Chapter 3
‘I’m going upstairs to put these in water.’ Lili had one foot on the stairs when Nate came over and whispered, ‘Sorry if I embarrassed you. I didn’t realise this lot would be here.’
Lili glanced over at them all. When the shop was closed, they had started to catch up on creating the jewellery. It had started with just her and Maisie, but then Sarah and William had volunteered their help. They planned to come along on the Sundays that they were together, when Nate was doing a shift at the hospital.
Ray had soon found out about these little jewellery-making sessions from William, and he had started coming along too. This was the first time Mabel and Marjorie had joined them. Their charity shop was normally open on Sundays. Lili suspected that the sisters had spied Nate with the flowers and hadn’t been able to resist putting theClosedsign in the window and scooting across the yard to find out what was going on.
Still, Lili liked that they were getting more help. The fact was, they weren’t keeping up with demand. Even so, she would have preferred that Nate hadn’t brought the flowers to the shop for the two gossip girls to see. She whispered back, ‘Why didn’t you wait until you saw me at The Summerhouse?’
Lili and Nate had an arrangement whereby Lili took care of the plants and did some gardening at Joseph’s house. It had all arisen from a misunderstanding over a home delivery of groceries. Lili could laugh about that episode now. But she hadn’t found it funny at the time.
Lili threw a glance over at Bella, a big old German shepherd dog. She was wandering up and down by the counter, getting pats on her head and fusses from everybody. As if she knew Lili was thinking about her, she padded over and nudged Lili’s hand for a fuss too.
Lili noticed that Nate took a step back. ‘Nate, she is friendly.’
Bella was still a little wary around men. Or perhaps it was the men – Ray and Nate – who were still wary around her. Lili still thought they needed convincing she was a big softie.
Nate said, ‘I know. But it wasn’t that long ago that things were quite different. Remember that episode in the conservatory?’
‘How could I forget?’ she replied.
When she and Maisie had found some dog food in Joseph’s shopping, Maisie had insisted they take the tins of dog food to The Summerhouse and feed Joseph’s dog. Judging by the quantity of cans, Lili had guessed Joseph had a big dog. She hadn’t been all that enthusiastic to meet it, let alone feed it.
Lili looked down and patted Bella’s head. Their first meeting had not got off to a very auspicious start. Lili had given in and visited the house with Maisie – the keys to Joseph’s house had been with the shop keys. At first, she hadn’t been able to find the dog. That was when she’d made the mistake of venturing into the conservatory, which she could see was full of plants; she’d decided to see if they needed watering. And that was where she’d found Bella, who was growling. She had ended up hiding behind a large potted plant, afraid of Bella, who had been a guard dog for most of her life.
It had been Maisie who had saved the day. Hours spent around the television at home – because her mum didn’t have time or couldn’t be bothered to take her out – had paid off. It turned out that one of Maisie’s favourite programmes wasDogs Behaving Badly.She’d learned a thing or two about animal behaviour, and soon had Bella under control and eating out of her hand.
Nate tentatively reached out and gave Bella a cursory pat on the head. Bella’s brown eyes looked up at him as if to say,is that the best you can do?
‘What are you thinking?’ Nate asked Lili, noticing she was lost in thought.
Lili glanced at the flowers, and said again, ‘Why didn’t you bring them to The Summerhouse?’
‘I don’t always see you there. Sometimes you’re gone before I finish my shift and collect William from his grandparents.’
Lili looked at him sheepishly. It was true. She’d been locking up Joseph’s shop early and spending more time at The Summerhouse. She had not only been watering the orchids; she’d been enjoying working on the garden too. But she had been ensuring she left before Nate arrived home, just to avoid this sort of scenario.
Nate looked at the flowers. ‘I shouldn’t have bought them.’
Lili felt guilty for avoiding him after he had gone to so much trouble to persuade her to stay. As a surprise, he’d booked and paid for a hotel room back at The Harbour Inn for one night just for her. Maisie had stayed with him and William at The Summerhouse so that she could have an evening to herself to think things through.
She’d made her decision. It had been influenced by a phone call that she made to a good friend in London – one of the group that she and Alex had often met up with at the weekends. Abigail had been the first of their friends to marry.
Lili had been so shocked to find out from Abigail that her husband Toby had died suddenly. They were only in their early thirties, and that year would have been their tenth wedding anniversary. The funeral arrangements were being made.
That was why Lili was standing there, looking at the flowers, thinking about Abigail and deciding that life was too short not to live for the moment. If a handsome young man was going to buy her flowers and ask her out, she knew what Abigail would say – don’t waste a precious minute.
Lili smiled at Nate, and despite the gossip girls she could see staring at them, she decided to give them something more to talk about. She stood on tiptoes and kissed Nate on the cheek. ‘They are gorgeous, Nate. Thank you.’
He beamed at her. His smile, which she rarely saw, gave her goosebumps. ‘Will you come out with me?’ he asked. ‘There’s somewhere I’d like us to go, together.’