn’t working.’

Given that Jemma had called her ‘Little Miss Matchmaker’ in my presence and Joanne herself had told me that she’d successfully matched three couples up and loved doing it, Ash’s explanation didn’t come as a surprise.

‘That must have been annoying,’ I tutted, thinking how stressful I would have found it. ‘That is, assuming you didn’t want to be set up.’

‘I did not,’ Ash vehemently said. ‘And thankfully, she got the full message in the end.’

‘Which was?’

‘That right now, I’m absolutely not looking for love or anything like it,’ he said with conviction. ‘I’m still settling into my life here, and every minute I’m not on call, and I’ve got the energy for it, is spent trying to find myself somewhere permanent to live.’

‘And somewhere permanent for Pixie to settle, too,’ I pointed out.

‘Yes,’ he nodded. ‘Finding somewhere extra special for her is a priority now, too. I haven’t got time for a relationship, even if Joanne thinks I should be in one.’

He smiled and I found myself smiling back.

‘You probably won’t be surprised to know,’ I told him because, having heard his view on romance, I now felt more relaxed around him, ‘that I’ve already had to point out to her that I’m very happy on my own and I’ve only met her once.’

Ash laughed properly and my smile grew even wider.

‘Well,’ he grinned. ‘You’ll have to tell her a lot more than that before it sinks in, but it’s a start and I suppose, if she’s homed in on you now, that gets me off the hook.’

‘Hey!’ I objected.

‘So, you’re single, too, then, Clemmie?’

‘Yes,’ I further confirmed. ‘And just like you, very contentedly so.’

I had felt unsettled when Ash’s eyes had met and held mine in the café and I hadn’t known why at the time, but now I realised it was because he was the first guy I’d looked at, as in properly looked at, and the first man who had properly looked at me, since Callum had died.

However, having just heard him insist that a relationship wasn’t on his radar had helped to diminish the impact of our first meeting considerably.

In fact, I got the feeling that, if we could keep Joanne out of the equation, Ash might become just the friend I needed to boot my sense of loneliness out of the door.

We were both relative newcomers to the area and we were both content with our relationship lot.

That sounded like an ideal friendship match to me.

And, if he was going to potentially become a pal, perhaps, given that he’d already offered to deputise, he might be the perfect person to consider working on the autumn festival with, too…